usurpers
-
The Duchy of Lancaster controversy that began in the 14th century….
“Tudors”, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Catherine of Valois, Constance of Castile, Duchy of Lancaster, Edmund Mortimer 3rd Earl of March, Edward III, Edward III’s entail, Henry IV, Henry IV Part I Shakespeare, Henry V, Henry VII, House of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, Katherine of Valois, Lionel of Clarence, Lords Appellant, Owen Tudor, Philippa of Clarence, Richard II, Roger Mortimer 4th Earl of March, Sir Simon Burley, usurpers“….The Duchy of Lancaster came to the Crown in controversy and it’s still making headlines today….” If you want to read about the duchy, its history and what’s happening now, see here https://www.duchyoflancaster.co.uk/. But my purpose here is to unpick certain untruths about the duchy that are constantly and unfairly stitched upon the memory of…
-
If you go to this link https://monthlyreview.org/2024/10/01/richard-iii-the-tudor-myth-and-the-transition-from-feudalism-to-capitalism/ you will find a long and detailed argument that the vilification of Richard III had a lot to do with the poor economic situation in Tudor England. Said vilification might have been a smokescreen, a diversion from the problems besetting the Tudor realm. In other words it was…
-
Who wrote the inscription on the tomb of Richard II….?
Anne of Bohemia, Archbishop Thomas Arundel, Archbishop William Courtenay, Bible translators, Chester, confiscation, de heretico comburendo, executions, exile, Henry IV, Henry V, homer, horses, Ireland, Joan of Kent, John of Gaunt, John Wycliffe, King’s Langley, Latin, Lollards, memorials, Old St. Paul’s, Pat Smythe, Pontefract Castle, Richard II, Richard III, royal tombs, showjumping, Terry Jones, usurpers, Westminster Abbey, Who murdered chaucerThe tomb of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia in Westminster Abbey is very well known and recognised. The effigies once held hands but the hands are now missing, and the original magnificence of the tomb can only be imagined. If you go to this link and scroll down to the section headed Burial and…
-
The de Courcy Matter, Part II: The French side of the story….
Azincourt, Castile, Charles VI, Chronique de la traison et mort de Richard Deux Roy Dengleterre, deanery of st george, Edward III, Enguerrand VII de Coucy, Flanders, France, governesses, Henry IV, Ireland, Isabeau of Bavaria, Isabelle de Valois, jewel theft, Kathryn Warner, Lancastrian propaganda, Lancastrians, marguerite lady de coucy, master pol, Milford Haven, Order of the Garter, pensions, Richard II, Scotland, sir philip de la vache, The Chronicle of Jean Creton, usurpers, Wallingford, William Scrope, Windsor CastleI hope that by the time you read this article you will already have visited yesterday’s Part I, which relates the English version of Marguerite de Courcy’s return to France. She left England under the cloud of having lived far too high a life for a governess and of stealing some English royal jewels. These…
-
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/1066-and-the-norman-conquest/how-to-organise-a-norman-invasion-fleet/ {particularly when you are coming from France with a few thousand mercenaries and no lineal claim to the English throne}
-
No, NOT this Stamford Bridge, but two hundred miles further north, somewhere by the River Derwent in the East Riding. So please try to avoid any more football references, except for the violent Norwegian game plan, the travel plans of the teams (sorry, armies) and the fixture congestion being contributory factors to the Anglo-Saxon defeat…
-

For some years I have set my novels in the last years of Plantagenet reign, or the first years of the Tudor dynasty. William the Conqueror Many authors of historical fiction prefer to set their books in the Georgian or Regency periods, but tor me the Plantagenet dynasty was one of the most interesting…