Fuck Yeah European History

Remember the Edict of Nantes? Passed on April 13th, 1598 by Henry IV of France, this document gave some religious freedom to Huguenots (French Calvinists) by allowing the practice of Protestantism in 150 specified cities around France (Paris was not one of them). Huguenots gained civil rights and a court that contained both Protestants and Catholics to work out issues between them. It marked the end of the religious wars that had torn through France in the late 16th century. On October 18th, 1685, Henry IV’s grandson, Louis XIV, repealed the Edict as a way to further his absolute power. (Ironically, Henry IV had passed it to INCREASE his power.)

brittadictarnold:

havisham | lostsplendor | collective-history:

Kaiser Wilhelm II strikes a pose. (ca. 1914-1916) 

Boy let’s make like pre-1871 German states and unify.

Okay I’ll stop.

DAMN UR SEXY KAISER

I’m too sexy for Berlin, too sexy for Berlin, Leipzig und Frankfurt.

I’m the Kaiser, you know what I mean

and I do my little turn on the battlefield
yeah on the battlefield, on the battlefield yeah
I do my little turn on the battlefield

Speaking of Scotland, here’s John Knox (1513/14-1572), a Scottish clergyman who led the reformation in Scotland and founded Presbyterianism.

holocausthistory:

Professor Ilchenko of the Moscow Conservatoire plays the violin for Russian troops posted to the southern front

In a photograph by one of the most famous Soviet war reporters (Anatoly Garanin), an infantry division listens to music after a day of fighting.

picturesofwar:

“A Russian survivor, liberated by the 3rd Armored Division of the U.S. First Army, identifies a former camp guard who brutally beat prisoners on April 14, 1945, at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Thuringia, Germany.” (AP Photo)

It must’ve been nice to be able to accuse someone of something after watching that person beat innocent people.