Scotland
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“Time-honour’d Lancaster” was given to pressing on at the expense of his men….
1475 invasion of France, Anthony Goodman, Anthony Steel, arnold, bayonne, Bordeaux, Calais, Castile, chevauchee, Constanza of Castile, david nicolle, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Edward the Black Prince, Elizabeth of Lancaster, France, Froissart, Gascony, Helen Carr, Henry IV, Hundred Years War, John of Gaunt, Jonathan Sumption, Navarre, Pedro I, Portugal, Scotland, Sir John Holland, Spain, tournaments, troyes, unofficial executions, usurpation, villalpandoIn late April 1388, John of Gaunt‘s son-in-law Sir John Holand returned to England from the Spanish peninsula, where he had been constable of Gaunt’s army. Gaunt had invaded the peninsula in pursuit of the Crown of Castile, to which he had a claim through his marriage to the Infanta Constanza. I am now going…
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“…Josephine Tey, a beloved Scottish crime writer, is poised to join the esteemed ranks of women honored on the Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland map….” Well, what more need be said? Tey redeemed Richard III at a time when he was definitely regarded as the awful creature conjured by More, Shakespeare and the truly…
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Digging for Britain (series 11)
Alice Roberts, bags, bath houses, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chedworth, defences, digging for Britain, docks, dodecahedrons, Domesday Book, Dorset, Dover, Enfield, evacuation, Exeter Cathedral, flint tools, forty hall, Gloucester, Grampians, gun emplacement, Henry V, Hereford, Imber, Kent, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, Lowther Castle, Marshes, mosaic tiles, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northampton, norton disney, nunneries, Owain Glyn Dwr, Platonic solids, postern gates, pubs, Roman Britain, roundhouses, Scotland, Septimus Severus, shoes, Smallhythe, Snodhill Castle, Strathclyde, Syston, timber, Tintern Abbey, trade, Trellau Park, Wales, Waterloo, William II, WW2 defences, WyeAs another year dawns, it must be time for another series of Britain’s archeological highlights, divided into five regions. This time, it started in the north with Carlisle Cricket Club hosting a dig associated with the bathhouse of the emperor Septimius Severus, a particularly steep part of the Grampians and Lowther Castle, a site that…
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“Becoming Elizabeth”
Admiral Thomas Seymour, Alicia von Rittburg, Amy Robsart, Anglo-Scottish Wars, beards, Catherine Parr, Channel Four, David Starkey, Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, executions, Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, Henry VIII, heresy, Jane, John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, Kett Rebellion, Lord Guildford Dudley, Lord Protector of the Realm, Mary I, Mary Stuart, Norwich, Oliver Zetterstrom, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, ScotlandThis drama series, from Starz but now broadcast on Channel Four, follows the momentous but unheralded reign of Edward VI through the eyes of the future Elizabeth I. It features the literally fratricidal feud between the Seymour brothers as the elder, the Duke of Somerset, becomes Lord Protector but also the King’s governor, powers that…
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Further Royal ancestry – twice over this time
Alexander Armstrong, BBC1, Bear Grylls, bigamy, Bruce Forsyth, Canada, cellists, Chris Ramsey, Chris van Tulleken, Claire Foy, Clare Balding, composers, Danny Dyer, Dev Griffin, Emily Atack, Henry III, honours, Josh Widdicombe, Julian Lloyd Webber, katherine Willoughby, Kevin Clifton, Lancastrians, Lesley Manville, Lloyd Webber, musicians, Netherlands, Richard Bertie, royal descent, Scotland, Scouts, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Sir Peregrine Maitland, USA, Waterloo, Who do you think you are?, Xand van TullekenWho do you think you are, the celebrity genealogy show with some surprising results, has returned to BBC1 on Thursday evenings. The twentieth series, of nine episodes, began with Andrew, Lord Lloyd Webber, whose parents, cellist brother Julian and late son Nick were also known to be musically talented, but makes some uncannily similar connections…
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The Battle of Largs
Alexander II, Alexander III, Alexander of Dundonald, Battle of Largs, Chronicle of Melrose, Clan McDonald, Dal Riata, dowries, Duke of Rothesay, England, Eric II, Gaelic kingdoms, Haakon IV, Hakonar saga Hakonarsona, Hebrides, Henry III, High Steward, House of Dunkeld, Iceland, Ireland, James III, Kirkwall, Lords of the Isles, Malcolm III, McWilliams, North Sea, Norway, Orkneys, Richard III, Scotland, Scottish campaign 1482, Shetlands, siege of Berwick, Sigrid the Haughty, StewartsDuring the first quarter of the second millennium, Scotland did not have a clear northern or western border. There was the North Sea to the east and England to the south, where the exact line varied on occasion, but the status of the west coast was far more nebulous. There was a Gaelic kingdom of…
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Buc
“Beauforts”, “Perkin”, “The History of King Richard III”, accuracy, Ancestry, Annette Carson, antiquaries, Arthur Kincaid, Battle of Bosworth, bigamy, Bigods, Catherine de Roet, character, denialists, executions, fire, George Buck, Henry VII, heralds, Hereward the Wake, Howards, illegitimacy, John of Gaunt, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lancastrians, More, notes, pre-contract, Ricardian, Richard III Society, Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors, scoliosis, Scotland, Sir George Buc, Sir Hugh Swynford, Sir Robert Buck, Sir Robert Cotton, Society of Antiquaries, Statute of Merton, Stewarts, Tiberius, Titulus Regius, viva voceHere it is at last, a publication sponsored by the Society of Antiquaries and the Richard III Society. Over forty years after his last edition of Buc‘s magnum opus, Arthur Kincaid has managed to remove the “wrapping paper” added by the author’s less painstaking great-nephew and namesake so that only the original remains. Through the…
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When it comes to yew trees (European variety – taxus baccata, picture from the Woodland Trust) the British Isles are very well endowed, not only with thousands of fine specimens, but hundreds of fine ancient specimens. Who hasn’t noticed the yew trees that grow by our parish churches? It’s said they’re a remnant of pagan…
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Here is an excellent article about mediaeval myths. It discusses the “right of the first night” (here called prima nocta and supposedly imposed by Edward I in Scotland, according to Braveheart), table manners, the frequency of open warfare as opposed to sieges, the standard of food and the chastity belt.
The New Murrey and Blue blog 