Blogs and Stuff

Lady D of Lady Despenser's Scribery and The Scribe's Den has set up a great new blog, The Despensery, with posts about the lighter side of the fourteenth century, including an exciting new discovery, The Lost Diary of Eleanor de Clare, Lady Despenser! Also including lots of fun stuff like medieval chat-up lines, 'you know you're addicted to the fourteenth century when...' and so on. Lady D has kindly asked me to be a contributor, and I'm thinking of writing stuff like: the events of Edward II's reign as reported by the British tabloid press ("Mort romps all night with busty blonde Izzy!") and Hugh Despenser's chats with his long-suffering confessor ("It has been four hours since my last confession. Since then, I've deprived three widows of their lands and had carnal thoughts of the king...")

Also, Brian Wainwright, author of the marvellous historical novels Within The Fetterlock and The Adventures of Alianore Audley, has set up The Yorkist Age, a blog about the House of York from 1385 to 1485. I urge you to read Within The Fetterlock, if you haven't already, because it's bloody brilliant. It tells the story of Edward II's great-granddaughter Constance of York and her husband Thomas Despenser, great-grandson of Hugh the Younger, against the backdrop of the struggles between Richard II and Henry IV, also great-grandchildren of Edward II. In fact, almost all of the characters are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the nobility of Edward II's era - I love reading the continuation of the family saga!

And if you haven't seen it yet, check out Carole's The Age of Treason, a blog about the royalty and nobility of the fourteenth century, with occasional trips into other centuries.

It's great to see all these new history blogs. May there be many more! Oh, and last but definitely not least on the subject of blogs, Steven Till has a great one on historical fiction and medieval history that I've discovered recently.

And in other news:

No fewer than three books on the battle of Bannockburn are coming out this year: Chris Brown's Bannockburn 1314: A New History (1 or 10 April); John Sadler's Bannockburn: Battle for Liberty (20 March), and David Cornell's Bannockburn: A New History (I can't find the publication date - only seen it on the website of the author's agent). Amazing, especially as the 700th anniversary of the battle isn't coming up till 2014!

Talking of battles of Edward II's reign, the anniversary of the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 is coming up on 16 March. I think Carole at Age of Treason is planning a post about it.

A recent thread on the Plantagenesta community points out the truth about the paternity of Edward III and Edward II's other children.

A recent search that hit my blog: william wallace had affair with edward ii daughter-in-law. That old dog Wallace, eh? Having an affair with a woman born nine years after his execution. How ever did he manage it?

Next post on Piers Gaveston and his many exiles coming soon...