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Ada Palmer argues that viewing the Renaissance as a 'golden age' obscures its messy and violent reality
From Michelangelo's David and Machiavelli's The Prince to the plays of Shakespeare, the Renaissance produced some of history's most astounding works of culture, art and innovation. But can focusing on these glittering creations obscure the messy and often violent reality of actually living through the era? Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Ada Palmer highlights the complexities of this so-called 'golden age' – including corrupt popes, devastating plagues and why Michelangelo hated painting. Ada Palmer is the author of Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age (Bloomsbury, 2025). Buy it now from Waterstones
Michelangelo: the Renaissance polymath who transformed Western art
Sculptor, painter, architect: Michelangelo was the archetypal Renaissance man who found immense fame in his lifetime and is still remembered as one of the most influential artists in world history. Matt Elton explores the creator of such iconic works as David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni – better known simply as Michelangelo – was an Italian Renaissance polymath whose iconic sculptures, paintings, architecture and poetry had a profound influence on Western art. Works like the marble statue of David or his awe-inspiring ceiling for the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican, cemented his status as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. Arguably, the only names that can come close are those of his rivals, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. So revered was he in his lifetime that he became known as ‘Il Divino’ (The Divine One). What was Michelangelo’s early life like? Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in the small town of Caprese, Italy, not too far from Florence. He had quite a turbulent childhood. “His mother died when he was six,” says Renaissance historian Catherine Fletcher, who was speaking to HistoryExtra on this episode of our Life of the Week podcast series. “He spent some of his early life in the care of a nanny living near a marble quarry that his father owned.” Far from setting the young boy back, however, Fletcher suggests this upbringing in the town of Settignano may have been one of the factors that contributed to his later success. “Michelangelo went on to become a great sculptor in marble, having grown up seeing stone being cut and dug every day. It was a great start to his future life.” What are Michelangelo’s most famous works? Pietà, a marble sculpture of the grieving Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus Christ, now in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. It is the only piece that Michelangelo ever signed The statue of David, sculpted between 1501 and 1504 and depicting the Biblical figure of David. More than five metres tall, it is the centrepiece of the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence The Sistine Chapel ceiling, a monumental artwork of scenes from the Book of Genesis – most famously, The Creation of Adam – created in the Vatican chapel between 1508 and 1512 The Laurentian Library in Florence, commissioned in 1523 to hold the Medici family’s private collection. Construction began two years later, but the library would not be opened until 1571, after Michelangelo’s death The Last Judgment, an enormous fresco covering the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. The scenes of the Second Coming of Christ and God’s eternal judgement were added to accompany the ceiling between 1536 and 1541 The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, created in the pope’s official residence in Vatican City in the late 1540s. Showing the saint and first bishop of Rome being raised on to the cross, it is Michelangelo’s final fresco How did Michelangelo become an artist? As a boy, Michelangelo had the fortune of being sent to live in Florence, the heart of the Italian Renaissance. At 13, he was apprenticed to the leading Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was already involved in painting the walls of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. “Michelangelo came to prominence very quickly within Ghirlandaio's workshop,” says Fletcher. “In fact, unusually for an apprentice, he started getting paid.” By the age of 15, a clearly gifted Michelangelo had been selected to attend an academy run by the city’s ruling Medici family. A prominent member was Lorenzo de' Medici, known as ‘the Magnificent’. This gave him access to the enviable Medici art collection, as well as a powerful patron. Read more | “They were on a level with today’s billionaires” – your guide to the Medici: bankers to the Pope, rulers of Florence, patrons of the Renaissance “Lorenzo wasn't officially the lord or the duke of the city,” Fletcher notes. “This is an important detail, because the relationship with the Medici became a matter of contention later on in Michelangelo's career. But the Medici were massive patrons of art, and really important in creating Florence’s cultural environment.” While studying philosophy and the humanities at the Platonic Academy, Michelangelo also began sculpting. It was there that he created two stunning marble panels that demonstrated his skill even at an early age. Shortly afterwards, however, Lorenzo’s death in 1492 signalled a turning point in Michelangelo’s life. Amid the political upheavals of the coming years, he headed first to Venice and then Bologna, intermittently returning to Florence. In June 1496, he travelled to Rome and took a commission from a cardinal for a statue of the ancient Roman god of wine, Bacchus. This was followed by his Pietà, which he had finished by the age of 24. Hailed as a masterpiece, but Michelangelo supposedly heard someone credit another artist with the piece, and so added his name to the sash running across Mary’s chest. How did Michelangelo create the statue of David? Having relocated to Florence in 1499 now a famous artist, Michelangelo was approached to complete a huge statue of the Biblical figure David. It had originally been commissioned 40 years earlier as part of a series