HistoryExtrahttps://www.historyextra.comHome of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast2026-10-20T10:31:03.000Zhourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00Would you eat an Egyptian mummy? Here's why the Victorians did exactly thathttps://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/would-you-eat-an-egyptian-mummy-heres-why-the-victorians-did-exactly-that/2026-10-20T10:30:29.000ZIn the Victorian age, the mummified remains taken from ancient Egyptian tombs had multiple purposes beyond historical and scientific study. While some mummies went on public display in museums and exhibitions, others were bought to be the main attraction at special ‘unwrapping parties’ where the bandages would be removed for the entertainment of the guests.

That’s perhaps the most respectful option. Mummies could be used as fuels on the railways, ballast on ships and fertiliser in the fields; they were mulched to make paper and ground up to make a special type of paint, called Mummy Brown. This was a favourite of the pre-Raphaelites, but still available to buy well into the 20th century.

And yes, the Victorians did think that eating mummies was a good idea, believing the ancient remains had medical benefits. That said, they did not come up with the idea themselves; the morbid practice began in the Middle Ages.

Vintage color chart featuring twelve rectangular swatches of earthy brown and olive paint, each labeled with names like Mummy Brown, Raw Umber, and Broccoli Brown

Why did Europeans start eating mummies?

At the time of the crusades, Europeans travelled to the Holy Land in large numbers and started hearing about mumiya, a tar-like substance that occurred naturally in parts of modern-day Iran and known throughout Persia for its healing qualities.

Through misunderstandings and poor translations, the belief spread among Europeans that mūmiyā referred instead to the similar substance found on mummified bodies, used in the embalming process. The meaning continued to evolve until it meant the actual bodies themselves. The name ‘mummy’ comes from mūmiyā.

How did mummia work?

Ground-up mummies, or mummia, therefore became medicine in medieval Europe. It could be added to tinctures or to alcohol and swallowed, or rubbed onto the skin of the patient.

Such was the belief in its curative powers that mummia was said to cure a host of ailments, injuries and diseases, from bruising and nosebleeds to epilepsy and syphilis. It was a painkiller, blood thinner, anti-inflammatory and menstrual aid.

According to this medical cannibalism, the part of the mummified body consumed related to the issue – for instance, the skull would be needed to treat headaches – and by ingesting the powdered mummy a person would imbibe the spirit and strength of the deceased person.

An illustration of ancient Egyptian priests performing mummification rituals on a wrapped body adorned with colorful funerary coverings.

How popular was medical cannibalism?

The demand for mummia led to widespread tomb raiding in Egypt to ensure there were enough mummies being sent to Europe. When this was not enough to meet demand, enterprising graverobbers began digging up fresher bodies and treating them as best they could in order to pass them off as millennia-old mummies.

In 1564, a French royal physician named Guy de la Fontaine examined dozens of mummies being sold by a dealer in Alexandria only to find that they were recently executed criminals or slaves.

In fact, a whole area of medicine flourished promoting the consumption of fresh body parts, arguing that it had more healthy nutrients and stronger vitality than the desiccated bones of ancient Egyptians. It became customary for people to stand underneath the scaffold of an execution and try and catch the blood with the intention of drinking it.

When did people stop eating mummies?

Medical cannibalism reached its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, widely prescribed by doctors and used by the likes of Francis I of France and Charles II of England. But while it did fade away as medical understanding grew, as well as a deeper respect for archaeological artefacts, the practice did find a new audience in the Victorians, at a time of Egyptomania sparked by Napoleon’s campaign to Egypt and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

Not everyone approved of how mummies were being used, however. The artist Edward Burne-Jones, on discovering that his tube of Mummy Brown actually contained real mummy, insisted on giving his paint a proper burial. But mummia remained on the price list of a German pharmaceutical company until 1924.

]]>Fooling around in front of royalty: the extraordinary escapades of Europe's female jestershttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/fooling-around-in-front-of-royalty-the-extraordinary-escapades-of-europes-female-jesters/2026-09-06T14:30:30.000ZThe Château de Fontainebleau is packed with courtiers awaiting the arrival of King Henry IV’s jester. But while modern onlookers might expect a man in a harlequin costume to appear, Henry’s court is different.

Instead, an Amazonian warrior bursts onto the scene, clad in battle armour and wielding a wooden sword and shield. Mathurine ‘la Folle’ was one of France’s most eccentric court jesters. Known for her quick-witted japes and outrageous costumes, Mathurine was also, perhaps surprisingly to modern audiences, a woman.

Although most jesters in medieval and early modern Europe were men, female ones like Mathurine were not uncommon. Women jesters feature prominently in some of Europe’s most famous courts, from Henry VIII’s household to the travelling court of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Many were much-loved by their monarchs and granted special favours, including gifts of land and fine clothing. As such, female jesters occupied an unusual niche within medieval and early modern society.

They were often unmarried, childless women who came from humble origins. But if they served their monarch well, these women enjoyed a life of relative luxury and privilege at the heart of the royal household.

Here we present five of the most famous female jesters who made a living entertaining royalty.

A detail from a Renaissance painting showing a young figure in a striped cap and richly patterned gold-and-blue sleeved garment, gazing upward, with a carved griffin figure and ornamental panel in the background.

Jane Foole (fl. 1537-1558): Mary I’s most beloved natural fool

Jane Foole is the most well-known female jester from the Tudor period. While we know very little about her early life, Jane enters the historical record during the reign of King Henry VIII, when she joins the household of Princess Mary (later ‘Bloody’ Queen Mary I).

Jane was what was known at the time as a ‘natural’ fool i.e. she had mental and/or physical disabilities that resulted in her being unable to control her faculties.

As historian Beatrice Otto has noted, it is tempting to assume that natural fools were mistreated by their employers and used as objects of ridicule. However, none of the evidence from the time bears out this assumption. Indeed, Jane was a much-loved member of Mary’s royal entourage.

A lot of what we know about female jesters comes from the financial records of their benefactors. The accounts from Queen Mary’s reign recorded between 1553 and 1558 show that Mary spent a lot of money on lavish clothes for Jane. One entry reads “Item, for furring of a gowne of the same Vellat with size white hare skynnes for Jane our fool”.

Fur for costume trimming was expensive and would have cost roughly £300 in modern terms. Furthermore, Jane was gifted the same dresses as Mary’s ladies-in-waiting: the only difference being that her gowns were cut in the Dutch style and not the more fashionable French style.

Mary also ensured that Jane wasn’t short of footwear. Another entry from the royal accounts reads: “Item, for 12 peire of shewes for the said Jane.”

Even a court fool, who would regularly be employed in various stage performances, could not have worn out this many shoes in a year. Therefore the quantity of shoes gifted likely reflects Mary’s deep affection for Jane.

We also know a lot about Jane’s ailing health during the 20 years she spent in Mary’s household. From March 1543 onwards, Jane suffered from a skin infection which necessitated a monthly shaving of her hair. Records show that a barber was paid 4d (four pence) on each occasion.

We also have a striking snapshot of what Jane would have looked like at this time thanks to the 16th century painting The Family of Henry VIII. A woman, whom most experts believe to be Jane, is standing to the left of Princess Mary wearing a cap over her shaven head.

Furthermore, in 1555, Mary sent a gift to a woman healer in Bury St Edmunds for healing one of Jane’s eyes.

If there was any doubt about the high status that Jane enjoyed as a court fool, we also know that she was included in the St. Valentine’s Day lottery. This was a festival in which noble men drew lots among the ladies of the court to see who would be their partner for that evening’s dancing.

Sometime between 1554 and 1556, a Mr Herte was given “three yerdes of black satten” for being Jane’s Valentine, while a Mr Barnes was given the same quantity of satin in 1558.

All of this special attention was given to Jane, but why? In the Tudor period, people with learning disabilities were prized for their truth-telling abilities. The public believed natural fools were more child-like and, as such, they were closer to God.

Kings and queens valued fools like Jane for their perceived ability to speak divine truth, and this is why we so often see a close relationship form between a monarch and their natural fool.

Although life would have been hard for peasants who suffered from learning disabilities, those who were lucky enough to enter court life enjoyed incredible privilege.

A side-by-side comparison of two Tudor-era portraits: on the left, the inscribed 1544 painting of

Lucretia the Tumbler (fl. 1542 - 1543): The acrobatic ‘saltatrix’ of the Tudor court

Lucretia the Tumbler is another female jester from the same period who had a close connection to Jane Foole. We know far less about Lucretia, but some historians guess that she may have been of Italian origin, considering her Italianate first name.

Until his execution in 1540, Thomas Cromwell was responsible for vetting all of Princess Mary’s appointments while her father was king, and at some point, he approved the appointment of a ‘chamberer’ intriguingly known as Lucretia the Tumbler.

Lucretia was not a natural fool but a ‘saltatrix’, i.e. a female performer who entertained the court with acrobatic dancing, contortions and gymnastics. She was kept in Mary’s household and likely performed for both Mary and her sister, the young princess Elizabeth (and future Queen Elizabeth I), during their visits to the Manor of the More in Hertfordshire.

In the early 1540s, Lucretia appears in financial records under the name of Lucrece. She is mentioned alongside Jane the Foole regularly, and the pair often received identical items of clothing.

In December 1542, a record lists a “payr of shoes for Jane & an other for lucrece” as well as identical smocks for the two women. This may mean that the pair performed alongside each other in a double act.

Historian John Southworth has also suggested that the matching clothes indicate that Lucretia may have been Jane’s companion or ‘keeper’. Keepers were responsible for looking after natural fools, since they could not take care of themselves.

It was not unusual for jesters to perform dual roles within a royal household. Henry VIII’s tumbler Stephen Tosso combined these duties with other domestic roles. Sadly we don’t know what became of Lucretia as she disappears from the public record after 1543.

A hand-coloured illustration of a group of Elizabethan-era men and women in ruffs and doublets standing in tense confrontation indoors, with a dropped dagger and an overturned chest on the floor between them

Mathurine la Folle (fl. 1589 – c1620s): The jester who dressed as an Amazonian warrior

Mathurine first appears in court annals during the reign of Henry III. She was recorded as a plaisante, the appointed title for female jesters in France at that time (the Queen of Navarre employed a plaisante called Mademoiselle Sevin). While most female jesters were attached to the Queen’s household, Mathurine bucked this trend, serving as a jester within Henry’s household.

One famous anecdote about Mathurine involves a lady-in-waiting complaining that she did not like having to be seated on the right side of a mere fool. Mathurine promptly jumped up and sat on the lady’s other side, remarking “I don’t mind it at all.”

Some sources highlight how during her lifetime, satirists would sometimes refer to themselves as a ‘Mathurine’. She also influenced a type of burlesque writing called mathurinade which was associated with her particular brand of comedy.

