Ricardian

Bulletin Magazine of the Richard III Society

ISSN 0308 4337 September 2011

Ricardian

Bulletin September 2011

Contents

2 From the Chairman 3 Society News and Notices including AGM arrangements and Membership Matters (subscriptions) 14 Fifty Years of The Ricardian, by John Saunders 17 Thoughts from New South Wales 20 News and Reviews including the Mendes-Spacey production of Richard III at the Old Vic, London 27 Media Retrospective 30 The Man Himself: The York Vellum: Richard‟s Coronation Visit to York, by John Saunders 33 Paper from the Study Weekend: Murder on the Tower: the death of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, by Heather Falvey 37 Katherine Courtenay: Plantagenet princess, Tudor countess (part 1), by Judith Ridley 40 Mr Lathol‟s Frenzy, by Tig Lang 41 Historical Fact or Fiction? by Christopher Rae 43 Your Queries Answered: (1) The Questionable Legend of Sir Henry Wyatt, by Annette Carson (2) A Canonical Minefield, by Marie Barnfield (3) Henry Tudor‟s Path to the Throne, by Annette Carson 49 Another de la Pole? by Stephen Lark 51 Correspondence 54 The Barton Library 56 Future Society Events 58 Branches and Groups 62 New Members and Recently Deceased Members 63 Obituaries 64 Calendar

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

From the Chairman

e pass a significant milestone this October with the fiftieth anniversary of the very first W edition of The Ricardian, which has grown from very humble beginnings to the utterly first-rate scholarly journal we have today. In this issue of the Bulletin, we tell how it all began and how the journal developed over the decades that followed. The Ricardian has made an enormous contribution to the good reputation that this Society enjoys and I take this opportunity to salute all the past editors, but especially Anne Sutton, who has been at the helm for the past thirty-two years. Anne‟s tenure as editor has seen our flagship journal consolidate and expand its role as one of the leading and most respected journals covering our period of medieval history. This is something we can and should all take great pride in. In this issue, we have the usual combination of articles and features to both inform and entertain, including two contributions from Annette Carson. She follows Henry Tudor‟s path to the throne and gives us an interesting insight into Sir Henry Wyatt. Marie Barnfield offers a fresh look at the Beaufort offspring of John of Gaunt and Katharine Swynford: a relationship which was to have so many implications for English history in the fifteenth century. Also, we welcome two new contributors, Christopher Rae, who takes a look at the subject of fiction and historical facts in light of the success of Hilary Mantel‟s Wolf Hall, and Judith Ridley, who tells the story of Edward IV‟s daughter, Katherine Courtenay, countess of Devon.. „The Man Himself‟ reminds us of the Society‟s gift to York Minster, the splendid York Vellum, which we presented in 1966. We will be contacting the authorities at the Minster to ask if it would be possible to put it on public display during York‟s 800th anniversary celebrations next year. We also have a lot about that play by Shakespeare. The Propeller Company‟s performance was reviewed in the last issue, and we complement this with Heather Falvey‟s letter about the production.The interpretation by Kevin Spacey under Sam Mendes‟ direction, currently being performed at the Old Vic, has received a lot of media coverage. If you haven‟t seen it and if it‟s still playing when you read this and you can get tickets, I thoroughly recommend it. Whatever you think of the play, and we all know it „ain‟t history‟, whatever the Duke of Marlborough said, the performance is certainly a tour de force worth seeing. It is always interesting to hear about how members develop their interest in the subject of Richard III and subsequently find out about the Society. Dorothea Preis has gathered together some recollections from members of the New South Wales Branch which well illustrates some of the many paths that led to the Richard III Society. The triennial conference next April is booking up quickly. It promises to be a particularly stimulating one, the emphasis being on the exciting new discoveries at Bosworth. So, if you are thinking of attending, get your application in fast. Likewise with the Visits Team‟s trip to Bruges next August. The opportunity to experience the wonderful Pageant of the Golden Tree will make this trip very popular. The Members‟ Day and AGM are fast approaching, and we are all looking forward to our rather special speaker this year, Dr David Starkey. His acceptance of our invitation has sparked considerable interest, so we really do need members to confirm their attendance as spaces are limited. It will be an especially memorable day and I look forward to meeting members and talking to them about our work and plans for the future.

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Society News and Notices

Subscriptions Due Subscriptions for the forthcoming membership year fall due on 2 October 2011. Please see the renewal form in the centrefold section and Membership Matters below for rates and methods of payment.

