The Ancestry of Sir Richard Pole.

Richard Pole is perhaps most famous for being the husband of Margaret Plantagenet, later Countess of Salisbury. But who was he? His maternal ancestry is relatively straightforward. He was the son of Edith St. John, who was the half-sister of Margaret Beaufort. So that makes him the (half-blood) first cousin of Henry VII. Edith St.…

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…

MPs who want to quit can apply to be Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead….

“….MPs wishing to quit can apply to be ‘Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds’ or ‘Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead’. Neither job has existed for centuries but the ‘jobs’ still exist as a workaround to the law of 1624….” Well, I’d heard of the Chiltern Hundreds, but have to…

May something wonderful be discovered at the Scarborough Castle dig….!

“….English Civil War musket balls, Roman pottery and items from the 2nd Century AD are among objects unearthed during a rare dig at a Yorkshire landmark. [Scarborough Castle] “….Teams discovered the find during a six-week operation on land at Scarborough Castle, which was twice besieged in the 17th Century civil war. “….The last major excavations…

A house in Scarborough

If you visit Scarborough Castle and go down towards the beach from there, turn your head to your right and walk along the seafront opposite the Harbour, and you will notice something singular. Among the shops, cafés and fish-and-chip restaurants, there is a house that stands out because it is the oldest in the area.…

Quite an unfortunate family

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, cannot be called unlucky. The story of his revolt against Richard III, ending in Salisbury at the start of November 1483 is so well known that even Shakespeare has the right end of this particular stick. However, his family suffered fates that they didn’t always deserve so obviously: 1)…

A return to the East Riding (2007)

I had visited York twice before, the first time with my primary school thirty years ago, and am thus familiar with the classic medieval and subsequent attractions. On my second visit, my late mother and I went to the same venues, thus I was determined to visit the subsequently built Jorvik centre. In this I…

Thomas Stafford – his execution clarified

Thomas Stafford – a new source (by Stephen Lark)   When I composed a Bulletin article about Thomas Stafford in 2005, I knew a few things about him – his descent from George of Clarence and Henry of Buckingham whilst not being the senior descendant of either – but some things were not known. There…