Reformation

A RARE SAINT’S SHRINE–STILL WITH SAINT!

Jun 13, 2024

religion

Anglo-Saxons, Bath and Wells, canons, Dorset, marshwood vale, Reformation, saints, Salisbury, shrine, st. wite, Vikings, Whitchurch

Tucked away in the Marshwood Vale in Dorset stands St. Candida’s church, in the village of Whitchurch Canonicorum, population around 700. The church is named after the obscure saint Wite, whose name is ‘Candida’ in Latin. Whitchurch simply means Wite’s church, and the ‘canonicorum’ part of the village name refers to the canons of Salisbury …
Elizabeth Wayte (Lucy) & Stoke Charity

Mar 21, 2024

buildings, genealogy, law, religion

Arthur Waite, bigamy, carvings, churches, Edward IV, Elizabeth Lucy, Elizabeth Wydeville, Hampshire, hampton family, Henry Duke of Somerset, Henry VII, John Ashdown-Hill, Lady Eleanor Talbot, mass of st. gregory, Reformation, Robert Stillington, secret marriage, St. Michael, stoke charity, Thomas More, thomas wayte, Titulus Regius, tombs

Between rainstorms, we were out in the countryside doing some church-crawling, a grand way to do some ‘medievalling’ when long journeys to castles and houses, most still closed for the winter, are out of the question. We happened on Stoke Charity by pure accident. I was attracted by the unusual name, which also began ringing…
The treasures of the West Riding

Dec 14, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, culture, genealogy, religion

armour, Charles “III”, Chatsworth, Claire Cross, Colonel Blood, Earls of Harewood, Edward Duke of Kent, Edward IV, Gawthorpe Hall, Harewood House, Harrogate, Headingley, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Leeds, Leeds Dock, Lumleys, main roads, motorways, Pennines, Powderham Castle, Reformation, Royal Armouries, weapons, Yorkshire

While I have visited Yorkshire reasonably frequently in the past, there is one patch with which I was unfamiliar. The Leeds sub-region is south and a little west of York, where a significant branch line bifurcates at Doncaster and goes through Wakefield, whilst a suburban line from Leeds passes through Harrogate and returns to York.…
A VISIT TO KING’S LANGLEY

Aug 6, 2023

archaeology, buildings, genealogy, religion, travel

Anne Mortimer, camels, Cecily Neville, Christmas, Clarendon Palace, clocks, Dominican friaries, Edmund of Langley, Edward II, Edward III, Eleanor of Castile, fire, Henry III, Henry IV, Isabel of Castile, Joan of Navarre, John of Wheathampstead, King’s Langley, palaces, Piers Gaveston, Reformation, Richard Earl of Cambridge, Richard II, royal tombs

King’s Langley was once home to a massive Plantagenet palace, built out of the remnants of a hunting lodge of Henry III for Edward I’s Queen, Eleanor of Castile. She furnished it lavishly, with carpets and baths. There were shields decorating the hall and a painted picture of four knights going to a tournament, while…
How Edward IV’s bigamy should have been resolved

Jul 17, 2023

Alternative History, anniversaries, battles, genealogy, law, religion

Affinity, banns, bigamy, canon law, Castillon, Catherine de Roet, Catholicism, Church of England, consanguinity, Council of Trent, dispensations, Elizabeth Wydeville, family law, Henry VIII, illegitimacy, infertility, John Earl of Shrewsbury, John of Gaunt, lack of consent, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lumley-Conyers marriage, Moynihan barony, non-consummation, Papal Legate, pre-contract, R.H. Helmholz, Ralph Butler Baron Sudeley, Reformation, Sixtus IV, Statute of Merton, widows, witchcraft

Canon law, as practiced in most of Europe to the late mediaeval period, is noticeably different to the laws of the United Kingdom today, although it is somewhat looser today in several ways. Consequently, secret marriages were banned eventually, only first cousins now require dispensations and relationships do not beget affinity, although previous manages still…
Owlpen Manor rivals Minster Lovell when it comes to walling-up and starving….

