Ricardian

Bulletin Magazine of the Richard III Society

ISSN 0308 4337 March 2012

Ricardian

Bulletin March 2012

Contents

2 From the Chairman 3 Society News and Notices 9 Focus on the Visits Committee 14 For Richard and Anne: twin plaques (part 2), by Geoffrey Wheeler 16 Were you at Fotheringhay last December? 18 News and Reviews 25 Media Retrospective 27 The Man Himself: Richard‟s Religious Donations, by Lynda Pidgeon 31 A new adventure of Alianore Audley, by Brian Wainwright 35 Paper from the 2011 Study Weekend: John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, by David Baldwin 38 The Maulden Boar Badge, by Rose Skuse 40 Katherine Courtenay: Plantagenet princess, Tudor countess (part 2), by Judith Ridley 43 Miracle at Denny Abbey, by Lesley Boatwright 46 Caveat emptor: some recent auction anomalies, by Geoffrey Wheeler 48 The problem of the gaps (from The Art of Biography, by Paul Murray Kendall) 49 The pitfalls of time travelling, by Toni Mount 51 Correspondence 55 The Barton Library 57 Future Society Events 59 Branches and Groups 63 New Members and Recently Deceased Members 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, 2012

From the Chairman

ere in the United Kingdom we have some eventful months ahead of us. HM The Queen‟s H Diamond Jubilee will be celebrated in June and the London Olympics take place later in the summer. As you will read in this issue, our intrepid Joint Secretaries will be doing their bit to help the games run smoothly. We wish them well. Here is another issue of the Bulletin to inform and entertain, and yet again I am confident that it will not disappoint. There is the second part of Judith Ridley‟s study of Katherine Courtenay, bringing that story to its end, and Geoffrey Wheeler finishes his tale of the twin plaques. Toni Mount gives the inside story of a medieval time traveller‟s twenty-first century experience in Greenwich and Rose Skuse tells us about the Maulden Boar Badge found in 2009. The Man Himself reminds us of Richard‟s religious donations, one of the many reasons why he really was Good King Richard. Lesley Boatwright recounts yet another miracle attributed to Henry VI. Alianore Audley has amused and delighted many members who have read her published adventures and it is great to learn that Brian Wainwright has found another. Let us hope he finds even more. In his article on John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, David Baldwin notes that John is a somewhat forgotten figure, even though there were two possible reasons why he could have ended up as King John II. After the death of Edward of Middleham, he was Richard III‟s heir presumptive, and the Society is looking to ensure that he is not forgotten by erecting a memorial plaque to him. We hope to report on progress in the next issue of the Bulletin. This issue sees the start of a new series which will focus on the teams and volunteers in our Society, without whom we simply wouldn‟t survive. It is time these all too often unacknowledged people were recognised and I am delighted to see this series begin. We start with the Visits Committee and I can personally recommend their trips, which combine education and enjoyment in perfect proportion. The BBC have announced that they are to dramatise Philippa Gregory‟s series of novels about the Wars of the Roses. We hope they will be true to the historical facts. The programmes should, undoubtedly, generate interest in our period and we will be keeping our eyes open for any opportunities to promote the Society. As some of you will know, we had some problems with the printing and distribution of December‟s Bulletin. My apologies to those members affected and my very great thanks to Business Manager Stephen York, Membership Officer Wendy Moorhen and to all those involved, for acting so swiftly to ensure that replacement copies of the magazine were promptly despatched. Besides those public events mentioned above, the Society has much to look forward to this year with the Triennial in April, Bosworth and Bruges in August, October‟s AGM in York, and then Fotheringhay, as well as all those many branch and group events throughout the country and indeed the world. (I will be doing my bit, too. From Plymouth to Grantham, Great Yarmouth and Fotheringhay, I already have five talks booked during which I will promote Richard III and the Society.) We have the publication of the York Wills to look forward to, yet another testament to the voluntary service and dedication of our members, and across the Pond, our American and Canadian branches will be holding a joint AGM in Toronto. We wish them well for its success.

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Society News and Notices

Good Progress on the York Wills By the time you read this, the text of the York wills will be ready for publication. This does not mean that the whole book will be ready. The introduction is still to be written, and the intricate task of indexing the wills has still to be done, but we have volunteers for both. Peter Hammond will write the introduction, and Heather Falvey will compile the index. After the appeal for typists in the June 2011 Bulletin, thirteen volunteers signed up for the work. The machinations of cyber-space meant that one volunteer never received any work (the email vanished and she assumed we had enough volunteers without her). Doreen Leach was able to update 15 wills which she still held electronically from the original project, and the same applied to four wills held by Marie Barnfield and one by Toni Mount. The remaining 68 were input by Andrea Brown, Helen Bushell, Alison Elvy, Su Franks, Susan Gunn, Keith Horry, Rebecca Mallard, Carrie McDowell, and Stephen York. Grateful thanks to all volunteers. The register of York wills from which these are taken is a massive one, containing 1,399 wills in all, as well as 402 records of grants of administration. There was never any possibility of transcribing the whole register, particularly as the vast majority are in Latin, and the Society does not have many volunteers capable of transcribing and translating Latin.* We therefore decided to transcribe and publish just the wills written in English. There were 88, of which three are strictly speaking codicils to wills that had themselves been written in Latin. It is therefore an arbitrary selection, but it was the most practical approach. Of the 88, 15 were wills of women, nearly all of whom describe themselves as widows. Eleven were wills of knights (or widows of knights), nine were wills of men describing themselves as „esquire‟ (or their widows), and another nine of „gentlemen‟ (or their widows). Six were the wills of clergymen. Four men held civic office (one mayor and three aldermen), and 16 had a trade or craft: bell-founders, drapers, mercers, merchants, etc. Harry Sayvell (i.e. Henry Saville) was „yeoman of the king‟s chamber‟. No fewer than 21, nearly a quarter, were described as „of York‟, and nine „of Kingston upon Hull‟. Two at least were from outside Yorkshire, Robert Inglissh of Nottingham, and William Came of Newark. The Snawsells of Barley Hall in York are mentioned in several wills, either as witnesses or legatees. As with the Logge Wills, there are many bequests of household treasures: silver spoons, rosaries, people‟s best clothes, books – but perhaps rather more individual animals than in Logge: „to litill Johannet ij calves‟. Dame Marjory Salvayn of York left each of her brothers-in-law „a boke of bocas‟, presumably Boccaccio‟s Decameron. William Baron, draper of Hull, left Hull church „a cope of rede purpill clothe velvett with gude grete floures of gold the valour of xx li. sterling‟. Robert Kirton of Crathorn had his own agenda: „I will that William Raner have my jekkry goune. And if he will wed his woman I will that he have j quy [cow] with calf. Also I will that the saide William Raner have the othre of my sanguyn gownes if so be he wil wed hir to make hir a clothe of.‟ We are now discussing how best to publish these wills. The aim is to have them ready to go on sale at this year‟s AGM. It will be a much smaller book than the Logge Wills (which had 379 entries), and therefore considerably cheaper. There will be another progress report in the June Bulletin. *If there are some people out there hiding their light under a bushel, who can do Latin but have never volunteered for a Society project – do join the Chronicle project, where your skills will be much in demand – get in touch with Toni Mount (tel. 01474 355676, email [email protected]).

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Notice of the 2012 Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society

This year the Society’s AGM and Members’ Day will take place on: Saturday 29 September 2012 at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York. Further details will be given in the June Bulletin but, in the meantime, please put this date in your diary.

Advance Information Concerning the 2012 AGM

Accommodation in York: there are a number of hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, etc., in York. For further information, members are recommended to contact the Tourist Information Centre at 1 Museum Street, York YO1 7DT (telephone: 01904 550 099; email: [email protected]; website: www.visityork.org). We have negotiated a special deal for members with Hotel 53, 53 Piccadilly, York YO1 9PL, which is about five minutes‟ walk from the venue. There is ample parking nearby. This consists of a B&B room rate of £80.00 on the Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and £130.00 on the Saturday, with a minimum stay of two nights. These rates will only apply if ten or more rooms are booked. This represents a considerable saving on the current charges (as at January 2012, including announced special offers.) Bookings must be made by 20 August to qualify. When booking, applicants will need to quote the reference number 2909RI.

Informal Post-AGM Dinner: elsewhere in this Bulletin the Yorkshire Branch has given details of their planned post-AGM meal. However, places are limited and will be allocated on a first- come, first-served basis. The Executive Committee is, therefore, also considering arranging an informal dinner in a restaurant in York after the AGM to ensure that there are sufficient places available for all who might wish to attend a social event on the Saturday evening. At this stage, no details are available and we shall be asking members to indicate their interest or otherwise in the June Bulletin as part of the registration procedure. The aim would be to find a centrally located, inexpensive restaurant, but this will obviously depend upon the level of interest shown.

Visit to Middleham, Sunday 30 September: if you are taking advantage of the special hotel over over the AGM weekend, or planning to stay on anyway, what could be better than a leisurely Sunday trip to Middleham? This is advance notice that the Visits Team would be more than happy to organise a coach trip to Middleham if there is sufficient interest. We would envisage a visit to the castle in the morning, on to (perhaps) Ripon for lunch, and return to York at about 4 p.m. Details will be in the June Bulletin, but if you are interested please let Marian Mitchell know before then (contact details on the back page of this Bulletin).

New Continental Group Rita Diefenhardt-Schmitt writes: „Attention, Ricardians on the Continent! I should like to form a Central Continental Group of the Society. There used to be one, and hopefully there could be one again. If you are interested, please contact me at Ulmenweg 8, 65520 Bad Camberg-O.selters/ Ts., Germany. All are welcome.‟

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The Robert Hamblin Award for service to the Richard III Society Nominations for 2012

This award was established in 2002 as a means of recognising members who have given significant long-term service and made a contribution of particular merit to the work of the Richard III Society. Our late Chairman, Robert Hamblin, was always conscious of the voluntary service and commitment that members give and was himself a fine example of such service. Following Robert‟s death in August 2002, the Executive Committee decided to initiate and name the award in his memory. Nominations are now sought from branches, groups and individual members for the 2012 award. The award is open to all members, apart from those serving on the Executive Committee, the President or the Vice-Presidents. Nominations must include full details of the nominee, the reasons why you think they qualify for the award and any relevant background information about them and their service to the Richard III Society. Nominations should be sent to the Joint Secretaries either by email or letter – please see contact details on the back inside cover of the Bulletin. The closing date for nominations is 31 July and the final selection will be made by the Executive Committee. The recipient of the 2012 award will be announced at this year‟s Annual General Meeting.

Ricardian Chronicle Update We are still looking for more researchers for our Ricardian Chronicle Project. We have sixteen researchers thus far – some more active than others – looking into local history archives to discover what folk were up to across the country during the reigns of Edward V, Richard III and (dare I mention him?) Henry Tudor, from 1483 up to 1500. For example, a carpenter named George Porter had permission from Edward V, on 25 May 1483, to cut as much timber as required from the forests of Essex, to commandeer workmen, carts and ships in that county to carry the timber up the east coast to Berwick. The intention was to repair the town and castle of Berwick which the English had besieged the summer before. I wonder what the locals thought of being bossed around and sent to Berwick by some carpenter bloke? If you like the idea of searching dusty documents but don‟t think you would be able to read the dodgy ancient handwriting, the Society has an excellent correspondence course to help you. The course is „in house‟, run by our own Heather Falvey, and can be done as and when you wish, at your own pace, and would be ideal for family history researchers too. If anyone wishes to join us in our quest or would like to do the palaeography (reading dodgy old writing) course, please contact me, Toni Mount, on [email protected] for further information.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR MEDIEVAL GREETINGS CARDS? We can provide individually handcrafted greetings cards for any occasion, which can be made to your personal specifications. Also available are medieval notelets, keyrings and phone/bag charms, coasters and credit-card size calendars which can be fitted in a purse or wallet. Please contact Helen and Sue (Greater Manchester Branch) email: [email protected] or [email protected] 5

Update from the Secretaries . . . Although this column (formerly „The Lowdown‟) has been quiet for the last few issues, this does not of course mean that the Secretariat has been dormant. During 2011, we supported the work of the Executive Committee across a number of areas, most of which you will have already read about in previous editions of the Bulletin and the Annual Report. We also held sales of books and Ricardian memorabilia at the Battlefields‟ Trust weekend to commemorate the 550th anniversary of the Battle of St Albans, the York Study Weekend, the Leicester Study Day, the Bosworth Weekend and, of course, the AGM. The reintroduction of the card payment facility was a huge benefit in the latter events and continues to be so in connection with the Society‟s on-line sales and membership payments. It is nice to know that there are some benefits from modern life even for a history-based organisation. Our sales work was ably assisted by a number of the Executive Committee and other members and our thanks go to all of them. A lot of our time in 2011 was taken up with the organisation of the AGM. With such a high profile speaker as Dr David Starkey, we had to identify a venue which would accommodate the expected attendees of around 200 – a number which was achieved. Despite an eleventh-hour scare of a possible student protest about Dr Starkey‟s presence on campus, the day was a success and his presentation was very well received. The University authorities omitted to tell us that the AGM came at the end of Freshers‟ Week and instead of the anticipated peaceful atmosphere there were several hundred students on site. Generally everyone was friendly, and members who were looking for new interests were able to join a number of student groups including the Anarchists Society and/or obtain a range of body arts. Unfortunately, no tattoos of Richard III were available. We have already started with the arrangements for the 2012 event in York, details of which appear elsewhere in this Bulletin. Our other plans for 2012 include a reprint of the Society‟s promotional leaflet which will incorporate a membership application form rather than have this as a separate insert. We shall again have sales stalls at a number of events including the Triennial Conference Weekend, Bosworth and the AGM. However, a significant part of our summer will be taken up with voluntary work as Olympic „Games Makers‟. We applied in Spring 2011 and have been through a rigorous selection procedure which included interviews and on-line questionnaires. We are pleased to say that we have been selected from over 250,000 applicants and even more pleased that our allocated duties are as drivers, based at the Olympic Park in Stratford. Perhaps we will be able to tell you that „we had that Usain Bolt in the back of our cab‟ or even chauffeured Lord Coe to the Palace. We will let you know how we get on later in the year. This does not mean that the Secretariat will not be operational during the period of the Games, although there may be a short delay in responses to emails or correspondence over this period. Indeed the Olympic authorities were kind enough to provide a convenient gap between the main event and the Paralympics to enable us to attend Bosworth as usual.

. . . and a reminder from the Editors Will members (and, indeed, others) who send in contributions for the Bulletin please remember that Lesley Boatwright cannot read .docx

Please make sure your text files are in the ordinary Word format, i.e. .doc. Also please do not include any top-of-the-range formatting because most of it clings tenaciously to its document and will not go away, so that Lesley has to re-type such material to get it into the editing software. Even bullet points and numbering can be very awkward to adjust, and so can a piece with multiple tab stops built in. Please keep it very simple.

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Can You Lend Your Expertise to the Society? We live in an increasingly digitised age, with the Society‟s presence on the internet now an essential part of our existence in terms of recruiting new members, providing a resource for Yorkist history, and promoting our work. To maintain and develop our website and engage fully with the opportunities of the digital age we rely on the time and skill of members who are prepared to volunteer in the service of the Society. We are now seeking to broaden our voluntary skills base so that we can take forward our plans for improving and expanding our internet presence. Much of the work involved will be on a virtual team basis. If you have creative/marketing skills and/or technical skills in website design and information management and would like to contribute to the work of the Society we should like to hear from you. As a first step please contact the Chairman, outlining your skills, experience and availability; his address can be found on the back cover of the Bulletin.

Adopt a boss in St George’s Chapel, Windsor The College of St George was founded in 1348 by Edward III but, in 1475, Edward IV commissioned the building of a new chapel and in 1483 he was buried there. In 2004, a major programme of restoration began and now the decorated ceiling bosses are in need of cleaning and restoration. In a project launched on 8 November last year, members of the public were invited to „Adopt a boss‟. The prices for adoption range from £150 to £1500. The Society has adopted one at £400, the cost being shared between the Society and the Ricardian Churches Restoration Fund. The motif chosen is the White Lion of March. A Yorkist emblem, it represents Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, who was created a Lady of the Garter by her father. The Society has adopted a boss and you are also invited to do so. Needless to say, there are a lot with Tudor motifs, but there are many others too. Go to the St George‟s „Adopt a boss‟ web Our new boss site and follow the link www.stgeorges-windsor.org/supporting-st-georges/adopt-a-boss.html

The International Medieval Congress in Leeds 2012 We have now heard that the Society‟s proposed seminar has been accepted. The dates of the Congress are 9-12 July, but we do not yet know what day our seminar will take place. It is called „Reality, Real People and Propaganda: The Miracles of Henry VI‟. Peter Hammond is the Moderator (i.e. Chair), and the papers to be presented are „Making the Most of Miracles: political propaganda and the tomb of Henry VI‟ (Lesley Boatwright); „New Light on a Medieval Mugging: the horrible case of Dr William Edwards, 1488‟ (Christopher Whittick) and „Miracles in Everyday Life: the ordinary and the miraculous‟ (Heather Falvey). The Society will also have a bookstall in the book sales area throughout the Congress.

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Many a slip … The Bulletin Committee were so looking forward to seeing the December 2011 issue. We were incorporating a colour section for the first time, the articles were well up to their usual standard, there was even a crossword for members‟ amusement over the Christmas holiday. All the electronic artwork had reached the printers on time, as it always does. We had put a new delivery system in place for the copies destined for the US branch (more of that below). When I received my advance copy of the Bulletin I was more than pleased with how it had turned out. Portland Direct, our UK bulk distributors, confirmed that all copies had gone out ahead of time – individually by post to UK members and in bulk parcels to our overseas network of volunteer distributors. „Job done for this year‟, I thought. On 5 December I received an email from Dorothea Preis, who undertakes the onward mailing of copies to Australian members living in New South Wales. She had discovered that in her copy pages 21-28 and 45-52 were missing, while she had pages 29-44 twice After a flurry of emails to and from our other „honorary distributors‟ in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, I discovered that it wasn‟t an isolated incident. Some of them had time to open and examine the copies that were destined for onward posting and had found a high incidence of copies with the same fault. Troubles come in threes. On the same day, Pat Orewiler

in Ohio, who supervises the distribution of all copies to US members, also reported a tale of woe. The US copies had arrived on time, courtesy of the new carriers, Fedex – but, in Pat‟s words, „in pitiful shape and wet through‟. As one can see from the photo that Pat sent me, the box appears to have been simultaneously put through a powerful shredder and dumped in a tank of water. We still have no explanation from Fedex of how the damage could have arisen, or how they thought that it was acceptable to deliver them to a customer in that condition, without an apology or even an acknowledgement other than the word „WET‟ written on the paperwork by the delivery man. Amazingly, only 23 copies were unusable (each copy is individually bagged, luckily). Mindful of the problem manifesting itself elsewhere in the world, I asked Pat to check a good sample of the copies for the bindery problem as well. It was ironic that we had just put in place a system to handle US copies by Fedex from door to door – Felixstowe, England to Mansfield, Ohio – to cure past problems with damaged consignments to the USA. And the third trouble? With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, we obviously needed to replace all the copies sent to overseas branches as quickly as possible. At least we usually have a respectable number of surplus copies left with Portland Direct after all members‟ copies have gone out. Usually, but not this time. We needed to send out 100 more copies to replace the faulty ones, but there were no spare copies from this print run. Fortunately, Wendy Moorhen was able to come to the rescue, by lending the greater part of the stock she holds as Membership Officer. So Wendy sent her copies off post haste to Portland Direct, who in turn sent out sufficient copies to each overseas branch to enable them to meet requests for replacements. All the replacements reached their destinations before Christmas. I‟d like to thank the overseas members for their patience and understanding. I would also like to thank, especially, Wendy for providing a quick fix for the problem, Sheilah O‟Connor for heroically taking the time at a busy period of the year to examine every Canadian member‟s copy and reparcelling those that were fit to go out, and of course also our other distribution representatives Dorothea Preis (New South Wales), Helen Hardegan (Western Australia), Mike Iliffe (Victoria) and Rob Smith (New Zealand), as well as Pat in the USA, for their help and co-operation in dealing with the fall-out from this binding problem. Stephen York, Business Manager

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Focus on ...... the Visits Committee

he Society is able to exist and function because of the voluntary work of its members at T every level. These volunteers are often unsung, and to give them some recognition and acknowledgement we are starting a new series in the Bulletin focussing on various aspects of the Society and the people involved. We begin with a focus on the committee that organises the Society‟s visits programme. To begin this focus on the Visits Team, Elizabeth Nokes recounts how it all started, and pays tribute to the role of Joyce Melhuish, whom many will still remember. Elizabeth also explains how the Visits Team evolved after Joyce died in 1995.

