Elisabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton.

Elisabeth Brooke had a very eventful life! My attention was drawn to her as she was a descendant of Constance of York and Thomas Despenser through their daughter Isabelle’s first marriage to Richard Beauchamp – the Richard Beauchamp who became Earl of Worcester as opposed to her second husband, also Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of…

A recently identified book …

… by the sixteenth century spokesman for the Marriage Guidance Council. After all, he had experience of six marriage ceremonies, even if he subsequently annulled four of them. Two of his “wives” didn’t have to waste time and money on their hairstyle or headdress – how thoughtful of him.

THE ORANGE AND LEMON CHURCHES OF OLD LONDON

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com Old London – City of Churches.   Bow Church can be seen to the left.  Part of the The Visscher Panorama of London, 1616. Image Peter Harrington Rare Books.   Orange and lemons say the bells of Saint Clement’s You owe me five farthings say the bells of St Martin’s…

Walking “Tudor” England

Suzannah Lipscomb has just completed another series on Channel Five, this time visiting the sites related to the “Tudors”. In the first episode, she concentrated on Henry VIII and the naval power he inherited from John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. The second was principally about the penultimate “Tudor”, Mary I, as well as Edward VI…

Completing the Set (2) – the female line cousins

In October, we published an updated version of a Bulletin article, showing that all of Henry VIII’s “wives” were descended from Edward I. Thanks to Ann for her comment on the above article, that Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard share the same mtDNA, therefore Edward VI and Elizabeth I should do. Having investigated…

Why did Richard III allow Elizabeth of York such liberty at his court….?

  Today, 10th August, is my birthday, and on this date in 1485, the last Yorkist king, Richard III, was in Nottingham preparing for the imminent invasion of his realm by his Lancastrian foe, Henry Tudor, who didn’t have much of a blood claim to the throne but touted himself as the last remaining heir…

A strange way of hinting that Richard murdered his nephews….

    I found this article to be rather awkward to read, due to the layout, so have extracted the part that will concern Ricardians, i.e. the ‘ghosts’ of the boys in the Tower. It’s nothing new, but I thought you might be interested. “….Prince Edward V and Prince Richard, Duke of York, just 12…

Schrodinger’s royal marriages?

Anne Boleyn and then Katherine Howard thought they had married Henry VIII. Then he annulled them both, as he did with his first and fourth weddings, such that they were deemed to have been invalid from the start. However, he had these second and fifth Queens executed for treason in that they committed adultery whilst…

She isn’t “going through the card” after all

As you probably know, the list of women who have been beheaded in England is very short. Helena Bonham Carter has played two of them so far – Lady Jane (1554) in 1986 and Anne Boleyn (1536) (opposite Ray Winstone’s Henry VIII on ITV) in 2003 and I heard that she was about to play a royal…

The treacherous Welshman who supposedly killed Richard III….!

  A few days ago I watched a TV documentary about Rhys ap Thomas, The Man Who Killed Richard III. It made my Welsh blood boil! The man was a bullying, thieving snake, not a hero! Anyway, here is the TV company’s blurb:- “Who killed Richard III? http://www.historychannel.com.au/shows/man-killed-richard-iii/ “This is a story of conspiracy and…