Judas Maccabeus

NAME Judas Maccabeus, also rendered Judah Maccabee (Hebrew: יהודה המכבי, Yehudah HaMakabi). The surname "Maccabeus" (from the Aramaic/Hebrew for "hammer") was a nickname given to him personally, later extended to his father and brothers, who became collectively known as "the Maccabees" or the Hasmonean dynasty (1), (2)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Judas Maccabeus is famous as the Jewish priest and guerrilla commander who led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC, driving the Greek-Syrian occupiers from Jerusalem and restoring Jewish worship at the Temple. His recapture and rededication of the Temple in 164 BC is commemorated every year in the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, making him one of the most celebrated heroes in Jewish history  (3)

BIRTH No exact birth date survives for Judas Maccabeus; historians estimate he was born around 190 BC, somewhere in the Judean countryside, most likely in or near the priestly village of Modi'in northwest of Jerusalem. He was the third of five sons born to Mattathias, a priest of the Hasmonean family (4)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Judas was the son of Mattathias ben Johanan, an aged priest descended from the priestly order of Joarib, tracing his lineage back through Simeon and John to a forebear named Hasmonaeus, from whom the family name "Hasmonean" derived. Mattathias had settled in Modi'in, and 

Judas grew up with four brothers, John (called Gaddi), Simon (called Thassi), Eleazar (called Avaran) and Jonathan (called Apphus), along with a sister. All four brothers played central leadership, military, or religious roles in the Maccabean struggle and the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty.(5)

CHILDHOOD Little is documented about Judas Maccabeus's early years, as the ancient sources (chiefly the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees and the writings of Josephus) focus almost entirely on the revolt itself rather than his upbringing. As the son of a priest in a small rural town under Seleucid rule, he would have grown up steeped in Jewish law and Temple ritual at a time when Hellenistic Greek culture was steadily encroaching on Judean life (3) (6)

EDUCATION Judas would have received the traditional religious education of a priestly family, learning the Torah, Hebrew scripture, and the duties of temple service from his father Mattathias. There is no record of any formal Greek schooling, and his family's resistance to Hellenization suggests his upbringing emphasized strict adherence to Jewish law over Greek learning (6)

His martial education was practical, learned through outdoor life in the rugged terrain of Judea, which later equipped him with intimate knowledge of mountain passes, defiles, and guerrilla tactics.

CAREER RECORD 167 BC: When the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Jewish religious practice on pain of death, Mattathias killed a Hellenizing Jew and a royal officer at Modi'in and fled to the hills with his five sons, launching an armed uprising.

166 BC: Following the death of his father Mattathias, Judas assumed command of the revolt according to his father's dying wish, leading guerrilla raids against Seleucid garrisons and Hellenized Jewish settlements.

166-165 BC: Judas won a rapid string of victories over Seleucid forces at Emmaus, Beth Horon, and Beth Zur, defeating several Seleucid generals despite being heavily outnumbered.

164 BC: Judas recaptured Jerusalem (excepting the Seleucid garrison in the Acra citadel), cleansed the Temple of pagan idols, and on December 14, 164 BC re-established a regular order of priests, an event commemorated as Hanukkah.

161 BC: Judas sent emissaries Eupolemus and Jason to Rome, resulting in the Roman-Jewish Treaty, the first recorded diplomatic contact between the Jewish people and the Roman Republic.

160 BC: Judas was killed leading his forces at the Battle of Elasa against a much larger Seleucid army commanded by the general Bacchides.

APPEARANCE No physical description of Judas Maccabeus survives from antiquity; ancient chroniclers were concerned with his military deeds rather than his looks. 

Later artistic depictions, such as Peter Paul Rubens's 17th-century painting The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus, portray him as a robust, bearded warrior in classical armour, though these are artistic inventions rather than historical record (7)

Detail from The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus by Peter Paul Rubens, 1634–36

FASHION As a Jewish priest and guerrilla fighter operating from the Judean hills, Judas Maccabeus wore practical, simple clothing suited to warfare and priestly custom rather than anything resembling fashionable Hellenistic dress, which his movement fiercely rejected. 

During his early life and priestly service, he wore the traditional linen vestments of the Judean priesthood, but once the rebellion began, he and his followers adopted practical military attire suitable for guerrilla warfare in the wilderness—including leather tunics, woolen cloaks for cold nights, and light armor captured from fallen Seleucid soldiers—disdaining Greek-style attire as a symbol of cultural assimilation. (6)

CHARACTER Ancient sources consistently describe Judas as a bold, resolute, and pious commander who combined military cunning with deep religious conviction, using surprise attacks and swift mobility to overcome numerically superior Seleucid armies. Even at Elasa, when most of his men fled before overwhelming odds, Judas chose to stand and fight rather than retreat, a decision that cost him his life but cemented his reputation for steadfast courage (8)

SPEAKING VOICE No ancient source records anything about Judas Maccabeus's actual voice or manner of speech. What survives instead are the rousing exhortations to his troops recorded in 1 Maccabees, in which he is portrayed calling on his men to trust in divine deliverance before battle, though these speeches were likely composed or embellished by later chroniclers. His address before the Battle of Emmaus is recorded as direct, urgent, and deeply grounded in scriptural rhetoric: "It is better for us to die in battle than to see the misfortunes of our nation and of our sanctuary." (3)

Judas Maccabeus before the army of Nicanor, by Gustave Doré

SENSE OF HUMOUR Nothing in the surviving historical record touches on Judas Maccabeus's sense of humour; the sources that preserve his story, 1 and 2 Maccabees and Josephus's histories, are solemn religious and military chronicles with no interest in personal wit or levity (3)

RELATIONSHIPS Judas's closest relationships were with his father Mattathias, who appointed him leader of the revolt on his deathbed, and his four brothers, John, Simon, Eleazar, and Jonathan, who fought alongside him throughout the campaign. After Judas's death at Elasa, his brothers Jonathan and Simon retrieved his body from the battlefield and continued the resistance, with Jonathan taking over leadership and Simon later founding the Hasmonean royal line.

MONEY AND FAME Judas Maccabeus was not a man of personal wealth; his campaign was funded and sustained through the resources of his guerrilla movement rather than any private fortune, and his fame rests entirely on his military and religious achievements rather than material success. His fame spread rapidly throughout the Near East during his lifetime, making his name feared among Seleucid rulers and celebrated across the Jewish diaspora as a symbol of divine liberation.

His renown grew enormously after his death, as he became a celebrated symbol of Jewish resistance, later inspiring the Zionist "Maccabiah Games" and countless works of art, music, and literature named in his honour. (9)

FOOD AND DRINK Adherence to Jewish dietary laws (kashrut) was one of the core religious issues that triggered the Maccabean Revolt, as Antiochus IV attempted to force Jews to consume swine and sacrificial pagan meats. Judas and his followers adhered strictly to dietary purity, even when forced to subsist on wild vegetation, roots, and herbs in the mountains to avoid ritually defiled food supplied in Hellenized towns.

According to the ancient Scroll of Antiochus, however, Judas and his brothers were said to draw their strength partly from fasting and prayer, beseeching God for success before engaging the enemy in battle. (9)

MUSIC AND ARTS Judas's relationship with music was primarily liturgical and martial. Following the purification of the Second Temple on December 14, 164 BC, he instituted elaborate religious celebrations that featured the playing of harps, lutes, cymbals, and the chanting of Psalms of thanksgiving. He rejected Hellenistic theatrical arts and secular music, viewing them as instruments of foreign cultural assimilation. (9)

Judas Maccabeus became the subject of major artistic works long after his death, most famously George Frideric Handel's 1746 oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus," composed to a libretto by Thomas Morell and framed as a celebration of the Duke of Cumberland's victory over the Jacobite rising of 1745. The oratorio's best-known chorus, "See, the Conqu'ring Hero Comes," later had its tune adapted for the Easter hymn "Thine Be the Glory, Risen Conquering Son."  (10), (11)

Peter Paul Rubens also depicted him in the painting "The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus." 

LITERATURE Though not an author of surviving literary works himself, Judas was well-versed in the Torah and the writings of the Hebrew prophets, frequently referencing the heroic exploits of David, Joshua, and Gideon to inspire his followers.

Judas Maccabeus's story is preserved chiefly in the deuterocanonical books of 1 and 2 Maccabees and in the Antiquities of the Jews by the historian Josephus. 

He was also dramatized by William Shakespeare, who included him among the "Nine Worthies" performed in the play-within-a-play in Love's Labour's Lost, where the character Holofernes plays Judas Maccabaeus and is mocked for sharing his first name with Judas Iscariot. (3)

NATURE As a guerrilla commander operating from the Judean hill country, Judas Maccabeus relied heavily on his knowledge of the rugged, arid terrain around Modi'in and the desert fringes to stage ambushes and night raids against better-equipped Seleucid forces. The natural landscape of Judea was central to his military strategy, allowing his smaller forces to avoid open battle where possible (3)

PETS His military operations involved the practical use of cavalry and pack animals, and ancient accounts record his soldiers' encounters with and tactical counter-measures against Seleucid war elephants deployed in battle.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Unlike Hellenized citizens who frequented gymnasiums for athletic contests, Judas rejected Greek sports and physical culture on religious grounds. His leisure time was virtually non-existent due to continuous campaigning; his physical activities were entirely devoted to martial training, swordsmanship, archery, tactical drills, and religious devotion. (3)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Judas was educated within the practical frameworks of ancient Near Eastern sacred calendar calculation and basic logistics. He understood field engineering, siegecraft, fortification construction, and the arithmetic involved in military supply chains, troop movements, and dividing battle spoils among soldiers and dependents.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Judas adhered to an unyielding, traditionalist Jewish monotheism. He believed firmly in divine providence, the absolute authority of the Mosaic Law, and the sacred obligation to keep Judea free from idolatry.

