The mystery of who/what is in That Urn* in Westminster Abbey has been rattling around for centuries, and now it’s in the news again. Westminster Abbey is what is known as a Royal Peculiar, and therefore under the jurisdiction of the monarch. See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_peculiar. While the late Queen wouldn’t allow the urn to be…

Coming upon an assessment of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, the “Kingmaker”, is a fairly rare experience. He’s always there, of course, for how can he not be when it comes to the Wars of the Roses? But having an article to himself is not something he enjoys very often. Well, that’s how it…

“….A prosthetic nose worn by Lord Laurence Olivier has been put on sale by his widow Dame Joan Plowright for £771,  along with other items from the late actor….The Shakespearean actor, who was nominated for 11 competitive Oscars – taking home one for 1948’s Hamlet – wore the nose during his 1955 Academy Award-nominated Richard III performance….”…

Richard III has been damned by history and Tudor apologists as a deformed monster with a hunched back, withered arm and the mind of a psychopath. So entrenched was this that Richard’s ability to fight fiercely like the warrior he was didn’t seem to occur to those who revelled in maligning him. If he was…

This post has been prompted by the article you’ll find here: https://www.documentarytube.com/best-of/the-10-best-documentaries-about-richard-iii/. You must accept from the outset that Richard seized the throne, of course….yawn…. And one look at the image above, which shows the Tudors’ spiteful version of Richard III, seems to be an indication of the general drift. I hope that at least…

I came upon this intriguing article about Langley Castle https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/unexplained/the-famous-sobbing-ghost-of-langley-castle-which-inspired-jk-rowling/ when looking for information about Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. Of course, there are a least two places named Langley. Edmund’s is in the south, at King’s Langley in Hertfordshire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Langley_Palace), whereas Langley Castle, said to be the only fortified medieval castle hotel in…

Honestly, I begin to wonder how on earth we managed before DNA was discovered. It has transformed so many fields, not least for the police, but its use now reaches way back into history, especially since the discovery of Richard III’s remains in 2012. See here: https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/richard-iii-plantagenet-car-park-king-timeline-discovery-leicester-reburial-key-dates/ More recently DNA also proved that Kasper Hauser…

The sons of Edward IV will be the focus of a talk by guest speaker Graham Mitchell, Yorkshire branch secretary of the Richard III Society, at Lees Methodist Church Meeting Point next Wednesday (November 6). For those of us not acquainted with that part of the world, Lees is near Haworth. The King’s Nephews-Life after…

If you go to this link How to Get Away with Murder in the Middle Ages (medievalists.net) you will find a very interesting article about the unsolved London killing in December 1276 of one Simon of Winchester. Unsolved? Perhaps. Because it seems to have been a case of knowing whodunnit but not knowing where the…

I’m not this desperate, but if you are interested, then go to this link to learn about “Tudor author” Nathen Amin’s forthcoming talk on Henry VII and Pembroke. https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/24668622.pembroke-talk-henry-vii-given-town-hall/