buildings
-
If you hear a wailing and gashing of teeth, both anguished sounds will be emanating from me. Why? Because my rudimentary archaeological endeavours in my garden continue to unearth clay pipes The darned things show no sign of becoming rare and valuable. Other people find great treasures of one sort of another; I find…
-
This was shown on BBC2 over three consecutive Mondays, featuring an all-Italian excavation of the abandoned city and the British volcanologist Dr. Chris Jackson. It featured the familiar story of the two-day eruption and pyrochastic flow killing thousands, including Pliny the Elder, before they could escape as many ran from the lava towards the sea…
-
Today, 16 October, in 1987 something happened that most of us who are old enough will remember very clearly. Overnight we’d endured the raging of a terrible storm (see here, here and here). The resultant destruction of property and trees meant that Sevenoaks in Kent no longer had its famous seven oaks! In the…
-
The disgraceful second marriage of the unpleasant 3rd Earl of Arundel….
“Copped Hat”, annulment, Arundel Castle, bigamy, Bodleian Library, child marriage, clement vi, dispensations, Earl of Arundel, Edmund Crouchback, Edward II, Eleanor of Lancaster, executions, Fitzalans, Havering atte Bower, Henry III, Henry of Lancaster, Hugh Despencer the Younger, illegitimate children, Isabel le Despenser, John Beaumont, Kathryn Warner, Lewes Priory, Limoges, National Portrait Gallery, popes, prisoners, Saint-Martial, scandal, Sir Edmund Arundel, tournaments, Tower of LondonIn January 1376, 63-year-old Richard Fitzalan, 3rd/10th (depending on how you calculate it) Earl of Arundel, passed away at Arundel Castle and was interred at Lewes Priory, where his 54-year-old second wife had lain to rest since 1372. The earl was nicknamed “Copped Hat” because of the type of gabled headwear he favoured, and he…
-
I recently watched an episode of Antiques Road Trip in which a sequence was set in Hedingham Castle in Essex. It was Series 11, Episode 23, in which art experts Mark Stacy and Thomas Plant travelled through Essex and Suffolk on their way to an auction in Cambridgeshire. I fear I have not been able…
-
The simple but elegant tomb of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral is known to us all, and has been visited by thousands of people, but the cathedral itself needed attention and so the decision was made to close it for nearly two years while a considerable upgrading was carried out. But what you see…
-
June, July, August 1399. How England fell.
Berkeley Castle, Bishop of Norwich, Bridlington Priory, Bristol, Carmarthen, Chester, Chris Given-Wilson, Cromer, Doncaster, Douglas Biggs, Earl of Wiltshire, Edward Duke of York, executions, Glamorgan, Gloucester Castle, Henry Greene, Henry IV, John of Gaunt, Milford Haven, Nigel Saul, North Wales, Oxford, Pevensey Bay, Richard II, Shrewsbury, Sir John Bussy, sir john russell, Sir Piers Legh of Lyme, Thomas Despenser, Thomas of Lancaster, Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester, Waterford, YorkshireThe sources for these weeks take some unravelling. The most useful secondary source is Three Armies in Britain by Douglas Biggs, a book that, unfortunately, has not received the credit due to it. Nigel Saul‘s Richard II is of value, as is Chronicles of the Revolution by Chris Given-Wilson. The analysis that follows is largely…
-
Who wrote the inscription on the tomb of Richard II….?
Anne of Bohemia, Archbishop Thomas Arundel, Archbishop William Courtenay, Bible translators, Chester, confiscation, de heretico comburendo, executions, exile, Henry IV, Henry V, homer, horses, Ireland, Joan of Kent, John of Gaunt, John Wycliffe, King’s Langley, Latin, Lollards, memorials, Old St. Paul’s, Pat Smythe, Pontefract Castle, Richard II, Richard III, royal tombs, showjumping, Terry Jones, usurpers, Westminster Abbey, Who murdered chaucerThe tomb of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia in Westminster Abbey is very well known and recognised. The effigies once held hands but the hands are now missing, and the original magnificence of the tomb can only be imagined. If you go to this link and scroll down to the section headed Burial and…
-
Here is a link (We travel back in time to the scene of one of England’s bloodiest battles (yahoo.com)) to someone’s account of attending the annual Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. It is very interesting and worth reading. However, something that is repeated about events in the aftermath of the battle is that the sanctuary of Tewkesbury…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 