The New Murrey and Blue blog

The play’s the thing

A creepy tale about the Duke of Buckingham’s severed head….

May 17, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, Science, sources, The play’s the thing

executions, Henry of Buckingham, pilgrims, Richard III, Salisbury, William Shakespeare

According to this site when Henry, Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason in 1483 in Salisbury, his head was taken to King Richard III, then lodging at the King’s House in the Cathedral Close. Buckingham had turned upon his cousin Richard, who rightly called him “the most untrue creature living”. Shakespeare would have us…
The complete, utterly biased dissing of the House of York….

Apr 28, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, heraldry, law, religion, television reviews, The play’s the thing

Anne Neville, armour, Barnet, bastardy, bigamy, boar, Brittany, Burgundy, Cecily Neville, cleanliness, destiny, Edgecote, Edmund “Tudor”, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Edmund of Rutland, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward V, executions, exile, facial hair, family tree, First Battle of St. Albans, fog, G.L.Harriss, gambling, George Duke of Clarence, Hastings, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Ireland, Jasper “Tudor”, John Ashdown-Hill, John Duke of Somerset, John of Gaunt, John Welles, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lancastrians, Lionel of Antwerp, Lord High Constable, Lord Protector of the Realm, Louis XI, Margaret of Anjou, Mortimer’s Croft, obscenity, Old St. Paul’s, philip glenister, pre-contract, Privy Council, propaganda, re-legitimisation, Readeption, Richard Duke of York, Richard Earl of Arundel, Richard II, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, Richard of Warwick, Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors, Scotland, Sky History, Southampton, Titulus Regius, Wakefield, Welsh people, William Herbert, William Shakespeare, Wydevilles, Yorkist claim, Yorkists

When I recorded the first episode of the Sky series Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors, I watched it on 23rd November, which is the anniversary of the day in 1450 when Richard 3rd Duke of York returned to London [and Parliament] with his sword unsheathed to claim his right. The docudrama series kicks…
The imposition of ransom….

Apr 16, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, The play’s the thing

Alice Perrers, Berkshire, Brest, Brittany, Donnington Castle, extortion, Henry V, Hundred Years War, Ireland, Judi Dench, Lord Deputy of Ireland, Michael Jones, piracy, ransom, Remy Ambuhl, Robert Hardy, Shakespeare, siege of Brest, Sir Richard Abberbury, Sir William Windsor, Turner

My latest target for research is the English garrison/bastion of Brest, on the coast of Brittany, specifically the final years of the 14th century before it was handed back to the Bretons. My interest had been aroused when reading Ducal Brittany 1364-1399, by Michael Jones. In it I learned of the practice of…
More Royal ancestry

Apr 8, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, Science, television reviews, The play’s the thing

actresses, Alexander Armstrong, Arthur Capell Baron Hadham, astronomy, Barings Bank, Battle of Surbiton, bigamy, burials, Careys, Clare Balding, comedians, Dame Judi Dench, Danny Dyer, Dartmoor, Denmark, Duke of Hamilton, Edict of Nantes, Edward IV, Elsinore, English Civil War, executions, France, Frank Gardner, Groom of the Stool, Guildenstern, Hamlet, Henry Earl of Holland, Henry VIII, Hugenots, illegitimacy, Ireland, Joe Sugg, Josh Widdicombe, Lettice Knollys, Mark Wright, Mary Boleyn, Military Cross, Normandy, Ophelia, religious persecution, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, Rosencrantz, royal palaces, Sabine Baring-Gould, secret marriage, Tom Stoppard, Trenchard Manor, Tycho Brahe, Westminster Abbey, Who do you think you are?, Will Kemp, William Shakespeare

Who do you think you are? has now completed eighteen series as British television’s predominant genealogy programmes. In that time, with an average of eight episodes per series, they have uncovered many celebrities with interesting lineage and some unexpected royal descendants, including Alexander Armstrong, Clare Balding, Danny Dyer, Frank Gardner and Sir Matthew Pinsent. Now…
KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Apr 6, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, sources, The play’s the thing

