Upon the death (or departure?) of Russia's Alexander I in 1825, an unusual power struggle developed between his two surviving brothers. The eldest, Constantine, declined the opportunity to take power, leaving Nicholas, the youngest son of Paul I, the only legitimate candidate. The delay, and apparent passing over of the next in line, prompted an uprising called the Decembrist Revolt, and while Nicholas successfully put it down, the rebellion likely heightened his more autocratic impulses, includ...
Aug 10, 2023•29 min•Ep. 18
It's almost a historical accident that England's Queen Victoria, granddaughter of King George III, was born at all. Her father, George III's fourth son, shared his many brothers' predilection for the freedom of a bachelor's life, so when the heir apparent of the next generation, Princess Charlotte, died in childbirth, the princes of England found themselves in a race to marry and produce legitimate offspring to eventually take the crown. Victoria's father, Edward, Duke of Kent, was high up in th...
Aug 03, 2023•53 min•Ep. 17
In the see-saw nature of Russian leadership, Catherine the Great had died before establishing her grandson, the future Alexander I, as her heir, leaving Alexander's father, Paul I, to take the big chair in his stead. This... went poorly for Paul, who was assassinated by a group of his nobles after just four and a half years. Alexander I became Emperor of Russia in 1801, and spent the first part of his reign navigating a complicated relationship with Napoleon Bonaparte's France. After helping the...
Jul 27, 2023•23 min•Ep. 16
As the long reign of Catherine the Great wound down, she made moves to ensure the succession of her grandson, Alexander, but those were still incomplete by the time she died. Instead, it was her estranged son Paul who became emperor, and while his reign was not long, it was spiteful and much reviled by both the public and the elites. In just four and a half years, Paul I passed nearly 8,000 laws engineered to roll back the achievements and advances made by his mother, who he blamed for his fathe...
Jul 20, 2023•24 min•Ep. 15
One of history's great ironies is that one of Russia's most successful periods occurred under the leadership of a monarch with not a drop of Russian blood. Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great, was a minor Prussian princess whose fairly horrible mother set her sights on achieving notoriety through her daughter. Fortunately for young Catherine (who was born Sophie), Frederick the Great of Prussia had a political project to strengthen ties between his country and Russia, and Russia's ...
Jul 13, 2023•54 min•Ep. 14
It feels safe to say that when Russians recall a leader's reign as a "dark era," we're into some deeply, deeply dark events. Empress Anna, a niece of Peter the (Not So) Great, had survived many humiliations before Russia's Supreme Privy Council elevated her to Empress; they thought she would be easy to control, but instead, her decade-long reign was characterized by Anna's cruelty and capriciousness. A career of personal vendettas was fueled by her limitless power and a secret police system she ...
Jul 06, 2023•51 min•Ep. 13
For the Dutch Republic, 1672 was a series of existential catastrophes that nearly saw the nation swallowed by France's Louis XIV. But the internal push and pulls that culminated in the brutal murder and partial consumption of the man who'd run the place for a couple of decades actually began much, much earlier, when Martin Luther (perhaps) hammered his Ninety-Five Theses into a church door, sparking a flowering of dissonant thought across Europe, as well as a brutal regime of repression to try t...
Jun 29, 2023•41 min•Ep. 12
The last couple of years have been a time of enormous change for the House of Windsor, the United Kingdom, and the 14 nations that comprise the Commonwealth, and we are so grateful to be joined by podcasting superstar and Royal watcher extraordinaire Kristen Meinzer to discuss. When Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022, Prince Charles, England’s longest-serving Prince of Wales, immediately fulfilled the obligation he had waited 73 years to meet: He became King Charles III, and his second...
Jun 22, 2023•55 min•Ep. 11
Pausing from the messiness of Plantagenet England, Alicia takes us on a trip to the east to visit Mother Russia, circa 1700, where the Romanov Tsar Peter the Great was busily acquiring lands, founding cities, and reforming the institutions of a country that - largely through his efforts - would become a major player on the world state for centuries to come. But with those accolades and accomplishments, it's important to recall that the dude was really, really trashy - as his two wives, many mist...
