Fall From Grace: Plantagenet and Stafford

There is an excellent Wikipedia article on the entire Plantaganet dynasty. If you don’t want to read all of it, scroll down to the section on the family’s decline. Better yet, start a little earlier, with the Wars Of the Roses. These were multiple conflicts, mainly between branches within the Plantagenet bloodline.

I continue to be quite impressed with Wikipedia. While articles on politics or current affairs are sometimes biased, there are often lively discussions of any controversies between contributors. In the fields of science and history at least, there seems to be a quasi-peer-review process that I think is working, mostly. Still, I am trying to branch out, and link to other articles when I can. So – the following links are not to Wikipedia articles. Here are some good ones: Wars of the Roses, the British Richard III Society and its American branch, Henry VII, and the Stafford family.

The last two Plantagenets died during the reign of the viciously paranoid Tudor king Henry VIII. One of them – a 66-year-old widow – was executed for treason(!)

Henry VIII (Mercifully, not our ancestor - that I know of - yet)

The House of Stafford fared not much better, but the male line did survive. The late husband of the widow mentioned above was Baron Henry Stafford, grandson of “the” Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. I am checking on why their son was not considered a threat; his name was Richard Stafford; birth, death dates unknown. Not killed, but bitterly shunned by the Tudors, Richard Stafford died in poverty; his children and grandchildren were poor tradesmen. Perhaps generously, they could be considered part of the emerging Middle Class: not servants nor peasants, but having no property of their own. Documentation is poorer for the next few generations, but it appears that Richard’s 5th great-granddaughter was Martha Bennett, wife of Philip Myers.

Coming soon: Great-Grandma Martha Bennett and the Wyoming (Pennsylvania) massacre.