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We hope you will enjoy it as much as you did the previous site. There may be fewer posts, but we will still give you interesting and informative content related to Richard III and mediaeval history. For previous contributors: I have imported all the old blog posts from the old site, but it will be…
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I am sad to have to announce that theMurrey & Blue blog will cease as oftoday’s post. This is because thelate owner Stephen Lark, alias Super Blue,did not leave any instructions or detailsconcerning the blog. I am only an admin and am unable to renew his WordPress plan or transfer ownership.I therefore cannot continue to…
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An invitation to a magnificent farewell feast….
Auld Lang Syne, Castles in the air, cats, Elizabeth Duchess of Suffolk, Fools and jesters, Henry VII, John de la pole Earl of Lincoln, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, lapdogs, Margaret Beaufort, medieval dogs and hounds, medieval feasts and banquets, medieval recipes, pugs, Richard III, Sir William StanleyI think that by now many of you know that the Murrey & Blue blog is to end by 24 January. To those of you for whom this is the first intimation, I apologise. There may be efforts to continue it or start a new blog in its place, but the final post in its…
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A lodge is now generally understood as a small house at an entrance to a stately home, formerly occupied by a man or woman whose job it was to open the park gates for legitimate users and exclude the – er – riff-raff. Some houses have (or had) several lodges as the house had several…
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We all know how much time Richard III spent in the north, and that he was certainly happy there. He ruled it well when he was still Duke of Gloucester, and was much loved for his fairness and justice. When he was king and went on his first progress in 1484, he went north again,…
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Rhys ap Thomas and the tournament of April 1507….
2nd Duke of Buckingham, A Historical Tour Through Pembrokeshire by Richard Fenton, Battle of Bosworth, Carew Castle, Field of Cloth of Gold, Henry VII, House of Tudor, John Morton, Margaret Beaufort, Order of the Garter, Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society, Rhys ap Thomas, Richard III, Sir William Stanley, Thomas Lord Stanley, tournamentsThis morning the following link dropped into my inbox: https://tinyurl.com/3uwbet79. It seems there was a talk at the “….Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society….first meeting of 2025 on Saturday morning, January 11 in Pembroke Town Hall.…” Why have I picked up on this? Well, perhaps because of the subject of the talk “….will focus on…
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“….UK conservators knit together thousands of pictures taken at Angers Cathedral of Saint Maurille paintings….” It was while reading this article—https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/03/medieval-wall-paintings-hidden-in-a-french-cathedral-revealed-in-digital-imagery—that I learned of a worthy decade-long project by UK conservationists that has revealed some magnificent medieval wall paintings “….in all their multi-coloured splendour for the first time in more than 500 years….” The paintings,…
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The lute is an instrument that I always associate with the medieval period, and so its playing will often feature in novels, films and so on. And rightly so, because its gentle sound is both beautiful and soothing. Wanting to set a scene where ladies were listening to a lute, I looked online for examples…
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Six (or seven?) marriages but only one husband (or two?)….!
1st Duke of Milan, 4th Earl of Kent, Austin Friars London, Bourne Abbey in Lincolnshire, Constance of York, dowries, Edmund Holand 4th Earl of Kent, Gian Galeazzo, Henry IV, Henry VII, John Beaufort 1st Earl Somerset, John Holand 1st Earl of Huntingdon 1st Duke of Exeter, Lucia Visconti Countess of Kent, Mary de Bohun, Minories, Richard II, Southwark Cathedral, St Mary Overy, The Lancashire Holandsv, the siege of BréhatYou have no doubt heard of the Minories. “….The Order of the Sorores Minores, to which the abbey of the Minores in London belonged, was founded by St Clara of Assisi in Italy, and claimed Palm Sunday, March 18th 1212, as the date of its origin….” More popularly referred to as the Minories, in the…
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It is surprising how many phrases that we probably attribute to the Bible or Shakespeare, actually date to the medieval period. While looking for a list of medieval “Italian” phrases, I stumbled upon this link https://www.medievalists.net/2024/12/medieval-phrases-today/. Only ten phrases, but goodness, I’d never have thought of their actual origins. No Man’s Land? Tom, Dick and…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 