Ricardian

Bulletin Magazine of the Richard III Society

ISSN 0308 4337 June 2012

Ricardian

Bulletin June 2012

Contents 2 From the Chairman 3 Society News and Notices Annual General Meeting 2012 New Faces on the Bulletin Committee Our Research Officer has gained her PhD Updates on our projects Fotheringhay Revisited Report on the Society’s Triennial Conference at Loughborough, by Ken Hillier 15 News and Reviews 22 In Prospect 24 Media Retrospective 26 The Man Himself: Looking for Richard: in Search of a King, by Philippa Langley 29 Yorkist Era Sports, by Compton Reeves 32 A Series of Remarkable Ladies. 1, Clarice Orsini, by Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt 33 Dark Sovereign Resuscitates Richard III, by Robert Fripp 37 ‘Bambi’ versus ‘Superswine’, by Geoffrey Wheeler 40 Jane Austen’s opinion of Richard III ... and others 41 Spying out Bosworth battlefield? by Lesley Boatwright 42 That wasn’t his wife - that was an angel ... 43 Correspondence 46 The Barton Library 48 Future Society Events 51 From our Australasian Correspondent, by Dorothea Preis 54 Branch and Group Contacts 56 Branches and Groups 58 New Members and Recently Deceased Members 59 Obituaries 60 Calendar

Contributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. All contributions should be sent to Lesley Boatwright. Bulletin Press Dates 15 January for March issue; 15 April for June issue; 15 July for September issue; 15 October for December issue. Articles should be sent well in advance. Bulletin & Ricardian Back Numbers Back issues of The Ricardian and the 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 Micropress Printers Ltd. © Richard III Society, 2012

From the Chairman

n the UK, we have just experienced the wettest April for a hundred years, which is somewhat I ironic given that parts of the country had previously been designated drought zones. Unfortunately even the record rainfall has not been enough to relieve the drought situation, but, if you will forgive the pun, there is no drought of good articles in this issue of the Bulletin. In Britain, our summer will be dominated by the Olympics and we make our contribution to the games with Compton Reeves’ excellent account of ‘sport’ in Yorkist England. It was intriguing to note that football started out as a game called camp-ball, which involved a pig’s bladder filled with peas. Ouch! The other major event is, of course, the celebration of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I’m sure members would wish me to record the Society’s appreciation of her sixty years of service and commitment to this country and the Commonwealth. Another person we must congratulate is our Research Officer, Lynda Pidgeon, for achieving her PhD, and also for organising, along with Anne Painter and Jacqui Emerson, such an excellent triennial conference in Loughborough. For those unable to be there, Ken Hillier’s insightful and entertaining review gives you a very good idea of what you missed. Not only were all the speakers superb, but the venue was first class. The Man Himself in this issue has a very poignant focus on Richard and, given that he is one of the few English kings whose mortal remains are lost, any attempt to rectify this, such as the ‘Looking for Richard’ project, has to be welcomed. Philippa Langley has shown considerable initiative and determination in developing and promoting this project, and we hope that the investigations will be successful. With all the work that she and others have put into the project, raising funds not being the least of it, it deserves to do much for the reputation of the Society – it’s original research being put to an original use. In the News and Reviews section, we report on more performances of Shakespeare’s Richard III, including one in Mandarin! It is pleasing, therefore, to have an article about a play that takes a positive view of the king, and we are very grateful to Robert Fripp for his fascinating article about his play Dark Sovereign. We welcome the appointment of Dorothea Preis as the Bulletin’s first Australasian Correspondent, which reinforces our status as an international society. It is good news too that Dorothea, along with Helen Challinor, has joined the Bulletin Editorial Committee. This month, members will also receive their copy of The Ricardian, now in its fifty-first year. In it there will be an article by John Alban, Chief Archivist at the Norfolk Record Office, giving the full story of the recent discovery of Thomas Longe’s will. Longe was a soldier who fought at Bosworth so, clearly, this is an article not to miss. We are advertising for the post of Branches and Groups Liaison Officer in this issue, and I urge anyone interested in taking on this role to contact me (see page 6). In the meantime, I would like to record our grateful thanks to Angela Moreton and Pauline Pogmore, who have shared the role over the past two years. May you all have a great summer (or winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere). The Society will be busy over the next few months with our presence at the Leeds Medieval Congress in July, and Bosworth for the anniversary weekend in August and I’m sure we’re all looking forward to returning to York for our Members’ Day and AGM later in the year. I know that I’m also looking forward to another visit to the wonderful city of Bruges to see The Pageant of the Golden Tree.

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Society News and Notices

Richard III Society Members’ Day and Annual General Meeting Saturday 29 September 2012

Notice is hereby given that the 2012 Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society will be held on Saturday 29 September at the Merchant Adventurers Hall, Fossgate, York YO1 9XD The formal business of the meeting will include reports from the Society’s officers, the presentation of the annual accounts of the Society to 31 March 2012 and the election of the Executive Committee for the coming year. Exact timings for the day will be notified in the September Bulletin. Nominations for the Executive Committee should be sent to the Joint Secretaries, Susan and David Wells, to be received not later than Friday 14 September. All nominations must be proposed and seconded, and accepted in writing by the nominee. A pro-forma for this purpose can be downloaded from the website. Resolutions for the Agenda – also proposed and seconded – should reach the Joint Secretaries by post or email by no later than Friday 14 September. Nominations for the Robert Hamblin Award (details as set out in the March Bulletin) should reach the Joint Secretaries by no later than Tuesday 31 July. If you intend to come to the event, please register your place by email to the Secretaries or by completing and returning the booking form in this Bulletin. All contact details for the Joint Secretaries are set out on the back inside cover of this Bulletin and are also detailed on the booking form.

Call to Branches and Groups If your branch/group wishes to make a report at the AGM, please let the Joint Secretaries know in writing or via email by Friday 14 September so that it can be included on the AGM agenda. Reports can be made in person by a Branch/Group representative or, for overseas branches/ groups or if no local representative is able to attend the AGM in person, a printed report can be supplied to be read at the AGM. Reports should consist of new material not previously reported verbally or in print and should take no more than three minutes to read out.

Refreshments Light refreshments will be available for purchase during the informal part of the day. Lunch will be by own arrangements and various local facilities are available within a very short walk of the venue.

Speaker This year our speaker will be the historian and author George Goodwin who has recently published a book entitled Fatal Colours – Towton 1461: England’s Most Brutal Battle. Copies of this book will be available on the Society’s bookstall. He will be speaking on ‘Towton 1461 and the destruction of medieval kingship’.

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Post-Meeting Dinner As set out in the March Bulletin, the Secretaries are happy to arrange an informal dinner on the Saturday evening for those members who will not be attending the Yorkshire Branch event. We are asking you to indicate on the booking form – or in any other communication registering your intention to attend the AGM – whether or not you would be interested in attending this informal dinner. There is no commitment at this stage but, if sufficient people are interested, we will look into possible venues and contact the interested parties.

Registration of Attendance If you are planning to attend the AGM, please register in advance, either by using the pro-forma in the centre pages of this Bulletin or by writing or emailing to the Joint Secretaries at the postal or email address shown on the inside back cover of the Bulletin. Please do remember to let them have the full names of all those attending and to let them know if you would like to attend a post- meeting dinner.

Full details and logistics for the Members’ Day and AGM will be published in the September Bulletin but, in the meantime, if you have any queries please get in touch with the Joint Secretaries.

Post-Meeting Excursion Middleham Castle from York, Sunday 30 September 2012 Join us for a coach trip to Middleham in beautiful Wensleydale to visit King Richard’s childhood home and favourite residence, then on to Ripon for free time to have lunch and a look around. Return to York approximately 4.00 pm, with drop-off at York Station for those travelling home by train. The cost is £12 each (coach only). Please note that the entrance charge to Middleham Castle is not included and will be payable on the day (£4.40 adult, £4.00 concessions, free entry to English Heritage members). To facilitate planning, I should be grateful if you would send your booking form (in the centrefold) and payment as soon as possible, but by 31 August 2012 at the latest, to Marian Mitchell, 20 Constance Close, Witham, Essex, CM8 1XL. Tel. 01376 501 984, email: [email protected]

Advance Notice – 2013 Study weekend

Richard III: His Friends and Foes in the North

The Society’s study weekend returns in 2013, following a break this year due to the highly successful Loughborough Triennial. The venue will again be the popular Elmbank Hotel in York and the weekend will take place from 12 to 14 April. The focus will be on the north of England, exploring the people, families and places closely allied to Richard, and also those not so well disposed towards him. Our key speaker will be Professor Tony Pollard, who will put the whole question of Richard III and the North in historiographical context, and suggest in retrospect a new perspective, especially of the reign and its consequences. Full details of the programme, including other speakers, together with a booking form, will be in the September Bulletin. In the meantime please note the dates in your diary.

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New Faces on the Bulletin Committee

e are very pleased to announce that we have two new members of the Bulletin Editorial w Committee – Helen Challinor and Australia’s Dorothea Preis. It is important for committees to encourage new members who bring with them fresh ideas and new skills. In an increasingly digitised world, with time and distance no longer the barriers they’ve been in the past, we thought that there was no reason why an overseas member could not be a member of the committee. Whilst physical attendance at meetings would be very limited, modern technology allows for participation in other ways. Dorothea’s specific role is that of our Australasian Correspondent, covering Ricardian and Society news in Australia and New Zealand. This is an innovative post. We need to see how it works over the next year or so, and then we hope to establish a similar role to cover North America. We shall be in touch with our American and Canadian branches about this in due course. Dorothea introduces herself in the profile below. Helen’s profile appeared in the June Bulletin last year in the context of her involvement with the Ricardian Chronicle Project. She will also be contributing her information-management expertise to the Bulletin, particularly in helping us to establish a file-sharing system for use by committee members. We warmly welcome both Helen and Dorothea and look forward to the contribution that they will make to our work. John Saunders, Chair of the Bulletin Editorial Committee

Introducing Dorothea Preis Our Australasian Correspondent

You might be curious how a German coming to Australia would become involved with the Richard III Society. I grew up in the vicinity of Bonn on the Rhine and after school read English and geography at Bonn University. And that is where my interest in Richard III began. During a lecture series on Shakespeare’s history plays, our professor mentioned in the context of Richard III that for a historically more accurate picture we should read The Daughter of Time. As I had always been interested in history, that seemed to be the book for me – and I wasn’t disappointed! Before reading it, my knowledge of that particular period in English history was rather limited, so Ms Tey did not have a hard job of convincing me. This was in 1980, and it was still a while until I got involved in the Society. After living in South Africa and Hertfordshire, we came to Australia in 1998. Initially I was fairly passive when I joined the New South Wales Branch in early 2003, but after the inspiring Australasian Convention in Sydney in 2005, my interest deepened. I was quickly persuaded to join the committee and have since served in various positions. At present, I am webmaster (www.richardiii-nsw.org.au) and editor of our annual branch journal, The Chronicles of the White Rose. One of the regular features on our branch website are ‘Ricardian Places’, where I contribute mainly on Hertfordshire, which after a total of six years in that county is of particular interest to me, with St Albans being one of my favourite towns. I feel very honoured to be chosen as the first Australasian Bulletin correspondent and am looking forward to working with and meeting everyone on the Bulletin committee, who do such a

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tremendous job bringing the Bulletin to us all. For us in Australasia, this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase what Ricardians are doing at the other side of world. Being a member of the Richard III Society is an exciting opportunity to meet a whole range of people from all over the world who share my interest.

We are looking for a new Branch and Group Liaison Officer

Do you have an hour or two to spare each week that can be used to help keep the member- ship informed of forthcoming events and happenings?

The role of Branch and Group Liaison Officer is vital to ensure a consistent and mutually beneficial relationship between the Executive Committee and the various branches and groups currently spread across the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It also provides a focal point for communication and exchanges within the branches and group network and ensures that branches and groups can take full advantage from a variety of services provided by the Society, including publicity. The link to the Executive Committee is via the Joint Secretaries. Obviously, the post-holder will need to have regular access to a computer and the internet, and have some skills in administration and communication.

If you think you might like to volunteer for this vital position in the Society, please contact the Chairman, Phil Stone (details on the inside back cover) for a copy of the full job description.

A Stock Taking One way and another, the Society has a great many books and stocks of other merchandise to sell to members, and it all needs to be stored somewhere. We do have some commercially-rented space, which Sue and Dave Wells look after as one of their many services to the Society, but not everything fits into it, and there are other stockholders throughout the country. Recently one of our stockholders, Anne Macmillan, who lives in the wilds of Suffolk and whose local post-offices seemed to be closing down, decided to move house. In any case her C14th-C16th century farmhouse is very isolated, and it has been very difficult for her to get things posted even when the post-offices were open. Sue and Dave somehow made room in our storage facility for Anne’s stock, and drove down to fetch it in April. Anne and two friends had gone to a good deal of trouble to re-wrap and label the books to make them easier to transport and identify. The Society is very appreciative of the work done by Anne in helping to maintain the sales service in less than easy circumstances. We are indeed grateful to all our stockholders, and in the September Bulletin we hope to focus on our Sales Team, who do such sterling work. There is a sales catalogue in the centrefold of this Bulletin, which shows the wide range of what we have to sell. All orders should go to the Sales Anne Macmillan happily hands over her Liaison Officer, Sally Empson (contact details on part of the Society’s stock to Dave Wells back cover).

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Our Research Officer has gained her PhD

When Professor Anne Curry of Southampton University came to give the first lecture to the 77 members who attended the Society’s very successful Triennial Conference at Loughborough at the end of April, she first of all told us the good news that our Research Officer, Lynda Pidgeon (the organiser of the Triennial) had just been awarded her PhD. Lynda’s thesis is on the Woodville family, or, more properly perhaps but in a spelling less familiar to most of us, the Wydevile family. This is an abstract of her thesis.

Who were the Wydeviles? The family arrived with the Conqueror in 1066. As followers in the Conqueror’s army the Wydeviles rose through service with the Mowbray family. Perhaps (it is a matter of definition) for a brief period of time in the twelfth century the Wydeviles qualified as barons, but this position was not maintained. By the thirteenth century the family had split into two distinct branches. The senior line settled in Yorkshire while the junior branch settled in Northamptonshire. The junior branch of the family gradually rose to prominence in the county through service as escheator, sheriff and knight of the Anne Curry (right) congratu- shire. These roles enabled them to meet and work with men who lates Lynda on her PhD. had influence at court. The Wydevile that gave the family their Thanks to Anne Painter for entrée into royal service was Richard (ii), appointed steward to taking the photograph. King Edward III’s daughter Isabella and then as steward at the king’s castle of Moor End. His son John (iii) maintained a similar pattern of service within the county and managed to negotiate the difficult years of Richard II’s reign and the usurpation of Henry IV without diminishing the family’s standing within the county. It was his sons who were to work closely with the royal family. Thomas and Richard (iii) served the Lancastrian royal princes loyally. Richard (iii)’s position led to a knighthood for his son Richard (iv), so that by 1426 the family were at the highest level of the gentry, just below the aristocracy. Accused of A celebratory drink with John Saunders and being an ignoble family, their status is traced Peter Hammond from 1066 to the early fifteenth century. In 1448 Sir Richard Wydevile brought the family into the ranks of the nobility through an advantageous marriage. His secret marriage to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, widow of the duke of Bedford, made him a member of the royal family, albeit a minor member. This connection led to his creation as Lord Rivers in 1448. Rivers continued the family tradition of loyal service to the crown. His service in France and in England enabled him to find suitable marriages for three of his children into baronial families by 1460/61. Like his great-grandfather Richard (ii), he managed to come through a change in king, moving smoothly from service to the Lancastrians to service with the Yorkists under Edward IV. In 1464 his daughter Elizabeth secretly married King Edward IV. It was this second secret marriage that led to the assault on the Wydeviles’ reputation and questioned their status. The political instability of the period required scapegoats each time a king was overthrown. The propaganda this generated is traced to establish if there is any truth in the charges of greed and covetousness made against the Wydeviles.

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Updates on our projects

The Ricardian Chronicle So many people attended our optional Chronicle session on Saturday morning at the Triennial Conference in Loughborough, and seemed so keen to sign up as researchers, that I was almost afraid to open my emails Monday morning. Would there be a vast influx of mail from members wanting to take part? I need not have panicked. It seems a good many have had second thoughts concerning their initial enthusiasm but it’s never too late ... We are still looking for more researchers. If you live in the S.E., a new archive is now open to the public. Maidstone’s Kent History and Library Centre opened its doors for the first time on St George’s Day, 23 April, and it is well worth a visit. The catalogue of documents www.kentarchives.org.uk can be searched online, and the staff at the centre are friendly and helpful. What might I find, you ask? On my first brief visit, I found Sir Henry Wyatt’s confession, scribbled in his own hand on the back of a list, on parchment, of his estates around Maidstone. Although, to judge from the extent of his land holdings, he must have been quite wealthy, yet he is confessing to poaching coneys (that’s ‘rabbits’ to you and me) from the Abbot’s warren ‘at nyght’. He, with others named in the confession, including a ‘clerke of the college’ who should have known better, stole coneys on three occasions between St Michael’s feast day and Christmas, taking eighteen animals in total. The parchment is also signed by Sir Henry’s confederate in crime, Thomas Roydon, and names as fellow miscreants: Alexander Flesher – a butcher to sell the meat, maybe, and Richard Colynson – the clerk and possibly the ‘inside’ man. On the second occasion, John Weston joined Sir Henry, Thomas and Richard. The third time there must have been quite a crowd up to no good, because Alexander was there again with the usual suspects, as well as two ‘servaunts’ Sylvester and Peter Myles. But things did not go according to plan. They must have been caught red-handed and ‘made affray wt the keeper’. Also mentioned are John of York who is now ‘dwellinge in Battle’ (Sussex?), John Fisher and L... Wheler (this last has an ink stain on the name). After admitting this is a confession to (illegible) ‘treson’ and signing it, along with Thomas Roydon, Sir Henry then says that ‘thos persons be fore namyd wer on his ground’. Did he truly believe, on three occasions, he was stealing his own rabbits? At night? If so, why the need to confess? The Abbot of Boxley probably thought otherwise too. This is the kind of story you might find during your research. Sadly, Sir Henry’s misdeeds won’t be appearing in the Chronicle because neither the list of his estates or the confession are dated. You can find them in ‘U301/E/1 ESTATE PAPERS Terrier of lands belonging to Sir Henry Wyatt in Maidstone and district, including a confession by Thomas Elson [sic] c.1500’. But it made interesting reading all the same and got my ‘eye in’ after a long break. Happy researching. Toni Mount

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Please contact Helen and Sue (Greater Manchester Branch) email (corrected from March Bulletin): [email protected] or [email protected]

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The York Wills As announced in the last Bulletin, thanks to our twelve volunteer typists we now have a complete text of our 88 York English wills, and are preparing them for publication. When we produced The Logge Wills in 2008, we tried to find as many details as possible about the lives and circumstances of the testators, and we are doing the same with the York wills. For some of them, this process began in the nineteenth century, in that 13 of our wills were published in volume iii (1865) of Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Society) and 26 in vol. iv (1869). The editor of this monumental work (James Raine) was, however, a man of his time, and mainly interested in aristocratic genealogy, and his copious notes explore every last tedious ramification of the family trees. Heather Falvey nobly searched through these volumes for facts that might be of interest, and we have given references to Test.Ebor. for all wills included there. Heather found, for example, that Brand Adreanson, the ‘cheyff executour’ of Isabel Wilton, a Hull widow, was a beer-brewer of Hull who founded an almshouse for four old men in Hull, with a chapel and a garden; and that Dame Jane or Joan Boynton of Yarom had a son Christopher, who married Agnes, daughter of Henry, Lord Scrope of Bolton, and after Christopher’s death Agnes married Sir Richard Ratcliffe, Richard III’s ‘Rat’, who was killed at Bosworth. There was also an intriguing note in the commentary on the will of Thomas Crathorn, rector of Crathorn: ‘The testator’s nephew Thomas was the son of Sir Ralph Crathorn ... In earlier years, whilst he was an esquire in the garrison at Berwick he comes before the court of York as a party to a suit for breach of promise of marriage, and several of his love letters are put in as evidence’. Have we any members with access to York Diocesan records who could find this case and these letters for us? There are other sources to explore for our testators, such as the York House Books, and the main records of central government such as the calendars of patent, close and fine rolls, and this is being done. Very few of our clergymen appear in the lists of alumni of Oxford or Cambridge, but a few of the higher echelons of society are there in Wedgwood’s History of Parliament (HMSO London, 1936). A number of our testators held land from the king in chief, which means that an inquiry (an ‘inquisition post mortem’) was held after their deaths so that the king could keep tabs on what happened to the land. These inquiries, unlike a modern post mortem, are not concerned with cause of death, but with land held, and the name, age and relationship of the heir. I now have the task of pursuing these inquiries. Those for the reign of Henry VII are summarised in print, but for the reign of Richard III I have to read the Latin originals in The National Archives – and, indeed, I shall be doing that for the later ones too, because the printed volume doesn’t include the names of the juries and it is interesting to see if the jurymen are mentioned in the will. Finally – here is an excerpt from the will of Sir John Pilkington, made on 28 June 1478 and proved a year later. Edward IV knighted him at Tewkesbury, and thereafter he was one of Edward’s Knights of the Body. He was head of a family of great influence and wealth in Yorkshire and Lancashire. He requested burial in the chantry chapel he had founded in Wakefield church, and left 6s.8d. to every monk at Fountains Abbey to ‘say messe of requiem for my saule within v dayes they have knauledge of my deth’. What legacies did he leave to ‘my lorde of Gloucestr’ and my lorde Chambrelan’?

