HistoryExtra Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast 2026-10-09T13:38:27.000Z https://www.historyextra.com/period/renaissance/feed/atom York Membery <![CDATA["She made an impact without being sexually attractive": why this Renaissance fashionista is my history hero]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/she-made-an-impact-without-being-sexually-attractive-why-this-renaissance-fashionista-is-my-history-hero/ 2026-10-09T13:38:27.000Z 2026-10-09T14:00:12.000Z In profile

Isabella d’Este was the Marchioness of Mantua, a wealthy city-state, during the Italian Renaissance. A patron of the arts, she owned works by Michelangelo, while Leonardo da Vinci sketched her. After the death of her husband, Francesco II Gonzaga, she ruled Mantua as regent for her son, Federico II, and played an important role in Italian politics. The mother of eight children, six of whom survived, she died aged 64.

When did you first hear about Isabella?

I came across her when I was writing about the Borgia family a decade or so ago and she emerged as the sister-in-law from hell to Lucrezia Borgia.

Isabella was a bit of a snob and looked down upon Lucrezia as an illegitimate parvenu. But the more I learnt about this opinionated, clever, strong-willed woman [Isabella], who became the foremost female art collector of her age, the more she fascinated me.

What kind of woman was she?

She was smart, confident, well-born and grew up in a household where art was important. She became a collector herself – many of the great artists of the age would work for her. She was also musical, educated and fluent in Latin. At the age of six, she could recite prose by Cicero and poetry by Virgil from memory. Her father clearly adored her, which was unusual for the time, because men invariably wanted a son.

Something about her personality – she was a bit of a show-off but also brave – attracted people. She was never a great beauty, but she made the best of her looks and became a bit of an Anna Wintour-style fashionista-influencer. There are some notable similarities between the Mona Lisa and da Vinci’s earlier sketches of Isabella!

What made her a hero?

Firstly, the fact that she made such an impact as a woman without being sexually attractive or dangerous, which was unusual in her era. Secondly, the way she achieved her goal of creating her own art collection. She even built a study where she could sit and gaze at her artworks, in a sense ‘a room of her own’. The idea of a woman having such a space back then was outrageous – only men were supposed to enjoy such things – so she had to grow a thick skin to counter criticism. And thirdly, her leadership skills.

What was Isabella’s finest hour?

Successfully ruling Mantua when her husband was in prison. A female ruler without a husband at that time was vulnerable, but she negotiated his release and protected her city-state’s independence. Also, she not only survived the Sack of Rome in 1527 but even gave sanctuary to a number of nobles and diplomats, saving many.

Is there anything that you don’t particularly admire about her?

I have to admit she could be bloody-minded and at times behave badly to get what she wanted.

Can you see any parallels between her life and your own?

Hmm. She speaks a lot better Latin than I ever did. I’ve sadly forgotten all I learnt at school. Although like her, I’ve also had to deal with a few bolshie men in my time. What woman hasn’t?

What would you ask Isabella if you could meet her?

Which bloody cupboard did you put Michelangelo’s now-lost Sleeping Cupid sculpture in? I want to put it on my mantelpiece!

Sarah Dunant is a novelist, broadcaster, critic and a former presenter of BBC Two’s The Late Show. Her latest novel, The Marchesa (Ravenna Press), is out in paperback now

This article was first published in the October 2026 issue of HistoryExtra Magazine

]]> Emily Briffett <![CDATA[Renaissance Italy's firearm revolution]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/renaissance-italys-firearm-revolution-podcast/ 2026-07-31T12:39:40.000Z 2026-07-31T12:39:40.000Z Long before the modern debates over gun control, Renaissance Italy was grappling with many of the same questions. As firearms became smaller and easier to conceal, guns spread rapidly through society: moving from battlefields to appearances at court, and the streets of the Italian city states.

Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian Catherine Fletcher reveals how they were weapons of war, tools of personal protection, and sources of deep social anxiety.

