Good morning, today we are going to be looking at the life of Ivan the Terrible.  The run time for this documentary is 52:23.

He was orphaned as a child.  He was brought up in a system of political violence.  He liberates Russia from foreign leaders.  He committed his first murder at the age of thirteen.  He was the first Tsar of Russia.  Was he a harsh ruler who demanded absolute loyalty?  Or was he an intellectual?  Who is the real Ivan the Terrible?  A criminal profiler looks for those answers.  Additionally, Ivan’s face will be reconstructed during this documentary.

The descriptions of Ivan’s character are often contradictory to the picture of the man.  Axel Peterman, a criminal profiler looks to create a profile of the Tsar.  He turns to the records written in Ivan’s hands, instead of what comes down through history.  The first impression he gets from Ivan is that the man was intelligent.

At the age of three, Ivan loses his father and then eventually his mother.  His mother was most likely poisoned.  Russia is ruled by the Boyars.  The boyars are harsh with Ivan.  He has to fight for his food.  The boyars lock him in a room for no reason.  He was often beaten.  The boyars would have wished that Ivan would have disappeared.  Ivan lived in a constant state of fear as a child.  He would tap into these fears when he came into power.  Ivan was at the mercy of his tormentors and he knew it.

In 1543, at thirteen, Ivan’s impotence turns to rage.  He realizes he has power and he uses it.  So he strikes back against the boyars.  He turns a pack of dogs on the leader of the boyars.  This leader is torn to pieces.  The boyars grow fearful of Ivan and he knows it.  He enjoys that he can cause fear.  The dogs are an extension of him and they follow his orders.  The act shocks the Orthodox Church and the church leaders will have to come to the task with that.  A Monk is appointed his teacher and he learns to read and write. Ivan learns his family tree through these lessons and feels that he is appointed by God to rule. 

In 1547, Ivan grows up under the supervision of the church.  He marries when he is seventeen to Anastasia Romanova.  The search for the bride was extensive before he selected Anastasia.  She was his most loyal companion and was a calming influence for Ivan.  Ivan is also declared Grand Duke of Russia and was named Tsar of the Russian Empire.  After his proclamation, Ivan leads his troops against the Mongol Hordes.  A victory would cement his place as a leader of the Russian people. He comes up with a trick that allows him to move fortifications quickly.  Eventually, Ivan leads his troops to victory over the Mongols.

The Mongols are unstoppable in open fields, however, in closed quarters their soldiers are useless.  Ivan retook the Kazan.  This victory strengthens the feelings of Russian Nationalism all over the country and this nationalism carries down to the present day.  There were songs written about Ivan’s victory.  The peasants loved Ivan even though he was an autocratic ruler.  This would be a contradiction to what history has talked about Ivan the Terrible.  Ivan builds a church in honor of his victory over the Mongols.

Ivan in the first half of his rule reforms the law and sets up a parliament of nobles.  He hammers down on corruption.  Whoever violates Ivan’s law, is violating God’s will and is condemned to die.  These are hints of the brutality to come in the latter half of his rule.  Even by the standards of the sixteenth century, Ivan’s judgments were cruel.  What drove Ivan to do these terrible things?

What portrait will the criminal profile paint of Ivan the Terrible?  Did his childhood traumas make him the man he was?  Does history get Ivan the Terrible wrong?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about Ivan the Terrible.

This was an interesting documentary about Ivan the Terrible.  It was neat that the criminal profiler went to the original records to discover the real Ivan the Terrible.  This would be a good documentary to show in a history class and for students who are working on a biography of Ivan the Terrible.

Good morning, we are going to do an exploration of a pair of Renaissance artists: Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger.  The run time for this documentary is 42:37.

They are two of the greatest artist of the 16th Century, Lucas and Lucas Cranach.  They ran a workshop and produced some of the greatest works of the Reformation.  They made their fortune painting.  The pair were personal friends of Martin Luther.  They painted more and faster than any of their contemporaries.  Generations of scholars have studied the Cranachs’, however, there are still questions that have to be answered.  Today, modern technology may have scholars find the answers they are looking for.

