by Helen Kain | Mar 14, 2026 | Fascinating People, France
On Christmas Day in the year 800, a Frankish king knelt in prayer inside the ancient basilica of St Peter in Rome. As he rose, Pope Leo III placed a crown upon his head and proclaimed him emperor. For the first time in more than three centuries, a ruler in Western...
by Helen Kain | Mar 14, 2026 | Fascinating People, France
In the early sixth century, a church stood on a hill overlooking the small city of Paris. Within it lay the tomb of a king whose decisions would reshape the future of Western Europe. His name was Clovis I, and during his lifetime the lands that had once been Roman...
by Helen Kain | Mar 14, 2026 | Fascinating People, France
On the hill above the Left Bank of Paris once stood a great abbey dedicated to a young woman who had never ruled a kingdom, commanded an army, or held official power. For centuries, however, the people of the city believed their survival had depended on her. Her name...
by Helen Kain | Mar 14, 2026 | France, The Continental Thread
When the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris caught fire in April 2019, the images traveled around the world almost instantly. People watched the flames climb through the timber framework, watched the spire collapse, and wondered — for a moment — whether something...
by Helen Kain | Mar 8, 2026 | Carousel Ideas & Systems, Themes in History
The conflict known as the Wars of the Roses was not a single war but a long struggle for the English crown fought between rival branches of the royal family. The two houses were House of Lancaster and House of York. Both traced their ancestry to Edward III, and both...
