Princess Caraboo - Beautiful Fraud

03/30/20 • 78 min

1 Listener

In early 1817, a mystery woman showed up in the town of Almondsbury in Gloucester, England. She seemed disoriented, and when she spoke her words were incomprehensible to English ears. The only thing anyone could discern was that she called herself “Caraboo.” The young lady was taken in by a Mr. and Mrs Worrall, and several days after her arrival, a man named Manuel Enesso appeared and said he could understand Princess Caraboo’s strange language. Her remarkable story, which he “translated,” was a sensational one, complete with pirates, death, and daring escape...

Previous Episode

Katherine Howard: Just a Girl

Teeny tiny Katherine Howard was Henry VIII's fifth and youngest wife. He met Katherine when he was almost fifty, and stuck in a marriage that made him miserable. Katherine, young and full of life enchanted him, and she was still only a teenager when she was ‘showed openly as Queen’ at Hampton Court in August 1540, having married Henry the day he sent Thomas Cromwell, who’d arranged his marriage to Anne of Cleves, to the block. However, poor Katherine was Queen of England for only a short while, and her life, just as short, came to a tragic and violent end. Up until fairly recently, she's been painted as a bit of an empty headed bimbette who may have deserved what she got, but thankfully we (well, most of us, sigh) live in more enlightened times and we can take stock of what we know of Katherine's life, and at least give this young girl the sympathy she deserves.

Next Episode

Nancy Astor: Lady of the House

Although Constance Markiewicz had been elected to parliament before her but refused to take her seat, Nancy Astor was the American whirlwind who became the first female British MP in 1919. She did a heap of good, but life is complicated and HER life was not without a large dose of scandal and controversy.

Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.