Judas Maccabeus's entire campaign was rooted in theological conviction: resistance to the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes's attempt to forcibly Hellenize the Jewish people and abolish their religious practices under pain of death. Antiochus, whose title "Epiphanes" meant "God manifest" but whom enemies mockingly called "Epimanes" or "madman," had desecrated the Jerusalem Temple by erecting a statue of Zeus and sacrificing swine on the altar, an act of profound theological outrage that Judas's revolt was dedicated to reversing. (7)

The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus, Rubens

POLITICS Politically, Judas Maccabeus sought first religious freedom and then full political independence for Judea from Seleucid rule, and after recapturing Jerusalem he took the historically significant step of sending emissaries to Rome. This resulted in the Roman-Jewish Treaty of 161 BC, the first recorded diplomatic contact between the Jewish people and the Roman Republic, though it had little practical effect in deterring further Seleucid attacks (7)

MACCABEAN REVOLT Judas Maccabaeus was the man who took the Maccabean Revolt from “this is getting rather unpleasant” to “we appear to have captured Jerusalem.” The rebellion had begun in 167 BC with his elderly father, Mattathias, refusing to obey the religious restrictions imposed by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Judas then took over the fighting and turned his father’s act of defiance into a sustained guerrilla campaign, eventually recapturing Jerusalem and restoring Jewish worship in the Temple.

The trouble began in 167 BC at Modi'in, where Mattathias, an elderly priest, killed both a Hellenizing Jew and a royal officer rather than participate in the enforced abandonment of Jewish religious practice. He then did what seems to have been the sensible thing after killing two people on behalf of a religious principle: he ran for the hills with his five sons.

When Mattathias died around 166 BC, he handed leadership to Judas, his third son. This was apparently because Judas was the most capable military commander among the brothers, which was fortunate, because “good with spreadsheets” would not have been particularly useful at this stage.

Judas inherited a relatively small collection of rebels and set about turning them into something resembling an army. He developed an intelligence network, sent agents through the countryside to recruit fighters and acquire weapons, and gradually transformed a family rebellion into a remarkably organised resistance movement.

Judas quickly demonstrated that he was very good at the sort of warfare in which the other side has the larger army and considerably more expensive equipment. Rather than obligingly meeting the Seleucids in large, tidy battles, he favoured surprise attacks, night raids and strikes against villages and small garrisons.

He also destroyed pagan altars and punished Jews who had collaborated with the Hellenizers. This was not, in other words, a campaign built around the principle of sending everyone a polite letter first.

His first significant victory came against Apollonius, the Seleucid governor of Samaria. Judas defeated him and reportedly took his sword, which he subsequently used for the rest of his career. It is difficult to imagine a more efficient piece of recycling.

Judas then defeated a succession of much larger Seleucid forces at Emmaus, Beth Horon and Beth Zur between 166 and 165 BC. His advantages were surprise, knowledge of the terrain and an ability to change tactics according to circumstances. His enemies had numbers; Judas had the rather more awkward habit of being somewhere they did not expect him to be.

His victories earned him the nickname Maccabaeus, usually understood as “the Hammer”, a name that was eventually applied to the whole family.

By 164 BC, Judas had driven most Seleucid resistance out of the Judean countryside and recaptured Jerusalem, although the Seleucid garrison remained in the Acra citadel. The city itself, however, was back in Jewish hands.

Judas then led priests into the desecrated Temple, where they removed the pagan idols and altars installed under Antiochus, rebuilt the altar and restored the sanctuary to Jewish worship. The Temple was rededicated, an event commemorated ever since by Hanukkah.

Josephus later says that Judas was granted the office of high priest, although the ancient sources are not entirely helpful about precisely when this happened or how long he held the position. Ancient history does occasionally leave you with the feeling that somebody should have taken better notes.

Judas did not stop once Jerusalem had been recovered. He carried the war into Galilee, seeking to reclaim Jewish territory there, and also looked beyond the immediate conflict by establishing diplomatic contact with Rome. His representatives negotiated the Roman–Jewish Treaty of 161 BC, an indication that the rebellion had grown into something considerably more significant than a local uprising.

But Judas's success eventually ran into the rather substantial problem of having to fight an army that was both large and determined.

In 160 BC, at the Battle of Elasa, a Seleucid force of about 20,000 men commanded by Bacchides confronted Judas and his much smaller army. Most of Judas's troops fled when the battle turned against them. Judas, however, stayed and fought, and was killed.

Judas had not started the revolt, and he did not live to see the ultimate achievement of Jewish independence. But he became its defining military figure. His brothers carried on the struggle after his death, and the family eventually established the Hasmonean dynasty, bringing a degree of Jewish independence that Judas himself had fought for but never lived to witness.

It is one of those historical stories in which the person who lights the fire does not necessarily get to sit beside it. Judas's father started the rebellion; Judas turned it into a revolution; and his brothers finished the job. History, as ever, had neglected to provide a convenient timetable.

SCANDAL Judas Maccabeus's career was marked by bitter internal conflict as much as by war against the Seleucids, since much of the fighting was effectively a Jewish civil war between religious traditionalists and a Hellenizing Jewish faction. High-ranking Hellenized Jews viewed Judas as a dangerous religious extremist and outlaw whose raids disrupted social order and Judea's economic ties to the wider Seleucid world. Judas and his followers killed Hellenized Jewish collaborators and tore down pagan altars across the countryside, actions 1 Maccabees frames as punishing "traitors," but which pro-Seleucid Jewish factions and neighbouring peoples condemned as lawless violence.

His fiercest opponents within the Jewish community were successive Hellenizing High Priests. Menelaus, who had bought the high priesthood through bribery and was denounced by biblical authors as "a traitor to the laws and to his country," was eventually executed by the Seleucid regent Lysias in 162 BC — not by Judas directly, but as a casualty of the wider turmoil his revolt had unleashed. Alcimus, who succeeded Menelaus as High Priest, then became Judas's most dangerous domestic adversary: he personally warned the Seleucid king Demetrius I that "those of the Jews who are called Hasideans, whose leader is Judas Maccabeus, are keeping up war and stirring up sedition," and it was this accusation that prompted Demetrius to send the general Nicanor, and later Bacchides, against Judas — the campaign that ultimately led to Judas's death at Elasa in 160 BC. (12) (13)

MILITARY RECORD Judas Maccabeus is remembered chiefly as a brilliant guerrilla commander who defeated a succession of Seleucid armies through surprise attacks, ambushes, and superior mobility despite being consistently outnumbered, winning key engagements at Emmaus, Beth Horon, and Beth Zur before recapturing Jerusalem in 164 BC. (7)

Judas' brother Eleazar fighting an elephant at the Battle of Beth Zechariah By Jan Luyken 

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS He maintained exceptional physical conditioning throughout his adult life, necessitated by years of continuous wilderness warfare, marching across rugged terrain, and hand-to-hand combat. The Scroll of Antiochus records that he and his brothers attributed part of their fighting strength to fasting and prayer (9)

HOMES Judas Maccabeus's family home was in Modi'in, a village northwest of Jerusalem where his father Mattathias had settled after leaving Jerusalem. 

During the years of revolt he had no fixed residence, operating instead from hideouts in the Judean hills and wilderness before eventually establishing headquarters in a reclaimed Jerusalem (6)

TRAVEL Judas Maccabeus's movements were confined largely to Judea, ranging between his base in the hill country, Jerusalem, and battle sites such as Emmaus, Beth Horon, Beth Zur, and finally Elasa. He also extended a campaign into Galilee to reclaim Jewish territory.

While he never personally traveled to Rome, Judas' diplomatic emissaries Eupolemus and Jason journeyed there on his behalf to negotiate the Roman-Jewish Treaty (6)

DEATH Judas Maccabeus was killed in April 160 BC at the Battle of Elasa, fighting a Seleucid army of around 20,000 men under the general Bacchides. Vastly outnumbered and abandoned by most of his own troops, Judas refused to retreat and fell in the fighting; his brothers Jonathan and Simon recovered his body from the battlefield and buried him in the family tomb at Modi'in (7)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Judas Maccabeus has featured prominently in Western art, literature, and music across centuries:

1595 William Shakespeare featured him in Love's Labour's Lost, where the character Holofernes attempts to present him in a pageant of the Nine Worthies, only to be heckled due to sharing a first name with Judas Iscariot. (2), (6)

1621 The Italian poet Torquato Tasso's legacy influenced epic poems about his life, including Walter Charleton's 17th-century works. 

1746 Composer George Frideric Handel created his celebrated oratorio Judas Maccabaeus (HWV 63) with a libretto by Thomas Morell. Written in the context of the Jacobite rising of 1745, its famous chorus "See, the conqu'ring hero comes!" became an iconic piece of classical music.

1848 Author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a five-act verse drama titled Judas Maccabaeus.

ACHIEVEMENTS Judas Maccabeus's central achievement was leading a small, poorly equipped Jewish force to defeat a series of much larger Seleucid armies, recapturing Jerusalem and, on December 14, 164 BC, re-establishing a regular order of priests at the Temple after cleansing it of pagan idols, an event still celebrated annually as Hanukkah. 

