genealogy
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Recently the rains washed off some soil in a muddy Shropshire field, and yet another metal detectorist had a lucky find–a hawking ring from the Elizabethan period. The most intriguing thing to me was the very bold lettering spelling the name JOHN TALBOT AT GRAFTON across the band of the tiny ring. As it was…
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I love to see historic properties come up for sale. They are almost always wonderful on the outside and inside, but Earshall Castle in Scotland (55 miles from Edinburgh) has proved the exception. It’s the ancestral home of relatives of Robert the Bruce, but you wouldn’t know it. Yes, it’s beautiful and dramatic on the…
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Well, if the above painting (left) really is “Charles Spencer….the younger brother to late Princess Diana” I’m impressed by his complete dedication to his subject, Charles II! Talk about entering into the spirit of things! 😁 I look forward to the ultimate film but am rather more enthusiastic about Steve Coogan’s earlier film about the…
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Well here’s something interesting. I confess that the Stuart period isn’t one of my strongpoints, and I know very little about Elizabeth Stuart, but the above portrait of her is very intriguing. Is she wearing the same crown that appears in the pictures beneath the main portrait? The crown in the little illustration on the…
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Just a hypothesis, but …
“ghost children”, death in infancy, Edmund Crouchback, Edward I, Eleanor of Provence, Flores Historiarum, Hazel Pierce, Henry III, Henry IV, James II, John of Gaunt, Kathryn Warner, Lancastrian propaganda, Margaret Howell, Matthew Lewis, Matthew Parris, mysteries, planets, Sir Richard Pole, St. Edmund, St. Edward the Confessor, twins, WeirWe know that John of Gaunt and Henry IV claimed their ancestor, Edmund Crouchback Earl of Lancaster, to have been born before Edward I, however we have sources showing this propaganda to be specious. We know Henry III and Eleanor of Provence, to have had five children: Edward, Margaret, Beatrice, Edmund and Katherine. Sources such…
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Lucy Worsley “proves” Richard III murdered his nephews….!
battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, Science, sources, television reviews, The play’s the thing“Princes”, ambush, Battle of Bosworth, BBC2, bias, bigamy, bones, British Museum, Charles II, coins, Coronation, Dighton, Domenico Mancini, dressing-up box, Edward IV’s will, Elizabeth Wydeville, executions, Forrest, Henry VII, Hicks, illegitimacy, James Butler, JCB, Lord Protector of the Realm, Lucy Worsley, Ludlow Castle, Matt Lewis, More, Old St. Paul’s, pre-contract, Ralph Shaa, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, scoliosis, Sir Anthony Wydeville, Stony Stratford, Tanner and Wright, Tim Thornton, Tower of London, Turi King, Tyrrell “confession”Episode 3 of Lucy Worsley‘s latest TV series is about The Princes in the Tower, and from the outset it’s clear that Lucy is Lady Dracula, because she goes for Richard III’s jugular at every opportunity. The thought that he might be innocent doesn’t seem to occur to her because she’s utterly convinced of…
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Some notes on the Vaughans of Tretower
Azincourt, Battle of Bosworth, Bluith Wells, Brecon Castle, Cardigan Castle, Chepstow, Dafydd Gam, Denise Thomas, Edmund of Langley, Eva Coch, executions, Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam, Jasper “Tudor”, looting, Margaret Audley, pardons, Roger Vaughan, Sir Roger Vaughan of Brewardine, Sir Roger Vaughan of Porthaml, Sir Thomas Vaughan, Vaughans, Vaughans of Hergest, Vaughans of Monmouth, Vaughans of Tretower, WalesIf you fully understand the genealogy of the Vaughan family of Wales you are a better person than I. There were at least three branches, and probably more. I have come across the Vaughans of Hergest, a very interesting bunch; the Vaughans of Monmouth (see Sir Thomas Vaughan, executed 1483); and by no means least…
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We all know that Philippa of Lancaster—John of Gaunt’s eldest daughter by his much-loved first wife, Blanche of Lancaster—was the ancestress of a line of Portuguese monarchs (do we not?). But do we all know that Gaunt’s second wife, Costanza/Constance of Castile, gave Gaunt’s a claim to the throne of Castile? Costanza was the…
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The Ancestry of Sir Richard Pole.
Bletsoe, Charltons, Cheshire, Constable of Haverfordwest, Dafydd Fawr, de la Poles, Despensers, Earl of Pembroke, Earls of Suffolk, Edith St. John, executions, Geoffrey Pole I, Henry IV, Henry V, jousting, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Beauchamp, Poles of Powys, Pooles of the Wirral, Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, Richard II, Sheriff of Glamorgan, Sir John Poole of Cheshire, Sir John St. John, Sir Oliver St. John, Sir Richard Pole, Thomas Stafford, WalesRichard Pole is perhaps most famous for being the husband of Margaret Plantagenet, later Countess of Salisbury. But who was he? His maternal ancestry is relatively straightforward. He was the son of Edith St. John, who was the half-sister of Margaret Beaufort. So that makes him the (half-blood) first cousin of Henry VII. Edith St.…
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A nice little pre-Christmas break took me to two towns of interest, Buckingham and Grantham. I wanted to see Buckingham museum which is currently hosting a Richard III display featuring the gold Half Angel found in the fields nearby. It was a nice little collection and the info panels were mercifully free of too many…