Ricardian Bulletin Is Produced by the Bulletin Editorial Committee, Printed by St Edmundsbury Press

Ricardian

Bulletin Spring 2008 Contents

2 From the Chairman 4 Society News and Notices 10 Jim Hughes Remembered 12 Media Retrospective 14 News and Reviews 18 Shakespeare’s Richard III: A new film production 19 Review Article: Middleham Castle DVD by Wendy Moorhen 23 Logge-Jam: by Lesley Boatwright 25 Living History: The Order of the Boar Part 2: by Callum Forbes 28 The Man Himself: by David Fiddimore 31 A Great Richard III Evening in York: by John Saunders 34 The Real Reason Why Hastings Lost His Head Part 2: by David Johnson 37 Margaret of York: A Genuinely Scandalous Dispensation: by Marie Barnfield 39 The Research Goes On: by Toni Mount 42 Milan in the Fifteenth Century: by Lynda Pidgeon 45 Correspondence 48 Book Review 49 The Barton Library 51 Report on Society Events 54 Future Society Events 56 Branch and Group Contacts 58 Branches and Groups 62 New Members 63 Obituaries 63 Recently Deceased Members 64 Calendar

Contributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. All contributions should be sent to the Technical Editor, Lynda Pidgeon. Bulletin Press Dates 15 January for spring issue; 15 April for summer issue; 15 July for autumn issue; 15 October for winter issue. Articles should be sent well in advance. Bulletin & Ricardian Back Numbers Back issues of the The Ricardian and Bulletin are available from Judith Ridley. If you are interested in obtaining any back numbers, please contact Mrs Ridley to establish whether she holds the issue(s) in which you are interested. For contact details see back inside cover of the Bulletin

The Ricardian Bulletin is produced by the Bulletin Editorial Committee, Printed by St Edmundsbury Press. © Richard III Society, 2008

From the Chairman

or many medieval peasants, the New Year was said to begin on Lady Day, March 25, when F work could begin again after the winter. I would therefore wish you all a happy New Year, except that it could be taken to mean that I think of our members as peasants – perish the thought! So long as the ground was soft enough, March was the month for ploughing and harrowing so that it could be sown with seeds of the crops to be harvested in early autumn. A fifteenth-century rhyme, ‘Occupations of the Months’, tells what the medieval peasant could expect during the spring: Marche Here I sette my thynge to sprynge; Aprile And here I here [hear] the fowlis synge. Maij I am as lyght as byrde in bowe; So, what can members of the Society expect these coming months? We might not be out there ploughing and harrowing but we are certainly sowing seeds for the future. We embark on an exciting new venture when the Society will be present at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2008 which takes place at Olympia in London over the May Day weekend. As this is a high profile event, it will be a wonderful opportunity to promote the work of the Society as well as the good name of Richard III. There will also be our continuing involvement with the Bosworth Battlefield Centre, and, together with our newly purchased portable marquee, we will be at other historical events throughout the summer. In this issue of the Bulletin, David Fiddimore provides some thought-provoking ideas in his contribution to The Man Himself. This view of Richard is well balanced with John Saunders’ reminiscences about an evening in York back in 1935 when our founder, Saxon Barton, delivered a passionate and revisionist view of King Richard. We have the second instalments from Callum Forbes, David Johnson and Toni Mount, following on from their articles in previous issues. On an artistic theme we have details of a new exhibition mounted by Graham Turner. Then, Society Secretary Jane Trump provides some highlights from recent meetings of the Executive Commit- tee, or the low down as she prefers to call it. I really don’t know what she means! At one stage it appeared that there was little new ‘news’ for this issue, but once again something cropped up about Richard, what is it they say, ‘you can’t keep a good man down’? In this instance my wife Beth stumbled across on an internet reference to a new film production of Shakespeare’s play and a member of the Bulletin team immediately went into action to learn more. Jane is already working hard on this year’s AGM and members’ weekend which includes a trip to Middleham which complements the review of a photographic tour of the castle produced by the multi- talented Fox family. Sadly, we have another loss to record, that of Jim Hughes, who will be known to many for his work as membership officer, a role he often carried out together with his late wife, Enid. As the obituary says, Jim was a gentleman and he will be missed. For all that he claimed otherwise, he was a mine of information about events in the Society’s recent and sometimes not so recent past. Many of you will have noticed that, in common with many an organisation like the Socie- ty, our membership numbers have fallen in recent years. However, the Executive Committee isn’t taking this as something inevitable and this was tackled at a recent meeting, see Jane’s ‘Low Down’ piece for more details. Unfortunately, I was unable to be present owing to a sudden and unexpected trip to the States for a family bereavement. Hopefully, as the next few months pro- 2

ceed, we will start to see the fruits of the EC’s labours. As part of this drive, and to increase the brain power available for storming new ideas, the EC has co-opted two new members to the committee, Susan and David Wells. They have been members of the Society for some years and many will know them as regular attendees at a variety of visits and meetings. It was felt that they might be useful new members to the team. When they replied that they were ‘honoured’ to be asked to join us, I knew we were on to a good thing especially as they were taking early retirement and that they both have a certain expertise in administration, and this was proved to be the case for, at their first committee meeting, they agreed to analyse the results of a poll that we are conducting amongst our newest Society members. The Triennial Conference taking place near Cirencester at the end of the month has proved so popular that it is now well oversubscribed. Considering the theme and the quality of the speakers, I’m not surprised. I look forward to meeting those of you who will be there, and for those who cannot be, there will be a series of reports on the papers in the Bulletin. The Barton Library review in this issue is dedicated to providing members with a reading list for the event A busy year of outings and events is planned too. In May, the Society returns to Avignon and Provence for the first time since the days of the legendary Joyce Melhuish, and in June we are off to Fotheringhay and Nassington. This month, the annual Requiem Mass takes place at the Augus- tinian Priory at Clare in Suffolk, one of the oldest religious houses in England and a place of sig- nificance to the House of York. The new exhibition at the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre has now opened to the public, and though there will be an official event in August, there was an informal free day for people and organisations who had helped in the construction or who have a special interest. On a glori- ous February day, Beth and I were made welcome before we toured the exhibition. Having seen it ‘in the making’ last year, it was fascinating to see it for real. When we came out, our main feeling was “Wow!” The viewing screens with ‘talking heads’ were especially effective and I particularly liked Thomas, Lord Stanley. One almost – almost – felt sorry for him, with his loyalty caught between his king and his wife. (He actually referred to his stepson, Henry, but one knew who he really meant!) The room with weapons and armour that leads into the display of the actual battle is very effective. Caught out of the corner of the eye, the two men-at-arms could almost be real, and I understand that, in the summer, there will be a ‘real’ man-at-arms to help the children try on pieces of armour, etc. The exhibition is aimed at all ages and for all levels of knowledge and amazingly, it works. There is no ‘dumbing down’ but at the same time, it’s accessible to the younger visitor, and it has already been thoroughly ‘road-tested’. In December, a time when the centre used to be closed, they had 1500 visitors, many of them schoolchildren. Talking afterwards with Jo Preston, the business manager, we learnt that many of the local schools are now coming to Bosworth for their outings rather than going to the seaside or a stately home. The schools’ resource boxes may have something to do with that, too – before their visit, they are loaned a couple of chests filled with artifacts related to the period – leather bottles, cups, clothes, weapons, armour – which the children can get to use and wear. Then, when they come to the Centre and are taken around the battlefield, they are shown how the items fit into context. Do visit it if you can, and especially in August when we commemorate the fallen of Bosworth. I hope you all like the new look to the front cover of the Bulletin. This is part of a branding exercise (marketing speak imposed on me by those members of the EC experienced in these matters) to ensure we have a consistent image through our magazine, our website and our new Socie- ty brochure which is being produced to coincide with the Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2008 exhibition. We are grateful to the Society of Antiquaries of London for their permission to use their portrait so extensively. Some of you will know that Beth and I had a very nasty experience on the way back from the Norfolk Branch’s study day last November, when we were involved in a car accident that could easily have been a lot worse than it was. Our thanks go to you all for your kind wishes. Indeed, we are both very grateful to still be here and able to play our part in what looks like being another exciting Ricardian year. 3 Phil Stone

Society News and Notices

New Members on the Executive Committee As chairman Phil Stone has already reported, the Executive Committee are delighted to welcome two new members to the team. Under the Society’s constitution the EC can co-opt members to serve on the Committee but of course they will stand for election by members to the EC at the AGM held on October.

David Wells David has recently retired after a long management career in local government. He and his wife, Sue, have set up a small consultancy providing advice to the public sector so ‘retirement’ is only partial. His interest in history started later in life and he admits to having had an early interest in the Tudors but has long since accepted the error of his ways. His awareness of matters Riciardian started in the 1980s when he met Sue and was ‘recommended’ to read The Daughter of Time. Refusal was not an option! Membership of the Society followed swiftly. His other hobbies include sport, music, the theatre and Lon- don’s road transport. Like Sue, he is looking forward to making a contribution to the Society via the Executive Committee.

Sue Wells Sue has spent most of her working life in local government, before retiring last year. They have now started their consultancy business with a view to maintaining part time employment whilst having time and flexibility to further their hobbies and interests. The invitation to join the Executive Committee of the Richard III Society was, therefore, very timely. Sue has had a life-long interest in history fostered by an excellent teacher during her ‘O’ and ‘A’ level studies. Like so many Ricardians, she came to Richard III via The Daughter of Time, moving from that to the Paul Murray Kendal biography. She joined the Society in 1982, just in time for the quincentennial celebrations. She does not pretend to the levels of academia and research that so many members have but thoroughly enjoys the information given in The Ricardian and the Bulle- tin as well as the day and longer visits. She and David are delighted to be a part of the Executive Committee of this organisation, which she describes as wonderful, and looks forward immensely to helping to take it forward in the future.

Society Bursary I am delighted to advise members that following the announcement of the new Society Bursary (winter Bulletin, page 13) two members have registered their interest and requested application forms. As a reminder to other members the closing date for applications for 2008 is 31 July. Wendy Moorhen, Research Officer

Distribution of the Society’s Publications The Bulletin team endeavour to ensure that members receive their publications in the first full week of the relevant month, i.e. March (spring issue), June (summer issue), September (autumn issue) and December (winter issue). However, as the Bulletin becomes more and more topical extensions are sometimes needed to make sure that we provide the most up-to-date information that is possible and this sometimes occasions delays. The team imposes upon itself a date for delivering final copy to the printers which it usually meets but occasionally this may slip by up to 48 hours. The printing of the Bulletin is undertaken by St Edmundsbury Press who have proved to be very reliable over the years but aspects of the production are outsourced, such as the over- printing of the inside pages of the cover, the production and insertion of coloured booking forms and the finishing of the magazine. The completed Bulletin is then couriered to our shipping agents in Kent (for delivery to Australasia, Canada and the US branch), and to our mailing house in Ipswich (for delivery to the UK and rest of the world). Any delay means that we could lose our ‘slot’ with the mailing house as they schedule their work at least a week or so in advance. The upshot of this rather convoluted explanation of the procedure is that we ask members to expect their Bulletin no later than mid-month and if received earlier then to regard it as a bonus. As in previous years, The Ricardian will be mailed separately from the Bulletin in the UK, and will be delivered in June. See below. Bulletin Editorial Team

Survey of New Members On reviewing our membership statistics for the recent subscription year (2 October 2006 – 1 Oc- tober 2007) it has once again been confirmed to us that members are most likely to leave the So- ciety within the first two years of their joining. Naturally this is a concern for the Executive Com- mittee and it was agreed that we should send out a simple survey to elicit the views of the Society from the new members’ perspectives. The EC has undertaken to consider all suggestions and we will, of course, report back to the new members, through the Bulletin. So, if you haven’t completed your survey (sent to all members who joined between January 2006 and September 2007) please do so. However, if any member have got any views on the Society they are always welcome to let the Executive Committee know and can write direct to the chairman or an appropriate committee member. Executive Committee

Executive Committee – The Low Down This quarter the EC have been concerned with a number of areas. The AGM, research projects and most especially PR have taken up much time at meetings and between. The 2007 AGM was a great success but already preparations are being made for the 2008 AGM and thoughts are running towards the 2009 AGM too. Being in York, the EC thought it would be good to make a weekend of it again, with a trip out on the Sunday as a pleasant addition to the proceedings. This, therefore, involves liaising with more than one venue plus other associated businesses to ensure a smooth event, so my phone and PC are already red hot with enquiries and arrangements. We are hoping to make the trip to Middleham to show support for Richard’s castle and home as the Yorkshire Branch have reported a deterioration in interest from the locals in the historical relevance of the site, race horse breeding being favoured. 2009 is prov- ing a problem venue-wise as the EC plan to hold the AGM back in London and reasonably- priced venues there are hard to find. If members can recommend anywhere large enough at a reasonable cost, I would be very pleased to hear from you. Richard Van Allen is still working overtime on the Society’s PR. The Society seems definitely to be on the historical and media ‘map’ now as we are being approached regularly by other 5

interested parties wanting the Society’s input into their events and publications. Links with the Bosworth Battle Site management team are still as strong as ever with work ongoing into the Society’s portal to be housed in the excellent new exhibition centre. With everything else going on, it is unlikely that the portal will be in situ by the official opening in February but the EC are working hard to ensure it is on display by the time the better weather arrives and brings all the visitors with it. We are also looking forward to having our stand at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2008 exhibition in May and we have submitted a proposal to the Society of Genealo- gists to present a workshop at the exhibition, decision pending. Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2008 also provides a superb opportunity to showcase the Wills Index which is ready now to go into production. Logge too should be ready later in 2008 (see Lesley Boatwright’s update on p. 23) and the EC are working on a flyer to promote both publications. It will be gratifying to see the invaluable work carried out by so many members come to fruition and to get published at last. One area of concern which continues to worry the EC is Society membership and the decline in numbers. We have worked hard to improve and upgrade services to members and we hope that you are all happy with what you receive from your membership but we are finding, along with other societies, that membership continues to fall. It is by no means certain, despite all the PR, that we can recruit new members, especially younger ones (although the EC would want me to stress that members of all ages are valued equally). A recent EC meeting was therefore dedicated to a ‘brain-dump’ of ideas as to how to combat this trend. Again, all ideas from you, the members, are very much sought after plus any comments on any changes, improvements, additions you would like to see. After all it is your Society! As you will have seen in the last Bulletin, the Society has been approached to work with a company producing first day covers dealing with the Lancastrian and Yorkist kings. Since then, we have been approached by another organisation who wishes to concentrate on the Society in conjunction with their FDC so we will now be identified on three covers. These FDC will also contain our brochure so this presents a fantastic promotional opportunity for the Society. As Phil has already reported we are producing a new brochure. This is partly because by supplying the FDC organisations we have almost exhausted our existing supply of brochures but we now have an opportunity to present a new image of the Society as well as updating our details. The new brochure will also be crucial in our campaign to attract new members. With its new colour scheme, the brochure promises to look vibrant and should catch the eye. Finally a plea from the heart of all committee members – we need your help. As I am sure you know, we are all volunteers – and happy ones too – but with everything going on now (and, believe me, the Society is ‘on a roll’ with much going on and being planned) many of us are getting a tad overwhelmed with what has to be undertaken in the next few months – and going forward into 2009. It would be an enormous help if we could count on more members to help share the burden. We are not necessarily looking for long-term commitment, just help with the odd task would be so welcome. Obviously, if you wish to get more involved, like Sue and Dave Wells have done, that would be wonderful but we are really looking for people to share the load in whatever capacity they feel comfortable with. If you feel that you have some time to spare and could help out in any way at all, please do let me know. Many thanks from a grateful committee! Jane Trump

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2008 Olympia, London, 2 – 4 May 2008 The first Who Do You Think You Are? was a roaring success last year and this year’s event looks to be even bigger and better. In fact its three exhibitions in one, The National History Show, Discover Archaeology and Military History. 6

It takes place in the Grand Hall at Olympia from Friday 2 May to Sunday 4 May 2008, and visitors will have the chance to meet celebrities who have appeared on the television show such as Alistair McGow- an and Nicky Campbell. There will also be well known TV historians such as Time Team’s Tony Robinson. Over the weekend, attendees will have a chance to receive one-to-one guidance from genealogy ex- perts as well as browse the nu- merous family history societies and workshops that will be available. As well as old fa- vourites such as the Society of Genealogists, there will also be a brand new section of the show focusing on military history. The Richard III Society has taken a stand there this year. Although not strictly a genea- logical society, we are nevertheless a thriving history society and this will be an ideal opportunity to raise the profile of the Society in a new and highly popular field in the anticipation of recruit- ing new members. It is also the perfect venue to showcase the Testator Index CD, a worthy tool for many genealogists and historians alike. Along with this we will also be showcasing the forthcoming edition of the wills in the Logge Register, but the main aim of the exercise is to promote the Society to a wider audience of historically-minded people and encourage them to sign up. For further information on this event, please go to their website www.whodoyouthinkyouare. co.uk. Those manning the stand will of course be delighted to say hallo to any member who is attending the event, but apologies in advance if it is a quick ‘hallo’ and not a long chat, as we will need to concentrate on potential new members and encouraging the people walking past to come up and get to know us. Jane Trump

Articles and Arrangements for The Ricardian Volume XVIII of The Ricardian will once again be distributed in June this year. It will be sent out separately from the summer Bulletin. There are currently nine articles, with no fewer than four devoted to King Richard:  The mysterious affair at Crowland Abbey – Alison Hanham  Tres Sunt Ricardi and the Crowland Chronicle – Julian Luxford  The Epitaph of King Richard III – John Ashdown-Hill  A Welsh poem of 1485 on Richard III – Andrew Breeze  Cathedral deans of the Yorkist age – A. Compton Reeves  Taking a long-term view: a note on Richard III and Dublin – Howard B. Clarke 7

 Richard III as a fop: a foolish myth – Anne F. Sutton  The More revisited – Heather Falvey  The opening of the tombs of the dukes of Richmond and Norfolk, Framlingham, April 1841 – John Ashdown-Hill

There will be twenty-nine book reviews, including David Baldwin’s two recent publications about Stoke Field and Richard of Eastwell, Anne Crawford’s The Yorkists, Sean Cunningham’s Henry VII and Pen & Sword’s publication on the Battles of St Albans. As usual there will be a list of the latest books and articles published recently and the volume will be indexed. Anne F. Sutton

2008 Society Members’ Weekend and AGM: 3 – 5 October 2008

The Merchant Adventurers’ Hall

This year the Executive Committee is delighted to announce that the Members’ gathering and AGM will be in York and will be extended to a weekend. The weekend will begin with a early drinks reception in Barley Hall in the evening of Friday 3 October, after which members can make their own dining arrangements. On the Saturday we will be holding the formal meeting at The Merchant Adventurers’ Hall in Fossgate. As in 2006, we will be holding a formal banquet at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall. To round the weekend off nicely, there will be a coach trip to Middleham with time to have lunch and mooch around Leyburn before returning to York in time for those catching trains to do so. However, in order to arrange the logistics, I need to know numbers for booking the catering, coach, etc. Therefore I give below as much detail as I can regarding each separate ‘event’ and would be very grateful if you could send me a deposit of £10 per event to guarantee your place and notify me in advance as to how many people to cater for. The booking form is in the centre of the Bulletin for you to fill in and return to me with a cheque made payable to ‘The Richard III Society’ for the appropriate amount. By the time you receive your summer Bulletin, I will have final figures and will be able to ask for the outstanding amounts from those attending. Again there will be a form to return in the summer Bulletin.

Friday 3 October: Drinks Reception at Barley Hall, Coffey Yard, off Stonegate Wine and soft drinks with nibbles. Anticipated cost: no more than £5.60 per head. (The viability of this reception will depend upon the number of people who wish to attend. Should we not have a large enough take-up, the reception will be cancelled.)

