anniversaries
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I remember the good old days when a visit to Stonehenge meant actually walking around inside it, instead of having to view it from paths at a distance. You could just park and walk, without all the razzmatazz that applies today. Some people even sat on the lower stones! Shock, horror. Closing the monument off…
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King James VI of Scotland, James I of England podcast….
“favourites”, Abdication, Agnes Sampson, Anna Whitelock, Anne of Denmark, Arbella Stuart, assassination, Basilikon Doron, BBC, Bible translators, Bye plot, Calvinism, Charles I, Counterblast against tobacco, David Rizzio, Edinburgh Castle, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Stuart, Esme Stuart, executions, Fotheringhay, Frederick of Bohemia, George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Greg Jenner, Gunpowder Plot, Henrietta Maria, Henry Lord Darnley, Henry Stuart, James Earl of Morton, James VI/I, Jamestown, King James Bible, Larry Dean, Mary Stuart, New World discoveries, North Berwick trials, Oath of Allegiance, podcasts, Popish Recusants Act, Radio 4, Regency, Roanoke, Robert Carr Earl of Somerset, Robert Catesby, Robert Cecil, Ruthven Raid, Scotland, Sir Walter Raleigh, Spain, Stirling Castle, Stuarts, The wisest fool in Christendom, Thirty Years’ War, tobacco, Union Jack, Union of the Crowns, voyage to Denmark, Wicked Bible, witchcraft, You’re dead to meHere is a link to a BBC podcast about King James VI of Scotland, who, of course, became James I of England and was the first of our Stuart monarchs. I can’t say I’m a Stuart expert, being much more interested in the Plantagenets, but a monarch is a monarch!
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Oh, dear, sometimes typos are inadvertently funny. I’ve just been looking through a serious book on the history of English literature (I won’t identify it further, because it wouldn’t be fair – the work is serious). Anyway, we come to Chaucer‘s, um, Horse of Fame. Yes, you read it correctly. Horse, not House!
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It doesn’t seem possible now that it was 30th April 2014 when my late husband and I paid an early-morning visit to Minster Lovell. There was a mist and we were virtually alone. The River Windrush, surely one of the loveliest little rivers in England, whispered past the old ruins of Sir Francis Lovell‘s…
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Today marks the 691st anniversary of the birth of Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. Born June 15, 1330, Edward was made Duke of Cornwall in 1337 and, at age twelve, became Prince of Wales. He was a founding knight in his father’s creation of the Order of the…
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1381, the Peasants’ Revolt. Ah yes, it trips as easily off the tongue as 1066 and 1485. Well, there are other outstanding dates too, of course, but I’ll stick with these three as times of huge upheaval in England’s history. Not necessary for the better either, especially in the case of 1485. Simon Sudbury was…
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What was the lifestyle of medieval monks in Britain? What went on in those wondrous abbeys that ruled their neighbourhoods, often with fists of iron? They had some harsh rules, not least that the people they lorded it over had to pay exorbitant sums to have their grain milled by the abbey. Woe betide…
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An article about the end of stamp duty on some properties, included a smaller column from which I’ve taken the following: “….A six-bedroom family home [in Stanford-in-the-Vale] linked to Richard III sold for £2.65million after spending just three weeks on the market….[it] was once owned by Anne Neville, who was Queen Consort to Richard III….”…
