religion
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Well, now the General Election is over and done with, and regardless of the result, something about the whole business caught my attention. Muchelney Abbey in Somerset was a polling station! Can you imagine it? Not your usual school or village hall, but an exquisite medieval abbey said to have been founded by King Athelstan!…
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When Archbishop of York Richard Scrope was beheaded on 8 June 1405 he gained the distinction of being the first prelate of such high rank to be executed for treason. I can think of at least two more who should have suffered a similar fate, Thomas Arundel (Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (1353-1414) (luminarium.org)) and…
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It seems there is a mystery about the birthplace of the saintly Sir Thomas More. Was it somewhere in Cheapside on 7 February 1478, as a plaque claims? Well, that was the belief for quite some time, but recently, according to this link The Mystery of Thomas More’s Birthplace | History Today it’s thought more…
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Ripley Castle for Sale-1st time in 700 years
Bosworth, Carthusian Monastery, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, executions, Henry Earl of Northumberland, Henry VII, john ingleby, katherine stillington, margery strangeways, Northallerton, property sales, Richard III, Richard Welles, ripley castle, Robert Stillington, Robin Hood, Sheen, william inglebyRipley Castle in Yorkshire will be put up for sale later in the year for the first time in 700 years. If you can scrape up the money in your piggybank, the sale also includes the Boar’s Head pub and several village houses. The castle has an interesting history. It became a possession of the…
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Nowadays the title of Dame is the simple female equivalent of a knight, a woman who has achieved a lot in science, business, sport, entertainment or charity. This was not always so. In the mediaeval era, a knight earned his title in battle and his female counterpart could not, however, it was the Anglo-Norman version…
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After he became King, Richard III leased the Manor of Chelsea to the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk for a red rose given each Midsummer. The Dowager Duchess was Elizabeth Talbot, the sister of Eleanor Talbot, Edward IV‘s secret wife. Elizabeth (and Eleanor) were also full 1st cousins to Richard’s wife, Anne Neville. Elizabeth, who had…
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Ghosts and spooky stories are not new, and no doubt tales of them were told aeons ago around cave fires when mammoth-hunting was over for the day. Shakespeare created the ghost of Hamlet’s father to alarm audiences in 16th-century England, and ghosts were certainly around before then, in the medieval period, as you can read…
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While out churchcrawling, I recently visited the rather remote Dorset church of St Mary’s at Netherbury. We were looking for the tomb of my partner’s ancestor, William Purchase, who was lord of the manor in the early 1800’s. We found his posh tomb in the graveyard…but when we looked in the church, I found another…
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EDWARD V – HIS LIFE PRIOR TO JUNE 1483
“Princes”, bigamy, Cheyneygates, Coldridge Church, Domenico Mancini, Dr. John Argentine, Edward IV, Edward V, Elizabeth Wydeville, Gelderland Document, George Duke of Bedford, George Duke of Clarence, helen maud cam, Helen Maurer, Hicks, illegitimacy, Joanna Laynesmith, John Ashdown-Hill, Ludlow Castle, Philippa Langley, Readeption, Richard Duke of York, Richard of Shrewsbury, Sir Thomas Vaughan, Three Estates, Titulus Regius, Westminster AbbeyREBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI He had such dignity in his whole person and in his countenance such charm that, however much they might feast their eyes he never sated the gaze of observers’. Domenico Mancini Edward V from the window at Coldridge Church, Devon. Despite the late historian Professor Helen Maud Cam opining rather harshly…