Thursday 13 March 2008

On a Lighter Note...

You may have fun with the House of York quizzes here.

They are quite tough - I didn't get a perfect score in either!

8 comments:

Susan Higginbotham said...

Wasn't at all impressed with the Richard III quiz--among other factual errors, the author has 12-year-old Harry Buckingham marrying 24-year-old Katherine Woodville, for one thing, which is balderdash, and Richard holding a Parliament in 1483. I'm pleased I didn't score 100 percent on this one!

Brian Wainwright said...

That Katherine Woodville thing seems to be a common error - I wonder what the original source was that has led so many people astray?

Perhaps there's meat for blogging there 'X things you thought about the fifteenth century that are actually a pile of steaming BS'

Brian

Susan Higginbotham said...

I've yet to find a source for the Katherine-Harry error either. None of the nonfiction writers I've seen repeating the error gives one. It's been around a while, though--it pops up in one historical novel I have from 1929, and seems to have acquired a life of its own. I don't think Complete Peerage makes the error.

That does sound like grist for the blogmill!

Doubtful Muse said...

I wish one of you would blog about it. I thought he did marry Katherine Woodville. I got that from the notes in a late 19th century copy of Shax, which, IIRC, referred to him as "young Henry" without a specific age for either, but I've no idea where it originated.

Brian Wainwright said...

He did marry her, that bit's true. It's the age difference that's an error. I can't recall how old she was exactly, but it was not much different to his own.

Doubtful Muse said...

Ah, well that makes sense then. I obviously can't claim to know the first thing about it!

Jules Frusher said...

Well I got 3 out of 10 for the Richard III quiz, and I must admit I don't know how I got that many considering the ones I got wrong were the ones I thought I knew! Oh dear - more study needed!

Thanks for posting these Brian - I love quizzes!

Susan Higginbotham said...

Assuming they married before Elizabeth's coronation (which seems to be the case, since she is named as being the younger Duchess of Buckingham in a contemporary account of the coronation), he was 9, she about 7. A IPM for her brother Richard puts her birthdate at around 1458. Both children were hauled around on squires' shoulders during the ceremony.

I fully admit to being a monomaniac about the Buckinghams these days, since I'm writing about them! I have a piece about them here.
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/the_duke_and_duchess_of_buckingham.htm