(Today I am lucky enough to have a guest blog post by Mary Anne Yarde, the fabulous author of the fabulous Du Lac Chronicles. The books are set in the Dark Ages Britain, when politics was still a matter of combat and moistened tarts lobbing swords at you from overly-large ponds, and are great reads!… Read more Guest Post: Henry Tudor and the King Arthur Claim by Mary Anne Yarde
On 7 November 1775 the royal governor of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, issued Dunmore’s Emancipation Proclamation, offering freedom to any slave who would fight for the British during the American Revolutionary War. This caused the slave-owning elites of Virginia, both loyalist and rebel, to shit a brick. In the last quarter of… Read more Dunmore’s Emancipation Proclamation
Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March and 7th Earl of Ulster, was born on 6 November 1391, at New Forest, Westmeath, in Ireland, the eldest son of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, and Eleanor Holland. The newborn baby Edmund was third in line to the throne while King Richard II lived. His father,… Read more Edmund de Mortimer, Rightful King of England
Most people know that the 5 November is about the Gunpowder Plot, “a failed mass assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland and the entire House of Lords by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.” It’s celebrated now by burning bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes… Read more The Last Gunpowder Plot: The Newport Rising
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was King Henry VIII’s right hand man for years, and when he fell from the king’s favour, the prelate — along with everyone else — blamed Anne Boleyn for his disgrace. This is, however, poppycock. Wolsey was accused of committing treason because he committed treason. Motivated by his hatred of Henry’s intended… Read more The Arrest and Treason of Cardinal Wolsey
Princess Sophia Matilda of the United Kingdom was born on 3 November 1777, the 12th child of King George III and his consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Little Sophia was loved, but what is considered “good parenting” has changed so radically since her time that her upbringing can horrify the modern reader. Her parents, especially her… Read more The Scandals of Princess Sophia
I am a proud nerd, geek, and gamer. I started on old skool Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s and moved into video games and still wallow in a good RPG (role playing game). I am also a fan of the macabre and bizarre, and enjoy the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Thus, when fellow gamers… Read more Mansions of Madness
King Edward V was born on 2 November 1470 in Westminster Abbey where Queen Elizabeth Woodville, had taken refuge during the very brief period when the baby’s father, King Edward IV, had been dethroned and the crown returned to King Henry VI. Edward’s birth must have been seen as an excellent sign for the Yorkists,… Read more King Edward V
Robert Burns published the poem Halloween on 31 July 1786, when Jane Austen was ten years old. The devoted lover of poetry that she was, she would have doubtlessly have been familiar with it as a teen. But did she celebrate Halloween, the way others did in her time? Alas, we cannot know for sure … but it… Read more Regency Hallowmas
Today is Hallowmas, also known as All Hallows’ Day, All Saints’ Day, Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints. It is a day to honor all Christian saints, both known and unknown, but honestly it mostly makes me think of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This feast day begins at Vespers (sunset… Read more Hallowmas