battles
pilltown
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All ice hockey fans, especially Canadians, are aware of the famous Stanley Cup, awarded to Canadian amateur ice hockey teams from 1893 onwards (American teams now also participate). The cup is known variously as Lord Stanley’s Mug and The Holy Grail of Hockey. And yes, the Lord Stanley in question is, in fact, a direct…
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Last night I watched a documentary about the 2016 murder of call girl Georgina Symonds by her lover, millionaire Peter Morgan. The story of the murder is intriguing enough, but I found myself being more concerned about the scene of the crime, the picturesque ruins of Pencoed Castle in Monmouthshire. It’s situated at Llanmartin, near…
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The Rise of the Stanley family.
Anne Neville, Battle of Bosworth, Battle of Shrewsbury, Blore Heath, Cheshire, Constable of England, Earl of Arundel, Eleanor Neville, extortion, France, heiresses, Henry IV, Henry of Buckingham, Ireland, Isobel Lathom, justiciar of Ireland, King of Mann, Knights of the Garter, Lancashire, Lathom House, Lord Audley, Lord Deputy of Ireland, Margaret of Anjou, Master Forester, murder, pardons, Prior of Burscough, Richard II, Richard III, Richard of Warwick, Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland, Roger Mortimer 4th Earl of March, Roxburgh Castle, Scotland, Sheriff of Anglesea, Sir John Stanley, Sir William Stanley, Stanleys, Tewkesbury, Thomas Lord Stanley, Thomas Mowbray Earl of Norfolk, WirralIn the late 14th Century, the Stanleys were a gentry family, their power base lying chiefly in Cheshire, notably in the Wirral. Their ancestry might fairly be described as ‘provincial’. There were certainly no kings in their quarterings. This is not to say they were unimportant, but their influence was of a local rather than…
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I love delving into the glossy pages of Country Life magazine, because something of interest always turns up. This time I’ve happened upon the story of Ribbesford House on the banks of the River Severn in Worcestershire. Not only was this vast property once on sale for the ridiculously low price of £500,000, but Ribbesford…
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According to this article there have been five interesting archaeological discoveries in the past decade. First among them, of course, is the finding of Richard III’s remains:- “….When King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, he was buried in the church of the Grey Friars. In 2012, The Richard III Society…
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When it comes to medieval ships, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine what they were like. Cogs, crayers, shallops, barges, balingers, wherries and many others abound. Well, wherries of various descriptions are still around now, as are barges, but what we may fondly envisage as a brightly painted narrow boat was no such thing. Perhaps it…
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Pembroke didn’t pop the Weasel when it should have….!
“Perkin”, “Princes”, “Tudor” propaganda, Arthur, attainders, Battle of Bosworth, Brittany, Cadwallader, Catherine de Valois, Edmund “Tudor”, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, French mercenaries, Henry V, Henry VII, Jasper “Tudor”, Lady Margaret Beaufort, parsimony, Pembroke Castle, pike wall, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, statues, Titulus Regius, WalesWell, the first part of a riveting, absolutely factual series about Henry VII was warning enough. I confess to having had to read the first sentence twice, because first time around I thought Edmund Tudor was fighting against the Duke of York’s men and Edmund’s own wife, Margaret Beaufort, who was Henry’s underage mother. Shame on…
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We all know the Grand Old Duke of York marched his 10,000 men up a hill and then down again. But which Duke of York was it? If you go here you’ll find there are a number of candidates, including the 3rd Duke, father of Edward IV and Richard III. In general, however, my…
