Bulletin Magazine of the Richard III Society

Home , Groby Old Hall, Lal Waterson, Norma Waterson, Thomas Chaucer

Ricardian

ISSN 0308 4337 June 2011

Ricardian

June 2011 Bulletin Contents 2 From the Chairman 3 Society News and Notices 7 Introducing our new Business Manager 9 The Ricardian Chronicle 11 Bosworth in 2011 13 Study weekend at York on the de la Pole family, by David and Wendy Johnson 16 Celebrating Paul Murray Kendall 22 News and Reviews (conference on the second battle of St Albans; Blood and Roses weekend at Oxford; Tower of London seminar on Society at War in the 15th century; Fatal Colours and Blood Red Roses at the Mansion House, York; Richard III by The Propeller Company) 34 Crazy Christmas Query, by Phil Stone 35 Sometimes two wrongs do make a right, by Heather Falvey 36 Richard III and Anna Dixie, by John Saunders 38 Media Retrospective 40 The Man Himself: Some ‗Servants and Lovers‘ of Richard III in his youth, by Charles Ross 42 Apple Juice fit for a Duchess, by Tig Lang 43 Papers from the York Study Weekend The Chaucer network of cousins, by Lesley Boatwright (p.44) Chaucer and de la Pole heraldry, by Peter Hammond (p.48) 51 Correspondence 53 The Barton Library 55 From the Visits Team 59 Branches and Groups 62 New Members and Recently Deceased Members 63 Obituaries 64 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, 2011

From the Chairman

n March, I referred to the tragic flooding in Australia, since when we have had the equally I tragic earthquake in New Zealand and the tsunami in Japan. We have members in both countries and thankfully, as far as we know, all are safe. (I know that one member in Christchurch NZ was actually rescued from one of the buildings that collapsed.) Here in the United Kingdom, of course, we have just had a splendid Royal Wedding, with all the pageantry and celebrations to enjoy, and this edition includes another recipe from Tig Lang, this time for ‗Apple Juice fit for a Duchess‘, which somehow seems very topical. In April, we had another successful study weekend in York, this time looking at the de la Pole family. In this issue, we give details of two of the talks given, with others to follow in the future. As well as Tig‘s recipe, this edition also comes with the usual comprehensive range of news and reviews to make for great reading. We continue our commemoration of the centenary of Paul Murray Kendall‘s birth with a report on the visit to Bosworth by his daughters Callie and Gillian, who also provide some fascinating responses to the questions we asked them. The importance of Kendall‘s biography of King Richard can never be overstated. With its heavy reliance on primary sources, it made a significant contribution to the arguments for a favorable view of Richard. It is a pleasure, therefore, to announce that the Society will be providing a memorial bench at Bosworth in Kendall‘s memory. This will be in place for the battle‘s anniversary in August and we are hopeful that Callie and Gillian will be able to come over for its unveiling. It is with much sadness that we record the deaths of Brian Moorhen and Peter Lee. Brian was our Membership Manager for a number of years and Peter was a former Chairman of the London Branch. Our sympathies go to Wendy Moorhen and Diana Lee and all their families. Diana stepped down from her role as Business Manager recently and we are grateful for her work over the past two years. We advertised the post in the last Bulletin and I am very pleased to welcome Stephen York who answered the call and has now taken it on. I am also pleased to note that the Ricardian Chronicle Project is making good progress with Toni Mount and Helen Challinor joining its management team. Let me encourage members who want to get involved in research to sign up for the project. It gives me great pleasure to announce that we have a new edition of Ricardian Britain (see page 4). The first edition came out as long ago as 1968, and we acknowledge the pioneering contribution of Carolyn Hammond and Val Alliez, the founding editors. This edition is on-line as part of the website, which will give it much greater flexibility and enable us to make changes as they become necessary. The bi-annual Australasian Convention meets in Melbourne this August and we wish our members down under well and look forward to hearing all about it in December‘s Bulletin. There will, of course, be many Society events over the coming months, including the annual Bosworth memorial service at Sutton Cheney. It will be the five hundred and twenty-sixth anniversary of the battle, and I hope to meet many of you there on Bosworth Sunday, 21 August.

Society News and Notices

Richard III Society Members’ Day and Annual General Meeting Saturday 1 October 2011

Notice is hereby given that the 2011 Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society will be held on Saturday 1 October 2011 at the School or Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Malet Street (off Russell Square), London WC1H 0XG. 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 2011 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, by post to 23 Ash Rise, Halstead, Essex CO9 1RD, to be received not later than Friday 16 September 2011. 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 Society‘s website. Resolutions for the Agenda, also proposed and seconded, should reach the Joint Secretaries at the address and by the same date as set out above. Alternatively, these can be sent by email to: [email protected] by no later than Friday 16 September. If you intend to come to the event, please register your place by email to the Secretaries at the email address above or by completing and returning the booking form in this Bulletin by post.

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 16 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 may be supplied to be read out at the AGM. Reports should not exceed three minutes, and should consist of new material not previously reported verbally or in print.

Refreshments Light refreshments will be provided by SOAS during the informal part of the day. The Society will be charged for this, but refreshment sales to individual attendees are not permitted. Therefore attendees will be asked to make a contribution towards the cost on arrival. Lunch will be by own arrangements and various local facilities are available within a very short walk of the venue. Please note that SOAS will not permit the bringing in of food for consumption on the premises.

Inaugural Isolde Wigram Memorial Lecture This year the speaker will be the historian Dr David Starkey, who will be speaking on ‘A Wave of Pretenders? Yorkist sentiment in the reign of Henry VII’.

Registration of Attendance In view of our speaker this year, we are anticipating a higher than usual number of people wishing to attend. Our venue will hold in excess of 200 people, but there is a finite limit. Therefore it is vital that we know how many members are proposing to be there. For this reason, we are introducing the following system for registration:

Everyone wishing to attend must 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. All registrations will be acknowledged. If you do not hear within two weeks, please contact Sue and Dave Wells to confirm that your place is reserved. If you have not registered and received a response, we regret that you will not be able to attend. Requests to attend will be dealt with on a ‗first come first served‘ basis. If the maximum limit is reached, a waiting list will be maintained.

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: contact details as set out on the inside back cover of the Bulletin.

Sound the trumpets – Ricardian Britain goes live

There is a new edition of Ricardian Britain, the guide to sites associated with Richard III and some of his contemporaries, and it is to be found on the Society‘s website. Previous editions were in print form but now we are publishing it on line. This means that it can be kept up-to-date by adding sites as new ones come to light or to mind, and changing details on existing sites when necessary. By being electronic, it can be used on home computers but also on many hand-held devices such as iPads, smart phones and mp3 players with Wi-Fi facilities. Much is owed to the previous authors, Val Alliez and Carolyn Hammond, and we thank them for laying the foundations upon which this new edition has been built. The new edition is illustrated and has a number of features that weren‘t available to the compilers of the previous editions. Some of these features include:

• addresses with postcodes, and telephone numbers • website addresses • e-mail addresses

When available, specific postcodes have been included to allow users to make use of map sites such as Multimap, the AA or Google, or to use directions via GPS/SatNav devices. Opening hours, entrance fees, directions, restaurants, accessibility, parking, etc. have not been included as these change so often, and users of the guide are advised to look them up using the website addresses provided. We hope members enjoy using the new edition. Go to www.richardiii.net, click on the Ricardian Britain button and see what you think. Beth and Phil Stone

From the Joint Secretaries Chip and Pin Payments Further to the notice in the September 2010 Bulletin in which we told you that we could no longer accept credit/debit card payments, we are now pleased to be able to advise that we are in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of a ‗Chip and Pin‘ machine, which will allow us to accept such payments again. We hope that this will be up and running by early June. This will apply to all purchases and membership payments, and we shall be able to accept remote payments as well as face-to-face. There will be a need to add a 5% surcharge to cover the charge made by the bank for processing card payments. You will, of course, still be able to pay by PayPal. We shall give further details in the September Bulletin and on the website. Once again we shall have our marquee and sales stall at the Bosworth commemoration weekend this year, and the chip-and-pin facility will be particularly useful here. Please do come along and say hello. Advertising on the Richard III website The Executive Committee has agreed to introduce a system for charging for advertising on the Society‘s website. Currently there is no formal policy for this, but recently there has been a number of requests from a variety of sources, both within and outside the Society, to advertise events, publications, sales items or other related matters. Items from Society members or affili– ated organisations have been displayed as a matter of course. The Committee feels that a charging arrangement needs to be introduced, especially as advertisements in the Bulletin are chargeable. There will be a one-off fee of £10 for all advertisers, to cover the costs of uploading the material. Thereafter, the fee for commercial organisations or companies will be £25 per item a month, with a maximum display life of three months. No charges beyond the initial £10 will be applied for internal Society issues or information items.

Facebook Update The Society‘s Facebook page has now been active for a year, and it is proving to be a very useful and effective means to promote our work to a world-wide audience. There are nearly five hundred people who have linked themselves to the site and the majority of these are not members. With this in mind we plan a membership campaign and also a publications promotion through the site. It is also possible to promote the Society through the whole of the Facebook network, which would reach a potential audience of twenty million plus, and we are looking into the feasibility of this. Our Facebook site can be viewed by clicking the icon on the opening page of the Society‘s website or by visiting: www.facebook.com/pages/RICHARD-III-SOCIETY/114452911904874?v=info John Saunders

Brian Moorhen and Peter Lee We very much regret that we have to report two very sad pieces of news: Brian Moorhen, our Membership Manager, died suddenly on 27 April after a short illness, and Peter Lee, past Chairman of the London Branch, died on 2 May. We extend our deepest sympathy to their families, especially their wives Wendy and Diana. An obituary of Brian by Wendy will be found on page 63, and we shall have an obituary of Peter in the September Bulletin. This sad news makes all the more poignant Diana‘s account of their last ‗holiday‘ together, in Libya, which is (unchanged) on p. 8.

Publication and Distribution Working Party For some time, the Society has been in discussion with our overseas members, in particular the major branches in America, Australasia (Australia & New Zealand) and Canada where the Bulletin and Ricardian are posted in bulk for internal distribution. This system has caused some problems in the past, mainly around delays in delivery and the condition of the packaging on arrival at the destination address. A Special Ways & Means Sub-Committee met in February to try find a solution to the problems where they were found to have arisen in the UK. Society members at this meeting were: The Society President – Peter Hammond (Working Party Chairman) The Society Chairman – Phil Stone The Joint Secretaries – Susan and David Wells (minutes and administration) The Public Relations Officer – Richard Van Allen The Membership Manager – Wendy Moorhen The Web Content Manager – Beth Stone The Special Sub-Committee felt that the best way forward would be for a dedicated working party to be set up to discuss the issues in detail and try to find a solution that was acceptable to all parties. This will be called the Publication and Distribution Working Party. Membership will consist of the attendees at the Special Sub-Committee meeting listed above, together with representatives of the American, Australasian and Canadian Branches. In addition, the Working Party may from time to time co-opt other persons who may be able to advise, assist or provide support with specific matters. Its purpose will be to examine current methods of printing and distribution of the Society‘s key publications, i.e. the Ricardian Bulletin (quarterly) and The Ricardian (annually). In the first instance, the Working Party will focus on the Bulletin. It is expected that the PDWP will largely operate as a virtual meeting using email, telephonic conferencing or any other methods as appropriate. The UK membership may need to meet from time to time. It will report to the Executive Committee and an update will be provided at the AGM in October. It is hoped that this will set out the recommendations ready at that time and seek endorsement in principle of outline proposals for future change. We are currently awaiting final details from the overseas branches of who will represent them on the Working Party.

Your Society Needs You Are you a quick and accurate typist?

After the success of the Logge Wills project, publishing all the wills proved in the Logge Register of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which covers the reign of Richard III, members will remember that we had hoped to transcribe and publish the equivalent for the Prerogative Court of York. Unfortunately, this proved impossible as a much greater proportion of them were written in Latin, and we did not have enough volunteers who could cope with this. We therefore concentrated on transcribing the 88 wills in English. We now need a volunteer to type up these wills in Word ready for publication. At present we have hard copies of all in a variety of formats, which will need standardising. Some were sent to us on floppy disks, but software has moved on since these were produced, and most can no longer be read, so we must work from the hard copies. If you have the necessary computer and typing skills and would like to help, please get in touch with Lesley Boatwright (contact details on the back cover). Two or more volunteers could share the work between them.

Introducing our new Business Manager

We are very pleased to announce that we have a new Business Manager, Stephen York. He has a great deal of experience in the business side of publishing and the intricacies of IT, and came to the study of the later Middle Ages via his interest in heraldry. We asked Stephen to tell us about himself, and this is what he said:

ith a surname like mine I suppose it was inevitable that I would one day join the Society. W In fact I have been a member for only two years but my interest in Good King Richard goes back further than I can remember. I stopped studying history after O-level; by that stage the curriculum had only taken me as far as the Early Middle Ages, and so I had only a vague idea of what the Wars of the Roses were about. However, I was a student of heraldry from my very early teens and that led me back into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which must have been when I discovered the exciting story of Lancaster v. York and the intriguing mysteries surrounding Richard III. By the time of the famous televised trial I was definitely a partisan. My first degree was in Classics at UCL, followed by a postgraduate diploma in librarianship, but by a rather tortuous path I found myself Phil Stone and Stephen York working as a publisher, editing and producing books on a range of subjects from cookery and travel to finance and reference works; I pursued that career until I retired a couple of years ago. So, not a professional or even an amateur historian, but an avid reader of every book on the Roses that I can lay my hands on – and of course membership of the Society has opened a window on to all kinds of new ideas and research, as well as the opportunity to meet so many people with a similar interest in the subject. It is fascinating to realise how much more, even now, can be known or deduced about Richard and his times. Perhaps one day television producers will see that the fifteenth century offers much more dramatic potential (and marvellous leading roles for women) than the tedious Tudors. I am glad of the opportunity that the Business Manager role gives me to contribute to the Society‘s work and hope that my career experience will enable me to maintain the high standards that my predecessors have achieved in producing and delivering the Bulletin and The Ricardian to members.

. . . and the problems faced by our last

We are sorry about the late arrival of the March Bulletin, which was due to a shortage of plastic envelopes at the despatchers. It was the last Bulletin business problem which Diana Lee had to deal with, and one she could have done without, as she came back to it after a hair-raising ‘holiday’ – in Libya. We asked Diana for an account of her adventures. eter and I booked a holiday to Libya to visit Leptis Magna, one of the best preserved Roman P cities in North Africa, about 30 miles from Tripoli, leaving on Saturday 19 February. The evening we arrived in Tripoli we were taken on a short tour of the Medina and watched the pro- Gaddafi demonstrations in Green Square for a few minutes. On Sunday we went to Sabratha, another Punic/Roman town. There were a few minor demonstrations on the way but nothing frightening. About 11.30 pm. we started to hear some sporadic gunfire not very far away, which continued at intervals during the night. Then at 4 am there was heavier gunfire from bigger guns and then screaming, after which all went quiet. That was very frightening. We were due to leave early the next morning, Monday to go to Leptis, but when we all met at breakfast we decided we would try to get a flight home instead. We had to queue for an hour to put the luggage through security before we could even get into the airport. There were no flights available before our booked one on Wednesday. So we went back to the hotel. We were told by our guide‘s Libyan friend that some hotels were being attacked so we moved to a safer one by the sea not far from the harbour. Then we heard that there was to be ferry boat to Malta arranged by the US Embassy and there might be room for UK citizens, so on Wednesday morning we went to the harbour instead of the airport. Our guide went to the British Embassy for their advice, which was to make up our own minds – not very helpful. We also heard that it was chaotic at the airport there being a queue a mile long, literally, in the rain, and passengers were missing their flights because they were unable to get in to register and there were fights breaking out. Our BA flight was cancelled but we did not know this at the time. The ferry arrived at 3 pm on Wednesday and we got on about 7 pm. The weather was atrocious, having deteriorated all day, pouring with rain and a gale blowing with 30 ft waves out at sea. The ferry was a catamaran and could not sail on rough seas. So it was announced that the ferry would not sail until the next day, but we were in the warm and dry and there was free food, albeit mostly snacks and sandwiches. The US Embassy staff were marvellous, keeping everything running smoothly, even some films to entertain us; as were the ferry staff, serving food and drink all day and night and keeping the boat clean and tidy. There was never any trouble even though there were lots of children, including babies, and some invalids. The next morning we were told the ferry would not be sailing that day, but a hot meal was brought on for us in the evening. These ferries are only designed for 6-hour journeys so the only accommodation is airline type seats. Not the best way to spend 48 hours! The ferry left about 1.30 pm on Friday in quite rough seas but the captain decided to sail as soon as it was reasonably safe to do so. We were asked not to eat after 10.30 am and not to move around during the journey unless absolutely necessary. We arrived at Valetta harbour about 10 pm. This was our first experience of the British Embassy doing anything useful. We were told there were hotel rooms booked and a flight to England the next day. They were most upset when I said our tour company had made all our arrangements and we would not be needing theirs. We were given food parcels of sandwiches, biscuits and drinks by them and then more after going through immigration. There were loads of TV and radio reporters wanting to speak to everyone – I did an interview for a radio station, but I can‘t remember which. We really just wanted to get to our hotel. The next day we had a flight from Malta to Rome and then to Heathrow. We were impressed both by the US Embassy organisation and the arrangements made by our own tour company, Andante Travels. Altogether a far too exciting adventure and we still haven‘t seen Leptis Magna.

The Ricardian Chronicle

Our major new research project for members At the study weekend in 2010 the idea for a new society research project was floated: The Ricardian Chronicle. Since then articles have appeared in the Bulletin giving examples of different pieces of research and where that information can be found. While trying to whet your appetite the Research Committee has been working behind the scenes to draw up a process for organising the research. Guidance notes, the management process and role of the project co- ordination team were then ready to be issued at the study weekend this year. The Research Committee hoped that with a captive audience and the relaxed atmosphere of the Elmbank Hotel we would be able to gather up volunteers, especially volunteers for the management roles, without whom the project would not work. Those people gathered at the weekend more than fulfilled our hopes. Toni Mount has volunteered to take on the management role and Helen Challinor the role of dealing with the electronic maintenance of the diary. The team had decided that the Chronicle needed to be put on to the website and that a system of electronic recording of the information was needed, not only to help gather the information but to keep track of what was found. As you will see from Helen‘s report she has the background experience that will enable us to do so much more, and I think she will help us take this project forward in a more exciting way. As you will also see, Toni already has a list of volunteers from the weekend, but if we are to get full coverage of the country (including Wales, Scotland and Ireland) we need more of you, so please think about volunteering and send your details to Toni. You can do as little or as much as you like, and you do not need to be online to join in. We hope eventually that as well as an electronic version there will also be a hard copy; we want the final research to be available to as many people as possible. Lynda Pidgeon Please consider joining us The intention of our exciting new research project is to build up a diary of local happenings nationwide, which coincide with the major Ricardian events we are so familiar with. We shall cover the period from the premature announcement of Edward IV‘s death on 7 April 1483 to the death of Richard III at the battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. Our hope is to gain new insights into life during these times, not just for the high and mighty at Westminster but for the common folk in the local village as well. Initially, our pilot project will focus on the crucial period from Edward‘s rumoured death to Richard‘s coronation – 7 April to 6 July 1483. We are interested in such varied matters as the weather, incidents of disorder or celebration, outbreaks of sickness, work and leisure activities, legal wrangling and festivities on saints‘ days. By using contemporary information we hope to minimise the dangers of hindsight. This project will bring us closer to the people of the fifteenth century, enhancing our knowledge and producing a user-friendly on-line source for future researchers. The project was launched at our Research Weekend in York in April. I want to thank Cris Reay Connor, Jacqui Emerson, Marion Moulton, Anne Painter and Doreen Leach who signed up as researchers; Helen Challinor, who volunteered to be our information whizz; and Suzanne Doolan who offered her help with the newsletter – when we have something to put in it. Welcome to the team. Three more volunteers have joined since the Research weekend, Helen Ashburn, Penelope Lawton and Sue Taylor. Welcome to them too. 9

More project researchers who are interested in finding original local source material or information are eagerly sought. How much time you can spare is entirely up to you but I‘m sure the results will be worthwhile and very satisfying for all of us. We are especially in need of researchers for the South East and the North West of England. For would-be researchers who have difficulty with medieval handwriting, the Society‘s palaeography course is still available: £55 for the whole course, or £27.50 each for two lots of 4 lessons. Contact Heather Falvey for further details of the palaeography course at [email protected]. Please consider joining us. We will help you get started and provide any assistance you need. There are plenty of friendly experts in the society happy to help. When you sign up, I will send more information of what‘s involved. Although much communication will be by email, we also welcome those of you who prefer to use the post. To join email me: Toni Mount, Project Co-ordinator, at [email protected] or ring 01474 355676.