The Early Days Visits – there had of course been visits before Joyce Melhuish officially became Society Visits Officer in the late 1970s: Isolde Wigram, Phyllis Hester and myself on behalf of the London Branch had organised day and weekend visits, but Joyce took visits to new spheres. As well as researching and organising day visits over much of the country, she ran a long series of UK weekends: to Lincoln, Edinburgh, Shropshire, Worcester, Yorkshire, Bath and the wet country (no misprint!), Bristol, the Isle of Wight, Caerleon, Exeter, King‟s Lynn, Norwich, Bournemouth ... finding interesting, medieval and off-the-beaten-track places to visit, all researched and written up in the guide notes. A high spot of the UK visits was the week-long Ricardian Coronation Progress Tour in 1983. An entirely new departure for the Society that Joyce instituted was the series of Continental visits: „where never [Ricardians] had so good cheer out of England‟ to misquote John Paston. Visits were made five times to Bruges, twice to include the medieval pageants of the Holy Blood and the Golden Tree, three times to Provence, twice to Beaune and the Loire, and to Cahors, Troyes, Paris, Brittany and Normandy. The fact that it has subsequently taken a whole team to run visits demonstrates how much work Joyce put into this service to the Society, and the sum of education, information and pleasure thus given to members is incalculable, and can only be measured in participants‟ happy memories. Joyce‟s visits rightly earned the sou- briquet „Melhuish Medieval Tours‟, although I am not sure she entirely approved of this. The continued visits work now undertaken by the team is based on the groundwork and experience Joyce provided. Her foundations have enabled the team to continue with this aspect of the Society which has meant a lot to so many members. We still refer back to Joyce‟s notes on places we are to revisit. We had been aware before the autumn of 1995 that Joyce was increasingly unwell, really brought home to us by her inability to attend the AGM in that October, but it was a shock when she died on 10 October 1995. She had Joyce Melhuish and Elizabeth Nokes already organised a day visit to Sandwich for later in that

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month, and this went ahead, organised on the day by Kitty Bristow and myself. Phil Stone took over the Christmas visits to Fotheringhay, and has continued in the role of Fotheringhay Co-Coordinator, while I, as Secretary, had undertaken the Bosworth visits. But that left a vacuum for day, weekend and Continental visits, and Don Jennings took the lead in determining that Joyce‟s work would be carried on, gathering an informal team of interested society members, who then took forward the visits Joyce had planned and started organising for 1996, to Normandy and to Bruges. No day -visits were organised for 1996, which already had a full calendar, but they resumed in the following year. Team meetings were very informal to start with, taking place in the café in Embankment Gardens in London, subsequently indoors in the foyer of the National Theatre, and eventually settling down to the atrium of a London hotel. From 1997 the team became more formal, developing minutes and a standard agenda. Past team Don Jennings and ‘friend’ leaders have included Lesley Wynne-Davies (aka Visit to Chartres, 1992 Boatwright) and John Ashdown-Hill, (who instigated and managed the Requiem Mass for Anne Neville), and past members have included Joan Cooksley, Jean Nicholls, Pauline Stevenson, Audrey and Derek Verdin, and Carolyn West. Elizabeth Nokes

Today’s Visits Committee To find out about the work of the Visits Committee we put some questions to its chair Marian Mitchell, who kindly supplied the following answers:

Who is on the committee? Although we are a committee, we try to be less formal and like to think of ourselves as a team. The team consists of: Marian Mitchell (Team Leader), Elizabeth Nokes, Rosemary Waxman, Ros Conaty, Kitty Bristow and Phil Stone. Rosemary and Ros are the experts on continental travel and they have been arranging the further afield trips. Elizabeth does Bosworth and Phil does Fotheringhay. Marian generally does the UK day trips and has been known to put together UK long weekends. Kitty lends her long experience and wisdom to handling any problem.

Where do you meet and how often? We meet every couple of months in London, usually finding a secluded corner in the lounge of a central London hotel, where over cups of tea and coffee, we get down to business.

What do you discuss at a typical meeting? We always have an agenda, which we sometimes even stick to, but often veer off at a tangent over reminiscences of incidents during past trips. Visits are our remit and that is what we discuss. We do have a more serious side, when we analyse just-gone trips to establish if anything went wrong or could have been better organised; also, very importantly, did members enjoy the day? Our future programme is also discussed as we need plenty of time to bring plans to fruition. We have to think several months in advance as, once a venue has been decided upon, it has to be booked, the information about the trip and booking form have to be published in the relevant Bulletin giving four to six weeks‟ notice of the event. This is why if a member says there is an

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A meeting of the Visits Committee in 2012. L to R, Elizabeth Nokes, Rosemary Waxman, Ros Conaty, Marian Mitchell, Kitty Bristow. Phil Stone took the picture. exhibition of interest next month in such and such a town, we really cannot do it; this type of thing is best left to branches who can contact their members speedily. Interesting venues are sometimes suggested by Ricardians, but it is usually one of the team who makes a suggestion – perhaps a medieval property or town has been seen on a television programme and this sets us off along the road. We then mull over the pros and cons; for example, how long does it take to get there; how relevant it is to the Society or period; would there be any additional costs, for example, entry fees, guided tours.

How do you decide which places to visit when putting together the programme for a year? Deciding on places to visit can be difficult at times. Starting from London, we have to think about length of journey (AA Route Planner comes in very handy); we regard approx 2½ hours on a coach as the longest travelling time, bearing in mind the amount of time we have at a venue and then, of course, there is always the journey back – getting through London to the Embankment in the evening can be a wearying experience. We have to consider if we have previously visited a particular venue and when – is it too soon to go again? If we have not visited for 10 years or over, then it is considered all right to go again. We still feel that Saturday is the most convenient day for a trip; although, nowadays, of course, there is the drawback that privately owned properties are often closed on Saturdays for weddings.

What makes for a suitable place to visit? Does it have to have a direct Ricardian connection? If a place has a Ricardian connection, direct or remote, all the better. However, anywhere that is 14th- or 15th- century or, dare it be said, Tudor or Elizabethan, is considered. We are pretty open -minded and in the past, have often stopped off at, for instance, Roman remains or other places of national interest, but these are not generally the main feature of the day (or weekend). Simon Jenkins‟ England’s Thousand Best Houses is most helpful and frequently consulted in a search for medieval properties.

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What is it like being in charge of a coach full of Ricardians? We always find Ricardians very pleasant and extremely well informed. They are passionate about their subject and are quite often better informed than some of the guides we have had at various places. They can usually be relied upon to turn up at allotted times, and always enjoy the trips enormously. We have a dedicated core who turn up for every trip and we would like this core to expand. A joke always goes down well with Ricardians.

What is the greatest challenge you have had to face whilst in charge of a trip? Fortunately, we have not had any really mind-boggling „challenges‟ over the past few years. It‟s usually quite mundane, such as finding somewhere to stop with „facilities‟ or getting to the venue on time if there is a pre-arranged guided tour and the coach is stuck in traffic. Leaving with the same number as you arrived with has its challenges. The BBC correspondent, Brian Hanrahan, got it right when he „counted them all out and counted them all back‟ – that applies equally to coach parties. One notable occasion when it was „assumed‟ everyone was back on the coach was when we left a member at Pegasus Bridge in Normandy; fortunately the member, being a very level-headed lady, made her own way back to Rouen, where we were staying, by train. We have certainly recently never had a challenge such as Joyce Melhuish had after 50+ Ricardians boarded a specially-chartered double-decker coach for a Continental weekend to Bruges. The coach had arrived at the pick up point near Victoria Station and we all got on; the driver then informed Joyce that the coach had broken down and could not go any further. Joyce coolly organised us all train tickets to Dover to board the ferry we would have caught anyway and then by train to Bruges.

Do you meet up with local branches or groups during a visit? Not as often as we would like – in fact almost never. This has always been a disappointment since we would love to meet up with local members. Local knowledge and input would also be welcome in arranging long weekend trips in their areas.

What is the most enjoyable trip you have been on? One that‟s organised by someone else! Perhaps this should be „enjoyable and memorable‟ as we hope all our trips are both. Some that classify in both these categories are surely those to France – especially where exotic names learned in history lessons become real: Poitiers, Crécy, Agincourt, Angoulême, Avignon, Chinon, Bordeaux. Also trips around the North of England are very much enjoyed. One real favourite was the Carlisle-based long weekend, when we went to the remote ruins of Bewcastle and had to take a picnic lunch (provided by our hotel) as it was miles from anywhere. Also on that trip we visited Hermitage castle in Scotland with its ghosts of Mary Queen of Scots and Bothwell. Yorkshire in 2000 saw us at a performance of Shakespeare‟s Richard III on a cold, wet and windswept evening (it was only mid-July after all) at Sandal Castle and a couple of evenings later in York Minster awestruck by a most wonderful performance of the Mystery Plays.

What does the future hold for the committee and your visits programme? We had quite a disappointing year in 2011 when support seemed to dwindle somewhat, but this has not dampened our resolve to launch a programme for 2012. We think that our standard programme of two day-trips a year plus Bosworth and Fotheringhay works well; so also does our routine of having alternate years for UK based/continental long weekends. We will perhaps also give more thought to „own transport‟ trips. This does not necessarily mean by car; we would investigate train/taxi travel. Coaches are certainly getting more expensive and we really need 30 bookings to keep the cost reasonable. However, from studying what is charged for commercial coach trips, our prices are pretty competitive. We have also been toying with the idea of some

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mid-week outings in London – perhaps for an afternoon visit or a guided walk. We will be looking closely at the results of the recent survey in the December Bulletin for an insight into members‟ preferences..

Finally, is there anything else you would like to say to members about the committee and trips in general? We need you – keep supporting us! We have a team which works together very well and is trying to do its best for members. Any member who can get to London Embankment to pick up the coach at 9am is welcome – or we may be able to pick you up on the way if the coach doesn‟t have to make a great detour. Try a coach trip – a great way of meeting and getting to know fellow members. Also, suggestions for day trips are also very welcome, but bear in mind logistics and lunch/tea etc facilities.

Our grateful thanks to Marian, Elizabeth and the rest of the visits team for their cooperation in putting together this focus on their work. We hope it has given a real insight into what they do and the commitment they have. But of course there is no better way to appreciate their work than to go on a trip yourself.

Becoming a Ricardian In the Bulletin for September 2011, we published accounts from New South Wales of how various members there came to join the Society, and asked for contributions from other people. Here are two responses. The first is from Dr Liselotte Messner, who came from Vienna for a few days in December so that she could attend the Fotheringhay Christmas lunch and carols (and the British Library exhibition of medieval illuminated manuscripts).

Liselotte Messner I have always been a devoted Ricardian, starting around my fourteenth birthday by getting hooked by Paul Murray Kendall‟s biography, a BBC production of Shakespeare‟s history plays „An Age of Kings‟, starring Paul Daneman in a memorable performance (incredibly shown around midnight in English on Austrian TV in 1968), and of course Sir Laurence Olivier‟s film. I joined the Society then following the obituary in The Times, was a member for several years and forgot to renew my membership when studying at university (what a shame). After a difficult time in my life I suddenly remembered my old obsession with the English Late Middle Ages and the Wars of the Roses. Having a very strong sense of justice, I decided to rejoin the Society and maybe help to clear King Richard‟s name. I hope to be able to come to Bosworth in 2012.

Jill Davies I attended an „Historical Dancing‟* evening class in London in the 1970s. There were several members of the Richard III Society in the class, but the person whom I remember best was the one who told me about the Society, and its mission to re-evaluate the life and times of Richard III. I won‟t give her name, but there is a clue in the battles of Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby (wrong war, sorry!). I was intrigued by the idea of a „Good King Richard‟ and joined the Society forthwith. Ever since, I have found the Society to be a source of great interest. * To see a picture of Jill Davies dancing , look in your Bulletin for Winter 2008. It was taken on that most historic of dance-floors, the bridge at Avignon.

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For Richard and Anne: twin plaques (part 2) GEOFFREY WHEELER

lthough there is a record of payment for the burial of Queen Anne Neville, no accounts A survive of her funeral or monument. At one time a brass indent in the floor of Westminster Abbey was ascribed to her,1 so it is appropriate that her plaque should take this form. Fortunately, an exemplary design already existed, which would require little alteration. As part of the series on „Royal Beasts‟ for the children‟s education magazine Look and Learn, the heraldic artist Don Escott (1925-1987) had included a figure of her in his feature on „Richard III‟s Boar‟ [1]. Although depicting an Olivier-inspired Richard facing death at Bosworth, the magazine regularly championed the revisionist cause, as shown in the accompanying text: „The character of Richard III has been blackened by rumour, ably assisted by Shakespeare. Contrary to belief, [he] was a fine soldier, a good administrator, and was well liked, especially in the North of England. The Tudor monarchs, whose hereditary right to succeed to the throne was slender, fostered the tales that told ill of the last Plantagenet. Shakespeare was sure of a good hearing when in Richard III he likened King Richard to his royal beast.‟2 The artist based his reconstruction brass on the memorial to Elizabeth, Lady Say (died 1473) at Broxbourne, Herts [2], godmother to Edward IV. It was to her husband, Sir John, that Richard wrote his earliest surviving letter in 1469, requesting a loan of £100. The Say arms on her mantle were replaced with the royal arms, and the complicated quarterings displaying Anne‟s ancestral arms. This particular arrangement shows the arms of Beauchamp, Newburgh, Montagu, Mont- hermer, Neville, Clare and Despencer, deriving from contemporary illustrations in the Rous and Salisbury Rolls, and a shield shown in one of Richard‟s books, the De Re Militari of Vegetius, which was also used for the Society‟s memorial plaque installed in Westminster Abbey in 1960.3 A slightly different arrangement can be seen in the stained-glass figure of Anne in the Middleham window from a design by the Society‟s founder, Saxon Barton, installed in 1934. This bears a close resemblance to the drawing by William Burton of a lost window once in Skipton church, Yorkshire, in which she also appeared, but with her dress bearing the arms of Richard, Duke of Gloucester.4 Only one element needed to be added to complete the design, the muzzled bear of Warwick at her feet. An initial proposal [3] was rejected, as it reduced the overall size of the figure, and an alternative was substituted, based on the one shown in her figure in the Rous Roll [4], but with the image reversed. Should the original brass design here have been made to incorporate coloured enamels into the heraldry (as can be seen still surviving on the Say memorials), then the royal arms (lions and fleurs-de-lys) and the Beauchamp crosses shown would have to have been executed with the backgrounds hollowed out to take the colour, but as this was impossible to delineate on such a small scale the slight anachronism exists in the engraved arms, as they appear on the plaque.

1 Royal Tombs of Medieval England, by Mark Duffy (Tempus Books 2003) pp.264-265. 2 Look and Learn No. 77, 6 May 1967, back cover. 3 See Peter Hammond, „The Westminster Abbey Memorial to Anne Neville‟, The Ricardian no. 26, September 1969, pp.6-7, reprinted in the December 2010 Bulletin, pp.31-3. 4 All conveniently illustrated in Anne Neville, Queen to Richard III, by Michael Hicks (Tempus Books 2006) plates 26-29, 30.

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Primary source material used in the development of the design of the Anne Neville plaque. Numbers in square brackets in the text refer to these illustrations.

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Were you at Fotheringhay last December?

Fotheringhay is a very special place. The Society has been celebrating Christmas there since 1985. These days we have lunch in the Village Hall, after which comes the traditional Christmas service of Nine Lessons and Carols, a shared service between the Society and the parish. Fotheringhay church itself never ceases to amaze. It is so high, so set about with scars of architectural alteration, and – it must be said – often so cold inside that fur hats and copious scarves are very much in evidence. You can see why the style is called Perpendicular. Begun as a collegiate church by Edward III, it is dedicated to St Mary and All Saints. In 1434 a parish church was built on to the west end of the collegiate church. This is what survives today – or, rather, part of it does. The collegiate church and associated buildings have gone, and the chancel of the parish church was pulled down after the Dissolution in 1553, so that what it left is a tall, truncated building . Edward IV gave it the Back row, L to R: Mr and Mrs (Rebecca) Mallard, and Rebecca’s magnificent painted pul- mother, Lucy Pendar. Who is in the front row? pit, and Elizabeth I had the Yorkist tombs cleared away from the smashed chancel and replaced by two tall white construc- tions, which are curiously impersonal, like stately mantelpieces, and make no pretence to be tombs. As usual, the music this year was by the St Peter‟s Singers, directed by Louise Reid. Her husband Andrew Reid, who is the organist of Peterborough Cathedral, played the organ, and clearly enjoyed himself in Rebecca Mallard (now crowned) on the right. (Rebecca is one of the embellishing the passages volunteers who have just finished typing up the York Wills.) between the verses of 16

„While Shepherds Watched‟ – sung to the immortal tune „On Ilkley Moor Bah‟t ‟At‟. The lessons allocated to the Society were read by Jane Trump, Marian Mitchell and Rosanna Salbashian, and Phil Stone read from The Coming of the Magi, by T.S. Eliot, which is very much now a traditional part of our service. About 70 of us gathered for this year‟s lunch and service. Julia Campbell came from Paris to be with us, and Liselotte Messner came from Vienna. There were members Sue McMullen is in the middle on the front table. from far and wide: Man- chester, Norfolk, Gloucester- shire, Cheshire, Lincoln, Surrey, to name but a few, and a large contingent on a coach from London. Many people are regulars, coming year after year, and we recog- nise faces – but very often cannot put names to faces. When I looked at my photos this year, I realised that I could not identify most of the people in them, al- though I had seen them year after year. I sent a selection to the Branches and Groups Li- Front row, on R, George Cobby. Who are the other two gentlemen? Back row, Sally Empson and Jane Trump on R. aison Officers for circulation to branches and groups, appealing for help, but no names have been forth- coming. Is this because most of you in the pictures don‟t belong to a branch or group? Please take a look at these pictures and let me know if you are there, or you recog- nise someone who is. Apart from anything else, it would be really good to come round and greet more of you by name at the lunch and carols at Fotheringhay this year . LB Front, Mr and Mrs Neil Skidmore; back, Rosemary Waxman (back to camera), Andrew and Ros Conaty.

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News and Reviews

BBC to dramatise Philippa Gregory’s ‘Wars of the Roses’ novels The BBC have announced that they are to screen a television series called „War of the Roses‟, based on the novels by Philippa Gregory coverning the Wars of the Roses, which she refers to as „the Cousins‟ War‟. They say the series will be told from the point of view of the powerful women protagonists of Philippa Gregory‟s books: Jacquetta Woodville, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort, women who „shaped their men and who shaped history in the process‟. The BBC‟s drama controller, Ben Stephenson, said that „we haven‟t quite worked out how many episodes it‟s going to be, but it‟s going to be many‟. He went on to say that the series would be „one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted by the BBC‟. We shall see, but if this proposed series is successful it could lead to a significant increase in the public‟s awareness of the Wars of the Roses, and perhaps create opportunities for the Richard III Society to raise its profile and promote its work. We shall be watching developments closely.

The Cultural Olympiad 2012: an Embarras de Richards? Despite fears voiced by West-end theatre management that the summer Games will see a down- turn in audience attendances, an ambitious programme of Shakespearean productions has been announced to celebrate the occasion, with an unprecedented number of the Histories being performed. Ahead of the proceedings, the Theatre Royal, Bath, hosted a double bill in February with the History Cycle re-worked as „a sixty-minute romp ... using the plots of the Shakespeare text to the eight historical masterpieces, with contemporary additions‟, and The eggYPT presented Richard III „with murder and mayhem ... an arresting soundtrack, urban dance sequences ... played out in true slasher fashion‟. Stratford‟s RSC will open with their Richard III production, directed by Roxana Silbert at the Swan, running in repertory from 25 March to 15 September, with Jonjo O‟Neill as Richard and Siobhan Redmond as Queen Elizabeth, as well as premiering Two Roses for Richard III by visiting company Companhia Bufomecânica from Brazil, a „breath-taking production, combining Shakespeare‟s text with circus, multimedia, visual metaphor and aerial choreography‟, 7-12 May at the Courtyard Theatre, and 18-23 May at the Roundhouse, Camden, North London. (The Roundhouse was, of course, the venue for the unforgettable Rustaveli Company production of Richard III in 1980, whose leading actor Ramez Chkhikvadze sadly died in October 2011.) On London‟s South Bank, Shakespeare‟s Globe will also be hosting a number of foreign companies over six weeks from 23 April. The trilogy of Henry VI plays is to be performed in a single day by the National Theatres of three war-stained Balkan countries: Serbia, Albania and the former Republic of Macedonia, whilst the National Theatre of China makes its British debut with Richard III in Mandarin. From 14 July, Mark Rylance, the first artistic director of the Globe, will return to head an all-male company in the title role of Richard III. As this continues into September it may well overlap with the scheduled season of Edward Hall‟s Propeller Company, again performing all the Histories from Richard II to Richard III, reviving the latter unmissable production (see Bulletin, June 2011 and December 2011 for reviews). They will also stage Rose Rage, their 2008 production of the Henry VI plays condensed into two parts. A new version of Henry V is currently on tour, to which the Richard II and Henry IV plays will be added. Not to be left out, BBCtv have announced their new screenings of Richard II (Ben Whishaw), Henry IV (Jeremy Irons, with Simon Russell Beale as Falstaff) and Henry V (Tom Hiddleston) in April. Geoffrey Wheeler

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A film version of Richard’s life? As noted opposite, whilst the BBC are pressing ahead with their plans to dramatise Philippa Gregory‟s novels, there is also a movement to encourage a film version of Richard III‟s life, based on the historical facts rather than the myths, with Richard Armitage in the lead role. For further information visit their website: www.kingrichardarmitage.rgcwp.com

The Life and Times of Richard III: an Oxford Experience The Oxford University Department for Continuing Education are advertising a residential programme on „The Life and Times of Richard III‟ for the first week in July (Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th). The aim is „to present an accurate and balanced account of a much maligned man and monarch‟, and the tutor is Jackie Duff, a tutor for the Open University and Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. The seminars will be held in the mornings, and the afternoons are free for „course-related field trips, individual study or exploring the many beautiful places in and around the city‟. There will be sessions on the political and social background of the fifteenth century, genealogies of the houses of Lancaster, York and Tudor, the early life of Richard of Gloucester, the Princes in the Tower, an assessment of Richard‟s reign, and the myths and legends generated by his life and reign, and „why Tudor propaganda shaped his reputation for centuries to come‟. It sounds interesting – but the programme fee (including accommodation and meals) is well over a thousand pounds: £1135, to be exact, and £180 for „single ensuite upgrade‟. The website to contact for further information is www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses.

THE WARBECK TRILOGY by Karen MacLeod

Suppose Perkin Warbeck had a grandson…

DOUBTFUL BLOOD (1544-48) COUNTERFEIT (1554) THORN MAKER (1559)

In 1544, John White, Warden of Winchester College, finds a mysterious, fair-haired boy with head injuries and memory loss in a Hampshire ditch. Given the name Jan, when his memory returns the boy conceals his real name, Richard Warbeck. Knowing his grandfather’s fate, he is determined not to draw attention to himself lest others less scrupulous than White seek to use him. But England under the Tudors is in political and religious turmoil and Jan has qualities that won’t stay hidden…

Pentalpha Publishing Now available in the Amazon Kindle Store (UK £2.00 / USA $2.99) Can also be downloaded to PCs, i-Pads and smart phones

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Seminar in Santiago ‘A Reassessment of King Richard III: the Man and the Myth’ (Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 20 December 2011).

