The oracle of Nusku, Veleda, Mavia, Alena Arzamasskaia, and Laskarina Bouboulina

Anya Seton's novel about her is one of the finest works of historical fiction that I've ever read.

It's probably has something to do with the fact that the title of Duke of Norfolk was revoked after Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was executed for treason in 1572.

The title would not be restored until 1660 when it was regranted to Thomas Howard, 5th Duke of Norfolk, a descendant of the fourth duke's younger son, Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk.

Henry VIII had one bastard son, Henry FitzRoy, who was born in 1519. Not only was the question of legitimizing him raised, but the Pope at the time also agreed to grant a dispensation that would allow for the future Mary I to marry her half-brother, so they could become joint rulers.

The possibility of legitimizing Henry FitzRoy after the break with the Catholic Church remained open for a long time, but it ended when he died abruptly of tuberculosis at the age of 17.

Worth mentioning that Anthony in Brideshead Revisited is based on two real people: the writers Brian Christian de Claiborne Howard and Howard Acton.

A lot of failure kings (like the ones you mentioned and I'd also add Henry III, Edward II, Richard II, Henry VI, and George IV, among others) tend to get a lot of focus in history classes because their reigns tended to bring about a lot of abrupt changes and often mark turning points in history.

Just for starters:

• William Wallace was a member of the minor nobility, not a commoner.
• Medieval Scotsmen did not wear kilts. Indeed, even the kilt's predecessor, the belted plaid, dates only to the 16th century.
• Edward I did not institute right of the first night in Scotland.
• Isabelle of France was around 10 at the time of William Wallace's execution and didn't marry Edward II until two years later, when she was 12.

Indigenous is used politically to describe people who have been subjected to colonialism and the nastiness that goes along with that, like forced assimilation campaigns and even genocide.

While technically yes all humans are native to Africa, no one's yet come up with a better term to describe groups such as Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Ainu, Chechens, Chukchi, Buryats, Cham, Sámi, Navajo, Cherokee, and Maya.

The Huns' origins are mysterious. The most commonly purposed theory is that they were the same people as the Xiongnu mentioned in Chinese sources, but even then, it's not known whether they were Mongolic, Turkic, Iranian, Uralic, or something else.

The problem is that the only written sources on the Huns and Xiongnu were outsiders and little of their language has been preserved.

Horse breeding and training in general were already ancient arts by the time of World War I and thus included breeding and training horses specifically for war.

As far back as the Middle Ages, there were already distinctions between warhorses, riding horses, and labor horses and there were also different kinds of warhorses. There were destriers (large, heavy, very expensive warhorses meant for knights), coursers (lighter and less expensive warhorses meant for knights and men-at-arms), rounceys (general purpose horses meant for riding and sometimes also for war), palfreys (riding horses only, often used by women), and cart horses (working horses used mainly for plowing and agricultural labor).

Royals and nobles killing their relatives over titles was extremely common. Just for example:

• Yaropolk I of Kiev ordered the assassination of his brother, Oleg. The third brother, Vladimir the Great, fled to Scandinavia and then returned with an army and had Yaropolk killed.
• Ioannes I Tzimiskes assassinated his maternal uncle, Nikephoros II Phokas, with the help of his uncle's wife and some disgruntled generals.
• Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is suspected to have been assassinated on the orders of his half-sister, Sitt Al-Mulk.
• Fernando I of Castile killed his brother-in-law, Bermudo III of León, in battle and then claimed the Leonese throne in right of his wife.
• Sancho II of Castile was probably assassinated on the orders of his siblings, Urraca of Zamora and Alfonso VI of León.
• Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia has been long-suspected of ordering the murder of his older brother, Wenceslaus (the subject of the carol, "Good King Wenceslaus".)
• Andronikos I Komnenos ordered the murders of his cousin's two children, Alexios II Komnenos and Maria Porphyrogennete Komnene (and a lot of others) to make himself emperor.
• István IV of Hungary was poisoned by supporters of his nephew while besieging Zemun.
• Arthur of Bretagne was likely killed on the orders of his paternal uncle, John I of England.
• Albrecht I of Germany was assassinated by his nephew, Johann Parricida, who was aggrieved that his uncle had not given him any land.
• Edward II of England ordered the execution of his cousin and enemy, Thomas of Lancaster. He was later deposed by his wife and disgruntled barons and probably secretly killed in prison.
• Joanna I of Naples was deposed and later murdered by her second cousin and nephew by marriage, Charles of Durazzo. Charles then tried to claim the Hungarian throne from another cousin, Maria of Hungary, but was assassinated on the orders of her mother, Elizabeta Kotromanić.
• Pedro I of Castile was personally murdered by his half-brother and enemy, Enrique de Trastámara.
• Richard II of England was deposed by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and then likely killed later in prison on Henry's orders.
• Henry VI of England was deposed by his distant cousin, Edward IV, and eventually murdered in prison.

I finally finished reading Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe by Richard Kaeuper just yesterday. It's a fascinating read, as Kaeuper attempts to unweave the complicated truth that Chivalry was a paradoxical ideal that both caused violence (as it encouraged knights to respond violently to slights on their honor) and yet also sometimes attempted to restrain and redirect violence.

The book both analyzes chivalric romances and also the biographies of real knights such as William Marshal and Geoffroi de Charny. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the culture of the Middle Ages.

The fact that most of the First Crusade were French is why the Muslim chroniclers of the period referred to all Western Catholics they met as "Franj" or "Ifranji": the Franks.

They had things like folded biscuits shaped like a taco with egg. It was some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen.

Incendiary weapons were most often used in three situations: naval battles, sieges, and pillaging.

I'm not an expert on medieval warfare by any means, but you generally don't see any type of fire weapon being used much in pitched battles.