The story of Richard’s discovery, and a virtual tour of the Visitor Centre….

The story of how Richard III’s remains were discovered is a fascinating one, almost a fairy story, and happening upon a website that tells it properly is a bonus. If you go here you will arrive at the Seeing the Past website, which I thoroughly recommend. Credit is given where credit is due, i.e. with…

Did Henry VII believe in vampires….?

My devotion to watching TV documentaries often turns up odd bits and pieces. This time the culprit is “Curse of the Vampire” from Mythical Beasts, series 1, episode 3, shown on Sky History 2. As you might expect, the theme was the strong medieval belief that the dead could return to torment the living as…

The many faces of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln….

Some time ago I posted about a painting called Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap from this exhibition by Titian, which I’d “adapted” to become a portrait of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. This adaptation has popped up all over the place since then, and now I’ve happened upon it again…

The Despensers: The Rise and fall of a mediaeval family

Here is another of Kathryn Warner‘s volumes in which the genealogy is central but there is plenty of history about the principal individuals that comprise the structure of the book. These range from Hugh Despenser the Justiciar, who fell at Evesham in 1265 opposing Henry III, to his son and grandson (the latter married to…

The Lost Plot (by the Guardian) and ‘The Lost King’ Exhibition

A number of film critics have now viewed the new Steve Coogan movie, THE LOST KING, about the finding of Richard III’s remains. Reviews have been mixed but generally quite positive; I imagine it might be one of those ‘marmite’ films, which viewers either love or loathe. A exhibition in The Wallace Collection had also…

Lucy Hutchinson

The sitter of this portrait is said to be Lucy Hutchinson (born Apsley) who was the wife of Civil War General John Hutchinson, MP. Lucy was a remarkable woman. She wrote what is thought to be the first epic poem produced by an Englishwoman. She was also a translator, and as if that was not…

Another Anglo-Saxon burial ground that’s also a treasure trove….

  Exciting finds are still being unearthed, this time another Anglo-Saxon burial ground that is proviing to be a trove of treasure and information. “….The site, in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, contained 138 graves, with 141 regular burials and five cremation burials, which makes it one of the largest Anglo-Saxon burial grounds ever uncovered in Britain….” “….Items…

What if Henry Tudor had been a handsome, charismatic challenger….?

    As supporters of Richard III, we find it only too easy to dislike Henry VII. Not only did the churl defeat and kill Richard (not even through his own martial endeavours but through treachery!) but his looks mean we wouldn’t trust him an inch. He looks cold, calculating, shifty and downright untrustworthy, nor…

Further facial reconstructions

Dundee University has shown itself to be the gold standard for facial reconstruction in recent years, working from their subjects’ remains, as with Richard III, Robert I and Henry Lord Darnley. As Kathryn Warner shows here, Panagiotis Constantinou has generated several from effigies, sculptures and other images. They range, chronologically, from Henry III and Eleanor…

The Mysterious Disappearance of Henry Pole the Younger in the Tower of London

  Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com Picture this…a young lad of about thirteen or thereabouts.   Royal Plantagenet blood coursing through his veins.  His father is dead and no longer able to neither protect nor  save him.  His mother is also no longer around to help or comfort him.    Life has changed for him…