anniversaries
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As this excellent article reminds us, there were eight pre-union Stewart monarchs, or nine if you exclude James VI, who had already reigned in Scotland for nearly forty years before inheriting the English throne. Of these, excepting the two Roberts, only two turned up for a pitched battle with against an English army and only…
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“I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see. ~Peggy Noonan Leicester Cathedral and its project supporters (angels?) have done something wonderful and generous: they have digitized Richard III’s “Book of Hours” and posted it on the cathedral’s website. What’s so…
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UPDATED VERSION OF THIS POST @ sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://wordpress.com/post/sparkypus.com/449 Queen Anne Neville from the Salisbury Roll. Anne’s mantle equates her ancestorial arms with those of England and France. After Anne Neville’s death on the 16th March 1485 , she was given a magnificent funeral in Westminster Abbey ‘with honours no less than…
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He lost his head at Pontefract so what was he doing on sale in Colchester? This Kathryn Warner post gives a lot of detail about Thomas Earl of Lancaster’s life, rebellion and execution six days after the Battle of Boroughbridge. Here we explained the circumstances in which John Ashdown-Hill is seeking his remains, to solve…
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Once upon a time, back in the Middle Ages, a large, thriving Welsh city existed between Monmouth and the village of Trellech. Its size was astounding for the day—it had 10,000 inhabitants (for comparison London had 40,000.) Another 10,000 souls may have lived in a shanty town along its edges. What makes Trellech’s size particularly…
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SIR WILLIAM STANLEY – TURNCOAT OR LOYALIST
“Perkin”, Archbold, Battle of Bosworth, betrayal, Cheshire, crown, Edward IV, executions, Francis Viscount Lovell, Gairdner, hawthorn bush, Helen Maurer, Henry VII, Joan “Beaufort”, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lord Chamberlain, loyalty, North Wales, Ramsay, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, Robert Clifford, Sir William Stanley, Thomas Lord Stanley, Tower Hill, treasonUPDATED POST AT sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/06/26/sir-william-stanley-turncoat-or-loyalist/ It is well documented how, through the treasonable and treacherous actions of Sir William Stanley at Bosworth, Richard lost his crown and his life. He was hacked to death after Stanley, who brought 3000 men with him, intervened at the crucial point when Richard, with his household…
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How did St Valentine become the patron saint of lovers? The answer to that is the stuff of legends. One story has it that he was a peaceful man, as well as a great peacemaker, and while tending the roses in his garden, he heard a couple quarrelling violently. He cut a rose and…
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In January 1400, after the failure of the Epiphany Rising that was intended to remove Henry IV from the throne and restore Richard II, John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon, the younger of Richard’s half-brothers, fled from London. The weather was foul, and time and again his vessel was driven ashore. Eventually he gave up, and…
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Today in 1461, at Hereford marketplace, Owain Tudor was executed and buried in the local Greyfriars. It appears that, although he had commanded Lancastrian troops at Mortimer’s Cross and been captured, he was not expecting this fate. He may well have foreseen himself being ransomed instead until he saw the block. Perhaps he was executed…
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… or the probable anniversary of the battle of Mortimer’s Cross: Sunnes and Roses, a new album by The Legendary Ten Seconds Released on R ichard The Third Records on 31st December 2016. Songs featuring Warwick the Kingmaker. Richard III, Henry VII, Lord Hastings, Edward Earl of March, Lord Fitzwalter, Sir Andrew Trollope,…