We have received the following interesting report from Dr Cristina Mourón-Figueroa, senior lecturer in the Department of English and German Philology at the University of Santiago de Compostela:

It had always been a desire of myself and some of my colleagues in the Department of English and German Philology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) to organise an activity on King Richard III for our students. The reasons are, firstly, a personal passion for this fascinating historical character and for the period he lived in and the events he was involved in; secondly, an academic interest on the literary character (or rather myth) created by William Shakespeare and, finally, a pedagogical objective. Since our university degree in English Language and Literature include compulsory subjects such as History and Culture of the English-speaking Countries, Culture and Tradition in the British Isles, English Literature 2 (16th-17th centuries) or English Theatre, in which Shakespeare‟s Richard III and the historical period of the Wars of the Roses play a relevant part, we thought the students might benefit from a more specific and practical approach to these topics. Moreover, students are required to attend three compulsory interactive hours for each one of the subjects in our syllabus. Therefore, the idea of a seminar intended as an extra activity for the students, whose attendance would be considered for their continuous evaluation within the subjects aforementioned, came in very handy as a means to offer them a new perspective both on the controversial events that surrounded the existence of King Richard III and on how Shakespeare transformed him into a mythical evil creature. The title, the contents and the structure of the seminar revolved around these two perspectives. All of our six speakers belong to the research group „Discourse and Identity Research Group for the multidisciplinary study of English Language, Literature and Culture (GI- 1924)’, four of them being senior lecturers and teachers of the subjects mentioned before. Thus, the seminar also served to make the research fields of our group known among the students. The activity started with the showing of Al Pacino‟s film Looking for Richard (1996). We believed that Pacino‟s approach to the play fitted our pedagogical purposes as his intention is to make Shakespeare‟s Richard III accessible to the general public. Then, two round tables followed. Round Table I „Humanising Richard‟ focused on the historical character. Dr Cristina Mourón-Figueroa presented „The Long Winter of our Discontent is over: in Defence of the Brightest Son of York‟, a brief comment on the life and deeds of King Richard III and on the damage done to his reputation by Tudor propaganda. In the following paper, „Reception of the Ricardian Legacy in the Media‟, Dr Milagros Torrado-Cespón and Mr Jorge Goldar-Diéguez (postgraduate student) offered a summary of Ricardian bibliography and fiction, web pages (that of The Richard III Society included) and also Ricardian references in popular British culture (such as those found in some scenes from The Trial of King Richard III (Channel 4 – 1984) and from Blackadder (TV series, BBC, 1983 – 1989; Chapter 1). Several aspects of both the literary character and the Shakespearean play were discussed in Round Table II „Performing Richard‟. Dr Jorge Sacido-Romero approached the subject of politics and the characterisation of Richard as a politician in his contribution „Richard III and the Reconceptualisation of Political Power‟. Adaptations of the play to films were explained by Dr Laura Lojo-Rodríguez in „Richard III and Cinematic Narratives‟, focusing specifically on Richard Loncraine‟s film (1995). Finally, „Richard III on the Galician Stage‟, presented by Dr Manuela Palacios González, dealt with the translation of the play into Galician (one of the two vernacular languages of our autonomous community within Spain, the other being Spanish) as well as with the 2005 staging of this Galician version by the Centro Dramático Galego (Galician Dramatic Centre) directed by Manuel Guede Oliva.1

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There was also time for debate after each round table. However, most of the students were still in their first year and were shy and afraid to speak in public. Nonetheless, they showed great interest specially on the topic of the Little Princes and on the discussion about Richard III being guilty or innocent of their possible murder. They were also very enthusiastic about the play- oriented nature of the activity, as we thought that it would be a good idea to attract their attention by „staging‟ the seminar. With this purpose in mind, we delivered our papers wearing black T- shirts with Richard III‟s white boar and motto and white rose brooches.

The table was also decorated with a bunch of white roses, banners and the posters used to announce the seminar. Towards the end, the students showed themselves more eager to participate, specially when Dr Manuela Palacios-González drew lots for one of the T-shirts among those students who gave the correct answer to the question of who was the director of the Galician play. We were also lucky to have the presence of some colleagues from other departments as the seminar was announced to all the members of our faculty who were cordially invited to attend. As a final touch, we dedicated the seminar to our recently retired colleague Ms Amelia Fraga- Fuentes, also our former teacher, the one who successfully initiated us into the Shakespearan universe. In general, the seminar seems to have been quite successful. Therefore, we are considering the organisation of future similar activities and even a more academic and/or international conference or seminar on Richard III, provided we can count on the necessary financial support. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our research group and the Department of English and German Philology of the University of Santiago de Compostela for their support, encouragement and finance. Also many thanks to the Richard III Society for the encouragement, the leaflets and for allowing us to make the seminar widely known.

Note 1 Publication: Ricardo III. Colección Centro Dramático Galego 34, 2005. Conselleria de Cultura, Comunicación Social e Turismo, Xunta de Galicia, Instituto Galego das Artes Escénicas e Musicais e Centro Dramático Galego, Santiago de Compostela.

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Book review

The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare by Robert Winder Abacus 2011, paperback, 436pp

We first meet the wealthy and celebrated William Shakespeare (now retired) at a gala performance of his own Richard III. It is February 1613 and he is sitting just feet from „mighty‟ King James, a „blustering glutton who these past ten years had nudged England and Scotland towards their present uneasy union‟ (p.2). In Shakespeare‟s pocket is a leather-backed pamphlet which criticises his play, arguing that the playwright had taken a „well-intentioned and legitimate monarch (Richard III) and depicted him as a murderous hell-hound. He was thus the willing collaborator in a calculated piece of political myth-making. In crowing over the toppling of a king, he had written a disgraceful apologia for treason that falsely represented the greedy, usurping Tudors as a troop of white knights rescuing England from tyranny‟ (p.2). Shakespeare‟s conscience is already uneasy, and he knows, „not all that deep down, that [the criticism] was well aimed‟. Shortly afterwards, Shakespeare is brought before Sir Edward Coke and informed that he is to write one more play, Henry VIII, at James‟s request. King James believes that Henry was divinely appointed, that a true-born monarch carries „sparkles of divinity‟ and, says Coke, „He would be most distressed by any suggestion to the contrary‟ (p.31). And so the order is given, Shakespeare is bound to accept and the play is produced. Except that Shakespeare doesn‟t actually write Henry VIII, he gives the commission to playwright John Fletcher. Instead, he gathers around him his old theatre troupe, the King‟s Men, and together, in great secrecy, they create Henry VII. A young scribe, John Harvard (yes, he of the university) and John Donne‟s daughter, Constance, complete the team. Meeting in different places for fear of discovery, they slowly create The True and Tragicall Historie of King Henry VII, a play of which James would definitely not approve. But London is a very dangerous place, no-one can be trusted, no-one is safe when soldiers stand „in knots on every corner‟ and „citizens could be stopped, interrogated or led away in chains‟ (p.39) at any moment. Young John Harvard is careless, papers fall into the wrong hands and Shakespeare is arrested and imprisoned in the Tower. The manuscript of the play is burnt. After his release, Shakespeare‟s faithful actors perform, from memory and in homage to the master, a shortened version of the play in a room at the Greyhound Inn. And in a creative tour de force, Robert Winder actually invents the entire play, just under a hundred pages of iambic pentameter. And what of Henry VIII? The first performance of this „pallid piece‟ (p.427) is about to take place at the Globe Theatre. But Shakespeare is resentful: his Henry VII had „been incinerated. Why should not his son suffer the same fate?‟ (p.427) And so, by dint of some roasted chestnuts and a pile of straw, the Globe is burnt to the ground (which happened in June 1613) and Shakespeare goes back home to Stratford: „No one came to see him off or even noticed him leave. So no one witnessed the melancholy sight of an extinguished spirit, as he passed out of London for the last time, and into posterity‟ (p.431). Robert Winder has produced a novel of quite remarkable originality and imaginative force. He attempts to analyse the great dramatist‟s creative processes (with mixed success) and most of the book is concerned with the creation of the play itself, which sometimes becomes monotonous. One of the novel‟s real strengths, however, is in his depiction of life in London, overshadowed by secrecy, betrayal and real fear. A stylish and entertaining read. Elaine Henderson

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DVD review The Shadow of the Tower (BBC tv series, 1972)

I‟ve recently acquired, via Amazon, a DVD of the BBC series „The Shadow of the Tower‟ (1972, region 2, so playable in the UK), an import with Dutch subtitles but English audio, and it is fascinating to view this 13-part series about Henry VII nearly 40 years after I first saw it. Why did I acquire a series about Henry VII? No, I haven‟t changed sides – although when I first viewed it in 1972, after watching „The Six Wives of Henry VIII‟ and „Elizabeth R‟ I was a Tudor supporter (mea culpa) and I knew very little about the Plantagenets. I became a Ricardian some five years later after seeing Shakespeare and thinking, that can‟t be the historical Richard, can it? Well, I bought the DVD because there is not very much film or television drama available about late fifteenth-century England with the exception of Shakespeare‟s Richard III, and I remembered the series (or at least the actor who played Henry, James Maxwell) very well. So, nearly 40 years on, how does the series hold up? Firstly, it was in thirteen 50-minute episodes, so the plays proceed at a leisurely pace. There are episodes devoted to Lambert Simnel and more than one episode covering „Perkin Warbeck‟, and separate episodes concerning the development of religious thought, about a Lollard heretic, an exploration to the New World, about John Cabot. The BBC did not invest all that much money in the series, so it is studio-based. The episodes are written by different playwrights, for example Rosemary Anne Sissons and Hugh Whitemore, who wrote episodes of the other Tudor series. Two of the best, most intriguing, episodes are written by Julian Mitchell, who later wrote some excellent Inspector Morse scripts. Secondly, on the whole the series is not very anti-Richard – quite fair-minded. The first episode starts immediately after Bosworth, but Richard is never forgotten. In one of the final episodes, Margaret Beaufort says to her son Henry, „Richard lost because he let you live‟, and throughout the episodes there are enough Yorkist and anti-Tudor comments to make you happy. In the last episode, Henry realises that he has founded a dynasty, and has security of a sort, but acknowledges that he is not loved by his people. James Maxwell as Henry is sharp, political, cunning, wary, but certainly with some charisma. You know who to watch on screen. He is shown as religious (frequently at his prayers), careful (sitting at his desk writing in his ledgers and counting out money) and only very occasionally in family scenes. He is a lonely man. Characters mean more to me now than they once did. The earl of Lincoln, played by James Laurenson, appears in the first few episodes playing a long game, initially accepting Henry for his own ends. A spirited Yorkist Margaret of Burgundy is played by Rachel Kempson (mother of Vanessa Redgrave). Elizabeth Woodville is seen only in one scene when Henry sends her off to Bermondsey abbey. In 1972 I did not understand the significance of these assorted characters and plots, but I do now. Perkin Warbeck, played by the suitably-named Richard Warwick, seems to be accepted as Perkin Warbeck, but there are ambiguities. The DVD contains two bonus features. First, „The Tower of London – the Innocent‟, a BBC play circa 1969 filmed in black and white, with a very dodgy soundtrack, about the downfall of Warbeck and Edward, earl of Warwick (James Maxwell as Henry VII, Corin Redgrave as Warbeck and Robert Powell as Warwick). The other extra is a 1985 Welsh TV programme called „Hooray Henry‟, showing Bosworth as it was in 1985 with the battlefield models, and featuring discussion between various historians, including Ralph Griffiths from Swansea University, who comments that it isn‟t certain where the battlefield was, and it could have been in Dadlington. The programme also includes views of places in Brittany and France where Tudor spent his exile prior to 1485. Even the Richard III Society gets a mention, when the presenter Dai Smith interviews Jeremy Potter, who is forced apologetically to conclude that Henry Tudor was a good politician and probably England‟s cleverest king. All in all, an enjoyable wallow in BBC nostalgia. Fiona Price

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Teaching history in schools – the debate continues The MP for Kingswood, historian and Society member Chris Skidmore sponsored a debate in Westminster Hall on 10 January about the teaching of history in English schools. The debate highlighted the poor state of history as a subject, and offered some solutions to improve matters which hopefully will be addressed in the current review of the National Curriculum. It was a well-attended debate with contributions from all sides of the house, including the historian and MP for Stoke on Trent Central, Tristram Hunt. It was argued that history ought to be made compulsory in schools beyond 14; compared to our European neighbours we are the only country apart from Albania that does not make history compulsory beyond that age. The debate also highlighted the uneven nature of the uptake of history in differing areas of the country, in some the subject becoming almost obsolete. Another point made was the need to ensure that pupils are taught a broad chronological and narrative understanding of British history, rather than just unrelated segments which only provide a partial understanding of our past rather than demonstrating how centuries interconnect with one another. The importance of local history was also stressed. Chris says, „I fully intend to continue the campaign to make history compulsory to 16, as the government‟s Curriculum Review remains ongoing. I believe that there is broad support for the idea, both in Parliament and in the wider historical community, and I look forward to further demonstrating this support in the weeks and months to come.‟ We wish him success,. The debate can be accessed in full at: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2012-01- 10b.25.0 John Saunders

Royal Connections: a music and flower festival at Fotheringhay During the weekend of 9-10 June 2012, St Mary and All Saints church, Fotheringhay, is presenting a music and flower festival. The purpose is to celebrate HM The Queen‟s Diamond Jubilee. The theme of the floral displays is „Royal Connections‟, which, of course, at Fothering- hay date back to before the Domesday Book and include the House of York, with the gifts of Edward IV and the birth of Richard III. Throughout the two days, the church will be filled with „floral pageantry‟, organised by John Chennell, while on Saturday 9th there will be music from 10 am until 8 pm. At the time of going to press, it is not known quite what form this will take, but local musicians - organists, classical soloists, singers, ensembles of all kinds, choirs, folk musicians, etc. - are being offered twenty- minute slots to perform in live. The musical director is James Parsons, local organist and founder of the famous Oundle International Festival. On the Saturday, refreshments will be available in the Village Hall.

Tickets can be obtained from: The Churchwardens, 18 Fotheringhay, Peterborough, PE8 5HZ Further information can be obtained from 01832 226055

Costs: Saturday: adults £7, seniors £5, children under 12 free (add £1 if purchased on the day) Sunday: adults £2.50, seniors £2, children under 12 free.

All proceeds will be in aid of the Fotheringhay Church Development Fund. Phil Stone

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Media Retrospective

Trashed Reputations Choosing the most over-rated people in The first three items are from Geoffrey history Wheeler BBC History Magazine, Jan 2012, pp.35-40. Edward IV, chosen by Nigel Saul. „Edward Asking Shakespeare how he likes it IV actually achieved very little. Abroad, Was Shakespeare really Shakespeare? Roland when he had the chance to emulate Edward Emmerich‟s new film Anonymous says not. III, he backed off, choosing instead to take a The Stage, 27 Oct 2011, pp.10-ll, article by pension from the French king. At home, by Professor Stanley Wells. „no one is likely to his ill-judged marriage .. he divided the take Anonymous seriously as a contribution to nobility, sowing the seeds for his brother‟s Shakespeare scholarship. ... Shakespeare was usurpation and ultimately for the overthrow a consummate professional, steeped in the of the house of York .. [his] failings were colours of his trade, not a posh, aristocratic those of Charles II: laziness, superficiality amateur dabbling in theatrical composition and self-indulgence.‟ with one hand while tickling up the Virgin Queen with the other.‟ The Stage, 10 Nov King Richard’s bad reputation 2011, letter from a Bryn Hughes of From Margaret Fuller, Chepstow Wrexham: „I like to think that, somewhere, Gloucester Citizen, 9 Sept 2011, letter from Richard III and other persons who had their Jean Clarke, Westgate, responding to an reputations trashed by misrepresentation in article by Peter Arnold in the 25 Aug issue: the Bard‟s history plays are now gleefully „... Richard was much admired, more than asking him how he likes it.‟ Edward, as he was away in the north fighting battles to keep the kingdom safe for his The Tudors got a grip at last brother, who changed after becoming king A History of England in 100 Places. From and became devoted to a life of pleasure ...‟ Stonehenge to the Gherkin, by John Julius Norwich (John Murray 2011), p.75 Events at Bosworth „Perhaps the principal drawback the English What really happened? had to contend with during the Middle Ages From Geoffrey Wheeler was the dynasty of the Plantagenets. After the Military History Monthly (formerly Military near-genius of Henry II – who laid the Times), December 2011. The lead story is the foundations of our legal system – and with Battle of Bosworth. „We know less about the the not very shining exceptions of Edwards I events of 22 August 1485 than about the and III, our rulers till the end of the fourteenth Battle of Hastings 400 years earlier. In fact, century were little better than dolts; the new we know no more about how Richard III lost century started rather more promisingly with his throne than we do about how Caratacus Henrys IV and V, but then with Henry VI we and Boudica lost theirs.‟ The account seeks to were saddled with the worst of the lot – in explain „What really happened‟, illustrated by youth a fool, in later life an imbecile. The drawings of men in armour and battle scenes. series was completed by a playboy and a It finds a professional approach on both sides. villain (All right, I know that not everyone Richard‟s plan „may have been to use agrees about Richard III, but I stick to my superior numbers to envelop the flanks of the guns.) And, because we were still a long way heavily outnumbered Tudor force as they from constitutional monarchy, the people closed ... [this] was too obvious for a wily old suffered. What a relief it must have been, veteran like the earl of Oxford‟, who gambled after Bosworth, when the Tudors got a grip at on shifting his entire army to the left. last.‟ Richard‟s charge, too, „was the work of a 25

professional who knew his business: against a The wedding was a canny financial trans- mass of men weary with long fighting, a action for Edward IV, effectively selling a charge of heavy horse ... can strike with stake in the monarchy to one of his friendlier shattering effect‟. But it failed – „and the nobles [the duke of Norfolk]. The article King‟s head was smashed by a rebel poleaxe‟. notes that when Anne died her inheritance stayed with the Crown, but when Richard What might happen? became king he restored „at least part of the From David Baldwin plundered legacy to Lord Howard‟. There Leicester Mercury, 11 Dec 2011, „Let Battle isn‟t much adverse to Richard in the article, commence‟. „Bosworth Battlefield ... has just except „it‟s hard to see past wicked uncle been approved as a wedding venue. It‟s Richard as the culprit‟ who killed the Princes. particularly appropriate if you‟re called Richard. And you‟re her third husband. (And Mentions the future missus has got two small kids From Sheila Gove. In Derby Day, by D.J. you‟d quite like to see the back of.)‟ Taylor (a book set in Victorian times concerning a horse named Tiberius): „it was The astrologer got it wrong suggested that Richard Crookback, had he From Marilyn Garabet, Scotland wanted to escape Bosworth Field, should The Times, 25 Aug 2011. „Henry, your heir have had him standing by‟. will marry well, love the Church ... no, From Carol Hartley. In The Diary of the wait ...‟ by Valentine Low, reviewing the Revd. John Wesley, January 1776, he British Library exhibition of Royal mentions: „those greatly injured characters, Manuscripts. „On New Year‟s Day, 1503, Richard III and Mary, Queen of Scots‟. William Parron, an Italian astrologer ... From Shirley Stapley: on a recent BBC2 quiz presented Henry VII with a book of programme „Pointless‟ a question was asked predictions for the coming year [including] about Richard III which showed him in a bad that his wife Elizabeth would live to the ripe light. However, one of the presenters said that old age of 80, and that his surviving son Shakespeare had deliberately painted an would be a devoted servant of the Church unflattering portrait of Richard to please who would have a happy marriage and father Elizabeth I. many sons. ... The King never lived long Via Anne Ayres: on the „Today‟ programme enough to find out how wrong Parron‟s in the second week of January in a discussion forecasts were about Prince Henry ... but he of film biographies, it was asked if the film did quickly learn how wrong Parron was version will eventually be the only one about the Queen‟ [who died a few weeks believed, and film script-writer Frank later]. „Parron, no doubt wisely, disappeared Cotterell-Boyce said, „every now and then from the court and was never heard from you do meet someone who says, “Richard III again. ... Thomas More ... wrote a poem wasn‟t really how Shakespeare painted him” lamenting the Queen‟s death in which he also – and they‟re the people you really want to attacked astrology as a false science.‟ move away from on the train‟.