of statues intended for the Florence Cathedral, but had gone through a number of sculptors without much progress. “At this point, a huge block of marble had been lying around and worked on a bit, but [was mostly] sitting there… trying to find somebody to do something with it,” says Fletcher. “Michelangelo had made his reputation with the incredible Pietà statue, so he got the job.” Created between 1501 and 1504. Michelangelo’s David is considered a Renaissance masterpiece. He did a huge amount of preparation to sculpt the statue out of the colossal block of marble, known as ‘the giant’, and the work required an enormous scaffold. “The way he worked was very precise,” Fletcher says. “This wasn’t something you could just dive in and sculpt directly: there was a lot of drawing and planning with models in advance. Eventually, Michelangelo was so keen to get it right that he [began] making his own tools. He wasn’t going to go into a shop and buy a chisel; he was going to sort out his own tools to do the sculpting.” The finished David stood at 5.18 metres (17ft) tall. “Of course, it was too heavy to go on the roof where it was meant to go, so there was then an argument about where they were going to put it.” It was eventually decided that David should stand in Florence’s main square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria (now known as Palazzo Vecchio), which was the headquarters of the ruling body of the Republic of Florence. Did Michelangelo’s David suggest dislike of the Medici family? The subject of Michelangelo’s marble statue was the Biblical figure of David, who as a young Israelite shepherd defeated a giant named Goliath in single combat, using nothing but a sling and a stone. “The statue was very important in the iconography of Florence at the time: it represented the city’s liberty,” says Fletcher. “In the political context, you can see that it was actually a critique of the Medici and their foreign backers, because they were the tyrants who wanted to come and take over the city.” From the beginning, David was a symbol of freedom and liberty, and for the Florentine Republic. “And, as lots of other countries around the world fought for freedom and liberty and for their own republics against the monarchy, this example of Florence and its fight against the Medici had real political importance,” Fletcher adds. Were Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci rivals? The two great artists first encountered each other in 1504, when Leonardo da Vinci was asked to join the committee tasked with deciding where Michelangelo’s David should be placed. Despite being from different generations, a rivalry flourished between them. Over the years, Michelangelo and Leonard continued to be aware of each other’s work. When Michelangelo was asked in 1549 about the long-standing debate about the ranking of the various arts, he wrote: “As to that man [Leonardo] who wrote saying that painting was more noble than sculpture, if he had known as much about the other subjects on which he has written, why my serving maid could have written better!”. Read more | Leonardo & Michelangelo: rivalry and inspiration Yet beyond the rivalry, the two men had a more complex relationship, and they would influence and push each other throughout their careers. What did Michelangelo paint in the Sistine Chapel? Following the success of David, Michelangelo was increasingly called upon to work on large-scale projects. Pope Julius II invited the artist to Rome to create 40 life-sized statues for his elaborate tomb. Commissioned in 1505, the project dragged on for four decades as Michelangelo regularly turned his attention to other works. The most significant of these would undoubtedly be the two frescoes created for the Sistine Chapel: on the ceiling, between 1508 and 1512, and The Last Judgment, from 1536 to 1541. The Sistine Chapel ceiling, especially, is one of the most iconic works of Renaissance art. It includes the instantly recognisable image of God reaching out to touch Adam, which is in the centre of eight other scenes from the Book of Genesis and figures from classical mythology. It was a mammoth undertaking. “It does seem to have been a very, very tough piece of work to do,” says Fletcher. “Michelangelo himself describes coming out of it being bent like a bow.” Fletcher addresses the debate about the degree to which Michelangelo had assistance. “In one of the documents [from the period], we get the sense that he did hire 12 assistants. But then there's a question of what he actually allowed [them to do], because he was a bit of a micromanager.” What do we know about Michelangelo’s sexuality and personal life? Since Michelangelo’s life was largely solitary, it remains difficult to confirm his sexuality, admits Fletcher. “He didn't have anyone with whom he was at all romantically connected until quite a lot later in his life.” It was then that we know he wrote an extensive sequence of sonnets to a much younger man, an Italian noble named Tommaso dei Cavalieri. “As with any historic same-sex relationship, people always ask whether they were actually a couple or just friends,” says Fletcher. “In this case you have to decide whether the sense of attraction in the sonnets was enough to outweigh the religious belief that sodomy was a sin.” But Fletcher does argue that the erotic nature of the sonnets that Michelangelo wrote does suggest that he was sexually attracted to men. How did Michelangelo die? Michelangelo died following a brief illness in Rome on 18 February 1564, at the age of 88. He had been working on a sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà, just six days earlier. In his last two decades, he had focussed more on architecture, most notably working to complete St Peter’s Basilica. Where is Michelangelo buried? Rather than being buried in Rome, Michelangelo was laid to rest in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence. This holds a pantheon of famous Florentine and Italian people, big monuments for Machiavelli and, later, Galileo Galilei. “And there was Michelangelo, back in his home city of Florence,” says Fletcher. “I think this says something about his attachment to it, even though he didn’t live there for much of his later life.”
