March 10, 2026 • 10 mins
Some people leave their mark on history for very curious reasons. Today's tour includes two such tales.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. What would you consider
(00:37):
to be a good legacy for all of human history?
People have wondered this. Is it an estate to leave
to your children, grandchildren and so on? Is it a
name that your descendants can.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Be proud of? Is it a statue or a monument?
You don't have to be a king or a head
of state to have this kind of thought. Death is certain,
so we all hope that some part of us can
live on, if not through our family or our work,
then through the ways in which we are remembered by
our communities. Or to quote the great Bruce Lee, the
(01:08):
key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
But when you achieve a position of great influence, this
question is practically decided for you. Whether you do good
or great evil, you will always appear on some list
of royalty or prime minister or generals. A title for
better or worse is a guarantee that you are an
exceptional person. If you go to Rome and you visit
(01:31):
the papal Basilica of Saint Paul, outside of the walls,
you will see a ring of mosaic portraits lining the walls.
Each of these shows, in order, the line of popes
leading back to the early four hundreds. It's an impressive
piece of work, but I would draw your attention to
one of these portraits. The pope between Benedict the sixth
and Benedict the seventh. He's known as Pope Donnis the Second,
(01:54):
and he reigned sometime in the nine seventies. And this was,
to put it mildly, a pretty chaotic time for papal history.
All throughout the Middle Ages, conflict within the Christian Faith
led to several so called anti popes, people who claimed
to be the true pontiff in defiance of the Roman
Catholic Church. And it appears that the reign of Pope
(02:15):
Donnis the Second was during the brief reign of the
anti Pope Bonifice the seventh, who claimed to be pope
for approximately a month in nine seventy four. Now, the
funny thing about antipopes is that while none of them
were seen as legitimate, men like Bonifice the seventh, would
have a ripple effect on papal history. The next pope
who wanted to choose the name Boniface would go for
(02:37):
Bonifice the eighth rather than share a name with a
former anti pope. Pope Donnis the Second, however, was no antipope,
even if his reign was similarly brief. According to some records,
it lasted for only three months between August and October
of nine seventy four. He is remembered in papal histories
as an honorable man of great integrity. And if that
(02:59):
sounds like a generic, if maybe complementary, description of a pope,
well there's a reason for that. It was common knowledge
that the roster of popes was flawed, but it wasn't
until nineteen forty seven that they finally conducted an audit
of the official papal list. It turned up several bizarre
errors and contradictions. For instance, Pope Anaclidus was listed as
(03:20):
two different people, a number of popes were absent from
the official count. And then there's Pope Donnis the Second,
Monsignor Angelo Murcadi, the Vatican Archivist, determined that Donnis the
Second never actually existed. Now, there was a Pope Donas
who held the title in the six seventies, but the
successor for the name appears to have been a clerical error.
(03:42):
His predecessor, Pope Benedict the sixth, was listed with the
title Dominus d Sutrie after his name in the year
nine seventy four. Early record keepers appeared to have mistaken
Dominus for another pope rather than an honorific title. The
mural at Saint Paul's was created in the eighteenth century,
long after the hopes of the Middle Ages were deceased,
(04:02):
and thus it was perfectly normal for the artists to
imagine what someone looked like based on the existing records,
and yet the artwork outside of Saint Paul's remains. The
portrait of Pope Donnis the Second, entirely fictionalized, stands alongside
real men who lived at the same time. Due to
an honest mistake, an imaginary man was memorialized in his
(04:24):
own place of honor, like giving a tombstone to a typo.
And it really does beg the question for us if
someone who never existed can have such a robust legacy,
who's to say that ordinary people like you and I
can't and honestly, past a certain point of record keeping,
That's all history is stories we've agreed to tell each
other for so many centuries that they've practically become true,
(04:48):
or at least until someone who's curious enough bothers to
check your sources. Despite being a royal, Alexandra did not
(05:09):
have a glamorous upbringing. She came from modest beginnings but
would become a true storybook. Princess Alexander was born into
the Danish royal family in eighteen forty four. Her family
didn't have a last name in the modern sense that
you and I would recognize. They were known as the
House of Slushwig Holstein Sunderberg Glucksburg, but a traditional last
(05:31):
name definitely would have made recording this episode easier. Her
parents were fairly low in the royal line of succession.
