Some Sources Say

  • Royal Portraits and Power (Guest post by Elizabeth Hill-Scott from Smart History Blogging)

    Throughout history, royal portraits have been about more than just decorative pictures for Great Halls and bed chambers. They were the advertising signs or political propaganda mechanisms of their day. Here, I explore how English royal portraits have been used to forge alliances, marriages, scare off enemies, display power and wealth and combat insecurities whilst…

  • A Guide to Non-Written Sources

    My history topic for January 2022 is Stories Behind Paintings, and this got me thinking about paintings as historical sources for research. Often when thinking about sources for history we think about written texts, but there are so many other valuable types of sources out there! I’ve created this guide as a bit of an…

  • Namesake: The Daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine

    It was pretty standard in medieval Europe for people to name their children after themselves, with Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine no different. Their second son was named Henry after his father, and their second daughter was named Eleanor after her mother. Upon her marriage she became Leonor so for clarity in…

  • The Forgotten Brother: Geoffrey Plantagenet

    Next in our series on the Angevins we’re going to be looking at Geoffrey Plantagenet and his family. Born in 1158, Geoffrey is often overlooked by history in favour of his kingly brothers Henry the Young King, Richard the Lionheart and John. With so many brothers, his father Henry II would have had a difficult…

  • A Good King of England? Re-Evaluating the Lionheart.

    Richard Plantagenet was never meant to rule England. His surviving elder brother Henry had been crowned in 1170 to secure the Angevin succession, but the medieval world was a deadly place and his brother died of dysentery in 1183. This led to Richard becoming his father Henry II’s primary heir. With so many sons Henry…

  • The Exiled Duchess

    Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s eldest daughter Matilda was born in 1156, and was likely named after her legendary paternal grandmother the Empress Matilda. She faced the fate of many princesses and was married off young to support her family’s political manoeuvrings. Matilda wed Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria on the…

  • The Young King

    Henry Plantagenet (who I’ll refer to as the young king for the rest of the post for clarity) was born in 1155 the second son of medieval power couple Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He became their heir the following year when his elder brother William tragically died. His father’s domains were…

  • Eleanor of Aquitaine: An Icon

    Eleanor of Aquitaine was iconic and one blog post cannot do justice to the many interesting facets of her life, so today we’re going to focus on her later life during the reign of her sons Richard and John. When her husband Henry II died in 1189, Eleanor had been imprisoned for around 16 years…

  • Henry II: The Creator of a Dynasty

    On the 19th December 1154, Henry was crowned King of England. His accession marked the beginning of the Angevin dynasty, the end of the Anarchy and the expansion of the Anglo-Norman empire. Born on the 5th March 1133, Henry was the eldest son of Empress Matilda and her second husband Count Geoffrey of Anjou*. Rulers…

  • Beaumaris Castle

    Known as an unfinished masterpiece, Beaumaris Castle was the last castle built in Wales by King Edward I of England. Construction began in 1295, with Edward’s ‘master of the king’s works in Wales’ James of St George overseeing the project. James is intrinsically tied to Beaumaris Castle, and it is considered “Britain’s most perfect example…

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