A Canny Financial Transaction Tailpiece From Vicky Neeves, Stepney From Geoffrey Wheeler Eastend Life (Tower Hamlets newspaper), 28 The Independent, 14 Jan 2012, feature „The Nov to 4 Dec 2011, history feature by John Wars of the Roses II‟ has notes by Lauren Rennie: „Stepney‟s secret, the child princess York on the history of local rivalry, Yorks v. who lay undisturbed for 500 years‟. Lancs. As well as cricket and popular music, „The union was part of the madness of one it includes „the world black pudding throwing of the bloodiest periods in English history, as competition .. in Ramsbottom, Lancs. The rival houses fought for the throne, and kings aim is to knock as many Yorkshire puddings changed thrones with dizzying frequency. as possible off a 30ft plinth.‟

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The Man Himself Richard’s Religious Donations LYNDA PIDGEON

his King Richard was praiseworthy for and six choristers. St Ninian, St George and T his building, as at Westminster, St Michael were to be commemorated. St Nottingham, Warwick, York and Middleham, Ninian was the patron saint of the Western and many other places, which can be viewed. March towards Scotland. Richard had served He founded a noble chantry for a hundred as warden of the Western March, and this priests in the cathedral of York, and another may account for his choice of this Scottish college at Middleham. He founded another in saint.* As well as providing prayers for the church of St Mary of Barking, by the himself, his wife and son, prayers were to be Tower of London, and endowed the Queens‟ offered for his surviving siblings, the king College at Cambridge with 500 marks annual and queen, as well as his mother. Masses rent.‟ 1 were also to be said for the soul of his father Thus wrote John Rous in his Anglica and his deceased brothers and sisters. Historia, listing some of Richard‟s religious However the college was not only to serve as endowments, of which Middleham is the best a house of prayer, it was to contribute towards known. Jonathan Hughes suggests that the better education of the clergy and improve Richard had an „excessive preoccupation with services in the locality.3 chantry masses… He was responsible for ten The same licence also gave Richard chantry or collegiate foundations (apart from permission to endow a college at Barnard his patronage of Queens‟ College, Castle. In the parliament of 1478 Richard Cambridge) and he distributed a stream of petitioned the king for permission to grant to largesse to religious houses, parish churches, the college „the advowsons of the churches of houses of friars, chapels and chantries‟. He Cottingham in the county of York, Hanslope, adds that many of Richard‟s gifts were small Olney and Marlow in the county of and mostly given in the North, where he Buckingham, Stanford in the county of established most of his foundations.2 Hughes Berkshire, [and] Middleton in Teesdale in the seems to hint at a sinister motivation for bishopric of Durham … in consideration that Richard‟s „excessive preoccupation with I, your said suppliant, intend by the grace of chantry masses‟, implying a guilty conscience God to build, found, endow and establish a perhaps? However, closer inspection of college comprising a dean [and] twelve Richard‟s chantry foundations shows that as priests to sing and pray for the prosperous many were made before 1483 as after: if estate of you, sovereign lord, the queen, your Richard felt the need for numerous masses for children and my lady mother, the welfare of his soul it was not only related to the Princes. me, Anne, my wife, and my children whilst Richard‟s surviving, and best known, we live in this present world, and for our collegiate foundation is that at Middleham. souls when we have departed from this world, On 21 February 1478 he obtained a licence to the souls of my lord my father, my brothers found and endow the college, which was to be and sisters, and of all Christian souls.‟ These served by a dean, six chaplains, five clerks advowsons had formed part of Richard and

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Anne‟s share of the Warwick estates which abbess said that on 18 March 1485 „he had been divided up between them and erected the said chapel into the royal free Clarence and Isabel.4 The endowment was chapel of the Blessed Mary of Berkyng, valued at 400 marks per annum, twice the size London, for a dean and six canons ... and of Middleham. In his request for prayers appropriated to them the advowsons of the Richard mentions „children‟, in the plural. said parish church of All Hallows‟. As While he had illegitimate children, he Richard III had been attainted and his probably hoped for, and expected, more possession declared forfeit in the November children with his wife. parliament 1485, the abbess wished to have While these foundations demonstrate a her rights restored. An inquisition held on 14 concern for the welfare of his soul and the February 1489 had found that the abbess and souls of family, he also demonstrated a wider convent had granted the advowson to Richard concern for the men who had died in the III and that he had then founded the free battles which had brought the Yorkists to chapel, therefore the advowson should belong power. He wished to establish a chantry for to the king. The abbess continued to press her those who had died in the Barnet and claim, and commissioners were appointed to Tewkesbury campaigns as well as for those at enquire further into the truth of the matter. Towton.5 There is little information relating to She may have been pressing her luck these chantries. Early in his reign, on 28 following Richard‟s attainder; however, it November 1483, Richard issued a warrant to does seem from this that Richard had founded the receiver of Pontefract to pay Thomas the chapel, the lack of any paperwork being to Langton and William Salley £40 for „bilding the benefit of the abbess. Whatever questions & edifieng‟ the chapel at Towton.6 At an may be raised over the missing papers, it is unknown date he also awarded „Sir John interesting that the inquisition made the Batmane, prest‟ seven marks a year from the previous year did find against the abbess.9 honour of Pontefract to sing at Towton On 22 October 1484 Richard issued Chapel for life, with his successors to receive instructions to the bailiffs and burgesses of the same sum.7 Shrewsbury to pay eight marks from the fee Apart from the assertion of Rous, there is farm of Shrewsbury to the perpetual chaplain little evidence that Richard built a chantry at of the chapel of „Hedistaston‟ (Edstaston) in St Mary of Barking. According to the Vic- the parish of Wem near Shrewsbury. The toria County History, in 1465 Edward had letters patent had been issued on the previous granted to the gild of St Mary the manor ot 7 September for the foundation of the chapel, Tooting Bec and the advowsons of Streatham as the king wished to „show his devotion to for the maintenance of a chantry with two the glorious Virgin Mary, mother of God‟. chaplains. While Richard was said to have Divine service was to be said daily for the rebuilt the chapel and erected a college with a safety of the king, his wife Anne during their dean and six canons, there is no evidence of lives, other benefactors and to pray for their any endowment having been made to support souls after death. The chaplain was also to the college.8 However, in March 1490 the pray for the soul of Richard, duke of York, abbess of the monastery of St Mary Barking his father, and others. The chaplain was to petitioned the king, claiming that from time have special licence to carry out his duties immemorial the abbess had the right of „without interference or molestation‟.10 Given appointment to the church of All Hallows, that his son Edward had died in the previous Barking. As such she had appointed Richard April it is curious that no specific mention Baldry, her clerk, to the vicarage, and he was was made of the dead except his father. It is „admitted, instituted and inducted‟. Richard likely that plans had been made elsewhere III then presented William Talbot to the rec- following Edward‟s death, and is part of the tory „under colour of a grant of the rectory mystery that surrounds his final resting place. made to him by the aforesaid abbess and All these foundations would have been convent but not enrolled in any court‟. The overshadowed by Richard‟s plan to establish

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a college of 100 priests at York Minster in Amongst the smaller gifts that were made 1483. The suggestion has been made that this was that to St Winfred‟s chapel, £40 for the was to have formed a mausoleum for himself repair of the church of Coverham Abbey, and his family, in the same way that Edward payment of a stipend to provide a chaplain at intended at St George‟s, Windsor. Hawes, Wensleydale, and the purchase and If St Mary Barking is included in the list donation of the advowson of Seaham, of Richard‟s foundations, this only totals Durham, which was worth £15.16 Richard‟s seven that were either established or concern both as duke and king seems to have proposed. There are mentions in Harleian 433 been for the provision of a church or priest in and the Calendars of Close and Patent Rolls isolated or poor areas, as well as improving of other chantries to which Richard either the standard of the priests. On 17 September gave money or nominated the chaplain; 1483 Richard instructed the receiver of however there is nothing to indicate that he Wakefield to continue paying 40s. a year to a was the original founder. At St Mary, Riccall priest to provide services in the chapel of St (York), a perpetual chantry called „King Michael, Holmfirth, for the tenants. This was Richard‟s chantry‟ was founded by James because of the long distance they otherwise Charleton esquire and Richard Davy, had to travel to reach the parish church.17 In perpetual vicar of the church, on 4 December October 1484 he donated ten marks towards 1483.11 The name may have led to an the rebuilding or improvement of the church assumption that it was founded by Richard. of St Mary which was located just outside the The chantries to which Richard appointed town of Llandovery. The church of „St Mary a priest included John Newman to the parish on the Hill‟ and the parish church of St church of Brailes, Warwickshire, Thomas Dingat, which lay within the town walls, had Henbury to the chantry in the castle of both been damaged by Owen Glyndwyr‟s Denbigh, North Wales, and Sir Edmund troops in 1403. While the parish church had Banke to the chantry in the castle of Sandal.12 been restored by the townspeople, the church These are areas in which Richard would have on the hill had been left to languish, and this had an interest when he was duke. Of greater may account for the king‟s gift. 18 interest is the warrant issued to Geoffrey On 20 October 1484 Nicholas Leventhorp Franke, receiver of the lordship of Sheriff was sent a warrant to see that the house of Hutton. On 15 January 1485 he was ordered Dame Margaret Multon „Anchres of to pay 100s in wages to Sir William Symson, Pountfret‟, and the chapel adjoining were „chauntery prest of oure lady Chappelle newly „redeified‟ at the king‟s costs. While at beside the Church of Shiriefhotone‟. This was Reculver in Kent a commission to collect arrears of his salary from the previous alms from those „charitable disposed‟ was Michaelmas (29 September). His annual issued on 8 May 1485, the proceeds to be salary was £10.13 This is nearly twice that given to Thomas Hamond, „hermyte of the paid to the priest at Towton. Given that chapelle (there) of Saint Petre Saint James & Symson was priest at Sheriff Hutton it Saint Anthony‟ in the church of Our Lady, to suggests that his duties may have included enable him to rebuild the roof of the chapel. masses for Prince Edward. The chapel was ordained to provide prayer for Richard also made provision for four those who through „casueltie of stormes or priests and fellows at Queens‟ College, othre incident fates or mysaventures were Cambridge in 1477. He also endowed a priest perisshed‟. 19 to say a collect of St Ninian every day.14 The There are more appointments and small choice of St Ninian, so far removed from the payments that could be added. While Richard North, demonstrates Richard‟s strong may have been concerned about his own soul, connection to this particular saint. His interest his was not a unique preoccupation. What his in the college continued as king when he grants demonstrate is his concern for the poor granted the president and fellows of the or those who lived in remote areas, and that college a licence to purchase land. 15 they should have the benefit not only of a

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priest but one who was educated. If he was Cambridge‟, The Ricardian, vol. 21 (2011), concerned for his own soul, he was also p.32. concerned for the souls of his people, 6. Rosemary Horrox & P.W. Hammond, eds., especially those in the North. British Library Harleian Maunuscript 433 It is tempting to see his northern concerns (London, 1982), vol. 2, p.39. as being connected not only to the area where 7. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 1, p.103. he may have been happiest but also to where 8. „Colleges: All Hallow‟s Barking‟ in VCH his young son was buried. While the A History of the County of London (1909), reference to a chantry priest at Sheriff Hutton vol. 1. p.580. is suggestive of his son‟s burial there, it is 9. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 1, p.211 & also possible that his son was the only one to CCR 1476-85 (1954), no. 1273, p.373. occupy the intended family mausoleum in 10. CPR 1483-94 (London, 1914), 4 Dec York. 1483. 11. CPR 1483-94, 4 December 1483. * According to Ailred of Rievalux, who was 12. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 1, p.127, writing in the twelfth century, St Ninian had p.129 & p.255 respectively. been born in Galloway and educated in 13. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 2, p.189. Rome. When he returned to Scotland he built See the article „The Sheriff Hutton the first church (c.397 AD) in stone which Monument‟ by Jane Crease in the September was whitewashed. Called the White House, it and December 2009 Bulletins. Also „The Man became known as Whithorn. St Ninian used Himself‟ article by Peter Hammond in this as his base from which he and his monks Autumn 2008 Bulletin for discussion on converted the neighbouring Britons and the where Prince Edward may have been buried. Picts. Whithorn later became a place of 14. Hughes, p.37. pilgrimage. 15. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 1, p.171. For more information on Richard‟s Notes endowments to Queens‟ College, see Anne F. 1. Alison Hanham, Richard III and his early Sutton & Livia Visser-Fuchs, „“As dear to historians 1483-1535 (Oxford, 1975), p.121. him as the Trojans were to Hector”: Richard 2. Jonathan Hughes, The Religious Life of III and the University of Cambridge‟ in Richard III Piety and Prayer in the North of Richard III and East Anglia: Magnates, Gilds England (Stroud, 1997), pp.90-2. and Learned Men (2010). 3. Ibid. 16. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 1, p.119 & 4. Rosemary Horrox, „The Parliament of Hughes, pp.91-2 respectively. 1478‟, item 15, in The Parliament Rolls of 17. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 2, pp.21-2. Medieval England, eds. Chris Given-Wilson 18. Gwen Waters, „Richard III, Wales and the et al. (CDROM, 2005). Charter of Llandovery‟, The Ricardian, vol. 5. Anne F. Sutton, „Sir John Skrene, Richard 7, no. 89, June 1985, p.46 & p.51. of Gloucester and Queens‟ College, 19. Harleian Manuscript 433, vol. 2, p.221.

Boars drawn by Anne Sutton for Richard III and East Anglia: Magnates, Gilds and Learned Men, the proceedings of the 8th Triennial Conference (£5 + p&p £3 UK from the Sales Liaison Officer)

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A New Adventure of Alianore Audley BRIAN WAINWRIGHT

Brian Wainwright‟s novel The Adventures of Alianore Audley was first published in 2005 and has achieved some -thing of a cult status. One reviewer described it as „a wonderful romp set in 15th-century England‟. We thought that there were no more extant adventures of Alianore, but fortunately Brian has found another and we are delighted to publish it in the Bulletin. For those not familiar with Alianore, here is an introduction from the original novel‟s blurb: „Alianore Audley is a good, submissive, demure woman of the fifteenth century ... and if you believe that you will believe anything. But she is a spy in Edward IV‟s intelligence service, and the author of a chronicle that casts – well, a new light, let‟s say, on the times of the Yorkist kings. History will never be the same again.‟

A new version of Alianore Audley’s Chronicle has been discovered hidden behind the wainscoting of a manor house in remote Shropshire. Written entirely in Alianore’s crabbed hand, it’s a great challenge even to those who have attended advanced courses in palaeography. This is because much of it is in a form of primitive code. With the kind assistance of certain discreet ‘civil servants’, enough has been unravelled to allow one completely ‘new’ adventure from the archives of Yorkist Intelligence to be published. Why this tale was not included in the earlier manuscript is a matter of conjecture.

never did like ships. Unfortunately, there‟s no way to get to Brittany except by sea. Hours, I days, shut up in a horrid little cabin with my waiting-woman, trying not to be sick more than absolutely necessary – well, let‟s say it was not Alianore‟s idea of fun. The mission, on the face of it, was simple. Henry Tudor, the prime threat to King Richard‟s throne, was living under the protection of Duke Francis of Brittany. Luckily for us, this Duke had suddenly become as mad as several boxes of frogs. His Treasurer, one Pierre Landois, had agreed to sell us Tudor for a few barrels of gold; the said gold travelling on my ship as deck cargo under a guard of archers. Why had I been tasked with this, when I was officially no more than one of Queen Anne‟s women and a retired member of Yorkist Intelligence? Well, we were remarkably short-staffed after the revolt of the revolting Buckingham. We had to make do. I protested, of course. I wanted to get home to my gillyflowers and dogs; but Cousin Richard talked me into it. I‟ve always been a sucker for kings who ask nicely. After much pitching and tossing, we landed at St Malo, a city of sorts, complete with high walls and cathedral. I was to meet my contact at the Bishop‟s Palace and so, with an escort of my archers and a clerk or two, I made my way there, staggering because my time on the ship had turned my legs to jelly.

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Brittany is to France what Wales was to England before Edward Longshanks came along. Their Duke is an independent prince and they pay only nominal allegiance to the French King, whom they hate even more than we do. They have their own language, which isn‟t English and isn‟t exactly French either. The gentlefolk use a kind of French, but not the sort taught in England. Getting through to these people was worse than talking to a Scot, but eventually, with much gesturing, pointing and shouting I made myself understood. The Bishop was not at home – the last place to find a bishop is the seat of his diocese – but my contact was waiting for me, the Chevalier de St Hélène, a rotund fellow, past middle age, with eyes that were far too close together. „You are the emissary of King Richard?‟ he asked, snorting. I pulled out my commission and threw it on the table before him. „No, I‟m here to represent the butchers‟ guild of York, and offer you a good price for pork pies. Of course I‟m King Richard‟s emissary! Why else would an English gentlewoman set foot in this unworthy dump?‟ „You‟ve brought the gold?‟ The guy obviously specialised in stupid questions. I wanted to say, no, I‟d left it on the quay at Poole, but instead explained about the barrels, safely guarded on my ship. „Then it should be landed, and brought here for safety.‟ „No way, buster; it stays on the ship until Mr Tudor is handed over. Preferably alive, though a corpse would do at a pinch.‟ One has to use diplomatic language when talking to these foreign Johnnies. It‟s what they expect and understand. There followed much shrugging and gesticulating as he explained that friend Tudor could not be fetched for at least four days. Four days is a long time in a place like St Malo, where there‟s not much to do except buy herrings or pray in the cathedral. I don‟t think there‟s much point in praying to foreign saints. I much prefer the proper English ones like St George and the Blessed Virgin. I shut myself up in a room at the palace with my maid and a copy of Elizabeth Woodville‟s autobiography I Thought I was Queen. At length the Chevalier returned. Grinning like a particularly happy ape, he told me Tudor was being held at a small château a league or two away. We could ride there in an hour and agree arrangements for the swap. Something was wrong, I sensed it. But I was so bored that a ride in the country seemed like a good idea. I banished my doubts and went along with him, taking with me my woman, Juliana. It was a little castle, and pretty much falling down. The Chevalier led me inside, pointing to this and that. At last, when we were deep inside the place, he shut the door behind the pair of us. „Where‟s Tudor?‟ I demanded. He shrugged. „Fled over the border to France, Madame; someone must have warned him of your coming. It is, how you say – regrettable.‟ Annoyed, shocked, bewildered – I was all of these. „Well, Knight of St Helens, explain your purpose in bringing me here,‟ I snapped. „I didn‟t come all this way to study Breton military architecture.‟ He shrugged again and spread his hands in a very stereotypical fashion. „For ransom, Madame; I shall exchange you for the gold.‟ „I don‟t know much Latin, sir, but I know this bit: casus belli. When my cousin King Richard hears of this, he‟ll be hopping mad. He‟ll come over here and personally rip your head off.‟ He shrugged, and locked the door behind him. I gave it a good kick, but that just bruised my toe on one of the iron studs that held it together. I was furious, mostly with myself for being an idiot. I‟d walked into a trap a child could have spotted, and all because I was bored. Juliana was thrust in to join me, and with her some sour wine and a plate of bread and pâté. I was already weighing up our resources. We had a bed and a garderobe, and that was about it.

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Desperate times, desperate measures. I slipped off my hennin and took out the knife hidden within, something I always carried in the field, a good, stout Italian job capable of standing abuse. I looked down the garderobe chute and saw it was just about wide enough to squeeze down, except it was blocked by three thick iron bars. I told Juliana to keep watch, and started picking away at the stonework with my knife. It took until well after dark to shift the last of those bars, but at last it fell into the moat below with a satisfying splash. All that remained was to make a rope from the bed sheets – easily done – and persuade Juliana she must escape with me – not easily done. I agreed a garderobe shaft was not the ideal route by which to exit a castle, but explained to the silly girl it was the only one available. I led the way, stripped to my shift, my remaining clothes in a bundle above my head. It wasn‟t pretty – I was a tight fit in that shaft and its sides were covered in all the unpleasant smelly things you‟d expect – but at last I was free of it and, clutching the „rope‟ I walked slowly down the castle walls. Unfortunately my bundle preceded me, and although the moat was shallow, it was deep enough to give my clothes a good soaking. Juliana followed, whining and complaining as if she‟d never done anything of this kind before – which she hadn‟t. After a minor bit of wading, we were away from the place, though none too comfortable. I was not quite so wet as on the previous occasion when I‟d staggered around France in my shift, but it was equally dark, and I‟d no idea of direction. We walked for hours through a dense wood, Juliana moaning and Alianore swearing. At last I heard a bell in the distance, and, following the sound, emerged from the trees to find a little monastery standing before me in the dawn light. I tugged on the little bell provided for visitors, and shouted in French that we were travellers robbed on the road and in the need of succour. The monks, as it happened, were decent chaps. (One can‟t take this for granted in monks, who can have all sorts of strange habits.) They set us before a fire, fed us, and left us in peace. Juliana wept with relief. Alianore slept. We were out of the real woods but not the metaphorical ones. We had to get back to St Malo and hope the wretched Chevalier fellow hadn‟t pinched Richard‟s gold. After all, my archers were not to know that I‟d escaped – they might be tricked or overpowered. The Bretons are a piratical bunch at best. Anyway, that afternoon two monks sneaked out of the building while the others were in the chapel. I felt guilty about borrowing the robes and boots, but one has to do what one must in such cases. Juliana was horrified and kept going on about being sacrilegious. „Look.‟ I said, „keep your head down and your hood up. If you meet anyone, just say “Pax vobiscum”. Being a monk is a breeze and it‟s only until we get back to St Malo. Try being an archer some time – now that is difficult, my girl.‟ The technique worked well with the peasants, but on the outskirts of St Malo we ran into what I can only describe as a picket of soldiers, armed to the teeth. They blocked the way and their captain started to ask loud and suspicious questions in their impenetrable Breton language. I didn‟t understand a word, and my options were very limited. A knee to the groin works against most men, but not one clad in half-armour. I tried to bluff it out, using all the Latin I knew. „Pax vobiscum. Et tu Brute! Sic transit gloria mundi. Habeas corpus.‟ I might as well have been speaking Welsh for all the good it did me. The captain threw back my cowl, and that was that. We were bundled into a cart and taken back to the Palace. There I was hauled before a grey- haired nobleman, who sat in the Bishop‟s chair and gazed at me through brown, short-sighted eyes. „My Lady Beauchamp, I presume? Permit me to introduce myself. I am François, Duc de Bretagne.‟

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To say I was gobsmacked is putting it mildly. I had understood the duke to be locked away for his own safety, but here he was, as sane as you or me, if not saner and very much in charge of the shop. „You and your Breton friends have cost me an extremely valuable pawn,‟ he went on. „I should be angry, except you have given me a good excuse to hang Landois and his friend the Chevalier de St Hélène. They shall hang, Madame. And you...‟ He paused. It was not a pleasant moment. „You, Madame, I must regard as an ambassadress. You shall go back to King Richard. With your gold intact; and with a request from me that he send archers, to defend my duchy from the French. For the present, I suggest you change your clothes, and we shall take supper together.‟ I breathed again, and tried not to look too relieved. It was a decent supper as it turned out and the duke, as madmen go, was excellent company. So Richard got his gold back, but we missed out on Tudor. The point was – he had been warned. We obviously had traitors in our midst.

Brian Wainwright is also the author of Within the Fetterlock, set during the final years of the reign of Richard II and centred on Constance of York and the struggle between her Lancastrian and Mortimer cousins. Within the Fetterlock and The Adventures of Alianore Audley are still in print and are available from sites such as Amazon, where the latter is also available in a Kindle edition. Also available on Kindle is the The Open Fetterlock, not a complete story but a selection of Brian‟s writings, including some Ricardian pieces. Brian is currently working, albeit slowly (he says), on a number of new projects, including a novel about Richard III and some more Alianore Audley stories. To keep up to date with Brian and his work visit http://sites.google.com/ site/brianwainwrightnovels/ He also contributes to two blogs: http://brianwainwright.blogspot.com/ (Greyhounds and Fetterlocks) and http://yorkistage.blogspot.com/ (The Yorkist Age). There is also a Facebook page dedicated to Alianore Audley.

Reviews of The Logge Wills Southern History 33 (2011), by Robert Dunning The Richard III Society has chosen the will register known as Logge from the prerogative court of Canterbury (PCC) to continue to fulfil its own and the Yorkist History Trust‟s aim of providing significant sources of material for fifteenth-century studies. ... Editorial method is explained at length, evidently as a defence against a possible charge of amateurism. No such defence seems necessary. ... Interest in the wills from the editors‟ point of view is primarily in their content, though the testators satisfyingly include people of political significance. ... The relatively short introduction includes some analysis of social background and in a charmingly discursive way describes some of the linguistic problems that needed to be faced. ...