Seven of history's most disturbing ghost ship stories that will haunt your dreams
Discover the truth behind the mysteries and histories of ghost ships, from the most famous examples in nautical legend to forgotten vessels adrift on the oceans…
You're a sailor (or, maybe even a famous pirate). Several weeks out to sea, you come across another ship that seems to be acting strangely. Getting a closer look, you realise it is floating adrift, with no sign whatsoever of its crew. It’s a ghost ship. What is a ghost ship? Ghost ships, also known as phantom ships, are vessels that are found derelict at sea with no crew aboard and nothing to explain what happened to them. While it sounds like the stuff of legend – and fuel for seafarers’ nightmares – ghost ships are real nautical phenomena. They have inspired horror-infused stories and wild theories alike, and their names can send shivers down the spine. Here, from the golden age of piracy to 20th century tales, explore some of the most famous and mysterious ghost ships throughout history, each with its own chilling tale. What are most famous ghost ships in history? ● Mary Celeste ● SS Baychimo ● Flying Dutchman ● MV Joyita ● Carroll A. Deering ● Ourang Medan ● Jian Seng Mary Celeste The most famous ghost ship of them all has to be the Mary Celeste. Having left New York in early November 1872, bound for Italy, the merchant brigantine was spotted drifting alone in the Atlantic Ocean on 5 December. The abandoned ship was found by the Dei Gratia off the Azores, but there was no trace of Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, their two-year-old daughter, or his small crew of seven. While the cargo and crew’s personal belongings were undisturbed, the sails had been only partially set, a log entry had not been made in the last 10 days, and a lifeboat was missing. Read more | John Ward: the real Jack Sparrow? What’s more, although there was water in the hold, the Mary Celeste was at no risk of sinking. So, what caused Briggs and the crew to desert a seaworthy ship? And what were their fates? There have been many theories. Despite a lack of evidence, some were suspicious of mutiny, piracy or an elaborate fraud. In the years since, natural phenomena like waterspouts (essentially, a tornado at sea) or fears that the gases leaking from the alcohol in the hold could explode have also been mooted. While no conclusive explanation has ever been uncovered, the leading hypothesis suggests that Briggs believed the ship to be sinking, incorrectly. It was taking on water and one of the pumps seemed to be broken, which may have led the crew to carry out a hasty and premature evacuation. Ultimately, the reason for Mary Celeste’s abandonment remains one of maritime history’s greatest mysteries, as is the fate of its crew. SS Baychimo For ten years from 1921, when it came under the ownership of the Hudson's Bay Company, the cargo ship SS Baychimo traversed the fraught northern waters of the Arctic Circle, carrying furs and other goods to and from trading posts on Canada’s north coast. In October 1931, it became trapped in pack ice off the coast of Alaska. Completely stuck and with no prospect of breaking free before the ice crushed the ship, the all but skeleton crew of 15 were evacuated by plane. The men who stayed hoped to wait out the winter by living in a wooden shelter near the stricken Baychimo. But after bunkering down for several days during a blizzard, they emerged to find the ship had disappeared. They assumed it had sunk; in fact, the Baychimo remained afloat and had broken free of the ice after all. After being corrected by seal hunters who had spotted it floating free, the sailors tracked it down, retrieved some of its cargo and then abandoned it once more. Over the next few decades, the Baychimo was spotted numerous times in Arctic waters. Attempts were made to board or salvage the vessel, but the ice and weather conditions meant it always eluded capture. The last confirmed sighting of the crewless ghost ship was in 1969. That said, there have been sporadic reported sightings since. Is it possible that its voyage continues? Flying Dutchman A name that can strike fear in a sailor’s heart, the Flying Dutchman puts the ‘ghost’ in ‘ghost ship’. Unlike the real vessels on this list, this ship is based on myth and legend: a ghoulish warship unable to make port, so doomed to sail the oceans for eternity. And to see it is a portent of disaster. Read more | Did pirates really walk the plank? First mentioned in literature in the late-1700s, supposed sightings of the Flying Dutchman, often through thick veils of mist and fog, have been reported for centuries. The future George V and his brother Prince Albert Victor apparently spotted the ship off the coast of Australia in 1881. Yet no evidence exists that the Flying Dutchman was ever real. Instead, it occupies a more archetypal place in the lore of naval history. The Flying Dutchman has inspired poems and stories, an opera by Richard Wagner, and, most recently, the terrifying ship captained by Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. MV Joyita Few maritime mysteries are as perplexing as that of the MV Joyita, a luxury yacht-turned-commercial vessel that disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955. It had