anniversaries
-
See “King Richard III” give a talk in Stamford, Lincolnshire….
There is a wonderful 550-year-old hospital in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and it is there due to the 1475 generosity of wealthy wool merchant William Browne and his wife. It was granted a charter by Richard III, not long before the king’s tragic death at the Battle of Bosworth. “….British Museum curator Dr Gareth Williams is helping…
-
Those of you who watch ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, might remember that Danny Dyer found out he was descended from Edward III and later, in ‘Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family’ he explored some of the other regal ancestors he had. One of these was Louis IX of France, also known as Saint Louis.…
-
Saint George was one of the saints depicted on the Middleham Jewel, which probably belonged to either his wife, Anne Neville, his sister-in-law, Isabel Neville, or his mother-in-law, Anne Beauchamp (or possibly all three at different times). Saint George became the patron saint of England during the 13th century. Before that, Saint Edmund the Martyr…
-
On 24th March 2025, Radcliffe On Trent Male Voice Choir sang a lunchtime recital in Leicester Cathedral, and one of my dear friends is a member of the choir. He told me it was very emotional being just a few feet away from Richard’s tomb. Not only that but he and his wife have joined…
-
“….A sapling from an oak tree in the grounds of King Richard III’s birthplace has been planted in the place where he died….” So begins the BBC article you’ll find at https://rb.gy/n5r3y4. And the photograph above is of the ‘mother tree’ at Fotheringhay, near Peterborough, from which the sapling has been ‘born’. The great oak…
-
“….Music students from Leicester’s De Montfort University (DMU), have composed a series of pieces to mark the 10th anniversary of the reinterment of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral. The cathedral commissioned the works as part of its ‘oral history’ of the remarkable story, which came to a head in 2015 when the former monarch’s…
-
St Valentine’s Day has been celebrated on February 14th since the 6th century, but who was St. Valentine and why is his saint’s day associated with love? The Church actually recognizes three Valentines in its list of saints. Each St. Valentine had his feast day on February 14. So he could have been Valentine, a…
-
Thomas Earl of Lancaster, died 22 March 1322, and Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, died 22 March 1321 … The former, the grandson of Henry III, was executed at Pontefract, having fought at Boroughbridge in opposition to Edward II and the Despensers. The latter, the second son of Henry IV and great-great-great-nephew of his…
-
So here is one of John Ashdown-Hill‘s lesser-known articles, delineating the build-up to and consequences of the death of the last Mowbray Duke of Norfolk in January 1475/6. It shows the descent of the senior Mowbrays from Edward I and tells how his daughter‘s title was hijacked by Edward IV for his own son and…
-
While reading Francis Pryor’s book Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History, I came upon an example of medieval graffiti that is to be found in the Church of St Mary, Ashwell, Herts. Inside the wall of the west tower is a Latin verse which captures the horror, fear and guilt felt by survivors…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 