Women Leaders, part 6: Genocidal Warrior Queen, Isabella I

Matilda: Empress, Warrior, Queen by Catherine Hanley

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Women Leaders, part 5: Almost-Queen Matilda

March 25, 2020

Empress Matilda (1102 – 1167) was the daughter, wife, and mother of Kings. She also should have been England’s first crowned female monarch, but the patriarchy got in the way. She also once escaped by camouflaging herself in white cloaks in the snow!! A true legend.

References:

She-Wolves by Helen Castor

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Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians by Margaret C. Jones

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Women Leaders, part 4: Killing Vikings With Murder Bees

March 18, 2020

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians was a significant figure in English history. Not only did she repel Viking invaders through the clever use of BOILING BEER and BEES, she also worked alongside her brother Edward to see through their father’s goal of a united England. Also: BEES.

References:

Æthelflæd: Lady of the Mercians by Tim Clarkson

Æthelflæd: England’s Forgotten Founder (A Ladybird Expert Book) by Tom Holland

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Boudica: Warrior Woman of the Roman Empire by Caitlin C. Gillespie

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Women Leaders, part 3: Boudica (Literally) Burned London Down

March 11, 2020

Boudica was Queen of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe during the Roman conquest of Britain. She led a rebellion of united tribes against their Roman invaders, leaving a path of death and bloodshed in her wake.

Referenced in this episode:

Other stuff:

History writing: annfosterwriter.com

Recommended books: bookshop.org/lists/vulgar-history-recommends

Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World by Emma Southon

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Women Leaders, part 2: Ancient Rome’s Most Murderous Woman

March 4, 2020

Julia Agrippina Augusta, aka Agrippina Minor aka Agrippina the Younger, was a completely badass woman in ancient Rome. She leveraged her power as first the sister of the Emperor, then the wife of the Emperor, then the mother of the Emperor (three separate Emperors) to break new ground for Roman women. She also murdered a lot of people. Her placement on the Scandilicious Scale may SURPRISE YOU

Referenced in this episode:

Other stuff:

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

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Women Leaders, part 1: Cleopatra Was That Bitch

February 26, 2020

As the first part of our new series “Women Leaders And The Men Who Whined About Them,” we take it all the way back to the first century BCE and the legendary Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra VII. Growing up amid non-stop familial murder, she cannily usurped control of the kingdom from her relatives and teamed up with Rome. But where will she wind up on the Scandalicious Scale??

Reference:

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So This Asshole: Count Cagliostro: A Messy Diva Who Lived For Drama

February 5, 2020

Bonus!!

This is a preview of So This Asshole, a new spinoff podcast available through my Patreon. This side series will share the wild stories of some of the many, many assholes involved in the stories of the women profiled on the main Vulgar History podcast.

This episode is all about Giuseppe Balsamo, aka Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (1743-1795), who was briefly mentioned in the Vulgar History episode about Jeanne de la Motte.

Referenced in this podcast:

How To Ruin A Queen by Jonathan Beckman (which is a GREAT book!)

Other stuff:

History writing: annfosterwriter.com

Recommended books: bookshop.org/lists/vulgar-history-recommends

Sweet Valley Sagas by Francine Pascal

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Women Behaving Badly, part 6: The Super Secret Spy

December 11, 2019

Lucy Percy Hay, Countess of Carlisle (1599-1660) was a British noblewoman known for her espionage work surrounding the English Civil War. But she was not just a spy… was a #LADYSPY, mentored by one of the most memorable heroines of a previous Vulgar History episode!! Will it all be enough for her to take the top spot in our Scandalicious Scale??

Mentioned in this episode:

Court Lady and Country Wife: Royal Privilege and Civil War: Two Noble Sisters in 17th-century England by Lita-Rose Betcherman

Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain by Nadine Akkerman

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Women Behaving Badly, part 5: Mary Toft Pulled (Several) Rabbits (Out Of Her Vagina)

December 4, 2019

Mary Toft (1701 – 1763) was an English peasant who became notorious for her involvement in her family’s scheme to pretend she’d given birth to seventeen rabbits. The story is profoundly, continuingly, and rage-inducingly bananas.

Content warnings: animal cruelty/killing, nonconsensual gynecological procedures, Nathanael St. Andre

References:

The Imposteress Rabbit Breeder: Mary Toft and Eighteenth-Century England by Karen Harvey

What Mary Toft Felt: Women’s Voices, Pain, Power and the Body by Karen Harvey (History Workshop Journal)

Why Historians Are Reexamining the Case of the Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Sabrina Imbler (Atlas Obscura)

Imagining Monsters: Miscreations of the Self in Eighteenth-Century England By Dennis Todd

Lore, episode 45: First Impressions (Lore Podcast)

Mary Toft and Her Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits by Niki Russell (The Public Domain Review)

An Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits by Edward White (The Paris Review)

The Curious Case of Mary Toft (University of Glasgow Special Collections)

The confessions of a rabbit woman and other recently digitized tales from the Osler Library by Mary Yearl (McGill University Library News)

Mary Toft or Tofts (Godalming Musem)

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Lucas Reilly (Mental Floss)

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Countess Dracula: The Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess by Tony Thorne

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Women Behaving Badly, part 4: Elizabeth Báthory Bathed in Blood (Not Really)

November 27, 2019

Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman who, for a time, oversaw more properties and estates than anyone else in Europe. Her undoing came about when the Palatine of Hungary accused her and four servants of mass murder, and she’s now remembered as more of a myth than a person. Did she really commit these gruesome crimes, and bathe in the blood of her victims?? And how will she score on the scandalicious scale??

The Unobscured podcast by Aaron Mahnke

Other stuff:

History writing: annfosterwriter.com

Recommended books: bookshop.org/lists/vulgar-history-recommends