Saturday 4 October: AGM and Members’ Day at The Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, Fossgate Buffet lunch: Selection of eight items, including sandwiches, savoury wraps and snacks, fruit and desserts. Vegetarian choices are included. Anticipated cost: no more than £12.00 per head – drinks will be sold separately on the day. (Tea/coffee during the Members’ Day will be purchased on the day.) Evening Banquet: Three-course dinner with lamb shanks for the main course (plus vegetarian option) with Bucks Fizz on arrival before the banquet. Wine, water and soft drinks included. Anticipated cost: no more than £36.00 per head.

Sunday 5 October: Coach Trip to Middleham Coach to Middleham to visit the castle. Drive on to Leyburn for free time to have lunch and explore the town. Return to York for around 4 pm with drop-off at York Station for those travelling home by train. Anticipated cost (based on a 49-seater but with 35 people taking up the option): around £8 per head. Obviously the more people who take up the option, the cheaper the cost will be. (Entrance to Middleham Castle and lunch are not included and will be paid for individually on the day.) I do hope as many members as possible will be able to attend the weekend. Further details of the weekend will be included in the summer Bulletin but in the meantime if you could send me back your booking forms and deposits that would be very helpful to me for planning purposes. Thank you. Jane Trump

Jim Hughes Remembered

John Saunders writes that the Society has lost one of its stalwart members in Jim Hughes, who was a member of the Executive Committee and served as membership officer for nine years. He was also a long-standing member of the London Branch. Jim became membership secretary late in 1983, at the height of the Quincentenary membership boom. Much of the work then was still manually based, labour intensive and without the benefits of the information technology that we take for granted nowadays. He initially carried out the role with the help of his wife Enid until the pressures of a growing membership necessitated the bulk of the work being outsourced. Jim then took on the role of membership liaison officer and, until his retirement in 1992, oversaw the work of the two companies that managed the Society’s membership services. Jim’s services did not go unrecognised at that year’s AGM. The minutes record: ‘Robert Hamblin [then Chairman] reminded the meeting Enid and Jim with Shirley Watson (right) that Jim had become Membership Secretary at the Quincentenary Coronation Dinner at jointly with Enid, his wife, in 1983, when he the Guildhall was faced with a formidable amount of work, generated by the Quincentenary. In 1985 he had undertaken the arrangements with Ravensbourne to carry out the mechanics of subscription han- dling, and had overseen the transfer of this from Ravensbourne to RIMMS Ltd. Jim had continued to handle membership correspondence with members, and with the American Branch. Many comments of appreciation of his work had been received in letters to Robert and Elizabeth [Nokes]. The Society had made a collection, and hoped that with the resultant cheque Jim would purchase something that he would like … he also presented Enid with a basket of flowers.’ Jim was a talented woodworker and unsurprisingly spent the money on woodworking tools. He created a carving of the Society’s arms which was on display at the 1994 AGM, and thereaf- ter adorned the Barton Library. Enid was talented too, in her case as a needle worker, skills she put to good use for the Society’s Fotheringhay Hassock project. She also designed and made Ri- cardian collages, for which Jim provided the frames. Enid died in December 1994 and her Bulletin obituary noted that she ‘was a gentlewoman in the full sense of the word, kind considerate and hospitable’. Throughout his many years of service Jim carried out his duties in an efficient, quiet and dignified manner; the Society has lost a dedicated member, a gentleman in the full sense of the word, whom it was always a pleasure to work with.

Left: Boar carving. Photograph courtesy of Richard Hughes 10

Richard Hughes, Jim’s son, contributes the following: For many years the Richard III Society was an important part of my father Jim’s life, and others in the Society are far better able than I to outline his contribution to it. But members may not know much of the rest of the life of this man whose loss his family is now feeling so keenly. Jim trained as a mechanical engineer and after what he described as his ‘cushy war’ in India with the Royal Engineers spent most of his working life with J. Lyons (of teashops and London Corner Houses fame) as a senior maintenance engineer. He was no mean mechanic, and a great lover of machines as diverse as clocks and motor cars. He was also a craftsman: after retirement he took up wood-carving with enthusiasm, and some of his favourite works were carved with the Society in mind: among others I recall a medieval cradle, a coat of arms and the boar pictured here. But despite a very full life, in the last analysis there was nothing Jim enjoyed more than simple pottering, watching the world go by. He would often quote with relish the apocryphal story of the countryman sitting by his door who, asked by a townsman what he was doing, answered slowly ‘Sometimes I sits and thinks. Sometimes, I just sits.’ He very much saw himself as that simple countryman: quietly independent and a burden to no-one. After a bright and cheerful Christmas spent with the family, he left us as he always wanted to live: simply and calmly, independent to the last. He leaves two sons, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Two further examples of Jim’s skill as a woodcarver Left: The Yorkist Falcon and Fetterlock badge. Right: Scale model of the 15th century cradle (formerly attributed to Henry V) in the Museum of London Photographs courtesy of Geoff Wheeler

Media Retrospective

From Lucille Dove Examination of the tree rings from the wood Higher, the magazine of Royal Holloway panels shows that the wood of both panels University, Egham (winter 2007). Article [came] from the same tree, felled after 1510 ‘The Princes in the Tower by Sir John Everett and probably came from the East Baltic re- Millais, PRA’ by Steve Pickles. gion.’ ‘This famous picture by Millais (1829-96) envisages the setting for the infamous if hy- From Lesley Boatwright pothetical murder of the princes in the tower The Hands of History, by Simon Hoggart as they anxiously await the approach of their (Atlantic Books, 2007, a compilation of Par- assassins hinted at by the ominous light in the liamentary sketches which appeared in The top left of the picture ... In presenting the Guardian 1997-2007), Introduction, p.13. princes against a staircase, Millais alludes to ‘It is always tempting at this stage to say that the discovery of the skeletons of two uniden- historians will be the judges. The famous tified children in 1674 under a staircase in the hand of history Blair felt on his shoulder after Tower, making the murder and burial sequen- the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement tial. ... The theme of innocent children await- will either pat him on the back or slap him in ing an uncertain fate was popular amongst the face. But history can’t make up its mind 19th-century painters and this picture was a about, say, Richard III, after half a millenni- huge success in reproduction ...’ um. We can’t imagine it will reach an agreed The article considers the development of verdict on Tony Blair any time soon.’ Millais’ style, and concludes with a story of how the one of the models for the princes, From Bill Featherstone: ‘the sons of a Mrs Davis’, had visited Royal Country Walking (November 2007): ‘Off the Holloway College in the 1960s and recalled beaten tracks’ how he had sat for Millais over 80 years earli- ‘I feel like the hapless traveller approaching er. Castle Frankenstein as I cower at the gates of Fotheringhay [the author never explains what From Anne Painter gates]. A storm is coming. Towers of silver- Current Archaeology no. 213, December black cumulus form above my head, lowering 2007. Article ‘Making History’ in the column upon this tiny village with looming menace ‘The Last Word’ by Andrew Selkirk, Editor- … If this were a horror movie, deranged in-chief. cackling would be ringing from some back-lit This article is about the tercentenary of the upstairs window. The fact that there’s no cas- Society of Antiquaries, and their recent exhi- tle left is the only thing stopping it ... bition ‘Making History’ at the Royal Acade- ‘You can bet your last groat the weather my. Selkirk writes, ‘Probably the pride of was like this on 2 October 1452, as the place in the collection should go to the out- screaming of a newborn baby rang out over standing series of portraits of late medieval the fields. The baby’s name was Richard, kings that was donated to [the Society of An- known to history as Richard III. Schoolchil- tiquaries] in 1829 by the Reverend Thomas dren [not any I have met] of course, like to Kerrich, the librarian of Cambridge Universi- call him “Dick the Bad”. ty, especially the superb portraits of Richard ‘Shakespeare’s “hunch-backed toad”. III without any deformity [and] his brother Slayer of the princes in the tower. Architect Edward IV ...’ In a display panel showing the of one of the bloodiest epochs in English his- portraits the fact that Richard does not appear tory [Wow!]. Insert loud thunderclap here deformed is repeated – ‘suggesting that his Before the Richard III Society chokes on limp was probably later Tudor propaganda. its collective flagon of ale, let me point out 12

that Richard’s villainy is hotly debated. It’s of the Tower, relating the well-known tale arguable he was an honourable man, a hero about Brackenbury giving up the keys of the even, who was unjustly recast as a monster by Tower for a day to Tyrrell, and the subse- those who deposed him.’ quent liquidation of Princes Edward and The article then turns its lucid prose to Richard. But the concluding sentence intro- Mary, Queen of Scots, who suffers a similar duces a new twist on the episode, one that I mangling of fact and form. The article is there have never encountered before. Apparently, to describe a walk which uses the village as a and I quote, ‘some historians doubt that the focus and, indeed, it would make a very Princes even existed’. pleasant summer afternoon’s stroll. It does, however, have a little more about Richard in From Geoffrey Wheeler an information box (with un-hunched Victori- The Independent (27 November, 2007), obitu- an portrait) headed ‘Dick the Bad?’. The text ary of Reay Tannahill, ‘Accidental pioneer of is as follows: food history and best-selling novelist’. ‘Fotheringhay Castle began life as a Nor- ‘... In The Seventh Son (2001), she tried to be man motte castle, built by Simon de St Liz, fairer to Richard III than Shakespeare had Earl of Northampton, around 1100. By 1452, been: “I looked at all the evidence, then tried it was the seat of Richard, Duke of York, to position him, not as your classic evil char- when his wife, Cecily Nevill, gave birth to a acter – there are few truly evil people in the boy who would become Richard III 31 years world or in history – but as a fairly tough later. cookie with a desire to elevate himself.” Last The young Richard soon moved away year she published Having the Builders In, a from Fotheringhay, spending much of his medieval tale of a formidable widow, Dame childhood at Middleham Castle in Wensley- Constance de Clair, making the arrangements dale. After his defeat at Bosworth Field, Rich- for an extension to her castle. Having the ard was widely painted as a crook-backed Decorators In, published only the day before monster, nowhere more effectively than in Tannahill’s death, is a continuation of Dame William Shakespeare’s play. However, the Constance’s refurbishment travails.’ motives of his critics are somewhat question- Geoff adds: her 2003 talk, ‘Approaches to able and the Richard III Society exists to de- Richard III’, detailing her somewhat uncon- fend his memory. ventional working methods when writing on The Society has placed a plaque in his historical characters, is available on audio honour next to the one remaining fragment of tape from the A/V library (address inside the castle walls.’ back cover). At least we get a mention and so does the plaque but one hopes it is easier to follow their walk instructions than it is to sort out the The advance publicity page on ‘British author’s style or historical knowledge (but Stamps: Great British Monarchs’ in Gibbons then what would one expect from a rambler?) Stamp Monthly (January 2008) illustrates the [Editor - no this isn’t a spoof, it has been set in colour together with a brief half-page copied faithfully from the article] summary of the Wars of the Roses. Unfortu- nately it seems that any revisionist history has From Mark Dobson been lost on the Editor as he concludes: An unidentified publication from the 1930s. ‘Edward, along with his younger brother, was In a rather good pub called the Punchbowl in imprisoned in the Tower of London by his Sefton, Liverpool, there is a series of pictures guardian and uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, on the wall entitled ‘Episodes from History’, who was invited to take the throne as Richard perhaps from a publication from around 1930. III. The two young princes were secretly mur- One of these concerns the story of the Princes dered.’

News and Reviews

Richard III: The Monday Poem Geoff Wheeler, that indefatigable searcher-out of Ricardian allusions in the media, has found that in August last year The Times printed as its Monday poem the first 31 lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III, ending with Richard’s determination to embrace villainy because his appearance is too repulsive to permit more sportive embracings. Frieda Hughes, in her accompanying discussion of these lines, remarks, ‘Historically, Richard seems to have been far more benevolent, but in the same way that few modern filmmakers would allow truth to divert their imagination, so it is with 16th-century playwrights. Nor, apparently, was Richard a hunchback as often depicted.’ She is struck by the way Shakespeare shows us a man who ‘wishes to be as deformed in mind and spirit as he believes himself to be in body’, commenting that ‘in life, it doesn’t matter what our afflictions might be ... what matters is how we handle them’. Richard in Shakespeare’s play makes his choice, ‘to become a conniving schemer’: ‘the negative aspects of Richard’s character are believable because they are drawn from the human library of emotions to which we can all relate’. I’m not sure about that. Shakespeare’s Richard on his way up to power is pathologically jeal- ous, totally cynical, superlatively amoral and wondrously self-seeking. The sub-editor’s contribution to the article says ‘Here’s a villain wallowing in his malevolence and deformity. How we shudder at his spleen.’ If these aspects are drawn from the human library of emotions, they should be kept on the top shelf beside other extreme ‘adult’ publications. Frieda Hughes says finally, ‘But if Shakespeare had not imagined Richard to be deformed and cruel, and believed instead that he was actually a reasonable man and a responsible ruler for his all-too-short reign, there would have been no play to entertain us’. Art has a lot to answer for. Lesley Boatwright

Ludlow Festival 2008 After an interval of 26 years, the Ludlow Festival this year has a production of Richard III by that well-known playwright and historian William Shakespeare. Festival plays are staged in the castle in the open air, and anyone who has seen a production there will know how exciting they can be. This one runs from Saturday 21 June until Saturday 5 July. Tickets can be obtained through the festival website, www.ludlowfestival.co.uk, or by post. Write to: Ludlow Festival Box Office, Castle Square, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 1AY. On Thursday, 3rd July, at 7.30 pm in the Feathers Hotel, there will be a talk giving the facts about the real Richard III and about the Society founded in his name. Unfortunately, the talk isn’t mentioned on the Festival website, it having been arranged too late for that, but it will be in the Festival brochure. The talk is called ‘Richard III – a bloody tyrant?’ and the speaker will be the Society’s chairman, Phil Stone.

The French Picture One of the pluses of being listed on the Society’s website as a prime point of contact is the fascinating range of queries that I receive. The French Picture is a case in point. I was contacted by a young French lady living in Brighton to say that her parents had a picture which might be of Richard III. She said that the picture, which had been in the family for some time, was entitled ‘Les enfants d’Edward’, She also said that she had done some research 14

and had come to the conclusion that the picture depicted Elizabeth Woodville with the princes, Richard and Edward, and Richard of Gloucester. Elizabeth looks as if she had just heard some bad news, possibly the death of her husband Edward. Having come across our website, she had contacted us to see if we could identify the picture, and provided some photographs. Unfortunately the quality was too poor to reproduce them in the Bulletin. The first step was to refer the matter to our resident expert, Geoff Wheeler. The picture in question was apparently not signed, but Geoff was quickly able to provide some interesting background information and an engraving of the picture (illustrated), and advise it was by was by W. Ridgeway after a painting by N. Gosse of Paris, titled ‘The sons of Edward VI parted from their mother by Richard, Duke of Gloucester June 16th 1483’. (Nichlos Louis Francoise Gosse was born in Paris in 1787 and died in Voges in 1876). An interesting point that Geoff raised was that the title the lady had quoted was actually the title of Paul Declar’s more famous paintings which are displayed in the Louvre, in Paris and in the Wallace Collection in London. Richard Van Allen

The Society’s ‘Jousting’ Artist Graham Turner will be holding an exhibition of paintings and prints alongside his father, Michael Turner, at Halton House, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire, from Friday 4 April to Sunday 6 April 2008. The exhibition will include a large selection of original paintings, including the medieval, military, aviation and motor-sport subjects for which Graham and Michael are well known, together with Studio 88’s full range of their prints and cards. Both artists will be present throughout to discuss their work and sign prints. Included in the exhibition will be some new works by Graham inspired by his jousting experi- ences, in particular the incredible tournament in which he took part at the Tower of London last year, an account of which we hope to publish in the next issue of the Bulletin. In 2007 Graham’s 15

work reached a new, and much wider, audience, with the release of the Royal Mail’s set of stamps depicting British Army Uniforms, a commission of which Graham is very proud. Admission is free and the exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Further information from Studio 88 Ltd., P.O. Box 568, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP17 8ZX. Telephone 01296 338504. www.studio88.co.uk The whole exhibition will also be on the website. The ‘virtual’ Loyal Subjects - Edward, Earl of March, kneels before exhibition will open on Friday 4 Henry VI and proclaims his loyalty, having defeated the Royal army April, to coincide with the real at Northampton on 10 July 1460. The Earl of Warwick and Yorkist troops look on, while one of the guns that failed to fire in the rain exhibition, and, although there is stands impotently in the foreground. no substitute for seeing the original paintings in the flesh, it will allow those who can’t make it along to Halton House the opportunity to see what is on show. Please visit the web address above for more information.

Royal Mail First Day Covers: The Houses of Lancaster and York Members may have read the item in the winter edition of the Bulletin, ‘Richard gets the stamp of approval’, concerning the issue by the Royal Mail of a set of stamps featuring the monarchs of the Houses of Lancaster and York and the fact that Buckingham Covers, a specialist producer of first day covers, are producing two covers, one featuring just Richard and the other the full six portraits. These covers are being produced with the co-operation of the Society. Now there is another first day cover to be produced by a specialist company featuring the six Lancastrian and Yorkist monarchs (see below), also with the co-operation of the Society. This time the producer is Philomena Sheridan, PO Box 99, Widnes, Cheshire WA8 0NN, Tel : 0151 257 8874. The cost will be £12.90 plus £1.00 post and packaging.

