Welcome to the Village Idiot's Guide to... History

For as long as I can remember, learning about history has completely fascinated me - from old Norman churches to Georgian town-houses, horse-drawn ploughs to medieval chests, peasants to kings, domestic life to battle-field, even half buried mosaic floors to dusty old libraries… which brings in another of my obsession: old books and chronicles¹⁾; but I find it very easy, when reading about the people, to get dates and members of dynasties mixed up, such as the use of Salisbury, Buckingham, Essex… even when referencing the latest releases.

In order to learn history, one must already know it - at least, that's how it can seem more often than not.

With that in mind, this wiki is going to be my attempt at jotting down an outline, and hopefully fill in some of the gaps as I go. I've even chosen the Wars of the Roses as my first large scale project, just to get to grips with those tangled dynastic briars! For example, Somerset: John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and then his brother Edmund, 2nd Duke of Somerset - and when I mention their parts, I will make it very clear which one I mean…

Nothing will be high-brow or deeply academic, although I sincerely hope that I don't make too many errors. Wherever possible, I will use public domain assets so that you too can access them freely - more than likely, Wikipedia will be my chief ‘go to’ library for graphics²⁾, as I have found them invaluable.

As I progress, I will start by plotting out general timeframes, with monarchs and leading figures, well known events, etc…. and then take it from there. As pages fill out, I shall break subjects and articles onto their own page, so please keep checking links.

I'll confess now to being mildly biased towards the history of England - I'm West London born and bred, with family links to the city going back to the 1700's… but I promise here and now to do my best to include as much balanced history beyond my 'neck of the woods'.

I hope you enjoy the ride at my side.