Staffords

The Granddaughters of Edward III

Dec 5, 2023

anniversaries, Book Reviews, buildings, genealogy, religion

Anne Neville, Catherine of Aragon, Edward II, Edward IV, Henri IV, Isabel Neville, Joan “Beaufort”, John of Gaunt, Kathryn Warner, Mary Stuart, Maximilian I, Minories, Percies, Philippa of Ulster, Phillip II, Poles, Richard III, Staffords

So here is the latest of Kathryn Warner‘s series about Edward II’s family. As the title suggests, it is focussed on the lives of Edward III’s eleven grandaughters, nine of whom were paternally descended including four by John of Gaunt. The first, Philippa of Clarence, was born in 1355 and the last to die was…
Cut Down That Family Tree!

May 22, 2023

anniversaries, genealogy, law, Science, sources

“Joan of York”, Anne Boleyn, annulments, Arthur, bad genealogy sites, Eleanor of Aquitaine, executed women, Henry of Buckingham, Magnus Maximus, Margaret Darrell, Richard III, settlers, Staffords, Weir

Online History groups are frequently visited by new members who excitedly tell tales of their illustrious ancestral history–Eleanor of Aquitaine is their x 20 gran, Richard III is a direct forebear along with Anne Boleyn, they have mysterious Dark Age chieftains, Roman generals like Magnus Maximus…even King Arthur has popped up from time to time.…
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn really did sleep here….!

May 19, 2023

anniversaries, battles, culture, genealogy, law, religion

Anne Boleyn, Edward of Buckingham, executions, ghosts, Gloucestershire, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VIII, Jasper “Tudor”, licence to crenellate, Staffords, Thornbury Castle

If you fancy staying in a Tudor castle, then Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire is the place for you. It’s a beautiful castle that is now presented very much in the Tudor style. “….It was built in 1510 by Edward Stafford, the Duke of Buckingham, who had been given permission by the young King Henry VIII…
Buckden Bishop’s Palace

May 13, 2023

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, religion

“Princess Dowager”, Anne Neville, Bishops of Lincoln, Buckden Towers, Cambridgeshire, Catherine of Aragon, Cecily Neville, coaching villages, ghosts, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VIII, John Russell, Kimbolton Castle, knot garden, railways, Richard III, Staffords, Thomas Rotherham, towers

A few years back I wrote about Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire, the old palace of the Bishops of Lincoln. Finally, with the pandemic receding, I was able to visit the site in its small village (once a thriving place in coaching times and earlier but much diminished with the advent of the railways.) Here Richard…
RICHARD WHITTINGTON c.1350-1423. MERCER, MAYOR AND A MOST BENEVOLENT CITIZEN OF LONDON

Mar 8, 2023

anniversaries, buildings, law, religion, sources

Alice Fitzwaryn, Anne Sutton, Blitz, cats, charitable donations, City of London, College Hill, Edward VI, estates, Gloucestershire, Henry IV, Henry V, John Earl of Somerset, John of Gaunt, John Stow, la Riole, legends, Lord Mayors of London, Mary I, medicine, mercers, moneylenders, pantomimes, Pauntley Court Manor, Richard II, Sir Ivo Fitzwaryn, Sir Richard Whittington, Sir Simon Burley, Somerset, Staffords, Thomas of woodstock, Westminster Abbey, Wiltshire

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com A delightful artist’s impression of ‘Richard Whittington dispensing his charities’. Artist Henrietta Ray before 1905 oil on canvas. Royal exchange. Even the most disinterested in history children would recognise the name Dick/Richard Whittington and also his best, and only friend, his cat, most of them being familiar with the rather delightful folk…
The OTHER MARGARET BEAUFORT

Dec 28, 2022

anniversaries, battles

“Princes”, Battle of Northampton, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, executions, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VII, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Beaufort, Salisbury, Sir Richard Darrell, Staffords, The Cornish Rebellion, William Viscount Stafford

When anyone hears the name ‘Margaret Beaufort’, they always think instantly of the mother of Henry Tudor. However, there was another Margaret Beaufort, who also had a famous son called Henry, whose mother also bore the surname Beauchamp, who married one of the Staffords, and who was widowed young and remarried—although there her life…
Newport and the lucky/unlucky Staffords….

Dec 20, 2022

battles, buildings, genealogy, law

Battle of Shrewsbury, Buckingham rebellion, Earls of Stafford, executions, Gwent, Henry of Buckingham, Hugh Earl of Stafford, John Holland, murder, Newport Castle, pilgrimage, Ralph Stafford, Richard II, Richard III, Scottish campaign 1385, Staffords, William Howard Viscount Stafford

It seems to me, looking at the list in this article about Newport Castle, that a few members of the Stafford family came to sticky ends, some deserved, some apparently not. They may have been unlucky, but the family was wealthy and titled, so perhaps not that hard done by. In 1377 Hugh, Earl of…
Another branch of the Pole family?

Oct 23, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, heraldry, sources

baronets, Civil War, Claydon House, Compton Verney, Edge Hill, Eleanor Pole, Geoffrey Pole I, Hastings family, Henry Lord Montagu, Henry Pole the Younger, Henry VII, Ireland, Lord Mayors of London, Lordington, Margaret of Salisbury, Middle Claydon, siege of Drogheda, Sir Arthur Pole, Sir Ralph Verney, Sir Richard Pole, Staffords, Ursula Pole Lady Stafford, Verneys, Visitation of Hampshire

We know that Sir Richard Pole, cousin of Henry VII, husband of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, grandfather of Henry Pole the Younger and progenitor of the later Stafford and Hastings families, as his own male line was extinct by 1619, was an only son and that the identity of his paternal grandfather is unclear. It…
KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Apr 6, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, sources, The play’s the thing

AA Milne, Angevin bloodline, Anglicanism, annulment, Arthur of Brittany, Ascension Day, authorship, avarice, Barons, burials, Cardinal Pandulph, character, charles forker, clergymen, Crowland Chronicle, Defender of the Faith, Earls of Essex, Edward Hall, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Eucharist, excommunication, Fauconbridge brothers, Geoffrey Plantagenet, George Peel, graham Seel, Henry, Henry the Young King, Henry VIII, Historiography, House of York, Hubert de Bergh, Innocent III, John, john Bale, John Dover-Wilson, John Gillingham, John Harvey, John Matusiak, John Wycliffe, Kit Marlowe, Lackland, Louis VIII, Magna Carta, male primogeniture, Mary I, Maude Plantagenet, Mirabeau, morality plays, Phillip Augustus, plays, Polydore Vergil, Ralph Holinshed, recusants, Reformation, Richard Green, Richard Hunne, Richard I, Robin Hood, royal burials, sir brian vickers, Sir James Holt, Six Articles, Softsword, Staffords, stephen langton, Stuarts, Tillyard, Walt Disney, Wilfred Warren, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, Worcester Cathedral

KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION King John was not a good man, He had his little ways. And sometimes no one spoke to him For days and days and days. And men who came across him, When walking in the town, Gave him a supercilious stare, Or passed with noses in the air, And…
ORCHESTON & THE DUKES OF BUCKINGHAM

Jan 11, 2022

battles, buildings, genealogy, religion

Battle of Bosworth, Battle of Northampton, churches, Edward Darell, Edward of Buckingham, executions, fonts, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VIII, Hugh de Audley, Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, Orcheston, Seymours, Staffords, Wiltshire

During lockdown, I found myself walking around local villages, some that I had only passed through before. An interesting one was Orcheston, a tiny, sleepy place which has not one, but TWO medieval churches, St George’s and St Mary’s, one set at either end of the village. Both were interesting to visit but what was…