The project’s ‘information whizz’ Helen Challinor writes: The management and retrieval of information is a passion of

mine, and so when I heard about the Ricardian Chronicle project I was immediately struck by its potential. Apart from the storage, presentation, format and findability aspects of this work, all of which are important in their own right, we also need to consider the tagging and classification of information behind the scenes. It‘s thinking ahead about how we do these things that will enable us to take advantage of the developments in web-based technology that are here now, and our best guesses at those which are just around the corner. Imagine visualising Richard‘s movements on a map, with photographs, and linking this information with our findings from the Chronicle project. With just a little planning about the best ways of presenting what we produce, we could open the door to a number of Helen Challinor possibilities. To give you an idea of what we could achieve, please have a look at Scotland‘s Places, to be found at http:// www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/ which makes innovative use of mapping, photographs, documents and information about locations. My hopes for this project are that we can develop a flexible resource that provides researchers with the level of detail they need, both now and in the future. I‘m also keen that we don‘t lose sight of paper, and our final products should include publication in different media. We want to gather the research you carry out in whatever format suits you, whether that‘s online or on paper. Please keep a look out for Toni‘s research guide, and more information about the Ricardian Chronicle project as ideas develop. In my day job, I‘m a senior librarian with a degree in Library and Information Studies. I make electronic information easier to find and provide the building blocks to enable data to be linked together in new and useful ways. I‘ve been a member of the Society for a number of years. I joined out of a general interest in history and an enjoyment of learning. Up to now I‘ve been an attendee at such excellent events as the East Midlands Branch Study Days, AGM lectures and several requiem mass celebrations. However, when I went along to the Study Weekend at York in April I didn‘t expect to come away with such an interesting and exciting challenge.

Bosworth in 2011

Leicestershire County Council have now put in place a revised and extended battlefield trail to explain the course of the battle of Bosworth, and are creating a new area of commemoration on top of Ambion Hill, with a sundial, a compass rose and rose beds. In this area, the emphasis will be on thinking about the people who took part in the battle, and its implications. The Society is contributing a wooden bench in memory of Paul Murray Kendall to be placed in this setting. Richard Knox, Keeper of Bosworth for Leicestershire County Council, here describes the new battlefield trail and commemorative layout for us, and our Joint Secretaries, Sue and Dave Wells, give news of the plans for the bench. Finally, we have the usual information about the Society‘s arrangements for our annual visit to Bosworth.

The Battle of Bosworth Trail and Memorial Sundial Following the relocating of the battlefield site and the reinterpretation of The Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre on Ambion Hill over the past few years, Leicestershire County Council has now completed the last stage of the developments funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund on the site. The old Battlefield Trail, set up in 1974 to interpret the battle within the landscape of Ambion Hill and its immediate surroundings, has been completely overhauled in the light of the new evidence, the story rewritten and the route slightly extended. Information posts, embellished with tactile steel sculptures of helmets and weapons or scroll- like graphic panels or audio posts, are dotted along the route of the old circular walk around the Hill, with the addition of a section of the old railway cutting running south from Shenton Station. The posts tell the story of the lead-up to the battle, introduce the main protagonists and explain the events of 22 August and the significance of the battle in English history. At two points along the walk visitors are given an interpreted view of the rediscovered battlefield area, with reconstructions of what the view may have looked like on the day. The main view across the battlefield is from the top of Ambion Hill, alongside the recently relocated flagpole bearing King Richard‘s standard. The other view is from the railway cutting, from where the site of Dadlington windmill, the suggested site of the Duke of Norfolk‘s death, can be seen. At the top of Ambion Hill, adjacent to the viewing point and Standard, is the Memorial Sundial. This is intended to be a reflective and emotive space to commemorate the battle and all that died there. The sundial memorial reinforces the main power holders at the battle, Richard, Henry and Lord Stanley, each of which is given a seat of power set within a rose bed. The main commanders are also referenced within the appropriate rose beds. Within the face of the sundial the main sections of the day‘s action are described. Surrounding the sundial is a compass rose which indicates the names, dates, distance and direction of the other battles of the Wars of the Roses, putting the battle of Bosworth in its context. Richard Knox The Society at Bosworth, 21-22 August 2011 Once again the Society will have its usual marquee at the Heritage Centre on Ambion Hill, where the displays take place, for the whole weekend, Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 August, for sales, enrolments and generally making ourselves known. Do come along and have a chat.

The Society’s Kendall memorial seat and plaque As part of this new commemorative feature and to mark the centenary of Paul Murray Kendall‘s birth, the Executive Committee has agreed to sponsor a seat to be positioned behind Richard III‘s ‗seat of power‘, looking over the sundial. There will be a plaque with the following inscription:

In Memory of Paul Murray Kendall, biographer of King Richard III Given by the Richard III Society on the centenary of his birth 1st March 2011

The cost for the custom made oak seat and plaque is around £275 to £300. The seat should be in place in good time for the Bosworth commemoration weekend and there will be a short unveiling ceremony during the Society‘s visit on Sunday 21 August. We are delighted to be able to report that Paul Murray Kendall‘s daughters Callie and Gillian are planning to attend the event. Sue and Dave Wells

BOSWORTH 2011 – SUNDAY 21 AUGUST 2011

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 will 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‘), to walk the Battlefield Trails and attend the inauguration of the Society‘s commemorative bench (see above). 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. NB comments and suggestions with regard to the nature of the event would be welcome – please contact me at the address on the booking form or by email: [email protected].

PROGRAMME 09.15 (sharp) Coach departs London 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 cocktail sandwiches, handmade cakes and pastries, tea / coffee /cordials‘] 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) = £33.00 COST for Village Hall lunch = £5.00 [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] COST for tea only = £7.50

Please use the application form in the centre fold, and return it with your cheque and an sae for confirmation to Elizabeth Nokes, 26 West Way, Petts Wood, BR5 1LW, Kent (Tel.: 01689-823569, email: [email protected]) by 15 July

Study weekend at York on the de la Pole family: ‘an inspired choice’

DAVID AND WENDY JOHNSON

fter the success of the 2010 study weekend it was a real pleasure to return to the Elm Bank A Hotel in York. This year attention focussed on the rise and fall of the de la Pole family, and what an inspired choice this turned out to be. The meteoric rise of the de la Poles, from Hull merchants to contenders for the throne, must be one of the most remarkable examples of late medieval social mobility. And from a Ricardian point of view, a series of advantageous marriages ultimately brought this hitherto Lancastrian family into the House of York, leaving John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln as the figurehead of Yorkist resistance following the battle of Bosworth. The weekend began, in glorious sunshine and unseasonal temperatures, on Friday evening with a talk by Rosemary Horrox appropriately entitled ‗The Rise and Rise of the de la Poles‘. Rosemary brought to life the fourteenth-century merchant brothers Richard and William de la Pole, particularly William, who emerges as an unfettered and unprincipled venture capitalist with a real eye for the main chance. Through money lending on a truly prodigious scale the de la Poles became an almost indispensible prop to crown finances, eventually creating the circumstances in which the family married into the aristocracy. Although William is remembered as something of a local hero in Hull, a pledge of good behaviour made in later life suggests that this remarkable entrepreneur was not a particularly principled man of business. We recommenced on Saturday morning with a joint presentation by Lesley Boatwright and Peter Hammond entitled ‗Alice Chaucer‘s Family‘. The descendents of Geoffrey Chaucer enter the de la Pole story because Geoffrey‘s granddaughter, Alice Chaucer, married William de la Pole, 1st duke of Suffolk, in 1431. Lesley‘s talk outlined in fascinating detail the gentry family connections of Thomas Chaucer, Alice‘s father. This led very nicely into Peter Hammond‘s slide show, which revealed a breathtaking display of heraldic snobbery. Rather shockingly the tombs of Thomas and Alice at Ewelme in Oxfordshire completely ignore their Chaucer ancestry in favour of a number of extreme and distant connections related to the more illustrious de Roet family, a descen- dant of which (Kath- erine Swynford) had

Ken Hillier and Ann Naylor in discussion at the study weekend

Behind them are, left to right: Beth Stone, Bill Leedham, Jenny Harding and Sue Taylor

married John of Gaunt. This somewhat cynical funerary glorification of the Chaucer family prompted Peter to observe that ‗Alice knew what she wanted and she went and got it‘. Like her fourteenth-century predecessor, the Hull merchant and money lender William de la Pole, Alice does not come across as a particularly likeable character. Heather Falvey brought us back into the de la Pole fold with a fascinating talk entitled ‗Murder on the Tower: reports of the death of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk‘. By the late 1440s the duke (Alice Chaucer‘s husband) headed a court faction that was held responsible for military defeats in France. The execution of the unpopular William by sailors in May 1450 sparked the threat of royal retaliation against the county of Kent, which in turn led to Jack Cade‘s rebellion. Heather, explaining how malicious verses written during times of unrest are often good indicators of the events themselves, used the example For Jakke Napes Sowle, a poem assumed to have been composed by the Kentish rebels at the time of the rebellion. Jakke Napes (or tame ape) was the scurrilous nickname given to William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, by his enemies who used his cognizance of an ape‘s clog and chain (the device used to restrain pet monkeys) as a source of ridicule. Heather pointed out that reoccurring references to the Dirige and Placebo revealed a familiarity with the Vespers for the Dead; an indication that the author may well have had a clerical background. On a Ricardian theme the poem‘s references to duke Humphrey of Gloucester are very interesting. Humphrey, generally believed to have been poisoned, is stated in a later verse to have been ‗drowned‘. What intrigued us was not simply the fact that the names of the two assassins are clearly mentioned, but that the method of the duke‘s demise so readily reflects that of George, duke of Clarence. Was ‗drowning‘ a general euphemism for partaking of poisoned wine? Heather agreed that this could be an interesting avenue for future research. Saturday morning was concluded with a talk by Lynda Pidgeon on William‘s son, John de la Pole, 2nd duke of Suffolk, and his wife Elizabeth, sister of Edward IV and Richard III. Lynda pointed out that John‘s marriage to Elizabeth wasn‘t popular in the de la Pole family because his father, William, had been an opponent of the duke of York. Rather sadly John emerges as a somewhat subdued figure, suffering from ill heath, who lived in the shadow of his formidable mother, Alice Chaucer. For whatever reason, it appears that John wished to remain politically neutral while his wife Elizabeth worked on behalf of her brothers and his son, John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, who attempted to win back the crown for the Yorkist cause in 1487. John de la Pole, 2nd duke of Suffolk, has been described as a political non- entity, but this harsh assessment ignores other, rather human, factors that are only hinted at in the surviving documentation. The unseasonably warm and sunny weather continued into the afternoon and, after a buffet Speakers: David Baldwin, Heather Falvey, Lynda Pidgeon, lunch, delegates were given free Lesley Boatwright, Peter Hammond, Sean Cunningham time to explore the famous old

city. As residents of York, we took the opportunity to enjoy the hospitality of our favourite inn, the Black Swan on Peaseholme Green. Reputedly built in 1417, the Black Swan is a delight – in our opinion, the best pub in York – and more than worth a visit if you have yet to sample its historic atmosphere. After dinner at the Embank Hotel, Helen Cox gave a talk on her new book about the battle of Wakefield. As we were present at the Mansion House in May of last year when Helen launched the publication, we decided not attend, but are sure that delegates must have enjoyed her talk as much as we did. Helen‘s David Baldwin and Lynda Pidgeon dramatic delivery, resplendent in fifteenth-century costume, is very impressive, and we look forward to future publications by this knowledgeable and entertaining historian. Sunday morning began in the very capable hands of David Baldwin with an excellent talk about John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln. Interestingly John may have become acquainted with his future co-rebel Francis Lovell in the early 1470s, when John‘s father was granted Lovell‘s wardship following the death of Warwick at the battle of Barnet in 1471. What it meant to be a member of the House of York must have impressed itself upon the youthful earl of Lincoln five years later in 1476 when he was present at the magnificent reburial of Richard, duke of York, at Fotheringhay. A growing devotion to the House of York may have influenced Richard III‘s decision to nominate John as his heir in 1484, making it highly unlikely that John fought at Bosworth in 1485. David Baldwin made an interesting suggestion that during the Stoke campaign of 1487 John made effective use of propaganda to destabilise the enemy army, leading to substantial desertions from Henry‘s ranks. Sadly, when the two armies finally met beside the Trent near Newark in June 1487, the rebels were defeated. Despite a palpable lack of military experience John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, did not shirk the responsibility vested in him by his uncle Richard in 1484. Bravely and courageously he gave his life for the House of York, perishing, we would suggest, in a cause that was dear to his heart. The study weekend was concluded by Sean Cunningham with a stimulating talk entitled ‗How Edmund, earl of Suffolk changed the nature of Tudor kingship‘. Edmund, the earl of Lincoln‘s younger brother, was in a difficult position in 1487, but the continuing inactivity of his father, John de la Pole, 2nd duke of Suffolk, may have helped him come to terms with Henry VII. Certainly Edmund appears to have made every effort to become a loyal subject of the new regime, but Henry‘s attempts to restrain the earl in the 1490s eventually turned him into a rebel. Edmund‘s ‗non-rebellion‘ (as Sean Cunningham put it) was the last major challenge to Henry VII, leading to a restoration of the Howards in East Anglia and a hardening of the king‘s attitude during the final years of his reign. In conclusion it just remains to say that an enjoyable weekend was had by all; a sparkling array of talks, an excellent and well stocked book stall (many thanks to Sue and Dave Wells for all their hard work in transporting and, with Andrea Lindow, selling the books), relaxed surroundings, beautiful weather and the chance to meet old friends - and make new ones. What more could anyone ask for? Thanks again to everyone who helped to make the 2011 Study Weekend such an unparalleled success; we look forward, very much, to the next York-based study weekend in 2013.

Have you booked yet for the 2012 Triennial Conference at Loughborough University (20-22 April)? More than 50 members have already done so. Booking form in the March Bulletin.

Celebrating Paul Murray Kendall

he Bulletin Committee had always intended to commemorate during 2011 the centenary of T Paul Murray Kendall‘s birth. Kendall is an important figure in the Society‘s history. When his Richard III was published in 1955, just before the Society was re-founded, it was an invaluable help, not only in attracting members but also in providing a template of a well- researched and positive biography of King Richard. This gave a significant impetus to ensuring that the Society‘s own research agenda was evidence-based and objective. It therefore came as a very pleasant surprise last autumn when his daughter Callie Kendall contacted the Society to tell us about the commemoration at Bosworth that she and her sister Gillian were planning for 1 March this year, the hundredth anniversary of their father‘s birth. There would be a family gathering at Richard‘s standard near the Battlefield Centre, around which their father‘s ashes were scattered back in 2001. This would be followed by lunch at the Royal Arms Hotel in nearby Sutton Cheney, which Society members were invited to attend. We agreed to keep the numbers small so as not to swamp the Kendal family, and Sue and Dave Wells, Wendy Moorhen, John Saunders and Lesley Boatwright made their way to Bosworth that day. We were joined there by Jean and Eric Parry, local members from Stoke Golding, who had met the Kendall family in 2001 when they first came there. The Parrys attend Dadlington church, and Jean had been one of those who put on the enormous tea for the Society in the churchyard many years ago, when we went to Dadlington rather than Sutton Cheney for tea at the annual Bosworth commemoration. Both Kendall daughters now live in western Massachusetts, and work at Smith College. Callie is the office manager for Five College Learning in Retirement, and Gillian is Professor of English Literature. With them came Callie‘s son Tick Ahearn, a fund-raiser for colleges. Tick was born after his grandfather‘s death, but clearly honours his memory and is very proud to be his grandson. Theirs was literally a flying visit, as all would be back home in the US within a week. However, they wanted to remember their father and grandfather on the exact anniversary of his birth and in his centenary year, and to be where his ashes were. Also present was Richard Mackinder, the Operations Manager from Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, who had been the Kendalls‘ escort for the more private part of their visit that morning, when they laid flowers by the flagpole for Richard‘s standard where they had previously scattered PMK‘s ashes, still in its original location. The new commemorative area with its sundial and rosebeds is due to Paul Murray Kendall centenary lunch at the Royal Arms, Sutton be put there, but Richard Cheney. Left to right: John Saunders, Callie Kendall, Gillian Kendall, Mackinder confirmed that Dave Wells, Jean Parry when the flagpole is moved to

make way for this, a significant surrounding area of soil will be included to mark the fact that this was where PMK‘s ashes had been scattered. The family was particularly pleased to know that this consideration had been given to their feelings. The Royal Arms Hotel is justifiably famous for its catering. When we arrived, we thought at first that a much larger gathering than we had expected was assembling, but it turned out that the local Rotary Club lunches here every Tuesday. We had what was virtually a private room in the dining room. The table had been specially prepared beforehand, with name-cards for each person, exquisitely designed and made by Callie. They bore images and words that captured both PMK and his most famous biographical subject, Callie and Gillian Kendall, Sutton Cheney Richard III. It was a lovely thought, and much appreciated. They were of course snapped up afterwards as souvenirs. At each seat there was also a copy of PMK‘s Richard III, the new edition to which Gillian had written an introduction. She had signed each book for us, and we all asked Callie to add her signature too. John Saunders made an introductory speech, stressing how important PMK had been in the development of the Society, producing a scholarly biography right from the start, and Gillian spoke next. Her reminiscences of her father, which follow this account, show him in a very human light: he used to drive Gillian to school wearing his pyjamas, and she threatened him with all sorts of horrors if he got out of the car to see her off. He was clearly a loving and involved father as well as the celebrated academic and author that we all know. The Committee had agreed beforehand that, as a mark of respect and in recognition of the importance of PMK‘s biography of Richard III for the revisionist cause, we would make Callie and Gillian honorary life members of the Society, and Wendy Moorhen presented them with this. Sue and Dave Wells gave them each a goodie-bag containing tote bags, the latest Bulletins, copies of Peter Hammond‘s new book on Bosworth, and Graham Turner prints of the battle, which he had kindly signed for them. After the lunch – for which the Kendall family generously insisted on paying the whole bill – we went up on Ambion Hill, where a cold wind blew, and saw the peaceful area, with excellent views over the recently-confirmed battle location, where the new commemorative sundial will be situated. Sue Wells laid the Society‘s wreath of white roses beside the colourful sheaf of flowers already placed that morning by the Kendall family beside the flagpole. We adjourned for tea in Market Bosworth, where Callie‘s wish to have a traditional Ricardian cream tea was thwarted by the fact that it was nearly 5 pm, and we had to settle for a cuppa. It was then we noticed that the Kendalls had a hire car whose registration ended URN, appropriate for a family visiting the site of their father‘s ashes. It was a very convivial occasion, with Kendall‘s memory celebrated with genuine appreciation and much affection. Previously we had sent Callie and Gillian a set of questions to form the basis of an ‗interview‘, and their replies follow after Gillian‘s reminiscences of her father.

Compiled from material provided by Lesley Boatwright, John Saunders, Dave and Sue Wells.

‘To be aware of the biographer’: Gillian Kendall’s speech It‘s dangerous to attempt to allude to a biographer‘s life. For one thing, the biographer has ever practiced invisibility. In The Art of Biography, Paul Murray Kendall writes, ‗But we do not enjoy being aware of the biographer. Quite the contrary: being aware of the biographer spoils our illusion of sharing in a life. Unlike the poet, the biographer must have a talent for invisibility. Who would read the Ode to a Nightingale in order to learn about nightingales? Who would read a life of Napoleon for any other reason but to know Napoleon?‘ Today we are here to be aware of the biographer. Paul‘s public story: he was born on March 1, 1911 and died on November 21, 1973 – and he got a lot done in between those two dates. His play, The Ant Village, won the Marburgh Prize in 1950. In 1956, Richard III was a runner-up for the National Book Award. In 1965, The Art of Biography was nominated for the

Pulitzer Prize. Louis XI was published in 1972 and his novel, My Brother Chilperic, set in fourth-century Gaul, was published posthumously in 1979. And he also wrote such substantial works as Warwick the Kingmaker, The Yorkist Age, Richard III: The Great Debate and The History of Land Warfare, along with the entry on ‗Biography‘ in The Encyclopedia Britannica – the idea of having the authoritative voice of the encyclopedist delighted him. AND we received free encyclopedias. The private story sometimes seems to me to be long ago and far off. Sometimes, to quote Demetrius in A Ready to lay the Society’s wreath of white roses: Callie Midsummer Night’s Dream ‗things seem Kendall, Sue Wells, Tick Ahearn, Gillian Kendall small and undistinguishable‘. But there are also stories and memories that remain vivid, as if they had only just happened. I remember the story of the way Paul played tennis. He played with great passion. And, one day, as he went for a high lob coming in his direction, Paul raised his racket in triumph as he prepared to annihilate the tennis ball. He let out a great cry – ‗Higgggghhhh – yah!‘ and his dentures flew over the net. I don‘t know if he loved that story, but we duly entered it into the biography, along with others. Paul, a large disheveled form, hiding Easter eggs for us in the very early morning. Paul (and this I remember with great clarity) driving me to school in his pajamas. Paul, reading a review that called him ‗a redwood among the jackpines‘. We got awfully sick of that redwood and those jackpines in the months that followed. Most of all, I remember Paul in his study. My mother, Siggy, guarded that fortress, but if she turned her back, I would make my way in. He was never in the least put out, and I remember being told some fairly gruesome, and therefore all the more fascinating, tales of fourth-century Gaul – tales of murders, poisonings, a missing eye – before my mother would swoop down and pluck me away. Paul‘s study was fascinating to me partly because it was always such an interesting mess. There were books and papers everywhere. And in the end, it turned out that there was treasure hidden there. After Paul‘s death, when my mother was going through his study, she found, carefully folded in a small box, a handwritten paragraph. The note at the top read: ‗This is THE

END of My Brother Chilperic‘. He had not lived to finish the book, but he made sure that the final paragraph would be his. Most people don‘t like to accept their own mortality, and my father was no exception, but he wanted the end of that book held safe. But Paul would be the first to say that I could go on for a great deal of time assembling anecdotes without ever coming close to even a thumbnail sketch of his life story. And, besides, I don‘t have the materials. What he called the ‗mess of paper‘ associated with his life is surprisingly small. Much of it resides in the archives of Ohio University. Some of it is in my basement. Some of it is in Callie‘s garage. But, as with Richard III, a whole chunk of young years are missing. Paul was an only child of an older mother who died long, long before I was born. I remember finding out some years ago that her name was Helen. I have no idea why this gap exists. It‘s telling that it does, however, because I think that to some extent Paul was self- created. He came into being, I suspect, as he read books and saw into creatures who were other than himself. It‘s no wonder he was an English professor. It‘s no wonder that he taught students how to read Shakespeare‘s plays. It‘s no wonder he was a biographer. He loved to see into and understand constructions of character, and he was himself a prizewinning playwright. But the art of playwrighting never held him, and I think I know why. Paul was aware that Shakespeare‘s skill lay in what Keats called his ‗negative capability‘ – his ability to absent himself from his plays. There is no trustworthy Greek chorus in Shakespeare, no character who speaks for the playwright. Each character lives in his or her own world, alone. Now, as I said just a little earlier, the biographer, too, needs to remain invisible – but there is a huge difference between this invisibility and Shakespeare‘s ‗negative capability‘. Because invisible to the eye or not, no-one was more there than Paul. He is there even in his name, which he never fiddled with even though we are a family of name fiddlers, which is why our parents‘ books are seemingly dedicated to a lot of different people. We were Siggy and Kate and Silky and Silky Star and Curley Green and Corky and Callie. But Paul was Paul. And he is there in every sentence of Richard III. But he‘s hard to catch, and I‘ll tell you why. First, let me tell you about an actual scientific experiment on perception: a participant is asked to view a film of a group of people throwing a ball back and forth. The task of the participant is to count the number of times the ball is passed. As the people in the film are passing the ball, an enormous gorilla walks across the room, stops, beats its chest, and moves on. The participants, who are concentrating on that ball, invariably fail to notice the gorilla. Paul is the enormous gorilla beating his chest as we watch Richard III live out his life. The turns of phrase, those verbs, those nouns – those are all Paul, they are all Paul living Richard, and they pass in front of our eyes as we peruse the book. It‘s Paul‘s 100th birthday today, and, as the books in front of us testify, he‘s here among us. Shakespeare‘s sonnet 55 alludes to the destructive power of time and the ability of time to destroy all things. The only escape from the ravages of time, Shakespeare‘s sonnet suggests, lies in lines of poetry, lines that give new life to the dead every time they are read.

