Happy New Year

So here we are in 2007! Unbelievable, isn't it? Sounds strangely futuristic to me, somehow. Hope you all had better weather over the festive period than I did in the Lake District - I spent 2 weeks and 2 days there, and saw the sun for a grand total of about 3 hours. Most of that was on the last day. The rest of the time, it was grey, murky, foggy and pouring down. Ugh....

2007 will be a big year on 'Edward II', as it's the 700th anniversary of his becoming king. I'm delighted to see that over 200 people have voted on my poll (see left) about Edward's fate in 1327. That's great - please keep the votes coming in! And don't forget to vote for 'your favourite medieval king', too. I'm also pleased to see that Edward II has 4 votes - I voted for him, obviously, and I'm sure Susan did too, so that's another 2 people who like him more than all the other medieval kings! Yay! :)

Until I get round to writing another post, here's a link to Susan's recent post on the fate of three of Hugh le Despenser the younger's five (or possibly six) daughters: Joan, Eleanor and Margaret, sent to convents in January 1327, a few weeks after the execution of their father. They were forcibly veiled by Queen Isabella, a fact rather conveniently ignored by Isabella's recent biographers, such as Alison Weir and Paul Doherty. Weir writes only that the little girls "became nuns" and entirely ignores the role Isabella played - a puzzling omission. Or perhaps not - maybe I'm just being cynical, but it seems odd to me that a biography as historically accurate as Weir's is should suddenly get the facts wrong when it comes to her beloved Isabella doing something that could be seen in a negative light by modern readers....