Genealogical Magazine, July 2010, by M.L. Bierbrier, FSA ... Fortunately, the Richard III Society has evolved into an engine of research into the Yorkist age as a whole and is responsible for encouraging much important work on the period. Its latest publication is The Logge Register ... These wills will form valuable source material for historians, sociologists and genealogists who may well discover an ancestor among them. The Society is to be commended for its ongoing work which promises to publish further will transcripts from York and other contemporary documents.

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Papers from the 2011 Study Weekend John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln DAVID BALDWIN

ohn de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, is today the first time. We cannot be certain, of J almost forgotten, but there were no fewer course: Lovell, who was some six years than two occasions when he might, very Lincoln‟s senior and was already married to possibly, have become king of England. If Lord Fitzhugh‟s daughter, may have Richard III had reigned to the end of his continued to reside at the Fitzhugh family natural life and died childless, John would home at Ravensworth in Yorkshire, while almost certainly have succeeded him; and Lincoln, who was about nine, could already there can be little doubt that he would have have been placed in another noble household. replaced Henry VII if the Yorkist forces had But it would not be surprising if a certain won the battle of Stoke. He is, therefore, a camaraderie developed between them on the figure of some significance even though his occasions when they did meet, or if the young life ended early and his potential remained earl looked up to the older boy. unfulfilled. We catch occasional glimpses of Lincoln John was the eldest son of John de la Pole, in the 1470s, usually when he was present on duke of Suffolk, and Elizabeth Plantagenet, a great State occasion. He was created a Edward IV‟s and Richard III‟s sister, and was Knight of the Bath with his cousins, the born, probably, around 1462. Both his Prince of Wales and Prince Richard, in May grandfathers had died violently – William, his 1475, and was among those who attended the father‟s father, had been butchered as he tried re-burial of the duke of York and the earl of to escape from England in 1450, ten years Rutland at Fotheringhay in July 1476. In before Richard, duke of York, his mother‟s January 1478 he was given the honour of father, had perished at the battle of walking on the right hand of the five-year-old Wakefield. His father, the elder John, had Anne Mowbray when she was brought from once been married to Margaret Beaufort and the queen‟s chamber at Westminster to St might conceivably have become king himself Stephen‟s chapel for her marriage to the even if Henry VI had died at the right moment – younger Prince Richard, and in November but the marriage was dissolved in 1453 and 1480 he „bore the salt‟ when Bridget, the king Margaret subsequently wed Edmund Tudor. and queen‟s youngest daughter, was baptised Edward IV‟s triumph in 1461 made the elder at Eltham Palace. John the reigning king‟s brother-in-law, but Lincoln was married to Margaret Fitzalan, he was never very prominent in national daughter of Thomas Fitzalan, Lord affairs. Maltravers, heir to the earldom of Arundel, John – our John - was created earl of and his wife Margaret Woodville, one of Lincoln on 13 March 1467 (when he would Queen Elizabeth Woodville‟s sisters. The have been about five), and was, we must date of the wedding is unknown, but assume, trained and educated like all boys of Maltravers and Margaret Woodville were his status. In 1471 his father was given only married in October 1464, and even if custody of Francis Lovell, who had been a their daughter was born almost immediately ward of the now defeated and deceased earl the young couple are unlikely to have been of Warwick, and it may have been in these allowed to cohabit much before 1480. Even circumstances that Lincoln and Lovell met for this is uncertain because Maltravers was only

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fourteen in 1464, and William, his son and of Cornwall „for his good service against the heir, was not born until 1476. It is therefore rebels‟.1 distinctly possible that the younger Margaret King Richard was bound to delegate some – who was still living in 1528 – was little of the personal authority he had wielded as more than a child when her husband was duke of Gloucester, and his northern ducal killed in 1487, and that this was why she and council became a royal body headed by the Lincoln had no children. It has been Prince of Wales with Lincoln as chief suggested that they had a son called Edward, executive. Prince Edward died in April 1484 or Edmund, who died in infancy in his before the ink was scarcely dry on his father‟s lifetime, but this, and the idea that appointment, but the ordinances governing Richard, Lincoln‟s younger brother who was the Council‟s remit came into operation on 24 killed in 1525, was actually his son, are both July. It was to be based at Sandal and Sheriff highly speculative. The latter is based on the Hutton castles with at least one meeting at slender evidence that Richard was styled „the York in each quarter, and although Lincoln White Rose of England‟ and „the young duke was to endorse all its „letters and writings‟, he of Suffolk‟ by continental writers while was only to take decisions with the agreement Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, their middle of at least two other councillors. His costs brother, was still alive. were to be reimbursed when he was engaged The events of the late spring and summer on „official‟ business, but personal expenses, of 1483 – when Edward IV died, Edward V described as „disports and hunting‟, were to was deposed and Richard, duke of Gloucester come out of his own pocket. One of his duties succeeded – greatly improved Lincoln‟s was to supervise certain unnamed royal prospects. The young earl of Warwick was children, who were to have their own table barred from the throne by his father and be served immediately after him. Some Clarence‟s attainder, and Richard‟s son, now have speculated that these could have Prince of Wales, was sickly and his survival included Edward V and his brother, but we do doubtful. Lincoln, the senior peer present in not, unfortunately, know. London when King Edward died, rode at the There can be little doubt that King head of the cortege on its journey from Richard‟s confidence in his nephew grew as Westminster to Windsor. He offered the mass he gained in experience. Lincoln was penny on behalf of the late king, and laid the appointed the King‟s Lieutenant in Ireland in final four palls of cloth of gold on the coffin August 1484, a commissioner of array for the before it was lowered into the grave. north riding of Yorkshire in November, and a Nothing is known of Lincoln‟s activities commissioner of the peace for Norfolk and during the weeks of Richard of Gloucester‟s the West Riding in February 1485. His role in protectorate, and all that can be said with Ireland was more honorific than practical, but certainty is that he and his parents it gave him the right to be consulted and is participated fully in the duke‟s coronation as perhaps the clearest indication that Richard Richard III on 6 July. Lincoln carried the orb, now regarded him as his heir. walking behind his father who bore the With Henry Tudor‟s invasion looming sceptre, and his brother Edmund was Lincoln was summoned to join his uncle, and knighted. He then joined Richard on his was with him at Nottingham on 1 August. But progress around his new kingdom – he was he was not, apparently, present when Richard with him at Oxford between 24 and 26 July, left Leicester to march to Bosworth three at Warwick castle between the 13 and 18 weeks later, and the only slight indication that August, and (presumably) at Lincoln when he fought in the battle is a letter written for word of Buckingham‟s rebellion reached propaganda purposes which claimed that all them on 11 September. He remained loyal to Richard‟s principal supporters had been his uncle, and afterwards received estates killed. The lords named included the earl of worth £334 2s. 5d. yearly plus an annuity of Surrey, who was captured, Viscount Lovell, £176 13s. 4d. from the revenues of the duchy and other survivors, and perhaps the surest

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sign that Lincoln played no meaningful part Henry had successfully dealt with the first in the conflict is that he was neither killed nor threats to his newly-won authority, but early put into prison. There is no obvious reason in 1487 word reached England of another plot unless, perhaps, Richard did not want to risk being hatched against him in Ireland. The the lives of both the king and his heir perpetrators, according to Polydore Vergil, apparent. were an Oxford priest, Richard Simons, and a Lincoln was deprived of his great offices charming youth named Lambert Simnel, soon after Henry VII‟s accession, his whom Simons had trained to impersonate the lieutenancy of Ireland being given to the new imprisoned Yorkist claimant, the earl of king‟s uncle Jasper Tudor and his role in Warwick. This unlikely pair were somehow northern England to Richard, Lord Fitzhugh. able to commend themselves to the Irish Nevertheless, he attended Henry‟s coronation nobility – almost certainly, they had powerful at the end of October, riding before the king backers in England – and although Henry with the earl of Oxford, and possibly carrying responded by allowing the real earl of the royal sword. He was almost certainly Warwick to show himself and to speak with present when Henry married Elizabeth of those who knew him, his enemies only grew York on 18 January, and is known to have left in strength. At some point Margaret, dowager London with him when the royal progress duchess of Burgundy, Edward IV‟s and around England began on 9 March. Their Richard III‟s sister, placed her considerable journey was not without incident. When they wealth at the conspirators‟ disposal, and, reached Lincoln at Easter they heard that according to Lord Bacon, it was she who Lord Lovell and the Stafford brothers had left persuaded Lincoln to lead the uprising. The their sanctuary at Colchester and were fomen- earl was present when the Council discussed ting trouble; and a plot against Henry‟s life the threat at Sheen palace in February, but in was thwarted after the royal party reached late March took ship for Flanders where he re York on 20 April. A pageant in the city‟s -established contact with Lord Lovell who streets was followed by a service at the had left England at the beginning of the year. Minster and a banquet in the archbishop‟s Lincoln and Lovell‟s passage to Ireland, palace, where Lincoln sat with Earl Rivers the crowning of Simnel as „Edward VI‟, their and the earls of Shrewsbury, and Wiltshire. descent upon England, and the events leading But he was afterwards said to have enter- to the battle of Stoke, need little elucidation. tained men from Middleham in his lodgings The earl tried to catch Henry unawares by and considered going „over the walls‟ to join marching southwards as rapidly as possible, the insurgents. There was talk that he would but Henry, in the chronicler Edward Hall‟s give the king and others „a breakfast‟,2 and words, „was in his [Lincoln‟s] bosom and not everyone thought their apparently cordial knew every hour what the Earl did‟.3 A relationship would last long. campaign of disinformation unique in the Henry had probably kept Lincoln with annals of the period succeeded in dissuading him in order to keep an eye on him, and some Tudor sympathisers from joining their Lincoln gave him no cause for concern. He master, but Lincoln‟s substantially Irish and received a number of minor appointments to mercenary soldiers were no match for their commissions during the summer of 1486, and better equipped opponents. Lincoln perished assisted at the baptism of the infant Prince in the final, furious onslaught, although Arthur on Sunday 24 September. Together Henry had wanted him taken alive so that he with the marquis of Dorset he attended the might probe the full extent of the conspiracy. Lady Cecily, the queen‟s sister, who carried Local tradition says that he was buried near the infant, and served the dowager Queen the spring known today as Willow Rundle, Elizabeth Woodville with „towel and water‟. but his remains may have been returned to his He was both occupied and supervised, but family home at Wingfield in Suffolk and must have been acutely aware of how much interred there. he had lost.

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It is possible that Lincoln was selflessly Lincoln, the supporters of Warwick, and promoting the claims of the young earl of Henry Tudor. Henry‟s victory was not an Warwick, but he almost certainly hoped to unmitigated blessing for his subjects, but become king himself. Vergil is adamant that perhaps the alternative was worse. he intended to seize the crown in the event of victory, and Bacon wrote that the Yorkist Notes leaders had agreed to replace Simnel with the 1. CPR 1476-85, pp. 386, 388, 488. Harl. „true Plantagenet‟ (whatever that meant) 433, iii, p. 154. wherein the earl of Lincoln had his particular 2. York House Books, ii, p. 542. hopes (my italics).4 But it is unlikely that the 3. Hall’s Chronicle, (1550, reprinted Men- conservative aristocracy would have willingly ston, 1970), „The politique governance of allowed the heir of the great house of Neville Kyng Henry VII‟, fol. ix. to be superseded by a man who was 4. The History of the Reign of King Henry the descended from a Hull merchant, and a Seventh, ed. R Lockyer (Folio Society, 1971), Yorkist victory at Stoke could have resulted p. 63. in a three-cornered power struggle between

The Maulden Boar Badge ROSE SKUSE

he search for the owner of the metal T boar badge found at Maulden, Bedfordshire, in 2009,* did not look promising until Society member David Kennet wrote pointing me in the direction of the Grey family in Bedfordshire. The Greys‟ estate had at one time included part of Maulden, and the fifteenth- century Grey who interests us is Sir Edmund The Maulden Boar, drawn by Geoffrey Wheeler Grey of Ruthin. He was a great-grandson of John of Gaunt, born on 26 October 1416 in 1460 found Grey in command of the Ruthin, Wales, and succeeded to the title as Lancastrian forces at the battle of the fourth Lord Grey of Ruthin in 1440. His Northampton, but at a vital point he gave a wife was Lady Catherine Percy, and they had signal to the earl of Warwick and Edward, six children. earl of March, to come over, and his men Sir Edmund was a ruthless man. In 1450 helped the Yorkists through the barricades. he was involved in the murder of the Speaker Henry VI was captured and Grey‟s treachery of the House of Commons, and in 1453 he certainly won the day for the Yorkists. He was Ralph Cromwell‟s ally in the dispute joined them on the road to London where with the duke of Exeter over the manor of they were joined later by Richard, duke of Ampthill. For a brief period, all three were York, arriving from Ireland. As a reward for imprisoned by Henry VI, and when Cromwell his treachery he was given the manor of petitioned against Exeter, he was told to Ampthill in Bedfordshire. In 1461 he took surrender Ampthill by Whitsun, or pay part in the battle of Towton. Meanwhile £10,000. Edward IV‟s queen, Elizabeth Woodville,

* See the Bulletin, March 2011, p. 44.

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was busy making good marriages for her relatives. Her sister Eleanor married Sir Edmund‟s eldest son and heir Anthony, and her sister Anne took as her second husband Anthony‟s younger brother George. Grey became Treasurer of England from June 1463 until November 1464. By 1466 he was created earl of Kent and was present at the tournament of June 1467. The re-burial of Richard, duke of York, and his son Edmund took place in 1476, overseen by Edward IV and Richard, duke of Gloucester. Sir Edmund Grey and his wife, drawn by Geoffrey Wheeler Followed by hundreds, the cortege left Pontefract on 21 July, reaching His elder son, Sir Anthony, had Fotheringhay on 30 July, where among those predeceased him in 1480 and is buried in St waiting to receive them were Sir Edmund Albans abbey. His younger son George Grey and his son Sir Anthony. succeeded to the title, and when George‟s When Edward IV died in 1483, Grey wife Anne Woodville died she was buried at allied himself with Richard, duke of Old Warden. Other members of the family are Gloucester, backing his claim to the throne. buried at Flitton. As king, Richard was obviously grateful for Maulden, Ampthill, Flitton, Old Walden, Grey‟s support, giving him a leading role in etc. are all within a few miles of each other, his magnificent coronation, where he was so Sir Edmund and his lands do seem to be in allowed to fulfill his hereditary right to carry the right place at the right time, assuming that one of the swords of state. Richard‟s boar the badge dating is correct. Of course, we emblem, in the form of small metal badges, shall never know the identity of its owner, but was given to those of rank who were his while it is a very long shot, Sir Edmund Grey supporters, and he distributed a great many is a distinct possibility. for his coronation, and for the investiture of Geoffrey Wheeler, who started me on this the Prince of Wales at York. Sir Edmund quest, has also been researching and has come would surely have been a recipient. up with a little gem. I did not find any Once king, Richard could access large likeness of Sir Edmund but Geoffrey amounts of cash and land to distribute to his discovered a representation of him and his supporters, and to those whose allegiance he wife in a Scottish library. The Henry V needed to secure, or could be useful to him in haircut made him think at first it could be an the future. Although Sir Edmund had had the earlier family member, but it is definitely Sir honour of bearing a sword at the coronation, Edmund. Geoffrey has verified this by he received no other awards. At the age of 67 reconstructing the damaged heraldry on the he was no longer politically active, and any centre shield. With his Henry V haircut he influence he had was waning, so Richard certainly was not a follower of fashion. Very probably saw no need to keep him on side. He many thanks to Geoffrey for his valuable survived several years into the reign of Henry contribution and for allowing us to reproduce VII, dying, aged 73, on 22 May 1490. the miniature here.

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Katherine Courtenay: Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Countess (part 2) JUDITH RIDLEY

he earl of Devon died around May 1509, T shortly after the death of King Henry, the latter causing a welcome turn of fortune with the ascent of Katherine‟s nephew, Henry VIII to the throne. An account of the funeral expenses of Henry VII contains the following entry: „2 mantlettes for the said Lady Katheryn, at 26s.8d. the pece‟. The garments were similar to those provided for the prin- cess Mary Tudor, the king‟s sister. One of the first acts of the new monarch was to release William from his imprison- ment. He had spent most of time in the Tower of London, but more recently in captivity in Little Malvern priory: glass installed by Calais, where he had been kept in comfort as Bishop John Alcock in 1480-82, his jailer complained at the „great charge‟ of depicting Elizabeth Woodville and her three daughters. It is not known which keeping him. He was now 34 years of age and represents Katherine. Katherine in her 30th year. They took part in Photo: Geoffrey Wheeler court life and in January 1511, on the birth of the son of Henry and his wife Katherine of to deny the rights of his aunt, but he was Aragon, Katherine was chosen as the sole unwilling to allow them; he therefore godmother to the heir to the throne. Again proposed that she should relinquish her William took part in the jousts in the claims as the condition on which he would following celebrations. restore her husband to his forfeited honours The death of his father had left William and estates. heir to the earldom of Devon, but until a Katherine agreed and on 12 April 1511 formal repeal of the act of attainder passed by indentures were drawn up to reverse the act of Parliament upon him he could not inherit the attainder and a month later on 10 May the title or the estates. In the meanwhile the patent of earldom was drawn out to create estates were transferred to the king who William the earl of Devon. Before he was „allowed Lady Katherine, his dearest aunt, an formally invested as such William contracted annuity of 200 marks‟. pleurisy, which was not helped by his doctors, William presented a petition for the and he died at Greenwich the following reversal of the attainder. Katherine also month on 9 June. He was buried with the full presented a petition for her share of some honours of an earl, the arrangements for the hereditary possessions to which she had a funeral being made by the widowed double claim, first as co-heiress of her great Katherine, who had been left the principal grandmother, Anne Mortimer, countess of executrix under her husband‟s will. I have March and Ulster, and secondly in right of her found differing accounts of where he was father whose personal property belonged to buried. According to one source, the Lives of his heirs and not the crown. Henry was unable the Princesses of England by Mary Ann

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Everett Green he was buried in the church of a godmother for her niece‟s son Henry the Black Friars, and another source, the Brandon, earl of Lincoln. biographical notes of the Privy Purse Katherine sought marriages for her two Expenses of Elizabeth of York, states that he remaining children. Her son Henry married was buried in St Paul‟s Cathedral. Lady Elizabeth Grey. This marriage was Katherine ordered masses to be chanted childless and after Elizabeth‟s death in 1519, daily for the repose of her deceased husband‟s Henry went on to marry Gertrude Blount, the soul, and wax tapers to be burned day and daughter of William Blount, Lord Mountjoy. night at his tomb. A month later on 13 July There is some controversy over Katherine‟s she made a vow of perpetual widowhood in daughter, Margaret Courtenay. She married the presence of Richard Fitz-James the bishop Henry, Lord Herbert, eldest son of Charles of London: „in the name of the Father, the Somerset, earl of Worcester. She was alive in Son and the Holy Ghost, I Katherine July 1520 when she was in attendance on the Courtenay, countess of Devonshire, widow infant Princess Mary, but she died before and not wedded ne unto any man assured, 1527 as in her will Katherine stipulated that promise and make a vow to God, to our Lady prayers should be said for her daughter‟s soul. and to all the company of Heaven, in the There was a legend that she had died in 1512, presence of you, worshipful Father in God, having choked on a fishbone. Richard, bishop of London, for to be chaste of From the evidence of the account book of my body and truly and devoutly shall keep the seneschal of the household, and from the me chaste for this time forward, as long as my daily accounts of her private secretary in 1523 life lasteth, after the rule of St Paul, in the -4, Katherine‟s establishment was kept on an name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the elaborate scale. Her annual revenues Holy Ghost‟. amounted to £1,600, and her household In the November of the year 1512 consisted of her comptroller, treasurer, Katherine‟s son Henry obtained a reversal of steward, almoner, chaplain, gentlemen, fools, his father‟s act of attainder after which he 71 servants and 7 maidens. succeeded to his grandfather‟s title as earl of At the age of forty-eight and having been Devon, with Katherine herself the rightful a widow for 16 years, Katherine died at her owner of a large proportion of the estate. manor of Tiverton at three, or some sources Katherine was also fully recognised as one say four, in the afternoon of 15 November of the blood royal of England and she had her 1527. Her body was embalmed, encased in seal moulded with the inscription „Catherine, lead and placed in a wooden coffin draped in Countess of Devon, daughter, sister and aunt black, then taken to the castle chapel which of kings‟. She bore the royal arms of England, adjoined the neighbouring church of St Peter. quartered with those of Ulster and Mortimer, Meanwhile an area had been prepared in impaling the Courtenay arms. Katherine‟s recently-built private chapel in In February 1515 Sir Robert Wingfield the south chancel aisle of the parish church of wrote to Henry VIII from Innsbruck St Peter, Tiverton, it being surrounded by concerning the duke of Milan. „If my lady of wooden barriers hung with black cloth and Devonshire your aunt have a daughter of age decorated with Katherine‟s coat of arms. On that is to marry or my Lady of Salysbery Monday 2 December the coffin was brought think verily the said duke would be more from the castle chapel to the church of St ready to be joined with your blood than with Peter. Her will, made earlier that year stated any other‟. that she was to be buried there rather than the The following February we find Katherine castle chapel or Blackfriars in London where at the christening of Henry VIII‟s daughter William was buried. Mary. Katherine was one of the godmothers Katherine‟s permanent resting place, along with her cousin Margaret Pole, countess provided by her son, consisted of a chantry of Salisbury, the daughter of Edward IV‟s chapel, enclosing a chest tomb with her brother Clarence. A month later she was also effigy, her coffin transferred to a vault

