Blog Archives - Meandering Through Time

Death of Roger Mortimer the First Earl of March

29/11/2017

On the 29th November in 1330 Roger Mortimer, first earl of March, was executed at Tyburn after being captured following a coup at Nottingham Castle at the beginning of October.

Roger Mortimer and Edward II's queen Isabella had successfully rebelled against Edward who they eventually deposed, you can see them depicted in the image below. History states that Edward II died at Berkeley Castle towards the end of the summer of 1327 supposedly on the order of Roger Mortimer, however it has been suggested that he lived a number of years abroad. With Edward gone Mortimer and Isabella were criticised for the way they conducted themselves, their attempted overthrow of Edward III was a step too far.

After his arrest, Mortimer was taken to the Tower of London and afterwards, he stood trial at Westminster where it is said he was bound and gagged and unable to speak in his own defence. He was found guilty and was sentenced to the death of a traitor - by hanging, drawing and quartering, however, the king was lenient, Mortimer's body was not disembowelled or quartered, his naked body was left to swing from the gallows for two days and two nights, eventually he was cut down.

Mortimer would be spared this most gruesome fate.

Queen Isabella buried her lover's body at Greyfriars in Coventry but his widow petitioned the king for the return of her husband's body. At first, he refused but later relented. Joan Mortimer had the Earl's body reinterred at his castle a Wigmore.

Isabella was returned to Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire and then to Windsor Castle. In 1332 she was sent to her own property of Castle Rising in Norfolk where she is thought to have suffered a nervous breakdown.

Castle Rising in Norfolk

Queen Isabella survived Roger Mortimer by twenty-eight years.

Death of Eadred

23/11/2017

23rd November 955: The death of Eadred Anglo-Saxon king of England.

The penny in the image above is dated to the reign of King Eadred, on it you can see that the king has his mouth open. I wonder, was the smith who minted this coin depicting the condition that was the cause of his death? The coin certainly shows something being expelled from his mouth.

Eadred was the son of Edward the Elder, his brother Edmund had been murdered by a thief in the May of 946 leaving the throne of England to twenty-three-year-old Eadred.

Nine years later Eadred was himself dead, he died from some sort of stomach complaint that left him unable to digest food. Because of this ailment, Eadred was forced to chew and then spit out the food, it seems that he only swallowed the liquid. A witness who watched Eadred at mealtimes wrote

"Eratque, proh dolor, rex Eadraedus dilectus Dunstani per omne tempus imperii sui nimium languens, ita ut refectionis tempore sorpto succo ciborum reliquam partem parumper dentibus obtritam ab ore rejecisse, et sic saepe convivantibus secum militibus foetentem nausiam exspuendo fecisset."

"so that the part of the rest of the meal is in the time of the sorpta the juice of the food from the mouth to the
teeth, a minced rejected, stinking and loathsome to be spewed out to the soldiers"

Poor Eadred! Despite this, he had some success during his reign especially in the north of the country. He is also credited with defeating the rather frighteningly named Eric Bloodaxe.

Eadred is thought not to have married or had any children and therefore his heir was his teenage, and somewhat frisky, nephew Eadwig.

Eadred was buried at the Old Minster, Winchester.

Gerald Fitz Gerald - 11th Earl of Kildare

16/11/2017

Gerald Fitz Gerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare died on the 16th November 1585, his life can be viewed through the fallout of the failed Kildare rebellion of 1534.

At just twelve, Gerald Fitz Gerald had received the Earldom of Kildare following the aforementioned unsuccessful rebellion against King Henry VIII by Silken Thomas, the 10th Earl of Kildare. Silken Thomas was Fitz Gerald's half-brother, he and his uncles James, Oliver, Richard, John and Walter Fitz Gerald, the sons of the 8th Earl of Kildare by Elizabeth St John were all hanged in the first week of February 1537 at Tyburn. At this time Fitz Gerald was raised under the guardianship of his aunt. He later fled to Belgium and Italy returning only after the death of Henry VIII.

Silken Thomas storms Dublin Castle in June 1534

Fitz Gerald himself had been accused of treason numerous times and had been twice imprisoned in the Tower of London, he had survived Henry VIII's attempt to capture him and lived through the reign of Edward VI and Mary and was fortunate to have the favour of Elizabeth. He died in London at the age of sixty, Mabel, Countess of Kildare lived for another twenty-five years.

Kildare Castle, Ireland

Fitz Gerald first came to my notice as the husband of Mabel Browne, the great great granddaughter of my ancestor Thomas Browne. Mabel, according to tradition met Fitz Gerald at a masked ball and she immediately fell in love with him, and why wouldn't she, he could speak at least two languages, was highly intelligent, and a man who had used his time wisely, he learned and experienced much while in exile. Fitz Gerald also dabbled in alchemy, this 'hobby' caused concern to those less enlighted, and just like his father and his father before him, he was quick-tempered, clever and charismatic.

Death of King Cnut

12/11/2017

12th November in 1035 the death of King Cnut.

Edmund Ironside had fought a number of battles against the Danish army, but they ended in his defeat on the 18th October 1016 at the Battle of Assandun in Essex, the signing of a peace treaty gave Edmund control of lands south of the River Thames and Cnut ruled north of the Thames. On Edmund's death, despite leaving two sons, Cnut gained control of all of England.

