Henry IV
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If only a 14th-century Philippa had been a Philip….!
“Tudors”, Edmund Earl of March, Edmund of Langley, Edward IV, Edward of Woodstock, Henry IV, John of Gaunt, Lionel of Antwerp, male preference, primogeniture, Prince George, Prince Louis of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Richard II, Richard III, Roger Mortimer 4th Earl of March, sex, Succession rights, Thomas of woodstock, usurpationSex can be divisive. By that I mean that being the “wrong” sex has made huge differences in the past. No, it’s nothing to do with today’s strife concerning to which sex one really belongs. Instead I mean that back in history being born a woman often prevented you or your line from ascending to…
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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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We still use the word ‘harbinger’ in constructions like ‘This was the harbinger of war.’ Meaning that something gives a warning or prediction. In the Middle Ages, a harbinger was a man who travelled ahead of the royal (or a noble) household to warn that they were coming. Well, if you had 600-1000 assorted people…
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Right, ladies and gentlemen, if you want a real laugh, go here. It’s so full of bloopers that it really is a joke. For instance, OLD Richard II reigned during the Peasants’ Revolt. Um, Richard was 14 at the time. And then again Henry IV was Richard II’s son. But wait, Henry IV was Henry…
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Trial by Combat.
banishment, Bolingbroke v Norfolk, castles, Chief Justice Thirning, Chris Given-Wilson, Constance of York, Court of Chivalry, duel, Edmund of Langley, executions, Fourth Lateran Council, France, Henry IV, Henry VII, King’s approver, Normandy, Parliament, Richard II, Sir John Annesley, St. Saviour’s Castle, Thomas Katrington, Thomas Mowbray Earl of Norfolk, Trial by combat, trial by jury, Tyburn, usurpation, Wars of the RosesYou might think that the Church would have approved of trial by combat. After all, it effectively remitted the cause to God’s judgement – assuming that you believe God intervenes in such affairs, as many people (presumably) did. In fact, as far back as the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 (Canon 18) the Church…
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This article Thomas of Woodstock and Shakespeare’s Twisted History | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net) begins as follows:- “….William Shakespeare wrote ten history plays. Of these, one of the most famous is Richard II . The play Richard II , written around 1595, is based on the rule of King Richard II (reign 1377-1399), but one of the main characters in…
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Here’s an oddity. Well, perhaps not, given that the kings of England had a royal menagerie at the Tower, in which a variety of exotic (to England) animals were kept. While looking at the Calendar of Patent Rolls for 1385 I came upon the following entry:- The entry doesn’t say the ostrich was kept in…
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Many sites are connected with Atlantis. So much so that the name is attached to “lost” towns and villages that are being searched for today. Among these is Ravenspur, which was in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It’s famous to medievalists for being where Henry IV (as Duke of Lancaster) landed in 1399 and Edward…
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A few years ago, we showed that Robert Catesby, directly descended from Sir William Catesby, sought to kill James VI/I, a descendant of Henry VII, by gunpowder 120 years after Henry had Sir William hanged after Bosworth.This second case, of which I was reminded in Kathryn Warner‘s The Despensers, doesn’t involve direct ancestry on both…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 