Desford

In 1485, all the land in the Desford and Peckleton area was wholly controlled by Lancastrian nobility. This left the people of these communities with little doubt that they owed their allegiance to the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses. On August 22, 1485, these wars came to an end on the Bosworth battlefield, approximately 7 miles from Desford. The death of King Richard III in the battle and the victory of the nominal Lancastrian leader Henry VII heralded the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty in England. […]

Earlier in the Introduction, I mentioned Thomas Gregory, a rector in Peckleton during 1534. An essay by W.G. Hopkins, published in 1950, concluded that church ministers in the late medieval period ‘were largely poor men living obscure lives in country parishes.’ […]

As noted earlier in this chapter, no record of Rychard Gregorye’s birth has survived; therefore, I have approximated his birth year to be 25 years before his recorded marriage in 1559. This estimate indicates that he was likely born around 1534, roughly aligning Rychard’s birthdate with that of the future Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), the last of the five Tudor monarchs. […]