Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was born in London. He was an English poet, translator, and satirist during the Enlightenment era. Pope is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. He was best known for his poems An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad.
Alexander Pope T-shirts on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW3SC5LB
English bad guys come in all flavors in the Victorian era
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) was an English historical novelist born. As a lawyer, the legal profession held no attraction for him. In 1820, Ainsworth began to publish his writing then later writing plays. Praising Ainsworth as a playwright it was said that he rivaled George Gordon Byron. During his time Ainsworth was contributed works to The European Magazine and other magazines.
His first success as a writer came with Rookwood in 1834, which features Dick Turpin as its leading character. Thirty-nine novels followed.
Ainsworth T-shirts on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRPT76FB
Jack Sheppard was a real person and also a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth. John “Jack” Sheppard (1702 – 1724) or “Honest Jack” was a notorious English thief and prison escapee in the early 18th-century London. Jonathan Wild (1683-1725) was a criminal cop in London obsessed with Jack Sheppard. Wild’s hatred was the undoing of both men.
Jack Sheppard T-shirts on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRNP3TWD
Jonathan Wild (1683-1725) was a criminal cop in London. He was a man of justice by day, and leader of a criminal empire. He became obsessed with Jack Sheppard known as Honest Jack, a notorious English thief and prison escapee. The obsession was Wild’s downfall as did gang members beganing to turn evidence on him.
Jonathan Wild T-shirts on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRGRDPSM
Richard III (1452-1485) put his dead brother’s son on the throne, schemed to take the crown, and started a war. He imprisoned his two young nephews in the Tower of London. Still a lot more is in question thanks to his successor Henry VII erasing his predecessor from history.
The last king from the Plantagenet dynasty of England the defeat and death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 more or less ended the Wars of the Roses as well as the Middle Ages.
Henry VII became king after killing Richard III, founding the Tudor dynasty. A schemer himself, Henry promptly waged a publicity campaign painting Richard as a black hearted evil villain. The smear campaign had Richard’s portrait retouched making his eyes slits and the mouth a scowl.
The campaign played up a hunchback angle and erased evidence of where Richard’s body was buried.
The body was finally discovered in a Leicester parking lot 500 years after his death. The discovery was made by Phillipa Langley of the Richard III Society. Richard wasn’t a hunchback, but his spine looked like a question mark due to severe scolioses.
A hundred years after his death Shakespeare wrote his cautionary tale of a military genius who plots, schemes and murders his way to becoming king, then starts a war and dies in battle after a brief reign at 32.
Amazon Richard III T-shirts available by clicking images or clicking links below.
Amazon Richard III T-shirts caricature: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082F2VMP9
Richard III battle AmazonT-shirts at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NPPR4GF
Richard portrait AmazonT-shirts at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBT46G7G
Apache Chief Winnetou, his braves and German crack-shot Old Shatterhand race horseback into an old western town. They are there to do battle against evil-doers making mischief against law biding citizens.
This is part of a wild west reenactment of a hugely successful movie based on one of Karl May most popular books. Read Karl May’s story here.
The action takes place on an outdoor stage in an abandoned Czech quarry. Indians and bad guys battle battle it out in front of a jail, a saloon, a railroad with locomotive and a recently robbed bank. The good guys are there to help the sheriff and deputy handle trouble.
In the stand fans gesture, cheer and boo as the heroes fight the bad guys. Regular festival attendees yell phrases in sync with actors.
The action is nonstop. A locomotive barrels down the tracks, crashes into a building. A bad guy blows up a water tower. A flood streams down walls of the quarry.
Outdoor theater is only part of events. The quarry houses an Indian village straight out of the wild west. And inside an extravagant 1870 saloon visitors can dine and drink or enjoy games of chance. On stage magic and old time dance shows delight visitors. Outside in a corral riders and horses perform tricks and stunts. Participants can visit kid friendly horses and goats. Gold mining, and treasure hunting opportunities are part of the excitement at the festival, too.
Want to visit, events, dates and accommodations at https://www.westernove-mestecko.cz
Sir Francis Drake (1540 – 1596) was an English knight, a navel officer, a pirate, and the favorite sea dog of Queen Elizabeth I.
Queen Elizabeth I issued a special mandate encouraging attacking and stealing the bounty of Spanish ships. With the mandate Drake became a privateer. He helped fund Britain’s war against Spain.
Drake was largely responsible for defeating the Spanish armada bringing Queen Elizabeth her first major military victory and bringing about the supremacy of England ruling the seas.