The Buckingham Covers’ first day cover depicting all six monarchs. For the Richard III only cover see p. 33

And of course, the Royal Mail issue their own first day covers, see website www.royalmail. com or visit your local post office. Price £4.17. Images of all of these covers can be viewed on the Society website at www.richardiii.net Richard Van Allen

History Matters Following on from the first day cover item above we have all been banging on about the fact that history matters and in fact there was even a nationwide campaign run during 2005-6 to this ef- fect. However, it seems that the matter has still not registered in some quarters. Who might I be talking about? None other than the Royal Mail. They have just produced their stamp guide for 2008; this is their guide to forthcoming stamp issues for the year. The major issue of interest to the Society is of course the set of six stamps issued in February under the title of ‘The Houses of Lancaster and York’. As with many major organisations this stamp guide was probably outsourced to a production agency. However, the problem is that a couple of glaring errors have occurred, thankfully in the write up and not the stamps. The first is a helpful little notation stating. ‘The first of the stamps features Henry Boling- broke who in 1399 seized power from his cousin King Richard II, the last of the Plantagenet Kings.’ The second is a helpful little snippet of information under the heading ‘Did you know? – Henry VI’s forces fought under the banner of the red dragon, while the Yorkist army used the symbol of a white boar’ – obviously they didn’t know! Yes, these might have just been typo’s. However, they should have been checked, I just wonder just how many other facts in the guide are so carelessly put together? Many thanks to Marga- ret Stiles for bringing this to our attention, and yes, I have in turn brought it to the Royal Mail’s attention. Sadly the Royal Mail errors are not limited just to the stamp guide. See Geoff Wheeler’s letter on p. 47 of this Bulletin. Richard Van Allen

Shakespeare’s Richard III: A new film production

Ambition. Greed. Lust. Betrayal. Murder. Welcome to Hollywood Shakespeare’s Richard III

Whilst we patiently wait, or not so patiently wait, for a film or television drama to give us a fair representation of Richard III, another film of the Shakespearean play has been made in the Unit- ed States by Basilisk Films. This production is the brain child of a professional vet, Scott Ander- son, who has ‘written’, produced, and directed the film, as well as taking the lead role of King Richard. The film is set in modern-day Los Angeles, but an LA where guns are banned and the ‘rich and powerful settle their disputes in the duelling arena’. The rival families of York and Lancaster are vying for supremacy of the ‘former England studios’. This of course, is not the first time a Shakespearean play has made the trip across the pond for a novel location. A youthful Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes played the star-crossed lovers in Baz Lehrmann’s 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet set in a city ‘that looks like a cross between Miami Beach, Rio and Mexico city’. The film’s executive producer is Hollywood veteran, David Carradine, who made a name for himself in the 1970s in the TV series Kung-Fu and who also takes the role of Buckingham. De- spite the low budget, the project attracted a number of professional artists though I have to confess I had never heard of them – though the ‘Mayor of LA’ Danny Trejo looked familiar. This is a low budget movie, with principal photography taking just three weeks back in 2005 but post-production being delayed until 2006. Now it is completed. Mr Anderson is currently applying for screenings at film festivals. The film has already won two platinum awards at the WorldFest – Houston International Film Festival in the category of ‘First Feature Film’ for Scott Anderson and for the ‘Film Score’ for Penka Kouneva. There are no details of any theatrical re- leases, either in the US or in the UK although the imdb website (www.imdb.com) list the film as having a 2008 release date. In the meantime the full story is on Basilisk’s website (www.basiliskfilms.com) complete with a trailer on the home page. Thanks to Beth Stone for alerting the Bulletin team about this production. Wendy Moorhen

Review Article: Middleham Castle: A Royal Residence

hen driving to Middleham the greatest pleasure for me is the first glimpse of the castle in W the far distance. Perhaps this is because it does not appear to be a ruin and for a moment you can contemplate it as it may have appeared to Richard as he returned to his beloved home. I now have to confess, however, that Middleham castle is not my favourite medieval building because, once within its precincts, I can never summon up the imagination to visualise it before its ruin and decay. That could all now be in the past thanks to a DVD by John Fox who provides a guided tour of the castle and uses the technology of computer generated images to present exciting and colourful reconstructions. The tour is comprehensive and takes a logical approach beginning with the early history of the site when in 1069 Alan the Red built a motte and bailey castle on Williams Hill. Later the site was moved to its present location by Robert FitzRanulph, and subsequent owners, particularly members of the Neville family, developed the structure to meet their needs until it became the formidable fortress and comfortable family home that Richard of Gloucester acquired. We enter through the main gatehouse situated in the north-east tower and John takes us through the intricacies of this crucial part of the fortifications. Surrounded by a ditch (there is no evidence of a drawbridge, although the original eastern gatehouse may have had one) there are foundations which suggest that a guard tower once stood the other side of the ditch. Once across the ditch the entrance would have been barred with solid wooden doors which when opened would lead into the passageway. At the end of this the portcullis would have de- scended to protect the entrance to the bailey, the area between the curtain wall and the keep. Access to the room which handled the windlass, the gear for raising and lowering the portcullis, was from the bailey, not the passageway, therefore enhancing the security of the entrance. John then explores the bailey, dismissing the statue of King Richard by Lynda Thompson as an ’insult to a good man’ and Aerial view of the castle. begins his tour of the keep. There The tour begins in the north east tower, top right hand corner 19

is no entrance to this building at ground level, again a security measure, and the external wooden stairs we see today replaced the earlier stone stairway, which was protected by an enclosing wall on the eastern side and had gateways at both the ground and first floor level. The staircase was open to the elements, which meant that invaders would have been vulnerable from the battle- ments above as they fought to gain entrance. At the top of the stairway there is an ante room and on the eastern side the entrance to the chapel, which extended to the curtain wall. A turn to the right take us into the keep itself. It has walls 10 feet thick and internal dimensions of approximately 80 feet long and 50 feet wide with a spine wall running through the centre from north to south. It was constructed of rubble core covered with ashlar. On the eastern side of the keep is the great hall with the cellar below, and the western side houses the great chamber with the kitchen below. The hall was partitioned at the south end by a wooden wall with two archways on the extreme left and right hand side leading to the hall proper. Here the food would have been brought up from the kitchen, organised and then taken through to the lord, guests and household. The reconstructions, which now really come into their own, show the hall with whitewashed walls, floor tiles, tapestries, furniture and an open hearth, complete with a warming fire. Our guide then moves to the south-east tower of the keep, the highest building in the complex and takes in the breathtaking views of the Wensleydale countryside and the remains of the eastern gatehouse, sited next to the chapel. The entrance, originally flanked by towers, led to a second bailey which had a stable, smithy and other buildings. From this high standpoint he briefly looks at the south range, vulnerable from attack from the site of the original castle – Williams Hill – where any force could easily hide before mounting an attack. The kingmaker’s grandfather, Ralph Neville, recognised the weakness and increased the height of the curtain wall, supported by enormous buttresses made up of stones stacked diagonally to spread the load.

The cellar on the ground floor of Middleham castle’s keep

John now descends the tower to the ground floor of the keep, which houses the cellar and kitchen, the only access being a spiral staircase. Due to the width of the cellar, there are five mas- sive pillars to support the floor above. Today only the bases can be seen but the computer recon- structs the room as it would have been. There are no windows on the eastern side of the keep where the cellar is situated so it could have been a dark and gloomy room but the builders created three arches in the spine wall through to the adjacent kitchen and lined them up with the kitchen’s windows in the west wall to allow the light to flood through. The kitchen itself has two wells, and John speculates that this was one of the reasons why this site was chosen for the new castle by Robert FitzRanulph. In addition there are tanks in the floor, so that fish caught in the nearby rivers of Cover and Ure, or at Aysgarth falls, some ten miles away, could be carried back to the castle in water butts and stored in these ‘fishpools’. 20

Completing his

tour of the keep John now returns to the first floor and the great chamber, in fact two rooms, conveniently partitioned to provide a fireplace and latrine in each section. The larger north section would provide luxuri- ous living accommodation for the lord and his family and the deep alcove within the 10 feet thick walls accom- modating the west window could have had comfortable seat- ing for the ladies to Computer reconstruction of the great chamber indulge in embroidery and the gentlemen in a game of chess. The southern section would have been the lord’s bedchamber but over the centuries he and his family required greater privacy so a bridge was constructed from the south-west tower of the keep across to the south range where rooms were furnished for his use. In the middle of the south range was a garderobe tower with rooms either side. At this point John indulges in a little speculation, but based on the 1538 survey of Middleham. There were two upper rooms to the west of the central tower and the one nearest to the south-west tower was called the nursery, the tower itself was known as the prince’s tower, and was the home of Rich- ard’s son, Edward. Could Richard and Anne’s chamber have been the one between the nursery and the garderobe? The prince’s tower was four storeys high, with a spiral staircase in the north- west corner leading to the upper floors, and a passageway ran from the staircase into the cham- bers at each level. This is the only tower at Middleham to have a rounded section. John now moves to the west range, again with a central tower and this was the ‘public convenience’ for the castle’s staff. The ground floor rooms either side of the tower may have provided accommodation for the junior members of the staff but the four rooms on the upper level were probably allocated to honoured guests or the senior members of the household. John has estimated that the castle would house around two hundred people when the lord was in residence. They would be divided between several departments headed by the seneschal, the chamberlain, the chancellor, the marshal, the steward and the constable. The tour is completed as we return to the north range with a four-storey tower to the Computer reconstruction of the south-west north-west, a central tower with the usual tower called the Prince’s tower 21

‘facilities’ and complement of rooms on both ground and first floor levels. The eastern-most room on the upper level leads us back to the portcullis room in the north-east tower where we started. By the time you read this review spring will be upon us and the better weather will allow us to have days out visiting our much-loved historical sites. If you are planning a trip to Middleham I think you will find it all the more rewarding if you see this DVD beforehand. What at first glance might be just a jumble of masonry may be transformed into a nursery, and a hole in the floor into a medieval fish tank. John’s presentation is gentle and unhurried and allows his regard for Richard of Gloucester to shine through. The accompanying music is haunting and the graphics stunning, bringing the castle to life. The programme is very much a family affair with John’s children, Daniel, Joseph and Abigail undertaking the technical aspects of production. I was curious to know why the Fox family began the project and Abigail told me that on her second visit to Middleham castle, a fellow visitor commented that the castle must have smelt terrible. Another visitor responded with the startling statement that the people who lived in the castle probably did not mind the smell because they did not live that long anyway. She continues:

‘are we really to believe that the castle-builders were so primitive that they did not care about bad smells when, at the same time, they were so inventive with the re- sources and skills available to them that they built a castle that must have been sophisticated, even by today’s standards? Are we really to believe that the castle- builders were so depressed about their smelly lives that they filled their dismal days constructing something so magnificent? The visitor’s ignorance about Middleham castle surely mirrored her ignorance of human nature. People have not changed. Their fears, their problems, their needs were the same as ours. Some contend that we are less violent – just look at the defen- sive attributes on a castle! But we lock our doors and buy burglar alarms and even then we don’t always feel safe. It is no wonder that someone can be as misunderstood as Richard III when his times are so poorly understood. The production of this first DVD in the Richard III Collection is a marriage of my father’s infectious passion for history and his children’s training in the many aspects of film-production. We looked at a ruin and found a castle, just as we looked at a King and found a good man.’

The second castle to be featured in the Richard III Collection will be Sandal, near Wakefield. Wendy Moorhen

Logge-Jam

LESLEY BOATWRIGHT

he Logge Register is still not quite ready for publication. There are people who make their T living by indexing books. I take my hat off to them. When we began work on the Logge Register in the mid 1990s, we asked the individual volunteers to index the wills they transcribed, thinking that this would save work. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Logge has been one steep learning curve from start to finish, nearly as bad as getting to know and love a computer, and we know now never to have about fifty different people compiling the index to one publication. Peter Hammond had the mammoth task of putting together the 379 individual indexes into three long ones, for people, places and subjects, and he then sent me the subject index for finalis- ing and polishing. Not the least of our troubles was the fact that in the course of the indexing we had changed the numbering of the wills, as the photocopies revealed that what we had thought of as one will was in fact two, or two entries were the will and testament of the same person, with different headings. Naturally, each will had been indexed with its old number. In the amalgamated index wills 1 to 223 were correct, but will 226 had to become 224, and so on, until will 256, which had to come down three to 253, and so on – until will 307, which had to come down four to 303 ... Confused? So were we. Of course we had given the volunteers guidelines about what to index, but you can’t cover everything. Some people found the word ‘jointure’ in their will, and put it in their indexes. A jointure is property settled upon a wife for her support after her husband’s death. It became obvious that various testators had settled such property on their wives, but hadn’t used the word ‘jointure’ in their wills. So what should we do? Read each will carefully and add them to the list of ‘jointures’ even though they hadn’t described their arrangements as such,? Or limit ‘jointure’ to those testators who had used the word? In fact, far more men may well have arranged jointures for their wives than had said so in any form of words in their wills – some men don’t mention their wives at all in their wills, and some just mention them as residuary legatee and/or executrix, but this doesn’t mean they weren’t provided for – and it really seemed pointless to include the word ‘jointure’ in the index: all we would be doing is point to the using of the word itself rather than the system. The same applies to ‘churchwarden’. Some volunteers had indexed churchwardens, others hadn’t. All churches had churchwardens, so if a testator left money to a church, its altars or its lights, it would probably be the churchwardens who dealt with the administration, and noted it in their accounts. To go through and list all the wills which instruct the churchwardens to do the administration really doesn’t add anything to our knowledge. So ‘churchwarden’ came out. The Latin words crater and ciphus both mean ‘cup’ or ‘goblet’ or ‘bowl’. Individual volunteers who had come across these Latin words in the wills they transcribed had made their own choices about how to translate them, and it did not really matter as a translation, so we had not changed these words in editing. When I came to finalise the index, I realised that it did matter: if Volunteer A had translated ciphus as ‘cup’, and Volunteer B had put ‘goblet’, it made no sense at all to index one as ‘cup’ and the other as ‘goblet’, so I have had to go all through the wills looking for crater and ciphus, standardise the translation to ‘cup’ in every one, and re-do the index accordingly. Also, of course, I had to change the transcription of the actual willl to match. That was a week’s work. 23

Again, garments may be described in Latin wills as (for example) ‘penulata cum beaver fur’. Medieval Latin dictionaries give both ‘edged with’ and ‘lined with’ as the meaning of penulata, and the volunteers sometimes chose one meaning, and sometimes the other. Yet a garment edged with fur looks very different from a garment lined with fur. I read through the English wills and discovered that they were consistent in describing garments as trimmed or edged with fur, so standardised accordingly. Occasionally garments were ‘duplicata cum fur’, ‘doubled with fur’, so I have taken that to mean ‘lined’. Here again, not only the index but also the transcriptions of the actual wills had to be changed to match. Many testators left legacies to a fraternity or brotherhood (Latin fraternitas). We have put these together in the index, as they are exactly the same thing, and not gone through all the trans- lations to change fraternitas to ‘fraternity’ if the original transcriber used the word ‘brotherhood’. On the other hand, if the will talks of a guild (gilda), we have indexed it under ‘guild’, and not amalgamated it with ‘fraternity’. Some words and phrases not originally indexed because they were outside the guide-lines demanded investigation. William, Lord Hastings, had been promised burial in St George’s Chap- el, Windsor, by Edward IV, and Richard III honored this promise. In his will (drawn up on 26 June 1481) Hastings asked his executors to give £20 on the day of his burial to various people including ‘the pore knyghtes there present’. As far as I knew, ‘the poor knights of Windsor’ was a form of egg-soaked bread fried as a pudding, but it sounded as if Hastings had something more in mind than any poor knights who might have turned up for his funeral, so I checked. Thank heaven for Google! The military or poor knights of Windsor were an order founded by Edward III after the Battle of Crecy as a very early precursor of Chelsea Hospital, to house knights who had been captured by the French, held to ransom, and consequently had had to sell up their es- tates. I expect lots of you know that, but I didn’t. So that was worth a reference in the index. Several very interesting things emerged from the indexes. We had twelve wills which mentioned woad, and all but two were by testators living in Somerset or Bristol. I suppose the Somer- set Levels were a good place to grow it. As to lazar or leper houses, 14 London testators mentioned those in or round London (there was one in Knightsbridge – how things have changed), and six testators mention them elsewhere: four in Norfolk and two in Suffolk. Were there no leper houses elsewhere in the country, or were testators not interested? When I listed the specific charitable bequests, the pecking order was definitely mendicant friars first, then prisons (these are debtors’ prisons, and a fair number of prosperous tradesmen obviously felt that there but for the grace of God ...); hospitals came a very poor third. Because I had to do such a thorough-going revision of the material, I added some inquiries of my own. When I read a book such as Logge will be, I like to find material in the index to help me visualise the status and treatment of women, any perceivable attitudes to religion, and any clues about the economy. There is good evidence for women’s life in these wills, including a man (John Coket of Ampton in Suffolk) who said firmly, ‘I yeve and bequeth to my seid wiff over all such maner of money and other goodes and catalles which by her wisedome and labour hath ap- provid and gaderid to her owen use in her entent and by my sofraunce whereof I will in noo wise that no parcell betake from her by myn executours C mark ...’. Some testators use the wording which has sometimes been thought to indicate a tendency to Lollard beliefs, or at least proto- Protestantism (‘my putrid corpse’, and the request that there should be no ‘pomp or pride or vain- glory’ at the funeral). As to the economy, in Logge we have a number of references to how much things cost, an instance of marine insurance, and one piece of evidence for the employment of women on an industrial scale, when Thomas Spring of Lavenham, a cloth manufacturer, left a hundred marks to be shared among his spinners, fullers and weavers. The Latin word he uses for ‘spinners’ is filatrices, which is feminine. Male spinners would have been filatores. I very much hope that soon I will have broken the Logge-jam and the text passed over to the technical editor’.

Living History: The Order of the Boar Part 2

CALLUM FORBES

Concluding the article which commenced in the winter edition of the Bulletin

The Medieval Warhorse in Modern Times bit out-of-date for the time period covered by Horses are the key elements in the success (or our group, it is still a safe minimum armour failure) of a jousting group. In the Order of standard for jousting. the Boar everything is focused on the care The Order of the Boar specialises in the and welfare of our horses. We have adopted late fourteenth century, which saw the devel- the old cavalry adage – ‘the horse, the gear opment of a variety of different styles of ar- and then the man’ – as our group’s motto. mour made from combinations of mail, leath- Although several modern breeds of horse er, metal plates and textiles that were added to claim lineage from the original medieval war- or replaced the basic armour described horse, most of these breeds have been bred above. The wide choice of armour styles for other purposes in later centuries and are available in the mid to late fourteenth century often no longer suitable for their original pur- allows our jousters a considerable element of pose of jousting. We instead use solidly-built choice in what they decide to wear while at horses in the 15 to 16.2 hands range (150 cm the same time remaining historically accurate. to 170 cm). This agrees with archaeological Another great thing about this period is the and other historical evidence as to the actual flamboyant armour and clothing styles that size and look of the medieval warhorse. One were available. Because we depict knights at of the great myths of modern times is that a tournament this lends itself well for ostenta- medieval warhorses were the equivalents of tious display, as knights of the time were just today’s Shire and other draught breeds. as keen to show off their wealth as their However the right physical characteristics prowess in the lists. are not enough. All of our horses have been I wear a jousting harness based on the selected because of their boldness and their tomb effigy of the German knight Walter von reliable temperament. It takes a great deal of Hohenklingen who died at the battle of Sem- work to train a horse to joust, but more im- pach in 1386. This style of armour appears to portantly the horse also has to enjoy it. If a have been quite popular as it is often depicted horse is not comfortable with any activity in the manuscripts of the time. The advantage there is no way that the rider can humanely of this style of armour is that it is quite light enforce his or her will over it. (no more than 35 kilograms if all of its ele- Armour ments below are worn) although there is some The International Jousting Association has a trade-off with protection. Because of this it is worldwide minimum armour standard. For possible that this style of armour was used for jousters this consists of a padded aketon, a tournaments rather than for battle. The head steel mail hauberk, a coat-of plates, a pair of and upper shoulders are protected by a leather gauntlets, a mail coif with padded houndskull visored bascinet with a riveted liner and a full face metal helmet. This was maille aventail. The torso and limbs are pro- the basic armour used by knights in the late tected by a combination of a thick padded thirteenth century. Although this is getting a coat armour and an almost full covering of 25

