Post by veu on Oct 20, 2018 5:17:52 GMT -5
From Ranker.com:
The British Royal Family May Be Descended From The Mermaid On Your Starbucks Cup
There's a scandal brewing in the world of coffee, and it's not about the Starbucks red cups. This story goes much deeper, all the way back to a mythical fairy serpent who transformed into a dragon. The mysterious woman, called Melusina or Melusine, is also supposedly related to the British royal family, making them among the weirdest royals in history.
It wouldn't be the first scandal for the British monarchy. But who is the water goddess Melusine, ancestor of Jacquetta of Luxembourg? Melusine was the daughter of a Scottish king and a fairy queen, and her own mother cursed her to transform into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. That didn't stop Melusine from marrying a lord and giving birth to 10 children, including the ancestors of multiple royal families. Through Jacquetta of Luxembourg's descendants, Melusine's fairy blood allegedly flows in the veins of all British monarchs dating back to the 15th century.
And the royal connection is just one part. The famous Starbucks mermaid isn't a mermaid at all - according to Starbucks logo history, it comes from a 16th-century woodcut of a siren. Who is on the Starbucks cup? That's Melusine, the fairy princess who could build a castle in one night and - spoiler - also inspired Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
The Starbucks Mermaid Is Actually An Ancient Fairy Goddess
The mermaid with two tails on the Starbucks cup isn't actually a mermaid at all. She's the legendary Melusine, a mythical fairy princess who lived with a terrible curse. According to medieval legends, Melusine transformed every Saturday from a beautiful woman into a half-serpent creature.
A medieval image of the two-tailed serpent inspired the Starbucks logo, which originally showed the siren's bare breasts. And that's not all - Melusine is also reportedly the ancestor of all of Britain's monarchs dating back to the 15th century, when a controversial marriage supposedly mixed fairy blood with royal blood.
She Was Cursed For Locking Her Father In A Mountain
According to the legend, Melusine was the daughter of the King of Scotland and his fairy wife. She was both royal and a fairy, and when she was young, Melusine locked her father in a mountain. Melusine's vengeful mother punished the girl by transforming her into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday.
In this story, Melusine is not your traditional mermaid. Instead, she's more like a shapeshifter or a werewolf, condemned to a weekly transformation that made her undesirable to men.
A Queen Of England Traced Her Line To Melusine Through Her Witchy Mother
Elizabeth Woodville was a controversial queen, to say the least. She was also the link between the British royal family and Melusine. In 1464, during the Wars of the Roses, King Edward IV secretly married the beautiful Elizabeth, who came from a Lancastrian family without royal rank. Rather than securing his rule by marrying into another European royal family, as most kings did, Edward followed his heart, choosing a widow as his bride.
But Elizabeth did have a claim to royal blood through her mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a member of the powerful ducal Luxembourg dynasty. Jacquetta traced her family back to the myth of Melusine, arguing that she was a descendant of the fairy princess, as she had - according to legend - married Jacquetta's ancestor, Siegfried. In short, this means that the current British royal family is allegedly descended from Melusine, a tempting water goddess and the inspiration for the mermaid on the Starbucks cup.
Jacquetta Was Accused Of Using Witchcraft To Capture The King
When Edward's enemies learned that he had married Elizabeth Woodville, a woman who brought very little to the union, they instantly suspected dark magic to be at play. Jacquetta, Elizabeth's mother, was accused of using witchcraft to snare the king.
In 1469, Thomas Wake accused Jacquetta of witchcraft. As evidence, Wake presented "an image of lead made like a man of arms of the length of a man's finger broken in the middle and made fast with a wire, saying that it was made by [Jacquetta] to use with witchcraft and sorcery." Jacquetta was arrested and brought to Warwick Castle, at the same time that her son-in-law the king was being held by the Earl of Warwick. But once the king escaped, the case fell apart. It wasn't Jacquetta's last brush with witchcraft accusations, however.
The Shadow Of Magic Hung Over Jacquetta
Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, had Jacquetta on trial for witchcraft. Although the trial failed to convince anyone, especially after Warwick was exiled from England for kidnapping the king and supporting his brother for the throne, a shadow hung over Jacquetta's reputation.
Years later, Richard III, Edward's own brother, revived the allegations after Jacquetta's death. Richard is best known for possibly murdering his own nephews to secure the throne. While Jacquetta's accusers did not mention Melusine, perhaps they believed the queen's mother gained supernatural powers through her claim to have a fairy ancestor; either way, it's hard to imagine how much satisfaction was got from bringing allegations against a dead woman.