Jun 15, 2023•34 min•Ep. 10
Alicia continues with our inexorable march to the Tudor dynasty with yet another French princess contributing to the Plantagenet - now technically Lancastrian - line of the English monarchy. Her marriage to King Henry V, grandson of John of Gaunt and great grandson of King Edward III, was cut tragically short when Henry died on military adventure in France. Doubly tragically, Henry's child with Catherine, Henry VI, had been born just months before his demise. What's a 21-year-old, beautiful, roy...
Jun 08, 2023•29 min•Ep. 9
It's probably impossible to fully understand the events leading up to the Tudor dynasty without talking about perhaps the 14th century's most singular figure - at least from a historical perspective. John of Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III, and through beneficial marriages, became extremely rich in both land and money. His successes on the battlefield and the untimely death of his brother, Edward the Black Prince, made him a powerful political operator. But perhaps the most consequent...
Jun 01, 2023•56 min•Ep. 8
While the 14th century wasn't exactly a hotbed of feminist fervor in England, the place wasn't without its powerful and intriguing women. Joan of Kent was one. Though her family was caught up in the armed conflicts that ended the reign of Edward II, once Edward III threw off the restraints imposed by his mother, Isabella of France, he welcomed Joan's family - his relatives - back to his court. This might have been the happy end of Joan's role in history except for the little matter of her bigamy...
May 25, 2023•36 min•Ep. 7
The War of the Roses was hardly the first period of civil war in England. In fact, Edward III's father oversaw such a period long before Eddie III's kids kicked off a few generations of bloody sibling rivalry. Interestingly for the age, Edward II's wife, Isabella of France, had a starring role in ending his disastrous reign. Alicia has the full story, from the 12-year-old fully royal child bride to, many years later, her return to England with an invasion force provided by the Count of Hainaut (...
May 18, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 6
Unsurprisingly, the French Revolution didn’t happen particularly spontaneously. Years of financial mismanagement, poor crops, massive unemployment, and a swelling population in Paris itself all contributed to a growing dissatisfaction with King Louis XVI and the monarchy in general. The King’s cause wasn’t helped at all by a lingering suspicion that his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, was a profligate spender and an Austrian spy, but Marie Antoinette’s reputation took a calamitous hit in 1785, whe...
May 11, 2023•36 min•Ep. 5
Welcome to the Court of the Trashy Royals, friends! Today, Alicia takes us on a wild ride through the family values of the descendants of England’s King Edward III (1312-1377), who basically spent the next century-plus fighting over who would wear the big crown. The question was finally settled by the emergence of England’s first Tudor king, whose red- and white-rose motif represented a final coming together of the White Rose of the House of York and the Red Rose of the House of Lancaster. Learn...
May 04, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 4
Rounding out the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome is Nero, the fifth and final of his line. While his ascension was initially met with relief, it was only a few short years before Nero’s hands were as covered in blood as his predecessors’, but it was a fire that finally sealed his fate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 26, 2023•55 min•Ep. 3
While Rome expanded its reach across Europe and onto the isles of Britannia, not everyone was on board with domination from a distant bureaucracy. Rebellions and uprisings in Roman-held territory were not particularly uncommon, but a series of missteps by Roman governors in what is now the United Kingdom amounted to a series of costly own-goals. After Caligula’s successor, Claudius, gained a foothold in Britain in AD 43, his armies were forced to put down an uprising four years later, which like...
Apr 20, 2023•29 min•Ep. 2
Imagine being so destructive, and so capricious in your violence and sadism, that even two thousand years after you shake off your mortal coil, your childhood nickname still evokes wickedness, wantonness, and profound corruption among all who hear it. Welcome to Trashy Royals, friends, where we begin with Rome’s third emperor – and among its most notorious – Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known to his parents as Caligula (“Little Boots” in their native tongue). Caligula’s path to Roman Empero...
Apr 20, 2023•42 min•Ep. 1
New from the team at Hemlock Creatives, Alicia and Stacie (Trashy Divorces) turn their jaded eyes toward the long history of Our Betters, only to find that they, too, are raging dumpster fires. Weekly episodes begin May 4 - subscribe now and never miss the trashcandy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 05, 2023•1 min
