Carolyn M Cash Freelance Journalist
Writer, History and Royalty
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…
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…
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…
The Borgias were the most infamous family of the Renaissance best remembered for their climb to power, murder and corruption within the Papacy. Calixtus III The first was Lord Alfonso de Borja who was born in 1378. He was Alfonso V of Aragon’s private secretary, remained in royal service for forty-two years, before he was…