And so a happy birthday to Paul Murray Kendall. And may his readers never fail. .

Label on the Society’s memorial wreath, laid by Sue Wells by the flagpole where Kendall’s ashes were scattered in 2001

‘Something about Richard caught Paul’s imagination’

We thought it would interest Bulletin readers if we asked Callie and Gillian to share some of their memories of their father. They kindly agreed, and John Saunders of the Bulletin team sent them a number of questions to answer. As Callie noted, ‗there are so many different aspects of Paul‘s life that it was hard to choose what to put down for the answer to the first question‘. We are grateful to them for these interesting and thoughtful responses, which give us a much fuller appreciation of the life and character of Paul Murray Kendall.

Can you share with us some of your memories of your father, his personality, approach to life and outlook? Gillian: Paul loved his garden, and I remember his standing, hose in hand, watering Gillian, Callie and Paul Murray Kendall on banks of pink and white petunias. He grew holiday in Greece, 1962 pansies and begonias from seed, and we also had a vegetable garden – I was allowed to plant radishes in it. The vegetable garden was so fecund that the wax beans produced well into fall, long after I‘d grown sick of them. We had a family of woodchucks at the bottom of the garden, and for a while they competed with Paul for the harvest, but he discovered that they had a fondness for marigolds, so he planted a mini-forest of giant yellow marigolds near their den, and they didn‘t bother the garden again. Callie: Paul loved baseball and both English and American football, and taught me the rules and enjoyment of those sports. (He didn‘t like basketball, which I had to learn to love on my own.) He supported Arsenal and suggested I support Spurs for a little family rivalry ... and he was an avid player of the pools, even having a form submitted weekly on his behalf when we were back in the USA. Paul was enthusiastic about all his pursuits and projects ... mowing the lawn, playing tennis, meticulously planning a train journey across Europe, playing The Game (a form of charades). When I was four, he read Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott to me, and years later I came across the book in his study: it had long descriptive passages – extraneous reading for a child – crossed out in pencil.

Paul’s main subject was English Literature, what motivated him to move across to history and in particular to the controversial subject of Richard III? Paul didn‘t actually move – professionally – from one discipline to the other: he continued to teach literature while he researched medieval history and published in that field. We all considered history to be his hobby, which he spent increasing amounts of time pursuing. The last few years of his life, he would take off two days a year from his researches: his birthday and Christmas. Why Richard III? Paul was preparing to teach Shakespeare‘s Richard III and knew, of course, that the portrayal of Richard was a piece of Tudor propaganda that Shakespeare had acquired via Sir Thomas More. Something about Richard caught Paul‘s imagination, and he became more and more curious about what the true man was like, and convinced that there was a very different story to tell. He wondered what other, less prejudiced documents might have to say, and so the search began.

Did he ever read Josephine Tey’s 1952 detective novel The Daughter of Time, if so did the book influence his thoughts about Richard III? I don‘t think he read it, but we did, long after Richard III had come to fruition.

Paul’s Richard III is based on extensive research; did his view of Richard change as a result of examining the evidence, particularly contemporary accounts? All biographers change as they explore their subject and get better acquainted with him or her. Paul went from someone who simply knew Shakespeare‘s version wasn‘t the final word to someone who not only knew the facts, but who had a fine intuition about his subject. He felt very depressed writing about Richard‘s death.

Was Paul aware of the existence of the Richard III Society, which was re-founded the year after the publication of his biography of the king? Initially, no. But as time went by, Paul received both fan mail and scholarly correspondence from Richard III Society members.

I have been writing a history of the Society and during my research came across an intriguing reference in a letter written by our founder Saxon Barton in late 1954 to a meeting at the Airport Hotel in Liverpool with ‘an American lecturer in English Literature’. He notes that the American was ‘full of the Ricardian controversy’. Is there any likelihood that it could have been Paul he met? It was not Paul. We didn‘t visit Britain in 1954, and Paul did not fly to Liverpool for any purpose. Paul, moreover, tended to keep his excitement about his research within the confines of his family and close friends, although he was always ready to discuss Richard III. He looked at Richard as a whole person and at all of his life rather than focusing on ‗the controversy‘. Sir Thomas More was an apologist for the Tudors, but Paul wanted to look at the facts and did not want to be an apologist for Richard III – he recognized that from this distance, one must look only at the documentary evidence.

What do you think Paul would have made of the success of the Richard III Society and the positive impact that his book has had on the Ricardian cause over the years? He would be delighted that there is a society based on scholarship which brings information about Richard III to a wide audience – in fact, a worldwide audience.

Change of contact details

Canadian Branch Sheilah O‘Connor‘s email address is now: [email protected]

Western Australian Branch The branch‘s contact email address is [email protected], which is applicable whoever the branch secretary may be.

Bristol Group Keith Stenner has a new email address: [email protected]

Full details of all Branch and Group Contacts were published in the March 2011 Bulletin.

News and Reviews

One of the more unusual battles of the Wars of the Roses 550th Anniversary Conference for the second battle of St Albans

conference to mark the 550th anniversary of the second battle of St Albans, fought on 17 A February 1461, was organised by the Battlefields Trust and held at St Albans on 26-27 February 2011. The venue was St Saviour‘s church, in Sandpit Lane, a late 19th- or early 20th- century church, not Roman Catholic but built in the Catholic tradition of red brick and white paint, with a rood screen with crucifix and attendant saints. The only memorial of the battle is the red and white roses in the stained glass of the east window. Saturday‘s talks were held in the rather chilly nave of the church, whose acoustics were not of the best. The Richard III Society had a sales stall at the conference, and other exhibitors included the Battlefields Trust, the Medieval Siege Society, St Albans City Museum, the Friends of St Saviours and the Friends of Bernards Heath. There was a model of the battlefield on display, and items from the museum which we could handle, and replica arms and armour. Our sales stall was manned in turn by Dave and Sue Wells and Howard Choppin. The first paper was given by Peter Hammond, setting the scene with an account of the genesis of the Wars of the Roses, and the events leading up to this battle. He said that no definitive answer was really possible as to why the wars had broken out, but Duke Richard of York undeniably played a major part. Modern historians tend to consider that the concept of good lordship was the mainspring of the action. Peter believed that this concept played an important part in explaining the behaviour of Duke Richard, who thought he was being treated unfairly. Good lordship started with the king, who was at the top of the social pyramid. If Henry VI had been able to govern with even average competence it seems very unlikely that the theoretically superior claim of York to the throne would have been advanced. But there was social breakdown and government failure, and the reasons probably included the fact that the realm was virtually

St Albans 550th anniversary conference in progress

bankrupt, mainly due to the wars with France. It is remarkable that loyalty to Henry VI lasted as long as it did, but commitment to an established order is always very important. It seems clear that Duke Richard of York had felt great reluctance to act against Henry until he believed himself forced into it. Up to his return from Ireland in September 1450 he had been a pillar of the Lancastrian regime, but from then on he seemed to change course, and he challenged the government. The reasons for this are still debated. ‗My own opinion is that there may well not have been any one particular reason, but that he veered from one purpose to another; he seems to have been a man beset by doubts and hesitations ... gradually getting closer and closer to overt treason but never quite leaving himself with no escape ... Sometimes I wonder if he was in fact as clever as he thought he was.‘ Man-at-arms After York‘s forces took up arms against the king at Blore Heath and Ludford Bridge, he and his sons were attainted in the Coventry Parliament of 1459, ‗the first overtly partisan act of the Wars of the Roses‘. Colin Richmond called these attainders ‗an act which broke the political habit of looking for a settlement rather than seeking provocation‘. After that, the Yorkists really had no option but to resort to force. ‗It seems probable that York, as a normal complex and flawed human being, responded in the end with force in the face of a king who was apparently incapable of ... the most fundamental functions of his role as the keystone of political society ... I wonder if he was a person who was driven from one course of action to another by the course of events and what his latest advisor said.‘ A lively question session followed, including a discussion of whether Henry VI was suffering from porphyria or hysterical amnesia. Peter again stressed that York seems to have changed course on his return from Ireland, but the reason for this was unclear: ‗York seems to have been a very odd man‘. There followed an enjoyable interactive demonstration from the Medieval Siege Society about the use of weaponry, armour and tactics. One man wore the equipment of an ordinary soldier, and another portrayed a man-at-arms, in a brigandine. We heard that lack of communication methods meant that important commanders had to be present on the field, which is why so many of them were killed. They demonstrated that a man walking in armour actually rattles, and so can be heard coming: an army advancing would certainly be heard. A man‘s armour could weigh between 60 and 75 lb, comparable to what modern soldiers carry in war. A brigandine has little metal plates sewn on it, made from recycled old armour. The speakers also informed us that the only certain way to tell if someone was wearing armour was to hug them. The third presentation of the morning was

given by Harvey Watson and Michael Elliott on how the events of the second battle of St Albans unfolded. They stressed that Roman roads were still the best available in the fifteenth century, and thought that Edward IV was a bad strategist. He mopped up after Mortimer‘s Cross, and left Warwick to face Margaret of Anjou alone. The Lancastrians turned on to the Icknield Way from the Great North Road, so came on St Albans from an unexpected direction, and the Yorkists had to shift their positions to face them – they had their artillery in fixed positions, while the Table-top model: the Yorkist camp 23

Lancastrians relied on heavy cavalry. Being first with guns is very in at the moment, and they said that this battle saw the first use of hand- guns in battle in Britain (and perhaps the world?) After lunch, Julian Humphrys had been billed to speak on ‗Working with Local Amenity Societies to preserve battlefields‘, but he had been offered, and accepted, a hospital appointment for an operation. In his place, Jenny Burley from the Friends of Bernards Heath, spoke. She said that the prevailing view of history in St Albans was ‗after the Romans, it Howard Choppin mans the Society’s stall is all modern politics‘. In 1996 development was mooted for the battlefield site, and the planners didn‘t even know there had been a battle there. When more development was threatened in 2000, the local people wondered if a village green could be the answer, but found this was not possible, so they formed The Friends of Bernards Heath, a local amenity society, and this became an institutional member of the Battlefields Trust. The name ‗Bernards Heath‘ is a variant of Barnet, and ultimately means ‗burned‘, and brick pits on the heath are mentioned by Dickens in Bleak House. The battlefield area is still not protected by law, and still under threat. They have 200 members, mostly on email, and are using this modern technology to lobby for protection, but, as she said, no archaeology can sensibly be done on the brick-pit area because it is filled with Victorian rubbish. One nice touch: she showed a picture of Sandridge Road, with a municipal planting of alternate red- and white-blossoming cherry trees, in memory of the battle. Alison Turner-Rugg, of St Albans City Museum, then spoke on ‗Medieval Food in St Albans‘. She discussed cooking places, methods, and the evidence for the use of various foods, and asked, ‗When large armies arrive in a vicinity, how are they fed?‘ In February 1461 20,000 or so men marched into a town of 2,000-3,000 inhabitants, and it would have been a case of getting it from the people‘s stores, not taking what was growing in the fields. The last paper on Saturday was by Helen Hales, of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, discussing ‗Early Firearms‘. It is an ironic thought that the Chinese invented gunpowder as an elixir for eternal life. She showed a picture of a very early cannon, hand-held on a long stick, and a fifteenth-century gun with four barrels tied together, also on a stick: ‗multifire capacity before Colt‘. The final session of the day was a discussion on the Barnet project, taken by Harvey Watson of the Battlefield Trust. On Sunday morning there was a guided walk round the battlefield. The afternoon presentations were moved into the adjacent church hall, which was an improvement both in terms of acoustics and temperature. Peter Burley spoke on ‗A history of the battlefield‘ and Matthew Bennett on ‗Shrove Tuesday to Palm Sunday – the War‘s progress‘. Father Peter Wadsworth, the vicar, dealt with ‗Death in Late Medieval Society‘, including a consideration of whether the participants in the battle had received some form of confession before the combat. Mention should also be made of the refreshments, which were supplied by the Friends of St Saviour‘s. There were tea and coffee in all the intervals, and a good selection for lunch of cold meats and quiche, little salad things and cheesecake, a bargain at £4.50 a head.

Compiled from information supplied by Sue and Dave Wells and Lesley Boatwright.

Blood and Roses Special interest weekend at Christ Church College, Oxford

ecently I had the pleasure of attending the Special Interest Weekend on ‗Blood and R Roses: England 1450-1485‘, which took place at Christ Church College, Oxford, from 24 to 27 March 2011. This is the eighth Special Interest Weekend which Christ Church has hosted, covering a different topic each year. A group of overseas Ricardians, from the US, Canada and Australia, who had arrived early met on the evening prior to the official start for a highly enjoyable pub crawl and dinner at The Trout. A big thank-you goes to David Luitweiler from the US Branch for organising this enjoyable evening. It was great that Christine Headley, a Ricardian from Stroud in Gloucestershire, could join us for the evening. Wherever Ricardians meet, you can be sure they will have a lot to talk about and will enjoy themselves. On Thursday the conference started with a welcome by the Steward of Christ Church, John Harris, who explained that Christ Church is the largest of the Oxford colleges covering 150 acres. Then Dr Rowena Archer, the Academic Director of the weekend, gave a short introductory address, remarking on the difference between the snow storm which raged at the Battle of Towton 550 years ago and the beautiful summery weather we were experiencing. The first talk of the seminar was by Dr John Watts on ‗The Origins of the Wars of the Roses‘. Dr Watts is the author of Pre-conference outing to The Trout: Dorothea Preiz Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship. He and US Branch members Pamela Butler, David explained that instead of seeing the Wars of Luitweiler and Nita Musgrave the Roses as a dynastic struggle it was more appropriate to see them in a wider political context and compared them to the Peasants‘ Revolt of the 14th century. The inadequacies of Henry VI contributed to the descent into war. It was interesting to consider the Wars of the Roses in the context of the neo-classicism of the Renaissance. The next morning saw us as assembled again in the Blue Boar Lecture Theatre for Diana Dunn, the author of the ODNB entry on Margaret of Anjou. She showed us a Margaret that we could understand and sympathise with, not the she-wolf of popular fiction. She explained how the year 1453, with England‘s final defeat in the Hundred Years‘ War and Henry VI‘s sudden illness, came as a turning point in Henry‘s reign. The first Battle of St Albans in 1455 consolidated the two opposing parties, York and Lancaster. Especially after 1456 and the move of the court from London to Coventry, Margaret became stronger in the interests of her son, while Henry became increasingly weaker. This was followed by Dr James Ross on Edward IV. He measured Edward‘s kingship against the duties expected of a late medieval king which explains why his reign was reasonably successful. He was successful in the defence of the realm, especially on the domestic front. As far as law and order were concerned, the surviving records show clearly that Edward had a strong personal commitment to dispensing justice. However, the sheer quantity of these documents make it difficult to assess his success. Edward was good at delegating, which was positive in the

management and consolidation of the realm; an example is Richard of Gloucester‘s role in the North. Though Edward is often perceived as lazy, there is a huge amount of records bearing his signature, which shows that he was actively involved in the administration of the realm. Professor Caroline Barron brought us ‗The view from London‘. In the mid-15th century there were 100+ churches in London, a city with approximately 40,000 inhabitants. Londoners were not a homogenous group, but included the aristocracy, who had town houses, and their retainers, wealthy merchants and wholesalers, and artisans. The relationship between city and king was intended to be beneficial for both sides. The king expected finance, e.g. by loans, and military aid, though the Londoners were generally disinclined to fight. The city on the other hand expected the right to self-government, a solution to the problem of sanctuaries, which offered immunity from city jurisdiction also for debtors, and to extend their privileges. During the Wars of the Roses the Londoners were primarily interested in getting on with their own lives and living peacefully. Who wore the crown was less important to them. The second day concluded with a fascinating demonstration by Magnus Sigurdsson of ‗Arms and Armour of the Late Fifteenth Century‘, which took place in Christ Church‘s beautiful Upper Library. It was special treat to be greeted for the talk by Simon in a blue and murrey livery with a white boar. Unfortunately I was one of those sitting further back and our visibility was rather limited. However, after dinner we had the opportunity to see and handle the armour and weapons close up. Saturday morning started with Professor Tony Pollard on ‗Richard III, Reputation and Reality‘. This was probably the one disappointment of the weekend. He contrasted the positive reputation of Richard before 1483 – an honest, deeply Christian man, who reluctantly took on the kingship – with the negative one post 1485, i.e. an immoral, child-murdering dissem- bler. Unfortunately, the reality part of the title lost out. Although he admitted that the records do not show that one reputation was more true than the other, his view seemed to be clouded by the post-1485 reputation he had outlined before. A bit less bias and more argument to support his opinion would have been helpful. Dave Luitweiler from the US Branch challenged some of his assumptions, but received no real explanation. For Professor Pollard it seems evident that Richard pretended all his life to be the honest Christian prince in order to take the throne as soon as his brother died leaving a minor to inherit the throne. All Ricardians as well as others agreed that this was a rather unlikely scenario, as Edward‘s death came as a complete surprise to everyone. However, the next talk by Professor Anne Curry on ‗Armies and Soldiers of the Wars of the Roses‘ more than made up for any disappointment. Professor Curry introduced us to the new database of soldiers in English armies 1369-1453, www.medievalsoldier.org. While this does not include the period of prime interest to us, there are plans to extend it up to the year 1558. Her talk gave an interesting introduction into the structure of English armies during the Wars of the Roses. She compared international wars, like the Hundred Years‘ War, and civil wars, like the Wars of the Roses. Both had parallel means of raising armies and the same military community, but in international wars the nobility was united, while in civil wars the nobility was divided. Professor Curry also explained the recruitment of armies: from households, retinues as well as less formal connections and letters of summons to individuals and towns, which results in all armies being composites. In addition there were foreign troops involved, for instance as gunners, as the English were rather slow in taking up the use of guns. In the afternoon we set off by coach to visit the church, almshouses and school at Ewelme. Here Dr Rowena Archer first gave us a talk on Alice, duchess of Suffolk. Alice Chaucer, the granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer, was probably born at Ewelme about 1404. Through her third marriage, to William de la Pole, she became Duchess of Suffolk. Initially she was in the Lancastrian camp and accompanied Margaret of Anjou to England. However, in the later 1450s she switched sides and negotiated a marriage for her son to a daughter of the duke of