Her dad was the king's second cousin and her mom
was his niece, making them I guess double second cousins.
Today that might get some sideways glances, but that was
actually pretty mild incest. By nineteenth century royal family standards,
(05:52):
everything changed though, in eighteen forty eight, when the king
died and his son took the throne, the son had
no male heirs, and so a council was held to
determine the line of succession, and ultimately it was decided
that none other than Alexandra's father would become the new
Prince of Denmark. Now, surprisingly, this didn't come with much
in the way of wealth. Alexandra, her parents, and her
(06:14):
siblings all lived in a town home in Copenhagen. It
was a decent place to live by most standards, but
far from a palace. Heck, Alexandra lived in the attic
with her sister Dagmar, and both of the girls waited
tables at a local restaurant, which wasn't actually very easy
for Alexandra. She was partially deaf in one ear, which
made it difficult to hear the customer's orders. She also
(06:36):
had a scar on her neck from a childhood accident,
which she had to cover with a choker necklace. Now,
even though they were working class people, they did receive
some perks as royals. The children had a tutor, a
kind man who would tell them stories and taught them
to read and write in English. This was important as
England dominated European politics at the time, with Queen Victoria
(06:58):
ruling since before Alexandra was born, and then in eighteen
sixty three the king died and Alexandra's father took the throne.
Alexandra and Dagmar suddenly became prime targets for marriages to
other royal families. That same year, Alexandra's royal ties and
strong education brought her to the attention of none other
than Queen Victoria herself. She was looking for a bride
(07:21):
for her son, Prince Edward. The two were married that
same year. Alexandra was officially a Princess of Wales, the
traditional title given to the wife of the heir to
the English throne. A few years later, in eighteen sixty six,
Dagmar married the Prince of Russia. They also had a
brother who became the King of Greece. Their family had
truly moved up in the world. Once in England, Alexandra
(07:44):
encountered a decadent society, far removed from her life as
a waitress. Edward and his friends loved to party, and
Edward had many affairs. Alexandra took all this in stride.
She focused on her home and soon their children. She
had six of them between eighteen six sixty four in
eighteen seventy one, almost one per year. This was incredibly
(08:05):
taxing on her body, and it led her to catching
a fever, which in turn resulted in her having a
permanent stiffness in her right leg. She limped from there
on out. With her limp, her next scar and partial deafness,
she became very self conscious. She continued to wear choker
necklaces and tried to have her dresses tailored to hide
the limp. She smoked cigarettes to deal with the stress
(08:26):
of being a princess, and this was uncommon for women
at the time, but she used a cigarette holder to
look more elegant. Before Alexandra realized what was happening, the
young women in England began to take up the same habit.
They also wore choker necklaces, and some of them even
wore mismatt shoes and used a cane to imitate her limp,
and at first she may have thought that they were
(08:48):
mocking her. Her husband wasn't that popular. Actually, he was
seen as a lazy playboy, so it would figure that
the public would come after Alexandra too. But in actuality.
When interviewed, many of the young women imitating Alexander's style
and limp admired her. She seemed like a kind and
down to earth leader compared to her husband. It was
a rare case of a disability giving rise to a
(09:11):
fashion trend. Edward became king after Victoria's death in nineteen
oh one. His rule is generally overshadowed by his mother's
as well as by his sons. George the Fifth took
the throne in nineteen ten after Edward's death, and his
mother was always close by his side. Alexander herself is
often overshadowed by the more famous members of her family,
(09:33):
but her childhood tutor remained proud of the little girl
he helped crow into a real life princess. He recognized
the power of her story and her personal growth, and
he would know because he made his own mark on
history as a lover of classic tales. The man who
gave Us The Little Mermaid Hans Christian Anderson. I hope
(09:57):
you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curios.
