Richard III
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Pembroke didn’t pop the Weasel when it should have….!
“Perkin”, “Princes”, “Tudor” propaganda, Arthur, attainders, Battle of Bosworth, Brittany, Cadwallader, Catherine de Valois, Edmund “Tudor”, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, French mercenaries, Henry V, Henry VII, Jasper “Tudor”, Lady Margaret Beaufort, parsimony, Pembroke Castle, pike wall, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, statues, Titulus Regius, WalesWell, the first part of a riveting, absolutely factual series about Henry VII was warning enough. I confess to having had to read the first sentence twice, because first time around I thought Edmund Tudor was fighting against the Duke of York’s men and Edmund’s own wife, Margaret Beaufort, who was Henry’s underage mother. Shame on…
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Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known to posterity as the Kingmaker, was a very prominent figure in the 15th century and featured in one of my very early books. He was born today, 22 November, in 1428. I’ve seen numerous depictions of him, but have just happened upon a drawing (see above) that I…
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We all know the Grand Old Duke of York marched his 10,000 men up a hill and then down again. But which Duke of York was it? If you go here you’ll find there are a number of candidates, including the 3rd Duke, father of Edward IV and Richard III. In general, however, my…
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We’ve been deluged with reviews and information about The Lost King, and we’re flocking to see it wherever we can. But one thing has always been thin on the ground, and that’s publicity photographs. We’ve had the same few, so finding another (not actually from the film itself) with Philippa Langley and Harry Lloyd looking…
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The above gentlemen have the infamous Habsburg chin on full display. It means they are definitely not going to win a World’s Handsomest Man competition any time soon. Their chins and general looks are the result of generations of inbreeding, the aim being to keep the royal blood pure. Well, there’s pure and there’s…
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Settling the Bosworth Debt….
“Perkin”, “Princes”, All Hallows, arrests, bigamy, Duke of York, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, executions, ghosts, Halloween, Henry VII, Henry VIII, House of York, illegitimacy, Lord Chamberlain, masks, pre-contract, Richard III, Sir William Stanley, torture, Tower Hill, Tower of London, treachery, Westminster HallWith the denizens of Hades gathering to do their worst, here is a horror tale of Sir William Stanley’s final Hallowe’en, when retribution snatches him at last. “Settling the Bosworth Debt” is the story of what happened to William when he was confronted by some terrible truths about Henry Tudor. Friday, 31 October, 1494, Hallowe’en,…
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Isabel Mylbery is quite obscure. The earliest evidence we have is from about 1510. Garter King-at-Arms recorded that she was ‘educata ut fert[ur] pre Regem E[dwardum] iiij’ which means, roughly, that she was brought up by Edward IV. She also bore lions and white roses in her coat of arms. None of this is remotely…
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Here is a shortish article about monarchs with a bad name. No prizes for predicting that it will include Richard III. However, it also deals with others. Stephen’s reign, for instance, was “an unmitigated disaster”, and Henry VI was also a disaster. Enough said about John. Henry VIII is remembered only for his six…
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Well, according to this site here we have “The Top 10 hinge moments in history”. As five of the ten concern 20th-century politics, you will forgive me for being somewhat mystified that such matters count as pivotal moments. For whom, pray? How on earth can Michael Portillo losing out to Iain Duncan Smith…