Ami’s Reviews > The Plantagenets > Status Update

Very interesting also that Edward owed his victory over de Montfort partly to spies, one of whom is described by a chronicler as a woman ‘cross-dressing’ as a man and using the name Margoth. Something very Shakespearean about this.

Absolutely hilarious (for me but surely not for any of those involved) that whenever the king or his forces defeated an enemy and cut off his head, rumours about said enemy’s grave granting miracles started literally the next day. In this case Simon de Montfort’s, defeated and humiliated by the future Edward I.

Fun facts! Fun for me, that is:
a) Henry III and Richard II were similar: both were crowned as children, both had powerful rivals within their families & both became obsessed with Edward the Confessor as a metaphor for the divinity of kingship
b) Henry III was the originator^ and brought the name Edward back into fashion
c) medieval Europeans were very credulous, buying all sorts of fake ‘holy relics’