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A 350-year-old ring belonging to the Sheriff of Nottingham is set to fetch thousands at auction after being unearthed by a metal detectorist in a find 'worthy of Robin Hood'.The ancient, high-carat gold signet ring was uncovered by chance by a lucky detectorist on farmland in Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire, last summer.The treasure once belonged to Sir Matthew Jenison, who served as High Sheriff of Nottingham between 1683 and 1684 and looked after trees in Sherwood Forest.His family were known for gleaning wealth from a hoard of valuables left in their safekeeping during the English Civil War which were never reclaimed.The ring,...

This time we explore the magnificent Penshurst Place, one of England's most iconic Historic Houses. This stunning estate boasts centuries of history, from its Tudor origins to its role as a beloved retreat for King Henry VIII and a love nest with Anne Boleyn. Penshurst Place: One of England's Greatest Historic Houses and Gardens | 33:50 MemorySeekers | 191K subscribers | 114,231 views | July 13, 2024

In the olden days, the world was run on a feudal system. There were a handful of mostly inter-related nobles who lived in palaces, wore fancy clothes, and ate sumptuous food. They were served by a large class of serfs who did the unpleasant things like digging latrines, plowing fields, slaughtering animals, tanning leather, and all of the other work needed for the nobles to live in luxury. In return, the nobles kept the serfs from starving but generally oppressed them and sometimes did so gratuitously for their own amusement. Serfs had no rights and very little money and were...

In his new memoir, Sonny Boy, Al Pacino describes how Shakespeare was central to his early development as a young actor. “I would bellow out monologues as I rambled through the streets of Manhattan,” Pacino writes. “If the hour was late and you heard someone in your alleyway with a bombastic voice shouting iambic pentameter into the night, that was probably me, training myself on the famous Shakespeare soliloquies.”... Pacino “always felt at home on a stage,” and an early performance in a school play literally brought his divorced parents “back together again,” if only for a post-show ice cream....

In 1953, Solomon Pottesman held what appeared to be an ordinary, albeit very old, manuscript in his hands. As he carefully undid the wrappings on "Certaine sermons", which was published in 1637, two leaves of tattered parchment fell out.Pottesman, an eccentric and prolific book collector known in the trade as "Inky", immediately knew that something exciting was afoot. The yellowed pages were scribbled from edge to edge with florid, archaic handwriting – rows of book titles, with crossings out and lines drawn across whole sections, as though the writer were making an informal list. On closer inspection, that is exactly...

...scientists have uncovered a hidden feature underneath a medieval castle in Milan, Italy, that researchers once could only speculate about based on a sketch of Leonardo's from around 1495 and references in other historical sources — underground passageways that were likely intended for soldiers to use in the event that the castle's defenses had been breached.The discovery, which the Politecnico di Milano announced in January, came about through a series of surveys that aimed to digitize the 15th century Sforza Castle's underground structures through nondestructive methods such as ground-penetrating radar and laser scanning...Biolo and her team originally intended to digitize...

During renovations at a former Tudor hunting lodge known as The Ashes, which is located in Inglewood Forest, Cumbria, workers exposed rare sixteenth-century wall paintings, according to a statement released by Historic England. The Grotesque-style artworks were brought to light upon removal of sections of more recent plaster work that had been covering up the 450-year-old images. The scenes, which were created using a secco technique in which pigments are applied to dry plaster, feature fantastical beasts and decorative foliage thought to imitate textile designs of the period. "The combination of motifs discovered here is unusual even by national standards,"...

Muslims are still trying to "avenge" themselves — including through acts of terrorism — against historical Christian victories over Islam from more than a millennium ago, such as the battle of Tours in France, in 732. Meanwhile, the city council of Vienna has been more than happy to appease Muslims against the man who saved Vienna from Islam in 1683 — all in the name of combatting "Islamophobia." ... a special look at what Vienna has become since opening its doors to Islam: ... Leftist domestic terrorists are fire-bombing Tesla dealerships and harassing owners across the country. They must face...

He became famous for his love affairs, but Casanova was also a writer, diplomat and spy. Born in Venice 300 years ago, his name still resonates around the world. Giacomo Girolamo Casanova admires his tall, slender figure in the gold-trimmed mirror as he adjusts his wig. Everything needs to be perfect as his latest lover is on her way. Oysters, venison and champagne are ready. The beauty Casanova is waiting for is enchanted by the setting. After dinner, the seducer urges her into the bedroom, where they indulge in a night of lovemaking. "Feeling that I was born for the...

