Sir Edward Hungerford’s murderous lady….

According to this link, Sir Edward Hungerford , had a shocking story attached to his memory. Sir Edward’s second wife, was Agnes Cotell who died 20th February 1523/4. Ah, but that’s to understate the point, because she was actually hanged for murder. What happened? Well, her first husband was John Cotell, who was Sir Edward…

Calais – a bed of Tudor roses for Anne Boleyn….?

  Calais was at one time English territory, and Richard III made his son John of Gloucester the Captain of Calais. John was as ill-fated as his father. Further back, Warwick (the “Kingmaker”) was another Captain, and in 1469 his elder daughter Isabel was married there to Richard’s older brother George, Duke of Clarence. The…

A recently identified book …

… by the sixteenth century spokesman for the Marriage Guidance Council. After all, he had experience of six marriage ceremonies, even if he subsequently annulled four of them. Two of his “wives” didn’t have to waste time and money on their hairstyle or headdress – how thoughtful of him.

More nudge nudge that Richard killed his nephews….

  “….If we ignore Lady Jane Grey, then the monarch with probably theshortest reign was Edward V. (Right now I can’t think of anyone else.) He succeeded his father on April 9, 1483, at the tender age of 12. His uncle took him and his brother to the Tower of London “for their protection.” Seventy-eight…

Henry VIII’s “palace” in Southampton….

While looking into the history of Southampton  I came upon the astonishing illustration above. What an absolutely stupendous building! And in its history there figure some important figures and events from Southampton‘s (and England’s) past. “….On the west side of St. Michael’s Square is the fine timber-built house now called ‘Henry VIII’s Palace,’ and probably…

The outstanding exception in the “Cambridgeshire” six….!

Well, it’s true, I don’t know many of the six Cambridgeshire castles that are listed in this article . Many of them disappeared very early on in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and hill forts aren’t something about which I know a great deal anyway. Poor old Cambridge Castle suffered the ignominy of having a Shire…

Rosary of Mary, Queen of Scots, stolen from Arundel Castle….

The theft of items of great historical importance aren’t common, thank goodness, but they do come along…and this time—on Friday, 21st May, when a burglar alarm went off at 22:30 BST—it was Arundel Castle that was raided. To read all about it, go to this site.  The stolen treasures were worth more than £1 million,…

Margaret Beaufort was so hard-done-by, and she was such an angel of righteousness….

What crud! This article  claims that Margaret Beaufort “almost died at the hands of Richard III”? Eh? Richard didn’t once threaten her life, nor would he, he was too soft where women were concerned. He was a man of principal, with values completely beyond anyone remotely Tudor. Murdering/executing women was a Tudor invention, to which…

Completing the Set (2) – the female line cousins

In October, we published an updated version of a Bulletin article, showing that all of Henry VIII’s “wives” were descended from Edward I. Thanks to Ann for her comment on the above article, that Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard share the same mtDNA, therefore Edward VI and Elizabeth I should do. Having investigated…

Did ANYONE do the dirty deed in the Tower….?

If you go to this link this article you’ll find an interesting if challengeable article about “Perkin Warbeck” and whether he could or could not have been Richard of Shrewsbury. Well, there were enough people who thought he was, and to make Henry Tudor’s existence thoroughly miserable. Pleasant thought. The article also discussed who might…