Michelle Walker of Australia vs. Erik Ryan of Norway at the 2007 Harcourt Park Grail of Chivalry Tournament overlying items of metal plate armour. The some more late-fourteenth and early- historical evidence is unclear whether a mail fifteenth-century plate items including a late- hauberk or just a skirt of mail was worn under fourteenth-century Great Bascinet so the har- the coat-armour. In this reconstruction a rivet- ness can be put together in different configu- ed mail skirt is used because with the upper rations to allow a wider period of history to torso and arms being covered almost entirely be portrayed. in items of plate armour, additional mail pro- Most of the items of plate armour were tection is redundant. The upper legs are pro- made by New Zealand armourer Warren tected by splint metal cuisses riveted to a fab- Green, now retired, who also made much of ric backing and covered in velvet and secured the armour for the film Lord of the by decorative rivets. The knees and upper Rings. Other items, including lower arm har- shins are protected by plate polyns with demi- ness and horse armour have also been made greaves and the lower legs and feet by plate recently by Auckland armourer Derek full greaves. Other items include early form Tomes and Australian armourer/jouster Luke of frog-mouthed bascinet and sabatons for the Binks. Luke is currently the main provider of feet. armour to our members. I started assembling this harness in late Training and Tournaments 2001 and one thing that we have learned from We practise on a weekly basis at Kaitoke on the exercise that it is a never-ending process. Saturday afternoons and the session is preced- Once you think that you have finished there’s ed with one devoted to sword fighting as we always another piece of kit that is an essential also specialise in Western Martial Arts.* ‘must have’. I plan to add other elements to The Order of the Boar WMA is a special- my harness including a mid-fourteenth centu- ist sub-group. It includes not only some of the ry coat-of-plates, a riveted mail hauberk and members of the Order of the Boar but it also 26

includes people who are not associated with you back by at least $5,000 depending upon our other equestrian or living history activi- how far you want to go with your kit and this ties. These people include members of other figure assumes that you also make most of it medieval re-enactment groups as well as yourself. It is not unusual for jousters to members of the public who are interested in spend in excess of $10,000 on their armour just learning WMA. The sub-group has no re- and horse tack. enactment focus and instead focuses on teach- Can women joust? They most certainly can. ing WMA in a similar manner to a fencing Some of the strongest competitive jousters in club. The basic equipment required is a fenc- the world are women. ing mask, padded jacket, gloves, a wooden Do the horses get hurt? Great care is taken sword (‘waster’) and a wooden buckler (small to ensure the welfare and safety of the horses. round shield). It is only if an individual wish- This is our number one priority. As a result es to proceed to metal weapons sparring and there have so far been no injuries in New Zea- competition that we then require them to ob- land to any of our horses. tain period armour and other associated kit. Do jousters get hurt? Jousters do receive The Order has participated in three inter- injuries through falling off their horses and national tournaments so far in 2007, IronFest from lance deflections off their shields. Like (NSW), Harcourt (NZ) and Great Lake (NZ), in any other contact sport we cannot avoid and which attracted participants from Austral- these. However we can reduce the severity of ia, USA, England, Belgium, Sweden, Norway potential injuries by requiring that all our and France. jousters wear adequate safety equipment in- Although our major activities are training cluding real armour. To date all of our inju- and tournaments we have taken part in some ries have mostly been minor and are usually film projects, such as the Lord of the Rings incurred during training. mentioned above as well as Dark Knight, Don’t you think it is a bit silly dressing up Fairie Story, The Last Samuri and Fugitives in armour, pretending that you are knights and Princes. However, as rates of pay in the and engaging in an archaic pastime? May- New Zealand film industry are less then what be. But we have a lot of fun doing it! our members earn in their careers and busi- If you would like to learn more of our activi- nesses, we are only available to work on these ties please visit our website at projects at weekends or if they are of a short www.jousting.co.nz duration. Callum Forbes Frequently Asked Questions

There are a few questions that are always being asked of us so perhaps I can anticipate *WMA is a recent phenomenon. Until very recently it was a commonly held belief that until the some you may have. advent of modern fencing European swordsman- Is it an expensive hobby? Yes, it is. Jousters ship was a crude hack-and-bash affair dominated are usually required to provide their own by the strongest and that any European unarmed horse so depending where you live then buy- combat techniques were just as crude. However, ing and keeping a horse can be very expen- dozens of manuscripts describing and/or illustrat- sive. Members of the Order of the Boar are ing combative techniques dating from the early required to make at least a basic soft costume 1300s onwards have over the past 15 years been for themselves that is a copy of what an ordi- made available in the public domain. These con- nary person would have worn in the four- clusively prove that in the Middle Ages European armed and unarmed martial arts techniques were teenth century. Depending on whether you just as sophisticated and effective as those devel- make this yourself or have it made profes- oped in the East. Because of the period that we sionally, this can cost up to $500 - perhaps cover, the most relevant of these to us are the Tow- even more depending upon how elaborate you er Manuscript 1.33 and Fiore de Liberi’s Flos Du- want to make it. Armour and other jousting ellatorum. equipment is also expensive and this will set

The Man Himself

THE LAST YEARS OF RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER: A PERSONAL VIEW

DAVID FIDDIMORE

This is a polemical piece that makes some interesting and challenging points. There is no consensus within the Bulletin Editorial Team that it should be included in The Man Himself series; however all agree that every member has the right to state their own opinion of Richard. We anticipate that there will be responses to Mr Fiddimore’s article, and these will be published in the summer Bulletin.

ne of the problems I have had with good’ or of ‘I’m backing Britain’ – for those O many of the contributions to the Bulle- of you with memories that long. When Rich- tin, or other Ricardian Branch and Group ard took up the Crown he did so in the midst publications, is that they promote a creeping of Götterdammerung: the natural useful peri- acceptance of the view of Richard’s short od of Yorkist rule was concluding – its swift reign as a period of golden governance and terrible decline was inevitable and irre- brought to a premature end by blood and versible. His court was in a state of schism treachery at Bosworth Field. It is almost as if and foment, splitting into jockeying (my apol- rebellion, serial executions and the small mat- ogies to Norfolk) dynastic groups greedy for ter of mislaying a couple of princes is put to advance and influence, or simply desperate to the back of the Ricardian collective mind, in ensure long term survival – in the actual sense favour of the founding of colleges, endowing of the word. As important, he was to be with- of institutions, prayer books and missals, and out an obvious immediate, legitimate male the passing of enlightened civil law. Now that heir. we know that Bosworth probably wasn’t Richard himself, sadly, was no longer the where we thought it was, perhaps this is the decisive leader and general he had seemed time for a common man to consider how even a year before (and that’s a reputation we Richard’s reign may have appeared to the should look closely at one day; it may not man at the centre of it. bear as close a scrutiny as you think) – his Periods of rule – royal, tyrannical, demo- golden touch had deserted him. The man who cratic and all of the stations in between – have made the swift move on Edinburgh in 1482 natural terms dictated by their own content. was now fumbling towards declarations of his Some are longer than others, but an indisputa- own legitimacy, harried, perhaps, by self ble fact is that tired government of any kind doubt. It is almost as if, following his move to almost always descends to ineffectiveness, intercept King Edward’s son en route for and ends in chaos – ask Margaret Thatcher or London, his ability to make the right decision Jim Callaghan – and an administration in ter- every time had been lost. I find that I am not minal chaos is exactly what Richard, as king, really surprised that rebellion quickly fol- inherited. Richard’s brief reign was neither lowed in his footsteps. By 1483 he was the the sunny politics of ‘you’ve never had it so sixteenth-century equivalent of a Gordon 28

Brown. He was a doomed king: born a prince, Europe. Were we Brits immune to the lure of but an inevitable loser by inheritance, lum- a bit of assassination, if money, position or a bered with a country, Court and authorities he country was at stake? Richard may, or may was never going to be able to control, and not, have had a hand in it. We are simply nev- which were ripe for political change. The er going to know if either Richard or Tudor northern borders were increasingly porous, ordered (or merely wished rather too loudly) sections of his court – old friends as well as for the death of the princelings. So what? enemies – plotting his downfall; deceit and Did Stanley offer a son as hostage to the calumny everywhere. There was rebellion, King to guarantee his loyalty, or did Richard treason and a rash of executions at the very demand it? Now, that is, for me, a more im- heart of his reign. Can you read of Stillington, portant question. I am genuinely not at all even now, without that sweet, dread smell of sure how reliable that story is, but was Rich- treachery catching at the back of your throat, ard prepared to execute the boy in his father’s and an instinctive urge to slit his? sight as a penalty for the father’s potential What was Richard’s court actually like – treachery? Aye, there’s the rub, (sorry, Will!) putting to one side the inevitable intrigue, because a man capable of ordering that would plotting and treachery that we imagine was also be capable of seeing off the princes – and the everyday life of a medieval administra- we’re back where we started ... tion? Is there any equivalent in modern times ... which leads us to Bosworth of course, with which we can actually compare it? It wherever it may have been. What was the he- was certainly nothing like the pseudo- ro feeling when he saw the last axe, sword or democratic sense of consensus government billhook come whistling down? Fury? Fear? with which we are familiar. It didn’t need to or, at last, an overwhelming weariness? He be as large for a start, because England was a had lost his beloved wife, and his only legiti- relatively small, under-populated country mate son; lost many of his close relatives and with an established feudal tradition. Sadly Sir friends in the most terrible of circumstances. Ian McKellen may have come very close to He had spent the last two years of his life sur- the truth in his recent film, likening the func- rounded by plot, libel, treachery and rebel- tioning of Richard’s court to a Fascist admin- lion, and even some of his inner circle had istration of the 1930s. I have sometimes won- betrayed him. He must have known, from the dered if General Franco might have felt at very start of his reign, that a major battle, if home with his feet under Richard’s table – not another prolonged war was his certain fu- I’m sure that at least he would have under- ture, and he had just fought himself to a stood how the system worked. It is not impos- standstill unable to break through to Tudor. sible to gain the impression that the admin- Like Margaret T. when they walked her to istration of any medieval king seems, to the the car for the last time, (or Mary of Scotland untutored eye, much closer in its nature to a at Fotheringhay) I’ll bet he was simply think- fascist, rather than a democratic, style of gov- ing, ‘Thank God that’s over!’ ernment. That British institution Bruce Forsyth And what of our lost princes? It always once had a TV game show in the 1970s comes down to them in the end, doesn’t it? I wherein he used the catch phrase ‘didn’t he have long discomfited Ricardian colleagues do well?’ Can we ask the same of Richard, as with my opinion that it actually doesn’t mat- King? Can we ask of his reign, ‘didn’t he do ter whether Richard ordered the deaths of the well?’ young princes or not. First of all we are never Well, we can ask, but I suspect that you going to know, unless an absolutely stagger- won’t like the answer. ing piece of hitherto undiscovered proof man- On the dexter side, are the ‘good’ or ap- ifests. After five hundred years that’s hardly a parently enlightened things that he did, or likely eventuality. Assassination was not, af- made possible, during his reign much differ- ter all, an unusual a method of dealing with ent to the good and enlightened things that problems of inheritance right across medieval many other medieval kings did? No; not real- 29

ly. Churches, hospitals, schools and colleges certainty, and therein lies the fascination of need endowing, and laws need enacting and Richard of Gloucester, unfulfilled King of enforcing … someone had to do it. These England. I suspect that he, to bring it back to things, with strong army, trade and taxation today, like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, are the domestic cement that holds medieval probably fell from grace because of his inabil- realms together. Richard did what kings do, ity to deal adequately with change. England nothing more. His actions and decisions in was changing; as were the expectations of its this respect are little different in number or populace from the Lord in his castle to the scope to those of many of his contemporaries. magistrate, clerk and paid soldier. Richard, at On the sinister side, we have a reign of two the dying end of one dynastic power bloc, dysfunctional years enmeshed in rebellion, was unable to deliver that change. successful- serial executions (and maybe the odd assassi- ly. His successors, albeit slowly, were. nation or two, don’t forget that), imprison- Again, like our two Prime Ministers, he ment and exile, and get thee to a nunnery. seems doomed to be known to the masses for They culminated in a land battle which, had the perceived evil he may have done (in terms both leaders survived, might well have rekin- of twenty-first century values), rather than the dled another twenty years of civil war. good. That’s the sad bit ... but, for me, it is ‘Didn’t he do well?’ Well, no actually: it’s time to put the beast to bed: no Bad King time to take the blinkers off: he was, tragical- Richard, or Good King Richard – merely ly, a profoundly unsuccessful king. dead King Richard. We are, of course, left with no word of

The alternative Buckingham Covers’ First Day Cover

A Great Richard III Evening in York

JOHN SAUNDERS

he early activities of the Fellowship of Bunnett will be well known to Yorkshire T the White Boar are not well document- Branch members for he was a founder, and ed, and what we do know is dependent on for many years a stalwart of the branch and references in letters or the occasional press was made a vice-president of the Society in coverage. In the 2004 spring Bulletin I wrote recognition of his service. He died at the age about the unveiling of the Middleham win- of 96 in 1976. His obituary in The Ricardian dow. In this issue we go forward one year to notes that ‘He shared his great knowledge of 1935 when Saxon Barton gave a lecture at the the Plantagenets and the period. No-one in Tempest Anderson Hall in York. The hall is Yorkshire did more for the Society and the still there and is part of the building that rethinking of Richard’s life and times.’ Re- forms the Yorkshire Museum situated in the ginald Bunnett will be the subject of a future city’s attractive Museum Gardens. It is also Ricardian Heroes article. Unfortunately I still used by the Yorkshire Archaeological have not been able to find out any further Society for lectures. details about Canon Gill, so if any readers This story makes reference to a number of have information about him I would be other individuals: Reginald Bunnett, Captain pleased to hear from them. Others mentioned: Tom Churchill and Canon Gill in particular. Philip Nelson, Aylmer Vallance, Philip Lind- Captain Tom Churchill shared an interest in say and Tom Heslewood were all Fellowship the tomb at Sheriff Hutton with Barton and members; Vallance and Nelson were anti- was a member of the Fellowship. Reginald quarians, Lindsay a writer and Heslewood an actor. However let’s get back to the 1930s to take up the story. Reginald Bunnett had written to Saxon Barton back in 1933 asking him to lecture to the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. He replied immediately ‘I don’t want to put you off altogether. I should dearly love to fill an evening for you. My trouble is I have too much to do just now – having my own Society to run single handed.’ It was to be two years before he was able to give his lecture. It was finally fixed for 1 November 1935 and was given a rather flamboyant title King Richard III and his only son. The Pride of York. The Hope of England. Nonetheless, it would be a rare opportunity for the Fellow- ship to state their case in public. His fellow Sheriff Hutton enthusiast, Cap- tain Tom Churchill, had written to Barton early in earlier in the year ‘Now! There is a Canon of York Minster called Canon Gill who is a staunch Plantagenet loyalist … he is very keen to meet you, and has cut out of the Reginald Bunnett papers all your letters ... I found him very 31

friendly, and would like you to go and see him or write to him.’ Contact was made and a correspondence began. In September Barton proudly advised the Canon of his forthcoming lecture ‘We are to have a great Richard III evening in York on Friday 1 November at eight o’clock when I am to speak … some of the opposition party may take the trouble to come up from London to speak afterwards and Philip Nelson, Aylmer Vallance, Tom Heslewood and Philip Lindsay are coming to support the Richardites ... to my great aston- ishment Philip Lindsay seems to have a sort Tempest Anderson Hall ‘fan’ following of young ladies who believe in Richard. Several have written to me to say So to the best of my poor ability I must try the that if their Mamas will allow they will travel role myself and must try my best not to betray great distances to hear Richard vindicated.’ my cause.’ Who the ‘opposition’ was is not clear alt- The lecture was to take place at the hough it is most likely they were historians Tempest Anderson Hall. The previous week who took the traditionalist view of the period. had seen Canon Gill lecture on ‘Heart Buri- If this were the case it is an indication that the als’, and he doubtless made use of the occa- Fellowship was having some impact. Gill sion to publicise Barton’s the following week. replied ‘I am delighted that you are coming Barton had been working until three o’clock … you will have a big audience, very many in the morning of 1 November finishing his of them young people – the very ones we lecture. After a few hours sleep he had to face want to imbue with our ideas … I do not fear a busy round of operations during the day and any opposition from London. ‘Ça va sans then the long drive from Liverpool to York. dire’ that Philip Lindsay has a large following Despite the heavy workload he managed to of beauty.’ The reference to the young ladies get to York in time for the meeting’s 8 attached to Philip Lindsay perhaps anticipated o’clock start. His talk was illustrated with a trend in the future membership profile of slides borrowed from Aylmer Vallance. the Richard III Society. The following day The Yorkshire Post With the challenge of a mainly uncommit- reported on the meeting ‘Dr Saxon Barton, ted audience and the possibility of some op- who has spent many years in historical re- position, Barton pondered on what to cover. search, lectured last night on Richard III and To Canon Gill he wrote ‘I want to stress his his Yorkist associations and suggested that many kind and generous acts, his (if you like) Richard had been maligned by history and ‘good character’ before Bosworth, with as an received less than justice at the hands of his- anti-climax the hideous tyrant depicted there- torians. Whatever might be said of Richard III after. I want to stress the fact that Yorkshire in modern documents, the ancient city of believed in him to the last and that Yorkshire York always thought a great deal of him and men are no fools …and I am going to ask my whenever he visited the city gave him a tre- audience to be the jury and I am going to ask mendous reception. Yorkshire men are sup- for a verdict of ‘not proven’…’ In the course posed to be shrewd and perhaps their judge- of his professional life Barton had given ment in this case was correct. Perhaps Rich- many lectures, but he had some reservations ard was a brutal feudal prince of his period, about this one which he expressed to Gill, ‘I but if they looked back into ancient docu- only doubt my own ability to “put the mes- ments they would see Richard in quite a dif- sage across”, as the Americans say – for I am ferent light, which might cause them to modi- no orator. I have searched in vain for a local fy their views. Dr Barton said that the murder orator to take my place, but none will come. of the young prince at Tewkesbury, the mur- 32

with a fair degree of passion about his subject. He certainly seems to have convinced The Post’s correspondent. Barton’s own feelings about the lecture were expressed in a letter to Canon Gill written shortly after he returned to Liverpool ‘I have never made quite such a fool of myself before and cannot understand how I came to lose all sense of time, as I am used enough to speaking to students at my own lectures to know that one has to fit one subject to the clock. When I did wake up I had not even reached the truly important evidence I wanted to bring forward – I really ought to apologise to your Society – I am sure that they have been bored to tears – and in very trying circumstances they were very polite.’ He was being too harsh on himself. It is not at all unusual for lectures to over-run and the press reports give no indication that the lecture was anything but a success. Indeed Canon Gill wrote to congratulate Barton on behalf of the Saxon Barton Archaeological Society. Rather prophetically Barton had men- der of Henry VI and Clarence and other tioned in a letter written shortly before the crimes he was supposed to have committed, event that ‘this is probably the last chance of were reported by ancient chronicles as little a counter-attack on the enemy in public for more than rumour and were insinuations by many years’. He was right. It was to be the his enemies rather than historic facts.’ The last recorded public activity of the Fellowship report gives a revealing insight into Barton’s until after the Second World War, which was style of debate and suggests that he spoke already looming on the horizon.