Furthermore, Mathurine was known for her devout Catholicism. Reformers at the time were strongly opposed to what they perceived as the extravagant practice of keeping court fools. A fiercely Catholic woman who enjoyed dressing up in full Amazonian warrior regalia would have attracted a lot of negative attention from religious dissidents during a turbulent period in France’s history.

Mathurine’s most well-known feat involves her role in detaining Henry IV’s assassin, Jean Châtel. But there is a plot twist which underscores just how unusual it was that Mathurine remained a court jester for so long.

Despite her bravery, the king initially suspected her of being part of the plot and arrested her. However, in a rare display of generosity, Mathurine was allowed to prove her innocence and was then warmly welcomed back to court, serving Henry and his son, Louis XIII.

She made a few appearances in the mid 1620s, but after that Mathurine la Folle disappears from history.

Velázquez's painting

Maria Bárbola (fl. 1651 - 1700): The court dwarf who was immortalised in a Baroque painting

Maria Bárbola was a court dwarf who served the Spanish royal family for nearly half a century from 1651 to 1700. Dwarfs were often employed as entertainers in medieval and early modern palace courts.

Madame d’Or, a ‘very graceful fool’, was a popular dwarf entertainer in the 1400s in France, while several female dwarfs served in the court of Isabella d’Este, the wife of the marquis of Mantua, Italy.

King Philip IV of Spain was a big fan, and Maria was actually one of 110 dwarfs in his entourage. Dwarfs took on a variety of roles depending on their talents. Some were tumblers or joke-tellers, while others were employed as natural fools.

While even court dwarfs suffered prejudice from others in society due to their stature, Maria was much-loved by her benefactors. Once again, we see evidence of lavish treatment towards jesters via royal financial records. However, this time it isn’t clothing that is gifted to Maria, but snow!

In 1658, she received four pounds of snow every summer’s day in order to keep her cool. This was a regular gift for long-serving court dwarfs. In 1678, Bernada Blasco, a dwarf who served for 25 years, received four pounds of snow a day in the summer and four pounds of coal in winter.

Maria is particularly well-known due to her appearance in Diego Velázquez’ famous painting Las Meninas (‘The Maids of Honour’) from 1656. In the painting, Maria is treated with reverence by Velázquez, despite the lesser-rank of dwarfs at this time.

While dwarfs were commonly depicted in artwork as figures of ridicule, Maria stands staring boldly and confidently out at the viewer, clearly represented as a core member of the royal household thanks to her proximity to the young infanta Margaret Theresa.

Maria’s employment ended when Philip V decided to reorganise the Spanish court. He believed that court dwarfs were outdated relics and promptly ended their service. Despite living in Spain for nearly 50 years, the last we know of Maria is that she returned to her native Austria to see out the rest of her days.

A Renaissance portrait of a young woman with red hair styled beneath a jeweled, gold-braided headdress, wearing an embroidered dress trimmed with white feathers, set against a dark background

Nichola La Jardinière (fl. 1560 - 1570): Faithful companion to Mary, Queen of Scots

Nichola ‘La Jardinière’ was a female fool who underscores the importance of women jesters as valued companions to a monarch (particularly a queen).

La Jardinière was a natural fool who first served in the household of Queen Mary of Guise and later joined the court of her famous daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. When Mary returned to Scotland from France after the death of her husband, Francis II, La Jardinière left her native country to accompany her royal mistress.

We know that La Jardinière was treated well by Mary. For example, in October 1565 the queen ordered a luxurious bedding set for her faithful jester which included a bed, mattress, sheets and a lined green plaid cover.

Many fools remained long in the memory of their benefactors, even after their services were no longer required. After Mary was forced to abdicate in 1567, she ensured that La Jardinière and her keeper, Jacqueline Critoflat, both received fine clothes and money for three years while Mary was imprisoned in England.

She eventually sent the pair a sum of money, “expensis and fraucht” in 1570, so that they could return to France. Such behaviour is reminiscent of other European nobility, such as Isabella d’Este, who ensured that her dwarfs were paid 50 scudi each for the rest of their lives after retirement.

Rachel Ashcroft is a freelance journalist with a PhD in 16th century history. She specialises in arts and culture reporting

]]>Sexual pleasure and smear campaigns: spreading fear and loathing during the Cold Warhttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/sexual-pleasure-fake-students-and-smear-campaigns-spreading-fear-and-loathing-during-the-cold-war/2026-08-02T14:30:01.000ZHow do you sway an audience who will never trust a word you say? And what if the message is underpinned by top-secret intelligence? How do you use it without blowing the source? One answer comes in the form of covert or black propaganda – material for which the source is faked, leaving readers ignorant of the real authors.

During the Cold War, plenty of states waged political warfare across the world. Now, archival declassifications reveal the UK’s programme in remarkable detail.

Between 1948 and 1977, a small team in the Foreign Office’s little-known and banally named Information Research Department worked in the shadows to expose and discredit adversaries wherever they were to be found. They used three channels for the darker side of things: covertly controlled news agencies; forgeries of material purportedly obtained from genuine Soviet front organisations; and a constellation of fake groups disseminating equally bogus material.

These 14 of the named – but completely fictional – groups were among the most cunning, crazy and controversial.

1. International Committee for the Investigation of Communist Front Organisations

Created in 1959, this fabricated research institute published some 30 bulletins exposing Soviet front organisations. From non-existent offices across Europe and north Africa, it traded off its reputation as an authoritative (if dry) source, posting its exposés to peace organisations, student groups and the media worldwide. Bulletin no. 25, for example, outed the International Organisation of Journalists as a “Russian international camouflage organisation” and exposed its role in organising a supposedly independent “world meeting of journalists” in the Mediterranean, including by listing the names and tactics of those involved. The propagandists were delighted when media sources from Tunisia to Ankara repeated the bulletin’s claims. Even BBC referred to the fake Committee’s representation of the meeting as a “floating hive of subversion.”

With targets including everyone from the World Federation of Scientific Workers to the World Federation of Democratic Youth, this ‘Committee’ caused quite a stir. The Soviets complained to the Austrian police, while West German intelligence cheekily claimed credit for the Committee – a professional hazard when the real author can’t own up. Eventually, cover was blown and the fake Committee outlived its usefulness.

Three people sit at an ornate wooden table during a formal meeting. The person in the centre raises a finger while speaking.

2. Centre d’Études Micro-Analytiques

The replacement for that first ‘Committee’ was a supposedly French-speaking west European research organisation specialising in long-winded faux scholarship. Bulletin number 7, for example, comprised a dense 16-page assessment of recent organisational developments within the World Peace Council – the international anti-imperialist and anti-nuclear organisation discreetly sustained by the Soviets. It generated coverage in an Indian newspaper under the gratifying headline “World Peace Council Promotes War, not Peace”. British socialists were early readers, attacking it as “A mad-house anti-communist journal”. In doing so, they fell into a classic trap: repeating the Centre’s arguments to the very readers the propagandists most wanted to reach.

Other editions were too subtle. Foreign Office bosses in the know couldn’t tell the difference between the propaganda and a standard verbose research paper. Foreign Office colleagues not in the know took the Centre’s material at face value – and were unimpressed by the quality of the analysis.

3. Freedom for Africa Movement (Loyal African Brothers)

Created around 1960 and supposedly heralding from an unspecified part of Francophone Africa, this fictitious pan African nationalist network issued scruffy leaflets to expose and smear politicians deemed too close to the communists. Each of the 50 or so operations began with the same rallying cry: “Loyal African Brothers!”, earning the group its affectionate moniker.

Each combined ad hominem attacks with salacious rumourmongering, delivered in what the propagandists called “semi-educated prose” and “hideous jargon” to supposedly appeal to “the half-baked intelligentsia”.

The Movement claimed (without evidence) multiple successes in derailing local politicians and even had their words read out – unwittingly – on BBC radio. Most bizarrely, the Soviets forged a Brothers leaflet of their own, exposing CIA bribery of African politicians; the opportunistic British ran with it – knowing that it bolstered their own deniability.

4. Council of the Arab Unity Brethren

Various fictional Arab groups popped up and then disappeared again in the mid-1960s, each taking a shot at Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a longtime target of the British. One such group, the Council of the Arab Unity Brethren, was christened by the head of the Information Research Department himself, who insisted that its name “apparently makes more sense in Arabic than in English” after the team raised quizzical eyebrows.

Supposedly based in Libya, the Brethren attacked Egyptian expansionism, designs on Libyan oil, and Nasser personally on religious grounds. In a list reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch, other groups created by the British to do much the same included the Brothers of the Renaissance, the Socialist Brotherhood of Iraq, the True Islamic Socialists, and so on.

A man in a suit sits at a desk with several microphones in front of him, speaking in a formal setting.

5. Committee for the Defence of Non-Totalitarian Socialism

Another of the fake anti-Nasser groups, this supposed Committee exposed and criticised Egyptian covert operations in Sudan and Yemen from a left-wing perspective. It warned of the dangers posed by communists inside the Syrian government. The British were delighted when Egypt wrongly assumed that disaffected Syrians were behind it and insisted that the operation had hurt Nasser – without providing any evidence of that.

6. People’s Front of East Africa

By implication a pro-Chinese movement, the People’s Front amplified Kenyan political tensions and discredited the vice president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, by association. After criticising the Kenyan government as a cesspool of dishonesty and authoritarianism, the Front lavished praise on Odinga and his vision of closer ties with China. Its material insulted African socialism but then called to make Odinga president.

The mysterious People’s Front generated coverage in British and Kenyan newspapers, with one Swahili commentary blaming the CIA for what it called a crude forgery. The British propagandists were delighted, and hoped to use the Front again when the Rhodesian government unilaterally declared independence from London in 1965. The plan was for the People’s Front to encourage Africans to rise up and resolve the Rhodesian problem through violence. Diplomats vetoed it as being far too risky.

Four people stand on a stone platform during a formal event. Three raise a hand in greeting while one stands with hands lowered.

7. International Movement for Revolutionary Action

Those British propagandists did repeat the People’s Front trick elsewhere in Africa, using yet another fake group. The Movement, another supposedly pro-Chinese group, valorised another target of British ire: John Malecela, a diplomat spearheading much of the United Nations’ decolonisation work.

In an attempt to unsettle African leaders, the Movement praised Malecela as a “revolutionary hero” who had scored “many brilliant victories” at the United Nations “in the war against those who are taking the bourgeois-nationalist road and opening up the only correct road for the victory of the Chinese revolution”. In doing so, the hope was to discredit Malecela by associating him with revolutionary Chinese militants. The Movement’s rallying cry to wage guerrilla warfare across the continent would have unnerved African leaders further.

