Edward the Black Prince
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We all know of Dr John Argentine, who attended Edward V, with such grave results for Richard III’s reputation. But was he from a family line of physicians/astrologers? I am reading The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth-Century England: Plantagenet Kings and the Search for the Philosopher’s Stone, by Jonathan Hughes, and in the Bibliography is…
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THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS WAR – PART 2: the just cause
Angevin Empire, Aquitaine, Capetians, Charles IV, Chris Given-Wilson, Cinque Ports, Crecy, david II, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, Henry III, Henry of Lancaster, Ian Mortimer, Isabelle de France, John II, John the Posthumous, Jonathan Sumption, Kathryn Warner, Legitimacy, Louis IX, Louis X, Ludwig IV, Phillip III, Phillip IV, Phillip V, piracy, Poitiers, Roger Mortimer, Saint-Sardos, Scotland, Treaty of Bretigny, Treaty of Paris, Valois, WalesPreface This is the second of three articles charting the course of continual Anglo-French conflict from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. In the first article, I wrote about the rise and fall of the Angevin Empire, culminating in the Treaty of Paris (1259). This article picks up my narrative after the death of…
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Before I start, I must apologise for the decidedly uncontemporary illustrations. They are an indulgence, I fear. The one above, of the Prince of Wales (known to posterity as the Black Prince) in armour at an army camp, his hands clasped behind his back, seems to me to probably capture him exactly as he was…all…
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The article that prompts this post is the first of three concerning the history of the House of Lancaster. There are some sweeping statements that are eminently challengeable, but then it’s Lancastrian about Lancastrians, so bias is bound to be present. The first Lancastrian monarch usurped the throne of his first cousin, Richard II,…
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Rightly or wrongly, when someone has had a shock, it’s often the impulse of those around him/her to offer a “stiff drink”. This usually means spirits, although I admit that in Britain a cup of tea is as likely “to do the trick”! The spirits thing appears in novels and films, and is well…
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The illustration above is from Dan Jones’s book Summer of Blood: the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Part of the caption is “Queen Joan, Richard II’s mother, pleading with the rebels as the Savoy burned”. Elsewhere in the same book, Joan is referred to as the queen mother. According to Merriam Webster, the first known…
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How many wives did Sir Simon Burley have….?
Anne of Bohemia, Aquitaine, army service, Beatrice Stafford, Charles V, Dugdale, Edward the Black Prince, executions, Herefordshire, John of Gaunt, Lords Appellant, Marguerite de Beausse, marriages, Nigel Saul, Old St. Paul’s, Order of the Garter, Richard II, Sir Paul Pyndar, Sir Richard Burley, St. Mary Grace’s, tombs, Tower HillSir Simon Burley, childhood friend, tutor and magister of Richard II, was executed today, 5th May, in 1388. He was the son of a Herefordshire knight, was brought up with the Black Prince, and rose to be one of the most powerful men in the land when he ruled the king’s household. Richard adored and…
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“….It is said that Henry V wore it [the Black Prince’s Ruby] in his jewel-encrusted helmet at the battle of Agincourt, and Richard III did also at the battle of Bosworth….” I found the above sentence in a post on the British Medieval History Facebook group. How very intriguing. It’s something I had never heard…
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We all know the amazing reconstruction of the head of Richard III, and the confirmation it gave of how he really had looked. Forget Shakespeare’s Richard III, the real man had been young, good-looking and altogether normal, except for scoliosis that affected his spine. But when he was dressed, it wouldn’t have shown, especially in…