This stone circle is located near the village of Belstone which is on the edge of Dartmoor National Park’s north moor. The nine standing stones surround a Bronze Age burial site. Legend states that a group of nine young ladies were discovered dancing on a Sunday and thus turned to stone.
Born on this day (15 June) in 1330, he was in line to become King Edward IV, but illness eventually led to him predeceasing his father King Edward III, and the throne went to his son Richard. It was the first time that the throne of England went from grandfather to grandson (the second time was when George III inherited from George II several centuries later).
Robert Curthose is the second in my “Almost Kings” series.
Born the eldest son of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, Robert should have inherited all his father’s domains on William’s death. Instead the Conqueror just left Robert the Duchy of Normandy, while the throne of England went to his second surviving son - William Rufus. It’s fair to say that Robert was really unhappy about that, while William Rufus was equally pissed at not getting both England and Normandy.
Reblogging because Robert died on this day (3rd February) in 1134. He’s believed to have been around 83 years old, and had spent decades imprisoned after bein captured by his younger brother Henry.
Prince Albert Victor died at Sandringham on this day in 1892. His engagement to Princess May of Teck had recently been announced, and his birthday had been celebrated the week before.
He caught influenza during a pandemic in the late 19th century. The flu turned in to pneumonia, which was ultimately fatal. As the heir to the throne after his father Edward (Bertie) the Prince of Wales, his death came as a huge shock to his family and the nation.
His younger brother George did quite well out of it though, as he got Albert’s crown and his bride! You can find out more at The Creative Historian.
Happy birthday King Richard II! Richard was born on this day (6th January) in 1367. He already had an elder brother, but the death of little Edward in infancy, along with the death of Richard’s father the Black Prince, meant that Richard became King of England when he was just a child, on the death of his father King Edward III.
“On Thursday, 29 May 1533, 25 Hen. VIII., the lady Anne marchioness of Pembroke was received at Greenwich, and conveyed to the Tower of London, and thence to Westminster, where she was crowned queen of England. Order was taken by the King and his Council for all the Lords spiritual and temporal to be in the barge before Greenwich at 3 p.m., and give their attendance till the Queen took her barge. <…> At her landing, a long lane was made among the people to the King’s bridge at the entrance of the Tower. She was received on coming out of her barge by Sir Edw. Walsingham, lieutenant of the Tower, and Sir Will. Kinston, constable of the Tower. <…> Somewhat within the Tower she was received by the King, who laid his hands on both her sides, kissing her with great reverence and a joyful countenance, and led her to her chamber, the officers of arms going before. After which every man went to his lodging, except certain noblemen and officers in waiting. The King and Queen went to supper, and “after super ther was sumptuus void.”
31 May. MS. L. f. 1. Coll. of Arms. 563. Anne Boleyn. from Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII: May 1533, 26-31 Pages 234-262
“Mary had also decided on a grand public display rather than a private wedding, according to her prerogative, just as in times past a king could be married ‘prively or openly’.Although Judith M. Richards has argued that royal weddings in England tended to be private occasions and that, in contrast,‘the procedures were very different’for the unusual event of a regnant queen’s marriage, the choice of public or private ceremonies in fact depended on circumstances specific to each Tudor marriage. Henry VIII’s wedding to Catherine of Aragon in 1509 at Greenwich had been a quiet, speedy affair so that she could share his coronation; his marriage to Anne Boleyn had to be conducted secretly in 1533 because she was pregnant and the annulment of his previous marriage had not yet taken place. Henry’s nuptials with Jane Seymour had occurred shortly after Anne Boleyn was beheaded by the king’s order, and the obscene haste of the match likely called for some discretion at the wedding. Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, arrived on January 3, 1540, and was married three days later in a season of the year when the church forbade marriages, a fact that may have limited the festivities. The circumstances of his nuptials with Catherine Howard on July 28, 1540, echoed the unseemly haste of the Seymour wedding: Henry and Catherine were married only 18 days after his previous alliance was annulled and on the same day that Thomas Cromwell was beheaded. Mary would hardly have wanted to study these marriage ceremonies as exemplars.
