I think one of the Craziest and Fascinating career arcs of a medival noblemans life must be

[b]Charles the 3rd, Duke of Bourbon.

He is one of the noblest of Francis the 1sts retainers and becomes Constable of France, later because of fear, greed, and envy on the Kings part, Charles becomes an enemy of france, fighting against him at Pavia. And later he becomes a sort of wild landskencht leader and tries to take the pope hostage. He was "supposedly" shot by Cellini the famous rennaisance goldsmith.

Sean Flynt said:
"Ah, history! So much to learn, so little time....I need to investigate all of these cats.[/quote]


Cool cats indeed!

One of my favorite historical figures is Ethan Allen, from the American Revolutionary War. He's most well-known for his capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. With just a few dozen men and a small boat, Allen used the element of surprise to infiltrate the fort, at which point he personally compelled the British commander to surrender at swordpoint. The cannon and power supplies taken from the fort proved crucial to General Washington and his troops, who positioned them with great effect to intimidate the British to abandon their positions in Boston.

Henry McCarty, who was a young man who found himself an orphan and alone in one of the most lawless places in 19th century America. He tried to make a go of it but was so harrassed and bullied by a man much larger and stronger than himself that he finally killed the man in self-defense. On the run, he headed back into New Mexico where he began calling himself William H. Bonney. He found a real chance for a stable future but the corruption of New Mexico politicians and the local business monopoly destroyed that opportunity and he turned to cattle and horse theft to make a living. He was eventually hunted down, by one of his old friends who was now sheriff, and shot down "like a dog" in the dark. He could have (and should have) left New Mexico before that but if he had none of us would have ever heard of "Billy the Kid".

Russ Thomas wrote:

"Yes , he sounds an interesting character. He again features quite a bit in the Jasper Ridley book of Henry VIII. As memory recalls though he planned to betray Francois to Charles, Charles didn't tell Henry about it, but Bourbon did, which caused a lot of distrust and the eventual collapse of the coalition between Henry VIII and Charles V against Francois. I had read about his being killed during the storming of Rome, but I hadn't heard that it was Cellini that supposedly killed him !
Isn't history grand ! :D So much to learn..................."




Cellini claims it in his auto-biography. And in a wild early 90's italian movie about cellini they show him shooting him from his perch behind the papal palace as a sniper. Ironically it was Henry 8th who suggested that Francois chop off Bourbons head during their meeting at Cloth of Gold because he was "too powerful a subject."
I think one of the reasons for the break between Francois and Bourbon was Francois wanted Bourbon to marry his mother after Bourbon beloved wife died so that Francois could get a grip on his lands. Bourbon was disgusted by this. I have seen a picture of him before the rift and he looks noble and lofty. And then a later portrait of him when he "defected" He looks like a wild bearded bandit. I recommend: Prince of the Renaissance: The Life of Francois by Desmond Seward. (a super, super author.) He goes into great and exciting detail about Bourbon life.
Anyway I hope I havent been too off-off topic.

Here are some of my interests:

The Black Prince of Wales He's just a fascinating figure in History!


William Wallace An amazing man!

Sir John DeNeville Certainly not a well-known figure, but an amazing person, none-the-less! Check out some of his history here: http://www.thepeerage.com/p350.htm He simply fascinates me. It seems to me like he obsessed with doing all the right things and allying himself with the right people, which confused me until I read about his grandfather! Read that history here: http://www.thepeerage.com/p1962.htm#i19618

Shocking, to say the least.

This is a really fascinating topic. I love learning new things! :lol:

As Mike Arledge said: William the Conqueror (Fascinating time-period and overall set of crazy circumstances)
I found William the Conqueror's story one of the most fascinating stories I've ever heard. How has the tales surrounding that time not become a major source of Hollywood revenue? Not sure, but that fact does lead me to believe that history unfortunately repeats itself as producing a good story from this tale would be like stealing candy from a baby...if people knew just a little history.

William Marshall This guy was the man. I kind of appreciate the more seedy aspects about this man such as his shady battlefield and tournament tactics (sit and wait until two teams are tired then rush out, kick a$$ and everyone thinks you're awesome), a propensity to take $$ from Jewish lenders, and the fact that the guy was seemingly chaste for so long until the best land he was ever offered came with an (assumingly) hot teenage girl in which he proceeded to define the word fruitful and produce 10 children with her exclusively over about 10 years.

William Adams to my knowledge, the first and only English guy to become samurai. Look this guy up, James Clavell's Shogun was based off this guy. Interesting how someone said Ieyasu was insecure...parallel to that statement, Ieyasu forbid William Adams to go home back to England.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi While were on Japanese history, my vote goes to this Shogun.

Alexander the man represented an age where you could just keep going and endlessly conquering. Our world is now very flat and very finite.

There are really too many awesome people in history to settle for a few. Then there are groups of peoples themselves that I find fascinating. The heroism and untamed nature of Vikings, Scythians, and Goths are stuff legends are made of.

Prince Yamato Takeru - Skills. This guy is cool, and has no shame whatsoever... Who else can you think of who would dress like a woman to get his enemies alone, and kill an older brother just for not showing up to family dinner for a week?

