Henry, Simon and the two Eleanors

The prime minister’s Brexit deal was defeated three times in the House of Commons. She was ‘humiliated’, the defeats were […]

The Brits must really be into self-loathing. Every recent Brexit failure in Parliament has been greeted with words like ‘messy’, […]

Our stroll takes us to house number 1252 and one of those trials of the century before the term was […]

Robert Grosseteste was a very exacting Bishop of Lincoln. His monks and nuns never liked his visits because he went […]

In March of this year, Henry III and his wife Eleanor of Provence took the cross in an elaborate ceremony […]

Another intensive year in the reign of Henry III – and there’s 56 of them! – and the lucky house […]

The coat of paint needed on this house is indicative of the state of the money supply in England this […]

Another innocuous house number but an otherwise eventful year. The Treaty of Woodstock brought peace to Wales for the next […]

Finally a house with a number on the mailbox. This year stands out for being a mostly quiet one at […]

This year started off with the birth of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence’s second and youngest son Edmund. Endowments […]

Moving to the next house over, we find the Simon and Eleanor de Montfort fully restored to royal favour. Henry […]

The next house is 1242 but it shows no number to this effect and the front yard looks kind of […]

The next house being 1241, in this year Simon de Montfort went on crusade and took the family with him. […]

Just walking through a nearby neighborhood and saw this house number. So what happened in 1240? Simon de Montfort returned […]

Today 1 October marks the birth of Henry III in 1207. Born in Winchester, he had just turned nine when […]

The open question following the battle of Evesham was whether Simon de Montfort had been aspiring for the throne, if […]

Celebrating the life of Eleanor of Provence (1223-91) this International Women’s Day, the first woman in post-Conquest England to be […]

It’s the 14th of February, the year 1265, and something big is about to go down in the chapter house […]

On this day of 12 February in 1266, Walter de Cantilupe, the bishop of Worchester, died a broken man. He […]

On this date of 02 February in 1239, Henry III invested Simon de Montfort with the title of Earl of […]

In 1258 Henry III and his barons set out to reform the realm under a constitution known as the Provisions […]

More evidence that the ‘Second Barons’ War’ was in fact a ‘Clerical War’ comes in the writs for parliament to […]

On this day of 7 January in 1238 (780 years ago), one of the first sex scandals in English politics […]

As of 22 November 1263, crimes of all sorts were being committed in England. This was the report of the […]