Tournai
-
What on earth did the archbishop say to Edward III about Queen Philippa….?
Antwerp, Archbishop of Canterbury, Battle of Sluys, Blanche of the Tower, burghers of Calais, Edmund of Langley, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, Ghent, House of Lancaster, Ian Mortimer, john de stratford, John of Gaunt, Kathryn Warner, Lionel of Antwerp, Phillippa of Hainault, possible infidelity, siege of Tournoi, Tournai, treaty of esplechin, Westminster AbbeyWe have all probably heard the story of John of Gaunt being an illegitimate commoner because he was swapped at birth for a royal baby girl who died when the queen “overlay” her in bed. Only a boy from the town of Ghent could be found as a replacement. So there was no royal blood…
-
The magnificent tapestry in the above illustration is the one indicated in my heading. It’s the oldest possessed by the National Trust, and after four years of careful cleaning and attention, it’s going on display at Montacute House in Somerset. It was commissioned by a French knight and created by a weaver in Tournai.…
-
Two butchers, an archer and a “bourgeois of Tournai”….
“Perkin”, archers, Belgium, Blaybourne, butchers, Cecily Duchess of York, DNA evidence, Edmund of Langley, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, Ghent, Hainault, Henry IV, Henry Somerset Earl of Worcester, Henry VII, illegimacy rumours, John Ashdown-Hill, John of Gaunt, John Sperhauk, Leicester University, Lionel of Antwerp, Phillippa of Hainault, pre-contract, re-legitimisation, Richard III, Taunton, Titulus Regius, Titulus Regius 1486, Tournai, treason, Y-chromosome“….Consider, for example, the case of John Sperhauk, which came before King’s Bench in April 1402. The plea roll record opens with the memorandum of his confession taken on 13 April by the coroner of King’s Bench, before the king and ‘by [his] authority and command’. In this confession, Sperhauk admitted to publicly repeating allegations…