York. Alice was clearly a formidable and interesting personality and I am surely not the only one who would like to learn more about her. Dr Archer then took us on a guided tour of the church and almshouses. The origins of the complex go back to 3 July 1437, when the duke and duchess of Suffolk were licensed to found an almshouse at Ewelme, called God‘s House, for two chaplains and thirteen poor men. By 1448, when the statutes were drawn up, they had added a grammar school to teach the children of Ewelme ‗freely without exaccion of any school hire‘. The whole is a fascinating institution, which has survived with only very few changes since the 15th century. There are still almsmen in the almshouses, now appointed by a Trust, who still pray daily for the founders. The school is a church primary school incorporated into the State system and is thus open to all children of Ewelme. And Alice‘s magnificent tomb as well as that of her parents can be visited in the church. Our return to Christ Church was a bit delayed, as two of the coaches collided and we had to wait for a replacement. Our thanks went to Rebecca Favell for handling this crisis so admirably. However, everyone was ready for the gala banquet in the evening, which was the social highlight of the programme. Sunday morning opened with ‗Dress Makes the Man‘ by Rebecca Favell, ably supported by Edward IV in full armour, aka Simon Favell-De Montfort-Broughton, who are both enthusiastic re-enactors. Her definition of re-enactment was ‗the recreation of any historical event prior to today‘. This talk gave an interesting insight into the practicalities of medieval dress and armour. Most inspiring, as I have to think about creating a suitable outfit for the banquet at the Australasian Convention in August. Dr Glenn Foard was supposed to

talk to us on the findings regarding the site of ‗The Battle of Bosworth‘, but unfortunately illness prevented him from coming. However, he emailed his Power Point presentation to Professor Curry, who had been involved as historical consultant in the project. We were very grateful for her for standing in at such short notice and competently explaining to us the process of finding the actual battle site. The first part of the talk was entitled ‗Bosworth – a battlefield lost‘, which explained how from the earliest map, by Saxton in 1575, the battlesite moved Being greeted for the talk on ‘Arms and Armour’: eastwards on subsequent maps. The Geoffrey Sedlezky (Canadian Branch), Simon Favell De Montfort-Broughton, unknown delegate, Dorothea Preis second part ‗Bosworth – a battlefield found‘ gave an overview to the discovery of the actual battlesite. Starting off from the term ‗Redemore‘, which suggests a low, wet moor, the aim was to find an area that had been marsh in the 15th century, preferably along the former main road from Atherstone, the direction where Henry Tudor came from, to Leicester, where Richard came from. After several sites in the area were disqualified, a local farmer suggested another peat deposit once called Fen Hole. After preliminary analysis, this field was examined by metal detection, in the process of which many items were found. These include lead munitions, Burgundian and other medieval coins, a piece of a sword, various buckles and the by now famous boar badge. The Special Interest Weekend was an exhilarating opportunity to be exposed to the scholarship of these renowned experts, who talked on the subjects which interest us so much. As

was to be expected from the topic and the sponsorship of the Richard III Society for the weekend, members of the Society from a wide variety of branches in the UK and world-wide were well represented. Unfortunately not all interested could be accepted, as the organisers reported that the weekend quickly had been fully booked with a 40+ waiting list. Attending Ricardians, sporting white rose and white boar pins and pendants, were certainly flying Richard‘s banner. Several participants without prior relations to the Society indicated that they would like to find out more about us. The weekend was also a great opportunity to experience Christ Church and its hospitality. We stayed in college rooms in various blocks. All meals were taken in the historic Great Hall, while the lectures took place in the modern Blue Boar Lecture Theatre. Delegates also had the opportunity to attend Evensong in the Cathedral and visit the Picture Gallery, which featured a special exhibition of Neapolitan and Spanish drawings of the Baroque. A heartfelt thank-you goes to all lecturers and organisers, especially to Rebecca Favell for her outstanding organisation of the event. Next year Christ Church wants to tackle the Crusades. However, Rebecca told me that they are thinking of examining the Hundred Years‘ War in the future, so start saving! Dorothea Preis

Tower of London Seminar 26 March 2011 Society at War in the Fifteenth Century

We have received two reviews of this event, one from Phil Stone and one from Adam Byrom.

n the Education Centre in the Tower of London, about 60 people, including speakers, listened I to nine splendid papers on matters to do with the Wars of the Roses, or ‗society at war in the fifteenth century‘, given during a seminar organised by the Royal Armouries. The day began with a welcome from Graham Rimer of the Royal Armouries in Leeds, who explained that this was the first in a series of seminars that the Royal Armouries are organising, alternating between London and Leeds. The first meeting was supposed to have been in Leeds last December but the weather put an end to that. David Grummitt chaired the morning session, which opened with Michael Hicks (University of Winchester) telling us why the Wars began and why they kept going. He divided them up into three groups, finally ending in the 1530s with the deaths of the de la Poles and the last pretender. Sean Cunningham (National Archives) followed with a paper on how the nobles and the gentry approached the Wars, illustrating his talk with a wonderful collection of documents from the National Archives. Peter Fleming (University of the West of England) then told us about how the Wars affected two medieval cities, choosing Bristol and Coventry as his examples, and explaining how the loyalty of these cities to the House of York was an essential requirement when Edward IV was moving from Mortimer‘s Cross to London. Either city could have sent troops to cut his line of transfer. The last talk of the morning was from Sally Dixon-Smith (Historic Royal Palaces) on the effects that the Wars had on the Tower of London. She pointed out that the tradition that Henry VI was killed in the Wakefield Tower probably had no basis in fact. It only became known as the Wakefield Tower in the nineteenth century. When Henry died, it was known as the Record Tower and was probably already (over) full of state records. After these papers, there was a short session for questions and an interesting debate developed on a number of the matters discussed during the morning. The lunch break gave us a chance to stretch the legs and get some air, exploring the Tower. By this time, of course, it was pretty busy with members of the public, unlike when I had first 28

arrived when the place was almost empty, making it very atmospheric. (I did have to wonder how so many tourists can afford to visit the Tower – the adult entrance fee was £19.80.) Back in the meeting room, a display of some of the artefacts, including two skulls, from the finds at Towton had been set up. The afternoon session was chaired by Professor Hicks and began with a fine paper from Philip Morgan (Keele University). He and I share a sense of humour which helped to make the post-lunch talk very easy to listen to. He told us that, really, battles were rare and to be avoided whenever possible. They were risky and unpredictable. He reminded us that names change and that records can be few and far between. Memorials tend to be short-lived and can often be misplaced. David Green (Harlaxton College) talked about chivalry in the time of the Wars of the Roses, suggesting that the conventions were largely ignored. Fewer gentlemen went to war as the law had now become an acceptable profession for the gentry – safer, and more remunerative, too. After this, Jonathon Riley, Director General of the Royal Armouries, gave a fascinating paper on logistics and how a renaissance army was supplied. An army was the equivalent of a city on the move, with vast numbers of people and animals involved. Indeed, the totals would be phenomenal. At Towton, each side would have needed at least 17,000 horses. Supplying the men, the entourage and all these animals required huge amounts of food, weapons, etc. For this reason alone, protracted campaigns were not practical unless the army could be supplied by sea, when one ship would take the equivalent of a hundred wagonloads. Thom Richardson (Royal Armouries) gave us a talk on arms and armour, telling us, among other things, that no complete examples of fifteenth-century harness remain. Finally, David Grummitt (University of Kent) reminded us that there were, actually, quite a lot of guns around during the fifteenth century and that they were often used in settling private arguments. Many of the guns would have been hand- held and many of the larger ordnance would have been taken to war when required. The Yorkist kings did much to increase the size of the royal ordnance – and they kept better records, too. After another session of questions, the meeting broke up and it was obvious from the conversations to be overheard that everyone seemed to have had a very entertaining and interesting time. Incidentally, I had a talk with Michael Hicks at lunchtime and he hoped he hadn‘t been too unkind about Richard III – he hadn‘t, by the way – as he guessed there might be Ricardians in the audience. To my certain knowledge, there were at least seven. If all of the future Royal Armouries meetings are as good as this one they are to be thoroughly recommended and thanks go to the organisers and speakers for a great start to the programme. Phil Stone

he Royal Armouries conference held on Saturday 26 March at the Tower of London was a T day full of information, which unfortunately wasn‘t always well presented. The qualifications of those giving presentations were without doubt; one professor and seven doctors took to the floor. The subject matter of the presentations encompassed of all aspects of the wars from their origins to the role of firearms via the implications, or lack of them, of chivalry on those involved. Professor Michael Hicks managed to survive the wrath of the Society members present when he reiterated his opinion of Richard III‘s responsibility for the ‗disappearance‘ of Edward V and his brother. (Personally I have Margaret Beaufort as my prime suspect at the moment.) Other speakers spread their information across the whole period of the wars. One of the more enlightening points raised by two of the speakers was that the lack of contemporary evidence for the period results in details being extrapolated from the centuries before and after. For me there were some outstanding and interesting presentations. Dr Peter Fleming, from University of West of England, took the wars to the regions comparing the roles of, and the

impacts on, Bristol and Coventry; Dr Sally Dixon-Smith, of the Historic Royal Palaces, highlighted the role of the Tower itself. In the afternoon Dr Philip Morgan, from Keele University, explained the development the battlefields once the killing had finished and Dr Jonathon Riley, of the Royal Armouries, clarified the implications of taking an army to war. The downsides were that some of the speakers were not as developed in their presentation skills as they obviously are in their knowledge. And that on occasion it became a mutual academic appreciation society, with the speakers cross referencing to each other‘s books and developing their own inside joke on Nibley Green (a battle from 1470 Gloucestershire). The academics also managed to locate themselves in front of the display cabinet containing artefacts retrieved from excavations at Towton, which did make it a little difficult to view the collection fully. As the attendees left to be greeted by the news of the events following the ‗Stop the Cuts‘ rally the similarities to Michael Hicks‘ description of the beginning of the wars could not be ignored. The role of the over mighty lords, economic recession and international diplomacy was as clear at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses as it is today. Obviously creating a conference for an unknown audience is no mean feat; and the Armouries succeeded in providing all of those present with information which will support and build upon their personal interests. Adam Byrom

Fatal Colours and Blood Red Roses A two-part talk at the Mansion House, York, Sunday 10 April 2011

George Goodwin: Fatal Colours As part of the 550th-anniversary commemorations of the battle of Towton, the Yorkshire Archaeological Trust laid on a number of events. As well as the opening of a new exhibition in Micklegate Bar there was a joint talk giving the historical and the archaeological aspects of the story of the battle, and how the two complement each other to improve our understanding of it. We started with the history, in a talk by George Goodwin, based on his new book Fatal Colours. The battle was the ‗longest, biggest, bloodiest battle on English soil‘. It was significant for its sheer brutality, and was fought in appalling weather conditions. After Towton ‗a crowned and anointed king was replaced by a king against the wishes of the majority of the nobility‘. With the introduction out of the way, Goodwin went into the background, explaining that a king had a dual function. He was not only anointed and therefore semi-divine, he also needed to be an effective administrator. Henry V, the hero of Shakespeare and Agincourt, demonstrated all that a medieval king should be, an administrator, chief justiciar, a efficient tax collector and a great warrior. The house of Lancaster, although deposing an anointed king, were rightful kings because Richard II had proved to be an ineffective administrator. He had broken his coronation oath and therefore could be legitimately deposed. Having removed any cavils we might have about the legitimacy of the Lancastrians, Goodwin continued with his praise of Henry V, who if he had lived only two months longer would have been king of France as well. Instead, he left his throne to a child, Henry VI. On the face of it Henry VI did some good things, founding King‘s College and Eton, but he was inconsistent and kept changing his mind. So there was a problem with Henry: he was an anointed king but he failed in the second requirement of a king, that of being an able administrator. This gap was filled by William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, who held everything together. However, with the death of Bedford and the losses in France, someone had to take the blame, and that was Suffolk. Cade‘s rebellion ensued and Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset,

filled the gap following Suffolk‘s murder. Things were no better and Somerset lost yet more of France. The opposition under the duke of York wanted Somerset removed. With Henry VI falling into a catatonic state in 1453/54, York and Margaret of Anjou vied for power. Henry VI‘s mental instability was traced back to his French grandfather Charles VI. Goodwin believes it was schizophrenia that Henry suffered from. The collapse in the political situation eventually resulted in armed conflict. Henry could claim as an anointed king to have God on his side, so Richard, duke of York, and Edward, earl of March, had to win through force of arms. The scene was set for Towton. Edward did not have majority of the nobility on his side at the battle of Towton, but he had the crucial support of merchants, Calais and London and the south of England and Wales. He declared a ‗race war‘ against the men of the north through Warwick‘s propaganda, stirring terror into the hearts of the people of the south by describing the hoards of raping and pillaging northerners who were heading their way. The two kings were recruiting, Henry VI in the north and Edward IV in the south. The two armies converged at Towton, where the archaeology reinforces the chronicle accounts. The Lancastrians had the best position on the ground and should have won; they also had bigger numbers, but Edward had the weather and the wind on his side, and we know the result. ‗After Towton,‘ said George Goodwin, ‗the position of the king was altered for ever. He could only survive with raw power.‘

This rather breathless romp through the events leading to Towton was followed by Tim Sutherland giving the archaeological perspective of the battle.

Tim Sutherland: The Graves in Towton field In July 1996 a mass grave was found during work on Towton Hall, which unfortunately cut in half a large burial pit. This first half was not archaeologically examined, but instead the bones were taken out and reburied in Saxton church. However, when further building work was carried out on the same area of the hall the following September, the other half of the pit was opened up and this time the archaeologists were brought in. Learning from mistakes made at Visby in Sweden, when a series of mass burial pits from the 1361 battle fought there had been excavated in the early decades of the twentieth century, each skeleton was excavated individually and recorded. Age, size and injuries were among the things that were looked at. The results were published in a book called Blood Red Roses taken from the title of a documentary made on the excavation and its results. Work has continued on the battlefield, as there are still grave pits to be found. Looking at old maps of the area and the chronicles it was hoped to locate the mass grave in the centre of the battlefield from which Richard III had arranged for the bodies to be exhumed and given Christian burial in 1484. His order referred to the ‗plentiful multitude [who] were taken away from human affairs‘ and were placed in three pits on the battlefield. Despite the fact that maps showed where the pits probably were, nobody could find them. Yet the Croyland Chronicle claimed that 38,000 had been killed and this did not include those who may have drowned in Cock Beck. In 1540 Leland stated that many bones were buried in Saxton church, taken from five pits half a mile north. In 1615 Stow claimed that 33,000 or 35,091 men were buried in five pits and moved to Saxton church, and Ledman‘s map of 1891 shows the site as being within an enclosure. Comparing this map to current maps an enclosure was located in what appeared to be the correct area. Excavation found a Romano British enclosure but no graves. Aerial photography revealed an enclosure in the area, but this too proved to be Roman. Fieldwork was undertaken and a geophysics survey made of the area where people suspected the graves might be, but still nothing was found. However since 1997 a metal detectorist, Simon Richardson, had been working on the site, and he had been recording what he had found and where. The finds were plotted on a map, and 31

showed a band of finds across the battlefield, but they related in general to the loss of small pieces of medieval artefacts such as strap ends and decoration. However, when the finds of arrowheads were added the picture changed. There was a cluster of finds in the Dintingdale area, which confirmed the skirmish there. In the corner of a field within the area of the battlefield was a large cluster with a wide spread to either side. A test pit was put in over the edge of the larger cluster and what was found was a large collection of pieces of bones: fingers, and feet bones, some teeth and broken fragments of skulls and jaws. From this small pit it is estimated that the remains of nine individuals were found. There were no long bones or complete skulls, and this suggests that this was the pit exhumed in 1484. The fact that bits of bone still remain suggests that they were not very efficient at clearing it, but in 1484 it was only 23 years after they had been buried and they would still have been a bit ‗gooey‘. The bigger bones would therefore have been much easier to collect and take away. It is hoped that funding will have been secured for a full excavation of the site to take place this August. Church and state have already exhumed the bodies and now it is the archaeologists‘ turn. The excavation will provide an opportunity to find out more about the men who fought there and permit a more realistic estimate ofthe casualties. Will it prove the number of dead to be between 20,000 and 38,000 as given in the records? This is unlikely. Contemporary accounts of fifteenth-century battles are notoriously inaccurate in their estimates of the numbers involved. If you look at the numbers of dead recorded for other battles in the Wars of the Roses, then there is an interesting difference between those recorded in Lancastrian victories and Yorkist victories. The numbers seem to grow with each successive Yorkist victory, which suggests they were playing with the figures. The average Lancastrian casualty rate is about 2,000. Based on the estimated numbers found in the test pit and taking the size of the total pit it is estimated that there may be between 2,000 and 4,000 bodies buried there. Fatal Colours The Battle of Towton 1461 by George Goodwin is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London, 2011), price £20. This interpretation of the battle and events leading up to it are certainly controversial and the basis for a good discussion and debate. George Goodwin has been invited to speak at the Society AGM in York in 2012, when we shall have the opportunity to hear more about his views and to ask questions on some of them. The paperback edition of the book should also be available at the AGM. Of more immediate interest is the continuing work being undertaken by Tim Sutherland on the battlefield. As this will taking place later this year he may well have a lot more information by April 2012, I have therefore asked him to be one of our speakers at our Triennial Conference, when I hope we can have an update on what has been found. This multidisciplinary approach to the study of battlefields is adding an exciting new dimension to our understanding of the battles of the Wars of the Roses. It is with these new developments in mind that the 2012 Triennial Conference has been widened to include this new thinking about medieval battles and warfare. Bosworth and Towton together will improve our understanding of these battles and remind us just how bloody and brutal they were. Lynda Pidgeon

Yorkshire Tailpiece When we were visiting York Minster during the study weekend, one of the guides told us that the statues in niches below the west window (the Heart of Yorkshire) had been removed for cleaning a while ago. They are modern, made of wood, and have no heads, but their hands are arranged to read ‗Christ is here‘ in semaphore. After they were put back, an irate nun approached him to say that they were in the wrong order, and now read ‗Chris is there‘. He made a hasty adjustment. Dave and Sue Wells

Review: Richard III by The Propeller Company (Artistic Director, Edward Hall)

he King‘s Theatre, Edinburgh, was to open its doors from 22 to 26 February 2011 to T Propeller, the critically acclaimed and award-winning all-male Shakespeare Company who in 2002 had received rave reviews for Rose Rage (Henry VI Parts I, II and III). Now in 2010/11 they were to conclude this epic telling of Shakespeare‘s plays on the Wars of the Roses by bringing Richard III to life. Like most Ricardians my heart lurched at the news. Yet again would Shakespeare‘s evil monster walk the boards and sell to the eager, awaiting public the twisted telling of his story? But this was Propeller and they were on my doorstep. Having seen more Richard III productions than I could shake a stick at, I decided enough was enough; I didn‘t need to see any more. However, fate was already conspiring against me. A friend, who had never seen Richard III before, had already bought tickets. So, with the mixed emotions of a heavy heart but excitement at seeing Propeller I took my seat. Over the years I have seen many theatre shows that I have thoroughly enjoyed but never have I been so utterly enthralled. To put it simply, Propeller‘s Richard III is the finest theatre production I have ever seen. Mixing the visual metaphors of a Clockwork Orange with a horror movie narrative and all ensconced within the central core of the best of British farce is not an obvious recipe for success. But it worked. And on so many levels. The production opens on faceless henchmen, dressed in modern white coats with their faces bandaged, whilst holding the various implements of their killing trade and coming towards us through a haze of smoke in an eerie hospital-like setting. So far so interesting, but then they break into the most beautiful Latin chant – a nod to Olivier‘s Richard III perhaps – but their male voices, a counter tenor within them, were compelling and ethereal and took us, in a heartbeat, from utterly chilling to almost unbearably exquisite. It was this duality and playing of, and with, our perceptions throughout the production that simply wowed, even down to the wardrobe. The main characters, in direct contrast to the ever-present henchmen, were all dressed in black and evoked different historical eras; from Richard‘s ‗Reinhard Heydrich-esque‘ Third- Reich leathers (a nod to Sir Ian McKellen‘s adaptation perhaps) to the pin stripe suits and bowler hats of Hastings and Buckingham, the prohibition-era ragtime attire of Catesby, the turn-of-the- century undertaker of Ratcliffe and the black leather-like Victorian bustle dress of Elizabeth to the strict Edwardian riding habit of Anne. The use of so many historical costumes from so many different, albeit more modern, historical eras gave the production an everyman quality but what was also so striking was the decision by the players playing the female leads not to don wigs or temper their voices. In a sense I was seeing Richard III for the first time as Shakespeare envisioned it – an all male cast with the power and energy and brute force that this brought with it. And as for Richard, he was beautiful. ‗Beautiful?‘ I hear you say. Yes – and very. Played by Richard Clothier, the striking 6' 2″ actor from Spooks and Above Suspicion with a voice to equal Olivier‘s, he commanded the stage. Not only was he blond (bleached and Brylcreemed and looking every inch a Kenneth Branagh / Reinhard Heydrich from Conspiracy) but everything he did was done with a nod and a wink. And it is this that made the production. For many years I have felt that Shakespeare‘s Richard III is not the heinous play to be feared by Ricardians. Having seen so many productions of it over the years and having come to know its words as well as any it was, for me, as though Shakespeare‘s Richard held within it, and throughout its core, a very secret, subversive, and dangerous sub text; one that is very clearly saying that if you believe this evil caricature could ever have existed as a human being then you

are fools. For me, Shakespeare‘s Richard III is denying the very Tudor tradition it purportedly supports and extols, by making it farcical. And it is this that Propeller has totally understood and seized upon. By reintroducing the farcical element it is the ‗good‘ characters that work around Richard and his machinations that now look utterly ridiculous in their wholehearted certainty and belief in his, and Shakespeare‘s world. Did I bristle at any point in the play as a Ricardian? Well, yes, but only once and right at the end when we were at Bosworth. This was where I had my first, and only, sense-of-humour failure. Henry Tudor arrived on stage in a white suit and shirt looking every inch the saint sent from God and was allowed his full battle speech – the ‗good‘ character acting out his part in his full belief and certainty of the realness of Richard‘s world and I wanted him to stop, just stop. However, all was soon well again as Richard‘s much more powerful battle speech followed fast on his heels and was done with no nod and winks in sight. For the first time we were shown the real Richard, the real man, and he was magnificent; fighting for his name, his cause, and his birthright and he was, by this suddenly altered vision, breath-taking. This was the man to follow; the man if I had polled the audience, they would be fighting for. All of Tudor‘s words were paled in comparison; insipid, whiney witterings, and so instantly and easily forgotten. Propeller in this production have clearly understood the difference between the ‗dramatic‘ Richard and the ‗historical‘. In their programme they confirm that ‗Richard III dramatizes the ‗Tudor myth‘, history as the Elizabethan chroniclers presented it …‘ and (Shakespeare) ‗challenges every pre-conceived notion ... each time you think you know something is definitely right or wrong, he shows that the opposite truth exists ... It encourages you not to be judgemental, to try to look beyond what seems to be on the surface ... Shakespeare reminds you not to get caught up in that vortex.‘ Propeller‘s Richard III runs until 23 July 2011 in UK and USA venues (see: www.propeller.org.uk for further details). Please, please go and see it. You will not be disappointed both as theatre goers and Ricardians. How this production can ever be bettered is hard for this writer to imagine. It is always those earnest renditions that I am now utterly convinced are the ones that subvert Shakespeare‘s words and meaning. And as to my friend and his thoughts on seeing King Richard for the very first time? A simple statement: he would have followed him anywhere. We look forward with bated breath to Richard III at the Old Vic with Kevin Spacey and directed by Sam Mendes. Philippa Langley

