Neuschwanstein castle nestled on top of a ledge overlooking the Pöllat Gorge, near Füssen, in Bavaria was the beginning of my love of castles and history. I was 17, backpacking around Germany with a friend when we arrived in this beautiful town filled with dreams and fairytales. On the 30 minute climb from the ticket …
Author Archives: Barbara Smith
Oxford – The Martyrs’ Memorial
Upon entering Oxford one of the first things you will see is the Martyrs’ Memorial at the intersection of St Giles’, Magdalen Street and Beaumont Street. I have been drawn to this memorial long before I started studying the Tudor period. It is such a sad reminder of a dark time in England’s history. Queen …
The Ghosts of Thornbury Castle
Thornbury is a little market town in the Severn Valley in south Gloucestershire England. The life of Thornbury castle began in 930, as a smaller manor house. William the Conqueror gave it to his wife, Matilda upon invading England and claiming all it’s land. Construction of the castle began in 1511 by Edward Stafford, 3rd …
Evidence of love
Hampton Court – Anne Boleyn Some people love her, others think she ruined England, some believe she was manipulated and used, others believe she was the master manipulator. No matter what your opinion, one thing is undeniably true. King Henry was obsessed with her. He changed the face of England for her, to be with …
Ludlow Castle, Catherine of Aragon
It’s 1501, you’re 15 and you’ve just married the future king of England. After living for month in Tickenhill Manor you move on to your new home, Ludlow Castle in Wales. What was it like to walk around these grounds, to take your gown in hand and walk up the stone stairway into the castle. …
The Hameau de la Reine — The Queen’s Hamlet
Tucked away in the gardens of the Versailles, just 12 miles outside of Paris, is The Hameau de la Reine or The Queen’s Hamlet. Most people associate Marie Antoinette with angering the French Revolutionaries with the saying of “Let them eat cake,” but that phrase was actually noted to have been uttered, before she even …
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A Teenage Queen
Most have heard the tales of Henry VIII and his six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived), but the one that fascinates me so much is the young Catherine Howard. By far the youngest of his queens; he 50 and she just a teenager, one wonders; could she have ever measured up to be …
Flowers and graveyards
Have you ever just wondered through an old graveyard? Have you ever stopped to read the tombstones? When I was a teenager, some friends and I visited an old local cemetery at night, did etchings of the headstones and recorded ourselves as we read out the person’s information. Of course I got scared and creeped …
Windsor Castle
This is one of my favorite places to visit. As you walk across the grounds of this grand castle one can not help but wonder of the people who had walked it before. Were they a courtier following the royal family on progress or one of the many servants it took to run such a …
Forest Bluebells
Forest of Dean… The bluebells of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire blanket the forest each year in May. People from every where travel to see the beauty of these flowers but do they know that beneath that beauty is a rumored Roman road that cuts through the forest? What was the forest and neighboring …
Time Traveling Granny 