The Strange Reluctance to Accept Facts

Much of history is simply interpretation. You can interpret events, and facts, in various ways. Often there is no absolute truth and the interpretation depends on the standpoint of the historian. For example, a passionate Welsh nationalist is likely to see the events of 1282 in a rather different light to the interpretation of an…

The floating town the French invented for invading England in 1385/6….

It seems that in 1386 a second “Norman Invasion” was planned by the French. And a “stupendous” part of the preparations included a portable wooden town to house and protect the invaders when they landed.  I found the following description in Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, page 426 of my copy:- “….A huge camp enclosing…

Richard II went berserk in Salisbury….?

  Richard III’s predecessor, Richard II, shares with him the injustice of being maligned through history. In Richard II’s case all we hear that he was a hysterical madman who was rightly removed from his throne (and this world) by his cousin Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV. All sorts of scenarios are…

The Ancestry of Sir Richard Pole.

Richard Pole is perhaps most famous for being the husband of Margaret Plantagenet, later Countess of Salisbury. But who was he? His maternal ancestry is relatively straightforward. He was the son of Edith St. John, who was the half-sister of Margaret Beaufort. So that makes him the (half-blood) first cousin of Henry VII. Edith St.…

More news on King John’s treasure

Here is a report from the Newark Advertiser about the baggage train lost near The Wash at the end of the king‘s life. Raymond Kosschuk has now isolated a small area of Sutton Bridge and thinks that he has already found some small pieces of the treasure, as shown above. Using bespoke equipment to read…

Who were the “Foppish Eleven” of 1483….?

My internet rambles take me here there and everywhere as I seek nuggets of medieval information. That is how I came upon this paper by A Compton Reeves . The title was clearly intriguing. The Foppish Eleven of 1483? Who? What? Why? Which king? Obviously 1483 was a year in which there were three kings…

A Skipton ghost walk followed by a good meal at Richard’s Black Horse….

  “….THERE will be thrills and spills of a distinctly ghostly type in Skipton this month as stroke survivor Malcolm Hanson conducts his once-famous ghost walks around the town’s supernatural hot spots on Friday evenings….” The above extract is from the Craven Herald and I hope most sincerely that Malcolm’s ghost walks are a spooky…

THE MYSTERIOUS DUBLIN KING AND THE BATTLE OF STOKE

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com The Last Stand of Martin Schwartz and his German Mercenaries at the Battle of Stoke Field 16th June 1487.  Unknown artist Cassell’s Century Edition History of England c.1901. Dublin, Ireland 24th May 1487.    A young lad is crowned King of England and France and Lord of Ireland in Christ…

A new (to me) interpretation of the Middleham Jewel….

While reading a paper (entitled Magic for the Dead? The Archaeology of Magic in Later Medieval Burials by Roberta Gilchrist) about medieval magic and graves, I came upon the following extract: “….Healing and protective charms. Later medieval charms were usually religious in nature and comprised mystical words (such as ANIZAPTA) or traditional Christian names, such…

TWO ANGELS, TWO BUCKINGHAMS

A nice little pre-Christmas break took me to two towns of interest, Buckingham and Grantham. I wanted to see Buckingham museum which is currently hosting a Richard III display featuring the gold Half Angel found in the fields nearby. It was a nice little collection and the info panels were mercifully free of too many…