Richard III and a Wandering Wife

This is an old story - either almost a year and a half, or several hundred years - about evidence of infidelity in Richard III's family.

The instance of female infidelity, or cuckolding, could have occurred anywhere in the numerous generations separating Richard III from the 5th Duke of Beaufort (1744-1803), whose living descendants provided samples of male-line DNA to be compared against that of Richard.

A bored or lonely wife is the most logical explanation, but I like to think of a Sommersby-like reason for it. Obviously this would be very unlikely, nobility are too well-known for this kind of switch, but I like the idea of a mean, abusive man going off to war and a kind, loving one coming home. It's a more interesting story than intentional infidelity.

Build a Wall or a Bridge

Sometimes you can do both.

Hadrian's Wall "was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in 122 AD during the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea. It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. There was a fort about every five Roman miles. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum (another ditch with adjoining mounds). It is thought that the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been used as customs posts."

The Bridge of Angels "is a Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber, from the city center to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the towering Castel Sant'Angelo. The bridge is faced with travertine marble and spans the Tiber with five arches, three of which are Roman; it was approached by means of ramp from the river."

Oh, Henry!

Researchers are suggesting that repeated injuries from jousting and other athletic activities may have caused Henry VIII to become erratic and violent.

The king whose erratic behavior (he executed two wives, one more than O.J. Simpson allegedly managed) is the subject of such works as “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” and “Wolf Hall” may have suffered from traumatic brain injury similar to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), the same brain injury Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered in the cadaver of Webster, a Hall of Famer, in 2002.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy can happen when there have been repeated hits to the head and the symptoms gradually become worse over time. Obviously we can't be certain if this was the cause of Henry's behavior, or, at least, one of the causes, since we can't go back in time and do an MRI to check out his brain, but it is an interesting theory.