Today, scholars are studying a piece that came from the Cranachs’ workshop.  Was this altarpiece done by the elder or the younger?  The altarpiece looks like it was created according to Cranach’s the Elder’s instructors.  Cranach the Elder began painting familiar motifs.  The Saints wore fashions of the day and jewelry and were placed in realistic scenes.  It was a new world and he was exploring it through painting.  In Wittenberg, the All Saints Castle Church and Saint Mary’s Town Church dominated the horizon.  The elector of Saxony had a residence in Wittenberg.  His name was Frederick the Wise and he dreamed of a Renaissance with a Saxon touch.  He was a patron of the arts and education.  He established the University of Wittenberg and it would be the center of the arts and sciences.

Intellectual freedom and humanism flourished in Wittenberg.  It was a small town and had about 2,500 people.  It was dominated by students and professors.  There were printers and other trades.  So many talents came together in this one town.  In 1505, Lucas Cranach was appointed court painter by Frederick the Wise.  Lucas was paid a yearly salary and it was a respectable position.  One of the primary duties was to paint the ruler’s portrait.  He also supervised the decoration for the tournaments that were held at the castle and would then would do a wood engraving of the events. 

Cranach although informed about what was happening in Italy during the Renaissance, ignored what was coming out.  He continuously developed his style.  He faced criticism for his choices.  When he arrived at Wittenberg, he created a painting for the castle church.  It was of the Virgin Mary and she was portrayed as looking directly at the viewer.  A depiction of Mary in the flesh would have been unthinkable before the Renaissance.

The Cranach workshop produced 15,000 works.  Since 2009, these works and information about the works have been published on the Cranach Digital Archive.  This archive is accessible to scholars.  One work, the Martyrdom of St. Catherine was a popular subject to paint.  

Not much is known about Lucas Cranach the Elder.  He was believed to be born in Cranach in the German region of Franconia and would have received his training in his father’s workshop.  He would have left home as a journeyman.  Eventually, he would disappear from the record before emerging as a painter in Vienna.  Vienna was a major city in the Holy Roman Empire and it would be here he would paint his first known works.  His early paintings show that he was developing his style.  He would eventually meet Martin Luther and would become friends.

The Church permeated society, if you were a citizen of a city, you belonged to the parish too.  Martin Luther would start a revolution with his 99 Thesis and Cranach would become the painter of the Reformation.  His new paintings would depict the relationship between man and God.  He conveyed theology in paintings and would show the changes that were going on in Wittenberg.  Cranach would paint the people he knew in Biblical scenes.  Cranach was close friends with Luther.  Eventually, Cranach would witness the marriage between Martin Luther and Katherina von Bora.  Luther would witness Cranach’s marriage to his wife.  To learn more about the Cranachs’, their workshop, and their place in the Reformation, continue to watch this documentary.

I am trying to build up a list for the Renaissance and found this documentary while exploring that topic.  This would be a good documentary for an art history class or independent study students.

The Cranach Archive is found here: https://lucascranach.org/home
 

During the 14th Century, the Black Death ripped through Europe.  It was a pivotal time during the Middle Ages.  The town of Tadcaster, England was hit especially hard.  It is here where multiple graves were found.  There were no grave goods found.  Who were these people?  How did they die?  Who was this person?  What can this skeleton tell us about the Black Death in England?  The run time for this documentary is 46:00.

The seventh-year after the Black Death began in Europe, it finally arrived in England.  It began in the downs and ports and then made its way inland.  The countryside was void of people.  It soon swept through England.  It arrived at the town of Tadcaster, in Yorkshire England.  The average life expectancy was 30 years and everyone struggled with daily living.  Life was a hand-to-mouth existence.

Tim Sutherland hints that people were living at a substance level.  Even then, the poorest of the poor had to give any abundance to the higher-ups in society.  The story then turns to the storage facilities where thousands and thousands of skeletons are kept.  Many have not been examined when they were discovered.  Today, some of those skeletons are undergoing an examination.  These skeletons are going to reveal their secrets.  It is surprising to discover that historians are still learning more about the Middle Ages.

Malin Holst is an osteoarcheologist who looks at skeletons.  She is with the University of York.  She talks about the skeletons in storage and plans on examining them.  The skeletons reveal that there were a variety of diseases and the owner’s social status.  Malin is often called in to examine the bones when discoveries are made.  She establishes all the facts she can about the individuals.  The skeletons are forwarded to specialists who work to find out what this person died from and even extract DNA.

