Richard II had an ostrich….

Here’s an oddity. Well, perhaps not, given that the kings of England had a royal menagerie at the Tower, in which a variety of exotic (to England) animals were kept. While looking at the Calendar of Patent Rolls for 1385 I came upon the following entry:- The entry doesn’t say the ostrich was kept in…

How did Edward III’s claim to the throne of France come about….?

Should you be interested in the background to Edward III’s claim to the throne of France, here’s a link to a fascinating article about the adulterous goings-on at the French court! And here’s me thinking the French wouldn’t dream of doing such things! 😄

THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS WAR – PART 2: the just cause

  Preface This is the second of three articles charting the course of continual Anglo-French conflict from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. In the first article, I wrote about the rise and fall of the Angevin Empire, culminating in the Treaty of Paris (1259). This article picks up my narrative after the death of…