Women of History

Sunday, May 7, 2017

February: The Cruelest Month of Scotland's Stuart Dynasty

February was a cruel month if your name was Stewart or Stuart and you were part of that extraordinary dynasty which held the throne of Scotland for more than 340 years.

So why should they have feared February? It just happens to be the month of the year when a lot of untoward things happened to, or were caused to happen by, the royal descendants of the High Steward of Scotland.

Here is condensed timeline:

22nd February 1371 - the Stewarts gain the throne of Scotland with the end of the Bruce line with Robert Stewart (III) becoming King
February 1406 - James I (son of Robert III) was sent into exile aged 12yo - it lasted 25 years, during which time he married Joan Beaufort (12th February 1424).
21st February 1431 - James I is brutally murdered
22nd February 1452 - James II (heir of James I) in an attemtp to deal with the powerful Douglas clan, ended up brutally stabbing James, Earl of Douglas, which led to a long period of civil war
2nd February 1488 - James III (heir of James II) had has troubles with rebellious nobles - his son, future James IV, was handed over to the rebels - was was inevitable.
21st February 1507 - James IV's wife Margaret Tudor gives birth to a son James
27th February 1508 - James IV's son, infant James died
10th February 1567 - death of Henry Darnely, husband of Mary Queen of Scots (granddaughter of James IV)
8th February 1587 - execution of Mary Queen of Scots - the order signed on 1st February.
5th February 1649 - Charles II was acclaimed King of Scotland following the execution of his father Charles I (the succession in Scotland was unbroken)
6th February 1685 - death of Charles II - he was succeeded by his brother James II
February 1687 - Anne, sister & successor to Mary, lost her two daughters to illness
13th February 1689 - reign of James II officially over when William & Mary proclaimed
13th February 1693 - William I signs the order for what will be known as the Glencoe Massacre
5th February 1716 - the uprising to put James Stuart (the Old Pretender) back on the throne ended in failure - the Stuart claim to the throne was officially over.
February 1687 - Queen Anne (born 6th February 1665)

, sister & successor to Mary, lost her two daughters

Read a more detailed timeline in The National

Rare medieval skeletal remains excavated in Wales date to 13th century

The remains of a woman who died around the late 12th or early 13th century were excavated under the foundation a Welsh church that has been converted into a museum. The church was built over an older church in the 1820s.

Archaeologists found the skeleton of the woman, who they say died in her 60s, during reconstruction work on the museum. The church was St. Mary’s and now houses the Llŷn Maritime Museum in Nefyn, Gwennyd, Wales. They say it is rare to find any remains that old in North Wales

“This lady would have lived through some exciting times in North Wales and in her later life she would have seen the unification of Gwynedd and much of mid and south Wales as well as the raise of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (the last),” the museum says.

Finding James I & Joan Beaufort

James I was 42 when he was killed by a gang of noblemen on February 21, 1437 while lodging at Blackfriars monastery in Perth, as part of a conspiracy to seize the throne of Scotland.

Now a major heritage project has been launched 580 years on from the king’s murder to locate and then recreate his final resting place.

James was buried at the Charterhouse in Perth, a religious institution he intended to become a royal tomb for the Stewart dynasty. But the priory was destroyed in the reformation a century after his death and now no-one is exactly sure where his grave is.

James’ queen, Joan Beaufort, survived the attack and wreaked a terrifying retribution upon the traitors in one of the most brutal reprisals Scotland had seen.

The couple were both buried at the Charterhouse, and a century later, the sister of Henry VIII of England, Margaret Tudor, consort of James IV, was also buried there.

A stone monument at the corner of Perth's King Street and Hospital Street marks the fact he is buried somewhere in the area.

Discovering the murdered King's exact location would be a major historical find - and a coup for the city of Perth.

The Innocence of Joan Little

Will Packer ~ ~ ~ Joan Little

Will Packer is getting ready to develop a miniseries adaptation about the landmark case of Joan Little, called The Innocence of Joan Little, reports Shadow and Act.

Little’s case in 1974 drew national attention to a jail in Beaufort County in Washington, North Carolina, after Little was found innocent for killing a jailer who attempted to rape her. It was a landmark case, not only the first in United States history to recognize a woman’s right to kill a potential rapist in self-defense but also a case that acknowledged the rights of prisoners in the United States. She was found not guilty by a jury of six whites and six African-Americans.

Little was the first woman in US history to be acquitted under the defense that she killed 62-year-old Clarence Alligood, her would-be rapist, in self-defense. Her case set off a wave of support from civil rights, feminist, and anti-death penalty movements at the time as well.

