John Speed

Speed’s not up to speed….!

Mar 20, 2024

anniversaries, battles, law

“Tudors”, Battle of Bosworth, Henry IV, John Speed, Lancashire, Lancastrians, past maps, Richard II, Richard III, usurpation, Yorkists

Well, now I’ve read it all. Please look at the above map, into which you can zoom at here. Do you see the images of monarchs on the left (Lancaster) and on the right (York)? You’ll probably need to zoom at the Wikimedia link above to read the words atop the Lancastrian column. They…
Ten facts gleaned from Richard’s skeleton….

Aug 23, 2023

archaeology, battles, Science, The play’s the thing

“hunchback”, “Tudor” propaganda, “withered arm”, age, Battle of Bosworth, Bow Bridge, diet, facial reconstruction, fish, height, identification, John Speed, Leicester Greyfriars, missing feet, perimortem wounds, scoliosis, Shakespeare, skull, Turi King, wine, woodlands

I wondered what was coming when I turned to this article but it’s actually quite sensible, even if some of the comments beggar belief. (Know of a woodland somewhere in the UK? Because some people think we no longer have any! Or think it’s clever and snide to pretend we don’t.) The ten facts…
IPSWICH IN MEDIEVAL MINIATURE

Jul 20, 2022

art, buildings, Events, religion

Colin Patten, heritage walk, Ipswich, John Speed, models, past maps, Reformation, Waterford

Some people create just for fun, others to have fun AND to inform. Suffolk modelmaker Colin Patten plans to do both in a large-scale model of the entire town of Ipswich in late medieval times, before the abbeys and priories were swept away in the Reformation. Mr Patten has already done a similar model of…
The Mysterious Affair at Stony Stratford

Aug 30, 2021

anniversaries, Book Reviews, law, religion, sources, travel

Agatha Christie, ambush, Angelo Cato, Annette Carson, Crowland Chronicle, Crowland Continuator, Domenico Mancini, Dr. John Argentine, Edward IV, Edward V, fishing, Grafton Regis, Great North Road, Henry of Buckingham, James Gairdner, John Speed, Lord High Constable, Lord Protector of the Realm, Louis XI, maps, Marie Barnfield, market days, Mid-Anglia Group, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Richard III, Richard III Society, Sir Anthony Wydeville, Sir Richard Grey, Sir Thomas Vaughan, Stony Stratford, The Maligned King, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Watling Street, Weedon Bec, will of Edward IV, William Lord Hastings, Wydevilles

This excellent blog post by Annette Carson, based on a presentation given to the Society’s Mid-Anglia Group, summarises the events of 29th-30th April 1483, as Edward V and Anthony Woodville (Earl Rivers), together with Sir Richard Grey and others, met the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham as the Great North Road and Watling Street converged.…
Medieval thoughts of Stonehenge and the solstices….?

Jun 20, 2021

anniversaries, buildings, Science, sources

Battle of the Beanfield, Berkshire, George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, James VI/I, John Speed, Maeshowe, Merlin, Newgrange, past maps, Rubens, Sarah Peverley, Stone Age, Stonehenge, summer solstice, Wales, Wiltshire

I remember the good old days when a visit to Stonehenge meant actually walking around inside it, instead of having to view it from paths at a distance. You could just park and walk, without all the razzmatazz that applies today. Some people even sat on the lower stones! Shock, horror. Closing the monument off…
Old maps of Lancashire….

Dec 14, 2020

art, travel

Blackburn, Darwen, Greenwood brothers, John Speed, Lancashire, Lancashire County Council, Lancaster, Leyland, Ordnance Survey, Ormskirk, past maps, Preston, William Yates

It so happens that I am writing about the Holands, a noble family that originated in Lancashire and rose to prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries. The town of Upholland records their name. And what should come my way? A link to old maps of Lancashire! An extract from one of these maps is…
Zoom right into Coventry in 1610….!

Jul 28, 2018

anniversaries, buildings, travel

Coventry, John Speed, maps

How often do we Google for old town maps, only to find they’re so low in pixels that actually making out details is impossible? Well, while searching for such a map of Coventry, I have found an excellent site that gives a zoomable version of Speed‘s map of 1610. It goes in so close that…
Where did the Tudors come from….?

Jun 10, 2018

anniversaries, genealogy, heraldry, sources

“Beauforts”, “Perkin”, “Tudor” rose, “Tudors”, Anglesey, bardic tradition, Bible translators, Cadwallader, Carmarthen, Catherine de Valois, Clifford Davies, coinage, Colchester, David Hume, Dissolution of the Monasteries, Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Richmond, Edmund “Tudor”, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Giles Chronicle, Henry VI, Henry VII, Hereford Greyfriars, Innocent VIII, Jasper “Tudor”, John Ashdown-Hill, John Speed, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Maredydds, Milford Haven, Mortimers, Owain Tudor, papal bull, Plantagenets, Polydore Vergil, portcullis, Portugal, proclamations, Red Dragon, Shakespeare, Spain, St. David’s, Stuarts, symbolism, Times Literary Supplement, Wales

For those of us who may wish to know where the name Tudor comes from, here’s a thorough explanation.
At the gates of Gloucester in 1471….

May 3, 2017

anniversaries, battles, travel

Bristol, Civil War, Edward IV, Edward of Lancaster, Gloucester, Gloucester Castle, John Speed, Lancastrians, Margaret of Anjou, Severn, sieges, Sir Richard Beauchamp, Tewkesbury, Upton-on-Severn

The Battle of Tewkesbury in May 1471 was to prove decisive for the reign of our first Yorkist king. The opponents were Margaret of Anjou and the Lancastrians, versus King Edward IV and the Yorkists. Margaret was defeated, and her heart and spirit was broken by the death in battle of her only son, Edward of…
Mythmaking: BONES IN THE RIVER

Jul 24, 2016

religion, travel

de heretico comburendo, John Speed, John Wycliffe, Leicester, Leicestershire, Lollards, Lutterworth, Richard III, rivers, rumour

Night. The late Middle Ages. An angry mob rips open the sealed tomb of a man and carries his fleshless skeleton through the town streets, jeering. Reaching a field of execution, the bones are hurled on a pyre and burnt, then crushed to small fragments. This indignity not being enough, the desecrated remains are then…