Newport and the lucky/unlucky Staffords….

It seems to me, looking at the list in this article about Newport Castle, that a few members of the Stafford family came to sticky ends, some deserved, some apparently not. They may have been unlucky, but the family was wealthy and titled, so perhaps not that hard done by. In 1377 Hugh, Earl of…

Rebellion in the Middle Ages

This is the latest of Matthew Lewis’ books and covers a longer period than any of the others, from Hereward the Wake’s emergence after Hastings to the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, almost as long a period as this book. Lewis is already an expert on “The Anarchy” (chapter 2) and the Roses…

The Rise of the Stanley family.

In the late 14th Century, the Stanleys were a gentry family, their power base lying chiefly in Cheshire, notably in the Wirral. Their ancestry might fairly be described as ‘provincial’. There were certainly no kings in their quarterings. This is not to say they were unimportant, but their influence was of a local rather than…

‘Great magician, damned Glendower'(Part 4.)

It is not my purpose to describe the Glyndŵr Rising in detail. The story is far too complex to be contained within a blog post. The reader who is interested in the full tale would do well to consult (for example) The Revolt Of Owain Glyn Dŵr by R.R Davies, an excellent work. The initial…

Shrewsbury Battlefield and the memorial church of St Mary Magdelene

I have long wanted to attend the re-enactment of the Battle of Shrewsbury and also visit the church of St Mary Magdelene. In 2022 I finally managed it. It was touch and go, although I had booked my train ticket some weeks back. These days such an excursion demands a lot of effort and I…

Sir Edmund Cockayne

The Cockayne family eventually established themselves as lords of the manor of Ashbourne (Derbyshire) for all practical purposes – in truth, it was a manor that belonged to the House of Lancaster, and they served in the roles of bailiff, steward, and so on. As time went by they took on wider responsibilities and became…

Were the Wars of The Roses an Inevitability?

In my spare time I have been reading Henry IV by Chris Given-Wilson. It’s a massive book, full of information, probably the most complete work on Henry since Wylie’s four-volume effort in the 19th Century. Frankly, I’m finding it hard going. Not because it’s a bad book (it isn’t) or because Given-Wilson is a bad…

The advantages of marrying young

Although the medieval practice of child marriage seems strange to us, if not repulsive, there were advantages that arose from it, particularly for the bride. For example, Anne of Gloucester, Richard II’s cousin and daughter of Thomas of Woodstock married the Earl of Stafford at a very early age. He died while she was still…

Meet Harry Hotspur….

And here we have…Harry Hotspur. The picture is from here, an interesting site about the Percy family. This is said to be a very good likeness of Hotspur, although how anyone can really know that I’m not sure. Clearly he conforms to a Percy “type”. The section dealing with the Percys under Richard III is under construction,…

How the House of Mortimer was cheated….

Here’s how the great House of Mortimer petered out and was supplanted by a Lancastrian usurper who killed the reigning king and stole his throne. Then, under the House of York, the House of Mortimer triumphed again….until, in 1485, along came another Lancastrian usurper to kill the reigning king and steal the throne….. Never trust…