Richard came through the Revolt ready to rule and one of his first significant acts was to marry.  His bride was Anne of Bohemia, who was also 15, daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor.  The marriage was seen to have a significant diplomatic advantage with Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire potential allies in the ongoing war with France. However, the marriage was not popular in England as Anne brought no dowry and was seen to have little direct benefit to the country.  After the wedding there was a month of tournaments and banquets held in London.  Anne was crowned the two days later on the 22nd. 

While Anne was Queen, she had little political power, however she had a strong relationship with Richard and gained a good reputation with the people of England.  Following the Peasants Revolt trials continued and Anne asked for mercy, most notably for the life of a former mayor of London, John Northampton.  She also interceded on behalf of the people gaining the peoples warmth, meanwhile Richard was slowly losing popularity with his subjects. 

​After twelve short years of marriage Anne died of plague in 1394 at Sheen Manor west of London.  Richard was so grief-stricken that he demolished the manor.  Sadly, the marriage had been childless.  Anne was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Historians have speculated that her counsel had a moderating effect on Richard during her lifetime. This is supported by his unwise conduct in the years after Anne's death that lost him his throne. 

This scene was built by James Pegrum as part of a series of models on the Kings and Queens of England. Follow us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see them first.

Such a situation occurred in 2002 when a survey at a development site in Amesbury, just three miles from Stonehenge, revealed an unexpected treasure. Work was taking place where a school was planned to be built when a grave with pottery from the Beaker period, which is dated to around 2,800 to 1,800 BC, was found.  Within the grave the archaeologists found the remains of single man, who came to be known as the Amesbury Archer and dubbed by the press as the King of Stonehenge.

The man buried with some of the richest articles from the early Bronze Age. In all, around 100 objects were found in the grave including three copper knives, two small gold hair tresses, two sandstone wristguards (these would have protected his wrist from the bow string), five pots, 16 flint arrowheads, a cushion stone (used for metal working), a bone pin (used to hold together a piece of clothing such as a cloak) and what is thought to be Britain’s first gold objects, dating ack to around 2,500BC. It was because of the worth of the gold that the man was named the ‘King of Stonehenge’ while the items related to archery; the arrow flint heads and wrist guards led to the skeleton being known as the Amesbury Archer.

Cnut the Great, also known as Canute, was crowned King of England on January 6th 1017 in Old St. Paul's Cathedral, London. He would later also gain the thrones of Denmark (1018) and Norway (1028) and ruled over what is often referred to as the North Sea Empire until his death in 1035. He is popularly invoked in the context of the legend of King Canute and the waves, which usually misrepresents him as a deluded monarch believing he has supernatural powers, contrary to the original legend which portrays a wise king who rebuked his courtiers for their fawning behaviour.

Cnut was a son of the Danish prince Sweyn Forkbeard, who was the son and heir to King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark. Sweyn became King of Denmark and Norway in 986 and raided England between 1002 and 1012. In 1013 he even led his forces in a full scale invasion. During this invasion England’s King Æthelred the Unready, and his sons Edward and Alfred, fled to Normandy, so on Christmas Day 1013, Sweyn was declared King of England.

However, Sweyn died on February 3rd 1014 and while his Elder son Harald II succeeded him as King of Denmark, Cnut was declared King of England by the Norse people of the Danelaw. The English nobility however recalled Æthelred from Normandy and the restored English king swiftly led an army against Cnut, who was forced to flee with his army to Denmark. There, supported by his brother, Cnut succeeded in assembling an army of around 10,000 men and a fleet of some 200 longships with which to launch another invasion. In the summer of 1015, they set sail.

Following a bloody campaign, in late 1015 Wessex submitted to Cnut and in early 1016 his army was able to cross the Thames, moving northwards across eastern Mercia. Æthelred’s son, Edmund Ironside retreated north to join Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria and together they returned south and harried Danish allies in western Mercia. Cnut however occupied Northumbria, forcing Uhtred to return home to submit himself to Cnut, who sent a Northumbrian rival, Thurbrand the Hold, to assassinate Uhtred and his retinue.