Tadcaster had seen its share of history.  There was a castle on the site.  It had seen battles of the English Civil War.  However, during the Black Death, it was a place of death.  One local had heard about a grim discovery on the site of Castle Hill.  Simon Richardson was entranced by the discovery and had an obsession with archeology.  He had learned that there were skeletons found in a garden site.  Twelve individuals were found on the site.

Simon went away from Tadcaster for a time and then come back.  The castle site changed hands and when Simon returned, he was asked to clear the site.  He discovered the site had become overgrown.  He set to work to clear it.  When he started clearing the site, he found another skeleton with a hole in the skull.  Was this a victim of the battle?  Did he flee from a battle?  An excavation took place on the site and more skeletons were found.  What was this site?  Was this a cemetery?  Why were these people buried on Castle Hill instead of being buried in the Church Cemetery?

The skeletons were buried oddly as if these were rushed burials.  Some were buried in groups.  Others were buried face down.  There was a challenge to dating on the site.  The skeletons were not buried with grave goods or anything to indicate a time frame.  Simon and Tim walk the castle hill site and talk about the history of the site.  What can the history of the site tell us about the graves?  What can it tell us about the development of Tadcaster?  Why was the castle hill site abandoned?  Why were these bodies buried on the Hill?  However, these simple questions are going to have some complicated answers.

Malin Holst works to examine the Tadcaster Skeletons, she is examining one of the skeletons.  What will she discover about this skeleton?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about the skeleton.

Well, the build-up to the revelation that the skeleton was a woman was really slow.  The background to the site could have been cut in half.  I was going to share this documentary in March, but the build-up to the fact the skeleton was a woman gave me pause.  That said, it would be an interesting view for a science class as well as a history class because this documentary was heavily influenced by the science behind history.
 

Good Morning, we will conclude our exploration of the Stuarts with James II.  James II was a Catholic king of a protestant nation which would prove to be a disaster.  He was so staunch in his Catholicism, that it eroded his support amongst the people.  How would the Winn family navigate the reign of this king?
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King James II was Catholic for two decades.  He had never expected to be King.  He was the second son of King Charles I.  He held the title of Duke of York.  During the English Civil War, he snuck out of England dressed as a woman and into the Hague.  Here he would spend the majority of his life.  While Oliver Cromwell ruled England, James and his brother Charles would be in exile.

James would spend a lot of his exile in France.  Here he would be exposed to the Catholic faith.  He also was a soldier in the French army but when the French allied with the Commonwealth and Cromwell he moved to Spain and would become a soldier in the Spanish Army.  He was so good he would be offered the rank of Admiral of the Spanish Navy.

However Cromwell, and so James declined the offer and returned to England with his brother the newly minted Charles II.  He would become his brother’s closest advisor and would be the Admiral of the English Navy.  Upon return to England, he and his wife Anne Hyde would become Catholics.  He continued to attend Anglican services until he converted.  When news broke he was going to Catholic masses forced him to come out as a Catholic.  In 1671, Anne Hyde died and in 1673 he was going to marry Mary of Modena.  It was also the year the Test Act was passed.  This would have forced him to swear allegiance to the Anglican church.  Eventually, it came out that he was Catholic and he resigned his commission as Admiral of the Navy.

Anti-Catholic sentiments rose in England and the focus turned to James.  Charles II had no legitimate heirs and so James would have become King upon Charles’ death.  There were plots to assassinate Charles II to put James on the throne.  Charles II arranged the marriage of Mary, James’ daughter, to the Protestant William of Orange.  However, this did not relieve any sentiments. 

Parliament tried to pass a bill that would exclude James from becoming King and it was defeated.  This caused whispers about assassinating both James and Charles.  An attempt on James’ life would bring him a great deal of sympathy.  This would pave the way for James II to be king.  Immediately James would face a rebellion by his own nephew the Duke of Monmouth, Charles II’s illegitimate son.  The Monmouth rebellion was crushed and then another rebellion rose up in Scotland.

This caused James II to keep a standing army and appointed Catholics to be the officers in this army.  Protestant officers were fired from their jobs.  Even if the officers were loyal to the King, they lost their jobs.  Catholics dominated the court and a papal representative was welcomed to the court for the first time since Mary I.  James II was overplaying his hand.  He was behaving like an absolute monarch.  His behavior was undermining his popular support.  The people were comparing him to his late father King Charles I.  Unlike his brother Charles II, James never learned the lessons of the English Civil War. 

