[Steppes] Period Week in Review 11-19-2006

[Mike]

Heilsa,

Hope the reader will enjoy this look at History
within Period - both from the past and the present
as it affects the history that is known today.

11-19-2006
Poland  1501 - 1600
On November 19th, 1556 - Bona Sforza, Queen of Sigismund I of
Poland died at age 62.
    Bona Sforza was a member of the Milanese Sforza dynasty, was
a queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, and became the
second wife of Sigismund I of Poland in 1518.
    When her mother died in 1524, she succeeded to the titles
Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano. She also became the
holder of the Brienne claim to the title of King of Jerusalem.
    Bona was born in Vigevano, the daughter of Gian Galeazzo
Sforza of Milan and niece of Bianca Maria Sforza, who in 1493 had
married Maximilian I. Bona, the niece of the empress, was a patron
of Renaissance culture, which began to flourish in Poland. She is
also considered one of the mothers of modern Polish cuisine since
she became famous for introducing Italian vegetables to Polish tables.
    After her husband's death, she sided with many in Catholic Poland
by opposing her son King Sigismund II Augustus's marriage to the
Lithuanian Calvinist, Barbara Radziwi??, and was suspected, though
without evidence, of poisoning the new queen, who died shortly after
her coronation.
    In 1556, she returned to Bari, Italy. There she was poisoned by her
private secretary Gian Lorenzo Pappacoda. Pappacoda was acting
on behalf of Philip II of Spain, who wished to avoid repaying his
sizable debts to the Polish queen.

She was succeeded by her three children:
    * Her only surviving son, Sigismund August Jagellon became
             king of Poland.
    * After her brother's death Anna the Jagiellonian inherited the title
             and ruled as queen of Poland with the elected king
             Stephen Bathory.
    * After her sister's death the title passed to the youngest daughter
            Catherine Jagellonica, Queen of Sweden who passed it on
             to her son King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.


11-20-2006
Spain  1401 - 1500
On November 20th, 1490   1490 - Joanot Martorell's book Tirant lo
Blanc is published for the first time.
    Joanot Martorell was the Valencian author of the novel Tirant lo
Blanch, which is written in Valencian, which Martorell calls
"the Valencian vernacular" ("vulgar llengua valenciana").  First
published in Valencia in 1490, it was re-pressed in Barcelona
in 1497, and some consider it the first modern novel in Europe.
    It deals with the adventures of a knight in the Byzantine Empire
with echoes of the real-life Catalan Company. Miguel de Cervantes
in the book burning scene of Don Quixote considers it the best
knight novel.
     Plot:
    Tirant lo Blanc is a story about a knight -- Tirant -- from Brittany,
who has a series of adventures across Europe (he joins in knightly
competitions in England and France) until the Emperor of the Greeks
asks him to help in the war against the Turks. Tirant accepts, is
made Megaduke of the Empire, becomes the captain of an army,
defeats the Turks and saves the Empire, then battles Moors in
many regions of the Oriental Mediterranean and Northern Africa,
but dies just before he can marry the pretty heiress of the Empire.
    Some parts of Tirant bear certain parallels with the life of
Admiral Roger de Flor, the leader of the Almogavars (Catalan and
Aragonese mercenaries that helped the Byzantine Empire to fight
the Turks), and who was murdered by the Byzantines. There are
also similarities with the Hunyadi.
    The loss of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire (1453) was
considered at the time to be a major blow to Christian Europe.
In writing his novel Martorell perhaps rewrote history to fit what
he wanted it to be.


11-21-2006
Modern Day
On November 21st
DURING the middle ages, the Muslims who fought crusaders with
swords of Damascus steel had an edge - a very high-tech one.
Their sabres contained carbon nanotubes.
    From about AD 900 to AD 1750, Damascus sabres were forged
from Indian steel called wootz. Peter Paufler of the Technical
University of Dresden, Germany, and colleagues studied samples
of a 17th-century sword under an electron microscope and found
clear evidence of carbon nanotubes and even nanowires.
    The researchers think that the sophisticated process of forging
and annealing the steel formed the nanotubes and the nanowires,
and could explain the amazing mechanical properties of the
swords (Nature, vol 444, p 286). From issue 2578 of New
Scientist magazine, 15 November 2006, page 20


11-22-2006
Russia  1301 - 1400
On November 22nd, 1318 - Mikhail Yaroslavich, Russian prince, died at
age 46 - also known as Michael of Tver, was a Prince of Tver
(from 1285) who ruled as Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1304 until 1318.
    Mikhail Yaroslavich was the second son of Yaroslav III and
succeeded him in 1285. As a result of a long struggle, he became the
Grand Prince of Vladimir in 1305 and the first among Russian rulers
started to style himself Grand Prince of All Rus.
    In 1317, Uzbeg Khan of the Golden Horde gave the title of the
Grand Prince of Vladimir to Yuri Danilovich, Prince of Moscow, and
sent his army to help Yuri in his struggle with Mikhail Yaroslavich. On
December 22, 1317 Mikhail defeated Yuri at a village called
Bortenevo (40 km from Tver). Later on, Mikhail was summoned by
the Khan and had to go to the Horde to "explain" himself. He was
eventually killed in the Horde by Yuri's servants. Later, the
Russian Orthodox Church declared Mikhail the holy patron of Tver.