He also secured the first recorded diplomatic treaty between the Jewish people and Rome in 161 BC, and his leadership set the stage for his brothers Jonathan and Simon to eventually win full Jewish political independence, founding the Hasmonean dynasty.

Sources: (1) Wikipedia (2) Wikipedia (3) Britannica (4) The Collector (5) Wikipedia (German) (6) GotQuestions.org (7) Encyclopedia of Trivia (8) Encyclopedia.com (9) Chabad.org (10) Wikipedia (11) Hyperion Records (12) Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book XII) (13) McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia

Saint Joan of Arc

NAME Jeanne d'Arc, known in English as Joan of Arc. She signed her own name as "Jehanne." She is also called "The Maid of Orléans" (La Pucelle d'Orléans). (1)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Joan of Arc was a French peasant girl who, claiming divine guidance, led the French army to decisive victories over the English during the Hundred Years' War, secured the coronation of King Charles VII, and became one of the most celebrated figures in French national history. Captured by the Burgundians and handed to the English, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake at the age of approximately nineteen. She was later exonerated, beatified, and eventually canonized as a Catholic saint. She is the patron saint of France. (2),

BIRTH Born January 6, 1412, in the village of Domrémy, in the valley of the Meuse, in what is now northeastern France.  (3)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Joan's father was Jacques d'Arc (also recorded as Darc, Dars, Dart, Day, and other spellings — there is no place called "Arc," and the surname derived from later attempts to identify the family name). He was a well-to-do but illiterate peasant farmer who owned approximately 50 acres of land. He supplemented his farming with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch. Her mother was Isabelle Romée, a devout woman. Joan had three brothers: Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre. (4)

CHILDHOOD Joan grew up in the rural village of Domrémy, a community loyal to the French crown in a region otherwise troubled by the ongoing Hundred Years' War. Her birthplace has been preserved for over six hundred years and is now a museum. 

She was a pious child who took Communion monthly. Before she responded to her calling, Joan worked in harvest fields and guarded animals at pasture. She was skilled in sewing and spinning, and had woven wreaths for a statue of the Virgin Mary. (2)

EDUCATION Like her father, Joan never learned to read or write. She received no formal education, but was deeply formed by the religious life of her community.  (2)

CAREER RECORD 1425: Joan began hearing voices she identified as Saints Michael, Margaret, and Catherine in her father's garden at the age of approximately 13. They told her it was God's will that the English be expelled from France.

1428: Aged around 16, Joan was taken by her cousin Durand Laxart to Count Robert de Baudricourt in Vaucouleurs. She persuaded the initially skeptical Count to arrange an audience with the Dauphin Charles.

1429: February — After a searching examination by churchmen at Chinon and Poitiers, Joan persuaded the uncrowned King Charles VII that she had a divine mission to expel the English from France and secure his coronation.

1429: April–May — Joan led a spiritually revived French army to relieve the besieged city of Orléans on the River Loire. The English had begun their siege on October 12, 1428. Joan arrived on April 29 and, nine days later on May 8, 1429, secured victory by taking the southern approach to the bridge.

1429: June — Joan led the French to victory over the English at the Battle of Patay.

1429: July 17 — Joan stood at the place of honour beside Charles VII at his coronation as King of France at Reims Cathedral.

1429, September — Joan was wounded in the thigh by a crossbow bolt during the unsuccessful attempt to recapture Paris from the English.

1430: Joan went to relieve the town of Compiègne, where she was captured by Burgundian forces on May 23, 1430.

1431: After nine months' imprisonment, Joan was tried before the ecclesiastical court presided over by Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais. She conducted her own defence across fifteen sessions, but was burned at the stake as a heretic  (5)

APPEARANCE A contemporary report described Joan as "a young woman of robust flesh and healthy looking." (2)

She was slightly built as a teenager. Joan wore her hair cut short in order to blend in with the male soldiers around her — a look that, centuries later, is credited as the inspiration for the "bob" haircut that became fashionable in the 1920s. (4)

Speculative portrait, c. late 19th-century, in the style of a 15th-century miniature

FASHION Joan wore men's clothing when mixing with male soldiers, in order to protect her modesty. She was clad in white armour when fighting, and carried a white banner representing God's blessing. During her trial, she was compelled to continue wearing male apparel because that was all she was provided — a fact that the prosecution, led by Bishop Cauchon, exploited to strengthen the charge of cross-dressing against her. (2)

CHARACTER Joan was strong-willed and courageous. At 16, she refused to honour an arranged marriage to a local man. When he sued her for breach of promise, she defended herself in court, arguing she had made no such promise — and won. 

During her trial she stood up to the charges with good nature, focusing on her devotion to her country and her personal purity. Her prosecutor, Pierre Cauchon, sent an agent to Domrémy to gather damaging information on her character; the agent returned having "found nothing concerning Joan that he would not have liked to find about his own sister," which reportedly enraged Cauchon. (4)

SPEAKING VOICE The trial records — among the most extensive for any medieval figure — show Joan was articulate, direct, and formidably composed under interrogation. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Joan had a reportedly racy sense of humour. She was said to use the word "goddam" frequently as a sardonic reference to the English soldiers, whose habitual oath it was. On one occasion, when the Dauphin complained to her that he never heard the voice of God, she replied: "You must listen — then you will hear." (4)

RELATIONSHIPS Joan had no recorded romantic attachments.

Joan's close companions included her cousin Durand Laxart, who first brought her to Count de Baudricourt. 

One of her companions-in-arms in the French army was Captain Gilles de Rais, a nobleman who fought alongside her and later became one of the most notorious criminals in French history, convicted of torturing and killing over 200 children and believed to be the inspiration for the fairy-tale character Bluebeard in Charles Perrault's 1697 tale. Joan had no recorded romantic attachments. (6)

MONEY AND FAME Joan came from a modestly prosperous peasant family by the standards of the time. Before she appeared, the Dauphin Charles had fallen into severe financial difficulty: he had sold his last jewels, had sleeves patched onto an old doublet, could not afford new shoes, and had only four crowns in his purse. After her victories, Joan was honoured with the place beside the King at his coronation. 

Coronation of Charles VII in Guillaume de Nangis' Chronicon abbreviatum regum Francorum; Joan of Arc stands holding a banner of France to his left. 

In 1429, Charles VII exempted her home village of Domrémy from taxes "forever" as a tribute to Joan — an exemption that held for over 300 years until the French Revolution.  (4)

FOOD AND DRINK Joan would typically have eaten the food of the rural poor: bread made from barley, rye, or bean flour, soaked in rough wine. She was reportedly a highly competent cook. (2)

MUSIC AND ARTS Joan participated in the local village tradition of hanging floral garlands on the Fairies' Tree at Domrémy in honour of the Virgin Mary

LITERATURE Joan could not read or write. However, the trial records — first published in a scholarly edition by Pierre Champion in 1921 — constitute the most substantial body of contemporary documentation on any medieval individual. A notable literary mention came from the young Jane Austen, who wrote in her juvenilia work The History of England: "They should not have burnt her, but they did." (7)

NATURE Joan grew up in the rural countryside of northeastern France and spent much of her youth working in fields and pastures. She reportedly heard her divine voices for the first time in her father's garden.  (2)

PETS There are no historical records indicating she kept personal pets, as the animals she minded were livestock essential to her family's farm survival.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Joan's domestic skills — sewing, spinning, and cooking — were noted by contemporaries. She also engaged in the outdoor labour of agricultural life: working at harvest and tending animals. (2)

SCIENCE AND MATHS She had no formal training in mathematics or sciences, operating entirely on practical peasant logic and what she believed to be direct divine inspiration

CALLING Joan first heard the voices of Saints Michael, Margaret, and Catherine in 1425 at the age of approximately 13, in her father's garden in Domrémy. They told her it was God's will that the English be expelled from France. She kept these visions largely to herself for several years before acting on them. Within a few months of persuading the Dauphin of her mission, she was leading a French army that had, at her insistence, renounced swearing and camp prostitutes. (3)

Jeanne d'Arc, by Eugène Thirion (1876)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Joan was a devout Catholic who understood her mission in entirely theological terms — as a direct commission from God, communicated through saints. She took Communion monthly from childhood, a level of religious observance unusual even for the time. 

During her trial she refused to submit her visions to the authority of the Church if doing so contradicted what she believed God had directly told her — a position that made her conviction for heresy almost inevitable under the legal framework of the day.  (3)

POLITICS Joan operated in the deeply fractured political landscape of France during the Hundred Years' War. She was a committed supporter of the Valois claim to the French throne as represented by Charles VII, whose right as heir had been denied by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. Her victories shifted the political momentum irreversibly. Within 20 years of her death, England had lost virtually all of France, retaining only Calais. (3)

SCANDAL Joan was formally charged with heresy and cross-dressing. The cross-dressing charge was partly engineered: during her imprisonment, she was deliberately given only male clothing to wear, providing the prosecution with the "evidence" they needed. The trial was widely understood even at the time to be politically motivated, serving English interests. The verdict was formally annulled in 1456 and condemned as an atrocious miscarriage of justice.  (3)

MILITARY CAMPAIGNS History occasionally produces people who seem to have stepped out of a completely different story. Joan of Arc was one of them. Within months of convincing the future King Charles VII that God was speaking to her, this teenage peasant girl had transformed a demoralized French army into something resembling a revival meeting with swords. Soldiers gave up swearing, prostitutes were sent packing, and an army that had been specialising in defeat suddenly found itself developing a taste for victory.

