anniversaries
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For the last few years we’ve been beset by a pandemic. COVID-19 is the new blight on the block, and has set about knocking us down like ninepins in spite of antibiotics and even immunisation. But modern medicine has done a lot to standing up to the silent menace. In times gone by folks…
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So, having examined the succession to the English monarchy according to Henry VIII’s will and the British monarchy if James VII/II had not been ousted, what do “Useful Charts” make of Russia? First, a few points to note:1) Russia had a monarch as late as 1917, more recently than France (1871).2) The Russian Revolution, with…
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According to this site when Henry, Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason in 1483 in Salisbury, his head was taken to King Richard III, then lodging at the King’s House in the Cathedral Close. Buckingham had turned upon his cousin Richard, who rightly called him “the most untrue creature living”. Shakespeare would have us…
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Many of you will have watched the 2014-16 BBC production of The Musketeers, the first series of which starred Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu. The third series was based on Dumas’ lesser-known sequels, in which Henrietta Maria, separated from her husband Charles I for her own safety and by mutual consent, is permanently residing with…
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Well, my first introduction to Richard the Lionheart was in the 1950s…one of the many Robin Hood movies of that period, He was noble and chivalrous (George Sanders, as I recall, see below), while Prince John was a Blue Meanie of the highest order. Nothing much has changed since then. My opinion of both men…
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It seems that William the Conqueror’s corpse “exploded” at his funeral. The thought of an exploding corpse is bad enough without actually seeing it as well. And smelling it, presumably. I can imagine all the mourners scattering in great alarm and haste. And superstitious dread as well, perhaps? Ew. The things one comes across while…
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Returning to Sutton Hoo
“The Dig”, Anglo-Saxons, Basil Brown, Beowulf, British Museum, Bromeswell Bucket, burial mounds, cafe, Carey Mulligan, cornish pasty, Deben, Edith Pretty, exhibition hall, Greek, National Trust, Orford Castle, Raedwald, Ralph Fiennes, Richard III Society, Scandinavia, Seamus Heaney, ship burial, Suffolk, Sutton Hoo, viewing platform, Woodbridge, WuffingsThe Mid Anglia branch of the Richard III society met at Woodbridge railway station and drove to the National Trust’s Sutton Hoo. Sutton Hoo, made famous this year by the release of Netflix’s “The Dig”, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, is the site of the Royal burial ground of East Anglia’s 6th, 7th and…
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Oh, good grief…. This article proves what a dire black mark must be given to the teaching (or lack of it) in our schools! What are we to do when even the teachers don’t know what they’re teaching about? Nor does the writer of the article know anything, mentioning the battles of Bosworth Hill and…
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Richard’s other Anglo-Saxon ancestry, inter alia
Anglo-Saxons, Anne Mortimer, Brian Boru, Cecily Neville, de Clares, Diarmaid MacMurchada, Edgar the Atheling, Edith of Scotland, Edmund Ironside, Edward IV, Elgiva, Elizabeth de Burgh, Ethelred II, Henry I, House of Wessex, Hungary, Ireland, Joan “Beaufort”, Lionel of Antwerp, Llewellyn Fawr, Malcolm III, Nevilles, Raby Castle, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Reading Abbey, Richard III, St. Margaret of Wessex, Strathclyde, WalesRichard’s ancient ancestors was composed a few years ago to illustrate Richard III’s descent from heroes of the home nations: Alfred the Great (many times over, but two divergent lines soon afterwards), Malcolm III (Canmore), Llewellyn Fawr and Brian Boru.Slides 2-3 show not just the well-known connection through Edmund II (Ironside), St. Margaret of Wessex and…
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Sell part of the Tower? Good heavens. The thing is, what price would the estate agent hope to place on the flat? I mean, it’s a setting that’s second to none! I imagine too that a few very influential personages from the past might pitch in to block (pun entirely intentional!) such a transaction.…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 