set sail from Samoa on 3 October with 25 passengers and crew aboard bound for the Tokelau Islands just over 300 miles away. It never reached its destination. But five and a half weeks later, the Joyita was discovered more than 600 miles off course, still afloat yet partially submerged. All 25 people were missing, along with four tons of cargo, the ship's logbook and navigational equipment. Adding to the confusion, the radio had been tuned to the international distress signal but no SOS call had ever been received. The ensuing investigation brought no clear answers to what befell the ship. Since then, theories have ranged from piracy and botched abandonment after a mechanical failure, to kidnapping by a Soviet submarine and murder by a Japanese fishing fleet. Carroll A. Deering In late January 1921, the Carroll A Deering – a five-masted schooner built for speed and capacity in the post-First World War shipping boom – was spotted off the coast of North Carolina. It was heading right for Diamond Shoals: the so-called ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’. It would take several days before anyone was able to board the ship, which had indeed run aground on the notorious shoals, but the 12-strong crew and lifeboats were missing. No sign of them has ever been found since. There was damage to the steering equipment, and an earlier communication with the ship revealed that the anchors had been lost, but the cause for the desertion has never been ascertained. Could it have collided with another vessel or had there been a misjudged mutiny? The captain had complained of the crew being difficult. Read more | Anna Bonny and Mary Read: a deadly duo Other theories have suggested the Deering was hijacked by Prohibition-era rum runners or Russian saboteurs. And, of course, with a mystery like this it wouldn’t be long before the Bermuda Triangle was mentioned. An intriguing clue to the ship’s fate emerged in April 1921, when a message in a bottle washed up claiming it had been captured by an “oil-burning boat”. The note, however, was found to be a hoax by a local fisherman. But further investigation of the Deering was impossible – in March, the wreck had been destroyed as part of efforts to remove hazards from the shoals. SS Ourang Medan The tale of the SS Ourang Medan is shrouded in mystery, marked by a significant lack of evidence and conflicting reports. In fact, that’s all it might be: a tale, an urban legend. After all, no ship of that name ever appeared on official records and shipping registers. According to the story, the Dutch ship was passing through the Strait of Malacca, off Indonesia, in the 1940s when its radio operator sent out a frantic SOS claiming the officers were dead, and that remainder of the crew probably were too, before transmitting one final, chilling message: “I die”. Read more | Pirate vs Buccaneer vs Privateer: what's the difference? A rescue ship rushed to the scene, but all that was found was the Ourang Medan adrift with no sign of life. The bodies of the crew were strewn everywhere, fixed with expressions of terror despite no visible injuries or clear cause of death. Before the ship could be investigated further, a fire reportedly broke out and the rescuers had to get clear of the ship before it exploded, sending the wreck into the depths. Theories have swirled around the fate of the Ourang Medan – as has the question of whether it truly existed. Regardless, it remains one of the most haunting ghost ship legends out there. Jian Seng Not only is the fate of Jian Seng’s crew unknown, but the ship’s very origins are too. In 2006, the 80-metre tanker was spotted from the air drifting off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It was both abandoned and damaged beyond use. Where the ship came from, who its crew was, and what it was doing in that part of the ocean has never been determined. The tanker bore no identifying marks. As the Jian Seng was not reported missing, and authorities could not track its ownership, it was suspected that the ship had been used for illegal activity, such as drug smuggling or forbidden fishing operations. The Jian Seng was eventually towed out to sea and scuttled. Still, its sudden appearance and the complete mystery about its past have made it a modern symbol of the chilling allure of ghost ships.
Catherine Fletcher explores the life, legacy and extraordinary artistic output of the Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet
From his famed statue of David to the extraordinary paintings that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s work still inspires awe. In this episode, Professor Catherine Fletcher speaks to Rachel Dinning about the life, legacy and extraordinary artistic output of the Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet. View Green Video on the source website
From his famed statue of David to the extraordinary paintings that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s work still inspires awe. In this episode, Professor Catherine Fletcher speaks to Rachel Dinning about the life, legacy and extraordinary artistic output of the Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Hear Catherine Fletcher discuss the history of Florence, and offer her tips on Renaissance sites to visit in the city here.
