William Caxton
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Medieval cooking is always a fascinating subject, and I don’t doubt that we’ve all seen the word “coffin/coffyn” applied to pastries and pies. Well yes, coffin is a coffin in the usual meaning, but it also seems a sensible enough word to use for a well-filled pie! What we call raised pies, e.g. pork pies…
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The quiet Woodville….
Abbey of St. James, books, Duston, Edward IV, Elizabeth I, executions, illegitimate children, Jacquette, Katherine Wydeville, Knights of the Bath, Lord Mayors of London, Northampton, Richard Earl Rivers, Richard III, Richard Woodville, secret marriage, Sir Anthony Wydeville, Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset, Victoria History of Northamptonshire, William CaxtonWhenever we hear the name Woodville (various spellings) we’re inclined to think of Elizabeth Woodville and her grasping relatives. We’re told they had goodies thrust upon them by Edward IV, and that they were foisted in marriage onto almost all the leading families of the realm. One couldn’t go anywhere without encountering Woodvilles in…
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Once again it seems the Tudors claim to have invented something that had been around for over a century before Old Misery Guts stole the throne. To wit, mince pies. Well, the Tudors would, wouldn’t they? They couldn’t bear ANYTHING to have been around before they were. Typically insecure rear-ends. Anyway, these kuskenoles look…
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On Sunday, 25th October 1383, Thomas Arundel, Bishop of Ely (soon to be Archbishop of York and then Archbishop of Canterbury), breakfasted at Kamelot. Oh yes, indeed. I learned of this on page 199 of Thomas Arundel, the biography by Margaret Aston, which I quote: “….This letter, like another of 24th October concerning an exchange,…
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Was the 3rd Duke of York like his youngest son in appearance….?
appearance, beards, churches, Cirencester, Edmund of Langley, Edmund of Rutland, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, hair colour, Holands, Humphrey of Gloucester, Joan of Kent, John Earl of Shrewsbury, Richard Duke of York, Richard Earl of Cambridge, Richard II, Richard III, Sir Anthony Wydeville, stained glass, The Shrewsbury Book, Trinity College, William CaxtonWhen I posted on my Facebook page that it had been suggested to me I write an M&B article about the physical appearance of the 3rd Duke of York, a friend commented: “. . . .According to John Ashdown Hill’s biography of Cecily, he was probably tall because of some poem written about how…
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Quite accidentally I stumbled over a reference to a genealogical manuscript of English kings, made in around 1500, which interestingly finishes with a drawing of Richard rather than the current king of the time, Henry Tudor. The depiction of Richard is not one that normally is seen with any frequency. Here is what is written…
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This image was drawn to my attention on Instagram. Quite apart from the dubious nature of the “Tudor” descent of those monarchs, as attested to by several historians, the timeline is being stretched somewhat, from Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press to the Gunpowder Plot and even the Great Fire of London. Those of you…
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Well, there I was, snooping around for information about Henry V and the 1418/19 Siege of Rouen, when I went to this site and came upon the above. Absolutely brilliant! Caxton was clearly born in the wrong century – he’d fit into the 21st very well indeed.