GLEASTON CASTLE – RENDEZVOUS FOR THE YORKIST REBELS IN 1487?

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @ sparkypus.com Gleaston Castle today.  Entrance to south west tower.  Photo Chloe Grainger @castlestudiestrust.org Some of you reading this may be familiar with other posts I have written concerning what I call the Coldridge theory.   For those of you who are not familiar with the theory here is a brief…

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn really did sleep here….!

If you fancy staying in a Tudor castle, then Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire is the place for you. It’s a beautiful castle that is now presented very much in the Tudor style. “….It was built in 1510 by Edward Stafford, the Duke of Buckingham, who had been given permission by the young King Henry VIII…

The Stanley who found religion – Sir John Stanley of Honford.

  Sir John Stanley was a grandson of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby and Eleanor Neville. His father was James Stanley (c 1465-1525) a cleric who eventually became Bishop of Ely. (He retained multiple benefices and seems to have been as often in Lancashire as in Ely. He is buried in what is now Manchester…

Oliver Cromwell’s posthumous peregrinations

Much has been written about Cromwell’s life including his descent from Thomas Cromwell‘s sister, his childhood, his rise and service as Lord Protector, after Charles I‘s execution, whilst refusing the crown. Here, as part of his afterlife, Allan Barton, on YouTube, discusses the fate of his corpse. This includes his beheading, alongside the other deceased…

Vlad the Impaler and Richard III….?

There I was on the road to Damascus when there was a great roll of thunder and suddenly I was confronted by Vlad the Impaler. I jest of course, but I did see a TV documentary about Vlad’s curse and did have a flash of inspiration for an article for the blog. Except….right now I…

The quiet Woodville….

  Whenever we hear the name Woodville (various spellings) we’re inclined to think of Elizabeth Woodville and her grasping relatives. We’re told they had goodies thrust upon them by Edward IV, and that they were foisted in marriage onto almost all the leading families of the realm. One couldn’t go anywhere without encountering Woodvilles in…

Born back Ceaselessly into the Past: the History of the Fitzgeralds

When most people think of the beautiful Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, they tend to think of the Jazz Age. That is the epithet coined by Scott to explain the wild ride of the 1920s – the drinking, the music, the partying, the real estate and stock market boom. And let’s not forget literary genius.…

Elisabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton.

Elisabeth Brooke had a very eventful life! My attention was drawn to her as she was a descendant of Constance of York and Thomas Despenser through their daughter Isabelle’s first marriage to Richard Beauchamp – the Richard Beauchamp who became Earl of Worcester as opposed to her second husband, also Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of…

Another Hundred Years’ Grudge

A few years ago, we showed that Robert Catesby, directly descended from Sir William Catesby, sought to kill James VI/I, a descendant of Henry VII, by gunpowder 120 years after Henry had Sir William hanged after Bosworth.This second case, of which I was reminded in Kathryn Warner‘s The Despensers, doesn’t involve direct ancestry on both…

NEW DISCOVERIES AT PONTEFRACT CASTLE

Pontefract Castle was, in its day, the Windsor of the North. Large and seemingly impregnable , it had two massive tapering towers that rose up to over a hundred feet high, a landmark visible from miles away. It was the scene of many historical events–in 1322 Edward II executed his cousin, Thomas of Lancaster here,…