More Secret Marriages!

Back in 2010, historian Dan Snow was married in secret to Lady Edwina Grosvenor, daughter of the Duke of Westminster. I’ve looked but I can’t see that Dan mentions Edward IV‘s probable ‘secret marriage’ to Eleanor Talbot in any of his Twitter or other postings on history. (He did once post a very entertaining picture…

THE CHILDREN OF JOHN NEVILLE, MARQUIS OF MONTAGU and EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND d.1471

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com The Smythe monument Elford Church.  Photo Aidan McRae Thomson Of the four sons of Richard Neville,  Earl of Salisbury, only two, Richard Earl of Warwick and John Marquis of Montagu had children.    Warwick, who would go on to  become known as the ‘Kingmaker’,  had two daughters, while  John who…

MISIDENTIFIED HISTORICAL PORTRAITS INCLUDING TUDOR QUEENS…

Reblogged from MISIDENTIFIED HISTORICAL PORTRAITS INCLUDING TUDOR QUEENS… Does anyone else like me get irritated by misidentified portraits of historical characters?  Is it that difficult to get correct? It’s quite sloppy to be honest as just a quick glance at them tells you something ain’t quite right here!  It’s particularly common around  16th century portraiture when…

Was Henry VIII contemplating a seventh wife….?

    The prospect of becoming Henry VIII’s seventh wife cannot have been cheering, but it seems possible it was the fate of Katherine Willoughby, who was the widow of Henry’s great friend, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. It seems she’d been ‘in the wings’ so to speak since marrying Brandon, who was well over…

THE DEATH OF HENRY VIII

UPDATED POST AT sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/05/14/henry-viiis-death/ Henry VIII, known as the Hamilton Portrait and once owned by the Duke of Hamilton, this portrait used to be at  Holyroodhouse.  Philip Mould. The deaths of all three Tudor kings were protracted and wretched.  Whether this was down to Karma, bad luck (or good luck depending…

The 10 greatest medieval royal romances? Some, maybe….

Well, my opinion only, of course, but where are John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford/de Roët? I don’t believe his first wife, Blanche, was his greatest love. That honour went to Katherine, for love of whom he went to extraordinary lengths, enduring scandal and opprobrium, but eventually making her his third duchess. And managing to…

Wingfield

Wingfield is a village in the middle of North Suffolk, just a few miles off the A140. There is a “castle”, but this is privately occupied and the owner is a little secretive. The village also features a small “college” and wedding venue, also known as Wingfield Barns, but its main features are St. Andrew’s…