8. Front for the Liberation of the Spanish Maghreb

When Spanish dictator Francisco Franco criticised the UK’s position in Gibraltar, the British shot back to remind the world of Spain’s own colonialism in north Africa. This fake Front sought to embarrass Spain at the United Nations, and to stir regional tensions.

It sounded legitimate enough – not too dissimilar from genuine organisations such as the National Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea, or the even more verbose Movement for the Self-Determination and Independence of the Canary Archipelago.

British operatives posted a forged petition to the UN calling for the restitution to Morocco of various Spanish colonial territories. It left the Moroccan press confused and authorities keen to identify the perpetrators.

A street scene with mid‑20th‑century cars near a building marked “CAFE ESPAÑOL,” with the Rock of Gibraltar rising in the background.

9. Organisation for the Expulsion of the Spanish Colonialists

In January 1967, the British followed up with another pseudo anti-Spanish group. This one incited violence against Madrid, noting that, whereas the French, Belgians and British had all withdrawn from Africa, Spain had not.

“We will fight with all our strength and with every weapon we can lay our hands on… Victory [will be won] by God’s will.” There were so many of these little groups flying around that British propagandists struggled to keep track of which were real and which were creations of their own. It was all a bit confusing.

10. The Matopos Club

Named after the distinctive granite hills in Rhodesia (now the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe), the burial place of Cecil Rhodes, the Matopos Club was a fake white Rhodesian group created after Ian Smith’s government unilaterally declared independence from the UK in 1965. To maintain credibility, the Club railed against “those arrogant dictators in Whitehall” before attacking Smith for lying, creating chaos, crippling the economy and, ironically, spreading propaganda.

Its most controversial mooted operation – ultimately vetoed – targeted recipients inside the UK, linking support for Smith to support for Aryan supremacy. The Club did not make much of a mark; intelligence suggested that the wife of a wealthy young farmer in Rhodesia thought that the Club was playing a very important role. Apparently, her friends agreed and all thought it was the work of a mysterious resistance leader. This was a rather underwhelming outcome.

A black‑and‑white photo shows a man in a suit and tie seated at a reflective desk, speaking on a telephone. Papers, books, and a rotary phone sit in front of him. Behind him are window shutters, a coat of arms, and a framed landscape painting.

11. Committee for European Syndicalist Action

This fake student group sought to disrupt the 1968 World Festival of Youth and Students in Sofia by playing on the leftist, anti-war, counterculture student protests sweeping western Europe and the US. Senior diplomats worried that the Committee risked inciting violence, which might backfire against the west. The propagandists, though, insisted that the aim was merely to give the impression that there were people willing to make trouble, which would be enough to disrupt the festival.

It was a gamble, especially because the fake group did explicitly call for anarchist students to express their grievances at the festival. “We say that the time has come to answer violence with violence.” And violence did break out – although it is difficult to trace it back to the faux syndicalists.

12. The Black Power – Africa's Heritage Group

Struggling to stay relevant and justify budgets, the propagandists found a new target in the late 1960s: Black Power. A fake west African Group tried to exploit differences between US and sub-Saharan African manifestations of that movement.

It attacked Stokely Carmichael, the Trinidad-born Black Power leader who had travelled to Guinea in part to escape harassment by the FBI. The Group launched a personal attack, calling Carmichael: “That unbidden prophet from America… weaving a bloody trail of chaos in the name of Pan-Africanism”.

By coming to Africa, the material continued, Carmichael had “deserted the cause” in the US “which needs him more than we do”. And how dare he – who seemed to imagine Africans as ‘savages’ – preach Black Power to a continent “where it already truly belongs”? Strong words – but they did little damage.

A man in a double‑breasted suit speaks into a microphone, raising one hand with two fingers extended.

13. Comitato Milanese per la Pace

This fake Italian peace committee published an overzealous eulogy – the Adult’s ABC of Peace – to send to the World Peace Council, a long-standing target of British propaganda. The aim, as ever, was to expose the Council as a decidedly unpeaceful instrument of Soviet policy.

The booklet produced was rather a clumsy publication. C was for China, obstructing the world-wide struggle for peace; N, rather desperately, was for Negative Views, or any criticism of the Soviets; X, more desperately still, was for Unknown Quantity; Z for Zealous Struggle.

Based on genuine World Peace Council writings, the British booklet cleverly tried to box the communists into a corner, making it difficult for them to denounce the fake. Some 770 copies were sent from Milan to addresses worldwide, some of which reached senior World Peace Council leaders. The British claimed success in causing trouble – but, again, struggled to provide evidence.

A person in a military uniform speaks at a podium in a large hall, with several people seated at a long table behind them and multilingual text on the wall.

14. World Muslim Brotherhood

A particularly controversial fake group was created simply by inserting ‘World’ in front of the (real) Muslim Brotherhood as a means of reaching Muslim audiences in the mid-1960s. In fiery language, the World Muslim Brotherhood attacked President Sukarno of Indonesia: “That creature is always running after more authority and sexual pleasures which had made him throw away every consideration for his and his people’s dignity for the sake of his lust.”

The fake Brotherhood protested the treatment of Muslims in China, drawing attention to the discrepancy between China's supposed religious tolerance and the persecution of Muslims under the Cultural Revolution. And it exposed Egypt’s use of chemical weapons in the Yemen Civil War: “detestable and internationally-banned weapon of warfare… which even the madman Hitler did not use against his enemies in the Second World War”. Worryingly, the propagandists laced this missive with antisemitism, in order (they would have insisted) to make it credible.

Rory Cormac is a professor of international relations at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line (Oxford University Press), out now

]]>Why did Henry VIII boil his cook alive? 17 grisly tales from Tudor Englandhttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/why-did-henry-viii-boil-his-cook-alive-17-grisly-tales-from-tudor-england/2026-07-19T15:30:47.000ZWe’ve all heard about Elizabeth I being the Virgin Queen and Henry VIII having a penchant for wife-swapping, but did you know Henry boiled a cook alive? Or that Elizabeth was rumoured to be a man? Mary, Queen of Scots has had many a film made about her, but none show how grisly her execution really was, or how Catherine of Aragon wanted to send her husband the body of a king to show off her prowess. These lesser-known stories are among the most intriguing about the fabulously dramatic, rather dark and utterly unhinged Tudor dynasty.

1. Did Henry VII marry a witch?

Richard III accused Elizabeth Woodville and her mother Jacquetta of casting a spell on King Edward IV, ensuring Edward would fall in love with Elizabeth and make her his queen. Jacquetta had once stood trial for witchcraft and Richard used this as the basis for his accusations. There was nothing more damaging for a woman’s reputation than that of witchcraft; it was a good excuse to blight a powerful woman. It also meant that Elizabeth’s children were ‘made’ with magic. So, perhaps Henry VII’s wife Elizabeth of York was actually a witch…

A group of people in richly coloured medieval clothing gather inside an ornate hall with tall arches and patterned blue‑and‑gold wall panels. At the centre, a crowned woman in a blue gown receives a ring or small object from a man in long robes, suggesting a formal ceremony. Attendants and onlookers stand nearby in elaborate headdresses, watching the exchange. The tiled floor is arranged in pink and blue geometric squares, and the overall scene evokes a moment of courtly ritual.

2. The groom of the stool

Wiping the royal bottom doesn’t seem like a particularly great job, but in the Tudor world it was an incredible honour. The Groom of the Stool would be with the monarch in their most intimate and vulnerable moments, privy to all sorts of conversations. Especially for someone like Henry VIII, who had notoriously difficult bowels; a trip to the loo could take hours! The groom would then report back to the king’s doctors on anything suspicious lurking in the royal chamber pot.

Such a high-ranking role didn’t protect you from the king’s wrath, though; Henry had one of his grooms executed during his disposal of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, when the man was accused of committing adultery with her.

3. Monkey business

Henry VII kept a monkey as his pet, much to the court’s chagrin as the creature was particularly troublesome, causing havoc wherever he went. The king was a thorough record-keeper, not only of his finances but also of his court; making notes of who said what, where and why. One day, Henry left his notebook unattended, and the monkey decided the time was ripe to dramatically rip the book to shreds. Therefore, Henry found himself with a rather irritating gap in his meticulous court notetaking.

A young boy dressed in ornate royal clothing stands at the centre of a formal court gathering. He holds out a book to a kneeling man in dark robes, while richly dressed courtiers and attendants look on. The hall features tall windows with a landscape visible outside and heraldic shields above, reinforcing the noble setting. The figures are arranged in a ceremonial, hierarchical composition.

4. Henry VIII boiled a cook

In 1531, a cook named Richard Roose was given powder by a stranger to pop in the food being served at a banquet. Roose claimed he thought it was a laxative and wanted to ‘play a prank’ on his master. Turns out, the powder was deadly, killing two attendees. Roose was then accused of poisoning, being tortured in various grim ways to reveal why he did it. Henry VIII had a great fear of poisoning and meted out a brutal end for Roose – boiling him alive. At the execution site at Smithfield he was lowered into a vast cauldron, being dipped in and out via heavy chains until he eventually died in agony.

5. Exploding, oozing coffins

Henry VIII’s body was more than a bit of a mess when he died; the smell of his pustulating leg when he was alive was almost too much to take, so when he died the rotting smell was very intense. His body had been prepped and wrapped in cerecloth, then placed into a lead-lined coffin.

While stopped at Syon Abbey during the journey to his burial site at Windsor, it was claimed that there was an enormous crack to be heard, and his coffin split, leaking out goo for the dogs to lap up. Many years later, his daughter Elizabeth I’s coffin also cracked and split, likely due to gasses building up in the cadaver.

6. The Tower's bloodiest death

Lady Margaret Pole was 67 when Henry VIII ordered her death. The regular executioner was away so Margaret had an apprentice for her end, who was unfortunately inexperienced in noble decapitations. Laying her head on the block, he missed her neck completely and hacked into her shoulders. When he managed to pull out the axe, he panicked and swung again, only to hit the back of her head. This went on and on, until finally Margaret’s head was removed at last. It’s said to be one of the bloodiest deaths the Tower of London has ever seen.

An old engraved scene shows a person on a raised platform facing an executioner who holds an axe ready to strike. The person wears a long dress and head covering, extending one arm outward. A guard with a halberd stands nearby, and a crowd watches in the background with ship masts visible, creating a tense public execution setting.

7. The King's mutilated body

In 1513, the King of Scotland, James IV, invaded England while Catherine of Aragon was acting as regent, and he was killed by English forces at the Battle of Flodden. To show off this great achievement, Catherine wanted to send her husband the mutilated body of the Scottish king, but Henry’s council blanched at the gruesomeness of the request and only allowed her to send the blood-stained cloak instead!