Will Packer’s Will Packer Productions as well as Paulist Productions are on board to develop and produce the miniseries, though no network is yet attached, and there has been no word on casting. The series will be based on the book by author James Reston Jr., “The Innocence of Joan Little: A Southern Mystery.”

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Romsey Abbey: The mystery of the hair in the coffin

For the past few months, archaeologists have been testing a full head of hair found in a coffin. Is it the hair of a saint?

In October 1839, the work of some gravediggers came to an abrupt halt when their tools hit something hard. It was a lead coffin. Inside they found some hair. Human hair.

When it was originally uncovered deep beneath the abbey, it was thrown as rubbish into the coal hole before someone thought it should be rescued and fished it out again.

The hair is shaped as if it is still sitting on a head but there is no skull. According to the archaeologists, the white bits - visible in the photos - are the remains of the scalp. There is even a plait which is several inches long.

"The radio carbon tests that we carried out suggest something in the mid to late Saxon era," Cameron reveals.

The results showed that the person almost certainly died sometime between the years 895 and 1123. To be slightly more specific, there is a 68.2% probability that the death occurred between 965 and 1045.

Women in Southern Germany Corded Ware Culture

Map of the Corded Ware culture

Women in Corded Ware Culture may have been highly mobile and may have married outside their social group, according to a study published May 25, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Karl-Göran Sjögren from Göteborg University, Sweden, and colleagues.

The Corded Ware Culture is archaeologically defined by material traits, such as the burial of the dead under barrows alongside characteristic cord-ornamented pottery, and existed in much of Europe from ca. 2800-2200 cal. B.C. To better understand this culture, the authors of the present study examined human bones and teeth from seven sites in Southern Germany dating from different periods of Corded Ware culture, including two large cemeteries. They used carbon dating and additional dietary isotope analysis to assess the diet and mobility of the population during this period.

read more here @ Eureka Alert and also @ PLOS One

Birth Control and Abortion in the Middle Ages

The use of birth control and abortion have a long history, and a long history of being contentious. The idea that pregnancies can be prevented or stopped has raised ethical and moral issues, and, like today, in the Middle Ages you will find many opinions about what should or shouldn’t be done. However, the medieval period might be unique in that it is perhaps the only time when you can read the same author in one work condemning the use of birth control and in another giving directions on how to use it.

In the end, much of the knowledge about birth control practices in the Middle Ages is lost to history – these were issues that women had to deal with on their own, and they could usually only turn to other women for help and guidance. Some could try a medical treatment that had limited chances of success, but many would have realized that an unwanted pregnancy was something that had to be managed and/or hidden. The fate of children born in this way varied – some might have been placed in the care of another family or given to a monastery, but others might also be killed and disposed of. It may have been that in the Middle Ages the most dangerous time for an unwanted child was just after birth.

read entire article here @ Medievalist

read also "Abortion in the Middle Ages c500 - 900" by Zubin Mistry

The historical heroines you've never heard of

From Boadicea of the Iceni to Queen Victoria, there is no shortage of women who have made their mark on history.

But for every Eleanor of Aquitaine or Elizabeth I, there have been many more whose efforts have gone unrecognised, largely because of their sex.

Now a new BBC series, the Ascent of Women, aims to change all that and shed light on the forgotten heroines of the past.

From the start, says presenter and historian Amanda Foreman, men have 'conspired' to control speech while women, lacking the educational opportunities of their male peers, have failed to realise that 'speech is power'.

But not everyone has been content to remain silent. From the Celtic warrior queen who kept the Romans from her door to the Sumerian priestess who invented literature, meet the women who deserve to be remembered.

read about these amazing women here @ The Daily Mail

Chasing Amelia Earhart

When a team of experts travels to a remote Pacific island next year in search of clues that Amelia Earhart landed there nearly 80 years ago, Eugene archaeologist Rick Pettigrew hopes to document the expedition.

These are some of the Amelia Earhart-related artifacts
recovered from Nikumaroro Island by
The International Group for Aircraft Recovery.

Pettigrew and filmmaker Teal Greyhavens want to film an international research team as it voyages to the island of Nikumaroro to uncover a rock cairn where Earhart’s navigator is believed to be buried, scuba dive along the nearby reef to look for traces of Earhart’s airplane and search the island for bone fragments and other traces of human life.

The international research group said in a statement late last month it believes new evidence shows partial skeletal remains found in 1940 on the island could belong to Earhart. The bones were first analyzed in 1940, but a doctor concluded they belonged to a male and the bones were later lost. In 1998, the international team discovered files about the remains, including skeletal measurements, and researchers determined the bones were actually consistent with a female of Earhart’s height.

Read entire article here @ The Register-Guard

I have posted many news items on this mystery - read more here:

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Sunday, May 7, 2017

Saturday, May 6, 2017