Crazy Christmas Query Early in November 2010, Sue and Dave Wells, our Joint Secretaries, received an email with the above headline. The writer, N, was looking for an unusual Christmas gift for her partner, S, and wanted to know of an expert in Richard III who might be willing to join them for dinner to discuss the Princes. As she wrote, ‗I am sure the request seems rather odd but it is very difficult to think of a gift for a man who has everything‘. In the absence of a willing expert or of any other volunteer, I put myself forward, as much out of curiosity as anything else. Emails went back and forth, with Sue and Dave acting as the intermediary. We decided that it would have to be somewhere fairly public, just in case, and, in time, it was also agreed that Beth should come with me. N had no problem with these requests. They both live in Essex so a London venue was good for them too. After Christmas, ‗Dinner with the Chairman‘, as it became known, was arranged and N made a booking for the Savoy Grill for a date in February. (This led to Dave offering to be a stand in if I changed my mind.) Two weeks before, however, we learnt that, because of something to do

with his work, S couldn‘t make that date and another was chosen. Sadly, on that day, the Savoy Grill couldn‘t take us. So it was that, on the evening of 8 February this year, Beth and I met up with N and S in Rules Restaurant in Maiden Lane behind the Strand, somewhere of which I had heard – it is said to be the oldest eating house in London – though I never imagined eating there. We need not have worried about them being weirdos as N and S turned out to be two absolutely charming people and Beth and I had a really great evening. He is in the oil business while she was doing a course in art history. The food, as can be imagined with an establishment of the reputation of Rules, was superb. For my main course, I had a house speciality, the steak and kidney pudding, and it was something to die for. For dessert, N had the cheese course and she must have been presented with about a pound‘s weight of different cheeses on her plate. The conversation was very fluid and when I raised the subject of Richard III, saying that it was time for me to sing for my supper, we were well into the evening. As it happens, I wasn‘t able to satisfy S‘s curiosity – in fact, I don‘t think anyone could, as he is really looking for someone who has dispassionately collated all the theories on the disappearance of the Princes without coming down on any one particular side or the other. No matter, it just meant that our chat was able to range over a whole host of different things instead. By the time we came away, three hours had passed since we had sat down to eat and the time had flown. Far from being a crazy Christmas event, it had been an evening to remember for all the right reasons. Incidentally, as you can probably tell, Beth and I can greatly recommend eating at Rule‘s, but let me add a word of warning. Do make sure that someone else is picking up the bill! Phil Stone

Sometimes two wrongs do make a right As the stock holder of the 2-volume sets of the Logge Register and of the Index of Testators CD, I receive details of members‘ orders from Sally Empson, the Society‘s Sales Liaison Officer, and then send out the requested item. In February she sent me an order from a member named Dorothea Preis, which I duly despatched – to Australia. In a return email to Sally, I commented on the high cost of posting Logge to Australia; whereupon she gently pointed out that the order had been for the Index CD rather than for two fat volumes of Logge. Oops! I duly sent Dorothea the CD and Sally contacted her to inform her of the mix-up, telling her to keep Logge, rather than attempt to post the books back, as it had been my mistake. A few weeks later I received a message from Dorothea to say that the Logge volumes had arrived safely (quickly followed by the CD) and that she was absolutely delighted with the mix- up as the volumes were a ‗wonderful resource‘. She went on to say that as ‗an avid reader of the Ricardian and the Bulletin, I have heard a lot about this project over the years, but always assumed that its target audience would be academics with very specialised interests. So it came as a wonderful surprise to realise that I was very wrong‘. As I was one of those closely involved with the transcription and production of the Logge Wills, Dorothea‘s comments were most welcome – and very good advertising for the books, which is why I have reproduced them here. So, two wrongs (my mistake in sending the volumes, Dorothea‘s in thinking that they would be too specialised) do make a right. But that is not the end of the story. Dorothea had already booked to travel over from Australia for the ‗Blood and Roses‘ special interest weekend at Christ Church, Oxford, on 24-27 March, and she was going to visit St Albans before travelling on to Oxford. Of all the ‗Ricardian‘ places she could have chosen to stay in during her brief visit to the UK, she had chosen the one nearest to my home – and the one to

which I used to travel for meetings of the (sadly) now defunct South Herts Group. So we arranged to meet up for a meal in St Albans on Tuesday 22 March. There was a further coincidence: Dorothea is the webmaster of the New South Wales Branch of the Society, and one of the regular features on their website is called ‗Ricardian Places‘. To this she tends to contribute information about places in Hertfordshire, since, although German by birth, she had lived in Welwyn Garden City, first for a year while still a student (1980-81) and later for five years with her family (1993-98), before going to Australia. She had, therefore followed my articles in the Ricardian about the More with interest. We had a very pleasant evening chatting about all kinds of things Ricardian – and others not. It is amazing how a common interest between relative strangers can result in instant friendship. On her return to Australia, Dorothea wrote to say how much she had enjoyed her time in England, and that she had visited Berkhamsted Castle on her way to Oxford. She has posted a brief report of the ‗Blood and Roses‘ event on the NSW branch‘s website (http://www.richardiii- nsw.org.au/?p=5143) and has reviewed it for this issue of the Bulletin (see pp. 25-28). Heather Falvey

Richard III and Anna Dixie Recently I purchased a CD by the great English folk singer Norma Waterson1 and whilst listening to one of the songs I noticed a few familiar references: ‗Bosworth Park‘, ‗Richard my king‘ and ‗on Redmore Plain‘. The song was written by Norma‘s sister, the late Lal Waterson, and is called Anna Dixie. The lyrics read:

A yeoman farmer, he loved me dearly. So did my father, but not that clearly. Trying to spoil things for my man and me, He set a trap would break the back of any tree My man and me went walking. My man did all of the talking. Down by Bosworth Park, green in the dark, Taking the long way back, I fell in my father's trap, Causing the birds above to wake up Over there, and under him, The horse supporting Richard, my king, Began galloping too fast for him. The horse's hooves came tumbling down Close by my burying ground. Forever we are bound on Redmore Plain. My name is Anna Dixie. My father killed me. Resting peacefully, oh no, not me. Lay me beyond Cheyney Lest I come search for thee. Dress me up grandly lest I scare thee. A yeoman farmer, he loved me dearly. So did my father, but not that clearly.

The story is apparently based on a true event that happened during the early years of the nineteenth century. Anna Dixie was the daughter of Sir Wolstan Dixie, the owner of Bosworth

Hall (now a hotel) and she had embarked on an affair with a local farmer. Her father inevitably didn‘t approve of the relationship with someone below her social class. Sir Wolstan secretly set- up a ‗mantrap‘ to catch her lover, which he would fall into should he ever attempt to gain entry into the Hall‘s grounds. One night, however, Anna silently crept from her bedroom for a pre- arranged tryst with her farmer. As she moved through an avenue of trees in the grounds she fell into the mantrap herself and subsequently died from her injuries. Her ghost, it is said, still haunts Bosworth Hall. Lal Waterson in retelling the story in song cleverly weaves in another tragic event from Bosworth‘s past, and forever the two tragedies ‗are bound on Redmore plain‘. But what had inspired Lal Waterson to write the song and bring in references to the battle of Bosworth and King Richard? Rather coincidentally I had purchased the same day a beautiful new CD by Marry Waterson,2 Lal‘s daughter. So I thought it worthwhile emailing her to see if she could provide some background to the writing of Anna Dixie. She kindly replied the following day: ‗Mum read Shakespeare's Richard III when young and later visited Bosworth Field & the surrounding area, she was very impressed and yes, she did like him, deciding he wasn‘t as bad a character as Shakespeare had painted. Whilst there she learnt of the story of Anna Dixie who was buried near Bosworth Field and so the images of that story and the battlefield became a connection. Mum would sometimes imagine other singers she admired singing her songs when she had written them and it may interest you to know, she imagined Kate Bush singing this one. Mum would be delighted with your feature.‘ My thanks to Marry Waterson for her assistance with this article, to Lal Waterson for writing the lyrics and to Norma Waterson for recording them. Lyrics of Anna Dixie reproduced courtesy of Topic Records Ltd.

1 Norma Waterson, Norma Waterson (Hannibal, 1996) 2 Marry Waterson, The Days That Shaped Me (One Little Indian, 2011) John Saunders

News in brief Eleventh Annual Fotheringhay Organ Recital, Friday 21 September 2011 This year‘s recital on the Woodstock organ will be given by Robert Quinney, the sub-organist at Westminster Abbey. Mr Quinney has a busy solo career outside of his Abbey duties and has worked with such ensembles as The Sixteen and the Cardinall‘s Musick. It is hoped that he will intersperse his recital with anecdotes about the Royal Wedding. The recital will begin at 8 pm. Tickets from the Oundle Box Office, tel. 01832 274734 at £12.50 (£10.50 for concessions).

Lady Anne Neville, 50 to 1 Jean Townsend of the Lincoln Branch tells us that her friend Carol Arnold, who lives in Middleham, has a racehorse called Lady Anne Neville, who ran earlier in the year at Wetherby and came in at 50 to 1. Lady Anne is six years old and trained by Chris Fairhurst in Middleham. There is also a six-year-old nag called King Richard III which is training in the Vale of Belvoir and won at least one race last year.

Was Sir Henry Wyatt tortured in the Tower of London under Richard III? The mills of the Bulletin may grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. Readers may remember that in the September 2010 Bulletin (p.35) Fiona Price asked about the sequence in Hilary Mantel‘s novel Wolfhall, when Sir Henry Wyatt tells Cromwell about his imprisonment and torture in the Tower under Richard III, and if there is any evidence for torture in Richard‘s reign. Geoffrey Wheeler and Annette Carson have been investigating, and we hope to have a piece about this in the September Bulletin.

Media Retrospective

Marrying a commoner softer version of Wallis Simpson‖. The Journalists faced with a royal wedding need Tudors descended from royals who married to find their own different and interesting outside royal circles, and Henry VIII had the angle. It was obvious that many would look ―extraordinary notion that a marriage is only back at previous royal romances, especially legitimate if you‘re in love with your wife‖. the ones that led to marriage and perhaps it Jenny Johnston in Weekend, 23 April, should have come as no surprise that noted ‗Kate Middleton has found a fan in the Elizabeth Woodville figured so often. historian David Starkey‘, though Starkey has a ‗hilarious penchant for pointing out how many of her forerunners down the centuries Geoff Wheeler and others have were extremely ugly or had bad teeth‘. ‗He showered the Bulletin with relevant takes us on a fascinating journey from the cuttings: Middle Ages to the present, pointing out all the young brides who truly were doing David Starkey’s programme on Channel 4 something ground-breaking. And jaw- (Wednesday 27 April) was called Romance dropping stuff it is too. He focuses on and the Royals, and had the general theme Elizabeth Woodville, who, in May 1464, that English monarchs often married for love became the first commoner to marry a until George I came from Hanover in 1714 reigning sovereign. ... Edward held a dagger and brought with him the notion that royals to Elizabeth‘s throat and tried to force her to should only marry royals, as, in the German have sex with him. Elizabeth, Starkey says, way of thinking, if a royal personage had a ―responded with magnificent coolness, telling child by a commoner, that child was also a him that he could kill her, but she would only commoner. This idea prevailed until World sleep with him if he married her. So he did.‖‘ War One, when George V allowed his The review of the programme by Andrew children to marry Britons, which meant in Billen in The Times on 28 April called practice that they could look for partners to Starkey ‗the man who really knows the royals the British aristocracy, who counted as but was determined to play the wise old owl ‗commoners‘. and party pooper‘. ‗This marriage, he insisted, The programme generated articles from was not the birth of something modern, but people who had seen it before transmission. the old, old story.‘ The BBC History Magazine, May 2011 Current Archaeology was another, per- (which appeared in April), commented: haps unexpected, journal to get in on the ‗For many newspaper journalists covering act. The cover of the May 2011 edition the royal wedding, the angle has been clear. displayed the words Royal Wedding Special The marriage ... is something wholly new, the prominently across a reproduction of ‗The union of a future king and a commoner whose Marriage of Edward IV to Elizabeth own mother was an air-hostess. David Woodville‘ (which, it remarks, has been dated Starkey ... sees this as a misreading. ―We to the 19th century and believed to be the think of the English as a very unromantic work of someone designated ‗the Spanish people. In fact this is absolutely untrue. ... it‘s forger‘). Inside, a section on ‗The the English who link romantic love with Archaeology of Royal Weddings‘ (pp. 12-19) marriage.‖‘ He instanced John of Gaunt, two contained the story of Elizabeth Woodville, of whose three marriages were love matches, ‗the biggest upset to royal protocol‘. ‗The rise and also Edward IV, the first monarch to wed of the Woodville family, from common stock a commoner when he married Elizabeth to the royal household, reflects the complex Woodville ―a stiletto beauty‖ like ―a slightly social and political upheaval in England

during the Wars of the Roses. The account of unpleasant about my mother. They said she Elizabeth‘s meeting with Edward is rather was ambitious and greedy (I imagine this more restrained than Starkey‘s: ‗What passed sounds rather familiar?) There was an between them on that fateful day we will incident with the Lord Mayor of London and never know; but according to legend they met a tapestry that she and I confiscated from him under an oak tree, where the King tried in and everyone said we were stealing it. This vain to alleviate her distress by suggesting she shouldn‘t trouble you – I hardly think you become his mistress.‘ will have your eye on Boris Johnson‘s In the 1960s, archaeologist Christine carpets. But if you do happen to want them I Mahany excavated ‗a jumble of lumps and do think you should just take them.‘ ... ‗My bumps‘ outside the village of Grafton Regis. family were far better behaved than the royals ‗A medieval structure began to emerge that anyway. Yours too. ... My brother-in-law could not easily be explained ... a pillared Richard ... usurped the throne and then cloister ... flanked by a chapel and several murdered, or at the very least mislaid, my two other associated buildings. Beyond the main sons ... if you do have sons, do make sure building lay a dovecote, and what may have they don‘t go on any long visits with any been a hospital, and an industrial complex.‘ blood relations. ... I really recommend how I This was interpreted as a small monastic dealt with my brother-in-law, George, Duke settlement, and perhaps (as it was ‗less than a of Clarence ... to be on the safe side I would stone‘s throw from Elizabeth Woodville‘s drown [Prince Harry] in a vat of malmsey at manor‘) the very chapel where she married once. ...‘ Edward IV. Coins of Edward IV were found, the chapel had been re-floored ‗with tiles The Times Review, Saturday 16 April 2011 bearing the crest of the houses of York and also had an article by Andrew Billen: ‘The Woodville‘. This, says the article, ‗is as close worst film ever? Wills & Kate is a delight’. to a smoking gun as we are likely to get‘. After saying that ‗for sheer glorious kitsch‘ The Times Review, Saturday 16 April few royal wedding sourvenirs will rival 2011, contained a hilarious piece in which William and Kate: The Movie (DVD price Philippa Gregory imagined what advice £11.99, no further details given), but ‗for Elizabeth Woodville might have given Kate most of us, The Movie will be too ridiculous Middleton: ‗there is nobody better placed to to offend‘, Billen goes on to ask just how advise you than myself ... I was the first true to the facts other docu-dramas really Englishwoman [to marry a king of England] are. ‗The point is that when a dramatisation and the only one to do so successfully. Anne works you cease comparing it to reality.’ Boleyn and Katherine Howard, both ‗One wonders if the BBC would have aristocrats, didn‘t do very well at all. Don‘t invited Shakespeare back for a second even get me started on Wallis Simpson.‘ meeting to discuss his excitingly defamatory ‗My marriage was secret, which I don‘t screen-play about a psychopathic monarch recommend – his brother later tried to pretend dead for only 100 years. To this day the we were not married at all. You are quite Richard III Society blames the Bard for right to have a public wedding.‘ ... You will wronging its hero. But ... would we want an get a lot of criticism about your family. I did accurate Tragedy of Richard III? Yet would – people simply loathed us. And unlike you I an anonymised Tragedy of Trevor III carry had 12 brothers and sisters who all had to be quite the same weight? If nothing else it is placed in work or successfully married to rich less confusing with William and Kate, a nobles.‘ ... ‗ I didn‘t let the criticism distract movie to be watched with a clear conscience me,and I suggest you don‘t. ... My brother on a rainy day, windows and minds sealed Lionel I made Bishop of Salisbury – would up tight against the unknowable truth.‘ your brother James like to be a bishop, do you think? Just tell the Archbishop of Canterbury Owing to lack of space, other Media Retro items to appoint him.‘ ... ‗People were especially have been held over until September.

The Man Himself

Some ‘Servants and Lovers’ of Richard in his Youth* CHARLES ROSS

not merely fulfilling the contemporary idea of ne of the features of Richard III‘s due reward ‗for services given in the past and O government of England was his to be given in the future‘, but that he also had conspicuous loyalty to, and generous a keen and personal regard for the welfare of treatment of, the men who had been in his those whom he considered to be his service as Duke of Gloucester. This continued ‗lovers‘ (which, in Middle English, meant patronage extended even to people of humble ‗friends and well-wishers‘). or comparatively obscure origin, such as Sir In this connection, it is of considerable Richard Ratcliffe, Sir Thomas Gower (to interest to find him remembering, years after whom he committed the charge of Earl Rivers the events, the loyalty and service of several in 1483), or the many members of the minor comparatively humble associates of his youth. gentry family of Mauleverer, of Allerton The reference occurs in a document which Mauleverer, near Knaresborough, in has now been in print for over a century, but Yorkshire, who achieved a brief if unlikely seems hitherto to have escaped notice, at least prominence during Richard‘s reign. in this context. In July 1477, indentures were It might be argued that Richard‘s power- drawn up between Duke Richard and the base, upon his accession to the throne, was so President and fellows of Queens‘ College, slender that he had need of the service of Cambridge, in relation to the Duke‘s anyone he could trust – however humble his endowment of four fellowships within the origin. Whilst this consideration could readily college, with which he was to have close be applied to laymen, it has much less force connections for the rest of his life.1 Part of the for the King‘s clerical servants, whose duties of the new priest-fellows was to pray support was politically less significant. Yet for the good estate of the Duke, his wife, Richard was similarly generous to the Anne, and their son, for the King and Queen churchmen who had been associated with him and other members of the Royal Family, and as Duke. The first Dean of the new college for the souls of various deceased members of which, in 1478, he founded at Middleham, the Houses of York and Nevill. But they were William Beverley, was later promoted to be also commanded to pray for ‗the soules of the Dean of Windsor when Richard became Thomas Par, John Milewater, Christofre King, and his Chancellor as Duke of Wursley, Thomas Huddleston, John Harper Gloucester, Dr Thomas Barowe, afterwards and all other gentilmen and yomen became Master of the Rolls and, finally, servanders and lovers of the saide duke of Keeper of the Great Seal in August 1485, Gloucetr, the wiche were slayn in his service following upon Bishop Russell‘s dismissal as at the batelles of Bernett, Tukysbery or at any Chancellor on 29 July. other feldes or jorneys ...‘2 In general, Richard‘s attitude towards his The names – and fates – of these dead former servants strongly suggests that he was supporters are interesting in other connections *This article was first published in The Ricardian, Vol. IV, No. 55 (Dec 1976), pp. 2-4, and later in Richard III, Crown and People, ed. J. Petrie (Richard III Society, 1985), pp. 146-8. Reprinted by kind permission of Charles Ross’s family. 40

also. These men were clearly part of his Huddlestons belonged to families well within personal meyny (or following) at Barnet and the Nevill orbit – though Sir William Parr and Tewkesbury, who grouped themselves around his brother conspicuously deserted Warwick, the person and the great banner of their and joined the King, in the aftermath of the captain, among whom casualties were likely Lincolnshire Rebellion of 1470.7 Gloucester‘s to be high, since commanders were a primary connection with the young Parr and object of attack during the battles of the Wars Huddleston may, therefore, date back to the of the Roses.3 The fact that these five, and an period of his youthful residence in Warwick unknown number of others, died in defence of the Kingmaker‘s household at Middleham Richard‘s person is an indication that he was Castle, when both, like himself, were in the thick of the fighting at both receiving their proper training as gentlemen engagements. But Parr and his friends may under the Earl‘s aegis. also have been members of the young Duke‘s John Milewater, on the other hand, was a household, and this, too, is not without its highly experienced estates-official. A former interest. servant of Duke Richard of York, he had been Christopher Worsley, esquire, was the appointed in 1461-2 as receiver of a complex most substantial of them. On three occasions of Royal, Duchy of Lancaster, Duchy of during the 1460s he had served as Sheriff of York, and forfeited lands in Wales and the Somerset and Dorset, and once, also, as adjacent Marcher and Border counties, and Sheriff of Wiltshire, besides receiving various was just the kind of man who might have appointments and rewards from King Edward been given charge, as his receiver-general, of IV. He suddenly disappears from the records the young Richard‘s estates.8 in 1470, which makes it virtually certain that John Harper, though less prominent than he lost his life with Duke Richard in one of Milewater, had pursued a similar career as the great battles of April-May 1471.4 one of Edward IV‘s estates-officers, also in Thomas Parr (or Par) was a younger son Wales and the Marches, and he, too, may of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal Castle in have held some administrative office in the Westmorland, and a younger brother of Sir Duke‘s household.9 Alternatively, both may William Parr, who later became a prominent have come into contact with the Duke when servant and Knight of the Body to King he was appointed to the offices of Justiciar Edward IV, whilst retaining close connections and Chamberlain of South Wales in 1470, with Duke Richard.5 following the death of William Herbert, 1st Thomas Huddleston can safely be Earl of Pembroke, at the battle of Banbury in identified as a younger member of the 1469. Richard is known to have visited Wales substantial family of that name, of Millom in in his capacity as Justiciar, and presided over Cumberland, whose senior members were to the great sessions at Carmarthen in February have very close associations with Richard, 1470.10 first as Duke and then as King. Indeed, Sir If all this seems somewhat tenuous and John Huddleston was one of Richard‘s speculative, we know so little about the feoffees for the conveyance of property to young Richard‘s career before 1470 that we Queens‘ College on this occasion in 1477.6 cannot afford to ignore any scrap of genuine The presence of these two cadet members information. In any event, it is not of powerful gentry families from north-west speculation, but fact, that six years after their England in Richard‘s retinue as early as 1470- deaths in battle the memory of his former 1 is itself of interest. Not until several months servants (none of them great men in terms of after the death of the Kingmaker at Barnet in worldly consequence) was still held by 1471 did Richard himself acquire lands and Richard in active and affectionate regard. As influence in the shires of Cumberland and a sidelight on his character, this circumstance Westmorland, and both the Parrs and the deserves consideration.

