Richard’s Affinity and Good Lordship as Duke of Gloucester 1468-1483

(This article originally appeared in the Ricardian Register, the journal of the Richard III Society American Branch, and has been reproduced here with its permission.) Allegation: Richard was an ambitious man, hungry for power and ultimately aiming for the Crown. He kept his intentions close to the vest, but in retrospect it’s apparent that he…

Did you know ………..

……….. that the third Duke of Norfolk was a keen chess player and invented the “queen sacrifice”?

To be Richard III or not to be Richard III?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2590638/Skeleton-car-park-NOT-Richard-III-Experts-cast-doubts-accuracy-DNA-dating-results.html So Professor Michael Hicks is of the view that the male Greyfriars skeleton is possibly not the remains of Richard III. Well, apart from the precise location in which he was recorded as being buried, the exact mitochondrial DNA match (and we don’t even know his great-great-grandmother), the scoliosis, the age at death and…

Book Review: The Battle Of Bosworth 1485 And The Burial Of King Richard Iii

by Wednesday McKenna (writing as Merlyn MacLeod) I just finished reading Stephen Lark’s The Battle of Bosworth & the Burial of King Richard III and found it a good read for anyone looking for a solid summary. Lark first summarizes the whole of Richard’s life, and then outlines the specific events leading up to his…

A Little Piece of Alternative History

Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, is a good height for a woman, but not tall – only her headdress make her seem so. As a recent widow, she is clad entirely in black, from head to foot, her furred gown made of the finest wool damask London mercers can supply. She is a handsome woman –…

Playing tonight

  Richard III, Act I, Scene I (Middleham Castle. RICHARD is discovered sitting on a throne, biting the heads off a basket of kittens as he comes up with his latest wicked scheme.) Enter LOVEL LOVEL. My lord, terrible news. A letter has come from Lord Hastings in London. Your royal brother, King Edward IV,…

The House of Stewart takes sides (2010)

  Three weeks after Northampton, a Scottish army gathered in the grounds of Roxburgh Castle, determined to add to Lancastrian woes. The castle had been in English hands almost continuously since Edward I’s time, although it was not in good condition. James I had attempted to take it on several occasions but his assassination in…

The Squinting Usurper

  “The wooden bust is all that’s left of the effigy that graced hiscoffin on procession. So I suppose you’re right — the effigy is basedon the death mask. But if you Google for desk mask Henry VII, the bitof effigy is what comes up. Sorry for not being more exact. To me, the effigy…

Richard III’s finger

For anyone wondering whether Richard could have still formed hisletters if he’d lost digits or tips of fingers, let us begin with whatis required to write with a quill. This video: http://youtu.be/dqCBUHlPVBk features a Japanese calligrapher who, from about 1:00 minute to 3:00minutes, is writing in Gothic Litera Bastarda with a quill. (You won’tsee feathers;…

A policy of Lancastrian and “Tudor” monarchs ………..

……… but why? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_heretico_comburendo