Carolyn M Cash Freelance Journalist
Writer, History and Royalty
Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York, are best-known in history as “the Princes in the Tower” since the 15th Century. Their deaths still remain a great mystery. Twelve-year-old Edward V was proclaimed King on 11 April 1483, two days after his father’s death. Edward IV died unexpectedly after he caught a chill…
The Battle of Bosworth marked a turning point in English history as the House of York’s rule ended prematurely and abruptly as a new dynasty took over. It was “a most savage battle” but it was an ill-documented one, as only one eyewitness account survives. Richard III was the first English king killed in battle…
Richard III reigned for two years before he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field but he is best remembered for the murder of the Princes of the Tower. Was Richard the evil genius as portrayed in Shakespeare’s play? The 1995 film starring Ian McKellen continues this tradition by portraying Richard III as a…
Margaret of Anjou is best remembered as a vengeful and ambitious woman who brought war and misery to England. She also participated in one of the bloodiest civil wars. Margaret of Anjou was born 23 March 1430 at Pont-a-Mousson, Lorraine. She was the second daughter born to René of Anjou and Isabelle of Lorraine. René…
Philippa of Hainault and Edward III brought stability to the monarchy after his father’s disastrous reign. She was interested in education, art and literature. She was often portrayed as “bourgeois”—solid, comfortable and domestic—as her homely features and motherly figure are captured in Master Hennequin of Liège’s fine alabaster effigy on her tomb. Her great amiability…
Eleanor Hibbert wrote 183 books, including three children’s novels, under several pseudonyms during her fifty-year career. Over 14 million copies were sold worldwide. Hibbert was born Eleanor Alice Burford on 1 September 1906 in Kensington, London. Her father Joseph was an “odd jobs” man with no steady profession but he passed on his avid love…
George II was the last British monarch to lead troops into battle, whilst many great social and political changes occurred during his reign. He was born Georg August on 30 October 1683 at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, the eldest of two children born to Crown Prince Georg of Hanover and Sophia Dorothea of Celle. His sister…
The Old Pretender was a pessimist living in exile whose attempt to claim the English, Scottish and Irish thrones failed in The Fifteen Jacobite rising. James Francis Edward was born 10 June 1688 amidst the warming-pan scandal. He fled with his mother, Mary Beatrice of Modena, to France when William of Orange’s invasion led to…
The foundations for Britain’s constitutional monarchy were laid when James II was forced to abdicate in favour of William III and Mary II. The origins of the Glorious Revolution, also known as the War of the English Succession or the Bloodless Revolution, began with the conflicts during Charles I’s reign which led to the Civil…
The Old Pretender was born amidst controversy as the Warming-pan Baby, and survived against all odds. James II had produced two daughters, Mary and Anne, from his first marriage to Anne Hyde. They became increasingly important when their uncle Charles II failed to produce a legitimate heir. Anne died in 1671 but she had supported…
