Richard II
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Richard II is (always laughingly) described as having invented the handkerchief. That he was a ridiculous fop is always the implication. Yet we don’t think twice now about using handkerchiefs…the previous disgusting habit of wiping one’s nose on one’s sleeve is long-gone, thank goodness. Yet I’ve now learned another of Richard’s so-called peculiarities. When…
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Fourteenth-century England may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially when the fifteenth century is more important for Ricardians, but the reign of Richard II is very much my interest. So I look forward to this new Helen Carr work. Bring it on! I’ve ordered Helen Carr’s biography of John of Gaunt, and hope to…
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Well, I wasn’t looking for observations on when the Renaissance commenced, rather was I trying to find information on the wedding of Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, Marquess of Dublin, and 9th Earl of Oxford KG. The wording of my Google search brought up a site in which I found the following: “….During…
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This replica sword is, apparently, based on one owned by the Earl of Huntingdon. Which one? Well, the description at the beginning of the above site opens with “Historically, the Earl of Huntingdon is a title held by the Scottish rulers of Huntingdonshire, but in folklore, this title belonged to the legendary Robin Hood….” …
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While going through some of my old medieval research, I came upon a list that has given me pause to reconsider some of my descriptions of materials used for clothing. The list was in a paper read on 6th April 1911: XXII—A Wardrobe Account of 16-17 Richard II, 1393-4, by W. Paley-Baildon, Esquire., F.S.A. “….MATERIALS.…
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This extract is from https://gardenandhappy.com/medlar/ “….Great writers such as Shakespeare and Chaucer used medlars to convey the loss of womanly virtue. In The Honest Whore, Thomas Dekker wrote: “Women are like medlars, no sooner ripe but rotten”. Hmm, that bit about “no sooner ripe but rotten” is more likely to apply to the male of the species. As soon…
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My internet travels take me here, there and everywhere…and today I came upon another site about facial reconstructions of past figures of consequence. There have been quite a few of these in recent years, and this one is an interesting addition. Well, addition for me, it may have been around for quite some time.…
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“….AN initiative to find the bones of Alfred the Great in the Hyde suburb of Winchester, sponsored more than 20 years ago by the City Council, has had a surprising outcome. This is the launch of a series of whodunnits in settings that many readers will find easy to imagine. “….The first title, Charter…