Lesley Boatwright

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Fotheringhay Revisited

n the last issue (March 2012, pp.16-17) we published five photographs of the Fotheringhay I Christmas lunch and asked for the names of the people shown. Nearly everyone has now been identified, so that this year, hopefully, we shall be able to greet lots more people by name. In the foreground of the first photo were Barry and Angela Edwards, from Yaxley, Peterborough. They tell me that on the right of the photo was ‘a fairly new member of the Society, who works at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and came on the London coach’ – but did not know her name. Was it you? We had already identified Sue McMullen in the centre of the first photo on page 17. On the right of the photo is Janine Lawrence, who writes, ‘OK, I put my hands up! I’m sitting next to Sue McMullen and smiling away. What a smashing lunch we had, and I’m looking forward to next Christmas to do the same. I used to belong to the Mid Anglia Group but that has sadly ceased to be ... at present I’m a very long-distance member of Marion Moulton’s North Mercia group (I live in Suffolk).’ In the second picture on page 17 there were three men, one of whom was George Cobby. George wrote to say that the man on his right was David Turner, who lives and works in Cardiff, and comes to Fotheringhay every year to visit his cousin’s family who live locally (that’s David’s cousin on David’s right – the left of the photo – Paul Blunt from Wellingborough). The three of them met some years ago at the ‘Dickon Dinner’, clicked, and agreed to look out for each other every year at Fotheringhay. A fourth member of this group is Neil Skidmore (bottom picture page 17), a previous Chairman of the West Midlands Branch. Anne Marjoram (formerly Anne Rose) spotted herself in the bottom picture on page 17. She is in the background, in profile and wearing a paper hat. Her husband Malcolm is seated to her left, but he is obscured. Marian Mitchell was on her right opposite him. Anne has been a member since her teens (on and off). She remembers seeing the Olivier film when she was young, and then in the 1960s saw the RSC Wars of the Roses on TV, and was hooked ‘both by Shakespeare and Richard’. Her late first husband, although never a member of the Society, used to enjoy going to York for the banquet every year, dressed as Friar Balsam ‘a close relative of Friar Bungay’. She re-married in 2010 and her husband, ‘another history buff’, joined the Society. They have been to Fotheringhay three times now, and Anne says, ‘I enjoy not just the camaraderie of the lunch, but the feeling of being somewhere closely connected to Richard’s family, with the joy of Christmas and happy family celebrations. It makes a pleasant change from Bosworth with its death and destruction.’

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The 2012 Triennial Conference at Loughborough Bores, Boars, Bodkins, Bascinets and Bosworth

KEN HILLIER

ores? In haste, post haste, I must identify them. They refer to the calibre of shot which B helped to identify the site and range of activity at the real battlefield of Bosworth, so meticulously described by one of the guest lecturers at the stimulating Triennial Conference held on the edge of The National Forest in Leicestershire. But more of bores, and boars, anon. I must admit I was guilty of a crass misjudgement when I signed up for the weekend. As I journeyed along the sumptuous Burleigh Court Hotel’s main corridor – which appeared to go on for longer than Richard’s reign – I heard the distant sounds of merry feasting. The Friday evening repast was building to the chocolate torte. In an asinine moment I had decided to partake of a woeful Wok at home, and could now only peer, Oliver-like, through the door. Inevitably, the first talk started half an hour late. Anne Curry, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southampton, was forced into a very un-Zanussi like start, having to wait a further ten minutes while the large screen threw up such aggravating phrases such as ‘How do I log on to another domain?’, ‘Switch User’ and ‘Third Party Related Errors’. So much for the ‘Appliance of Science’. For once one had some sympathy with the Shakespearian Henry Tudor and his plea – ‘give me some ink and paper’. Then we were off, on a clear exposition by Professor Curry of the importance of, and limitations of, the various contemporary and near-contemporary chronicles which have bedevilled our understanding of Richard and, for this conference, the Bosworth campaign. She refreshed our minds about the value, or otherwise, of Molinet (who mentions the ‘throwing engines’ and the fact that ‘the French, knowing by the king’s shot the lie of the land and the order of his battle resolved in order to avoid the fire to mass their troops against the flank rather than the front of the king’s battle’); of the detailed account of Vergil (didactic in nature, full of dramatic incident and heavily influenced by the Classics); Rous, Crowland and others. Professor Curry also touched on the use of ‘Sandeford’ – as entered in the York House Books on 25 August (was it used because of an earlier prophesy by Thomas the Rhymer c.1330-40?); and Redemore – found in an entry in the York City Council’s House Books two days earlier – to describe the battle’s whereabouts. ‘Bosworth’ was first recorded in the Great Chronicle (c.1512) and subsequently the most used, even if a 1511 royal document added ‘otherwise called Dadlington Field’. One of the most interesting accounts comes from Diego de Valera, whose memo to Castile includes the report of Juan de Salazar, who was present at Richard’s side during the battle. Professor Curry also addressed the problem of numbers engaged in the battle, including how many of those summoned actually turned up to fight, and the issue of the Stanleys’ and Northumberland’s parts in the outcome. Toby Capwell, Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection, caught our attention from the first. He urged us to develop the ability to recognise the importance of ‘something you are not necessarily looking for’. How apposite for so much research. He then, gently and without malice, destroyed several misconceptions about the physical image Richard would have portrayed on the battlefield: no Gothic armour and no livery collar. Toby alleged that he did ‘not want to rain on everyone’s parade’, but he thoroughly demolished several paintings, stained glass

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windows and romantic novelists on the way. What Richard did put on at some stage was his coat armour, or surcoat and, according to Salazar, his royal crown over his helmet. The talk then developed into perhaps its most fascinating section – the visual significance of the actual armour: ‘armour is pregnant with meaning – if we know what to look for’. We were taken on a striking, visual journey through bascinets and armets, sallets, burgonets and barbutes. We learned that, although the shape of the helmet identified its quality and effectiveness, equally important were turned edges, polishing (which could be 80% of the final cost), blueing or purpling, etching and gilding. The top rank would commission fully gilded armour, made of gold dust mixed with mercury which was put on the top of copper plating. The result turned the wearer into an almost ‘godlike figure’. The link between Burgundy and the Yorkists was emphasised: Richard III, like Philip the Good, was making a statement of his Divine Right in such military apparel. Gilded armour operated on at least three levels: it emphasised wealth, success, leadership as well as such earthly divinity but it also, ironically, could act as a L'Oréal life insurance policy. Spare me: because I’m worth it. Toby Capwell finished by admitting there were still many questions to be put, let alone answered; but, apropos his comment that men followed their leader ‘like a candle in the dark’ on the field, so we had followed his enthralling talk. Glen Foard and the ‘new’ Bosworth Field have become almost synonymous over the last few years, and his exposition of the discoveries and their import – not only to the particular battle, but to late medieval warfare in general – was exemplary. With the use of a variety of maps and plans, he gently removed Hutton and his more fundamentalist followers and Michael Jones from the scene but correctly paid tribute to Peter Foss’ pioneering work in dragging the battle away from the slopes of Ambion Hill towards Dadlington. A key question was: where was the infamous marsh which Vergil said that Henry had to avoid, and how to explain Tudor’s manoeuvre which ‘left the sun behind’? Hutton had mentioned a ‘swamp’ on Henry’s right and his map depicts it as a ‘Moraſs’; others continued to identify it (wrongly) on the south-western lower slopes of Ambion Hill. Plotting the marsh was to be a key to finding the real battlefield. Documents were still important, but more for field names and other topographical clues: the 1467-84 Survey of Demesne Lands of Leicester Abbey proves that it was only sometime after 1485 that Garbodys Hill became Crown Hill; again a 1530 Dadlington Court Roll decreed that Redmore dyke ‘should be scoured’. It was however, the happy conjunction of archaeologists, with all their early 21st- century gadgetry, and historians that was to establish the whereabouts of the battle. We followed Glen through 10 metre transects and 2.5 metre transects, and over 7 square kilometres of terrain, throughout a period of two years or so. Marshland, proven to be there in 1485, was found. The earth duly discharged the booty: the biggest collection of round shot found in England from the 15th century (34 lead round shot from artillery and 3 small calibre shot); as well as, for example, a Burgundian silver coin (1467-77); a dagger roundel; a horse harness pendant; a silver gilt badge by the site of Dadlington windmill; and, the icing on the cake, a silver gilt boar. Probable trajectory lines were plotted. There were to be a multiplicity of eureka moments. If Glen Foard had successfully whetted our appetites, not so much for the buffet lunch that followed, but for a visit to the site itself, we had not Cannon balls found at Bosworth long to wait. Or so we all thought. We left Lough- borough due west only five minutes after the appointed time. ETA at Bosworth half an hour later. That came and went: we were still on our circumbendi-Bus, enjoying the delights of North-West Leicestershire’s charming villages. I began to wonder whether the driver of the first coach was a descendant of the 4th Earl of Northumberland – determined to arrive on the Field too late. Eventually we were decanted at the old Battlefield Centre. The County Council, to be fair, have

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swallowed their pride with aplomb; removed the erroneous notice boards; repositioned the memorial stone (Richard ‘was slain here’) to a harmless garden plot in the Centre; and admitted everything. I still have the colourful and rather splendid redesigned 1996 Official Booklet published by Leicester-shire. It poured scorn on the Foss theory, and told such an exciting story, complete with brazen plans and maps, of the fighting at the base of Ricardians in the rain at Bosworth Field Ambion Hill; the Stanley forces

watching from Near Coton; and the final, disastrous charge past Shenton railway station to the ‘Sandeford’. I genuinely felt more than a twinge of regret: it was a more exciting battle field than the real one. The Visitor Centre now has a most commen - d a b l e section, not only explaining the change of venue but showcasing many of the finds. Then it was off to the Gill and Alf Oliver and our guide Peter (right) at Bosworth Field site of the battle itself. At Fenn Lane Farm, the farmer and his wife, Mr and Mrs Oliver, were there to meet and greet us and the Society is most grateful for their ready co-operation. However, as we walked past the ‘Tudor Barn’ (salt and wounds?, but immediately brought down to size by the neighbouring ‘Blackadder Barn’), mounted an incongruous freshly-made and planted long mound – put there by Planning Officer diktat – to gaze across flat fields of oilseed rape, I felt no stirring of imagination as I listened: ‘Richard’s artillery were probably placed on Dadlington airfield’; ‘the silver boar was found by the tree over there with the ivy on it’; and so on. What a further pity that we were probably stationed on Henry’s side. But the romantic must be subsumed by the historian. Really, all was well – Bosworth (or Dadlington, or Redemore, or Sandford) had been found. I had, perforce, to agree with Mr Gradgrind: ‘What I want is facts.’ The return to Loughborough, via the Battlefield Centre, went by the broad and straight highway. If the appliance of science had got off to shaky start in the lecture room at the start of the Friday session, it was to redeem itself throughout Sunday. Both Tim Sutherland and Mark Stretton gave eye-opening (eye-gouging?) accounts of the impact of deadly weaponry on the human (and porcine) body, using modern wizardry. Sixteen years of working on the Towton battlefield has not effected any trauma on Tim. Rather his enthusiasm for the project has remained undimmed. From the initial investigations of 1996, his and others’ archaeological and allied researches have provided us with ‘an unprejudiced and impartial evidence of that conflict’.

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Well might he say, ‘dead men do tell tales’. The early Towton Hall excavations provided enough stimuli to redouble subsequent efforts. Volunteer osteologists did a remarkable job initially and, reinforced by radio carbon techniques, gave added spice to his graphic illustrations of evidence of blade wounds, blunt force traumas, mutilation, piercing wounds, and healed traumas from previous conflicts. The exciting aspect is that there is so much still to be done: whether it is to find the chapel which Richard III, putting his brother to shame, founded after his Gill Oliver did a roaring trade in little metal badges accession; or continue to do archaeology of horses and sheep in aid of The Country Trust, around the site of the ‘mass graves’ on the which aims to help urban children understand the central battlefield area; or to improve still countryside. With Margaret Stiles (centre) and Marian Thomson (right) further the Battlefield Centre (what a good idea to base it in an hostelry). Mark Stretton simply looks the part: master arrowsmith, Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers, and holder of a Guinness Book of Records entry, he is an outstanding archer. Interest already aroused by the finding of 350 unique arrowheads on the field at Towton meant we were fully attuned to Mark’s detailed analysis of the real war bow (the TV version on steroids) and accompanying arrowheads. Once he had disposed of the fowling and wild boar hunting versions, he concentrated on not only describing but, with very graphic illustrations, proving the force of these ‘unhealthy quarter pounders’. Armour was mainly designed to withstand sword cuts or blunt force objects, not arrowheads and the use of a newly expired pig to prove his point(s) put most of us off having pork at the lunchtime carvery. The importance of wearing a decent brigandine (a cloth garment, generally canvas or leather, lined with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric) was obvious. A simple analogy of two cars colliding, each going at 30 mph, explained the increased force of an arrow travelling at a horse or human coming towards it. Mark’s use of a contraption built with a lawnmower, with a large bag of dried peas or beans tied to it, to prove the point had to be seen to be believed. He ended with another graphic illustration of a ‘fire’ arrow for shooting into castles or other conurbations. Tim Sutherland rounded the conference off with an account of the finding on the Lancastrian front line at Towton, by the metal detectorist Simon Richardson, of what turned out to be part of a small cannon. Using an X-ray fluorescence analyser it could be proven that the inside was higher in lead and sulphur than the outside of the artefact. Moreover, modern science also studied a small, composite lead ball found on the field, which demonstrated an inner core of iron. He also showed how the tantalisingly defaced and weathered tomb of Lord Dacre might at last have yielded up the secrets of its Latin inscription around the table-top. He finished on a high note: the fact that all the farmers and other concerned parties owning and living on or around the Towton battlefield had agreed to ban all non-official metal detecting. What would formerly have been a civil offence could now be classed as a criminal one. The flip chart placed immediately behind the speakers proclaimed: ‘Setting the Highest Standards for Conferencing’. Well it might. It is a long time since this delegate has attended such a stimulating, useful and thought-provoking series of talks. When one mashes erudition with enthusiasm and adds facility of speech to lecturers, then an audience is truly blessed. A sincere vote of thanks is due to Lynda Pidgeon and her assistants Anne Painter and Jacqui Emerson, for their hard work and organisational abilities.

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News and Reviews

This year’s productions of Richard III As Geoffrey Wheeler pointed out in the March Bulletin (p.18), this is a year in which there will be ‘an embarras de Richards’. Apart from works by other dramatists, three productions of Shakespeare’s play are scheduled, two of which have now seen the light of day.

Shakespeare’s Richard III in Mandarin The ‘Globe to Globe’ season at the Bankside Globe Theatre

The countdown to the more physical side of the 2012 Olympics still has more than a couple of months to go, but the Cultural Olympiad is well and truly with us, nowhere more so than at the Globe Theatre in London’s Bankside, where all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays are being performed, in 37 different languages. That is, one language to each play, not 37 x 37 = 1369 polyglot dramatic experiences, but it’s a daunting enough prospect to contemplate. For Shakespeare’s birthday on 23 April, the Ngakau Toa ensemble from New Zealand performed Troilus and Cressida in Maori, turning the Trojan War into a clan conflict with many a haka and not much clothing. Twelfth Night was performed in Hindi, and the Guardian’s review of the production commented ‘the production comes with comedy so broad it is cartoonish’, and we don’t need to understand the language. This, however, in the reviewer’s opinion, made for ‘a pretty one-dimensional experience of the play’. Other plays to come are (in alphabetical order): A Comedy of Errors in Dari-Persian (and performed by Afghans); Cymbeline was allocated to a newly-formed company in ‘the world’s youngest country, South Sudan’; Hamlet will be in Lithuanian – one might have expected Danish, but perhaps that was too obvious; Henry IV Part 1 will be performed in Mexican Spanish; Henry VIII will be performed in Castilian Spanish; Love’s Labour’s Lost will be in British Sign Language, by Deafinitely Theatre; Timon of Athens (an obscure and difficult play about a man who gave all his wealth away and came to grief) will be in German. Richard III was allocated to the Chinese, and the plays were staged on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 April. It was captioned in English (presumably all these plays had this concession to the home audience?) and performed by the National Theatre of China. Dim-Sum, the British Chinese community website, says, ‘This production of Shakespeare’s horror-show of power and paranoia will be directed by the National Theatre’s Associate Director, Wang Xiaoying, who is Vice-President of the National Theatre of China. ... In Richard III Shakespeare presents his most charismatic, self-delighting villain, revelling at every moment in his homicidal, hypocritical journey to absolute power. Having already despatched one king and that king’s son, all that stand in his way are two credulous brothers and two helpless nephews ...’ The review on www.theartsdesk.com/theatre makes it clear that the production was attended by what could have been disasters. It had rained copiously on the Globe, but ‘not only had the performers overcome the downpour that has been a feature of the Globe to Globe season’s first week, but the actors beautifully made do without costumes, wigs, masks and props, all of which were reported to be languishing in a tempest-tossed cargo container somewhere off these shores’. So the actors all wore ‘identical black robes with bits and bobs’ borrowed from the Globe’s stash’, but there were posters in the foyer to show what the production was meant to look like. It all sounded rather different. The programme didn’t allocate actors to their roles, so the audience had to guess who was who. The opening monologue ‘Now is the winter of our

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discontent’ turned into a quick run-down on the Wars of the Roses, and then three witches came visiting from Macbeth to foretell Richard’s murderous deeds. What is more, ‘This Richard is not misshapen and there is no reference to his deformity, although his twisted psyche, envy, malice and sardonic humour are clear for all to see.’ Zhang Dongyu, who played Richard, gave ‘a spellbinding performance’, and the production ‘scores for its intense confrontations and for a fascinating, mercurial villainy that needs no translation’.

‘The real Richard in history was not handicapped’ Another review, this time on Europechinadaily.com.cn, was equally enthusiastic: ‘Shake- speare’s Richard III in Mandarin won thunderous and lasting applause here Saturday afternoon.’ The writer (Xinhua?) had interviewed Wang Xiaoying, the director, who told him that his version ‘turned Richard from a handicapped person to a normal one: “In fact, the real Richard in history was not handicapped at all. We don’t want to make his disability a reason behind his desire for power.”’ Elements from the Beijing Opera were brought into the play. There were three ‘opera performers’, one of whom played the Lady Anne ‘who sang to show her grief and hesitation, while two others were the assassins who impressed audiences with their martial arts and funny behavior. A percussionist played as many as ten traditional Chinese musical instruments to create the effect of tension and mystery. “The drumbeats not only showed the tempo of the play, but reflected the emtion of different characters”, Wang said.’ When Richard had his nightmare before the battle, the ghosts all put on masks with ‘Beijing opera makeup’. At his cry of ‘My kingdom for a horse’, ‘red ink, resembling blood, trickles down from a piece of white paper, symbolizing the death of the tyrant’. This website also gives the information that the Chinese National Theatre will be producing the play in China, in the Capital Theatre (presumably in Beijing), beginning on 4 July. At the time of writing (1 May) no review of this production seems to have appeared in a national newspaper.