The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) (2013 Remaster) | 4:37 Fleetwood Mac | 1.87M subscribers | 804,047 views | November 14, 2018

Built as Byzantium around 657 BC and then renamed Constantinople in the 4th century CE after Constantine the Great made the city his capital, the city of Istanbul officially received its present name on this day in 1930. Surprisingly, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was not renamed after the Ottomans captured it in 1453. Variations of “Constantinople” continued to be used by the Turkish-speaking conquerors long after they took control of the city. “It’s a fact that the Ottomans called Istanbul ‘Kostantiniyye,’ among other names, in thousands of their official documents,” said Christoph Herzog, chair of Turkish studies at...

Discover the incredible journey of Pope Julius II, famously known as The Warrior Pope, who revolutionized the papacy from 1503 to 1513. Born Giuliano della Rovere, his path to power uniquely intertwined ambition, charm, and ruthlessness, influenced by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV. Learn about his rise from an impoverished noble to the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, his exile in France, and his strategic return to Rome, ultimately becoming Pope Julius II. Witness how he combined military prowess with artistic patronage, commissioning Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. This video delves into his military campaigns, political maneuvers, and artistic legacy...

William Shakespeare’s birthplace is being “decolonised” following concerns about the playwright being used to promote “white supremacy”. Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust owns buildings linked to the Bard in his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. The trust also owns archival material including parish records of the playwright’s birth and baptism. It is now “decolonising” its vast collection to “create a more inclusive museum experience”.

William Shakespeare's birthplace will be de-colonised over fears that portraying his success as the 'greatest' playwright 'benefits the ideology of white European supremacy'. Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust owns buildings in the playwright's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. It wants to 'create a more inclusive museum experience' and announced it will move away from Western perspectives after concerns were raised that Shakespeare's ideas were used to advance 'white supremacy' ideas. The trust also said that some of its items could contain language or depictions that are racist, sexist, or homophobic. It comes amid an ongoing backlash against the writer. Some productions of his works...

Via Aleteia, here’s another very interesting thing on the musical front. At the beginning of the 20th-century, archeologists working at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem discovered a set of organ pipes and a bell carillion. They have since been kept at the Holy Land Museum run by the Franciscan custody. According to the musicologist who is working on them, Dr David Catalunya, they had been brought to the Holy Land by the Crusaders in the early 12th century, and then hidden for safe-keeping during a Muslim invasion. They are in a very good state of preservation; Dr Catalunya...

A more than 500-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sweden isn't a Viking vessel after all, scientists have found.A 15th-century shipwreck off the coast of Sweden may be Scandinavia's oldest shipwreck built in the innovative "carvel" style — a design that gave it the strength to carry heavy cannons, archaeologists say.The wreck at Landfjärden, south of Stockholm, is one of five in the area that have been known since the 1800s. They were commonly thought to have been from ships dating to the Viking Age (A.D. 793 to 1066).But last year, maritime archaeologists at Vrak, the museum of wrecks in...

Spain led the Holy League to defeat the Ottoman Turkish Navy at the Battle of Lepanto near Corinth, Greece, in 1571. Hilaire Belloc wrote in The Great Heresies (1938): "This violent Mohammedan pressure on Christendom from the East made a bid for success by sea as well as by land. ... The last great Turkish organization working now from the conquered capital of Constantinople, proposed to cross the Adriatic, to attack Italy by sea and ultimately to recover all that had been lost in the Western Mediterranean. ... There was one critical moment when it looked as though the scheme...

Spanish Armada, the great fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 to invade England in conjunction with a Spanish army from Flanders... 30,000 troops belonging to the veteran army of the Spanish regent of the Netherlands, the duke of Parma...After nearly two years' prep... the Armada sailed from Lisbon in May 1588 under the command of the duke of Medina-Sidonia... an experienced administrator... but he had relatively little sea experience. The Spanish fleet consisted of about 130 ships with about 8,000 seamen and possibly as many as 19,000 soldiers. About 40 of these ships were line-of-battle ships...The...

Starting in May 2010, The Washington Examiner reported, drawing on emails obtained by Citizens United, “Clinton Foundation staff pushed Hillary Clinton’s State Department to approve a meeting between Bill Clinton and a powerful Russian oligarch as her agency lined up investors for a project under his purview.” His name was Viktor Vekselberg of Renova (a Clinton Foundation donor) and the project under his purview was the Skolkovo Innovation Center, which is being built near Moscow. The following month, Bill Clinton would receive $500,000 for a speech in Moscow from a Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank with ties to the...

The name “Prussia” itself originated in the Middle Ages when pagan tribes inhabited the area adjoining the Baltic Sea between Pomerania and Lithuania. These tribes were conquered by the Roman Catholic Order of the Teutonic Knights in the 1200s, who organized the territory into a fiefdom of Poland. The region was ruled by a succession of the Knights’ grand masters for the next few centuries. But when Albert I of the Hohenzollern family became the Knights’ grand master, he converted to Lutheranism. He recast the Teutonic States as the secular Duchy of Prussia in 1525, becoming the first major Continental...