]]> Danny Bird <![CDATA[Niccolò Machiavelli: life of the week]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/niccolo-machiavelli-life-of-the-week-podcast/ 2026-05-12T14:08:54.000Z 2026-05-05T09:05:45.000Z From obscure beginnings to torture, exile, and desperate reinvention, the biography of Renaissance diplomat and author Niccolò Machiavelli reads like political theatre at its most brutal.

In this episode, Alexander Lee speaks to Danny Bird about the man behind the myth. He presents Machiavelli as an 'everyman', who loved his family and friends, sang poetry, drank, gambled, and wrote by night, producing one of the most contentious books ever: The Prince. Long condemned as a manual for tyrants, might it instead be better to see it as a clear-eyed guide to political survival in unstable times?

]]> Ellie Cawthorne <![CDATA[The Renaissance: not such a golden age?]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/the-renaissance-not-golden-age-podcast-ada-palmer/ 2025-06-11T08:07:20.000Z 2025-06-11T08:00:44.000Z From Michelangelo's David and Machiavelli's The Prince to the plays of Shakespeare, the Renaissance produced some of history's most astounding works of culture, art and innovation. But can focusing on these glittering creations obscure the messy and often violent reality of actually living through the era? Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Ada Palmer highlights the complexities of this so-called 'golden age' – including corrupt popes, devastating plagues and why Michelangelo hated painting.

Ada Palmer is the author of Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age (Bloomsbury, 2025).

]]> Matt Elton <![CDATA[Michelangelo: the Renaissance polymath who transformed Western art]]> https://www.historyextra.com/period/renaissance/michelangelo-renaissance-polymath-artist-sculptor-life-works-legacy/ 2025-02-13T10:12:04.000Z 2025-02-13T10:12:02.000Z Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni – better known simply as Michelangelo – was an Italian Renaissance polymath whose iconic sculptures, paintings, architecture and poetry had a profound influence on Western art.

Works like the marble statue of David or his awe-inspiring ceiling for the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican, cemented his status as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. Arguably, the only names that can come close are those of his rivals, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.

So revered was he in his lifetime that he became known as ‘Il Divino’ (The Divine One).

What was Michelangelo’s early life like?

Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in the small town of Caprese, Italy, not too far from Florence.

He had quite a turbulent childhood. “His mother died when he was six,” says Renaissance historian Catherine Fletcher, who was speaking to HistoryExtra on this episode of our Life of the Week podcast series. “He spent some of his early life in the care of a nanny living near a marble quarry that his father owned.”

Far from setting the young boy back, however, Fletcher suggests this upbringing in the town of Settignano may have been one of the factors that contributed to his later success. “Michelangelo went on to become a great sculptor in marble, having grown up seeing stone being cut and dug every day. It was a great start to his future life.”

What are Michelangelo’s most famous works?

How did Michelangelo become an artist?

As a boy, Michelangelo had the fortune of being sent to live in Florence, the heart of the Italian Renaissance. At 13, he was apprenticed to the leading Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was already involved in painting the walls of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.

“Michelangelo came to prominence very quickly within Ghirlandaio's workshop,” says Fletcher. “In fact, unusually for an apprentice, he started getting paid.”

By the age of 15, a clearly gifted Michelangelo had been selected to attend an academy run by the city’s ruling Medici family. A prominent member was Lorenzo de' Medici, known as ‘the Magnificent’. This gave him access to the enviable Medici art collection, as well as a powerful patron.

“Lorenzo wasn't officially the lord or the duke of the city,” Fletcher notes. “This is an important detail, because the relationship with the Medici became a matter of contention later on in Michelangelo's career. But the Medici were massive patrons of art, and really important in creating Florence’s cultural environment.”

While studying philosophy and the humanities at the Platonic Academy, Michelangelo also began sculpting. It was there that he created two stunning marble panels that demonstrated his skill even at an early age.

Shortly afterwards, however, Lorenzo’s death in 1492 signalled a turning point in Michelangelo’s life. Amid the political upheavals of the coming years, he headed first to Venice and then Bologna, intermittently returning to Florence.