Richard III at the Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon Directed by Roxana Silbert, with Jonjo O’Neill as Richard, in repertory 25 March to 15 September

An interesting aspect of this production is that the programme notes stress that Shakespeare’s Richard is not the historical Richard. Michael Dobson, the Director of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham wrote the programme notes: ‘Given how thrillingly and charismatically awful Shakespeare made his first great anti-hero, it is sad to have to admit how comparatively nice the real Richard III actually was. He was not born with teeth, and he did not have a crooked back. He did not murder Henry VI and, unlike his brother Clarence (who was not framed and then privately murdered, but executed after a fair trial for treason), he was unswervingly loyal to their elder brother Edward IV, for whom he valiantly recaptured Berwick-upon-Tweed from the Scots.’ Professor Dobson goes on to say that Richard and Anne were happily married – and that Richard ‘wept throughout Anne’s funeral’. (Does anyone know the source of that one, please?) And that ‘Richard III’s two-year reign had already established him as a thoroughly unmonstrous ruler’. And the Professor finds many other things to say in Richard’s favour. So – why did Shakespeare blacken Richard so thoroughly? Dobson thinks that the usual claim of Tudor propaganda ‘somehow makes the play sound a great deal more pious and credulous than it really is’. The play offers ‘a very clear-sighted and potentially radical picture of how a

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tyrant ... can easily take over the English state’ ... ‘a few carefully spun rumours here, a show- trial there, a stage-managed gesture towards endorsement by the right mayor ...’ Dobson points to the play’s ‘unusual number of references to specific London addresses’ as part of this machinery. (Here is a mini-project for someone: collect the London addresses in Richard III.) He ends by pointing to Sir Thomas More as Shakespeare’s source for representing Richard as ‘a power- hungry criminal seducer’. A review by Jeremy Kingston of this production (The Times, 19 April) is headed ‘Evil in all its incompetence’. Kingston remarks, ‘It is impossible for any actor of worth to fail in the role [of Richard III].’ Jonjo O’Neill is a Richard of ‘unpredictable agility’ but ‘nothing more peculiar than one slightly over-large shoulder. He does limp, and his walk, like someone thumping out Morse code, conveys both his infirmity and his impatient will.’ The production is dominated by O’Neill’s ‘revelation of the ultimate incompetence of evil’. We ought to cheer when Richmond rids the nation of him, but we might think that ‘something weirdly vivid has exited from history’. (See Jane Grenfell’s letter about this production on page 43.)

To come: Richard III at the Globe An all-male production (in English this time), directed by Tim Carroll, with Mark Rylance as Richard III, from 14 July

Peter Saccio (Leon Black Professor of Shakespearean Studies Emeritus, Dartmouth College), writing in Around the Globe (the magazine of Shakespeare’s Globe, Southwark) for January 2012, pp.8-9, gives much the same account of Richard’s real career as Professor Michael Dobson: ‘The historical Richard was not notably deformed, did not scheme for the throne from his earliest days, and did not kill the last Lancastrian king Henry VI nor the latter’s son nor his own brother Clarence. He was a loyal prop to his brother’s throne who could not have predicted that Edward IV would die at the age of 40.’ The ‘frightened politics’ of the three months after Edward’s death may have made the usurpation seem necessary to Richard. The youth of Edward’s sons ‘made them vulnerable to their greedy maternal relatives. Once Richard had, with difficulty, taken control of them, their youth made him vulnerable to the terrible charge of killing children’. The Tudor chroniclers told the story of Richard’s villainy .. upon which Shakespeare put the final bells and whistles together with a structure that makes it all seem inevitable’. It would seem that professors of Shakespearean studies are willing to look clearly at the historical Richard III. It is very encouraging that these prestigious productions of the play are generating this sort of discussion.

A new play about Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me The Stratford-upon-Avon-based theatre company Tread the Boards have produced a new play at the Attic Theatre about Richard III and the Princes in the Tower called Loyalty Binds Me. They say that the play tells ‘the true story of Richard III’. The writer, Neil Hewitt-Dudding, has been working on the story for 16 years. John Robert Partridge plays Richard III, and Catherine Prout, also the producer, plays Anne Neville. Other characters in the play include Lizzy of York, Bishop Morton and Eduardo of Lancaster. A review (from Guide 2 Stratford, by Marko Spriggs) on their website commends it as ‘well-researched, powerful and well-delivered’. The play ‘combines slow motion with real-time sequences’ and there is ‘some highly inventive use of the small theatre space’. For further information and details of performances visit their website: www.loyaltybindsme.co.uk

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New from the Society’s Shop Arms of England Lapel Badge An enamelled lapel badge, 24 mm wide and 30 mm long, depicting the Arms of England as used by Richard III. These arms are: quarterly France modern and England, i.e. showing three golden fleurs-de-lys of France on a blue background, and three golden lions of England on a red background. Each badge is in a presentation box. Price £6.00. Postage UK £2.00, EU £3.00, RoW £3.50 Orders to our Sales Liaison Officer (details on back inside cover)

Radio Discussion In Our Time – The Battle of Bosworth BBC Radio 4, Thursday 26 April 2012 (available on BBC iPlayer)

In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, was very timely. Barely a week after the Triennial, Bosworth featured on the programme. The speakers were Anne Curry, University of Southampton, who had given a fascinating talk on the documents available for Bosworth at the Triennial, David Grummitt, from the University of Kent and Steven Gunn from the University of Oxford. In his introduction Melvyn Bragg said that the battle had now become part of English folklore, but that, while Henry’s claims were spurious, Richard was suspected of murdering his nephews. Anne Curry provided the background, taking the start of the wars to 1399 and the usurpation of Henry Bolingbroke. While Henry IV, the first Lancastrian on the throne, had problems, the monarchy was stabilised by his son, Henry V. If the minority of Henry VI was got through without too many problems, the descent of the king into madness in 1450 led to an eruption of rivalry between the duke of York and Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset. This was followed by York’s claim to the throne, his death in 1460 and the accession of his son Edward IV as the first Yorkist monarch following his victory at Towton. Edward himself was deposed by Warwick the Kingmaker who felt that he did not have enough influence over the king, to be replaced by Henry VI. The battle of Tewkesbury ended the Lancastrian claim with the death of Edward, prince of Wales, during the battle and the murder of Henry VI. Everything continued smoothly under the restored Edward IV until his death in 1483 and Richard’s seizure of the throne. The usurpation of 1399 had given them licence for their actions. Steven Gunn suggested that Richard had ‘reacted with remarkable speed and ruthlessness’. The role of Edward V’s maternal uncles was unknown, people were uncertain about how large a part they expected to play in the regime, and action was therefore taken against them. Richard was the person everyone expected to act for the young king. This all changed suddenly in June when Hastings was arrested and Richard’s title to the crown was proclaimed. The reasons were unclear. Was it Edward himself who declared his children illegitimate? In the end it was the illegitimacy of the children that was emphasised, and thus Richard was the legitimate claimant. The princes were then placed in the Tower, to disappear at some point, while Richard was crowned. Once the princes disappeared it was thought by many of Edward IV’s leading supporters that Richard had killed them. However, as no bodies were found it left people speculating on what may have happened. Were they killed by Richard, by someone else thinking they were helping Richard, had they escaped or were they killed later? Steven Gunn thought this latter scenario was the least likely. In 1483 the strong feeling was that they had been killed and ‘in 1485 Henry accused Richard of killing the boys’.

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Was Richard a Villain? Melvyn Bragg asked the question was Richard a villain. Steven Gunn responded that there were two Richards. One was the loyal brother, who had supported his brother up to 1483. Richard had governed the north and had successfully led the campaign against Scotland, and built up a strong following in the north. He does all the things that might be expected of the model noble, loyal and a good soldier. The other Richard was very ruthless. The evidence for this was his behaviour in two instances, his clash with Clarence over the Warwick lands and his action against the dowager duchess of Oxford, when he took her lands from her. Melvyn Bragg then moved on to Henry Tudor. David Grummitt portrayed a man forced to flee into exile in 1471. Landing in Brittany, Henry remained there until 1484, detained by Duke Francis II. During this time Edward IV tried to have him returned to England. It was not until 1483 that Henry was considered a Lancastrian claimant to the throne. He was a poor nobleman in exile, one of the poorest and least important. His mother worked on reconciling her son and Edward IV. In 1483 his fortunes changed.

Why did Henry Tudor aim for the throne? Melvyn Bragg wished to know why ‘this undistinguished nobleman with no army’ suddenly decided to aim for the throne. It was suggested that Buckingham was the catalyst. Those joining his rebellion fell into two groups: Edward IV’s household men, who were disaffected because they believed Richard had killed the princes, and the Woodvilles. When Buckingham’s rebellion ended in failure Henry was invited to be the figurehead of a new rebellion, but, on the failure of Buckingham’s rebellion, he returned to Brittany. The death of Richard’s son and then his wife was seen as a sign, and there were renewed threats of an invasion. Richard had his men on alert along the coast in preparation, but by the summer of 1485 he stood a lot of his forces down. It was then that Henry chose to invade. Richard was in the Midlands when Henry landed at Milford Haven. Anne Curry sug- gested he had a lot of support: 2,000 men from the French king, exiles and the defection of men from the Calais March, probably about 2,500 in all. As he progressed through Wales he issued letters ‘by the king’ calling for men, so already he was claiming to be king. Stanley persuaded the town of Shrewsbury to open its gates to Henry. Richard was at Bestwood Park in Sherwood Forest when he heard the news and sent out for troops, and he was at Nottingham on 20 August. London, Gloucester and York formed a triangle within which the battles of the Wars of the Roses had been fought, and this one was no different. It took four days for the news to reach Richard. He called for mounted troops, so that they could move fast and concentrate on Leicester. The sources are, however, thin, so it is difficult to know who actually fought at Bosworth. David Grummitt suggested the size of Henry’s army had been overestimated. Charles of France supported Henry because of the nature of French politics, but he only gave him a loan so that he could hire mercenaries. These numbered only 1,000, and 500 exiles. When they landed in Wales they gathered some more men. Rhys ap Thomas and Walter Herbert were two Welshmen who joined him, but their retinue numbered in the hundreds not the thousands. The ‘elephant in the room’ was the Stanleys, who may have had 2,000 men. They shadowed Henry’s army but their intentions were unclear. In effect there were three armies converging on the Midlands, Henry Tudor’s, Richard III’s and the Stanleys’, with the latter remaining flexible, waiting to see which way the wind blew. The troops brought by Henry were crossbowmen and gunners; they had the advantage of being experienced troops. Henry also had Oxford to lead his army.

The Battle of Bosworth The battle was brisk and took place in four phases, the vanguards of de Vere and Norfolk clashed, and Norfolk was killed; Northumberland did not engage and there may have been other defections; Richard decided that a quick way to end the battle was to charge Tudor in person, a possible appeal to divine judgement: if he killed Henry then the battle would be over. The

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intervention by Stanley ended the battle, Richard refused to leave the field but stood his ground and died. David Grummitt believed that the presence of skilled and experienced French troops was pivotal to the outcome of the battle, as well as Stanley’s presence. Another contributory factor was the inactivity of Northumberland. He had been one of Richard’s closest supporters, and, along with many other northerners who had received benefits from Richard, failed to support him. Melvyn Bragg asked, was this because of the princes? Anne Curry thought it was simply the way the battle was fought. The rear guard tended to stand off to see how things went, Richard was killed quite early on, he had no heir and the battle was effectively over, and the rear guard simply then held off. There is a poverty of sources for the battle, although this is not unusual in a civil war. Other battles in the Wars of the Roses are equally poorly recorded. Polydore Vergil is the main source, and he was writing for the victor. Continental sources all thought that Richard had killed the princes, but they were using second- and third-hand information. Steven Gunn suggested that the best source was a number of ballads, the Ballad of Bosworth Field and the Song of Lady Bessy. Despite being a seventeenth-century copy, he thought that the Song was more useful than is generally credited. The demands of rhyme, alliteration and romance shaped the poem and this was what raised questions. However as Anne Curry pointed out, it was also written to vindicate the Stanleys. David Grummitt said that many battles had no eyewitness accounts but there were two for Bosworth. Although one was a letter which was only known from the nineteenth century when it appeared in print (the original has been lost), this was from a French soldier fighting in Henry’s army. The other was a report from Salazar. As Anne Curry pointed out, archaeology is now helping to shed light on the battle. Melvyn Bragg asked if people had been surprised when Richard was defeated and what happened next. Steven Gunn suggested that many Yorkists had joined Tudor because he had promised to marry Elizabeth of York; this made him not only a Lancastrian, but a Yorkist if he married Elizabeth. This changed the political environment. David Grummitt thought that few nobles had joined either side because they were now fed up with the continual changes in king. However, Henry did not have it easy. There was the Simnel rising in 1487, a tax rebellion in 1489 in the north, then Warbeck in the 1490s, all of which Henry had to deal with. Anne Curry suggested that Henry developed new supporters with new titles and provided good government; people were wealthier and he attacked France. War was always a good diversion. Melvyn Bragg then wished to know if the view of Richard III changed with the death of Elizabeth I and the accession of James VI and I. David Grummitt said that popular writers and early twentieth-century historians all ‘founder on the fact’ of Richard and the princes. His usurpation was ‘unprecedented in the barbarity in which he took the throne’. Richard may have been an exemplary medieval noble and king, and academic historians may say he was pious and a great warrior etc., but he murdered his nephews. The Tudors may have produced a new dynasty but the man in the street would not have noticed much difference. Lynda Pidgeon

The International Medieval Congress in Leeds 2012 We reported in the March 2012 Bulletin that the Society’s proposed seminar on ‘Reality, Real People and Propaganda: the Miracles of Henry VI’ had been accepted by the Programming Committee. We now know that it will take place on the first day of the congress, Monday 9 July 2012, at 2.15 pm in the Weetwood Cedar Room of Weetwood Hall, Leeds University. The IMC is a huge event, and there will be no fewer than 32 other seminars happening at the same time, so we are nervously hoping that our topics will draw in an audience. Or will the punters prefer the seminars on ‘Of Monks and Men: Narratives of Masculinity’, ‘Eroticism and the Difficulties of Positions of Dependence’, ‘Rocky Relations: King, Church and Communities in mid-15th-century Norway’, or ‘Accepting or Rejecting Liturgical Rules in the Ecumenical

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Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 18th century’? Twelve is a reasonably-sized audience for a seminar at Leeds, but it has been known for nobody at all to turn up and the speakers then present their papers to an audience of each other. So keep your fingers crossed for us. By the rules of the Congress, anyone who wishes to attend a seminar must buy a day pass, which costs £129.50. Indeed, anyone who wishes to give a paper at a seminar has to pay the same amount, and that sum doesn’t include any meals. So we can’t really appeal to people who live in Leeds and thereabouts to come to support us. However, we shall have a Society bookstall there for the whole congress, and the people manning that don’t have to pay to do so, and you probably don’t have to pay to come in to look at the books. There will be bargains to be had. Time Team at the More During the 1930s and again in late 1950s the site of the More, currently occupied by Northwood Prep School, was in-filled with clay from road works in the vicinity. In the early 1950s the site was partially excavated by members of neighbouring Merchant Taylors’ School’s archaeological society and the various features of the buildings that they revealed were recorded in a detailed report. One of those young archaeologists, Martin Biddle, now world-famous in that profession, has always retained an interest in the More. A year or so ago, Northwood Prep School, encouraged by Martin, asked Channel 4’s Time Team to consider the More as a possible subject since the 1950s’ digs had only investigated small sections of it. Because initial geophysical explorations indicated that, despite the in-filling, outlines of buildings could still be detected, the Time Team juggernaut rolled into action and, during the three days Tuesday 1 to Thursday 3 May, trenches were dug in various locations on the school’s playing fields. The 50-strong crew of archaeologists, researchers, computer graphics wizards, cameramen, etc, etc, were aiming to uncover and record further evidence of the magnificent royal palace, inhabited occasionally by George Neville, Thomas Wolsey and Henry VIII. Before commencing a project, not only do Time Team’s archaeologists study geophysical surveys but also they are briefed on the relevant documentary evidence. Two weeks before the dig, one of their researchers contacted me regarding such evidence for the More, and I supplied them with transcripts of various documents that I had accumulated over the years. I had located several of these via footnotes in secondary sources; one in particular, however, had been an exciting find of my own in the Hertfordshire Archives. This was an indenture, dated 8 February 1574, between the queen and two men, Charles Morrison of Cassiobury (Herts) and William Hawtrey of Chequers (Bucks), giving them permission to dismantle the house (for an agreed sum) and cart away its components for re-use elsewhere. The materials to be recycled included ‘tymber Iron Leade glasse stone … brick Tables Cubbords’ (HALS 8754). I was invited to the dig on the Thursday. Somewhat ironically, it was taking place following a week or so of heavy downpours: the building had fallen into disrepair in the mid-sixteenth century because of ‘the evill grounde yt standith on’ (TNA, SP12/4, no.57), i.e. marshy land that could not support the weight of the enlarged building. During the day the pupils came out class- by-class to wash bits of pot and to view the trenches. The archaeologists, including the hatted and long-haired Phil Harding, enthusiastically explained to the boys their findings and how to interpret them (which frequently changed as trenches were extended and deepened). I was particularly interested to hear one of them explaining that very little was left above ground ‘because we know that two men had been given permission to dismantle the house’ (the purport of ‘my’ document). The programme probably will not go out until early 2013. I should not reveal too much but I can say that important finds were made in some of the trenches, especially the one on the site of the integral chapel; some trenches were disappointingly unproductive; and, needless to say, there was the now-typical Time Team rush to uncover and identify something that they found at about 4 o’clock on the third day … Heather Falvey

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In Prospect

Requiem Mass at Spital-in-the-Street There is to be a requiem mass on Wednesday 22 August 2012 at 4 p.m. for the repose of the souls of King Richard, Queen Anne and Edward, Prince of Wales, and all the fallen at Bosworth, in the Royal Chantry Chapel of St Edmund, Spital-in-the-Street, Lincs. (For last year’s mass see the December 2011 Bulletin, pp.27-28.) It will be followed by a short lecture by Dr David Marcombe on ‘Sir John Neville of Liversedge: a forgotten Ricardian’. The Lincolnshire Branch of the Society will be providing refreshments. Since 1332 the chapel of St Edmund, King and Martyr, at Spital has been a chantry chapel for the Plantagenet kings of England. In 2011, Richard III was added to the bederoll, com- memorating 22 August, the anniversary of his death and the end of the long succession of Plantagenet kings. Please contact the Spital Chantry Trust of St Edmund for further information. Places in the chapel are limited, and so is parking: it is therefore essential that you contact the organisers if you wish to attend: the address is 72 Millgate, Newark, Notts, NG24 4TY (Tel. 01636 705 358, email: [email protected]) The SCTSE runs other events during the year, including Open Days. Contact the trust direct for further information about all activities.

Royal Devotion A Celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 350th anniversary of the revised Book of Common Prayer Lambeth Palace Library, London Tuesday 1 May to Saturday 14 July 2012 The exhibition looks at the close relationship between royalty and religion from medieval times until the present day. In particular, it tells the story of the Book of Common Prayer, illustrated by ‘books, manuscripts and objects, any of which have royal or other important provenances’. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the 1662 revision of the Book of Common Prayer. Other items on display include medieval illuminated mss including the Book of Hours of Richard III and Elizabeth I’s personal prayer book, as well as many books and papers of later royal interest. Open Tuesday to Friday 11.00 to 13.30 and 14.00 to 17.00 (last entry 16.00), Saturday 11.00 to 16.00 (last entry 15.00). Tickets have timed entry slots. It costs £12 for adults, £10 concessions, and under-17s get in free. To buy tickets and for information go to www.lambethpalacelibrary.org or ring 0844 847 1698

An Afternoon of Robin Hood Saturday 16 June 2012 This will feature the best-selling author of Outlaw, Angus Donald, speaking on Richard the Lion- heart, and Frances Sparrow on ‘The Real Robin Hood’. For further details contact the Norfolk Branch Secretary, Annmarie Hayek (see p. 54)

Harlaxton Medieval Symposium 2012 The Medieval Merchant Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, Lincolnshire Monday 23 to Thursday 26 July 2012 There are sessions on Merchant Writing, Merchant Piety, Merchants in Eastern Europe, Merchants and Consumption, Merchants and the Law, Merchant Culture, Merchant Social

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Networks and Merchants: Fiction and Fact. In this last session a paper on ‘William Caxton: King’s Printer’ will be given by Anne Sutton, editor of The Ricardian. Other papers include Julia Boffey on ‘Robert Fabyan as a Reader and Translator’; David Stocker on ‘Wool and Politics in the Reign of Edward IV: the case of the Merchant Stockers of Wyboston and London’; Sam Harper on ‘Sir John Shaa: goldsmith and facilitator of Court-City Relations in the reign of Henry VII’; Clive Burgess on ‘Mammon in the Service of God: Merchants and their Piety in the Later Middle Ages’; Susanne Jenks on ‘Justice for Strangers: the Experience of Alien Merchants in C15th English Common Law Courts’; and Anne Lancashire on ‘Merchant Drama in London’. There will also be a film of The Merchant of Venice, croquet on the lawn, a trip to Stamford (it is not clear if this will cost extra) and a conference dinner. Cost: full-time residence (non-student) £175. Accommodation is rather limited, and people who have arranged to share a room (or are willing to share) get a 10% discount. Apply before 30 June 2012 to Christian Steer, Harlaxton Symposium, 8 Shefford Lodge, Link Road, Newbury, Berks, RG14 7LR. Booking forms may be downloaded from the website, harlaxton.org.uk

The 35th Keele Latin and Palaeography Summer School Keele University Saturday 21 to Friday 27 July 2012 This year the five seminars are (a) Introduction to Medieval Latin (b) Introduction to Medieval Documents (for which you will need a basic knowledge of Latin grammar) (c) Probate inventories of the 16th and 17th centuries (in English) (d) Beyond the Basics (e) The Lancashire eyre of 1292: the civil pleas. The week is rather pricey at £720-750 residential, £400 non-residential (£520 including dinner), but tuition is in small groups (twelve maximum) and intensive – and the week is great fun too. One member of the Richard III Society has attended all 34 previous weeks, and there will be other members of the Society there, so you will have someone to talk to. For further information visit the website: www.keele-conferencemanagement.com/lpss2012

The 525th Anniversary of the battle of Stoke Field July to August 2012 We have been contacted by the organisers of ‘a re-enactment event’ to be held this summer at Stoke, near Newark, Notts. They envisage much the same sort of event as happens at Bosworth at the end of August, with ‘re-enactment battles involving hundreds’, jousting displays, mounted displays and skills of arms, a firepower display, a medieval market, a Living History camp, sword-fighting displays, medieval entertainers and musicians, demonstrations of birds of prey, etc. etc. – and, of course, ‘Meet the King’ (Henry VII, that is). The dates are not definite yet. Indeed, it is not absolutely certain that the event will take place at all, so keep an eye on the local press if you are interested in attending.

