books
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Maldon
All Saints Maldon, Anglo-Saxons, Battle of Maldon, beards, Beeleigh Abbey, books, Byrthnoth, Charles I, Coes, Danegeld, Earls of Essex, Edward IV, English Civil War, Essex, Ethelred II, George Washington, Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex, Isabel of York, JD Wetherspoon, Little Easton, Maeldune Centre, Maldon, Maldon Grammar School, Moot Hall, reburials, Rose and Crown Maldon, royal portraits, St. Peter’s Maldon, statues, taxes, Thomas Plume, Thomas Plume’s Library, VikingsFollowing an unsuccesful Viking raid in 924, the battle of Maldon took place in August 991 and the result was a victory for the Norse invaders. Byrthnoth, the Essex earldorman who led the Saxons that day, was among those killed and Ethelred II instituted payment of the “Danegeld” to pacify the Vikings. This Byrthnoth statue…
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The Death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester
Adela of Normandy, Arundel Castle, Battle of Lincoln, books, Bristol Castle, Faversham Abbey, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry I, illegitimacy, Matilda, Matthew Lewis, Reading Abbey, Robert of Gloucester, St. James’ Priory Bristol, Stephen, The Anarchy, White Ship Disaster, William I, William II, William of MalmesburyIn writing Stephen and Matilda: Cousins of Anarchy, I was keen to apply the same narrow-eyed pursuit of solid facts that I hope comes across in my books on the Wars of the Roses. More than being about battles and, well, anarchy, I wanted to discover the real personalities behind the stories, the people who…
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As a member of the Mortimer History Society, I have been notified that the above book has been greatly reduced in price at Oxbow Books. I’ve ordered it – including £4 postage! The blurb for the book is as follows:“The medieval battlefield was a place of spectacle and splendour. The fully-armed knight, bedecked in his…
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Doggeing “Tudor” footsteps?
“Lambert Simnel”, “Lovell our Dogge”, Battle of Bosworth, books, Colchester, doggerel, executions, Francis Viscount Lovell, Henry VII, James III, John Earl of Lincoln, Michele Schindler, Minster Lovell, Richard III, safe conduct, Sauchieburn, Scotland, Sir Humphrey Stafford, Sir Richard Ratcliffe, skeletons, Stoke Field, William Catesby, William ColyngbourneMichele Schindler’s seminal biography of Francis Viscount Lovell, one of the trio named in Colyngbourne‘s doggerel, is published today. Hopefully, it will go towards solving the great mystery of his fate. Could he really have suffocated in a Minster Lovell chamber, after the estate was given to Jasper “Tudor”? Could he have ended his days…
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Here’s Legends an interesting book of Leicestershire folk tales for children. It includes the intriguing story of the griffin of Griffydam. Oh, and it also relates the “legends” about King Richard III !!
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An article in British History Online , as illustrated by this John Zephaniah Bell painting says: “Here [Westminster Abbey/Sanctuary/Cheyneygates] the unhappy queen [Elizabeth Woodville] was induced by the Duke of Buckingham and the Archbishop of York to surrender her little son, Edward V., to his uncle Richard, who carried him to the Tower, where the two…
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Here is the front cover of the next book, about Edward IV’s chief mistress, from Britain’s busiest historian , to be published by Pen and Sword on 31 July. I wonder which surprises he will have for us this time?
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“Prior to defeating Richard III in battle, Henry VII had the most anemic claim to the British monarchy since William the Conqueror in 1066.” Anemic/anaemic is a great adjective for the Tudor’s actual situation. He should never have won at Bosworth! The above quote from here is to do with another book about our period, a…
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Here is a puzzle, circa 1400. Why would a usurped king’s half-brother bury a chest of books in the ground at the church in his Devon estate? The usurped king was Richard II, the half-brother John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon (had been Duke of Exeter), the Devon estate Dartington. This was just before Holand joined…
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The Mythology of the “Princes in the Tower”
“Tudor” propaganda, Bethnal Green, books, Charles II, dental evidence, Edward V, Elizabeth Roberts, Garden Tower, Glenn Moran, Henry Pole the Younger, identification, illegitimacy, John Ashdown-Hill, Joy Ibsen, Leicester dig, mtDNA evidence, pre-contract, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, The Mythology of the “Princes in the Tower”, The Private Life of Edward IV, Three Estates, Westminster AbbeyThis is less a book and more of an outdoor swimming pool, becoming deeper as the chapters progress. In the shallow end, the subjects go from the definition of a “prince” and the circumstances under which Edward IV’s elder sons came to live there, centuries before Buckingham Palace was built to the origin of the…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 