Global Pandemics Sadly Not New In Scotland. As the world finds itself in the grip of Coronavirus (Covid-19), with Donald Trump battling the impact of a virus on his re-election chances, Boris Johnston and his Cabinet colleagues, and even the heads of our Royal family now suffering from this potentially deadly illness emanating from China,…
Medieval Match.com? James I, Joan Beaufort and the King’s Ransom. Professor Richard Oram. James’s progressively increasing importance in England from 1420 accelerated rapidly after Henry V’s death at Vincennes outside Paris on 31 August 1422. James, who had remained with the English king after the successful capture of Dreux and foray to Beaugency, was in…
Drinking the Blood-Red Wine. Professor Richard Oram. Along with the consumption of food in the great ceremonial feasts staged for King James and Queen Joan, imported wine was drunk in prodigious quantities by the ‘top-table’ guests, while the less distinguished diners received ale that was brewed daily in the brewhouses that always formed part of…
James I in France: 1420-1422. Professor Richard Oram. Amongst the many unusual experiences that James I had during his eighteen-year captivity in England was his deployment as a ‘secret weapon’ in King Henry V’s war in France. Between May 1420 and February 1421 and again from June 1421 to August 1422, James participated in two…
A QUEEN’S REVENGE Bloody retribution delivered at Stirling as Robert Graham and his Co-conspirators receive justice for their crimes. Graham unrepentant. Boasts from scaffold: I have slain and delivered you of so cruel a tyrant. Queen looks on as over thirty accomplices pay awful penalty for their crimes. Brutal tortures stir crowd to pity. Thomas…
Disease Control – Halting the Spread of Plague in Fifteenth-Century Scotland. Professor Richard Oram. Plague – or the pestilence as it was referred to at the time – had by the fifteenth century become an almost accepted aspect of life around which people negotiated and arranged their daily routines. After seventy-five years of bitter lessons…