dispensations

Edward of Middleham: the prince of Richard III

Apr 9, 2019

anniversaries, art, buildings, religion, sources

Anne Idley, Anne Neville, burial mystery, Charles Ross, Coronation, Coverham Abbey, Crowland Chronicle, dispensations, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, Earl of Salisbury, Edward of Middleham, George Duke of Clarence, investiture, Isabel Burgh, Isabel Neville, Jervaulx Abbey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Middleham, Nevilles, Nottingham, portrait, Prince of Wales, Prince’s Tower Middleham, Richard III, Sheriff Hutton, St. Alkelda’s, stained glass, York Minster

Edward of York, better known as Edward of Middleham, was the only legitimate son of King Richard III and his Queen, Anne Neville. Edward was thought to have been born in Middleham Castle in December 1473, but this date is not certain. The historian Charles Ross wrote that this date “lacks authority” and was…
Schrodinger’s royal marriages?

Jan 4, 2019

anniversaries, humour, law, religion

“Perkin”, adultery, Anne Boleyn, annulments, Catherine of Aragon, dispensations, executions, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Katherine Howard, Low Countries, paradox, Treason Acts, Tyburn

Anne Boleyn and then Katherine Howard thought they had married Henry VIII. Then he annulled them both, as he did with his first and fourth weddings, such that they were deemed to have been invalid from the start. However, he had these second and fifth Queens executed for treason in that they committed adultery whilst…
Edward IV and Elizabeth Wydeville

Oct 17, 2018

anniversaries, genealogy, humour, law, religion

Anne Mortimer, bigamy, Boots, Bryan Dunleavy, Despencers, dispensations, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Lady Eleanor Talbot, mistresses, Pope, pre-contract, Richard Earl of Cambridge

(This letter, of which a version was published in the September 2018 Bulletin, was in response to Bryan Dunleavy’s article about Edward IV and Elizabeth Wydville.) The article in the latest Ricardian Bulletin by Bryan Dunleavy is interesting, and also provocative, given that the bulk of readers of the publication are, by definition, Ricardians. However…
Was Roland de Velville the son of Henry VII….?

Jun 25, 2017

anniversaries, genealogy

“Beauforts”, Agnes Griffith, Anglesey, bardic tradition, Battle of Bosworth, Beaumaris Castle, bigamy, Blackheath, Breton expedition 1489, Brittany, Catherine de Valois, Catherine of Berain, Daffyd Alaw, dispensations, DNA, Edmund “Tudor”, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, Gwynedd, hawking, Henry V, Henry VII, Henry VIII, hunting, Owain Tudor, Roland de Roncevaux, Roland de Velville, royal marriages, secret marriage, Sir John Cheney, Sir Robert Willoughby

The following article is necessarily filled with supposition, inference and sneaking suspicion. The result of smoke and mirrors, you ask? Well, I think it is all much more substantial than that, as I hope to explain in the coming paragraphs. Today (25th June) in 1545, died a man by the name of Roland de Velville…
A Tale of Three Mistresses – Mangled by More

Feb 5, 2017

genealogy, law, sources

“Tudors”, Annette Carson, Armstrong, Arthur, bigamy, Blaybourne, Cecily Duchess of York, David Grummitt, dispensations, Edward IV, Elizabeth Lucy, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, George Buck, Henry VII, illegitimacy, John Earl, Kincaid, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Louis XI, Mancini, Margaret FitzLewis, Margaret Lucy, Marie Barnfield, mediaeval canon law, mistresses, Ricardian, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, Sir Lewis John, Sir Thomas Lumley, Sir William Lucy, Stephen Lark, Thomas More, usurpation, Waytes of Southampton, William Shore

(from http://www.annettecarson.co.uk) Our primary source of gossip about Edward IV’s mistresses is attributable to the pen of Thomas More (1478–1535), knight and latterly saint. While writing about Richard III, More found space for a lengthy diversion into the career of ‘Mistress Shore’, perhaps Edward’s most notorious extra-marital concubine, about whose present and past conditions the…
You only reign twice?

Sep 26, 2016

Uncategorized

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 III

Edward 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…
Victoria and Flora

Sep 12, 2016

genealogy

Catherine Pole, denialists, dispensations, Earls of Loudoun, Flora Hastings, Francis Baron Hastings, George Duke of Clarence, Jenna Coleman, Pole family, Prince Henry of Wales, satire, television reviews, Victoria

http://www.itv.com/hub/victoria/2a4229a0001 It is more interesting to watch a drama about a much later monarch when one is better informed than before. Lady Flora Rawdon-Hastings, the lady in waiting who appeared to be pregnant but was suffering from a cancer that proved terminal after a few months, was the sister of the 2nd Marquess of Hastings…
More Royal marital irregularity

Aug 14, 2016

genealogy, law

anniversaries, Avignon popes, Blackfriars, David Duke of Rothesay, david II, dispensations, Edward III, Edward IV, Elizabeth Mure, Euphemia Ross, executions, Falkland Palace, Guardian of Scotland, Henry V, Henry VII, House of Stewart, James I, James II, James IV, Jean Stewart, Joan “Beaufort”, Joan of the Tower, Legitimacy, Margaret “Tudor”, Margaret Drummond, mediaeval canon law, Murdoch Duke of Albany, Neville’s Cross, Paisley Abbey, Perth, Queen Mother, Robert Duke of Albany, Robert II, Robert III, royal marriages, Scotland, siege of Berwick, Sir John Lyon, torture, Tower of London, Treaty of Berwick, Walter Earl of Atholl

Edward IV was not the only British late mediaeval king to play fast and loose with canon law. The other case dates from a century and a quarter before 8 June 1461 and had consequences for that king’s heirs; in particular his grandson: Today in 1337, a first son, John, was born to Sir Robert…
On consanguinity

Aug 5, 2016

law, religion

consanguinity, dispensations, genealogy, Lumley-Conyers marriage, marriages, mediaeval canon law, Ricardian, software

When comparing the descent of two people who wished to marry each other, it was necessary to investigate their ancestry as far back as their great-great-grandparents. If an ancestor was common to both, they would require a dispensation before marrying. Now if only every mediaeval Pope had a laptop and access to this simple Consanguinity…
To avoid any confusion:

Aug 1, 2015

genealogy

“Eleanor”, Affinity, Anne Beauchamp, Anne Neville, consanguinity, dispensations, Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Fourth Lateran Council, George Duke of Clarence, Henry Duke of Warwick, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, John Ashdown-Hill, John of Bedford, John of Gaunt, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Margaret Beauchamp, Marie Barnfield, Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, Richard III, Richard of Warwick

When Edward IV married Lady Eleanor Talbot in spring 1461, they were not more closely related than fourth cousins, through her mother, Margaret Beauchamp (see Eleanor, fig.11). Under the rules of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 (p.112), such distant blood relations were permitted to marry without a dispensation. It no longer amounted to consanguinity.…