8. Humiliated in death

Katherine Parr had been happily ensconced in a tomb at Sudeley Castle for many years, albeit the chapel she was buried in slowly falling to ruin. Curious locals, however, wanted to find Henry VIII’s last wife and so dug her up. Opening her coffin, it revealed Katherine was still fresh and appeared perfectly preserved.

Over the years, she was intermittently reburied and dug up by the morbidly curious, with people taking souvenirs from her remains. It was then decided to bury her properly, but the team of men hired for the job got drunk instead, and pulled Katherine’s remains out from the coffin altogether. They mutilated her corpse by stabbing her, playing football with her head and ripped out the last of her hair and teeth. Thankfully, she was fully reburied after this horrific incident, remaining there, in peace, to this day.

A carved marble tomb shows a reclining figure with hands clasped in prayer beneath an ornate Gothic canopy decorated with floral patterns, pointed arches and small sculpted angels. Stained‑glass windows glow behind the monument, and an inscription along the tomb identifies the figure as Queen Katherine, wife of King Henry VI.

9. Like father, like son

Little King Edward VI was raised to be a mini version of his father, from the rooms he lived in to the clothing he’d wear. He was indulged by everyone, with his happiness being their top priority. His father’s tyrannical nature wasn’t far behind either, with Edward allegedly ripping apart a falcon in a royal temper tantrum, feather by feather. He then went on to sanction the execution of both his uncles, coldly noting the events in his diary.

Four people sit around a table in a dark, dramatic setting. Three older men with long beards wear simple robes and listen as the central figure reads from a set of papers. Beside them, a richly dressed person in a white fur‑trimmed robe and feathered hat watches intently. The painting focuses on their serious discussion against a shadowed background.

10. The boy king's suffering

It might be easier to list what Edward VI didn’t die of, his symptoms are so lengthy and grisly. During his reign he contracted smallpox that weakened his immune system, so he was susceptible to endless coughs, colds and fevers. Toward the end, Edward was coughing up foul-smelling bile, and his legs swelled so badly he had to remain in bed. His hair fell out, as did his nails (after turning black). When even just breathing became an issue he said he was glad to die, to end his terrible suffering. During his autopsy, putrefied ulcers were found on his lungs, leading to a modern diagnosis of tuberculosis.

11. The haunting of the Nine Day Queen

Lady Jane Grey was placed on the throne for nine days and was executed for it by Queen Mary – she was only a teenager. Her sad ghost is said to haunt the Tower of London on the anniversary of her death, wandering the battlements – sometimes with, sometimes without, her head. Her husband Guildford Dudley was executed with her, and his ghost can be heard weeping as he overlooks Tower Green to the chapel where he was buried. If you try and communicate with him, he only sits and stares out of the window, endless in his grief.

A blindfolded young woman in a white gown kneels before a wooden block as an older man in a fur‑trimmed robe guides her hand. An executioner holding a large axe stands nearby. Behind them, two distressed women watch from a stone hall with arches and columns, creating a solemn, tense scene.

12. The scandalous Grey sisters

Jane Grey had two younger, lesser-known sisters, Katherine and Mary. Katherine courted endless drama by secretly marrying Edward Seymour, nephew to Henry VIII’s third queen, Jane. She became pregnant, enraging Elizabeth I, who duly sent her to the Tower. Katherine had a boy (cue more anger from Lizzie), and as both Katherine and Edward were at the Tower at the same time, she managed to get pregnant again, producing another boy.

Elizabeth’s rage was catastrophic – she separated the family, with Katherine dying not long after. Mary, having learnt nothing from her sister’s drama, also married secretly, to the queen’s Sergeant Porter, Thomas Keyes (the man responsible for the palace’s security). Equally incensed, Elizabeth separated them as well, with Mary never seeing her husband again.

13. Mary's phantom pregnancies

The entire court was ready for Queen Mary to have her first child in May, with her confinement starting in April 1555. She even invited her loathed sister Elizabeth to court, to watch herself get displaced in the succession. When no child came in May… or June, or even July, Mary was humiliated. She had all the symptoms of pregnancy, but no child to show for it. This happened again a few years later, with all the same pregnancy signs and Mary again convinced she was with child. It soon became clear she wasn’t pregnant but was likely at this point to be dying. Modern diagnosis offers possible pseudocyesis, dropsy, cysts or tumours.

A richly dressed figure in a deep burgundy velvet gown sits for a formal portrait, hands clasping a pair of gloves. Gold‑patterned sleeves, rings, a bracelet and a large jeweled pendant emphasise their status. Behind them, an ornate embroidered chair adds to the sense of Tudor‑era wealth and authority.

14. Was Elizabeth I secretly a man?

Supposedly, when Elizabeth was nine years old, she was moved to the village of Bisley to avoid the plague. En route she sadly died, and her governess Kat Ashley had to make a decision – admit Elizabeth had passed away or replace her? For some mad reason Kat decided on the latter, and went into Bisley to find a suitable swap.

No girls matched the dead princess, so she selected a boy instead; he was of Elizabeth’s age and colouring, and the disguise supposedly worked well when he was dressed in Elizabeth’s attire. The king came to visit his daughter one day and didn’t catch the swap. Legend has it that Elizabeth Tudor was buried in the local church, and the Bisley Boy became Gloriana! Utterly untrue, but a great tale none the less.

15. The queen's gruesome teeth

Elizabeth adored sugar all her life and, as a result, her teeth gave her endless trouble, with toothache and abscesses being her constant companions. Once, Elizabeth became so irritable and ill with a particularly bad tooth that the Bishop of London offered to have one of his own removed, to show her how ‘painless’ it was! Elizabeth accepted, watching while the barber-surgeon plucked out a healthy tooth from the Bishop, finally agreeing to let him proceed with her.

Toward the end of her life, Elizabeth’s teeth become black with decay. To flatter their queen, her courtiers rubbed soot on their own teeth to match their monarch. She also lost so many teeth it made her face look quite hollow, so she resorted to stuffing her cheeks with bits of silk to pad them out and make her appear more youthful…though in the process, ambassadors reported she was terribly hard to understand.

A person in richly decorated 16th‑century clothing stands against a dark background, wearing a red gown with gold embroidery, a fur‑trimmed collar and an ornate lace ruff. Their sleeves are heavily beaded, and they hold a gold chain with a pendant in both hands. A jewel‑covered red cap and gold mesh cover their hair, completing the formal Renaissance portrait.

16. The naughtiest duo of the Tudor court

Lettice Knollys was a cousin to Elizabeth and managed to enrage her like no woman had ever done before – she secretly married Elizabeth’s long-term favourite, Robert Dudley. Lettice’s disgrace knew no bounds, but Robert wormed his way back into the queen’s favour eventually. Lettice had a daughter Penelope, and in a strange dig at her rival, Elizabeth kept Penelope at court constantly, almost treating her like a surrogate daughter.

Her great favour with the queen became very useful when Penelope, having been wedded to a man she couldn’t stand, conducted quite a public affair with another courtier. Elizabeth usually frowned upon this disruption to the proper order of things, but as she had such a soft spot for Penelope, she let it slide.

17. The grisly death of Mary, Queen of Scots

After 19 years in prison, Mary, Queen of Scots met her end bravely. A scaffold had been erected and the headsman called to service. Blindfolded, she lay her head upon the block and ‘thwack’, down came the axe, not on her neck, but the back of her skull.

The headsman had to wrench it out and tried again; he didn’t quite make it, and had to saw the connective tissue holding Mary’s head to her body. Mary is meant to have cried out during the process, but hopefully she lost consciousness swiftly. When the head was eventually detached and held up to proclaim, ‘God save the Queen!’, it fell with a sickening thud to the floor, and the headsman was left holding Mary’s wig. It was then that the Scottish queen’s little dog came out from between her skirts, where it had been hiding during the ordeal. The little dog had to be washed as he was covered in his owner’s blood.

Elizabeth Goff is author of Bloody, Brilliant Tudors: 100 Tales of Gowns, Gossip and Gory Ends (The History Press, 2026)

]]>Greek gods and goddesses: 15 of the most important deities of ancient Greecehttps://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-greece/greek-gods-and-goddesses-most-important-deities-ancient-greece/2026-07-17T11:28:39.000ZAccording to ancient Greek mythology, the early universe was made of primordial gods (or Protogenoi) formed from the void of Chaos. Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (sky) then gave birth to 12 perfect beings – the Titans.

Uranus became paranoid about the idea of his own children overthrowing him and decided to rule tyrannically. The Titan Cronus (Time) led a rebellion, castrating his father with a flint sickle and deposing him. Cronus then married his sister Rhea and she gave birth to the first of the Olympian gods, including Zeus.

Not content to be ruled, Zeus and his siblings eventually rebelled and fought an epic ten-year war called the Titanomachy, overthrowing Cronus in turn.

Ruling from Mount Olympus, these gods became known as the Twelve Olympians – among the most powerful gods in the Greek world. But there were thousands more gods than those dwelling in Olympus, for the Greeks had a god for just about every aspect of their lives.

All these deities were to be feared and respected. As beings, they were just as given to jealousies, rages and violence as humans. Their moods were often fickle, and great misfortune could come to any mortal who dared mock them. Read on to learn about the most important Greek gods.

Who are the most famous Greek gods and goddesses?

Zeus: King of the Greek gods and ruler of the skies

A large marble statue of a muscular, bearded man sits atop a rugged rock formation, holding a long staff or oar across his body. Water pours from beneath the sculpture, marking it as part of a fountain. Behind him rise architectural details and a warm reddish‑orange building façade. The figure’s powerful pose and flowing drapery evoke Baroque drama, characteristic of monumental fountain sculpture.

Family: Youngest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, husband (and brother) of Hera, father to Ares, Athena, Apollo and many, many other children

Roman equivalent: Jupiter

Zeus was king of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus. His father was the Titan Cronos (time) who, fearing a prophecy that his own children would overthrow him, swallowed all of Zeus’ elder siblings.

Zeus’ mother Rhea hid her beloved youngest son on the island of Crete, giving Cronos a swaddled stone to swallow instead. When he grew older, Zeus returned to poison his father, making him vomit up all he had eaten. Zeus then led his brothers and sisters in a decade-long war against the Titans, eventually banishing them to Tartarus (the deepest abyss below the Underworld).

Zeus’ powers were myriad, including control of storms. His signature weapons were thunderbolts maintained for him by his blacksmith son, Hephaestus. He reigned in Olympus as the ultimate authority and dispenser of justice.

His long-suffering wife, Hera, endured his many affairs. Zeus had the ability to shapeshift when approaching lovers, appearing as a swan, bull or even a shower of gold. This shapeshifting was necessary when Zeus was wooing because being seen in his full, all-powerful godlike form by mortals proved fatal to them.

