The New Murrey and Blue blog

religion

The wax votive offerings found at Exeter Cathedral….

Sep 18, 2020

anniversaries, art, buildings, religion

air raids, Bishop Edmund Lacy, Exeter Cathedral, Second World War, St. Peter, St. William of York, votive offerings, wax, York Minster

During the medieval period it was common for hollow beeswax votive offerings to be made in the hope of spiritual assistance in healing or at least minimizing an injury or ailment. In Exeter Cathedral, these were hung above the tomb of Bishop Edmund Lacy (c. 1370-1455), but there were other cathedrals and churches where…
Princess Cecily of York, a very daring lady….

Sep 17, 2020

anniversaries, genealogy, law, religion

annulments, Cecily Neville the Younger, consanguinity, dispensations, Elizabeth of York, Henry VII, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Marie Barnfield, Mary of York, novels, Richard III, Scropes of Masham, Sir Ralph Scrope, Thomas Kymbe, Viscount Welles

Some of you will know that in the 1970s I wrote a trilogy about Cicely/Cecily, daughter of Edward IV. I called her Cicely back then, and have stuck with it, but now she is generally known as Cecily. She had been the third daughter, but on the death of her sister Mary, because second…
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS WAR – Part 1: the Devil’s brood

Sep 16, 2020

anniversaries, battles, religion

Angevin Empire, Aquitaine, Aragon, Arthur of Brittany, Barons’ War, Berengaria, Brittany, Capetians, Cathars, Crusades, Edward I, Eleanor of Aquitaine, excommunication, France, Frederick VI, Gascony, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, Henry the Young King, Henry V, Holy Roman Empire, John, Louis VII, Magna Carta, Matilda, Napoleon, Norman conquest, Normandy, Phillip I, Phillip II, Plantagenets, Richard I, Stephen, Thomas Becket, Three Hundred Years’ War, Treaty of Bretigny, Treaty of Paris, Treaty of Troyes, William I, William II, William Marshall, William the Lion

Preface I conceived this article as a defence of King Henry V against the accusation that he was a war criminal. It became apparent, however, that my research was drawing me away from Henry’s campaigns towards a broader study of the origin and causes of the Hundred Years War. Soon, I was reading material going…
How did those Canterbury pilgrims hear at the back…?

Sep 14, 2020

art, buildings, religion

Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, pilgrimage, pubs

There is something that has always puzzled me about Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: if there were up to thirty pilgrims (which is what’s reckoned) how on earth could one of them (at a time)tell a tale that the other twenty-nine could hear? In the text Chaucer has his pilgrims point out places they’re passing, so it…
An Irishman abroad but not for much longer?

Sep 10, 2020

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, genealogy, religion, Science

biographies, builders, Chapel of Marvels, Chieftains of Tyrconnell, Christopher Columbus, Curlew Pass, Darren McGettigan, Donegal, Earls of Tyrone, Franciscans, Hugh O’Neill, Ireland, Irish News, Kinsale, Leicester, love songs, missing feet, music, Nine Years’ War, October birthdays, parallels, Phillip III, rebellion, Red Hugh O’Donnell, Richard III, Richard Tyrrel, Simancas, Spain, Ulster, Valladolid, Yellow Ford

“Red” Hugh O’Donnell (1572-1602) was an Irish chieftain who fought a series of battles against English armies between 1595 and the beginning of 1602 (during the Nine Years’ War which actually ran from 1593 to 1603), one of his less successful opponents being the Earl of Essex. O’Donnell ruled Tir Chonaill in the extreme north-west…
An unusual witchcraft case in Ipswich

Sep 9, 2020

anniversaries, law, religion

Ancient House, Buttermarket, Cornhill, Eleanor Cobham, executions, haunting, Henry VI, Ipswich, Lakeland Plastics, Margery Jourdemayne, Mary Lackland, treason, witchcraft

Originally posted on Mid Anglia Group, Richard III Society: Mary Lackland, or Lakeland, was burned on the Cornhill on 9th September 1645 but why? The heresy laws had been repealed in 1558/9 although they were invoked later, up to 1612/3. This execution took place at the peak of the Matthew Hopkins witch mania but those…
Richard III owned religious books, but slept around….?