In June 1496, he travelled to Rome and took a commission from a cardinal for a statue of the ancient Roman god of wine, Bacchus.

This was followed by his Pietà, which he had finished by the age of 24. Hailed as a masterpiece, but Michelangelo supposedly heard someone credit another artist with the piece, and so added his name to the sash running across Mary’s chest.

How did Michelangelo create the statue of David?

Having relocated to Florence in 1499 now a famous artist, Michelangelo was approached to complete a huge statue of the Biblical figure David. It had originally been commissioned 40 years earlier as part of a series of statues intended for the Florence Cathedral, but had gone through a number of sculptors without much progress.

“At this point, a huge block of marble had been lying around and worked on a bit, but [was mostly] sitting there… trying to find somebody to do something with it,” says Fletcher. “Michelangelo had made his reputation with the incredible Pietà statue, so he got the job.”

Created between 1501 and 1504. Michelangelo’s David is considered a Renaissance masterpiece. He did a huge amount of preparation to sculpt the statue out of the colossal block of marble, known as ‘the giant’, and the work required an enormous scaffold. “The way he worked was very precise,” Fletcher says.

“This wasn’t something you could just dive in and sculpt directly: there was a lot of drawing and planning with models in advance. Eventually, Michelangelo was so keen to get it right that he [began] making his own tools. He wasn’t going to go into a shop and buy a chisel; he was going to sort out his own tools to do the sculpting.”

The finished David stood at 5.18 metres (17ft) tall. “Of course, it was too heavy to go on the roof where it was meant to go, so there was then an argument about where they were going to put it.”

It was eventually decided that David should stand in Florence’s main square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria (now known as Palazzo Vecchio), which was the headquarters of the ruling body of the Republic of Florence.

Did Michelangelo’s David suggest dislike of the Medici family?

The subject of Michelangelo’s marble statue was the Biblical figure of David, who as a young Israelite shepherd defeated a giant named Goliath in single combat, using nothing but a sling and a stone.

“The statue was very important in the iconography of Florence at the time: it represented the city’s liberty,” says Fletcher. “In the political context, you can see that it was actually a critique of the Medici and their foreign backers, because they were the tyrants who wanted to come and take over the city.”

From the beginning, David was a symbol of freedom and liberty, and for the Florentine Republic. “And, as lots of other countries around the world fought for freedom and liberty and for their own republics against the monarchy, this example of Florence and its fight against the Medici had real political importance,” Fletcher adds.

Were Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci rivals?

The two great artists first encountered each other in 1504, when Leonardo da Vinci was asked to join the committee tasked with deciding where Michelangelo’s David should be placed. Despite being from different generations, a rivalry flourished between them.

Over the years, Michelangelo and Leonard continued to be aware of each other’s work. When Michelangelo was asked in 1549 about the long-standing debate about the ranking of the various arts, he wrote: “As to that man [Leonardo] who wrote saying that painting was more noble than sculpture, if he had known as much about the other subjects on which he has written, why my serving maid could have written better!”.

Yet beyond the rivalry, the two men had a more complex relationship, and they would influence and push each other throughout their careers.

What did Michelangelo paint in the Sistine Chapel?

Following the success of David, Michelangelo was increasingly called upon to work on large-scale projects. Pope Julius II invited the artist to Rome to create 40 life-sized statues for his elaborate tomb. Commissioned in 1505, the project dragged on for four decades as Michelangelo regularly turned his attention to other works.

The most significant of these would undoubtedly be the two frescoes created for the Sistine Chapel: on the ceiling, between 1508 and 1512, and The Last Judgment, from 1536 to 1541.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, especially, is one of the most iconic works of Renaissance art. It includes the instantly recognisable image of God reaching out to touch Adam, which is in the centre of eight other scenes from the Book of Genesis and figures from classical mythology.

It was a mammoth undertaking. “It does seem to have been a very, very tough piece of work to do,” says Fletcher. “Michelangelo himself describes coming out of it being bent like a bow.”