Gulbadan Begum: princess, explorer, author
Ruby Lal explores the life of Gulbadan Begum, princess, explorer and author of an extraordinary account of the rise of the Mughal empire
Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in a Mughal harem. Instead she set off on a daring pilgrimage to Islam's holy cities and, on her return, wrote an extraordinary account of her dynasty. In conversation with Spencer Mizen, Ruby Lal explores the life of a princess who transformed perceptions of what women could achieve in the 16th century. Ruby Lal is the author of Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan (Yale University Press, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon Buy it now from Waterstones Buy it now from Bookshop.org
The Grand Tour: everything you wanted to know
Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
From classical sites to society scandals, Lizzie Rogers answers listener questions on the 18th-century travellers who visited continental Europe
In the 18th century, countless British travellers set off to continental Europe in search of art, architecture... and a good time. But what were the must-see locations on the Grand Tour? How did people overcome the challenges of language, currency and uncomfortable mules? And what were the biggest scandals that shook fashionable Europe? In this 'everything you wanted to know' episode, Lizzie Rogers takes Ellie Cawthorne on a whistle-stop journey through the history of the Grand Tour.
Catherine de Medici: the ‘Serpent Queen’ who became one of France’s most powerful 16th-century rulers
Often regarded as brutal and calculating, the powerful Catherine de Medici is much maligned. But how should we regard her actions and power? Estelle Paranque considers the life and legacy of the fascinating royal, from her historical unpopularity to her influence on the history of Europe…
Catherine de Medici was never meant to be queen. The ‘orphan of Florence’ suffered more losses during her childhood than most people do in a lifetime. Yet fate struck, and the ‘duchessina’ – as she went on to be called by the Florentine people – ended up marrying into the French royal family. Little did she know that, one day, she would become queen of France. We bring you the key facts about the woman who became known as 'the Serpent Queen'… Who was Catherine de Medici? Born: 13 April 1519, Republic of Florence Died: 5 January 1589, France Parents: Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne Known for: Being the queen mother of France during the reign of her three sons Husband: Henry II of France Children: 10, including Francis II of France; Charles IX of France; Henry III of France; Margaret of Valois and Francis, Duke of Anjou Legacy: Catherine de Medici’s legacy is controversial. On the one hand, she is remembered for being one of the most powerful French queens of the early modern period. On the other, none of her sons were able to secure the dynasty and, ultimately, she was blamed for many of the atrocities that occurred during their reigns. Catherine de Medici’s family and upbringing Catherine was born in Florence on 13 April 1519 to Lorenzo de Medici, the ruler of the kingdom of Florence, and his wife Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne. Within three weeks of her birth, Madeleine died from a violent fever and Catherine was left without a mother. Shortly afterwards, her father, who was also the Duke of Urbino, had to defend the region after it was attacked by Francesco Maria, a former duke of Urbino who had plotted his revenge during a vulnerable time for Lorenzo’s family. Lorenzo sustained injuries in the town’s defence and died of his wounds amid other disease complications in May 1519. Despite relatives who stepped in to look after Catherine after the death of her parents, the little duchess was now alone in the world; nothing could replace parental love and protection – or, at least, almost nothing. Initially, Catherine was looked after by her paternal grandmother, Alfonsina Orsini, but when Alfonsina died in 1520, Catherine was left with her aunt, Clarice de Medici. By 1527, the ruling Medicis had been overthrown by a faction that opposed Giulio de Medici, who had been elected as Pope Clement VII in 1523. Catherine was then raised in several convents until peace was reached, at which point Clement summoned her to go and live with him in Rome. He cared for her and also arranged her union to Henry, Duke of Orléans, the second son of King Francis I of France, in early 1533. The young couple were married in Marseille on 28 October 1533. Aged just 14, Catherine had now entered into the French royal family – a life-changing experience. Catherine de Medici's marriage: was it happy? Catherine’s marriage to Henry II was not a happy one. As queen consort following the death of Francis I in 1547, Catherine was fully devoted to her husband, but in reality, she was the third wheel in the relationship; Henry II was profoundly in love with his royal favourite, Diane de Poitiers, who exercised enormous influence over Henry’s life. There were three people in this union and, as a result, Henry spent very little time with his wife – to the point where courtiers gossiped that the queen was infertile (after all, Henry had illegitimate children with other mistresses). But after nearly a decade of further humiliations, Diane actually helped the royal couple conceive. Worried that she could lose her position and influence at court if the king were to remarry a younger and more enticing wife to sire an heir, Diane made sure that Henry frequented the royal bedchamber; Catherine was no threat to her, even with heirs, as Diane had secured the king’s affection and sexual attraction. From 1544 onwards, Catherine and Henry had a total of 10 children – seven of whom survived to adulthood. The Serpent Queen: STARZ’s Catherine de’ Medici drama offers "myths and caricature" STARZ drama The Serpent Queen portrays Catherine de’ Medici as a queen who will do anything to survive and retain power. But, writes Dr Estelle Paranque, we shouldn’t entirely believe in her ‘dark legend’... How did Catherine de Medici become