anniversaries
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The murdered Lancastrian countess and the disappearing Yorkist ghost rider….
Blanche of Lancaster, british History Online, drowning, Edward II, Edward IV, executions, ghosts, Gloucestershire, Henry III, Henry of Grosmont, illegitimacy, Kempsford Castle, Lords Ordainers, Margaret of Anjou, Maud Chaworth, Owlpen Manor, Pontefract, possible canonisation, Prestbury, River Thames, Tewkesbury, Thomas Earl of LancasterGloucestershire doesn’t lack ghostly stories, not least about the Wars of the Roses with, for example, Margaret of Anjou prowling the rooms of Owlpen Manor and the phantom messenger, on his way through Prestbury to Edward IV at Tewkesbury in May 1471 when he was killed by an arrow. He still gallops through the village…
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Well, now I’ve read it all. Please look at the above map, into which you can zoom at here. Do you see the images of monarchs on the left (Lancaster) and on the right (York)? You’ll probably need to zoom at the Wikimedia link above to read the words atop the Lancastrian column. They…
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Edmund of Langley‘s expedition to Portugal is usually presented as a complete debacle, with Edmund’s ineptitude a major issue. This article by Douglas Biggs demonstrates that this is a complete falsehood. The political situation in Portugal was complex, and from the very start, there was disagreement in the Portuguese camp as to the policy to…
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Molyneux? No, here come the Stanleys. Again….!
“Princes”, bailiffs, Cheshire, Chester Castle, croxteth country park, cuerdale, eagle and child, earls of Sefton, Flint Castle, henry chaderton, Ireland, John of Gaunt, Lancashire, Liverpool, Molineux, Ribble, Richard II, Richard III, richard molyneux, River Thames, Roger Mortimer 4th Earl of March, Sir thomas molyneux, Stanleys, Thomas Lord Stanley, WolverhamptonI have recently been looking into the turbulent life of Sir Thomas Molyneux of Cuerdale, whose hall by the River Ribble has featured in one of my articles. He was not a quiet soul, and had a terrible end at the Battle of Radcot Bridge in 1387 when surrendering to a Mortimer. The latter pulled…
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It was International Women’s Day on 8 March 2024, and at Warwick Castle there was a celebration of the ladies who influenced the castle’s history. See this feature. As far as we Ricardians are concerned, Anne Beauchamp and (of course!) her daughter Anne Neville are of prime importance.
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My first acquaintance with the term the Ides of March was a school visit at the age of nine, when I was one of hundreds of schoolchildren watching it in an RAF hangar in West Germany. “Beware the Ides of March!” Well, I simply accepted the soundtrack and at that age certainly didn’t stop to…
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Medieval cooking is always a fascinating subject, and I don’t doubt that we’ve all seen the word “coffin/coffyn” applied to pastries and pies. Well yes, coffin is a coffin in the usual meaning, but it also seems a sensible enough word to use for a well-filled pie! What we call raised pies, e.g. pork pies…
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Today is 13 March 2024, but thankfully it’s a Wednesday, not a Friday. Why thankfully? Well, we all know the old belief that Fridays which fall on the thirteenth day of a month are considered to be very unlucky. It occurred in October 2023, and will happen again in September and December this year, then…
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A few months ago, we wrote about Time Team’s plans for additional excavations at Sutton Hoo. Here is a more up-to-date ITV article. As you can see, the National Trust are hoping that the dig will solve some “anomalies” and may make some new discoveries. The programme will be online in June.
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… as our previous post: There is a further similarity between Edward II and Edward V and a difference between them: The similarity is that Richard Lord Talbot married Elizabeth Comyn in secret, Lady Eleanor being their great-great-granddaughter. The difference is that Richard III and Edward V both have mtDNA lines found by John Ashdown-Hill…