Because he was the god of the skies, the Greeks dedicated high places and mountaintop shrines to him. The Temple of Zeus at Olympia contained a huge, nearly 12-metre statue of him and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Hera: Queen of the Greek gods and goddess of women

A carved stone bust of a solemn, long‑haired figure, the hair flowing down and adorned with leaf‑like decorations. Ornamental scrolls and stylised foliage flare outward from the shoulders, giving the sculpture an architectural, decorative quality. The textured stone surface stands out sharply against the dark background, emphasising the craftsmanship and classical, mythic character of the piece.

Family: Daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, wife (and sister) of Zeus, mother to Ares, Hephaestus and others

Roman equivalent: Juno

Hera was the full sister of Zeus, born of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Swallowed up by her father, she was eventually vomited out and joined her brother in the Titanomachy. After the war, she married Zeus and together they had several children.

She had authority over labour, able to speed up or slow pregnancy, and had the power to make those she hated lose their minds and murder their loved ones. She could also bestow wondrous gifts on mortals, whether she wanted to or not. When Zeus tricked Hera into suckling an infant Hercules, he gained superhuman strength. As Hera woke and realised her husband had got the better of her, she pushed the baby away. The milk that spurted out formed the Milky Way galaxy.

The Greeks adapted Hera from older fertility and Earth goddesses, eventually making her the wife of Zeus. She served as chief protector of the city-state of Argos. An athletic festival called the Heraea was held in her honour, consisting exclusively of footraces for unmarried young women.

Poseidon: God of the sea, who controlled storms and earthquakes

A Renaissance‑style fresco filled with mythic sea imagery. At the centre, a muscular, bearded figure stands on a shell‑shaped chariot drawn by rearing sea horses, holding a tall trident. Nearby, another figure rides in a golden chariot, while small winged putti hover above—one blowing a conch, another lifting a globe. Deep blue waves surge across the background, and a Latin banner unfurls overhead.

Family: Brother to Zeus, married to the sea goddess Amphitrite, with whom he had a fish-tailed son named Triton

Roman equivalent: Neptune

Poseidon was a full brother to Zeus, swallowed by his father and rescued by Zeus at the beginning of the Titanomachy. Following the banishing of the Titans, Zeus and his brothers cast lots for the universe, granting Poseidon dominion over the seas and making him chief of the water gods.

He had the power to create catastrophic storms and tsunamis, as well as earthquakes. Unusually for a sea god, he also had mastery over horses, and many a Greek cavalryman would pray to Poseidon before a battle.

During the events of the Odyssey, Odysseus famously blinded Poseidon’s son – the mighty one-eyed Cyclops. Vowing revenge, Poseidon tried to destroy Odysseus and his men at every turn, sending violent storms and contrary winds to blow him off course into danger-filled lands. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach home.

The Mycenean Greeks likely worshipped Poseidon as an “earth-shaker” god. In their version of the mythology, Poseidon had only the power to cause earthquakes rather than to control the seas. However, as the Greeks increasingly relied on the sea for trade, he morphed into a water god. Sailors would frequently sacrifice horses or bulls to pray for a safe voyage.

Hades: God of death and ruler of the underworld

A weathered marble statue of a seated, bearded man draped in a heavy garment. His arms are partially missing, and the stone surface shows signs of age and erosion. Behind him, carved relief panels depict multiple human figures in active poses, creating a dense narrative backdrop. Light falls across the statue’s face and torso, emphasising the intricate carving and the solemn, classical expression.

Family: Brother to Zeus, married to Persephone, whom he abducted to be queen of the underworld

Roman equivalent: Pluto

Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea. Rescued by Zeus during the war with the Titans, Hades and his two brothers cast lots for dominion of the universe. Zeus received the skies, Poseidon the seas, but Hades got the worst of the bargain by gaining the underworld, becoming the chief god of death. As he did not reside on Mount Olympus, he is not considered one of the Twelve Olympians.

Hades also possessed the Helm of Darkness, granting him invisibility and an aura of fear that even Zeus was wary of. A stern, pitiless jailer who ensured souls did not leave the underworld, he could summon the dead to do his bidding. His Roman name of Pluto means “rich one”, for Hades had dominion over all the minerals buried in the Earth, including gold and silver.

From the fifth century BC, the Greeks began to refer to him as Plouton, as pronouncing his name became a taboo that risked inviting his attention and perhaps hastening a person’s death. When it was necessary to pray to Hades, worshippers would look to the ground instead of the sky and pound their fists on the earth to get his attention.

Athena: Goddess of wisdom, warfare and crafts

A marble statue of Athena stands against a clear blue sky, wearing a crested helmet and ornate armour detailed with gold. She holds a tall spear in her right hand, and in her left, a small gilded figure of Nike balanced on a sphere. The white stone and bright gold accents create a striking contrast, emphasising the goddess’s poised, authoritative stance

Family: Born from the head of Zeus and half-sister to his other children, adopted mother to Erichthonius, an early king of Athens

Roman equivalent: Minerva

Fathered by Zeus and the Titan Metis (wisdom), Athena was to become the beloved patron of Athens. Zeus received a prophecy that his child by Metis would overthrow him, so he swallowed her when she was pregnant. Athena continued to mature inside Zeus, where Metis made her a set of armour. Eventually, the pain of her growth became so unbearable for Zeus that he was forced to crack open his skull, with Athena emerging fully formed, armoured and screaming an ancient war cry.

Despite this unusual birth, Athena became Zeus’ favourite child. She was one of the virgin goddesses of Greece, choosing never to marry but rather to concentrate on military strategy. Her powers included horrific curses, but her greatest asset was her wisdom – she fought with her head rather than her arm.

As patron of Athens (which bore her name), her most important festival – The Panathenaia – was held annually and featured athletic and musical contests, and the presentation of a new sacred garment (the peplos) to her ancient wooden statue.

Protector of Odysseus during the events of the Odyssey, it was Athena who guided his ship through the storms sent by Poseidon. On his return to Ithaca, she even took human form to fight on his side and deflect arrows aimed at him.

Apollo: God of the arts and leader of the muses

A carved stone relief of a reclining, curly‑haired youth holding a lyre. The figure is partially draped, resting amid ornate decorative elements, including stylised trees and patterned motifs on either side. The sculpted details emphasise a serene, classical atmosphere, highlighting the association with music and the arts.

Family: Son of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, twin of Artemis and father to Troilus, a Trojan prince

Roman equivalent: Apollo

Jealous of Zeus’ affair with the Titaness Leto, Hera forbade Leto from giving birth on solid land. Leto finally escaped to the floating island of Delos, which became fixed once Apollo was born.

He possessed unparalleled medical knowledge and musical abilities. Like Artemis, he was also a legendary archer, carrying a golden bow and arrows.

Also acting as the god of prophecy, Apollo was responsible for overseeing the Oracle of Delphi – the temple that Greeks looked to for good auguries when going to war. According to legend, the site was first founded by the Earth goddess Gaia and guarded by her serpent, Python. When Apollo arrived, he slew Python with his golden arrows and consecrated the site.

Apollo was the patron god of Troy, where he attempted to protect the city during the Trojan War. He intervened to cause a plague on the Greek army, healed wounded Trojan heroes and even guided the fatal arrow shot by Paris into Achilles’ heel.

In the Greek world, Apollo was venerated as the god of prophecy for his patronage of Delphi. The Spartan Carneia festival was dedicated to Apollo and the city state’s army was strictly forbidden from taking the field during celebrations. It is likely because of this that the Spartans turned up too late to fight the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC (although they did tour the battlefield to examine the Persian dead). Even more importantly, the Carneia once again prevented King Leonidas from taking the whole Spartan army to Thermopylae, forcing him to march to a hero’s death.

Artemis: Goddess of the hunt, moon goddess and the protector of chastity

A marble statue of a youthful figure with wavy hair bound by a headband. The figure wears a draped garment and raises the right arm to hold a quiver of arrows over the shoulder. The smooth carving and poised stance highlight the classical style and the sculpture’s refined anatomical detail.

Family: Daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, twin of Apollo, an eternally virgin goddess who never married and had no children

Roman equivalent: Diana

Pregnant with twins by Zeus, the Titaness Leto sought refuge from a jealous Hera on the floating island of Delos. Leto gave birth to Artemis first, who immediately assisted in the birth of Apollo, her brother.

Her powers included complete mastery over wild animals and the ability to shapeshift into them. She also had incredible archery skills and the power to grant eternal youth to her followers.

Traumatised by her mother’s gruelling labour, Artemis asked Zeus at a young age to grant her eternal virginity.

According to legend, Artemis was a vengeful goddess who could not bear her honour to be slighted in any way. When the mortal queen Niobe boasted she was greater than Leto because she had 14 children – 12 more than the goddess – Artemis and her brother, Apollo, killed them all.

Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks during the Trojan War, offended Artemis by killing a stag in one of her sacred groves. As punishment, she dispersed the winds that were to carry the fleet to Troy, leaving them becalmed. To appease Artemis, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to her and the winds swiftly returned.

In Ancient Greece, Artemis was worshipped through the Arkteia – a rite of passage ritual where young Athenian girls served the goddess. They would play-act as little bears at her sanctuary, dedicating their childhood toys and locks of their hair to her to represent their transition into womanhood.

Aphrodite: Goddess of love, beauty and passion

A marble group sculpture showing three figures. At the centre, a nude woman stands with her head turned slightly, holding a sandal in one hand. To her side, a goat‑legged male figure leans toward her, his horns and furry legs marking him as a satyr. Above them, a small winged child hovers between the pair, reaching down as if intervening. The trio stands on a rectangular base, the carving detailed and expressive.

Family: Possibly the daughter of Zeus and the water nymph Dione, wife to Hephaestus, mother to many children of both gods and mortal men.

Roman equivalent: Venus

The origins of Aphrodite are disputed. Hesiod states that when Cronus castrated his father, the primordial sky god Uranus, and cast his genitals into the ocean, the white foam that gathered around the flesh birthed Aphrodite. But Homer has her as yet another of Zeus’ illegitimate offspring, this time with the beautiful water nymph Dione.

Either way, she possessed a magical girdle imbued with the power to inflame passion. She was able to manipulate all aspects of love and lust, and cursed those who offended her with unrequited passions.

The epitome of eternal beauty, in Greek myth, it is Aphrodite’s vanity that sparked the Trojan War. Eris, goddess of discord, tossed a golden apple inscribed “to the fairest”. Multiple goddesses, including Aphrodite, all claimed it. They asked Paris of Troy to judge and Aphrodite bribed him by offering him Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman on Earth.

The Greeks preferred to give Aphrodite bloodless offerings such as frankincense and flowers. Although she was mostly worshiped by women as a peaceful goddess, the Spartans surprisingly venerated her as a warrior – Aphrodite Areia – and portrayed her wearing full armour as the perfect union of passion and martial skill. Spartans almost always did things differently from the rest.