This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts. Researched and written by the Grim and
Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
the show and the people who make it over at
Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
(10:17):
to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining
our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the
interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign
up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until
(10:37):
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. What would you consider
(00:37):
to be a good legacy for all of human history?
People have wondered this. Is it an estate to leave
to your children, grandchildren and so on? Is it a
name that your descendants can.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Be proud of? Is it a statue or a monument?
You don't have to be a king or a head
of state to have this kind of thought. Death is certain,
so we all hope that some part of us can
live on, if not through our family or our work,
then through the ways in which we are remembered by
our communities. Or to quote the great Bruce Lee, the
(01:08):
key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
But when you achieve a position of great influence, this
question is practically decided for you. Whether you do good
or great evil, you will always appear on some list
of royalty or prime minister or generals. A title for
better or worse is a guarantee that you are an
exceptional person. If you go to Rome and you visit
(01:31):
the papal Basilica of Saint Paul, outside of the walls,
you will see a ring of mosaic portraits lining the walls.
Each of these shows, in order, the line of popes
leading back to the early four hundreds. It's an impressive
piece of work, but I would draw your attention to
one of these portraits. The pope between Benedict the sixth
and Benedict the seventh. He's known as Pope Donnis the Second,
(01:54):
and he reigned sometime in the nine seventies. And this was,
to put it mildly, a pretty chaotic time for papal history.
All throughout the Middle Ages, conflict within the Christian Faith
led to several so called anti popes, people who claimed
to be the true pontiff in defiance of the Roman
Catholic Church. And it appears that the reign of Pope
(02:15):
Donnis the Second was during the brief reign of the
anti Pope Bonifice the seventh, who claimed to be pope
for approximately a month in nine seventy four. Now, the
funny thing about antipopes is that while none of them
were seen as legitimate, men like Bonifice the seventh, would
have a ripple effect on papal history. The next pope
who wanted to choose the name Boniface would go for
(02:37):
Bonifice the eighth rather than share a name with a
former anti pope. Pope Donnis the Second, however, was no antipope,
even if his reign was similarly brief. According to some records,
it lasted for only three months between August and October
of nine seventy four. He is remembered in papal histories
as an honorable man of great integrity. And if that
(02:59):
sounds like a generic, if maybe complementary, description of a pope,
well there's a reason for that. It was common knowledge
that the roster of popes was flawed, but it wasn't
until nineteen forty seven that they finally conducted an audit
of the official papal list. It turned up several bizarre
errors and contradictions. For instance, Pope Anaclidus was listed as
(03:20):
two different people, a number of popes were absent from
the official count. And then there's Pope Donnis the Second,
Monsignor Angelo Murcadi, the Vatican Archivist, determined that Donnis the
Second never actually existed. Now, there was a Pope Donas
who held the title in the six seventies, but the
successor for the name appears to have been a clerical error.
(03:42):
His predecessor, Pope Benedict the sixth, was listed with the
title Dominus d Sutrie after his name in the year
nine seventy four. Early record keepers appeared to have mistaken
Dominus for another pope rather than an honorific title. The
mural at Saint Paul's was created in the eighteenth century,
long after the hopes of the Middle Ages were deceased,
(04:02):
and thus it was perfectly normal for the artists to
imagine what someone looked like based on the existing records,
and yet the artwork outside of Saint Paul's remains. The
portrait of Pope Donnis the Second, entirely fictionalized, stands alongside
real men who lived at the same time. Due to
an honest mistake, an imaginary man was memorialized in his
(04:24):
own place of honor, like giving a tombstone to a typo.
And it really does beg the question for us if
someone who never existed can have such a robust legacy,
who's to say that ordinary people like you and I
can't and honestly, past a certain point of record keeping,
That's all history is stories we've agreed to tell each
other for so many centuries that they've practically become true,
(04:48):
or at least until someone who's curious enough bothers to
check your sources. Despite being a royal, Alexandra did not
(05:09):
have a glamorous upbringing. She came from modest beginnings but
would become a true storybook. Princess Alexander was born into
the Danish royal family in eighteen forty four. Her family
didn't have a last name in the modern sense that
you and I would recognize. They were known as the
House of Slushwig Holstein Sunderberg Glucksburg, but a traditional last
(05:31):
name definitely would have made recording this episode easier. Her
parents were fairly low in the royal line of succession.