The city of Orléans, perched on the Loire, was the northernmost major city still loyal to the French. The English had been besieging it since October 1428 and appeared to be making steady progress. Then Joan arrived, like an unexpected amendment to the script. Nine days later, after a series of bold attacks, the siege was broken when French forces captured the southern approach to the bridge on May 8, 1429. The English, who had probably assumed the war was proceeding quite nicely, found themselves having to reconsider. 

Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans by Jules Lenepveu

Joan followed this success by helping secure a decisive French victory at Patay and then persuaded Charles to travel to Rheims for his coronation. Given that Charles had spent much of his recent past looking less like a king and more like a man who had misplaced both his kingdom and his tailor, this was no small achievement.

Not everything about Joan's military career was triumphant. During the attempted recapture of Paris, she was struck in the thigh by a crossbow bolt. Being a national heroine did not, unfortunately, exempt one from medieval projectile weaponry.

MILITARY RECORD Joan had no military training before assuming command. She led troops into battle personally, was wounded at Paris by a crossbow bolt to the thigh, and inspired exceptional loyalty and religious fervour among her soldiers. Her strategic instincts — particularly at Orléans — confounded experienced English commanders. 

She was never defeated in open battle; her capture at Compiègne came when she was cut off during a sortie. (5)

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Joan was described as robust and healthy in contemporary accounts. She endured the physical demands of campaigning in armour without apparent difficulty. 

She was wounded in the thigh by a crossbow bolt during the attack on Paris in 1429 but recovered. (2)

HOMES Joan was born and raised in the family home in Domrémy, which has survived intact for over six hundred years and is now a national museum — the Maison natale de Jeanne d'Arc. 

Joan of Arc's birthplace in Domrémy

During her campaigns she would have been housed in the castles and lodgings of her noble hosts. 

During her captivity she was imprisoned in the castle of Rouen. (4)

TRAVEL Joan's journeys, remarkable for a peasant girl of the era, took her from the rural backwater of Domrémy across eastern and central France: to Vaucouleurs, to the Dauphin's court at Chinon, to Orléans, Patay, Reims, Paris, and finally to Compiègne and Rouen.  (3)

CAPTURE AND TRIAL On May 23, 1430, Joan was captured by Burgundian forces during the defence of Compiègne. She was sold to the English for ten thousand French francs. 

Joan was imprisoned for nine months before being brought before the ecclesiastical court of Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais in 1431. Across fifteen sessions, she defended herself without legal counsel, with composure and intelligence. Theologians from the University of Paris were involved in the prosecution. 

She was found guilty of heresy and cross-dressing and originally sentenced to life imprisonment, but was condemned to death after being compelled to continue wearing male clothing in prison — technically relapsing into her condemned behaviour. (3)

DEATH Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen, France, on May 30, 1431, aged approximately 19. She asked for a cross to be held before her so she could see it through the flames. Her last words were: "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Blessed be God." Eyewitnesses reported that the crowd, including English soldiers, wept. 

Miniature of Joan's Execution from The Vigils of King Charles VII, anonymous (c. 1484,

After her clothes had burned away, her body was displayed publicly to prove she was mortal; her ashes were thrown into the River Seine. (3)

After her death, two of her brothers, Jean and Pierre, presented an impostor as Joan, claiming she had escaped. Between 1434 and 1440 the brothers accepted lavish gifts and attended celebrations before eventually confessing their deception to the King. (2), (4)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Joan of Arc has inspired a vast body of work across centuries. Notable examples include: Friedrich Schiller's play Die Jungfrau von Orléans (1801); Giuseppe Verdi's opera Giovanna d'Arco (1845); Mark Twain's novel Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896); George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan (1923); Carl Theodor Dreyer's film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928); and Luc Besson's film The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). 

She has appeared in countless paintings, sculptures, novels, musicals, and television productions, and is among the most depicted figures in Western cultural history. (8)

ACHIEVEMENTS Joan of Arc lifted the siege of Orléans in nine days, secured the coronation of Charles VII, and fundamentally reversed the course of the Hundred Years' War. 

She was beatified in Rome on April 18, 1909, and canonized on May 16, 1920. Her feast day is May 30. She is the only Catholic saint to have been condemned and burned as a heretic by the Church that later canonized her. Her trial verdict was annulled on July 7, 1456. 

There is more surviving contemporary documentation on Joan of Arc than on any other figure of the medieval period. 

Sources: (1) Wikipedia — Joan of Arc (2) Encyclopaedia of Trivia — Saint Joan of Arc (3) Encyclopædia Britannica — Joan of Arc (4) History Today — Jeanne d'Arc: Life and Legend (5) National Geographic — Joan of Arc (6) Wikipedia — Gilles de Rais (7) Wikipedia — Jane Austen's The History of England (8) Wikipedia — Cultural Depictions of Joan of Arc

King James II of England

NAME James II of England and Ireland (James VII of Scotland).

WHAT FAMOUS FOR He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over England, Scotland, and Ireland. His attempts to establish religious liberty for his fellow Catholics and Protestant nonconformists ultimately backfired, leading to his deposition during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His overthrow established the principle that Parliamentary sovereignty, rather than divine right, governed the British monarchy.

BIRTH James was born on October 14, 1633 (Old Style), at St. James's Palace, Westminster, London. He was baptised by William Laud, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, shortly after birth. (1) 

FAMILY BACKGROUND James was the second surviving son of King Charles I of England and his French queen, Henrietta Maria of France, a Catholic princess and daughter of King Henry IV of France. He was named after his grandfather James I of England. He was the younger brother of King Charles II, who preceded him on the throne. (2) 

At birth he was created Duke of York and invested with the Order of the Garter in 1642. 

James with his father, Charles I, by Sir Peter Lely, 1647

CHILDHOOD James was eight years old when the English Civil War broke out in 1642. He and his brother Charles were present at the Battle of Edgehill in October of that year and narrowly escaped capture by Parliamentarian cavalry. 

He spent much of the next four years in the Royalist wartime capital of Oxford, where he was made a Master of Arts by the University on November 1, 1642, and served as colonel of a volunteer regiment of foot. 

After Royalist Oxford surrendered in June 1646, James was taken to London and held at St. James's Palace with his younger siblings. In April 1648, on his father's orders, he managed to escape his guards and cross the North Sea to The Hague, in the care of his sister Mary and her husband, William II of Orange. 

Following the execution of Charles I in January 1649, James went into exile in France with his mother. His father's fate and his years in continental exile would render him, in the view of historians, more inflexible and authoritarian in outlook than his older brother, and less patient with the complexities of English politics. (3)

EDUCATION James was educated by private tutors alongside his older brother, the future Charles II, and the two sons of the Duke of Buckingham, George and Francis Villiers. His formative education was as much military and practical as academic: his years serving in the French and Spanish armies gave him a thorough grounding in the arts of war, naval administration, and statecraft.

He was made a nominal Master of Arts by Oxford University in 1642 during the Civil War. 

CAREER RECORD 1652: He entered French military service under Marshal Turenne, fighting against the Spanish forces during the Fronde civil wars and proving himself a brave and highly capable officer. 

1656: After his brother Charles II made an alliance with Spain, James changed sides and joined the Spanish army under the Prince of Condé, commanding the rebel English royalist forces in Flanders. 

1660: Following the restoration of the monarchy, he returned to England and was appointed Lord High Admiral. He completely reorganized the Royal Navy, showing great administrative talent and personally commanding the fleet during the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars. 

1673: He was forced to resign as Lord High Admiral due to the Test Act, which barred Catholics from holding public office following the public revelation of his conversion. 

1685-1688: He ascended the throne upon the death of Charles II on February 6, 1685. His brief reign was dominated by efforts to suspend penal laws against Catholics and dissenters, which alienated the political elite and resulted in his eventual deposition.

APPEARANCE  James was described as "something above middle stature, well-shaped, very nervous and strong." 

The Italian diplomat Lorenzo Magalotti, who observed him in 1667, gave a precise account: "His complexion may be called light in colour, all the outlines of his face are prominent: a square forehead, the eyes large, swollen, and deep blue, the nose curved and rather large, the lips pale and thick, and the chin rather pointed." 

Unlike his older brother Charles II, who was dark and swarthy, James had a noticeably fairer complexion, and wore a large, elaborate full-bottomed wig throughout his adult life, as seen in portraits by Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller.

James was described as "something above middle stature, well-shaped, very nervous and strong." 

A 1702 anonymous account noted that "his outward carriage was a little stiff and constrained." (4) 

James II by Peter Lely

FASHION Like other Stuart monarchs, James dressed in the opulent fashion of the late 17th century, favouring rich fabrics, lace, and the full-bottomed wig that was the defining accessory of the period. Surviving portraits show him in ducal robes, armour as Lord High Admiral, and lavish court dress. (2) 

When he was depicted in his coronation robes in a full-length portrait held at the Royal Museums Greenwich, he wore a brown, full-bottomed wig with his right hand at his breast and his coronet resting on a table beside him — typical of the grandeur expected of a Stuart king. (5)

CHARACTER James was widely regarded as stubborn, hot-tempered, and inflexible — qualities that proved fatal to his reign. An anonymous account of 1702 noted that "his temper was naturally hot and choleric." (4) 

Where his brother Charles II was charming, pragmatic, and politically nimble, James was rigid, authoritarian, and unable to compromise.  His continental exile and the trauma of his father's execution had instilled in him a fierce belief in divine right and absolute monarchy that proved disastrously ill-suited to the England of his day. 