AA Milne, Angevin bloodline, Anglicanism, annulment, Arthur of Brittany, Ascension Day, authorship, avarice, Barons, burials, Cardinal Pandulph, character, charles forker, clergymen, Crowland Chronicle, Defender of the Faith, Earls of Essex, Edward Hall, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Eucharist, excommunication, Fauconbridge brothers, Geoffrey Plantagenet, George Peel, graham Seel, Henry, Henry the Young King, Henry VIII, Historiography, House of York, Hubert de Bergh, Innocent III, John, john Bale, John Dover-Wilson, John Gillingham, John Harvey, John Matusiak, John Wycliffe, Kit Marlowe, Lackland, Louis VIII, Magna Carta, male primogeniture, Mary I, Maude Plantagenet, Mirabeau, morality plays, Phillip Augustus, plays, Polydore Vergil, Ralph Holinshed, recusants, Reformation, Richard Green, Richard Hunne, Richard I, Robin Hood, royal burials, sir brian vickers, Sir James Holt, Six Articles, Softsword, Staffords, stephen langton, Stuarts, Tillyard, Walt Disney, Wilfred Warren, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, Worcester Cathedral

KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION King John was not a good man, He had his little ways. And sometimes no one spoke to him For days and days and days. And men who came across him, When walking in the town, Gave him a supercilious stare, Or passed with noses in the air, And…
Who gave up on the Royal Touch….?

Apr 3, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, culture, religion, The play’s the thing

angels, coins, Edward IV, Elizabeth I, Henry III, Henry VII, Macbeth, Royal Touch, scrofula, Shakespeare Schools Foundation, St. Edward the Confessor, Winchester Cathedral

According to this article, “….The Royal Touch and King Edward the Confessor’s healing powers were so well known that, during the reign of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare referenced them in his play Macbeth. This is unsurprising however, as Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII, had reintroduced the concept in the late 15th century….” So, if the Royal Touch was known to have…
The “Gentle Villainy” of Richard III….?

Mar 7, 2022

Events, The play’s the thing

Blithe Spirit, Cleveland State Theatre, Noel Coward, Ohio, Outcalt Theatre, Shakespeare, USA

The following is an extract from this site. :- “….The season wraps up with “The Gentle Villainy of Richard III, Troubler of the Poor World’s Peace,” an adapation of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” running April 21-May 1 at the Outcalt Theatre….” Oh, dear (heavy sigh). Shoving the word “gentle” in front of “villainy” doesn’t…
Henry VIII and Oedipus had something in common….

Feb 11, 2022

anniversaries, genealogy, law, religion, Science, The play’s the thing

Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII, J.C. Flugel, marriages, Oedipus complex, psychoanalysis

Did you know that Henry VIII had an Oedipus complex? Nor did I, but according to J.C. Flugel, a psychologist with an interest in psychoanalysis, that was always Henry’s problem. In a 1920 work entitled On the Character and Married Life of Henry VIII Flugel described how, in an attempt to “uncover a…
Another Shakespeare scene rewritten

Jan 28, 2022

anniversaries, humour, television reviews, The play’s the thing

Anne Boleyn, Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head, Charles Hawtrey, Henry VIII, ITV, Ray Winstone, Thomas Cromwell

Following our previous dialogues, here we have some alternative dialogue from Henry VIII, as used in the ITV version with Ray Winstone: HENRY VIII: Cor blimey, Cromwell me old china, that Enn Blin aint half a right pain in the Gregory, and no mistake. {By the end of the show, both “Enn Blin” and Cromwell…
Gawain and the Green Knight, Hollywood style….

Jan 3, 2022

anniversaries, battles, films, The play’s the thing

anonymous, Arthurian legend, books, Camelot, Hollywood, J.R.R. Tolkein, Shakespeare, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Gawain and the Green Knight has been given “the Hollywood treatment”! See this article. You can also read about the film here and here It’s directed by David Lowery and stars Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander. Well, having now seen it, I fear that if the anonymous author had too, he’d be taking serious steps…