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underneath. Sadly, as with so many other This is a fitting memorial of Princess tombs and buildings, the chantry chapel was Katherine „daughter, sister and aunt of kings‟. destroyed within twenty years during the Reformation. More recent research has placed the site at the eastern end of the south aisle, in For further reading accordance with precise instructions in Green, Mary Anne Everett, Lives of the Katherine‟s will. Princesses of England The only visible structure on this site is Hardy, Blanche, Dynasty. (fiction) the tomb of a local merchant dated 1579, but MacDougall, Norman, James III the plinth appears to be part of an early Martyn, Michael, articles in The Medelai sixteenth-century structure of finer Gazette, volume 8, nos. 1 and 3, 2001 workmanship. In 2001 a mini camera was Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, Privy Purse Ex- inserted into the Waldron tomb and that penses of Elizabeth of York (Frederick Muller identified three containers, quite possibly of facsimile 1972) fifteenth-century origin. Permission for Pierce, Hazel, Margaret Pole, Countess of further investigations was turned down by the Salisbury church authorities as these would involve Richardson, Walter C., Mary Tudor, the extensive damage to the tiled floor of the White Queen chancel as the vault is not located directly Starkey, David, Henry: Virtuous Prince under the nearby table tomb, and they did not Westcott, Margaret, Katherine Courtenay, wish a DNA sample to be extracted. Countess of Devon 1479 – 1527 So Katherine lies undisturbed in a vault beneath this beautiful church and a Correction to Part 1 (September 2011 commemorative picture on a wall has the Bulletin) words „In memory of Princess Katherine Page 38, left-hand column: the end of the Courtenay 1479 – 1527, Countess of Devon, a penultimate paragraph should read: younger daughter of King Edward IV, sister „She may have had fair or auburn hair, of Edward V and aunt of Henry VIII, an matching the strands of her father‟s hair, and illustrious resident of this town and castle for the hair of her niece Mary Tudor, queen of some 30 years prior to her death on 15 France and duchess of Suffolk, in museums November 1527 and who is buried near this around the country.‟ spot in a private chapel – since demolished.‟

STOP PRESS The first assassination attempt on an American President From the Washington Examiner, 30 January 2012, found by Beth Stone: „On this day, Jan. 30, in 1835, a deranged man tried to shoot President Jackson in the first known assassination attempt of an American president. Richard Lawrence believed he was King Richard III of England and that Jackson had killed his father. Jackson was leaving a funeral service for a South Carolina congressman at the US Capitol when Lawrence stepped from the crowd and pulled the trigger on his pistol. The gun failed to fire. A second pistol misfired too. The president caned Lawrence, who was wrestled into submission by several men, including Davy Crockett. Lawrence was prosecuted by Francis Bacon Key, the man who wrote „The Star-Spangled Banner‟. Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was eventually committed to what is now St Elizabeth‟s Hospital, where he died in 1861.‟

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Miracle at Denny Abbey LESLEY BOATWRIGHT

ome time between 1484 and 1489, Denny manor of Strood in Kent. This guide does not S Abbey caught fire.1 The Windsor monk know about the 1480s fire, remarking that the who wrote up the miracles of Henry VI has nunnery „had a comparatively uneventful recorded it with lurid eloquence.2 life‟, though it notes a long-standing dispute „By some negligence of its servants, in the mid 1400s with Thomas Burgoyne, lord surely at the instigation of that most ancient of the manor of Impington, which adjoined enemy of our race [the Devil], fire broke forth Histon. Burgoyne won the dispute, which from some oven or kiln, and ascended to the caused the nuns severe financial problems, peak of the house there, and the devouring and in 1459 the abbess Joan Keteryche wrote flame laid hold of the dry rafters and beams to John Paston, to whom she was distantly and all the cross-ties, and burnt them, when related, asking for alms from the estate of Sir nobody was present by whose resource or John Fastolf, of which Paston was an industry it could in any way have been put executor. The nuns had had to mortgage their out‟. By which, of course, the monk means no altar-vessels and other church ornaments, and men were present. The nuns, „those most holy let their buildings fall into disrepair. When women, from whom either some natural Burgoyne died in 1470 the nuns brought weakness or perturbation of mind had taken action against his executors, and came to a away their strength‟ did not count. more favourable arrangement with his son The nuns were Franciscans, „Poor Clares‟ John.5 Were they able to redeem their church or minoresses, one of only three such treasures? – i.e., were the treasures back in nunneries to have been successfully founded the church when the fire started? in England: the other two were the Minories Poor Clares (of the second order, such as in London and at Bruisyard in Suffolk. It was those at Denny) were a much stricter order originally founded by Denise, widow of than most. „We be closyd withynne the ston Warin Munchensi, in 1281 at nearby wallys, and my no odyr wyse speke with you Waterbeach, but in an unsuitable place even but only be wrytynge‟, as Joan Keteryche for the ascetic Poor Clares, in that it was low- wrote to John Paston.6 Their lives were lying and often flooded. In 1327 the site of devoted to manual labour and prayer. The Denny (which had belonged to the Knights chronicler of the miracles imagined them as Templars and then to the Knights too frightened by the fire even to pray: „such Hospitallers) was granted to Mary, Countess a dreadful agony had invaded their minds that of Pembroke, who in 1342 transferred the now they seemed ... scarcely to have the nuns from Waterbeach to this new site. She breath to implore help of heavenly piety, or to had building work done, creating rooms for have the free use of their tongues‟ – although her own use, and died there in 1377.3 (See the abbess (Margaret Assheby had by now Tom Wallis‟s article in the December 2011 succeeded Joan Keteryche) tried hard to Bulletin, p.57.) exhort them to prayer. At last they unbolted According to the English Heritage guide the doors of the nunnery and sank to their to the site,4 there were probably about 25 knees in prayer, with frequent sighs and nuns normally in residence there. It was streaming tears, „vying to placate with their reasonably well endowed for a Franciscan pious supplications the Founder of the house, with the manors of Waterbeach, Eye elements ... so that he would suppress the Hall and Histon in Cambridgeshire, to which anger of the raging fire‟, says the Windsor the Countess of Pembroke added the Templar monk, and „finally the prayers of all turned to

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Denny Abbey today, showing the crossing and transepts of the twelfth-century church from the east. that man chosen above others, King Henry, Chapel, making the greatness of it known whom they knew, alone of all the men of our (says the narrative) „both by clear acknow- present age, to have adorned the church of ledgement of the truth, with such a great Christ with the glory of miracles‟. honour given, and also by a triple weight of While they were still on their knees, gold‟. „begging together for divine mercy‟, help Triple weight of gold? What was this? It came. „Behold, there came along with his seems implausible that the Poor Clares had men that most energetic and famous knight gold to offer in gratitude for their escape, but John Cheyny. Pitying such great distress, and the Latin is quite specific: auri pondere wishing in his well-disposed heart to help the triplicato. Perhaps Sir John Cheyny made a holy women in their calamity, he likewise contribution, in that his coming past with six uttered a prayer‟. More to the point, „he strong men had been the mechanics of the picked out six strong men to put out the miracle and he felt he had thus shared in the raging fire ... which had by now almost blessing received. But surely the monk would consumed the whole roof‟. Even though (we have named Cheyny if that were true? are told) the fire was so terrible that it seemed There were several men named Sir John forty men could not put it out, these six Cheyne or Cheyny in the later fifteenth stalwarts managed it. While the nuns still century, and by coincidence there has been prayed, „the force of the flames died out on discussion about another of them recently in the very rooftop and completely disappeared, the correspondence columns of the Bulletin: as if it had been put to flight by the copious „the Minster Yorkist‟. Our Sir John of the quantity of water poured over it‟. miracle is the Sir John Cheyne of Fen Ditton Within six days, the nuns had sent „two of in Cambridgeshire (1423-1489), son of their domestic servants, honourable and Laurence Cheyne of the same. He was a trustworthy men‟ to Windsor, to report the lawyer, admitted to Lincoln‟s Inn in 1446, miracle at Henry‟s shrine in St George‟s and held civic office as escheator, JP, MP and

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sheriff in Cambridgeshire. Edward IV 24 February pardoned him with other Lancastrians in May 1 4 9 2 J o h n 1462, and he continued to pursue his legal Morton, now career.7 Archbishop of His sister Elizabeth married Sir John Say, Canterbury, of Broxbourne, Herts, who was Speaker of issued instruc- the House of Commons a number of times tions for the before his death in 1478. By a further collection of the coincidence, Elizabeth‟s monumental brass at tenths, the One of the stone heads that Broxbourne is No. 2 on the montage (p.15 of contribution of keep watch at Denny Abbey this Bulletin) used in designing the Society‟s the clergy to this plaque of Queen Anne Neville, and (as tax.11 Exceptions were made for the Geoffrey Wheeler mentions in his article) it possessions of „poor religious, poor nuns, and was to Sir John Say that Richard wrote in of other poor and pious places of the pro- 1469 asking for a loan of £100. vince ... and those whose ... possessions have Sir John Cheyne was knighted by Edward been destroyed, impoverished or excessively IV some time between 1472 and 1474. He diminished by floods, fires, ruins, accidents ..‟ was not on the list of Cambridge JPs under There follows a long list of exempted Richard III – he was 60 years old by then – religious houses, including „the monastery of but Richard pardoned him in October 1484, the nuns of Denney in the diocese of Ely‟. which looks like the sort of retirement present But, although many other places on the list men who had held public office received on have notes of recent disasters affecting them, leaving it, clearing them of all possible Denny does not. There is no mention of a repercussions for what they had done in the disastrous fire, suggesting it was exempted past. The pardon describes him as „of Fen- simply because it was a house of poor nuns. ditton, knight ... alias of Denney, Cambs ...‟.8 Fen Ditton is to the north-east of Cam- Notes bridge, and on the east bank of the Cam. The 1 That is, after Richard III had had Henry‟s road which once was Akeman Street, and is body transferred from Chertsey Abbey to now the A10, leads from Cambridge to Ely Windsor in May 1484, but before Sir John just to the west, passing Denny Abbey. The Cheyne‟s death early in 1489. earlier bishops of Ely had their summer resi- 2 The miracles are in BL ms Royal 13 C viii, dence at Fen Ditton, on a moated site, though published (in Latin) in Grosjean, Henrici VI they do not seem to have visited it in the 15th Angliae Regis Miracula Postuma, (Brussels century. In 1483-85, of course, the bishop of 1935). This is miracle no. 95. Ely was John Morton, who was either shut up 3 Victoria County History, Cambridgeshire in Brecknock Castle, or in Flanders. It was and the Isle of Ely, vol.2, pp.295-302. the bishop‟s physician who occupied it in 4 J.G. Coad, Denny Abbey, (English Heritage 1478.9 However, it must have been a road 1989 revised edn), p.8. often travelled by the Cheynes of Fen Ditton, 5 VCH, ibid. and, as luck would have it, Sir John was 6 VCH, ibid. travelling it when Denny Abbey caught fire. 7 Wedgwood, History of Parliament 1439- Neither English Heritage, who now own 1500, vol. of biographies (London HMSO the site, or anyone else, is aware that there 1936), pp.181-2. Thanks to Peter Hammond was once a serious fire at the abbey. No traces for pointing me at the right John Cheyne. of it seem to have been noticed in any of the 8 Wedgwood, ibid. (though he misreads extensive building works done there. Denney as Deuney). In the Parliament held in October to 9 VCH, ibid. November 1491, Henry VII was granted tax- 10 Jurkowski, Smith and Crook, Lay Taxes in ation of „two fifteenths and tenths‟ towards England and Wales 1188-1688 (PRO 1998). the cost of military expeditions abroad.10 On 11 Cal.Fine Rolls 1485-1509, p.123.

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Caveat Emptor: some recent auction anomalies GEOFFREY WHEELER

n February of last year Pauline Pogmore of with a silver tablet inscribed “From a beam in I the Yorkshire Branch alerted the Society the room in Leicester in which King Richard to a unique item of potential interest being III slept on his march to Bosworth Field 16th offered for sale by Byrne‟s of Saltney, August 1485”. The fitted interior encloses Chester. Their Advance Lot Notification two silver caddies (S.C.Y. & Co. Sheffield (subsequently publicised on the Society‟s 1827) on either side of a William IV silver website) showed colour photos and details sugar basket (S.C.London 1835) with Bristol [fig.1] describing it as an „interesting blue-glass lines. Pre-sale estimate £1,200- historically commemorative George IV oak £1,800.‟ tea chest, circa 1827, of rectangular form No further information as to provenance crossbanded throughout ... with two white was supplied, although we did obtain a detail metal handles each formed of a boar‟s head, of the heraldic arms engraved on the caddies, the lid inlaid with King Richard‟s white boar which Peter Hammond identified as being badge, the Yorkist rose-en-soleil emblem and those of either the Rowse family (Lord Mayor of London in the 16th-17th century) or those of Williamson of East Markham, Notts. Sub- sequent enquiries as to the sale price realised or new owner have not been answered. However, it is worthwhile looking at a few questions raised by the assumptions made, in greater detail. Laying aside the fact that the badge shown is simply a white rose, not „en-soleil‟, the inscription is certainly in error when dating Richard‟s stay in Leicester as early as 16 August. Surviving records show that he was probably still at Nottingham then, and did not depart for Leicester until around 19 August.1 Then, whilst it is perfectly possible for the silver objects, dateable by their hallmarks, to have been inserted into the later tea-chest, this cannot have originated „circa 1827‟, as unfortunately local records and historians confirm that the Blue Boar itself was not demolished until March 1836.2 As the oak from which the chest is constructed has been cut into such small sections, it is unlikely that scientific tests such as dendrochronology would establish the date, and these would also involve damage to the object in order to extract samples.

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Yorkshire was also the source of information regarding the second item, when Richard Knowles passed on details of Time Line Auctions‟ antiquities sale for 2 December. Lot 793 was a „medieval silver Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland, vervel circa 1440-1460. A silver hawking leg ring or vervel inscribed “+Erle of Rutland” in deriva- tive black-letter script, for a female merlin or sparrowhawk (due to the youth of Edmund Plantagenet who died aged 17). Silver. 0.56 grams, 8.81 mm. Extremely fine condition. Unique and with links to royalty and the Wars of the Roses.‟ [fig.2] The additional „histori- We can perhaps be more definite with cal note‟ details, „Ex Bursnall Collection, regard to the title. According to the OED, the Leics.; acquired in the 1960s. Edmund Planta- evolution of „earl‟ can be traced from erel, genet was executed [sic] after the battle of eorl (1300) urle, errelle, erle (1400) being Wakefield (probably by John Clifford)‟. Then maintained until Caxton (1483) with slight the note describes his descent from Edward differences such as erl, occasionally sliding III and Richard, duke of York, but concludes, into therl, theril, with the appearance of earle „the first Earl of Rutland was Edmund around 1577. In that form it continues in Plantagenet (grandson of Edward III and Shakespeare and seventeenth-century writers. executed following the Southampton Plot There may be exceptions, but on these against Henry V).‟3 grounds it does seem that a later date ought to To emphasise the difficulty in dating such be entertained for the ring in question. There objects, the vast majority of jewelled and were, after all, some half-dozen of the plain metal crosses in the opening lots of the Manners family who succeeded to the title sale were just categorised as „post-medieval‟, before the creation of the first duke in 1638. and the preceding lot, 792, another falcon ring Nevertheless, the telephone bidder who bearing the legend „+ Peregrine‟ in neat finally obtained it for £2,800 must have been seriffed capitals (the R and E of which match persuaded of its royal connections. lot 793 ) was dated „circa 12th-14th century‟. Based on similar inscriptions to be found 1 „It is likely that the move was finally made on such contemporary items as the Wakefield to Leicester on Friday 19 August and two signet ring or the Middleham Jewel, one nights spent in the town before leaving on would have expected the script to be in the Sunday.‟ Rhoda Edwards, The Itinerary of familiar Gothic black-letter, unless this is the King Richard III 1483-1845, (Sutton 1983), usual style for such relatively mundane introduction p.xiv and p.39. objects? An examination of the words them- 2 James Thompson, British Archaeological selves might be instructive. We have at least Society Journal, vol. xix (1863) p.118. two examples of Edmund‟s signature. The 3 In fact, it was Edward, duke of York (1373- most famous autograph, from the letter com- 1415) who was created earl of Rutland in plaining about the Croft brothers, is where 1390, and is here confused with Edmund, earl with his brother Edward, earl of March, he of Cambridge, executed at Southampton. signs himself E. Rutlonde,4 whilst the other, 4 Illustrated in Charles Ross, Edward IV (Eyre from the same year, 1454, reads E. Rutland.5 Methuen 1974) plate 1. A search amongst other contemporary 5 Illustrated in Peter Hammond, „Edward‟s documents of the period reveals such vari- Younger Brother‟, Ricardian Bulletin, ations in the spelling as Rothland, Ruthland December 2010, pp.33-34. and Ruthlande, while the now-standard 6 Thanks to David Santiuste, who augmented Rutland appears to be in the minority.6 my original examples.

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The Problem of the Gaps

from The Art of Biography by Paul Murray Kendall

One of the most difficult things for a biographer to do is to give a coherent account of the subject‟s life when there is no evidence for part of it. Paul Murray Kendall, whose biography of Richard III is well known to members of the Society, also wrote a most interesting book on The Art of Biography (Allen & Unwin, 1965), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Here is an extract (pp.18-20) on the problem of the gaps. (Our thanks to Callie and Gillian Kendall for permission to quote this extract.)

hen biographers talk shop among themselves, you will hear animated discussions of a W problem rarely mentioned by reviewers, the problem of gaps. That paper trail, extending from the birth certificate to the death certificate, is never continuous or complete. The more remote in time a man is, the more gaps there will be. These gaps occur at all stages in the trail but are very likely to come during the childhood and adolescence of the subject. ... There are no rules for handling gaps. Each paper trail is unlike any other paper trail. Each biographer is unlike any other biographer. The right way to fill gaps is unknown; the wrong ways are legion. Confronting a gap, the writer can but recognize that he is domesticated in imperfection; at the same time he must respond to King Harry‟s call – „Once more into the breach!‟ – and, summoning his talents and honesty, struggle to suggest the life of his man during the blank, without either pretending to more knowledge than he has or breaking the reader‟s illusion of a life unfolding. I will use an experience of my own only because it is accessible. In trying to write a biography of Richard III, I was faced with an enormous gap in Richard‟s boyhood. From the age of ten till about fifteen (1462-66) he is but the merest supernumerary in the annals of the time. I could find only three elements out of which to build a bridge: what-was-going-on-in-England; what, in all probability, he was doing; where he was living. Since Richard‟s brother, King Edward IV, and the mighty Kingmaker, Richard, Earl of Warwick, were in these years moving towards a collision in which Richard would be deeply involved, the great events of the period had to be intertwined in the texture of his life. I sought to introduce them, not from Richard‟s viewpoint – which would mean a lap into a mind closed to me – nor yet as insert information interrupting the biography, but as the stuff of Richard‟s developing experience. As for the other elements, I had only the naked fact that Richard was being schooled as a „henxman‟, or page, in the household of the Earl of Warwick at Middleham Castle in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. Out of several contemporary „courtesy books‟ and a mercifully detailed manual on the proper education for an aspirant knight, I sought to reconstruct the probable pattern of Richard‟s boyhood days. Place itself provided equally valuable clues. On the southern slope of Wensleydale – a great rift in the Yorkshire moors through which tumbles the river Ure – there stands the massive ruins of Middleham Castle. Behind, the land rolls up to the sky; before, stretch the village and the valley; then, empty moorland climbing to the clouds. It was in Richard‟s day a wild sweep of country, inhabited by a folk more primitive than those in Edward IV‟s capital, marked by huge stone abbeys and bristling castles, the hills rounded by the stamp of Celtic kings and Roman legions. Since, in later years, Richard owned Middleham and spent his happiest days there, I concluded that he must have developed his feeling for the region during his early sojourn. I therefore juxtaposed his training in knighthood with an account of Wensleydale and its people in an attempt to suggest the shape of his boyhood.

