Articles by Simon Payling
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‘One of the wyrste bataylys that ever came to Inglonde, and unkyndyst’: The battle of Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403
Dr Simon Payling, of our Commons 1461-1504 section, explores the background and significance of the battle of Shrewsbury, which took place…
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A Yorkist Family during the Wars of the Roses: the Devereuxs of Weobley in Herefordshire
Dr Simon Payling, of our Commons 1461-1504 section, explores the fortunes of one particularly loyal Yorkist family during the Wars of…
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The Making of a Marcher Town: Ludlow and the Wars of the Roses
Dr Simon Payling, of our Commons 1461-1504 section, explores the crucial role of the Shropshire town of Ludlow during the Wars…
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Hugh Oldham, bishop of Exeter, ‘hath more poison in that grete fowle bely of hys then all the Bysshoppes in Englond’: scandalum magnatum in early-sixteenth century England
For the first article of 2025, Dr Simon Payling of our Commons 1461-1504 Section, explores the use of a unique…
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A disputed election in the wake of the battle of Bosworth: the Shropshire election of 1485
Following the battle of Bosworth and Henry Tudor’s accession to the English throne, the country’s gentry who had sided with…
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John, Lord Clifford, ‘the butcher’ and the killing of Edmund, earl of Rutland, at the battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460
In the 15th Century, the killing of rival faction leaders were commonplace, especially throughout the Wars of the Roses. However,…
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A Medieval Monk’s View of Parliament: Thomas Walsingham’s Chronica Maiora and the Parliaments of 1376 to 1410
Thomas Walsingham is best known for his role as a chronicler of his own religious life, but he was also…
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A King’s Sister buried in a Shropshire church: Elizabeth of Lancaster, sister of Henry IV, at Burford
For Women’s History Month, Dr Simon Payling from our Commons 1461-1504 project discusses the life of Elizabeth Lancaster, the sister of Henry IV,…
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The Tomb of Sir Richard and Eleanor Croft in Croft Church, Herefordshire
Sir Richard Croft’s career spanned the entirety of the Wars of the Roses; he was able to adapt and maintain…
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The tomb of William Rudhale (d.1530), Queen Katherine’s attorney-general, in the church of Ross-on-Wye
William Rudhale had a successful career in the medieval legal profession culminating in his promotion to serjeants-at-law. Simon Payling from our Commons…