The Landshut Wedding This re-enactment will take place from 28 June to 21 July 2013 Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt tells us that tickets sell very quickly. Book via Landshut Tourist Information Centre (www.landshuter-hochzeit.de and click on the little Union Jack to get the version in English. It’s quite hard to read, with pale writing on a grey background.) Rita has offered to help and advise people (her email is [email protected]) Described as ‘Europe’s biggest historical pageant’, with over 2,000 costumed participants, the re-enactment is of the wedding of the Polish princess Jadwiga, daughter of Casimir IV, and Duke Georg of Landshut on 14 November 1475.

23

Media Retrospective

Richard III was a nice guy, says in detail and they think that that paint was Stephen Fry added very shortly after the painting was From Fiona Price made, if not almost immediately, so it was a QI (‘Quite Interesting’), BBC2, 28 April change that was made probably to make the 2012. shoulder look higher.’ Gompertz: ‘What he’s This time the quiz centred on Shakespeare. In trying to suggest is that his father, and of one round they put pictures of Shakespearean course him coming after, was a distinct characters up on screen and asked the teams improvement – and an attempt to justify what how best to describe them. The picture of happened in 1485 when the Tudors came to Richard III was put up, and the word power.’ Scott: ‘And it’s not just the shoulder. ‘hunchback’ suggested. No, said Fry, that was There are other changes as well – very, very the Shakespearean character, and the subtle, but it seems that the eyes were over- historical Richard was handsome and painted to make them a more grey colour, and intelligent. The blackening of his character at the mouth there are two little lines that are was caused by the Tudor historian Polydore at either corner which draw the mouth Vergil as an ugly exterior would imply an downwards. And I think the artist here is ugly soul, but the real Richard was a nice guy. making him “hard-favoured of vis- Fiona comments, ‘perhaps we can sign up age”.’ (Jennifer Scott is here quoting from Sir Stephen Fry as a supporter?’ Thomas More.)

Some Subtleties in the Windsor Wallis Simpson and Henry Wyatt From Sue Wells Portrait Behind Closed Doors, by Hugo Vickers, a From Annette Carson biography of the Duchess of Windsor, The Art of Monarchy, Radio 4, final part, Appendix I. ‘Legacy’, 31 March 2012. The Duchess’s ancestry is traced back to A curator of the Royal Collection, Jennifer Edward I, ‘a line which produced some Scott, stated that the portrait of Richard III interesting figures, particularly in the Wyatt exhibited at Windsor was ‘probably com- family. Sir Henry Wyatt of Allington Castle missioned by Henry VIII around 1510’. (1460-1537) resisted Richard III’s pretensions Presenter Will Gompertz, explaining that to the English throne and in consequence was Henry VIII was ‘interested in establishing his arrested, spending two years in the Tower of own credentials to rule’, remarked that he had London. He was said to have been put on the been ‘sowing vicious propaganda about rack in the presence of Richard III, and forced Richard III – that he had a withered arm, that to eat mustard and vinegar. A painting – and he had a hunchback, that he killed the princes his well-known love of cats in later life – in the Tower – yet this picture is reasonably suggest an unconfirmed myth – that a cat flattering’. Scott: ‘Yet there are some visited him daily in his cell, bringing a pigeon subtleties about this portrait. There are some from a nearby dovecote and thus saving him parts that look a little odd. The shape of the from starvation. When Henry VII acceded to shoulders going down is uneven. The one on the throne in 1485, Sir Henry was appointed the left-hand side of the painting is higher to the Privy Council and became a guardian than the right-hand side, and the paint on that to the future Henry VIII.’ area is thinner than the paint on the rest of the Ed.: see Annette Carson’s article in the Sep- painting. Our conservators have looked at this tember Bulletin on Sir Henry Wyatt.

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The unifying influence of Ludlow his career in the lead role, throwing in a From Geoff Wheeler stammer for good measure. According to ‘Out & About, 100 Places that made Britain’, insiders, the Oscar was clinched by the BBC History Magazine, February 2012. tagline on the poster: “It’s a Hump. Get Over David Musgrove visits the key sites chosen It.”’ by historians. This month Lloyd Bowen nominates Ludlow Castle, ‘a fortress “where Pretenders Wales and England finally began to reach an From Geoff Wheeler accommodation”.’ BBC History Magazine, April 2012. ‘England and Wales were not good Question from Alan Smith, Kent: ‘Henry VII neighbours in the medieval period. ... to was troubled by imposters claiming to be understand how relations became more Richard, the younger of the two princes in the harmonious, you need to go to Ludlow Castle. Tower. Did anyone ever try to impersonate In the view of Lloyd Bowen, “it’s a marginal Richard’s brother, Edward?’ place, but interesting because of that. It’s a Answer by Tracy Borman: ‘... None of the so- place of suppression, oppression, but also of called ‘pretenders’ to the throne claimed to be meeting and where the bonds that make up the elder of the two Princes in the Tower. Britain were forged ... beginning as a military This was because Edward – as the heir – had establishment, it gives a sense of trying to been too well known, both at the court and in police the borders in the medieval period; London, to be credibly impersonated. His then, over a period of time, that policing role younger brother, Richard, by contrast, had moves from suppression to interaction”.’ The been far less prominent, and was thus an castle became the powerbase of Richard, duke easier target for the many opportunists who of York, and Edward IV after him. The article fancied their chances as the next king of then briefly mentions the fact that Edward, England.’ Prince of Wales, was at Ludlow when his father died ‘and his attempt to succeed to the ‘A horse, a horse ...’ crown was foiled by his uncle Richard, Duke Saga Magazine, December 2011 of Gloucester’. The article makes no open Crossword clue, 22 across: ‘Surely the accusations of infanticide, merely ‘The fate, highest-ever bidder in the bloodstock market and likely death, of the princes in the Tower (7,3,5).’ The answer is Richard the Third. has excited commentators ever since.’ Ed.: Apologies to whoever sent this in – I seem to have lost your name and don’t The Naked Hunch recognise the writing. From Geoff Wheeler ‘Shouts and Murmurs: And the Oscar will go BBC Classic Serial: Plantagenet to ...’, by Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, From Lesley Ware March 2011. Radio Times 15 April 2012: Today’s Choice, ‘In the light of the recent Oscar ceremony, by Jane Anderson, radio editor. and following the leak of an internal ‘Now is the springtime of my absolute con- Academy memo, we are now in a position to tent made miserable summer by this end of reveal the winners of Best Picture for the series. ... the most engaging, thrilling, infor- coming years. .... mative and witty pieces of drama on the radio ‘2018 ‘The Naked Hunch’. Not a re- in ages ... Richard is just as demonic [as in release of “Richard III”, the Laurence Olivier Shakespeare] in his actions here and his neph- classic, but a vivid new telling of the same ews don’t get to enjoy their late teens, but it is tale, as the badly disabled monarch is helped a far more sympathetic portrait of a monarch to see past his affliction – not an easy thing to doing what has to be done - even if that do when he’s looking over his shoulder – means killing off his own relatives.’ with the assistance of the red-hot widow Lady Ed. We hope to have reviews of Plantagenet Anne (Carey Mulligan). Hugh Grant revives in the September Bulletin.

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The Man Himself

Looking for Richard: In Search of a King PHILIPPA LANGLEY

small notice appeared in the December 2011 Bulletin (page 4) from the AGM. It read:

A Richard Van Allen spoke on a project currently under way in Leicester led by a

Society member. The object was to carry out a scientific-based search for the

remains of Richard III. The search would centre on and around the site of the

Greyfriars monastery – now a council car park near the cathedral. Early ground

radar had produced positive results and it was hoped that a television documentary

would be made. Further details would be given when available.

The details of this project are now to hand. Looking For Richard: In Search of a King (working title) is an archaeological search for the grave of King Richard III. It is also a proposed landmark TV special. The programme’s unique premise is to search for the grave of King Richard III in Leicester, whilst at the same time telling his real story. If King Richard’s remains are found, there will be a private reburial service in Leicester Cathedral (not to be filmed) and, at a later date, a public service of celebration in Leicester Cathedral to commemorate his life, and the unveiling of a new specially-prepared tomb (to be filmed). If King Richard’s remains are not found, there will be a memorial service in Leicester Cathedral on 2 October 2012 (to be filmed) The project has a number of aims: to increase our knowledge of the Greyfriars area in Leicester and thus, potentially, the site of King Richard’s grave and, if the grave is found, to increase our knowledge of King Richard himself; We also aim to bring the real story of Richard III to a national and international audience, and to honour him with the services outlined above.

King Richard’s Grave Richard III has no known grave. Research indicates that after his defeat at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 he was buried in the choir of the Greyfriars Church in Leicester. Ten years later, Henry VII paid for a tomb to be placed over his grave. In 1538, at the dissolution of the monasteries, the Greyfriars was closed and its roof timbers and lead sold. At this time, Richard’s tomb was most likely left to weather in the church’s open ruins, becoming lost over time. In the early seventeenth century, the land of the Greyfriars was sold to Robert Herrick, mayor of Leicester. Herrick built a substantial mansion house and gardens on the land. In 1612 the father of the famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren, visited Herrick. Wren described seeing a handsome 3-ft stone pillar in Herrick’s garden with the following inscription upon it:

‘Here lies the Body of Richard III, Some time King of England.’

This area of land is still known in Leicester as the Greyfriars. Herrick’s mansion house is long gone, as Georgian and Victorian buildings have been built, but new map regression research now indicates that Herrick’s garden, and last-recorded resting place of King Richard III, could lie within this area of Leicester. It is here that our search will begin.

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Recent investigations by John Ashdown-Hill and David Baldwin have indicated that the story of Richard’s bones being dug up and thrown into the River Soar is erroneous, having been first recorded 70 years after the supposed event took place. However, further investigation into this will be carried out for the programme.

Background to the Project In the late summer of 2007, an archaeological excavation took place in Leicester at the NatWest / Pares’s Bank site in Grey Friars Street. A small single-story extension dating from the 1950s was being demolished to make way for a block of flats. As this was located within the Greyfriars area of Leicester and thus contained the possible burial site of King Richard, it raised considerable interest in the society’s membership. However, the only evidence uncovered to suggest that there may have been a medieval church in the vicinity came from a fragment of a stone coffin lid found in a post-medieval drain. (Chris Wardle, ‘Archaeological Excavations at Grey Friars, Leicester’, Bulletin, Summer 2008 p.34-37). This information could now suggest that the site of the Greyfriars church, and thus potentially King Richard’s grave, is located further to the west of the Greyfriars precinct / area. In February 2009, I invited Dr John Ashdown-Hill to Edinburgh to give a series of talks to the Scottish Branch concerning Richard’s grave in the Greyfriars and Dr Ashdown-Hill’s discovery of his mtDNA. At lunch it transpired that a branch member had a contact at Leicester City Council. I then approached Dr Ashdown-Hill with the idea of pursuing this contact to ascertain whether Leicester City Council would be interested in an archaeological search for King Richard’s grave. At this time he was writing The Last Days of Richard III, and I was continuing to work in the TV industry on various projects including the Richard III drama that has the serious interest of the actor Richard Armitage. I determined to wait for the publication of Dr Ashdown-Hill’s book (for the mtDNA research) and to then make an approach to Leicester City Council, and put it forward as a potential TV project.

Support and Backing The project has received the support and backing of the following key players: Leicester City Council: the project will work to complement and augment the Council’s policy to ‘interpret and promote the historic heart of the city’. The project will take particular care to protect the dignity and honour of King Richard’s remains should they be found. A search for an anointed king is unprecedented, and it is also incredibly sensitive – in Richard’s case particularly so. This care includes no filming of his remains at any time whatsoever, and is in direct accordance and compliance with Leicester City Council’s philosophy and practice on any discovery of human remains. Leicestershire Promotions: this is the marketing body with the responsibility of promoting Leicester and Leicestershire as a tourist destination both nationally and internationally. University of Leicester: one of the foremost centres of learning within the UK and the only university to win five consecutive Times Higher Awards. Experts from its many departments will work on the project, from the archaeological team (see below) to its genetics and DNA unit. The University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS): an independent professional unit of archaeologists based at the University of Leicester. With over twenty years’ experience in archaeology they are also the team that worked at the NatWest / Pares’s Bank site. They are the leading archaeological team in Leicester and have worked on its most important archaeological sites, including Leicester Abbey, the £4-million Highcross Development, St Nicholas Place and St Margaret’s. Richard Buckley, Director, who has written numerous books on the archaeology of Leicester, will head the team. Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society (LAHS): founded in 1855 to ‘promote the study of history, archaeology, antiquities and architecture of the county’, its annual publication is received around the world at some 100 institutions.

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Leicester Cathedral: the Greyfriars area lies within the parish of Leicester Cathedral, and there is a commemorative ledger stone to Richard’s memory in the choir. If identifiable remains are found as a result of the archaeological search, permission has been granted to re-inter King Richard III in the cathedral. Darlow Smithson Productions: this company aims to produce a landmark TV Special. They are one of the world’s leading factual production companies and recipients of over 40 awards, producing prestigious documentaries, flagship series and high quality factually-based drama. Their recent work includes Stephen Hawking’s Universe and WW1: Finding the Lost Battalions. The Richard III Society: support and backing of the Society has been received through our Chairman, Phil Stone, and the Executive Committee. During the project’s early development an archaeological Desk-Based Assessment (DBA) was required from ULAS. This was in order to ensure the project had a firm foundation with regard to its archaeological research (see below). Phil and the Executive Committee moved swiftly to provide the funding so that the DBA could go ahead. (The DBA is a preliminary research document produced by archaeologists to determine the archaeological viability of a site. This is achieved through extensive historical research, including detailed map regression,* and the analysis of any potential ground disturbance, past or present, including the location of gas mains and electric and fibre-optic cables etc. The DBA, in short, provides a professional green light enabling an archaeological project to go ahead.)

Moving Forward In July 2010, The Last Days of Richard III by Dr Ashdown-Hill (History Press) was published. I have obtained the rights in order to protect the project from acquisitive producers and to secure the research which underpins the discovery of Richard’s mtDNA. Should any remains be discovered, the DNA specialists at the University of Leicester (where Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys discovered genetic fingerprinting) will head the identification work. It is anticipated that this process will be fully documented and the findings made available to all interested parties. Two banners, one of the arms of England and the other Richard’s standard, will be presented to Leicester Cathedral. Both are being funded by legacies left to the Society and to the East Midlands Branch by Margaret York, who died last year. The search for Richard will take place sometime during the late summer period. The main players (as outlined above) are on board and a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Survey has been undertaken. Results are under wraps for the TV programme but are very positive, enabling the archaeological plan to get under way. Please note that it will not be possible to visit the dig as it is an operational council area. There are health-and-safety reasons, but also it is important to ensure that no contamination of any potential DNA occurs should human remains be discovered. The dig is prepared as a ‘clean- site’, which includes the wearing of protective masks and clothing by all those on site upon the discovery of human remains. The GPR Survey was funded by private individuals. Without their support it would not have been possible. I would like to thank the following: Dr Raymond Bord, Renfrew, Scotland; Mr Jack Thomson, Mississippi, USA; Dr Phil Stone, Kent, UK; Mr David Fiddimore, Edinburgh, Scotland; Mr and Mrs David Johnson, York, UK; Mr Gerry Martin, Edinburgh, Scotland; Mrs Fiona Nicholson, Oxfordshire, UK. I hope that members may find the project of interest. An update will appear in the September Bulletin.

*Map regression is the tracing back through all available maps to study how the land use of a particular area has changed.

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Yorkist Era Sports COMPTON REEVES

ersons endowed with a curiosity about to lessen the havoc among sporting knights. P the past, when anticipating an event like When King Edward I issued the Statuta the London Olympics of 2012, wonder about Armorum (‘Statutes of Arms’) in 1292, it was athletic contests in the historic periods that the team-game upon which he was interested interest them. Yorkists naturally wonder in imposing the king’s peace. Among its about fifteenth-century England. There were provisions were that a committee of five of course no Olympic Games being held in members would enforce rules for a tourney. the Yorkist era, but there were athletic One such rule was that no participant could contests taking place. There were also no bring with him to a tournament more than governing boards setting generally followed three armed knights or squires, and they were rules for different sorts of games and contests; to wear identifying badges and not carry participants necessarily decided at the outset offensive weapons such as knives and pointed of a contest what the rules would be. swords. Heralds, identified by the tabards A partial exception to the notion of no they wore, were to assist in keeping order. general rules being in place would be The team sport came to be joined by tournaments, one of the more famous forms single combats of one knight against another, of athletic endeavor. Tournaments were not a which were called jousts. In time, an enclosed fifteenth-century innovation, but had area came to be established for tournaments appeared centuries earlier as contests of or jousts, and the area was called the lists. knightly skill and training for war. The Tournaments and jousts were also potential danger of tournaments was obvious increasingly becoming spectator sports. It was from the outset, and Pope Innocent II probably in the 1420s that it became condemned them in 1130. Pope Celestine III customary to erect a wooden barrier (origi- in 1192 forbade tournaments in England, yet nally a rope strung a few feet off the ground just two years later King Richard I licensed with a cloth draped over it), called a tilt, down them being held in five places around the the center of the lists to keep charging horses kingdom. from crashing into each other. The mounted In their earliest form, tournaments were combatant rode with the tilt on his left side tantamount to being scheduled battles, with and his lance couched under his right arm and two teams of knights ranging over a pointed across the tilt as his opponent charged designated area engaging in mêlée and from the opposite direction on the other side. individual clashes. A tournament could last By the fifteenth century tournament armor through the daylight hours with recognized was composed predominantly of plates with places of refuge where knights could rest, chain mail to fill some gaps, but it did not arm, and disarm. Infantry would participate in eliminate the danger of serious or mortal some tournaments. Early tournaments were injury. Even so-called jousts of peace, in highly dangerous for participants, and death, which blunted or even wooden weapons were injury, or impoverishment from ransoms paid used, did not guarantee safety. Another dis- by the vanquished could be the outcome. It tinction was made between jousts to the end took long training and expensive horses and or finish (joust à outrance), which continued equipment to make a knight. Men of power until one of the combatants was captured or soon realized the negative impact of having killed or an authority ended the fight, and valuable warriors rendered unavailable for jousts at pleasure (joust à plaisance) in which military service, and changes were introduced an agreed number of courses had been run

