Ethelred II
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Very few people realise there was once another medieval Richard III who was, in fact, a distant relative of the more famous one. The ‘other Richard III’ was born in around 997 and for a very brief time was Duke of Normandy, ruling the Duchy for a single year. His father was Richard II of…
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When I first saw this list of monarchs’ nicknames I felt sure I’d have come across them all. But no, I only knew ten of the eleven. No doubt you know them all, but the one on which I came a cropper was number seven, the Be-Sh*tten – James II. Or James the Sh*t. Good…
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Royal stepchildren
annulment, bigamy, Brittany, Cnut, Don Carlos, Edward IV, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth Wydeville, Emma of Normandy, England, Ethelred II, Gruoch, Henry II, Henry IV, Joan of Navarre, John IV Duke of Brittany, Louis VII, Lulach, Macbeth, Mary I, Phillip II, royal stepchildren, St. Edward the ConfessorFor the first time since 1558, England (thus also Wales and Northern Ireland) has a monarch with stepchildren, two in number, a record complicated by the double-consort Emma of Normandy whose sons by Ethelred II included Edward the Confessor. In Scotland, after the case of Lulach who was Macbeth‘s stepson, there seem to be no…
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The RICL: Anthropology and forensic science
blood, bone fusion, Caroline Wilkinson, DNA analysis, Donald Findlay, Dundee University, Ethelred II, facial reconstruction, fingerprints, forensic evidence, identification, lectures, Leicester Greyfriars, Oxford, pelvis, Professor Dame Sue Black, Richard III, Robert II, Royal Institution, skeletons, skull, St. Brice’s Day Massacre, St. Nicholas, teeth, trauma, Turi King, VikingsI have made a habit of watching the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for over forty years. A single scientist, with guest contributors, covers a subject over three (to five) days and demonstrates some of the detail to a live audience of inquisitive children, who take part in the experiments. Last year’s lecturer was Professor Dame…
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Originally posted on Giaconda's Blog: Viking ships at sea with warriors on board. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration “We all need earnestly to strive that we might gain God’s mercy and compassion, and that with his help we might resist our enemies. Now it is our will that all the people perform a…
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Richard’s other Anglo-Saxon ancestry, inter alia
Anglo-Saxons, Anne Mortimer, Brian Boru, Cecily Neville, de Clares, Diarmaid MacMurchada, Edgar the Atheling, Edith of Scotland, Edmund Ironside, Edward IV, Elgiva, Elizabeth de Burgh, Ethelred II, Henry I, House of Wessex, Hungary, Ireland, Joan “Beaufort”, Lionel of Antwerp, Llewellyn Fawr, Malcolm III, Nevilles, Raby Castle, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Reading Abbey, Richard III, St. Margaret of Wessex, Strathclyde, WalesRichard’s ancient ancestors was composed a few years ago to illustrate Richard III’s descent from heroes of the home nations: Alfred the Great (many times over, but two divergent lines soon afterwards), Malcolm III (Canmore), Llewellyn Fawr and Brian Boru.Slides 2-3 show not just the well-known connection through Edmund II (Ironside), St. Margaret of Wessex and…
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“….Seven years after the remains of Richard III were discovered under a Leicester carpark, another legendary but lost English monarch has turned up in Hampshire. “….Emma of Normandy, twice crowned Queen of England and the mother of Edward the Confessor, was interred in Winchester’s Old Minster in 1052 and was later transferred to the newly…
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(Saint) Margaret of Wessex, great-granddaughter of Ethelred Unraed, granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and great-niece of (St.) Edward the Confessor, died just three days after her husband, Malcolm III was killed at Alnwick in 1093. She, as eventual heiress to the House of Wessex, was the ancestor of every subsequent Scottish monarch except Donald Bain, Malcolm’s…
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Maldon
All Saints Maldon, Anglo-Saxons, Battle of Maldon, beards, Beeleigh Abbey, books, Byrthnoth, Charles I, Coes, Danegeld, Earls of Essex, Edward IV, English Civil War, Essex, Ethelred II, George Washington, Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex, Isabel of York, JD Wetherspoon, Little Easton, Maeldune Centre, Maldon, Maldon Grammar School, Moot Hall, reburials, Rose and Crown Maldon, royal portraits, St. Peter’s Maldon, statues, taxes, Thomas Plume, Thomas Plume’s Library, VikingsFollowing an unsuccesful Viking raid in 924, the battle of Maldon took place in August 991 and the result was a victory for the Norse invaders. Byrthnoth, the Essex earldorman who led the Saxons that day, was among those killed and Ethelred II instituted payment of the “Danegeld” to pacify the Vikings. This Byrthnoth statue…
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The matter of these intriguing coffins at Winchester Cathedral and whether or not one of the skeletons might be that of Queen Emma, consort of Kings Ethelred and Cnut, is very engrossing. But of even more interest (temporary, I concede) was the thought that two of the twenty-three remains, of juvenile royal personages, might have…
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