Richard II
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We are always being told that medieval aristocratic marriages (and indeed most medieval marriages) were arranged and did not feature love. The object was to increase property and lands, enhance a family’s reputation and produce as many heirs as was humanly possible. I pity those women who had a child a year throughout their married…
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How did St Valentine become the patron saint of lovers? The answer to that is the stuff of legends. One story has it that he was a peaceful man, as well as a great peacemaker, and while tending the roses in his garden, he heard a couple quarrelling violently. He cut a rose and…
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In January 1400, after the failure of the Epiphany Rising that was intended to remove Henry IV from the throne and restore Richard II, John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon, the younger of Richard’s half-brothers, fled from London. The weather was foul, and time and again his vessel was driven ashore. Eventually he gave up, and…
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An anonymous Yorkist supporter wrote an account describing Edward IV’s march through England in the spring of 1471, when he came to reclaim his throne from the Lancastrian Henry VI. On 7th April, Palm Sunday, Edward heard mass in the parish church at Daventry, and during the service a miracle occurred, witnessed by everyone present. At that…
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Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, KG, from the Bruges Garter Book, 1430/1440, BL Stowe 594. This started out as my first crie de coeur of 2017, and things did not bode well from the outset because I muddled my Thomas Beauchamps. Father and son, both Earls of Warwick, but it turns out to be the…
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The Epiphany Plot of 1400
Abbot of Westminster, anniversaries, Bristol, Charles VI, Chris Givern-Wilson, Earl of Wiltshire, Edmund Duke of York, Edward Duke of York, Epiphany Rising, Henry IV, Ian Mortimer, John Duke of Exeter, John Earl of Salisbury, Lancastrians, Lollards, Maidenhead, Marie Louise Bruce, Mortimers, Nigel Saul, Old St. Paul’s, Owain Glyn Dwr, Pleshey Castle, Richard II, Richard Maudelyn, Sir Bernard Brocas, Sir Thomas Blount, summary executions, Thomas Earl of Gloucester, Traison et Mort, Walsingham, William Feriby, Windsor CastleFollowing the deposition of Richard II, his leading supporters among the nobility were put on trial before Henry IV’s first parliament. Well, all apart from the Earl of Wiltshire who had – in plain terms – been murdered at Bristol on Henry’s orders before Henry became king. (As a Lancastrian, Henry was of course allowed…
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This marvellous illustration is called Headless Horseman Speedy by Jonake920 I love a ghost story on New Year’s Eve, and so here is one to send some shivers down your back. No, it is not a sample of my fiction-writing—well, not quite—but is actually said to have happened back at the end of the 14th…
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Well, all of them except Richard II. The following are extracts from the Introduction to Anthony Steel’s 1941 biography of Richard II. I think it is a very succinct and interesting description of the right to the throne of all the kings of England from Richard II to Henry VII. However… (see my comments at…
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This likeness of Richard II is from the cover of the Penguin Monarchs edition on this fascinating king, written by Laura Ashe. (Penguin Monarchs: Richard II – A Brittle Glory by Laura Ashe. http://tinyurl.com/zbur7aw) The reviews and comments at Amazon are mixed – the commenters even have a little spat. I will purchase it because I…
