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Monthly Archives: March 2016

In the kitchen? really?

25 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by historywitch in Uncategorized

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Marie de Roux, Marie Manning, Old Bailey, Patrick O'Connor Murder

MarieManning

Last weekend I had what we call a “Ray Day” with friends in New Hampshire. A Ray Day is when we sit and watch tv all day while eating and eating and eating and eating. Anyway… so we watched a documentary series called Murder Maps on Netflix. WOW. And that is how I came upon this woman’s story- Marie Manning. I highly recommend watching the show, very informative and well done.

Marie Manning (1821 – 1849) was born in Switzerland, and became a domestic servant in England to Lady Palk of Haldon House, Devon and then to Lady Blantyre at Stafford House. She married Frederick George Manning in 1847. Frederick had a very shady past. Before Marie married him, she came in contact with one Patrick O’Connor. Patrick was extremely wealthy and worked as a money lender, charging a LOT of interest to his clients. Patrick and Marie continued their friendship after her marriage and it is suspected it was romantic in nature. Ok… I’m going to go with it was DEFINITELY an affair, and Frederick knew about it, but was too drunk to care.

On August 9, 1849, Frederick and Marie murdered Patrick in their home and buried him under the flagstones in their own kitchen. Yup- right there in the kitchen floor. Did anyone think this out? Who wants to eat over a rotting corpse? Well, Marie went straight to Patrick’s home and stole all of his railway shares and his money. But there was a double-cross going on. Marie took most of the stolen property, ditched Frederick and fled to Edinburgh, while Frederick, in a panic, took whatever he could get his hands on and fled to the island of Jersey.

The law caught up with the murderous duo rather quickly for the times, and they were put on trial at the Old Bailey in October 1849. During the trial, Marie never once looked at her husband. They were found guilty and sentenced to hanging.

This was a very public execution in which hundreds, if not thousands of citizens attended. Charles Dickens was also in attendance and was horrified by the behavior of the crowd. So much so, and wrote a letter to the newspapers expressing his disgust. “I was a witness of the execution at Horsemonger Lane this morning” “I believe that the a sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of the crowd collected at that execution this morning.” “When the two miserable creatures who attracted all this ghastly sight about them were turned quivering into the air there was no more emotion, no more pity, no more thought that two immortal souls had gone to judgement, than if the name of Christ had never been heard in this world.”

Harsh words.

Like I said, watch the show. But there is a bit more on the case here: http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/mannings.html

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Color the most colorful women in history!

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by historywitch in Uncategorized

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Colorful Women, Coloring Book, Women in History

Colorful Women in History, Volume 2 is now available!

http://www.amazon.com/Colorful-Women-History-Coloring-Book/dp/153066425X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458652809&sr=1-1

I’ve listened to your comments and made a few adjustments- one being that now there is only 1 portrait per spread so that colors don’t bleed through. This will also allow you to cut out pages and hang up your own work! So excited about this one- features women such as Catherine of Aragon, Madame de Pompadour, Margaret of Anjou, and Dangereuse de l’Isle Bouchard!

Screen Shot 2016-03-07 at 11.35.06 AM

Nzinga!

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by historywitch in Uncategorized

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NzingaNdongo

Kicking off Women’s history month with Queen Anna Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (1583 – 1663).

Her father, King Kiluanji, favored Nzinga and let her watch him lead his kingdom from an early age. At this time, the Portuguese were running slave trades through the Congo and South West Africa and throughout Angola, colonizing villages as they went.

As she grew older, Nzinga was always by her brother’s side during the political turmoil. After his suicide, she assumed control of her people and managed to regain control of the Portuguese fortress of Ambaca.

She established peace,  offered sanctuary for runaway slaves and Portuguese-trained African soldiers, and secured independence for her Kingdom.

But no woman makes this much progress without the rumor mill churning out some rubbish. Some of these rumors suggest that she: killed her brother and then ate his heart, decapitated slaves and drank their blood, had a 60-man harem (GREAT idea,who wouldn’t?), and dressed her soldiers like women (well- were they bad boys?).

There is a more in-depth article on this fascinating woman here: http://biography.yourdictionary.com/anna-nzinga

Nerd is the Word!

I love studying quirky history, so illustrating the people I research makes me one happy nerd girl. Did you know Queen Victoria had Bishopophobia? or that when Elizabeth of Russia died, they found 15,000 dresses in her uh... closet?

It's good stuff- and I plan to illustrate all the royal weirdos I can find.

All illustrations are my personal property- if you'd like to use them, just ask!

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All images are property of History Witch/Lisa Graves.

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