The Real Reason Why Hastings Lost His Head Part 2

DAVID JOHNSON

t was, in fact, the dramatic and completely ed from Hastings a truly dreadful and totally I unforeseen emergence of the duke of unexpected response. Buckingham that turned Hastings against the As the late king’s Lord Chamberlain, Has- protector. This is the key to the Lord Cham- tings enjoyed a unique and privileged role berlain’s actions and motives from mid May within the royal household. Kendall described to his execution on 13 June. While Bucking- how his ‘intimacy with Edward, his services ham’s meteoric rise under Richard is obvious- to the royal house, his unparalleled popularity ly well documented, it is nevertheless the with nobles and commons alike gave him a belief of the present writer that the true mag- position of indefinite but immense power.’4 nitude of Hastings’ anger and resentment has Moreover, a widespread awareness that this been obscured, firstly by the misunderstand- power, and hence influence, derived from a ings outlined previously and secondly by the closeness to the king made Hastings a for- sheer speed and complexity of subsequent tune.5 It was a cosy and highly lucrative exist- events. Paul Murray Kendall explained how, ence, and it does not take much imagination on 15 May 1483, Richard bestowed upon to recognise how it was shattered by the arri- Buckingham ‘two vast grants of concentrated val of Richard and the elevation of Bucking- authority and patronage,’ which made him ham. It is pretty certain, given his crucial role ‘the ruler, virtually the viceroy, of Wales and in alerting Richard to the dangers of a Wood- the Marches and a good slice of the West ville coup d’état, that Hastings believed he Country.’1 And Charles Ross unhesitatingly should have been the principal recipient of the described ‘this most spectacular delegation of Lord Protector’s largesse. When one consid- royal authority’ as ‘entirely without precedent ers Hastings’ bitter rivalry with the Queen’s in the entire annals of the medieval English family, it must have been particularly galling monarchy.’2 Clearly this was an extraordinary to watch Richard hand over what had been event, made all the more remarkable by Anthony Woodville’s Welsh power base to Buckingham’s previous inexperience (and the upstart Buckingham. Thus, within a few relative anonymity) as a national figure. short weeks of Edward IV’s demise, the Though Buckingham ‘had come of age in bountiful world that Hastings had come to 1473’ he ‘had been refused any political role know and love had been well and truly de- by Edward IV… [he] enjoyed only ceremoni- stroyed. al duties and received markedly little patron- It wasn’t long before the Lord Chamber- age.’ Buckingham’s exclusion, Rosemary lain began to share his dissatisfaction with a Horrox, concluded, ‘was a matter of deliber- number of similarly disgruntled stalwarts of ate royal policy.’3 It is entirely consistent with the old regime: the archbishop of York Thom- what we know of Richard’s character that he as Rotherham, the bishop of Ely John Morton, should seek to redress such an injustice, even and the powerful northern magnate Thomas though the perpetrator had been Edward IV. Lord Stanley. Virgil described how Hastings Disastrously, the protector’s generosity elicit- ‘when he saw that matters fell out otherwise 34

than he had expected … called together to St the Queen and her party, there is every reason Paul’s church such friends … and conferred to believe that the Lord Chamberlain was with them on what was best to be done.’6 Of aware of the letter and its content, especially course, Virgil’s gloss was that Hastings and when one considers the claim that ‘men of his allies were acting on behalf of an increas- honour’10 (Hastings?) remained similarly vul- ingly vulnerable Edward V, as if the new king nerable to the Woodville threat. What is cer- already faced a grave and sinister fate at the tain, however, is that in the view of the pro- hands of Richard and Buckingham. The meet- tector the Queen’s faction remained a potent ings were, however, confirmed by Mancini,7 danger, and that the impending coronation but it was Kendall who suggested their real and parliament represented a period of una- purpose. ‘While Richard had remained afar voidable but recognisable peril. Richard had off in Yorkshire, while Buckingham had been almost succumbed to the Woodvilles at a courtier … Rotherham, Morton, Stanley and Northampton; he was now determined, with Hastings had sat at the heart of England’s the help of military assistance from the loyal government. Now they, the centre, felt them- north, to pre-empt any move against his per- selves relegated to the periphery, while the son or authority. periphery had presumed to become the cen- Hastings now faced what appeared to be tre.’8 From Hastings’ point of view there were an intractable dilemma. Though the northern now three competing and opposed factions: reinforcements would eliminate any possibil- firstly the Woodvilles, emasculated for the ity of a Woodville resurgence, they would at time being but certain to launch a vengeful the same time confirm the protectorship by bid for power once the coronation had taken allowing the coronation and subsequent par- place; secondly Richard and Buckingham, liament to take place. Once established in enjoying what appeared to be complete con- office by law, Richard’s position would be trol of the kingdom until Edward V came of unassailable. Hastings had to act before the age; and finally Hastings himself, together northern army arrived, an army that would, with the aggrieved inner circle of the late paradoxically, guarantee his personal safety king’s administration. As Kendall pointed and political survival. But how could the Lord out, the Lord Chamberlain found these devel- Chamberlain remove Richard and Bucking- opments intolerable; having overcome the ham, permit the crowning of Edward V, pre- menace of the Woodvilles he had been effec- vent any possibility of further Woodville tively stripped of political influence and dis- domination, and reassert his old position at carded. Something had to be done. the centre of royal government? It was, in the On 10 June, with the coronation only two belief of the present writer, a conundrum that weeks away, Richard wrote to the mayor of spawned a solution so audacious that its exist- York earnestly requesting substantial armed ence has never before been considered. support. The urgency of the situation was With time fast running out, Hastings de- conveyed, firstly, by the fact that the bearer vised a plan of action and, on the day of its was Sir Richard Ratcliffe, one of the protec- intended execution, took Morton, Rotherham tor’s closest confidants, and secondly by the and Stanley into his confidence. Richard and stark and chilling content of the letter itself. Buckingham were to be assassinated at the ‘The Queen, and her blood adherents and council meeting planned for 13 June. Has- affinity, which have intended and daily do tings, by virtue of their private meetings, was intend, to murder and utterly destroy us and certain of his colleagues’ complicity, for they, our cousin, the duke of Buckingham, and the like him, saw little profit in the protectorate old royal blood of this realm.’9 The tirade was and yearned for the return of the old days. directed solely against the Woodvilles and The remaining members of the meeting, John their circle. There was not at this juncture the Howard and Oliver King, were of necessity slightest suggestion that Richard suspected excluded from the plot but they were not Hastings or any of his confederates. In fact, deemed to be a problem. The real problem given the co-operation of the two men against was how to avoid responsibility for the assas- 35

sinations and how to obliterate the Queen and to murder Richard and Buckingham in a loca- her party. I believe it is here that Hastings hit tion and at a time that would clearly implicate upon an ingenious and barely believable solu- him as a suspect, Hastings had to produce a tion. It would be announced, on the afternoon clear and compelling account that would of the council meeting, that Richard and leave little doubt as to the identity of the real Buckingham had been found dead in the culprits. In order to extricate himself and his Tower, apparently murdered on the orders of co-conspirators he had little alternative but to the Woodvilles in order to destroy the protec- blame the Queen and her party. There is, I torate and to regain control of Edward V. It would suggest, no other way in which the was widely known that Richard had accused Lord Chamberlain could so ingeniously have the Queen’s party of attempting to kill him at achieved each of his objectives so quickly and Northampton; the assassinations in the Tower efficiently. It was a desperate and dangerous would do no more than confirm that Richard plot, but the stakes made it palpably worth- had been right all along. This monstrous act while, and it so very nearly succeeded. would finally demonstrate that the Wood- Peter Hammond and Anne Sutton have villes could not be trusted to exercise even the argued, along with many others, that slightest control or influence over the new ‘Hastings died because he would not tolerate king at any time during his reign. And there the displacement of Edward IV’s children.’11 was also the tempting possibility, a conse- I would suggest that Hastings died because he quence of the political vacuum created by the quite simply refused to tolerate his own dis- assassinations themselves, that Hastings placement. would be made protector in Richard’s place. This cannot fail to have occurred to the Lord Chamberlain and may even have been his Notes principal objective. 1. Paul Murray Kendall, Richard III, (1973), The proposition that Hastings planned the pp. 191-192. murder of Richard and Buckingham and then 2. Ross, Richard III, (1981), p. 77. conspired to pin the blame on the Queen and 3. Rosemary Horrox, Richard III A Study of her faction is new and startling. But let us Service (1989), pp. 132-133. consider what is known. It is a recorded fact 4. Kendall, Richard III, p. 189. that Richard explained the sudden execution 5. Rosemary Horrox, ‘Hastings, William, first of the Lord Chamberlain as a consequence of Baron Hastings (c. 1430-1483)’, Oxford Dic- a failed assassination attempt against himself tionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004. and the duke of Buckingham. Hastings’ be- 6. Dockray, Richard III A Source Book, heading is therefore the clearest evidence that (1997), p. 46. an assassination attempt actually took place, 7. Ibid., p. 50. for if it had not then only arrests would have 8. Kendall, Richard III, p. 201. been made, based on the information that 9. P. W. Hammond & A. F. Sutton (eds.), Richard took into the meeting of some kind of Richard III The road to Bosworth Field plot involving the Lord Chamberlain and (1985), p. 103. those who were in fact arrested. It is my be- 10. Ibid. lief that the assassination attempt itself actual- 11. Ibid., p. 17. ly required that responsibility for it be leveled at the Woodvilles. Having taken the decision

Margaret of York – A Genuinely Scandalous Dispensation?

MARIE BARNFIELD

fter the recent controversy over the dis- gued to be included within its terms, primari- A pensation for Richard and Anne’s mar- ly the second dispensation seems to have been riage discovered by Peter D. Clarke in the issued to cover a newly declared impediment archives of the Papal Penitentiary,1 it may be of affinity (i.e. a blood relationship between that readers are by now suffering from dis- one of the prospective spouses and a previous pensation fatigue. If I may, however, I should sexual partner of the other). The obvious sup- like to draw attention to the dispensations for position would be that this must relate to another of the Yorkist marriages discussed in Charles’ prior marriage to Isabel of Bourbon; Clarke’s article, which may, with somewhat but not so, for Isabel and Margaret shared no greater justification, be construed as evidence ancestry within the relevant number of gener- of improper sexual conduct. ations. (This, although of doubtful relevance, Amongst Clarke’s finds in the archives of is also true of Charles’ former betrothed, the Papal Penitentiary was a dispensation for Catherine of France.) the marriage of Margaret of York and her The only remaining option is that the af- second cousin Charles of Burgundy, appar- finity (or affinities) had been created by one ently requested by Charles, and granted on 24 or more extra-marital affairs. Very few ladies November 1467. When, after a considerable at the Burgundian court would have been delay (apparently caused by French lobbying related to the House of York, so that Charles’ at the Vatican), this dispensation reached past sexual history is unlikely to have had any England in the early summer of 1468, the bearing on the matter. On the other hand, papal envoy queried whether it was correctly Charles, by virtue of his Lancastrian descent, drawn up. As it happened it was not, even as was related to a very large number of the regards the impediment addressed, for it ab- English nobility, so that any affairs of Mar- solved the couple from consanguinity in the garet’s would have been highly likely to have third and fourth degrees whereas they were created such an impediment. Margaret and actually related in the third and third degrees, her brother King Edward were lucky to have both being great-grandchildren of John of been able to persuade the envoy to absolve Gaunt. Clarke’s article also draws attention to her and Charles of any impediments that had a second dispensation, issued by the papal been knowingly concealed, and it is scarcely envoy in England on 17 May, of which a surprising that he attached to this dispensation copy survives in the Burgundian Archive in a flowery set of excuses for his leniency. Lille; a transcript of this is helpfully repro- What has always been well known is that duced as an appendix to his article. rumours concerning Margaret were current at This dispensation, however, did not ab- the time of the marriage. The Milanese am- solve the couple from the impediment of con- bassador in France wrote home on the very sanguinity in the third degrees, but from the eve of the wedding that Charles ‘is informed third and fourth degrees mixed of consan- of what more and more people know – to wit, guinity and affinity.2 that his future consort in the past has been How had this come about, and what might somewhat devoted to love affairs, indeed in it have meant? Firstly, although consanguini- the opinion of many she even has a son’.3 The ty in the third and third degrees might be ar- ambassador may, of course, have been merely 37

swayed by French tittle-tattle, yet he does not him to contract a valid marriage with her. If write that Charles had heard what more and Scofield is correct in identifying Archbishop more people believe, but that he had been Neville as the person who divulged the news informed of what more and more people to the papal legate in England, then perhaps know. What is certain is that a copy of the we may assume that King Louis had also second dispensation had been given to Duke been given this information by the Nevilles. Charles – i.e. the copy that survives in the At any rate, little more than a year after Mar- Burgundian Archive in Lille. garet’s marriage Warwick would be stirring But, if Charles learned of Margaret’s af- further trouble by sowing the rumour that her fairs from King Edward’s own emissaries, mother too had once indulged in a politically who had informed the papal envoy in Eng- damaging extra-marital affair.5 land? According to Scofield, his query was probably based ‘on a hint from the Archbish- op of York’:4 in other words, from Warwick’s brother and an ally of the French king. Notes The origin(s) of the affinity absolved in 1. See Peter D. Clarke, ‘English Royal Mar- Margaret’s second dispensation cannot be riages and the Papal Penitentiary in the Fif- proved. It is, unfortunately, in the nature of teenth Century’, EHR, 2005, pp. 1014-1029; dispensations that they do not name the of- Michael. Hicks, ‘The Incestuous King?’, fending common ancestors, nor the previous BBC History Magazine, June 2006, pp. 22-25; partners in cases of affinity. Normally, how- Marie Barnfield, letter, BBC History Maga- ever, they do clearly distinguish the different zine, August 2006, and ‘Diriment Impedi- impediments absolved. This one is particular- ments, Dispensation and Divorce: Richard III ly vague, perhaps deliberately so. Neverthe- and Matrimony’, The Ricardian, 2007. less, it does provide the first documentary 2. Clarke, op. cit., pp. 1017 & 1022. evidence in support of the contemporary 3. Cora L. Scofield, The Life and Reign of claim that Margaret of York did not go to her Edward IV, vol. 1, p. 457. husband a virgin. It also reveals that the mo- 4. Scofield, op. cit., vol 1, p. 449. tive of Charles’ enemies in repeating this 5. Michael K Jones, Bosworth 1485: The Psy- scandal was not merely to tarnish his feelings chology of a Battle, Tempus, 2002, p. 73. for his intended, but to make it impossible for

The Research Goes On

TONI MOUNT

y last update on my research into the was mature enough in 1454 to have compiled M ‘Physician’s Handbook’ (MS 8004 at a medical handbook – the designation of the Wellcome Library) ended with a STOP ‘Physician’s Handbook’ is twentieth century PRESS! – and possibly sufficiently wealthy to consid- That was on 16 July, the date I consulted er having such a book illuminated with gold Talbot and Hammond’s The Medical Practi- leaf. Of particular interest to Ricardians is tioners in Medieval England – A Biograph- Richard Elstie’s inclusion as a member of the ical Register. I had already gone through the medical team that accompanied Edward IV’s book once, at the beginning of my research, army on his abortive expedition to France in but then I was looking for ‘Richard of Lin- 1475, the campaign about which Richard, coln’, as suggested by Christie’s reading of Duke of Gloucester, is said to have got so hot the name of the compiler of the MS. Readers under the collar. Elstie, as yeoman-surgeon of may remember that it was not till 1 May that I the body to King Edward, was to receive was able to view the MS itself under UV light twelve pence a day wages for his services, for the first time, which resulted in a change along with seven other surgeons, and five of direction, from trying to track down a others were to be paid six pence. All these ‘Richard ... of the Cite of Lincoln’ to looking medics were under the authority of William for ‘Richard Elsty? limner?’ of London. As a Hobbys, the king’s physician and surgeon, result, I have spent nearly three months re- who later served Richard on his Scottish cam- searching London limners, looking for a suit- paign of 1482. able name. My tutor Dr Alixe Bovey, Lara About to embark for France, Elstie made Artemis, the conservator at Wellcome, and I his will on 2 June 1475. Probably a good myself all agreed that the word seemed to say many of his companions did the same, as was ‘limner’, odd though that sounded for the the custom, but Elstie’s will was proven on 31 compiler of a physician’s handbook. January 1476, so he didn’t long survive the All that changed when I searched Talbot return home. In his will, he left those seven and Hammond again, this time looking for books I mentioned to the Barbers’ Fellowship Richards of London, and there was Richard and I wondered if MS.8004 could have been Elstie, surgeon of London. In fact, I had met among them? Unfortunately, I.G. Murray, this man before: I wrote about him in my Archivist to the Barbers’ Company, informed Open University dissertation of ‘The Profes- me that very few records of the Fellowship sionalisation of Medicine in Fifteenth- survive and they have no information on the Century England’ in 2005. He bequeathed bequest or any inventory of books in their seven books – his best – on surgery to the possession from the fifteenth century. Fellowship of Barbers of London in 1476. On 2 August, I went to the Guildhall Li- However, I hadn’t made the connection be- brary in London to look at Richard Elstie’s cause in his will his surname is given as will: this is another wonderful place with the ‘Esty’ or ‘Estey’, but now I had a version of most kind and helpful staff you could wish his name so close to that in MS.8004 I could- for – the only drawback was no coffee shop. n’t ignore it. However, it was amazing just to walk in off I discovered Richard Elstie had been Up- the street, up to the desk and say ‘May I look per Warden of the Surgeons’ Gild in 1459, at MS 9171/6 from 1475 please?’ ‘Yes, of 1463 and again in 1464, so I would suspect he course, just sign in the visitors’ book, please, 39

write the number of the manuscript down and have no connection at all to the here: it will be at desk 4 in ten minutes.’ And ‘Physician’s Handbook’. If, however, his it was. Meanwhile, the will was also on mi- name was written as ‘Elstie’ in the indenture crofiche which you could fetch yourself, of Edward IV, then that would have been a view, and take a print out from. Even the visi- valid spelling during the man’s lifetime and tors’ book was fascinating because there was makes this London surgeon an excellent con- a column in which to list the purpose of your tender for the compiler of MS 8004. research: some visitors had written simply Grose gives the information in a footnote ‘family history’, but others had put that the indentures drawn up between King ‘Eighteenth-century dockyards’ and Edward IV and his medical team for the ‘Fishmongers’ Guild’, ‘Sixteenth-century French campaign were found ‘in the library of inventories’ and ‘William Persel’ – whoever Thomas Astle, esq; being an Abridgement of he was? the Indentures for raising Soldiers for differ- The book arrived: a huge volume of Lon- ent kings, by Peter Le Neve Norrong [sic]; the don wills from the 1470s, secured by brass original indentures are now remaining in the clasps, so thick that, once on the book rest, I Paper Office’. The ‘Paper Office’? Where is had to stand up to read it. Getting the hang of that? The PRO, perhaps? All I discovered was the Roman numeral folio numbering took a that Thomas Astle [1735-1803] had been few minutes but I found Clxxxxii verso, and keeper of records at the Tower of London. I there was Richard ‘Esty’, in this case. The have spent hours … days … trawling through will was in Middle English, clearly written, so lists of documents on the Internet, searching no problem there. for the elusive indenture. Have I found it? As I mentioned, Richard’s surname is Don’t know for sure but the British Library given both as ‘Esty’ and ‘Estey’ in the will, has hundreds of papers from the library of but I am more interested in the version Thomas Astle and among them is ‘Stowe ‘Elstie’, more like the erased name in MS 440’ – ‘Names of the Nobility and others re- 8004. So where does this spelling occur origi- teyned to serve the Kings of England in their nally? Talbot and Hammond give a reference warrs, from Ed the 3d to Hen 8, extracted out to F.P.Barnard, Edward IV’s Expedition to of the Indentures of Military Service pre- France of 1475, published in 1925. This was served in the Office of Pells* by the industry in the Guildhall Library, freely available to of Sr William Le Neve, Knt., Clarentius King view and photocopy. Barnard did indeed give of Armes’. Is this the document I seek? If it the name as ‘Elstie’, referencing in turn Fran- is, Grose has made more mistakes, citing cis Grose, Military Antiquities,1812, and, yes, ‘Peter Le Neve Norrong’, (which should be that was in the library as well. I wasn’t al- Norroy King of Arms), not his distant relative lowed to copy this elderly text myself, but the ‘Sir William Le Neve, Clarenceux King of staff did it for me, the copies arriving by post Arms’, as the transcriber of the document. So two days later. Grose gave his source for the many mistakes in names given by Grose does name ‘Elstie’ as an obscure manuscript still to not bode well for Richard ‘Elstie’, but we be tracked down if it is still extant, but it is shall see. important to see it, if I can, because Grose has I finally received, by e-mail, the long- some wrong spellings of other, more famous awaited UV photographs of the page in MS men in his list of Edward IV’s medical staff 8004 where the name had been obliterated. for the French campaign of 1475. For exam- This is it, I thought, the answer will be here. ple, Jacques Frise, the king’s chief physician But it wasn’t. Sadly, the images were not so (known as Frise because he came from Frise- good as what I’d seen with the naked eye land) has his name spelled ‘Fryle’. If ‘Frise’ under UV though the on-screen version was can become ‘Fryle’, then ‘Esty’ might be- better than the print out. Of course, that come ‘Elstie’ and if this version only occurs means I can only show others and have to because of Grose’s misreading, then Richard hand for comparison the worst copy of all, but Esty may never have used the name ‘Elstie’ it is better than nothing. 40

Stowe 440 – the missing link or another I going cross-eyed with staring at the page for red herring? so long? My husband Glenn and I visited the Brit- Watch this space for more adventures in ish Library to check out the manuscript Stowe research. 440 and it was indeed the book I sought but * The Office of Pells was an accounting de- the name was ‘Richard Estie’ – Grose had got partment and a book, kept by the Clerk of the it wrong again – it is plainly only a five letter Pells, as a record of all the tally sticks stored word but Grose had read a long ‘s’ as both ‘l’ by the Exchequer Office. When the Excheq- and ‘s’. Fortunately, I had also booked to see uer Office had made its record of the tally, the MS 8004 again at the Wellcome Library and little stick was popped down a pipe, to land in when we checked that area of erasures once the Office of Pells on the floor beneath the more against the UV print out version, I real- Exchequer for a back-up record to be made. ised there were three black vertical lines In 1834, when the use of tally sticks by the showing through from the other side of the government ceased, the collection of little page, one of which I had been reading as an wooden sticks filled the Star Chamber at ‘l’. Remove that and you have … ‘esty’. Too Westminster and it was ordered that they good to be true? It’s hard to say but the more should be destroyed – given away as kindling I look at it, the better it fits. ‘Limner’ also wood to the poor? Not likely. Instead, a huge underwent a change: not ‘li’ but a ‘b’, long bonfire was built in the courtyard. The result and thin, of a type that also occurs randomly – they burned down the Houses of Parlia- elsewhere in the text of MS 8004… and per- ment! Never mind: it was such an old build- haps another ‘b’ also. Am I reading the word ing anyway, they needed a new one – lots of ‘barber’ here? Is it wishful thinking? Or am work for Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin.