The Tudors Died Out But Melusine's Blood Lived On
After the War of the Roses ended, Elizabeth Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth of York, married Henry VII, the new Tudor King of England. She passed her magic-infused blood onto her son, Henry VIII, and his children who would rule England for a century to come. When the Tudors died out with Queen Elizabeth I, the Stuarts came to power; the Stuarts were also descended from Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, through their daughter Princess Margaret, who had become the Queen of Scotland.
To this day the bloodline of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York still sit on the thrones of England and Scotland, and as such - according to legend - so does the blood of Melusine.
Melusine Hid Her Serpent Tail From Her Husband
Melusine's marriage with her husband Raymond was happy for years. That is, until he discovered her secret. Melusine and Raymond had 10 sons, but some were terribly deformed because of Melusine's fairy blood.
During their long years of marriage, Melusine retreated to seclusion every Saturday, hiding in a room filled with water while she was cursed with a serpent tail. Raymond eventually became suspicious - perhaps wondering if infidelity explained his wife's regular absences - and he spied through a keyhole, uncovering Melusine's transformation.
The Seductive Melusine Married A French Lord
Of course, given the nature of her existence, there's more than one legend about who Melisune ended up with; a different story claims she found a French nobleman to marry. His name was Raymond, Lord of Forez, and he ruled over an area of Poitou in France. One day, when Raymond was hunting in the forest, he spotted a beautiful woman sitting next to a fountain. She wore a "glimmering white dress" and had "long waving golden hair, and a face of inexpressible beauty."
The medieval story contained clues that Melusine wasn't your average beautiful woman. Because she was first seen next to a water source, the legend hints of Melusine's supernatural connections, rather like an echo of the Arthurian Lady of the Lake. Raymond fell deeply in love with the beauty, who agreed to marry him as long as he never tried to see her on Saturdays.
The Chateau Lusignan Was Built By Melusine
According to the legend of Melusine, she built the historic Chateau Lusignan, located near Poitiers, France. The fairy woman married a noble gentlemen in Poitou and helped the region flourish, overseeing new land developments and guiding Poitou to greater prosperity. For centuries, Melusine was associated with the chateau, even depicted as a dragon flying above the castle in a 14th-century illuminated manuscript.
Sadly, the beautiful Chateau Lusignan was slowly dismantled. In the 18th century, the Count of Blossac tore down the castle and turned it into a park, and today only some of the walls and a staircase tower remain.
After She Was Exposed, Melusine Transformed Into A Dragon
Raymond could not hide the fact that he'd spied on Melusine and discovered her serpentine secret. In front of his wife, he slipped and called her a serpent. Once she learned of her husband's duplicity - after all, he had vowed never to interrupt her Saturday serpent time - Melusine transformed into a winged dragon and flew away.
That wasn't the last of the beautiful siren, however; Melusine still flew over the castle she had built, returning in her dragon form to watch her sons grow up. In fact, the swirling sound of wind in a chimney is called "melusine" in some parts of Europe.
'The Little Mermaid' Also Comes From Melusine
Hans Christian Andersen wrote a children's fairytale called The Little Mermaid in the mid-19th century. The tale of a mermaid longing for land became an instant classic, and in 1989 Disney created an animated version starring Ariel.
Andersen was inspired by the fairytale about Melusine, which means that Ariel is also related to the mythical mermaid. If you think about it, that makes Ariel double royalty, since she's a Disney Princess and an honorary British royal.
Melusine's Legend Dates Back To The Medieval Period
Melusine's story was written down for the first time in 1393. Jean d'Arras wrote The Noble History of Lusignan for Jean de Berry, brother of French King Charles V. It recounts the rise of the Lusignan dynasty, a noble feudal family, explaining “how the noble and powerful fortress of Lusignan in Poitou was founded by a fairy."
According to the medieval tale, Melusine built the Chateau Lusignan using an army of fairy workers who could build a house in a single night. But the supernatural fairy's mortal life was filled with sorrow, for her husband could not accept her powers.
It's Not Just Starbucks - Eight Of Today's Monarchs Are Linked To Melusine
The Starbucks FAQ explains their siren logo: "Her image, originally derived from a twin-tailed siren in an old 16th-century Norse woodcut, was at the center of Starbucks original logo. She embodies Starbucks and our coffee – evoking coffee’s allure and its seafaring tradition."
And the fairy serpent Melusine isn't just memorialized on Starbucks cups. Multiple royal families trace their genealogy back to the mythical Melusine, including the current British royal family and seven other European monarchs. Of course, while medieval nobles rarely shied away from opportunities to link themselves with mythological figures - Clovis, the first king of France, claimed his grandfather was a sea dragon - today, royals are less likely to tout their link to Melusine.
