Which historian do you love or hate the most….?

Prompted by the opinions of two friends on what they thought of certain historians, I thought it would be interesting to see which are named by those who read Murrey & Blue. So, ladies and gentlemen, who is your favourite/most loathed historian (alive or dead), and why? My choice takes me back to the 14th/15th…

Covid 19 and similarites with the second wave of the Great Pestilence in 1360…

In this time of Covid 19, when we don’t know why it seems to affect men more than women, and some ethnicities but not others, it is interesting that back in the 14th century the tsunami of the Great Pestilence of 1348 was followed by lesser waves that differed in many ways from the original.…

Canonical hours explained….

If, like me, you are confounded by the canonical hours that are so often mentioned in books, fiction and non-fiction, then I hope the article you’ll find at this link will be of some help. I’m not a Catholic, or indeed particularly religious, and it doesn’t help when some of the hours are still used,…

Traces of the Romans found during extensive work under York’s Guildhall….

  A £15.5 million construction project is in progress, to restore York’s Guildhall, which has stood on the banks of the River Ouse for centuries. Certainly it was known by Richard III, who visited the building during his reign. And who lived in Yorkshire for many years as the Duke of Gloucester, of course. Archaeologists…

Richard III and Harold II

We all know that Richard is directly descended from William the Conqueror, who is his eleven times great grandfather. Here is Richard’s pedigree to William in three parts – follow the yellow dots left to right. (N.B. the first few generations have the yellow combined with red and blue which lead to other ancestors). But…

The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I

Originally posted on RICARDIAN LOONS:
Portrait of Maximilian I, from the workshop or a follower of Albrecht Dürer. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) is one of those larger-than-life historical figures. Straddling the medieval and Renaissance eras, he worked tirelessly and spent a vast fortune to establish the Habsburgs as one of Europe’s dominant ruling…

A King under a Post Office?

Edward Balliol was crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace, today in 1332. He, alongside Edward III, had won the Battle of Dupplin Moor and was able to supplant the eight year-old David II, although he was removed shortly later. He was also at the Battles of Halidon Hill and Neville’s Cross – the first…

Were the Wars of The Roses an Inevitability?

In my spare time I have been reading Henry IV by Chris Given-Wilson. It’s a massive book, full of information, probably the most complete work on Henry since Wylie’s four-volume effort in the 19th Century. Frankly, I’m finding it hard going. Not because it’s a bad book (it isn’t) or because Given-Wilson is a bad…

St Maurice, patron saint of knights….?

  On reading Chivalry by Léon Gautier, I learned that St Maurice was the patron saint of knights. Another interesting fact about him is that he’s often depicted as a Black African man in armour. He apparently came from Upper Egypt, so he probably was black. I’m reminded of the Black Madonnas. We’re always surprised…

A treacherous herald….

Here is a link to an interesting paper about a certain Roger Machado, who is known to have been Henry VII’s herald. It seems that before then he’d been Leicester Herald to Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III, but deserted Richard late in 1483 to go over to the Dark Side. Er, sorry, to…