Tag Archive for: History

Human faces, part 38: Henry VIII and the second of his six wives

That Henry VIII had an entire collection of wives in his lifetime is not news. But can you remember all of them? In this episode of “Human faces”, we will tell the story of his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

How much for a castle?

What do you think, how much did it cost to build a castle in the Middle Ages? What would it cost to build the exact same castle today? And how much of a small town’s income would the costs have taken up? This article gives you the answers to these questions.

Human faces, part 39: The price of power

Possessing colonies with vast resources of silver, Spanish king Philip II could have helped his kingdom to enormous economic prosperity. But even the largest treasure of silver could not realise Philip’s power-hungry fantasy of proselytizing half of Europe.

Human faces, part 25: The Saint of Halberstadt

Why was the human head the motif on coins for centuries, no, for millennia? And why did that change in the last 200 years? This episode’s coin features the head of Saint Stephen, who once saved the Bishopric of Halberstadt from its liquidation.

Human faces, part 40: The pirate queen

“The Virgin Queen” is certainly the most well-known epithet of Elizabeth I. We thought, however, that “Queen of the Pirates” would be equally befitting as English privateers belong to Elizabeth’s story just as much as her virginity.