The New Murrey and Blue blog

On Sunday 5th July, the Richard III Society hosted a study day about Edward of Middleham, England’s forgotten Prince.

The first presentation was by Philippa Langley, and there was so much information it was incredible! She referenced Annette Carson’s and Marie Barnfield’s research regarding the dates of birth and death of Edward, and also her own research which, as always, is detailed and convincing. I was certainly convinced by her reasoning suggesting that Edward was buried at St Mary and St Alkelda in Middleham.

Then, Matt Lewis gave his presentation on the problems that occur for a king when his heir apparent is lost or there isn’t one. It was entitled: The Cords of Death: The Loss of Edward of Middleham and dealt with different kind ranging from Henry I and the loss of his son on the white ship tragedy, leading to ‘The Anarchy’ right up to Richard III himself, Edward of Middleham and how Richard planned to remedy things; III, he never got the chance.

Finally, Toni Mount presented her talk dealing with the upbringing and life of children in the Middle Ages.  It was a fascinating talk and I really learned a lot. It was interesting to find out that the word ‘gossip’ drives from the original word for godparents, for example. There were quite a lot of references to tragic accidents leading to the deaths of various unfortunate children – I can see why she enjoys writing her fabulous medieval murder mystery novels, ‘The Colour of….’ series featuring Sebastian Foxley.