anniversaries
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If you go to here you will find examples of those intriguing possibilities, conspiracy theories. Well, some of them are too outlandish, but others…well, maybe…? Anyway, take a look and decide for yourself whether, for example, the Gunpowder Plot was really a put-up job by the Earl of Salisbury. Or whether Elizabeth the First might—just…
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Holy wells and healing springs go back into history, and are still with us now. Maybe our belief in them has been tempered by the cynicism of the modern age, but many people still believe in them—and still resort to them. Here is an interesting site that not only tells us all about the subject,…
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The Mythology of the “Princes in the Tower”
“Tudor” propaganda, Bethnal Green, books, Charles II, dental evidence, Edward V, Elizabeth Roberts, Garden Tower, Glenn Moran, Henry Pole the Younger, identification, illegitimacy, John Ashdown-Hill, Joy Ibsen, Leicester dig, mtDNA evidence, pre-contract, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, The Mythology of the “Princes in the Tower”, The Private Life of Edward IV, Three Estates, Westminster AbbeyThis is less a book and more of an outdoor swimming pool, becoming deeper as the chapters progress. In the shallow end, the subjects go from the definition of a “prince” and the circumstances under which Edward IV’s elder sons came to live there, centuries before Buckingham Palace was built to the origin of the…
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Here is the Legendary Ten Seconds‘ song “Autumn Rain”, about the Buckingham rebellion, which failed amid the wet weather in 1483.
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Would these be your five? Or do you have other suggestions? PS Who can spot their deliberate mistake?
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Well, British Summer time is now officially over and the hardy henge-workers are currently moving the megaliths at Avebury and Stonehenge into their winter-hours position! Time to celebrate the exciting festival shortly to take place–no, not Christmas (yet)–but the quasi-pagan Halloween, All Hallows/AllSaints/All Souls…and the execution of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham in Salisbury Market…
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Catherine de Valois wooden funeral effigy on the left and the stone head thought to represent her on the right. Westminster Abbey is the home to a collection of unique and wonderful medieval wooden funeral effigies. These are to go on show once again in June 2018 with the opening the Abbey’s new Jubilee Galleries.…
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Whilst visiting Norwich to see the Whitefriars plaque to Lady Eleanor Talbot, Richard’s sister-in-law, in Tomblands near the Cathedral, I happened to take lunch in a particular hostelry, the Glass House. It is principally named for the city’s stained glass industry and various panels, also commemorate the author Harriet Martineau, the rebel Robert Kett, Cotman…
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One of the greatest of Arthur’s knights was Sir Gawain, hero of (among other legends) the tale of the Green Knight. There is some very interesting information about Gawain here: I always knew that the Welsh tradition has Gawain (Welsh – Gwalchmai) buried as follows:- “The grave of Gwalchmai in Peryddon, as a disgrace to…
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Many of us watched the TV version of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, showing a nicely unsanitised view of the Tudor world. Wolf Hall itself, of course, is the grand manor where Henry met his third wife, Jane Seymour–the one often described as ‘mousy’ but the ‘only one Henry loved’ (because she gave him a living…