Parliament
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Polls are always interesting, whether for getting it wrong at General Elections or coming up with figures that take everyone so by surprise that no one believes them. If you go to this link—https://tinyurl.com/5c64bp23—you’ll find that YouGov has set about composing, in order of popularity and familiarity, a league of English/British monarchs….and an accompanying article…
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Caroline Burt and Richard Partington are prominent historians at the University of Cambridge, and have written a book entitled Arise, England, which “….is shaping up to be a welcome shelter from the permanent torrent of Tudors….” Oh, yippee! At last! I’m so sick of the Tudors, on all manner of levels, so a book about…
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I have recently come across the argument (again) that Edward III‘s purported enfeoffment made Gaunt and his son the rightful heirs of Edward III.
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Tyrants – Part 3
“Princes”, “Tudors”, Battle of Bosworth, double standards, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, evidence, executions, extravagance, francis of assissi, Gandhi, Henry IV, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Idi Amin, Luftwaffe, Parliament, Putin, Richard III, Tewkesbury Abbey, Three Estates, Titulus Regius, tyranny, YorkshireIn some ways, it is surprising that Edward IV is not usually denounced by historians as a ‘tyrant‘. He had, after all, a key qualification, as he was neither a Lancastrian nor a Tudor. Edward also summarily executed the Earl of Oxford and his son after a brief ‘trial’ before the Constable. And some of…
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Dealing With Richard’s Critics.
“Tudors”, Anne of Gloucester, Annette Carson, Archbishop Plunkett, Battle of Bosworth, Earl Marshal, Earl of Wiltshire, Earls of Oxford, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, executions, Henry IV, Henry VI, Henry VII, Herberts, high treason, Humphrey of Gloucester, impartiality, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Parliament, Richard II, Richard III, Richard of Warwick, usurpation, WydevillesGoing in to bat for Richard III on Facebook, or other places, can be quite an experience. First of all, any positive source you quote, say for example Annette Carson, is almost invariably rejected as biased. (Of course, all the anti-Richard texts are balanced and impartial, right?) Secondly, people really don’t want to know about…
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I am currently reading the new edition of The History of King Richard the Third by Sir George Buc. This is a massive tome, by any standards, and certainly, no light read. I have barely begun to absorb the contents, but one interesting discussion in the (very large) introduction is about the famous letter which…
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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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The inexplicable certainty of anti-Ricardians
Battle of Bosworth, bigamy, Catherine de Valois, D.A.L. Morgan, Dukes of Norfolk, Edward IV, English Historical Review, evidence, Hearne’s Fragment, James Ross, John Ashdown-Hill, Lady Eleanor Talbot, long lives, memoirs, Owain Tudor, Parliament, pre-contract, reincarnation, royal bodyguard, Royal Marriage Secrets, Thomas Earl of Surrey, Three Estates, Titulus RegiusThis post is prompted by a recent forthright statement on social media to the effect that Edward IV was not married to Lady Eleanor Talbot. Now it is one thing to suggest that there is a possibility that there was no such marriage. But certainty? Unless one was literally there, as one of the principal…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 