The New Murrey and Blue blog

Today, I have dipped into Memorials of the Wars of the Roses by W.E. Hampton. This is a wonderful read for anyone interested in the period and full of interesting snippets. Although Hampton is, at times, rather judgemental and certainly not afraid of calling a spade a flipping shovel.

For example, I am the last person to call myself a fan of the Tudors. However, I do find it a bit of a stretch to attribute their excesses, as Hampton does, to their descent from the mentally-challenged Charles VI of France and from Margaret Beaufort’s father, the latter on the basis that he may have been a suicide.

On the other hand,, some of the snippets are wonderful. For example, we learn that Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmorland and ancestor, probably, of at least half the English race, was unusually tall. (Whatever that means exactly. Above 6 feet tall, I imagine.) He also suffered from a leg injury. More interestingly, it seems that the excavation of his grave demonstrated that he was buried with his favourite greyhound.

There are several black marks against old Ralph – not least that he betrayed Richard II who had previously advanced him – but a man who loves his dog sufficiently to have it entombed with him really cannot have been all bad.