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The Pitfalls of Time Travelling TONI MOUNT

ome time ago I received a rather odd would a dead man know, I wondered? Yet he S email, asking if I was available to give a told them the new king, Henry, disposed of talk, in costume, on the Medieval Housewife, the boys immediately. „What did he think of on a particular date. That was all. No location, the „fan club‟ set up in his name?‟ Richard no group specified, time or arrangements. I said he was delighted to know he wasn‟t was available, so emailed back, asking for forgotten. Other post-mortem topics included details. Nothing more was heard, so I the writings of Thomas More and the murder dismissed it as a speculative email or one sent of the earl of Northumberland, all of which he in error. answered knowledgeably. A month later, I received a frantic phone At least with a group of non-historians, I call: „Could I still do the talk?‟ The sender, „J. thought, they wouldn‟t be asking such F.-W.‟ had been on holiday ever since the specific questions. In my mind, I set the date first email but now, with the date just three of my persona to c.1462-3. At that time, Ellen days away, she was eager to book my Langwith would have been about my age services. The event was a University of [well into her fifties] and her second husband Greenwich get-together for admin staff in the John, a wealthy tailor, was still alive. That she Health and Social Services Department and J. still had a husband was important to the talk, F.-W. wanted something „different‟ to liven so that I could cover the subject of „how a up the day. Could I oblige? So I decided I goodwife should care for her husband‟. But could do a bit of time travelling and give my my talk also covered childcare – which I Medieval Housewives talk „in character‟ – thought staff from Health and Social Care something I‟d often thought of doing but would enjoy – and so far as is known, Ellen never actually tried. didn‟t have any children. At least, none are Members may remember the special mentioned in her will or the wills of either of edition of The Ricardian of 2003. Among her two husbands. Her will was also a other essays, it contained a biography of possible pitfall: if her husband was alive, „Ellen Langwith: Silkwoman of London‟ by would Ellen have been permitted to write her Caroline Barron and Matthew Davis, and I will at the time? It was eventually written in had previously transcribed Ellen‟s will for the January 1481, long after the date of my Logge Register. Feeling that I knew Ellen persona, yet I mention it many times during Langwith quite well, I determined to assume my talk – clearly a case of prophesying the her persona for the sake of entertainment. future – a hazard time travellers should try to I‟d seen this done back in June, at a avoid. history fair at Peterborough Cathedral where Difficulties aside, with my trusty wheelie- we had an audience with Richard III. How case full of costume and artefacts trundling hard can it be? Apart from the fact that behind, I took the train, then a bus, to the „Richard‟ was rather plump, grey-haired and university‟s Medway Campus. The place knocking fifty, he did quite well. But there teemed with foreign students doing summer were pitfalls. The audience consisted of a courses. They seemed to think that benches number of obvious Ricardian experts who were climbing frames for the purpose of knew their stuff and some of the questions getting a stronger signal on their mobile/ were difficult for the king‟s grace to answer. blackberry/laptop or whatever. I reminded „If the princes in the Tower were still alive, them the seats were for „olds‟ like me to park what happened to them after Bosworth?‟ How themselves on and sat down, since my

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instructions had been to „wait at the gatehouse had call to use it, so cannot swear to its no- and I‟ll come and get you at 11 o‟clock sharp‟ doubt excellent curative properties. The „dial- – J. F.-W. Some people have strange ideas a-disease‟ astrology wheel intrigued them all, about „sharp‟ but I was fetched just after as did the DIY urine colour chart. I suggested 11.15. someone produce a sample for comparison Now I know why all but the poorest of the but no one did. poor had live-in servants in medieval times They were surprised to learn we have and why peasants wore the same clothes for cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar and wondered at months on end. my receipt for sliced rice pudding with pork „You can get changed in here,‟ said J. F.-W. and raisins of Corinth. My revelation that „You won‟t be disturbed. We‟re just having a sweet and savoury dishes are served together break.‟ Great. Have you ever tried lacing your for diners to pick and choose was appreciated gown down the back by yourself? Tricky one, and some women said how happy their that. Or putting your hair up under a coif and children would be if green vegetables and raw pinning the pleats in your kerchief without fruit were still scorned as unhealthy food. someone to assist? So if you‟re travelling in Do you know, they were fascinated by my time and your wardrobe requires it, make sure sensible clothes with detachable sleeves and you bring along a servant or two. One to lift hems for easy cleaning and change of style; the wheelie-case on and off the train/bus my oft-laundered shift that keeps sweat from wouldn‟t come amiss, either. my gown and my apron to keep it grease-free Resplendent in my correct attire – even and clean, as well as being my badge of managing to get all my hair pasted under my respectability. I note here, privily, that not coif, though arranging the kerchief was out of one woman in my audience wore an apron, so the question with no mirror – I then had to what that says of their kind, I tremble to load my power-point presentation into the think, and none had taken the trouble to cover computer. I admit, when it comes to IT, I‟m their hair. A disgrace, indeed. I‟ll warrant still in the Dark Ages but at least I stuck the they leave their heads bare in bed too – flash-drive in the right hole – male into hussies all. female was the same even back then. I set out They even thought we never bathe. my artefacts around the room under headings Whatever next? I told them straight, John and of household medicine; cleanliness; cookery I have a good bath every summer and wash and dining; dyeing, weaving and sewing. down as often as we may. I have to tell you: Much to my delight, when the group in the privies, there was soap freely available. returned, they brought me a cup of hot brown Such extravagance. liquid. Not ale. Coughey, they called it. I Then we paused to refresh ourselves, but think I could get used to the muddy looking there were no napkins at table and folk stuff but why present the cup in a dish for the wandered about, eating food off platters made serving of sauce? It is a „saucer‟ after all. A of paper which they threw away after. More cup is sufficient and less to wash up after. extravagance and such a lack of manners. At I spent two hours telling the audience of least they ate correctly, with their fingers – I my life with John and my own enterprise as a have seen foolish instruments called „forks‟ silkwoman femme sole, how I care for him, being used at such times – but no one had our apprentices, servants and neighbours brought their own knife, so I had to lend them when they fall sick, the way I cook and serve mine to cut the cheese. Most strange. I took meals. My herbal remedy for migraine, using care to avoid the plethora of green leaves and betony and meadowsweet – the latter so little red fruits – salad, I was told – you can‟t effective and safer than their „aspirin‟ – had be too careful with uncooked stuff, but the them nodding wisely. But my poultice for spicy fowl on skewers was well suited to my quinsy, with its hedgehog and cat grease, gum sophisticated fifteenth-century tastes. of honeysuckle and bear fat, did not meet After this odd repast – lunch, they called it with their approval at all, but then I‟ve never – my audience went off to some other task,

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leaving me to pack away my artefacts and of some of those little unaccountable oddities revert to my former identity. Getting out of of the twenty-first century. In brief: my shift was even more of a struggle than getting into it. I had to divest myself sitting o take your servant with you; down to avoid toppling over and when a o don‟t forget your knife and thread got caught in my hair pins, I had supplying your own table napkins visions of travelling home, on public would be as well; transport, in medieval underwear. Eventually, o avoid salad if you value your good I managed to fight my way out, sweating and health; cursing on a hot day, so Chatham was spared o there are no respectable women in that particular horror. the twenty-first century, i.e. none I hope my little discourse will be of use to wear aprons or cover their hair; any fellow time-travellers out there, preparing o soap is free; them for the pitfalls and making them aware o learn to like the coughey.

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.

The Minster Yorkist again which he requested that „my image and the From Marcus Herbert, via email image of my first wif, and my tombe to be I would like to thank Sally Badham for her new gilte and peynted‟. It is clear from his kind comments in the Bulletin (December request that the effigy was already in exis- 2011, p. 47) regarding my article in The tence. He therefore probably thought that as a Ricardian (vol. XXI, 2011). I also appreciate number of years had elapsed by the time he the points raised in her letter. Perhaps my wrote his will and with any luck he would be comment which began „the fact that able to enjoy a few more, the effigy would preparation for medieval funerals usually took need a little freshening up following his place well in advance‟ should not have been death. The effigy itself dates from circa 1500. concluded with „including the commission of It is well known that testamentary a suitable monument‟. Although I agree evidence for monuments remains the most with Ms Badham that the best evidence for extensive source for the study of the funerary the manufacture of medieval monuments are wishes of our medieval forebears, but once the surviving contracts, I believe, given the again, whilst large numbers of their rarity of these documents, that it is highly wills survive, many do not. It cannot now be questionable as to whether those that known how many monuments, the remain form a large enough group from manufacture or completion of which was which to determine with any precision the reliant upon those whose duty it was to funerary habits of those that commissioned execute the instructions of the decedent, were the monuments. Ms Badham does not state actually seen through to the final stages. the exact period she is referring to when she Based on the documents Ms Badham has discusses the eleven contracts from the discussed but in particular the contracts on „medieval period‟ but an example of an effigy which she places such emphasis, I think her that was made long before the death of the statement of „having disposed of the commissioner is that to Sir David Owen (d. argument that monuments were normally 1542) at the church of St Mary, Easebourne, commissioned before death‟ cannot be West Sussex. Owen made his will in 1529 in definitively supported.

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As to my dating of the effigy I should like that set out to tell Richard‟s life story in full, a to point out that whilst I did mention fact that makes David‟s study all the more the „dating of the Minster tomb to around welcome. However, I was a little disappoin- 1475‟ I had stated in the previous paragraph ted to read, despite David‟s assertions to the that it was Arthur Gardner who had originally contrary, that he appears to have made up his dated it to circa 1475, with Pevsner‟s con- mind on one or two crucial issues that may currence. My conclusion was actually that it well influence his treatment of Richard. was commissioned sometime between 1473 David says he intends to study the events and 1483. I feel that I should reiterate this last of Richard‟s career „without preconceptions‟ point as it is included on the Church Monu- and will „not rush to judgement at the end‟ – ments Society‟s website under the Recent an approach which all Ricardians will surely Publications section. Had Sally Badham applaud. But then David says that although noted the earlier date I am sure she would „no biographer can hope to exonerate Richard have agreed that it made my dating of the of all the allegations made against him‟ – effigy even more plausible. „perhaps it is possible to explain what made Finally, and most importantly, I should him “tick”.‟ This appears to be the avenue by mention that in addition to the brief career which David permits himself the luxury of details given in my article for Sir John introducing the kind of preconceptions and Cheyne (d. 1467) he also served as Victualler judgements which he said he would avoid. for the Calais garrison under Henry VI. For example, David states that „it is Following the accession of Edward IV, he impossible to tell if anyone was actually was replaced by John Wood, who was in the conspiring against Richard in the weeks after post by 3 March 1462. Cheyne was pardoned Edward IV‟s death‟. David seems to be by Edward IV on 9 November 1464 but does approaching this pivotal issue from the point not appear to have served the Yorkist of view that there was not a conspiracy, and monarchy in any capacity. However Cheyne‟s that the burden of proof should fall upon sons, William (d. 1487) and John (d. 1499), proving the existence of a plot. Surely a more both served in the household of Edward IV. open and even-handed approach would begin At the time my article was submitted for by acknowledging Richard‟s complaints of publication I believed I had compiled enough conspiracies and evaluate the evidence from evidence to substantiate my claim that the there. There is a real danger, I feel, that 15th-century alabaster effigy at Minster was David‟s assumptions could be interpreted as a commissioned by, and commemorated, verdict of guilty till proven innocent. William Cheyne (d. 1487). I still do. I also Also David cannot resist the temptation of believe that the additional information regar- resurrecting the idea that Richard „was a ding Sir John Cheyne (d. 1467), which in Machiavellian who just pre-dated Machi- hindsight could have been included in the avelli‟. For one who is attempting to eschew article, further reinforces my findings as to preconceptions this is, with respect, going a the identity of the effigy and that taken little too far. In fairness, to his credit, David together with the undeniable presence of the makes many valid points. His treatment of the suns and roses livery collar must present at Warwick inheritance and the matter of the the very least a significant obstacle to the property of the Countess of Oxford is conclusion reached by Ms Badham. particularly enlightened and fair-minded. The real purpose of this letter, however, is Writing a Biography of Richard III not to appear overly critical of David‟s From David Johnson, York approach to writing a biography of King I have to confess that David Baldwin‟s article Richard III, merely to point out how easy it is in the December 2011 Bulletin has really to absorb the bias and odium that has charac- whetted my appetite for his forthcoming bio- terised many previous studies, despite the best graphy of King Richard III. As David rightly intentions to begin with a clean and says, there are only one or two biographies uncluttered slate.

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From Gordon Smith, Surrey David makes much of Richard‟s priggish In an article in the last Bulletin David proclamations against Dorset and others, but Baldwin writes about his new biography of the facts are corroborated by the debauchery Richard III, which he hoped to base on „the of Edward IV‟s court. Being a prig does not events of his career‟ and „what made him preclude being reasonably honest. If Richard “tick”‟. One could hardly disagree that a was truthful, we have to consider his biography should concentrate on factual accusations of a Hastings-Woodville plot and evidence and psychology, but one that did an earlier ambush round Stony Stratford more just this proved to be unacceptable. seriously than David seems to allow. This was the biography of Lawrence of Whether it is conscious or not, David‟s Arabia by Richard Aldington, which showed approach seems to be the opposite of from events that Lawrence was a romancer Aldington‟s: first the acceptance of the who had created his own legend. Those who modern traditionalist position, then finding a want to believe the legend have attacked psychology to fit it, and then looking for Aldington, and have ruined his reputation. In events to support it. His account of events for a quote noted by Fiona Price („Media the crucial period April-June 1483 and the Retrospective‟, Bulletin March 2011, p.26) a supporting psychology is therefore what we recent biographer of Lawrence said, would expect. When I commented on „Aldington had forced subsequent bio- arguments about the period („Richard and graphers into two camps, traditional and Realpolitik‟, Bulletin June 2009) I questioned revisionist‟, like Richard III. if Richard was an usurper at all. There the parallel between Lawrence and My interest is in what can safely be Richard III appears to end; David is not going inferred and what options left open. This to follow Aldington‟s example by demo- means following the Aldington approach lishing the evil Richard legend created by the starting from events and facts. But documents king‟s enemies. Aldington uses events to for the period are few, scanty, contradictory explain Lawrence‟s psychology and his and biased; we have to try to work out not psychology to explain his life. I cannot find only when events happened, but also if they this progression in David‟s article. happened at all. This approach is therefore far It is stretching unduly the examples of more difficult than starting from an Richard‟s sentencing the Lancastrian lords acceptable traditional position, as David and after the battle of Tewkesbury and his land many biographers do. Here the result is dealings to claim that „Richard was prepared satisfying overall and once the position is to act decisively when he saw an opportunity adopted, inconvenient facts that might be or felt threatened‟. But then both this claim evidence for other options can be made to and that of „his deep sense of insecurity‟ are appear trivial. But where does that leave those needed to explain the accusation of Richard‟s of us who do not necessarily want to accept seizing the throne. What we seem to have the position? here is the exaggeration of common human To avoid partisan distractions let us take a failings to insinuate something far more non-Ricardian example. According to some culpable, which could be regarded as a biographies Puccini was not a great composer different form of behaviour. because of his psychology, and therefore he To say, „he must have thought his depo- could not complete his last opera Turandot. sition of Edward V .. and his arbitrary execu- My researches suggest he composed to a draft tions of friends and colleagues .. would of the libretto for the conclusion, but got quickly be forgotten‟ assumes that Richard stuck. He asked his librettists for a further deliberately planned these. But this is an draft, but when at last they gave it to him it assumption that needs to be proved; Richard was apparently still unfinished. Just before he is being accused of ruthless planning which died he started to compose to this draft. Is this he did not obviously show before then or trivial or important? afterwards.

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Mass Graves at Towton away. The artist Thomas Stotherd unfor- From Patricia Payne, Berwick-upon-Tweed tunately used Shakespeare as his inspiration Regarding the elusive mass graves on Towton for events in the Wars of the Roses, but it‟s field, it may be worth looking at the fascinating to find such images at the heart of convention, or possibly even law, that a man Buckingham Palace. be buried in the parish in which he died, Thanks must go to Geoffrey Wheeler for unless expressly stated otherwise. providing me with this photo in the first In a battlefield stated to be six miles long place, and for all the other illustrations on my by three-and-a-half furlongs wide, several display panels. Tewkesbury‟s battle re- parishes may have been involved. Having enactment and medieval fair take place on gathered a cartload of scattered bodies, the Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 July this year. English genius for compromise may have sited a mass grave on the boundary between Politicians should ascertain their facts two or more parishes. From Dorothea Preis, Australia It may also be worth looking at field Even Australian politicians are not immune to names. By the time of the enclosures, county misusing Richard‟s name for their own ends. memory probably attributed remote burial The other evening on the ABC news grounds to the plague or an epidemic. Christopher Pyne, an Australian opposition Lastly, why not ask the local farmers MP, criticised the Prime Minister‟s change of where, given the long-ago circumstances, mind on the gambling reform. In his words, they would have dug mass graves? No-one this was „the most ruthless political act since knows more about depth of soil and avoiding Richard III disposed of his nephews in the contaminating local water sources. Tower of London‟. Possibly Mr Pyne‟s only knowledge of Article by Rosemary Hawley Jarman Richard III comes from the media hype From Lesley Ware, via email surrounding the Sydney tour of the I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the production of Shakespeare‟s play with Kevin article by Rosemary Hawley Jarman in the Spacey in December 2011. He certainly did last Bulletin. Unlike most fellow-Ricardians, not display any in-depth knowledge of the We Speak No Treason was the first book I subject. Even had Richard committed all the read about Richard. I was living in the USA atrocities attributed to him, it is most unlikely at the time and liked the sound of the story that the gambling reform (or lack thereof) is (even when very young I had always taken „the most ruthless political act‟ in the last 500 the side of the underdog); after that, I was odd years – I am sure most of us can think of hooked. I read The Daughter of Time once I much more serious instances. was back in England a couple of years later, It would be desirable if politicians of and it confirmed my belief in good King whichever hue were to ascertain their facts Richard. It was so interesting to read how before comparing their opponents with Rosemary came to write such a moving story. historical persons. More often than not, these comparisons do not achieve the anticipated The Queen’s frieze outcome, but rather backfire. From Pam Benstead, Worcestershire I read the short piece by Wendy Moorhen on Congratulations page 42 of the December Bulletin with From Jen Callow, Redditch interest, as I have a photo of part of this frieze I‟d like to say how very, very much I liked on one of my display panels about the Battle the look, feel and content of the December of Tewkesbury, which are on show every year 2011 issue of the Bulletin. I even appreciated on the Worcestershire Branch stand at the the crossword – and I famously fail to „get‟ medieval fair. My section shows captive cryptic crosswords even when shown the Prince Edward of Lancaster being struck by answers. Many thanks and congratulations to Edward IV, and Margaret of Anjou being led all concerned.

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The Barton Library

News from the Non-Fiction Papers Librarian As I begin my second year as Papers Librarian I continue to be amazed at what an excellent resource it is. Hopefully the new catalogue should be available by the end of the year, but in the meantime here is another sample of the as yet uncatalogued items available for loan:

„English Royal Marriages and the Papal Penitentiary in the Fifteenth Century‟ by Peter D. Clarke (English Historical Review, 2005, vol.120, no.488, pp.1014-1029, September 2005). This important article reproduces the texts, and discusses the political backgrounds, of a number of dispensations for English royal marriages discovered by the author and Patrick Zutshi in the Penitentiary registers whilst cataloguing all the pre-1504 entries relating to England and Wales. The dispensations dealt with in the article relate to the marriages of Margaret of York and Charles the Bold, Anne Neville and Edward of Lancaster, Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York and, most importantly, Anne Neville and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Note: Clarke and Zutshi‟s completed calendar of the English and Welsh related items in the Penitentiary registers is to be published by the Canterbury and York Society in four volumes, the first of which is due to appear this year.

„The Second Anonymous Continuation of the Crowland Abbey Chronicle 1459-86 Revisited‟ by Michael Hicks (English Historical Review, vol.122, no.496, pp.349-370, April 2007). Hicks posits a new claimant for authorship, in the person of clerk of the council Richard Langport. Should ideally be read in conjunction with Julian Luxford‟s article „Tres Sunt Ricardi and the Crowland Chronicle‟ (Ricardian 2008).

„A Duchy Officer and a Gentleman: The career and connections of Avery Cornburgh (d.1487)‟ by Robert E. Stansfield (Cornish Studies, Second Series, Nineteen, University of Exeter Press, pp.9-33, 2011). A study of the career and connections of Richard III‟s Under-Treasurer of England, kindly donated by the author.

News from the Fiction Library Following the article „We Speak No Treason: forty years on‟ in the December 2011 Bulletin, members may be interested to know that four of Rosemary Hawley Jarman‟s historical novels can be borrowed from the Fiction Library:

We Speak No Treason (hardback 1971 and paperback 1972) Richard‟s life revealed through the narratives of the Maiden who loved him, Patch the Court Fool and the Man of Keen Sight who served him.

The King's Grey Mare (hardback 1973 and paperback 1975) 1452-1492: Elizabeth Woodville, hardened by the death of her first husband, devotes herself to the advancement of her family.

Crown in Candlelight (hardback 1978 and paperback 1979) The story of Katherine of Valois and her love for Henry V and later for Owen Tudor.

The Courts of Illusion (hardback 1983 and paperback 1984) Sequel to We Speak No Treason: the son of the Man of Keen Sight joins Perkin Warbeck‟s ill fated attempt to gain the crown.

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The latest addition to the Library is:

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory (hardback 2011) This book is part of Philippa Gregory‟s „The Cousins‟ War‟ series of novels, and concentrates on Jacquetta Woodville. The book opens in 1430 and ends in the spring of 1464.

Additions to the Audio Library BBC Radio 4: A Black Dog, by Philippa Gregory, read by Maureen Beatty. Short story, returning to one of the author‟s favourite themes: witchcraft, centring on the downfall of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester.

BBC Radio 4: Start the Week. Andrew Marr chairs a discussion on „Writing History‟ between Norman Davies (Vanished Kingdoms), Boris Johnson (Life of London) and Alison Weir (Mary Boleyn). Weir cites her difficulties in rescuing her subject‟s reputation as portrayed in recent popular novels.

Old Time Radio: Cavalcade of Kings. Three episodes (approximately 30 minutes total) on Edward IV, Richard III and Henry VII. From 50 past series, transferred from MP3 CD. A curiosity, and something of a mystery. Released in the USA some years ago by „Original Old Radio Shows‟, the distributors provide no further information as to cast list or first broadcast date.* The stentorian narration and music, reminiscent of Welles‟s „March of Time‟ music in Citizen Kane, and the olde worlde English of the dramatised script suggest the 1930s-1940s, and echo the work of Markham, Lindsay and novelists of the period. Part 25 opens with Warwick‟s quarrel with Edward over his „unbridled licentiousness‟, but it is Elizabeth who intrudes and reveals their marriage. An interlude visiting Caxton follows. At Edward‟s deathbed, the queen warns him „when the boldest, most crafty and most dreaded nobleman secretly boasts that he will be king, think ye a puny child of fourteen will be allowed to stand in the path of his ambition?‟ Astonished, the king exclaims, „Richard, whom I have loved and forgiven many times for his treachery towards me? May the fire of hell consume his soul the day [he] is crowned king!‟ Richard III opens on a more conciliatory note, but not for long. „Richard was probably not quite so black as Lancastrian historians painted him. He possessed great charm of manner, was generous and promoted justice and religion, but circumstances conflicting with his ambition helped the evil character of his nature to kill his finer qualities.‟ After a scene in which Richard and Buckingham plot the removal of the Princes events move to York on the coronation progress, where Anne confides to Richard, „No good will come of this‟. Richard emotionally professed his love for England: „For her I would sacrifice life, self-respect, yes, even honour itself!‟ And these sentiments are repeated on the eve of battle, which finds him a lone wolf in his tent. With more than a debt to Shakespeare, he recounts nightmare visions and remorsefully confesses, „Every crime I committed has been for [England]. If I have done wrong, then God punish me!‟ The outcome of Bosworth is not revealed until Part 27, Henry VII, with his battlefield coro- nation and Stanley extolling the Tudor victory. Another domestic scene, with Elizabeth of York, follows, with the exchange „I have given them peace‟ – „at the cost of thine own‟. The rest of the episode, in quick succession. takes in: Columbus‟s discovery of „the new land‟, relations with Spain, Arthur‟s illness (reported before his marriage), Katherine‟s subsequent betrothal to Henry, and the nuptials of Margaret and James IV of Scotland. It concludes with the resounding words, „I have tried to do my duty to my beloved England‟.

*If any USA member has further details on the series, they would be appreciated.