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with horses or some number of blows with emblem, because of the play on his name: swords or axes or other weapons had been John Gunthorpe. We can be confident that in exchanged. A famous joust à plaisance took battle there was interest in accuracy with place at Smithfield in June 1467. Anthony guns, but shooting at targets for sport is Woodville, Lord Scales, brother of Elizabeth, undetermined. the wife of King Edward IV, and Anthony, That there was sport in shooting arrows count de la Roche, known as the Bastard of from bows can be stated with confidence. Burgundy, had been planning to test their Archery, an Olympic sport, might well be martial skills against one another for more called the national sport of medieval England. than two years before the event was held. The weapon of choice was the longbow, a More than 400 Burgundians came to England weapon of war as well as of sport. Crossbows to witness the event that opened before a were used in war and for sport in England, large audience that included Edward IV. The but they did not capture the devotion of the joust commenced with the two mounted English as did the longbow. Crossbows were champions charging at one another with sharp slower to use than longbows, and did not have lances and without a tilt in place. After the the reputation for requiring skill that course with lances, and with both men still longbows had. Practice and competition at mounted, they put aside their lances and archery were commonly undertaken at butts assaulted one another with swords. One that were often established in churchyards, account tells that the Bastard split the visor of but shooting at targets at long range was also Lord Scales’ helmet with a sword blow. In the typical. Edward IV was concerned that the violent action, it seems, the horses collided price of bowstaves would diminish the and the Bastard’s horse fell pinning its rider engagement in archery in England, and the to the ground. Servants soon extricated the response was to require four bowstaves to be Bastard of Burgundy from beneath his horse, brought into the kingdom with every ton of and the action for the day was concluded. The goods imported. Richard III augmented the following day the two fought on foot with order to include bowstaves along with each axes and daggers, and flailed away vigorously shipment of wine into England. at one another until Scales struck a Archery requires at least a brief mention particularly smashing blow, sinking a point of of hunting, not an Olympic sport, but a his axe into the helmet of his opponent, physical activity of wide participation in whereupon the king halted the combat, with medieval England that could bring pleasure Lord Scales gaining the victory. Over the together with food for the table. Many following days the entertainment continued members of the upper ranks of society kept with combats between English and horses and hounds strictly for the purpose of Burgundian knights. hunting, and the warrior class considered Tournaments and jousts are not part of hunting as preparation and rehearsal for war. today’s Olympics, but we might grant that An authoritative guide to hunting in the fencing events are at least reminiscent of fifteenth century is to be found in Edward, knightly sword-play, and the equestrian duke of York, who was killed in the battle of events, together with the sport of polo, echo Agincourt in 1415. Between 1406 and 1413 the horsemanship required of medieval Edward developed his hunting treatise, The knights. Marksmanship with gunpowder Master of Game, which was a translation firearms is an Olympic sport, but this (with notable additions based upon the duke’s historian has found no fifteenth-century experience) of Le Livre de Chasse, written evidence of gun sports. Firearms were part of some two decades earlier by Gaston III, count fifteenth-century weaponry, as evidenced for of Foix. example by the shot and handgun pellets A specialized and expensive form of found on the site of the battle of Bosworth. aristocratic hunting was hawking or falconry. The keeper of Richard III’s privy seal used A body of literature emerged on falconry, just various styles of carved guns as his rebus, or as with hunting, and an important contri-

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bution to the literature on falconry is known stone, like putting the shot (an Olympic as the Boke of St Albans. This compilation of event). Throwing a stone with a sling could information on hawking, hunting, heraldry, be done for pleasure or employed in fowling, and other matters is attributed to one Dame and had authoritative sanction in the story of Juliana Bernes or Barnes, and was printed at David and Goliath. St Albans in 1486. As opposed to patrician English folk in the fifteenth century were falconry, and the hunting of deer with dogs, familiar with a form of football called camp- was fowling, which involved catching birds ball, with few or huge numbers playing on with snares and traps, and the hunting of each of two sides. The game had no fixed conies with ferrets. Fishing was another non- rules, and the goals might be any distance Olympic sport enjoyed in the fifteenth apart. The object was to get the ball to the century. When the Boke of St Albans was opposing side’s goal by kicking or throwing a printed for the second time, in 1496, it ball, which was often made of a pig’s bladder included an anonymous treatise on fishing, filled with peas. Quoits was a throwing game probably written earlier in the century. and could take various forms. A quoit might Athletic contests involving running and be a horseshoe, a disc-shaped stone, or jumping, now thought of both as highly something similar, that was thrown at any regulated sports and as spontaneous desired target. Bowls was a similar game. A challenges of skill, were aspects of fifteenth- player used a round bowl, often a stone, century English life. Running and jumping which was rolled across a stretch of flat were part of a knight’s training, and it is ground towards targets, often pins to be impossible to imagine an era when children knocked over. did not compete with one another in running Several variants on bowls existed by the and jumping. The distance to be run and the fifteenth century. The children’s game of distance or the height to be jumped would be marbles probably originated as a miniature determined by the moment and the form of bowls. The game of half-bowl used a participants. The same might be said of hemisphere (half a bowl) which was slid on wrestling. It is today an Olympic sport, but it its flat side towards target pins. The game of is also an informal and common contest of closh used an implement like a stick to move skill with the rules governing a match being the bowl through a hoop or ring, as in determined by the circumstances. The Luttrell croquet. Kayles used a stick, rather than a Psalter, a magnificent illuminated manuscript bowl, to bring down the target pins. In 1477 of the fourteenth century, contains a drawing Edward IV issued an edict against the playing of pairs of wrestlers engaged in a match; two of several new games, including closh, of the wrestlers carry another on their kayles, and hand-in and hand-out, both of shoulders, and it is apparent that the riders are which were apparently ball games, and grappling with one another while the two with neither of which can now be described with wrestlers on their shoulders are struggling to certainty. keep their footing. We may guess that Various ball sports, using different wrestling one on one was a more common equipment, evolved out of camp-ball, such as kind of contest. Swimming and skating on golf, hockey, handball, different forms of ice, now part of Olympic competition, were bowling, and ball games using rackets. also athletic recreations in which fifteenth- Handball, which set the ball in motion with a century English folk engaged in, but these strike of the hand, was a simple and basic activities were never organized into official game that could be played in the open competitions. between participants or against a wall by one Throwing games were commonplace. or more players. Handball, altered through the Throwing stones for sport was a addition of a court and rackets, becomes straightforward activity, and it could be done tennis. Geoffrey Chaucer in his Troilus and for great distance with a lighter weight stone Criseyde writes of ‘pleyen racket to and fro’. or over a shorter distance with a heavier Although there were efforts to discourage

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tennis and other recreations in favor of word ‘sport’ in the fifteenth century meant a archery practice, tennis (an Olympic sport) pleasant, recreational pastime, frequently of became increasingly popular. The demand for an athletic sort. ‘Sport’ could have additional balls and rackets became sufficient to worry meanings, such as a jest. In another context, English producers about foreign imports, and to account for the childlessness of King Edward IV was petitioned to ban the Henry VI, in late 1446 a London draper was importing of tennis balls. The king’s response alleged to have said that it was because the was to grant a monopoly of tennis ball closest advisors of the king prevented him production to the ironmongers. from ‘his sport’ with Queen Margaret. As a final note, it should be said that the

A Series of Remarkable Ladies RITA DIEFENHARDT-SCHMITT

During our Richard’s time, in a world thoroughly dominated by males, women seemed to stand more in the background, but even so they could play an important role as wives bringing alliances for rulers, mothers to noble children, office-holders – and there were other ‘jobs’ they could fulfil. Like their husbands, partners and clerical leaders they took part in political and economical matters, and family matters, as well as supporting charities and founding institutions like universities, monasteries and libraries. Some of them were talented artists, some wrote poems and translated books. To give an impression of the life of women in Richard III’s time, I introduce you to some of these remarkable ladies, who are well worth remembering and respecting. I hope you enjoy meeting them with me throughout this series. If questions arise, don’t hesitate to contact me, Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt, Ulmenweg 8, D-65520 Bad Camberg-Oberselters/Ts. Telephone: (0)6483 800 956, email [email protected]

1. Clarice Orsini (1453 – 30 July 1488, Florence) Fact file: Parents: Jacopo Orsini and Maddalena Bracciano Husband: Lorenzo de Medici (‘The Magnificent’) 1449-1492 Children: Lucrezia (1470-1550); Piero ‘the Unhappy’ (1472-1503); Maddalena (1473-1519); Giovanni (1475-1521); Luigia (1476/7-1488); Contessina (1478-1515); Giuliano (1479-1516). Apart from her own children, she took care of Giulio de Medici (1478-1534), the illegitimate son of Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano de Medici (1453-1478), and Luigi de Rossi (1474-1519), son of Lorenzo’s half-sister Maria de Medici (1449-1474). Source: Ingeborg Walter, Lorenzo de’ Medici und seine Zeit, Piper Verlag Munich 2005, ISBN 3 -492-24204-9.

Clarice’s childhood days were overshadowed by the fights of her family against Pope Calixtus II and the Borgia family. Lorenzo’s parents wanted their eldest son to marry a noble woman in order to establish the social status of the Medici family. The search resulted in favour of Clarice, daughter of the mighty Orsini family in Rome, and the marriage took place on 4 June 1469 in Florence. Her dowry amounted to 6,000 florins. Clarice’s strict religious life was not much liked by the Florentines, with their open mind for humanism. In the so-called ‘Pazzi Conspiracy’, which aimed to eliminate her husband and his younger brother Giuliano to weaken the power of the Medici family, and during which Giuliano was killed, Lorenzo and Clarice fled to Pistoia. Later, both returned in more peace to Florence. Both took several journeys to Rome. Clarice died of tuberculosis in Rome on 30 July 1488.

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Dark Sovereign Resuscitates Richard III

ROBERT FRIPP

Dark Sovereign, Robert Fripp’s impressive play about Richard III, was published last year and we are very grateful to him for agreeing to write for the Bulletin to tell us about the play and the inspiration behind it. Robert Fripp was born in Portsmouth, in 1943, where his mother was killed months later. His father, a naval officer on convoy escort duty, met Fripp’s future step-mother in New York the following year. Fripp had a mobile first decade, following his father’s postings to Royal Navy bases and air stations around the UK. The family finally settled in Shillingstone, Dorset. Fripp attended Salisbury Cathedral School, Canford School and graduated in earth sciences from the University of Bristol. In 1965 he accompanied his American fiancée, Carol Burtin, to New York, where they married in Stony Point. Then the couple loaded their Land Rover and steered towards the Pole Star, to Montreal. Fripp spent years producing television for the CBC, based in Toronto. From 1991 he worked independently, creating IBM Visions magazine about high-performance computing; and editing footage from Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, into English-language programs for international markets. Fripp specialized in technology during twenty years as a commercial writer. His several books include Design and Science about his father-in-law, Will Burtin, who ‘invented modern information design’. Robert and Carol have two sons, Eric and Will.

he first time I gave a thought to King Richard III it was 1983, the five hundredth T anniversary of his accession. I was the series producer of Canada’s ‘premiere investigative television series’, the fifth estate. Investigative journalists are held to absolute probity in reporting current affairs. Meanwhile, aided and abetted by countless theatres, directors, academics and actors, Shakespeare plc was embellishing ancient libel without limit. I wondered how a vessel of character-assassination as specious as Shakespeare’s play could secure the laurels of ‘history’ through four centuries. How to change ‘Richard’ in the public mind? That task would impose major intellectual, marketing and communication challenges. How to strip away a popular, well-rooted web of misprision, and substitute something resembling history? I finally reasoned that, since Shakespeare’s play had inflicted the damage, the only feasible solution must be to write a competing play, doing so in English as it stood in Shakespeare’s day. This posed such a Herculean task that nothing happened till the following spring when my wife and I were visiting family in New York. Carol chose a sweltering day in May to buy the two -volume, optically-reduced Oxford English Dictionary, which our son Will carried around in the heat. I duly took delivery of this essential tool. Nothing remained but to write the play that would have to compete in fluency and art with the English language’s foremost dramatist. My first task was to establish that I, a writer suddenly time-shifted into Renaissance England, had to ‘flourish’ between certain dates. For technical reasons I picked 1626 as my cut-off year.

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That meant I could use no word, preposition, conjunction, verb ending, construction or metaphor that entered the language after 1626. Without exaggeration, each word that made it into Dark Sovereign was researched in the OED and other sources until I was satisfied that it had been used before 1626. Much of the play is crafted in iambic meter, so it was essential to discover not just valid precedents, but how words were stressed, i.e. en.GINE, si.NI.ster and HO.ri.ZON. Expressions needed research. ‘Lend me your ears’ dates from 1385, but the expression is generally considered Shakespeare’s, so I never used it. It would have fit perfectly in Act 3.7, where Hastings shouts down a mob: ‘Countrymen, I treat you – nay, herefor I chide – put not the times to bloody judgment till ye do know truth!’ To ‘know truth’ is the point of the play, of course, but I cannot claim clairvoyance or state the princes’ fates. Here hangs Richard’s reputation, so I calculated it would be best to get the killing over with. Two murderers kill the sleeping princes in the opening minute. Or do they? No sooner do the murderers go than the character Rumour enters:

RUMOUR: Edward the fift, child-king sans crown, that never more shall crown beget; and Richard, duke of York: Requiescatis in pace, - if ye truly be dead! Were these or agents for o’erween’d ambition rid ye thus? or night-born phantasms do serve the time? th’occasions of my tongues? If these were ghosts, their work was woven of the many’s mind, and you shall live long years beyond tonight. Be you in this world, or in another, brothers, sleep! [10] It is not given me to understand whether this work were done, or no.

Rumour is careful to identify herself, because the audience will soon meet her identical twin sister, Truth. But not yet:

RUMOUR: I, friends, am Rumour. Ye still still tell my fames: Men say! They say! ’Tis said! Holla, now you discern me: I am each man his concubine, the envy and report of every she. I am whatever company I keep.

I lack space to explain ‘fift’, the extra ‘or’ or repeated ‘still’. The full text comes with 715 Arden- style footnotes, which explain points in Renaissance English as well as historical oddities (i.e. early strawberries from Holborn). And why do both factions struggle to possess the boy-king’s person? (Genesis 30: 37-43 gives a clue. Footnote 191 to the play explains.) On that topic, Howard confronts Queen Elizabeth and the Woodvilles in the Council, explaining why the heir to the throne should not be nurtured by Woodvilles alone:

HOWARD: His mind, that rules the sapience of his tree; his heart, whence airy, fiery vital spirits flow; his threads of life, [nerves] wherein attractive and repulsive powers run; those virtues in a king we hold most dear. The common weal – moreover, the weal of our prince’s soul – hath nobler intérést than that the king thereof [140] should wait on his kinsmen’s trough!

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Every Renaissance play has been edited, sometimes often, often badly. For this reason the text of Dark Sovereign may seem older than that in frequently edited plays such as Hamlet and Richard III. Tied by my own rules of engagement, the text of Dark Sovereign is more authentic to the English of the ‘Golden Age’ than many recent editions of period plays. I started writing Dark Sovereign with one advantage. When I was eight I won a choral scholarship to the choir of Salisbury Cathedral, where I spent five years reading, reciting, chanting and singing sixteenth-century English through eight services and seven rehearsals a week. The editorial line in Dark Sovereign is generally that which prevails in the north of England: that Richard III was a benign, capable leader who staged a coup d’état because he had no alternative. Richard might not have moved to seize Earl Rivers that fateful night in Northampton had Harry Buckingham not pressed him. It is Buckingham who proposes to Richard (Gloucester) that they seize Rivers and then the young king:

BUCKINGHAM: The very earl gives us occasion to lay hold upon occasion. Such a worldly-wise man never offer’d eviler occasion to his foes. GLOUCESTER: The devil he did. How so? BUCKINGHAM: Take we the earl tonight. Then betimes to Stony Stratford: We shall attach the king. ’Twas Rivers styl’d you “Lord Protector”. No one about the king pretendeth power to resist, [80] excepting none but him.

Gloucester, loyal to his family line, is not convinced. Buckingham presses him:

BUCKINGHAM: ’Twere the devil’s undeserving profit, did your father - his three sons withal – untimely fall in grave. For nothing! To sway the diadem doth mitigate abominations. To lose the rule were death. And treason. Standing: I’ll take me out a pissing while. I’d purge the wine of fellowship on daisies. He goes.

Alone, Gloucester contemplates the morality – yes, morality – of seizing young Edward. But doubts deter him: Is it the voice of reason suggesting he should seize Rivers and the young king, or is his motive based on hunger for power – and fear?

GLOUCESTER: Speaks Reason to my Will? or doth proud Will to Reason speak? The Comedy did anciently set forth how wayward Will strove with his government, the passive voice of Reason. O, would I wist which captain order’d thought, prescrib’d it me, dictated every deed. Whether doth the Will or Reason urge me fasten on occasion [150] of this night to sway the rule on England? If either door gaped wide, mankind would wholly righteous be - or damn’d! How stony is the way ’twixt Reason and the Will, to judgment.

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Buckingham has been listening. He has no patience for self-doubt, and too much to lose to let Woodville interests prevail. He must bring Gloucester to his senses, fast:

BUCKINGHAM pretends a noisy entrance: A wink ago I catch’d th’odd ends ‘To judgment’. Clear dawn is sprung, and time’s no more by night delay’d. The question’s so brief, needs the answer were briefer: Shall you sit in judgment? Or be judg’d?

Those lines form the fulcrum of the play. Reluctantly, Gloucester acts. In 1990, prospective publishers were so wary of Dark Sovereign that they consulted Shakespeare experts who were even more reluctant to step out of line. Many conventional wisdoms, vested interests and dramatic and academic reputations depend from Shakespeare plc. I was supposed to learn a lesson: Tsk, tsk. One does not throw bricks at a national icon. I commissioned a small private printing in 1991. Let’s skip fast forward. Now, the burgeoning internet, the rise of independents and the waning influence of conventional publishers makes publication feasible. So here is the play that Shakespeare should have written. Overnight, Dark Sovereign overtakes Hamlet as the longest play in Renaissance English. Reviewers have pronounced it ‘An amazing adventure’, ‘A cultural accomplishment of the highest order’, ‘The most courageous thing I ever saw in theater. A good play, too,’ – and other things, but we’ll leave them. Here, fully extant and woven into the fabric of the English language, Dark Sovereign intends to stay. Readers will find many posts about Dark Sovereign on the internet. Search for or . My URL, http://RobertFripp.ca/ => MENU: Dark Sovereign offers reviews and 19 pages. Booklocker.com offers two scenes. Dark Sovereign was published in September 2011 by the Shillingstone Press and is available in paperback from many internet vendors, including Amazon, the Book Depository and other booksellers.

