anniversaries
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Well, while it seems the Queen wants awkward bones to be left tucked up in their urn in Westminster Abbey, Prince Charles is more curious about the whole “Princes in the Tower” mystery. Maybe he’ll even probe enough to reveal the truth at last. I do hope so! To read more, go to This Express…
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King Edward III of England reigned for fifty years. He was born on 13 November 1312, at Windsor, became a great and successful warrior king, and died at Sheen, a shadow of his former self on 21 June 1377. His decline was sad, because he’d been a truly able and shrewd monarch who’d steadied the…
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In the back of the beautiful Stourhead gardens stands a mysterious piece of old Bristol–the Bristol High Cross. When you first see it, you almost think it might be a modern folly, but it is the ‘real thing’, a medieval cross. In the 1700’s such relics of the past were considered old-fashioned and valueless; in…
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This is another Legendary Ten Seconds production, principally about the ancient building in Torquay, but it is one track on an album about the wider history of Torbay. Torre Abbey, which dated from about 1096, was dissolved without significant resistance in 1539 and is principally an art gallery as well as part of the Agatha…
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In a UKTV History (now Yesterday) programme My Famous Family, presented by Bill Oddie, the nurse Rachael Corfield was revealed to be of Plantagenet descent, via Margaret Countess of Salisbury, whose great-granddaughter Catherine Hastings married Henry Clinton, the second Earl of Lincoln. She was, therefore, shown to be a cousin of Queen Victoria.
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Recently it has come to my attention that Salisbury Museum holds a carved wooden box which, according to local legend, was fashioned out of the original headman’s block on which Henry Stafford was executed on November 2, 1483. The carving of the box into its present shape took place in Victorian times. Why anyone would…
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Tudorites are always very keen to claim the introduction of the Renaissance to England as their territory. Anyone who went before the blessed Henry VII had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Right? No, very wrong. Lady and gentlemen, I give you the Wilton Diptych (see here and also this video), which was created for…
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I know this book (cover pictured below) is serious, well researched and is no doubt an excellent read . . . but come ON, forget Columbus, the Vikings and early Irish holy men, we all know Henry VII got there first, on his way to settle the small obstacle of Richard III. The Tudor proboscis…
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“….Edward III’s great-great-grandsons then fought in the 15th century War of the Roses which put infamous King Richard III on the throne…. “….Henry VII eventually took over from him, backed by his marriage to Mary of York, and produced Henry VIII, who created Protestantism via the 16th-century reformation….” The above is an extract from this…
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Gloucester on 28th October, 1378, 1483 and 1967….
Brecon, Buckingham rebellion, coronations, Edward II tomb, Finchampstead, Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester Mourning Sword, Gloucestershire archives, Gnosall, Henry of Buckingham, John Morton, John Russell, Old West Gate, Parliament, Ralph Bannaster, Richard II, Richard III, River Severn, Royal Progress, royal visits, Saracen’s Head, Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury Abbey, Wales28th October is a notable day for me because of three events in Gloucester’s history:- (1) It was the day my second favourite king, Richard II was in Gloucester and Tewkesbury—well, he was from 20th October 1378 until mid-November, so had to be in one or the other on the 28th. (2) It was also…
