Curated playlist
Knights Grand Cross of the Military Order of William
- Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down, and he was careful never to be seen in his wheelchair.
- George VIGeorge VI, known to his family as Bertie, wrote an anguished line in his diary about the day before his brother gave up the crown. He had gone to London to tell his mother, Queen Mary, what had happened. His entry read: "When I told her…
- George IVIn April 1830, the Duke of Wellington wrote down what King George IV had eaten for breakfast. There was a pigeon and beef steak pie, most of a bottle of Moselle, a glass of dry champagne, two glasses of port and a glass of brandy. A large…
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonWellington's mother called him her "awkward son Arthur." He later defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
- Wilhelm IIWilhelm II, the last German Emperor, spent much of his adult life holding a pair of white gloves in his left hand. The gloves made that arm look longer than it was. He reigned from 1888 to 1918 over a country that had become Europe's…
- Napoleon IIINapoleon III escaped a life sentence by walking out of prison dressed as a laborer.
- Alexander III of RussiaAlexander III of Russia answered an Austrian ambassador's threat by twisting a silver fork into a knot.
- Alexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia died in 1825, but a legend says he faked it. The story claims he became a Siberian hermit.
- Frederick William IIIFrederick William III, King of Prussia, was born in Potsdam on the 3rd of August 1770 into a dynasty celebrated for iron will and military genius. He had neither. A boy so reticent that he habitually omitted personal pronouns from his…
- Nicholas I of RussiaOn his first full day as tsar in 1825, Nicholas I ordered troops to crush a revolt.
- Alexander II of RussiaOn the morning a bomb killed him, Alexander II signed a step toward representative government.
- Franz Joseph IOn the evening of the 21st of November 1916, inside Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Emperor Franz Joseph I gave his valet a final instruction. "Tomorrow morning, at half past three." Those were his last words. He was 86 years old. Franz…
- Louis Philippe IBefore he became king of France, Louis Philippe I lived above a Boston oyster house.
- Gebhard Leberecht von BlücherAt 74, Blücher marched through mud to rescue Wellington at Waterloo. Days earlier, cavalry horses had trampled him.
- Haile SelassieIn 1992, the bones of Haile Selassie I were found beneath a concrete slab on the grounds of a palace. The man buried there had been born Tafari Makonnen. He had ruled Ethiopia as emperor from 1930 to 1974. How does a ruler of such rank end…
- Michael Andreas Barclay de TollyRussians called Barclay de Tolly a coward and rumored he was Napoleon's agent. His retreat in 1812 was later vindicated.