Richard III
-
In the recent newspaper reports about further genetic testing on King Richard’s remains, a surprise for many people was the fact he had a fairly strong blond gene. As is typical, the newspapers jumped on this new information immediately, inundating us with a series of badly photoshopped pictures of Richard III with bright yellow Barbie-doll…
-
In November I took part in the National Novel Writing Month challenge to write 50,000 words over the month of November and I succeeded! As a reward those who ‘win’ get a link where they can buy the year’s winners’ T-shirt, so I bought it. This is the design this year – I think it…
-
This illustration is from a video of a Legendary Ten Seconds song called ‘The Lord Protector’. It is set in 1483, when Richard III was still Duke of Gloucester. The king, Richard’s elder brother, Edward IV, died suddenly, and on his deathbed declared Richard should be Lord Protector during the minority of Edward’s son, the…
-
Well, perhaps ‘makeover’ isn’t quite right, because he’s been flattered by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Musician. See above. There again, perhaps I do George an injustice by saying he’s been flattered, because we don’t know what he looked like, only that he had Edward IV and Richard III for brothers. So, I think it would…
-
Yesterday there was a comment on a Facebook group by a lady named Elizabeth Borson, that Kit Harington, the actor who plays Jon Snow in “Game of Thrones”, is a descendant of William Catesby, Richard III’s advisor. Kit is apparently also descended from Charles II, but it is Richard’s era that is of interest to…
-
Why lineage still matters in battle
“Beauforts”, “Tudors”, Battle of Bosworth, Blanche of Lancaster, Cnut, Earl of Oxford, Edmund Mortimer, Edward I, Edward IV, Edward VI, Emma of Normandy, Ethelred II, Hastings, Henry I, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, House of York, James VII/II, Jane, Joan of Acre, Mary I, Matilda, Richard II, Richard III, Stephen, William I, William IIIThe crown of England, among others, has often been claimed in battle or by other forceful means. However, to exercise such a claim, it is necessary to persuade a challenger’s military followers that he has a dynastic claim of sorts, even when this is greatly exaggerated or totally spurious. Thus William I, the Conqueror or…
-
The above rather dark and dingy painting shows the unfortunate Margaret of Anjou, queen of the Lancastrian monarch, King Henry VI, being led from the battlefield at Tewkesbury after being captured. She had not only lost the battle, but also her son, the heir to the throne, seventeen-year-old Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. The…
-
Richard III, as we know, was originally buried by the Leicester Greyfriars or Franciscans, with whom his family had something of a connection. In an earlier era, the (fictional) Friar Tuck is portrayed as an associate of Robin Hood, resisting Prince John’s assumption of power in Richard I’s absence. Richard I died in 1199. The…
-
I was lucky enough to get a board game for Christmas from my 29 year old son, Jim, who is a board game fanatic! Luckily his wife, Kat, is too! Anyway, this one is a bit special because it is called “Richard IIITM – The Wars of the Roses” by Columbia Games, Inc. (Incidentally, I’m…
-
Among the tongue-in-cheek reports for looking back on 2015 (that’s not a typo), Guardian.com for 28th December 2014 has this to say:- Twelve more bodies identified as Richard III The laboratory that identified the skeleton from under a Leicester car park as the last Plantagenet king was in the spotlight again last spring when 12…
