Let me introduce myself...and ask a question!

[hibiscusrose]

I am an English history buff--anything from 1066 to 1603 is what I love, though I freely admit to having a decided leaning towards the Tudors.  I believe in Richard III's basic innocence (at least in regards to his nephews' deaths), love Eleanor of Aquitaine, and have a great fondness for the love stories of John of Gaunt & Katherine Swynford and

Comments

[transemacabre]

*I've* never heard anything about that. Guy de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (who was the uncle of Hugh le Despenser the younger, btw) died August 12 1315. I suspect he had been ill for some time, as his will is dated to some weeks before, on July 25 1315.

[lareinenoire]

That's one I haven't heard before. I seem to remember that Warwick died from illness, but goodness knows poisoning theories are popular so I'm not surprised it turned up in a guidebook.

[transemacabre]

BTW, being an earl during Edward II's reign through to the Mortimer/Isabella regime ranked up there with 'Spinal Tap drummer' in the list of the world's most dangerous jobs. Check it out

[hibiscusrose]

Thanks all! It did sound a little too...apropos... Local legend, no doubt. That doesn't take much to get skewed or twisted. Or, as one person (roughly) put it: for the historian, there's always the temptation to put in the person who SHOULD have been there. In this case, the neat closure--revenge on Warwick by someone other than Edward who would have had reason.