First to navigate the globe and claiming California for England, Drake enraged Spanish King Philip II which did nothing to assuage conflicts with Britain.
Despite his exploits he came in and out of favor with the Queen, his fate was unstable.
Simón Bolívar (1783-1830) born Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios was a Venezuelan military genius and political leader. He led a revolution that liberated South American countries that are now Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia from the Spanish Empire.
Born to a wealthy, politically connected, Venezuelan family, Bolívar was still not as high in the caste system as Spaniards born in Spain. This was part of the reason his allegiance belonged to his home in South America.
As a youth his tutor Simón Rodríguez introduced Bolívar to the world of 18th-century liberal thought. In 1804 Napoleon I was approaching the height of his career. Rodríguez and Bolívar sailed to Europe. In Paris Bolívar was discovered to the works of 18th century great minds like John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.
As liberation took hold world wide Bolívar came believe that the Spanish colonies were ripe for independence. A year later the the fight for independence began. He sailed for England in hope of eliciting help for the cause from the British. It didn’t work. But Bolívar persuaded exiled Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda to return and lead the revolution. Miranda’s leadership failed. But eventually Bolívar took over, financing the revolution with his own money.
The attach on New Granada is considered a military masterpiece, as daring and hazardous as Hannibal‘s crossing the Alps. Bolívar’s small army of 2,500 including a British legion forded rivers and and plain during the rainy season. For a week they waded through waist high waters. They crossed the Andes, a mountain range considered impossible by the defending Spaniards. Though Bolívar lost men, the Spaniards were caught flat footed and in 1819 surrendered. This was the turning point of the war.
Still it would be nearly another decade before peace was finally negotiated. Simón Bolívar is considered Latin America’s greatest military genius. His legacy is of mythical proportions.
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) was a romantic era German, French composer and impresario. A child prodigy, at four he studied violin with his father; at nine he fell in love with the cello. At 14 he was accepted as a student to the prestigious Paris Conservatoire.
But Offenbach grew bored and left after a year. He was able to make a living as a cellist and conductor. This led to international fame.
Finally Offenbach began to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre, his dream. During his life he composed nearly 100 operettas. His work influenced future composers. Many of his operettas continue being staged and performed.
The Tales of Hoffmann was his final work. It is an uncompleted masterpiece.
The opéra is based on three of T.A. Hoffmann’s stories. While it remains part of the standard opera repertory it has been made into films. The first a 1916 silent German film, followed by a 1923 and a 1951 movie. There will likely be more to movies to come.
Jacques Offenbach T-shirts on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KGY6RMY
E. T. A. Hoffmann, (1776-1822) born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was a German author of fantasy and Gothic horror. He was also a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Hoffmann is one of the major creators of the Romantic movement.
His stories were the basis of the famous opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach, The Tales of Hoffmann. Hoffmann became the heavily fictionalized hero.
The opéra is based on three of Hoffmann’s stories and was Offenbach’s final work.
Offenbach’s opera was eventually transformed into a 1916 silent German film, a 1923 film and a 1951 movie.
E. T. A. Hoffmann T-shirts on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HYVQCYG
Nat Love (1854-1921) was a slave born on Robert Love’s Tennessee plantation. After the civil war ended and the slaves were freed his parents became sharecroppers. His father Sampson died shortly after and Nat took a job at a local farm to help breaking horses.
Eventually Nat traveled to Dodge City, Kansas where he worked as a cowboy on a cattle drive. From Dodge City it was on to Deadwood in the Dakota Territory.
At a Deadwood rodeo Nat won the roping, bridle, saddle, and bronco riding contests. He said fans started calling him Deadwood Dick. The name was taken from a popular dime novel character.
Like a lot of good looking smart men of the time Nat Love was his own best promoter and embellisher. Continuing west he said he was captured by Pima Indians in Arizona and almost married the chief’s daughter.
His wild life calming down Nat got a job as a Pullman porter on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad then moved to southern California
Having learned to read and write as a child he published his autobiography entitled Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as ‘Deadwood Dick.’
His final job was a security guard and courier for a Los Angeles securities company.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German professor of theology, a composer, a priest, and a monk. Horrified by the indulgences of the Roman Catholic Church he became a major initiator of the Protestant Reformation.
The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement. It swept through Europe in the 1500s. The Reformation divided the Roman Catholic Church. Many religious groups separated due to doctrine. They were listed under an umbrella know as Protestantism.
Martin Luther remains one of the most influential figures in Christianity.
Martin Luther T-shirts available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F8P78YF