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Milan in the Fifteenth Century

LYNDA PIDGEON

Continuing our occasional series on events in other countries during the fifteenth century.

ilan was one of a number of city states peace in the country until 1494 when the M within present-day Italy. The state had French invaded. been ruled by the Visconti family until the Francesco consolidated the power of Mi- death of the last duke, Filippo Maria Visconti. lan and seized Genoa in 1464 to extend his His only heir was an illegitimate daughter power. A patron of the arts and letters, he Bianca Maria Visconti; the state therefore improved the beauty of Milan and gave it a passed to Filippo V of Aragon. However in period of prosperity which ended on his death 1450 the duchy was acquired by Francesco in 1466. He left a son, Galeazzo Maria, who Sforza who had married Bianca. This was the was everything that Francesco was not. Dis- start of a new golden age for Milan. solute and cruel, he was assassinated in 1476 The Sforza name was made by Frances- leaving a young son of six, Gian Galeazzo. co’s grandfather, Muzio Attendolo. From a Gian’s mother Bona of Savoy acted as regent wealthy peasant family in Ravenna, he be- during his minority. (Bona had once been came a mercenary and earned the nickname suggested as a wife for Edward IV.) ‘Sforza’, someone who acquires things by The regency did not last long; in 1480 his force. His son Francesco assumed the nick- uncle Ludovico, called ‘Il Moro’, ousted Bo- name as the family name and following in his na and assumed power as the new duke. He father’s footsteps set up his own band of mer- was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cenaries, mainly serving the king of Naples. princes in Italy. A subtle diplomat, he was He died in 1424, having made the family for- also an unscrupulous intriguer. He married tune. Beatrice d’Este, sister of the count of Ferrara. He had an illegitimate son Francesco, by Together they held a brilliant court, patronis- Lucia of Torgiano, and the boy was brought ing the artists and scientists, most famously up at the court of Este in Ferrara. At the age Leonardo Da Vinci. of twelve he entered into the family business, Although he had displaced his nephew Il and later he inherited his father’s band of Moro kept him in his care, later arranging his mercenaries. marriage to Isabella of Aragon, daughter of The young Francesco was an able politi- the king of Naples. Unfortunately she did not cian as well as a successful soldier; he took get on with Beatrice and the two women be- service with the duke of Milan, Filippo Vis- came rivals. While Gian Galeazzo was happy conti. However he also served with Venice, for his uncle to rule while he enjoyed a life of Milan’s traditional enemy, and he was thus entertainments and ease, Isabella was less absent when Filippo died without naming an happy. Eventually she persuaded Gian to as- heir in 1447. A republic was established in sert himself, which represented a threat to Il Milan which lasted three years until Frances- Moro. co returned and claimed the dukedom. To try and limit this new threat to his po- A skilled diplomat, administrator and poli- sition Il Moro encouraged Charles VIII of tician, he was supported by the Medici and France to mount an expedition against the was responsible for securing the Peace of kingdom of Naples. At the same he began Lodi in 1454, which brought together the five negotiations with Emperor Maximilian to main states in Italy and maintained an uneasy invest him as duke. Il Moro claimed that 42

Gian’s claim was not legitimate because his bassadors. There are also newsletters and father had been born before his grandfather reports from merchants was duke; Il Moro however had been born From these we have an outsider’s view of after and therefore his was the better claim. English affairs. Perhaps some of the best Although patently a pretext, the emperor known reports are those on the various battles agreed in return for marrying Il Moro’s niece in the Wars of the Roses and on the marriage Bianca Maria and a dowry of 400,000 ducats. of Edward IV to Elizabeth Wydevile. This was in September 1494, shortly after the A vast amount of information thus came agreement had been reached Gian Galeazzo into the ducal chancery. It is possible that conveniently died, it was rumoured from poi- from these various reports the poet Antonio son. Cornazzano obtained the information upon Meanwhile Charles VIII marched into which he based his poem on the ‘Queen of Italy, attacking his allies as well as enemies; England’, that is, Elizabeth Wydevile. The his cousin Louis of Orleans, later Louis XII, poem is in fact one of a number. Cornazzano also claimed the duchy of Milan through his dedicated his book of poems to Bianca Sforza descent from the Visconti. Il Moro was thus Divided into two it gives the stories of virtu- forced to join the anti-French league in 1495 ous and beautiful women. Bianca died in and the French were expelled. 1468 and so his poems can be dated to this The reprieve was short lived. In 1498 period and is thus very close to the marriage Charles VIII died and in 1499 Louis XII of of Edward. The majority of the women in his France once more claimed Milan and suc- poems come from mythology and the Bible. ceeded in removing Il Moro, Louis also in- Only two were contemporary women. tended to take Naples. With the aid of Swiss One poem on Idalia was based on a story mercenaries Il Moro tried to recover his Cornazzano must have heard at the ducal duchy but he was defeated following the be- court, for it involves a young woman who trayal of the Swiss and taken prisoner at the threw herself from the window a castle rather battle of Novara in 1500. He died in prison at than be raped by one of Francesco’s merce- Loches in 1508. nary soldiers. The event was said to have tak- The continuing threat from the French en place in 1443 while Francesco was still a forced Pope Julius II into forming the Holy mercenary and his troops were besieging League to expel them. Amongst its members Esanatoglia. were Henry VIII and the emperor Maximili- His story of Elizabeth is placed in the an, as well as the Swiss Cantons and Venice. book of virtuous women rather than beautiful In 1513 at the second battle of Novara the ones. He suggests that Edward fell in love French were defeated, but the death of the with her and tried to seduce her, however she Pope in the same year saw the League col- takes out a knife and asks Edward to kill her lapse. In 1515 the French returned, this time rather than dishonour her. Edward is so im- under Francis I. In 1525 at the battle of Pavia pressed that he marries her secretly. he was defeated by Charles V of Spain. In the This story reappears later in Mancini. He, same battle Richard de la Pole, the ‘White however, has Edward threatening Elizabeth Rose’ died, fighting for Francis I. with a knife. Given the interest in English In Milan Francesco, Il Moro’s second son affairs, the fact that there are various reports was restored to the duchy. When he died in from ambassadors in the archive and that 1535 without an heir Charles V annexed the Francesco’s son married Bona of Savoy it is duchy and an independent Milan ceased to possible that Cornazzano could have heard a exist. credible story of Edward’s marriage quite The archives for fifteenth-century Milan soon after it happened. are one of the largest in Europe. The dukes of The Milanese archive owes much to Cicco Milan were extremely keen to have ambassa- Simonetta who was First Secretary of the dors at foreign courts and so a large amount dukes. In 1450 he reorganised the chancery of information survives from Milanese am- and archives. His uncle Angelo had been 43

brought into the duke’s service in the 1430s of it and, when he was writing on English and he was responsible for bringing the rest events in 1483, he added the story, albeit of the family into the service of the duke. The slightly differently. Otherwise the coinci- Simonetta followed the fortunes of Francesco dence in the story seems too great. Sforza while he was a mercenary and he re- warded them with citizenship of Milan as References well as important administrative posts. Gio- Dispatches of Milanese Ambassadors, 2 vols. vanni Simonetta (d. 1491) was the court his- ed. Paul Murray Kendal & Vincent Ilardi. torian as well as a secretary. He used the du- Calendar of State Papers Milan 1385-1615, cal archives to write his Commentaries as vol. 1. well as a biography of Francesco. A review of ‘The Marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth his work and sources demonstrates that writ- Woodville: A New Italian Source’, Conor ers circulated their works. One example was Fahy, The English Historical Review, vol. 76, the use he made of Pope Pius II’s own Com- no. 301, (Oct., 1961). mentaries. Written in 1462-64 it was always ‘The De mulieribus admirandis of Antonio thought that no one had seen the Pope’s work Cornazzano’, Conor Fahy, La Bibliofilia, vol. until the late sixteenth century, yet it is evi- 62 (1960). dent that Simonetta had seen it and used it to ‘A Humanist Historian and His Documents: fill in the gaps in his own documents. Giovanni Simonetta, Secretary to the Sfor- Given this circulation it is possible that zas’, Gary Ianziti, Renaissance Quarterly, Cornazzano’s poem had also been seen by vol. 34, no. 4, (winter, 1981). others outside the ducal court. It is possible www.milanocastell.it/ing that Mancini may have seen or at least heard www.museoscienza.org/english

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The Religious Life of Richard III by Jonathan Hughes £30 Richard III: A Medieval Kingship ed. by John Gillingham £10 The Wars of the Roses by John Lander Hbk £15 Pbk £8 Single copies of Harley volumes II, III, and IV at £15 each The Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury by P W Hammond at £10

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Correspondence

Will contributors please note the letters may be edited or shortened to conform to the standards of the Bulletin.

Roots and their relevance Being able to read German sources on him From Dorothea Preis, Australia helped to understand his role much more I finally received my winter Bulletin on Mon- clearly. day and as always immediately sat down with Let’s just be grateful for members like Ri- a cuppa to read it from cover to cover. ta, whatever the background. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt on be- John Saunders from the Bulletin Editorial ing awarded the Robert Hamblin Award Team comments: Dorothea is quite right to 2007. I was, however, rather taken aback by point out that references to ‘English roots’, the surprise that there ‘should be members might be viewed as not being very inclusive prepared to get together and discuss etc. a of our worldwide membership. We shall long-dead king in a foreign country where watch our words in future. An interest in Eng- they do not necessarily have any roots’. The lish history and a desire for a fair hearing for notion of roots also appears in other places in King Richard III are not restricted to those the Bulletin. born in England, or indeed those countries It surely cannot be assumed that only peo- that share its history. As Dorothea also points ple with British roots can have any interest in out the pursuit of knowledge and justice are righting the wrongs done to a long-dead per- universal concepts, and that’s why we have so son? Surely the sense of outrage that lies many members beyond the shores of the Brit- should be regarded as truth is common to all ish Isles. We are indeed an international Soci- people, regardless of their background? Or ety so let’s not be afraid to say so. It’s some- can only people with British roots be interest- thing to be proud of and to celebrate. ed in an English king? If that held true, only Italians should be interested in ancient Rome, only Greeks in ancient Greece, only Egyp- Borestones and the Burgh Muir: Richard’s tians in ancient Egypt and so on – you get my Scottish camp site drift. Judging by the large number of tourists From Marilyn Garabet, Argyll at Roman, Greek and Egyptian sites, some of I enjoyed reading my Bulletin, and it was them with extensive knowledge of the rele- lovely to discover in it a letter from Dave Fid- vant history, this is clearly not the case. dimore, who is one of my fellow Scottish I am a fairly new Australian with German Branch members. I hope Dave won’t be too roots, and among the world-wide membership upset, however, if I venture to remark that there are many who do not have any British there is, alas, no connection between Richard background. We regard ourselves as equal III’s white boar and Scottish borestones. Un- members of the Society, because our interest fortunately for Ricardians, the ancient term is in Richard. We joined an international soci- ‘bore stane’ dates from well before 1482 and ety, not a small club limited to England. As is derived from ‘hare stane’, which has noth- seen by Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt as well as ing to do with hares but everything to do with many others these international members can ‘har’, an old Scots word for ‘army’. By the add a broader spectrum to our common inter- Middle Ages, the words ‘hare stane’ and est. For instance, I prepared last year a talk on ‘bore stane’ were interchangeable. Perkin Warbeck/Richard of York for our Borestones were solid, heavy objects, with branch. In most of the English sources Em- little resemblance to ‘a bar of Aero choco- peror Maximilian is more or less just a name. late’, for they usually only had one hole 45

carved into them, where the standard belong- a part of this vast Burgh Muir. There is, of ing to the leader of the muster would be course, no concrete evidence to pinpoint the placed. Indeed, the fragments of an early exact location Richard and Albany selected to borestone utilised by Robert the Bruce at pitch their tents and, until further facts and Bannockburn in 1314 were, as recently as discoveries come to light, I fear that any spec- 1960, collected together and built into a ped- ulation would be fruitless. estal, protected by an iron grille. This very famous borestone originally took the form of a large stone block with a single hole for a Egg on their faces? – and an egg with a staff. A much later borestone can be seen at face Sheriffmuir. From Geoffrey Wheeler Sadly, modern historians reject the From the outline of the process behind choos- borestone in Dave’s photo as spurious. To ing the annual special edition commemorative quote but one reference, Gordon Donaldson stamps in last year’s Post Office information and Robert S. Morpeth’s Dictionary of Scot- brochure, it was apparent that the whole task, tish History has, on p. 24, ‘A stone built into from initial concept to finished design, could the wall of Morningside church, Edinburgh, take up to three years, so it was inevitable that was said, quite without foundation, to have the Richard III stamp could not have featured been used for a muster before Flodden’. the newly-cleaned and restored Society of In 1482, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Al- Antiquaries portrait (Royal Mail 2007 and bany, and their troops did, indeed, make camp winter Bulletin, Richard Van Allen p. 16, upon the Burgh Muir, though they would Fred Hepburn pp. 30-33). However, one have remained there throughout Richard’s would have thought that such a lengthy re- stay in Edinburgh and not merely upon his search and development period would have departure, surely. I came across a contempo- prevented a couple of rather obvious errors in rary reference for this location from a legal the ‘Lancaster and Yorkist Kings’ set now reference to one Thomas Turnebule, who available. The National Portrait Gallery, ‘produced a Remission for his treasonably doubtless the source for these particular imag- being with Alexander, formerly Duke of Al- es, ought to have made it clear that their fa- bany: and specially at the Burgh Muir of Ed- miliar, so-called, Henry IV is really a six- inburgh’. Pitscottie has a later, graphic de- teenth-century invention based on an engrav- scription of how ‘the duik of Glossester’ and ing of Charles VI of France (see M.K. Jones ‘the Duik of Albanie’ with their great host Agincourt (Pen & Sword Books 2005) p. 60), ‘plantit thair pallzeouns wpoun the borrow and, more importantly to us, the Edward V mure of Edinburgh and thair maid provition used, is, in fact, taken from one of Edward for thair airmie lyke tua chieftanes ...’ VI, as noted in the 1973 NPG Richard III Ex- The Burgh Muir was an extensive tract of hibition Catalogue (p 89) and M. Hicks Ed- land with its northernmost point marked by ward V (Tempus 2003, plate 43). Regrettably the Burgh Loch, which provided old Edin- this repeats a similar occurrence in 1996, burgh with its drinking water but which was, when a schoolgirl made headlines in the na- at a later date, drained and transformed into tional press by pointing out that the ‘Henry the parkland area of The Meadows. VIII and his six wives’ stamps included a The Muir extended as far south as the Pow mis-attributed Catherine Howard. Burn (now piped and running underground) Then, with regards to the Media Retro- and its southern boundaries included, spective pages of the last Bulletin, we can no amongst others, the present day districts of doubt excuse the Indian Deccan Herald quot- Morningside, Canaan, Blackford, Wester ed by Beth Stone (p. 19) for being ignorant of Grange and Mayfield. Drumselch Forest, the facts, but for the benefit of new members, where the kings of Scots hunted, was still and those with short memories, perhaps a thriving in 1482 and stretched all the way footnote ought to have been added pointing from the Burgh Loch to Gilmerton. It was but out that the whole subject of Humpty Dumpty 46

and other nursery rhymes, supposedly having ing Humpty’s great and catastrophic fall. Sub- historical connotations, was dismissed and sequent efforts on the part of the royalist ar- dealt with, in full, in the Bulletin for Septem- my (‘the king’s men’) to salvage the ancient ber (p. 60) and December (pp. 39-40, 57), gun proved vain. 2002. Finally, if Fiona Price (letters p. 49) had only checked the second edition of the NPG More exotic ogres Richard III Exhibition Catalogue (Boydell, From Angela Moreton, Yorkshire Branch hardback, 1977), which, despite still not being With reference to Richard Van Allen’s article error-free, attempted to up-date and correct in the autumn Bulletin of 2007, it seems to be any mistakes in the 1973 original, she would ‘inevitable’ to compare Shakespeare’s exotic have discovered that the Fenton House pic- ogre with any villain going, real or fictional, ture is referred to, with others, in the Intro- as recent productions of That Play have duction section to the portrait entries (p. 80) demonstrated. and subsequently appeared in my appendix to Has anyone lately compared Shake- the UK portraits accessible to visitors in the speare’s Richard III with King Gama in Gil- last edition of Ricardian Britain (1977). bert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida? It cannot be Needless to say, since then several others denied that Gama has provided some great have come to light, through auction house opportunities for grotesque make-up and act- sales etc., but only one (Berger Collection, ing to the leading comedians of the D’Oyly Denver USA) is in a public gallery. Carte Company since he first appeared in 1884. In depicting Gama, Gilbert followed his source (Tennyson) pretty closely, except that More on Humpty Dumpty Tennyson doesn’t describe the king as a From John Ashdown-Hill hunchback, while Gilbert’s character states in I am reluctant to take issue with the chair- Act I: ‘This leg is crooked – this foot is ill- man’s wife, while my own Indian roots make designed – this shoulder wears a hump ... me hesitant to quarrel with the Deccan Her- Now am I not the worst of Nature’s blun- ald. However, I am as sure as one can be ders?’ and the Morning Post review of the when dealing with folklore that both Beth first night called him ‘a compound of Louis Stone and the newspaper are mistaken in try- XVI, Dick Deadeye [the villainous ing to associate the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty ‘triangular’ sailor in HMS Pinafore] and Dumpty’ with Richard III. Richard III’. I’m not sure quite what the re- Colcestrians will tell you that Humpty Dump- semblance is to Louis XVI – now, if it had ty was the name affectionately bestowed dur- said Louis XI ... ing the English Civil War by the besieged royalist forces on a sturdy, old-fashioned cul- verin which they found stored at Colchester Tailpiece: a damned good read Castle, and which they dragged out and From David Fiddimore, Scottish Branch pressed into service to supplement the defi- May I take this opportunity to thank [the Bul- ciencies of their weaponry. It was difficult to letin team] for the work you do? The winter aim this antique cannon with much accuracy, Bulletin arrived this morning, and it has con- but when mounted on top of the tower of the firmed my opinion that within the last year it church of St Mary-at-the-Wall it was capable is becoming more and more accessible to the of firing somewhat indiscriminately over the non-specialist reader. It is now not only dis- town walls and causing havoc among the be- cursive about the Wars of the Roses in an ex- sieging Parliamentary forces. The latter put a act and technical sense, but also a damned stop to this by the simple expedient of blow- good read – it usually wipes out a morning for ing off the top of the church tower with their me. more up-to-date and efficient guns, thus caus-

Book Review

Lady Kate by Pamela Hill Published by United Writers Cornwall, 2007. (197 pages). ISBN 9781852001254

ady Katherine Gordon is one of those enigmatic L figures that hover persistently in the shadows of great historical events, yet about whom, essentially, we know frustratingly little. Katherine Gordon was the Scottish wife of Perkin Warbeck, and thus found herself all but isolated and abandoned in England after his failed attempt to take the crown from Henry VII. It is not difficult to imagine how afraid and alone she would have felt after Warbeck’s ar- rest and imprisonment. She was, after all, a foreigner, enmeshed in the plot at the highest level, and she must have feared that her future was insecure, to say the least. Hers, however, is a story of survival: impressed by her beauty (though I cannot think she looked anything like the portrait on the cover of the book), the king appointed her as one of Queen Elizabeth’s ladies. After the queen’s death in 1503, Henry continued to support her and even ensured that she would be financially independent after his death – though the lady went on to marry three more times. As the story of a woman’s survival from a most inauspicious start in a male-dominated world, Katherine Gordon’s is a fascinating one. Pamela Hill is clearly also intrigued by her subject and in Lady Kate she has made a spirited effort to flesh out the few facts we know about her life and character. The story is told by Lady Katherine as a recollection of her long life, and thus is subject to all the restrictions that the first-person-narrator device imposes. In order to try and overcome this, the author endows her heroine with an encyclopaedic knowledge of current events, recent history and family relationships, to the extent that the reader’s interest sometimes sinks beneath the sheer volume of facts. However, Mrs Hill fearlessly tackles the question of the exact nature of Lady Katherine’s relationship with the king and with formidable Margaret Beaufort, and the novel is peopled with an array of minor characters who pass through the pages adding colour and depth. There are also some entertaining and informative observations on the manners and customs of Henry’s court and fifteenth-century life in general. Once Lady Katherine leaves the court after Henry’s death, however, Mrs Hill seems to lose interest in her – her three subsequent marriages are compressed into a mere thirty pages – but the story is rounded off neatly as Lady Katherine approaches the end of her life. Mrs Hill is clearly absorbed and captivated by Katherine Gordon’s story and the period in which she lived, but, as Wendy Moorhen pointed out in her detailed study ‘Four Weddings and a Conspiracy: The Life, Times and Loves of Lady Katherine Gordon’ (The Ricardian, March, June and September 2002), ‘Lady Katherine is always a shadowy figure…[and] the essential woman remains a mystery’. Mrs Hill has made a valiant attempt to capture the spirit of her subject, but a mystery she remains. Elaine Henderson 48

The Barton Library

As the Society’s Conference later this month is on the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, the librarians thought it would be a good idea to recommend some books, papers and audio-visual items on this perennially interesting topic.

