Shakespeare
-
Here are Historic England’s ten top archaeological discoveries of the decade. Needless to say, the discovery of Richard III’s remains figures high on the list. He’d been thought to have been buried in Leicester Greyfriars…or maybe thrown into the River Soar! But no, Greyfriars was the place. However, what I didn’t know was that Greyfriars…
-
I came upon an interesting Instagram post by Royalty-now where someone had taken the Society of Antiquaries portrait of Richard III, removed his hat and long hair and blended his face with that of a 21st century man. Although I miss the hair personally, I think he scrubbed up rather well! A few folk commenting…
-
We have already shown how Shakespeare was inadvertently influenced by contemporary or earlier events in setting details – names, events, badges or physical resemblance – for his Hamlet, King Lear and Richard III. What of Romeo and Juliet, thought to have been written between 1591-5 and first published, in quarto form, in 1597? The most…
-
Epiphany – medieval and now….
Anne of Bohemia, birthdays, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of Our Lady of the Pew, Christmas, Christmas decorations, Epiphany, Epiphany Rising, feast days, Gregorian Calendar, Henry IV, Julian Calendar, Magi, Peasants’ Revolt, Pontefract Castle, rebellion, Richard II, Shakespeare, Sir William Walworth, Smithfield, St. Edmund, St. Edward the Confessor, St. George, St. John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Twelfth Night, wassailing, Wat Tyler, Westminster Abbey, Wilton Diptych, yule logsAccording to the Oxford Dictionary, the following two definitions refer to the use of the word epiphany:- The manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12). Definition (1) A moment of sudden and great revelation/realisation. Definition (2) Epiphany has been a recognised feast of the Western Church since the 5th…
-
Coming Upon the King: My Accidental Path Toward Becoming a Ricardian
“Eleanor”, “Princes”, Alaska, Anglo-Saxons, Anne Mowbray, Castillon, denialists, dental evidence, dishonesty, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Garden Tower, Henry VII, John Ashdown-Hill, John Earl of Shrewsbury, Josephine Josepha Wilkinson, King Lear, Leicester dig, Magna Carta, mtDNA evidence, Nevilles, Richard III, Richard III Society, Shakespeare, Stuarts, Tanner and Wright, Weir, Westminster AbbeyI’ll be perfectly honest with you: I was never really that interested in Richard Plantagenet, later Richard III. In school I had avoided the Anglo-Saxons like the plague, and Richard, well, perhaps like a round of the flu. He wasn’t quite as intimidating, despite the double-murder allegation lodged, and I got away with not having…
-
I never really know quite what to say when it comes to the private life of Edward II. I know he is generally regarded as being homosexual, but what we consider to be that now may not be quite the same as what was believed in the late 13th – early 14th century. Edward has…
-
We all know the amazing reconstruction of the head of Richard III, and the confirmation it gave of how he really had looked. Forget Shakespeare’s Richard III, the real man had been young, good-looking and altogether normal, except for scoliosis that affected his spine. But when he was dressed, it wouldn’t have shown, especially in…
-
Scoliosis treatments at the time of Richard III
“Tudor” propaganda, Battle of Bosworth, Eugenie of York, genetics, hormones, idiopathic scoliosism, Ipswich, James Blake, Kurt Cobain, Leicester Greyfriars, Liz Taylor, Liza Minelli, massage, Richard III, Richard III Society, Robert Lovell, scoliosis, Shakespeare, surgery, traction, Turkish baths, Usain BoltAfter centuries of slanders about Richard III, always named as “the hunchbacked king”, it was finally proved that he just suffered from scoliosis. He was not born with this condition but he probably started to suffer with it in his adolescence between 10 and 15. This is the so-called idiopathic scoliosis that can be, in…
-
Discovering one’s illustrious ancestors appears to be quite the thing these days, and now we have someone who is descended from the man responsible for publishing Shakespeare’s First Folio. “….A theatre producer who has brought the Elizabethan era to York City Centre and Blenheim Palace has discovered that he is related to the man who…
-
More isn’t our favourite man by any stretch of the imagination, but he is important because of the immensely detrimental effect he has had upon the history and reputation of Richard III. He, the Tudors and Shakespeare conspired to ruin Richard’s honour, and we Ricardians will never forgive them. But, if you can bring yourself…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 