There’s been another Murrrrdah…!

Maud Neville of Scotton, Lincolnshire, was the daughter and heiress of Sir Philip** Neville and Sarah (birth name unknown) and was born in about 1360. She married Sir William Cantilupe, a substantial landowner and member of a family which, historically, been of considerable importance in England. ** Some sources say Ralph. Take your pick. Allegedly,…

Four Richards, three Joans….and a dragon!

My research perambulations have brought me full circle…back to the Waldegrave family of the 14th century. When rechecking the history of parliament online I found the following sentence in a footnote:- “….Considerable confusion has arisen from the existence of four successive Sir Richard de Waldegraves, especially as the last three all had wives named Joan….” No you-know-what,…

Another medieval scoundrel who abducted a woman….!

  I’ve written before, more than once, about the abominable practice of medieval men abducting women and forcing them into marriage in order to lay hands on their estates. It was a capital way for impoverished, unprincipled knights to improve their status and finances. In this they were only too usually aided and abetted by…

The Earl of Lincoln’s children and marriages. . . .?

Am I alone in always having imagined that John de la Pole’s wife, Margaret Fitzalan, Countess of Lincoln, was a woman of childbearing age? Somehow I just took it as read, and thus that their apparent lack of heirs was a nasty trick of nature. Chance caused me to check for more information about this daughter of…