The British Royal Family May Be Descended From The Mermaid On Your Starbucks Cup
There's a scandal brewing in the world of coffee, and it's not about the Starbucks red cups. This story goes much deeper, all the way back to a mythical fairy serpent who transformed into a dragon. The mysterious woman, called Melusina or Melusine, is also supposedly related to the British royal family, making them among the weirdest royals in history.
It wouldn't be the first scandal for the British monarchy. But who is the water goddess Melusine, ancestor of Jacquetta of Luxembourg? Melusine was the daughter of a Scottish king and a fairy queen, and her own mother cursed her to transform into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. That didn't stop Melusine from marrying a lord and giving birth to 10 children, including the ancestors of multiple royal families. Through Jacquetta of Luxembourg's descendants, Melusine's fairy blood allegedly flows in the veins of all British monarchs dating back to the 15th century.
And the royal connection is just one part. The famous Starbucks mermaid isn't a mermaid at all - according to Starbucks logo history, it comes from a 16th-century woodcut of a siren. Who is on the Starbucks cup? That's Melusine, the fairy princess who could build a castle in one night and - spoiler - also inspired Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
The Starbucks Mermaid Is Actually An Ancient Fairy Goddess
The mermaid with two tails on the Starbucks cup isn't actually a mermaid at all. She's the legendary Melusine, a mythical fairy princess who lived with a terrible curse. According to medieval legends, Melusine transformed every Saturday from a beautiful woman into a half-serpent creature.
A medieval image of the two-tailed serpent inspired the Starbucks logo, which originally showed the siren's bare breasts. And that's not all - Melusine is also reportedly the ancestor of all of Britain's monarchs dating back to the 15th century, when a controversial marriage supposedly mixed fairy blood with royal blood.
She Was Cursed For Locking Her Father In A Mountain
According to the legend, Melusine was the daughter of the King of Scotland and his fairy wife. She was both royal and a fairy, and when she was young, Melusine locked her father in a mountain. Melusine's vengeful mother punished the girl by transforming her into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday.
In this story, Melusine is not your traditional mermaid. Instead, she's more like a shapeshifter or a werewolf, condemned to a weekly transformation that made her undesirable to men.
A Queen Of England Traced Her Line To Melusine Through Her Witchy Mother
Elizabeth Woodville was a controversial queen, to say the least. She was also the link between the British royal family and Melusine. In 1464, during the Wars of the Roses, King Edward IV secretly married the beautiful Elizabeth, who came from a Lancastrian family without royal rank. Rather than securing his rule by marrying into another European royal family, as most kings did, Edward followed his heart, choosing a widow as his bride.
But Elizabeth did have a claim to royal blood through her mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a member of the powerful ducal Luxembourg dynasty. Jacquetta traced her family back to the myth of Melusine, arguing that she was a descendant of the fairy princess, as she had - according to legend - married Jacquetta's ancestor, Siegfried. In short, this means that the current British royal family is allegedly descended from Melusine, a tempting water goddess and the inspiration for the mermaid on the Starbucks cup.
Jacquetta Was Accused Of Using Witchcraft To Capture The King
When Edward's enemies learned that he had married Elizabeth Woodville, a woman who brought very little to the union, they instantly suspected dark magic to be at play. Jacquetta, Elizabeth's mother, was accused of using witchcraft to snare the king.
In 1469, Thomas Wake accused Jacquetta of witchcraft. As evidence, Wake presented "an image of lead made like a man of arms of the length of a man's finger broken in the middle and made fast with a wire, saying that it was made by [Jacquetta] to use with witchcraft and sorcery." Jacquetta was arrested and brought to Warwick Castle, at the same time that her son-in-law the king was being held by the Earl of Warwick. But once the king escaped, the case fell apart. It wasn't Jacquetta's last brush with witchcraft accusations, however.
The Shadow Of Magic Hung Over Jacquetta
Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, had Jacquetta on trial for witchcraft. Although the trial failed to convince anyone, especially after Warwick was exiled from England for kidnapping the king and supporting his brother for the throne, a shadow hung over Jacquetta's reputation.
Years later, Richard III, Edward's own brother, revived the allegations after Jacquetta's death. Richard is best known for possibly murdering his own nephews to secure the throne. While Jacquetta's accusers did not mention Melusine, perhaps they believed the queen's mother gained supernatural powers through her claim to have a fairy ancestor; either way, it's hard to imagine how much satisfaction was got from bringing allegations against a dead woman.
