anniversaries
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How Edward IV ascended the throne of England….
“Beauforts”, “Tudors”, cartoons, Castile, Catherine de Roet, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Edmund of Langley, Edmund of Rutland, Edward IV, Edward of Lancaster, Edward the Black Prince, executions, George Duke of Clarence, Henry II, Henry IV, Henry VI, Henry VII, humour, John of Gaunt, Lancastrians, Lionel of Antwerp, Margaret d’Anjou, Matilda, Mortimers, Phillippa of Lancaster, Richard Duke of York, Richard II, Richard III, Richard of Warwick, Shakespeare, SHW, Stephen, Tewkesbury, Tower of London, usurpation, Wakefield, Wars of the Roses, York, YorkistsThe Wars of the Roses did not commence, à la Bard, with white and red roses snatched and brandished in a garden by opposing lords, but they were foreshadowed at the turn of the fifteenth century when Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, usurped and murdered Richard II. Bolingbroke was the son and heir…
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Today in 1484, Elizabeth Wydeville emerged from sanctuary in Westminster Abbey …
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Today in 1564, Christopher Marlowe (right) was baptised in Canterbury. One of the plays for which he is most famous is Edward II (left), traditionally dated a year before his own 1593 death. In it, he fuels the myth of Edward meeting his end by a red-hot poker. This is cited by Starkey in…
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Horrox on the de la Poles
Azincourt, de la Pole family, DNA, Earls of Suffolk, Edmund Earl of Suffolk, Edward the Black Prince, Harfleur, Hull, John Ashdown-Hill, John Duke of Suffolk, John Earl of Lincoln, John of Gaunt, Katherine Wingfield, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lord Richard de la Pole, Marguerite de la Pole, Michael de la Pole, Michael K Jones, moneylenders, Nicolas of the Tower, Norwich, Pavia, Richard de la Pole, Richard II, Rosemary Horrox, Sir William de la Pole, Sutton Hoo, William de la Pole, William Duke of Suffolk, Wuffings EducationTwo weeks after visiting Wingfield , I attended a “Wuffing Education” Study Day at Sutton Hoo, addressed by Rosemary Horrox on the de la Pole family. This juxtaposition of dates was entirely beneficial as their genealogy and history was fresh in my mind so it was easy to follow Horrox’s train of thought. She covered the…
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Here is a picture you may well have seen. It shows, from Carry On Henry, Kenneth Williams as Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal to Henry VIII and briefly Earl of Essex. In fact, Cromwell’s sister married one Thomas (or Morgan) Williams, although their descendants took the Cromwell surname.
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Well, it has to be said that Leicester has benefited immensely from the discovery and burial of Richard III, and his supposed “murder” of the boys in the Tower. Of which he was NOT guilty. Anyway, maybe Perth can benefit too, because it has its own royal mystery. James I of Scotland died a very bloody, grubby…
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I have just watched a documentary (called The Best King We Never Had and presented by Paul Murton) about Prince Henry, the firstborn son of King James VI of Scotland, James I of England. James, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was already King of Scotland, when he succeeded Elizabeth I, and became…
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(with apologies to any surviving “Round the Horne” fans) On the right is Mary I, the penultimate “Tudor” monarch. Her brief reign was a reaction to the Reformations of her father and brother, reintroducing the Catholicism that prevailed until twenty years earlier but she died without issue and her religious policy was reversed by her…
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This post harks back to a previous one of 5th November 2014. Both concern the similarities between the lives and deaths of Richard II and Richard III, but I have now come upon a passage in a book that is actually about Richard II, but much of which could be applied to Richard III. The book…
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Another new theory about the fate of Jimmy Hoffa has raised its head. Hoffa’s disappearance in a Michigan parking lot forty-two years ago has always been a mystery. “. Hoffa was a Detroit labor union leader and activist who was well known for his involvement in the Teamsters’ Union as well as the criminal charges…
