Gloucester Cathedral

Gloucester Cathedral invites us to see its Christmas celebrations….

Dec 1, 2024

Christmas events, history, Uncategorized

Christmas 2024, Gloucester Cathedral

Gloucester Cathedral is one of the most beautiful of our cathedrals, and to visit it at Christmas is a very special experience. Once again this year it will be welcoming visitors to enjoy its Christmas decorations and atmosphere, an to absorb the meaning of the season. If you wish to visit it this year, go…
A circumstantial but viable clue to the eventual death of Edward II….

Mar 6, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, Science, sources

Abdication, adam murimuth, Auramala Project, Battle of Sluys, Berkeley Castle, berkeley pill, Canada, Corfe Castle, david tandy, Edmund Earl of Kent, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward V, elizabeth comyn, escape, evidence, executions, Fieschi Letter, fundy bay, Glenn Moran, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire, Hugh Despencer the Younger, Ian Mortimer, Isabelle de France, Joan of Kent, John Ashdown-Hill, John of Gaunt, Kathryn Warner, Lady Eleanor Talbot, mtDNA evidence, richard barber, Richard II, Richard of Shrewsbury, Richard Talbot, Roger Mortimer, Salisbury Cathedral, secret marriage, Severn Estuary, Thomas Lord Berkeley

In a way the mystery of Edward II is not unlike that of the Princes in the Tower (see here). In both cases supposed royal murders have turned out to be untrue and the victims have escaped to the Continent. Also in both cases the murder aspect has been unchallenged until relatively recently, with all the old…
The city of Gloucester and its links to Richard III….

Jul 29, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, heraldry, religion

Berkeley Castle, Charters, city of York, Edward II tomb, Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, Henry of Buckingham, Leicester, Margaret d’Anjou, Richard II, River Severn, royal tombs, Tewkesbury

My home city of Gloucester (and its cathedral) doesn’t turn up enough online, but here’s a link that’s all about Gloucester. And it gives Richard III a fair deal, although it doesn’t mention that on 29 July 1483*, during his royal progress, he granted Gloucester its charter. Nor that in 1471 Gloucester closed its gates…
Royal burial places

Feb 9, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, genealogy, religion, Science

Balmoral, Charles I, Edward II, Edward V, Elizabeth II, Elizabeth Roberts, France, Germany, Gloucester Cathedral, Harold II, James V, John, John Ashdown-Hill, Leicester cathedral, Matilda, monarchs, mtDNA evidence, Richard III, royal burials, Westminster Abbey, Worcester Cathedral

This post in the Times details the final resting place of every English and then British monarch since 1066, although Harold II (probably Waltham Abbey) is omitted. Note from the interactive map that there are four (plus the Empress Matilda) burials in France and one in Germany. There are none in Scotland, Wales, Ireland or…
Which monarch was buried where….?

Oct 19, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, religion

Gloucester Cathedral, Leicester cathedral, royal burials, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Worcester Cathedral

There are some monarchs’ last resting places that always come to mind with ease….especially Richard III at Leicester, of course. Then his usurper, Henry Tudor, in his palatial hymn to himself at Westminster Abbey. Edward IV at Windsor, Edward II (apparently) at Gloucester, John at Worcester at so on. Yes, I do know more…
Richard II’s visit to Edward II’s tomb, 1390.

Oct 17, 2021

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, religion, sources, travel

Archbishop of Canterbury, Berkeley Castle, Bishop of Lincoln, deposition, Edward II, Edward III, Gloucester Cathedral, Henry IV, Italy, Kathryn Warner, popes, proposed canonisation, Richard II, royal tombs, schism, Thomas of woodstock, Westminster Chronicle

Edward II‘s “tomb” is, as is well-known, to be found in Gloucester Cathedral. What is less well-known is that Richard II wanted it become a shrine, and for his great-grandfather to become St. Edward of Caernarfon. Interestingly, we cannot even be entirely sure that Edward II’s remains lie in the tomb. Kathryn Warner has produced…
Long live the King

Sep 21, 2021

anniversaries, archaeology, Book Reviews, buildings, genealogy, Science, sources

“Perkin”, Archbishop William Melton, Auramala Project, Avignon, Barrie Williams, Berkeley Castle, Corfe Castle, de la Pole family, Earl of Mar, Edmund Earl of Kent, Edward II, Edward III, Edward the Martyr, executions, Ferdinand and Isabella, Fieschi Letter, Flanders, France, Germany, Gloucester Cathedral, Ian Mortimer, Ireland, Isabelle de France, Italy, James IV, Joanna, John XXII, Kathryn Warner, Koblenz, Leicester, Lombardy, Lord Richard de la Pole, Manuel Duke of Beja, Manuele Fieschi, Maximilian I, Melton Letter, Montpellier archives, mtDNA evidence, parallels, Pavia, Poles, popes, Portuguese archives, Richard III, Roger Mortimer, royal deaths, royal mysteries, Sant Alberto di Butrio, Titulus Regius, William le Galeys

This interesting tome has finally appeared in paperback. The opening Parts read like an abridged biography of the story familiar to us through Warner’s The Unconventional King, but to be read with an open mind as to whether Edward II survived his “official death” today in 1327 or not. The reader will re-learn the events…
Richard III’s woodland in Gloucester….

Aug 1, 2021

anniversaries, buildings, law

1483 charter, Alney Island, Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, Richard III, Richard’s Wood, River Severn

My home city of Gloucester has always appreciated Richard III, and in 1983, to celebrate it being 500 years since he’d granted Gloucester its charter, a new wood was planted to honour him. It’s on Alney Island, which is land between two channels of the River Severn on the western outskirts of the city. From…
A hidden glory in a tiny alley in Gloucester….

May 24, 2021

buildings

architects, glass, Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, listed buildings, Maverdine House, Maverdine Passage, Richard III

Since the middle of the last century the city of Gloucester has been spoiled by dubious, half-witted planning decisions, but there are still some wonderful gems to be found. Everyone knows the cathedral, of course (thankfully it escaped planning notice, or it too might have been “improved” in finest 1960s fashion. Heaven forfend indeed. But…
If the name sounds the same, does it mean we’re all from one original stem….?

Apr 13, 2021

art, buildings, religion

Gloucester Cathedral, memorials, Thomas Machen

If there’s anything in the notion that all the different spellings of one name means all the folk of those various spellings are related, then I (as a Machin by birth) must have something (vaguely!) to do with the astonishing memorial to Thomas Machen and his family on the wall of Gloucester Cathedral. I’ve ended…