Richard III Society Members’ Day and Annual General Meeting School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), Malet Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Saturday 1 October 2011

As is the established practice, Saturday 1 October is both the AGM and a day for members to meet each other and get involved and once again, although using a new (to us) venue, the event will follow a similar pattern to previous years. At the time of writing this article, mid July, no motions have been received by the Chairman or the Joint Secretaries. All members are reminded that motions and resolutions for the AGM agenda, proposed and seconded by Society members and signed, should be sent to the Joint Secretaries, in hard copy, by no later than Friday 16 September 2011. Similarly, nominations by Society members for membership of the Executive Committee, proposed, seconded and accepted by the nominee and duly signed by all, should also be sent to the Joint Secretaries by the same date. Forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Joint Secretaries – by electronic or hard copy means or downloaded from the Society‟s website. The Annual Report is published in this Bulletin. It contains much of the material formerly reported by officers at the AGM. This means that officers‟ reports on the day will provide attendees with any relevant updates which will enable the focus of the meeting to be on the future and members‟ issues. As with other years, there will be an Open Forum/ Question Time to enable members to raise questions and issues. These can be submitted by email or in writing to the Joint Secretaries (contact details on the inside cover of the Bulletin). If you wish to submit a question in advance, it would be helpful if it is received by Thursday 29 September. You will also be able to post questions on the day and „post -it‟ notes will be available for you to place on a board in the hall. Queries and questions may be submitted anonymously, but, if they cannot be answered on the day, questioners will be invited to give their contact details to a Society officer to enable an answer to be provided at a later date. Please remember that this is your day. Please try to attend and take the opportunity to raise any question that you have, to meet old friends and to make new ones.

This year our speaker will be the renowned historian and broadcaster Dr David Starkey, who will be talking about Yorkist sentiment in the reign of Henry VII. If you intend to come to the event, please register your place by email to the Secretaries at their email address or by completing and returning the booking form which was published in the June Bulletin.

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Requests to attend are being dealt with on a „first come, first served‟ basis. If you have not registered in advance, we regret that you may not be allowed entry as, although the venue will hold in excess of 200 persons, there is a maximum limit with which the Society must comply. If the maximum limit is reached, a waiting list will be maintained. At the time of writing (mid July) over 170 registrations had been recorded. Further to the official notification in the June Bulletin, set out below is the proposed programme for the day:

Programme: 10.30 Doors open; Members arrive, time to visit stalls etc. 12.00 Inaugural Isolde Wigram Memorial Lecture – Dr David Starkey 13.15 Lunch – own arrangements 14.30 Annual General Meeting and Open Forum/Question Time followed by Raffle 16.15 (estimated) Conclusion of Members‟ Day and dispersal

Details of the venue and how to get there are given below:

Venue: School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), Malet Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Public Transport: Nearest Underground station is Russell Square (Piccadilly Line) and SOAS is within easy walking distance (about 5 minutes) from the station. The following stations are also within walking distance of the Russell Square campus: Goodge Street (Northern Line), Tottenham Court Road (Central and Northern Lines), Euston (Victoria and Northern Lines, and mainline trains), Euston Square (Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines), Kings Cross St Pancras (Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines, and mainline, Thameslink and Eurostar trains) and Warren Street (Victoria and Northern Lines). The following buses serve the local area: numbers 7, 68, 91, 168 and 188 stop in Russell Square; 10, 24, 29, 73 and 134 stop in Tottenham Court Road (north bound) or Gower Street (south bound). Parking: There is no general parking at the Russell Square campus but there are car parks at: Brunswick Square NCP, Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AF The Royal National Hotel, 38-51 Bedford Way, WC1H 0DG Russell Court NCP, Woburn Place, WC1H 0ND Judd Street NCP, Judd Street, WC1H 9QR. There are also pay-and-display bays on Russell Square and on other surrounding streets, including Blue Badge parking bays near Russell Square. Reception: The venue will be open from 10.30 a.m. Members will be asked to sign in at the reception table which will be staffed by members of the Croydon Group and we would like to record our appreciation of their assistance in providing this service. Refreshments: Light refreshments (tea, coffee, water, biscuits) will be provided by SOAS during the informal part of the day. The Society will be charged for this but refreshment sales to attendees are not

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permitted. Therefore, delegates will be invited to make a contribution towards the cost on arrival. Lunch: Lunch will be by own arrangements and various local facilities are available within a very short walk of the venue. Please note that SOAS will not permit the consumption of food on the premises.