He was, however, genuinely brave in battle, and sincerely devoted to his religious faith and to those who served him loyally. Historians have debated whether he was primarily an absolutist tyrant or a sincere advocate of religious tolerance; most modern scholars take a middle ground. (3) 

SPEAKING VOICE No detailed account of James's speaking voice has survived, though his stiff and constrained public bearing suggests a formal manner of address in keeping with his character. (4) 

James was capable of direct and blunt speech: during his 1687 speaking tour of western England, he gave a notably plain-spoken speech at Chester comparing religious discrimination to imprisoning "all black men" as equally unreasonable — a remarkably direct analogy for the era. (6)

SENSE OF HUMOUR James was not noted for his wit or levity, in sharp contrast to his brother Charles II, who was famous for his easy charm and sharp humour. Where Charles cultivated his court with banter and bonhomie, James was earnest and serious. His character has been described as stiff and constrained, and contemporary accounts suggest he lacked his brother's natural gift for disarming people. 

RELATIONSHIPS James's first wife was Anne Hyde, daughter of Charles II's Lord Chancellor, Edward Hyde. She had been maid of honour to James's sister Mary. James had seduced her with promises of marriage while she was in his service, and she became pregnant in 1660. Though almost everyone at court — including Anne's own father — urged against the match, James honoured his promise. A visibly pregnant Anne married James in an official but private ceremony in London on September 3, 1660, following the Restoration. (2) 

The couple had eight children, but six died in early childhood. The two who survived to adulthood were Mary (born April 30, 1662), who later reigned as Mary II, and Anne (born February 6, 1665), who became Queen Anne, the first monarch of Great Britain. 

A portrait of Anne, James and their two daughters, Lady Mary and Lady Anne by Peter Lely

Anne Hyde died of breast cancer on March 31, 1671, aged 34, never recovering from the birth of her eighth child, Catherine, earlier that year. (1) (2)

James was also a notorious womaniser. His mistresses included Arabella Churchill, sister of the future Duke of Marlborough, and Catherine Sedley. Samuel Pepys noted drily in his diary that James "did eye my wife mightily." The sharp-tongued Bishop Gilbert Burnet memorably remarked that James's mistresses must have been "given [to] him by his priests as a penance." (7)

James married his second wife, Mary of Modena, a fifteen-year-old Italian Catholic princess, by proxy in a Catholic ceremony on September 20, 1673. Many British people, deeply distrustful of Catholicism, regarded the new Duchess of York as an agent of the Pope, and there was fierce opposition to James's potential succession to the throne. (2) 

With Mary, James had several children; most died in infancy, but the birth of a son, James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender"), on June 10, 1688, was the event that triggered the Glorious Revolution, as it raised the prospect of a permanent Catholic dynasty. 

MONEY AND FAME After the Restoration, the office of Lord High Admiral, combined with revenues from post office and wine tariffs granted him by Charles II, gave James enough money to maintain a sizable court household. 

His position on ascending the throne was financially strong: he had standing armies of nearly 20,000 men and a revenue of around £2 million. Parliament granted him a generous life income including the proceeds of tonnage, poundage, and customs duties. (8) 

In exile, he depended entirely upon the generosity of Louis XIV of France, who provided him with a palace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and a pension.

FOOD AND DRINK An illuminating glimpse into royal dining comes from the Lord Steward's accounts: when James II was camped at Hounslow Heath on annual military manoeuvres in 1686, he and his officers consumed twelve dishes of ice cream at £1 each — equivalent to roughly £80 (around $130) in today's money. (2) 

James II and his officers eating ice cream by Gemini

In his later years in exile, James adopted an increasingly ascetic and penitent lifestyle, in stark contrast to the luxurious court life of his earlier career. (5)

MUSIC AND ARTS James was a patron of the arts in keeping with the cultural richness of the Restoration court. He sat for numerous portraits, including works by Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller, some of the most celebrated painters of the era. His portraits by Kneller and Lely now hang in major collections including the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Royal Museums Greenwich. 

The Restoration court under both Charles II and James was notable for its love of music, theatre, and spectacle, though James himself was not particularly celebrated as a personal practitioner of the arts. 

LITERATURE James left behind several significant written works, most notably his autobiography and Memoirs, compiled from his own papers (later published as Life of King James II in 1816). 

In his final years in exile, he wrote a detailed memorandum for his son advising him on how to govern England, specifying the balance of Catholic and Protestant offices to be maintained.

His papers have been drawn upon extensively by historians seeking to understand his motivations and outlook.

NATURE James was an enthusiastic huntsman in the Stuart tradition, in keeping with the culture of the Restoration court where hunting was a primary aristocratic pursuit. (9)

His time on military campaigns and at sea gave him an affinity with the outdoors and the natural world, though he is not particularly noted for scientific or botanical interests.

PETS James shared the Stuart family's celebrated passion for small toy spaniels. He and his brother Charles II had an agreement to carry on breeding their spaniels in the event of either's death, and James was described by the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club as "an owner and great lover of small toy spaniels." 

James and toy spaniels by Perplexity

The most famous episode involving James and his dogs was the wreck of HMS Gloucester on May 6, 1682, when the ship struck a sandbank off the Norfolk coast and sank within an hour, killing between 130 and 250 people. James's critics circulated stories that he had prioritised saving his pet dogs over the drowning crew, a claim that damaged his reputation severely. However, there is evidence this was largely anti-James propaganda: his dog Mumper apparently drowned in the disaster, suggesting the story was false. The real controversy was that James's delay in leaving the ship — royal protocol forbade anyone disembarking before him — cost many lives

HOBBIES AND SPORTS James was physically active and sporty. Like his brother Charles II, he enjoyed real (or royal) tennis, one of the most fashionable sports at the Restoration court. (9) 

His primary passion was the sea and naval affairs: he threw himself into the administration and command of the Royal Navy with genuine enthusiasm and was described by Samuel Pepys — who worked closely with him — as a diligent and capable administrator. (5)

In his years in Scotland he took a keen interest in horse racing on Leith Sands.

SCIENCE AND MATHS James had a practical, empirical interest in navigation, cartography, and naval technology, as befitted a man who commanded fleets in two wars. He was a fellow investor and active participant in several commercial enterprises, including the Royal African Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, which required a grasp of trade, geography, and logistics. (

REIGN James II managed the rare historical feat of losing three kingdoms in less time than it takes most people to renovate a kitchen. He reigned as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from February 1685 until December 1688 — not quite four years altogether — yet in that brief and rather frantic interval he helped permanently redefine the relationship between monarchy and Parliament in Britain. It was one of those reigns that began with every appearance of stability and ended with the political equivalent of a piano falling through the ceiling.

When James came to the throne, he inherited a remarkably strong position. He had nearly 20,000 soldiers spread across his kingdoms, annual revenues of about £2 million, and — perhaps most importantly — a population exhausted by decades of civil wars, plots, panics, and religious hysteria. People wanted calm. James, at first glance, looked reassuringly solid, like a man who owned several hunting dogs and knew how to discipline servants with a glance.

His Catholicism was well known and widely distrusted, but most English subjects comforted themselves with the thought that it was only a temporary inconvenience. His heirs were his Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, so England could simply endure a Catholic king for a while and then return to normal, much as one waits out a leaking roof.

His first challenge came almost immediately when the Duke of Monmouth — the illegitimate son of Charles II and a man with the unfortunate confidence common to handsome rebels — landed in the West Country and declared himself king. The rebellion ended at the Battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685, the last pitched battle ever fought on English soil. Monmouth was captured, executed, and followed into oblivion by hundreds of supporters after Judge Jeffreys conducted the infamous “Bloody Assizes,” a judicial tour notable for combining legal procedure with the atmosphere of a public hanging festival. Around 250 rebels were executed and many hundreds more transported overseas.

The crushing of Monmouth’s rebellion convinced James of something disastrously wrong: namely, that the nation supported him wholeheartedly. This is a recurring problem in history. A ruler survives one crisis and immediately concludes he is a genius.

James interpreted his smooth accession and military success as permission to advance Catholic interests aggressively. He expanded the standing army and appointed Catholic officers in defiance of existing law, alarming Parliament, which already regarded standing armies with the same affection normally reserved for outbreaks of plague.

When Parliament objected, James simply prorogued it in November 1685 and never called it back again. This was bold in the manner of a man sawing through the branch on which he is sitting.

He proceeded to appoint Catholics to important offices throughout government, the military, and universities, overriding statutes at Oxford and Cambridge with cheerful disregard. In 1687 he issued the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending penal laws against Catholics and Protestant dissenters alike by royal prerogative. The idea of religious toleration was not itself unpopular; the problem was that James insisted on achieving it by behaving as though laws were optional suggestions.

Then came the affair of the Seven Bishops. When several Anglican bishops politely petitioned the king to reconsider forcing clergy to read the Declaration from their pulpits, James had them prosecuted for seditious libel. The bishops were acquitted to scenes of public jubilation so widespread that it became painfully obvious the king had managed the remarkable feat of alienating both religious extremists and moderates simultaneously.

For a while, many Englishmen still assumed matters would sort themselves out upon James’s death. Then, on June 10, 1688, Queen Mary of Modena gave birth to a son.

This changed everything.

A Catholic male heir meant that England now faced not a temporary Catholic monarch but the prospect of an enduring Catholic dynasty. Panic spread with astonishing efficiency. Within weeks, seven prominent politicians — Whigs and Tories together, proving that terror can achieve bipartisanship where reason cannot — secretly invited William of Orange to invade.

