Tag: History Essays
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The Popes and the Black Death in Avignon
Avignon in southeastern France stands as one of Europe’s most historically significant cities, commonly remembered as the seat of the Catholic papacy during the 14th century and for its famous bridge immortalized in song. It was a time of conflict and unstable conditions in Italy while the French King Philip IV was exerting pressure on…
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Enrique IV of Castile, The Impotent
Nicolas RoblesBadajoz, Spain Enrique IV was born on January 5, 1425, in Valladolid, Spain. He was the son of John II of Castile and Maria of Aragon, daughter of King Ferdinand I of Aragon. When John II died on 20 July 1454, Enrique was proclaimed king the following day. Prince Enrique had married Blanche of…
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Early descriptions of polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis
JMS PearceHull, England The accurate depiction of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) in the 1940s is relatively recent. By contrast, its close relative giant cell arteritis (GCA) was clearly described in 1890. Their early descriptions were separate and the recognition of their overlap did not appear until the 1960s.1,2 The uncertain nature of the condition is shown…
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The healing oil of Saint Walburga
Christopher DuffinLondon, England Born in what is now Devon around 710, Walburga (also spelled Walpurga) was educated at Wimborne Abbey in Dorset, eventually becoming a nun there. In the 740s she joined her brothers, Willibald and Wunibald, who responded to a call from their uncle, St. Boniface (680–755), to become part of the Anglo-Saxon evangelical…
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Famous physicians from Geneva, Switzerland
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Geneva, Switzerland is associated with many famous physicians and scientists. Some have been memorialized in street names, buildings, and institutions. Michael Servetus (ca. 1511–1553), a physician and theologian who lived most of his life in France,1 fled to Geneva after being condemned by Catholic authorities in France for the publication of…
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The last days of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1594–1612)
Christopher DuffinLondon, England As the eldest son of King James I (1566–1625) and Anne of Denmark (1574–1619), Henry Frederick (Fig. 1) was heir apparent to the English throne. His premature death from typhoid fever in 1612 meant that he was succeeded by his younger brother, Charles I (1600–1649). An erudite scholar, enthusiastic sportsman, and highly…
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The botched autopsy of president John F. Kennedy
Adrian HernandezNoel BrownleeBlacksburg, Virginia The forensic autopsy of U.S. President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was full of mistakes that gave rise to subsequent controversies. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, during an official visit to Dallas, Texas. He was in the right seat of an open car accompanied by Mrs. Kennedy, Texas Governor John…
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“The pissing evil” before insulin
JMS PearceHull, England There are many excellent descriptions of the history of diabetes, and of the nineteenth- and particularly twentieth-century discoveries of the secretion of insulin by the beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans.1,2 (See Table) However, the earlier history of diabetes is less known. The Egyptian papyrus (c. 1550 BC) discovered by…
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The attempted poisoning of Pope John XXII in 1317
Christopher DuffinLondon, England Rome was the traditional home of the papacy, but tension with the French crown (Philip IV, 1268–1314) led to a move to Avignon, then in the Kingdom of Arles, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1309. The second (and longest reigning) of the seven Avignon popes was Pope John…
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Caligula revisited
Caligula, the third Roman Emperor, reigned from 37 to 41 CE and has been described in history as a cruel, perverted tyrant. His full name was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Born in 12 CE, he was the son of Germanicus (a beloved Roman general, nephew, adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, and grandson of Augustus)…