Expensive bog paper….!

  Oh dear. There are times when Amazon recommends books to me that are actually anathema to a loyal Ricardian. This time it’s…I can hardly type it….that awful Terry Breverton book Henry VII: The Maligned King. Porkies from beginning to end. Well, if the Weasel has been maligned I’ll eat my Yorkist hat. Maligned suggests…

What would YOU give Henry VII for Christmas….?

  It’s always amusing to ponder things concerning people from the past, and in this article the idea is to imagine a Secret Santa doling out gifts to specific figures. For instance, Alfred the Great should be given an air fryer, to solve his cake-baking hang-ups. And King John would surely benefit from a snorkel…

The carpenter’s son who became King of England….

  The story of Lambert Simnel is well-known, of course, but here is a podcast about him. It begins with adverts and they reappear during the narration, but the programme itself is interesting. Lambert is stated, categorically, to be the son of an Oxford carpenter. He is also described as being trained to be Edward…

JOHN DE LA POLE EARL OF LINCOLN AND ELSTON CHAPEL – A POSSIBLE BURIAL PLACE?

Reblogged from a Medieval Potpourri @ sparkypus.com   The Last Stand of Martin Schwartz and his German Mercenaries at the Battle of Stoke Field 16th June 1487.  Unknown artist Cassell’s Century Edition History of England c.1901. The battle of Stoke Field fought on the  16th June 1487 has been discussed elsewhere extensively so there is no need for…

Richard III was one of the five most fearsome medieval warrior kings….?

I don’t know which five of our medieval monarchs you’d choose as the most fearsome warriors, but according to this article it seems the Fearsome Five are (in chronological order) William I, Edward I, Robert the Bruce, Henry V and … Richard III. Now, I’m not saying Richard wasn’t a fearsome warrior, because he was,…

Antony Woodville and his daughter, Margaret.

Antony Woodville, quite early in his career, had an affair with Gwenllian Stradling which led to the birth of a daughter, Margaret Woodville. As it turned out, although he subsequently married twice, this was his only child. Or certainly, his only child who grew up. The Stradlings were a long-standing Glamorgan gentry family, based at…

Who led the tournament knights on golden chains….?

  We all know about the Order of the Garter, and the many knights who’ve been honoured by being admitted to its exclusive ranks. We also know that there were Ladies of the Garter, starting with Queen Philippa of Hainault, consort of the Order’s founder, King Edward III. She was followed by a number of…

THE CARTOON KINGS: THE HENRYS

Wandering around Google Images, as you do, I can across these less than flattering but pretty darn funny vintage cartoons of Henry VII and his offspring Horrible Henry VIII. I’ve seen other cartoons of Henry VII in a miserly pose but whoever drew THIS one must have been well aware of a contemporary description of…

Beautiful Collyweston….

The ten best villages in England are listed here and Collyweston in Northamptonshire makes the grade. I can only say that it does so entirely on its own merit and in spite of having once been the lair of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.

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…