Madame Évangéline Duplessis

— The Austrian ambassador did not send his best people. He sent his best cats. —

🎙 On the Phonograph

— One empress’s tantrum over the colour purple spooled out into ecclesiastical schism, civil war, and, ultimately, the sack of Constantinople. —

— “They are asking for a receipt. From Mehmed the Conqueror.” —

🎙 On the Phonograph

— How a typo, a sycophantic eunuch, and one really, *really* bad temper tantrum nearly unravelled the Tang Dynasty. —

— How a Typo in a 15th-Century Prenup Nearly Gifted the Ottoman Treasury to the Habsburgs —

— How One Thirsty Baroness and a Goat Rumor Deep-Sixed the Spanish Armada —

— How One Chin-Obsessed Habsburg Export Turned Versailles Into a Starch-Soaked Abattoir —