Things came to a head with the birth of son…  What would happen to James II because of the birth of a son?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

Okay, this series finished on a strong note.  I would show this episode to a history class.

Good morning, we are continuing our journey through the Stuart dynasty.  This time, King Charles II comes back to reclaim his throne after the English Civil War and the death of Cromwell.  King Charles II had spent years in exile and when he returned, he would bring back unity to the country.  He brought back glamour to the country after the years of austerity under Cromwell.  It was exciting for the people.  Unfortunately, during the years of Cromwell, the Winns suffered.  Would they bounce back in the new reign?  Tune into this episode to find out.

Oliver Cromwell was the protector of England and ruler of the Commonwealth.  He went on to work reforming England in light of his beliefs.  The Royal Family was being hunted and then went into exile.  Charles II suffered humiliating defeats and was in exile.  Nobody wanted to tell him that his father was executed until one courtier came and called him “Your Majesty.” 

The Winn family suffered under the reign of Oliver Cromwell.  Sir Richard Winn died a few months after the death of Charles I.  Sir Owen Winn was now the head of the family.  He had to be careful under Cromwell.  His estate could be seized at any moment by the Commonwealth.  Would Sir Owen manage to navigate these choppy waters?

However, at the age of sixty, Oliver Cromwell died.  He was succeeded by his son, Richard.  This got people thinking.  How was this succession be different from the succession of the king?  A group of men in parliament came together to rise against Richard Cromwell.  The rebellion was in the works and The Winn family was caught in the middle.  Richard Winn was imprisoned as one of the leaders of the rebellion.  It was a challenging time for the Winn family.

Across the English Channel, Charles II waited patiently.  Even though the rebellion failed, the ideas continued to live on.  A second rebellion was coming.  This rebellion would succeed.  General Monk took the side of the Stuarts.  The army was gone and on the side of the king, Sir Richard Cromwell gave up his right to be Lord Protector.  Charles II was invited back to be king.

Charles II promised Parliament he would accept anything they said.  However, Parliament made no conditions for his return.  Charles II arrived in England and the English celebrated his return.  The Winn family was jubilant at the return of the King.  He pardoned the people who took part in the English Civil War, except for nine people.  Even after his death, Oliver Cromwell would be held accountable.  He was hung and decapitated.  Charles II’s hatred for the people who murdered his father would never end.

England would undergo a cultural rebirth under Charles II.  Theaters were brought back.  Celebrations were reinstated.  The sciences flourished.  Discoveries were made.  There was a new spirit of optimism.  Charles II had a political intelligence his father never had.  He was willing to work with many people and wanted to see healing for the country.  He was a man who would rather disappoint his friends than his enemies.  He had the nickname “the Merry Monarch.”  Would normal life return for the English?  King Charles II’s reign would face many challenges: the Great Fire of London and the plague would return.  How would Charles navigate these challenges?

Would the Winn family prosper again?  Sir Owen Winn would die the year Charles II became king.  Would his son Richard restore the family fortunes?
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This was a fascinating episode on Charles II, some of the Winn family stuff was a little bit too much at times.  Overall, it still was a good episode and would be something to show in a history class.

Good morning, we will continue with the Stuart Dynasty and will continue with King Charles I.  King Charles was a king who disappointed everyone.  He was a man who was not meant to be king, he had an older brother who died young.  Sir Richard Winn was his best friend and accompanied him on a disastrous trip to Spain.
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Nobody wanted him to marry a Catholic Princess.  However, Prince Charles would end up marrying a Catholic Princess anyway: Henrietta Maria.  Henrietta Maria had a job: she would bring England back to the Catholic faith.  She was a zealously Catholic Queen and flaunted it.  She refused to even take part in the coronation because of the Protestant connections.  Both sides had strong religious biases.  Someone would have needed to back down and the politicians would not be the ones.  There were going to be conflicts in the future because of this. 

Henrietta Maria and Charles both were devoted to the arts.  Richard Winn would sign off on the art purchases and was Queen Henrietta Maria’s treasurer.  Richard Winn would sign off on her purchases and would often pay for artworks himself using his funds from his estate.  He prepared the King for when his portraits were painted.  Charles brought art and culture to England.  He collected Titian and enjoyed the works of the high Renaissance.  Charles was an ordinary-looking man and needed art to show him as a grand man.  Artists elevated King Charles I into a Christlike figure.

