Ivan Lee Weir

Blackburnes at the Crossroads of History Ivan Lee Weir

"Michael Blackburne was hanged at Tyburn Prison for a crime he did not commit." So begins a fascinating short history of one of England's forgotten heroes, Michael Blackburne, who died because he supported the monarchy in the Second English Civil War, 1647-1649, called by Charles Spencer "the bloodiest war in English history." The author is a member of the Blackburn lineage, which stretches backward to a time before the Norman Conquest led by William the Conqueror in 1066. Weir has searched digitized libraries and documents of antiquity to learn the true story of Coronet Michael Blackburne, and besides writing an interesting historical narrative setting forth the results of his study, he has imaginatively brought the Blackburnes to life in a modern 'restoration' play-The Tragedy of Coronet Michael Blackburne--that takes as its central characters Blackburn(e)s from the 17th and 20th centuries.