Notes and references 1 W.G. Searle, The History of the Queens’ College ... Cambridge, (1867), pp. 88-111 passim. 2 Op. cit., p. 90. 3 On this point, see Charles Ross, The Wars of the Roses: a Concise History, (London 1976), pp. 116, 119. 4 CPR 1467-77, pp. 48, 165, 169, 171, 196, 358, 628; CFR 1461-71, pp. 128, 191, 255, 268. 5 Wedgwood, History of Parliament, Vol. 1, pp. 662-4; Ross, Edward IV, (London 1974), pp. 164, 185, 202. 6 Searle, p. 90; Wedgwood, pp. 476-8. 7 Wedgwood, p. 663. 8 B.P. Wolffe, The Royal Demesne in English History, (London 1971), pp. 163-4, 291). 9 ibid., p. 300.

Apple Juice fit for a Duchess TIG LANG

n my occasional series for the Bulletin about the recipes in British Library MS Harley 1628, I I have looked so far at two sets of recipes. In the first, the skin treatments associated with the Duke of Buckingham, (Bulletin, September 2010, pp.36-7 ‗Tips from our beauty consultant: the Duke of Buckingham‘), the intended use of the recipes was made clear in the manuscript. This was not so for the second set of recipes (Bulletin December 2010, pp. 41-2, ‗Breath Fresheners, Fifteenth-Century Style‘), but in this case it was possible to make a reasonable guess as to their purpose. Most of the recipes in Harley 1628, alas, do not fall into either of these happy categories, and we are faced with the frustration of a manuscript full of recipes for named patients, of precisely identifiable social status, but with no idea at all for what ailments the treatments were prescribed. One such recipe is ‗Electuary of Apple Juice for the Lady the Duchess of Burgundy‘. Clearly we are dealing here with a patient of the very highest social standing. Edward IV‘s sister Margaret, who left England in 1468 to marry Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, had been widowed in 1477. She returned to England to visit her brother‘s court between June and September 1480, when ‗much of the summer was spent in entertaining his sister, Duchess Margaret of Burgundy, on a suitably lavish scale‘ (Charles Ross, Edward IV, (London, 1974), p. 271). It seems likely that this recipe dates from the time of this visit, and it would certainly fit in with the ‗suitably lavish‘ treatment of her during that time. While many of the recipes in Harley 1628 do not contain any remarkably expensive ingredients, there are one or two notably ‗luxury‘ recipes (for example, Electuary of Gems on both f. 23r and f.24r) but this recipe is outstanding even among these. It is no ordinary apple juice. The recipe is neatly written, in Latin, covering the whole of f.29v of the manuscript, with most of the ingredients neatly organised in groups according to the amount of each that is to be used.

Electuary of Apple Juice for the Lady the Duchess of Burgundy Take juice of fragrant apples, juice of bugloss: of each v oz.; veronica, lemon rind, borage flowers, red roses, white and red behen nut, red coral, filings of eberib (?ivory?): of each iiij dragms;

Spodium (powder from calcination), mace, gallie muscate (a medicine containing musk), carob, the bone of a hart‘s heart (cartilage supposed to be found inside the heart of a deer), sandalwood: of each iij dragms; Seeds of basil, myrtle, folii (leaves of a tree of the cinnamon family), balm, coriander, cinnamon, cubebs, teasel, galingale, zedoary, spikenard, aloes wood, cete (? spermaceti?) cut up small, saffron: of each ij dragms; All mirabolans (fruits: there were five kinds) of each iiij dragms; Beryl, emeralds, jacinth (a blue gem), carnelian, garnet, sapphire: of each i dragm; Pearls, iiij dragms; Filings of gold, filings of silver, of each ij ½ d (d = ? a scruple, which was a quarter of a dragm, which was an eighth of an ounce); Amber, I dragm; Camphor, 1 d (scruple?); Musk, ½ dragm; Sugar, iij lb. Make in the manner of a lohoc.

An electuary is a paste designed to be taken with, or mixed with, a drink, and at the end of this recipe we are told that it is to be made up as a ‗lohoc‘, that is, a medicinal drink; something perhaps of the consistency of a cough syrup. The substances above were identified with the aid of F. M. Getz, Healing and Society in Medieval England (Wisconsin, 1991), and R. E. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word List from British and Irish Sources (London, 1965), and the measurement abbreviations with the aid of Warren R. Dawson, A Leechbook or Collection of Medical Recipes of the Fifteenth Century (London, 1934) and A. Cappelli, Dizionario di Abbreviature latine ed italiane (6th ed., Milan 1990). This is easily the most luxuriously extravagant prescription in the manuscript, surpassing anything prescribed for the king himself. This may merely reflect a desire on the part of the practitioner to prescribe ‗noble‘ medicines for a noble patient, but it is also sometimes stated in medical texts that ‗noble‘ medicines should be prescribed if one of the ‗noble‘ members of the body (brain, heart and liver) is affected, and this may also have influenced the choice of ingredients in this case. Sadly, it is now impossible to determine for what indisposition this expensive compound medicine was prescribed. We can only hope that the Duchess appreciated it: we know she survived it. Papers from the Study Weekend

e hope to be able to publish summaries of most of the papers delivered at the study W weekend on the de la Pole family held in York in April this year (see review on pp. 13- 15). We begin overleaf with the two papers delivered on the Saturday morning, looking at the Chaucer family, who married into the de la Poles, ‗The Chaucer network of cousins‘ by Lesley Boatwright, and ‗Chaucer and de la Pole heraldry‘ by Peter Hammond. While we have been able to illustrate Peter‘s talk with some of the pictures he showed, it was not possible to reproduce the large family tree that Lesley handed out as a help to understanding the various branches of the family tree she spoke about. Readers are recommended to try the genealogical exercise of constructing this for themselves from the details given (on a large sheet of paper). We hope to follow this in September by Heather Falvey‘s talk on ‗Murder on the Tower: reports of the death of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk‘. (Yes, murder ON the Tower, not in it.) Heather makes use of a fascinating mid-fifteenth-century poem ‗For Jakke Napes Sowle‘.

The Chaucer network of cousins LESLEY BOATWRIGHT

f John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, had not The centre of his own private estates was I been killed at Stoke in 1487, but had the middle Thames Valley. His main seat, triumphed and become King John II, a major acquired by his marriage to Maud Burghersh, poet would have contributed his genes to the was Ewelme in Oxfordshire, near royal DNA. John de la Pole was the grandson Wallingford. Maud was the daughter and of Alice Chaucer, herself the granddaughter coheir of Sir John Burghersh. The of Geoffrey Chaucer. What we got instead of Burghershes were a posh family, somewhat in the poetry was prosaic Henry Tudor. decline by now, claiming kinship with Geoffrey Chaucer‘s son Thomas created a Mohun, Despenser and indeed Plantagenet. kinship network for himself and his daughter Peter‘s paper will elucidate this. John Alice – a network whose members would be Burghersh had two daughters, who between useful to them as feoffees or dogsbodies – a them inherited all his property. There was network that later, although very Lancastrian Margaret, already married in 1391 when her in its roots and development, mostly accepted father died, and there was Maud, aged 12 and Edward IV, but not Richard III, until finally not yet married. She had married Thomas the last survivors of it found themselves Chaucer by 1395. That year, 1395, he was related to the last recognised Yorkist heir – aged 28, and she was 16. Their only child, but did not join him at Stoke. their daughter Alice, was born about 1404, Thomas Chaucer was born about 1367, nine years or so after their marriage. just at the time when his father Geoffrey The Burghersh sisters, Margaret and became a member of the royal household. Maud, had an older half-sister named Joan Geoffrey was a civil servant as well as a poet, Raleigh, who by 1399 had married Sir John making a career in government business and Whalesborough. The Whalesboroughs were a what we might call the diplomatic service if it family based in Devon and Cornwall. John had been invented then. and Joan had a large family of children, three After the death of his first wife Blanche, sons and four daughters.2 The four girls, not John of Gaunt had taken up with Thomas being heiresses, would have needed a helping Chaucer‘s sister-in-law Katherine Swynford. hand to find suitable husbands. I believe that Four children were born to them, the Beau- it was Thomas Chaucer who extended that forts, and these four important children were helping hand to his wife Maud‘s half-nieces. all Thomas Chaucer‘s (illegitimate) first Before looking at the Whalesborough cousins on the distaff side girls, we should consider the husbands John of Gaunt took an interest in Chaucer chose for his own daughter Alice, Katherine‘s nephew Thomas Chaucer, and born in 1404. There would have been made him various grants and gave him paid competition to marry Alice, who was positions. When Henry IV took the throne, Chaucer‘s heiress. Chaucer looked for more and still more when Henry V succeeded, wealth. First he picked Sir John Phelip (who Thomas Chaucer rose high in royal service. died at Harfleur 1415, leaving Alice a rich Thomas was very like his father Geoffrey widow at the age of 11). Then he picked in many respects (though we don‘t know if he Thomas Montagu, earl of Salisbury (who died had any poetic skills), making a career in at siege of Orleans 1428). Then in autumn government and diplomatic service. In partic- 1430 Alice, now a very rich widow, was ular, he went into Parliament. He was speaker betrothed to William de la Pole, duke of of the House of Commons five times, which Suffolk. Their only child, John, was born on didn‘t happen again until the 18th century.1 27 September 1442.

Evidence for the marriages of the four interesting statement, saying that on that day Whalesborough girls comes from the records he was sent on business by Thomas Chaucer of the Hampden family, of Great Hampden in to Henry, then Prince of Wales, who was at Buckinghamshire. The 19th-century Bucks Oxford. So already by 1405 the Moleyns antiquarian George Lipscomb reported that he family is in the orbit of Thomas Chaucer. had read the Hampden family history in ‗an This is not evidence that Chaucer was at the ancient vellum roll‘ belonging to the then christening, but he could well have been. earl of Buckingham. This roll records a John William Moleyns junior married Anne Hampden‘s marriage to the third Whales- Whalesborough, and they had a daughter borough daughter, Elizabeth, and says it was named Eleanor. William junior died young, at ‗an occasion of great alliance to the House of the siege of Orleans in 1429. So we are left Hampden ... especially by the marriages of with Eleanor Moleyns. Remember Eleanor. her three sisters, whereof Ermayne the eldest The husband of the eldest Whalesborough was married to the Lord Scales; Anne the daughter, Ermayne or Emma, was Thomas second, first to the Lord Molyns and after to Lord Scales 1399-1460. His connection with Sir Edmund Hampden, brother to the said Thomas Chaucer is not so clear, but he seems John; and Alice the youngest to one to be a good matrimonial catch. He came FitzRalph, a knight of Hertfordshire‘.3 from an established landed family in Norfolk. Let us look at these husbands, or, rather, He inherited on the death of his elder brother three of them. I found nothing at all to say on on 1 July 1419. Thomas was not yet 21 and so FitzRalph. I think he was probably a quiet had to prove his age, which he did in 1420, man who minded his own business. The but unfortunately the document is in weddings probably took place in the early extremely bad condition and mostly illegible.6 1420s – remember, the girls are all Alice We can see that one godfather was Sir Chaucer‘s first cousins. Thomas Bardolf but nothing much more than We start with Anne‘s husband, Sir that. It‘s a thousand pities, because a Chaucer William de Moleyns. He was the son and heir connection might have shown up on it, as it of another Sir William de Moleyns, of Stoke did on the Moleyns proof of age. Thomas Poges in Bucks. Carole Rawcliffe calls Scales went to the war in France soon after he William Moleyns senior Chaucer‘s ‗old came of age, and was there almost friend‘.4 William junior was born in Decem- continuously for the next 30 years. He had ber 1405, but he had not quite reached the age close connections with Richard, duke of of 21 when his father died in 1425, and so he York, his commander in France – indeed, he had to prove his age after he became 21 in was one of the godfathers of York‘s son order to inherit his father‘s property, and the Edward, born at Rouen on 28 April 1442 – document proving his age survives.5 The but even closer connections with William de inquiry was held on Monday 17 February la Pole, who eventually married Alice 1427. Remember that this is a document Chaucer. dated February 1427, but it tells us what was Scales came back to England happening in December 1405. It says that occasionally. Fast forward to another proof of William Moleyns was born on 8 December age, that of Eleanor Moleyns, daughter of Sir 1405 at Stoke Poges and baptised in the William Moleyns and Anne Whalesborough. church of St Giles there. He had fairly modest I said, remember Eleanor: she was yet another godfathers. One, William Wyot, was the minor in this kinship network who became Moleyns steward (and probably related to the ward of Thomas Chaucer. In 1440 she has Richard Wyot, steward of the estates of to prove that she is 14, so the witnesses are Bishop Henry Beaufort of Winchester, talking about her birth and baptism in 1426. Thomas Chaucer‘s first cousin), and the John atte Forde, aged 50, said he came to other, William Kyngeston, was dean of church on the day she was born and baptised Windsor college. No great lords. But a wit- and sued a bill against Thomas, Lord Scales, ness named William Dorney makes a most Eleanor‘s godfather. William Langeley, aged

50, said he was there in church when Alice, amicable did the relations between Edmund countess of Salisbury, one of Eleanor‘s and Thomas Chaucer become that ‗when in godmothers, gave her a silver goblet with a May 1409 Chaucer instructed the feoffees of gold cover, and 40s. to her nurse. William his estates to make entails of certain Coterell, aged 36, said he saw the countess, properties ... Hampden and his heirs were Eleanor‘s godmother, dressed in cloth of named as the ultimate beneficiaries in the gold. Thomas Spelyng, aged 40, said he saw event of the failure of Chaucer‘s own issue‘.9 Thomas, Lord Scales, Eleanor‘s godfather, And in 1415 Hampden acted as trustee of the dressed in blue velvet. John Popelyn, aged 40, castle and manor of Donnington, Berks, etc., said he saw Thomas, Lord Scales, Eleanor‘s which Chaucer settled on his daughter Alice godfather, give her £20 after she was and her first husband Sir John Phelip. This all baptised, and 40s. to the nurse. Thus on 11 suggests that Thomas Chaucer had a great June 1426 Thomas Lord Scales and Alice regard for Edmund Hampden. And – fast Chaucer, countess of Salisbury, were at Stoke forwarding again – when Thomas Stonor died Poges church being godparents of Eleanor young in 1431, he made Chaucer the Moleyns – and a man named John atte Forde governor and supervisor of his own heir. The was taking the rare opportunity of accusing History of Parliament biography says, ‗It is Scales of some offence against him.7 clear Chaucer exercised his guardianship The husband of the third Whalesborough responsibly and inspired the affection of his daughter, Elizabeth, was John Hampden of ward [i.e. Thomas senior] who remained Hampden. He was the son and heir of close to him until his death, perhaps taking Edmund Hampden, both of them very worthy the place of the son he never had‘. men who spent most of their lives in solid That is the motley set of men who have public service, both for the county of Bucks come together because they married Alice and their own friends and relations. These Chaucer‘s cousins: William Moleyns, were not men with ambitions to play a part on Thomas Scales, John Hampden (and John the national stage. Fitzralph). But we should include in the group Edmund‘s wife Joan had been married the Hampden siblings: Edmund Hampden before – to Sir Ralph Stonor, of Oxfordshire, junior – John‘s younger brother – and his half who died in 1394, the year his son Thomas -brother Thomas Stonor. And here is perhaps was born. Edmund married Joan the next the place to note that after Anne year, in 1395. The custody arrangements for Whalesborough was widowed by the death of the baby Thomas jiggled around a bit, but William Moleyns, she married Edmund eventually by 1405 Thomas Chaucer had Hampden junior. There‘s one more name to been granted his marriage and the custody of fit in: Hungerford. Eleanor Moleyns, who his lands (for £200). Chaucer and Stonor proved that she was 14 years old in 1440, was were neighbours in Oxfordshire. When Ralph married about then (or before) to Robert Stonor died, his son Thomas had been a babe Hungerford. He was born in the early 1420s. in arms – and generally speaking even in the These men formed a kinship group that Middle Ages, babes in arms weren‘t taken supported and worked for Thomas and Alice away from their mothers unless there were Chaucer, and then for Alice‘s third husband, over-riding dynastic or financial William, duke of Suffolk. Most, if not all, of considerations, and little Thomas stayed with them, ended up on the Lancastrian side when his mother and was brought up in Edmund the choice had to be made. Hampden‘s household together with What did they actually do, and what Edmund‘s own son John. We know that happened to each of these lines? because when Thomas proved his age, he was The Hungerfords were a stroppy lot. described as ‗ward of Edmund Hampden by Robert Hungerford defended the Tower of grant of Thomas Chaucer‘.8 London against the Yorkists in 1460, together The biography of Edmund Hampden in with his uncle, Thomas Lord Scales. Scales the History of Parliament says that so was killed immediately afterwards;

Hungerford fought for the Lancastrians at Finally, the Stonors. Stonors die young. Towton, escaped to Henry VI, but was taken The Thomas who was Chaucer‘s ward died in prisoner at the battle of Hexham in May 1464, 1431, leaving a seven-year-old heir, also and executed in Newcastle. His elder son called Thomas. They married him to Thomas at first served with the earl of Suffolk‘s bastard daughter Joan, or Jane. She Warwick against the Lancastrians in the was born in Normandy in about 1430 (just north, but was arrested for plotting the death before Suffolk‘s marriage to Alice). Her of Edward IV with Margaret of Anjou in mother was a woman named Malyne de Cay 1468, and was executed at Salisbury in – and Suffolk‘s enemies put it about that she January 1469. His heir was his daughter was a nun, and Suffolk had raped her, but Mary, who was married off to a son of Lord take that with a pinch of salt. Suffolk brought Hastings. His brother Walter Hungerford Joan to England and married her to Thomas accepted Yorkist rule, and even became an Stonor, Alice‘s cousin, son of a man whom esquire of the body to Edward IV, but joined Alice‘s father might well have loved like a Buckingham‘s October revolution in 1483. son. Joan figures in the Stonor Letters, and He fought at Bosworth for Henry Tudor, and indeed wrote some of them herself. Her son kept in with him afterwards. William was among those who joined in Thomas Scales‘ heiress Elizabeth was Buckingham‘s rebellion in 1483 – and ultimately married off to Anthony Woodville flourished under Henry Tudor. – that‘s how he got his title of Lord Scales. By now, Alice Chaucer‘s son John had John Hampden kept a low public profile, married Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of but made himself very useful as a feoffee to the Duke of York, and their son was John, both Chaucer and Suffolk. His brother earl of Lincoln, Richard III‘s named heir. But Edmund, together with his life-long friend Sir it does not appear that a single man from this Robert Whittingham, became rampaging network of cousins was with him when he Lancastrians, totally devoted to Margaret of was killed at the battle of Stoke in 1487. All Anjou. They shared her long exile in France, that kinship network set up in the early 1420s returned with her to England and died by Thomas Chaucer has fallen away now together at Tewkesbury. I am sure that from Thomas Chaucer‘s line. In the end, the Margaret trusted them to keep an eye on her strong woman they followed was not Alice son Edward during the battle, and I am sure Chaucer, but Margaret of Anjou. they died beside him. Hampden was in his sixties, and Whittingham over 50 – rather old Notes to be fighting in a battle. They were there to 1 The House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J. look after young Edward. S. Roskell et al., (Alan Sutton, 1993), vol. John Hampden‘s son Thomas was like his II, p. 524. father, doing solid public service all his life in 2 Calendar of Close Rolls 18 Feb 1418. Buckinghamshire – but I think he was killed 3 George Lipscomb, History and Antiquities at Bosworth. I wrote a paper about this in the of the County of Buckinghamshire, Festschrift.10 He has a death date of 21 (London 1847), vol. 2, p.232. August 1485, and his nephew John Iwardby, 4 The House of Commons, vol. II, p. 531. and a cousin also named Thomas Hampden, 5 TNA C139/31/68. and a relative named Thomas Lynde, all died 6 TNA C138/54/120. on 22 August 1485. In other words, they were 7 TNA C139/104/49. all killed at Bosworth. But there is no 8 TNA C138/10/50. indication whose side they were fighting on. 9 The House of Commons, vol. III, p. 279. Thomas Hampden‘s second son Edmund was 10 The Ricardian, vol. XIII (2003) pp. 45-66. as ferocious a Lancastrian as his Uncle 11 Thomas Hampden‘s will is in The Logge Edmund had been, and was certainly fighting Register of PCC Wills (Richard III Soc. for Tudor at Bosworth, and prospered in his 2008), vol. II, no. 376. service afterwards.11

Chaucer and de la Pole heraldry PETER HAMMOND

he tombs of Thomas Chaucer and his daughter Alice, duchess of Suffolk, in Ewelme church T in Oxfordshire tell us about their attitude to their families and ancestry. They are part of what was once a most splendid display of heraldry in the church, most of which has now been lost. What we do have are two splendid heraldic tombs, one of Thomas Chaucer, son of Geoffrey Chaucer the poet, and of Maud Burghersh his wife, and secondly one of Alice, Thomas‘s daughter and wife of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk. The two tombs are very different. That of Thomas is a table tomb in the chapel of St John in the church. The three exposed sides of the tomb are panelled with blind arches and these arches, with the exception of one against a pillar, all contain a pair of enamelled shields of arms. The style of the tomb which is fairly plain, as compared with the style of the rest of the chapel, shows that it was probably put in place in the church before the later (de la Pole) work and then moved to its present position.