However, King Charles I, had the same challenges as his father.  He butted heads with Parliament.  This tension would lead to bloodshed in England.  Only Parliament had the power to levy taxes.  King Charles I needed to raise funds for war in Spain.  However, the tenuous relationship with Parliament would attempt to put a stop to that.  King Charles also relied on the Duke of Buckingham, his father’s former favorite.  So, King Charles I, intervened in the 30 Years’ War and engaged in piracy.  However, this was a disaster and the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated.  This shocked the country.

King Charles continued to try to find ways around raising funds.  He leaned onto the ship money.  Ship money was raised in times of war.  This time King Charles would extend that tax beyond wartime and would spread it inland.  This would cause a divide between the brothers of the Winn family.  The Stuarts never had enough money and would use anything to raise money for the Crown.  However, this was a disaster for the Stuarts.  It would lead to the belief that Charles I was an absolute monarch.

King Charles also came under attack for his religious sympathies.  He was accused of harboring secret Catholic sympathies and a series of religious laws caused the Scots to rebel.  Charles was eventually forced to recall Parliament.  Parliament passed laws to prevent King Charles from ruling alone ever again.  King Charles was unhappy with the changes in the law.  However, tensions continued to rise, especially in Ireland.  King Charles was a man who did not have tact.  Charles’ wife was censored.  It would only be a matter of time before the English Civil War would begin.

Charles Spencer’s participation in this documentary was fascinating and I would like to see him in future documentaries.  I also liked how Henrietta Maria’s Catholicism was mentioned and how that had an impact on the start of the English Civil War.

This episode flowed a lot better, even though Kate does have a quick narration.  This would be one episode I would show in the classroom.  I hope that the next episode will be better.

Good morning!  Today, I will introduce you to a new historian on this blog: Kate Williams.  She is a historian that you have seen before in the documentaries I have reviewed.  This time she is hosting her own documentary series called The Stuarts: A Bloody Reign.  She tells the story of the Stuart Kings and the Winn family.
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The Stuarts: A Bloody Reign is a series featuring the Stuarts.  They took over England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I.  Europe is torn apart by religious conflict and England is right at the center.  The Stuart kings were James I, Charles I, Charles II, and James II.  Kate Williams reassesses this dynasty in light of new evidence.  She also explores a family who witnessed the rise and the fall of the Stuarts.

The first episode kicks off with James I.  He gained the English throne through his mother’s claim.  His mother was Mary, Queen of Scots and she was a descendant of King Henry VII.  James VI of Scotland is invited to become King after Elizabeth I’s death.  Kate looks beyond the Gunpowder Plot and examines what kind of King James was.  When James I was declared King, he named Lord Howard to be in charge of his household.  Lord Howard was an important man and James wanted someone loyal at his side.

As soon as James I arrived in London, things turn sour for him.  The plague struck again.  For some people, it was a sign of judgment.  James had to find a balance between his new English kingdom and his old obligations to Scotland.  James was raised as a protestant.  However, the English did not want a Scottish king.  The Scots did not want their king to leave Scotland.  Immediately he was facing usurpers and the Gun Powder Plot was just another plot against the new king.  King James had a tough challenge ahead to unify the country.  England was still divided between Catholics and Protestants.  Would England and Scotland want to be unified in the first place?

Kate tells the story of the Winn family and how the rise of the Stuarts changed their lives.  John Winn, a supporter of James was warned about going to London.  He had a tip that something was going to happen in London against the King.  The King had bestowed this family a great favor: he made the family baronets.  The Winn family was a prominent family in North Wales.  However, his family’s rise made people jealous.  So how would the Winn family continue to navigate the relationship with the Stuart kings?

How would James I navigate his new kingdom?  Would he find the balance between England and Scotland?  Would his vision of kingship come into conflict with the English version of kingship?  Tune into this documentary to find out more about James I.

Some of the narration of the story was jarring and stilted.  It took a lot to get used to.  Kate’s style worked in previous documentaries, but she was a participant and not a narrator in those documentaries.  She should have slowed herself down in this episode.  The documentary also came off as being out of order and if it could have been arranged differently it could have flowed better.  It was cool to get a blip about Arabella Stuart.  Overall it was a challenge to write this review on the Stuart Kings.

