Askia Mohammed — The Pilgrim and the Usurper
Askia Mohammed seized power by force in 1493 and transformed it into legitimacy through pilgrimage, reform, and statecraft. Under his reign, the Songhai Empire reached its intellectual height — and Timbuktu became one of the great centres of medieval knowledge.
Published on 10 juin 2026
Sunni Ali Ber — The Fire and the River
Sunni Ali Ber ruled the Songhai Empire from 1464 to 1492. An unmatched military strategist, he transformed a small kingdom into one of the largest empires in West African history — and the chroniclers who despised him could never erase what he had built.
Published on 08 juin 2026
The Unnecessary Heir
He killed the mother. He watched the son die. In between, he survived — just long enough to understand it would count for nothing.
Published on 01 juin 2026
Dave's Chair
Office hours are not always what you think.
Published on 29 mai 2026
What Her Enemies Wrote
Two thousand years of infamous reputation, built by men who stood to gain from her destruction. Valeria Messalina was not simply condemned to death — she was condemned to history.
Published on 23 mai 2026
The Last of the Habsburgs
Charles II was the last Habsburg to reign over Spain. At his death, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out among the great European powers and lasted thirteen years. His personal physician noted in his journals, with a frankness that posterity forgives him: "Rarely has a man suffered so much without ever understanding why."
Published on 20 mai 2026
The King Without a Title
Tamar of Georgia — King of Kings, Queen of Georgia, 1184–1213
Under her rule, Georgia reached its territorial and cultural zenith, holding sultans, atabegs, and marriage suitors at bay with equal ease. The Orthodox Church canonized her. The greatest poet of her time dedicated his entire oeuvre to her. History called her Tamar the Great.
Published on 18 mai 2026
The Queen Who Refused to Be One
She abdicated at twenty-eight, had her favourite executed in a gallery at the Château de Fontainebleau, and spent the rest of her life in Rome quarrelling with popes. Christina of Sweden fit none of the categories her century had prepared for her — neither wife, nor obedient sovereign, nor grateful convert. She was simply, and stubbornly, herself.
Published on 12 mai 2026
Elagabal, the Poorly Sacrificed God
Elagabal (203–222) reigned from 218 to 222 under the official name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He was subjected to damnatio memoriae after his death — the formal erasure of his inscriptions — before some modern historians partially rehabilitated him as the victim of a system he had never chosen, and of a grandmother who had chosen for him.
Published on 30 avril 2026
The Woman Who Held the Sky
In 1470, the Khan of Mongolia stared at the ceiling of his yurt with the serene tranquility of someone who smokes too much. Someone had to hold the empire together. That someone was his wife. He died without an heir. She took care of it.
Published on 22 avril 2026
