Pinpointing the Battle of Barnet….

  On 14th April 1471, Easter Sunday, in thick fog, was fought one of the pivotal battles of the Wars of the Roses, when the Yorkist Edward IV took on and defeated the by-then-Lancastrian Earl of Warwick, who was killed in the aftermath while trying to escape. His brother Montagu was killed as well. The…

Sir William Stanley – Turncoat or Loyalist..

UPDATED POST FROM A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI @sparkypus.com Sir William Stanley crowning Henry Tudor with the fallen King Richard’s crown in the aftermath of the Battle of Bosworth.  Unknown artist.. It is well documented how, through the treasonable and treacherous actions of Sir William Stanley at Bosworth, Richard III lost his crown and his life. He…

Richard’s silver boar only makes it to Number Two 🤨….!

  Richard’s silver boar badge makes it to number two on this list, second only to a golden aestel of a horse’s head, which is believed to be part of a pointer for reading books. The boar should be first, of course. No question. But I don’t think we need to be told it’s a…

Thetford

Here are the remains of Thetford’s magnificent Cluniac Priory, built in 1107 and the burial place of the Mowbrays and Howards up to 1540, when they were moved to St. Michael’s, Framlingham. Only about five minutes’ walk from the station, it is best visited on a dry day because Cromwell’s commissioners were ruthless and so,…

Henry VII…er…Henry of Windsor, and his badges….

The following excerpt, concerning royal badges, is from here: “. . .Richard I, John, and Henry III. are all said to have used the device of the crescent and star (Fig. 680). Henry VII. is best known by his two badges of the crowned portcullis and the “sun-burst” (Fig. 681). The suggested origin of the…

The Bedingfield turncoat of Oxburgh Hall….

In this 2014 post mention was made of Sir Edmund Bedingfield of Oxburgh Hall, near King’s Lynn in Norfolk. He was a Yorkist-turned-Tudor supporter who, like the Stanleys and others, failed Richard III at Bosworth. Sir Edmund was a Yorkist who benefited under Edward IV and Richard III (at the coronation of the latter, he was…

The real site of the Battle of Barnet…?

The excellent BBC series Digging for Britain, Series 5, the episode concerning the east of Britain, presented by the equally excellent Dr Alice Roberts, contained a section on the Battle of Barnet, 1471. Why is it that an accepted site for a battle so often proves to be the wrong one? Bosworth is a prime…

The saga of how I eventually acquired The Complete Armory by Sir Bernard Burke….

The above illustration is actually of Sir Bernard Burke dressed as Ulster King of Arms for a fancy dress ‘do’, but he really was Ulster King of Arms! I recently posted about Anne Neville sharing a white boar badge with Richard, see this post , although hers was muzzled and chained. Or so is claimed…

Richard III: Their part in his rediscovery

  We all know that Richard III was identified by his mitochondrial DNA and that DNA was discovered in Cambridge. The discovery was announced at the “Eagle” pub in the city. It is less well known that this name is derived from the Stanley badge, the “Eagle and Child” , although it ought, perhaps, have been the…

Anne Neville was a boar too….

We always hear about the badges of medieval families, e.g. Richard III’s white boar, the Warwick bear and ragged staff, the Stafford knot, Richard II’s white hart and so on and so on, but what about the ladies? Maybe they didn’t ride into battle with the banners streaming (well, there were some notable exceptions, of…