Henry II and Thomas Becket?

There was a very influential book published in 1960, Centuries of Childhood by Philippe Aries, that promoted the thesis that the idea of childhood and the focus of the parents on their children was a very modern development. See Wikipedia link. This thesis has been debunked but held sway in historical circles for a significant period of time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centuries_of_Childhood

putative?

well if this is correct, it is a huge discovery as afaik syphilis hasn't been verified in Europe this early. see link on history of syphilis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_syphilis

you might take a look at the History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, delightful book....

I was also taught that an important reason why Christianity succeeded and Mithraism did not was that at the time Christianity had a strong appeal for women...in the early Christian church women were very important, there are a lot of strong women figures in the New Testament for example. Mithraism was the religion of soldiers, of males....don't know what current scholarship says tho. Augustine's mother was a Christian...as was Constantine's.

yes!!!! I sold my soul to the company store!

And Henry VII's very weak blood link to royalty was through his mother who was a Beaufort.

and the mitochondrial DNA that was traced to prove that the skeleton dug up in the carport was really Richard III was Katherine's DNA. Richard III's mother was descended through an unbroken female line to Katherine. As was the guy in Canada.

I turned to the dark side eventually and got an MBA...worked in research on financial markets...I got to do some financial/economic history along the way. Studying history taught me so much: how to do research; how to analyze; how to create an argument and support/defend it; how to write a paper...I used all that in my career. Also if you work internationally, knowing their history can be a big plus.

For a successful career outside of history after majoring in it, it certainly helps to have graduate training in whatever non-history career path you choose. If you like to teach, then history may be a good path on its own. My problem was that I didn't enjoy teaching that much and you need to love it to make it through, to make history your life work.

Well because it gave me chills and I just loved it. Nothing really rational about my decision tbh. I also love ancient history but had enough trouble with Latin, didn't want to tackle Greek. I discovered fairly late that I didn't enjoy teaching that much though. If you don't know Latin well, medieval can be a real challenge. I never mastered it.

I did graduate study in Medieval European history and was expected to be able to read German, French and Latin as a minimum.