France
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Thomas Earl of Lancaster, died 22 March 1322, and Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, died 22 March 1321 … The former, the grandson of Henry III, was executed at Pontefract, having fought at Boroughbridge in opposition to Edward II and the Despensers. The latter, the second son of Henry IV and great-great-great-nephew of his…
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We all know that Edward III and the Hundred Years War go together, not quite like peaches and cream, but together all the same, and during a truce with France he began to prepare for renewed hostilities when the truce ended. After many long weeks of delay, the date of embarkation for his great army…
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Today we all worry about global catastrophe, with terrible weather phenomena and all manner of fearful occurrences. Well, we understand more now, but what if we’d lived in medieval England? Back then everyone believed quite genuinely and fearfully in the supernatural, magic, Otherworldly beings, the wrath of God and the evil of the Devil. It…
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The de Courcy Matter, Part II: The French side of the story….
Azincourt, Castile, Charles VI, Chronique de la traison et mort de Richard Deux Roy Dengleterre, deanery of st george, Edward III, Enguerrand VII de Coucy, Flanders, France, governesses, Henry IV, Ireland, Isabeau of Bavaria, Isabelle de Valois, jewel theft, Kathryn Warner, Lancastrian propaganda, Lancastrians, marguerite lady de coucy, master pol, Milford Haven, Order of the Garter, pensions, Richard II, Scotland, sir philip de la vache, The Chronicle of Jean Creton, usurpers, Wallingford, William Scrope, Windsor CastleI hope that by the time you read this article you will already have visited yesterday’s Part I, which relates the English version of Marguerite de Courcy’s return to France. She left England under the cloud of having lived far too high a life for a governess and of stealing some English royal jewels. These…
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The de Courcy Matter Part I: According to English records….
Anne of Bohemia, Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Thomas Arundel, banishment, boulogne, Calais, Catherine de Valois, Charles d’Orleans, Charles VI, churches, dolls, France, gold harts, governesses, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VII, Hundred Years War, Ireland, Isabelle de Valois, jewel theft, John of Gaunt, Ladies of the Garter, Lancastrians, livery badges, marguerite lady de coucy, Owain Tudor, Richard II, Rockingham, St. George’s Day, Terry Jones, usurpation, Who murdered chaucerMarguerite, Lady de Courcy, was the French governess of Richard II’s second wife, the child-bride Isabelle of Valois. This article, Part I, tells the generally known English version of what led to Marguerite’s return to France. I will begin with Richard’s obligation to remarry after the death of Anne of Bohemia, with whom he had…
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“Time-honour’d Lancaster” was given to pressing on at the expense of his men….
1475 invasion of France, Anthony Goodman, Anthony Steel, arnold, bayonne, Bordeaux, Calais, Castile, chevauchee, Constanza of Castile, david nicolle, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Edward the Black Prince, Elizabeth of Lancaster, France, Froissart, Gascony, Helen Carr, Henry IV, Hundred Years War, John of Gaunt, Jonathan Sumption, Navarre, Pedro I, Portugal, Scotland, Sir John Holland, Spain, tournaments, troyes, unofficial executions, usurpation, villalpandoIn late April 1388, John of Gaunt‘s son-in-law Sir John Holand returned to England from the Spanish peninsula, where he had been constable of Gaunt’s army. Gaunt had invaded the peninsula in pursuit of the Crown of Castile, to which he had a claim through his marriage to the Infanta Constanza. I am now going…
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We laugh today at magazine/TV/whatever advertisements (see here) that show housewives dressed up to the nines, waiting hand and foot on their menfolk, and sobbing ecstatically when given a Hoover or new iron for Christmas. Oh, he’s so thoughtful! Like…y-e-s…. 😏Just let him try it today! Well I have just come upon an item from…
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This interesting article by Deanna Rodriguez gives details of many of Christine’s works, some of which are readily available to the modern reader in translated form. Christine de Pizan (or Pisan) was born in Venice but moved to France at an early age and spent the rest of her life there. After her husband’s death,…
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Today is 13 March 2024, but thankfully it’s a Wednesday, not a Friday. Why thankfully? Well, we all know the old belief that Fridays which fall on the thirteenth day of a month are considered to be very unlucky. It occurred in October 2023, and will happen again in September and December this year, then…
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The Queen of France’s necromancers….
“Tudor” propaganda, “Tudors”, disability, Duchy of Brittany, Edward III, France, Hundred Years War, jean de vignay, joan of penthevriere, joan the lame, John IV Duke of Brittany, Leicester dig, Mark Ormrod, melcombe, necromancy, philip vi, Richard III, Shakespeare, storms, Thomas More, treaty of malestroitSupporters of Richard III are always incensed that his reputation (courtesy of the Bard, the sainted Sir Thomas More and the House of Tudor) has always been damned because of his scoliosis. Well, the Bard and More embellished a curved back into much, much more. They turned him into a wicked hobgoblin! But in those…