* Photo of Robert Fripp: Taffi Rosen, Toronto

RICHARD III AND EAST ANGLIA A record of the proceedings of the Triennial Conference of the Richard III Society held at Queens’ College, Cambridge, 15-17 April 2005

Edited and with foreword by Livia Visser-Fuchs Contents include: Richard of Gloucester and his East Anglia Lands: Anne F. Sutton Friends and Foes: Richard III and the East Anglian Magnates: The Howard Family: Anne Crawford The de Vere Family and the House of York c.1440-1485: James Ross The Last Yorkist Rebellion? Henry VII and the Earl of Suffolk, 1499-1501: Sean Cunningham Socio-religious Gilds of the Middle Ages: David Dymond ‘As dear to him as the Trojans were to Hector’: Richard III and the University of Cambridge: Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs

MEMBERS’ PRICE £5.00 + p&p (UK £3.00, EU £5.50, rest of world £8.50) Available from Anne Sutton, 44 Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1QF

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‘Bambi’ versus ‘Superswine’

Dubious Ricardian badges in the saleroom

GEOFFREY WHEELER

little thought when reporting in the March I Bulletin on the ‘Timeline’ auction (p.47)* that less than four months later I would be attending another of that firm of auctioneers’ eclectic sales. Over two days (15-16 March) more than one thousand catalogued items ranging from Stone Age, Greek, Roman and medieval artefacts through to Islamic and Far- Eastern antiquities passed under the hammer. The medieval section included a couple of further examples of falcon rings – with a Fig. 1 ‘Medieval Richard II and Richard III more detailed provenance this time – found in retainers’ badge group’? Thetford and Beccles, and again dated ‘circa 15th century’, but the inscriptions (one very Firstly, the pair of conjoined deer (an similar in style to the Earl of Rutland ring attitude unknown in heraldry) cannot be sold last year) were now described as being in assigned to Richard II’s white hart, familiar ‘an italic hand’, which again appears at odds from countless inn signs and usually based on with the OED definition: ‘Applied to a the Wilton Diptych painting (fig.2), though species of printing type, introduced by Aldus variations do exist in mural and sculptured Manutius of Venice. First used in an edition forms decorating Westminster Hall and of Vergil published 1501’. elsewhere. Several variations of horse-harness As these animals are pendants followed, most being of the usual shown without horns or heraldic shield type, of which two notable antlers, they should be examples were excavated on Ambion Hill in more properly classified 2003,1 but which have now been rather as hinds. The White overlooked and forgotten in the light of more Hind was the badge of recent discoveries around the new battlefield Queen Philippa, consort site at Fenn Lanes. of Edward III.2 ‘It was But the chief item of interest was Lot also gifted to her ward, 1141, described as ‘Medieval Richard II and Joan, The Fair Maid of Richard III retainers’ badge group circa 14th- Kent, with the addition 15th century. A group of two cast bronze of a gold crown about Fig. 2 Richard II’s supporters’ badges comprising: a pair of its neck and a pendant hart, Wilton Diptych harts, standing with pricked ears, facing right, chain.’3 This beast the badge of Richard II; a boar running left passed to Joan’s eldest son by her first with prominent ridge on his back and marriage, Thomas Holand, earl of Kent, and extended legs, the badge of Richard III. appears on his seal of 1398 (fig.3). It is also Bronze, 10 grams, 23-25 mm (1"). Very fine to be found on a seal of Joan Holand, condition.’ (fig.1). This once more raises daughter of Thomas and wife of Edmund of issues. Langley, duke of York, which has (after 37

The animal also appears in stone on the exterior of St George’s in a series of beasts representative of Yorkist kings which decorates the roof and buttresses, though these are modern replacements erected in 1925.7 To date, no similar badge has been discovered with which this can be compared, though numerous examples of Richard II’s white hart exist and can be found in the collections and catalogues of the Museum of London and the Salisbury Museum.8 With the boar badge, if genuine, we Fig. 3 Seal of Thomas Holand, earl of Kent, 1398 should be on firmer ground, though its appearance is not closely comparable to any 1393) her husband’s half of her impaled surviving 15th-century specimen or design shield supported by the falcon of York and but seems to be rather more related to post- her own half by her father’s hind with its medieval depictions of the boar passant (with crown collar. Thus by descent it concludes a right fore-leg raised) of the type which list pertaining to the lordships and badges of evolved into those seen in the work of the duke of York (before 1460) for the Fair modern artists, for example Don Escott in the Maid of Kent,4 and is illustrated in a similar late 1970s (fig.5). collection of badges of royal lordships c.1466

-70, cut from their original manuscript and collected together by Sir John Fenn, the Norfolk antiquary.5 For Ricardians, however, probably the most familiar image of the hind is that of a supporter, together with the White Lion of March or Mortimer, upholding the royal arms at the feet of the full-length posthumous portrait of Edward V on the panel attached to Bishop Oliver King’s chantry in St George’s Chapel, Windsor (fig.4). ‘Dated to c.1493, the attribution, even if not actually used by the Fig. 5 A boar passant from the 1970s child king, indicates that a near-contemporary artist considered them to be appropriate as his This boar looks in remarkably good supporters.’6 condition, compared with others that have recently been discovered, and the similarity

between the two badges in Lot 1141 in metal and style suggests they may have originated from the same craftsman or workshop collection, and possibly never been lost or buried at all, although their provenance, such as it is, is given in the sale catalogue simply as ‘from an important West Country collection, found in the late 19th century’. Of the two most recent boar finds, those from Chiddingly and Bosworth have both lost their front legs,9 whilst the example on paper in the Fenn collection has suffered damage to its Fig. 4 Arms of Edward V, Bishop King’s back legs.10 The better-preserved pewter chantry, St George’s Chapel, Windsor 38

badge in the Museum of London (currently 8 Brian Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and mounted too high for close inspection and not Secular Badges:Medieval finds from displayed to its best advantage) is shown excavations in London, Museum of London wearing a collar and ring attachment which, if Catalogue vol.17, 1998; and Brian Spencer, it once held a bell, probably means that it Salisbury Museum Catalogue Part 2, 1990. I should be described as the emblem of St am grateful to Ann Cole for itemising and Anthony, not of Richard III.11 checking the contents of the latter. Sparsely attended, in contrast to last 9 The first is illustrated in the Bulletin, June year’s sale, with the auctioneer jokingly 2010, p.19, with the Middleham boar, the referring to Lot 1141 as including ‘double second in P.W. Hammond, Richard III and Bambis’, bidding was brisk for it between the Bosworth Campaign, 2010, plate 19. only two competitors in the room, and within 10 Illustrated in R. Marks and A. Payne, a few minutes the pair of badges had realised British Heraldry (British Museum exhibition the relatively modest sum of £430, perhaps a catalogue), BM Publications 1978, p. 37. For reflection of the uncertain state of the market a comprehensive survey and illustrated at present (a number of previous lots had background to Richard III’s boar badge up to failed to meet their reserve prices) – or 1990, see the section on ‘The Most Deadly possibly an indication of their true worth? Boar’ in the exhibition catalogue To Prove a Thanks to Richard Knowles, who again Villain – the Real Richard III (National provided advance notice of the sale. If the Theatre 1991). (There are copies of this in the couple who purchased the lot are members of Society’s Library.) the Society, could they please get in touch? 11 Brian Spencer, Museum of London Catalogue cited above, p.289, fig.281 h. Notes 1 Bulletin Autumn 2004, p.42 (illustrated on STOP PRESS p.50). The Chiddingly and Bosworth boars also 2 A Tudor drawing in Prince Arthur’s Book feature, along with Ricardian portraits and (College of Arms Ms. Vincent 152) attributes artefacts, in the newly-published catalogue of a banner-bearing example there to the king the forthcoming exhibition ‘Shakespeare - himself. staging the world’ (19 July to 25 November 3 W.H.St John Hope suggested that Richard II 2012) by Jonathan Bale and Dora Thornton changed his mother’s badge into a hart, (British Museum Press). See Chapter 3, creating a punning allusion to his name ‘Rich- ‘Kingship and the English nation’, especially hart’ (see H. Stanford London, Royal Beasts, pp.101-105. Heraldry Society 1956, p.35). 4 Bodleian Library Ms. Digby 82, printed in * Corrections to the March article Stanford London, cited above, p.25. P.46 col.2 line 8 ‘blue-glass lines’ should read 5 BL Add. Ms. 40742, Fenn’s Book of ‘blue-glass liner’, and line 14, ‘Rowse family, Badges. (Lord Mayor of London)’ should read ‘Rowe 6 A.H. and R.V. Pinches, ‘The Royal family, (Lord Mayors of London)’; on p.47 Heraldry of England’, Heraldry Today, 1994, col.1 line 8 read ‘Earle’, line 30 p.121. ‘PEREGRINE’, col.2 line 6 ‘eliding’, and line 7 Stanford London, op.cit., pp.63-67. 29, ‘Richard, earl of Cambridge’. Illustrated on p.64 fig.24, but mistakenly captioned ‘The Hind of Edward VI’. Drawings by Geoffrey Wheeler

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Jane Austen’s opinion of Richard III . . . and others

Jane Austen wrote this - the full work is entitled The History of England from the reign of Henry the 4th to the death of Charles the 1st - in 1791, when she was 16 years old. She added ‘by a partial, prejudiced and ignorant Historian. NB There will be very few Dates in this History’. Indeed she was prejudiced - against Elizabeth I, because Elizabeth executed Mary, Queen of Scots, to whom Jane was devoted. This made her look favourably on any Yorkist and despise the Lancastrians. Dr John Newbery of Carlisle suggested that members might enjoy reading this early work of Jane Austen, and we are very grateful to him. The spelling is Jane’s own. HENRY THE 6TH mistresses was Jane Shore, who has had a I cannot say much for this monarch’s sense. play written about her, but it is a tragedy and Nor would I if I could, for he was a Lancas- therefore not worth reading. Having per- trian. I suppose you know all about the wars formed all these noble actions, his Majesty between him and the Duke of York who was died and was succeeded by his son. of the right side; if you do not, you had better read some other history, for I shall not be EDWARD THE 5TH very diffuse in this, meaning by it only to This unfortunate prince lived so little a while vent my spleen against, and shew my hatred that nobody had time to draw his picture. He to all those people whose parties or principles was murdered by his uncle’s contrivance, do not suit with mine, and not to give whose name was Richard the 3rd. information. This king married Margaret of Anjou, a woman whose distresses and mis- RICHARD THE 3RD fortunes were so great as almost to make me The character of this prince has been in who hate her, pity her. It was in this reign that general very severely treated by historians, Joan of Arc lived and made such a row but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to amongst the English. They should not have suppose him a very respectable man. It has burnt her – but they did. There were several indeed been confidently asserted that he battles between the Yorkists and the killed his two nephews, which I am inclined Lancastrians, in which the former (as they to beleive true; and if this is the case, it may ought) usually conquered. At length they also be affirmed that he did not kill his wife, were entirely overcome; the king was for if Perkin Warbeck was really the Duke of murdered – the queen was sent home – and York, why might not Lambert Simnel be the Edward the 4th ascended the throne. widow of Richard. Whether innocent or guilty, he did not reign long in peace, for EDWARD THE 4TH Henry Tudor E. of Richmond as great a This monarch was famous only for his beauty villain as ever lived, made a great fuss about and his courage, of which the picture we have getting the crown and having killed the king here given of him, and his undaunted at the battle of Bosworth, he succeeded to it. behaviour in marrying one woman while he was engaged to another, are sufficient proofs. HENRY THE 7TH His wife was Elizabeth Woodville, a widow This monarch soon after his accession who, poor woman! was afterwards confined married the Princess Elizabeth of York, by to a convent by that monster of iniquity and which alliance he plainly proved that he avarice Henry the 7th. One of Edward’s thought his own right inferior to hers, tho’ he

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pretended to the contrary. By this marriage he amiable young woman and famous for had two sons and two daughters, the elder of reading Greek while other people were which daughters was married to the King of hunting. It was in the reign of Henry the 7th Scotland and had the happiness of being that Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel grandmother to one of the first characters in before mentioned made their appearance, the the world. But of her, I shall have occasion to former of whom was set in the stocks, took speak more at large in future. The youngest shelter in Beaulieu Abbey, and was beheaded Mary, married the first King of France and with the Earl of Warwick, and the latter was secondly the D. of Suffolk, by whom she had taken into the kings kitchen. His Majesty died one daughter, afterwards the mother of Lady and was succeeded by his son Henry whose Jane Grey, who tho’ inferior to her lovely only merit was his not being quite so bad as cousin the Queen of Scots, was yet an his daughter Elizabeth.

Spying out Bosworth battlefield?

Penelope Lawton, one of the volunteers working on the Society’s Chronicle project, looked in the third volume of The Records of the Borough of Nottingham (published in London in 1885), and on page 238 discovered that the Chamberlains’ Accounts for the year 1484-5 contained the following:

Item paid þe xviij day of August to Thomas Hall ridyng forth to aspye for þe town

afore þe feld by the Maires commaundement etc. vj s. viij d.

In modern English, ‘Paid on 18 August [1485] to Thomas Hall riding out to spy for the town before the field, by order of the Mayor, etc. 6s.8d.’ The editor of the volume, seeing the date and the word ‘field’, put two and two together and, perhaps mixing in a little dash of local patriotism, added a footnote: ‘Does this refer to the Battle of Bosworth Field?’ At the Triennial Conference in Loughborough at the end of April, Anne Curry – and others – seriously discussed the possibility that Richard III had selected his field of battle in advance, looking for a comparatively flat area where his artillery could be deployed to best advantage. Is this evidence for such a search? Did Richard ask various local authorities to report suitable areas to him in readiness? One difficulty is that the distances are rather large. Henry Tudor was in Newport on 18 August, and Richard (at Leicester on 19 August) could not have been sure which route he would take. A further point is that the actual words don’t seem to mean that Hall was looking for a field, rather that he was collecting information of use to the town before (or in front of?) the field. Also, Hall was paid on 18 August, but we don’t know when he did his aspying. It could have been weeks before that. The sum of 6s.8d. for the aspying was quite a lot – probably not payment for a mere day or two in the saddle. This is the first reference to a Thomas Hall in the borough accounts, but later (if it is the same man) he appears as a solid citizen. By 1500 he was on the borough council and on the list of men electing the Mayor; in 1503/4 he paid 30s. tax towards the aid granted to Henry VII by Parliament; on 1 August 1511 he witnessed a lease as an alderman; and in 1514 he witnessed another deed as a member of the Council and fide dignus, a worthy man. Was he perhaps the same man as Thomas Hall, wax chandler, mentioned as a feoffee by a John Clerk in August 1486? No modern historian seems to have discussed this entry, and perhaps this isn’t surprising. When I went to check the entry in the copy of the book in The National Archives at Kew, some of the pages were still uncut and I had to get officials there to cut them. So I was the first person to read some pages in that copy since the book was published 127 years ago. Lesley Boatwright

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That wasn’t his wife – that was an angel ...

Lesley Boatwright writes: I should have known better. Those were wings on the lady – and she wasn’t wearing a hennin. Apologies to Rose Skuse and Geoffrey Wheeler and all members for confusing an angel with Katherine, wife of Sir Edmund Grey, in the illustration to Rose’s article ‘The Maulden Boar Badge’ in last March’s Bulletin (page 39). All I can say in my defence is that the picture I received only had those two figures on it, and I jumped to conclusions. Here is the real, full picture, as Geoffrey Wheeler drew it.

Geoffrey Wheeler writes: The picture is taken from a manuscript illustration showing Sir Edmund Grey (died 1490) and his wife Katherine Percy kneeling at prayer desks, with an angel between them, holding Sir Edmund’s helm and a shield of the couple’s arms. It comes from a Ms. copy of Nicholas Love’s Mirrour of the Life of Christ (National Library of Scotland), which contains seventeen full-page paintings and was specially prepared for their wedding, about 1440. This, of course, explains his appearance in a ‘Henry V’ or ‘bowl-crop’ haircut, though this remained in fashion well into the 1470s, as shown on memorial brasses and tomb effigies of the period. Interestingly, this is also one of the prime pieces of evidence for the dating of the Sheriff Hutton tomb and effigy, long thought to be that of Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Richard III and Anne Neville. As detailed in The Sheriff Hutton Alabaster: a Re-assessment, by Pauline Routh and Richard Knowles (Rosalba Press 1981), which includes material originally published in The Ricardian, Vol. 5, Nos. 70-72 (1980-81), the plate on p.18 compares the effigy’s hairstyle, just visible beneath the coronet or cap of maintenance, with that of Henry IV’s effigy at Canterbury and, more compellingly, the kneeling figure (presumed to be Richard himself) beside the Trinity on the tomb chest, which, though much decayed, still clearly shows this hair-style (photo p.22). The most recent assessment of the Sheriff Hutton alabaster appears in Medieval Church and Churchyard Monuments, by Sally Badham (Shire Publications 2011), where a colour plate (p.53) is captioned ‘This undersized alabaster effigy was traditionally thought to commemorate Richard III’s son, Edward of Middleham (died 1484), but actually dates from around 1415’.

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Correspondence

Will contributors please note that letters may be shortened or edited to conform to the standards of the Bulletin. The Bulletin is not responsible for the opinions expressed by contributors. Richard III at The Swan, Stratford in a regional accent, underlining the nation- From Jane Grenfell, by email wide impact and involvement in the Wars of I wondered whether fellow members would the Roses and the succession problem. be interested in a few comments on the RSC Even with those dreadful scenes of the Richard III at The Swan, Stratford? three queens, I would go again if I had the I went with my husband and two children chance. My husband is not a fan of Richard, on 12 April. Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant but on leaving the theatre he announced that at seeing the Bard’s version of Richard’s life he had warmed to him during the play, and and death. I was worried that I wouldn’t be had wanted him to win. Thank you, Jonjo, able to enter into the spirit of the evening. I and a rare Ricardian thank-you to Shake- needn’t have worried. speare as well. Jonjo O’Neill as Richard was fantastic. The programme notes were also well- Not because he portrayed a convincing evil balanced, highlighting the inconsistencies and megalomaniac even his mother couldn’t abide inaccuracies in the play and explaining what a (an easy way to read Shakespeare’s version). good king and lord Richard was. Quite the opposite, actually. What he drew out of the scripted character was a brilliant The burial place of William Courtenay balance of menace and deceit, charm and From Philip Whittemore, by email willing manipulation. He captivated the I enjoyed the articles about Katherine audience with his performance, drawing out Courtenay in the September 2011 and March the humour of the script with a wicked glint 2012 Bulletins. In answer to Judith Ridley’s in his roguish eye. He succeeded in making query [Bulletin March 2012 p.41] over the you feel a bit guilty, but Heaven help you! – burial place of Katherine’s husband, William he was so likeable. And very funny too. He Courtenay, he was buried in the London elicited genuine bouts of laughter from his Blackfriars and not St Paul’s Cathedral. audience, noticeably winning them over. His The mischief seems originally to have success at gaining allies on stage was stemmed from a mis-reading of the earl’s mirrored by those he gained in the audience. funeral as provided by Sandford (A Genea- No wonder Anne didn’t stand a chance and logical History of the Kings of England ..., agreed to marry him. It was a sympathetic and London, 1677, p.397), who describes how the powerful performance, and the Bosworth body was brought from Greenwich by barge encounter was well presented. I quietly joined to Paul’s Wharf and then taken to Blackfriars in the cheers for Good King Richard and shed where he was interred. This incorrect infor- a little tear when Henry grasped the crown mation has been carried on periodically ever from the dying Richard. since, from Ezra Cleaveland, A Genealogical As ever at the Swan there was no scenery History of the Noble and Illustrious Family of and few props. Neither was needed given the Courtenay (Exeter, 1735), via Martin Duns- acting skill on display. The supporting cast ford, Historical Memoirs of the town and was, in comparison with O’Neill, a bit light- parish of Tiverton (Exeter, 1790), to Lt Col weight and you could easily have cut the over W. Harding in his History of Tiverton (1845), -long scene of Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret and most probably on more occasions since of Anjou and Queen Anne complaining and that date. planning their curses against Richard. The If confirmation of Courtenay’s burial in director turned Jonjo’s Irish accent to good the Blackfriars was needed, then a look at account by having the male characters speak Stow’s Survey of London clinches the matter.

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Courtenay’s is the last name on the list of Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses, the interments. Lovel family lost control of Wardour when Henry of York ascended the throne as Henry Writing a biography of Richard III VII.’ From Bill Featherstone, by email As they have received funding from the The correspondence on this topic in the Big Lottery Fund for their project, it would be March 2012 Bulletin was interesting and good if they got their facts right. thoughtful, but Gordon Smith used a flawed exemplar in the Aldington biography of Question: Who spoke first, God or Lawrence of Arabia. He says that Aldington’s Edward IV? work was ‘unacceptable’ because it concen- From Lesley Boatwright, London, to David trated on factual evidence and psychology Santiuste and so showed Lawrence to be a romancer Looking at the depiction of Edward IV at who created his own legend. Mortimer’s Cross, showing the three suns in It is impossible to approach any biography the sky (BL Ms Harley 7353) illustrated on without some feeling, sympathetic or p.37 of the Bulletin for March 2011, I wonder otherwise, for the subject of your study, but if the artist thought that when these three suns Richard Aldington admitted that he started appeared in the sky God spoke first to work on his book with a deep antipathy for Edward (Veni coronaberis de capite amana Lawrence, who he saw as the hero of a de vertice sanir et hermon, ‘Come, you shall decadent society that he detested and from be crowned from the top of Amana, from the which he was living in self-imposed exile. So peak of Sanir and Hermon’) or Edward spoke he wrote the Lawrence biography with the first to God (Domine, quid vis me facere? expressed desire of damaging the British ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’). establishment by destroying the reputation of one of its heroes. Answer: This is not the way to write a fair and From David Santiuste to Lesley Boatwright balanced biography, and Aldington compoun- I’ve always assumed that Edward speaks first, ded this by misusing the secondary sources but now that I think about this again I’m not which were then available to him. The howls quite so certain. In both the story of Paul at of protest that greeted the publication of his Damascus and the story of Moses and the work was equally unfair and uncritical, but in Burning Bush (which is depicted elsewhere in later years more balanced judgement, and the the roll) it is God who opens the conversation release of many official sources, have shown after announcing his presence through a sign. how badly flawed the Aldington biography is, It could conceivably be argued that Edward’s and the truth of much of the Lawrence legend. words represent a humble acceptance of A useful warning about preconceptions for all God’s intentions. On balance, however, I’d biographers: never force facts to fit your still be inclined to think that the artist was theory. trying to convey this order of events: the parhelia announce God’s presence; Edward A Window on Wiltshire’s Heritage seeks clarification of what God wants; God From Lesley Ware, by email confirms that he has chosen Edward to be a Whilst browsing the internet for interesting leader of his people. places to visit when we go to the south-west next month, I came across this gem about Goodbye to old friends John, 5th earl of Lovel, and Old Wardour From Shirley Linsell, Croydon Branch Castle on the website Window on Wiltshire’s Many years ago Joyce Melhuish started to Heritage: ‘The castle is in a French style that dress dolls in their correct historic dress. John Lovel would have been familiar with First was Richard. I think I purchased the from his time in France during the Hundred second Richard she made. He was wonder- Years War. Following their support for the ful,with his velvet cloak trimmed with fur, his 44

