KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION King John was not a good man, He had his little ways. And sometimes no one spoke to him For days and days and days. And men who came across him, When walking in the town, Gave him a supercilious stare, Or passed with noses in the air, And…

How should we consider Edward II’s private life….?

I never really know quite what to say when it comes to the private life of Edward II. I know he is generally regarded as being homosexual, but what we consider to be that now may not be quite the same as what was believed in the late 13th – early 14th century. Edward has…

Playwrights and persistent historical myths

Today in 1564, Christopher Marlowe (right) was baptised in Canterbury. One of the plays for which he is most famous is       Edward II (left), traditionally dated a year before his own 1593 death. In it, he fuels the myth of Edward meeting his end by a red-hot poker. This is cited by Starkey in…

Were Edward II and Isabella maligned too….?

The above illustrations are an indication of the generally accepted view of the reign of Edward II. He preferred men and ignored his wife. She resented this, took a lover and turned successfully upon her husband, becoming the “She Wolf” of legend. So let us go back to the beginning. On 25th January 1308, Edward…

To be, or not to be, the Bard?

William Shakespeare’s contribution to the image of Richard III, as of many other historical figures, has been less than helpful in terms of accuracy. However, just as Shakespeare’s original plays misrepresented his sources and the true course of  events, not every performance of one of the plays is as he left them. His version of…