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.


Thursday, 28 September 2023

Seeking the birthplace of Kibg Henry VII


I think I have posted before about the excavations in Pembroke Castle which have revealed a substantial range of lay medieval domestic buildings. The latest work on the site has been reported on by the Daily Telegraph.

The particular significance of the building under investigation is that it is thought possible, if not probable, that it was in it that in January 1457 the widowed, thirteen year old Countess of Richmond - better known to history as Lasy Margaret Beaufort - gave birth to her only child, the future King Henry VII. This now destroyed building appears a more likely place for a confinement than a chamber in one of the towers on the curtain wall. Such a room has indeed been indicated for a long time as the likely birthplace.  The argument now being advanced is that the birth of a member of the family of the owner of the castle, Jasper Earl of Pembroke, and a relative of the King would have taken place in the most comfortable and up to date accommodation the castle could offer.

The report about the continuing excavation can be read at Archaeologists discover possible new birthplace of King Henry VII at Pembroke Castle


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