The bells ring for Cardinal Wolsey

On Friday, I was in St. Lawrence’s Church, now a cafe, in the town centre when the meeting I was at was punctuated by the ringing of bells just above the front door. We assumed at the time that this was practice for the for the forthcoming coronation. However, as this article shows, it was…

Pembroke didn’t pop the Weasel when it should have….!

Well, the first part of a riveting, absolutely factual series about Henry VII was warning enough. I confess to having had to read the first sentence twice, because first time around I thought Edmund Tudor was fighting against the Duke of York’s men and Edmund’s own wife, Margaret Beaufort, who was Henry’s underage mother. Shame on…

Richard III meets Philippa and Harry at the Wallace Collection….

We’ve been deluged with reviews and information about The Lost King, and we’re flocking to see it wherever we can. But one thing has always been thin on the ground, and that’s publicity photographs. We’ve had the same few, so finding another (not actually from the film itself) with Philippa Langley and Harry Lloyd looking…

The passing of James Butler, sculptor of the most loved statue of Richard III….

  James Butler, the sculptor who created the matchless statue of Richard III outside Leicester Cathedral, has died aged 90. RIP, and thank you for a work that is inspirational to all Ricardians. . You can read his obituary here. A quick search online will reveal many more such acknowledgements of the man who was,…

Renewing the wax covering Edward I’s body in Westminster Abbey…

While working my way through the Close Rolls of Richard II, I came upon the following intriguing  entry for 11 July 1377, not long after the boy-king’s accession:- “….To the treasurer and the chamberlains. Order of the king’s money to renew the wax about the body of King Edward I buried in the church of…

THE LOST CHAPEL OF THE PRINCE BISHOPS

Once upon a time, in the 13th century, in the grounds of Auckland Castle, there stood a mighty northern chapel that was almost as large as St George’s at Windsor and bigger than St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster. The Prince-Archbishop Antony Bek was its founder, a man so powerful it was said by some that…

THE MYSTERIOUS BRISTOL CROSS

In the back of the beautiful Stourhead gardens stands a mysterious piece of  old Bristol–the Bristol High Cross. When you first see it, you almost think it might be a modern folly, but it is the ‘real thing’, a medieval cross. In the 1700’s such relics of the past were considered  old-fashioned and valueless; in…

Desperately Seeking Wolsey….

The discovery in Leicester of the remains of Richard III was surely one of the greatest such event, and since then there have been increased attempts to locate other great figures from our past. Leicester has at least one other such person just waiting to be found, but as yet he’s proving elusive. The location…

Maldon

Following an unsuccesful Viking raid in 924, the battle of Maldon took place in August 991 and the result was a victory for the Norse invaders. Byrthnoth, the Essex earldorman who led the Saxons that day, was among those killed and Ethelred II instituted payment of the “Danegeld” to pacify the Vikings. This Byrthnoth statue…

From the Lizard to Deptford Bridge – a guest post

An Gof and the Cornish Rebellion 1497 As the early summer sun seared upon Bodmin Moor, sweeping south westwards to Goonhilly Downs , which straddles a swathe of the Lizard Peninsula , the tortured arid landscapes  weren’t the only features of 1497 Cornwall, threatening to ignite in a blaze of fiery agitation. In  1337 the…