Fletcher addresses the debate about the degree to which Michelangelo had assistance. “In one of the documents [from the period], we get the sense that he did hire 12 assistants. But then there's a question of what he actually allowed [them to do], because he was a bit of a micromanager.”

What do we know about Michelangelo’s sexuality and personal life?

Since Michelangelo’s life was largely solitary, it remains difficult to confirm his sexuality, admits Fletcher. “He didn't have anyone with whom he was at all romantically connected until quite a lot later in his life.”

It was then that we know he wrote an extensive sequence of sonnets to a much younger man, an Italian noble named Tommaso dei Cavalieri. “As with any historic same-sex relationship, people always ask whether they were actually a couple or just friends,” says Fletcher. “In this case you have to decide whether the sense of attraction in the sonnets was enough to outweigh the religious belief that sodomy was a sin.”

But Fletcher does argue that the erotic nature of the sonnets that Michelangelo wrote does suggest that he was sexually attracted to men.

How did Michelangelo die?

Michelangelo died following a brief illness in Rome on 18 February 1564, at the age of 88. He had been working on a sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà, just six days earlier.

In his last two decades, he had focussed more on architecture, most notably working to complete St Peter’s Basilica.

Where is Michelangelo buried?

Rather than being buried in Rome, Michelangelo was laid to rest in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence. This holds a pantheon of famous Florentine and Italian people, big monuments for Machiavelli and, later, Galileo Galilei.

“And there was Michelangelo, back in his home city of Florence,” says Fletcher. “I think this says something about his attachment to it, even though he didn’t live there for much of his later life.”

]]> James Osborne <![CDATA[Seven of history's most disturbing ghost ship stories that will haunt your dreams]]> https://www.historyextra.com/period/general-history/ghost-ships-famous-stories-list/ 2024-10-22T13:30:31.000Z 2024-10-17T14:29:41.000Z You're a sailor (or, maybe even a famous pirate). Several weeks out to sea, you come across another ship that seems to be acting strangely. Getting a closer look, you realise it is floating adrift, with no sign whatsoever of its crew. It’s a ghost ship.

What is a ghost ship?

Ghost ships, also known as phantom ships, are vessels that are found derelict at sea with no crew aboard and nothing to explain what happened to them.

While it sounds like the stuff of legend – and fuel for seafarers’ nightmares – ghost ships are real nautical phenomena. They have inspired horror-infused stories and wild theories alike, and their names can send shivers down the spine.

Here, from the golden age of piracy to 20th century tales, explore some of the most famous and mysterious ghost ships throughout history, each with its own chilling tale.

What are most famous ghost ships in history?

● Mary Celeste
● SS Baychimo
● Flying Dutchman
● MV Joyita
● Carroll A. Deering
● Ourang Medan
● Jian Seng

Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste

The most famous ghost ship of them all has to be the Mary Celeste. Having left New York in early November 1872, bound for Italy, the merchant brigantine was spotted drifting alone in the Atlantic Ocean on 5 December.

The abandoned ship was found by the Dei Gratia off the Azores, but there was no trace of Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, their two-year-old daughter, or his small crew of seven. While the cargo and crew’s personal belongings were undisturbed, the sails had been only partially set, a log entry had not been made in the last 10 days, and a lifeboat was missing.

What’s more, although there was water in the hold, the Mary Celeste was at no risk of sinking. So, what caused Briggs and the crew to desert a seaworthy ship? And what were their fates?

There have been many theories. Despite a lack of evidence, some were suspicious of mutiny, piracy or an elaborate fraud. In the years since, natural phenomena like waterspouts (essentially, a tornado at sea) or fears that the gases leaking from the alcohol in the hold could explode have also been mooted.

While no conclusive explanation has ever been uncovered, the leading hypothesis suggests that Briggs believed the ship to be sinking, incorrectly. It was taking on water and one of the pumps seemed to be broken, which may have led the crew to carry out a hasty and premature evacuation.