Edmund was now in London, where he was elevated to king on the death of Æthelred on April 23rd 1016. While the Danish attempted to lay siege to the city, Edmund managed to break out to gather an army and battles were fought at Penselwood in Somerset and Sherston in Wiltshire. Edmund was even able to temporarily relieve London, driving his Fanish enemies away and defeating them after crossing the Thames at Brentford. This was at a heavy cost to his army however, and he was forced to retreat to gather more men. Cnut’s forces were also unsuccessful in their siege and were driven off by an attacking English army.

On October 18th 1016, Edmund was decisively defeated in the Battle of Assandun in Essex, though a further battle would still need to be fought near the Forest of Dean to bring about a conclusion. In this Edmund was wounded and so on an island near Deerhurst in Gloucestershire, Cnut and Edmund met to negotiate terms of peace. It was agreed that all of England north of the Thames was to be the domain of the Danish prince, while all to the south was kept by the English king, along with London. Accession to the reign of the entire realm was set to pass to Cnut upon Edmund's death, who then conveniently died a few weeks later on November 30th. Cnut was left as king of all of England.

Cnut ruled England for nearly two decades. The protection he lent against Viking raiders restored the prosperity that had been increasingly impaired since the resumption of Viking attacks in the 980s. In turn the English helped him to establish control over the majority of Scandinavia. He is generally remembered as a wise and successful king of England, although this view may in part be attributable to his good treatment of the Church, keeper of the historic record.

Following the death of his brother Harald in 1018, Cnut united the English and Danish Kingdoms. In 1023, taking advantage of Cnut’s commitment to England, the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson began to launch attacks on Denmark. Cnut was forced to sail from England and fought an army of Norwegians and Swede’s in the Battle of the Helgeå, probably in 1026. His victory there left him as the dominant leader in Scandinavia.

In 1027, Cnut referred to himself as king of "the Norwegians, and of some of the Swedes" and stated his intention to secure peace between the kingdoms of Scandinavia. The following year, he set off from England to Norway with a fleet of about fifty ships. Olaf Haraldsson stood down, unable to put up any fight as his nobles had already abandoned him. And so, Cnut was crowned king, now of England, Denmark and Norway as well as part of Sweden and what became known as the North Sea Empire reached its greatest extent. Olaf Haraldsson attempted to retake Norway, but was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030.

Merry Christmas folks! Today we come to you with a festive themed blog on the Nativity. Yes, the Nativity, the Christian tradition of creating an artistic representation of the birth of Jesus.

Nativity scenes take it inspiration from the accounts of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Luke's narrative describes an angel announcing the birth of Jesus to shepherds who then visit the humble site where Jesus is found lying in a manger, a trough for cattle feed. Matthew's narrative tells of "wise men", or Magi,  who follow a star to the house where Jesus dwelt, and indicates that the Magi found Jesus some time later, less than two years after his birth, rather than on the exact day. Matthew's account does not mention the angels and shepherds, while Luke's narrative is silent on the Magi and the star. The Magi and the angels are often displayed in a nativity scene with the Holy Family and the shepherds although there is no scriptural basis for their presence.

The first nativity scene is thought to have been created by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1223 at Greccio, central Italy, in an attempt to place the emphasis of Christmas upon the worship of Christ rather than upon secular materialism and gift giving. The nativity scene created by Francis is described by Saint Bonaventure in his Life of Saint Francis of Assisi written around 1260. Staged in a cave near Greccio, Saint Francis' nativity scene was a living one with humans and animals cast in the Biblical roles. Pope Honorius III even gave his blessing to the exhibit.

Such re-enactments became hugely popular and spread throughout Christendom and within a hundred years every church in Italy was expected to have a nativity scene at Christmastime. Eventually, statues replaced human and animal participants, and static scenes grew to elaborate affairs with richly robed figurines placed in intricate landscape settings. 

