Annabel Fielding's Blog

After having blogged about Edwardian history for a while, I am glad to announce that I now have an actual historical novel to go with it! I hope to go on blogging about my writings in the future, and I promise not to be annoying about that. Edwardian England. Agnes Ashford knows that her duty...

The post Lying With Lions appeared first on History Geek in Town.

The last glimpse we’ve caught of Vittoria Accoramboni had her in her widow’s weeds, bowing over the immense corpse of the Duke of Bracciano who had murdered his way to her marital bed. It turned out that, however reprobate Paolo Giordano’s life was, his passion for Vittoria was genuine, for he took very good care...

The post Vittoria Accordamboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 7 (and last) appeared first on History Geek in Town.

So, as we’ve seen last week, Vittoria’s heart’s desire turned out to be a monkey’s paw – she has finally married Paolo Giordano, the Duke of Bracciano, but almost immediately her former uncle-in-law and his sworn enemy, Cardinal Montalto, had been elected Pope. The newly-made duchess and her husband held their breath in expectation of...

The post Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 6 appeared first on History Geek in Town.

Last time we’ve visited Vittoria, she was in deep trouble: the man who brought her husband the message that sent him to his death confessed that not only was her lover involved in the murder, but her mother as well. The two men who stabbed poor Francesco were, according to him, in the employ of...

The post Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 5 appeared first on History Geek in Town.

To an untrained eye, it would have seemed as if Cardinal Montalto has either disregarded his nephew’s death or forgiven his killers in the purest example of Christian mercy. The next day after Francesco’s death, Montalto appeared in the consistory in his usual red robe instead of the mourning prescribed by the tradition of grief,...

The post Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 4 appeared first on History Geek in Town.

Last week we have heard about Cardinal Montalto’s rough past. However, those youthful escapades were as nothing compared to the nature of the man who came to court his niece-in-law Vittoria. Paolo Giordano Orsini, the Duke of Bracciano and one of the most powerful men in Rome, was smitten with Vittoria from the evening he...

The post Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 3 appeared first on History Geek in Town.

Last week, we have seen the beautiful Vittoria Accoramboni marry into the extended family of Cardinal Montalto. We’ve also seen her pine for the time the Cardinal is going to finally become the Pope and realize her family’s ambitions – until, finally, starting to cast her gaze in other directions. Perhaps, she wouldn’t have done...

The post Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 2 appeared first on History Geek in Town.

This is one of the most riveting stories from the Italian Renaissance history – the kind that seems to be ready-made for the stage or silver screen. It has everything: an ambitious beauty, jealousy, papal intrigues; Medici plots, vengeance and desire, and assassins hiding under beds. Happy stories tend to end with weddings. This story...

The post Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 1 appeared first on History Geek in Town.

We tend to imagine the Edwardian period in the pastel colours of a Downton Abbey set: white gloves, cricket, young ladies who have the haziest notions of how heirs are made. While the highborn ladies in question were still on the marriage market, they would have done well to give no one a reason to...

The post Sex and the Country House: Adultery in the Edwardian Era appeared first on History Geek in Town.

Do you have a dynastic wedding to celebrate? A diplomatic visit to spice up? An axe to grind with a neighbour whose pageantry is eclipsing yours? Organize a tournament. It’s always the answer. A tournament of the greatest knights of the realm cannot go wrong. Of course, it’s also a great and complex undertaking; but,...