Her dad was the king's second cousin and her mom
was his niece, making them I guess double second cousins.
Today that might get some sideways glances, but that was
actually pretty mild incest. By nineteenth century royal family standards,
(05:52):
everything changed though, in eighteen forty eight, when the king
died and his son took the throne, the son had
no male heirs, and so a council was held to
determine the line of succession, and ultimately it was decided
that none other than Alexandra's father would become the new
Prince of Denmark. Now, surprisingly, this didn't come with much
in the way of wealth. Alexandra, her parents, and her
(06:14):
siblings all lived in a town home in Copenhagen. It
was a decent place to live by most standards, but
far from a palace. Heck, Alexandra lived in the attic
with her sister Dagmar, and both of the girls waited
tables at a local restaurant, which wasn't actually very easy
for Alexandra. She was partially deaf in one ear, which
made it difficult to hear the customer's orders. She also
(06:36):
had a scar on her neck from a childhood accident,
which she had to cover with a choker necklace. Now,
even though they were working class people, they did receive
some perks as royals. The children had a tutor, a
kind man who would tell them stories and taught them
to read and write in English. This was important as
England dominated European politics at the time, with Queen Victoria
(06:58):
ruling since before Alexandra was born, and then in eighteen
sixty three the king died and Alexandra's father took the throne.
Alexandra and Dagmar suddenly became prime targets for marriages to
other royal families. That same year, Alexandra's royal ties and
strong education brought her to the attention of none other
than Queen Victoria herself. She was looking for a bride
(07:21):
for her son, Prince Edward. The two were married that
same year. Alexandra was officially a Princess of Wales, the
traditional title given to the wife of the heir to
the English throne. A few years later, in eighteen sixty six,
Dagmar married the Prince of Russia. They also had a
brother who became the King of Greece. Their family had
truly moved up in the world. Once in England, Alexandra
(07:44):
encountered a decadent society, far removed from her life as
a waitress. Edward and his friends loved to party, and
Edward had many affairs. Alexandra took all this in stride.
She focused on her home and soon their children. She
had six of them between eighteen six sixty four in
eighteen seventy one, almost one per year. This was incredibly
(08:05):
taxing on her body, and it led her to catching
a fever, which in turn resulted in her having a
permanent stiffness in her right leg. She limped from there
on out. With her limp, her next scar and partial deafness,
she became very self conscious. She continued to wear choker
necklaces and tried to have her dresses tailored to hide
the limp. She smoked cigarettes to deal with the stress
(08:26):
of being a princess, and this was uncommon for women
at the time, but she used a cigarette holder to
look more elegant. Before Alexandra realized what was happening, the
young women in England began to take up the same habit.
They also wore choker necklaces, and some of them even
wore mismatt shoes and used a cane to imitate her limp,
and at first she may have thought that they were
(08:48):
mocking her. Her husband wasn't that popular. Actually, he was
seen as a lazy playboy, so it would figure that
the public would come after Alexandra too. But in actuality.
When interviewed, many of the young women imitating Alexander's style
and limp admired her. She seemed like a kind and
down to earth leader compared to her husband. It was
a rare case of a disability giving rise to a
(09:11):
fashion trend. Edward became king after Victoria's death in nineteen
oh one. His rule is generally overshadowed by his mother's
as well as by his sons. George the Fifth took
the throne in nineteen ten after Edward's death, and his
mother was always close by his side. Alexander herself is
often overshadowed by the more famous members of her family,
(09:33):
but her childhood tutor remained proud of the little girl
he helped crow into a real life princess. He recognized
the power of her story and her personal growth, and
he would know because he made his own mark on
history as a lover of classic tales. The man who
gave Us The Little Mermaid Hans Christian Anderson. I hope
(09:57):
you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curios.
This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts. Researched and written by the Grim and
Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
the show and the people who make it over at
Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
(10:17):
to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining
our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the
interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign
up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until
(10:37):
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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