Picking up where we left off: George, Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick’s rebellion in the summer of 1469 enhanced Richard’s position at Edward IV’s court. Around the same time that he joined Edward for his triumphant return to London, Isabella of Castile wrote a letter to her brother, King Henry IV, listing out four possible suitors, including, “the brother of the King of England.”
Continue reading “Part Four: Richard III, Warwick’s Rebellion & the Battle of Tewkesbury”
We haven’t really talked about this much here, but ICYMI, there’s a new Prime Minister. Boris Johnson replaced former PM Theresa May last month, and was officially received and asked to form a government by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace shortly before she left for Balmoral.
Now the big news is that Johnson ordered Parliament prorogued from Thursday, September 12 to Wednesday, October 14, curtailing the amount of time MPs have to debate a potential no-deal departure from the European Union ahead of the October 31st Brexit deadline.
At this point, August is really turning into a pick your poison proposition for the Royal Family…and us. Would you rather talk about private planes or the Duke of York’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? (If your answer is neither, well, my apologies). Let’s start with the positive.
Continue reading “Royal Roundup: Balmoral Visits & Press Statements”
Ok, we’re picking up where we left off yesterday with Richard III. You can catch up on how I’m approaching him here. As I mentioned yesterday, we know very little about Richard’s early years save that they were predominantly spent at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, and that his most constant companions were his sister, Margaret, and his brother, George. Our next glimpse of him comes in October 1459 when Richard was seven, by which time the first half of the Wars of the Roses was well underway.
Continue reading “Part Two: Richard III’s Introduction to War & Burgundy”
By now I hope most of you have read Thursday’s post that covers how I’m approaching Richard III. If you haven’t, I recommend starting there. Going forward, while I will be providing some basic context on people and events, my aim is to keep these relatively tight biographical posts so the links I include in the text will direct you to older posts that delve more deeply into various topics.
Happy Friday, everyone! I promise we are returning to history (in fact, there are two posts on Richard III scheduled for Saturday and Sunday), but in the meantime I wanted to wrap up some smaller news items from the last few days.
Continue reading “Royal Roundup: Budget Flights & Instagram Stories”
Richard III is a tricky monarch to write about in a forum like this. His life and brief reign occurred during a particularly complex period in England’s history, and there’s an incredible level of controversy over even some of the most basic facts of his life. Compared with writing about other monarchs, Richard presents a unique challenge in that the devil is very much in the details, but I also try to write my historical posts in a way that makes them accessible for people with a more casual interest in English history or its monarchy.
That’s part of it. The other part is that few historical figures prompt as strong a reaction as Richard does. The second half of the Wars of the Roses has its own cult following akin to that of the Tudors (indeed, Richard’s closest peer in the canon may well be Anne Boleyn when it comes to sheer volume of ink spilled) and people tend to fall into two camps: those who believe Richard has been unfairly maligned and those who believe he is in fact guilty of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower.
After nearly two long years we finally have a release date for the third season of Netflix’s award-winning The Crown. Mark your calendars for midnight on Sunday, November 17, because 10 new episodes are going to pick up where the second season left off, only this time featuring an entirely new cast.
Continue reading “Let’s Chat About Season Three of The Crown”
You can tell it’s August because I’m not sure this issue would generally rise to the level of its own post here, let alone several actual news stories…but the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are under fire for their use of private planes in the last couple of weeks. Members of the Royal Family flying private to travel, including in their personal time, is nothing new, but Harry recently made some controversial statements in Meghan’s September edition of British Vogue on sustainability and climate change that have now drawn accusations of hypocrisy.
And now some major celebs have stepped in.
