Nearly 700 years ago, our 19th great-grandmother Doña Sancha de Toledo de Ayala was born in Toledo. She married into English nobility and became the […]
The Trail-blazing Queen Consort
Twenty-fifth great grandmother Joan Plantagenet was the illegitimate daughter of England’s King John – but she married Prince Llewellyn the ruler of Wales, and mediated her husband’s stormy relationship with her father and the English.
The Country Pub
The Talbot Inn in Much Wenlock, Shropshire was my grandparents’ home for most of the 1940s and 50s. In fact, I spent a fair proportion of my first two years there. But the Inn’s history goes back much, much further.
Shakespeare’s Hotspur
Henry Percy, ‘Hotspur’, is one of Shakespeare’s best-known characters. And he’s our 19th Great Grandfather.
Lay on MacDuff
We’re descended – a long way back – from the Earls of Fife, of the clan MacDuff. The most famous MacDuff appeared in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ – though he may not have existed at all.
Illustrious cousins
Annette’s 18th Great Grandfather, Sir Hugh de Clitheroe. The thing with genealogy is – the further you go back, the more ancestors you have. And […]
The Norman Invader
Robert I de Vaux of Pentney was a prominent 11th century noble who took part in William of Normandy’s invasion of England in 1066.
The Ruthven Peerage
Sir William Ruthven managed to outlive two of Scotland’s King James and was guardian to a third, James V
Llywelyn the Great, King of Wales
27 generations back, we find a man who had a profound influence on the history of Wales.
John de Clifford, the ‘Butcher’
17th Great Uncle John de Clifford earned the nickname ‘the Butcher’ and ‘Black faced Clifford’ – and with good reason.