Episode Three – Rebels and Outlaws Scene Thirty; 1070-71 – The Legendary Outlaws of the Fens: Many of the stories of Hereward the Outlaw that follow these events were written down several generations after his own day, by which time they had already followed a legendary turn of phrase. But the twelfth-century Gesta Herewardi containsContinue reading “The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – III.”
Tag Archives: barons
The Raven & the White Rose – The Plantagenet Pretender in Buda: Richard de la Pole.
The Growth of the Great Central European Empire: Sigismund of Bohemia, pictured above, became Holy Roman Emperor in 1433, an event which marked the establishment of the great Central European Empire under Habsburg rule, through his daughter’s marriage, until 1918. As Emperor, he acted as an intermediary between Henry V of England and the KingContinue reading “The Raven & the White Rose – The Plantagenet Pretender in Buda: Richard de la Pole.”
Welsh Bards & Hungarian Balladeers: Imagining the Past – Poetry & History.
Wars of Independence: In 1857, the legendary martyrdom of the courtly poets of Wales by Edward I was used by the nineteenth-century Hungarian poet János Arany to serve as a parable of resistance to another Empire after the ‘heroic’ uprising and war of independence of 1848-49 in his native country. Arany’s poem, Walesi bardok (The Bards ofContinue reading “Welsh Bards & Hungarian Balladeers: Imagining the Past – Poetry & History.”
The End of Saxon England? Revisiting the Norman Conquest, 1035-1135: Chapter II – Castles, Abbeys, Cathedrals & Churches.
Knights, Barons & Castles: The knights who served William ‘the Conqueror’ were armed in many respects as their English opponents, wearing mail hauberks and conical helmets, and carrying kite-shaped shields, lances, swords and maces. If battlefield tactics were dominated by the mounted knight, the strategies of war were increasingly subject to the powerful influence ofContinue reading “The End of Saxon England? Revisiting the Norman Conquest, 1035-1135: Chapter II – Castles, Abbeys, Cathedrals & Churches.”
The End of Saxon England? Revisiting the Norman Conquest: Chapter I – The Confessor, the Conqueror & the House of Wessex, 1035-1135
The Tragedy of Harold Godwinson: The story of the Norman ‘takeover’ of England has been told very often, most vividly in one of the earliest accounts in the form of Queen Matilda’s tapestry, still kept in Bayeux, which gives it the name it is better known by. French legend maintained the tapestry was commissioned andContinue reading “The End of Saxon England? Revisiting the Norman Conquest: Chapter I – The Confessor, the Conqueror & the House of Wessex, 1035-1135”
Andrew James 