6 MIN READ ·
Lord Hastings' Letter North, April 1483
Edward IV died before anyone was ready for it. The Woodvilles were ready within hours. Richard of Gloucester did not know his brother was dead for ten days.
ON THIS DAY THIS HAPPENED · THE ARTICLE COLLECTION
History worth reading.
Royal scandals, forgotten lives and moments that changed everything. Take a little longer with the stories behind them.
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399 articles
12 MIN READ ·
Edward IV: Twenty-Two Years Trying to End the Wars of the Roses
He spent twenty-two years trying to erase the blood of the Wars of the Roses, and the moment his heart stopped, the ink turned red again.
10 MIN READ ·
Richard of Gloucester: The Brother Who Never Switched Sides
He was the brother who never switched sides.
8 MIN READ ·
Thomas Stanley at Bosworth: Thirteen Years of Performed Loyalty
He spent thirteen years performing a loyalty he had already decided to destroy. On the morning he betrayed it he was waiting for the right moment. He knew what the moment would look like. He had been waiting for it since 1472.
5 MIN READ ·
George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence: The Prince Who Was Not the King
He was a prince of the blood in a dynasty that had no use for princes of the blood who were not the king. His brother wore the crown. He carried the blood. He spent his entire life trying to close the distance between those two facts. He never came close.
8 MIN READ ·
Warwick Kneels to Margaret of Anjou, 1470
In the summer of 1470 Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, knelt before Margaret of Anjou in a French court and asked for her help. She had been waiting nine years for someone with an army. He was the man who had made that wait necessary. They both understood what the meeting was. They did it anyway.
5 MIN READ ·
Isabel Neville: The Baby Born off Calais, April 1470
She gave birth on a ship off Calais in April 1470. The captain had refused to let them land. Her father was negotiating. The baby did not survive. The negotiations did.
6 MIN READ ·
Jacquetta of Luxembourg: The Same Choice Twice
She made the same choice twice. Her daughter made it once. Between the three of them they changed the succession of England. Nobody called it strategy. Nobody had a charge for that.
3 MIN READ ·
Katharina Henot: Cologne's Postmaster, Burned in 1627
She was the most powerful woman in Cologne. So they killed her.
8 MIN READ ·
Elizabeth Woodville: From Queen of England to Bermondsey Abbey
She had been Queen of England. She died in a convent with nothing, having asked for a quiet funeral with no expense. No explanation was ever recorded. Henry VII never gave one.
7 MIN READ ·
Anne Neville: The Kingmaker's Daughter, Married Twice to the House at War
Her father sold her to the enemy to settle a political debt. The enemy's son was dead within a year. The man she married next may have been in the room when it happened.
4 MIN READ ·
Veronica Franco: The Venetian Poet Tried by the Inquisition
She was acquitted. It did not matter.