Richard III
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Well, it seems that my home city of Gloucester is about to become the centre of the world. In a manner of speaking, of course, because the “Gloucester History Festival goes from the mythical Middle Ages to the modern Middle East”—see here here. I wish we could rustle up our once-Duke of Gloucester, Richard III,…
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Meet the Brownes
Anne Boleyn, Battle of Northampton, Calais, Edmund de la Pole, Edward IV, elizabeth countess of worcester, Elizabeth Despenser, elizabeth paston, executions, fines, george browne, George Duke of Clarence, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, John Neville Marquis of Montagu, kentish rebellion, lucy neville, Merciless Parliament, paranoia, Richard III, Sir Anthony Browne, sir thomas browne, Tewkesbury, Thomas Penn, tong castle, treason, william fitzwilliamSir Thomas Browne (abt. 1402-1460) was a fervid Lancastrian. This is no doubt the reason that after the Battle of Northampton, he was either beheaded or hanged, drawn and quartered. (Sources differ). He was found guilty of High Treason, a bit of a stretch given that Henry VI was still King at the time and…
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Above is an illustration of the coronation of Edward IV, showing the new king’s golden splendour, and bottom right, his dark brother, the “vile, scheming, murderous” Richard of Gloucester. This illustration is, to me, a perfect illustration of fiction and non-fiction. Yes, Edward was a splendid king, but no, Richard of Gloucester was never the…
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On Radio Four’s “Saturday Live”, Philippa Langley announced that Richard III wasn’t unique among monarchs in having one shoulder higher than the other, but in such a way that nobody noticed during their lifetime. Elizabeth II was also uneven in this respect, concealed by her dressmaker, although we can safely assume that archery was not…
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As this article Walking Leicester’s new Richard III trail – 530 years in the making | Leicester holidays | The Guardian says, the trail that Richard III left through Leicester has been nearly 5½ centuries in the making. It certainly wasn’t a part of his realm that had particular meaning for him during his…
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More praise for Philippa Langley’s discoveries concerning the Princes in the Tower….
“Princes”, Battle of Bosworth, Berkeley Castle, Coldridge, Dominic Smee, Edward II, Edward III, Elizabeth of York, Fieschi Letter, Henry IV, Henry VII, illegitimacy, John Ashdown-Hill, Kathryn Warner, Leicester dig, mtDNA evidence, Philippa Langley, Pontefract Castle, Richard II, Richard III, scoliosis, Sir William Stanley, stained glass, The Lost King, Titulus Regius, Titulus Regius 1486, usurpationPraise and admiration abound for Philippa Langley’s new discoveries and the book that tells all about the work she and her colleagues have been doing to trace what really happened to the boys in the Tower, the sons of Edward IV. Well, they were princes until 1483, then they were illegitimate boys, and then…
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A review of The Mists of Middleham by Pauline Calkin. Reposted from the Richard III Society page. The Mists of Middleham – An Alianore Audley Novel by Brian Wainwright. Readers may remember Alianore Audley as the wise-cracking, no nonsense Yorkist Intelligence operative who gave us her first-hand account of the reigns of Edward IV…
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It had never struck me before that the Dukes of Gloucester of the past haven’t been exactly fortunate. They might even be said to have been cursed. Well, that’s according to this article. The first creation was Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III. He wasn’t a very pleasant man who pushed his nephew…
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Being king in the medieval period was definitely not an easy ride of luxury, comfort, feasting, wine, women and song. Well, it was but it also had its drawbacks. Not only did one have to contend with foreign enemies (and enemies within your own ranks) but there were those pesky creatures called pretenders. Some of…
