Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday 23 April 2016

The death of King Æthelred II


Today is the millennium of the death of King Æthelred II on April 23 1016.

There is an online biography of him at Æthelred the Unready and the detailed account and assessment of his life and reign in the Oxford DNB by Simon Keynes can be read at Æthelred II. This recent study offers a more nuanced and balanced view of a reign which was beset with difficulties from the beginning, with the murder of his elder half-brother King Edward the Martyr, and in which problems came from many sides.


A coin of King Æthelred II showing the Agnus Dei and the Holy Spirit

Image:british-coin-price-guide.homelinux.com




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