Reginald FitzUrse: The Bear Knight Who Slayed a Saint
Biographies, Historical Events Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, Historical Events Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Reginald FitzUrse: The Bear Knight Who Slayed a Saint

On 29 December 1170, four armed knights pushed through the freezing rain towards Canterbury Cathedral. Their leader was Reginald FitzUrse—a man whose very name meant “son of the bear.” He would live up to it in every sense: fierce, proud, and dangerously impulsive.

When Thomas Becket fell beneath their swords that night, FitzUrse’s roar echoed through the nave. It was he who first laid hands on the archbishop, striking the blow that turned a quarrel between king and church into one of the most shocking crimes of the Middle Ages.

A Knight of the King’s Household

Little is known of FitzUrse’s early life. He came from a respectable Somerset family, holding lands at Willeton and Barham. Like many younger sons of the gentry, he found advancement in royal service. By the 1160s he was one of Henry II’s household knights—trusted, well-paid, and fiercely loyal to the king who rewarded courage and obedience above all else.

That loyalty, however, would prove fatal.

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Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen, Duchess, and Mother of Rebels
Biographies, Women in History Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, Women in History Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen, Duchess, and Mother of Rebels

When their sons grew to manhood, Eleanor encouraged them to demand their inheritance. Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey wanted lands to rule; Henry II refused. In 1173, when the princes fled to France, Eleanor supported them. Chroniclers later claimed she disguised herself as a man to join them—an image that has haunted legend ever since.

Her rebellion failed. Henry II’s forces captured her later that year while she travelled through Poitou. For the next sixteen years she was kept under guard, a queen turned prisoner. Yet even captivity could not erase her influence: her sons would continue to fight in her name.

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Henry II of England – The Jailer of Queens
Biographies, Crime and Justice Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, Crime and Justice Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Henry II of England – The Jailer of Queens

When Henry of Anjou (later Henry II, also known as Henry Plantagenet) married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, they created a political alliance of breath taking scale. Henry was heir to the English throne; Eleanor, just divorced from King Louis VII of France, brought with her the duchy of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most independent regions in Europe.

For a time, their marriage was a true partnership. Eleanor rode beside Henry on campaign, governed Aquitaine in his name, and bore him eight children. Together, they forged the Angevin Empire stretching from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees.

But power and passion soured into mistrust. By the 1170s, the marriage had collapsed into open hostility.

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Geoffrey of Anjou: The Handsome Count Who Founded the Plantagenet Dynasty (Died 7th September 1151)
Biographies, Time Periods Rachel Elwiss Joyce Biographies, Time Periods Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Geoffrey of Anjou: The Handsome Count Who Founded the Plantagenet Dynasty (Died 7th September 1151)

On September 7, 1151, Geoffrey of Anjou — known as “le Bel” or “the Handsome” — collapsed with a sudden fever and died at just 38 years old.
He was never king. He never wore a crown.
And yet, Geoffrey Plantagenet shaped the medieval world more than many monarchs.

Without him, there would be no Henry II, no Richard the Lionheart, no King John and Magna Carta, and no centuries-long Plantagenet dynasty. Geoffrey’s story isn’t just a footnote — it’s the spark that set medieval England ablaze.

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Lucy of Bolingbroke: The Woman Behind Lincoln Castle's Lucy Tower
Women in History, Biographies Rachel Elwiss Joyce Women in History, Biographies Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Lucy of Bolingbroke: The Woman Behind Lincoln Castle's Lucy Tower

She paid a king five hundred marks for the right to be left alone. She outlived three husbands, presided over one of the most strategically significant castles in England, and left such an indelible mark on Lincoln Castle that a tower still bears her name nine centuries later. Yet Lucy of Bolingbroke remains one of the least-known powerful women of the Norman era – overshadowed, perhaps, by the very castle she helped to shape.

Today, I’m bringing this important but forgotten woman back into the light (as much as I can).

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Muriel of Lincoln
Women in History, Biographies Rachel Elwiss Joyce Women in History, Biographies Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Muriel of Lincoln

Nicola de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against a French siege and saved England, and everyone remembers her name.

Almost no one remembers her grandmother.

Muriel of Lincoln didn't lead armies or defy kings in any spectacular fashion, but without her calculated survival and strategic positioning, there would be no Nicola, no legend, no castle defense that changed the course of English history.

This is the story of the invisible foundation upon which greatness was built.

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