This Month in History
February

To my mind, February is the worst month in the calendar, the time when I really struggle with the dark.

That makes it the perfect month to read and bury myself in history and if you're looking at the calendar, you can see that February has lots of intriguing events to read up on.

There's the somewhat ill-fated coronation of King Charles I. I can never quite decided if the earthquake shaking London was a sign of the upheavals to come or not.

But February was also a month for new beginnings: the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert for one, and the start of England's longest-ruling dynasty: the Plantagenets.

So, next time you find February to dark, damp, cold and lonely to contemplate - grab a history book and immerse yourself in a wonderful world. I will.

King Charles I, the English monarch who would end his life on a scaffold 23 years later, was crowned in Westminster Abbey on this day. He was exquisitely dressed in white satin, but his coronation was marked by all manner of bad omens.

The king slipped as he entered the abbey and during the service, London was shaken by a sudden earthquake. There were those who remembered this ...

8 February 1587
Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed at Fotheringhay

While she lived, Mary Stuart was a threat to Queen Elizabeth I. And even though Elizabeth agonised a long time over it, she eventually gave orders for the execution.

One of Germany's greatest poets, Johann Friedrich Schiller, wrote a play about Mary, and I grew up reading about her execution, feeling sorry for her little lapdog, which had apparently hidden itself under her skirt and was only discovered once Mary was dead.

10 February 1840
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are married

Apparently it was love at first sight. From the first meeting with her cousin, the young Queen Victoria was determined to have him.

And on this day they were married in St James' Palace. The wedding breakfast took place in the newly built Buckingham Palace and the couple spent a two-day honeymoon at Windsor Castle.

11 February 1466 / 1503
Birth and Death of Elizabeth of York

This one always intrigued me, as I never heard of anyone who'd died on their birthday. But Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV, sister to the Princes in the Tower and wife to King Henry VII did just that follwing the birth of her youngest child.

She'd had an eventful life growing up during the final years of the Wars of the Roses. Having to marry the man who'd deposed her uncle King Richard III can't have been easy, but the two seemed to have made a success of their union. And her second son would rule as King Henry VIII.

28 February 1155
Birth of the Angevin Empire

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the medieval world's most astonishing women. But there were some things even she could not do.

Married to the French king since her 15th year, she was unable to give him a son. Apparently she was given little opportunity to do so, but nevertheless she was blamed for being barren.

But when she divorced the French king and married Henry, Duke of Normandy, things changed. And on this day, she proved her doubters wrong by giving birth to her and Henry's first son. Several more would follow. Not bad for a 'barren queen'.