LIC Blog

Rhuddlan Castle: Gateway to Wales

Rhuddlan Castle: Gateway to Wales is now going through its last checks. It will soon be available to order!

If you would like to be notified by email when it is available, please drop us a line at abigail@lostincastles.com.

eRoyalty Review of Lost in Castles

As Plantagenet and Tudor enthusiasts, we can’t help but be enthralled by the castles our royal and noble friends called home. Fortunately, many of these castles remain throughout Britain – some still standing and well-maintained, and others in some state of ruin, with keeps and buildings and walls crumbling from the centuries.

But if we’re fortunate to be able to visit any of these castles, it can be an unforgettable experience to stand where our favorite royal stood, to share the same space even if we are separated by time. We imagine what they felt and did in these rooms. We imagine them entering through the castle gate or walking atop the castle walls. We imagine elaborate meals in the great halls, the warmth from a glowing fire, secret meetings on the winding stone steps, or a quiet evening in their bedchamber.

This month, e-Royalty is recommending an exquisite website called Lost in Castles, along with its delightful Facebook page of the same name. As an impassioned castle lover, you can step back in time and see how these castles looked once upon a time.

On the Lost in Castles website, you see numerous – and quite lovely – paintings, engravings and old photos of castles throughout England, Wales, Scotland and France. Some of the images show what these castles look like today, while other images are from earlier time periods.

You can literally spend many a happy hour lost in lovely castle imagery. (Pun quite intended.) But what makes the Lost in Castle website such an amazing find is the dozen or so ruined castles these fine researchers are in in the process of reconstructing.

From in-depth photography and detailed research and analysis, researcher John Fox builds models of what the castles looked like in their prime. Here you can view picture after picture of castle ruins, next to detailed drawings and 3-D renderings of the original layouts of the castle – complete with recreated fortress walls, towers, gatehouses and more.

But the people behind this ingenious website take these imaginative recreations to a new and very exciting level. Using state of the art computer graphics, the digital artist, Joseph A. Fox, beautifully reconstructs the full glory of these castles that now lie in various degree of ruin. Now for the first time in centuries, you can see the walls rebuilt, the inner and outer wards reestablished, the rooms refurnished and more. You truly step back in time to see how these castles looked when our favorite nobles and royals called their castle home.

In addition, Lost in Castles offers a number of DVDs for sale digitally reconstructing the castles as they once were, and retelling the history of the castle. One of our favorites is Middleham Castle, the main home of Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) and his wife, Anne Neville.

If you’re planning a visit to any of these castles in the future, we recommend you first visit Lost in Castles to “see” how magnificent they once were. After seeing the reconstructed castle on the website, it will be easy to imagine as you tour the ruin where the moat, the gateway entrance, the chapel, the main hall, etc. would have been.

Or, if you want to learn more about a previously visited castle ruin, go to Lost in Castles to see how your castle once looked in all its glory. Compare your pictures to the beautifully reconstructed imaginings on the website.

Plus, if you’re reading a great historical novel – fact or fiction – and want to visualize what the featured castle looked like in order to place the royal and noble characters within its’ walls, then stop by Lost in Castles to further enhance your reading pleasure.

If you’re on Facebook, be sure and like their Facebook page, Lost in Castles, at https://www.facebook.com/lostincastles. This page is simply one breathtaking photograph, painting, engraving of castle after castle after castle – some quite familiar to you … and some we would imagine you have never heard of.

For any serious lover of the Middle Ages, Lost in Castles should be bookmarked, liked and visited often. Five very big stars. Enjoy!

Find the original article here or view as pdf

The tomb of Richard III

Lost in Castles, working once more in association with film company Chat Noir Productions Ltd, have produced this promotional video for the original tomb designed for the dig in Leicester.

Bending the Truth?

Richard S. Sylvester commenting on Thomas More's description of Richard III (see page 7 of the Yale Edition of the Complete Works, Volume 2) writes:

This detail (crook-backed) is not found in Rous, the Croyland Chronicle, Fabyan or Polydore and it is certainly not noticeable in the contemporary portraits of Richard. ... If Richard had such a deformity it could not have been conspicuous.

In Richard III: The Unseen Story Dr. Piers Mitchell of Cambridge University stated that the remains discovered in Leicester displayed a curve of 60 to 80 degrees - a very noticeable and very conspicuous deformity.

Was History Horrible?

At one point in Richard III: The King in the Car Park, the presenter, Philippa Langley and two Leicester Scientists stand around the remains discussing wounds. And the conversation eventually settles upon one word: brutal. It is passed around as not only a comment on the way the body was treated (before and after death) but as an indictment upon the time. It is a judgment that fits in well with the general tone of history today and is popularised by the children's series Horrible Histories, which is nothing but playground whispers ...

Is there really something fishy about Richard III?

