Jack Ketch

Secrets of the Royal Palaces (series 3)

Jul 15, 2023

anniversaries, buildings, law, television reviews

beheadings, Bloody Tales of the Tower, botched executions, burnings, Channel Five, Crown Court, drawing hanging and quartering, executions, hangings, high treason, Jack Ketch, James of Monmouth, murder, robbery, Secrets of the Royal Palaces, witchcraft

This enthralling programme has returned, but made a dubious claim in the third epsode. Apparently, Jack Ketch was so hopeless at swinging an axe in a straight line, you would be better off as a commoner if facing execution, because almost anyone could be reasonably competent at short drop hanging, where breaking the subject’s neck…
Bloody tales of the Tower….

Feb 11, 2017

buildings, television reviews

“Tudors”, Anne Boleyn, Arbella Stuart, Barnet, Bloody Tales of the Tower, Calais, Catherine Howard, Channel Five, Coronation, Edward V, Edward VIII, Elizabeth I, espionage, executions, Father John Gerard, Guido Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot, Henry VIII, Jack Ketch, James of Monmouth, James VI/I, James VII/II, Jane, Joe Crowley, Josef Jacobs, Lucy Worsley, Mark Smeaton, Mary I, Peasants’ Revolt, Richard II, Robert Catesby, Simon of Sudbury, Suzannah Lipscomb, Tower Green, William Seymour Duke of Somerset

I have only just found the series Bloody Tales of the Tower, previously on National Geographic and now on Channel 5 (http://www.channel5.com/show/bloody-tales-of-the-tower and http://www.natgeotv.com/za/bloody-tales-of-the-tower), and have to say that I enjoyed it very much. The presenters, Suzannah Lipscomb and Joe Crowley, are at ease in their roles and with each other, and do not adopt…
Stephen Lark’s book on the Battle of Sedgemoor….

Apr 18, 2015

battles, Book Reviews

book review, Bretwalda Books, Charles II, Glorious Revolution, Jack Ketch, James of Monmouth, James VII/II, Sedgemoor, Somerset, Stephen Lark, Tower Hill

The Battle of Sedgemoor 1685 by Stephen Lark (Bretwalda Battles Book 19) [Kindle Edition] ASIN: B00TEAO11G Driving the M5 today, across the Somerset Levels, it is hard to imagine what the landscape used to be like, before rhynes and ditches drained much of the water. The rhynes were there in the 17th century, but they…

Jack Ketch

Secrets of the Royal Palaces (series 3)

Bloody tales of the Tower….

Stephen Lark’s book on the Battle of Sedgemoor….