Hello Historians.

There are records of letters from Queen Elizabeth the first, which she penned nearly 500 years ago. I'm just so perplexed right now. How are the letters that she wrote still accessible today? How were the letters not ripped or lost?

Hello! I recently fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole around the Ukrainian Civil War/War of Independence, but I'm having trouble finding more scholarly/detailed works. Does anyone know what books or articles I should check out?

I have been messing around on Fold3.com and came across declassified military intelligence files titled “Negro Subversion”. Many of the files point to informants (is that the right word?) discussing collusion between German immigrants and descendants of slaves working together to overthrow the US government. The files discuss things like: a German American shopkeeper expressed sympathy for the plight of the Negro, thus that shopkeeper must be watched closely. Or: a German American man was seen commingling with a group of Negros talking about rights and liberties, therefore requiring further investigation.

To me, there didn’t seem to be much veracity to the claims. Most, if not all, of the investigations turned up nothing. I am wondering if this was a widespread fear in the US government/military? Is there any scholarly work on this? I couldn’t find anything.

This is my first post in this sub! I’m excited for any response.

I've read a bit about how US troops often gave no quarter, but there's no mention of what happened to the Japanese soldiers who did manage to surrender.

This question isn’t super specific, more of a general invitation for knowledgeable folks to discuss what they enjoy - I play a sort of continental European border pipe styled after what we can infer from Peter Breughal’s detailed paintings of Flemish life. The drones point forward and the instrument is widely regarded as the Gibson Flying V of the bagpipe world.

I’ve been having a blast going through the Cantigas, Susato, and Praetorius ^(1) but these are really widely played and mostly concern fairly southern areas of Europe. I honestly can’t find much actual Flemish medieval music, and similarly, any good sources for early music from the British Isles.

Since modern Irish and Scottish trad is my other main area of interest, I’m curious about early roots in those regions bordering the Gaelic areas (assuming no true Gaelic music survives since they didn’t develop a notation system- is that correct?). Scottish Baroque is really well documented (and I do play a bit of that), but that’s much later than what’s currently piquing my interest.

I have the McGee book already; if there are others I would greatly appreciate recommendations. Recordings of great performances are even better since I can learn a tune more quickly by ear than off the page.

^(1) Written information about Praetorius doesn’t do him justice. “Detailed woodcuts” are a massive understatement, as my friend Zexuan was able to 3D print a bagpipe using measurements from his drawings.

He found that they’re accurate to within millimeters.

Most countries in the Second World War executed or tortured Prisoners of War, but why? Didn’t the Geneva Convention protect them in the first place?

Was a family trip to the beach as we understand it today a relatively recent occurence or did ancient peoples do it too? Was there recreational swimming or beach specific games like we have now? I know Rome had some popular seaside cities but don't recall ever hearing what people actually did there? Did they just like the locale for aesthetic reasons or did they go out and play in the water?

I've often heard that the Palace of Versailles was built with fewer bathrooms than it should have, which lead people to relieve themselves in corners or less congested rooms. I've also heard that women would just "go to the bathroom" as they walked, hoping the big skirts of their dresses would hide it, and have a servant behind cleaning up. In turn, this made the Palace a dirty and smelly place, which had to be emptied out twice a year for cleaning.

Is there any veracity to this or was it just a myth? How was hygiene in general treated back in 18th century France's most luxurious court?

Did the common folk have any opinion on what seems like a random locus swarm that occurred every 17 years. Was cicadas ever seen as a food source back in the day?

As you might know, some beaches in Normandy are made of pebbles rather than fine sand. Did that fact matter during the planning of the operation ?

For example, I would guess that explosions on beaches made of pebbles would cause more damage because of the shrapnel-like shards of rock it could produce, and thus the Allies privileged a beach made of sand.

Just to clarify the second question, was it common for medieval English adventurers to venture to Ireland to seek glory and fortune?

I started looking into traveling the world in older times due to some worldbuilding I've been doing, and this came to mind. Traveling was not something that was done by your common people, I would assume, but are there instances of people traveling across the Empire for pleasure reasons, like we do on holidays? How would such a travel take place, by horse and cart, on foot? And how long would this take?

Say you were to go from the easternmost point to the westernmost point of the Empire, that would take a considerable amount of travel time, would such a journey ever be conducted, and if so, what reason could it have? Did common folk travel at all to faraway places, and if they did, was this on foot or by horse?

Let's say you are the general or leader of an army in ancient or medieval times. You fight and you lose a battle, a siege or suffer significant losses due to attrition. What would you do. What would a fairly organized army even be able to do and what would they avoid. How would they motivate their forces in this case?

I know there are some huge "Ifs" in this question, but you often hear about the winning side of military strategy but rarely about the losing side.

About 45 million Americans are of German descent and there are even German american dialects .Why, although their huge number, they are almost fully assimilated and almost no connected with their identity and heritage,like smaller ethnic groups? (Italian Americans or Greek Americans )

Somebody told me that Vladimir Lenin viewed comedy as counter-revolutionary and that he prosecuted comedians fiercely, but I haven't found evidence of him targeting them specifically. Do we have any insights on this subject? Thank you.

Obligatory apologies for formatting, on mobile.

For context, my friends and I have recently started playing D&D and I wanted to know how a city... well, becomes a city.

How does an area/location become settled, and eventually grow into a town or city? What features are necessary for a place to be settle-able (I'm guessing water is a big factor but what else)? How did current (or past) existing cites come into existence and spread out?

Alternatively, are there any books i should read about the birth and development of cities/towns?

I've seen it said a number of times that, unlike many other Late Antique/medieval conversion efforts, the conversion of Ireland to Christianity left behind no history of martyrdom. The saints in early Irish history like Patrick, Brigit, and Colum Cille are not subjected to bodily violence in their hagiographies, although Patrick's 'Confessions' and later lives certainly show that there was pushback from the Irish pagans. I've even seen it suggested that the medieval monastic Irish penchant for asceticism and penance comes from insecurity about their lack of bloody (/red) martyrdom.

Is it generally believed that this is accurate and the conversion was bloodless? If so, do we have any sense of why that might be?