plots
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The Great British Dig – History in Your Garden (3)
air raid shelters, Anthony Babington, Battle of Marston Moor, Biggin Hill Grange, Channel Four, chapels, Coventry, Elizabeth I, English Civil War, executions, Glen Mill, Henry III, Hugh Dennis, King’s Lynn, Morda House, Odiham, Oldham, Oswestry, past maps, plots, Priories, prisoners of war, ramparts, Second World War, sieges, Sir Francis Walsingham, workhousesThis excellent Channel Four programme has returned for a third series soon after the second, perhaps because the pandemic interrupted some of the earlier filming. The first episode features Odiham Place in Hampshire, looking for the home of Sir Francis Walsingham, although it was actually built for Henry VIII and was smaller than a 1739…
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Richard III’s predecessor, Richard II, shares with him the injustice of being maligned through history. In Richard II’s case all we hear that he was a hysterical madman who was rightly removed from his throne (and this world) by his cousin Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV. All sorts of scenarios are…
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Ricardians often bemoan the repeated myths about Richard’s wickedness and cruelty. And with good reason. In spite of the fact that he did what he could to better the lot of women, he is accused of bullying the poor old (treacherous) Countess of Oxford because she happened to be financing her Lancastrian son who was…
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I have just watched an episode of Digging for Britain (2014, series 3, episode 3, entitled “North”) in which Alice Roberts presented a section about an archaeological dig that had at that time been going on for five years at a large 15th-century hall owned by Sir John Conyers. Sir John had served both Edward…
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Matthew Lewis on YouTube: 2) Mancini
“I know nothing”, “Princes”, Armstrong, Arthur “Tudor”, Beaugency, bigamy, Charles VIII, Crowland Chronicle, Domenico Mancini, Dr. John Argentine, Duke of Orleans, Edward IV, evidence, executions, feuds, France, George Duke of Clarence, gossip, Hastings, Henry VII, illegitimacy, Italian merchants, Italy, Lady Eleanor Talbot, language, Lord High Admiral, Lord High Constable, Lord Protector of the Realm, Louis XI, minority kings, Parliament, plots, pre-contract, propaganda, Robert Stillington, sickness, Stony Stratford, translation, WydevillesHere is the second in my series of Top 10’s. This one is focussing on Dominic Mancini’s account of the events of 1483. It’s a hugely problematical source, both in terms of Mancini himself, who spoke no English, had no grasp of English politics and very limited sources, and in terms of the current translation…
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In our previous post, written with Eileen Bates, we described the buildings at Cheneygates, and dealt with its history regarding Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville, who sought sanctuary there in 1483 when she and her family/co-conspirators plotted unsuccessfully against Richard of Gloucester. He, of course, quite rightly became Richard III, and dealt more leniently with her…
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In his excellent book The Greatest Traitor Ian Mortimer states (p.188)…’With regard to secret plots, most chronicles reflect contemporary rumour and popular opinion more closely than historical facts. To put the issue in perspective, imagine the results if several amateur historians – perhaps working in retirement homes, which monasteries sometimes were – began to write…