Isabella of Castile takes the crown, in more way than one….

  This article lists the top five  great European queens as Elizabeth I, Maria Theresa of Austria, the Empress Elizabeth, Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria. Ah, but that’s the top five after Isabella of Castile, who reigned from 1474 until she died in 1504. Isabella snatches this particular crown right under the other ladies’…

The tapestries of Thomas Wolsey

We have recently come across this rather interesting article, extracted from Reyes y Prelados, by Emma Luisa Cahill Marron (excuse the missing accent) about Cardinal Wolsey and some of his artefacts. The original is in Spanish and here is a translation, by ladychaol.

Catherine of Aragon and the “creepy old man”….!

  It’s official, folks. Late in his reign Henry VII was “a creepy old man”! It’s true, because  Factinate.com says so! Henry VIII, was “a nasty middle-aged and old man”. In my opinion anyway, and Factinate agrees, more or less. Oh, and Catherine of Aragon was quite a woman! She had some pretty bloodthirsty ideas,…

Henry Tudor Sailed the Oceans Blue?

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Henry Tudor Sailed the Oceans Blue?  No, no, we all know that’s NOT the way the rhyme goes…however, apparently, some publishers do not know the difference between the English king and the explorer Christopher Columbus. A picture of Henry VII, labelled as Columbus, recently appeared in a child’s history textbook…

Squaring the Circle

Writing The Survival of the Princes in the Tower was an enormously enjoyable project. The book, due out in Autumn 2017, considers the evidence that one, or both, of the sons of Edward IV survived well beyond 1483, when they are traditionally considered to have been murdered by their uncle Richard III. My problem with…

Of party food, comic films and the sinister reality behind them

It doesn’t have to have been in Spain but I expect that most of you will have been to a party at which tapas was served. One of the main components of this is a type of ham known as jamon iberico or serrano. Have you wondered why this is the principal meat in tapas?…

Perkin Warbeck: A Story of Deception – The Fascinating Enigma as presented in Ann Wroe’s biography

Originally posted on Giaconda's Blog:
I wanted to write a piece about the man who we know as Perkin Warbeck or Piers Osbeck or Richard Plantagenet or King Richard IV or whoever he may have been if he was none of these other men after reading Ann Wroe’s excellent biography on this most appealing…