The New Murrey and Blue blog

buildings

When there’s snow at midsummer….

Jun 23, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, heraldry

bigamy, Castell Du, Coventry, cults, Edmund of Rutland, Edward IV, Edward of Lancaster, Edward V, Elizabeth Wydeville, First Battle of St. Albans, George Duke of Clarence, Gervase la Vallee, Henry Duke of Somerset, Henry VI, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lancastrians, Ludlow Castle, manticore, Margaret of Anjou, mermaids, Micklegate Bar, Midsummer Day, Mortimer’s Cross, poachers, pre-contract, Richard Duke of York, Richard of Warwick, Royal deer forests, secret marriage, stag hunting, Towton, Wakefield, Welsh Marches, witchcraft

A short story by Sandra Heath Wilson (viscountessw) Please remember, ladies and gentlemen, that this story is fiction. The great midsummer bonfire crackled and roared, and sparks billowed high into the dark sky. It was encircled by thirteen hooded black-robed figures, and the face of the youngest was pale as he accepted the carved wooden…
Harbingers

Jun 22, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, heraldry, law

Anne of Bohemia, harbingers, Henry IV, King’s Lodgings, livery colours, Lollards, Owain Glyndwr, Pilleth, Richard II, Sir Robert Whitney, Sir Thomas Clanvowe, Welsh Marches

We still use the word ‘harbinger’ in constructions like ‘This was the harbinger of war.’ Meaning that something gives a warning or prediction. In the Middle Ages, a harbinger was a man who travelled ahead of the royal (or a noble) household to warn that they were coming. Well, if you had 600-1000 assorted people…
The White Hart of Richard II

Jun 21, 2023

anniversaries, buildings, heraldry, religion

Cheshire archers, Herne, Hollands, livery badges, pub signs, Richard II, Westminster Abbey, white hart

This image of the Muniments Room in Westminster Abbey shows the White Hart of King Richard II, still standing there 623 years after his death. A remarkable survival. The White Hart was King Richard’s livery badge which he circulated to his supporters in the 1390s. It possibly derived from his mother’s cognizance of the…
Found: The state bed of Charles II….

Jun 20, 2023

anniversaries, art, buildings, genealogy

auctions, beds, Ceredigion, Charles II, Chester, coronations, Dukes of Grafton, Earls of Liverpool, Edward Fitzroy, Elizabeth of York, fire, George IV, Henry VII, Prime Ministers, Second World War, Speaker’s House, Speakers of the Commons, Wales

When I saw a headline about a family who bought a king’s bed, my first thought was of the marriage bed of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, which was found at auction in 2010 in Chester. But no, this is a different bed, and only dates back to Charles II. Nor is it a…
The royal palace of Plantagenet kings…oh, and of some bloated monstrosity called Henry VIII….

Jun 19, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, genealogy, religion

Alice Perrers, Anne of Bohemia, Edmund of Langley, Edward II, Edward III, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VIII, hunting lodges, King’s Langley, Piers Gaveston, reburial, Richard II, royal burials, Westminster Abbey

Oh dear, my title line is again indicative of my allegiances. Why is it that Henry VIII—aka Fat Henry—is seemingly always mentioned as a promotional point of some sort? He was an awful man, and nothing to brag about. Ask his wives, to three of whom he gifted King’s Langley. Short tenure, I imagine. Be…
Ricardian History For Sale in Leicester

Jun 18, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, religion

Battle of Bosworth, Blanche of Castile, Blue Boar Inn, Castle Gate, Henry of Grosmont, Henry VI, knighthoods, Lancastrian burials, Leicester, Leicester Castle, Mary de Bohun, Parliament of Bats, relics, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, St. Mary De Castro, The Newarke, Trinity Hospital, weapons

Castle Gate in Leicester is currently on the market for £800,000. Renovated inside to form a spacious house, Castle Gate was built in the 15th century and was the main entrance to the bailey of Leicester Castle. The Great Hall of the castle still exists and is a few hundred yards away. It is encased…
The de Berkeley Heart Burials St Giles Church , Coberley

