buildings
-
Nowadays the title of Dame is the simple female equivalent of a knight, a woman who has achieved a lot in science, business, sport, entertainment or charity. This was not always so. In the mediaeval era, a knight earned his title in battle and his female counterpart could not, however, it was the Anglo-Norman version…
-
After he became King, Richard III leased the Manor of Chelsea to the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk for a red rose given each Midsummer. The Dowager Duchess was Elizabeth Talbot, the sister of Eleanor Talbot, Edward IV‘s secret wife. Elizabeth (and Eleanor) were also full 1st cousins to Richard’s wife, Anne Neville. Elizabeth, who had…
-
I have to say that this 16th-century house A 400-year-old house that’s as romantic a country cottage as you could hope to find – Country Life is a feast for the eyes. “….King John’s Lodge is sandwiched between the villages of Ticehurst and Wadhurst in the High Weald National Landscape, Kent….” I can only sigh…
-
Ghosts and spooky stories are not new, and no doubt tales of them were told aeons ago around cave fires when mammoth-hunting was over for the day. Shakespeare created the ghost of Hamlet’s father to alarm audiences in 16th-century England, and ghosts were certainly around before then, in the medieval period, as you can read…
-
While out churchcrawling, I recently visited the rather remote Dorset church of St Mary’s at Netherbury. We were looking for the tomb of my partner’s ancestor, William Purchase, who was lord of the manor in the early 1800’s. We found his posh tomb in the graveyard…but when we looked in the church, I found another…
-
EDWARD V – HIS LIFE PRIOR TO JUNE 1483
“Princes”, bigamy, Cheyneygates, Coldridge Church, Domenico Mancini, Dr. John Argentine, Edward IV, Edward V, Elizabeth Wydeville, Gelderland Document, George Duke of Bedford, George Duke of Clarence, helen maud cam, Helen Maurer, Hicks, illegitimacy, Joanna Laynesmith, John Ashdown-Hill, Ludlow Castle, Philippa Langley, Readeption, Richard Duke of York, Richard of Shrewsbury, Sir Thomas Vaughan, Three Estates, Titulus Regius, Westminster AbbeyREBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI He had such dignity in his whole person and in his countenance such charm that, however much they might feast their eyes he never sated the gaze of observers’. Domenico Mancini Edward V from the window at Coldridge Church, Devon. Despite the late historian Professor Helen Maud Cam opining rather harshly…
-
You might wonder what the above 1855 painting (from Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire) has to do with the summer solstice, but it’s taken from this National Trust article, which emphasises the magical aspect of this particular time of the year. It also illustrates the sort of books I read as a child. Today’s adults underestimate…
-
According to this site Visiting Wick Court – Farms For City Children “….Wick Court is an Elizabethan moated manor house once used as a hunting lodge by the Lords of Berkeley and rumoured to have been visited by Elizabeth I Although grand in its history, this intimate house stands on a site looking out across…
-
Sanda Island is in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, off the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula, and it came to my attention when I read this article A Scottish island for sale with seals, seven houses, a lighthouse and its own pub – Country Life in Country Life. The article is beautifully illustrated, with an aerial video that sings…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 