Ultimately, the reason for Mary Celeste’s abandonment remains one of maritime history’s greatest mysteries, as is the fate of its crew.

SS Baychimo

For ten years from 1921, when it came under the ownership of the Hudson's Bay Company, the cargo ship SS Baychimo traversed the fraught northern waters of the Arctic Circle, carrying furs and other goods to and from trading posts on Canada’s north coast.

In October 1931, it became trapped in pack ice off the coast of Alaska. Completely stuck and with no prospect of breaking free before the ice crushed the ship, the all but skeleton crew of 15 were evacuated by plane.

The men who stayed hoped to wait out the winter by living in a wooden shelter near the stricken Baychimo. But after bunkering down for several days during a blizzard, they emerged to find the ship had disappeared.

They assumed it had sunk; in fact, the Baychimo remained afloat and had broken free of the ice after all. After being corrected by seal hunters who had spotted it floating free, the sailors tracked it down, retrieved some of its cargo and then abandoned it once more.

Over the next few decades, the Baychimo was spotted numerous times in Arctic waters. Attempts were made to board or salvage the vessel, but the ice and weather conditions meant it always eluded capture.

The last confirmed sighting of the crewless ghost ship was in 1969. That said, there have been sporadic reported sightings since. Is it possible that its voyage continues?

Flying Dutchman

A painting of the Flying Dutchman

A name that can strike fear in a sailor’s heart, the Flying Dutchman puts the ‘ghost’ in ‘ghost ship’. Unlike the real vessels on this list, this ship is based on myth and legend: a ghoulish warship unable to make port, so doomed to sail the oceans for eternity. And to see it is a portent of disaster.

First mentioned in literature in the late-1700s, supposed sightings of the Flying Dutchman, often through thick veils of mist and fog, have been reported for centuries. The future George V and his brother Prince Albert Victor apparently spotted the ship off the coast of Australia in 1881. Yet no evidence exists that the Flying Dutchman was ever real.

Instead, it occupies a more archetypal place in the lore of naval history. The Flying Dutchman has inspired poems and stories, an opera by Richard Wagner, and, most recently, the terrifying ship captained by Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

MV Joyita

Few maritime mysteries are as perplexing as that of the MV Joyita, a luxury yacht-turned-commercial vessel that disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955. It had set sail from Samoa on 3 October with 25 passengers and crew aboard bound for the Tokelau Islands just over 300 miles away.

It never reached its destination. But five and a half weeks later, the Joyita was discovered more than 600 miles off course, still afloat yet partially submerged.

All 25 people were missing, along with four tons of cargo, the ship's logbook and navigational equipment. Adding to the confusion, the radio had been tuned to the international distress signal but no SOS call had ever been received.

The ensuing investigation brought no clear answers to what befell the ship. Since then, theories have ranged from piracy and botched abandonment after a mechanical failure, to kidnapping by a Soviet submarine and murder by a Japanese fishing fleet.

Carroll A. Deering

The wreckage of Carroll A. Deering

In late January 1921, the Carroll A Deering – a five-masted schooner built for speed and capacity in the post-First World War shipping boom – was spotted off the coast of North Carolina. It was heading right for Diamond Shoals: the so-called ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’.

It would take several days before anyone was able to board the ship, which had indeed run aground on the notorious shoals, but the 12-strong crew and lifeboats were missing. No sign of them has ever been found since.

There was damage to the steering equipment, and an earlier communication with the ship revealed that the anchors had been lost, but the cause for the desertion has never been ascertained. Could it have collided with another vessel or had there been a misjudged mutiny? The captain had complained of the crew being difficult.

Other theories have suggested the Deering was hijacked by Prohibition-era rum runners or Russian saboteurs. And, of course, with a mystery like this it wouldn’t be long before the Bermuda Triangle was mentioned.

An intriguing clue to the ship’s fate emerged in April 1921, when a message in a bottle washed up claiming it had been captured by an “oil-burning boat”. The note, however, was found to be a hoax by a local fisherman.

