When we are honoured by a Royal visit nowadays, we await with confidence a punctual arrival by helicopter or Rolls Royce, and there is often a great deal of preparation ...
The letter
Few personal letters written by Oliver Cromwell before 1640 have survived, so this letter1 is of particular value for the insight it provides into his character at a critical stage of ...
At Christmas time families often have their own traditions and stories for the holiday period, unique to their own personal histories and communities. In many cases, these stories are represented ...
It isn’t Christmas without a mince pie and once upon a time it wouldn’t have been a mince pie without the addition of actual minced meat. When the Warwickshire County ...
It’s funny the things you find when looking for something else.
A regular visitor to the Warwickshire County Record Office (name withheld to protect the guilty) drew our attention to a ...
Elizabeth’s visit to Kenilworth Castle in 1575 has been well documented, and indeed forms the basis of an article on this site. During the Queen’s lengthy stay there was the ...
Bonfire Night is one custom that has featured consistently over the centuries since the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. On occasion a focus for religious tension, and waxing and waning in ...
In 2015, a portrait of King Henry VIII, painted by the studio of Hans Holbein during the lifetime of England’s most iconic king, was sold by Merlin Entertainments at Sothebys ...
After his progress through the Midlands, Henry VIII stayed at Warwick Castle from at least Tuesday 5th to Sunday 10th September 1511. Henry’s royal progresses lacked the fanciful extravagance of his ...
Henry VIII had previously stayed at Warwick Castle from at least Tuesday 5th to Sunday 10th September 1511. He was to return to the castle for a second visit thirty ...
The winter festivities are over and the New Year has swept in, but while many of us gave presents at Christmas, how many gave gifts at New Year?
This article highlights a ...
It’s been done many times before; legitimate a royal dynasty, or a hereditary right to power by piggybacking on one of Britain’s most lasting myths. Geoffrey of Monmouth featured Arthur ...
This handsome building was erected as part of the rebuilding of Warwick after the Great Fire of 1694. It was acquired by Warwick Town Council in order to provide more space for the ...
At Easter 1596 the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster issued this Final Concord1 (so-called from its opening phrase: ‘This is the final concord…’) to confirm the sale of property ...
I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity.
Oliver Cromwell.
Oliver Cromwell was brought up in modest circumstances and at 17, as the eldest ...