Table tomb of Thomas Chaucer in Ewelme church

Alice‘s tomb as befits her status was much more splendid than the one she erected for her father. Her effigy is dressed in widow‘s weeds but wears a coronet and has the Garter round her left arm. There are only 16 shields in all as opposed to 24 on Thomas‘s. The coats of arms on Alice‘s tomb repeat those on her parents‘ tomb but as befits her status are all held by angels. One unusual feature of Alice‘s tomb is that it is a cadaver tomb with the cadaver enclosed, not in the open as is usual. Alice Chaucer’s effigy, Ewelme church

The fascinating thing about the coats of arms on these tombs is that they are intended to trumpet the antiquity and connections of both Alice and Thomas. To this end some very tortuous connections are made. For example, the Chaucers are represented by the arms of Thomas‘s wife, Maud Burghersh, and by the arms of Roet, those of Geoffrey Chaucer‘s wife, not by the arms of Chaucer. The Burghershes were an old baronial family, rather in decline at this time but still of greater importance than the Chaucers. The Roets were probably from Hainault and may have come over with Philippa, wife of Edward III. On top of Thomas‘s tomb are brasses for Thomas and Maud his wife together with four shields. The two shields at the top are Roet above Thomas, Burghersh above Maud, Roet impaling Burghersh below Thomas and Roet quartering Burghersh below Maud. It is not possible to illustrate all of the shields on the tombs but it is worth showing two examples to illustrate the name dropping and the way connections are dragged in by Alice on both tombs. Brass of Thomas Chaucer and his wife Maud Burghersh First is a shield showing Percy (Northumberland) impaling Neville. This is for the marriage of the earl of Northumberland to Eleanor Neville, daughter of the earl of Westmorland. The connection here was that Eleanor was sister of Richard Neville, later earl of Salisbury, and Alice Chaucer was stepmother to Alice Montague, daughter and heiress to Thomas Montague and wife of Richard Neville (see below). My second example is a shield of England with a label of York, impaling Mohun. This represents the marriage of Edward, duke of York, with Philippa Mohun, daughter and co-heir of John Lord Mohun. Philippa‘s mother was Joan, daughter of Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh, brother of John Burghersh of Ewelme, grandfather of Maud Chaucer. Percy: gold a lion azure for Percy quartering three Philippa Mohun and Maud Chaucer luces rising for Lucy, impaling gules a saltire silver were second cousins and Thomas for Neville

Chaucer‘s aunt, Catherine Roet (who had married John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster) was aunt by marriage to Edward, duke of York. Two of the people represented are the second and third husbands of Alice. Firstly there is Thomas Montague, earl of Salisbury, mentioned above. Thomas was the last of the Montague earls of Salisbury, and his daughter and heiress married Richard Neville, who became earl of Salisbury. The arms used for Chaucer are again Burghersh. Alice‘s third and last husband was William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and he quartered the Burghersh arms with his own. Alice married three times and one very interesting omission from her tomb is that the arms of her first husband, Sir York: France and England quarterly with a John Phelip, appear nowhere on the label silver each point charged with three display. The Phelips were a prominent roundels gules for York, impaling gold a and wealthy Suffolk family and Alice‘s cross engrailed sable for Mohun marriage to Sir John, at the age of about 10, was almost certainly arranged by her father because Alice was likely to become Sir John‘s heiress, which she duly became when she was about 11, leaving her wealthy. Despite this he was not good enough to appear on Thomas‘s or Alice‘s tomb. Since the reason why she was a desirable bride for an earl as her second husband was her new status as a wealthy widow this seems rather a ruthless omission. The selection of arms on both Thomas‘s and Alice‘s tomb was a thus a self conscious selection of their important connections. It could be described as heraldic name dropping. One interesting fact that comes from this name dropping is that it shows that Thomas, Alice and their contemporaries were all very well aware of their family connections, even the remoter ones.

Roet: gules three wheels gold impaling silver a chief gules charged overall with a double tailed lion gold for Burghersh

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.

Matters Theatrical and Matters A small footnote to Angela‘s later Historical comment on the ‗Coventry Carol‘ from the town pageants. This has been used to great From Geoffrey Wheeler effect, take out of its original context, on a It was very gratifying to see no fewer than couple of occasions. Notably, in David two references to Paul Daneman in the March Pownall‘s ground-breaking play with music, issue of the Bulletin (pp. 9 and 47), given that Richard the Third Part Two (AV Library, my own introduction to ‗Shakespeare, Radio 3, 1978), where it was introduced at the Richard III and All That‘, as noted in death of Richard‘s son, and in the current previous issues (December 2000, p. 44, touring production of Edward Hall‘s Propeller September 2001, pp. 43-46), was through his Company‘s Richard III (see pp.33-34) more 1960s TV appearance in the role. However, I traditionally at the murder of the princes. suspect that Angela Moreton may not have From matters theatrical to matters seen the series since – she should check out historical: a couple of further points arising the AV Library for this, and his later, radio out of items in the last issue. As I have interpretation – as I cannot reconcile her mentioned subsequently to Rose Skuse, it description with my dictionary definition of would be interesting to learn just how the ‗spiv‘ (‗petty criminal‘). Though inevitably Portable Antiquities Scheme can be so influenced by Olivier (the film had only been definite in identifying the Maulden Boar (p. released five years earlier), he brought even 44) as medieval. Being copper, I think it is more humour to the role, tongue very much in rather unusual, as other surviving examples cheek, but with mercurial transitions from are of latten, pewter, lead or silver, and it is affability to contempt. Given that he is one of perhaps as well to remember that the boar the few actors to have essayed the part on was also the emblem of the Roman XXth stage, television and radio, one would hnave Legion (carved stone example in Carlisle thought it must have been his favourite, but, Museum) and a votive bronze specimen from perhaps afraid of being type-cast, he later the Iron Age was discovered in Lincolnshire confessed that he really longed to be playing in 1990. At least two previously thought to be Romeo or Benedick. Richard‘s device have been demoted. Both Gillian Lazar was fortunate in seeing his illustrated on my collage cover for The original inception (p.47), though I fear her Ricardian Register (the US magazine) vol. memory is at fault when she writes that Ian xxvii no. 3, fall 2002, they are the seated boar Holm‘s Richard (RSC 1963-4, televised (previously exhibited at the 1973 NPG 1965) was on crutches; he appears to have Exhibition, cat. no. 136, p. 59, now described inherited the built-up surgical boot, first worn by the Cuming Museum, Southwark, as a by Marius Goring in 1953. It was, of course, ‗19th-century lead token‘, and the London Antony Sher (RSC 1984-5) who made Museum‘s ‗winged boar‘, also from brilliant use of them and his disability, Southwark, more accurately attributed to the conversely making him the most agile version earl of Oxford and seen at the feet of his on stage,* though he had to admit that, even countess on the drawing of the lost effigies by there, Olivier had beaten him to it, when after Daniel King, 1653. an injury on the Old Vic Australasian tour of Finally, I wonder if Tracy Brice was 1948, he resorted to similar support. aware, when she presented her paper on the

Battle of Empingham or ‗Lose-Coat field, is set in the Merry England of the Field‘ (p.58) that this latter, alternative name, Middle Ages, is very funny and would, I said to have originated from the rebels believe, go down brilliantly with audiences of throwing off their livery jackets in flight, has today. Put briefly, the plot tells how George, been thoroughly discredited? This is detailed the pinner, by his personal strength and influ- in David Santiuste‘s Edward IV and the Wars ence, quells the rebellion of wicked Lord of the Roses (Pen & Sword Books, 2010), p. Kendal against good King Edward and goes 97 and footnote 50, p. 169, where he on to entrap King James of Scotland, who has discloses that ‗Losecoat‘ is the name of a crossed the Border on a foray. The pinner‘s local field, probably derived from the Old fame reaches Sherwood Forest and Robin English hlose-cot, meaning ‗pigsty cottage‘, Hood and his merry men go forth to meet the citing as his source ‗The Naming of Yorkshire champion at Wakefield. George Battlefields‘ by Philip Morgan, in War and beats the merry men at their own weapons Society in Medieval and Early Modern and fraternises with Robin. King Edward and Britain, edited by D. Dunn (Liverpool 2000, King James of Scotland join the fun in dis- p. 41). guise, carouse with shoemakers and, after making their royal personages known, wind * Dr Anne-Marie Liethen also spotted this, up the play with a general jollification. Per- and emailed us to say, ‗I was wondering haps Shakespeare was remembering the about the interesting article .. by Gillian delight with which audiences greeted this Lazar in the March Bulletin. ... I believe it popular play when he wrote his own comedy was Antony Sher who played Richard on about outlaws and the greenwood and chose crutches.‘ for its title As You Like It.

George a Greene, the Pinner of Revenge is Sweet Wakefield From Richard Van Allen From Marilyn Garabet, Oban We are all very aware of the ‗Catch 22‘ situ- I enjoyed reading my Bulletin, as always,and ation vis-à-vis Shakespeare‘s play Richard noted Geoffrey Wheeler‘s reference (p.22) to III. If it had not been for Shakespeare Richard Shakespeare informing George Buc that the would probably have been a mere footnote at play George a Greene, the Pinner of Wake- the bottom of the page in history. However, field was written by ‗a minister who acted the Shakespeare‘s assassination of Richard‘s pinner‘s part himself‘. Park Honan, in his character has cast Richard as a maligned recent biography of Christopher Marlowe (p. monarch and as a result gave birth to our 191), cites this incident as a striking example Society and its continuing struggle to out the of Shakespeare‘s tact and thinks the Bard de- truth. liberately invented this mysterious minister However, in other areas Shakespeare is (whose name escaped him) in order to protect not getting away with it quite so easily, with his fellow playwrights and actors. We know producers continually trying to put another from Henslowe‘s Diary that George a Greene spin on his work. The latest to come to light was wildly popular with Elizabethan is by a US disc jockey who has produced a audiences, but it had a notoriously racy love- Hip-hop version of Much Ado about Nothing, plot which required a grown man to wear called Funk it up about Nothing. Shakespeare female clothes and could have caused pro- must be spinning in his grave. blems with the authorities. Far from being written (let alone acted in) by a respectable clergyman, the likeliest candidate for author- Please volunteer to type ship is thought to be Robert Greene, who described himself as ‗the lewdest person in the up the York Wills land‘. George a Greene, the Pinner of Wake- (see page 6)

The Barton Library

Addition to the Non-Fiction Book Library Fatal Colours: Towton 1461 – England's most Brutal Battle by George Goodwin, with an introduction by David Starkey (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, hardback, 2011) The Battle of Towton was variously described as the largest, longest and bloodiest battle on English soil, with little chance of escape or surrender for the soldiers involved. In this year of its 550th anniversary, the book sets the battle in its historical context, and describes the increasingly embittered factions and the struggle for supremacy that could only be secured after the carnage at Towton. The author suggests an explanation for the crippling incapacity of Henry VI, one of the main causes of the Wars of the Roses in the first place.

Grateful thanks to Neil Skidmore for his donation of books, and my sympathy and thanks to Mr Plumridge whose wife Barbara recently died and bequeathed books to the Society. By selling these donations the Barton Library can be self-sufficient and keep up with new publications concerning our time period without having to take a begging bowl to the Executive Committee, so they really are a help. Elisabeth Sjøberg has been a generous benefactor to the Barton Library over recent months, and I am very grateful to her for being so. Finally a thank you also to Sue Scott-Buccleuch for volunteering to help with the ‗pony express‘ idea regarding getting library books to members without using the postal services. It struck her as amusing to think of a network of Ricardian couriers.

News from the Non-Fiction Papers Librarian As I have started inching my way through the Papers Collection I have been discovering quite a number of interesting articles that do not appear in the catalogue, so rather than listing new items acquired since the last update I thought I would just draw attention to some of the many fascinating uncatalogued items in the Fine and Applied Arts section:

‗How to Win at Tournaments: the Technique of Chivalric Combat‘, by Sydney Anglo (Antiquaries Journal, vol 68, pt 2, 1988, pp. 248-264). On medieval jousting technique.

The Middleham Jewel and Ring, by John Cherry (Yorkshire Museum booklet, 1994, 48 pp.). Contains several chapters on the jewel, a chapter on the ring and another chapter on other finds from Middleham. Superb colour illustrations.

‗On the Badges of the House of York‘, by J. R. Planché (Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vol 20, 1884, pp. 18-38).

‗Pietro Torrigiano‘s Portrait Bust of King Henry VII‘, by Carol Galvin & Peter Lindley (Burlington Magazine, vol 130, no 1029, Dec 1988, pp. 892-902). History of the bust, explanation of findings of scientific studies of the same, and comparison with Henry VII‘s funeral effigy and Torrigiano‘s other known busts.

‗Life‘s Rich Tapestry: The Lady and the Unicorn‘, by Cees Nooteboom (Art Quarterly, Winter 1999, pp. 36-42).. Explains the symbolism of the five famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in the Musée du Moyen Age in Paris; includes large colour illustrations.

The catalogue will be updated as soon as possible; in the meantime I should like to encourage members not to be put off enquiring because they do not see what they want. We may have the item already, and if not we may well feel it worth acquiring.

A New Novel to Borrow from the Fiction Library The Master of Bruges by Terence Morgan (hardback, 2010) In fifteenth-century Bruges master painter Hans Memling finds himself at the heart of the Burgundian Court. Over the years he becomes increasingly close to the Duke‘s daughter Marie, painting her portrait obsessively. In 1482 he is invited to England and plays a crucial role in the fate of the Princes in the Tower. We hope to review this novel later this year.

Additions to the Audio Visual Library Audio: BBC Radio 4: The Long View on royal weddings compared the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville with that of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Beginning at the NPG Archive Jonathan Friedland discussed the fifteenth-century accounts with Helen Castor, with readings from contemporary chronicles. Joining them later at the Tower and Jewel House were royal correspondents James Whitaker, Polly Toynbee and Peter York who contributed views on the twenty-first century royal event and celebrations.

Visual: Channel 4: Time Team Special – The Wars of the Roses. Despite the title this was primarily about Bosworth. An interview with Philippa Gregory, taking time out from book promotion, was interspersed with location scenes shot at last year‘s Bosworth Anniversary weekend. Her assertion that the re-enactors showed a ‗complete commitment to being authentic‘ was quickly demolished by scenes of fully-armoured Henry and Richard, indistinguishable without tabards, although at one point the latter was shown wearing one of his own boar livery jackets. He was even denied a circlet to his helm, so Henry had to be crowned with an improbable golden helmet. As no actual archaeological excavations had to be undertaken, a good deal of the programme was devoted to artillery, with scientific analysis of the cannon balls found on the field, Phil Harding making replica cannon and Tony Robinson combing the Tower inventories for records of fifteenth-century ordnance. Tony interviewed Toby Capwell, who defined knights as the ‗super heroes‘ of their time, and Tony Pollard (not Dr A.J.) on the dearth of more customary battlefield finds such as arrowheads, as at Towton. This led to a visit to Towton and the predictable examination of the injuries inflicted on the skeletons found in a mass grave there. Back at Bosworth, Glenn Foard, armed with a distribution map of the shot and other finds, finally revealed his new site for the battle.

Channel 4: Time Team at Groby Old Hall, Leicestershire. Joining the owner and Tim Dillon from English Heritage was the ubiquitous Philippa Gregory, here more at home with the family history from the Norman builder of the castle keep on its motte, through William Lord Ferrers whose later work in the bailey was demolished in the late fourteenth century, to Thomas Grey, Marquis Dorset, who constructed the still surviving great brick tower. The narrative was enlivened by the characteristic drawings of Victor Ambrus. Enough surviving foundations emerged for the usual computer graphic recreations of the keep and other buildings such as the Great Hall with its oriel window, recalling that at Crosby Hall.

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

From the Visits Team

Long Weekend to Calais 2010 As we had a surplus of admin monies at the end of the weekend, everyone who attended is to receive a £20 refund. These monies were despatched in April and May 2011. If you have not received your refund cheque yet, please contact Rosemary Waxman, 37 Chewton Road, Walt- hamstow, E17 7DW (tel. 0208 521 4261.

Long Weekend to Sussex July 2011 It is regretted that the proposed Society visit to Sussex has had to be cancelled because we only received 26 bookings, and we required at least 30 to make the hire of the coach viable. All the deposit cheques have been returned.

Visits 0, Cancellations 2 – a disappointing result For the second time this year a visit has been cancelled due to lack of support (the day trip to Abingdon/Oxford and the long weekend in Sussex). The Visits Team is rather puzzled by this – where are we going wrong; are our proposed venues of little interest to members, or maybe the trips are considered too expensive? When the Visits Team chooses a destination, we certainly think it will be of interest to fellow Ricardians; some places may not have a direct link with King Richard, but there is generally something to see that is of our period. Can you recommend anywhere that is perhaps a bit off the beaten track or not so well known - or even reasonably well known? Ideally, we would like to know a little of the logistics of getting there – how near can we get a coach, for example. Is there a good rail link? Also bear in mind the need for somewhere to have lunch and tea, with associated facilities. The Visits Team will consider all ideas put forward. See inside back cover of the Bulletin for my contact details. Marian Mitchell, Visits Officer

Day Visit to Sutton Hoo and Woodbridge, Suffolk Saturday 30 July 2011 As the Long Weekend to Sussex had to be cancelled your Visits Team decided to arrange this additional day visit. Proposed programme: 09.45 meet at London Liverpool Street Station on the concourse near Platform 10. 10.00 train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich 11.13 train from Ipswich to Woodbridge 11.30 arrive Woodbridge 11.30 travel by taxis to Sutton Hoo. These will be pre-booked . Participants to share the taxi costs (3 miles from Woodbridge) 12.00 to 15.15 Visit to Sutton Hoo. Lunch at Sutton Hoo - own arrangements. 15.15 taxi back to Woodbridge 15.30 free time in Woodbridge. 16.18 train from Woodbridge to Ipswich . 16.43 train from Ipswich to London Liverpool Street ETA Liverpool Street 17.55. Trains leave hourly from Woodbridge, and you are free to return when you wish.

Sutton Hoo - National Trust Walk around the ancient burial mounds and discover the story of the ship burial of Raedwald, king of East Anglia, explore the exhibition, and visit Mrs Pretty‘s Edwardian house. There is a licensed café, a gift shop and a second-hand bookshop, on site. Entrance Charges: National Trust Members – free. Standard Adult £6.20 and Child £3.10 There are reductions for arriving on foot, by cycle or by public transport.

Woodbridge is a most attractive small town with its Shire Hall dominating the market square, its quays and river frontage and its many fine houses and cottages. There is a lovely walk along the footpath adjoining the River Deben. You can also visit Woodbridge Museum. (We had hoped to visit the eighteenth-century Tide Mill, but it is closed for restoration all this summer.)

Practicalities Please book your own train tickets. Train times are available only six weeks in advance, so when you are sent your booking confirmation, it should contain up-to-date train times. Check on the Internet.The National Rail Enquiry Number is 08457 48 49 50. Taxis: everyone using taxis to/from Sutton Hoo will share the cost between them Travelling by own transport: there are pay-and-display parking facilities at Sutton Hoo.. Entrance to Sutton Hoo: see above. As this trip is by Public Transport we will run it however many/ few people book for it. Please return the booking form to Rosemary Waxman 37 Chewton Road Walthamstow E17 7DW Tel 0208 521 4261 by 18 July 2011 Please send an A5 sized SAE and a £1 coin to cover photocopying costs; for maps leaflets and details of a self-guided walking tour of Woodbridge.

The booking form will be found in the centre fold.