Different traditions of nativity scenes emerged in different countries. A tradition in England involved baking a mince pie in the shape of a manger which would hold the Christ child until dinnertime, when the pie was eaten. When the Puritans banned Christmas celebrations in the 17th century, they also passed specific legislation to outlaw such pies, calling them "Idolaterie in crust". We do not think they would have approved of our “Idolaterie bricks”.
 
Anyway, we wish you a merry Christmas filled with idolaterie bricks! 

These scenes were built by James Pegrum; please be sure to follow and support us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

On this day in 1620 the Mayflower, having crossed the Atlantic and reached Cape Cod, dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor. It would be here that those on board, the so called Pilgrims and Strangers, would establish their new community and England's newest colony. The task would be an arduous one and they would need to fall on the charity of the local native Americans to see them through.

This is our final blog of 2020 to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage. We will return in next year with lots more content, but for now we wish you a happy Christmas and a Happy New Year and the hope that 2021 will be a better year for everyone.

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Once back onboard the shallop the explorers headed along the south coast of Cape Cod Bay, during which time the weather got worse. With the wind picking up and the temperatures around freezing they became drenched by the freezing horizontal sleet and salt spray.  As they made their way along the coast a sudden wave hit them, tearing the rudder off the shallop.  It took two men and a long oak oar to get the boat back under control.  As night came it became harder to control the shallop and the news that their aimed for destination was in site, a place called Thievish Harbor, which is thought to actually be Plymouth Harbor, cheered them up.  Then, another disaster, the mast broke into three pieces which had to be gathered up along with the sodden sail.  They were now dependent on rowing and soon realised that they were drifting off course towards a wave pounded beech, which they had to avoid. ​

They commenced their exploration on the Monday and found that the harbor would be suitable for ships the same size as the Mayflower.  They explored the land in the area that is now Plymouth and found a site that had good water supply, fields that were cultivated and signs that there had been no recent native settlement.  They had now found the site they would settle and so they headed back to the Mayflower with the good news.  On their return William Bradford was met with the sad news that his wife Dorothy had slipped overboard and drowned and that night he went to sleep with mixed emotions.

As a post note, it has become legendary that the Pilgrims first stepped onto a rock, now known as Plymouth Rock, when they landed in the area on Monday.  However, this was not recorded by those who were on the Mayflower and the first records appear from 1774.  Since then, the rock has become an American symbol of the nation's founding.  

These scenes were built by James Pegrum and Dan Harris as part of a series of models on the voyage of the Mayflower. Follow us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see them first.

Charles Ignatius Sancho was a British writer, composer shopkeeper and abolitionist and is the first known Briton of African heritage to have voted in a general election.
 
Much of what we know about Sancho’s life comes from Joseph Jekyll’s 1782 biography, which accompanied a collection of Sancho's posthumously published letters. There are however doubt about the reliability of the biography and indeed it is contradicted in places by Sancho’s own writing.

According to Jekyll, Sancho was born in around 1729 aboard a slave ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, in what was known as the Middle Passage. Sancho however wrote in his letters that he was born in Africa. His mother died not long after in the Spanish colony of New Granada, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. According to Jekyll, his father took his own life rather than live as a slave. Sancho therefore grew up an orphan and so was taken to London, where he was forced to work as a slave for three sisters at a house in Greenwich, where he lived from around 1731 to 1749. As an adult, Sancho wrote:
​
“the first part of my life was rather unlucky, as I was placed in a family who judged ignorance the best and only security for obedience”.

However while at Greenwich he met John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu who, impressed by Sancho's intellect, frankness, and amiability, encouraged his education and gave him books to read. Sancho's informal education made his lack of freedom in Greenwich unbearable. Following the Duke’s death in 1749 he fled to the Montagu House where he served as the butler for Mary Montagu (née Churchill), Duchess of Montagu until her death in 1751. He would then go on to act as valet to George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, son-in-law of his earlier patron. He remained there until 1773. In 1758 Sancho married Anne Osborne, a West Indian woman with whom he had seven children.