Admiral Yi Sun-shin - Invented Turtle Ships, fairly consistently defeated Hideyoshi's navy, wielded a six and a half foot (or thereabouts... ) long sword, and was shot dead by a single bullet.

Zhang San Feng - Insane, Taoist master, Jianshu master, White Crane and Snake Boxing master and possible inventor of Taiji... Some say he lived to be 200 years old, during the Sung, Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

Liu Bei - Warlord and Hero of the Three Kingdoms Period. Some of the warriors (especially the Cavalry generals) who served this guy are amazing... One of them became Guan Gong (red face, big Guandao halberd, guards the gates of heaven and faces the door a lot in statue form...). Liu Bei started out selling shoes and woven straw mats with his widowed mother, and eventually founded the Shu-Han Kingdom.

Cyrus the Great Peerless epitome of the Just King, noble in rule, and the first king to earn the appellation "The Great."

J.E.B. Stuart or John Singleton Mosby A Virginian gentleman and dashing cavalier, or a Virginian country boy and derring-do equestrian pirate. I can't decide, but you can't go wrong with these two!

Tamerlane, properly Teymour-e Lang Ingenious conqueror, patron of the arts, fearless fighter, with an interesting penchant for bloodletting and an unfortunate tendency to sack peaceful cities, but also a notable tendency to rebuild them twice as big as well. Interesting guy!

Crazy Horse Deeply spiritual champion of his people, noble warrior, and amazing life story.

Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar Another military genius and cruel tyrant, but one with a vision for a united Iran in the face of Ottoman, Russian, Afghan, and Uzbek invasions, responsible for reuniting Iranian lands for the last time before they were cemented in the form of the nation-state.

Ismail Safavid A fascinating contradiction. Deeply devout but convinced he was divine in origin, cunning strategist but preferred losing a battle to winning it dishonorably, Turkic in origin but Persian in culture, and noted for being a patron of both religious scholars and raunchy artists (sometimes the scholars themselves were raunchy artists!) His dynasty greatly influenced the course of Middle Eastern history.

Wade Hampton III - Warrior / Statesman. A General who actually led from the front and used his sword in combat. A Statesman who later did much to heal the wounds of a Nation.

Another Japanese figure I've always had an interest in:

Uesugi Kenshin/Nagao Kagetora (God of War, Avatar of Bishamonten, Dragon of Echigo) - A lifelong celibate and alcoholic, a devout Buddhist monk and perhaps the closest follower ever of Bishamonten, the God of War. Some people even thought he was a woman for a while there... But one thing they all agreed on was that he was very cunning and skilled. It was for that reason that both the Hojo and the Takeda openly wanted to kill him. At first Oda Nobunaga secretly wanted to get him also, and then that changed to far less secretly wanting to get him also.

You have to be good at something for everyone to get that jealous...

He either died from massive organ failure, probably due to drinking every day for nearly his entire life, an apoplectic stroke, or the way described in legends... Oda Nobunaga's Ninja Ukifune Jinnai, a midget (little person...sorry :\ ), apparently hid in the muck inside Kenshin's toilet (...ever seen Sengoku Period toilets? Yuck!) and when Kenshin sat down to do his thing he was stabbed... um... upwards... in the ouchy with a spear! :eek: :eek: Honestly, I have to agree with Draeger... this would've probably quite closely resembled a stroke.

Hi Russ, an extensive and interesting topic.

My favorite historic character is, definitely, Napoleon I, his life ,with his grand campaigns, is an magnificent epic, and has much more sources and works to study than earlier ones, and in the meantime retains so many mysteries. I always love to read Elting's, Chandler's books time and time again, really a joyful experience!

However, Napoleonic Arms & Armour, even the famous cuirassier/carabiniers' cuirasses, or the grenadier a cheval's sabres, are quite coarse comparing to, say, 15&16c. longswords and splendid full-armours, so why we forget another legendary Frenchman(if Napoleon can be counted as a French), Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche? He stands on the edge of two eras, both society and military: He's a perfect knight, but the Age of Knight is about to come to an end; he was involved in a war, in which finest Armours and most powerful firearms ever made up until then were used; he won duels, battles in his old way - mounted close-combat, and die from a ranged bullet. In a word ,IMO he's a "man-of-war" worth noting by anyone interested in history of Arms and Armour.

Regards,
Marc

Let's not forget the ladies!

I have some very good books by author Alison Weir about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Queen Elizabeth I. Show me a 'rennie' who isn't fascinated by Queen Elizabeth to some degree! Anyone know of any good books about Joan of Arc? On my side of the Atlantic, I enjoy learning about Martha Washington and Abigail Adams.

George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Lord Charles Cornwallis are sparking my interest. Noticing a pattern here? ;) King Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, Myamoto Musashi, St. Thomas Becket, and Sir Winston Churchill have always been high on my list.

Nathan Bedford Forrest and my kin that rode with him.

In addition to many of the other 12th-13th century figures already mentioned... Frederick I Barbarossa.
The people of his region so loved him that at least one biographer (forgot which one, have read several) claimed that country villagers still confused him with Charlemagne, and knew the folk tales that he would one day return. This legend being known as late as the end of WWII. He seems to come closer having been a real "king Arthur" figure than most other kings.