canon law
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One of the main reasons we now have an amazing King in the list of British monarchs is without doubt the precontract between Lady Eleanor Talbot and King Edward IV. The turning point in the election of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as king of England was the discovery of a precontract between the former king…
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The Trial That Should Have Happened in 1483
archbishops, Beaumaris Castle, bigamy, canon law, Charles Donohue, Commines, consistory court, Crowland Chronicle, documents, Domenico Mancini, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, Edward V, Eleanor Cobham, Elizabeth Wydeville, George Duke of Clarence, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VI, Humphrey of Gloucester, illegitimacy, inheritance, John Fortescue, King’s Bench, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Leeds Castle, Margery Paston, Papal Curia, Parliament, Pope, PreContract, procedure, Protectorate, R.H. Helmholz, Richard Calle, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, Robert Stillington, secular law, Sir William Shareshull, sorcery, St Stephens Chapel, Statute of Merton, Statute of Praeminure, The Court of Arches, Three Estates, Titulus Regius, treason, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, William Durantis, witnessesOriginally posted on RICARDIAN LOONS: Putting aside the mystery of what ultimately happened to Edward IV’s two sons, one enduring difficulty for a student of history is whether Richard III used the proper legal procedure in having them declared illegitimate because of their father’s precontracted marriage to Eleanor Talbot. The most (and only) significant defect…
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The above book, Stolen Women in Medieval England, by Caroline Dunn, is subtitled Rape, Abduction and Adultery 1100-1500. This subtitle is well earned, because all three activities become very tangled indeed in those records that survive of cases that reached courts. The general impression the modern world has of medieval women is that they were…
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John Fortescue (1385-1479) on the subject of illegitimate children inheriting or having rights of succession to their father’s estate or patrimony: “The civil [Roman] law [followed on the Continent] legitimates children born before matrimony as well as after, and causes them to succeed to the parental inheritance. But the law of England does not allow…
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You only reign twice?
Alexander III, Anne, Anne Mowbray, anniversaries, canon law, coinage, consorts, dispensations, Edward II, George of Denmark, Guardian of Scotland, Henry III, Henry Lord Darnley, Kathryn Warner, Margaret of Norway, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Stuart, Norway, Orkneys, Phillip II, Richard of Shrewsbury, Scotland, Sean Connery, Treaty of Salisbury, William IIIEdward of Caernarvon, who was born in 1284, was king of England for nearly twenty years from 1307 as Edward II. What of his childhood? In about October 1289, he was contracted to Margaret, known as the Maid of Norway and Queen of Scotland since 1286 when her grandfather Alexander III died. She was a year…
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Fabricating Precontracts: Richard III vs Henry VIII
3rd Duke of Norfolk, adultery, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Annette Carson, Archbishop Cranmer, attainder, bigamy, canon law, Catherine Howard, Claire Ridgway, Crowland, Earl of Northumberland, Edward IV, Edward V, executions, Francis Dereham, Francis of Lorraine, Henry VIII, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lord High Constable, Lord Protector of the Realm, Mary Boleyn, mediaeval canon law, pre-contract, Richard III, Robert Stillington, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Howard, treasonOn 10 and 11 June 1483, Richard duke of Gloucester wrote to his affinity in the North and asked for troops to support him against the Woodvilles who, he claimed, were plotting his destruction. On 22 June Ralph Shaa preached his “bastard slips” sermon, followed by similar speeches by the duke of Buckingham, and on…
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Catherine de Valois’ first husband was Henry V, who was clearly the grandson of John of Gaunt. Edmund Beaufort, later Duke of Somerset, is traditionally regarded as Gaunt’s grandson as well, although his father may have been a legitimate Swynford. Quite apart from the 1420s legislation banning royal stepmothers such as Catherine from remarrying without…
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