Science
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In the teeth of the evidence
age, Anne Mortimer, battle injuries, Battle of Bosworth, Cecily Neville, combination of evidence, denialists, Dominic Selwood, Dukes of Beaufort, era, height, House of York, Leicester cathedral, Leicester Greyfriars, Looking for Richard Project, Michael Hicks, Michael Ibsen, mtDNA evidence, Plantagenets, Richard III, scoliosis, Wendy DuldigHere, a little-known television journalist-historian named Dominic Selwood disputes the identity of Richard III’s remains, despite the mtDNA match with collateral descendants in Canada and Australia, their height, age of death, era of death, scoliosis, battle injuries, region of origin and the location of his original burial at the choir of the Greyfriars. In fact…
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The Emperor Charles V was the grandson of Maximilian I (Richard III’s friend and step-nephew-in-law), a nephew of Catherine of Aragon (and thus by marriage to Henry VIII) and father-in-law of Mary I. In February 1547, he feared death at the hands of a Italian mercenary (Pierre Strozzi) and wrote a fiendishly coded letter to…
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This locomotive ‘Fair Rosamund’ was the only one of its class to carry a name. It was, of course, named after Rosamund Clifford and usually worked on the Great Western Railway’s Woodstock branch, near Oxford. Rosamund Clifford (mistress of Henry II) came from Clifford Castle near Hay in the Marches. This castle was associated with…
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Henry VI is not my favourite king, in fact I think he was a real pain in the posterior, whether in his lucid moments or not. This link is to a paper about him, which I confess to not having finished because I lost faith in its accuracy. No fewer than three times Richard II…
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Here is a Guardian article about Arthur Hughes, who qualifies for the role in that he is male, disabled (in a subtle way) and was only thirty when chosen by the Royal Shakespeare Company, as was Richard III in June 1483 when chosen by the Three Estates. He isn’t an octogenarian, a woman or pretending…
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Sir Ernest Shackleton: “What the ice gets, the ice keeps”
Abraham Shackleton, Antarctic, Arctic, Aristotle, books, Captain Cook, Captain John Davis, Captain Scott, County Kildare, CRVO, Discovery, Dublin, Dulwich College, Elephant Island, Endurance, Fabian von Bellinghausen, failure, Frank Worsley, frostbite, Grytviken, heart attacks, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Ireland, Irish rebellions, lectures, Lord Frederick Cavendish, Mount Erebus, Nimrod, Polar explorers, quest, reconstruction, Roald Amundsen, Royal Geographical Society, Sir Clements Markham, Sir Ernest Shackleton, South Georgia, South Pole, Stromness, symmetry, Titanic, Weddell Sea, welfare, Winston Churchill“For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” —Antarctic explorer Sir Raymond Priestly For those new to Shackleton, it might seem counterintuitive to celebrate the leader of a failed…
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With a guide price of £4 million there will be an auction of this large edifice (the Grey Friars Building) that stands right next to where the remains of Richard III were found. The auction is to be on Wednesday, February 15. It’s Grade II listed, but not only because of its proximity to where…
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This post in the Times details the final resting place of every English and then British monarch since 1066, although Harold II (probably Waltham Abbey) is omitted. Note from the interactive map that there are four (plus the Empress Matilda) burials in France and one in Germany. There are none in Scotland, Wales, Ireland or…
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… it was announced that the remains discovered on the site of the Leicester Greyfriars were indeed those of Richard III. On this page you can see both mitochodrial DNA lines: the first by John Ashdown-Hill and the back-up by Leicester University, both to collateral descendants in Commonwealth nations. Here you can see how easy it…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 