But further investigation of the Deering was impossible – in March, the wreck had been destroyed as part of efforts to remove hazards from the shoals.

SS Ourang Medan

The tale of the SS Ourang Medan is shrouded in mystery, marked by a significant lack of evidence and conflicting reports. In fact, that’s all it might be: a tale, an urban legend. After all, no ship of that name ever appeared on official records and shipping registers.

According to the story, the Dutch ship was passing through the Strait of Malacca, off Indonesia, in the 1940s when its radio operator sent out a frantic SOS claiming the officers were dead, and that remainder of the crew probably were too, before transmitting one final, chilling message: “I die”.

A rescue ship rushed to the scene, but all that was found was the Ourang Medan adrift with no sign of life. The bodies of the crew were strewn everywhere, fixed with expressions of terror despite no visible injuries or clear cause of death.

Before the ship could be investigated further, a fire reportedly broke out and the rescuers had to get clear of the ship before it exploded, sending the wreck into the depths.

Theories have swirled around the fate of the Ourang Medan – as has the question of whether it truly existed. Regardless, it remains one of the most haunting ghost ship legends out there.

Jian Seng

Not only is the fate of Jian Seng’s crew unknown, but the ship’s very origins are too. In 2006, the 80-metre tanker was spotted from the air drifting off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It was both abandoned and damaged beyond use.

Where the ship came from, who its crew was, and what it was doing in that part of the ocean has never been determined.

The tanker bore no identifying marks. As the Jian Seng was not reported missing, and authorities could not track its ownership, it was suspected that the ship had been used for illegal activity, such as drug smuggling or forbidden fishing operations.

The Jian Seng was eventually towed out to sea and scuttled. Still, its sudden appearance and the complete mystery about its past have made it a modern symbol of the chilling allure of ghost ships.

]]> HistoryExtra <![CDATA[Michelangelo: life of the week]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/video-michelangelo-life/ 2025-02-12T13:11:44.000Z 2024-09-15T19:50:39.000Z From his famed statue of David to the extraordinary paintings that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s work still inspires awe. In this episode, Professor Catherine Fletcher speaks to Rachel Dinning about the life, legacy and extraordinary artistic output of the Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet.

View Green Video on the source website]]> Rachel Dinning <![CDATA[Michelangelo: life of the week]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/michelangelo-life-of-the-week-podcast-catherine-fletcher/ 2024-10-28T13:29:38.000Z 2024-09-03T10:29:17.000Z From his famed statue of David to the extraordinary paintings that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s work still inspires awe. In this episode, Professor Catherine Fletcher speaks to Rachel Dinning about the life, legacy and extraordinary artistic output of the Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet.

Hear Catherine Fletcher discuss the history of Florence, and offer her tips on Renaissance sites to visit in the city here.

]]> Spencer Mizen <![CDATA[Gulbadan Begum: princess, explorer, author]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/gulbadan-begum-podcast-ruby-lal/ 2024-08-07T13:05:20.000Z 2024-08-07T06:00:55.000Z Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in a Mughal harem. Instead she set off on a daring pilgrimage to Islam's holy cities and, on her return, wrote an extraordinary account of her dynasty. In conversation with Spencer Mizen, Ruby Lal explores the life of a princess who transformed perceptions of what women could achieve in the 16th century.

Ruby Lal is the author of Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan (Yale University Press, 2024).

]]> Ellie Cawthorne <![CDATA[The Grand Tour: everything you wanted to know]]> https://www.historyextra.com/membership/the-grand-tour-podcast-lizzie-rogers/ 2024-11-01T22:42:48.000Z 2024-07-28T06:00:30.000Z In the 18th century, countless British travellers set off to continental Europe in search of art, architecture... and a good time. But what were the must-see locations on the Grand Tour? How did people overcome the challenges of language, currency and uncomfortable mules? And what were the biggest scandals that shook fashionable Europe? In this 'everything you wanted to know' episode, Lizzie Rogers takes Ellie Cawthorne on a whistle-stop journey through the history of the Grand Tour.

]]>