Stephen

Rebellion in the Middle Ages

Dec 19, 2022

anniversaries, battles, Book Reviews, buildings, law, religion

Archbishop of Canterbury, Arthur of Brittany, Azincourt, Bannockburn, Barons’ War, Battle of Evesham, Battle of Hastings, Battle of Lewes, Battle of Shrewsbury, Black Death, Blackheath, Boroughbridge, Canterbury Cathedral, Crusades, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Edward I, Edward II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, executions, First Battle of St. Albans, France, Geoffrey of Brittany, Henry Cardinal Beaufort, Henry II, Henry III, Henry IV, Henry the Young King, Henry V, Henry VI, Hereward the Wake, House of Lancaster, Hugh Despencer, Hugh Despencer the Younger, Humphrey of Gloucester, insanity, Isabelle de France, Isle of Ely, Jack Cade, John, John Ashdown-Hill, John Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Protector of the Realm, Lords Ordainers, Magna Carta, Matilda, Matt Lewis, murder, Parliament, Peasants’ Revolt, Peterborough Abbey, Piers Gaveston, rebellions, Richard Duke of York, Richard I, Richard II, Robert of Gloucester, Roger Mortimer, Royal Marriage Secrets, Scarborough Castle, secret marriage, Southampton plot, St. Thomas Becket, Stephen, The Anarchy, Thomas of Lancaster, Tower of London, usurpation, Wakefield, Wars of the Roses, William Duke of Suffolk, William I, William Marshall

This is the latest of Matthew Lewis’ books and covers a longer period than any of the others, from Hereward the Wake’s emergence after Hastings to the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, almost as long a period as this book. Lewis is already an expert on “The Anarchy” (chapter 2) and the Roses…
The Empress and the Tower: A Daring Escape from Oxford Castle in 1142

Dec 18, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings

escapes, Matilda, river Isis, Siege of Oxford, snow, Stephen, The Anarchy

Originally posted on Giaconda's Blog: Empress Matilda The Oxford Castle and Prison complex drips with history. Tracing it’s roots back to Anglo-Saxon England and the world of Viking raids and fortified burghs when towns like Oxford faced waves of violence and destruction; the castle has endured sieges, held political prisoners and undergone numerous adaptations…
Good name, bad name, which monarch gets what….

Oct 25, 2022

anniversaries, law, religion

“wives”, Exmouth Journal, Henry VI, Henry VIII, James VII/II, John, Mary I, Mary II, monarchs, reputations, Richard III, Stephen, William III

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…
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Oxford Castle and King Arthur

Jun 4, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings, religion, sources

Arthur, Charles I, colleges, English Civil War, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry I, History of the Kings of Britain, Matilda, monastic life, Oxford Castle, Oxford Prison, Robert D’Oylly, Siege of Oxford, Stephen, The Anarchy

Originally posted on Giaconda's Blog: King Arthur at the beginning of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain BnF, Latin 8501A, f. 108v Geoffrey of Monmouth is thought to have been born between 1090 -1100 in Wales; possibly at Monmouth but no written evidence remains to verify this. Geoffrey also signed himself…
The White Ship

Nov 25, 2021

anniversaries, archaeology, Book Reviews, genealogy, Science, travel

Charles Earl Spencer, disasters, drunkenness, Henry I, Institute for Digital Archaeology, Matilda, Normandy, shipping, Stephen, The Anarchy, White Ship Disaster, William Adelin

Here is a Daily Telegraph review of Charles, Earl Spencer‘s book about the sinking of the White Ship in 1120. It includes a lot of hypotheses based upon the survival of William the Atheling, the tenager who was Henry I‘s only surviving legitimate son but was the most prominent casualty of this maritime incident, arguably…
ROYAL PECULIARS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES

