Carolyn M Cash Freelance Journalist
Writer, History and Royalty
The Magna Carta was originally intended as a peace treaty between the king and his barons, but it became the cornerstone of liberty in the English-speaking world. English kings became more powerful and influential after 1066, through the Norman system of centralised government and the acquisition of Normandy. King John of England King John was…
William Wallace won a dramatic victory against the English in 1297. The large, well-equipped and arrogant English army were annihilated by Wallace’s men—a mere rabble. Robert the Bruce continued the fight for independence. English intervention began after Alexander III’s death in 1286. Alexander’s young granddaughter Margaret—the Maid of Norway—was his sole heir. She died en-route…
Macbeth lived during brutal times. He defeated Duncan I in 1040 and reigned for seventeen years. His story differs from Shakespeare’s play written six centuries later. Macbeth belonged to the hereditary aristocracy of Moray, with a claim to the Scottish throne. His mother was closely related to Malcolm II. (Sources claimed she was one of…
Austrian-born Queen Marie Antoinette was solely blamed for bankrupting France with her extravagance and executed during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna on 2 November 1755 at the Hofburg Palace, Vienna. She was the youngest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa. She was promised in marriage…
Lady Margaret Beaufort was the Tudor dynasty’s matriarch. She harboured strong ambitions for her son during the turbulent Wars of the Roses. She wept at his coronation. Margaret was extremely intelligent and very literate. She founded St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1511. She also promoted higher learning for girls. The first women’s college, Lady Margaret…
Elizabeth of York was already Queen Regnant when she married Henry VII. They ended the Wars of the Roses and founded the Tudor dynasty. She was known as “one of the most gracious and best-beloved princesses in the world” despite not taking an active role in politics. Elizabeth was an embodiment of all the admired…
Anne Neville survived the political machinations of the Wars of the Roses, two marriages and died of tuberculosis, as Richard III deeply mourned her loss. She was born at Warwick Castle on 11 June 1456, the younger daughter of Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick—the great ‘King-maker’—and Anne Beauchamp, a wealthy heiress. She spent…
Richard was respected as a man of integrity who was loyal, humane and kindly but he became the most persistently vilified of all English kings. He was killed in battle without leaving a surviving heir. Charles Ross points out Richard ruled England for only twenty-six months after he accepted his dead brother Edward IV’s throne…
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…
