AskHistorians

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King Charles II of England (1630 – 1685) was well-known for his love of women; he had countless affairs, flings, and one-off trysts with both aristocrats and commoners alike. He fathered children with seven of them. Aside from being royalty, what caused so many women to have affairs with Charles?	22
Let's say I'm a Scottish noble during the reign of Robert II, who became the new King of Scotland in 1371, beginning the Stewart royal dynasty. What was life like at the medieval Scottish court, and how did much Scotland's Auld Alliance with France play into the court and politics of Robert II?	21
In Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" (1847), Edward Rochester describes "a string" connecting him to Jane Eyre. Was Brontë inspired by the Red Thread of Fate legend from Chinese mythology, in which two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances?	16
In February 1563, Christina of Denmark (also known as "Christina of Milan") claimed the titles of "Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden" after the death of her father, King Christian II. However, Christian II was forced to give up his throne(s) in 1523. Did she have any legal right to her title(s)?	15
One of my German great-grandmothers, Sophia Genz (b. 1831, adopted 1833), claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of "a noble or royal of Mecklenburg-Schwerin" who was adopted out of a convent in Malchow, Germany. Under what circumstances would an illegitimate child be placed under nuns' care?	12
In the Netflix TV show "Midnight at the Pera Palace" (2022), there is a plot by a British general in a post-WWI, Allied-occupied Ottoman Empire (1918-1919) to incorporate its lands as a new territory of the British Empire, as well as to kill Atatürk. Is there any historical basis or truth to this?	12
Monks in the many monasteries in Friesland before the Reformation did a lot of horse breeding, and Carthusian monks in Spain created the Andalusian horse breed. What happened to the horses owned and bred by monks during the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1540) by King Henry VIII of England?	12
Historian Moses Coit Tyler (1835 – 1900) called Pilgrim leader and Plymouth governor William Bradford (1590 – 1657) "the father of American history" for his authorship of "Of Plymouth Plantation". How much of American history and literature is - or was - Bradford truly responsible for "fathering"?	11
How common were geldings, or castrated male horses, in the Middle Ages when compared to stallions, and how and why did geldings eventually replace stallions in mounted cavalry units?	9
After one the first jousting tournaments in the United States was held in Virginia in 1821, jousting would go on to become "the national sport of the South", with Confederate soldiers during the Civil War even jousting while "barefoot and in rags". Why was jousting so popular among Southerners?	8

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