Henry VII
-
There’s quite an interesting (48-minute lecture) take on Henry VII at http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/magnificence-a-tale-of-two-henrys. The lecturer points out that when Henry arrived in Westminster after Bosworth, he was the first King of England who had no experience whatsoever of how an English court worked. The lecturer thinks he was reliant upon his mother and wife to guide…
-
There is an argument in some quarters that Ricardians are “nutters”, “obsessives” and a lot of other ruder words. There is an element of truth in this, given that virtually all human activity beyond eating, sex and sleeping is inherently pointless. Unless one is part of the enthusiasm, it is equally hard to understand why…
-
Another example: Someone wrote to suggest that Richard’s final charge at “Tudor”, in which he killed Mr. William Brandon (“Tudor”‘s standard bearer) and unhorsed Sir John Cheney, was a sign of cowardice. Never mind that thosee paid by the first two “Tudors” to lie about him admitted that the King died “fighting manfully” ….. “in…
-
Sir James Tyrell was a trusted supporter of the House of York, and Richard III in particular. More’s account of his introduction to Richard by a unnamed page is too risible to mention, except that it exhibits yet another flaw in More’s account, that fine work of literature, roughly equivalent to – well, name the…
-
Apologies to anyone who expects this to be a five thousand word essay with at least a hundred cases but I was wondering about one thing in particular: when “Tudor” monarchs repealed legislation, how did they usually go about it? The usual procedure was – and still is – to have a new Act passed,…
-
According to Perkin by Anne Wroe (page 140) Henry VII’s envoy, Somerset Herald, when visiting Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy and her son-in-law, Maximilian of Austria in 1495, offered to show them the chapel where Richard, Duke of York was buried. I am surprised that this particular piece of evidence has not been shouted to the…
-
So was it Robert Morton, Richard III’s Master of the Rolls and nephew of the future Cardinal, or Polydore Vergil, Henry VII’s pet “historian”? Either way, quite a few documents from Richard’s reign have gone missing. We will adopt a cautious approach to this list: There remain no letters between Richard and Anne although they…
-
An article about a dinner party in today’s Gloucester Citizen newspaper concerned an imaginary dinner party held at Sudeley Castle, by its present owner, Lady Ashcombe. She described her menu and six guests, all of whom had once owned the castle. It prompted me to ask others what party they would hold. Here’s mine. Please…
-
Thomas Grey was the elder son of Elizabeth Woodville by her first husband Sir John Grey of Groby. Not unnaturally, once his mother married King Edward IV, Thomas’ position in society improved markedly and he became prominent at court, eventually being created Marquess of Dorset. In addition he made successive marriages to heiresses, Anne Holland…
-
There are two kinds of historian. One kind searches scrupulously for undiscovered sources before writing and the other glibly quotes those that are generally available, even when serious questions have been raised about them. This is the easier approach and some would call it lazy. Most of us know who belongs in which category. Other…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 