Sep 4, 2020

archaeology, battles, religion, sources

“Princes”, Carole Cusack, character, Charles Armstrong, Crowland Chronicle, Domenico Mancini, Henry VI, illegitimate children, Leicester dig, military record, popes, Richard III

Yes, we’ve all seen the above illustration before, but for my purposes today it’s ideal. Was Richard a saint? Or a sinner? I’ve happened upon a very interesting paper about Richard, by Carole Cusack, in which she discusses his reputation and why he still has the power to influence us today. Just what is it…
What do we know about St Mary in Gysma and her connection with London….?

Sep 1, 2020

art, religion, sources

Acre, Black Death, british History Online, Cheapside, childbirth, City of London, Edward III, Great Fire of London, London, maps, Mercers’ Company, Simon de Benyngton, St. Mary in Gysma, St. Thomas of Acon, Third Crusade, Wales

In my continuous roamings for information, pure chance led me to this https://www.british-history.ac.uk/court-husting-wills/vol2/pp105-123#p43 reference:- “….Benyngton (Simon de), draper.—To be buried in S. John’s Chapel, to the south of the chancel of the church of S. Laurence in Old Jewry, near Idonia his late wife. To Idonia his present wife he leaves lands and tenements in…
Richard III and the dirty Tudors….?

Aug 30, 2020

culture, genealogy, religion

“Tudors”, Anne Boleyn, Chris Skidmore, cleanliness, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth of York, executions, George Viscount Rochford, Helen Castor, History Extra, Jane, Jane Seymour, John Kennedy, Thomas Boleyn Earl of Wiltshire, Thomas Cromwell, Tracy Borman, Weir

“…8…Richard III and dirty Tudors…“…Rotting vegetation, dung heaps and overflowing cesspits were just some of the unpleasant daily realities faced by ordinary people in 16th-century England. Here, Pamela Hartshorne discusses the challenges Tudors faced when trying to keep their cities clean and hygienic. Also in this episode, Chris Skidmore tells us how his research…
The Royal Progress of Richard III

Aug 29, 2020

anniversaries, battles, buildings, law, religion, sources, travel

“Arrivall of Edward IV”, “Princes”, Annales, Anne Neville, Anne Sutton, Black Death, Brecon, Bristol, Buckingham rebellion, Cambridge, Canterbury Cathedral, Catherine de Medici, Charles IX, Chief Justice, Compton Reeves, Cora Schofield, Coventry, Crowland Chronicle, Earl of Kildare, Edmund of Rutland, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward of Middleham, Edward the Black Prince, Eucharist, execution, Fotheringhay, Francis Viscount Lovell, Gainsborough, George Duke of Clarence, George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, Grantham, Great Chronicle, Great Seal, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VI, Henry VII, investiture, Isabel Neville, Jamestown, John Fortescue, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, John Kendall, John Morton, John of Gloucester, John Russell, Katherine Hastings, Latin, Leicester, Lincoln, Lionel Woodville, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Louis XI, Ludlow, Margaret d’Anjou, Micklegate Bar, Middleham Castle, Minster Lovell, mystery plays, Nottingham, Oxford, Pamela Tudor-Craig, Peter Hammond, Pilgrims’ Way, Pontefract, Reading, reburials, Rhoda Edwards, Richard Duke of York, Richard Earl Rivers, Richard III, Richard of Salisbury, River Ouse, River Severn, River Witham, Rosemary Horrox, Royal Progress, Sandwich, Sir Baldwin Fulford, Sir John Woodville, St. George, Tadcaster, Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury Abbey, Thomas of woodstock, Thomas Rotherham, Thornbury, Titulus Regius, Wakefield, Wales, Warwick, William I, William Lord Hastings, William Waynflete, Windsor Castle, Woodstock, Worcester, York

Following his coronation, Richard III – like all medieval monarchs – went on his “royal progress” through the realm. Along with an entourage in excess of 200 household men, ecclesiastics, supporters, and administrative officials, he visited towns and cities as far west as the River Severn, as far north as the River Ouse, and as…