Anglo-Saxons
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Has the Black Rood of Scotland been hiding in plain sight, indeed? Well, David Willem think so and is speaking about it in Edinburgh on Wednesday, how Margaret of Wessex took this cross to Scotland in 1068, how Edward I removed it along with the Stone of Destiny but it was returned and relocated again,…
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Here is Mercedes Rochelle’s excellent post about Tostig Godwinson, brother of Harold II. He was Earl of Northumbria for ten years before the rebellion in that region in late 1065. He then tried to overthrow Harold from the south in May and from the north in September, with Norwegian support, ending in his defeat and…
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If you haven’t seen this before, it’s well worth watching. Very clever.
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Oxford’s Christ Church Cathedral lies in the precincts of the college of the same name. Originally it was the church of St Frideswide’s priory, and contained a shrine bearing the saint’s relics. This shrine was destroyed in the reformation but has since been pieced together as much as possible. The remains include some rare carvings…
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If you are looking for a pleasant medieval weekend away you could do worse than staying at the manor house of St Pierre, near Chepstow in Wales. The deerpark may be a golf course now but there are still acres to walk, an ancient church, and a handsome twin-towered gatehouse surrounded by a courtyard. The…
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Does someone not understand science?
“Beauforts”, Anglo-Saxons, Cecily Duchess of York, DNA evidence, dynastic succession, Edmund Mortimer, Edmund of Langley, Edward III, Ethelred II, evidence, executions, forked beard, Henry V, House of Wessex, Joan “Beaufort”, John Ashdown-Hill, Lancastrians, Lionel of Antwerp, mortimer claim, Nevilles, Penrith church, Raby, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Richard Earl of Cambridge, Richard III, Sir Thomas Grey, Southampton plot, Strathclyde, William Scrope, Y-chromosome, YorkistsThis blog suggests that the failure of Richard’s Y-chromosome to match that of the Dukes of Beaufort doesn’t make him a male line descendant of Edward III through the “illegitimacy” of Richard, Earl of Cambridge. The issue it fails to address is this: The inconsistent chromosome has several other, more likely explanations – that Richard…
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The scanty arches of St Oswald’s Priory lie tucked in a Gloucester suburb a few minutes walk from the cathedral. Once a place of great importance, it was the burial spot of Queen Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great. She was a warrior-queen who fought the Vikings. Henry of Huntingdon wrote this about her– Heroic…
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This East Anglian Daily Times article reveals that Sutton Hoo, almost certainly the burial of Raedwald, the Wuffing King of East Anglia who was Richard III’s collateral ancestor, will be the subject of its first major dig for nearly thirty years. A new viewing tower (left) will be installed during the process, between May 29th…
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Margate is rightfully known for its famous, undatable Shell Grotto, which has been known as a folly, a Roman mithraeum and even a Phoenician temple. However, FAR lesser known is another set of caverns, known as Vortigern’s cave. Probably dating between the 1600-s-1700’s, these caves have been closed on and off for several hundred years;…
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A wall painting at St Mary the Virgin church in Lakenheath which depicts King Edmund “November 20 is St Edmund’s Day, the feast day of the ‘last king of East Anglia’ and – some would say – England’s proper patron saint. But where do his bones lie? Trevor Heaton explores the twists and turns of…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 