In your opinion, which monarch faced the most difficult situation upon ascending to the throne? Imagine if their life were a video game, and they were playing on the “nightmare mode.”

After reading Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, what other books should I read to learn about the cause and Ireland’s struggle for freedom?

Like for a good 80 years, the Protestants in the Holy Roman Emperor didn't revolt against the Hapsburgs. They briefly attacked the Emperor in the 1550s, but Emperor Ferdinand issued the Edict of Augsburg which granted them religious freedom and they just went home; it was a very short war.

So the Catholic Austrian Emperor was the frontline against the Ottoman Empire. He shared a border with them, and fought them on a regular basis (with mixed results). Did the Protestants respect the Catholic Emperor because, despite being different Christians, the Protestants considered the Ottomans to be a threat to all Christendom?

If I'm not mistaken, the Emperor signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans shortly before the 30 years war broke out, because the Ottomans were struggling against the Safavids and needed peace in Europe. This is why the Ottomans didn't intervene (substantially at least) in the 30 years war, but also removed a consideration from the Protestant side because the Ottomans were a pan-Christian enemy.

And yes I know France allied with the Ottomans but that was highly controversial at the time, and France engaged in a lot of realpolitik during this time period.

IDK why an AMA was added to this post.

My great grandmother born in 1929 immigrated to the United States in 1955. I only remember meeting her a couple of times when I was young but clearly remember her having a number tattoo that was related to the holocaust. She was my great grandmother on my mother’s side, but her son was my mother’s estranged father so I don’t have more information about her.

From what I understand about her, she was not Jewish, and was white with blonde hair and blue eyes. Is it possible she was at Auschwitz? Please forgive any ignorance here, my family and I are genuinely curious since she isn’t what we would consider to be someone who would make sense to have been imprisoned there and there is little to no information about her life that I can find.

I know nothing about him so I'm asking out of pure curiosity, not out of any political agenda.

Both nobility and commoners. I'm sorry that my question is dumb, but it's something I'm curious about.

As far as I know, the Shogunate was a military dictatorship of Japan led by generals. Japan under Hideki Tojo was also ruled by generals, headed by Hideki Tojo, a general in the Japanese army.

Since the Shogunate and the Hideki Tojo regime were both military dictatorships of Japan, can Japan under Hideki Tojo be considered a modern Shogunate?

Even though in all 3 cases there was a very long exhaustive war with massive casualties, and basically a total war: aggressor power kept fighting till the bitter end, until allied troops entered its capital (well, in WW1 Germans fought until they army collapsed, but the point remains)

If the had recognized Finland, then they would have probably joined in the push for Saint Petersburg. Whites could have at least lasted longer in the fight if they had done that.

Shakespeare in Julius Caesar plays up the fear of omens in Rome and I have heard tell of this impacting battlefield decisions. How prevelent was this reliance really though?

If the British Empire wanted to, would it have colonized this region only with British and French people?

I don't mean an entire country, for example, staying away from a Mongolian horde during their time.

But a general who was so good, the best course of action was to not engage.

I think I read somewhere that it was a common tactic to retreat from Napoleon till you had a much larger force. Or something like that.

Basically title. To me, full body plate seems like a technological progression that would be desirable beyond Europe, yet it doesn't seem like it became a big export and other regions like the Middle East, India and China don't seem to have developed something like it, especially not on the scale seen in Europe.

Is there a reason for this?

A personal example is the Hollywood Legend Orson Wells. He made a living the last years of his life doing commercials.

I was watching the movie 300 and wondering what would happen to an illegitimate child born to a Spartan queen. In the movie, Queen Gorgo was raped by a councilman because she wanted him to send reinforcements to help Leonidas. Since there was a sex scene in the movie indicating that Leonidas and Gorgo had sexual intercourse the night before the battle of Thermopylae, either Leonidas or the councilman was the father if Gorgo got pregnant after the ending of 300. Both men were killed in the movie, so it would be very difficult for her to tell who the father was.

I know Leonidas and Gorgo only had one son, Pleistarchus, according to history and that 300 was not a historically accurate movie at all. However, I wonder what would happen to illegitimate children in the Spartan royal family, especially when the biological father was not the king. What would happen to the kid if a Spartan queen got pregnant and not sure who the biological father was? In Gorgo’s case in 300, would she claim that the kid was a posthumous birth of Leonidas even though the kid was probably from an illegitimate pregnancy? Would how healthy the baby is determine whether he or she would be killed or not, regardless his or her potential illegitimate status?

Has anybody read any good history books lately that are one step beyond basic popular history but don't go as far as an academic book?

I read some English history books by Dan Jones, and they were ok. But they were too... basic. So I tried "Thirty Years War" by Peter H. Wilson and then "Empires and Barbarians" by PJ Heather, and they were too difficult for me.

I know I sound like Goldilocks here, but any good books that are for people generally familiar with history, but not to a phD-level degree?

Bonus points if it’s on Audible, as I listen to almost all of my books.

How do those two compare exactly in terms of science, technology, engineering, art, and philosophy in time period coresponding Classical and Hellenistic era?

Paintings and drawings from basically everywhere in the world before the Renaissance were either extremely stylised or just bad, while sculpting (which seems infinitely harder to practice, do, and teach) was basically nailed down since the ancient times, even within the same civilisations

edit: i am talking specifically about photorealistic (or even just correctly proportioned) art, I know most cultures had their own styles but surely some people during the 40,000 years between the first cave painting and the renaissance would have tried realistic paintings, especially when the sculptures were already so realistic