For much of their courtship, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s romance spanned an ocean. Although they are from different countries and radically different backgrounds—one a British royal, the other an American actress—modern travel and technology made their trans-Atlantic romance ...read more
Diego ran headlong through the gunfire toward the boats on the beach. “Are you Captain Drake’s?” he cried. He had to get on board. He had heard there were no slaves in England, and if he joined the English they might take him there. He knew some of their countrymen traded in ...read more
In 1528, Henry VIII slept in a different bed every night—and not in the way you might think. He did have a mistress, his wife’s lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn. But it was fear of disease that drove him to move almost daily that summer. The king was terrified of sweating sickness, a ...read more
1. She had lots of stepmothers. Born at Greenwich Palace on February 18, 1516 (seven years after the 1509 marriage of her parents, King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon,) Mary was their only child to survive past infancy. In the 1520s, Henry, unhappy his wife hadn’t produced a ...read more
On July 10, 1553, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England; nine days later, the shortest reigning monarch was deposed and sent to await her execution in the Tower of London. As the great-granddaughter of Henry VII and eldest daughter of Frances Grey (the Duchess of ...read more