Bonnie Prince Charlie
Full name: Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart
Occupation: Aristocrat
Also known as: The Young Pretender, The Young Chevalier
Time period: 1720 – 1788
Famous for: trying to reclaim the British throne for his exiled family (the Stuarts) by leading an uprising in 1745, failing and running away to France
Quick fire facts:
- Born in Rome
- Catholic
- Firm believer in the divine right of kings
Discover more about Bonnie Prince Charlie with the course Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites
Humphry Davy
Full name: Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet
Occupation: Chemist, Inventor, Poet
Time period: 1778 – 1850
Famous for: All sorts. He invented the Davy lamp and an early form of incandescent light bulb, isolated many chemical elements and invented the field of electrochemistry
Quick fire facts:
- First ever scientist to be awarded a baronetcy
- His lab assistant was Michael Faraday
- Born and raised in Cornwall
Hadrian
Full name: Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus (Latin)
Also known as: third of the five good emperors
Occupation: Emperor of Rome
Time period: AD 117 – AD 138
Famous for: Building a pretty big wall which partitioned the northern part of Roman Britain
Quick fire facts:
- Helped beards become fashionable again (the only emperor, other than Nero, to not be clean-shaven)
- Travelled all over the Roman empire during his reign
- A ‘philhellene’ also known as a big fan of the Greeks
Visit Hadrian’s namesake with the course Hadrian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier
W.T. Cosgrave
Full name: William Thomas Cosgrave
Also known as: Liam Tomás Mac Cosgair (Irish)
Occupation: Irish politician
Time period: 1880-1965
Famous for: Being the Chairman of the first provisional government of Ireland
Quick fire facts:
- Become politically active when he attended a Sinn Féin conference aged 25
- Originally sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising
- Has a controversial legacy due to him turning on former republican allies
Agrippina the Younger
Full name: Julia Agrippina
Also known as: Agrippina Minor, Julia Augusta Agrippina
Occupation: Roman Empress
Time period: AD 49 – AD 54
Famous for: Being part of the Ancient Roman Julio-Claudian dynasty (she was related to five different emperors, and might have poisoned one of them)
Quick fire facts:
- Exiled at a young age for her involvement in a murder plot
- Feuded with Emperor Nero, her son, who may have executed her
- Suspected to have been involved in multiple murders to ensure her powerful position as Empress of Rome
Travel back to Ancient Rome with the course Rome: a Virtual Tour of the Ancient City
Shakespeare
Full name: William Shakespeare
Also known as: The Bard of Avon
Occupation: Playwright, poet, actor
Time period: 1564 – 1616
Famous for: writing some of the best known plays ever written. Many even consider him the greatest writer in the English language
Quick fire facts:
- Wrote 38 plays
- Estimated to have contributed thousands of new words to the English language including ‘scuffle’, ‘addiction’ and ‘puking’
- Left Anne, his wife, his ‘second best bed’ in his will
Examine Shakespeare’s enduring influence with the course Shakespeare: Print and Performance
Adelina Patti
Full name: Adelina Patti
Occupation: Coloratura soprano (opera singer)
Time period: 1848 – 1919
Famous for: having one of the most beautiful voices in history, as endorsed by composer Verdi
Quick fire facts:
- Began her opera career aged 16 in New York
- Commanded huge fees
- Her great-grand niece is another musical legend: Patti LuPone
Delve further into the world of opera with the course Inside Opera: Why Does It Matter?
Van Meegeren
Full name: Han van Meegeren
Occupation: Forger, artist
Time period: 1889 – 1947
Famous for: producing impeccable forgeries of famous artists including Vermeer
Quick fire facts:
- His forgeries earned him around $30million
- He once sold a forgery to Hermann Göring
- Used Bakelite, an early plastic, to ‘age’ his forgeries
