Richard III’s many daughters….

  Fake news. Ah yes. We regard this as a modern curse, but, of course, it goes back through the centuries. Probably ever since the humans in one cave fell out with the humans in another. Lies…erm, fake news…soon circulated. And if there was one King of England about whom there is fake news in…

Historic royal families and incest….

  The above gentlemen have the infamous Habsburg chin on full display. It means they are definitely not going to win a World’s Handsomest Man competition any time soon. Their chins and general looks are the result of generations of inbreeding, the aim being to keep the royal blood pure. Well, there’s pure and there’s…

Useful Charts goes to Portugal

John of Gaunt‘s daughter married one of their kings, Richard III tried to marry the sister of another (whilst Charles II did) and a cardinal succeeded to their throne as the last legitimate domestic heir but wasn’t allowed to resign holy orders and died a year or so later, to be succeeded by the Spanish…

In case you haven’t noticed …

… we like our anniversaries here at Murrey and Blue. Having received this book about anniversaries as a birthday present, I found a substantial amount of unfamiliar information and several new cases, but there were two noticeable lacunae: (14th June on the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt): “Sudbury‘s skull survives, in St. Gregory’s Church in Norwich …”…

The Strange Reluctance to Accept Facts

Much of history is simply interpretation. You can interpret events, and facts, in various ways. Often there is no absolute truth and the interpretation depends on the standpoint of the historian. For example, a passionate Welsh nationalist is likely to see the events of 1282 in a rather different light to the interpretation of an…

WAS HENRY VII A RELUCTANT BRIDEGROOM?

REBLOGGED FROM A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.  Their effigies in Westminster Abbey.  Artist Pietro Torrigiano. Photo westminster-abbey.org I was recently reading an excellent article in the Ricardian discussing Henry Tudor’s enthusiasm, or lack of it, for his marriage to Elizabeth of York by David Johnson entitled Ardent Suitor or Reluctant…

No longer passing the Buc(k)?

Now for some very interesting news: Arthur Kincaid’s The History of King Richard the Third is set for a new edition, based on forty years of further research. Kincaid has managed to distinguish the forensic research of Sir George Buc (1560-1622), whose great-grandfather fought at Bosworth and whose grandfather was at Flodden, from that of…

Long live the King

This interesting tome has finally appeared in paperback. The opening Parts read like an abridged biography of the story familiar to us through Warner’s The Unconventional King, but to be read with an open mind as to whether Edward II survived his “official death” today in 1327 or not. The reader will re-learn the events…

The Priory of the Knights Hospitaller of St John at Clerkenwell and a visit by Richard III

REPOSTED FROM sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/06/25/the-priory-of-the-knights-hospitaller-of-st-john-at-clerkenwell-and-a-visit-by-richard-iii/ The Great South Gate now known as St John’s Gateway as it is today  Shortly after the death of his wife, Anne Neville on the 16th March 1485 Richard rode to the Priory of the Knights Hospitaller of St John at Clerkenwell.  .  On the 30 March 1485,  which fell…

Does this later case explain Henry Pole the Younger’s fate?

In the years from 1518, before he left England again in 1536, Reginald Pole occupied a number of ecclesiastical ranks, including that of Dean of Exeter. During the early 1530s, just as Henry VIII sought his first annulment, Eustace Chapuys was pressing Reginald to marry Princess Mary, the cousin he eventually served from Lambeth Palace.…