Ricardian Bulletin Contents Summer 2007 2 From the Chairman 3 Strategy Update 9 Society News and Notices 12 Media Retrospective 14 News and Reviews 17 The Man Himself: by Tony Goodman 20 Medieval Migration: by Peter W. Lee 22 A Proclamation Against Henry Tudor, 23 June 1485: by David Candlin 25 Hastings and the Meeting at St Paul’s: by Gordon Smith 27 Chedworth Parish Church: by Gwen & Brian Waters 29 A ‘Lost’ Medieval Document: by Lynda Pidgeon 30 Logge Notes and Queries: Helen Barker’s Miracles by Lesley Boatwright 33 Correspondence 36 Guidelines for Contributors to the Bulletin 37 The Barton Library 40 New Members 41 Australasian Convention 2007 44 Report on Society Events 52 Future Society Events 55 Branch and Group Contacts - Update 55 Branches and Groups 58 Obituaries and Recently Deceased Members 60 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, 2007 1 From the Chairman ime for another issue of the Bulletin, and, all being well, you should have the 2007 edition T of The Ricardian too. As ever, this contains a wide range of articles and reviews which con- tinue to maintain the highest standards in fifteenth-century scholarship, and which reflect so well on the Society. For all this, my thanks go to Anne Sutton, now in her twenty-ninth year as editor. ‘From the Chairman’ is always written once the first draft of the Bulletin has been assembled. That way, my comments can be kept as up to date as possible. (It also means that there is a tight deadline to have the piece ready in time; if not, guess who’s in trouble with the Editorial Team?) Looking through, I see that the team has put together another interesting and entertaining issue and for that it, too, deserves our thanks. In this issue, we have articles on two churches with close Yorkist connections, while Peter Lee explores the topical subject of migration, though from a medieval perspective. Tony Goodman examines Richard III, and the sacredness of kingship, and continuing that theme, Lesley Boatwright links a Logge will to one of the ‘miracles’ of Henry VI. Gordon Smith throws some new light on Lord Hastings’s motives during the early weeks of Ed- ward V’s reign and another article revisits Richard III’s 1484 proclamation against Henry Tudor – the one that rather charmingly refers to Henry’s ‘ambitiousness and insatiable covetousness’. Clearly, in that sense at least, Richard knew his enemy! There are reports from the three events held over the weekend of 13-15 April: the Australa- sian Convention, hosted by the New Zealand Branch, the York Study Weekend and the Scottish Branch Study Day. The accounts confirm that these events were great successes, with two themes common to two of the events: banquets and tournaments. The reviews reminded me that, wherev- er they are in the world, Ricardians know how to have a good time. Furthermore, I urge you all to read the article that gives an update on a number of issues that fall within the strategy remit. As well as some important news about future subscription rates, there is a summary of the Constitution Working Party’s review of the Society’s voting system, and news of an exciting development on the public relations front. Finally, we are asking for your views on the future of the annual Bosworth In Memoriam notice. It is with sadness that we record the death of Noreen Armstrong, the recipient of last year’s Robert Hamblin award for service to the Society. She had been ill for a long time. However, I understand from those who knew her well, she was one of those ladies for whom the word ‘indomitable’ was coined. Without Noreen, there would be far fewer members of the Society in Canada. Here in the northern hemisphere, summer fast approaches and it is worth noting that in medi- eval times, midsummer was celebrated with the lighting of bonfires, feasting and much merry- making, traditions that largely disappeared during the Reformation, unfortunately, although some rural areas managed to maintain them into the nineteenth century. Far be it from me to suggest that Ricardians should revive these traditional celebrations of summer – but, what the heck, sure- ly a little merrymaking wouldn’t go amiss? On that note, let me close by saying that I hope to see many of you during the summer season, and especially at our annual Bosworth gathering in Au- gust. Phil Stone 2 Strategy Update ur on-going strategic review involves a number of key areas: making realistic decisions O about income and expenditure; improving the way the Society is managed; and exploring new opportunities to further our objectives. We promised in the last Bulletin to keep members up to date with progress on the strategy front and there have been a number of new developments recently which members need to know about, and these are outlined below. They all demonstrate that we are making sound progress with our review and are focussing on what more we can do to promote a positive picture of the life and achievements of King Richard III. Subscriptions: An Inconvenient Truth The title of this piece is borrowed of course; but the essence of the message is the same: some- thing we have to face up to but would prefer not to. In our case it is not global warming, however vital that is to humanity’s survival, but something that is vital to our Society’s survival, and this is the issue of subscription rates and categories. Throughout its history the Society has always aimed to keep subscription levels as low as possible. Indeed between 1991 and 1999 we didn’t increase the rate at all. Popular though this may be we all know that it was not sustainable and in many respects was only possible because of the legacy that we received from the late Edda Cur- ry. Members will be aware that we have done a lot of soul-searching over the past five years whilst reviewing the way the Society operates, and this has inevitably included an examination of our financial position. This has led to significant changes to our membership, distribution and sales activities which have resulted in a small surplus in our accounts for 2005/2006 after many years of deficit. At this point it is worth quoting again Mr Micawber’s wise words ‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.’ We must now seek to consolidate this achievement to ensure that surplus remains the norm for the future, and it is important to emphasise that a surplus provides the Society with on-going cap- ital to use for promotion, publications and research. In this spirit we are continuing to monitor our financial situation very closely and in so doing we have reached the point where realistic decisions have to be made about future subscription rates. One key fact to emerge is that the cost of providing the universal benefits of membership to some categories has for many years been more than the subscription being charged. This is clearly not a tenable situation, not least because it means that other members are subsidising these categories, which overall limits the surplus available to take forward the aims of the Society. It is therefore inevitable that a motion to in- crease subscription rates will have to be tabled at this year’s Annual General Meeting. We are now taking a long-term view of our financial position and, reflecting on the subscription increases tabled at the 2001 and 2004 AGMs, we find that these simply provided us with suffi- cient income to maintain our existing services and activities, but did not provide us the crucial working capital to enable us to invest in activities that would help us promote the positive view of King Richard III. We feel that members want us to be in a position to do this and not merely tread water. To illustrate how a lack of working capital holds us back here are some examples: 3 Our publications programme is stalling because we do not have the funds to finance the up- front costs of publishing; this is delaying the publication of the Wills Project. Another key area where we are hampered by lack of funds is promotion and recruitment; vital areas for our long term survival. We currently have low stocks of our membership brochure; this will need to be redesigned and reprinted in the coming months. We would also like to promote ourselves in some of the popular history magazines which have large circulations; this would be a new departure for us and one which offers great potential for raising our pro- file and recruiting new members. Our website, developed so far with little cost, is now estab- lished as our principal source of new members.