Ares: God of war, battle and human courage

A marble sculpture of a seated man holding a sword, his body partly draped and one leg bent while the other extends forward. At his feet, a small child‑like figure reaches up toward him, touching the base of the statue. The pale stone stands out against the dark background, highlighting the detailed anatomy, flowing drapery, and expressive carving.

Family: A legitimate son of Zeus and Hera, brother to Hephaestus, he fathered many divine and semi-divine beings, including the first Amazon warrior women

Roman equivalent: Mars

Born as the legitimate son of Zeus and Hera, Ares represents the raw, unfiltered aspects of war and violence. He was despised by the other Olympians for his insatiable bloodlust.

The ancient Greeks feared Ares, for his presence brought death, disease, siege, and starvation, but the god himself was believed to be fascinated with mortals, especially those who showed courage.

As war god, Ares had power over the battlefield, able to inspire or drain courage in armies according to his personal whims. He possessed immense physical strength and was skilled in all weapons, including hand-to-hand combat.

During the Trojan War, most gods picked a side and stuck with it, but Ares changed allegiances at a whim to satisfy his gory impulses. While helping the Trojans, he brought on a direct confrontation with Athena. He got the upper hand and struck at her, but she was protected by her shield. She threw a stone, and he was knocked to the ground, only to be angrily led away by his lover, Aphrodite.

In ancient Greece, it is likely many of Ares’ altars were placed outside city limits to keep his violent tendencies from entering the walls. The Spartans chained a statue symbolising Ares down to show that his fighting spirit would never leave their city.

Hephaestus: Fire god and blacksmith to the gods

A close‑up of a weathered stone sculpture showing a muscular, bearded figure with long hair. The figure’s head is lowered and one arm is bent in a pose of strain or exertion. Cracks, peeling and erosion mark the surface, while dramatic lighting emphasises the contours of the muscles and the deep shadows across the face.

Family: Son of Hera, brother to Ares, husband to his (often unfaithful) wife, Aphrodite

Roman equivalent: Vulcan

According to some traditions, Hephaestus was born from Hera alone, as an act of retribution for Zeus “giving birth” to Athena without Hera’s involvement.

But Hephaestus emerged ugly and possibly deformed. For a bunch of gods who prized beauty, the thought of accepting Hephaestus was too much and he was thrown from Mount Olympus. After landing on the island of Lemnos, he was rescued and raised by the sea goddesses Eurynome and Thetis. Eventually, he forced his way back to Olympus and trapped his mother in a golden throne. He then began crafting special weapons and armour for gods and men, famously bestowing Achilles with his impenetrable shield.

As a fire god, Hephaestus could withstand any amount of heat and was able to teleport himself through columns of flame. He could breathe life into inanimate objects and was responsible for creating the first mortal woman, Pandora, from clay.

Sick of his wife Aphrodite’s affairs, Hephaestus determined to catch his wife in the act. When Ares snuck into the marriage bed to lay with Aphrodite, little did they know Hephaestus had constructed an invisible bronze net over the bed. When the net trapped them, Hephaestus summoned the other Olympians to witness their humiliation.

Athenians celebrated the god by having the city’s blacksmiths march through the streets bearing their tools.

Hermes: Messenger of the gods, and the god of trade, travel and thieves

A circular decorative plate featuring a seated male figure wearing a winged helmet and a short tunic. He holds a staff entwined with two serpents, and a red cloak drapes over one arm. In front of him stands a small column topped with a flame. The border of the plate is patterned with a repeating Greek key design, and Greek lettering appears above the figure.

Family: Son of Zeus and Maia, one of the seven Pleiades, had many half-siblings. Never married, but fathered many illegitimate offspring

Roman equivalent: Mercury

When Zeus had another affair, this time with the nymph Maia, Hermes was the result. Incredibly quick-witted even by the standards of the gods, Hermes proved this as an infant by sneaking out of his cradle to steal Apollo’s cattle.

The most important power Hermes possessed was speed. Using a pair of magical winged sandals, he could run as fast as lightning across the world. Wielding a herald’s staff, the caduceus, he could induce sleep in mortals and send them important messages in their dreams. He was also responsible for safely bringing the souls of the dead to Hades and the underworld.

As well as inventing the lyre, Hermes also rescued one of Zeus’ lovers from Hera’s wrath. Fearing his wife would kill Io (another of his affairs), Zeus turned her into a cow. Hera hired the 100-eyed giant Argus to watch the cow for any sign it might be Io. Hermes came to the rescue, lulling Argus to sleep with his lyre, then slaying him.

The most famous way Ancient Greeks worshipped him was through “Herms”. These likely started as simple stone piles built by travellers to mark the way, but evolved into crafted pillars bearing his face and an erect phallus. As well as having directions carved into them, they would also serve as idols for offerings to be placed on.

Dionysus: God of wine and the theatre

A marble sculpture of a muscular man holding a small child on one arm. He lifts a cluster of grapes overhead, and the child reaches toward them with an outstretched hand. The white stone stands out sharply against the black background, highlighting the fine carving of hair, anatomy and drapery.

Family: Son of Zeus and the mortal Theban princess Semele, married Ariadne, the princess of Crete, and had several semi-divine children by her

Roman equivalent: Bacchus

When Hera heard her husband had got the Theban princess Semele pregnant, she tricked Semele into asking Zeus to appear before her in his full form. Bound by an oath, Zeus did so, and Semele was instantly turned to ash. Distraught, he took the unborn child from her body and stitched him up in his thigh, where the child grew.

After Dionysus was born, Zeus hid him from Hera by sending him to be brought up by Seilenos, the god of drunkenness. Eventually, the young Dionysus was forced into the world of mortals. There, he was cared for by Semele’s sister and her husband. Hera was so enraged when she found out that she drove the couple insane, forcing them to kill their children and then themselves.

Dionysus had unmatched power over the grape and was responsible for inventing wine. He could produce states of euphoric ecstasy in followers he favoured and drive his enemies to violent madness. Like many Greek gods, he also had the power to shapeshift.

His most famous act was to give King Midas his golden touch. When Dionysus granted the greedy Midas a wish, the king asked that everything he laid hands on would turn to pure gold. Midas was initially thrilled, but became distraught after accidentally turning his daughter into a golden statue. Feeling pity, Dionysus told Midas to wash his hands in the Pactolus river to rid himself of his touch and restore his daughter to life.

Worshippers of Dionysus would engage in orgies and drinking parties clad in animal skins. The god was especially popular with marginalised groups, including women and enslaved people.

Hestia: Goddess of domestic life and protector of the family

A close‑up of an ancient Greek red‑figure pottery scene showing a seated figure in a flowing robe. The figure holds a leafy branch and sits on a stylised chair, outlined in fine red lines against a black background. The delicate detailing of the garment folds and contours reflects the precision of classical vase painting.

Family: Eldest child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, sister to Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, and Demeter, she never married or had any children of her own

Roman equivalent: Vesta

Hestia was the firstborn child of Cronus and Rhea, and the last to be vomited up when Zeus rescued his siblings from the stomach of Cronus. Both Poseidon and Apollo wanted to take her as a wife, but she resisted all attempts, swearing an oath to Zeus to remain a virgin forever.

Unlike many of the more tempestuous gods, Hestia’s powers were relatively peaceful. She had absolute authority over hearth and home, and she received the first and last offerings during sacrifice. Because of her commitment to peace and stability, Hestia exercised the most restraint of all the gods.

Greeks would worship Hestia daily by saying prayers over the hearths in their homes. Each city also had a central, communal fire located in the prytaneion (town hall). The first and last sacrifices of the day were dedicated to her.

Helios: Sun god and the god of sight

A round bronze medallion with a sculpted face in high relief. The face has large eyes, a prominent nose and slightly parted lips, framed by flowing, stylised hair that radiates outward. A ring of small raised dots encircles the outer edge, and the aged metal surface shows a mottled patina.

Family: Son of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness Theia, brother of Selene (goddess of the Moon) and Eos (goddess of the Dawn), had numerous lovers and many children

Roman equivalent: Sol

Helios is unusual among the Greek pantheon of gods in that he was born of two Titans and was not a brother to Zeus. Helios was responsible for causing the day/night cycle. Each dawn, he would ride across the sky in a golden chariot, only to descend into the Western Ocean at the closing of the day. Night would see him sail back around to the east in a boat crafted for him by Hephaestus, only to begin the ritual again the next morning.

As the sun god, Helios controlled the enormous power of daylight. He had omnipresent sight and was the guardian of all oaths – and he despised oathbreakers. Greek people would often swear “under the sun” as a nod to his power.

When his mortal son, Phaethon, begged his father to ride his chariot, Helios acquiesced. As Phaethon soared into the sky, he lost control of the horses. The chariot veered wildly, scorching deserts into the earth. Zeus was forced to strike down Phaethon with a thunderbolt.

Helios was especially worshipped on the island of Rhodes, where the people built a 32-metre statue, the Colossus, as a victory celebration after withstanding a long siege. It served to guard their harbour until it was sadly toppled by an earthquake in 226 BC.

During the events of the Odyssey, Odysseus’s starving men slaughtered Helios’ sacred cattle. Enraged, he appealed to Zeus, threatening to take the sun down into the earth to light the world of the dead instead. Zeus could not allow this and so struck Odysseus’s ship with a thunderbolt.

Demeter: Goddess of the harvest and the seasons

A classical‑style fresco framed by ornate architectural moulding. On the left, a reclining woman with golden hair rests on draped fabric, holding a bundle of wheat and a ribbon‑wrapped staff. On the right, a small winged child reaches toward a fruit‑laden branch. Soft blue‑grey tones fill the background, and decorative geometric and floral motifs border the scene.

Family: Daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, sister of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, and Hestia, had children with her brothers Zeus and Poseidon

Roman equivalent: Ceres

Demeter was the middle daughter of Cronus and Rhea. After victory in the Titanomachy, she and her siblings formed the first generation of Olympian gods. When Zeus made love to her, the result was the birth of their daughter, Persephone. Demeter served as the queen of the harvest, dictating whether crops should grow or wither, and had the power to inflict terrible curses on mortals, such as habitual hunger.

Hades was determined to possess Persephone as his wife. With the blessing of Zeus, he abducted her to the Underworld. Demeter was distraught and neglected her duties, plunging the Earth into famine. Eventually, Zeus brokered a deal. Persephone was allowed to visit her mother for part of the year, but had to spend the rest of the year in the Underworld, during which the world would descend into winter.

As well as daily devotions and offerings, Ancient Greeks celebrated Demeter through the Thesmophoria festival. Exclusively for married citizen women, this multi-day ritual would involve camping in the wilds and fasting. Demeter was also worshipped during the famous Eleusinian Mysteries. It is possible that her worshippers ingested psychoactive substances to have hallucinogenic experiences and conquer their fear of death.