The Tudors Died Out But Melusine's Blood Lived On
After the War of the Roses ended, Elizabeth Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth of York, married Henry VII, the new Tudor King of England. She passed her magic-infused blood onto her son, Henry VIII, and his children who would rule England for a century to come. When the Tudors died out with Queen Elizabeth I, the Stuarts came to power; the Stuarts were also descended from Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, through their daughter Princess Margaret, who had become the Queen of Scotland.
To this day the bloodline of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York still sit on the thrones of England and Scotland, and as such - according to legend - so does the blood of Melusine.
Melusine Hid Her Serpent Tail From Her Husband
Melusine's marriage with her husband Raymond was happy for years. That is, until he discovered her secret. Melusine and Raymond had 10 sons, but some were terribly deformed because of Melusine's fairy blood.
During their long years of marriage, Melusine retreated to seclusion every Saturday, hiding in a room filled with water while she was cursed with a serpent tail. Raymond eventually became suspicious - perhaps wondering if infidelity explained his wife's regular absences - and he spied through a keyhole, uncovering Melusine's transformation.
The Seductive Melusine Married A French Lord
Of course, given the nature of her existence, there's more than one legend about who Melisune ended up with; a different story claims she found a French nobleman to marry. His name was Raymond, Lord of Forez, and he ruled over an area of Poitou in France. One day, when Raymond was hunting in the forest, he spotted a beautiful woman sitting next to a fountain. She wore a "glimmering white dress" and had "long waving golden hair, and a face of inexpressible beauty."
The medieval story contained clues that Melusine wasn't your average beautiful woman. Because she was first seen next to a water source, the legend hints of Melusine's supernatural connections, rather like an echo of the Arthurian Lady of the Lake. Raymond fell deeply in love with the beauty, who agreed to marry him as long as he never tried to see her on Saturdays.
The Chateau Lusignan Was Built By Melusine
According to the legend of Melusine, she built the historic Chateau Lusignan, located near Poitiers, France. The fairy woman married a noble gentlemen in Poitou and helped the region flourish, overseeing new land developments and guiding Poitou to greater prosperity. For centuries, Melusine was associated with the chateau, even depicted as a dragon flying above the castle in a 14th-century illuminated manuscript.
Sadly, the beautiful Chateau Lusignan was slowly dismantled. In the 18th century, the Count of Blossac tore down the castle and turned it into a park, and today only some of the walls and a staircase tower remain.
After She Was Exposed, Melusine Transformed Into A Dragon
Raymond could not hide the fact that he'd spied on Melusine and discovered her serpentine secret. In front of his wife, he slipped and called her a serpent. Once she learned of her husband's duplicity - after all, he had vowed never to interrupt her Saturday serpent time - Melusine transformed into a winged dragon and flew away.
That wasn't the last of the beautiful siren, however; Melusine still flew over the castle she had built, returning in her dragon form to watch her sons grow up. In fact, the swirling sound of wind in a chimney is called "melusine" in some parts of Europe.
'The Little Mermaid' Also Comes From Melusine
Hans Christian Andersen wrote a children's fairytale called The Little Mermaid in the mid-19th century. The tale of a mermaid longing for land became an instant classic, and in 1989 Disney created an animated version starring Ariel.
Andersen was inspired by the fairytale about Melusine, which means that Ariel is also related to the mythical mermaid. If you think about it, that makes Ariel double royalty, since she's a Disney Princess and an honorary British royal.
Melusine's Legend Dates Back To The Medieval Period
Melusine's story was written down for the first time in 1393. Jean d'Arras wrote The Noble History of Lusignan for Jean de Berry, brother of French King Charles V. It recounts the rise of the Lusignan dynasty, a noble feudal family, explaining “how the noble and powerful fortress of Lusignan in Poitou was founded by a fairy."
According to the medieval tale, Melusine built the Chateau Lusignan using an army of fairy workers who could build a house in a single night. But the supernatural fairy's mortal life was filled with sorrow, for her husband could not accept her powers.
It's Not Just Starbucks - Eight Of Today's Monarchs Are Linked To Melusine
The Starbucks FAQ explains their siren logo: "Her image, originally derived from a twin-tailed siren in an old 16th-century Norse woodcut, was at the center of Starbucks original logo. She embodies Starbucks and our coffee – evoking coffee’s allure and its seafaring tradition."
And the fairy serpent Melusine isn't just memorialized on Starbucks cups. Multiple royal families trace their genealogy back to the mythical Melusine, including the current British royal family and seven other European monarchs. Of course, while medieval nobles rarely shied away from opportunities to link themselves with mythological figures - Clovis, the first king of France, claimed his grandfather was a sea dragon - today, royals are less likely to tout their link to Melusine.
But I never knew about the Royal Family connection, that's very neat!