Jun 17, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, religion, Science

Alfonso of Chester, Berkeleys, Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, Coberley Church, Crecy, Crusades, Dunfermline Abbey, Edward I, Edward III, Eleanor of Castile, English Church Monuments, Gloucestershire, heart burials, Historic Conservation, Holy Land, horses, Joan Archer, Joan of the Tower, Lombard, Melrose Abbey, Phillippa of Hainault, Ranulph Lord Dacre, Richard Whittington, Robert I, Sir Giles de Berkeley, Sir James Douglas, Sir Thomas de Berkeley, St. Giles’ Church, Towton, William of Windsor, William Whittington

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com 14th century monument to Sir Thomas de Berkeley of Coberley (1289-d.1365) and his wife Joan Lady de Berkeley nee Archer d. 1369. The small monument besides the Berkeley monument is that commemorating a heart burial belonging to an unknown female. St Giles’ Church, Coberley, Gloucestershire. Photo C B Newham Church Monuments…
The Wars of the Roses’ last battlecry on England’s soil….?

Jun 16, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings

“Lambert Simnel”, “Perkin”, Battle of Stoke, cowardice, Edmund Earl of Suffolk, Henry VII, John Earl of Lincoln, Nottingham Castle, Richard de la Pole, Richard III, white boar

Our Yorkist shoulders always slump with dismay when we think of the Battle of East Stoke in 1487. With this defeat, and the death of the young Earl of Lincoln, who was regarded as the heir of Richard III, Henry Tudor was more firmly on his stolen throne. This site is devoted to the battle…
Wanted …

Jun 15, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, religion, Science, television reviews

Albert Dock, Alice Roberts, ampitheatres, anchorites, Anglo-Dutch Wars, Anglo-Saxon burials, animal bones, Antony Bek, Auckland Castle, Bishop’s Stortford, Blitz, Cat Jarman, chapels, Cheshire, Civil War, cobalt mines, Coleshill Manor, copper, Cornwall, debased coinage, demolition, digging for Britain, docks, Dorchester, Dorset, Edinburgh, Elizabeth I, English Channel, fire, fireplaces, flint tools, forts, Harlaxton Hall, Haverfordwest, henges, Henry VIII, hill forts, Holyrood Park, HS2, Hull, Iron Age, Isabelle German, Islay, jewellery, Lincolnshire, Liverpool, Loftus, Londonderry, matriarchy, Mercia, midlands, Mint, Neolithic Era, Old Coppernose, osteoparosis, Oxford, Peterborough, piermasters, prince bishops, Priories, recolouring, rheumatoid arthritis, Robert Greville Lord Brooke, Roche, Roman baths, Romans, roundhouses, Rutland, Rutland mosaic, salting, Scarborough, shields, sieges, silver plating, South Blockhouse, spiral staircases, Stane Street, Streethouse, Stuart Prior, syphilis, The Anarchy, Thomas Hardy, Tower of London, Vespasian, Victorians, volcanoes, Wessex Archaeology, Western Isles, Wiltshire, York, Yorkshire

Digging for Britain is back, just twenty hours into the New Year, for series 10 (excluding a few specials). Alice Roberts is still the host, with Cat Jarman and Stuart Prior. The first episode included a Roman road in Bishop’s Stortford, an Iron Age matriarchy excavated in Dorset and a Lady of the Mercians (but…
Rest your head where Henry VIII may once have rested his….? 😨

Jun 12, 2023

buildings, religion

East Barsham Manor, Henry VIII, Norfolk, pilgrimage, property sales, Walsingham

If you read this article you’ll find the following opener: “….A Tudor mansion in Norfolk now costs the same as a London flat – why aren’t today’s wealthy elite interested in old-school splendour?….” Well, I’d imagine it was because (a) they need to live in London, or (b) they’re not as rich as they make…