Edward III
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While visiting Evesham for last year’s medieval re-enactment, I happened on the village of Cropthorne, with its large medieval church. I do a fair bit of church-crawling, and this was a fine specimen, built near the sites of a Saxon hunting lodge and containing a 9th century Saxon cross. It also had some interesting 17thc monuments to…
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I wonder …
“Tudor” rebellions, Anne Boleyn, Charles II, Dukes of Norfolk, Edward I, Edward III, Edward of Buckingham, Edward VI, executions, Henry Earl of Surrey, Henry VIII, James VII/II, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, John of Gaunt, Katherine Howard, Lords Howard of Effingham, poetry, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Sir Thomas Wyatt, St. Edward the Confessor, Strutts, succession, Thomas of Brotherton, Thomas of woodstockWe all know that Sir John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was descended from Thomas of Brotherton, a younger son of Edward I. Several branches of the Howard family have held the title ever since, except for periods under attainder from 1485-1514, 1547-53 and 1572-1660. Were any of them descended from more recent monarchs? Henry…
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More praise for Philippa Langley’s discoveries concerning the Princes in the Tower….
“Princes”, Battle of Bosworth, Berkeley Castle, Coldridge, Dominic Smee, Edward II, Edward III, Elizabeth of York, Fieschi Letter, Henry IV, Henry VII, illegitimacy, John Ashdown-Hill, Kathryn Warner, Leicester dig, mtDNA evidence, Philippa Langley, Pontefract Castle, Richard II, Richard III, scoliosis, Sir William Stanley, stained glass, The Lost King, Titulus Regius, Titulus Regius 1486, usurpationPraise and admiration abound for Philippa Langley’s new discoveries and the book that tells all about the work she and her colleagues have been doing to trace what really happened to the boys in the Tower, the sons of Edward IV. Well, they were princes until 1483, then they were illegitimate boys, and then…
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This astonishing door is said to be 1000 years old, belongs to Homestall Manor in West Sussex and came originally from a French monastery. Regarding the house itself: “….Originally a simple farmhouse, the oldest part of the property dates from 1350, when it was probably used as a hunting box by John of Gaunt,…
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It had never struck me before that the Dukes of Gloucester of the past haven’t been exactly fortunate. They might even be said to have been cursed. Well, that’s according to this article. The first creation was Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III. He wasn’t a very pleasant man who pushed his nephew…
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The author of this article Extours to cover Perkin Warbeck and more in Taunton Ghost Walk | Somerset County Gazette expresses surprise that so few people seem to know who Perkin Warbeck was. Come now, as far as today’s schools are concerned there was no history before WWI! I’d be surprised if many of them…
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I am heartily sick of certain historians – or ‘historians’ in some cases – who use the ‘tyrant’ word as a badge to stick on the rulers they dislike as a sort of badge of disgrace. These people invariably gloss over the similar – no, let’s be plain, worse, far worse! – deeds of the…
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The royal and noble descent of Jane Birkin
actresses, bastardy, Charles II, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dukes of Bedford, Earls of Bedford, Edward I, Edward III, France, George II, Henry Earl of Surrey, Henry III, House of Hanover, Howards, James IV, Jane Birkin, Joan “Beaufort”, Lady Elizabeth Grey, Lancastrians, Mowbrays, poets, Prince William Henry, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Serge Gainsbourg, Seymour-Conways, singers, Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset, van KeppelsThe late actress and singer Jane Birkin, who would have been 77 today, had some interesting ancestors. As this first table shows, these were all through her father David, a naval Lieutenant Commander with a Russell mother, through whom Jane was descended from the Dukes of Bedford, along with several other peers: the van Keppels,…