Conference Reading List Non-Fiction Books All the biographies of Richard III devote space to the disappearance of the Princes. Here are three with interestingly different approaches to the mystery: FIELDS, Bertram Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes (Regan Books, 1998). A top American lawyer applies the principles of legal analysis of evidence to the mystery of the disappearance of the Princes. POLLARD, A.J. Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (Alan Sutton Publishing, 1991). This book explores the story of Richard III and the tales that have been woven around the historic events; the chapter on the Princes also contains two special sections of illustrations – contemporary views of the boys and later historical paintings. POTTER, Jeremy Good King Richard? An Account of Richard III and his Reputation 1483- 1983 (Constable, 1983). This is a detailed study of the source material for Richard’s reign and reputation, and how it has been interpreted by later historians. There are also several books devoted entirely to an examination of the mystery: LINDSAY, Philip On Some Bones in Westminster Abbey: a Defence of King Richard III (first published in 1934). When the official report of the 1933 examination of the bones found in the Tower was published it declared they were the bones of the Princes, murdered by their uncle – this is an impassioned refutation of the report’s conclusions. RICHARDSON, Geoffrey The Deceivers: the Solution to the Murder of the Princes in the Tower (Baildon Books, 1997). This covers the period from Edward IV’s death in April 1483 until the end of the century – the author believes that the deaths of the Princes, of Lord Hastings and indeed of Richard III himself were effectively brought about by the collective scheming of three people: Margaret Beaufort, Cardinal Morton and Thomas, Lord Stanley. WILLIAMSON, Audrey The Mystery of the Princes: an Investigation into a Supposed Murder (Alan Sutton, 1978). An absorbing investigation into the characters, political alliances and moti- vations of Richard and his supporters and opponents. The author reveals new evidence on the role of Tyrell in the disappearance of the Princes.

Novels Here is a small selection of novels from the Fiction Library in which the Princes feature promi- nently. No list would be complete without The Daughter of Time, but my personal favourite is A Trail of Blood. Please note: I regret that the Fiction Library will be closed until 24 April. BENTLEY, Elizabeth The York Quest (1980). A medieval thriller set in 1485, involving a dis- puted inheritance and the fate of the Princes. DOHERTY, Paul The Fate of Princes (1990). Francis Lovell seeks the solution to the mystery of the disappearance of the Princes amidst the treachery and political manoeuvring of the 1480s. JONES, Cherry Calvert Proud Cis (1980). The story of the twins born to Lady Eleanor Butler and Edward IV, and their involvement with the fate of the Princes; this book does not take itself too seriously. POTTER, Jeremy A Trail of Blood (1970). A detective novel with a difference: a sixteenth- century monk discovers the fate of the Princes. 49

TEY, Josephine The Daughter of Time (first published in 1951). A twentieth-century police in- spector investigates the disappearance of the Princes. Elsewhere in this Bulletin Pamela Hill’s new novel Lady Kate is reviewed, and this carries on the theme of the Princes, and will be available for loan from the Library when it re-opens.

Papers Firstly two items on the Bones: TANNER, L.E. and WRIGHT, William ‘Recent Investigations Regarding the Fate of the Princes in the Tower’ (Archaeologia, Vol 84, 1934). In 1933 an examination was carried out on the bones from the urn in Westminster Abbey. Were they the bones of the Princes? This paper is the official report of that examination. BRAMWELL, Nigel H. and BYARD, Roger W. ‘The Bones in the Abbey – are they the Mur- dered Princes? A Review of the Evidence’ (American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathol- ogy, Vol 10, No 1, 1989). This paper re-examines Tanner and Wright’s official report into the 1933 examination of the bones; could new and improved scientific dating methods provide more accurate results? See also the book by Philip Lindsay listed above. The Papers Library contains a number of articles on those who might have been implicated in the disappearance of the Princes: MAURER, Helen ‘Whodunit: the Suspects in the Case’ (Loyaulté me Lie: Ricardian Register, Vol 18, No 3, Summer 1983). Ten possible murderers are named, and the evidence relating to each of them is examined. WILLIAMSON, Audrey ‘The Princes in the Tower’ (Popular Archaeology, Vol 1, No 4, Octo- ber 1979). Were the Princes murdered or were they taken to live in Suffolk? Was Sir James Tyrell involved? This paper examines the evidence and the local traditions. See also the book by the same author listed above. We also have papers on John Howard, Henry VII and Richard III as possible murderers, and also on the theory that one or both of the Princes survived.

Audio Visual Items The subject of the Princes inevitably features in the majority of programmes dealing with King Richard III in the A/V Library, but those that go into greater detail include three audio tapes: Second Verdict (BBC TV, 1976). Fictional detectives Barlow and Watt (Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor) investigate the mystery of the Princes, with Pamela Tudor-Craig, Lady Wedg- wood. The Princes in the Tower (BBC Radio 4, 1979). Dramatised documentary based on Elizabeth Jenkins’ book, narrated by Robert Harris. Buckingham’s Rebellion and the Disappearance of the Princes. A talk given by Dr D.T. Wil- liams as part of the University of Leicester’s Bosworth Conference in 1973. The most recent video items include: In Search of History: the Missing Princes of England (USA originated/History Channel, 1999). With Martha Andresen (USA), Tony Pollard, Colin Richmond, Peter Hammond and Bill White. Fact or Fiction (Channel 4, 2004). Tony Robinson investigates the reign of Richard III with Mi- chael K. Jones, Tony Pollard, Keith Dockray and Anne Sutton. The Princes in the Tower (Channel 4, 2005). Drama-documentary based on the interrogation of Perkin Warbeck, with flashbacks to earlier events; it offers a new solution to the mystery of the Princes.

Details of latest additions can be found on the library pages of the Society’s website. If you would like to borrow any of the items above, or would like to ask about material on other topics, please contact the relevant Librarian. Their names and contact details are on the inside back cover of the Bulletin. 50

Report on Society Events

Romney Marsh Re-visited – and Winchelsea Following the highly successful September 2006 trip to the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust area which whetted our appetites (there are 14 such churches altogether, so a rich seam for our Visits Committee to mine), a coach load of ‘old’ and newer members set forth from the Em- bankment on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning to muster at our previous coffee stop, the Roy- al Oak at Brookland, with other local members in their cars. This was another chance to view the twelfth-century wooden, three-tier, free-standing bell-tower at St Augustine’s church next door. Thence to pastures new, following our guide for the morning, the Reverend Mr Green, who had been a rector for many years in these parts, like his grandfather before him, who was rector in the 1920s. The car journey, he said, was a far cry from his earliest visits, when it was lanterns along a causewayed path. Our first stop was at his church at Old Romney. Although well inland now, its dedication to St Clement dates the original church to the time of Canute and its proximi- ty to the sea, St Clement having been martyred by being thrown into the sea attached to an an- chor. The present church was built in 1140 AD, with many later additions to accommodate the growing population during the following century. There is very little evidence of change until after the Reformation. There are three seventeenth-century Commandment Boards, reminiscent of Fotheringhay, and a full set of eighteenth-century wooden fittings including a three-tier pulpit (now divided), box pews and a fine gallery – all painted pink! Mr Green explained that this was a cinematograph necessity left by Walt Disney Inc. when filming Dr Syn there in the 1960s, when Old Romney was cast as Dymchurch, which by the twentieth century was too encroached on to portray its own earlier self. The only feature of ‘our’ period was a brass memorial to John and Margaret Ips dated1526. I’d like to suppose that they embarked upon long and happy wedded bliss in Richard’s reign. We left Old Romney for New Romney, which was never meant to be a replacement, being built at the same time, or even earlier, under the patronage of the archbishops of Canterbury, and dedicated to the other patron saint of seafarers, St Nicholas. The church used to be on the quay- side, but is now located in the middle of a landlocked town. A Great Storm in 1287 (exactly 700 years before our own Great Storm) changed the course of the River Rother with the consequent inundation silting up this important Cinque Port, which led to its demise. The church floor is four feet below ground level to this day, and mud-stains are still visible on the Norman pillars, whilst the east end probably had to be rebuilt. The magnificent square tower was built over several decades and demonstrates the change in style in arcading from Norman in the lower tier (naturally!) to Transitional in the upper levels. This church owes its unspoilt appearance to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (founded by William Morris in 1878), being one of its earliest successes, in 1880. After thanking our excellent guide, we adjourned for lunch in the town, which is well- endowed with hostelries), then re-embarked for our afternoon ‘free-range’ visit to Winchelsea, another of the Cinque Ports. The weather had remained sunny all day and the coach journey was delightful, the view seemingly to infinity from our vantage-point high above the hedgerows, a pleasure not afforded to those who choose to travel in cars. Winchelsea was a New Town, designed by John de Kirkby for Edward I to replace Old Winchelsea, another victim of 1287, which now lies under the sea, almost without trace. The town retains its original plan, walled and gated with the roads on a grid pattern. This is due to several factors: the Black Death, and Spanish and French raids, all reducing the population, and the silting-up of the harbour. In fact, New Winchelsea was in decline after a mere hundred years. 51

It also survived a threat in 1908, when a Mr George Freeman bought up large areas of the town to protect it from the advertised sale of ‘Profitable Development by Land Companies and Specula- tors’. (’T’was ever thus!) He surely deserves a statue in the town. The church of St Thomas the Martyr and its large churchyard occupies one of the central squares of the grid and is enormous, despite most of it being ruinous and quarried. It has been compared to a cathedral in size, and if the town hadn’t declined might well have become one, as there is nothing else along the South Coast until Chichester. A rare sculpture of Edward I’s head is found high in the church overlooking the splendid tomb of Gervase Alard, the first mayor of Winchelsea. Abutting the churchyard is a tree, a scion of the original whereunder John Wesley preached his last open-air sermon in 1790. This seems rather confrontational, as he also had a chapel in the next street, founded in 1785. The town also boasts an excellent, all-embracing museum, housed in the upper room of the Court Hall. Every aspect of the life and history of the town is included, but pride of place here must go to one of the Winchelsea Maces, dating from about 1485. Our final stop was at the New Inn, which lived up to its name by serving blueberry muffins with afternoon tea. To be fair, this was probably due to earlier-bird Ricardians having already scoffed all the scones. It only remained before we returned to the metropolis to thank Ruth Ross, our intrepid marsh scout who ascertains in a ‘dry run’ what is possible in time and space, and is therefore an invaluable help to our organiser, Kitty Bristow. Our sincere thanks to Kitty for yet another very enjoyable and informative outing, arranged with her customary Melhuishian flair. Where to next? Joan Cooksley

Fotheringhay The most cheerful of the Society’s annual fixtures is the December day when we go to Fothering- hay for a Christmas dinner and a festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in the magnificent church there. The Bosworth visit is when we remember a defeat, the requiem masses remember the dead, but Fotheringhay is Fun. Fotheringhay is a lovely place, full of ancient stonework and modern money, and the church stands proud if truncated above the river. It is usually very cold inside, and this year was no ex- ception, but a lady selling her hand-crafted woolly scarves for church funds did a roaring trade – after the service. A pity I didn’t see her on the way in. Perhaps she wasn’t there. As always, the choir, the St Peter’s Singers, sang beautifully: it is worth going on this trip for their music alone. Parishioners and Society members read the lessons turn and turn about, ending as usual with Phil Stone’s reading of ‘The Journey of the Magi’ from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. This was something started long ago by the late Arthur Cockerill of the York- shire Branch, and makes our Nine Lessons and Carols service very special. It is beautiful and thought-provoking, and Phil reads it well: differently from Arthur, but still well. At least no-one has yet got round to writing a new version of T.S. Eliot for the twenty-first century. (The loss of ‘the darkness comprehendeth it not’ from the beginning of St John’s Gospel still rankles with me – the new translation ‘understand’ does not get all the nuances. I do so wish the vicar would use the King James version.) The other readers from the Society were Sally Henshaw, Keith Horry and Joan Cooksley and Kitty Bristow 52

Beth Stone. The visit is an opportunity to meet and talk to old Ricardian friends from all over the country, as many branches and groups join in this celebration. At the Christmas dinner the wine flows, the laughter rises, the crackers and paper crowns add to the festivity, and the mince pies fortify us against the coming chill of the church. In the church, one each side of the altar, lie Richard’s parents, the duke and duchess of York; they at least have a last resting place in a fitting spot. We can enfold them in our music and cheerfulness for Christmas, even if it doesn’t reach out as far as their son Richard under a car-park or whatever in Leicester. Thanks to Phil Stone for arranging it. It’s fitting that it’s part of the Chairman’s job to arrange fun for us at Fotheringhay at Christmas. Lesley Boatwright

Members enjoying their lunch at Fotheringhay

Future Society Events

New Announcements

Norfolk Branch Study Day: Inspirational Monarchs, Inspirational Leaders. 15 November 2008 Featuring Professor Michael Prestwich, Dr Michael K. Jones and Dr Phil Stone. Contact Mrs Annmarie Hayek, tel: 01603 664021, e-mail [email protected]. Full details and booking form will be in the June Bulletin. The raffle held at the Norfolk Branch Study Day in 2007 raised £67, which the Norfolk Branch Committee decided to contribute towards the cost of the Cromer Plaque. Annmarie Hayek

Bookable Events

Visit to Fotheringhay and Nassington Saturday 7 June 2008 (re-scheduled from 21 June) Many have expressed a wish to return to Nassington Prebendal Manor while some have asked if we can visit Fotheringhay at a time other than in December, so we are combining the two and visiting both in June. Let us hope the weather is kind. We have also re-scheduled the event as the original date clashes with the East Midlands Study Day. The Manor is a thirteenth-century house and was the home of church officials – prebendaries – until 1846. One former resident was Lionel Woodville. Although it is still lived in, the house has kept its medieval look and feel, while the garden has been described as a ‘stunning re- creation’ of a high status medieval garden, both decorative and practical. We will take a coach up to Fotheringhay and spend a couple of hours there, visiting the church and eating a packed lunch – yes, bring your own! Some may wish to look at the castle if the ground isn’t too muddy. We will then drive to Nassington a few miles up the road, where we will visit the house and garden. I am told that changes have been made to both since we were there last. There will also be an opportunity to have tea before we return to London. However, this has NOT been included in the cost of the visit. The coach will leave from Charing Cross Embankment at 9.15 a.m., getting back between 7 and 7.30 p.m. Pickups in Bromley (8.30 a.m.) and Wanstead (9.45 a.m.) will be available for those who let me know beforehand. For those coming by coach, the cost will be £19.00 to cover cost of coach, entry, admin, etc. People wishing to join us using their own transport will be more than welcome. The cost will be £6.00 for entry, admin, etc. Please complete the booking form and return it to me, with cheque and s.a.e. as soon as possible. (Remember: no s.a.e. – no reply, no place!) Phil Stone, Fotheringhay Co-ordinator

Peasantry, Gentry & Nobility, East Midlands Branch Study Day Saturday 21 June 2008 A Study Day will be held at the Leicester Adult Education College, Wellington Street, Leicester from 09.30 a.m. until 4.30 p.m. The programme will feature talks on:  A Peasant’s life in Medieval England by Gareth King  The Paston Family by Dr Helen Castor  The Silk Weavers of Soper Lane by Gina Barrett  The Kingmaker’s Sisters by David Baldwin

Refreshments are included in the price. Own arrangements for lunch. Please complete the booking form in the centre section to apply for tickets and further details, and send by 23 May 2008 to the branch secretary Sally Henshaw, 28 Lyncroft Leys, Scraptoft, Leicester. LE7 9UW, telephone 0116 2433785, e-mail: [email protected] Sally Henshaw

Thaxted and Saffron Walden Saturday 19 July 2008 Our first stop will be Broxted, where we will visit the medieval parish church of St Mary the Vir- gin which has beautiful modern stained glass windows commemorating the captivity and release of the Beirut hostages, John McCarthy and Terry Waite. This will be a fairly quick visit as we will then make our way to Thaxted, where we will have a coffee stop at the Swan Hotel (included). Thaxted has a compact medieval centre with timber-framed buildings and steeply pitched roofs. Thaxted used to be famous for wool and cutlery and you can still see the wonderful Cut- lers’ Guildhall set on stilts dating back to the fifteenth century. You will be free to explore Thax- ted in your own time. We then leave Thaxted for Saffron Walden in time for lunch (own arrangements) then meet our guides for a guided tour (included) of Saffron Walden which, again, is a medieval town. Among the sights to see is the beautiful St Mary’s Church, which has cathedral-size proportions. The Museum is also worth a visit and has the Castle ruins in its grounds. After the guided tour you will have free time for tea (own arrangements) and to explore this historic town at your leisure. We plan to leave for London at 5.30, arriving back at Embankment at approximately 7.00 p.m. The cost of the trip is £24 (including the coach, driver’s tip, coffee and the guided tour). For those coming by own transport the cost will be £6. Please see centre pages for the booking form. Carolyn West

