Medieval History

The Parliament at Westminster Deposes Richard II

I decided today that if there is no pertinent news relating to medieval history, I will choose a topic of my own interest instead. Read on if you wish, either way I am having fun writing .

The War of the Roses is generally known to have taken place between 1455 and 1487. However, I like to start a little earlier than that. Let us go back to 1399, and the slight on Henry IV by Richard II.

After the death of John of Gaunt (Third son of Edward III, Father to Henry IV)  in 1399, Henry was to to inherit his father’s title and lands.  In an attempt to assert his authority, King Richard II decided to revoke Henry’s claim on the lands immediately upon John’s death. Richard instead demanded Henry to ask for the lands, suggesting the lands were not Henry’s to inherit, but Richards to give. A slight Henry would not take lightly.

Henry, after some reluctance, met with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel. The two conspired against Richard, and began a military campaign in England while Richard was away on his own military ventures in Ireland. With Arundel at Henry’s side, Henry began taking lands from all who opposed him, and very quickly gained enough support to declare himself Henry IV, King of England. Henry had Richard imprisoned, and and held his coronation on October 13th, 1399. Richard’s seven year old son and presumptive Edument de Mortimer would not take his father’s throne. Richard soon died in prison under mysterious circumstances.

Thus begins the the seeds that will later grow into the Wars of the Roses.

Sources:

Pollard, A.J.,” Late Medieval England 1399-1509.”  New York: Longman, 2000.

Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV: the Life of England’s Self-Made King (Jonathan Cape, 2007)

Peter McNiven, “The Problem of Henry IV’s Health, 1405–1413″, English Historical Review, 100 (1985), pp 747–772

And you thought pro athletes had it bad. Wounds that were once thought by Archaeologists fatal turned out to be something that these knights lived with. The scary part is the fatal blow was delivered across his face while he was lying on the ground. Another juxapostion of the real history of ‘the medieval knight’ and the history portrayed in stories and media.

Archaeologists believe that bones found in an ancient chapel on the site are those of an English knight named Robert Morley who died in a tournament there in 1388. Radio carbon dating has confirmed that the skeleton is from that period, and detailed analysis suggests that he was in his mid-20s, was heavily muscled and had suffered several serious wounds in earlier contests. He appears to have survived for some time with a large arrowhead lodged in his chest, while the re-growth of bone around a dent in the front of his skull indicates that he had also recovered from a severe blow from an axe.

He eventually died when he was struck by a sword that sliced through his nose and jaw. His reconstructed skull also indicates that he was lying on the ground when the fatal blow was delivered.

The knight was laid to rest under the stone-flagged floor of a chapel near the castle’s royal apartments and his skeleton was excavated along with 11 others in 1997. However, it was only recently re-examined following advances in laser scanning techniques that not only revealed the nature of the three wounds, but also showed that the knight had lost teeth, probably from another blow or from falling from his horse.

Full article here.

Jewish bones belonging to 105 bodies that were removed from a medieval Jewish cemetery in Toledo, Spain were reinterred Sunday in their original graves.

Toledo Spain

Because of the way they were buried, the bones, discovered six months ago during construction of a non-Jewish secondary school, are believed to be the remnants of Jews who lived between the 13th and 14th centuries in Toledo, once a major Jewish center.

See full Article here