Matthew Doherty is a writer, editor, and teacher, specializing in all things military history related. His work has been published in the UK Defence Journal and the Small Wars Journal

]]>Did Hitler escape from his bunker and live in Argentina after WW2? The real history that debunks the conspiracyhttps://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/did-hitler-escape-bunker-survive-argentina-south-america-conspiracy-real-history-facts/2026-07-15T10:32:54.000ZOn 30 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Berlin from both east and west, Adolf Hitler went into his private study in the underground Führerbunker and shot himself in the right temple. An all-or-nothing gambler, he had always said that he would accept only total victory in the Second World War or total defeat; as his supposed 1,000-year Third Reich collapsed around him, he declared multiple times his intention to commit suicide rather than be captured.

His wife of one day, Eva Braun, also took her own life – by ingesting cyanide – before their bodies were taken up to the garden of the Reich Chancellery, doused with petrol and burned. By the time the Soviet Red Army arrived a couple of days later, almost nothing remained of Hitler's body other than parts of the jawbone and some teeth, from which his identity could be confirmed.

Photo likenesses of Adolf Hitler produced in 1944

The conspiracy theory: the escape of Hitler

However, some writers and journalists claim that, instead of killing himself upon realising the war was lost, Hitler managed to escape the bunker with Eva Braun, fled Germany and eventually made it to South America. In Argentina, he lived out the rest of his life under a new identity.

That is but one of the many sensational theories surrounding the fate of the Führer. Another suggests that he had been substituted in the bunker by a double (as had Braun and even his pet dog, Blondi), while another claims that Hitler lived for many years in a different underground bunker under the snow and ice of Antarctica.

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What is the source of the theory?

The Soviets captured Berlin on 2 May 1945 and a Red Army report confirmed that Hitler was dead, based on the discovery of the remains in the Reich Chancellery garden and the testimonies of people who had been in the bunker in the last days of the war. This report, however, was suppressed by the Soviet leader Josef Stalin in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the other Allied nations.

“Stalin decided he wanted to sow confusion amongst the Western allies, so he started to hint strongly that Hitler had survived,” says Sir Richard J Evans, a leading expert on Nazi Germany and author of The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination (Allen Lane, 2020), speaking on a Conspiracy episode of the HistoryExtra podcast.

So almost immediately after the war, Soviet disinformation spread the idea that laid the foundations of the conspiracy theory. There were reports that Hitler had been spotted in venues located all over the world, from a café in Austria to Indonesia, and doctored mugshots were printed in newspapers in many countries. “There was even an unfortunate German who was interviewed many times by the police because he rather looked like Hitler,” says Professor Evans.

Photo of an identity card issued to Adolf Eichmann, Nazi war criminal

The specific claim that he ended up in Argentina was rooted in the fact that some Nazis did indeed escape there after the war. Stories emerged, based on zero corroborative evidence, including of one elderly Argentinian woman named Catalina Gomera, who worked in a house where a mysterious German man came to stay. She was not allowed to see him, but was told he was Hitler and she had to leave typical German meals of Wiener Schnitzel, Wurst and sausages outside his room. But Hitler, of course, was an uncompromising vegetarian.

Why do some people believe that Hitler survived?

The disinformation instigated by the Soviets convinced enough people that Hitler was alive. While top Nazi officers, like Goebbels and Himmler, had all killed themselves or been arrested, where they faced trial at Nuremberg, some lower-ranked personnel did manage to escape from Germany. Adolf Eichmann, the man in charge of implementing the Final Solution, and Josef Mengele, the so-called ‘Angel of Death’ and doctor at Auschwitz, both found their way to Argentina, while the Treblinka death camp Kommandant Franz Stangl escaped to Brazil.

Of course, a figure as well-known and instantly recognizable as Hitler would have been a different matter, but when claims that he had been spotted were sent to it, the US Central Intelligence Agency in the US was obliged to investigate, further giving credence to the conspiracy theory. That was despite, says Professor Evans, the CIA concluding “unambiguously” that each claim was “phoney and false”.

Adolf Eichmann stands in a bulletproof box on trial with Israeli police behind him

As for the persistence of the theory, Professor Evans highlights another key motivation: admiration. “He’d fooled the Allies so many times previously, he must have fooled them again, was the belief. He couldn’t possibly have died, such a great man as he was, by shooting himself in a squalid suicide pact underneath the ground. He must’ve escaped.”

Undeniably, there is a connection between the conspiracy and neo-Nazism. But as late as the 1950s and 60s, some people also wanted to believe Hitler lived so that he could be tracked down and brought to justice for the atrocities committed in the war. A “kind of wish-fulfilment”, as Professor Evans puts it.

The claims and hearsay, the grainy photographs, and the desire to believe in the theory continued over the years. From 2015 to 2018, a television series titled Hunting Hitler ran on the History Channel, in which investigators travelled across South America looking for any trace of the Führer. Unsurprisingly, they failed to find any.

What's the evidence that debunks the conspiracy?

From the days immediately following Hitler’s suicide, the evidence has been conclusive: both the forensic examination of the remains and interviews with Hitler’s adjutant Otto Günsche and assistants, like his valet Heinz Linge. Their testimonies featured in a Red Army report on Hitler's death, but after Stalin’s suppression this ultimately remained secret until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Other witnesses also spoke to Hugh Trevor Roper, the historian sent by British intelligence to investigate what happened in the bunker. His report, confirming that Hitler killed himself, was published in 1947, followed by his book, The Last Days of Hitler, the next year. The third piece of evidence, says Professor Evans, was a “thorough report compiled by legal authorities in Bavaria” in the 1950s in order to issue a death certificate for Hitler. This was necessary to “establish a legal basis for the return of some looted art that he had in his possession”.

It is worth considering the personalities of the main people involved too. Eva Braun, a professional photographer, took lots of photos and home movies before and during the war, but not a single thing emerged after the war's end, which seems unlikely if she had survived. Then there is Hitler himself, a political figure to the core, says Professor Evans. “He would have been plotting a comeback. He would not, as the conspiracy theorists suggest, have sat in quiet retirement, enjoying cups of tea and cake.”

Richard J Evans is a historian whose latest book, The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination (2020), is published by Allen Lane, 2020. Listen to the full episode, in which Richard J Evans considers the idea that the Nazi leader escaped and led a long life in South America

]]>21 facts about farts: from Hitler's wind to the flatulent Roman who caused 10,000 deathshttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/a-history-of-farting-in-21-facts/2026-06-28T15:00:18.000Z1. The world’s oldest joke is about a fart

In the clearest proof that toilet humour has always been funny, the oldest-known documented joke in human history is flatulence-based. From 1900 BC, the Sumerians from what is now southern Iraq came up with this proverb: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” Admittedly, it is not a laugh-out-loud side-splitter; thank goodness that fart jokes are much more sophisticated these days.

2. A fart signalled the start of an ancient rebellion

According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, a fart once rang out in antiquity that gave new meaning to the word ‘revolting’. Around 570 BC, an unpopular Egyptian pharaoh, Apries, was in danger of being overthrown by his own troops, so he sent one of his top generals, Amasis, to restore order.

Instead, the would-be rebels declared Amasis as their new ruler, which he seemed happy to accept. When Apries sent a messenger seeking an update, Amasis let one rip as a response to be taken back to the pharaoh. Soon, a revolt broke out and Apries was killed by an angry mob. The farting general sat on the throne for more than four decades.

3. Adolf Hitler’s chronic flatulence resulted in a drug addiction

The Nazi leader hardly fitted the Aryan ideal he espoused: he would not be described as a tall, blond Adonis in peak physical shape, would he? In fact, he suffered for years with chronic stomach cramps, constipation and uncontrollable flatulence. It made his dinner parties awkward and malodourous affairs.

In 1936, the farting Führer turned to a doctor named Theodor Morell, who prescribed anti-gas medication containing poisonous strychnine. Hitler soon became reliant on these pills, and thanks to Morell’s treatments, he got addicted to a hazardous cocktail of drugs, including cocaine. There is every possibility that this caused his increasingly unstable mental state in his later years.

A black‑and‑white photograph showing Adolf Hitler handing a document to a uniformed man decorated with medals. The two stand facing each other against a dark, plain background, suggesting a formal or ceremonial exchange.

4. A Roman emperor considered a free-farting edict

Like sneezing and blowing the nose, flatulence is a natural thing and a sign of a healthy digestive system. It’s holding them in that can cause problems, and that thought worried the Roman emperor Claudius.

Best known for launching the conquest of Britain in AD 43, he considered passing an edict to encourage dinner guests to break wind freely. This was claimed, at least, by Roman historian Suetonius, who may have been making a joke. Suetonius also started the rumour that Caligula tried to make his horse a consul.

5. Henry II’s Christmas entertainment was given by Roland the Farter

Of all the talents and tricks that a jester could have used to entertain the court of Henry II of England (r1154-89), guess which one Roland the Farter specialised in. Every Christmas, he performed a popular routine described in Latin as unum saltum et siffletum et unum bumbulum, which translates as ‘one jump and one whistle and one fart’. While one has to speculate exactly what this would have looked like, the king clearly enjoyed it since Roland received the lavish compensation of a manor house in Suffolk.

6. Le Pétomane could fart the French national anthem

There have been several flatulence-based entertainers – or flatulists – in history, but few as famous as Joseph Pujol. Better known as Le Pétomane, the French ‘fartiste’ had machine-like control over his moneymaker as he sucked in air and could expel it again in powerful, symphonic gusts. He could parp out the French national anthem and impersonate thunder and cannon fire or smoke a cigarette and blow out the stage lights – all by (ahem) working his arse off.

At the end of the 19th century, he became the biggest draw at Paris’s Moulin Rouge and caught the attention of the great American inventor Thomas Edison, who was working on how to add smell to film. While his version of Smell-O-Vision did not go anywhere, a short clip of a performing Le Pétomane still survives, although tragically without sound.

A black‑and‑white illustration of a lively social gathering. A man stands on a table or raised platform, gesturing animatedly as he performs or tells a story. People around him, dressed in early‑20th‑century clothing, lean in smiling and laughing. Musical notes float in the background, suggesting a festive, musical atmosphere.

7. Literature is littered with flatulence

Some of the most respected names in the history of literature were far from averse to toilet humour. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is bursting with bawdiness, including, in The Miller’s Tale, a scene where a man sticks his rear end out of a window and lets rip in another man’s face.

