The Empress and the Tower: A Daring Escape from Oxford Castle in 1142

Originally posted on Giaconda's Blog:
Empress Matilda The Oxford Castle and Prison complex drips with history. Tracing it’s roots back to Anglo-Saxon England and the world of Viking raids and fortified burghs when towns like Oxford faced waves of violence and destruction; the castle has endured sieges, held political prisoners and undergone numerous adaptations…

Tenby house with a dubious Tudor record….

Well, Tenby is beautiful, and a old house with a view over its harbour must be very desirable, see this site, but I fear that this time my pennies will be staying in my piggy bank. Shell out for the privilege of owning the house from which that miserable skinflint Henry Tudor escaped and, apparently,…

WADDINGTON HALL – REFUGE FOR HENRY VI

UPDATED POST @ sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/06/20/waddington-hall-refuge-for-henry-vi/  THE GATEWAY HAS A CARVING OF A HAND CARRYING A LANCE AND BATTLE AXE WITH THE INSCRIPTION “I WILL RAISE UP HIS RUINS, I WILL BUILD IT AS IN THE DAYS OF OLD” Waddington Hall, another one time refuge for Henry VI after the battle of Hexham,…

Plus ca change …

Here is an Evening Standard article about Clauvino da Silva (left), a Brazillian gang leader who tried to escape from prison disguised as his own daughter, but his “feminine walk” was unconvincing and he didn’t leave the prison. He seems to have hanged himself the following day. Things turned out differently for William Maxwell, the…

Dick Turpin and his contemporaries

Inspired by this Kindred Spirits post, I began by reflecting on the fact that Richard (Dick) Turpin and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and thus Richard III’s uncle, were both executed in York. Turpin had relatively few connections in the north, but many with Essex, from his education near Saffron Walden to his nefarious activities…

People who escaped from the Tower of London.

This is an attempt to list all the people known to have escaped from the “impregnable” Tower of London. It may be that other names need to be added. The dates given are the dates of escape: Ralph de Flambard, 1101 Roger Mortimer, later Earl of March, 1322. Thomas Berkeley, 1320s. Note not listed in main…

No smoke without …

Today in 1417, Sir John Olcastle was hanged and burned at Smithfield , as a leading Lollard and political rebel who had previously escaped from the Tower. He had been a High Sheriff of Herefordshire, an MP and a soldier under the Prince of Wales in Wales and France, all in Henry IV’s reign. One…