Taking the English throne was the very beginning of a conquest that saw Cnut rule most of Northern Europe, by the time of his death he controlled England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden, yet the one event he is only ever remembered for is his attempt at controlling an incoming tide, Cnut probably didn’t paddle in the sea but what he meant was:

“Let all inhabiting the world know the power of kings to be empty and worthless and that there is no other king worthy of the name but He at whose will heaven earth, sea obey by the eternal laws.”

Not the words of arrogant and powerful foreign invader, just man suggesting that kings were human.

Cnut controlled much of Scandinavia, under his rule Viking raids on England’s coastline lessened, the economy improved, and by marrying Emma, Ethelred the Unready’s Norman widow, he consolidated his power. He was king of England from 1018 until 1035.

Cnut died at Shaftesbury in Dorset and was buried in the Old Minster, Winchester. During the English Civil war, the mortuary chest in which his bones were placed was ransacked, his remains were scattered on the floor and mixed with those of other English kings.

All the bones were eventually gathered and replaced in chests - but not necessarily in the right order!

Edward VII

9/11/2017

On the 9th November in 1841 Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was born at Buckingham Palace, he would
turn out to be a better king than everybody thought he would be, J B Priestley wrote of him:

"He had a tremendous zest for pleasure but he also had a real sense of duty."

Edward life has been compared to that of Henry V, it was Benjamin Disraeli who seems to be the first to say so. Jane Ridley, in her biography, also links Edward to Henry V suggesting that he even had his own Falstaff in Daisy Warwick, she rejected him when he came to the throne just as he Prince Hal abandoned Falstaff.

The self-indulgence of his younger days has also not gone unnoticed when comparing him with that of the 15th-century king.
By the time both Henry V and Edward VII were kings of England they were popular with their people, and certainly, Edward brought his England out of the darkness into the light. Many may argue that Henry V did just the same, however, I feel that that point is debatable.

Jane Ridley's The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince was published by in 2013

1163: Fry Island on the River Thames

8/11/2017

Fry’s Island or De Montfort Island, can be found in River Thames just above Caversham Lock at Reading, in Berkshire. The island is best known as the location of a duel, or trial by combat, between Robert de Montfort and Henry of Essex, the standard bearer to Henry II that took place in 1163.

According to W.M. Childs in his 1905 book The Story of the Town of Reading, a quarrel arose when Henry of Essex allegedly dropped the standard and cried out falsely that the King has been slain, an act of a coward according to de Montfort.
Both men were taken to the island, where Robert of Montfort

"thundered on him manfully with hard and frequent strokes."

Henry was injured and presumed dead and taken away by the monks of Reading for burial. However, Henry was alive. He recovered from his wounds and became a monk himself.

The Conception of King Arthur

6/11/2017

This rather amusing scene depicts Tintagel Castle in Cornwall. Looking over its ramparts is a very angry Ingraine, the wife of Gwrlais the Duke of Cornwall.

In the illustration there is trickery afoot, Merlin has used his magic to aid Uther Pendragon's entry into the castle. Pendragon has had his eye on the beautiful Ingraine for ages and had every intention of having his wicked way with her!

Poor Ingraine has realised that Merlin has changed Pendragon's appearance and has enabled him to take the form of Gwrlais. When Ingraine sleeps with her husband that night she is in fact really being ravaged by Uther Pendragon - the cad!

Ingraine becomes pregnant and later the legendary King Arthur is born.

Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland

5/11/2017

Henry Percy, first Earl of Northumberland was, according to Shakespeare:

"the ladder upon which the mounting Bolingbroke ascends the throne.”

This statement reflects the rise of the Percy family during the reign of Richard II and the subsequent usurpation of the throne by Henry Bolingbroke.

Henry Percy was born on this very day, the 10th November in 1341/2.

The first two decades of Percy's life were unremarkable, however the twenty years following his father's death lead Percy to great heights of power and influence, not only in his own stamping ground but in the country as a whole. Henry Percy headed a family that included his sons Henry 'Hotspur' and Thomas, all three were guardians of the English boarder with Scotland. As Lords of the North, and as the previous statement states, they were involved in the future Henry IV taking the crown of England. However, siding with Henry had its problems, and the Percy's would soon regret helping Bolingbroke take his seat on the throne of England.

We cannot think of the Percy family without considering the part they played in the Wars of the Roses. Many believe that the First Battle of St Albans, in 1455, was as much about the ongoing squabble between the Percy's and their nemesis the Neville's, as it was about the wider squabble, that of the House of York and Lancaster. It cannot be doubted that this battle, for the individual members of these two northern families, was very personal, each trying to destroy the other under the guise of a greater cause.

The origins of Percy/Neville squabble had it roots in land, or the loss of it, bitterness turned to anger, discussion to litigation, skirmishes into outright warfare that initiated 'the beginning of the greatest sorrows in England."

Henry Percy died a traitor at Bramham Moor, the last battle of the Percy's rebellion, on the 19 February 1408 and as was the norm for a traitor, his head was decapitated and sent to London, placed for all to see on London Bridge, it was reunited with his quartered remains and eventually buried in York Minster.