Lady Despenser's Scribery

Hugh Despenser the Hero

2009-11-14T15:53:00.007Z

Over the years, Hugh Despenser’s name has become so associated with avariciousness, ruthlessness and ambition (and not without due cause) that he is often portrayed by writers, both within fiction and historical fact as being completely one dimensional: a copybook, archetypal villain with no redeeming features. Of course, it is hard to find definitive proof that he was also the type to help old

WEBSITE LAUNCH!!!!

2009-10-26T10:08:00.002Z

Yes, finally, at long last, it’s here!Today we (Alianore/Kathryn and I (Lady D/Jules) are pleased as punch and immensely proud to announce the official launch of the Everything Edward II website. It has everything from both of our blogs together in one place, plus a few little extras, so be sure to put it in your bookmarks!.Obviously it has room for lots of growth and new features. There are

'Medieval Day' at the Cheltenham Literary Festival

2009-10-12T19:52:00.005+01:00

It's that time of year again when some big names come to Cheltenham, just down the road from me, for a two week's long literary festival (or a mutual back-slapping and new book publicising tour as it could be seen by the less well-inclined). This year, as I am practising being a starving artist of the scribbling kind, I couldn't afford as many talks as usual, but I couldn't resist the two that

The Website, Getting Ready for the 'Big Write' and other stuff

2009-09-20T13:58:00.003+01:00

A round up on a few things...Website:The transferring of content from both my own and Alianore's blogs onto the main website is almost done (phew!). As I'm sure you can imagine - there is alot of it - over 200 pages so far! And it all has to be formatted and linked etc, etc, etc! But, I'm now a week or so away to the first live test, so the launch date is looking good for the beginning-mid

A Short Summary of Ed’s 1322 Campaign and Why He Lost

2009-09-08T14:15:00.006+01:00

I’ve now done all of the serious stuff on this Scottish Campaign of Edward’s so now I’ll try and sum it all up in a much shorter post.Basically: After the two year truce of 1319 ended in December 1321, Robert Bruce started, rather annoyingly, to get up to his old tricks again - popping over the border to do a spot of terrorising and to running a protection racket for northern towns that could

The Battle of Byland 1322

2009-09-01T12:16:00.015+01:00

Finally - I've managed to put together this post on Battle of Byland itself - it feels like it has taken forever - mainly because I had to translate a source from the original Lowland Scots language as well as draw up the battle plan! Someone (Carla) asked me how I make the maps. Well, first I take an original map image (credit to Google Maps in this case), manipulate it so that it is the right

Edward's Scottish Campaign of 1322, Pt 3: The Retreat

2009-08-17T12:53:00.001+01:00

Edward started his return to England from Edinburgh soon after 26th August. On the way, parts of his army, still foraging for food, became detached from the main force and sacked the monasteries of Holyrood and Melrose. It was at Melrose that the Scots, under the command of the very experienced and capable Black Douglas, ambushed and attacked the English. It was a skirmish rather than a battle,

Edward II’s Scottish Campaign of 1322, Pt 2: Invasion

2009-08-12T12:47:00.005+01:00