Four Men Murdered by Henry Bolingbroke

I wish I had a pound for every word written about the executions of Hastings, Rivers, Grey and Vaughan at the hands of Richard III. I should certainly be able to expand my portfolio of shares very substantially, indeed well beyond ISA limits. I might even be a millionaire. It may be that these men…

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…

Sir Reginald Bray – not by L.P. Hartley

Reginald Bray was born in Worcester in around 1440. He was the second son of Sir Richard Bray, a surgeon, and Joan Troughton. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School at Worcester. Leland mentioned that his father, Sir Richard Bray was Henry VI’s doctor. Reginald was married to Catherine Hussey. Bray is described by…

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…

Dark Sovereign (2)

This is our second extract from this innovative Robert Fripp play, concerning the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham:           Protected by her consort, Edward IV, through their 19 year marriage, Elizabeth Woodville took to appropriating property from the “Old nobility” faction, including Richard Gloucester and Harry, Duke of Buckingham. This included…

More’s cryptic reference explained?

In his unpublished semi-satirical volume, More has the Lord Protector and Defender of the Realm, Richard Duke of Gloucester who was also Lord High Constable of England for life, call for some strawberries before the Constable’s Court could pronounce sentence on William Lord Hastings. Many historians have struggled to understand the significance of the strawberries…

The Kirby Muxloe brooch

The 15th century brooch found at Kirby Muxloe castle Oh, yawn. I was enjoying this Leicester Mercury article about a 15th-century ring found at Kirby Muxloe, until I read: “Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, accused William [Hastings] of treason and had him taken outside, where he was beheaded on the spot.” Bah!  Humbug!…

A History Walk in Wiltshire

Sometimes, in this very old country of ours,  even a simple afternoon’s walk out along the river  can come up with some rewarding historical data relating to the Middle Ages and the Wars of the Roses period. Recently I went for a walk near the Wiltshire Avon, from Figheldean to Netheravon, taking in  two little-known…

Was Lord Stanley present when Hastings was arrested….?

Tomorrow is the 534th anniversary of the council meeting in the Tower that culminated in the arrest of Hastings. There have always been inconsistencies in accounts of that day, but the one I am concerned with is whether or not that treacherous snake, Thomas Stanley, was present. You see, according to whose version one reads, at…

A Tale of Three Mistresses – Mangled by More

(from http://www.annettecarson.co.uk) Our primary source of gossip about Edward IV’s mistresses is attributable to the pen of Thomas More (1478–1535), knight and latterly saint. While writing about Richard III, More found space for a lengthy diversion into the career of ‘Mistress Shore’, perhaps Edward’s most notorious extra-marital concubine, about whose present and past conditions the…