โ๏ธ#History#Versailles, 4 January 1695: Death of the Marshal-Duke of Luxembourg.
The impressive harvest of enemy flags that he had reaped during the Nine Years' War, and exhibited as a trophy in Paris' cathedral, had earned him the nickname of "Upholsterer of #NotreDame"!
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#Cicero, whom generations of Romans would later worship as the best of them, was not in fact born in #Rome, but in Arpinum, a humble Italian town, on 3rd Jan. 106 B.C. This "flawed pedigree" would be bitterly reproached to him by some Patricians, notably by his enemy Catiline!
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3 January 1431: In the name of King Henry VI of England, Joan of Arc is officially handed over to ecclesiastical justice.
Bishop Pierre Cauchon is to head the tribunal whose mission will be to elucidate the true nature of the forces at work in this โincredible phenomenonโ!
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2 January 1776: Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria issues a decree outlawing torture throughout her dominions. Her decision was prompted by Joseph II, her son and ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ co-ruler, who would live to become the embodiment of "enlightened despotism".
#OnThisDay#History
๐๏ธ๐ฟ#History#Rome, 1st January 42 B.C: Following a motion put by his nephew and adopted son Octavian, Gaius Julius Caesar is officially deified by the Roman Senate, thus inaugurating a long tradition which will have successive emperors posthumously added to the Roman Pantheon.
โ๏ธ#Rome, 1st Jan 404 BC: During the gladiatorial games, Telemachus, a monk, jumps into the arena to stop the combatants. Frustrated of its pleasure, the crowd stones him to death. But Emperor Honorius, a Christian, is moved enough to later promulgate an edict banning such games.
31 Dec. 1578: the chivalric Order of the Holy Spirit is instituted by King Henri III of France. Equivalent in prestige to the order of the Garter in England and the Golden Fleece in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, it was abolished by the Orleanist King, Louis-Philippe, in 1830.
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#Wakefield๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, 30 December 1460: Queen Margaret, the "she-wolf of France", doesn't intend to see her son, the Prince of Wales, disinherited by the Duke of York!
Victorious #OnThisDay, she has the duke's severed head (endowed with a paper crown!) fixed on York's battlements!๐น
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#Paris, 29 December 1743: Court painter ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ฎ๐, emblematic portrait painter of Louis XIV's reign and that of his great-grandson, Louis XV, dies at the age of 84...
#History#OnThisDay#Versailles
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โWill no one rid me of this turbulent priest?โ
Never did Henry II imagine his sibylline wish would be so readily fulfilled. Yet, when his knights left Canterbury Cathedral, on 29 December 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becktetโs brains were splattered all over the church's altar.
โ๏ธโ๏ธ#History
29 December 1503: Battle of #Garigliano.
This episode of the Italian wars was made famous by the bravery of #Bayard ("the knight without fear and beyond reproach"!) who, to afford the French army a safe retreat, defended a bridge on his own against 200 Spaniards!
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28 Dec. 1065: King Edward the Confessor's #Westminster abbatial church is consecrated.
Later replaced by a Gothic edifice in the 13th century, it was initially built in the Romanesque style. Its features can best be surmised from its depiction in the famous #Bayeux tapestry.
27 Dec 1594: As the ever courteous Henri IV of France is stooping to rise the man kneeling before him, a powerful blow is delivered which pierces his lip and breaks one of his teeth. Its author, Jean Chรขtel, a 19-year old radicalised youth, is executed as a regicide 2 days later.
27 Dec 1788: In view of the forthcoming Estates General, King Louis XVI, in a spirit of fairness, issues a decree authorising doubling the number of popular representatives.
A move which was to pave the way for the emergence of a National Assembly the following spring.
#History
1754: Disowned by his government, Dupleix, Governor of Pondicherry, who had placed much of India under French control, is replaced by Charles Godeheu, who, on 26 December, signs a treaty with the British, effectively putting an end to further French expansion on the subcontinent.
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26 December 1806: Death of Louis Carrogis Carmontelle.
This polymath artist has rendered himself dear to posterity chiefly through his delightful "magic lantern-like" "transparents", which have enabled him to give us a literally vivid likeness of the society of his time.
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26 December 1806: Death of Louis Carrogis Carmontelle.
This polymath artist has rendered himself dear to posterity chiefly through his delightful "magic lantern-like" "transparents", which have enabled him to give us a literally vivid likeness of the society of his time.
Christmas day 1066: William of Normandy has subjugated enough of Southern England to be crowned King in Westminster. But the resounding shouts of "Vivat Rex!", coming from inside the Abbey, throw his nervous men stationed outside into a panic, and the neighbourhood is set ablaze!
Christmas day 1066: William of Normandy has subjugated enough of Southern England to be crowned King in Westminster. But the resounding shouts of "Vivat Rex!", coming from inside the Abbey, throw his nervous men stationed outside into a panic, and the neighbourhood is set ablaze!
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14 October 1066: William of Normandy earns the addition of "Conqueror" by winning the battle of #Hastings.
For 300 years had the "men of from North" been seeking to overtake Anglo-Saxon England, and the deed was finally accomplished #OnThisDay by French-speaking Vikings!