The New Murrey and Blue blog

anniversaries

A treacherous herald….

Sep 21, 2020

anniversaries, buildings, heraldry, law, sources

Edward IV, Edward V, Henry VII, heralds, Leicester Herald, More, Richard III, Roger Machada, Shakespeare, Windsor Castle

Here is a link to an interesting paper about a certain Roger Machado, who is known to have been Henry VII’s herald. It seems that before then he’d been Leicester Herald to Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III, but deserted Richard late in 1483 to go over to the Dark Side. Er, sorry, to…
The wax votive offerings found at Exeter Cathedral….

Sep 18, 2020

anniversaries, art, buildings, religion

air raids, Bishop Edmund Lacy, Exeter Cathedral, Second World War, St. Peter, St. William of York, votive offerings, wax, York Minster

During the medieval period it was common for hollow beeswax votive offerings to be made in the hope of spiritual assistance in healing or at least minimizing an injury or ailment. In Exeter Cathedral, these were hung above the tomb of Bishop Edmund Lacy (c. 1370-1455), but there were other cathedrals and churches where…
Princess Cecily of York, a very daring lady….

Sep 17, 2020

anniversaries, genealogy, law, religion

annulments, Cecily Neville the Younger, consanguinity, dispensations, Elizabeth of York, Henry VII, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Marie Barnfield, Mary of York, novels, Richard III, Scropes of Masham, Sir Ralph Scrope, Thomas Kymbe, Viscount Welles

Some of you will know that in the 1970s I wrote a trilogy about Cicely/Cecily, daughter of Edward IV. I called her Cicely back then, and have stuck with it, but now she is generally known as Cecily. She had been the third daughter, but on the death of her sister Mary, because second…
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS WAR – Part 1: the Devil’s brood

Sep 16, 2020

anniversaries, battles, religion

Angevin Empire, Aquitaine, Aragon, Arthur of Brittany, Barons’ War, Berengaria, Brittany, Capetians, Cathars, Crusades, Edward I, Eleanor of Aquitaine, excommunication, France, Frederick VI, Gascony, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, Henry the Young King, Henry V, Holy Roman Empire, John, Louis VII, Magna Carta, Matilda, Napoleon, Norman conquest, Normandy, Phillip I, Phillip II, Plantagenets, Richard I, Stephen, Thomas Becket, Three Hundred Years’ War, Treaty of Bretigny, Treaty of Paris, Treaty of Troyes, William I, William II, William Marshall, William the Lion

Preface I conceived this article as a defence of King Henry V against the accusation that he was a war criminal. It became apparent, however, that my research was drawing me away from Henry’s campaigns towards a broader study of the origin and causes of the Hundred Years War. Soon, I was reading material going…
An Irishman abroad but not for much longer?

Sep 10, 2020

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, genealogy, religion, Science

biographies, builders, Chapel of Marvels, Chieftains of Tyrconnell, Christopher Columbus, Curlew Pass, Darren McGettigan, Donegal, Earls of Tyrone, Franciscans, Hugh O’Neill, Ireland, Irish News, Kinsale, Leicester, love songs, missing feet, music, Nine Years’ War, October birthdays, parallels, Phillip III, rebellion, Red Hugh O’Donnell, Richard III, Richard Tyrrel, Simancas, Spain, Ulster, Valladolid, Yellow Ford

“Red” Hugh O’Donnell (1572-1602) was an Irish chieftain who fought a series of battles against English armies between 1595 and the beginning of 1602 (during the Nine Years’ War which actually ran from 1593 to 1603), one of his less successful opponents being the Earl of Essex. O’Donnell ruled Tir Chonaill in the extreme north-west…
An unusual witchcraft case in Ipswich

Sep 9, 2020

anniversaries, law, religion

Ancient House, Buttermarket, Cornhill, Eleanor Cobham, executions, haunting, Henry VI, Ipswich, Lakeland Plastics, Margery Jourdemayne, Mary Lackland, treason, witchcraft

Originally posted on Mid Anglia Group, Richard III Society: Mary Lackland, or Lakeland, was burned on the Cornhill on 9th September 1645 but why? The heresy laws had been repealed in 1558/9 although they were invoked later, up to 1612/3. This execution took place at the peak of the Matthew Hopkins witch mania but those…
Oh where, Oh where, has Chaucer’s “Foul Oak” gone….?