William landed at Devon on November 5, 1688. James still possessed a large army, but armies are only useful if they remain loyal, and his began evaporating with extraordinary speed. Commanders defected. Noblemen defected. Even James’s own son-in-law defected. It was less a military collapse than a prolonged public unfriending.

James himself appeared to suffer a complete emotional unraveling. He endured severe nosebleeds, bouts of indecision, and periods of paralysis that suggest a man watching his authority dissolve hour by hour. Finally, on December 23, 1688, he fled to France. Parliament obligingly interpreted his departure as an abdication and invited William and Mary to rule jointly in February 1689.

Thus ended one of the shortest and most consequential reigns in British history.

James was not quite finished. With French backing from Louis XIV, he landed in Ireland in 1689 in a final attempt to recover his throne. The Irish Parliament declared him the rightful king, and for a moment it looked as though the struggle might become a genuine European crisis.

Instead, it culminated at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, where William III decisively defeated James’s forces. James promptly fled back to France

He spent the remaining eleven years of his life at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye as the pensioned guest of Louis XIV, growing steadily more devout and penitential, which is often what happens to deposed monarchs once they run out of armies.

James II failed as a king, but in doing so he transformed Britain permanently. His overthrow produced the Bill of Rights in 1689, which sharply limited royal authority and established Parliament as the dominant force in government. The Act of Settlement of 1701 barred Catholics from the throne, a provision whose echoes survive even now in the constitutional machinery of Britain.

In effect, James accomplished by failure what many rulers could not accomplish by skill: he convinced the British political class that monarchy needed rules, limits, and supervision. It was an extraordinarily influential disaster.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Religion was arguably the single most important force in James's life. Originally raised an Anglican, he was exposed to Catholicism during his years in exile in France, and both he and his first wife Anne Hyde were drawn to the Roman Catholic faith. James converted to Catholicism and received Catholic Eucharist in 1668 or 1669, though he kept his conversion secret for years and continued attending Anglican services until 1676. His conversion only became public when he resigned the post of Lord High Admiral rather than take the Protestant oath required by the 1673 Test Act. (2) 

His Catholic faith was the central and defining fact of his reign, driving his attempts to extend toleration to Catholics and ultimately causing his downfall. He was once heard to remark: "If occasion were, I hope God would give me his grace to suffer death for the true Catholic religion as well as banishment." (7)

In exile, he became ever more devout, living as an austere penitent; the Archbishop of Paris even heard evidence in 1734 to support his possible canonisation, though nothing came of it. 

POLITICS  James was a firm believer in the divine right of kings and in royal absolutism, modelled in part on the example of Louis XIV of France. 

His political career was dominated by the Exclusion Crisis of 1678–1683, during which Whig politicians — led by the Earl of Shaftesbury — repeatedly attempted to bar him from the succession by Act of Parliament. This crisis gave birth to the English two-party system: those who supported James and the legitimate succession were called "Tories," while those who supported the Exclusion Bill were called "Whigs." (2) 

As king, James attempted to pack Parliament with supporters, dismissed judges who ruled against him, and issued the Declaration of Indulgence (1687) using the royal prerogative to nullify Acts of Parliament — all moves that were seen as threats to the constitutional order. His attempts to promote Catholic officers in the army, to override university statutes, and to prosecute the Seven Bishops for merely petitioning him finally turned the political nation against him. (8)

SCANDAL The greatest scandal of James's life and reign was, in Protestant eyes, his conversion to Roman Catholicism — and his determination to impose Catholic toleration on a deeply Protestant nation by royal prerogative. 

His womanising was a further source of notoriety: his string of mistresses was remarked upon throughout his life, and Bishop Burnet's cutting quip that they must have been "given [to] him by his priests as a penance" became one of the most famous put-downs of the era. (

The "warming pan scandal" of 1688 — when Protestant opponents circulated rumours that the newborn Prince of Wales had been smuggled into Queen Mary's bed in a warming pan to fake an heir — was technically a scandal aimed at him, reflecting how completely he had lost the confidence of his subjects. 

MILITARY RECORD James was, by any measure, a genuinely brave soldier and capable naval commander. He served in the French army under Marshal Turenne from 1652, fighting in multiple campaigns across the Low Countries and gaining valuable battlefield experience. He was personally commended by Turenne as a soldier who "ventures himself and chargeth gallantly where anything is to be done," and was raised to Lieutenant-General by 1654. (7)

He later served with Spanish forces at the Battle of the Dunes in 1657. 

As Lord High Admiral after the Restoration, he commanded the English fleet in person at the Battle of Lowestoft (1665) and at the Battle of Solebay (1672), displaying conspicuous personal courage in both engagements — standing firm on the deck even as men were killed beside him. He was removed from active naval command after both battles, as Charles II was unwilling to risk losing the heir to the throne. 

After becoming king he crushed the Monmouth and Argyll rebellions in 1685. 

However, his military nerve famously deserted him in 1688, when — despite having a numerically superior army — he declined to engage William of Orange's invading force, panicked, and fled to France. His subsequent campaign to reclaim his throne via Ireland ended in defeat at the Battle of the Boyne on July 1, 1690. 

Battle of the Boyne by Huchtenburg

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS   His years of military campaigning, active naval service, hunting, and tennis all point to a man who remained physically capable well into middle age. He ascended the throne at 51 and was reportedly robust. 

HOMES James was born at St. James's Palace, London, and spent his early years between royal palaces. 

During the Civil War, he was held at St. James's Palace and later spent time in Oxford. He then lived for years at The Hague and at the French court in exile. 

After the Restoration, his primary residence as Duke of York was in London. 

As Lord High Commissioner of Scotland (1679–1682) he resided at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. 

As king from 1685, he occupied the royal palaces, including Whitehall Palace. 

After his flight in 1688, Louis XIV provided him with the magnificent royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris, where he spent the last thirteen years of his life in exile. (

TRAVEL James's life was defined by movement and displacement. As a child he was shuttled between royal palaces; as a young man in exile he lived at The Hague, Paris, and with Spanish forces in Flanders. As Lord High Commissioner he travelled to Scotland. (

He visited the western counties of England on a speaking tour in 1687. 

After the Glorious Revolution, he travelled to France, then to Ireland in 1689 in his attempted reconquest, before making his final journey back to France after his defeat at the Boyne in 1690. 

DEATH James II died of a brain haemorrhage on September 16, 1701, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France, aged 67. 

His death was marked by the extraordinary disposal of his remains: his heart was placed in a silver-gilt locket and given to the convent at Chaillot; his brain was placed in a lead casket and given to the Scots College in Paris; his entrails were divided between two gilt urns sent to the parish church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the English Jesuit college at Saint-Omer; and the flesh from his right arm was given to the English Augustinian nuns of Paris. 

The rest of his body was laid to rest in a triple sarcophagus (consisting of two wooden coffins and one of lead) at the Chapel of Saint Edmund in the Church of the English Benedictines, Rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, with a funeral oration delivered by Henri-Emmanuel de Roquette. Lights were kept burning around his coffin until the French Revolution, when his tomb was raided.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA  James II has appeared as a prominent character in numerous historical dramas focusing on the Restoration and the Glorious Revolution. He is portrayed in the 2003 BBC miniseries Charles II: The Power and the Passion (played by Charlie Creed-Miles) and features prominently in historical novels by authors such as Neal Stephenson in his Baroque Cycle series

James II appears in John Dryden's political allegory Absalom and Achitophel (1681), in which he appears thinly veiled as the Duke of York. 

ACHIEVEMENTS Despite the ultimately catastrophic nature of his reign, James's career contained genuine achievements: 

As Lord High Admiral, he oversaw a major rebuilding and reorganisation of the Royal Navy, earning the admiration of Samuel Pepys, and commanded fleets with personal bravery in two Dutch wars.

He expanded England's colonial reach, leaving a permanent legacy when the captured Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam was renamed "New York" in his honor as the Duke of York. 

He is credited by some historians as a genuine early advocate of religious toleration — his Declaration of Indulgence extended protections to Protestant dissenters as well as Catholics.

His deposition, paradoxically, was his most enduring contribution to history: the Glorious Revolution permanently established parliamentary supremacy, produced the Bill of Rights (1689), and set Britain on the path to constitutional monarchy.

His daughters Mary II and Anne both reigned as Queens regnant — an unusual dynastic legacy — and Queen Anne became the first monarch of Great Britain following the Acts of Union in 1707.

Sources: (1) Wikipedia — James II of England (2) Encyclopaedia of Trivia — James II of England (3) Encyclopedia Virginia — James II (1633–1701) (4) National Portrait Gallery — Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue (5) Royal Museums Greenwich — James II Portrait (6) Sowerby, Scott. *Making Toleration: The Repealers and the Glorious Revolution*. Harvard University Press, 2013. (7) Miller, John. *James II*. Yale University Press (The English Monarchs Series), 2000. (8) The Royal Family — James II (9) Pleasure and Pastime: Leisure at the Court of Charles II

Andrew Jackson

NAME Andrew Jackson. He was affectionately known by his troops and the American public as "Old Hickory" due to his legendary toughness, and sometimes disparagingly by political opponents as "King Andrew I" for his assertive use of presidential power. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States (1829–1837) and the founder of the modern Democratic Party. He is famous for his victory at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, his fierce opposition to the Second Bank of the United States, and his controversial policy of Indian Removal. He was the first "frontier president" and the first to survive an assassination attempt.

