What connects a sorceress, a murderess, a mistress and a French king? Let's find out.
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In Tudor times, as in many others, royalty didn’t often have the privilege of indulging in courtship or romance. Arranged marriages were economic contracts, and very little else…right? And what about everyone else - non-royals. Did they get to pursue their hearts a little more freely? What does courtship and marriage look like for those who aren’t entwining their lives for some dynastic gain? Let’s take a walk with Anne of Cleves, who’ll show us more about what love, courtship, and marriage were like for women in Tudor England. Grab a priest, your dowry, and your best dress. Let’s go traveling.
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Queen Jane Seymour will be our guide as we dive into all things fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth in Tudor England.
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As empress Livia grows older and more powerful, a new generation sweeps onto the scene, changing imperial Rome forever. Let’s walk with the Agrippinas, both Elder and Younger, to find out what their lives were like in this fast-changing time.
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Bras have been around for a long time in one form or another. Let’s follow their evolution from ancient times to more modern ones, tracing the many shapes they’ve taken and what they have to tell us about women’s lives throughout history.
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Let’s trace the paths of some of Rome’s first imperial superstars: the wives, sisters, and daughters who rose with Octavian to become ancient Rome’s first family, famous throughout the Roman world. Livia, Octavia, Julia the Elder. Who were these women, behind the rumors and the legends? How much influence did they wield and what mark did they leave?
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Cleopatra maneuvered her way through Egyptian, Greek, and Roman politics, defying the odds to keep the Ptolemaic dynasty – and Egypt’s independence – going. But what of all the Cleopatras who came before her? Only one of her forebears truly set the tone for the dynasty, creating a mold that had royal Ptolemaic women ruling not from behind their husbands, but beside them. That woman is Arsinoë II. Let’s dive into the wild and crazy ride that was her life.
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Cleopatra, the last great queen of Egypt, doesn’t really need an introduction. You can see her in your mind already: Pretty and sultry with her cat-eye makeup, covered head to toe in shiny gold. Extravagant, self-serving: this epic seductress used every magic trick in her lady arsenal to hold onto power. That’s the Cleopatra the ancient Romans want us to see. The truth is that few women’s stories have been more brutally revised by sexist haters. Who was Cleopatra, beyond the smoke and hate and glitter?
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Let’s explore the relationship between women and poison, from the ancient world to today: the ones they wielded and the ones wielded upon them.
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