The Elizabethan English in the Dutch Revolt: Soldiers, Merchants, and Spies
England’s role in the Dutch Revolt is often overshadowed by the Armada of 1588. This article explores the English soldiers, diplomats, and merchants who shaped the conflict.
Will Phillips
The New Flagship by Frank Moss Bennett
The Boys, making plans to quit their jobs and sail the seven seas. The New Flagship, by Frank Moss Bennett (1874–1952). He was a British painter of portraits and architecture, but also remembered for his scenes of historical settings from the…
Platin Printer’s Device Tattoo
The life of Flemish printer Christophe Plantin (c. 1520–1589) has long been a curiosity and inspiration to me. He was a master of navigating a a society unraveling at its very seams: the escalating, bellicose rhetoric of both the traditionalist,…
Petronel: Renaissance Word of the Week
A form of black powder firearm best identified by its sharply curving butt stock. Popular in the sixteenth century, it can be considered an antecedent or subcategory of the caliver, a lighter weight firearm contrasted against the musket, which was…
Book Review: The Bones of Avalon (John Dee Papers #1) by Phil Rickman
🕮 Book review: The Bones of Avalon (John Dee Papers #1) by Phil Rickman I’m (obviously, if you’re here reading this) a fan of 16th & 17th century media, including historical fiction. But in some stereotypically red-blooded, hetero male ways,…
Early Modern Period: Renaissance Word of the Week
An academic term that defines the transitional period between the medieval era and modernity, roughly spanning circa 1500-1800. Like any attempt at historic periodization, defining exact start and end dates is not an exact science, however, and you will always…
Tournament at the Barriers, 1569, by Hogenberg
It is a popular misconception to think that the idea of chivalry and chivalric tournaments were entirely old-fashioned and viewed with scorn by the sixteenth century (too many overly literal readings of Don Quixote for that, I think). While the…
A Royal Procession Descending a Stairway by Eugène Lami
This piece by 19th century French painter Eugène Lami (1800-1890) is giving me MAJOR vibes of that one shot of the Lord of the Rings cast standing on the stairs… and I’m not mad about that. Lami was best known…
Trace Italienne: Renaissance Word of the Week
An alternate term for bastion forts or star forts, which became widespread in the sixteenth century. Its angular, star-shaped walls were designed in response to the evolution of canon and gunfire. The French term may be translated as the “Italian…
Musketeers at the Windows – Possibly by Hendrik Leys
I appreciate the composition of this piece, but am finding it hard to independently verify the details. I believe it’s a preparatory – or unfinished? – piece by Belgian painter Hendrik Leys (1815-1869). Leys was well known for his historical…