books
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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…
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“Open the Box” (or urn)?
“Princes”, books, Crick, Edward V, Elizabeth Roberts, game shows, Garden Tower, Glenn Moran, Henry Pole the Younger, John Ashdown-Hill, Leicester dig, Michael Miles, mtDNA evidence, radio carbon dating, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, Sir Alec Jeffreys, Take Your Pick, The Private Life of Edward IV, Watson, Westminster AbbeyNow that John Ashdown-Hill’s new book (bottom left) on the Tower of London and the “Princes” has been published, we are in a position to know Edward V’s mtDNA, which he would share with his brothers and maternal cousins such as Jane or Henry Pole the Younger. Progress has been made since Moran’s appendix to…
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For everyone who enjoyed Only Fools and Horses, and then The Green Green Grass, the gentleman in the above photograph will be familiar as “Boycie”. But what might not be so well known about the actor, John Challis, is that for the last twenty years he and his wife, Carol, have owned and lived in…
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There are times when researching the past is, for a woman of today, a very insulting experience. This morning at the hairdresser I dipped into a book called Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, 1270-1540. (No Hello, Heat or OK for me!) Yes, I knew before I started that I wouldn’t like…
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After eleven revelatory history books in a decade, and two more forthcoming, this is very different. I wonder whether any of the subject matter is relevant to his research? There is only one way to find out.
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… you wait over a year for a new book from John Ashdown-Hill and two turn up almost together: Cecily Neville (left) on 30 April and those “Princes” on 15 July, with another volume on Elizabeth Wydeville to follow …
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Carol’s support for King Richard has led her to write this book about his childhood. In the spring there will be another book, following his life until the fateful Battle of Bosworth on 22nd August, 1485. I hope both titles do really well for her, and that she will find another aspect of Richard, or…
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This post harks back to a previous one of 5th November 2014. Both concern the similarities between the lives and deaths of Richard II and Richard III, but I have now come upon a passage in a book that is actually about Richard II, but much of which could be applied to Richard III. The book…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 