Would I show this first episode to a classroom?  This would be one documentary I would pass on.  It is too fast-paced, too disorganized, and bounced around too many times.  In this first episode, I would prefer to use this for research purposes only.  Will this series get better with the next episode?  I hope so!

Frank Lloyd Wright was the greatest architect in America.  He redefined architecture and became famous in the world all over.  However, his genius is oftentimes buried under the scandals of his life.  Jonathan Adams, an architect from Wales is going to travel around America to discover more about Frank Lloyd Wright.  He wants to know the man and wishes to put him back in his place.  What will Jonathan discover about Frank Lloyd Wright?  Tune into this episode to find out more.
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Wright’s life was often tempestuous.  He had a mistress.  He was often on the brink of financial ruin.  However, his ideas that architecture should be a part of the landscape and not separate from it.  Jonathan Adams kicks off this episode starting with his family.  Frank Lloyd Wright’s family came from Wales.  He was proud of his Welsh roots.  They were practicing Unitarians.  Eventually, the family moved to America because they were searching for religious freedom.  They sought a place that reminded them of Wales and they settled in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Frank Lloyd Wright would be born in Spring Green in a place that was called the Valley.  The Wrights clung to their Welsh roots and wanted to be Welsh in America.  The Valley shaped his values.  It was paradise for a young boy.  He studied engineering in college and left the Valley to seek an apprenticeship.  He arrived in Chicago and found a job.  He workedwith the city’s leading architect.  He met Kitty Tobin and within two years they married and had a child. 

Wright borrowed money from his boss to build a house in Oak Park.  He would build a house for himself and his family.  It was a strange house set in the neighborhood.  The house was bathed in light and the rooms flowed together.  Wright developed an open plan before it was an open plan.  His house attracted the people and commissions flowed in.  He designed and built houses but was waiting for his big commission.  That big commission would come in the form of designing a new Unitarian Church.

The design shocked the people.  He created a building out of concrete and was the first modern building.  The outside was plain and its plainness is deceptive.  Inside hides a beautiful space full of light and openness.  At the time the people were not impressed with the design and prayed for ivy to grow on the walls.  However, with this building, Frank Lloyd Wright would be well on his way to becoming a well-known architect.  He started designing houses and his designs had become more daring. 

His fame grew far and wide and his design became known as “prairie houses.”  He designed the Robie House.  He even made the entrance of the house dramatic.  The house was bathed in light and destroyed the conventional box tradition of houses.  He even designed furniture to go with the house.  Frank Lloyd Wright was a man riding high, but he was a man chaffing against conventional life.

He started an affair with the wife of a client.  The pair fled to Europe to avoid scandal.  Eventually, they came back to the United States and settled at Taliesin.  However, tragedy would strike the couple and to learn more about this tragedy continue to watch the rest of this episode.  What else will Jonathan Adams learn about Frank Lloyd Wright?

This is an excellent documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright.  Jonathan Adams is an excellent narrator to the story of Frank Lloyd Wright.  This would be an excellent documentary to show for a home design class as well as a history class.

Now for something completely different: The Hidden World of the Ottoman Imperial Harem.  This is a longer documentary to be shown in the classroom.
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The Ottoman Imperial Harem brings together a variety of historians to talk about the controversies of the Ottoman Harem.  It is a system steeped in mystery and misunderstanding.  The harem was closed off to the world.  Who were the people that made up?  Was it a place of hard partying?  Or was it a place where great learning took place?  This documentary brings in a prince who lived in the harem all his life.  He was one of the last people to have lived in the harem.

During the time of the harem, it was forbidden to write about it.  This is part of why the harem is shrouded in mystery.  However, this mystery gave rise to some fantastical stories about the harem.  Ambassadors wrote about the decadence in the harem and how the harem was organized.  In 1520 a newcomer entered the harem, her name was Alexandra.  She was the daughter of a priest and sold to the harem.  She would have become known as Hurrem.

Prince Osman talks about the harem and growing up in the harem.  He believes that it would have been a lonely lifestyle.  He was surprised to learn that once he got out of the harem other people thought it was an extraordinary life.

