Settling the Bosworth Debt….

With the denizens of Hades gathering to do their worst, here is a horror tale of Sir William Stanley’s final Hallowe’en, when retribution snatches him at last. “Settling the Bosworth Debt” is the story of what happened to William when he was confronted by some terrible truths about Henry Tudor. Friday, 31 October, 1494, Hallowe’en,…

A wonderful deanery for sale in Wells cathedral close….

  I love looking at the properties for sale in Country Life. Some of them are too modern or just not to my taste. But this one in the Cathedral Close of Wells, is perfect. And only £1.1million. Only, did she say? It’s a wonderful old building and in a matchless historic site. On the…

Isabel Mylbery – a possible daughter of King Edward IV

Isabel Mylbery is quite obscure. The earliest evidence we have is from about 1510. Garter King-at-Arms recorded that she was ‘educata ut fert[ur] pre Regem E[dwardum] iiij’ which means, roughly, that she was brought up by Edward IV. She also bore lions and white roses in her coat of arms. None of this is remotely…

The 15th-century house of my dreams….

There are houses….and there are H.O.U.S.E.S. To me this one  is very definitely in the latter category. Something about it appeals to me on every level, and if I had £3.75 million to spare, I wouldn’t hesitate. Not that I’m interested in owning the pub in its grounds. 🥴 Yes, it’s been “got at”, but…

Exchanged treasures at celebrations of Richard II’s second marriage….

In October 1396 King Richard II of England married for the second time. His first marriage had been a love match. He and Anne of Bohemia had adored each other and he’d been devastated by her sudden death, possibly of the plague. He was still only 28, a childless widower, and like his namesake the…

RALPH NEVILLE, 2ND EARL OF WESTMORLAND – HIS HOME, BRANCEPETH CASTLE AND BURIAL IN BRANCEPETH CHURCH.

REBLOGGED FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI @sparkypus.com Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland c.1406-1484 and one of his wives.  Fine oak effigy once in Brancepeth Church, County Durham.  Destroyed 1998. Drawn by Charles Stothard c.1815. An interesting life if somewhat tinged by tragedy.    Ralph Neville 2nd Earl of Westmorland, born at Cockermouth in Cumbria (c.1406-1485) was…

Good name, bad name, which monarch gets what….

  Here is a shortish article about monarchs with a bad name. No prizes for predicting that it will include Richard III. However, it also deals with others. Stephen’s reign, for instance, was “an unmitigated disaster”, and Henry VI was also a disaster. Enough said about John. Henry VIII is remembered only for his six…

There was a crooked man who lived in a crooked house….

  We love to look at (and are proud of) our old medieval houses, and Lavenham in Suffolk is full of them! No wonder it draws in so many people, all intent upon seeing what England used to be like before the advent of modern building expansion. One of the most famous of the houses…

Another branch of the Pole family?

We know that Sir Richard Pole, cousin of Henry VII, husband of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, grandfather of Henry Pole the Younger and progenitor of the later Stafford and Hastings families, as his own male line was extinct by 1619, was an only son and that the identity of his paternal grandfather is unclear. It…

Ten hinge moments in history. Really….?

    Well, according to this site here we have “The Top 10 hinge moments in history”. As five of the ten concern 20th-century politics, you will forgive me for being somewhat mystified that such matters count as pivotal moments. For whom, pray? How on earth can Michael Portillo losing out to Iain Duncan Smith…