The New Murrey and Blue blog

art

Leicester has a new attraction about Richard III at Bosworth….

Sep 2, 2021

art, battles, buildings

Battle of Bosworth, King Richards Road, Leicester, murals, Richard III

“….A new mural has been created on King Richards Road in Leicester to highlight the city’s links to King Richard III….” Oh yes, it has indeed, and very striking it is too, as you can see from the above illustration. You can read all about it at the Mercury website and again at the City Council site…
Richard III and the Ancient Egyptian cheese….!

Aug 25, 2021

anniversaries, archaeology, art, buildings, religion, Science

Ancient Egypt, Anglo-Saxons, anthropology, Armenia, Azerbaijan, bamboo strips, barley, Battle of Bosworth, BBC, beer, Blombos cave, board games, Canada, cave art, cheese, China, Ciampate del Diavolo, Clotilda, Cote d’Ivoire, Erebus, gold, human hair, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, King Herod, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars, mammoths, Mary Stuart, multiplication tables, Northwest Passage, nutcrackers, Pembrokeshire, Philippa Langley, quarry, Richard III, Roman villa, royal portraits, royal tombs, Russia, sculptures, shoes, Sir John Franklin, Sir John Maitland, skulls, slave ship, South Africa, Staffordshire Hoard, Stonehenge, storytelling, tomb of Ptahmes, USA, Wiltshire, X-rays

In this intriguing list of twenty , the discovery of Richard III’s remains comes in at number two! He was pipped at the post by an extremely old cheese from Egypt. Eh? Old cheese? Sorry, but can that possibly be more important than Richard? It doesn’t even have King Tut’s fingerprints or teethmarks! 😦 Oh…
Henrys, Ancient and Modern….!

Aug 19, 2021

art, humour

Elizabeth of York, facial resemblance, Henry VII, Henry VIII, judicial murder, Keith Richards, usurpation

Well, the hymn book was never like this, I grant. No hymn numbers here. Instead we have a forgotten Rolling Stone, because if ever there was one, here he is! I can just picture him up on stage giving it some wellie with Mick, Keith & Co. Not that he’d be enjoying himself, that’s for…
The Wanderings of King Henry VI

Aug 12, 2021

anniversaries, archaeology, art, battles, buildings

Alfred Wainwright, artefacts, Bolton Hall, Bolton-by-Bowland, Bracewell Barn, Clitheroe Castle, Henry VI, Hexham, Lake District, Luck of Muncaster, Muncaster Castle, Ravenglass, Readeption, Richard of Warwick, royal burials, Sir James Harrington, Sir Ralph Pudsey, Sir Thomas Talbot, Tower of London, Waddington Hall, Wasdale Head Inn

After the Battle of Hexham (15 May 1464) Henry VI very wisely made himself scarce. His first recorded place of refuge was Muncaster Castle in what is now Cumbria. The distance involved is roughly 90 miles, but anyone who has read Wainwright’s Guides to the Lakeland Fells will appreciate that this would include many…
A VINTAGE CARTOON OF EDWARD IV

Aug 11, 2021

anniversaries, art, buildings, humour

barrel, cartoons, Edward IV, executions, George Duke of Clarence, Margaret of Salisbury, Richard III, symbolism, Tower of London

I seem to collect pictures of Edward IV. He’s quite searchable online and has many various portraits come up, ranging from small illuminations in manuscripts to copies of copies of copies. They range from the sublime to ridiculous, as they rather do with Richard, but there are a lot more of them, as one might…
Prayer Book with a Secret

Jul 26, 2021

anniversaries, art, religion, Science

France, Francis Duke of Brittany, Isabel Stewart, James I, Joan “Beaufort”, lost images, prayer book, Scotland, Yolande of Anjou, Yolande of Aragon

The beautifully illustrated prayer book once belonging to Yolande of Anjou, wife of Francis I of Brittany, had been commissioned by her mother as a gift at the occasion of her marriage to Francis. Unfortunately, 9 years into the marriage, having produced two daughters, Yolande died. Francis soon married again, taking to wife Isabel or…
The ruby that isn’t a ruby was worn at a battle that didn’t happen….?

Jul 25, 2021

anniversaries, art, battles

Azincourt, Battle of Bosworth, Black Prince’s Ruby, Edgecote, Edincott, Edward IV, Edward of Woodstock, Elizabeth II, Henri IV, Henry IV, Henry V, Imperial State Crown, Richard III

Aha, so it isn’t a ruby, see this article. Well, we knew that! But for all its associations with the Black Prince, Henry V and Richard III (to say nothing of later monarchs) it seems our present queen “….often likes to think of it being worn by Henry IV during the battle of…
It WASN’T the Battle of Edgecote Moor, it was the Battle of Edgcote….

Jul 24, 2021

anniversaries, art, battles

Battle of Marston Moor, Battle of Northampton, Edgecote, errors, executions, Graham Turner, Hedgeley Moor, Mike Ingram, Northamptonshire Battlefields Society, Richard Woodville, Royal Mail, Sir John Woodville, stamps

On Monday, 24th July 1469, was fought the Battle of Edgecote Moor, and 549 years later, on 26th July 2018, I was being informative about it here . Except I had my facts wrong. It wasn’t Edgecote Moor, it was just plain Edgcote or sometimes Edgecote, but just that one word! Apparently I was…
Until relatively recently in human history nobody saw the color ‘blue’….

Jul 11, 2021

art, culture, religion

Ancient Egypt, blue, eye colour, Homer’s Odyssey, mediaeval paintings, Mirriam-Webster dictionary, sapphires, sea, sky, William Gladstone, woad

“Until relatively recently in human history nobody saw the color ‘blue.’ “ and “the evidence for people not seeing blue dates all the way back to the 1800s.” Um, I don’t quite understand these statements. If they couldn’t see blue, what did they see when they looked up at the sky on a clear…
It’s all in the blood….

Jul 6, 2021

anniversaries, art, genealogy, Science

“Tudors”, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Henry VII, Henry VIII, John Ashdown-Hill, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Mary I, royal deaths, royal portraits, Swynfords

Seeing family likenesses is always irresistible, and few can deny that Henry VII and his mother are practically identical…well, except that as far as I know he wasn’t inclined to dress up to resemble a nun! From this I conclude that Beaufort blood is the key. Just how much Beaufort blood is arguable, of course.…