Requiem Mass at the Royal Chantry Chapel of St Edmund, Spital-in-the- Street, Lincs, Monday 22 August 2011 at 5.30 pm

There is to be a requiem mass on Monday 22 August 2011 for the repose of the souls of King Richard, Queen Anne and Edward, Prince of Wales, and all those who fell at Bosworth. This will be held at the Royal Chantry Chapel of St Edmund, Spital-in-the-Street, Lincs, at 5.30 pm. The Rt Rev. Howard Weston-Smart will be officiating. All are invited to attend. Spital-in-the-Street is a small hamlet, twelve miles north of Lincoln and eleven miles from Market Rasen. The chapel is situated on the important old Roman road, Ermine Street (now the A15) near its junction with the A631, known as Caenby Corner (postcode LN2). It is probably advisable only to consider going if you have your own transport. Ermine Street was extensively used by travellers and pilgrims and the Hospital, from which Spital gets its name, was the only stopping point between Lincoln and the old crossing of the Humber at Winteringham. The Hospital was established about 1150 by the Knights Templar from nearby Temple Willoughton as a shelter for poor travellers. The Templar hospital was suppressed in 1312, along with the Order. Given the importance of Ermine Street as a main road to Lincoln and the reputation of the chapel, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Richard would have used the road and even halted to say a prayer at the chapel. Thomas de Aston, Archdeacon of Stow, refounded the old Hospital as almshouses in the 1397. It is thought that de Aston met Katherine Swynford around 1390 when she went to live in the Chancery on Lincoln Cathedral Close, which was close to where de Aston lived. He included John of Gaunt, Katherine Swynford and their three Beaufort sons in the chantry foundation, commanding prayers for their souls throughout all time. Marian Mitchell 56

Denny Abbey and Anglesey Abbey, Saturday 3 September 2011 Our September outing is to Denny Abbey (English Heritage) and Anglesey Abbey (National Trust), both very near to each other, about six miles from Cambridge. Our first stop will be Denny Abbey, originally built for Benedictine monks, passed to the Templars, and in the early fourteenth century to Marie de St Pol, Countess of Valance, the Châtelaine of Fotheringhay, who installed Franciscan nuns (Poor Clares) there. It later became a farmhouse, and its conservation, showing all these layers of occupation, was a fascinating problem. We shall leave Denny at approx 12.45 pm for the short drive to Anglesey Abbey where we can obtain lunch from the restaurant – or take a picnic. Anglesey Abbey was built in late Tudor times on the site of a twelfth-century Augustinian Abbey. It has a celebrated garden of 100 acres, with unique statuary and, in the house, the Fairhaven collection of art treasures. There is a working water mill in the grounds. Arrangements We shall leave London Embankment at 9.00 am and return by approx 7.00 pm. Please Note: Pay on the day for Denny Abbey. English Heritage members can visit the Abbey free of charge but there is a charge for the museum of £3 adults, £2.50 concessions. The charge for non-English-Heritage members is £4.50 adults, £3.50 concessions, which covers both the Abbey and the museum. I am including the entrance charge for Anglesey Abbey in the cost of the trip so that I can take advantage of the group booking rate. It is, of course, free of charge to members of the National Trust. Therefore the cost of the trip is £20 each for National Trust members and £28 each for non-National Trust. A booking form can be found below. Please send it by 5 August 2011 with your cheque (payable to The Richard III Society and endorsed Denny Abbey) to: Marian Mitchell, 20 Constance Close, Witham, Essex CM8 1XL; (Tel: 01376 501984; email: [email protected]). If you miss this date, please contact me to see if there are any vacant seats on the coach. Members travelling by their own transport are very welcome to join us, but please let me know you are coming. Marian Mitchell

Denny Abbey and Anglesey Abbey Saturday 3 September 2011

Name(s) ......

Address ......

......

Tel...... Email ......

Either: I (we) am a member of the National Trust and enclose a cheque for ...... (£20 each) Or: I (we) am not a member of the National Trust and enclose a cheque for ...... (£28 each) I (we) wish to join the coach at London □ Bromley □ Is this the first time you have attended a Society event? yes / no Please enclose an SAE for you booking confirmation / trip information letter. Please return this form by 5 August to Marian Mitchell, 20 Constance Close, Witham, Essex, CM8 1XL (Tel. 01376 501984, email: [email protected]

The Norfolk Branch Study Day: The Twilight Years of the Yorkist Cause

This will take place on Saturday 12 November at The Assembly House, Theatre Street, Norwich.

The programme is as follows: 10.00 onwards: arrival 10.25 Introduction by the Norfolk Branch Chairman 10.30 Julian Humphrys (the Battlefields Trust): ‗The battle of Stoke, 1487‘ 11.30 coffee 12.00 Dr Rosemary Horrox: ‗Stirring up the lees? – Ricardian opposition to Henry VII‘ 1.00 lunch (own arrangements) 2.30 Dr Sean Cunningham (title to be arranged) 3.30 tea 4.00 Frances Sparrow (of Norfolk Branch, Vice-Chairman, East Anglian region, the Battlefields Trust) ‗Dangerous Blood—Yorkist heirs in the age of the Tudors‘ 4.30 Question and answer session for all speakers 5.00 approximately: vote of thanks and close.

How to book: There is a booking form in the centre fold. The cost will be £23 per head, to include coffee and tea, but not lunch. Bookings should be sent to Mrs Annmarie Hayek, 20 Rowington Road, Norwich, NR1 3RR (tel. 01603 664021, email: [email protected]). Please makes cheques payable to The Richard III Society.

The Australasian Convention 2011

will be hosted by Victoria Branch

Friday 5 August to Sunday 7 August 2011

at the Victoria Hotel, 215 Little Collins Street, Melbourne

Programme

Friday 5 August (evening): informal get-together to welcome interstate and overseas guests; drinks and canapés included Saturday 6 August full day of presentations 7.00 pm, banquet (partners and guests most welcome) Sunday 7 August a casual mix of talks, games, trivia (perhaps a workshop) followed by lunch

Costs: convention (including Friday night get-together, plus morning and afternoon tea and lunches on Saturday and Sunday): $ 200.00. Banquet (per person, including wine and soft drinks), $ 90.00. This does not include accommodation, which should be booked and paid for direct to the hotel (www.victoriahotel.com.au).

Further details and registration form are available on the Victoria Branch website: www.home.vicnet.net.au/~richard 3

Branches and Groups

Lincolnshire Branch Report The Angel and Royal Hotel, Grantham, provided an atmospheric setting for our branch banquet in October 2010. Members and their guests adopted period dress and enjoyed a wonderful meal accompanied by entertainment from a company of travelling players. Later that month, David Baldwin provided a fascinating insight in his lecture ‗Who Was Robin Hood?‘, the subject of his recent book. There was yet more merriment at the Branch Christmas Dinner, held at the Welby Arms, Allington and made all the more exciting by a seasonal fall of snow. An intrepid excursion to Rockingham Castle provided members with a view of a breathtaking fairy-tale landscape after the heavy snowfalls of the first week in December. The castle apartments had been decorated for a family Christmas by the Watson family, who have been in residence for 450 years. Our first meeting in 2011 gave full rein to the camaraderie that is such a feature of the Branch as members enjoyed reminiscing over photographs and answering some lighthearted quiz questions, followed by refreshments. For our February lecture, Jann Parker assumed the guise of a fifteenth-century wise woman to give enlightening descriptions of ailments and remedies. ‗Fools and Jesters at the English Court‘ provided a very interesting subject in March, ably presented by Sally Henshaw, Secretary of the Leicester Branch. A highly enjoyable lecture, full of fun, yet with darker moments too. We count ourselves lucky to belong to such a lively Branch where serious scholarship always seems to be accompanied by a love of eating, drinking and fun. Maureen Wheeldon, Publicity Officer

North Mercia Group All is going well with the group and we are looking forward to our next few meetings and our June outing to Buildwas Abbey and Much Wenlock. We held a very informal AGM in February and reflected over our first year in existence. I think everyone agreed we had a super first year and are looking forward to the next. We have a full year‘s programme of meetings and outings and our special Bosworth meal in August at the Boar‘s Head at Walgherton just a few miles from Nantwich. Well, as Ricardians we felt we had to frequent such an appropriately named hostelry, so we decided to hold a meal in Richard‘s memory. Our March meeting was our celebratory Pot Luck Medieval Meal. We were twelve months old that very day. It was a super afternoon. Everyone had made a real effort to look up an authentic recipe and all attempts were successful and delicious. The centre piece was Deirdre Gough‘s whole salmon. The meal was held care of Jacqui Emerson at her home in Wistaston and there were eventually thirteen of us in attendance, but we didn't sit down all together, so we were not a coven. Helen Ashburn came to give a power point presentation for the April meeting and became our first outside speaker. Helen‘s presentation was called ‗Images of Richard III‘ and consisted of portraits of Richard III, pictures of Richard III and pictures of actors who had actually portrayed Richard III on stage and screen, and information on her research. Helen began to research this topic just out of interest and just like Topsy, ‗it growed and growed‘ and amazingly enough is continuing to grow. Helen has reached the grand total of 150 images so far, and she has more to find. It was a brilliant talk and gave all in attendance much food for thought.

Our May meeting is an idea snitched from the Greater Manchester Branch entitled ‗My Favourite Medieval Site or Artefact‘ and members will give a ten minute talk on the object or place of their choice. So there you are. Be assured the memory of Richard III is being kept alive here in Mercia, even though most of it was owned by the dreaded Stanleys. Marion Moulton

Worcester Branch The February meeting saw members engaged in making decorations for Belbroughton Village Hall for the forthcoming twenty-fifth-anniversary banquet. The hall is an impressive timber- framed former barn, which will provide an excellent backdrop to a medieval feast. Pat Parminter, a member of the Branch Committee, had prepared all the materials and was on hand to help the less nimble-fingered. She produced basic shapes in murrey and blue felt and a selection of Yorkist emblems, including silver boars, golden suns in splendour and white roses. Members then designed and created their own banners, pennants and table runners. Results were impressive and it was realised that there were not only enough items to decorate the hall, but also that some of the them could be used for embellishing the display boards, which give information about the Society and the history of the period, and which will be used for the banquet and the Branch‘s stall at Tewkesbury in July. It was a most enjoyable and productive afternoon and members expressed their gratitude for Pat‘s skilful and cheerful direction. The meeting in March was also led by a member of the Branch, Richard Thompson, who gave an erudite and very thoroughly researched talk entitled ‗York and Tudor – a Pattern of Rulers‘. He argued that both Richard III and Henry VII were following a long line of feudal lords, rather than that Richard‘s death marked a watershed in English history. He did not see Henry as any sort of ‗New Monarch‘ or as the author of any innovations in government. Richard gave members plenty of ideas to consider and there followed a long, lively and wide-ranging discussion. Richard was warmly thanked by all for his talk. The Branch AGM will take place in April at St Leonard‘s Church at Newland, near Malvern. Described as ‗a gem of Victorian Gothic splendour‘, it is closely associated with the Beauchamp family of nearby Madresfield Court, the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh‘s Brideshead, which we visited three years ago. The Worcestershire Branch is always delighted to welcome Society members to its events, which usually take place on the second Saturday of the month. The twenty-fifth- anniversary banquet mentioned above will take place on 11 June this year and Society members from further afield will be very welcome. Contact details are on the Branch and Group Contacts page of this Bulletin. Carol Southworth

Yorkshire Branch At the Branch SGM held in York on 2 April, the decision on Branch membership rules originally proposed and agreed at our AGM was ratified by a clear majority, so Section 3 of our Branch Constitution now reads as follows: ‗Membership of Yorkshire Branch shall be by either of the following: (a) an annual membership fee decided by the Committee and payable at the start of the Branch‘s year after the Annual General Meeting. This will entitle the member to receive free of charge three Branch Newsletters per year; or (b) annual subscription to the Branch magazine Blanc Sanglier. This will entitle the member to receive three magazines and three Newsletters per year.‘ This membership rule, introduced in order to bring Yorkshire Branch into line with the

Richard III Society‘s rules for Branches and Groups, will come into effect when subscriptions next fall due (2011-12). The annual membership fee under (a) above has been agreed by the Committee at £3.50 for the time being. The rule will mean that those members of the Richard III Society who are also Branch members will be eligible to vote on Branch business. Will Society members living in Yorkshire who do not at present subscribe to our magazine please contact our Secretary Pauline Pogmore before 1 August if they would like to become members of the Branch. Her email address is [email protected] Due to Bulletin deadlines, and the late date of Easter this year, the report on the commemoration of the 550th anniversary of the battle of Towton on Palm Sunday will be held over until the September issue. We also hope to report on our Spring Lecture on 7 May, the intended visit to Conisborough Castle on 5 June, and meeting our American (and perhaps Canadian?) friends later that month. On Sunday 21 August the Branch will hold its informal commemoration of Bosworth in King Richard‘s own collegiate church, St Alkelda‘s at Middleham. Would members and friends please meet at the church for 2.00 p.m. Sunday 28 and Monday 29 August should see our sales and publicity stall at Norfolk Park, Sheffield, which hosts one of the biggest local events of its kind from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm on both days. There will be a Living History Camp with over 600 re-enactors showing what everyday life was like from Roman times through medieval to WW2. Other features include a Craft Tent, Horticultural Show, a market and children‘s rides and entertainment. Well worth a visit! The Branch AGM will be held on Saturday 3 September at Jacob‘s Well, Trinity Lane, York, starting at 1.30 pm. Following the business of the meeting there will be a talk by Pauline Pogmore on ‗The Families Connected with Sheffield Castle‘ and – possibly – a quiz. Afternoon tea will be available at £3.50 per head; a booking form will be included with our August Newsletter. Nominations for the Branch Committee should be sent in writing, duly seconded and with the nominee‘s agreement, to our Secretary before 20 August. Notice is given below of a further proposed amendment to Yorkshire Branch Constitution, to clarify the membership rules currently being overhauled. At present, couples who pay one annual subscription to Blanc Sanglier (and receive one magazine) each have one vote. Following discussion on this point with the parent Society‘s membership department, a Branch Joint Membership will be proposed, as an additional clause to Section 3 of our Constitution. It is proposed that Section 3 will now begin: ‗Membership of Yorkshire Branch shall be by any one of the following:‘. Clauses (a) and (b) will stand as at present, and the rest of Section 3 will read: ‗or (c) an annual Joint Membership fee (UK only), decided by the Committee, which applies where there are two members at the same address. This will entitle the members to receive free of charge three copies of Blanc Sanglier with three Branch Newsletters per year, and to have one vote each at Branch General Meetings.‘ Under the new rules (see above) two members at the same address paying £3.50 each would not be entitled to receive the Branch magazine (£7); if one member were a subscriber and the second adult were not, their combined fees would be £10.50. To ensure there is some benefit for those who wish to continue to subscribe to Blanc Sanglier, the annual Joint Membership rate has been agreed by the Committee at £9 for the time being. Our Branch mediaeval banquet will be held at Bedern Hall, York, on Saturday 22 October at 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm. Further details, menu and booking form will be given in our August Newsletter. Angela Moreton

New Members

UK 1 January to 31 March 2011 Patricia Scruton, Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leics Robert Atkinson, Maidstone, Kent David Sharpe, Wakefield, Yorks Pat Barrett, Abbots Bromley, Staffs David Sleep, Eltham, London Patricia Bilbey, Cheltenham, Glos John Turner, York Christopher Boote, Virginia Water, Surrey Derek Vance, Towcester, Northants Richard Busby, Horsham, W. Sussex Pauline Wiltshire, Reading, Berks Susan Byron, Eastbourne, E. Sussex Duncan Claughton, Scarborough, N. Yorks Overseas 1 January to 31 March 2011 John Cleaver, Watford, Herts Boriana Djanabetska, Sofia Karen Winstone Cooper, Bridgend, S. Wales Suzi Koesis, Coogee, New South Wales Adam Fowle, Brighton, E. Sussex Liselotte Messner, Vienna Josephine Gee, Cranfield, Beds Vivienne Thomas, Menai, New South Wales Jim Hancock, Lymm, Cheshire Patrick Hunt, Salisbury, Wilts US Branch 1 January to 31 March 2011 Glenda Lawrence, Filey, N. Yorks Addie Applebaum, Hershey, PA Angela Nelson, Rossendale, Lancs Jillian Copeland, Mays Landing, NJ Robin O‘Neil, Salisbury, Wilts Recently Deceased Members

John Blake, Navenby, Lincs, joined 1994 Sandra Desmond, Dorchester, Dorset, joined 2003 Marshal Drochocki, Glasgow, aged over 90, who joined before 1987 (and joined the Scottish Branch in 2006) Julia Hefford, Shepperton, Middx (family member, joined 1975) Peter Lee, Shepperton Brian Moorhen, Langley, Berks (family member, joined 2006) Sue Nicholson, Victoria Branch, joined 1987*

* Susan Jayne Nicholson 1954 – 2011 Hazel Hajdu writes: Victorian Branch members have been greatly saddened by the death of Sue Nicholson, who died on 13 February 2011 after a lengthy illness. Sue joined the Society in 1983 and attended our meetings very regularly. Her enthusiastic participation in the Branch‘s various activities in the intervening years was infectious. She was always willing to lend a helping hand whenever there was extra work to be done, whether categorising the library books, planning outings, or designing the Branch‘s letter- head and website. For a number of years Sue was Branch Treasurer, a role which she fulfilled with professional efficiency. Sue‘s courage and positive attitude in the face of her long illness was inspirational; her cheerful nature and good humour abounded throughout the difficult times. Warm-hearted, loyal and optimistic, Sue‘s delightful personality will be greatly missed. She will be remembered by us all with great affection and admiration.

Obituary Brian Moorhen 1939-2011

My beloved husband Brian died suddenly, but peacefully, at home following a short illness on 27 April. For the past three years, however, he had several health issues and his mobility had been steadily decreasing over this period. At the time of writing the funeral has not taken place but the service will be held at St Mary‘s Church, Langley Marish, where our marriage was blessed in 1969. He will be interred at the Chiltern Burial Park, Jordans near Beaconsfield, in a beautiful woodland setting close by a glade of bluebells. Brian was not a Ricardian per se, only joining as a family member in 2006 when he became the Society‘s Membership Manager. He was somewhat bemused about King Richard, perhaps like many partners of ardent Ricardians in their interest in a long-dead king. However, he became familiar with numerous Ricardian sites as we toured the north of England and he also shared my many Ricardian friendships. He always supported me in my endeavours for the Society and was very proud whenever I had an article published in the The Ricardian. He has been described by friends as a ‗lovely man‘ and ‗kind and considerate‘. He will be missed so much, not just by myself but by his daughter Lesley, his three grandchildren, John, Sarah and Elizabeth, and by everyone else who knew him. Wendy Moorhen

Anne Smith 1946-2011 We have received two further reminiscences about Anne Smith, whose obituary was in the March 2011 Bulletin.

Carolyn Hammond writes: I first got to know Anne when we went to the Medieval Feast at Lyons Corner House in the Strand, London, in January 1973, together with several other Ricardians, including Peter Hammond, Elizabeth Nokes, Ann and Richard Barnard and Cilla Bazley-Green – all in costume. As I lived in London and she would not have been able to get home to Guildford after the feast was over, I invited her to stay overnight with me. The problem was that I didn‘t have a guest room, as my only spare room was full of the Society‘s Library‘s books and papers. I asked if she would mind sleeping there, and she said that nothing would please her more than to sleep (or stay awake reading) surrounded by Ricardian books. Later of course when the Library had completely outgrown one room she took over the novels and ran the Fiction Library with enthusiasm and enjoyment.

Wendy Moorhen writes: I was very sad to learn of the passing of Anne Smith. I only met her a few times, but she was great fun, and my abiding memory is her passion for detective novels. Inspector Morse was a particular favourite and I recall she was unable to make a Society event as she was in Oxford for a ‗Morse weekend‘. I will always be grateful to her for introducing me to Donna Leon‘s Inspector Brunetti novels set in my all-time favourite city Venice.

Calendar

We run a calendar of all forthcoming events notified to us. If you are aware of any events of Ricardian interest, whether organised by the Society (Committee, Visits Committee, Research Committee, Branches/Groups) 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

2011 11 June Worcester Branch 25th anniversary Worcester Branch celebration banquet, Belbroughton Church Hall

18 June East Midlands Study Day on ‗The Power East Midlands Branch Behind the Throne‘ (see March Bulletin )

[14-18 July Due to lack of support, the Long Weekend Visits Committee] based in Sussex has had to be cancelled

30 July Day visit to Woodbridge in Suffolk for Visits Committee (pp. 55-6) Sutton Hoo

5-7 August Australasian Convention Victoria Branch (p. 58)

21 August Society Visit to Bosworth (see pp. 11-12)

21 August Yorkshire Branch Bosworth Commemoration Yorkshire Branch (p. 61) Middleham Church, 2.00 pm

22 August Requiem Mass for King Richard etc., (see p. 56) Spital-in-the-Street, Lincs

3 September Day visit to Denney Abbey and Anglesey Visits Committee (p. 57) Abbey

3 September Yorkshire Branch AGM, Jacobs Well, York, Yorkshire Branch (p. 61) 1.30 pm

1 October Society Annual General Meeting Executive Committee (see pp. 3-4)

22 October Yorkshire Branch Medieval Banquet Yorkshire Branch (p. 61)

12 November Norfolk Branch Study Day on ‘The Twilight Norfolk Branch (see p.58 ) Years of the Yorkist Cause‘

2012 20-22 April Triennial Conference at Burleigh Court Research Committee (see Conference Centre, Univ. of Loughborough March Bulletin)