Richard I of England, more famously known by his moniker Richard the Lionheart, died on 6 April 1199 as the result of an infected arrow wound. One of the enduring mysteries to me is WHY Richard was such a popular king in his lifetime. In the decade of his reign he spent about 6 months… Read more A Lionheart is No Substitute for Antibiotics
Today is a seldom remarked-upon but important date in English history, resulting in the return of the monarchy. On 4 April 1660 Charles II of Great Britain issued the Declaration of Breda, promising a general pardon for crimes committed against royalist forces and the crown during the English Civil War and the Interregnum. Since one of… Read more The Merry Monarch Returns
On 2 April 1536, Passion Sunday, Anne Boleyn’s almoner, John Skip (Skyppe), fired a broadside at Thomas Cromwell from the pulpit of the king’s chapel. His sermon “on the text Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato?” was a strong defense of the clergy from the attacks of “their defamers and from the immoderate zeal… Read more A Warning for Haman
St Illtud was one of the most famous scholar-saints in pre-Norman Wales and throughout Medieval Britain, having founded a renowned monastery and school of divinity in Wales during the 6th century. St Illtud was devoted to spreading the teachings of Christianity, and for centuries his monastery was the epicenter of Celtic Christianity in Sub-Roman Britain.… Read more St Illtud, Welsh Saint and Scholar
Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury under King Edward VI and Queen Jane, was a brilliant writer and theologian, finishing the Book of Common Prayer in 1549, revising it again in 1552, and basically creating the Anglican church. On March 21, 1556 the elderly prelate was burned at the stake on the ordered of… Read more Cranmer’s Coerced Confessions
The sheela-na-gig, once seen, are hard to forget. These carvings can be found on medieval churches and buildings across Northern Europe, but more frequently in the British Isles and in the greatest numbers in Ireland. A popular hypothesis is that sheela na gigs represent a pagan goddess, but academics believe the situation was more complex,… Read more Sheela-na-gig and Cultural Function
Ferdinand II of Aragon, husband and co-ruler with Isabella I of Castile, was born on 10 March 1452 and I don’t like him very much. For one thing, he and his wife were rabid Catholics who expressed the their religion less through Christ’s tenants of mercy and kindness and more along the lines of slaughtering… Read more Happy Birthday to Ferdinand II of Aragon and His Grandson, Ferdinand I of Bohemia and Hungary
Charles the Good was the only son of King Canute IV of Denmark and his wife, Adela of Flanders. The young prince was not destined to be king, however. His father was slain in 1086, and Adela fled with her two year old son back to her native Flanders. There the little boy grew up… Read more The Murder of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders
Valentine’s Day has been celebrated a lot longer than many people realize, but it wasn’t until the ideas of courtly love started to spread in the Middle Ages that the holiday become more about flirtations than fertility. Part of the romance of Valentine’s Day was the belief that the 14th of February was day when… Read more Saint Valentine’s Day
Thomas More was born on 7 February 1478. He was one of the great European scholars of his age, and he served Henry VIII both loyally and well. More was also the reluctant Chancellor of England until being relieved of the office on March 16, 1532 due to the fact that he could not swear… Read more Saint Thomas More Was Only Human