Feb 12, 2021

anniversaries, buildings, law, religion

“Princes”, Anne Boleyn, Blitz, Catherine Howard, Chapel of St. John the Baptist, Chapel Royal, Diana Princess of Wales, Edward IV, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Wydeville, executions, George Duke of Bedford, Hampton Court, Hans Holbein, Henry VII Lady Chapel, hospitals, Jane, John of Gaunt, Lord Guildford Dudley, Margaret of Salisbury, Mary of York, Matilda of Blois, Peasants’ Revolt, Prince Louis of Cambridge, Queen’s Chapel, Royal Foundation of St. Katherine, Royal Peculiars, Savoy Palace, Simon Sudbury, St. george’s Chapel, St. James Palace, St. John the Evangelist, St. Peter ad Vincula, Stephen, Thomas More, Thomas Wolsey, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com The glorious ceiling of the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court. Photo James Brittain . Historic Royal Palaces. The main reason, and perhaps the only reason, why the bones in the urn in Westminster Abbey supposed to be those of the sons of Edward IV known as the “Princes” in the Tower, Edward of Westminster and…
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS WAR – Part 1: the Devil’s brood

Sep 16, 2020

anniversaries, battles, religion

Angevin Empire, Aquitaine, Aragon, Arthur of Brittany, Barons’ War, Berengaria, Brittany, Capetians, Cathars, Crusades, Edward I, Eleanor of Aquitaine, excommunication, France, Frederick VI, Gascony, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, Henry the Young King, Henry V, Holy Roman Empire, John, Louis VII, Magna Carta, Matilda, Napoleon, Norman conquest, Normandy, Phillip I, Phillip II, Plantagenets, Richard I, Stephen, Thomas Becket, Three Hundred Years’ War, Treaty of Bretigny, Treaty of Paris, Treaty of Troyes, William I, William II, William Marshall, William the Lion

Preface I conceived this article as a defence of King Henry V against the accusation that he was a war criminal. It became apparent, however, that my research was drawing me away from Henry’s campaigns towards a broader study of the origin and causes of the Hundred Years War. Soon, I was reading material going…
Another C12 female monarch

Feb 10, 2020

anniversaries, genealogy, law

Baldwin III, BBC Radio, Fulk of Anjou, Henry I, Henry II, In our Time, Jerusalem, Matilda, Matthew Lewis, Melisande, Melvyn Bragg, radio reviews, Stephen, The Anarchy

For nineteen years, as Matthew Lewis relates here, England was torn between Matilda, Henry I’s only surviving legitimate child, and Stephen of Blois, his nephew. She married Geoffrey of Anjou before their son Henry II succeeded her rival, but her position was difficult because of her gender. The concept of a “Queen Regnant” was unknown…
The Death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester

Oct 31, 2019

anniversaries, battles, genealogy, sources

Adela of Normandy, Arundel Castle, Battle of Lincoln, books, Bristol Castle, Faversham Abbey, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry I, illegitimacy, Matilda, Matthew Lewis, Reading Abbey, Robert of Gloucester, St. James’ Priory Bristol, Stephen, The Anarchy, White Ship Disaster, William I, William II, William of Malmesbury

In writing Stephen and Matilda: Cousins of Anarchy, I was keen to apply the same narrow-eyed pursuit of solid facts that I hope comes across in my books on the Wars of the Roses. More than being about battles and, well, anarchy, I wanted to discover the real personalities behind the stories, the people who…
Mer de Mort reviewed

Sep 24, 2019

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, Music Reviews

anarchy, Bannockburn, Berkeley Castle, Coldridge, Edmund Mortimer, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV, George Duke of Clarence, Henry II, Henry VII, House of Mortimer, House of York, John Challis, Leintwardine, Matilda, Piers Gaveston, Richard III, Roger Mortimer, Simon de Montfort, Sir John Evans, Stephen, The Legendary Ten Seconds, tournaments, Wigmore Abbey

Anything new from the Legendary Ten Seconds is always to be greeted with delight, and this new album does not disappoint. It tells the story of the House of Mortimer from its beginnings in France, to its ultimate destiny on the throne of England, through its descendants of the House of York, Edward IV and…