Our Royal connection?

My younger brother is a bit of a genealogist and has spent a great deal of time over the past year or so compiling a book about our our recent family background. The idea was to collect and collate the memories of those of us who were still living in order for our future generations to have an interesting record of their forbears lives and experiences, and a general point of reference. My sister Susan was also involved in the printing and binding, and they hoped to have it privately published in time to give copies of it to our three children for Christmas. One of the reasons why it didn't get finished on time, was that I kept remembering little snippets which I thought shouldn't be left out.

When it did, finally, get done; we'd already departed for the foreign shores of our beloved Egypt, so didn't receive our copy until we got back here, just the other week.

I'm really impressed with the end result! Not only is it a great read, but it also looks and feels like a very professional job.

My maternal grandma was a Makepeace, a name which originated only in the English county of Durham. Our family connection to royalty stems from the daughter of our King Edward the second and his French wife Isabella. Born on 5th July 1321 in the Tower of London, she was consequently known as 'Joan of the Tower'. (But also, sometimes, as Joanna.) Joan was eventually married off to the son of 'Robert the Bruce', the King of Scotland as a major part of a peace treaty between the two warring countries. Joan subsequently became known as 'Joan of the Tower, make peace'!   While David (King Robert's son) was held prisoner at Neville's Cross (then a village to the west of Durham city) and presumably during one of her secret visits to him, she conceived a child, the offspring of whom actually adopted the name of Makepeace as their family name.

I'm not sure exactly what it was which was prompting me, around Christmastime, to revisit a rather spectacular grave in the cemetery of St Mary's Church at Heworth (quite near our home), but in the event, I didn't get! As our visit home for Easter neared, I again had this grave on my mind and determined to visit it on this occasion. It's a grave where the 'headstone' is a very elaborate affair, in the form of a four-poster bed with three sleeping children in it, very poignant. I knew that it was a Makepeace grave, but had no idea that our Richard was going to write about that section of the family in such detail, or include the story behind the grave!



I had intended to Blog the story of how the children all died in their bed after a candle had set fire to the bedroom curtains; it's just as well that I hadn't done it at Christmas, or else I'd have had to retract it very shortly afterwards!

I came across the same story in our 'Book', but Richard doesn't just take things at face value, and had therefore corrected this myth! The children actually all died at separate times, thus debunking the tale which had been passed down! Nevertheless, it's still a very sad monument to behold:

A family crest is displayed on the back, rather gruesome with the severed leg etc:

Anyway, seeing as I cannot report on what's going on in Luxor at the moment, I thought I'd just 'blow my own trumpet' a bit. By the way, there's really no need to bow when we next meet! Tarra.