William II
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I am sure you have all seen the famous triptych of Charles I – one front view and two profiles – and felt that he could have benefitted from two extra heads in real life, or admired the Wilton Diptych of Richard II and significant religious figures. Now there is another triptych on the scene,…
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My research sometimes turns up something that makes me smile. This time it happened because I want to know exactly when the two branches of the River Tyburn that enter the Thames at Westminster (and thus formed Thorney Island) were actually covered over. The abbey and palace at Westminster once stood upon this island, of…
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Digging for Britain (series 11)
Alice Roberts, bags, bath houses, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chedworth, defences, digging for Britain, docks, dodecahedrons, Domesday Book, Dorset, Dover, Enfield, evacuation, Exeter Cathedral, flint tools, forty hall, Gloucester, Grampians, gun emplacement, Henry V, Hereford, Imber, Kent, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, Lowther Castle, Marshes, mosaic tiles, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northampton, norton disney, nunneries, Owain Glyn Dwr, Platonic solids, postern gates, pubs, Roman Britain, roundhouses, Scotland, Septimus Severus, shoes, Smallhythe, Snodhill Castle, Strathclyde, Syston, timber, Tintern Abbey, trade, Trellau Park, Wales, Waterloo, William II, WW2 defences, WyeAs another year dawns, it must be time for another series of Britain’s archeological highlights, divided into five regions. This time, it started in the north with Carlisle Cricket Club hosting a dig associated with the bathhouse of the emperor Septimius Severus, a particularly steep part of the Grampians and Lowther Castle, a site that…
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The Earl of Lincoln and the enchanted willows….
“Princes”, Anne Neville, Battle of Stoke, Bestwood Lodge, bigamy, Bosworth, Bridlington Priory, Bruges, caravel, Christmas, Cicely Plantagenet, Edmund of Langley, Edward IV, Edward of Middleham, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, George Duke of Clarence, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VII, horses, illegitimacy, John Earl of Lincoln, Kirkensea Abbey, Lord Protector of the Realm, Margaret of Burgundy, Middleham Castle, Portuguese marriage plans, relics, Richard Duke of York, Richard III, royal hunting estates, Saint Trumwald, security, Sherwood Forest, white rose, William IIThis is a Yorkist fairy tale for Christmas. There is no proof that John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, fought at Bosworth, or about what really happened to the sons of Edward IV—until the recent amazing discoveries by Philippa Langley. The revelations of her new research came after I’d written this tale, which although…
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William Rufus died because of a tree? But which tree? And where was it….?
“Princes”, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cernunnos, Charles II, Earl de la Warr, executions, Gundestrop Cauldron, Malmesbury Chronicle, Margaret Murray, New Forest, pagan rituals, propaganda, Richard III, royal hunting estates, Rufus Stone, Sir James Tyrrell, trees, Walter Tirel, Westminster Abbey, William IICharles IIeems to have specialised in “supposed” records. We all know he’s responsible for That Urn, the contents of which are “supposedly” those of Richard III’s nephews. The fact that there are animal bones in there as well as human is always passed very quickly. So quickly the point has become a blur! As a…
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Here is an amusing read in the Horrible Histories vein…well, its title tells that much. Richard III gets a mention. It seems Jane Austen questioned “…’whether Richard III really did kill his nephews, writing: he was a York [and] I am inclined to suppose him a very respectable man’…” But yes, it’s a send-up. Heaven…
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There are kings…and there are admirable kings. I’m afraid that from what I’ve heard about Henry I, he’s best left where he is! My friend hoodedman has written: “….It’s funny how Henry is not regarded as a controversial king despite maybe being implicated in his brother’s death in the New Forest, kept another brother…
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Bamburgh Castle is a site with a long, frequently dramatic history. A wooden Saxon fortress built by Ida the Flame-bearer, a place frequented by saints such as Oswald and Aidan, a seemingly impregnable fortress attacked by William Rufus with his siege castle ‘Evil Neighbour’, and the first English castle to fall to cannon-fire, when Warwick…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 