Once inside the Harem, they were examined and taken directly to the bathhouse.  They were taught how to wash and cleaned according to traditions.  They needed to be healthy because they were expected to produce healthy sons.  The concubines were slaves and had no rights over their children.  They were also expected to take classes every day. Outside ambassadors wrote that a selected girl would be given a handkerchief as a token.  They were looked after by eunuchs and the eunuchs were Africans because if the girls would get pregnant it would be obvious as to who was the father of the child.  Older women also looked after the younger girls.  Many concubines never got the chance to sleep with the Sultan.

The system was flipped on its head when Hurrem started sharing Suleyman’s bed.  She had one son after another.  Normally once a woman had a son, she would be kicked out of bed and a new favorite was chosen.  Hurrem and Suleyman changed the rules, concubines were married to the sultan’s advisors and Hurrem became the number one woman in his life.  Only one of them could be a sultan and the survivors would be killed because, under the law, inheritance went to only one son, it could not be divided.  It was a winner takes all environment.  The boys were murdered when their brother became sultan.  Prince Osman talks about how in the old days he would have been strangled and then buried in a great ceremony.  The system continued to be changed when Suleyman married Hurrem and she was the first Queen the Ottomans had.  Sultans never married their concubines.  Hurrem was freed and then the Suleyman was able to marry her.

Hurrem was given apartments next to her husband and had a great deal of influence.  While Suleyman was on campaign, he and Hurrem exchanged many letters.  She was worried about her sons and what would happen to them once their half-brother took the throne.  Slowly she started to turn Suleyman against his chosen heir and his grand vizier.  Like the women before her, Hurrem would have to fight to make sure one of her sons made it to the throne.

​To continue to learn more about the harem watch this documentary.

This documentary is an interesting look at the harem system.  It could be something that you can show in a history classroom, only if you had time for it.

The Inca ruled South America for years.  They were the people of the sun.  They built grand cities.  Eventually, they would be destroyed by the Spanish in their quest for gold.  David Adams is on a search for a lost city of gold.  These were cities that were never sacked by the Spanish.  Perhaps hidden in these jungles is the legendary “Great Sun Disk of the Incas.”  Will David Adams find this lost city, tune into this episode to find out.

​After the Spanish invaded, the Incas retreated to the jungle and found refuge in its tree.  David Adams’ first tip leads him to meet Gary Ziegler, an archeologist.  Gary talks about finding major Incan roads and these roads always lead to somewhere.  Perhaps following these roads will lead to a lost city.  David will start in Cusco, the ancient Incan capital.  Here he takes part in the ancient Incan celebration of the Sun.  Gary heads up into the mountains.  David wants to learn more about the Incan Empire.
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The Sun was the Incan Supreme god and they built their temples to the sun.  David goes to the Temple of Gold.  The gold is gone now but the walls were covered with gold and there were figures that were in the temple.  The first Spanish explorers stripped the temple of the gold, leaving behind the sun disk.  That too eventually vanished before the Spanish could return.  Where did it go?  Where was it hidden?
After taking in the sites of the Incan festival and learning more about the Incan people, David heads up into the mountains.  He will follow a trail over 500 years old and into the lost realm of the Incas.

From the start, the Incas believed that they were the children of the sun.  They were born on an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca.  Soon they would move from the island and into the mountains, where they would build an empire.  They ruled the largest empire since the Romans and they built a network of roads.  These roads ran north and south and went across the South American Continent.  David threads his way through the sacred valley and into another town.  It was in this valley where corn and potatoes were grown.  Corn and potatoes were a staple of the Incan Empire. 

David continues to make his way up to the mountains and learns more about the Incan culture along the way.  The trip into the mountains is exhausting.  However, as the trip moves forward, water is discovered and where there is water there are Incan ruins.  An earlier explorer found a watercourse and it leads to some Incan remains.  This site was important to the Incan people because one of the Incan rulers re-established an Incan capital.  It is here that David’s guides put together an oven and cook a meal.  The Incans were masons who had no competition.  Do the people of the mountains still consider themselves Incan?  The answer is yes.

David’s journey continues into the mountains to meet up with Gary Ziegler.  While the porters look for Gary’s camp, David explores the area.  The Incas had destroyed some of the roads to stop the Spanish from coming and taking their holy places.  However, even with the roads destroyed, it would have been a challenge for the Spanish to make their way up to the mountains with their heavy armor and horses.  How did the Incas manage to build their cities in the clouds?  What were their motivations?  Continue to watch this episode to find out.

This would be a good documentary to show for a high school and middle school history class.