Fergal Leonard
@fergalleonard.bsky.social
Historian of the sixteenth-century Anglo-Scottish frontier. PhD from Durham University (mostly) on the evolution of the early modern state in the English west march, and the relations between march elites and the 'riding surnames'.
...but their presence may explain the high opinion of the diplomat and military theorist Sir John Smythe, a witness to the wars in Flanders, who praised the skill of "Light horsemen borderers" with "speares in the field" as "they... by their continuall exercise are so skilful with al such weapons".
September 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
...but their presence may explain the high opinion of the diplomat and military theorist Sir John Smythe, a witness to the wars in Flanders, who praised the skill of "Light horsemen borderers" with "speares in the field" as "they... by their continuall exercise are so skilful with al such weapons".
I don't know enough about how English expeditionary forces were recruited, what other routes would have been open to borderers to find employment in these wars, and whether they might have served as companies of light horsemen as they had in Henry's continental expeditions a generation before...
September 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I don't know enough about how English expeditionary forces were recruited, what other routes would have been open to borderers to find employment in these wars, and whether they might have served as companies of light horsemen as they had in Henry's continental expeditions a generation before...
On the other side of the border, Martin's Arch Elliot was particularly dangerous because "he hath been brought vpp in the warrs, in ffladers, & Fraunce"--or at least, so Lord Warden Ralph Eure claimed when he reported that Elliot had been slain on an illegal cross-border incursion.
September 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
On the other side of the border, Martin's Arch Elliot was particularly dangerous because "he hath been brought vpp in the warrs, in ffladers, & Fraunce"--or at least, so Lord Warden Ralph Eure claimed when he reported that Elliot had been slain on an illegal cross-border incursion.
We might have missed them but St George's church and its graveyard is wonderfully cared for by volunteers.
August 9, 2025 at 8:28 AM
We might have missed them but St George's church and its graveyard is wonderfully cared for by volunteers.
"what is ye cause the wind makes such a nos[e] and cannot be seene" is another great one. Good question! 🤔🤔🤔🤔
July 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
"what is ye cause the wind makes such a nos[e] and cannot be seene" is another great one. Good question! 🤔🤔🤔🤔
"what is ye cause a dooge shews his loue most in his Taile" is just... 🥰🥰🥰, especially after some, ah, considerations your reverend probably didn't approve of.
July 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
"what is ye cause a dooge shews his loue most in his Taile" is just... 🥰🥰🥰, especially after some, ah, considerations your reverend probably didn't approve of.
This is absolutely incredible! So, so, so funny, and also really poignant at the same time! "what is ye cause we dream of things wee neuer saw, or knew, or euer heard of" is particularly striking. And so many of them are the same sort of things we still wonder about today.
July 24, 2025 at 1:56 PM
This is absolutely incredible! So, so, so funny, and also really poignant at the same time! "what is ye cause we dream of things wee neuer saw, or knew, or euer heard of" is particularly striking. And so many of them are the same sort of things we still wonder about today.