The New Murrey and Blue blog

buildings

MEDIEVAL POSY RINGS – GIVEN WITH LOVE…

May 10, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, art, buildings, The play’s the thing

Ashmolean Museum, British Museum, Catherine de Roet, Dorset, engraving, gifts, gold, Hamlet, Joan Hanham, John of Gaunt, metal detecting, Museum of London, posy rings, romance, Thomas Brook, Victoria and Albert Museum

Reblogged from MEDIEVAL POSY RINGS – GIVEN WITH LOVE… ‘Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?’ ‘Tis brief, my lord’ * This beauty is reputed to have been given by John of Gaunt (1340-1399) to his mistress and subsequent third wife, Katheryn Swinford (1350-1403). The inscription reads ‘alas for fayte’ which was probably…
The blunders awaiting the Coronation….

May 6, 2023

buildings, Events, religion

Adam of Usk, blunders, carrying. child kings, Charles “III”, Church of England, coronations, crown, King James Bible, Richard II, uncles, wind

Well, blunders and accidents can accompany just about any human activity, not only coronations, and the crowning of King Charles III is going to be a departure from the ancient ceremony, with a lot of changes and “modernising”. I’ve already written about my fears concerning that word “modernising”. My entire disenchantment with the Church of…
The Coronation Chair and the Stone of Destiny….

May 5, 2023

anniversaries, art, buildings, Events, religion

Bethel, Charles “III”, coronation chair, dreams, Edward I, Edward II, Jacob, Scotland, Stone of Scone

With the first coronation in seventy years looming fast, there is naturally a lot of discussion about various aspects of the ancient ceremony. I don’t know what the new king’s wish to “modernise” might finally entail, but I do know the proceedings will have to include the Coronation Chair (now a shadow of its former…
The Stanley who found religion – Sir John Stanley of Honford.

May 3, 2023

battles, buildings, law, religion

Anne Benger, Anne Boleyn, Bishops of Ely, clerical celibacy, executions, Fleet prison, Flodden, George Legh of Adlington, Handforth, illegitimacy, James Stanley, Joan Larke, Manchester Cathedral, monks, property disputes, Sir John Stanley, Sir Urien Brereton, Stanleys, Westminster Abbey, William Hanford

Sir John Stanley was a grandson of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby and Eleanor Neville. His father was James Stanley (c 1465-1525) a cleric who eventually became Bishop of Ely. (He retained multiple benefices and seems to have been as often in Lancashire as in Ely. He is buried in what is now Manchester…
Owlpen Manor rivals Minster Lovell when it comes to walling-up and starving….

May 2, 2023

battles, buildings, religion

“Tudors”, Benedictine monks, Black Monk, children, Cotswolds, ghosts, Gloucester, Kingswood Abbey, Margaret of Anjou, Minster Lovell Hall, Owlpen Manor, Reformation, St. Peter’s Abbey, Tewkesbury, walling up

Having recently written about Minster Lovell and the fact that the remains of Francis Lovell may have been found walled up there, I found myself drawn to yet another Cotswold house with a similar legend. This is Owlpen Manor on the western flank of the Cotswolds. This Owlpen Manor link mentions four ghosts, but only…
Does a certain mansion in Bishopsgate hold the secret of who really wrote Shakespeare’s works….?

May 1, 2023

buildings, The play’s the thing

Bishopsgate, City of London, exams, Henry Earl of Southampton, Henry IV Part One, Jasper Fisher, John Stow, mansions, Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man, Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford, Roger Earl of Rutland, Shakespeare, Vic Keegan

This article commences with the following: “….A cluster of individuals claimed by some to be the true authors of Shakespeare‘s works lived in or near the same ostentatious mansion in the City of London at much the same time….” The mansion is in Bishopsgate and yes, it is known for its connections with the Bard.…
Antony Woodville and his daughter, Margaret.

Apr 29, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, religion

Anne ferch John, Anthony Woodville, Battle of Bosworth, Bristol, Buckingham rebellion, Forest of Dean, Glamorgan, Gwenllian Stradling, Henry VII, illegitimacy, John of Gaunt, Lord Mayor’s Chapel, Margaret Wydeville, Norman knights, Richard III, Sir Robert Poyntz, Thomas of woodstock, Wales

Antony Woodville, quite early in his career, had an affair with Gwenllian Stradling which led to the birth of a daughter, Margaret Woodville. As it turned out, although he subsequently married twice, this was his only child. Or certainly, his only child who grew up. The Stradlings were a long-standing Glamorgan gentry family, based at…
Finding Richard (from across the Atlantic Ocean)

Apr 28, 2023

Alternative History, archaeology, battles, buildings, religion, The play’s the thing

American Civil War, Catholicism, Charles I, Commonwealth, Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII, Leicester Greyfriars, Nazis, Reformation, Richard III discovery, USA, William Shakespeare

I had never been much interested in medieval history. I thought of them as backwards and a little too obsessed w the afterlife. However, the “what ifs” of history always intrigued me. What if the Nazis won WWII? What if the north had been defeated in the American Civil War? And so forth. I’d always…
ST DUNSTAN- IN-THE-EAST – SURVIVER OF DISASTERS – NOW A TRANQUIL HAVEN

Apr 27, 2023

buildings, religion, sources

antiquaries, Blitz, burials, churches, Great Fire of London, John Dolben Bishop of Rochester, John Stow, London, rebuilt structures, Samuel Pepys, Sir Christopher Wren, St. Dunstan in the East, Tower of London, Wren’s Tower

REBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI @sparkypus.com The peaceful garden…a tranquil spot to sit a while in the busy heart of the City of London. Photo Haarkon co.uk. St Dunstan-in-the-East was already ancient when John Stow wrote about it in his Survey of London Written in the Year 1598. Not to be confused with St Dunstan-in-the West,…
They say you can’t tell a book by its cover….

Apr 26, 2023

buildings

Country Life, Devon, Edwardian era, Haselbech Hill House, Knightstone Manor, Northamptonshire, property sales, Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset

Knightstone Manor in Devon is a 14th-century house with connections to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, among others. You can read about it here. Well, it may indeed be 14th century, but to me it’s been so “got at” that it now looks modern. Externally, anyway. On the other hand, beautiful Haselbech Hill House…