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01 November, 2013

My 500th post!

This is the 500th post on the Edward II blog!  Yay to me and Edward!  :-)

Today is 1 November, the feast of All Saints, which is quite an important day here on Planet Edward II, as it happens.  Firstly, there were two weddings.  The later one, which took place on 1 November 1307, was that of Edward's niece Margaret de Clare and his beloved Piers Gaveston, earl of Cornwall.  Margaret was then almost certainly about thirteen and a half, Piers considerably older, at least twenty-four and perhaps as much as thirty (?).  Edward gave jewels worth thirty pounds to the bride and groom, a roan-coloured palfrey worth twenty pounds to Margaret and expensive cloth worked with gold and pearls to her ladies, and provided the generous amount of seven pounds, ten shillings and six pence in pennies to be thrown over the heads of the bride and groom at the door of the chapel.  His almoner collected the money, which would comfortably have fed several families for a year, and distributed it to the poor.  The king spent an enormous twenty pounds on the minstrels, and evidently it was quite a celebration, as Edward had to give a local man five shillings' compensation for "damage done by the king's party" to his property.

Another wedding took place on 1 November, in 1254: that of Edward II's parents.  Fifteen-year-old Lord Edward, elder son and heir of King Henry III of England, and twelve or thirteen-year-old doña Leonor, half-sister of King Alfonso X of Castile and Leon, married in the church of the Cistercian monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos, northern Spain.  Just under thirty years later on 25 April 1284, their heir Edward of Caernarfon was born, the youngest of their fourteen or more children.

1 November 1311 was the deadline for Piers Gaveston to leave England yet again, for his third exile.  He actually left on the 3rd, or possibly the 4th, and returned little more than two months later.

Another Edward II post coming soon.  And 500 more after that, and 500 more after that...:-)

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations! That is quite an achievement. I don't think I've read all 500 quite yet, but I must have read a few hundred and haven't found a bad one.

    Esther

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  2. Thanks so much, Esther! I'm really grateful for your support.

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  3. Congratulations on your 500th post! Keep them coming!

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  4. Hurray! Congratulations!

    I'm only up to 2007, which means I still have a lot of wonderful posts to read before I run out. That will be a sad day for me, but it's comforting to know that I can look forward to the next 500! :-)

    Thank you for your wonderful blog, Kathryn!

    P.S. Twenty-four, please. Not thirty! ;-)

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  5. Congratulations! Looking forward to the next 500 posts (but try not to damage anyone's property while celebrating :)).

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  6. Congratulations on your post, Kathryn! :-) This is a joyous occasion, indeed!

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  7. When I was a little kid, only 8 years old, I realised that none of my friends were into history. I was the odd one. Later, in my teens, I realised that it was the history which gave me understanding of the whole world. From then on, history has been passion, constant companion and joy all trough the years. Then, one day, I found this blog and I found a friend and guide who showed me how much more there is still to be found. I thank you Kathryn for all the wonderful work you have done and look forward for more amazing and sometimes staggering pieces of history you provide for all of us. Thank you very much! PS. Perhaps, one day, I am able to sho you my respect and gratefulness in some more practical way ;-)

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  8. Awww, thanks so much for the lovely comment, Sami! x

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  9. Happy Anniversary Kathryn. As I said before, your blog is wonderful. I've read every single one and still come back for more! When writing about this period you always have a wealth of little titbits of information which feed the imagination. Having finished my book on Edward's stepmother, Marguerite! I am just tidying up the next one whose protagonist is her daughter in law Margaret Wake and involves all the excitement of the plot to free Edward from Corfe. Your article was invaluable. I am loking forward to number 501, 502, 503 . . . . . .

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  10. Thanks so much, Caroline! Your novels sound wonderful and I'm dying to read them. It's a really great idea, to have Margaret Wake as a protagonist to observe and take part in events!

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  11. Congratulations.

    (I can't really count my posts since I deleted most of the writing-related ones at some point, so I'm at 500 now as well, but I've written more than that.)

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