May 2, 2023

battles, buildings, religion

“Tudors”, Benedictine monks, Black Monk, children, Cotswolds, ghosts, Gloucester, Kingswood Abbey, Margaret of Anjou, Minster Lovell Hall, Owlpen Manor, Reformation, St. Peter’s Abbey, Tewkesbury, walling up

Having recently written about Minster Lovell and the fact that the remains of Francis Lovell may have been found walled up there, I found myself drawn to yet another Cotswold house with a similar legend. This is Owlpen Manor on the western flank of the Cotswolds. This Owlpen Manor link mentions four ghosts, but only…
Finding Richard (from across the Atlantic Ocean)

Apr 28, 2023

Alternative History, archaeology, battles, buildings, religion, The play’s the thing

American Civil War, Catholicism, Charles I, Commonwealth, Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII, Leicester Greyfriars, Nazis, Reformation, Richard III discovery, USA, William Shakespeare

I had never been much interested in medieval history. I thought of them as backwards and a little too obsessed w the afterlife. However, the “what ifs” of history always intrigued me. What if the Nazis won WWII? What if the north had been defeated in the American Civil War? And so forth. I’d always…
The art that made us

Nov 8, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, culture, humour, religion, Science, television reviews

Aphra Benn, Armada, Arts and Crafts, Barbara Hepworth, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry, BBC2, Beowulf, Black Death, Bloomsbury Group, British Empire, Burns, Charles I, Colonel Blimp, Cool Britannia, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, David Threlfall, Death and the Gallant, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth I, embroidery, English Civil War, Festival of Britain, First World War, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Fire of London, Hanif Kureishi, Harry Potter, Hogarth, Industrial Revolution, Jane Austen, Jarrow march, John Foxe, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Joshua Reynolds, Julian of Norwich, kitchen sink drama, Llancarfon, Margery Kempe, Mary Stuart, murals, Norman conquest, Oliver Cromwell, Phillip Larkin, Piers Plowman, poetry, pre-Raphaelites, Reformation, Restoration, Richard II, Roman Britain, Rubens, satire, Second World War, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Orpen, St. Cadoc’s church, St. Paul’s, stained glass, Stuarts, The art that made us, The Fighting Temeraire, The unknown soldier, Tracey Emin, Trainspotting, Turner, urbanisation, van Dyck, Walter Sickert, Welsh Bible, William Cobbett, William Morgan, William Shakespeare, Wilton Diptych, York Minster

This is another fascinating BBC2 series, illustrating English and British history through the evolution of our art. The eight one-hour episodes, narrated by David Threlfall (Men of the World), feature:The Roman and pre-Roman periods, Beowulf, the Norman conquest and the Bayeux Tapestry; The Black Death, Wilton Diptych, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich,…
L’Erber – London Home to Warwick the Kingmaker and George Duke of Clarence

Oct 17, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, sources, travel

Anne Neville, Barnet, Checkers Yard, Coldharbour, Crowland Chronicle, Dowgate Hill, Earl of Oxford, Edward IV, executions, George Duke of Clarence, Great Fire of London, Henry Lord Montagu, Henry VIII, high treason, Isobel Neville, John Strype, Kingsford, l’Erber, London, Margaret of Salisbury, Nevilles, past maps, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, Reformation, Reginald Cardinal Pole, Richard III, Richard III Society, Richard of Salisbury, Richard of Warwick, River Thames, sanctuary, Sir Francis Drake, St. Martin’s, Stow’s Survey, Thames Street, Tower of London, Visscher Panorama of London, Wars of the Roses, Warwick Lane, William Latimer

My latest A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com post London before the Great Fire and much as Richard Neville ‘The Kingmaker’ and his family would have known it… L’Erber stood slightly to the north west of Coldharbour which is the large house seen here in middle of the picture and facing the Thames. No depiction of L’Erber…
Death and the Gallant

Sep 25, 2022

anniversaries, art, buildings, religion

Anne Neville, books, CADW, chaplaincy, churches, Cowbridge, Death and the Gallant, Edward VI, French, Glamorgan Record Office, Holy Cross church, Jane Rutherford, Latin, Llancarfon, murals, Newark, Norman invasion, Pitt Stops through History, Reformation, repairs, Richard III, seven deadly sins, St. Cadoc’s church, St. George and the dragon, The art that made us, The story of Welsh art, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, Wales Online, Wall Paintings

Many years ago I lived in Cowbridge in Glamorgan and one of my daughters was christened in Holy Cross Church. About twenty years later I joined the Richard III Society and discovered that Holy Cross had a connection to Richard III. The following is taken from History Points.org:Holy Cross Church was probably built around 1254…