Hall of Dirtbags
Wondering if I’ve covered a particular historical dirtbag in the past? Here’s a running list of everyone featured on this Substack so far, alphabetized by last name (when they are a single person with a last name) and updated whenever I can remember to.
Have a recommendation for someone who’s not on this list yet but should be? Let me know!
Agrippina the Younger
Hans Christian Andersen
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Julie d’Aubigny
Delia Bacon
P.T. Barnum
Jack Black
Helena Blavatsky
Jane Boleyn
Napoleon Bonaparte
Tycho Brahe
Sir Francis Bryan
George Gordon Lord Byron
Caligula
Giacomo Casanova
King Charles VI of France
Barthélemy de Chasseneuz
Georges Danton
Henry Stuart Lord Darnley
John Dee
Robert Deveraux
Sergei Diaghilev
False Dmitri (I, II, and III)
Lord Alfred Douglas
Vlad Dracula
Queen Eadburh of Wessex
Thomas Edison
Empress Elizabeth of Russia
The Jiajing Emperor
Catalina de Erauso
Minna and Ada Everleigh
King Ferrante of Naples
Henry Ford
Maggie, Kate, and Leah Fox
Benjamin Franklin
Claudius Galenus
King George IV of England
Harold Godwinson
King Gustav I of Sweden
Warren G. Harding
Bess of Hardwick
Mata Hari
Franz Joseph Haydn
Ernest Hemingway
Victor Hugo
Georgie Hyde-Lees
King James VI/I of England and Scotland
Pope John XII
Ben Jonson
John Keehan
Ned Kelly
The Marquis de Lafayette
Jean Lafitte
Empress Livia of Rome
King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Sir Thomas Malory
Catherine de Medici
Vyacheslav Molotov
Lola Montez
Jeanne de la Motte
Friedrich Nietzsche
Saint Olga of Kyiv
Grigori Orlov
The Avignon Papacy (and assorted antipopes)
Samuel Pepys
Lydia Pinkham
Pope Pius XIII
The Affair of the Poisons (and assorted poisoners)
Grigori Potemkin
The Defenestrations of Prague (and assorted defenestrators)
Grigori Rasputin
Arthur Rimbaud
Alice Roosevelt
Girolamo Savonarola
Thomas Seymour
Socrates
Pope Stephen VI
Saul of Tarsus
Edward Teach, AKA Blackbeard
Jane Toppan
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Felix Yusupov