Sep 6, 2020

anniversaries, buildings, travel

A2, Anne of Bohemia, Baginton Oak, Canterbury, Christ Church Greyfriars, Dover, Eltham Palace, executions, Foul Oak Hatcham, Geoffrey Chaucer, highway robbery, Nicholas Brembre, Old Kent Road, Palace of Westminster, Richard II, Smithfield, St. george’s Chapel, St. Paul’s, Tower of London, Warwickshire, Watling Street, Windsor Castle

According to Project Gutenberg, on 6th September 1390 Geoffrey Chaucer was mugged at a place called the Foul Oak, but not the Baginton Oak. Rather was it on what we now call the Old Kent Road but was originally the Roman Watling Street, leading out of London, on the way to Canterbury and…
The Medieval Free Company (by the Legendary Ten Seconds)

Aug 31, 2020

anniversaries, buildings, Music Reviews

archery, Buckland Abbey, Devon, Medieval Free Company, re-enactors, The Acoustic Alphabet, The Legendary Ten Seconds, Wars of the Roses

THE MEDIEVAL FREE COMPANY AT BUCKLAND ABBEY AUGUST 2015 On a Bank Holiday Monday, 31st August 2015, I visited Buckland Abbey near Plymouth where a Wars of the Roses re-enactment group who call themselves The Medieval Free Company had set up their encampment. Buckland Abbey is a National Trust property which was founded by Cistercian…
The Royal Progress of Richard III

Aug 29, 2020

anniversaries, battles, buildings, law, religion, sources, travel

“Arrivall of Edward IV”, “Princes”, Annales, Anne Neville, Anne Sutton, Black Death, Brecon, Bristol, Buckingham rebellion, Cambridge, Canterbury Cathedral, Catherine de Medici, Charles IX, Chief Justice, Compton Reeves, Cora Schofield, Coventry, Crowland Chronicle, Earl of Kildare, Edmund of Rutland, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward of Middleham, Edward the Black Prince, Eucharist, execution, Fotheringhay, Francis Viscount Lovell, Gainsborough, George Duke of Clarence, George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, Grantham, Great Chronicle, Great Seal, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VI, Henry VII, investiture, Isabel Neville, Jamestown, John Fortescue, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, John Kendall, John Morton, John of Gloucester, John Russell, Katherine Hastings, Latin, Leicester, Lincoln, Lionel Woodville, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Louis XI, Ludlow, Margaret d’Anjou, Micklegate Bar, Middleham Castle, Minster Lovell, mystery plays, Nottingham, Oxford, Pamela Tudor-Craig, Peter Hammond, Pilgrims’ Way, Pontefract, Reading, reburials, Rhoda Edwards, Richard Duke of York, Richard Earl Rivers, Richard III, Richard of Salisbury, River Ouse, River Severn, River Witham, Rosemary Horrox, Royal Progress, Sandwich, Sir Baldwin Fulford, Sir John Woodville, St. George, Tadcaster, Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury Abbey, Thomas of woodstock, Thomas Rotherham, Thornbury, Titulus Regius, Wakefield, Wales, Warwick, William I, William Lord Hastings, William Waynflete, Windsor Castle, Woodstock, Worcester, York

Following his coronation, Richard III – like all medieval monarchs – went on his “royal progress” through the realm. Along with an entourage in excess of 200 household men, ecclesiastics, supporters, and administrative officials, he visited towns and cities as far west as the River Severn, as far north as the River Ouse, and as…
The blond Richard again….!

Aug 25, 2020

anniversaries, genealogy, Science

facial reconstruction, hair, Richard III

There are some interesting reconstructions here..apart from the blond Richard, which (try as I will) I just cannot accept. If he’d been blond (especially THAT blond!) it would surely have shown on his portraits. Or comment would have been made. His hair was medium-brown to dark, maybe a shade of chestnut…just NOT blond! It seems…