It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
The vicissitudes of pre-modern life invariably took their toll on the health and appearance of 18th-century Europeans; their faces were often riddled with smallpox scars, their teeth decaying, their gums caved in from lost teeth, their gait uneven from childhood rickets. One way both men and women could hide these defects was to wear a thick face of makeup. A very …
Continue reading Painted faces: cosmetics in the 18th century
Perhaps the most calamitous chapter in all Scottish history was opened when Charles Edward Stuart, more commonly referred to as 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', decided to invade Scotland in 1745 in hopes of regaining the British crown. Charles Stuart was either the 'Young Pretender' or the legitimate heir to the British throne, depending on whether one's sympathies lay with …
Continue reading ‘Butcher Cumberland’ and the smashing of the Highland clans
Marriages for money, although they had been criticised on moral and practical grounds for centuries, were still very common in eighteenth-century European society, particularly among the wealthy and landed classes. Even in Jane Austen's supposedly romantic novels, money is always a consideration when deciding whom to marry, to the point that some of her characters contract entirely …