pre-contract
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Given the amount of evidence that has accrued over the past decade both about Edward IV’s bigamy and the cover-ups, both in his reign and those of the “Tudors”, he can now be classified as having no legitimate and fourteen or fifteen illegitimate children. Charles II’s record is almost identical, although he was more open…
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Richard III really will have to try harder if he is going to live up to that interesting reputation of his. After all, what good is a serial incestor if all he does is simply marry his cousin (with a Papal dispensation) which occurs all the time nowadays anyway – without the Papal dispensation? And…
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From Barbara Gaskell Denvil: “Very little reliable documentary evidence survives from the Middle Ages. The life and times of Richard III therefore remain a period of frustration and fascination for historians, scholars and interested amateurs alike. So why is it – when one very clear contemporary document survives from that period – that so many people…
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While browsing Royal Blood by Bertram Fields I noticed the following remarkable passage, (pages 116-117): “…during the reign of Henry VIII, Charles V’s ambassador to England reported that people ‘say’ that Charles had a better claim to the English throne than did Henry VIII, since Henry could only claim through his mother and she ‘was…
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So was it Robert Morton, Richard III’s Master of the Rolls and nephew of the future Cardinal, or Polydore Vergil, Henry VII’s pet “historian”? Either way, quite a few documents from Richard’s reign have gone missing. We will adopt a cautious approach to this list: There remain no letters between Richard and Anne although they…
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There are two kinds of historian. One kind searches scrupulously for undiscovered sources before writing and the other glibly quotes those that are generally available, even when serious questions have been raised about them. This is the easier approach and some would call it lazy. Most of us know who belongs in which category. Other…
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I was going to write a review of this fascinating volume and may well do soon, but here is one by a lady whose stepbrother is a Clarence descendant: http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/9024951/royal-marriage-secrets-by-john-ashdown-hill-review/
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“When a man marries his mistress, he creates a job vacancy”: a) David Lloyd George b) Sir James Goldsmith c) Henry VIII d) John of Gaunt e) Edward IV
The New Murrey and Blue blog 