On this day in 1282 Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, known in Welsh as Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (lit. 'Llywelyn, Our Last Leader') was killed when he was ambushed near Cilmeri in Mid Wales. The son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr and grandson of Llywelyn the Great, he was Prince of Wales from 1258 until his death and was the last sovereign prince of Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England.

In 1267 Llywelyn had been recognised by the English Crown as Prince of Wales, holding his lands with the king of England as his feudal overlord. However, following the death of Henry III in 1272, the relationship between England and Wales broke down as the new and ambitious King Edward I pressed his ambition to master of the whole island of Great Britain. By 1276 Llywelyn had been declared a rebel and diplomatic pressure was followed by a massive invasion force the following year. Edward forced Llywelyn into submission, confining him to lands above the Conwy.
 
In 1282 however, many of the lesser princes who had supported Edward against Llywelyn in 1277 had become disillusioned with the exactions of the English royal officers. On Palm Sunday that year, Llywelyn’s brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd attacked the English at Hawarden Castle and then laid siege to Rhuddlan. The revolt quickly spread to other parts of Wales, with Aberystwyth Castle captured and burnt and rebellion in Ystrad Tywi in south Wales, also inspired by Dafydd according to the annals, where Carreg Cennen castle was captured.

Though he claimed not to have been involved in the planning, Llywelyn felt obliged to join his brother’s ill prepared rebellion. The Archbishop of Canterbury tried mediating between Llywelyn and Edward, and Llywelyn was offered a large estate in England if he would surrender Wales to Edward, while Dafydd was to go on a crusade and not return without the king's permission. In an emotional reply, which has been compared to the Declaration of Arbroath, Llywelyn said he would not abandon the people whom his ancestors had protected since "the days of Kamber son of Brutus". The offer was refused.
 
Llywelyn now left Dafydd to lead the defense of Gwynedd and took a force south, trying to rally support in mid and south Wales and open up an important second front. On December 11th at the Battle of Orewin Bridge at Builth Wells, he was killed while separated from his army. The exact circumstances are unclear and there are two conflicting accounts of his death. Both accounts agree that Llywelyn was tricked into leaving the bulk of his army and was then attacked and killed. The first account says that Llywelyn and his chief minister approached the forces of Edmund Mortimer and Hugh Le Strange after crossing a bridge. They then heard the sound of battle as the main body of his army was met in battle by the forces of Roger Despenser and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. Llywelyn turned to rejoin his forces and was pursued by a lone lancer who struck him down. It was not until sometime later that an English knight recognised the body as that of the prince. This version of events was written in the north of England some fifty years later and has suspicious similarities with details about the Battle of Stirling Bridge in Scotland.

On December 7th 1620 Captain Jones led a group of 34 on a second exploration of the Cape Cod area.  The group was made up of 24 passengers and 10 sailors.  The shallop had finally been rebuilt, but due to the wind they had difficulty weathering the point where the Mayflower was anchored.  They were blown to the other side of the harbour where they found shelter in an inlet and spent the night there; the inlet is a part of what is now called Pilgrim Lake.  Temperatures were now falling well below freezing and Bradford later reflected that this was the beginning of the death of some of those onboard the Mayflower. By morning there had been six inches of snow.

On Wednesday 25th November 1620, or the 15th if you’re using the dates of the time, a group of 16 Mayflower passengers set out on an exploration mission, spending Wednesday and Thursday nights under the stars. 

​From there they continued south and came across what may have been wreckage from a French shipwreck from 1615. Later, near the river now known as the Pamet, they came across a seventeen-year-old fort built by Martin Prigg (an English Explorer from Bristol). Their next discovery was an area of flattened sand on a high shoreside hill.  They considered it to be different from the graves they had come across earlier and so three dug down while the others formed a defensive ring around them.  They soon came across a basket of woven reeds with four bushels of corn – further evidence of agriculture. They collected up some corn and returned to the ship with news of their discoveries.