governor of France? When Henry II died following injuries sustained during a jousting tournament in 1559, Catherine’s situation at court changed in an instant. At first, she acted as a political advisor to her eldest son, Francis II of France. Though Henry had allowed her little influence as queen consort, she had previously been made regent by her husband in 1552 while Henry was absent at the siege of Metz, and she used this brief political experience under Francis II. Then, when Francis died of illness on 5 December 1560, her 10-year-old son, Charles IX, became the next king of France. In an attempt to prevent Catherine from taking control, a regency was put into place, but she overcame it and was made ‘governor of France’, ruling alongside Antoine de Bourbon, the king of Navarre. Although Antoine was a prince of the blood (a legitimate male heir to the French throne) and had been declared the ‘official’ regent, the arrangement was ultimately approved by parliament. It was through her sons that Catherine built up her own political power. When Charles IX became of age to rule on his own, she took the title of ‘queen mother of France’, imposing herself on all governmental meetings and using the influence she had over her son to remain in power. She continued this strategy – though less successfully – with her next-youngest son, Henry III, who became king upon Charles’s death in 1574. Read more | Henri III: Elizabeth I’s unlikely ally Catherine de Medici and the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre The long regency of Catherine was marked by the French Wars of Religion, a period of war between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants). Many urban legends depict Catherine as a murderer who hated Protestants, but it is important to note that the reality is quite different. In fact, Catherine spent a lot of her time in power trying to find peace compromises between Catholics and Protestants. Was she a fervent Catholic? Yes. Would she have preferred it if all her country was Catholic? Of course. But she also knew the importance of preserving stability in one’s realm in order to secure the dynasty. View Green Video on the source website Catherine spent months negotiating a potential marriage between her daughter, Marguerite of Valois, to the Huguenot Henry of Navarre, son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d’Albret. Once the marriage was agreed, the wedding was arranged for 18 August 1572. But in the days following the union came one of the bloodiest events of early modern French history. With tensions already high in Paris, an assassination attempt was made on Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the military and political leader of the Huguenots, and the event sparked days of bloodshed, not just in Paris but all over France: it later became known as the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre. How did Catherine react that night? She tried to save Coligny – the leader who had been targeted by the powerful Catholic Guise family – by sending for the royal doctor, Ambroise Paré, to treat his wounds. She also opened her doors to any Protestants who needed to find refuge, including the English ambassador at the time, Sir Francis Walsingham, when his apartments were no longer safe enough. The bloodshed is traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine. Did she suspect that the Guise family would seek revenge on Huguenot leaders for the death of their father at the hands of a Huguenot noble in 1562? Very likely. But she could not possibly have known it would lead to the thousands of deaths that followed. Did she encourage it? Hardly. Instability was never in the interest of the ones in power. Did she orchestrate it? No concrete evidence has ever been revealed. How did Catherine de Medici die? In September 1588 Catherine started to feel weak, and she eventually became ill with a lung infection. At this time, the situation in France was at its worst. The authority of Henry III, her favourite son, had been contested to the point when, in May 1588, he had to flee Paris as it was besieged by the Catholic League led by the Guises. Catherine spent her time trying to advise her son, but he no longer wished to listen to her. Her illness progressed and she continued to feel powerless as she watched her son’s own power being diminished. When, in December 1588, Henry III ordered the assassinations of his enemies – Henry, Duke of Guise and Louis, Cardinal of Guise – Catherine gasped at the horror she was witnessing. She knew that the French people would never forgive such treacherous behaviour from a king; she knew it would seal her son’s fate. Her lung infection spread further, and, on 5 January 1589, she gave her last breath in her own bed at the Castle of Blois. It is believed she died of pleurisy. Why was Catherine de Medici called the ‘Serpent Queen’? A dark legend has stained Catherine’s reign and those of her sons, largely due to the fact that none of them put an end to the religious civil wars that ravaged France between 1562 and 1598. Her Italian origins were also considered a problem by courtiers, as well as the fact that she showed interest in astrology and astronomy. She believed astronomers, such as Nostradamus, and asked them for predictions of the future. Some people saw this as being an interest in the occult, which she did not have, and – little by little – her detractors wrongly portrayed her as a ‘serpent queen’ who knew how to poison her enemies and who was heartless with the people of France. These attacks could not be further from the truth. Catherine, like any other ruler, did plot and lie when needed in order to protect her authority – or that of her sons – but she also showed how much she truly cared about the preservation of France, and always tried to find ways to promote peace and reach stability within the borders of her realm. Read more | Queens know best: survival lessons from powerful historical women Catherine was also fond of art and a keen collector of it; during her lifetime she acquired a great deal of tapestries, sculptures, rich fabrics, furniture and