anniversaries
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I think that when it comes to royal St Edwards, most of us think of St Edward the Confessor, and his memorable tomb in Westminster Abbey. But there is another St Edward who was also King of England—St Edward the Martyr, who was murdered on 18th March 978, aged 19 at the most. Between 3rd…
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Henry VI: saint or sinner?
“Nicholas of the Tower”, Adam Moleyns, Archbishop Kemp, aristocratic lawlessness, Azincourt, Bertram Wolffe, biographies, Calais, Cardinal Beaufort, Charles VI, Charles VII, Christine Carpenter, debt, deposition, Duke of Orleans, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Eton, feudalism, First Battle of St. Albans, France, Great Council, Harfleur, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Humphrey of Gloucester, Hundred Years War, impeachment, insanity, Ireland, Jack Cade, John Blacman, John Duke of Bedford, John Duke of Suffolk, John Harvey, John Watts, Kent, King’s College Cambridge, Lord Protector of the Realm, majority, Margaret d’Anjou, Normandy, Parliamentary Roll, Polydore Vergil, Ralph Griffiths, Ralph Lord Cromwell, Readeption, Richard Duke of York, treason, Valois, Wakefield, William Duke of Suffolk, William TailboysA gentle and devotional life About seventy years ago, the historian John Harvey wrote this in an essay about King Henry VI: “The life and death, and the thwarting of his noble designs are one (sic) of the sorriest tragedies of English history. He was a victim of forces outside his control, for whose existence…
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We all know the amazing reconstruction of the head of Richard III, and the confirmation it gave of how he really had looked. Forget Shakespeare’s Richard III, the real man had been young, good-looking and altogether normal, except for scoliosis that affected his spine. But when he was dressed, it wouldn’t have shown, especially in…
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I am surprised to find the internet has several images of Maria de Padilla. Her daughters married John of Gaunt and Edmund of Langley and she was the grandmother of Catherine of Lancaster, aka Catalina, Queen of Castile, Edward, Duke of York, Constance of York and Richard of Conisbrough. (Richard of Conisbrough is known thus to…
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During the Wars of the Roses, was there ever a deliberate policy of depopulation? By that, I cannot think of an example. Destruction, yes. Killing off the other side’s armed forces, yes. But the annihilation of towns and villages? Or of castles and strongholds, which were surely regarded as great prizes. So how could there…
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Here is an extract that I found interesting. It’s from a 1968 booklet titled Discovering London 3: Medieval London, by Kenneth Derwent, published by Macdonald, and while it doesn’t condemn Richard, a previous paragraph states that the disappearance of Edward V and his brother “were disposed of” and that “the circumstantial evidence points most strongly…
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Scoliosis treatments at the time of Richard III
“Tudor” propaganda, Battle of Bosworth, Eugenie of York, genetics, hormones, idiopathic scoliosism, Ipswich, James Blake, Kurt Cobain, Leicester Greyfriars, Liz Taylor, Liza Minelli, massage, Richard III, Richard III Society, Robert Lovell, scoliosis, Shakespeare, surgery, traction, Turkish baths, Usain BoltAfter centuries of slanders about Richard III, always named as “the hunchbacked king”, it was finally proved that he just suffered from scoliosis. He was not born with this condition but he probably started to suffer with it in his adolescence between 10 and 15. This is the so-called idiopathic scoliosis that can be, in…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 