Science
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The Palace has recently announced that Princess Eugenie of York and her husband Jack Brooksbank are expecting their first baby. Eugenie of course quite famously showed off the scar from her scoliosis surgery when she got married in a backless wedding dress in 2018. She had idiopathic adolescent onset scoliosis, like Richard III, and…
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Researching for my writing takes me all over the place … and to numerous figures from the past. This time, needing to know the attitude of medieval people to albinism, I was led to our long-revered medieval monarch and saint, Edward the Confessor. Now I’ll be the first to admit to not knowing a…
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As Ashdown-Hill found, although he was unable to locate her precisely in the genealogical research that eventually located Michael Ibsen as a mitochondrial DNA match for Richard III, Richard’s sister Margaret Duchess of Burgundy was buried in a Franciscan church in Mechelen, in her Duchy Although it was destroyed during subsequent religious conflicts, a reconstruction…
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Even more “Britain’s Most Historic Towns”
America, Armada, banking, Battle of Lincoln, body snatching, Charles II, Corn Laws, Drake, Edinburgh, Engels, executions, Glasgow, Horatio Nelson, industry, Lincoln, London, Manchester, Marx, medicine, Nicola de la Haie, Osborne House, overdrafts, Plymouth, Portsmouth, rapid expansion, Royal Society, Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Walter Raleigh, theatre, William Burke, William HareAlice Roberts has been back on our screens with a third series of the above. This time, she visited (Mediaeval) Lincoln, (Restoration) London, (Naval) Portsmouth, (Elizabethan) Plymouth, (Steam Age) Glasgow, (Georgian) Edinburgh and (Industrial Revolution) Manchester, albeit not in chronological order like the two previous series. There was a focus on Nicola de la Haye…
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Over the past 20 years or so, advances in archaeology have enabled us to test isotopes in human and animal teeth, showing possible places of origin and effects of diet; we can extract DNA and unlock the genome, not only finding living relatives but having a good guess at hair and eyes colour and other…
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Kingfinding (or consortfinding) is back, this time in France. The lady in question, however, was from Navarre and became queen to Richard I. Although he wasn’t in England much during his reign, due to his crusading activities, she did accompany him part of the way on occasion. Here is a Guardian article, located by Robert…
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Well, the first illustration is of a younger Isabella than is indicated in what follows. This Isabella was, of course, the wife of Edward II and the mother of Edward III. Hughes is very specific about her this time, whereas on another occasion he was vague and it was impossible to know to which Isabella…
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What were our medieval kings’ voices like….?
accents, Alice Perrers, Azincourt, Battle of Bosworth, definitions, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward the Black Prince, Edward V, George Duke of Clarence, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Jane Shore, language, minority kings, monarchs, Phillippa of Hainault, promiscuity, Richard II, Richard III, Stanleys, Thomas Lynom, WydevillesToday I once again heard Henry VIII described as Bluff King Hal. Well, this is usually said almost affectionately, which the Henry VIII we all know does not warrant. He was a monster. I think his voice was probably stentorian. Eventually he was downright nasty and needed to be approached with an excessively long bargepole.…
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Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York
“Perkin”, Anne Mowbray, Battle of Bosworth, bigamy, Dukes of Norfolk, Dukes of York, Earl of Nottingham, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Garden Tower, illegitimacy, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, John Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, Ludlow Castle, Mowbray estates, Polydore Vergil, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, Robert Stillington, royal marriages, Shrewsbury, Thomas Cardinal Bourchier, Thomas More, Three Estates, William Lord BerkeleyRichard Shrewsbury Duke of York was the second son of King Edward IV. We don’t know a lot about him because he was not the heir to the throne but notwithstanding this, he is one of the most investigated historical characters being him one of the well known “Princes” in the Tower. We have not…
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Well, the above reconstruction of Tutankhamun is a revelation, not only that he was so unlike his wonderful funeral mask, but also because….oh dear, you couldn’t make it up. Here’s an extract from this article :- “….What King Tut Really Looked Like….They conducted DNA studies and found out how frail the pharaoh was. He was…
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