Barbara Talbot

On page 130 of The last days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA, John Ashdown-Hill described John Talbot of Lacock, father of one of the many Barbaras in Richard’s mtDNA, as “John Talbot belonged to a cadet line of the descendants of the great John Talbot”, but there is no table to…

No, professor, you DON’T have proof of Richard III’s guilt….!

Professor Tim Thornton of Huddersfield University has caused quite a stir with his claims to have found new evidence that implicates Richard III in the “disappearance” of the boys in the Tower. I say disappearance because, truth to tell, that’s what happened as far as actual history is concerned. I don’t believe they were murdered…

THE PASSING OF ELIZABETH OF YORK – A ROYAL COINCIDENCE

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com A young Henry weeping on the empty bed of his dead mother Elizabeth of York.  His two sisters Margaret and Mary sit at the foot of the bed.  From the Vaux Passional, in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth As an enthusiastic amateur I do love all the minutiae of history…

THE BOARS OF BARNARD CASTLE

Many of us have visited Barnard Castle, one of the prime residences of Richard III when he was Duke of Gloucester, and gazed up at the eroded carving of a boar on the ceiling of the ruinous chamber that has a large window overlooking the river. (Richard clearly liked a scenic view!) However, there are…

So the options for those “Princes” are:

“Lambert Simnel” was Edward V. Sir John Evans was Edward V. Sir Edward Guildford was Edward V and Dr. John Clement was Richard of Shrewsbury or his son. “Perkin Warbeck” was Richard of Shrewsbury. Richard of Eastwell was Richard of Shrewsbury. Obviously, some of these are mutually exclusive but some are compatible. Even before the…

A Keighley man has traced his ancestry back to Sir Thomas Vaughan . . .

A Keighley man, Jimmy Vaughan, has traced his ancestry back to the Sir Thomas Vaughan who was executed at Pontefract Castle on June 25 1483 for opposing Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was by right of his late brother’s request, Lord Protector of England. Of course, Sir Thomas was one of the multitude of three…

The Grafitti of the Tower of London

REBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI sparkypus.com The graffiti commemorating the Dudleys.  Beauchamp Tower.  Photo Spitalfieldlife  I am, to be honest not a fan of graffiti, also known as graffito, neither do I know anyone who is. However, if you are talking historical graffiti, and from no less than the Tower of London, well that is definitely…

What really happened when the monasteries were suppressed….?

“….Despite being described by many as ‘an eyewitness account’, the Falle [of the Religiouse Howses] is nothing of the sort; in June 1538, when Roche was suppressed, Sherbrook was no more than four years of age. Instead, we must look to the motivation behind Sherbrook’s words, written three decades after the event….” Good heavens, this might almost…

Are you still a thoroughly top-notch, summit-of-the-heap king without a coronation….?

Does anyone know what would happen if a newly succeeding medieval king were too unwell to undergo the rigours of a coronation? Would such a ceremony merely be postponed in the hope of his recovery? What would happen if he didn’t recover, but eventually died still without having had a coronation? Did the omission somehow…

How did Covent Garden acquire its name….?

  If you go to this site, you’ll find the following: “Covent Garden” is essentially a corruption of “Convent Garden” using the French couvent derivation as opposed to the Latin conventus…. “….Couvent means a religious building such as a nunnery or monastery…. “….By the 13th century, most of the present Covent Garden area was land belonging to Westminster Abbey…