The Tudors, however, were also capable of grand, extravagant weddings. Catherine of Aragon’s first marriage to Prince Arthur in 1501 had been a lavishly opulent, grandiose public affair within St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, with King Henry VII, his queen, Elizabeth, members of the royal court, and city dignitaries all in attendance. There had been a procession through the streets of London before the wedding and banqueting and a tournament after it; and the festivities, including dances, masques, and jousting, went on for a week. It is more likely that Mary I took her mother’s first wedding to Prince Arthur rather than her father’s marriages for her model. Whatever the inspiration, Mary I the city of Winchester provided a convenient meeting point and marriage site for Mary, journeying from London, and Philip, arriving from Southampton. The queen issued a proclamation on July 21 ordering that‘all noble men and gentlemen, ladies and other apointed by her maiestie to attende upon her grace’at the wedding ‘doo with all convenyent spede make their repaire to her grace cytie of Wynchester, there to give their attendance upon her’.Summoning the peers of the realm to witness this important ceremony turned it into the kind of magnificent public occasion that England had not witnessed for some years. In addition, the participation of England’s nobility, the country’s leaders, validated Mary’s choice of spouse and potentially created an aura of widespread support for the queen and her husband while overcoming the spectre of resistance to the Anglo-Spanish alliance.”
“I present unto you Queen Elizabeth, your undoubted Queen”
Elizabeth Woodville was crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey on May 26, 1465; where both of her parents were present for the ceremony. The event made possible that their marriage to be finally announced and was recorded in “Coronation of Elizabeth Woodville” written by G. Smith, 1935, a contemporary account as:
“Clothed in mantel of purple and a coronal upon her head” beneath a purple silk canopy carried by four barons of the Cinque Ports.”
After the royal procession left the abbey, the queen was led to her chamber, where she was dressed in purple surcoat and brought into the Hall to dine. Each time the queen took a bite, she herself removed her crown, putting it back when she was finished. - David Baldwin’s book Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower.
I wanted to finish sketching the main characters of the Wars of the Roses, but this thought was interrupted by an image of Queen Katherine de Valois, which was trying to cross my mind. Although her costume was inspired by an illustration which depicted this Queen, I really wanted to leave her hair on her shoulders, exactly as it is depicted in a manuscript. While she is fulfilling her most important role as Queen, it seems that her husband, Henry V, is just as busy conquering new territories!
As a personal note, I want to say that despite the fact that I admire the story between her and Owen Tudor, for one reason or another I prefer her with the King, hihi!
“Paradoxically, however, although Mary’s pregnancy appeared to strengthen Philip’s position and power, linking discussions of his coronation with the imminent birth of an heir placed him in a position not unlike that of former queen consorts: except for Catherine of Aragon, whose coronation took place at the same time as that of Henry VIII,plans to crown Tudor consorts were usually connected with the proof of their fecundity. For example, King Henry VII’s wife Elizabeth was crowned only after she had borne a son. According to Charles T. Wood, the fact that Elizabeth had a better claim to the throne than Henry VII meant that ‘before a non-threatening coronation could take place, Elizabeth had first to produce a son, a male whose rights would supersede her own’. Of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn’s coronation took place during her pregnancy, plans to crown Jane Seymour after the birth of Edward were thwarted only by her untimely death, and rumours of Katherine Howard’s imminent coronation circulated during a progress to York when it was believed she was with child. Although Renard believed that ‘in England the coronation stands for a true and lawful confirmation of title, and means much more here than in other realms,’ he presented the case for Philip’s coronation to Mary by citing ‘the precedent of Queen Catherine, her lady mother, who was crowned,’ implying that it would give Philip no more power than that enjoyed by a queen consort.”
Although few representations of her exist and even if the most popular one is found in the Talbot Shrewsbury’s book, I thought I would illustrate Margaret de Anjou as we see her in the Coventry tapestry, a representation that I especially adore!
Thus, we have a beautiful and especially strong Queen in the foreground and a little further back is… her incredibly devoted husband! XD
“If I must die, then I will die boldly, as I have lived”- quote from Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer.
May 19th, 1536: Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was executed on charges of adultery, incest and treason. All charges against Queen Anne were false and her death will always be one of the most horrifying miscarriages of justice in history. Rest In Peace, Anne, you are so loved in the modern day and I hope that gives you some peace❤️
