Lady Despenser's Scribery - Introduction

This small corner of the web concentrates mainly on the life and times of Hugh Despenser the younger, as well as the reign of Edward II and the fourteenth century in general. It contains snippets of some (though certainly not all) of the research I have done in order to write a novel about him (and hopefully, later, a biography as well). Oh yes, some 21st century stuff sneaks its way in too, from time to time!

Thursday, 2 July 2009

Silly Searches

As it's 30 degrees plus in my sunlounge, I can't tay on my computer for any length of time - and the fan has to be trained on the Mac, not me! Therefore I haven't been able to do much in the way of research. So, instead, here's a selection of search terms that have graced my Sitemeter stats over the past month or so...

most unpopular art of queen isabella
A little known fact was that Queen Isabella was a completely terrible artist. Luckily, none of her drawings exist today.

sir gower bannockburn
Ah, that well-known chivalrous knight, famous as the 63rd best knight in Europe. He also came second in a silly knight name competition - behind sir Marmaduke Thweng

post mortem greetings
‘Is anyone there? Knock once for yes and twice for no…’

lady with one nostril coronation street
I'm sure that Edward would have found that most entertaining.

speculative pictures
A series of paintings (rather unpopular of course) by Queen Isabella which speculated a hundred horrible deaths for Hugh Despenser. In the event, his execution only used a few of them.

medieval tea stalls
It wasn't such a hard life for peasants after all. As they couldn't pop into a coffee shop after work (because coffee hadn't been invented yet) they popped into a medieval tea stall. Oh, hang on a minute, tea hadn't been invented yet either...

i want a pictuer of ducking stool at the time of elizabethan 1
yes, well, I want an iPhone, but we can’t have it all, can we?

llywelyn bren youtube
Obviously Llywelyn's been planning his comeback tour for some time.

this is that banished naughty montague?
No, it’s probably that banished naughty Despenser. I can feel Shakespeare turning in his grave…

lordships for sale scam
I bet Hugh wished he’d thought of that one. Mind you, William de Braose beat him to it with Gower!

execution sadism castration
Yes, the 14th Century has it all. Actually, that would make a good byline for the novel!

steal inheritence by falsely accusing insanity
Hugh missed a trick with this one too.

cucking stool
Definition: A stool used for cucking bad people. They would be tied to it and thrown in the cucking pot. If they came out well-cucked and tender then they were innocent – and dead.

the back of a medieval knight
Probably the best way to look at him if he is plum ugly from the front. And you can pull faces without any form of nasty retribution!

ladies cheltenham college corporal punishment
I think you’ve come to the wrong site…

what was the girl barons jobs in medieval
They probably they kept the boy barons happy.

bad parts of london in the 14th century
That depends what you’re looking for mwahahaha

4 comments:

Alianore said...

LOL, these are brilliant! Love the Coronation St and the girl barons ones especially. And this is that banished naughty montague? - I mean, huh??

How did Hugh fail to make use of the insanity accusation?? Honestly, Hugh, what were you thinking?!

Susan Higginbotham said...

Shame Isabella didn't draw nude pictures of Roger Mortimer. Maybe they might have made her a more popular artist.

Gabriele C. said...

You have to give credit to Google for trying to find sites matching some of those questions. :)

Anerje said...

These type of things make me laugh soooo much! And yes, I agree, the heat is unbearable!