In Richard III: The King in the Car Park, aired on Channel 4 last Monday, the radiocarbon dating of the remains discovered in Leicester gave the "wrong" result, for those who wanted them to be the remains of Richard III. One test suggested 1430-1460 and another 1412-1449, both well outside the actual year of the King's death, in 1485.

Professor Buckley swiftly changed the result to give the dates 1475-1530, with a 69% confidence. He did so by stating that it was all to do with fish.

Making Monsters out of Men

This essay is not about Richard III. And yet it is. It is about a man who has suffered similar damage to his legacy, a man whose name - just like that of Richard III - has been attached to an unchallengeable stereotype, and yet a man who would very probably have been a better neighbour and more loyal friend than most.

William Cowper was an athletic youth. He excelled in every sport at school. He was bright. He liked girls, at least the few the schoolboy knew. He was inclined to make pranks on them and had sufficient charm to be forgiven.

How do we determine identity?

It is an old adage that fossils are dated by the rocks in which they are found and the rocks are dated by the fossils inside them. It is a flaw and difficult to overcome. Our preconceptions colour our conclusions and we are fools to think it is otherwise.

The evidence from Leicester today raised one problem in my mind: did preconceived ideas contribute to the conclusions?

What is Idiopathic Structural Scoliosis?

This condition begins in childhood or adolscence (often 10 to 12 years) and tends to increase progressively until skeletal growth is complete. It can lead to severe deformity, especially when the chest (thoracic) region is affected. In adults with longstanding deformity it may be accompanied by pain.

The skeleton (from the photographs) exhibits mainly a thoracic scoliosis with the curve to the right. This would be accompanied by rotation of the vertebrae on a vertical axis, thrusting the ribs backwards on the convex side, increasing the appearance of the deformity.

The cause is unknown.

Dr. F. J. Fox

The Remains of King Richard III in Leicester

Grave site:

Sloping sides
Concave Base
Too short for the individual

Body Condition:

Feet missing
Hands and sternum damaged
Scoliosis (not from birth - due to grave being too small?)
No withered arm (both used normally)
Slender build
Skull damaged in excavation

The latest official news about the dig in Leicester ...

The Search for King Richard III: Announcement of media conference

Issued by University of Leicester Press Office on 9 January 2012

The University of Leicester has today announced that it plans to reveal the results of a series of scientific investigations into human remains – which are suspected of being that of King Richard III - in the first week of February.

Parliamentary Debate on the (possible) Remains of King Richard III

Transcript of the answers given in the House of Commons on October 25th 2012

John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab): What assessment the Church Commissioners have made of the potential Church sites available for the reburying of King Richard III. [124677]

Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab): What discussions the Church Commissioners have had on laying to rest the remains of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral. [124683]

The Latest News from the Dig in Leicester

STATEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 1100 WEDNESDAY 12th SEPTEMBER

On Friday 31st August 2012 the University of Leicester applied to the Ministry of Justice under the 1857 Burials Act for permission to commence the exhumation of human remains found at the Grey Friars site in Leicester.

Exhumation commenced on Tuesday 4th September 2012 and has continued to this morning. The work wasconducted by Dr Turi King from the University’s department of Genetics and Dr Jo Appleby & Mathew Morris of our School of Archaeology & Ancient History.

A Tomb for King Richard III

An archaeological dig is now underway to determine whether the mortal remains of King Richard III are under a car park in Leicester.

Over a year ago, Lost in Castles were invited to make the preliminary computer impressions for a potential tomb to re-bury the remains of King Richard, should they be discovered. The design has undergone several changes and is now being finalised.

BBC coverage is inevitably pro-Tudor: BBC and Richard III

Forgotten Lives: Catherine of Suffolk

In between the lives of the Tudors, one figure stands in the shadows.

Catherine Willoughby was the daughter of Lord Willougby and his Spanish wife, Maria. Their marriage had taken place during the period when Catherine of Aragon was still beloved by King Henry VIII and he was in the habit of rewarding noble marriages which strengthened national ties with Spain. The reward for Catherine's parents was an expansion of their estate.

The Courage of Cecilly Neville

Cecilly Neville had it all.

And then she lost it.

Born into the powerful Neville family, she was the youngest daughter of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife, Joan Beaufort. She was the couple’s thirteenth child. When Cecilly was born in 1415 her eldest brother was already in his thirties.

As the baby of the family, she was certainly spoiled. Perhaps this laid the foundation of her nickname, “Proud Cis”. What is undoubted is that she grew into a most beautiful young woman, known as the “Rose of Raby”, Raby being one of the family’s castles in Durham.

Can we build in a Medieval style today?

The Thistle Chapel of St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, was completed in 1911. As can be judged from the photos below, it is an impressive feat. But is it successful?