Buckden Bishop’s Palace

A few years back I wrote about Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire, the old palace of the Bishops of Lincoln. Finally, with the pandemic receding, I was able to visit the site in its small village (once a thriving place in coaching times and earlier but much diminished with the advent of the railways.) Here Richard…

Buckden Towers-Heritage at Risk

Caring for heritage buildings is a never-ending job. They may have stood for hundreds of years but just like every other building, they crumble and decay with time and need urgent restoration. A recently addition to the ever-growing ‘Heritage at Risk’ ledger is Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire. Formerly known as Buckden Palace, it was home…

Gloucester on 28th October, 1378, 1483 and 1967….

28th October is a notable day for me because of three events in Gloucester’s history:- (1) It was the day my second favourite king, Richard II was in Gloucester and Tewkesbury—well, he was from 20th October 1378 until mid-November, so had to be in one or the other on the 28th. (2) It was also…

The Royal Progress of Richard III

Following his coronation, Richard III – like all medieval monarchs – went on his “royal progress” through the realm.  Along with an entourage in excess of 200 household men, ecclesiastics, supporters, and administrative officials, he visited towns and cities as far west as the River Severn, as far north as the River Ouse, and as…

The Bishop of Lincoln’s country residence….

Let’s be honest, the more senior churchmen (bishops and above) have always known how to live well. For centuries they have enjoyed elegant surroundings….and have lacked for nothing. The subject of this article is 15th-century Lyddington Palace, home of the Bishops of Lincoln, such as this one. “By 1600, a lot of the palace had been…

The King’s bishop? What did John Russell know in 1483?

  “ ‘Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?’ ‘To the curious incident of the dog in the night time’ ‘The dog did nothing in the night time’ ‘That is the curious incident ‘ remarked Sherlock Holmes.”[1]   By applying his reasoning to this simple observation, the world’s…

1484 – TITULUS REGIUS: FACT OR FICTION?

  Introduction ‘ ‘This is indeed a mystery’ I remarked.’ What do you think it means?’‘I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suite theories, instead of theories to suite facts.’   In Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story A Scandal…

Richard’s Christmas Celebrations…and the Croyland Chronicle….

This article is about Richard, Christmas celebrations, and the Croyland Chronicle. I really enjoyed reading it.  It seems Richard’s lavish hospitality met with sour po-faced disapproval! No doubt, if he’d kept a sparse Christmas, he’d have been criticised for not giving himself up to the joy of Christ’s birth. https://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/wars-of-the-roses-blog/christmas-1484-with-richard-iii  

ENGLAND’S MINORITY KINGS 1216-1483

Introduction This essay was prompted by a sentence in John Ashdown-Hill’s latest book ‘The Private Life of Edward IV’: “ According to English custom, as the senior living adult prince of the blood royal, the duke of Gloucester should have acted as Regent — or Lord Protector as the role was then known in England…

Richard’s latest court trial….

Richard has been put on trial again, and found not guilty. I tell you the verdict of the latest trial in case you lose the will to live before finally emerging from the intensely intrusive advertisements that always ruin the Leicester Mercury website. The article itself IS there, and an account of the trial.  Just…