handmade jewelled collar over a resplendent Goodbye, old friends, it’s been great. outfit. He also had a blue garter ribbon and Ed.: Shirley has been a member for nearly 50 held a state paper in his hand. To join him I years. With her husband Roy she founded the ordered Anne, who was dressed as in the Croydon group, which they left in younger Olivier film with the arms of England on her hands 16 years ago, but she is still active in cloak. She had on a white dress and wore a fundraising for the Society. gold crown and sceptre. Over the years I added over 30 dolls to my Thank you for the Triennial collection. Joyce made them to order for me, From Denys Carden and Jill Davies once famously going to the Director of the We would like to thank all concerned for the National Portrait Gallery and asking to see lovely weekend we have just had at Lough- into his office to see what Prince Rupert was borough, visiting Bosworth. It must have dressed in. When we visited Eleanor of taken a large amount of planning and Aquitaine’s tomb, Joyce asked me, ‘Just like organising. We are not unmindful of all you that?’ – and Eleanor was created just like that. did and we would like to say a sincere ‘thank- The fifth Henry wore the full arms of you’. England, whilst Charles II wore a hand- knitted wig. Joyce could make Anne Boleyn Our founder’s burial place on a train journey, and I had all six wives. My From John Saunders, Somerset mother bought their mutual husband as she The Society’s founder, Saxon Barton, died at insisted he should be in the collection. The the age of 64 following a car accident in money Joyce got for the dolls went to the 1957, only a short time after the Society had Ricardian Churches Restoration Fund. been re-founded. He practised as an obstet- Over the years I must have raised an awful rician in NW England, and lived in Liverpool. lot of money for various charities, starting Members may be interested to know that with the Riding School for the Disabled. I we have recently located his burial place in spoke to Women’s Groups about the lives of the graveyard of St Nicholas church in the monarchs, their partners and helpers. A Halewood. Rather inappropriately, perhaps, it Wine Circle when they kept plying me with is not a church with medieval origins, having homemade vintage. I just managed to finish. been built in the nineteenth century. It does, A URA meeting, and the one in which I however, have some splendid William Morris stated Prince Rupert’s descendants were windows. The grave is identified by the related to the earls of Howe. My son was number 534 in the plan of the graveyard. hoping I would not say what I did. I said, try Members living in the vicinity or passing by as I may, Geoffrey Howe looked nothing like might wish to pay their respects and perhaps Prince Rupert. Geoffrey Howe was their MP. leave a white rose or two on his grave. They all thought it was very funny. The same son went into the loft and said it had to be cleared as he did not want his mother Tailpiece to a tailpiece climbing. Some of you know our son and he From Bill Featherstone by email expects his mother to listen (sometimes). So I Re the tailpiece sent by Geoff Wheeler to offered all the dolls to the Seaford Martello Media Retrospective (Bulletin March 2012 Tower Museum and they will now reside p.26), the World Black Pudding Champion- there. When they went I shed a tear. All those ship also featured in the latest series of ‘Great memories. I comfort myself knowing other British Food’ by the Two Hairy Bikers, and people will now enjoy them and I just might appears to have nearer Ricardian affinities provoke some questions about history from than he realises. In the programme it was said the young people. Richard and Anne were that the championship commemorates the two of them they wanted most, so I am left Battle of Stubbings Bridge in the Wars of the with Rupert and his lady. The Henry my Roses, and the notorious defeat of the mother bought me. I had two. Yorkists when the Lancastrians ran out of arrows and used black puddings instead.

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The Barton Library

From the Non-Fiction Books Librarian Three books for this issue all via donations, so grateful thanks to Elisabeth Sjöberg for a copy of Fatal Colours and to Tom Clark for several volumes including two that were not on the shelves, The Road to Bosworth Field and King Richard III – they are now. Donations are helpful to the library in so many ways – new books can save the cost to the Society of purchase, and paperbacks can be put alongside hardbacks of the same title, thereby saving postage, an important consideration these days. Duplicates can be used for selling on or replacing lost stock. Therefore very many thanks to those members who donate and bequeath books to the Richard III Society libraries.

Fatal Colours: the Battle of Towton 1461 by George Goodwin (The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, 2011, hbk) This book also covers the lead-up to the battle from the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, with a long introduction by David Starkey on leadership in the 15th century.

The Road to Bosworth Field by Trevor Royle (Little, Brown Book Group, 2009, hbk) Described as a new history of the Wars of the Roses, the author provides a military history of the wars while placing the conflict in the context of the political, cultural, religious and social background, not just of England but throughout the British Isles and beyond.

King Richard III by William Shakespeare, edited by Charles R. Forker (The Arden Shakespeare, 2002, pbk). The Arden Shakespeare is the established scholarly edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Now in its third series, Arden offers the best in contemporary scholarship; this volume guides you to a deeper understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's work.

News from the Non-Fiction Papers Librarian As I write (April 2012), it has been a quiet three months for the Papers Library, with few loans. It does seem a shame, as the library holds such a wealth of fascinating information; I would certainly encourage members to peruse the catalogue on the Society website, and if they are interested in any of the items listed (or indeed any that are not) simply drop me an email at [email protected] Anyhow, here are a few of the more recent additions.

‘Fair Neville’s Woe’: Cicely, Duchess of York and Fotheringhay, by Juliet Wilson (2007). This is a 13-page illustrated booklet describing Cicely’s associations with Fotheringhay.

‘The Death of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk’, by Roger Virgoe (Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol xlii, 1964-5). By careful study of the early sources, the author pieces together the events surrounding Suffolk’s murder at sea in 1450, identifies the perpetrators and discusses their possible political sympathies and affiliations.

‘Central Authority and Local Powers: the apostolic penitentiary and the English church in the fifteenth century’, by Peter D. Clark (Historical Research, vol 84, no 225, August 2011). In the previous Bulletin I highlighted the Barton Library’s acquisition of Peter Clarke’s article on the papal dispensations for the marriages of Richard and various of his relatives discovered in the archives of the Papal Penitentiary. The same author has since kindly donated a copy of his more recent article showing how the Penitentiary worked with the English diocese to handle the petitions of more ordinary individuals, particularly where these petitions related to canonically complicated matrimonial tangles. The article includes some interesting and lively case studies.

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Additions to the Audio Visual Library Audio BBC Radio 4: The Art of Monarchy – the final programme of an 8-part series includes Will Gompertz and Jennifer Scott discussing the ‘doctored’ portrait of Richard III at Windsor. Details of excerpts on medieval items featured in earlier episodes are available.

BBC Radio 4: Plantagenet – concluding trilogy in the series by Mike Walker, based on Holinshed’s Chronicles, covering the reigns of Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III*

BBC Radio 4 In Our Time: The Battle of Bosworth Field. Melvyn Bragg and his guests (Anne Curry, Stephen Gunn and David Grummitt) discuss the battle of Bosworth Field – events immortalised by Shakespeare in Richard III.’(45 minutes). (See pp. 18-20)

Video/DVD BBC4 TV: Treasures of Heaven – Andrew Graham Dixon on the British Museum exhibition of holy relics and artefacts; also on the same disc Vatican: the hidden world and Rosslyn Chapel: a treasure in stone.

BBC1 TV: National Treasures Live – Dover and Portchester Castles, with Dan Snow.

BBC4 TV: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings – Dr Janina Ramirez presents a 3-part series to coincide with the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts: the genius of illumination exhibition 2011-2012.

BBC4 TV: She Wolves – Dr Helen Castor examines the lives of (1) Queens Matilda and Eleanor and (2) Margaret of Anjou

Channel 4 TV: The Tower – 6-part series, narrated by Sean Pertwee (approximately 6 hours)*

The Wars of the Roses: a bloody crown (2 hours 30 minutes including a special feature on ‘Towton Graves’). According to the box ‘respected historians [i.e. Andrew Boardman and Ian Dawson] provide expert analysis’ along with demonstrations of arms and armour and the ubiquitous re-enactment sequences. ‘Graphic animation explains the movement and tactics of the armies’ together with ‘narrated eyewitness accounts’. Superior to the earlier video by Cromwell Films (released in 1994) on the same subject, sub-titled Blood, Treachery and Cold Steel.*

BBC TV: The Shadow of the Tower – 13-part series of 50-minute instalments screened in 1972 with James Maxwell as Henry VII (see review in March 2012 Bulletin on page 23).

The Black Arrow – dramatisation of R.L. Stevenson's novel for Southern TV children’s adventure series, with modernised language (3 discs, complete series 1972-1975, 8 hours). ‘All the traditional apparatus of the romantic novel ... Gloucester, although a peripheral character, is a marvellously vivid man of action’.

Many thanks to Ann Cole and Roger Sansom for recording and providing most of these items.

*Reviews in more detail will appear in future issues. Also please note that as the majority of the above are original recordings (including some expensive boxed sets) it will be necessary to send and return them either by Recorded or Special Delivery mail services.

Contact details for all the Librarians are on the inside back cover.

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Future Society Events

BOSWORTH 2012 Sunday 19 August 2012

This year our one-day visit to Bosworth comprises the traditional service in Sutton Cheney Church, and visit to the Battlefield Centre, including tea. We shall be able to visit the exhibition and the Medieval Village (Ambion Parva: ‘a collection of reproduction buildings combined to create the sense of medieval village life bringing history alive’) and to walk the Battlefield Trails. For more information see http://www.bosworthbattlefield.com/index.htm We hope that as many members as possible will attend during the day, as this is one of the Society’s major social events and an occasion during the year when members from all over the world can meet.

Programme 09.15 Coach departs Embankment Underground station (Embankment exit). 12.30 Memorial Service in Sutton Cheney church, with Society wreath laying 13.30 Lunch – bring packed lunch: picnic area available, or pub. Village hall ploughman’s lunch will be available for those booking, and paying, in advance 14.15 Coach leaves Sutton Cheney for Battlefield Centre 16.30 Tea in Tithe Barn restaurant at battlefield (‘selection of sandwiches, cakes and pastries, tea or coffee’) 17.45 Coach leaves Bosworth for London, arriving c.20.15

Members attending independently on the day may book for such elements of the day as they wish:

Cost for London day outing coach (coach + battlefield entry + tea) = £36.00 Cost for battlefield entry + tea = £17.85 Cost for Tea only = £6.85 Cost for village hall lunch = £6.00 (Please note: this is now pay-in-advance, rather than on the day, to ensure that bookings are taken up, and that suppliers are not left out of pocket.)

Booking form in the centrefold. Please return it by the closing date of 15 July to Miss E.M. Nokes, 26 West Way, Petts Wood, Kent, BR5 1LW. (Tel. 01689 823 569, email: [email protected]).

Display board looking towards the real site of Bosworth Field

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ROTHWELL AND SOUTHWICK HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Saturday 14 July 2012

Our first stop will be in the historic and attractive market town of Rothwell (known locally as ‘Rowell’), where we will have a little time to explore and also to have lunch. Here is a magnificent church, Holy Trinity, dating from the thirteenth century, which has the longest nave in the county and a bone-crypt. There are several other historic buildings in Rothwell, including Market House, built in the 1570s by Sir Thomas Tresham, who also built the Rushton Triangular Lodge. Rothwell was historically the centre of trade for Northamptonshire and the ‘Rothwell Charter’, giving permission to have weekly markets and an annual fair, was granted by King John in 1204. We shall leave Rothwell at 1.30 pm for Southwick, which is in the same area as Fotheringhay, arriving there approx 2.15 pm. The oldest part of Southwick Hall was built circa 1300 by John Knyvett and has been added to in the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries. Built of local limestone, it still retains much of its original medieval layout. The crypt, built in 1302, is now the entrance hall. The Gothic Room was also added about the same time and was probably used as a living room as well as a chapel, as it has a fireplace, window seats and an altar recess. We think members will find much of interest to see here. Southwick Hall is a private house and is open to groups by appointment. Our coach will leave from London Embankment at 9 am and we should arrive back in London around 7.30 pm. (A pick-up can be arranged at Bromley at 8 am for those who let me know.) The cost of the trip is £28 per person, which includes cost of coach and entry to the house. Local Ricardians are very welcome to join us. Please complete the booking form in the centre pages and return it to me, together with a cheque for £28 per person, as soon as possible, but by 29 June 2012 at the latest. If you miss the closing date, please contact me to ascertain if there are spare places on the coach. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Richard III Society’, endorsed ‘Southwick’ and sent to: Marian Mitchell, 20 Constance Close, Witham, Essex, CM8 1XL. Tel: 01376 501984; Email: [email protected]. Please note that this is a new email address. Marian Mitchell for Visits Team

MIDDLEHAM CASTLE FROM YORK Sunday 30 September 2012 Please see page 2.

NORFOLK BRANCH STUDY DAY Saturday 10 November 2012

As advised in the March Bulletin, the Norfolk Branch Study Day will take place on Saturday 10 November 2012 at the Assembly House, Theatre Street, Norwich on the theme ‘Prelude to War’. The full programme is as follows:

10.00 Introduction by the Chairman, Norfolk Branch 10.05 Frances Sparrow: Herbs, bandages and prayer: the role of medieval women in warfare. 10.35 Questions 10.45 Coffee 11.15 Professor Anne Curry (Southampton University): Recruiting soldiers in the fifteenth century 12.15 Questions 12.30 Lunch

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14.00 Dr Philip Morgan (Keele University): Richard’s Field: battlefields of the Wars of the Roses 15.00 Tea 15.45 Dr Tobias Capwell (The Wallace Collection): ‘All the complete armour that thou wear’st’: the armoured appearance of King Richard III in reality and imagination 16.45 Questions 17.00 (approximately) Vote of thanks and close.

The cost of the study day is £23 per person. Please complete the booking form in the centre pages and return it to Annmarie Hayek, 20 Rowington Road, Norwich, NR1 3RR (tel. 01603 664 021, email [email protected]).

Richard III Society 2012 North American AGM and Conference

The Canadian Branch of the Richard III Society is pleased to host a joint US-Canada AGM and Conference from September 28 to 30, 2012, in Oakville, Ontario

Join us at the Hilton Garden Inn Toronto / Oakville 2274 South Sheridan Way, Oakville, ON L6J 7T4 905-829-1145  www.torontooakville.gardeninn.com

Please visit our blog at http://r3toronto2012.blogspot.com/ for the latest news on AGM speakers, silent auction items, and updates. For registration information contact [email protected] http://home.cogeco.ca/~richardiii

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From our Australasian Correspondent DOROTHEA PREIS

This is the first despatch from our Australasian Correspondent Dorothea Preis, who has gathered news from across Australia and from Margaret Manning across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand. We plan for the correspondent’s report to be in every second issue of the Bulletin.

here are five Australasian branches: New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western T Australia and New Zealand. We should like to share with readers of the Bulletin world- wide what we are doing ‘down-under’, and are planning to take it in turns to introduce our branches, with New Zealand making a start with Margaret Manning’s report below. The NSW branch has recently welcomed two members who are also authors, Karen Clark and Barbara Gaskell Denvil. Karen is an expert on the Nevilles and author of The Daisy and the Bear, a hilarious send-up of the Wars of the Roses (available as paperback and download from Lulu as well as from Amazon for Kindle). Barbara has written two novels of interest to Ricardians: Satin Cinnabar, which takes place in the aftermath of the Battle of Bosworth; and Sumerford’s Autumn, which offers a new perspective on the Perkin Warbeck affair. Both books tell a gripping and engrossing story, while maintaining a high level of historical accuracy. And a refreshingly different love story is thrown in as well. They are available from Amazon for Kindle and from other e-book stores. The NSW Branch is looking forward to hosting the next Australasian Convention, which will take place in Sydney from 12 to 14 July 2013. The conventions are always a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Ricardian friends from the other Australasian branches as well as from overseas. In the years in between the Australasian Convention, the NSW branch holds its own one day conference and we will report about that in the December Bulletin. We hope you enjoy hearing from us in Australia and New Zealand. Whilst being geographically far away from each other, we share a common bond in our Ricardian thoughts and activities.

Introducing the New Zealand Branch We members in New Zealand are pleased to participate in providing regular news from ‘down under’ to the Bulletin. For our first contribution, we provide an introductory account of our set- up; future reports will be shorter in length and consist of subjects covered at meetings, any specific study carried out by members, and Ricardian-featured outings we may have enjoyed, etc. Sadly for us here in New Zealand, we have no 500-year-old buildings to visit. Our membership, both full and associate, hasn’t changed much over the last few years, hovering around the 45 mark. Most members live in the greater Wellington region, but there are also quite a few scattered around the country who live too far away to get to meetings. We meet every second month in Lower Hutt, chaired by Rob Smith and Deirdre Drysdale, and on alternate months on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington where our second largest group of members live. Each meeting in Lower Hutt, which usually has between 15 and 20 members attending, runs more or less to the same formula, consisting of business, news-sharing, a member’s talk followed by questions and much discussion, and a stop somewhere in between for afternoon tea and

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socialising. The Kapiti meetings are similar, but more often than not, instead of a talk by a member, Lorraine McArthur, the convener, chooses the subject, does her research then sets us ‘homework’ in advance of the meeting, so that we can contribute our twopence-worth. We are a pretty vociferous lot; all meetings are boisterous with members voicing opinions, sometimes contentious, sometimes placatory, but always supportive of Richard. Our news-sharing segments usually consist of books we’ve read, old or new, favourable to Richard or otherwise; newspaper and magazine articles and comments, and the merits of television programmes of the historical variety. And we are all good friends and know of each other’s family, so personal news also gets shared around. Recently, we heard from long-standing member Annette Parry who, 20 or so years ago, was New Zealand’s last ‘Mastermind’ (subject Richard III, what else?) that she is beginning the course in palaeography organised by the Society. Needless to say, we are very impressed and in awe of her commitment. To keep members informed of what has been happening and to provide information of Ricardian and medieval interest, we produce a quarterly magazine, The Ricardian Times, production date timed for mid-way between issues of the Bulletin. All members may contribute. Our committee members have more or less stayed the same for years with only minor changes. Deirdre Drysdale is our Chair, Rob Smith our Secretary/Treasurer and we also have a Librarian, Programme Director, Editor, Venue Co-ordinator and Kapiti Convener. Our meetings aren’t necessarily confined to indoor venues in Lower Hutt and the Kapiti Coast. Every year on the first Sunday in February we make our way to Rob’s home in the wine- growing area of the Wairarapa where he and his wife Helen provide hospitality and a lovely venue for a pot-luck picnic lunch. They even make sure their croquet lawn is in good order for those who want to play. We manage to squeeze in a shortened version of our usual meeting during the afternoon, but good food, a glass of wine and the warm weather make it more of an enjoyable social occasion. A growing number of our members now look forward to the biennial Australasian Ricardian Convention where members from the Australian and New Zealand branches get together to listen to papers given by members and invited specialists on all things medieval. These conventions are a great meeting point for us all, hugely anticipated and enjoyed, and we have developed firm friendships with our colleagues ‘across the ditch’ (as we fondly refer to the 1500-mile-wide Tasman Sea that separates our two countries). Last August we were warmly welcomed to Melbourne to participate in the Convention held there. Next year, it’s the turn of Sydney and we look forward to that. Those of us who attend from New Zealand usually add a few more days to the visit in order to holiday and sight-see together. Richard certainly binds us.

New from the New South Wales Branch Leslie McCawley At our February general meeting, our guest speaker was David Millar MA (Hons) Cambridge, former curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and an expert in English architecture. He opened his presentation on ‘Architecture in Medieval Times’ by recommending a book called The Three Richards, by Nigel Saul, which he had found a worthwhile treatment of Richards I, II and III. He added that he considered the era of Richard III ‘the golden period’ of English history. The audience was deeply absorbed by David’s learned overview of the development of English architecture, starting with its Roman and Norman roots, which he illustrated with wonderful slides of Roman exemplars and how their elements were mirrored and advanced in the magnificent cathedrals with their corbels, flying buttresses, pointed arches and late Gothic spires. A lively discussion took place after raffles were drawn, over afternoon tea. The next meeting will be on Saturday, 21 April 2012, with Dorothea Preis presenting on the topic of ‘Richard III and Learning’.

