The Anarchy
-
Wanted …
Albert Dock, Alice Roberts, ampitheatres, anchorites, Anglo-Dutch Wars, Anglo-Saxon burials, animal bones, Antony Bek, Auckland Castle, Bishop’s Stortford, Blitz, Cat Jarman, chapels, Cheshire, Civil War, cobalt mines, Coleshill Manor, copper, Cornwall, debased coinage, demolition, digging for Britain, docks, Dorchester, Dorset, Edinburgh, Elizabeth I, English Channel, fire, fireplaces, flint tools, forts, Harlaxton Hall, Haverfordwest, henges, Henry VIII, hill forts, Holyrood Park, HS2, Hull, Iron Age, Isabelle German, Islay, jewellery, Lincolnshire, Liverpool, Loftus, Londonderry, matriarchy, Mercia, midlands, Mint, Neolithic Era, Old Coppernose, osteoparosis, Oxford, Peterborough, piermasters, prince bishops, Priories, recolouring, rheumatoid arthritis, Robert Greville Lord Brooke, Roche, Roman baths, Romans, roundhouses, Rutland, Rutland mosaic, salting, Scarborough, shields, sieges, silver plating, South Blockhouse, spiral staircases, Stane Street, Streethouse, Stuart Prior, syphilis, The Anarchy, Thomas Hardy, Tower of London, Vespasian, Victorians, volcanoes, Wessex Archaeology, Western Isles, Wiltshire, York, YorkshireDigging for Britain is back, just twenty hours into the New Year, for series 10 (excluding a few specials). Alice Roberts is still the host, with Cat Jarman and Stuart Prior. The first episode included a Roman road in Bishop’s Stortford, an Iron Age matriarchy excavated in Dorset and a Lady of the Mercians (but…
-
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…
-
Originally posted on Giaconda's Blog: The Crypt at Oxford Castle – built on Anglo-Saxon foundations The first Jewish settlers arrived in Oxford not long after the Norman Conquest, around 1075AD residing in the commercial heart of the city at St Aldates which became known as Great Jewry Street, close to the original C8th oxen…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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
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 MalmesburyIn 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…