Curated playlist
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
- Oscar WildeOscar Wilde was convicted at the height of his fame, with two plays running in London's West End.
- Charles II of EnglandCharles II was received in London on the 29th of May 1660, which happened to be his 30th birthday. The crowds met the returning king with public acclaim. He would go on to rule England, Scotland and Ireland until 1685. Contemporaries found…
- James II of EnglandJames II of England, who reigned in Scotland as James VII, died in exile in France on the 16th of September 1701. His body was then shared out among religious houses. His heart went into a silver-gilt locket for the convent at Chaillot.…
- Ben JonsonBen Jonson killed a man in a duel and escaped hanging by reciting a Bible verse.
- Alec GuinnessAlec Guinness privately called Star Wars "fairy-tale rubbish" in letters to friends.
- William ByrdComposer William Byrd answered a motet from Prague with one of his own. Both were written for eight voices.
- Sheila Kaye-SmithSheila Kaye-Smith slipped a joke about Cold Comfort Farm into her own 1939 novel.
- John DrydenHired thugs beat poet John Dryden in a London alley in December 1679.
- Katharine, Duchess of KentKatharine, Duchess of Kent, was known to the children she taught in Kingston upon Hull simply as "Mrs Kent". Her royal identity went largely unrecognised in the school community. Born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley, she was a member of the…
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordEdward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was buried in an unmarked grave in 1604. Some still say he wrote Shakespeare's plays.
- Frederick CoplestonWorld War II closed Frederick Copleston's path to a Rome doctorate. He taught at Heythrop instead.