Medieval England–Generally

The following is a guest post I did last year for the lovely Melanie Clegg, a historical novelist whose latest book, Minette, is high on my to-be-read list. Melanie has a great blog–do stop by! For a few years in the fifteenth century, Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester—an adulteress and the daughter of a mere

I’m back from the annual general meeting of the American Branch of the Richard III Society, which took place in, of all places, Las Vegas. Since the Saturday banquet was a costume-optional occasion, this gave me the opportunity to strut through a casino floor wearing a medieval gown and hennin, an opportunity I will surely

In around 1435, Henry VI’s council decided that strict measures were required for the upbringing of a royal ward. The ward was to rise between six and seven in the morning and to say prayers, and then go and wait upon the king, where he was to hear mass with him. Our young person was

Over the weekend (in between the excitement of using my big hole puncher), I finished Witch Queen by Maureen Peters. Witch Queen is about Joan of Navarre, who married the widowed Henry IV and thus became his queen and the stepmother to his children, including the future Henry V. Witch Queen follows Joan from her

As eagerly anticipated, no doubt, by female readers of this blog, here’s an item from Edward IV’s last Parliament, that of 1483, in which Parliament took a firm stand against firm–no, I’m not going there. Not at all. And that it be ordained and enacted by the said authority that no one below the estate

As my work-in-progress approaches the death of George, Duke of Clarence, I had a look last night at the Parliament rolls for the 1478 session at which he was condemned. There’s actually very little about Clarence in them, perhaps because there was plenty of other business to occupy Parliament, such as this little gem: the