Richard II
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Researching for my writing takes me all over the place … and to numerous figures from the past. This time, needing to know the attitude of medieval people to albinism, I was led to our long-revered medieval monarch and saint, Edward the Confessor. Now I’ll be the first to admit to not knowing a…
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Both River Greta illustrations taken from this Mail article Well, here we are in 2021, which I hope it will prove an infinitely better experience than 2020. In the year 1399, some folk in Bedfordshire witnessed a “portent” that must have made them wonder what on earth that new year had in store for…
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Well now, are we to believe the horrific tale related at Medievalists.net? Or should we regard it as yet another malicious work of imagination from Thomas Walsingham. Let’s face it, Walsingham was venomous and untruthful to a fault. The nastiest type of tale-teller. Which leaves me disinclined to believe that Sir John Arundel was guilty…
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What were our medieval kings’ voices like….?
accents, Alice Perrers, Azincourt, Battle of Bosworth, definitions, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward the Black Prince, Edward V, George Duke of Clarence, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Jane Shore, language, minority kings, monarchs, Phillippa of Hainault, promiscuity, Richard II, Richard III, Stanleys, Thomas Lynom, WydevillesToday I once again heard Henry VIII described as Bluff King Hal. Well, this is usually said almost affectionately, which the Henry VIII we all know does not warrant. He was a monster. I think his voice was probably stentorian. Eventually he was downright nasty and needed to be approached with an excessively long bargepole.…
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THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS WAR – PART 3 : the dogs of war
Anne Curry, archers, Armagnacs, Azincourt, Burgundians, Charles V, Charles VI, Charles VII, Crecy, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, G.L.Harriss, Genoa, Harfleur, Henry IV, Henry V, Humphrey of Gloucester, Ian Mortimer, James Gairdner, Jean II, John Duke of Bedford, Jonathan Sumption, Orleanists, Poitiers, Pontefract Castle, Richard II, Rouen, Sigismund, St. crispin, Thomas of Clarence, Treaty of Bourges, Treaty of Bretigny, Treaty of Canterbury, Treaty of Troyes, ValoisPreface This is the third of three articles charting the course of continual Anglo-French conflict from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The first, covered the rise and fall of the Angevin Empire, and the Treaty of Paris (1259). The second, continued my narrative from the accession of Edward I until the Treaty of Bretigny…
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It’s said that green is the colour of the Devil; it’s also my favourite colour, so I don’t know what that says about me. All I know is that when I was growing up, green was almost always declared to be unlucky. In my teens, I was invited to be a bridesmaid for a…
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The Earliest Roots of the Wars of the Roses: Edward II and Thomas of Lancaster?
Bannockburn. Boroughbridge, Blanche of Lancaster, Boniface IX, canonisation, Chris Given-Wilson, cults, Despencers, Dukes of Lancaster, earls, Edmund of Langley, Edward II, executions, Henry IV, Henry of Lancaster, Ireland, John of Gaunt, miracles, Piers Gaveston, Pontefract Castle, popes, Richard II, Shrewsbury Parliament, Thomas Despenser, Thomas Mowbray Earl of Norfolk, Thomas of Lancaster, Waltheof, Wars of the RosesIt may seem bizarre to go back to the reign of Edward II (reigned 1307-27) when talking about the Wars of the Roses, but bear with me. Edward and his cousin, Thomas Earl of Lancaster, got on together quite well in the early years of Edward’s reign. Gradually, though, a feud between them grew…
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We all know of Dr John Argentine, who attended Edward V, with such grave results for Richard III’s reputation. But was he from a family line of physicians/astrologers? I am reading The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth-Century England: Plantagenet Kings and the Search for the Philosopher’s Stone, by Jonathan Hughes, and in the Bibliography is…
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Tudorites are always very keen to claim the introduction of the Renaissance to England as their territory. Anyone who went before the blessed Henry VII had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Right? No, very wrong. Lady and gentlemen, I give you the Wilton Diptych (see here and also this video), which was created for…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 