religion
-
Mumpsimus is a word that may have originated with Erasmus, but of which I had never heard. It means “adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy”. In William Tyndale‘s 1530 book Practice of Prelates, the word was used in the sense of…
-
John Ashdown-Hill’s last book, a biography of Elizabeth Wydville, was published in July. To mark this, it is time to compare the flow of her life with that of his other subject Lady Eleanor Talbot (1). Generally, Lady Eleanor’s social status, as determined by their fathers and husbands is higher at any point, or even relative to…
-
BOOK REVIEW
“Perkin”, “Princes”, ambition, Archbishop Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, attainder, Battle of Bosworth, Cardinal, Domenico Mancini, Edward IV, Edward of Lancaster, Edward V, Francis Bacon, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VI, Henry VII, illegitimacy, inheritance, James IV, John Morton, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Duchess of Burgundy, Master of the Rolls, Milanese Ambassador, Morton’s Fork, Polydore Vergil, rebellion, Richard III, Robert Cecil, Stuart Bradley, Tewkesbury, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, Thomas Wolsey, Titulus Regius, Towton, William Cecil, William Lord Hastings, WydevillesStuart Bradley – JOHN MORTON: adversary of Richard III, power behind the Tudors (Amberley 2019) John Morton served the English crown for a almost forty years during one of the most turbulent periods in English history. He wielded considerable influence at the courts of three kings. First, in the Lancastrian household of Henry VI:…
-
While searching for what could be accurate likenesses of a number of lords, I came upon the above illustration, which I had never seen before. It is not helpful for actual likenesses of the folk concerned, but is interesting for all that. It is an engraving of the brass that once marked the tomb of…
-
Very few people know that there is a mystery surrounding the church of St Alkelda in Giggleswick. The whole matter started with a parish fair. People from the two churches dedicated to St Alkelda, one in Middleham {pingback to March 28} and one in Giggleswick, were looking for items to sell at the fair in…
-
I think that when it comes to royal St Edwards, most of us think of St Edward the Confessor, and his memorable tomb in Westminster Abbey. But there is another St Edward who was also King of England—St Edward the Martyr, who was murdered on 18th March 978, aged 19 at the most. Between 3rd…
-
Henry VI: saint or sinner?
“Nicholas of the Tower”, Adam Moleyns, Archbishop Kemp, aristocratic lawlessness, Azincourt, Bertram Wolffe, biographies, Calais, Cardinal Beaufort, Charles VI, Charles VII, Christine Carpenter, debt, deposition, Duke of Orleans, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Eton, feudalism, First Battle of St. Albans, France, Great Council, Harfleur, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Humphrey of Gloucester, Hundred Years War, impeachment, insanity, Ireland, Jack Cade, John Blacman, John Duke of Bedford, John Duke of Suffolk, John Harvey, John Watts, Kent, King’s College Cambridge, Lord Protector of the Realm, majority, Margaret d’Anjou, Normandy, Parliamentary Roll, Polydore Vergil, Ralph Griffiths, Ralph Lord Cromwell, Readeption, Richard Duke of York, treason, Valois, Wakefield, William Duke of Suffolk, William TailboysA gentle and devotional life About seventy years ago, the historian John Harvey wrote this in an essay about King Henry VI: “The life and death, and the thwarting of his noble designs are one (sic) of the sorriest tragedies of English history. He was a victim of forces outside his control, for whose existence…
-
Ancient human remains can sometimes ‘speak’ to us through time and inform us not only of their own life stories, but how modern medical complaints came to be. Here is a case of a Franciscan friar’s mummified remains found in an old church in Ecuador that collapsed during an earthquake in 1949. The man, who…
-
Here is an extract that I found interesting. It’s from a 1968 booklet titled Discovering London 3: Medieval London, by Kenneth Derwent, published by Macdonald, and while it doesn’t condemn Richard, a previous paragraph states that the disappearance of Edward V and his brother “were disposed of” and that “the circumstantial evidence points most strongly…