BIRTH Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region on the border of North and South Carolina, southwest of the Uwharrie Mountains. The exact location of his birth — whether on the North or South Carolina side of the border — has been disputed, and both states have historically claimed him. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND His parents were Andrew Jackson Sr. and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Scots-Irish Presbyterian colonists who had emigrated from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, approximately two years before his birth. Jackson's father died in a logging accident in February 1767, at the age of 29 — three weeks before his son Andrew was born. 

Jackson was raised by his mother and was the youngest of three sons. His brothers Hugh and Robert also served in the American Revolution; Hugh died from heat exhaustion after the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1779, and Robert died from smallpox contracted while a British prisoner of war in 1781. His mother Elizabeth died of cholera later that same year while nursing American prisoners of war in Charleston, leaving the fourteen-year-old Jackson an orphan. (2)

CHILDHOOD Jackson grew up in poverty on the Carolina frontier. 

As a boy, he served as a courier and messenger for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. At the age of thirteen, he and his brother Robert were captured by British forces. When a British officer ordered Jackson to clean his boots, he refused, and the officer struck him with a sword, leaving permanent scars on his left hand and head — an act Jackson never forgave. He was taken prisoner and held in harsh conditions before being released, partly due to his mother's intervention. (3)

Below is The Brave Boy of the Waxhaws, an 1876 Currier and Ives lithograph depicting the story of a young Andrew Jackson defending himself from a British officer during the American Revolutionary War

EDUCATION Jackson received only a rudimentary frontier education at local schools in the Waxhaws. He was taught to read and was known as a child to read newspapers aloud to illiterate neighbors. 

He later studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina, reading in the offices of local attorneys Spruce Macay and John Stokes. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1787. 

He was the first U.S. President who did not have a college education and was not born into a wealthy family. (2)

CAREER RECORD 1788: Appointed prosecutor of the Western District of North Carolina (now Tennessee); he moved to Nashville to begin his legal career.

1796: Served as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention and was elected as the state’s first U.S. Representative.

1797–1798: Served briefly as a U.S. Senator before resigning to return to Tennessee.

1798–1804: Served as a judge on the Tennessee Superior Court.

1802: Elected major general of the Tennessee militia.

1814–1815: Led U.S. forces to victory in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the Battle of New Orleans, becoming a national hero.

1821: Served as the first military governor of Florida after its acquisition from Spain.

1823–1825: Returned to the U.S. Senate representing Tennessee.

1829–1837: Served two terms as the 7th President of the United States.

APPEARANCE Jackson was tall and lean, standing approximately 6 feet 1 inch, with a thin, angular face, a strong jaw, and piercing blue eyes. He had a shock of thick, silver-white hair that stood nearly upright, giving him a distinctive and commanding appearance. 

His face bore the scar on his forehead from the British officer's sword blow during his captivity as a boy. 

Jackson had a tomahawk tattoo on his thigh. (2), (4)

Formal portrait, c. 1835

FASHION Jackson was known for dressing in the style of a Southern gentleman planter — dark, well-tailored frock coats, high cravats, and tall hats. In his later years as President, his white hair and stately, formal dress gave him an almost aristocratic bearing that contrasted sharply with his rough frontier origins. He favored the fashions befitting a man of his hard-won social standing. (2)

CHARACTER Jackson had a fierce, volcanic temperament. He was quick to anger and slow to forgive, holding grudges for decades. He was intensely loyal to friends and allies and equally ferocious toward enemies. 

He possessed enormous personal courage and iron determination. Contemporaries described him as simultaneously warm and generous to those he loved and ruthlessly vindictive toward those who crossed him. His troops said he was "tough as old hickory" wood on the battlefield, and the nickname "Old Hickory" stuck for life. 

Jackson had an imperious streak and a deep conviction that his own judgment was superior — qualities that made him a decisive leader but also a polarizing one. (3)

SPEAKING VOICE Jackson spoke with a strong Scots-Irish frontier accent. He was not a polished orator in the classical tradition of earlier presidents but was known for direct, forceful speech that resonated with ordinary Americans. His communication style was blunt and personal, which helped forge his image as a man of the people. (2)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Jackson had a dry, sardonic wit. He was capable of warmth and humor in private company, particularly with close friends and family. However, he was also deeply sensitive to slights and insults, and humor at his or his wife Rachel's expense could provoke explosive fury. (4)

RELATIONSHIPS Shortly after arriving in Nashville in 1788, Jackson boarded with Rachel Stockley Donelson, widow of pioneer John Donelson. There he met her daughter Rachel Donelson Robards, who was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, a man subject to fits of jealous rage. The couple separated in 1790. Jackson and Rachel went through a marriage ceremony, but it was not legally valid because her divorce from Robards had not yet been finalized. They married legally on January 17, 1794, once the divorce was confirmed. The controversy over their marriage — with political opponents branding Rachel a bigamist and adulteress — was a lifelong wound for Jackson, who fought numerous duels defending her honor.

Rachel Jackson. Portrait by Ralph E. W. Earl, 1823

Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, two weeks after Jackson's presidential election victory and two months before his inauguration. A distraught Jackson had to be physically pulled away from her body so the undertaker could prepare it. He never fully recovered from her death and wore a miniature portrait of her around his neck for the rest of his life. He blamed her death on the stress caused by his political enemies' attacks on her character during the campaign.  (2)

MONEY AND FAME Jackson rose from poverty to become a wealthy Tennessee planter and slave owner. He acquired his plantation, The Hermitage, near Nashville, and at the height of his prosperity owned over 100 enslaved people. 

His fame, particularly after the Battle of New Orleans, made him arguably the most popular American public figure of his era. 

He paradoxically opposed paper money and championed hard currency — gold and silver coins — yet his portrait has appeared on the U.S. $20 bill since 1928, replacing Grover Cleveland. (3)

FOOD AND DRINK Jackson was a man of the frontier in his eating habits, at least in theory. Breakfast at The Hermitage typically consisted of corn cakes with blackberry jam, chicken hash, and strong black coffee. He preferred plain American cooking over the French cuisine that was fashionable in Washington, which probably says as much about his feelings toward France as it does about his palate.

In practice, however, his tastes were broader than the frontier legend suggests. He was also fond of tenderloin, lamb chops, oysters, wild duck and goose, and fried ham, washed down with French wines — a detail his political image-makers presumably kept quiet. He was also known to enjoy whiskey.

His most celebrated food moment came when a New York dairy farmer sent him a 635-kilogram wheel of cheddar cheese as a gift. Jackson, in a characteristic act of populist generosity — or possibly because he had absolutely no idea what else to do with 635 kilograms of cheese — opened the White House to the public. Two thousand visitors arrived and consumed the entire thing in two hours, leaving the carpets and curtains smelling of cheese for weeks. 

At his 1829 inauguration, he invited the public to the White House for a "cup of grog," and they arrived in such numbers that the celebration descended into a drunken mob, with revelers standing on furniture and breaking china. The chaos was only dispersed when tubs of punch were moved to the White House lawn. (2)

1829 White House inauguration mob by Perplexity

MUSIC AND ARTS Jackson was not particularly noted for an interest in music or the fine arts. His tastes were those of a frontier-bred Southern gentleman rather than a cultured East Coast aristocrat. (2)

LITERATURE Jackson was a voracious reader of newspapers throughout his life and used the press skillfully as a political tool. He was not a literary man in the conventional sense but wrote extensively in the form of letters — his correspondence is voluminous and reveals a sharp, direct mind. He was reported to have had a poor grasp of spelling throughout his life. (2)

NATURE Jackson spent much of his life on the Tennessee frontier and was deeply connected to the land as a farmer and planter. The Hermitage plantation was his sanctuary and retreat throughout his life. 

PETS Jackson kept a pet parrot named Poll (also recorded as Pol), an African Grey parrot given to him by his wife Rachel. He taught the bird to curse fluently. At Jackson's funeral in June 1845, Poll caused a scene by swearing loudly and continuously at the mourners and had to be removed from the proceedings before the service could begin. (5)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Jackson was passionate about horse racing and bred and raced thoroughbreds at The Hermitage. A duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806 grew partly out of a dispute over a wager on a horse race. 

He was also an avid hunter and enjoyed the outdoor pursuits typical of frontier Southern life. (2)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Jackson showed no particular interest in science or mathematics. His intellectual energies were directed toward law, politics, and military affairs. (2)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Jackson was raised Presbyterian by his Irish immigrant parents and retained a broadly Protestant faith throughout his life, though he resisted formal church membership for much of his adult years, reportedly not wanting to appear politically opportunistic. He joined the Presbyterian Church formally only in 1838, in his retirement. 

His personal philosophy centered on concepts of honor, personal courage, loyalty, and the sovereignty of the common man over elite interests.  (2)

PRESIDENCY Andrew Jackson arrived at the White House in 1829 as perhaps the first truly self-made American president — a man born in a log cabin before the nation had quite decided whether log cabins were admirable symbols of rugged virtue or merely evidence of poor planning. His supporters adored him with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for victorious generals, miracle tonics, and unusually talented circus dogs.

For his inauguration, Jackson made the bold and catastrophically optimistic decision to invite the public into the White House for refreshments. This sounds charming in theory. In practice, it produced several thousand citizens stampeding through the presidential residence in muddy boots, climbing on furniture, smashing china, and consuming alcohol with the urgency of men preparing for prohibition a century early. One observer described the crowd as resembling a mob that had captured a palace in wartime. White House staff eventually restored order by placing tubs of whiskey punch on the lawn outside, thereby luring the masses away from the building with techniques still commonly employed in dealing with bears at American campgrounds.