Branch & Group Contacts

Branches

America David M. Luitweiler, 1268 Wellington Drive, Victor, New York, 14564 United States of America. Tel: 585 924 5022. E-mail: [email protected] Canada Mrs Tracy Bryce, 5238 Woodhaven Drive, Burlington, Ontario, L7L 3T4, Canada. E-mail: [email protected] Devon & Cornwall Mrs Anne E Painter, Yoredale, Trewithick Road, Breage, Helston, Cornwall, TR13 9PZ. Tel. 01326 562023. E-mail: aepaint- [email protected] Gloucester Angela Iliff, 18 Friezewood Road, Ashton, Bristol, BS3 2AB Tel: 0117 378 9237. E-mail: [email protected] Greater Manchester Mrs Helen Ashburn, 36 Clumber Road, Gorton, Manchester, M18 7LZ. Tel: 0161 320 6157. E-mail: [email protected] Hull & District Terence O’Brien, 2 Hutton Close, Hull, HU4 4LD. Tel: 01482 445312 Lincolnshire Mrs J T Townsend, Westborough Lodge Farm, Westborough, Newark, Notts. NG23 5HP.Tel: 01400 281289. E-mail: [email protected] London & Home Counties Miss E M Nokes, 4 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London SW3 5NN. Tel: 01689 823569. E-mail: [email protected] Midlands-East Mrs Sally Henshaw, 28 Lyncroft Leys, Scraptoft, Leicester, LE7 9UW. Tel: 0116 2433785. E-mail: [email protected] New South Wales Julia Redlich, 53 Cammeray Towers, 55 Carter Street, New South Wales, 2062, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] New Zealand Robert Smith, ‘Wattle Downs’, Udy Street, Greytown, New Zea- land. E-mail: [email protected] Norfolk Mrs Annmarie Hayek, 20 Rowington Road, Norwich, NR1 3RR. Tel: 01603 664021. E-mail: [email protected] Queensland Jo Stewart, c/o PO Box 117, Paddington, Queensland, 4064, Aus- tralia. E-mail: [email protected] Scotland Juliet Middleton, 49 Ochiltree, Dunblane, Perthshire, FK15 0DF Tel: 01786 825665 E-mail: [email protected] South Australia Mrs Sue Walladge, 5 Spencer Street, Cowandilla, South Australia 5033, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] Thames Valley Sally Empson, 42 Pewsey Vale, Forest Park, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 9YA. E-mail: [email protected] Victoria Hazel Hajdu, 4 Byron Street, Wattle Park, Victoria, 3128, Austra- lia. E-mail: [email protected] Western Australia Helen Hardegen, 16 Paramatta Road, Doubleview, Western Aus- tralia 6018, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] Worcestershire Mrs Pam Benstead, 15 St Marys Close, Kempsey WR5 3JX E-mail: [email protected] Yorkshire Mrs Moira Habberjam, 10 Otley Old Road, Leeds LS16 6HD. Tel: 0113 2675069. E-mail: [email protected]

56 Groups

Airedale Mrs Christine Symonds, 2 Whitaker Avenue, Bradford, BD2 3HL. Tel: 01274 774680. E-mail: [email protected] Bedfordshire/ Mrs Rose Skuse, 12 Brookfield Rd, Newton Longville, Bucks, Buckinghamshire MK17 0BP Tel: 01908 373524 E-mail: [email protected] Bristol Keith Stenner, 96 Allerton Crescent, Whitchurch, Bristol, Tel: 01275 541512 (in affiliation with Gloucestershire Branch) E-mail: [email protected] Croydon Miss Denise Price, 190 Roundwood Rd, London NW10 Tel: 0181 451 7689 Cumbria John & Marjorie Smith, 26 Clifford Road, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 8PP Dorset Mrs Judy Ford, 15 Sandon House, 643 Blandford Rd, Upton, Poole, BH16 5ED Tel: 01202 624938 E-mail: [email protected] Mid Anglia John Ashdown-Hill, 8 Thurlston Close, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3HF. Tel/fax: 01206 523267. E-mail: [email protected] North East Mrs J McLaren, 11 Sefton Avenue, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 5QR Tel: 0191 265 3665. E-mail: [email protected] Nottinghamshire Mrs Anne Ayres, 7 Boots Yard, Huthwaite, Sutton-in-Ashfield & Derbyshire Notts, NG17 2QW. E-mail: [email protected] Sussex Miss Josie Williams, 6 Goldstone Court, Windsor Close, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 6WS. E-mail: [email protected] West Surrey Rollo Crookshank, Old Willows, 41a Badshot Park, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 9JU. E-mail: [email protected]

Forget-Me-Not Books

Out of print and second hand history books, fact and fiction

For my new spring catalogue please contact: Judith Ridley 11 Tamarisk Rise, Wokingham Berkshire. RG40 1WG Email: [email protected]

Branches and Groups

Devon and Cornwall Branch Forthcoming events: Saturday 10 May Talk, ‘The Death of Kings’, by Dr Ian Mortimer Saturday 12 July Talk, ‘The Medieval Housewife’, by Toni Mount Both these talks will take place at The Prysten House, Plymouth, and start at 12.30 p.m. Branch members £1.50, non-branch members £6, to include tea/coffee and cakes following the talk. Anne Painter

Gloucester Branch Report After such a long, dark and certainly very soggy winter we are all looking forward to our spring and summer field visits. Some are already arranged and, no doubt, some further fixtures will be added shortly. We know there are many Ricardians living in the south-west region who have never attended a meeting of their nearest Branch. If you are one of these people, why not come along and experience one of our events? You will be made very welcome and there is no obligation to join on a permanent basis. Please feel free to bring a friend. If transport presents a problem it is virtually certain we will have a member in your area that may be able to pick you up. We are always keen to see a new face so why not phone one of numbers below and try a meeting? Contacts: For Gloucester Branch and Bristol Group please see contacts pages 29 and 30 or contact Mike and Monica Donnelly, Cheltenham Tel: 01242 238790 E-mail [email protected]

Forthcoming events: Saturday 1 March ‘The Kingship of Henry VII’ Talk by Professor Ronald Hutton Emanuel Hall, Leckhampton, Cheltenham. Friday 14 March Informal discussion: ‘Favourite Castles’ , Liz Claridge, Clevedon. Saturday 17 May Medieval Salisbury: leisurely walking tour of the medieval city. Saturday 7 June Medieval Warwick: professionally guided all-day walking tour of Warwick, to include Lord Leycester’s Hospital, St Mary’s Church (Beauchamp Chapel), the castle exterior and other aspects of the medieval town. Saturday 5 July Informal discussion: ‘The Grandchildren of Henry VII’ The Donnellys, Leckhampton, Cheltenham. Keith Stenner

Greater Manchester Branch Report The Branch AGM was held on 10 October and a number of issues regarding our monthly meetings were addressed. We presently hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of each month on a rota basis of various members’ homes. Our Branch members are scattered over quite a wide geographical area of Manchester and we have been aware for some time that is often difficult for members to attend every meeting, especially over the winter months. As a result of our discus- sions we have made some changes. Between April and September meetings will take place on the first Wednesday of each month and between October and March on the first Sunday of each month. We hope that this change will also encourage new members who live in our area to join us. 58

We are also going to make some changes to our Branch journal Semper Fidelis which is presently produced annually. It was suggested that as most of our members are now on the internet we could try and produce an electronic version, perhaps on a more regular basis. This will certainly cut down on production costs and enable a more flexible approach to the format. At our January meeting a number of members gave ten-minute talks on various subjects. In February we listened to a fascinating talk with slides about the history of the areas surrounding Warrington in Cheshire by local archaeologist Mark Olly. The area has a wealth of interesting churches and other buildings and places of historic interest to visit. Mark is one of our most popular guest speakers and also presents the television series ‘Lost Treasures’. In April we visited Smithills Hall in Bolton for an evening tour. The hall has a long history and is surrounded by extensive grounds. Parts of the building date back to the 14th and 15th centuries and the great hall is particularly impressive. Everyone enjoyed the evening and we were provided with an excellent buffet at the end of the tour. In June we had a talk with slides on Northumberland, a beautiful area of the country which has become a very popular holiday destination with Branch members. Our Christmas Buffet in December was a great success and we all had a very convivial evening. After we had eaten some delicious food we held a raffle and followed this by an entertaining quiz. It was a lovely evening spent with good company and put us all in the mood for the festive season. Helen Ashburn

Worcestershire Branch Report Our October meeting, held at Warndon Church Hall, was a social meeting and fund-raising event. We had a splendid afternoon with ample time to chat to other members and browse our substantive library that is ably run by Judith Sealey and Sylvia Franklin. The fund-raising was by means of a small bring and buy stall. I took orders for home-made Christmas puddings and Judith devised a treasure hunt that really taxed our knowledge of places Ricardian. We completed the afternoon with tea and cakes. On 10 November Sarah Thursfield, author of The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant, came to Kid- derminster to talk about and demonstrate the making and wearing of medieval clothing. She arrived in her camper van directly from the Ryton Medieval Fair where she had a stand. She is a professional costume maker and runs courses at the village hall in Llanymynech, Shropshire. What an informative and fun afternoon we had as she began her talk with the undergarments, explaining that these were the only items to be washed on a regular basis. They were mainly made from linen and were the basis of the underwear we have today. Some of us were even old enough to remember the liberty bodice! Sarah was already attired in her ‘indoor’ medieval garment, a lightweight dress with the appropriate linen items beneath, when she arrived, and during her talk she gradually donned other garments explaining each one as she did until she was fully dressed for a winter’s day out of doors. The differences in quality for the various classes of society were also explained. She is a very good speaker involving, the audience in the talk, and afterward we were able to handle the huge number of items she brought along, the different types of headgear being the most popular with the ladies. If any other Branch or Group would like her to give them a talk or demonstration her web site is www. sarahthursfield.com Our Christmas ‘Bring and Share’ tea was most enjoyable with a wide range of wonderful food and a good choice of wine to accompany it. After Judith Sealey had welcomed everyone and given a brief resumé of the year’s activities we all eagerly awaited Ralph Richardson’s fiend- ish quiz and hilarious ‘Many a Slip’ game. As usual, instead of all sending Christmas cards to each other we will be donating the money towards a worthy cause. The raffle was well supported with each member of the committee and some of the members donating a prize, and at the end of the afternoon people collected their Christmas puddings and we all went home satisfied with a very good year of Ricardian activities. 59

In January we met at Broome near Stourbridge for a fascinating talk by Greeta Lacey on the restoration of the Old Grammar School and the Saracen’s Head. They were the winners of the ‘Restoration’ programme in 2004. We are all looking forward very much to our visit there in Au- gust.

Forthcoming Events: 8 March Talk by Rebecca Beale ‘Richard Duke of York’ at Warndon Church Hall. Door £3 12 April AGM and tour of Salwarp Church, meeting at Salwarp Village Hall. Door £2 (Branch Subs will be due at this meeting.) 17 May The long-awaited guided tour of Madresfield Court in Malvern. Places must be booked and paid for one month prior to the visit. Pease let Joan Ryder know if you are attending. 14 June Visit to Warwick with Ralph Richardson to see the Beauchamp Chapl, Sheldon Chapel and Warwick Museum.

Details of our programme can be found on our branch web site www.richardiiiworcs.co.uk or contact our programme planner, Joan Ryder 01384 394228, for further information. We are always pleased to welcome friends and prospective members at any of our meetings. Pat Parminter

Yorkshire Branch Report Those of you who received our December newsletter will know that the Yorkshire Branch Com- mittee for 2007-8 has a new chairman, Ralph Taylor. Moira Habberjam continues as our secretary, with Christine Symonds as our treasurer and librarian and Pauline Harrison Pogmore as our research officer. Angela Moreton continues to edit our magazine Blanc Sanglier and the newsletter. Sharon Stow and Wendy and Ian Mills complete the Committee. It is hoped that we can get our website running again this year after various technical problems hampered it recently, and Wendy and Ian will have the remit for this. The deadline for the last report prevented me from reporting on the Branch’s ‘Boar’ dinner, which was held on 20 October 2007 at a new venue which proved very successful. Flowers were presented to Mary O’Regan, possibly our longest-standing member, as a visible appreciation of her contribution to the life of Yorkshire Branch since the mid-1960s. Mary has been our chairman twice, vice-chairman twice, editor of Blanc Sanglier twice and our branch research officer for many years until 2004. Now that she is no longer on the Committee it was an appropriate oc- casion to thank her for all her past work for the Branch. The Branch’s commemoration of the battle of Wakefield took place at Sandal castle on 29 December, on a very cold and windy day. A wreath including white roses, as before the work of Pauline Pogmore, was laid at the duke of York’s statue in Marygates Lane on behalf of Yorkshire Branch. Members of the Towton Battlefield Society escorted the wreath, and our chairman Ralph Taylor made a short speech reminding us of the context of the battle and the lives lost there. A minute’s silence was also observed. Yorkshire Branch and the TBS had stalls at the castle Visitor Centre, and we did good business, but the weather precluded outside activities. Further to my comments in March 2006, we noticed that the duke’s statue is still minus its head. This should be rectified. On Sunday 16 March – Palm Sunday – the TBS will as usual have a living history camp in the grounds of Towton Hall, with various activities (archery, falconry, pole arm drill), guided walks round the battlefield and a short service of commemoration of those who died in the terrible battle of 1461. Events run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission, including parking, is just £2 per adult; children under 12 free. Food and drink will be on sale and Yorkshire Branch will have 60

a sales and publicity stall: remembering the beautiful weather last year we hope it won’t be as bad as it was in 2006, although perhaps the worse the weather the more apt the reminder of 1461. We are glad to announce that after a year in abeyance our Branch lecture will be held again this year. The date is Saturday 10 May, the venue (as previously) the lecture theatre at the Leeds City Art Gallery, and the speaker Dr David Baldwin; his topic will be aspects of the enduring mystery of the ‘Princes in the Tower’. Dr Baldwin’s recent book on Richard of Eastwell is of course connected with this, and he is to be one of the speakers at the Richard III Society’s Con- ference in Cirencester at the end of March. The lecture will start at 2.00 p.m. but the hall will be open from 1 o’clock, and we hope to see plenty of members and friends there to revive one of the Branch’s oldest traditions. On Sunday 8 June the Branch will have a stall, for the first time, at Manor Lodge, Sheffield. We don’t often have the chance to attend events in the south of the county as a ‘whole branch’ so this is especially welcome. The lodge was originally built as a hunting lodge to Sheffield castle (itself now almost entirely gone) and has connections with the earl of Shrewsbury who was at Bosworth. It is sometimes host to living history days and re-enactments, and we hope that we shall meet some local members there. Elsewhere in this Bulletin you should have read about an exciting new venture in DVDs, the Richard III Collection, the first of which, ‘Middleham castle: a royal residence’, is now available. Those of us who saw the DVD prior to its release can confirm that it is a fascinating and informative look at a place we thought we knew well. Angela Moreton

Are any members of our Society Iron Workers?

Terry Cresswell is looking for someone to make him bodkins and broadheads.

If you can help contact Terry on Tel: 0116 224 9563 or [email protected]

New Members

United Kingdom: 1 October – 31 December 2007 Sarah Alcorn, Co Down, Northern Ireland Eve Mills, Stamford Valerie Bearman, South Molton Joseph Mitchell, nr Wakefield Susanne Bridger, Orpington Christina Parker, nr Witney Catherine Clifford, London Isabella Porter, Preston Anne Cole, Lincoln Graham Pratten, Stoke-On-Trent Gruff Dodd, Cardiff Anne Quade, Woodford Green Julie Donaldson, St Albans Eleanor Reader-Moore, Wellingborough Christopher Ellmore, Brighton Diane Ruff, London Mark Hinsley, Ashby De La Zouch Jill and Ray Rundle, Oundle Veronica Jackson, Derby Isobel Sneesby, Barrow-In-Furness Susan Jeeves, Cambridge G. Stuart, Aberdeenshire Doreen Lewis, Godmanchester, Maureen and Lee Timmins, Etwall Bruce Logan, London Jane Tolfree, High Wycombe Sandra and John Love, Orpington Margaret Wright, Devizes Alison Millerman, Manchester

Overseas: 1 October – 31 December 2007 Lorenzo Ardissone, Torino, Italy Veronica Guy, Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia Kenneth Coghill, Fairview, AB, Canada Lesley Harris, Levin, New Zealand Nancy Donovan, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Pat Masters, Mullaloo, Western Australia Howard Laurie Fitzpatrick, Venezia, Italy Joyce Silbaugh, Auckland, New Zealand Hanne Gidora, Coquitlam, BC, Canada Joanne Vago, Towanda, PA, USA

American Branch: 1 October – 31 December 2007 Terri L. Carter, Washington Gail Malane, New York Beverly Case, California Frost McGahey, New Mexico Michele Klocke Datta, Florida Daniel Means, Ohio Honore Foster, California Fran and Jim Mullins, New York Terry and Laurie Goodell, Maryland Emily Palmer, Colorado Adrienne Hofer, Louisiana Judith Peterson, New York Bernice B. Komaroff, New Jersey John Sowerby, Florida

Obituaries

Peter Bain I didn’t know Peter Bain (Boston, Lincolnshire) well but he attended two of the study weekends in York and he quickly became part of this friendly bunch of Ricardians who meet in our favourite city. Peter, with his wife Anne, was an inveterate traveller who enjoyed regaling tales of his travels during our leisure sessions in the bar. He will be missed at the next weekend. Wendy Moorhen

Yvonne Hannis We are very sad to report the sudden death of Yvonne Hannis on 30 October, 2007. A very loyal and supportive member of the Gloucester Branch, she had a wonderful grasp of history and her knowledge was vast. Yvonne could always be relied upon to provide that extra gem to any discussion. She often found and brought to our attention items of local interest including, most recently, the redevelopment at Blackfriars in Gloucester and the Royal Hop Pole in Tewkesbury. Yvonne was also a very active member of the Cats Protection League and worked hard providing homes for many cats in need of new homes. She was a kind and generous member who always found time to share her knowledge with her many friends. Her funeral, on 15 November, was attended by Mike and Monica Donnelly and Mickie O’Neill. The eulogy mentioned her membership and commitment to the Richard III Society. Her drive and enthusiasm will be much missed at future Branch meetings. Mike Donnelly

Miss S.M. Peirce Miss Peirce, of Slough, Berkshire, had been a member of the Society for over 20 years and was one of the many ‘private’ members who chose not to become actively involved in Society activities. However, she thought enough about the Society to leave a small legacy in her will, which is very much appreciated. Wendy Moorhen

Recently Deceased Members

Dr L. Gellatly, Twickenham, Middlesex Ms Jackie Gillard, Derby Mr W. Kendall, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Mr Patricia Myles, Ringwood, Hampshire Mr P. Page, Burton In Kendall, Cumbria Mrs M. Sidders, Derby Mr Donald Woodall, Torquay, Devon

Calendar

We run a calendar of all forthcoming events: if you are aware of any events of Ricardian interest, whether organised by the Society – Executive Committee, Visits Committee, Research Commit- tee, Branches/Groups – or by others, please let Lynda Pidgeon have full details, in sufficient time for entry. The calendar will also be run on the website, and, with full details, for members, on the intranet.

Date Events Originator 2008 15 March Annual Requiem Mass, Clare Priory, Suffolk John Ashdown-Hill

17 March Annual Wreath-laying, Westminster Abbey John Ashdown-Hill

28 - 30 March Triennial Conference Wendy Moorhen

14 - 19 May Visit to Avignon Visits Committee

16 - 27 June The Ricardian Rover, Travels with Richard III American Branch

7 June Visit to Fotheringhay and Nassington Visits Committee (re-scheduled from 21 June) See p. 54

21 June East Midlands Study Day, Peasantry, Gentry & East Midlands Nobility, Leicester Branch. See p. 55

19 July Visit to Thaxted and Saffron Walden Visits Committee See p. 55

17 August Bosworth Memorial Service and Visit Visits Committee to Battlefield

6 September London Walk Visits Committee

4 October AGM in York Secretary

15 November Norfolk Branch Study Day, Inspirational Monarchs Norfolk Branch Inspirational Leaders

6 December Scotland Branch Lecture Edinburgh Scotland Branch

13 December Fotheringhay Carol Service Phil Stone

2009 14 March Annual Requiem Mass, Church of Our Lady John Ashdown-Hill and the English Martyrs, Cambridge

27-29 March Study Weekend in York Wendy Moorhen

10-14 July Long weekend visit – south Wales based in Swansea Visit Committee 64