Alongside Aladdin and Ali Baba, One Thousand and One Nights includes Abu Hasan, whose tale involves fleeing the country after breaking wind at a wedding. And of course, the Bard himself, William Shakespeare, peppered many of his plays with not-so-subtle references to flatulence, from a suggestive “wind instrument” in Othello to Harry Hotspur’s insult in Henry IV, Part 1 that Owen Glendower had been born when the Earth farted.

8. A farting Roman caused 10,000 deaths

With Judea under the control of the Roman empire in the first century AD, Jewish people had to commemorate the festival of Passover at the Temple of Jerusalem under the watchful gaze of an army garrison. Tensions boiled over one year when a soldier, wishing to make his disdain for the Jews known, turned around, bent over and, wrote the historian Josephus, “spoke such words as you might expect at such a posture”.

The crowd was deeply insulted to be ‘spoken to’ in such a manner and a riot threatened to break out, leading the Romans to call in reinforcements. In the ensuing clash, Josephus claimed that as many as 10,000 died, mostly trampled trying to escape the temple.

9. Japanese artists filled scrolls with farting competitions

As already mentioned, flatulence has inspired jokes ever since, well, the beginning of jokes. The humour does not just take the form of crude word play, though. Japanese scrolls from the Edo period (1603-1868) and earlier depict farting competitions.

In one example of these He-Gassen from 1846, naked participants let out such violent bolts of wind from their rear ends that they blow over people, cats and trees, and even destroy houses. Despite the detail of He-Gassen, there is no evidence of farting contests actually taking place in Edo Japan.

A traditional Japanese illustration showing several figures caught in a chaotic, humorous moment around a broken wooden screen. Some people are partially clothed or nude, tumbling or leaning through the damaged frame. Their garments feature colourful patterns, including red with white flowers, green waves, and blue floral designs. One person holds a fan as the group collapses together in a lively, comic scene.

10. A Founding Father called for a scientific cure for smelly farts

As well as one of the most important statesmen in US history, Benjamin Franklin made numerous advances as a scientist and inventor. There was something, however, he thought the scientific community needed to prioritise, according to a letter in 1781.

The Founding Father wanted a new substance that could be added to food and “render the natural discharges of wind from our bodies, not only inoffensive, but agreeable as perfumes”. In truth, he wasn’t entirely serious: he intended the letter as a gentle dig against what he regarded as pretentious scientific societies.

Still, as ambassador to France at the time and with the fledgling United States fighting for its existence against the British, he really should have had more pressing matters than the smell of his farts.

11. Flatulence changed a Greek philosopher’s outlook on life – twice

While making a speech one day, the ancient Greek philosopher Metrocles accidentally let out an audible fart, which, understandably, rather dented the integrity of his words. Such was his embarrassment that he gave up on life and attempted to starve himself.

He was only saved when a fellow thinker, Crates of Thebes, visited him and let loose a fart of his own, and so demonstrated how shame was only the result of social conventions. A reassured Metrocles embraced this brand of philosophy, Cynicism, and became one of its most committed proponents.

12. A fart in the House of Commons inspired a political poem

In 1607, a parliamentary debate had a surprising interruption when the House of Commons echoed with the unmistakable sound of a fart. The offending MP, Henry Ludlow, may have hoped that after the laughter died down, the incident would be forgotten, but news spread and inspired a poem.

The Censure of the Parliament Fart satirically guesses what the other MPs’ reactions may have been to Ludlow’s embarrassing contribution to the debate, including this gem of a couplet: “‘Thanke God,’ quoth Sir Edward Hungerford, / ‘That this Fart proved not a Turdd.

A detailed black‑and‑white illustration of a large 17th‑century assembly in a grand hall. Rows of people in wide‑brimmed hats and cloaks fill tiered seating around a central platform, where a figure stands before a throne‑like chair. Two officials sit at a table covered in documents as the crowd looks on, suggesting a formal trial or parliamentary session.

13. Passing wind in front of the queen forced a noble into exile

Breaking wind in parliament is one thing; doing so while stood before the monarch is quite another. Such was the reported fate of Edward de Vere. According to a biography written by 17th-century antiquarian John Aubrey, the earl of Oxford let one go when he bowed for Elizabeth I (r1558-1603), and he was so ashamed that he left the country and travelled for seven years.

His hopes of returning once the incident had been forgotten were immediately dashed, however: when he next saw the queen, she reassured him with the words, “My lord, we had forgot the fart.

14. People kept farts in jars to ward off the Great Plague

For millennia, the leading theory for how illnesses spread was through miasma, or bad air. During the Black Death, it was thought a whiff of a horrible, noxious smell could result in a fatal bout of the disease. That’s why plague doctors wore masks with long beaked noses, so they could stuff the end with pleasant-smelling flowers and herbs.

As for everyone else, during the Great Plague of London in 1665-66 doctors recommended storing farts in a jar to ensure there was something pungent to sniff and so keep the miasma at bay. Of course, it could be argued that a fart jar guaranteed bad air was never far away.

A black‑and‑white engraving of a plague doctor wearing a long robe, gloves, a wide‑brimmed hat, and a beaked mask. He stands holding a long staff, with small figures and a distant cityscape behind him. Decorative text surrounds the image, including the title “Der Doctor Schnabel von Rom.”

15. Martin Luther fought the devil by breaking wind

Needless to say, Martin Luther – the German monk and theologian who sparked the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century – had a lot to say on the issue of religion. But amongst his attacks on corruption in the church, he advocated a rather unusual method of keeping oneself free from sin. “I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away,” he reportedly said.

Scatology (the study of excrement) actually formed a common feature in Luther’s writings, but why Satan would be scared off by flatulence is anyone’s guess.

16. A British politician calls for more farting

The long-serving British politician Charles James Fox clearly had his mind on something other than parliamentary business. In 1800, the future foreign secretary published An Essay Upon Wind, which broke down the different “species of farts” – from the “sonorous and full-toned” to the “soft fizzing” – and the foods and methods required to produce each kind.

Chiefly, he argued for flatulence to be more widely accepted. Rather than those who “cowardly close their ports against the mild zephyrs of nature”, he implored his readers to “fart away”.

17. A mythical beast had an explosive defence against predators

Medieval bestiaries are compendiums of delightfully bizarre and mythical creatures believed to be roaming in far-off lands. Take the Bonnacon, a bull-like animal thought to be somewhere in modern-day Macedonia.

With horns curving inwards, rendering them useless, the Bonnacon’s chief weapon was its backside, as it could spray explosive excrement over huge distances. Its farts were said to be so acidic that it burned the skin of anyone unlucky to be in its path. No wonder the medieval illustrations of the Bonnacon show the people approaching it in full armour or with a shield.

A medieval illustration framed in red, showing a person in a blue draped garment holding a long spear and a shield with diagonal lines. They face a fantastical creature with a lion‑like body, green curled horns, a tufted tail, and a plant‑like growth rising from its back.

18. Jonathan Swift wrote about the benefits of farting

The Gulliver’s Travels author was one of the great satirists of his age, but he had some more frivolous fun with his writing too. In 1722, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet titled The Benefit of Farting Explain’d, under the pseudonym “Don Fartinando Puff-indorst, Professor of Bumbast in the University of Crackow”.

After trying to define the essence of farts, he stresses the health implications of suppressing them. The main takeaway was that preventing wind coming out at one end would inevitably lead to more blowing out the other. Swift goes as far as to suggest that was why women were more talkative.

19. The Swedes mistook farting fish for nuclear submarines

During the Cold War, Sweden became increasingly concerned about Russian nuclear submarines entering their waters as surveillance equipment regularly picked up tell-tale sounds of strange activity. In 1982, the Swedish military spent a month chasing a mysterious intruder with zero success, and the concerns continued well into the 1990s, after the Cold War had ended.

Except, there were no subs. A biology professor named Magnus Wahlberg discovered that the sounds had instead been made by large shoals of herring as they communicated, which they did by blowing air out of their backsides. Coincidentally enough, there were no more subs after that.

20. Two films claim to be the first with a fart – but neither are

Arguably the most iconic scene in Mel Brooks’s 1974 comedy Western, Blazing Saddles, involves a campfire, beans and a dozen cowboys breaking into a symphony of burps and bottom burps. Immature, certainly, but it broke an important barrier in Hollywood as the first time that wind was broken (and it was a lot of wind).

That said, another comedy, Cold Turkey, had shown a single toot a few years earlier. It just wasn’t enough to blow the doors open like Blazing Saddles. Ironically, a tagline for Cold Turkey – which is about the tobacco industry – is “battle of the butt”.

In reality, Yasujirō Ozu’s 1959 film Good Morning uses farting as a reoccurring gag. So, it turns out the award for the first case of breaking wind on the silver screen goes to neither of these claimants.

A medieval illustration framed in red, showing a person in a blue draped garment holding a long spear and a shield with diagonal lines. They face a fantastical creature with a lion‑like body, green curled horns, a tufted tail, and a plant‑like growth rising from its back.

21. Farts are always funny – just ask Leslie Nielsen

The Airplane! and The Naked Gun star, and supreme master of deadpan humour, Leslie Nielsen, always carried an electronic fart machine in his pocket, which he would surreptitiously deploy while in restaurants or on talk shows.

So committed was he to the bit that, following his death in 2010, his family made sure to bury him with the device in his coffin. If a simple fart gag is good enough for comedy royalty, that’s enough for the rest of us, surely? It should be, and don’t call me Shirley.

]]>The life of self-made Marilyn Monroehttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/marilyn-monroe-podcast-lucy-bolton/2026-06-01T09:27:16.000ZMarilyn Monroe is synonymous with glamour, beauty and stardom, but what happens when we go beneath the surface of her public image? In this episode, Lucy Bolton reveals the career-driven and consistently ambitious side to Marilyn which fuelled the creation of her star image. Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, Lucy guides us through Marilyn's personal and professional life, unveiling the hard-working woman behind the glamorous facade.

]]>Gullible Georgians: hoaxes in the Enlightenment periodhttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/hoaxes-enlightenment-period-podcast-madeleine-pelling/2026-05-29T08:00:25.000ZThe 18th century was an age of industrialisation, scientific exploration and ‘progress’, but what happened when those rational foundations were shaken? Cultural and art historian Madeleine Pelling – whose latest book is Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment – speaks to Isabel King about the fascinating world of hoaxes in the period, from the dangerous to the downright bizarre.

]]>Do secret societies really rule the world?https://www.historyextra.com/membership/do-secret-societies-rule-world-video/2026-05-08T09:39:29.000ZDiscover the history behind three shadowy organisations. Without clear evidence, people are free to imagine all sorts of covert operations, secret brotherhoods, and powerful alliances. So what's the real history behind the world's most secret societies, including the Illuminati?

HistoryExtra's Isabel King explores whether some of the most infamous truly hold sway over global events. She covers their mysterious origins and the conspiracy theories surrounding them.

View Green Video on the source website]]>