anniversaries
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The Bishop, the MP, the scientist, the historian and the brewer
brewing, chaplains, clerical celibacy, de heretico comburendo, Edward IV, Edward VI, Essex, executions, Henry VIII, Hugh Latimer, illegitimacy, Jasper Ridley, JD Wetherspoon, John Knox, Mary I, Matt Ridley, MPs, Nicholas Ridley, Nicholas Ridley MP, Northumbria, Old St. Paul’s, Oxford, Professor Jane Ridley, Ralph Shaa, sermons, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Tewkesbury, Thomas Cranmer, University of Buckingham, VictoriaThe preacher at St. Paul’s stated that the late King’s surviving issue were illegitimate. On this occasion, it wasn’t Dr. Ralph Shaa on 22nd June 1483 about Edward IV’s sons but Rt. Rev. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London and Westminster, on 9 July 1553 about Henry VIII’s daughters, at which time Jane was proclaimed. As…
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Somerset’s Chew Valley is an interesting place. Around the shores of the artificially made Chew Valley Lake, lie dozens of medieval villages and the signs of habitation, burial and ritual left by prehistoric man, including the mysterious stone and timber circle, Stanton Drew. Appledore, where a subsequent battle took place, lies in the next county.…
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Not quite grossly humiliated over the back of a horse, but it’ll have to do. Much better if there’d been a very thorny white rose stuck in the van’s exhaust pipe. Ah, well….
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“….It is said that Henry V wore it [the Black Prince’s Ruby] in his jewel-encrusted helmet at the battle of Agincourt, and Richard III did also at the battle of Bosworth….” I found the above sentence in a post on the British Medieval History Facebook group. How very intriguing. It’s something I had never heard…
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Mumpsimus is a word that may have originated with Erasmus, but of which I had never heard. It means “adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy”. In William Tyndale‘s 1530 book Practice of Prelates, the word was used in the sense of…
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John Ashdown-Hill’s last book, a biography of Elizabeth Wydville, was published in July. To mark this, it is time to compare the flow of her life with that of his other subject Lady Eleanor Talbot (1). Generally, Lady Eleanor’s social status, as determined by their fathers and husbands is higher at any point, or even relative to…
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Joan, Lady Mohun.
Canterbury Cathedral, Catherine of Lancaster, clerical errors, Dunster Castle, Edward of Norwich, Father Gervase Matthew, Indulgences, Joan Lady Mohun, John of Gaunt, Knights of the Garter, Leeds Castle, Lord High Constable, Lords Appellant, Matilda Burghersh, Philippa de Mohun, Richard II, Thomas ChaucerJoan, Lady Mohun was the daughter of Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, Lord Burghersh and Elizabeth de Verdun. Her brother, another Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, was the father of the heiress Elizabeth Burghersh who married Edward, Lord Despenser. It is not know exactly when Joan was born but a date somewhere in the 1320s seems likely. (Her brother…
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Has mtDNA identified Jack the Ripper?
Aaron Kosminski, BBC1, blood, Catherine Eddowes, Colney Hatch, Daily Mail, David Wilson, Jari Louhelainen, Jesse James, John Ashdown-Hill, Leicester University, Live Science, Liverpool John Moores University, mtDNA evidence, Nicholas II, Paul Begg, peer review, probability, Richard III, Ripperology, Russell Edwards, semen, Turi King, Whitechapel murders“Ripperology” is quite a confused subject and at least a dozen suspects have been conclusively “identified as the Whitechapel fiend. Nevertheless, this article and the book detailed within, if taken at face value, uses the scientific techniques that identified Richard III, Jesse James, Nicholas II and others to claim to solve the East London riddle…
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Well, here is an article that manages to blend my two favourite kings, Richards II and III, although overwhelmingly Richard II. It concerns actor Mark Burghagen (BBC, Opera North, York Mystery Plays), who has produced a short film based around Richard’s plight after being usurped by his first cousin, Henry IV. Richard is pictured in…
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Mer de Mort reviewed
anarchy, Bannockburn, Berkeley Castle, Coldridge, Edmund Mortimer, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV, George Duke of Clarence, Henry II, Henry VII, House of Mortimer, House of York, John Challis, Leintwardine, Matilda, Piers Gaveston, Richard III, Roger Mortimer, Simon de Montfort, Sir John Evans, Stephen, The Legendary Ten Seconds, tournaments, Wigmore AbbeyAnything new from the Legendary Ten Seconds is always to be greeted with delight, and this new album does not disappoint. It tells the story of the House of Mortimer from its beginnings in France, to its ultimate destiny on the throne of England, through its descendants of the House of York, Edward IV and…
