heraldry
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We all know the story of Richard III apparently spending a night at the White Boar Inn in Leicester, on his way to his fate at Bosworth. We know of his bed, with its supposed hidden treasure, and that the inn prudently decided to rename itself the Blue Boar, to avoid Tudor wrath (of which…
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13 October was the Feast of the Translation of Edward the Confessor, who was Richard II’s most cherished saint and king. So great was Richard’s veneration that he even impaled the Confessor’s arms with the royal arms of England. See above. And on this day every year of he presented a gift at the saint’s…
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Buc
“Beauforts”, “Perkin”, “The History of King Richard III”, accuracy, Ancestry, Annette Carson, antiquaries, Arthur Kincaid, Battle of Bosworth, bigamy, Bigods, Catherine de Roet, character, denialists, executions, fire, George Buck, Henry VII, heralds, Hereward the Wake, Howards, illegitimacy, John of Gaunt, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lancastrians, More, notes, pre-contract, Ricardian, Richard III Society, Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors, scoliosis, Scotland, Sir George Buc, Sir Hugh Swynford, Sir Robert Buck, Sir Robert Cotton, Society of Antiquaries, Statute of Merton, Stewarts, Tiberius, Titulus Regius, viva voceHere it is at last, a publication sponsored by the Society of Antiquaries and the Richard III Society. Over forty years after his last edition of Buc‘s magnum opus, Arthur Kincaid has managed to remove the “wrapping paper” added by the author’s less painstaking great-nephew and namesake so that only the original remains. Through the…
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Various Goings on in the General Area of Cheshire.
Battle of Northampton, Battle of Shrewsbury, Blore Heath, Cheshire, Chester Castle, Chirk Castle, Clwyd, Coventry, de Bohun, Dee estuary, Duke of Norfolk, Edward IV, Edward of Lancaster, executions, fee-farm, Henry Duke of Somerset, Hexham, Holt, Holt Castle, House of Lancaster, Jasper “Tudor”, John Neville, John Paston III, John Southworth, Lancashire, Margaret of Anjou, Mold Fair, Nantwich, Redbank, Richard Duke of York, Richard II, Sir William Stanley, Skipton Castle, swan, Thomas Lord Stanley, Thomas NevilleAlthough Cheshire was fiercely loyal to Richard II, after the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403) that loyalty gradually transferred itself to the House of Lancaster. Cheshire was a royal earldom and palatinate, with the King (or the Prince of Wales when there was one) as its immediate lord. As in next-door Lancashire, there was no resident…
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My home city of Gloucester (and its cathedral) doesn’t turn up enough online, but here’s a link that’s all about Gloucester. And it gives Richard III a fair deal, although it doesn’t mention that on 29 July 1483*, during his royal progress, he granted Gloucester its charter. Nor that in 1471 Gloucester closed its gates…
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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…
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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…
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Here’s an oddity. Well, perhaps not, given that the kings of England had a royal menagerie at the Tower, in which a variety of exotic (to England) animals were kept. While looking at the Calendar of Patent Rolls for 1385 I came upon the following entry:- The entry doesn’t say the ostrich was kept in…