pottery, as well as portraits she commissioned from Jean Clouet and his son, Francis Clouet. She also had a passion for architecture, ordering the renovations of important buildings such as the castles of Montceaux-en-Brie and Chenonceau. She spent a huge amount on the arts, but was never truly recognised as a patron – partly because of the dark legend that still hangs over her reign today. By her end, Catherine had become a force to be reckoned with. From orphan to queen consort, to queen mother, she drastically influenced French history by producing three of the nation’s kings. Though the Valois dynasty did not prevail after Henry III, Catherine’s grandchildren from her other children went on to shape late 16th and 17th-century politics. In many ways, she was the grandmother of early modern Europe. Read next | Why Catherine de Medici despised Elizabeth I of England Dr Estelle Paranque is a historian in queenship, royal and diplomatic studies, and assistant professor in early modern history at New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University. She is the author of Blood, Fire and Gold: The Story of Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici (Ebury Press, 2022)
How Galileo Galilei took on the church and changed the universe
From his groundbreaking insights into the cosmos to his persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church, Galileo Galilei stands as one of the most innovative and freethinking pioneers of modern science. Danny Bird explores how the Renaissance polymath made his name
Who was Galileo Galilei? Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei – universally known just by his Christian name Galileo – was an astronomer, physicist and mathematician whose experiments revolutionised science and laid the foundations of modern physics. Born in Pisa on 15 February 1564, Galileo’s meticulous observations were aided by his own modifications to the telescope, which enabled him to corroborate the heliocentric model of the solar system advanced by Nicolaus Copernicus (in which the Earth orbits the Sun at its centre). Read more | Why does the tower of Pisa lean to one side? Galileo’s experiments on motion and gravity eventually led to Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, and he made significant contributions to the development of the scientific method by emphasising the importance of experimentation and observation in understanding the natural world. But he also came into conflict with the Catholic Church, leading to his trial for heresy and spending the last years of his life under house arrest. For his relentless pursuit of knowledge and his willingness to challenge prevailing beliefs, however, Galileo is recognised as one of the most influential figures in the history of science. James Hannam explores the life of Galileo Galilei, from his groundbreaking observations of the night sky to his censure by the Catholic church Listen on the podcast What was Galileo’s early life like? According to James Hannam, the expert for our Life of the Week podcast episode on Galileo, he was born into a relatively affluent family in Pisa, a thriving university city in Tuscany. Pisa was part of the Grand Duchy of Florence at the time, ruled over by the powerful Medici family. Indeed, the Italian peninsula was a patchwork of independent states, dominated by the Papal States under the direct control of the pope. “His father Vincenzo Galilei was a musician and also quite a noted music theorist who published his own books on the mathematics of music,” says Hannam. During Galileo’s adolescence, the Galilei family moved to Florence where he attended a monastic school before enrolling at the University of Pisa. Galileo’s career change to astronomy Galileo’s passion for mathematics and natural philosophy, and then astronomy, emerged during his university studies and rapidly eclipsed his initial plans to become a physician. Hannam explains that this was a rather cavalier move as “medicine was a way to have a ‘sensible’ career, whereas if you wanted to be an astronomer you really did need to have a patron and jobs in that field were distinctly limited.” In 1592, after a brief career teaching mathematics and physics in Pisa, Galileo relocated to the University of Padua. “Padua in those days was ruled by the great city state of Venice, one of richest and most powerful parts of Italy. And there, he had quite a comfortable life on a reasonable salary from the university,” says Hannam. “For a lot of academics that probably would have been enough, but Galileo resented the fact that he had to teach students, which obviously is something professors are expected to do. And what he really wanted was to have a rich patron who would just let him get on with fundamental research in astronomy.” It was during this time that Galileo struck up a relationship with a woman named Marina Gamba, who bore him two daughters and a son out of wedlock. Did Galileo invent the telescope? Although it’s a common misconception that Galileo invented the telescope, he did make significant improvements to the nascent instrument’s design in 1609. “Being Galileo, he managed to make one that was actually better than anybody else’s and it could manage something like 30 times magnification, which was incredibly powerful,” asserts Hannam. Read more | A brief history of astronomy Pointing it towards the night sky, he saw things that no other human being had seen before, and which would have defied explanation. “For instance, he looked at the Milky Way, which just looks to the naked eye like a band of mist across the sky and was able to pick out the fact that it’s made up of thousands upon thousands of individual stars.” What did Galileo discover? Galileo began observing other celestial objects, pointing his telescope to the Moon. It soon became apparent that what he was witnessing contradicted the dogma of centuries of assumed knowledge. According to Hannam, it was “believed that the Moon had to be a perfect sphere because it was a heavenly body and heavenly bodies couldn’t have any blemishes”. Galileo, however, looked through his telescope and saw clearly that it