summary executions
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I am somewhat puzzled by a recent suggestion (by “Historical Discussions” here) that Banns were published for Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville on 24th May 1465, over a year after their secret ceremony. Banns were normally read prior to the solemnisation of a canonical wedding and on three separate occasions. It is true that from…
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Right, for this little exercise one needs observant ears. Yes, ears. You see, whoever—or whatever—narrates this small video has a very strange way of doing it. His/its diction is oddly mechanical, to say the least and some of the words are barely comprehensible. Yet it is English, I’m sure of that! Apart from the above,…
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Here is a puzzle, circa 1400. Why would a usurped king’s half-brother bury a chest of books in the ground at the church in his Devon estate? The usurped king was Richard II, the half-brother John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon (had been Duke of Exeter), the Devon estate Dartington. This was just before Holand joined…
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The Epiphany Plot of 1400
Abbot of Westminster, anniversaries, Bristol, Charles VI, Chris Givern-Wilson, Earl of Wiltshire, Edmund Duke of York, Edward Duke of York, Epiphany Rising, Henry IV, Ian Mortimer, John Duke of Exeter, John Earl of Salisbury, Lancastrians, Lollards, Maidenhead, Marie Louise Bruce, Mortimers, Nigel Saul, Old St. Paul’s, Owain Glyn Dwr, Pleshey Castle, Richard II, Richard Maudelyn, Sir Bernard Brocas, Sir Thomas Blount, summary executions, Thomas Earl of Gloucester, Traison et Mort, Walsingham, William Feriby, Windsor CastleFollowing the deposition of Richard II, his leading supporters among the nobility were put on trial before Henry IV’s first parliament. Well, all apart from the Earl of Wiltshire who had – in plain terms – been murdered at Bristol on Henry’s orders before Henry became king. (As a Lancastrian, Henry was of course allowed…
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Following on from the blog A Big Development below…. It is interesting that the latest scientifically gleaned results to come out from the tests made on the remains of King Richard III, have raised in a question mark over the line of legitimacy on his paternal side. Someone, somewhere, somewhen committed adultery, and the resultant…
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Chapter 10 of Ashdown-Hill’s “The Last days …” (pp.92-7) describes the circumstances of Richard’s first burial in great detail and adds some intriguing points. Right at the beginning, we learn that Leicester’s Abbey, also lost and the burial place of fellow “Tudor” victim Thomas Wolsey, was more prestigious than the Greyfriars church. So why was…