Northampton
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Digging for Britain (series 11)
Alice Roberts, bags, bath houses, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chedworth, defences, digging for Britain, docks, dodecahedrons, Domesday Book, Dorset, Dover, Enfield, evacuation, Exeter Cathedral, flint tools, forty hall, Gloucester, Grampians, gun emplacement, Henry V, Hereford, Imber, Kent, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, Lowther Castle, Marshes, mosaic tiles, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northampton, norton disney, nunneries, Owain Glyn Dwr, Platonic solids, postern gates, pubs, Roman Britain, roundhouses, Scotland, Septimus Severus, shoes, Smallhythe, Snodhill Castle, Strathclyde, Syston, timber, Tintern Abbey, trade, Trellau Park, Wales, Waterloo, William II, WW2 defences, WyeAs another year dawns, it must be time for another series of Britain’s archeological highlights, divided into five regions. This time, it started in the north with Carlisle Cricket Club hosting a dig associated with the bathhouse of the emperor Septimius Severus, a particularly steep part of the Grampians and Lowther Castle, a site that…
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The quiet Woodville….
Abbey of St. James, books, Duston, Edward IV, Elizabeth I, executions, illegitimate children, Jacquette, Katherine Wydeville, Knights of the Bath, Lord Mayors of London, Northampton, Richard Earl Rivers, Richard III, Richard Woodville, secret marriage, Sir Anthony Wydeville, Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset, Victoria History of Northamptonshire, William CaxtonWhenever we hear the name Woodville (various spellings) we’re inclined to think of Elizabeth Woodville and her grasping relatives. We’re told they had goodies thrust upon them by Edward IV, and that they were foisted in marriage onto almost all the leading families of the realm. One couldn’t go anywhere without encountering Woodvilles in…
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The “awkward mediaeval cities” (3) : St. Alban’s
battlefields, blue plaque, Boudicca, Colchester, destruction, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Eleanor Crosses, Elizabeth I, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Humphrey of Gloucester, Jean II, John Ball, London, Luton, martyrs, museums, Northampton, Oxford, Poitiers, Roman Britain, Roman theatre, Second Battle of St. Albans, Skipton Building Society, St. Alban, St. Albans, St. Albans Cathedral, Thameslink, Verulam Park, Verulamium Roman Museum, Victoria Street, Wars of the Roses, Watford JunctionUnlike Northampton and Oxford, St. Alban’s (City) is on the Thameslink network and also has a branch line to Watford Junction. Accommodation can be expensive but the less historic Luton is surprisingly convenient as a base, being about fourteen minutes away on the same line and costing about five pounds for a day return. Turning right…
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The “awkward mediaeval cities” (2) : Northampton
artillery, Battle of Bosworth, Battle of Northampton, Bletchley, coaches, delapre Abbey, Dissolution of the Monasteries, DNA, Edward I, Eleanor of Castile, Fotheringhay, Francis Crick, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Northampton Castle, Oxford, Peterborough, rail journeys, Richard III, siege of Roxburgh, St. Albans, St. Thomas Becket, Stony Stratford, trials, Weston FavellAnother such is Northampton. Like Oxford, most (all in fact) of the trains run to or from London, although the latter will reconnect to Cambridge in a few years, with Milton Keynes and Northampton joining the line via Bletchley. Northampton is only currently accessible from East Anglia via London, Birmingham, or switching to a coach…
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The Daughters of Edward I
Amesbury Abbey, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, Burgos, Clare Priory, deposition, Edward I, Edward II, Edward IV, Eleanor Crosses, Eleanor of Castile, Elizabeth Countess of Hereford, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, Hardingstone, Israel, Joan of Acre, John Ashdown-Hill, Kathryn Warner, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Laura Culme-Seymour, Lucy Walter, Maria Smythe, Mary I, North Wales, Northampton, nuns, Royal Marriage Secrets, royal marriages, SpainKathryn Warner‘s latest tome has arrived and soon raised memories of Ashdown-Hill’s Eleanor, as two of the daughters in question – Joan of Acre (twice) and Elizabeth of Rhuddlan – are among the ancestors of Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lucy Walter, “Mrs. Fitzherbert” (Maria Smythe) and Laura Culme-Seymour, as shown in Royal Marriage Secrets and replicated here.…
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The Traitor’s Arms?
