anniversaries
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In 1577 Leonberg, Katharina Guldenmann took her small son “to a high place” for an advantageous view of a comet passing over what is now southwestern Germany. Three years later, the then eight-year-old boy’s father brought him out on a bitterly cold winter night to witness a lunar eclipse. Though in later years this boy…
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The Earl of Lincoln and the enchanted willows….
“Princes”, Anne Neville, Battle of Stoke, Bestwood Lodge, bigamy, Bosworth, Bridlington Priory, Bruges, caravel, Christmas, Cicely Plantagenet, Edmund of Langley, Edward IV, Edward of Middleham, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, George Duke of Clarence, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VII, horses, illegitimacy, John Earl of Lincoln, Kirkensea Abbey, Lord Protector of the Realm, Margaret of Burgundy, Middleham Castle, Portuguese marriage plans, relics, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, royal hunting estates, Saint Trumwald, security, Sherwood Forest, white rose, William IIThis is a Yorkist fairy tale for Christmas. There is no proof that John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, fought at Bosworth, or about what really happened to the sons of Edward IV—until the recent amazing discoveries by Philippa Langley. The revelations of her new research came after I’d written this tale, which although…
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I have to say that the headline of this link Royal Family: The young English king who just wouldn’t stop eating and died | Royal | News | Express.co.uk had me frowning. Did we have a young English king who ate himself to death? Good Lord, thought I, don’t tell me that’s what happened to…
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Richard I—the world’s greatest kidnapping….?
Anjou, Austria, Berengaria, Blondel, Corfu, Crusades, Durnstein Castle, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Emperor Henry VI, excommunication, Fontevraud Abbey, Henry III. kidnapping, hostages, John, Leopold of Austria, Phillip Augustus, Pope, Richard I, Saladin, Torquay, Torre Abbey, William Brewer, William StubbsWhat links Richard I with Torquay? Well, it seems that when the king was captured and ransomed in Austria, one of those sent to negotiate for him was a certain very unpopular William Brewer, who was local to Torquay, a major landholder, administrator and judge in England during the reigns of Richard I, King John…
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The reason for this post is not that on 14 June 1381 Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, was executed by the mob in the Peasants’ Revolt . The rebels had actually cornered him—and the others mentioned above—in the Tower of London itself. No mean feat, and there has long been a suspicion that the rebels…
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The proposed baptismal font is pictured at the entrance to the nave of Notre Dame (Photo: Guillaume Bardet, Ionna Vautrin and Sylvain Dubuisson) Oh dear. Here we have the proposals for the “new” Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The destructive “modern” brigade strikes again. Whatever happened to “blending with and showing sympathy and respect for…
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The royal and noble descent of Jane Birkin
actresses, bastardy, Charles II, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dukes of Bedford, Earls of Bedford, Edward I, Edward III, France, George II, Henry Earl of Surrey, Henry III, House of Hanover, Howards, James IV, Jane Birkin, Joan “Beaufort”, Lady Elizabeth Grey, Lancastrians, Mowbrays, poets, Prince William Henry, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Serge Gainsbourg, Seymour-Conways, singers, Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset, van KeppelsThe late actress and singer Jane Birkin, who would have been 77 today, had some interesting ancestors. As this first table shows, these were all through her father David, a naval Lieutenant Commander with a Russell mother, through whom Jane was descended from the Dukes of Bedford, along with several other peers: the van Keppels,…
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The treasures of the West Riding
armour, Charles “III”, Chatsworth, Claire Cross, Colonel Blood, Earls of Harewood, Edward Duke of Kent, Edward IV, Gawthorpe Hall, Harewood House, Harrogate, Headingley, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Leeds, Leeds Dock, Lumleys, main roads, motorways, Pennines, Powderham Castle, Reformation, Royal Armouries, weapons, YorkshireWhile I have visited Yorkshire reasonably frequently in the past, there is one patch with which I was unfamiliar. The Leeds sub-region is south and a little west of York, where a significant branch line bifurcates at Doncaster and goes through Wakefield, whilst a suburban line from Leeds passes through Harrogate and returns to York.…
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Well, if ever a computer compiled a dog’s breakfast of information, it’s this one. Or, of course, I shouldn’t blame a computer because the culprit was some dumbcluck human. Or maybe it was the cat, which strolled to and fro over the keyboard. Whatever, here goes: “….Richard MAUDELYN, 1385 – 1415Richard MAUDELYN was born on…
