Philippa Gregory has critiqued gendered representations of Elizabeth Woodville and has stated that her 2009 novel The White Queen fictionalises Woodville’s history with the aim of challenging such depictions.
‘There is more to the story than this, of course’: Character and Affect in Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen
October 13, 2014 By
Murder, Alchemy and the Wars of the Roses
July 27, 2014 By
What follows is a kind of murder mystery, but not a whodunit. The identity of the man who carried out the crime, while indeed a mystery, is probably unknowable and actually unimportant.
Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol
May 26, 2014 By
With a population of almost 10,000, Bristol was later medieval England’s second or third biggest urban place, and the realm’s second port after London. While not particularly large or wealthy in comparison with the great cities of northern Italy, Flanders or the Rhineland, it was a metropolis in the context of the British Isles.
The history of foxglove poisoning, was Edward IV a victim?
April 30, 2014 By
The history of foxglove poisoning, was Edward IV a victim? Peter Stride (University of Queensland School of Medicine, Australia) Fiona Winston-Brown (Librarian, Redcliffe Hospital, Australia) Richard III Society: Inc. Vol. 43 No. 1 March (2012) Abstract Edward IV, having been obese, but otherwise apparently in good health, died after an acute illness of only a […]
Great Medieval Fiction 2013!
November 28, 2013 By
For those of you who enjoy some fantasy or a historical novel – this list is for you!
Two dozen and more Silkwomen of Fifteenth-Century London
October 24, 2013 By
This article attempts to record systematically all the silkwomen of London who were daughters or wives of London mercers between 1400 and 1499.
Danse Macabre’ Around the Tomb and Bones of Margaret of York
October 24, 2013 By
Over 500 years ago on 23 November 1503, at Malines, in present day Belgium, died Margaret of York, sister to Edward IV and Richard III of England and third and last wife of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whom she survived by a quarter of a century.
When Richard III invaded Scotland
October 9, 2013 By
A new article is shining light on a more successful military campaign that Richard led just before he took the English throne.
Sir John Fortescue and the French Polemical Treatises of the Hundred Years War
February 10, 2013 By
Inevitably Fortescue had to adopt new arguments for the defence of Henry VI. To this end he asserted that the Lancastrians now had a just title through divine and ecclesiastical approbation, popular consent and prescription, but the core of his case was a direct response to the Yorkist claim that they had a superior hereditary title to the throne.
The Princess and the Gene Pool: The Plantagenet rebel who held the secret to Richard III’s DNA
February 9, 2013 By
Richard III is perhaps the most controversial figure in British history and historians will long be discussing what new light the finds cast on his story. But the long-forgotten Anne was herself a creature of scandal – a woman who openly took a lover; divorced her husband; and kept his family lands anyway.
Perkin Warbeck: Whether my hero was or was not an impostor, he was believed to be the true man by his contemporaries
December 2, 2012 By
So what about the famous confession? By historians in the Tudor tradition this is usually seen as absolute proof that he was an impostor, arguing that “there is nothing in [his] confession which should make us doubt his truthfulness”. Somehow they cannot have looked at it too closely.
The Curious Career and Uncertain Past of Perkin Warbeck
December 2, 2012 By
Was Warbeck just another in a long line of pretenders to the throne of England, or did his appearance in Ireland in 1491 prove the innocence
of Richard III, whom most historians accuse of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower?
The Queen’s Blood: A Study of Family Ties during the Wars of the Roses
August 29, 2012 By
Although Elizabeth of York was much less politically active than her mother, she was always a theoretically more politically powerful woman. While Elizabeth Woodville came from the lowest ranks of the English nobility, Elizabeth of York was the daughter of Edward IV and a princess in her own right.
‘He contents the people wherever he goes’ Richard III: His Parliament and Government
April 29, 2012 By
In recent years new biographies of great figures such as Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy have shed great light on key issues of English-European relations, while studies of Margaret Beaufort have redefined the political role of the women of this era.
An Inconvenient Princess
April 21, 2012 By
On November 11th, 1480, a child was baptized in the Palace of Eltham with all solemnity and grandeur, as was fitting for a royal princess of the House of York. The child was named Bridget, after the 14th century Swedish saint who wrote of personal visions of Christ and founded a religious order.
Killing Time: Challenging the Common Perceptions of Three Medieval Conflicts—Ferrybridge, Dintingdale and Towton—”The Largest Battle on British Soil”
December 13, 2011 By
How the three conflicts have been perceived since 29 March 1461 is crucial to our understanding of, quite literally, how times have changed
The Civil War of 1459 to 1461 in the Welsh Marches – Part I
September 11, 2011 By
The Civil War of 1459 to 1461 in the Welsh Marches – Part I Hodges, Geoffrey The Ricardian (1984) Abstract The civil war which brought the house of York to the throne in 1461 included two dramatic events in the middle March of Wales, which for various reasons have been somewhat ignored. The first of these, […]
The Civil War of 1459 to 1461 in the Welsh Marches – Part Part II
September 11, 2011 By
The Civil War of 1459 to 1461 in the Welsh Marches – Part II Hodges, Geoffrey The Ricardian (1984) Abstract Recounting the bloodless battle of Ludford is relatively simple, as it is well documented. A large royal army was involved, with a fair amount of material resulting for official records and for the London chroniclers. The […]
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