Nichola de la Haye, England’s Forgotten Heroine

History... the interesting bits!

View, from the castle. of Lincoln Cathedral

Nichola de la Haye is one of those very rare women in English history. She is renowned for her abilities, rather than her family and connections. In a time when men fought and women stayed home, Nichola de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against all-comers.

The eldest daughter and co-heiress of Richard de la Haye and his wife, Matilda de Verdun, she was probably  born in the early 1150s. Richard de la Haye was a minor Lincolnshire lord; in 1166 he was recorded as owing 20 knights’ fees, which had been reduced to 16 by 1172. When he died in 1169, Nichola inherited her father’s land in Lincolnshire and his position as castellan of Lincoln Castle, a position she would hold for over 30 years.

Nichola was married twice, her first husband, William Fitz Erneis, died in 1178. Before 1185 she married…

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Anne Neville, Queen of England

Interesting blog on a Queen that has almost been lost to us

The Freelance History Writer

One of the more enigmatic queens of England, we know precious little about her and her personal feelings. Was she a pawn in the strategies of her father and her husband? Or was she ambitious and a schemer? Did she know of her husband’s plans for taking the throne of England?

Anne Neville was born on June 11, 1456 at Warwick Castle. She was the younger of two daughters of Richard Neville, sixteenth Earl of Warwick and sixth earl of Salisbury who would later become known as the Kingmaker. Her mother was Anne Beauchamp, heiress to both the earldom of Warwick and to the Despenser properties, a vast inheritance. Anne and her sister Isabel were the paramount heiresses of their day.

Anne probably had her own establishment growing up, possibly as an extension of her sister’s household. The two girls would have been taught the essentials of becoming a medieval…

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Isabel de Vermandois, Countess of Leicester and Surrey

Great blog beautifully written…love the people she writes about who needs historical fiction with a life like this

History... the interesting bits!

Adelaide de Vermandois, mother of Isabel

Born around 1085, Isabel de Vermandois had the blood of kings flowing through her veins. Her father was Hugh Capet, younger son of King Henry I of France. Her mother was Adelaide de Vermandois, a descendant of the ancient Carolingian dynasty. She was 1 of her parents’ 9 surviving children; 4 boys and 5 girls.

As with many medieval women, there are no images of Isabel; not even a description of her appearance. Her life can be pieced together, somewhat, through her marriages and through her children. When researching her, her name also frequently appears as Elizabeth – Isabel being the French version of her name.

From her birth, as the granddaughter of the King of France, Isabel was a valuable prize. Her childhood proved to be  depressingly short. By 1096 a marriage was mooted between Isabel and Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan…

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