The truth about the Christian New Year’s Eve….

New Year’s Eve now and New Year’s Eve in the mediaeval period actually refer to two different calendar days. Old New Year’s Eve was 24th March. For an easy-to-understand explanation, please go to here, but whichever the day, it was still New Year’s Eve. We now celebrate it with much fun, laughter and hope, but…

An unusual Baronet …

… was Sir Ewan Forbes of Craigievar, who succeeded his brother on 30 December 1965. Sir Ewan was unusual because he was born a hermaphrodite and originally registered as Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill, which identity would have precluded him from the title. However, he re-registered as male in 1952 and married his housekeeper, eventually arguing his case…

Edmund, Earl of Rutland, a life cut short.

UPDATED POST AT sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/05/14/edmund-earl-of-rutland-a-life-cut-short/ Fotheringhay Church and  Yorkist Mausoleum 1804.   Watercolour by unknown artist.   A link here to an excellent article on Edmund, Earl of Rutland.  The History Geeks can be found on Facebook: The article also give a plausible reason as to why Edmund’s christening ceremony at Rouen…

King Edward IV’s Last Christmas….

Reconstruction of Christmas at Eltham 1482 – Historic England (illustration by Peter Urmston) In the 14th century it became a royal tradition to spend Christmas at Eltham, and by 1482, Edward IV also held his Christmas there. The top picture is an imagined scene of this Christmas in the great hall (pictured immediately above) with…

Eleanor: A reminder of the evidence

I know some people in Cairo are a little slow on the uptake, but there are several independent sources, as shown by the Revealing Richard III blog. In a recent series of articles in the Ricardian Bulletin, the team cite: Titulus Regius, as composed from the petition to the Three Estates on 26 June 1483;…

Where was Henry (Percy)?

After reading Michael Jones‘ book “Bosworth 1485 The Psychology of a Battle”, I have leaned towards his site of the Battle of Bosworth. Since the book was published more evidence has come to light that shows that the battle probably did not take place around Ambion Hill. I have also read John D Austin’s book…

If only … (by SHW)

Christmas under Henry VII, complete with “foot sheets”. . .!

 I was browsing, and came upon the following interesting details about how Henry VII celebrated Christmas and Twelfth Night. It is from Christmas: Its Origin and Associations by William Francis Dawson, which I found in Google Books. The following extract has been tweaked a little by me, to create more paragraphs and thus make it…

The dolls, toys and playthings of medieval children….

If you are interested in what medieval children played with, i.e. theirs toys and so on, rather than the things they found lying around and used according to their imagination, then this is an excellent site. It is part of the lars datter site, which offers a great deal of scope and information. The site’s official…

Hygiene in Medieval Times

Have you ever asked yourself how people washed and perfume themselves in Medieval time? And what about the smart and noble Plantagenets? Was there a difference between rich and poor people? You will be surprised to discover that Mediaeval people were cleaner than we can imagine and they smelled good. As you can imagine, hygienic…