biographies
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Here is Ashley Mantle‘s short biography of King John, as published in 2016 and available on Amazon. Is he the only English monarch to appear in a cartoon? Mantle’s next subject will be Henry I …
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“…Josephine Tey, a beloved Scottish crime writer, is poised to join the esteemed ranks of women honored on the Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland map….” Well, what more need be said? Tey redeemed Richard III at a time when he was definitely regarded as the awful creature conjured by More, Shakespeare and the truly…
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This interesting paper by Carole Cusak is well worth reading. Particularly worthy of note is the fact mentioned in it that no contemporary source suggests that there was anything wrong with Richard II‘s state of mind. It was, in fact, Bishop Stubbs in lectures at late as 1866, who first suggested that Richard was insane.…
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The sitter of this portrait is said to be Lucy Hutchinson (born Apsley) who was the wife of Civil War General John Hutchinson, MP. Lucy was a remarkable woman. She wrote what is thought to be the first epic poem produced by an Englishwoman. She was also a translator, and as if that was not…
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Richard III’s predecessor, Richard II, shares with him the injustice of being maligned through history. In Richard II’s case all we hear that he was a hysterical madman who was rightly removed from his throne (and this world) by his cousin Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV. All sorts of scenarios are…
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This is a very valuable new biography of John of Gaunt. As usual with this author, the incredibly complex network of family relationships is successfully navigated. There is a fair amount of ‘correction of the record’. For example, Duchess Blanche did not die of plague in 1369, but of unknown causes in 1368. Duchess Constanza…
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Fourteenth-century England may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially when the fifteenth century is more important for Ricardians, but the reign of Richard II is very much my interest. So I look forward to this new Helen Carr work. Bring it on! I’ve ordered Helen Carr’s biography of John of Gaunt, and hope to…
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On Sunday, 25th October 1383, Thomas Arundel, Bishop of Ely (soon to be Archbishop of York and then Archbishop of Canterbury), breakfasted at Kamelot. Oh yes, indeed. I learned of this on page 199 of Thomas Arundel, the biography by Margaret Aston, which I quote: “….This letter, like another of 24th October concerning an exchange,…
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… on the Tewkesbury battlefield website: Wars of the Roses music by the Legendary Ten Seconds. Here is more information about the group and their output so far.
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Before I start, I must apologise for the decidedly uncontemporary illustrations. They are an indulgence, I fear. The one above, of the Prince of Wales (known to posterity as the Black Prince) in armour at an army camp, his hands clasped behind his back, seems to me to probably capture him exactly as he was…all…
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