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News from the South Australia Branch Sue Walladge The South Australia branch meets in Adelaide each month except January. We have 9 members who could attend and we usually have 6 or 7 per meeting. At our February meeting we started watching ‘The Seven Ages of Britain’, a BBC documentary written and produced by David Dimbleby, who tells the story of Britain through its art and treasure. The first part begins with the Roman invasion and ends with the Norman Conquest. He travels throughout Britain in search of the greatest works of art from the time: the mosaics of Bignor Roman villa, the burial treasure of Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon poetry and Alfred the Great’s Jewel. He also goes abroad, throughout Europe to find objects with a connection to Britain. In Aphrodisias, Turkey, he finds the oldest image of Britannia; in Florence, a beautiful illuminated Bible made by Northumbrian monks in the 8th century; in Normandy, the Bayeux Tapestry, now believed to have been made by English nuns. He ends at the Tower of London, now seen as a symbol of Britishness but originally built by William the Conqueror to subdue the people of England. There was some interesting discussion and reminiscing during and after the program. Hopefully we’ll find time to watch more. At our March meeting, Margaret Collings talked about London Bridge. The first bridge is thought to have been built by the Romans sometime in the first century, with several rebuilds over the centuries. Eventually wooden bridges were replaced with a stone bridge, the first one in 1176. Throughout its history, London Bridge has been a busy thoroughfare, and was once lined with shops. The road over the bridge was only about 4m. wide between the shops and was so narrow it often jammed with people, horses and carts. In 1733 a ‘keep left’ rule was enforced to keep the traffic moving, which became the rule of the road in Britain. In 1757 the houses and shops on the bridge were demolished and a new bridge was built in 1831. This in turn was demolished in 1967 and rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, USA, as a tourist attraction. The present London Bridge opened in 1973. Our April meeting will be at Joan’s place at Wellington, on the Murray River. For about 20 years now Joan has driven 90 minutes each way to the Ricardian meetings and as she’s in her 80s now, it is becoming harder for her to attend, so we’re visiting her. Last time at Joan’s place we looked at medieval maps of London; this time Joan will be talking about non-fiction books. In May everyone will be contributing about Richard III the Man. This should result in some interesting facts and information. We thought it would be great to get back to basics. In June our meeting will be about Cecily Neville, her life and times.

Beat the rise in postage costs If you look at the Sales Catalogue in the centrefold of this Bulletin, you will see how horren- dously postage costs have risen recently. It now costs £9 to post The Logge Wills to an address in the UK, £14.50 to the EU – and twice that, £29, to the rest of the world. Even ordinary-sized books are getting expensive to post. For example, we are selling George Goodwin’s Fatal Colours – Towton 1461 for £6.50 to members, but the postage will cost you £5 UK, £6 EU and £9.50 rest of the world. It makes good sense, therefore, to buy your copies in person, if you possibly can. The Society’s books and merchandise will be on sale at

The Society’s stall in the book-sales area of the International Medieval Congress, Leeds University, 9-12 July

The Society’s tent at the Bosworth weekend, Leicestershire, 18-19 August

The Society AGM in York 29-20 September

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Branch and Group Contacts

Branches America Nita Musgrave, 48 Tupelo Avenue, Naperville, Illinois 60540, USA. Tel: 630 355 5578. Email: [email protected] Canada Ms Sheilah O’Connor, 156 Drayton Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M4C 3M2 Canada. Tel.416-693-1241. Email: [email protected] Web site: http://home.cogeco.ca/~richardiii Devon & Cornwall Mrs Anne E Painter, Yoredale, Trewithick Road, Breage, Helston, Cornwall, TR13 9PZ. Tel. 01326-562023. Email: [email protected] Gloucester Angela Iliff, 18 Friezewood Road, Ashton, Bristol, BS3 2AB Tel: 0117-378-9237. Email: [email protected] Greater Manchester Mrs Helen Ashburn, 36 Clumber Road, Gorton, Manchester, M18 7LZ. Tel: 0161-320-6157. Email: [email protected] See next page. 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. Email: [email protected] London & Home Counties Miss E M Nokes, 4 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London SW3 5NN. Tel: 01689 823569. Email: [email protected] Midlands-East Mrs Sally Henshaw, 28 Lyncroft Leys, Scraptoft, Leicester, LE7 9UW. Tel: 0116-2433785. Email: [email protected] New South Wales Julia Redlich, 53 Cammeray Towers, 55 Carter Street, New South Wales, 2062, Australia. Email: [email protected] Website: www.richardiii-nsw.org.au New Zealand Robert Smith, ‘Wattle Downs’, 61 Udy Street, Greytown, New Zealand.Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Web site: www.richard3nz.org Norfolk Mrs Annmarie Hayek, 20 Rowington Road, Norwich, NR1 3RR. Tel: 01603 664021. Email: [email protected] Queensland as New South Wales Scotland Juliet Middleton, 49 Ochiltree, Dunblane, Perthshire, FK15 0DF Tel: 01786 825665. Email: [email protected] (lower case letter l, not figure 1) South Australia Mrs Sue Walladge, 5 Spencer Street, Cowandilla, South Australia 5033, Australia. Email: [email protected] Thames Valley Diana Lee, 161 Green Lane, Shepperton, Middx, TW17 8DY. Tel: 01932 219665. Email: [email protected] New contact. Victoria Hazel Hajdu, 4 Byron Street, Wattle Park, Victoria, 3128, Australia. Email: [email protected] Please note amended email address Western Australia Louise Carson, PO Box 240, Maddington 6989, W. Australia. Email: [email protected] Web site: See next page. Worcestershire Mrs Pam Benstead, 15 St Marys Close, Kempsey WR5 3JX Email: [email protected]. Website: www.richardiiiworcs.co.uk

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Yorkshire Mrs P.H. Pogmore, 169, Albert Road, Sheffield, S8 9QX Tel: 0114 258 6097. Email: [email protected]

Groups Bedfordshire/ Mrs Rose Skuse. 12 Brookfield Rd, Newton Longville, Bucks, Buckinghamshire MK17 0BP Tel: 01908 373524 Email: [email protected] Bristol Keith Stenner, 96 Allerton Crescent, Whitchurch, Bristol, Tel: 01275-541512 (in affiliation with Gloucestershire Branch) Email: [email protected] Continental in process of formation; contact Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt at Ulmenweg 8, 65520 Bad Camberg-O.selters/Ts, Germany Croydon Miss Denise Price, 190 Roundwood Rd, London NW10 Tel: 020 8451 7689 Cumbria John & Marjorie Smith, 26 Clifford Road, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 8PP Dorset Babs Creamer, 27 Baker Road, Bear Cross, Bournemouth, BH11 9JD. Tel: 01202 573951 Email: [email protected] North East Mrs J McLaren, 11 Sefton Avenue, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 5QR Tel: 0191 265 3665. Email: [email protected] North Mercia Miss Marion Moulton, 6 Shrewbridge Crescent, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5TF. Tel. 01270 623664 Email: [email protected] Nottinghamshire Mrs Anne Ayres, 7 Boots Yard, Huthwaite, Sutton-in-Ashfield & Derbyshire Notts, NG17 2QW. Email: [email protected] Sussex Liz Robinson, 14 Queen’s Park Rise, Brighton, BN2 9ZF, tel. 01273 609971, email: [email protected] West Surrey Rollo Crookshank, Old Willows, 41a Badshot Park, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 9JU. Email: [email protected]

Branch and Group information and change of contact details

The Greater Manchester Branch has recently set up a website. The address is http://www.spanglefish.com/richardiiisocietygreatermanchesterbranch The branch was founded in 1975 and covers the areas of Greater Manchester, South Lancashire and the Cheshire/Derbyshire border. It meets on Sunday afternoons in winter, and Wednesday evenings in summer, and aims to produce a varied programme of Ricardian and medieval-related topics. There is an annual Branch journal, Semper Fidelis, and a monthly email newsletter, Boaring News. Contact details for the Secretary on the preceding page.

The Western Australia Branch Helen Hardegen tells us that the Western Australia branch now have a separate website at www.r3.org.au which is organised by Louise Carson.

Would all branch and group secretaries please check these contact pages and let the Bulletin know of any amendments that should be made?

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Branches and Groups

Lincolnshire Branch Report The main Society provided beautiful white roses for the Requiem Mass for King Richard III held on 22 August 2011 at St Edmund’s Chapel, Spital-in-the Street, Lincolnshire. Our Branch was privileged to fund the refreshments for this very beautiful and moving occasion. This service will be held again in 2012 (see page xx). In October, Loretta Rivett gave the Branch an interesting and amusing talk on ‘Medieval Gardens and Gardeners’. The Christmas outing took us to ‘A White Christmas at Blenheim Palace’ in November, followed by a substantial Christmas dinner at the Welby Arms at Allington in December. Both these occasions were rousing and enjoyable experiences; wonderful treats to get us in the seasonal mood. The January meeting was our regular Members’ Evening – a lighthearted evening of activities including a quiz and photographs, followed by our fun-packed ‘Ricardian Bingo’. Luckily order and calm was restored by tea, coffee and cakes. Dr Phil Stone’s talk ‘Richard III – A Bloody Tyrant?’ in February served to remind me why I have been a lifelong, dedicated Ricardian. Phil presented a detailed and balanced account, providing a sound basis from which to form one’s own opinion. The March meeting was addressed by Bob Moulder on the subject of Burgundian art in the Fifteenth Century; another informative and fascinating evening. Thank you to our Secretary, Jean Townsend, who has organised a varied programme to take us into the spring and summer. We look forward to talks, outings and long weekends away, spiced with our usual good companionship. Maureen Wheeldon, Publicity Officer

Worcestershire Branch Report In January 2012, two members of the Branch gave thoroughly researched and excellently presented talks. Clive Lloyd discussed the case for the illegitimacy of Edward IV, explaining where the weaknesses in the evidence lay. He outlined the differing views of historians Michael K. Jones, Annette Carson and Joanna Laynesmith, and the question of exactly when Richard of York and Duchess Cicely were together for Edward to have been conceived. He highlighted the fact that there are no recorded comments that Edward was a premature or sickly baby, which could have explained a hurried and modest christening. Clive also referred to the execution of Edward’s brother, Clarence, asking whether he had to be removed because he knew the truth of the illegitimacy accusation. Finally Clive made the point that more needs to be discovered about the archer, Blaybourne, if the truth is ever to be discovered. Jean Hill spoke about the life and dynastic significance of Katherine Swynford, who had fascinated her since reading Katherine by Anya Seton. As a result, Jean had researched the late fourteenth century to find out more about her life. She began by outlining the comparatively few known facts about Katherine’s life. It was clear that she was of far more importance than most royal mistresses and her marriage to Gaunt in 1396, more than twenty years after their affair began, was unprecedented. As Duchess of Lancaster Katherine became the first lady in England after the Queen. Gaunt’s nephew, Richard II, and the Pope legitimised their children, the Beauforts. Through the eldest child, John Beaufort, Plantagenet blood flowed to Henry Tudor; however, King Henry IV, Gaunt’s heir by his first wife, the Duchess Blanche of Lancaster, barred them from the throne. Joan, Katherine and Gaunt’s daughter, married Ralph Neville of Raby and was thus the grandmother of Edward IV and Richard III. The English and Scottish royal families and the present British monarchy are all descended from Katherine Swynford.

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The February meeting, in complete contrast, was a practical session of medieval cookery, researched and presented by our Branch Chairman, Pat Parminter. She had copies of some of the few surviving recipes from medieval cookery books, like The Boke of Currey, and she noted that Chaucer and Bishop John Russell had written about food. She explained that many birds were cooked then which would not be eaten today and that birds, having only two legs, and beavers, living in the water and therefore counting as fish, could be eaten on fast days. She also gave a much longer list of herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables which were used in the Middle Ages than most people anticipated. Members sampled the food she had already prepared and the results of her helpers’ efforts during the meeting. Most were pleasantly surprised and declared that they would be happy to eat more of most of the dishes, though the peppery cake was not so popular. In March, Branch member Mickie O’Neill gave her second talk about the Mortimers. Her carefully prepared presentation focused on Roger, who was the lover of Edward II’s wife, Queen Isabella, and was executed as ‘the greatest traitor’. Mickie emphasised that Roger Mortimer had previously been loyal to Edward II and a popular magnate, as attested by Froissart. However, his reputation was destroyed after his death and he became infamous as a treacherous and avaricious murderer. She explained the tangled web of intrigue around Edward II involving Piers Gaveston, Isabella of France, the Despensers, the earls of Lancaster and Warwick and Prince Edward, who later, as king, signed Roger Mortimer’s death warrant. The Branch will visit Bosworth on 19 May and Stokesay Castle on 9 June and will have its usual stall at the Battle of Tewkesbury re-enactment. New members are always welcome at our meetings and further information can be found at richardiiiworcs.co.uk Carol Southworth

Yorkshire Branch Report The Branch paid its now customary visit to Towton on Palm Sunday (1 April this year) for the commemoration of the terrible battle of March 1461. This year the weather was sunny and breezy, and our stallholders were variously able to spend time walking round the large living history encampment on the field by the barn and talking to some of the re-enactors taking part. We were much impressed by the standard of domestic comfort enjoyed by the Captain of Archers and his wife. Our Branch stall featured quite a lot of new merchandise and we made good sales, enjoyed meeting the public and enrolled a new member. As usual, an arrangement of flowers by our secretary Pauline Pogmore was placed on behalf of the Branch by the Dacre Cross outside Towton village. In the next issue of this Bulletin we hope to report on our Arthur Cockerill Spring Lecture, due to be given on 28 April in York by David Baldwin, and also on our Middleham Study and Excursion Day on 9 June. Branch members should have received details of these events in their April Newsletters, and also via our website. The Committee is very pleased to learn that the new site is doing very well, and in the first year at its present address visits to it have increased by an impressive rate. Our thanks as always to James Garton for managing the site so efficiently. We hope to hold our Branch Bosworth commemoration at Middleham church on Sunday 19 August at 2.00 p.m. and our Branch AGM in York on Saturday 1 September. Tea will be available at the AGM as usual, and a booking form will appear with our August Newsletter. The Branch is holding a dinner (medieval costume optional this year) in York on Saturday 29 September, to coincide with the Society AGM that day – if you would like a menu and booking form, please contact our Secretary before 15 September. Angela Moreton

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New Members

UK 1 January to 31 March 2012 Overseas Members 1 January to 31 March John Ashdown-Hill, Manningtree, Essex 2012 (rejoined) Brenda Einarson, Luseland, SK, Canada John Averill, Doncaster, S. Yorks Barbara Grossmann, Frankfurt, Germany Karen Bennett, Gloucester Michelle Hayman, Collaroy Plateau, NSW, Janet Carmac, London Australia Paula Caven-Lewis, Wrexham Taylor Heck, Edmonton, AB, Canada Kirsten Claiden-Yardley, Oxford Linda Jenkins, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Ester Colby, Hereford Andrew McKinnon, Seaforth, NSW, Simon Evans, Cardiff Australia Alice Fennell, Plymouth, Devon Dorothy Neville, Mirboo North, Victoria, Toni Flatley, London Australia Jeremy Griggs, Poole, Dorset R. Pidcock, Doncaster East, Victoria, Elizabeth Harrison, Orpington, Kent Australia Jean & Roger Hicks, Callington, Cornwall Holly Robertson, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Jeffrey Howell, Carnforth, Lancs Catharina Schall, Kelkheim, Germany Adam Jackson, Farnborough, Hants Barbara Smith, Ontario, Canada Anna Mansfield Smith, Northampton Wanda Summers, Balwyn, Victoria, Australia Margaret Martin, Witham, Essex Susan Mines, Corsham, Wilts US Branch 1 January to 31 March 2012 Lesley Mitchell, Longfield, Kent Tasha Alexander, Chicago, Illinois Charlotte Murray-Smith, Norwich Andrew Cleland, Flemington, New Jersey Caroline Neuburg, Aldershot, Hants Tricia Dierksen, Milford, Pennsylvania Tony O’Connor, Shepperton, Middx Libby Hunt, Maple Grove, Minnesota Alan Patient, London Laura Santirocco, Famington, Connecticut Carolyn Perry, London Annamarie Vallis, Fresno, California Derek Pluck, Preston, Lancs Anneliese Zlitni, Anchorage, Alaska Ann Rees, Penarth Matthew Robertson, London John Robinson, Doncaster, S.Yorks Ellen Sherburne, Amesbury, Wilts Richard Unwin, Manchester

Recently Deceased Members

Gwen Cook, Chalfont St Giles, Bucks (joined 2005) Lesley Marshall-Williams, Dorking, Surrey (joined 2005) B. Mitchell, Fareham, Hants (joined before 1985)

Christa Palliccia We are sorry to record the death last September of Christa Palliccia, just short of her 100th birthday. She had retired from the London Branch in 2008 (and from the Society) due to failing health, but she had been a member since 1983, and an indefatigable participant in our trips, both in this country and on the Continent.

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Obituaries

Pat Scott Marilyn Garabet writes: This is rather a sad letter as I have to announce the death of Mrs Pat Scott, who passed away on 19 July 2011. She lived with her husband Michael at High Halstow, Rochester, Kent. I have no idea if she was still a member of our Society at the time of her death, but she was for many years a member of the (now defunct) Kent Branch and wrote many excellent articles for their magazine White Surrey in the 1980s and 1990s. I’m sorry I can’t contribute a fuller obituary, but I never actually met Pat, though we did exchange cards at Christmas. She was a Godsend to me when I edited the magazine, as she kept me so well supplied with material, all excellently researched.

Hanne Hilke Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt writes: A few days ago I tried to call my old personal and former Society friend Hanne Hilke in her home in Frankfort/Main but I was told that the number was not valid. Because of private and health problems, Hanne mostly withdrew herself from public life and did not want any contacts. To find what had happened to her I called her younger sister Gisela, who gave me the sad news that Hanne had died on 25 July 2008 shortly after her 80th birthday, and after a long stay in a Frankfort hospital. Hanne was born in the East German village of Langensalza near Halle. Her father died only a year after her birth, and her mother returned to her home-town Idar-Oberstein and helped her parents to run a laundry and private bathhouse. Hanne later worked there too. After higher education she wanted to become an actress. Her husband died only three years after their marriage, leaving Hanne with a son, Wolfgang. She gave up her acting career and worked for 30 years till her retirement as clerk for a big Frankfort publisher. Hanne was a keen Ricardian, and co-founder of the Continental Group, and a fully active committee member. She was also a great specialist in and passionately devoted to the history of the Medici family of Florence. We all remember discussing the life of this family with her, along with that of Richard and his family. Her valuable support as a Ricardian and member of our group was unquestionable. She will be very much missed. Her life was not an easy one but we hope she has now found peace.

In this year’s Ricardian As noted in the December 2011 Bulletin (pp.24-5), John Alban, Archivist at Norfolk Record Office, has written on ‘The Will of a Norfolk Soldier at Bosworth’, one of last year’s really interesting discoveries. Other articles include ‘The Pied Bull: a Nevill effigy in the parish church of St Lawrence, Mereworth, Kent’, by Marcus Herbert; ‘Convocations called by Edward IV and Richard of Gloucester in 1483: did they ever take place?’ by Annette Carson; ‘Richard, duke of Gloucester, and the purchase and sale of Hooton Pagnell, Yorkshire, 1475-1480’, by James Ross; ‘Some members of the household of George Neville, Archbishop of York’, by Heather Falvey; and ‘Agnes Don-Bretton, merchant stapler, widow and matriarch of Southampton and London’, by Anne F. Sutton. Books reviewed include Clifford S.J. Davies on The Fifteenth Century X: Parliament, Person -alities and Power. Papers presented to Linda S. Clark, edited by Hannes Kleineke; and Michael Jones on Richard III and East Anglia: Magnates, Gilds and Learned Men, the proceedings of our 8th Triennial Conference in 2005, edited by Livia Visser-Fuchs.

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Calendar

We run a calendar of all forthcoming events notified to us for inclusion. If you are aware of any events of Ricardian interest, whether organised by the Society (Committee, Visits Committee, Research Committee, Branches/Groups etc.) or by others, please let Lesley Boatwright have full details in sufficient time for entry. The calendar will also be run on the website. Date Events Originator

2012 9 June Yorkshire Branch Study Day Yorkshire Branch Middleham Key Centre

16 June An Afternoon of Robin Hood Norfolk Branch (see p.22)

9-12 July International Medieval Congress, Leeds IMC (see p.21) Society seminar 9 July pm, and bookstall throughout the congress

14 July Visit to Rothwell and Southwick Hall Visits Committee (see p.49) near Oundle

18-19 August Bosworth weekend See p.48 and centrefold

25-27 August Visit to Bruges for the Golden Tree Pageant Visits Committee

1 September Yorkshire Branch AGM, York Yorkshire Branch (see p.57)

28-30 September Joint US-Canadian AGM and Canadian Branch (see p.50 ) Conference, Toronto

29 September Society Annual General Meeting, York Executive Committee 30 September Excursion from York to Middleham Visits Committee (see pp.1-2 and forms in centrefold)

10 November Norfolk Branch Study Day Norfolk Branch (see pp.49-50 and centrefold)

15 December Christmas at Fotheringhay Chairman (see September 2012 Bulletin)

2013 12-14 April Study Weekend Research Committee (see p.4)

60

The Achievement of arms of the Richard III Society

Front cover: Portrait of Richard III reproduced by kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London