was covered in craters, mountains and crevasses. “This was a big surprise as the ancient Greeks,” says Hannam, “[notably] Aristotle… had rejected the idea that the heavens were subject to the same physical laws as the Earth.” Read more | Did NASA fake the moon landing? Debunking the conspiracy Then, over the winter of 1609-10, Galileo turned his telescope towards Jupiter. Across several nights, he observed four specks of light seemingly dancing around the distant planet. He named them the ‘Medicean stars’ in honour of his patron, Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici of Tuscany. Later, these would be identified as moons (named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto in honour of the victims of Zeus/Jupiter). In March 1610, Galileo “published a book called Sidereus Nuncius [The Sidereal Messenger, otherwise known as The Starry Messenger], which included all of these findings and was an absolute sensation at the time,” says Hannam. How did Galileo’s discoveries come into conflict with the Church? Despite the excitement he caused, Galileo’s discoveries put him on a collision course with the Church’s increasingly dogmatic line on the geocentric model of the Universe, which held that the Earth as the central, static point and was orbited by at least the sun and the moon. However, it’s a misconception that Copernicus’s heliocentric model had been dismissed by Church authorities. “It wasn’t necessarily heretical to be suggesting that Venus was going around the Sun… or that Jupiter has moons of its own,” claims Hannam. “The Jesuits in Rome, who had their own astronomical office… later confirmed the observations that Galileo had made.” The real problem, explains Hannam, arose when Galileo posited that the Earth itself was moving. This hypothesis went against the Church’s line, as well as the prevailing scientific orthodoxy of the time. Why did the Inquisition persecute Galileo? Galileo’s discoveries emboldened him. His decision to start publishing books in Italian rather than Latin, for instance, made his sensational discoveries accessible to ordinary people. “I think one thing that we definitely do know about Galileo was he was supremely self-confident,” says Hannam. “He was really sure of what he was seeing, and he was really sure that he was right and he wanted to get the word out.” In 1616, the Church, increasingly vexed by the challenges of Protestantism and to the ‘truth’ as espoused in the Bible, took a hard line against Copernicus and asserted the Earth’s position within the cosmos as stationary. In 1623, a friend of Galileo’s was elected as Pope Urban VIII. This gave him an extremely powerful connection, since the new pope appeared to take a rather relaxed position on the new ideas percolating at the time. That was until ten years later, when Galileo published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which openly defended heliocentrism. What is more, he included a character called Simplicio, apparently mocking those who obstinately adhered to the traditional Aristotelian model. “So, the pope demanded that Galileo be put on trial for stating that the Earth goes round the Sun, which the Church had already condemned in 1616,” says Hannam. The Inquisition sentenced him to life imprisonment in 1633, and he would spend the rest of his days under house arrest. Did Galileo say “And yet it moves”? Perhaps one of the most famous incidents attributed to Galileo is the phrase “E pur si muove” (“And yet it moves”). He supposedly uttered these defiant words after the Inquisition forced him to recant his ‘heretical’ hypothesis that the Earth orbited the Sun. Hannam stresses, nonetheless, that “there is no contemporary evidence” Galileo ever said it. Regardless, the phrase has become part of the legend; emblematic of freedom of thought and expression and often invoked to highlight the supposed incompatibility between religious faith and rational enquiry. What else did Galileo contribute to science? Although revered for his contributions to astronomy, Galileo also blazed a trail in other fields of knowledge. “His most important scientific book was the Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences. Those sciences are mechanics and the science of materials. “I think it’s probably that book, rather than his books on astronomy, which make him into a scientific pioneer,” says Hannam. His seminal work also challenged longstanding beliefs. In particular, he disproved the notion that heavier objects fall faster with simple experiments – purportedly, by famously dropping different objects off the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Though his performance of this experiment remains unverified, Galileo was a proponent of public demonstrations of science and he did teach in Pisa for a few years (1589–1592). When did Galileo die? Galileo died while under house arrest in Arcetri, in the hills overlooking Florence, on 8 January 1642, aged 77. Throughout his confinement, he had continued to receive visitors, including the English poet John Milton. As his physical health declined, Galileo lost his sight completely, and yet he persevered with his experiments with the help of a student, Vincenzo Viviani. “He was buried in Florence in the Basilica of Santa Croce,” says Hannam, “but because he died under the sentence of the Inquisition… the Church [deemed it] unacceptable for him to have a splendid tomb”. Nearly a century later, he was reburied within the basilica and a grand monument was installed to mark his resting place, opposite that of Michelangelo.
James Hannam explores the life of Galileo Galilei, from his groundbreaking observations of the night sky to his censure by the Catholic church
Galileo Galilei stands as one of the most significant figures in the history of science and thought. But how did he gain this illustrious reputation? In today's 'Life of the Week' episode, historian of science James Hannam delves into Galileo's pioneering observations and experiments. Speaking to Danny Bird, he reveals how the dissemination of Galileo's discoveries provoked the orthodoxies of his day and even threatened his own liberty.