My reaction to Lucy Worsley’s Christmas Carol Odyssey….

Sometimes the stories behind our much-loved Christmas carols are quite disheartening, involving as they do national and international strife and religious rivalry that was both bloody and filled with hatred. Yet every year we sing the resultant carols with joy. The reactions of the human race are sometimes contradictory. To say the least! I am…

The French Wars of Religion – another angle

On this day in 1567, Pierre de Brenieu was among those killed at the battle of St. Denis, where Catholic forces under (the very definitely male) Anne de Montmorency overcame the Hugenot rebels under Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde’, although Montmorency was mortally wounded. de Brenieu’s brother, Claude, was a casualty at Ivry on…