“Defiance”, “Loveday”, Act of Accord, Agnes Sorel, allegory, Angevin bloodline, Arma Reversata, Ashperton, Ashperton monument, attainder, Blore Heath, Book of Hours, Calais, carvings, Catherine de Roet, Catherine de Valois, Charles VII, chivalry, Chrimes, Christmas, College of Heralds, Cornish rebellion, coronations, Courtauld Institute of Art, Coventry, crowns, Dunstable Chronicle, Earls of Salisbury, Edmund Crouchback, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Edward Hall, Edward IV, Edward of Lancaster, Edward the Black Prince, Elizabeth I, executions, First Battle of St. Albans, fleuur-de-lys, Fox-Davies, France, French College of Arms, Garter stalls, Gascony, Geoffrey Fisher, Great Seal, Hanseatic fleet, Helen Maurer, helmets, Henry Holland Duke of Exeter, Henry IV, Henry VI, Hereford Cathedral, Herefordshire, Hicks, high treason, Historia Anglorum, Hollands, Hon y soit qui mal y pense, House of York, Hugh Despencer, Hugh Despencer the Younger, Humphrey of Gloucester, Ian Mortimer, insanity, inverted arms, Ireland, Jack Cade, Jacques de Saint-George, James II, James VI/I, Jeanne d’Arc, Joan “Beaufort”, John of Bedford, John of Gaunt, Lancastrians, lions, livery collars, Lord of Misrule, Lord Protector of the Realm, Mary de Bohun, Matthew Parris, mortimer claim, Mortimer’s Cross, Nigel Saul, Nikolaus Pevsner, Normans, Northampton, Old St. Paul’s, Order of the Crescent, Order of the Garter, Owain Tudor, Parliament of Devils, Plantagenets, plaster mouldings, propaganda, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Ralph Griffiths, renaissance, Rene d’Anjou, Restoration, reversed arms, Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, Richard Duke of York, Richard of Salisbury, Rose Troup, Sandwich, Seine, Shakespeare, shields. royal arms, Sir Andrew Trollope, Sir Ralph Grey, squirrel, Staffords, stonemasons, swan badge, Switzerland, symbolism, the Beauforts., tombstones, tournaments, Treaty of Troyes, Tres Rich Heures, Warwick the Kingmaker, Westminster Abbey, Wigmore, William Duke of Suffolk, William Grandison, William Neville Lord Fauconberg, Windsor Castle, Woolhope ClubIn 1840 workmen carrying out repairs to St Bartholomew’s Church, Ashperton, Herefordshire were collecting stones from the ruins of a nearby manor house when they discovered a heavy stone plaque, carved with an elaborate coat of arms, among the rubble. The stone was taken to the church for safekeeping and has hung on the wall…
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The black widow that bit herself
Affinity, bigamy, consanguinity, denialists, dispensations, Edward I, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, John Ashdown-Hill, John Duke of Bedford, John Earl of Shrewsbury, John of Gaunt, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Latrodecta, Maud Neville, mediaeval canon law, Northampton, pre-contract, Ricardian Loons, step-parentsSince John Ashdown-Hill’s iconic Eleanor was published eleven years ago, we have seen some desperate attempts to contradict his proven conclusion that Lady Eleanor Talbot contracted a valid marriage to Edward IV before his contract to Elizabeth Widville and many such attempts have rebounded on the denialist in question. Now a troll naming herself Latrodecta…
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Richard’s childhood frequently gets some coverage in novels of his life, but THE ROAD FROM FOTHERINGHAY is the only novel, to my knowledge, that is ONLY about Richard’s youngest years, set against the wider backdrop of The Wars of the Roses. It is also one of only two in which the story is told from…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 