Once in office, Jackson governed much as he had fought battles: aggressively, personally, and with a deep conviction that disagreement was a form of sabotage. He introduced what became known as the “spoils system,” cheerfully replacing experienced officeholders with loyal supporters under the comforting theory that government jobs were simple enough for any politically dependable person to perform. This was rather like deciding that because one can sit in a chair, one is qualified to build the chair.

Jackson’s war against the Second Bank of the United States became less a policy dispute than an extended blood feud. Jackson regarded the Bank as a nest of privilege and corruption; the Bank regarded Jackson as a barely housebroken cannonball in human form. Jackson vetoed its recharter, removed federal deposits, and effectively killed it altogether. The Senate censured him for exceeding his authority — still the only presidential censure ever formally issued — whereupon Jackson spent the next several years ensuring the censure itself was erased from the record, an act carrying the unmistakable energy of a man storming back into a saloon because he has just remembered a second insult.

Remarkably, Jackson also managed to eliminate the entire national debt in 1835, the only president ever to do so. Americans have since treated this achievement much as modern people treat the idea of walking to the Moon — technically possible, but not something anyone intends to attempt again.

Yet Jackson’s presidency contains one stain so enormous that no amount of frontier swagger or populist mythology can obscure it. In 1830 he signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. The resulting Trail of Tears brought disease, starvation, and death on a horrifying scale. It remains one of the darkest episodes in American history, carried out with bureaucratic efficiency and moral blindness so complete it is still difficult to comprehend.

And because Andrew Jackson’s life refused to observe ordinary standards of plausibility, he also survived the first attempted assassination of a sitting American president in 1835. The attacker fired two pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired. Statistically, this was astonishing. Jackson’s response was not to flee or seek cover, but to attack the would-be assassin with his cane while bystanders wrestled the man away. Which, in the end, tells you nearly everything about Andrew Jackson: a president who approached politics, warfare, insults, banking policy, and attempted murder with essentially the same emotional setting.

1835 lithograph of the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson, published by Endicott & Co

POLITICS Jackson was the founding figure of the Democratic Party and championed what became known as Jacksonian Democracy — the expansion of voting rights to all white men, the dismantling of what he saw as corrupt elite institutions, and the supremacy of the will of the ordinary citizen. 

His major political acts included the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the forced displacement of Native American tribes from their ancestral homelands to territories west of the Mississippi River — a policy that resulted in the deaths of thousands along what became known as the Trail of Tears. 

He waged a fierce political war against the Second Bank of the United States, which he regarded as a corrupt institution serving the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans, ultimately vetoing its recharter and removing federal deposits from it.

On March 28, 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for violating the Constitution by his removal of federal deposits from the Second Bank — the only time in U.S. history a sitting president was censured by the Senate. Jackson successfully had the censure expunged from the Senate record in 1837.

Jackson was also credited with the first use of a supporter's baby as a political prop, during an 1833 tour of the eastern states — a tradition that has never died. (2), (3)

SCANDAL The most persistent scandal of Jackson's life was the circumstances of his marriage to Rachel Donelson. Their first ceremony took place before her divorce from her first husband, Lewis Robards, was legally finalized, making the union technically bigamous. Though they married legally in 1794, political opponents used the issue relentlessly throughout his career, most viciously during the 1828 presidential campaign, accusing Rachel of adultery and bigamy. Jackson held these attacks responsible for the deterioration of Rachel's health and her death in December 1828. (2)

Jackson was involved in as many as 100 duels over the course of his life — a figure that raises the question of quite how much spare time he had — many fought over matters of personal and political honour, with defending Rachel's reputation among the most celebrated motivations. The most notorious was his duel with Charles Dickinson on May 30, 1806, which began over Dickinson's accusation that Jackson had cheated on a horse race wager, compounded by an insult to Rachel. Dickinson fired first, breaking two of Jackson's ribs and lodging a bullet approximately two inches from his heart. Jackson, in a detail that tells you everything about the man, stayed upright, took careful aim, and fired — only for his pistol to jam at half-cock. He re-cocked it and fired again, killing Dickinson. This second pull of the trigger was widely regarded as a violation of the code duello, and many contemporaries considered it a cold-blooded act rather than a fair fight. Jackson was unmoved by the criticism.

The bullet never came out. It sat two inches from his heart for 39 years, until his death in 1845 — a permanent reminder of the morning he was shot in a field in Kentucky and decided it was the other man's problem. He was never prosecuted for murder. (4)

Andrew Jackson's famous duel over a horse

MILITARY RECORD Jackson served as a teenage messenger for the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was captured by British forces at the age of thirteen. His refusal to clean a British officer's boots earned him a sword blow that left scars he carried for life.

His brothers both died as a result of the war, and his mother died of illness contracted while nursing prisoners — leaving him the sole survivor of his immediate family by age fourteen.

He rose through the Tennessee militia, being elected Major General in 1802. During the War of 1812 he led forces in the Creek War (1813–1814), defeating the Red Stick Creek faction at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814 — a victory that effectively ended the Creek War. He was subsequently given command of U.S. forces in the South.

His greatest military triumph came at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, where his forces — comprising regular army troops, militia from several states and territories, free Black soldiers, Choctaw fighters, and the pirates of Jean Lafitte — decisively defeated a veteran British army, inflicting devastating casualties while sustaining minimal losses. The battle made him a national hero, though it was fought after the Treaty of Ghent had already ended the war (news had not yet reached New Orleans).

He was a strict officer but was deeply popular with his troops, who gave him the lasting nickname "Old Hickory" for his endurance and toughness on campaign. (2) 

Colored wood engraving of Jackson rallying the troops at New Orleans

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Jackson's health was a long chronicle of injuries and illness. He carried two bullets in his body for most of his adult life — one lodged close to his heart from the Dickinson duel of 1806, which could never be safely removed; a second in his shoulder from a brawl with Thomas Hart Benton in 1813, which was removed without anesthetic after approximately twenty years. 

He suffered from chronic headaches, abdominal pain, and respiratory problems throughout his life, likely related to the bullets and to tuberculosis. 

Jackson was also afflicted by osteomyelitis (bone infection) and dysentery. Despite these ailments, he maintained a powerful physical presence and iron will throughout his public life. 

In his later retirement years his health deteriorated significantly. He died of chronic tuberculosis, dropsy (edema), and heart failure. (2)

HOMES Jackson's primary home was The Hermitage, his plantation estate located near Nashville, Tennessee, which he acquired in stages from 1804 onward. He expanded and improved it throughout his life, and it became a substantial cotton plantation. He retired there after his presidency and died there. The Hermitage is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. (6)

The Hermitage around 1831

Jackson lived briefly in various frontier lodgings in his early years, including as a boarder with the Donelson family when he first arrived in Nashville in 1788. 

During his presidency he resided in the White House in Washington, D.C.

TRAVEL Jackson's life was defined by constant movement across the American frontier, from his early trek from the Carolinas to Nashville to his extensive military campaigns across the South and Southwest. He never traveled to Europe, spending his life instead traversing the emerging American territories by horseback and carriage. 

As President, he conducted a notable tour of the eastern states in 1833, during which he made history on June 6, 1833: he became the first sitting U.S. President to ride a railway, boarding a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train at Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, for a pleasure trip to Baltimore.

DEATH Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, at The Hermitage, at the age of 78. The cause of death was chronic tuberculosis, dropsy, and heart failure. 

He was buried in the garden of The Hermitage, beside his wife Rachel. 

His funeral was attended by family, friends, politicians, and enslaved members of his household — and was disrupted when his pet parrot Poll began swearing so loudly and persistently that it had to be removed before the service could proceed.  (2),

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Jackson has been portrayed in numerous films and television productions. He was portrayed by Charlton Heston in The President's Lady (1953) and The Buccaneer (1958). Brian Keith played him in The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987). 

He has also been portrayed in various historical documentaries. 

In the Broadway musical Hamilton (2015), Jackson is referenced as a successor to Aaron Burr's political legacy. 

Jackson famously appeared on the U.S. $20 bill from 1928 onward, though plans to replace his image with that of Harriet Tubman have been debated and delayed.

The first bronze equestrian statue of Jackson was unveiled in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., in 1853, sculpted by Clark Mills — notably the first equestrian statue cast in the United States. (6)

ACHIEVEMENTS Military hero of the War of 1812; victor at the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815

Seventh President of the United States, 1829–1837; founder of the Democratic Party

First President from a non-wealthy, non-elite background; first from west of the Appalachians

Only President under whose administration the United States was entirely debt-free (briefly, around 1835)

Negotiated the Jackson Purchase of Chickasaw lands in western Tennessee (1818); co-founder of Memphis, Tennessee (1819)

Survived the first assassination attempt on a U.S. President (January 30, 1835), when both of Richard Lawrence's pistols misfired — odds estimated at approximately 125,000 to 1

His portrait has appeared on the U.S. $20 bill since 1928

Sources: (1) Wikipedia: Andrew Jackson (2) The White House: Andrew Jackson (3) Encyclopædia Britannica: Andrew Jackson (4) Encyclopaedia of Trivia: Andrew Jackson (5) Smithsonian Magazine: Andrew Jackson's Parrot (6) National Park Service: The Hermitage