Science
-
Royal Autopsy, a documentary series dealing with the recreated post-mortems of Charles II and Elizabeth I….
Alice Roberts, autopsies, Bethlem, Bezoar, blood letting, Brett Lockyer, bronchopneumonia, Charles II, Chelsea Physic Garden, clocks, Edmund King, Elizabeth I, emetics, executions, four humours, hair analysis, Hartshorn, Henry VII, James VI/I, John Dee, Jonathan Goddard, malaria, Mary Stuart, microscope, Nell Jones, parotitis, Rainbow Portrait, renaissance, Richmond Palace, Robert Cecil, Royal Autopsy, Royal Society, scars, sepsis, Sir Charles Scarburgh, Sky History, smallpox, Spanish fly, stroke, succession, sugar, syphilis, teeth, toxicology, Wellcome Collection, white leadI confess to having doubts about watching this two-part series on the Sky History channel because I envisaged CGI overkill with odious (but hopefully by then dead) parasites etc., and so I started viewing with the firm intention of stopping the moment it became too horribly wriggly and gory. No wriggles, but the gory…
-
Some progress in Cairo, but not enough yet
“Princes”, “Tudor” propaganda, Anne St. Leger, Annette Carson, bigamy, Brittany, Buckingham rebellion, Constable of England, Council of the North, Daily Mail, de la Poles, Dominic Sandbrook, Edward II, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, Elvis Presley, executions, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VII, James Gairdner, Kathryn Warner, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Leicester, Margaret of Salisbury, mtDNA evidence, rescue plot, Robert Stillington, Royal Progress, same-sex marriage, Stoke Field, Thomas Lord Stanley, Thomas More, Three Estates, Titulus RegiusHere is the Mail article in question, by Dominic Sandbrook. He has now abandoned More as a source and the superficial coincidence of some bones being found within a quarter of a mile of More’s location – never mind that More’s priest is said to have buried the “Princes” below a thirteenth century staircase, let…
-
Here’s an interesting take on Shakespeare‘s Richard II. Please note, NOT Richard III. There is a myth that this play was written to flatter the Tudor queen Elizabeth, and yet one scene came so close to the bone, so to speak, that she had it excised from every performance! Amused she was not. The scene…
-
We all know that an unidentified medieval stone sarcophagus containing a lead coffin was discovered close to Richard’s last resting place in Leicester. And, probably, that it proved to be that of an elderly woman. Now there is a video of what happened when it was opened. When they first examined the remains inside…
-
It’s been a long wait for American Ricardians. The Lost King was released in Great Britain about six months ago to generally excellent reviews. And during those six months I have read all the Facebook posts from happy Ricardians extolling the virtues of the movie while I sat on my couch fuming because it was…
-
I wondered what was coming when I turned to this article but it’s actually quite sensible, even if some of the comments beggar belief. (Know of a woodland somewhere in the UK? Because some people think we no longer have any! Or think it’s clever and snide to pretend we don’t.) The ten facts…
-
There has been a lot of publicity about the splendid The Lost King, but until happening upon this article I hadn’t read anything about the thoughts of the writer, Jeff Pope. What had his opinion of Richard III been before the advent of Philippa Langley and her almost miraculous discovery of Richard’s remains? One…
-
Well, we’ve been waiting and waiting for Philippa Langley’s exciting announcement, for which it feels we’ve been holding our breath for ages. She has written a new book, called The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case and it deals with the eponymous mystery that’s confounded us all for centuries. What did happen…
-
Oh, is there no end to the groanworthiness of TV documentaries? I found myself watching Blowing-up History, series 8, episode 5, about the Tower of London. (My hand is cupped to my shell-like ear, and yes, I can hear your soaring chorus of groans!) You’re right, yet again it was Richard wot dunnit to…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 