travel
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This has to be one of every Ricardian’s favourite sites and now this article explains how a documentary about a certain song came to be made there, greatly featuring the town and some local students. Here is the official video.
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This piece, “Christ Blessing”, as rediscovered recently in the Holy Trinity Church, Bradford-on-Avon, is by the Flemish artist Quentin Metsys the Elder (1466-1530), not his grandson (c.1543-89). How fortunate that it appears to have saved the church.
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The Tower of London is holding an event of interest to Ricardians. Between December 27 and 31, you will be able to enter King Richard III’s court as it celebrates Christmas 1484. Court intrigue and plotting takes place amidst the pageantry, glorious costumes, and revels, all under the eye of the traditional Lord of Misrule.…
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To find the incongruous ruins of this Bury St. Edmunds building, stand on Fornham Road, facing the supermarket car park with the car dealership and the bottom of Station Hill behind you then walk a few paces to the left. St. Saviour’s Hospital dates from about 1184 and was probably founded by Samson, the town’s…
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More sport and history – C17 this time
Battle of Sedgemoor, Charles II, Earl of Essex, executions, Framlingham, Great Wenham, horse racing, Ipswich, Ipswich Witches, James VII/II, Manningtree, Matthew Hopkins, Monmouth Rebellion, Newmarket, Puritans, rugby, Rye House Plot, Rye House Rockets, Somerset, Somerset Rebels, speedway, sport, Wars of the Roses, witchcraftNovember is upon us and speedway fans in the northern hemisphere are now in hibernation, but at least two or three of the top clubs owe their roots to the events of the seventeenth century. Following our article on rugby clubs and the “Wars of the Roses” , here they are: 2017 PREMIERSHIP: Somerset Rebels…
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In life, Henry VII was renowned for fighting his battles from a deckchair, behind a pike wall with a telescope. Even some of his statues are behaving similarly now. The best example is, or was, in Exeter. It commemorated the two sieges of the city in 1497 when the two Cornish Rebellions were kept out…
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For those of you who do not know, I am very fond of Dartington Hall. I read all I can about it, and its history, originally because of an intention to write about its creator, the first Holand Duke of Exeter, but now because I just plain love the place as well. These Holand Dukes…
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The last few times I’ve gone to visit the other half’s family in Somerset, we’ve driven through the town of Langport, a small place now but once an actual port and quite an important site in the Middle Ages. As we rounded the corner in the car, I kind of obliquely wondered why there was…
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When the Normans came to England they built their stern castles upon huge mounds that gave them clear views across the countryside from the height of the donjon or keep. For many years, it was thought these mottes were mostly of Norman date, contemporary with the castle structures, or else were natural, glacial features utilised…
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A PRINCESS OF DEVON
attainder, Bickleigh Castle, Catherine of York, Devon, Duke of Ross, earls of devon, Edmund de la Pole, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, Eltham Palace, Henry VII, Henry VIII, James III, John Welles, Lancastrians, Manuel, marriages, Ralph Scrope, Reginald Cardinal Pole, Richard III, Thomas Earl of Surrey, Tiverton Castle, Tower of LondonAfter the battle of Bosworth, Henry VII married Edward IV’s daughter Elizabeth of York. What happened to Edward’s other daughters? Bridget, the youngest, went to a nunnery. Anne married the younger Thomas Howard (which was the marriage proposed for her by Richard III; Thomas Jr’s father Thomas still desired the marriage for his son and…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 