11-23-2006
England  1501 - 1600
On November 23rd, 1503 - Margaret of York, wife of Charles I,
Duke of Burgundy, died at age 57 - also known as Margaret of
Burgundy - was a daughter to Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
and Cecily Neville, a sister of Kings Edward IV of England and
Richard III of England, third wife to Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy. She was born at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire,
England, and she died at Mechelen in the Low Countries.
     Her marriage to Charles the Bold at Bruges, on July 9, 1468, was
made for dynastic reasons: aiding the alliance between the Kingdom
of England and Burgundy. It had been long delayed by Charles's
enemy, King Louis XI of France, who had wanted matches for each
of the partners with members of his family, the senior line of the
Royal House of Valois. The wedding was extravagant even by the
standards of the Burgundian court, the most opulent and cultured
court of the day. The celebrations included the "Tournament of the
Golden Tree" that was arranged around an elaborately detailed
allegory, designed to honor the bride. During the wedding, Margaret
wore a magnificent crown adorned with pearls and with enamelled
white roses for the House of York set between red, green and white
enamelled letters of her name, with gold C's and M's, entwined with
lovers' knots; it can still be seen in the treasury at Aachen Cathedral.
The parades, the streets lined with tapestry hung from houses, the
feasting, the masques and allegorical entertainments, the jewels,
impressed all observers as the marriage of the century. It is annually
reenacted at Bruges for tourists.
    Margaret and Charles had no children together, but she became a
devoted stepmother to Marie de Bourgogne (1457-1482), his
daughter by Isabelle de Bourbon, and the heiress to his dominions
in Burgundy and the Netherlands. After Marie's death following a
riding accident, Margaret took care of Marie's two small children,
Philip and Margaret, whose father was Maximilian von Habsburg,
the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
    After the deaths of her brothers, King Edward IV and King Richard III
of England, Margaret, by then Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, became
a staunch supporter of anyone who challenged Henry VII's hold on the
throne of England, including Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck.
Although Warbeck was undoubtedly an impostor, Margaret
acknowledged him as her nephew, Richard of Shrewsbury,
1st Duke of York.


11-24-2006
Jerusalem 1101 -1200
On November 24th, 1190 - Isabella of Jerusalem marries Conrad of
Montferrat at Acre, making him de jure King.
     Isabella of Jerusalem was Queen of Jerusalem 1190/1192-1205.
She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife
Maria Comnena, a grandniece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I
 Comnenus, who had received the town and territory of Nablus as a
dower from her husband the king. She married four times.
    In 1187, Saladin invaded the kingdom and captured almost
everything except the stronghold of Tyre, held by Conrad of Montferrat,
Baldwin V's uncle. Guy, after his release from captivity, set about
besieging Acre; however, Sibylla and their two daughters died of
disease in the camp in summer 1190. Guy continued to call himself
king and demanded to be recognised thus, although Isabella was
de jure queen.
    Her supporters, notably her mother Maria and Balian of Ibelin,
realised that she needed a suitable king - who was not her current
husband. This situation was not without precedent: Isabella's father
had been forced to divorce his first wife in order to succeed to the
throne, and Sibylla had been pressed - but had refused - to have
Guy annulled. Humphrey of Toron, whom Isabella liked very much,
having practically grown up with him, had no great desire to be king.
He had let down her cause in 1186, and was still a staunch supporter
of Guy. He was more of a diplomat than a warrior, and even the
Itinerarium Peregrinorum , which was highly sympathetic to him,
suggests he was slightly effeminate. In autumn 1190, Maria and B
alian abducted Isabella from Humphrey, and forced her to consent to
an annulment because she had been under-age at the time of her
marriage, and had been coerced by her half-brother, Baldwin IV.
They intended to marry her to the ambitious Conrad, who was
Baldwin V's nearest male kinsman, and had already proved himself
capable politically and militarily.
    After much political pressure, and a challenge to a trial by combat
by Guy III of Senlis (which he refused), Humphrey consented to an
ecclesiastical annulment by Ubaldo Lanfranchi, Archbishop of Pisa,
who was Papal legate, and Philip of Dreux, bishop of Beauvais,
who was a second-cousin of Conrad. Philip married Conrad and
Isabella on 24 November, despite objections that the marriage was
canonically incestuous (Isabella's half-sister Sibylla having been
married to Conrad's older brother). Some modern popular writers
have suggested this was a grim fate for the young queen, to be
married off to a "grizzled old warrior" (David Boyle, Blondel's Song
(2005), p. 63) who had twice been married before. However,
Conrad, then about 45, was an intelligent, well-educated, handsome
man of great personal courage and vitality - so perhaps her situation
was less bleak than some have implied. She compensated Humphrey
by restoring to him his title to Toron, Chastel Neuf and related estates,
which had been taken into the royal domain on their marriage, before
returning to Tyre with her new husband.
   By virtue of his marriage to Isabella, Conrad became de jure
King of Jerusalem.

11-25-2006:
Modern Day
England  1401 - 1500
Welcome to Soper Lane
    Soper Lane is a group of women who have studied the working
lives of fifteenth century silkwomen. The function of the group is to
bring to life as accurately as possible the work of the 15th century
English silkwomen.
    During the 15th century, a number of silkwomen had shops and
homes in London's Soper Lane, Cheapside, from which this
group has taken its name.
Web site: http://www.et-tu.com/soper/cgi-bin/index.cgi

There are articles dealing with various clothing from that
time period.