George Duke of Clarence

Seeking the Real Duke of Clarence

Oct 21, 2018

anniversaries, battles, genealogy, sources

alcoholism, Ankarette Twynho, Anne Neville, Barnet, Bromham church, Buckingham rebellion, charisma, disloyalty, Edward IV, executions, fiction, George Duke of Clarence, Hicks, insanity, Isabel Neville, John Thursby. Sir Roger Tocotes, propaganda, puerperal fever, Richard III, stereotypes, Tewkesbury, Towton, tuberculosis, Warwick

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Richard III’s brother, George of Clarence. You know the one–typical ‘middle child’, ‘false fleeting Clarence’, the one drowned in Malmsey who was also a drunk and quite possibly insane, hanging, as he did, old ladies on the vaguest of suspicions. And I began considering–is George, like Richard, maligned,…
Now the boys in the Tower were drowned in Malmsey….?

Sep 30, 2018

anniversaries, battles, buildings

“Princes”, Bosworth, confusion, execution, George Duke of Clarence, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VII, Malmsey, Richard II, Richard III, Richard of arundel, royal mysteries, Tower of London

Well, we all know the story (and that’s just what it was, a story) about the demise of the boys’ uncle, George, Duke of Clarence, in a butt of Malmsey, but this is the first I’ve heard of the boys themselves suffering a similar fate. I quote: “The manner of their death triggered debate…
Monologue on Richard III at Lichfield Cathedral

Sep 14, 2018

buildings, Events, religion

English Civil War, George Duke of Clarence, Lichfield, Lichfield Cathedral, Richard III, spires

On Richard III’s birthday (October 2), Dr Gareth Williams, curator of the British Museum, is going to deliver a monologue on Richard at Lichfield Cathedral. Dr Williams also is a director of research at Tutbury Castle, which has connections to both George of Clarence and Richard. Obviously I don’t know what kind of Richard will…
Clarissa Dickson Wright and the Art of Medieval Food

Aug 10, 2018

anniversaries, buildings, culture

Alfred the Great, BBC, British Library, Candid Camera, Clarissa Dickson-Wright, Enoch Powell, George Duke of Clarence, Henry IV, Jennifer Paterson, mediaeval food, medieval recipes, Pontefract Castle, Richard II, Richard Olney, The Form of Cury, The King’s Cookbook, The Spectator, Two Fat Ladies, Waffle House, Yotam Ottolenghi

The late Clarissa Dickson Wright is known to the English-speaking countries of the world as one of The Two Fat Ladies – the middle-aged motorcycling cooks who zipped around the English, Welsh and Irish countryside, one at the wheel of a Triumph Thunderbird, the other stuffed into the sidecar wearing what appeared to be…
Strong jaws for George and Richard…?

Jul 11, 2018

archaeology, art, genealogy

facial resemblance, George Duke of Clarence, Leicester, Richard III

This is an aside really. But although this above picture of George of Clarence isn’t contemporary, I can’t help noticing that the general shape of the face, especially the jaw, is very like Richard as we now know him from the discovery in Leicester. Were these York brothers known for their strong jaws? George’s last…
A welcome return for author’s medieval investigator Foxley….

Jun 7, 2018

Book Reviews

executions, George Duke of Clarence, historical fiction, Toni Mount

The fifth book in Toni Mount’s Foxley series about medieval murders. “She told us: ‘It is called The Colour of Murder and deals with even more medieval murders, including the mysterious death of The Duke of Clarence, one of the future Richard III’s brothers, who, tradition tells us was drowned in a wine barrel.’” Can only…
The 10 greatest medieval royal romances? Some, maybe….

May 22, 2018

anniversaries, battles

Anne Boleyn, Anne Neville, Anne of Bohemia, Blanche of Lancaster, Catherine de Roet, Catherine de Valois, Cecily Duchess of York, Charles Brandon, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Eleanor of Castile, George Duke of Clarence, Henry VIII, Hugh le Despenser, Isobel Neville, John of Gaunt, Mary “Tudor”, Owain Tudor, Phillippa of Hainault, Piers Gaveston, Richard Duke of York, Richard II, Richard III

Well, my opinion only, of course, but where are John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford/de Roët? I don’t believe his first wife, Blanche, was his greatest love. That honour went to Katherine, for love of whom he went to extraordinary lengths, enduring scandal and opprobrium, but eventually making her his third duchess. And managing to…
Keeping it in the family

May 21, 2018

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, religion

Anne Stafford, Armada, Ashby St Ledgers, attainder, Calais, Calvinism, Catherine Dudley, Catherine Pole, Claire Cross, Earl of Leicester, Edward of Buckingham, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, fashion, Flanders, Francis Baron Hastings, George Duke of Clarence, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Henry of Buckingham, James Earl of Morton, Jane, John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, John Earl of Lincoln, Leicester cathedral, Margaret Clitherow, Mary I, Mary Stuart, Michael K Jones, Northern Earls’ Rebellion, Phillip II, Plantagenet descent, recusants, Reginald Cardinal Pole, Scotland, Sir George Hastings, smallpox, statues, Vaughan porch, William Cecil

You will have seen him if you have been to Richard III’s final resting place. There are eight small statues on the main entrance (the Vaughan Porch, left) of St. Martin’s Cathedral but only one of them is wearing a doublet and hose, showing him to have lived a century later than the others. This is…
Was a chapel for the House of York planned at Westminster Abbey in 1483…?

Apr 18, 2018

anniversaries, buildings, religion, sources

Canterbury Cathedral, Chertsey, Dean Stanley, Edmund of Rutland, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, Fotheringhay, foundation stones, George Duke of Clarence, Henry VI, Henry VII, John Steane, Lady Chapel, pilgrims, Pontefract, reburials, Richard III, royal tombs, St. george’s Chapel, St. Thomas, Tewkesbury Abbey, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle

A short while ago, I came upon a reference to the foundation stone of Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey (visible in this illustration of the abbey as it may have been in the Tudor period) have been laid first in April 1483. It was from here, as follows:- “. . .Elizabeth [of York] was given…
Might Richard have become Archbishop of Canterbury….?

Mar 12, 2018

Alternative History, religion

Archbishop of Canterbury, church, Edmund of Rutland, education, Edward IV, exile, George Duke of Clarence, Henry VIII, Latin, Reginald Cardinal Pole, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, Towton, Wakefield

An oft-asked question arose again the other day. Had Richard been originally intended for the Church? He was the youngest son of the 3rd Duke of York, and the Church was the fate of most aristocratic youngest sons. It has been suggested to me that such early training would explain his beautifully precise handwriting.…