The missing arm of Henry VI….

I have to admit that I didn’t know Henry VI‘s arm was ever missing (post mortem!) let alone that it had been replaced by a bone from something else! How very irreverent. In 1471, Edward IV first buried the defeated Lancastrian king Henry at Chertsey, presumably all in one piece. Chertsey was out of the…

Was the younger Despenser buried in two places at the same time….?

We Ricardians know all about the problems, if not to say mysteries, that can arise from the final resting places of famous figures from the past. It doesn’t help that in the medieval period especially a person’s remains could be moved from place to place. Edward IV had his father and brother moved from Pontefract…

If things had been different, might Richard and George have been buried at Fotheringhay….?

It occurs to me to wonder if Richard intended to be lain to rest at Fotheringhay with his father, the 3rd Duke of York, and brother, Edmund of Rutland. Wouldn’t he think he belonged with them – no matter how fond he was of his beloved Yorkshire? Of course, things changed radically when he became…

A very detailed, interesting and informative thesis with a lot about Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III…

There are few more fertile sources for intricate information about the medieval past (and other areas too, of course) than theses that have been published online. A prime website for these is White Rose eTheses on line, of which I have written before. I am mentioning the site again now because of finding a particularly absorbing 2016 thesis by Anna Maria…

Was a chapel for the House of York planned at Westminster Abbey in 1483…?

A short while ago, I came upon a reference to the foundation stone of Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey (visible in this illustration of the abbey as it may have been in the Tudor period) have been laid first in April 1483. It was from here, as follows:- “. . .Elizabeth [of York] was given…

Royal burials at St George’s Chapel….

This article is quite interesting, although Richard only gets a brief mention, for moving Henry VI from Chertsey to Windsor. Edward IV is in there, of course, and Henry VII’s endeavours too, although he’s not buried there, of course. Wasn’t it grand enough for him? Whatever, he built himself an extravagant but truly beautiful resting place…