Conspiracy is the fourth studio album by Danish heavy metal band King Diamond, and the second part of a story that began on the album Them. Conspiracy was released on 21 August 1989 through Roadrunner Records, and is the last album to feature drummer Mikkey Dee who left the group but recorded the album as a session member.
Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution. She is also known as “Mademoiselle Vaubernier”.
The Devils is a 1971 historical drama horror film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. A dramatised historical account of the fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft after the possessions in Loudun, France, the plot also focuses on Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who incites the accusations.
Fatal Portrait is the debut album by Danish heavy metal band King Diamond. It was produced by Rune Hoyer and released on 17 February 1986 through Roadrunner Records. Guitarist Andy LaRocque joined the album recording sessions at the last minute, as the band's second guitarist at the time "wasn't working out" in the studio. As a result, it is the only King Diamond album which does not feature any writing credits from LaRocque. Recording a solo for "Dressed in White" functioned as his audition for joining the band. Along with The Spider's Lullabye, it is one of the band's only albums which is not a whole concept album.
King Diamond is a Danish heavy metal band formed in 1985 by vocalist King Diamond, guitarists Andy LaRocque and Michael Denner, bassist Timi Hansen and drummer Mikkey Dee. King, Denner and Hansen had recently departed the group Mercyful Fate, and decided to form a new band under the King Diamond moniker, as it was already known from the initial Mercyful Fate era. Since the band's inception, there have been over fifteen musicians in and out of King Diamond, with the only two mainstays being Diamond and LaRocque. Their current lineup consists of Diamond, LaRocque, guitarist Mike Wead, drummer Matt Thompson, and bassist Pontus Egberg.
Abigail II: The Revenge is the tenth studio album by Danish heavy metal band King Diamond, released on 29 January 2002, and is plotwise a successor to the 1987 album Abigail. Abigail II: The Revenge is the first album to feature guitarist Mike Wead, drummer Matt Thompson, and the first to feature bassist Hal Patino since The Eye.
Snowy Shaw is a Swedish heavy metal musician based in the port city of Gothenburg in the west coast of Sweden. He has played with many heavy metal bands, like King Diamond, Dream Evil, Mercyful Fate, IllWill, and Memento Mori.
A Dangerous Meeting is the first compilation album of King Diamond songs, put out by Roadrunner Records. It also includes older Mercyful Fate songs, recorded during 1982–1984.
Deadly Lullabyes Live is the second live album by Danish heavy metal band King Diamond, released on 21 September 2004 through Massacre Records. It was recorded during The Puppet Master promotion tour. It spans two discs. The album features only recordings from the United States part of the tour.
The Best of King Diamond is a compilation album by the heavy metal band King Diamond.
The Aix-en-Provence possessions were a series of alleged cases of demonic possession occurring among the Ursuline nuns of Aix-en-Provence in 1611. Father Louis Gaufridi was accused and convicted of causing the possession by a pact with the devil, and he was tortured by strappado and his bones dislocated. He was then executed on April 1611 by strangulation and his body burned. This case provided the legal precedent for the conviction and execution of Urbain Grandier at Loudun more than 20 years later. This event led to possessions spreading to other convents and a witch burning in 1611.
The possessions at Louviers, similar to those in Aix-en-Provence, occurred at the Louviers Convent in 1647. As with both the Aix case and its later counterpart in Loudun, the conviction of the priests involved hinged on the confessions of supposed possessed demoniacs.
The Loudun possessions, also known as the Loudun possessed affair, was a notorious witchcraft trial that took place in Loudun, Kingdom of France, in 1634. A convent of Ursuline nuns said they had been visited and possessed by demons. Following an investigation by the Catholic Church, a local priest named Urbain Grandier was accused of summoning the evil spirits. He was eventually convicted of the crimes of sorcery and burned at the stake.
Faremoutiers Abbey was an important Merovingian Benedictine nunnery in the present Seine-et-Marne department of France. It formed an important link between the Merovingian Frankish Empire and the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent and East Anglia.
Sancia of Majorca, also known as Sancha, was Queen of Naples from 1309 until 1343 as the wife of Robert the Wise. She served as regent of Naples during the minority of her stepgrandaughter, Joanna I of Naples, from 1343 until 1344.
Sébastien Michaelis was a French inquisitor and prior of the Dominican order who lived during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His Histoire admirable de la possession et conversion d'une penitente (1612) includes a classification of demons which has passed into general use in esoteric literature.
3 Musketiers is a Dutch musical, also known as 3 Musketiere (German), 3 Musketeers (English) and A 3 Testőr (Hungarian) written by Ferdi Bolland and Rob Bolland. The story is based on Alexandre Dumas, père's 1844 novel The Three Musketeers.
Don Honoré Armand de Villars, 2nd Duke of Villars, Duke and Peer of France, Prince of Martigues, Grandee of Spain, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Viscount of Melun, Marquis of la Melle, Count of Rochemiley, was a French nobleman, soldier and politician.
Saint-Césaire Convent, at first called Saint-Jean monastery, was a nunnery in the city of Arles in the south-eastern corner of the rampart. It was founded in 512 AD. Its name was later changed to Abbaye Saint-Césaire in honor of its first abbess, Caesaria of Arles, and it remained until the French Revolution. Later what remained of the buildings were used as a hospice.
