USA

After the Mayflower …

Mar 5, 2024

anniversaries, religion, travel

Mayflower, Native Americans, Pilgrim Fathers, Plymouth Plantation, settlers, Thanksgiving, USA, Wampanoags, Washington Post

Here is a Washington Post article discussing the consequences for one particular Native American tribe of the arrival of the Mayflower in America just over four centuries ago. As you can see, those consequences weren’t very positive but the Pilgrims themselves are rarely mentioned, except at Thanksgiving.
Further Royal ancestry – twice over this time

Oct 28, 2023

anniversaries, battles, culture, genealogy, religion, television reviews, travel

Alexander Armstrong, BBC1, Bear Grylls, bigamy, Bruce Forsyth, Canada, cellists, Chris Ramsey, Chris van Tulleken, Claire Foy, Clare Balding, composers, Danny Dyer, Dev Griffin, Emily Atack, Henry III, honours, Josh Widdicombe, Julian Lloyd Webber, katherine Willoughby, Kevin Clifton, Lancastrians, Lesley Manville, Lloyd Webber, musicians, Netherlands, Richard Bertie, royal descent, Scotland, Scouts, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Sir Peregrine Maitland, USA, Waterloo, Who do you think you are?, Xand van Tulleken

Who do you think you are, the celebrity genealogy show with some surprising results, has returned to BBC1 on Thursday evenings. The twentieth series, of nine episodes, began with Andrew, Lord Lloyd Webber, whose parents, cellist brother Julian and late son Nick were also known to be musically talented, but makes some uncannily similar connections…
More celebs descended from royalty (yawn!)….

Jul 4, 2023

anniversaries, genealogy, religion

Abraham Lincoln, bloopers, celebrities, Charles Dickens, Edward I, Edward III, Elizabeth II, Francis Cooke, george Burroughs, Henry II, Jane Austen, John, Mayflower, Richard III, Richard Warren, Thomas Jefferson, USA, William Bradford, William Brewster

“After Richard III, John finally became king.” Um, yes…. Very accurate. You’ll find this blooper in the article below. 13 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Descendants of Famous People – Next Luxury Well, how many more celebrities are going to claim descent from royalty and other notables from the past? To be famous these days…
Finding Richard (from across the Atlantic Ocean)

Apr 28, 2023

Alternative History, archaeology, battles, buildings, religion, The play’s the thing

American Civil War, Catholicism, Charles I, Commonwealth, Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII, Leicester Greyfriars, Nazis, Reformation, Richard III discovery, USA, William Shakespeare

I had never been much interested in medieval history. I thought of them as backwards and a little too obsessed w the afterlife. However, the “what ifs” of history always intrigued me. What if the Nazis won WWII? What if the north had been defeated in the American Civil War? And so forth. I’d always…
Born back Ceaselessly into the Past: the History of the Fitzgeralds

Apr 3, 2023

anniversaries, battles, genealogy, law, The play’s the thing

“Stepping out with Scott and Zelda”, Abraham Lincoln, Alabama, American War of Independence, Anglo-Irish relations, assassination, Baltimore, Drew-Barrymore stock company, Earl of Kildare, executions, F Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgeralds, flappers, Francis Scott Key, Gallowglass, Ghiraldinis, Henry VIII, House of York, Ireland, Italy, Jazz Age, John Wilkes Booth, judges, Kentucky, Kildare Rebellion, Lincoln conspiracy, Lord Baltimore, Mary Surratt, Maryland, Minerva Machen Sayre, Munster, Norman-French, Philadelphia, renaissance, Richard III, Scotts, Senators, Susquehanna River, The Spar Spangled Banner, Thomas Cresap, Trinity College, Tyburn, United Kingdom, USA, Willis B. Machen, Yorkshire, Zelda Sayre

When most people think of the beautiful Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, they tend to think of the Jazz Age. That is the epithet coined by Scott to explain the wild ride of the 1920s – the drinking, the music, the partying, the real estate and stock market boom. And let’s not forget literary genius.…
The “Gentle Villainy” of Richard III….?

Mar 7, 2022

Events, The play’s the thing

Blithe Spirit, Cleveland State Theatre, Noel Coward, Ohio, Outcalt Theatre, Shakespeare, USA

The following is an extract from this site. :- “….The season wraps up with “The Gentle Villainy of Richard III, Troubler of the Poor World’s Peace,” an adapation of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” running April 21-May 1 at the Outcalt Theatre….” Oh, dear (heavy sigh). Shoving the word “gentle” in front of “villainy” doesn’t…
Chief Sitting Bull, Henry V and Richard III….

Dec 15, 2021

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, genealogy, Science

“Lancastrian”, “Princes”, DNA, false paternity, Lancastrians, Native Americans, Richard III, Sitting Bull, USA

This article might seem to be solely about Chief Sitting Bull and his great-grandson, and a new method of proving DNA and so, but here’s the penultimate paragraph: “….Dr. Willerslev said it was possible, for example, that the methodology could help solve one of England’s most confounding cold cases: the fate of the…
Richard III and the Ancient Egyptian cheese….!

Aug 25, 2021

anniversaries, archaeology, art, buildings, religion, Science

Ancient Egypt, Anglo-Saxons, anthropology, Armenia, Azerbaijan, bamboo strips, barley, Battle of Bosworth, BBC, beer, Blombos cave, board games, Canada, cave art, cheese, China, Ciampate del Diavolo, Clotilda, Cote d’Ivoire, Erebus, gold, human hair, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, King Herod, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars, mammoths, Mary Stuart, multiplication tables, Northwest Passage, nutcrackers, Pembrokeshire, Philippa Langley, quarry, Richard III, Roman villa, royal portraits, royal tombs, Russia, sculptures, shoes, Sir John Franklin, Sir John Maitland, skulls, slave ship, South Africa, Staffordshire Hoard, Stonehenge, storytelling, tomb of Ptahmes, USA, Wiltshire, X-rays

In this intriguing list of twenty , the discovery of Richard III’s remains comes in at number two! He was pipped at the post by an extremely old cheese from Egypt. Eh? Old cheese? Sorry, but can that possibly be more important than Richard? It doesn’t even have King Tut’s fingerprints or teethmarks! 😦 Oh…
The Mayflower

Jul 22, 2020

anniversaries, art, religion, travel

Bartholomew Gosnold, Boston, Cape Cod, Captain Reynolds, Christopher Jones, Coggeshall, Delftshaven, Harwich, James VI/I, Leiden, Lieden Communion, Liverpool, Mayflower, Plymouth, Puritans, Rotherhithe, settlers, ships, Sir Francis Drake, Southampton, Speedwell, USA, William Bradford, William Halsall

Below is William Halsall’s 1882 portrait of the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor. It is obviously imagined as the original ship was almost certainly broken up at Rotherhithe in 1624, a more extreme case than the “Streatham portrait“, which post-dates it’s purported subject’s death by about forty years. From the spelling of the title, the background…
The ladies who made linens for Richard III’s 2015 reinterment….

Jul 11, 2020

buildings, Events, religion

Cathedrals, Leicester, linen, Richard III reburial, Saxon churches, St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, USA, vestments

I had to answer a questionnaire to read this, but it wasn’t intrusive – mine was about whether or not I’d had flowers delivered in last six months. Anyway, the article is quite interesting, and concerns the ladies who made linens for Richard’s reinterment. Their company is based in Waterford in the USA, and makes…