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

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Future Society Events

Stratford-upon-Avon and Baddesley Clinton Saturday 12 May 2012

April 1995 was the last time we visited Baddesley Clinton. Joyce Melhuish expertly organised that trip, stopping off at Stratford-upon-Avon for lunch. The Visits Team thought it was high time for a return visit and therefore decided to follow in Joyce‟s footsteps. As before, we shall stop at Stratford-upon-Avon for lunch and hopefully there should be time for a little look around this charming town. There are some interesting places to visit, including, of course, the birthplace of a chap who wrote a play about King Richard III. Baddesley Clinton is about a 30-minute drive from Stratford. This is an atmospheric moated house and dates from the fifteenth century. The last private owners of the house were the Lords Ferrers, one of whom took an important part in the funeral procession for the duke of York, and who died with his king at Bosworth Field. Our coach will leave from London Embankment at 9 am and we should arrive back in London around 7.30 pm. (A pick-up can be arranged at Bromley at 8 am for those who let me know.) The cost of the trip is £22 per person, which includes cost of coach and driver‟s tip. Baddesley Clinton is owned by the National Trust and entrance is free to NT members – please remember to bring your membership card. Entry for non-NT members is £7.65, which will be collected on the coach. Local Ricardians are very welcome to join us. Please complete the booking form in the centre pages and return it to me, together with a cheque for £22 per person, by 20 April 2012. If you miss the closing date, please contact me to ascertain if there are spare places on the coach. Cheques should be made payable to „Richard III Society‟, endorsed „Baddesley Clinton‟ and sent to: Marian Mitchell, 20 Constance Close, Witham, Essex, CM8 1XL. Tel: 01376 501984; Email [email protected]. Marian Mitchell for Visits Team

The Scottish Branch presents ‘Richard III: Determined to Prove a Villain?’ A talk by Elizabeth Rogers at Cramond Kirk Hall, Edinburgh EH4 6NS Saturday 24 March 2012, 11 am to 12 noon Richard III‟s reputation as a villainous hunchback with a withered arm appears to have derived from Thomas More and later been fixed into memory by Shakespeare‟s play. The play is known for its inaccuracies and assumed subscription to the Tudor Myth. However, it can also be interpreted as a satire, and this paper will examine this theory further. Elizabeth Rogers is in the final year of her PhD in English at the University of Dundee, working towards a thesis entitled Drama as History in the works of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Elizabeth‟s study has required her to investigate the negative reputation of Richard III, which she believes largely derives from Shakespeare's Richard III. Entry to the talk is free. There will be lunch afterwards at the Cramond Inn in the picturesque fishing village of Cramond, by the River Forth. All are welcome. We look forward to meeting old friends, and to making new ones. For further details please contact Philippa Langley, Secretary of the Scottish Branch, on 0775 256 7370, or email [email protected]

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Yorkshire Branch Events 2012 Palm Sunday 1 April 2012. Battle of Towton Commemoration. 10 am-4 pm. Towton Hall, North Yorkshire. The Branch will once again be present at the commemoration of the battle of Towton. Our stall will be situated in the barn, where we will be happy to meet members and friends. Saturday 28 April 2012. The Arthur Cockerill Spring Lecture. Jacobs Well, Trinity Lane, York. 1-30 pm. Speaker to be announced. Saturday 9 June 2012. Yorkshire Branch Study Day. Middleham Key Centre. Middleham. The branch is holding a Study Day from 10 am-4 pm. There will be two talks in the Centre, one by Jean Gidman and one by Scowen Sykes, and two further talks, one at the church and one in the vicinity of the castle. Full details from the secretary, 0114 2586097, email yorkistrose2 @hotmail.co.uk or from the booking form in the April Newsletter. Lunch own arrangements. Parking at the Key Centre. Cost for the day £15 per person. 19 August 2012. Battle of Bosworth Commemoration. St Mary and St Alkelda Church, Middleham 2 pm. The Branch will once again meet at the church to remember King Richard and commemorate his death at the Battle of Bosworth with a short address by the Branch Chairman and the laying of flowers. 1 September 2012. Yorkshire Branch AGM. Jacobs Well, Trinity Lane, York. 1-30 pm., followed by a talk and tea. 29 September 2012. Branch Dinner. Black Swan, Peasholm Green, York 7-30 for 8pm. The Yorkshire Branch will be holding a dinner at the Black Swan. Members and friends welcome. Diners may come in medieval costume or modern dress as they wish. Full details as to price, menu and booking details to be announced. Norfolk Branch Study Day This will take place on Saturday 10 November at the Assembly House, Theatre Street, Norwich on the theme „Prelude to War‟, and will feature Professor Anne Curry. There will be full details and a booking form in the June Bulletin. If you would like further details, or to book now, please phone Annmarie Hayek on 01603 664021, or email [email protected].

Joint American-Canadian AGM and Conference The Canadian Branch would like to announce that a Joint American-Canadian AGM and Conference will be held in Toronto from Friday 28 September through Sunday 30 September 2012. There will be further details in the June Bulletin. For further information contact Tracy Bryce, Chair of the Richard III Society of Canada, [email protected].

Change in contact details Thames Valley Branch Sally Empson has resigned as Secretary of the Thames Valley Branch, and her place has been taken by Diana Lee, 161 Green Lane, Shepperton, Middx, TW17 8DY (tel. 01932 219665, email: [email protected])

Western Australia Branch The Branch now has a separate website: www.r3wa.org.au which is organised by Louise Carson.

Croydon Group email address is: [email protected]

Sussex Group email address is: [email protected]

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Branches and Groups

Greater Manchester Branch Report Although 2011 was a fairly quiet year for the Branch we did manage to hold some interesting meetings. Unfortunately we did not manage to arrange any visits, but three Branch members attended the AGM and the Fotheringhay carol service. In view of this we decided to start 2012 in style with a medieval buffet. Everyone brought some food and drink and we dined on a range of foods including a medieval meat loaf, cold meats, parsnip bake, various pies, onion tart, a superb range of cheeses, fruit pies and syllabub. The meal was followed by a raffle, and entertainment was provided by Marion Moulton, who brought along her electric piano and played a number of pieces of music for us. Some of us even joined in singing along to well-known pieces such as „Pastime With Good Company‟ and „Greensleeves‟. We ended the evening with a quiz and everyone left in high spirits, having enjoyed a very convivial evening. At our November AGM (postponed from October) we welcomed Alex Hamilton as our new Chairman. Our previous Chairman, Carol Carr, stepped down after a number of years of service and I would like to thank her for her past support. We also decided that instead of holding meetings on a rota basis of members‟ homes we would hold all meetings for 2012 at my home for a trial period. We have a full programme lined up for this year, and talks include „The Origin of Nursery Rhymes‟, „Ricardian Ghosts‟, „The History of Pub Signs‟ and „The Lost Ninth Roman Legion‟. Members may be interested to know that fellow Branch member Sue Lumsden and myself have placed an advertisement in this issue to inform you that we make handmade cards. These can be individually handcrafted and we also make medieval notelets, keyrings and phone/bag charms, coasters and credit card size calendars which can be fitted into a purse or wallet. For further information please contact the email addresses on the advertisement. We are hoping to place samples of our work on a new Branch website which is in the pipeline. We look forward to some interesting meetings and organising some trips this year and welcome any new Society members who would like to join us. Helen Ashburn

North Mercia Group Report It‟s hard to believe that the end of 2011 was the end of our second year. The last six months have been busy, consisting of meetings and outings, though we also did plenty of eating too. Our Bosworth meal at The Boar‟s Head at Walgherton was a memorable occasion, as we had intended it to be. It was most appropriate to dine at a hostelry with such a name on a date close to a memorable date for Ricardians. The food was excellent and we talked of Richard and drank a toast to his memory. It was an auspicious and special occasion for us all. In September we visited Croxden Abbey in Staffordshire and Ashbourne in Derbyshire. I don‟t think the visit to Croxden will easily be forgotten, since it proved quite difficult to find in the wilds of Staffordshire, so the members who came on the trip can be congratulated as being intrepid. It‟s a fascinating site. There are quite a few ruins of the abbey left and intriguing in that the east end is now separated from the west end by the road which cuts straight through. After a hearty lunch at The Tavern at Denstone we proceeded to Ashbourne and spent a pleasant hour or thereabouts exploring the beautiful church. Later in true Mercian fashion we walked into town and discovered a lovely tea shop serving afternoon tea, which we all enjoyed. The October meeting proved very interesting. One of our members, Annette Davies, having recently fought a very serious illness, gave us a talk on Medieval Music. She used her own illustrations and played various CDs to demonstrate various points. It was a fascinating talk and

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we are grateful to Annette for all the time and effort she had put in to compiling such a talk in such adverse circumstances for her. Naturally she said she had only just touched on the subject, but it inspired to continue her research. Good Luck, Annette! The November meeting provided a miscellany of entertainment for the Group. We watched „Good King Richard‟, the video of the Quincentenary celebrations in 1983 in Middleham. Having taken part in those celebrations I found it quite nostalgic and it‟s hard to imagine that next year it will be thirty years since they occurred. Tempus fugit! Mark Dobson, another of our members, gave an impromptu book review on Cheshire‟s answer to Nostradamus and then we held two quizzes courtesy of Sally Henshaw, Secretary of the Leicester Branch. These were much enjoyed. The meeting was held in the home of Deirdre Gough and thanks must go to her and Jacqui Emerson for their hospitalty in hosting our meetings, thus saving the Group considerable expense. Our Christmas Lunch was held at The Crown Hotel in Nantwich on 3 December. We sat in the old part of the hotel, which dates back to Elizabethan times. Next to the church it is the oldest building in the town. There was an inn on the site in Richard‟s day, but it was destroyed in the Great Fire of Nantwich in 1584. Elizabeth I gave money to rebuild the town, because it was an important stopping place on the Salt Route. Stanley is not known to have put his hand in his pocket to help. Are you surprised? The food was excellent, good value for money and we staggered home suitably sated. So there you have it. Two years passed already and we are looking forward to 2012 to outings, meetings and hopefully a continuation of good company. Marion Moulton

West Surrey Group Report Our 2011 monthly meetings began as usual with our AGM in January in Ash Vale, which included a report on our satisfactory finances from our Treasurer, Richard Pointer, and discussions on our plans for 2011. Our February meeting was held in a member‟s house in Liphook, where Mary Kelly and Rollo Crookshank gave a talk on „White Boar‟. The March meeting was held in Guildford, and local author David Hipshon had very kindly agreed to give us a talk on „Richard III and the Death of Chivalry‟, which focused on Richard III and his relations with the Stanleys. In April, James Ross of the National Archives visited us and gave a very interesting talk based on his recently published book, John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. At the AGM in January, we had all been asked to research the history and specially the fifteenth-century history of our local manor and their families, and then to give a 5-10 minute presentation. Unfortunately Surrey did not participate greatly in the Wars of the Roses, but the members manage to find plenty of interesting information. For our June meeting, one of our members, Sue Benyon-Tinker, had arranged for us to visit the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton, which was extremely interesting. Sue had also arranged for one of the staff to give us a talk on medieval food and medicine, complete with a tasting session. For July, we had invited another local historian/author, Rupert Willoughby, to talk about his book on William Marshall. Rupert was a good speaker, and there were many questions after his talk that he was willing to answer. In early August, many of us went to see the matinee performance of The Tragedy of Richard III at the Old Vic. Before the performance, we had all met up at a nearby Turkish restaurant. Various aspects of the production (and cast audibility) received a mixed response in later discussions, but there was no doubting the energy and skill of the central performance. For our August meeting Richard and Sandra Pointer very kindly held our annual garden party in Guildford, and we were very lucky in that the weather was excellent. Later in the month, a number of our members made their way to Bosworth for the annual re-enactment.

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In September, we visited Penshurst Place in Kent, which in the late fifteenth century was held by the Staffords of Buckingham. We were extremely fortunate that the day of our visit coincided with the Weald craft fair. In October, the Society Chairman Phil Stone, with his wife, Beth, came to give us his absorbing talk „First Catch Your Asp: an Illustrated Talk on the Deaths of Kings and Queens‟, and we hope he may give us a return visit, when he has some of that elusive free time. Our November meeting was another of our book reviews, and this year we discussed John Ashdown- Hill‟s The Last Days of Richard III. Admirably organised and laid out, it raised some interesting ideas, and, as any good history book will, it provoked a host of questions, which made for a lively debate. Our December meeting was an early Christmas lunch, held at the Swan in Ash Vale, and attended by several members, families and friends, and we were very grateful that some people had joined us from Lancashire, Worcestershire and Devon. Vast amounts were consumed, putting us all in a properly festive frame of mind, and ending in a resounding „thank you‟ to our secretary, Rollo Crookshank, for organising such a good year‟s programme for us Gill Gibbins

Worcestershire Branch Report For the October meeting the Worcestershire Branch crossed the border into Warwickshire to visit the parish church of St Alphege, Solihull. The church is spacious and has a number of beautiful and interesting features, just gaining inclusion in Jenkins‟s Thousand Best Churches. The reason for its dedication to the Saxon saint is unknown. Alphege was Archbishop of Canterbury and was martyred by the Danes at Greenwich on 19 April 1012 for refusing to allow his people to raise a ransom for him. As this year is the thousandth anniversary of his martyrdom all the churches dedicated to him will worship together at Canterbury Cathedral on 9 June, the anniversary of the translation of his body from St Paul‟s to Canterbury. The only Ricardian connection is tenuous: Edward, duke of York, was lord of the manor from 1414 to 1415, but the lordship then passed to, among others, Henry V, Henry VI and Edmund, Jasper and the young Henry Tudor, before passing to Warwick, Clarence, Edward IV, Edward V and finally Richard III. Our very knowledgeable guide for the afternoon, Mr Stan Boulter, began his talk by using a large but intricate scale model to demonstrate how the church building had developed. The construction of the original church commenced about 1220, soon after the new borough of Solihull was „planted‟ and traces of this church can be seen in the area below the tower. The church grew over the next three centuries and now has a very long chancel in proportion to the nave, with magnificent east and west windows, the latter not completed until the 1530s. Sadly there are only fragments of medieval glass left, but the west window and another, rectangular, Tudor window have Kempe glass. The most unusual feature is the two-storey chapel on the north side of the chancel. The upper chapel was the chantry chapel and the lower one the chapel and living accommodation of the chantry priest. It has the original thirteenth-century altar with its dedication crosses and a relic, the nature of which is unknown, sealed into it. At the other end of this chapel is a fireplace and the priest could for security bar the door into the chancel from inside his room; the existing door is probably the original thirteenth-century one. After exploring the rest of the church and examining its monuments and hatchments, the party repaired to the vestry for tea and cakes. In November a Branch member, Mickie O‟Neill, gave the first of two talks on the powerful and influential Mortimer family. She noted the recent research into the family by historian Ian Mortimer and the work of the Mortimer Society. Her fascinating presentation began with the arrival in England from Normandy of Ralph de Mortemer with William the Conqueror. William granted him land in Shropshire and Herefordshire and the family became Lords of Wigmore, where their ruined castle still stands close to Wigmore Abbey, which they founded, now a private house. She traced their history through the Middle Ages to the marriages of Edmund, third earl of

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March to Philippa, Lionel of Clarence‟s daughter, and Anne Mortimer to Richard, earl of Cambridge which led to the consolidation of the Yorkist claim to the crown. She explained the problems of the succession under the childless Richard II and the disregarding of the Mortimer claim by the usurper Henry IV. She emphasised not only the importance of the marriage alliances the Mortimers made, but also their closeness to the throne throughout the medieval period. The violence of the deaths of many members of the family should not, perhaps, have been surprising. In her second talk she will focus on the career of „the greatest traitor‟, Roger Mortimer, lover of Queen Isabella. The Branch‟s December meeting at the pleasant village hall in Upton Snodsbury took its now customary form of Ricardian quizzes and discussions followed by a delicious „Bring and Share‟ tea, provided by members and accompanied by a festive glass of wine. Carol Southworth

Yorkshire Branch Report Following the ballot referred to in our last report, the elected members of the 2011-12 Committee are (in alphabetical order) Pauline Harrison Pogmore, Marjorie Hodgkinson, Angela Moreton, Hannah Moreton, Scowen Sykes and Lynda Telford. We welcome Scowen as a new Committee member and are sure that the Branch will benefit from all his local knowledge and contacts as a founder member of the Towton Battlefield Society and a former Trustee of the Battlefields Trust. The Branch Medieval Banquet was held in York on 22 October, but due to Bulletin deadlines couldn‟t be reported on until now. We are pleased to report that the event, at the Black Swan on Peasholme Green, was very successful: members and guests came from far and wide (well, Penrith, Knaresborough and London), as well as from nearer places, and the Committee has received some very positive feedback, which is much appreciated. We hope to return to the same venue later this year – see below. The Branch wreath-laying at Sandal to commemorate the battle of Wakefield took place on 31 December. Local members may already know that the statue of the duke of York in Manygates Lane now has a new head – although he still looks too much like a depiction of the Black Prince for some of our members‟ liking. It was a fine day and the event was well-attended, several people having come down from the living history event at the castle. We hope to have our usual stall in the barn at Towton Hall on Palm Sunday, which this year falls on 1 April, and we look forward to seeing members there (although preferably not under a Percy banner again). Flowers will be laid at the Dacre Cross outside Towton village as usual on behalf of Yorkshire Branch. The Committee is able to give some information about future Branch events in this report, although final details will of course appear later in this Bulletin and our own Newsletter, as well as on the Society and Branch websites. On Saturday 28 April our Arthur Cockerill Spring Lecture will take place at Jacob‟s Well, York – speaker and topic to be confirmed. On Saturday 9 June the Branch is holding a Middleham Study & Excursion Day, with talks at the Key Centre (speakers, hopefully, to include Scowen Sykes and Jean Gidman, the author of Sir William Stanley of Holt: a Yorkist Martyr?) as well as guided walks around the pre-Neville castle site and St Alkelda‟s church. Reference will be made to aspects of pre-medieval life in the area. Events last from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the cost for the day is £15 per person; booking will open in April and further information and a booking form will appear with our April Newsletter. We hope to hold our Branch Bosworth commemoration at Middleham on Sunday 19 August, and our Branch AGM in York on Saturday 1 September. Finally, and importantly, we must mention here that following the Society AGM in York on Saturday 29 September, the Branch invites fellow-Ricardians to a dinner at the Black Swan. It will NOT be exclusively a costume event. Booking will open in April, and full details will be given in due course. Angela Moreton, Chairman

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New Members

UK 1 October to 31 December 2011 Pamela Winterbottom, Sheffield Richard Adams, Leeds Richard York-Windsor, Stamshaw, Hants Marlene Arnese, London Overseas 1 October to 31 December 2011 Kathryn Berry, Oxfordshire Matthew Allison, Queanbeyan, NSW, Nicholas Chrimes, Arkesden, Essex Australia Katherine Cobbe, Newbury, Berks Michael Barry, Orange, California, USA Mavis Coleman, Todmorden, Lancs Karen Clark, Bredbo, NSW, Australia Jane Cook, Manchester Ilsa Evans, Victoria, Australia Jane Davies, Howden Barbara Gaskell, East Warburton, Victoria, Sarah Elkerton, Crediton, Devon Australia Yvonne Fleck, Witham, Essex Marilyn Peterson, Cambridge, Mass., USA Carolyn Hawkins, Chesterfield Jessica Shi, Markham, Ontario, Canada Kathryn Hill, London Carmel Hunt, Clitheroe, Lancs US Branch 1 October to 31 December Mungo Kilgour, By St Andrews, Fife 2011 David McCarthy, Holt, Norfolk Eileen Lehner, Tyrone, Pennsylvania Pauline McMullen, Marlow, Bucks Melanie Ann Madeira, Parlin, New Jersey Heather Miller, Wolverhampton Susan Morris, Wexford, Pennsylvania Michael Parker, Farnborough, Hants Kristen Negrotto-Weber, Middlesex, New Robert Peck, Pinner, Middx Jersey Karen Richardson, Edinburgh Elizabeth Sommers, Averill Park, New York Pauline Richer, Billingham Judy Gerard Thomson, Chicago, Illinois Bridget Stabler, York Margaret Thorne, Norristown, Pennsylvania David Waters, London Wendy Zollo, Rowley, Massachusetts

Recently Deceased Members

Gordon Field, London (joined 1996) Miss S. Flitton, Coventry, West Midlands (joined 1994) Mrs J.A. Robinson, Gigglewick, North Yorkshire (joined 1987) Norman Smith, South Croydon, Surrey (joined 1998)

Gordon Field The London and Home Counties Branch is sorry to announce the death of Gordon Field. Gordon was a regular attender at Branch meetings with his wife Rachel, and also took part in many visits, although on the most recent visits he had to make use of crutches. The Fields always came to Bosworth for the Society‟s annual memorial service at Sutton Cheney and visit to the battlefield. They were also very knowledgeable members of the Western Front Association and devoted to their cats. We extend our sympathy to Rachel in her loss.

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Calendar

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

Date Events Originator

24 March London and Home Counties Branch AGM, London and Home Counties and lecture by Rosemary Waxman, Senate Branch (see Dec Bulletin, House, London p.63)

24 March „Richard III: determined to prove a villain?‟ Scottish Branch (see p. 57) Talk by Elizabeth Rogers, Cramond Kirk Hall, Edinburgh

1 April Battle of Towton Commemoration Yorkshire Branch (see p. 58) Towton Hall, N.Yorkshire

20-22 April Triennial Conference at Burleigh Court Research Committee Conference Centre, Univ. of Loughborough

12 May Visit to Stratford-upon-Avon and Baddesley, Visits Committee (see p.57) Warwickshire

9 June Yorkshire Branch Study Day Yorkshire Branch (see p. 58) Middleham Key Centre

9-12 July International Medieval Congress, Leeds IMC (see p.7)

14 July Visit to Southwick Hall, near Oundle, Visits Committee (see June Northants 2012 Bulletin)

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

28-29 August Bosworth weekend See June Bulletin

1 September Yorkshire Branch AGM, York Yorkshire Branch (see p.58)

28-30 September Joint American-Canadian AGM and Canadian Branch (see p. 58) Conference, Toronto

29 September Society Annual General Meeting, York Executive Committee (see p. 4)

10 November Norfolk Branch Study Day Norfolk Branch (see p.58)

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The Achievement of arms of the Richard III Society

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