Other attractions: Major Craft Sale: The thirty-second Major Craft Sale will be held around the AGM/ Members‟ Day. The sale will start at 10.30 am and run until 12.00 noon, and then continue in the lunch interval. On sale there will be books, Ricardian embroidery, cakes and sweets (for home consumption only), paperweights, RCRF Christmas cards, knitted items and baby clothes, soft toys, collages, etc., and Ricardian and other bric-à-brac. The proceeds of the Craft Sale will be devoted to the Ricardian Churches Restoration Fund. We would warmly welcome offers of items for sale. We do appeal to members to try to provide some items for sale, so please try to look out some items of jumble or bric-à-brac. We would of course also warmly welcome all items of any sort of craftwork. If you wish to give or send items in advance, please contact Elizabeth Nokes, 26 West Way, Petts Wood, Kent BR5 1LW (email: [email protected], tel. 01689 823569) to check that the items are suitable. If you wish to bring items along on the day, it would be most helpful if you could mark them with an indication of the price(s) at which you think they should be sold. Ricardian Sales Stall: There will be a range of Society and Trust publications and Society artefacts. Website: Beth Stone, the Web Content Manager, will be present. Treasurer’s Table: Paul Foss will be available to receive payment of subscriptions on the day and will have a table for this purpose. Barton Library: The librarians will be selling off duplicate library stock at bargain prices and a selection of the Society‟s books and artefacts. They will also be showcasing the diverse services that the Library can offer to members. Battlefields Trust: This organisation will again be represented and have a display. Bookseller: As last year, Starkmann Limited will be in attendance with a range of publications and associated sales items. Branches & Groups: This is an opportunity for branches and groups to showcase their publications and activities. Yorkshire Branch: The branch will again be represented and be selling some Ricardian publications and items with specific local focus. Visits Committee: This table will be hosted by members of the Visits Committee and will display information on past visits and details of future visits. Suggestions for the latter would be very welcome. Annual Grand Raffle: As usual we shall be having a raffle in aid of the RCRF. The tickets will be 25 pence each, or five tickets for £1, and will be on sale at the meeting. The prizes include: the offer of accommodation in Bruges; framed painting of Fotheringhay church by Joyce Melhuish; framed print of Quincentenary arms; a

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three-volume set of Simon Schama‟s History of Britain; MacIntosh Rose silver candle holder; „The Bowmen of Bosworth‟ – hand-painted model figures; framed print of Barnard Castle; „Richard III‟ portrait tea-towel, NPG; metal two-branch candle holder and candles; set of photograph albums, fabric- covered and boxed. Prizes are not ranked in any order. The first ticket drawn will have first choice, and so on. We thank the contributors and suppliers of prizes.

Reminder to Branches and Groups If your branch/group wishes to make a report at the AGM, please let the Joint Secretaries know by Friday 16 September so that it can be included on the AGM agenda. Reports can be made in person by a Branch/Group representative or, for overseas branches/groups, if no local representative is able to attend the AGM in person, a printed report can be supplied to be read at the AGM. Reports should not exceed three minutes and should consist of new material not previously reported verbally or in print.

And finally.. If you have any queries about any matters relating to the Members‟ Day or AGM, please get in touch with the Joint Secretaries – contact details as set out in the Bulletin.

Membership Matters Subscriptions will become due on 2 October this year and there is a renewal reminder form in the centre pages of this Bulletin for those of you who prefer to pay by cheque or postal order. The new subscription rates agreed at last year‟s AGM now become effective for existing members and they are:

Full Member £26 Senior Member/Student/Junior £20 Family £32 Senior Family £26

The overseas postage supplement remains unchanged at £9

Members can pay by various means:

By cheque or postal order: payable to the Richard III Society, and sent with the renewal form. By standing order: due to the increase it is necessary for members to amend instructions to their bank and to this end I wrote to UK members in July and enclosed a new standing order form for completion and onward transmission to their banks. If you intend to pay by standing order and have not yet completed the form I would be grateful if you could do this at your earliest convenience. By direct transfer: those members who use Internet banking can transfer their subscriptions direct to the Society‟s banking account. Our bankers are HSBC, sort code 40-22-26, account number 71077503. For those overseas members who wish to use this method they will need the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) which is GB50MIDL40222671077503. Please remember to quote your membership number so that I can reference payments with members.

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By PayPal: Our PayPal email address is [email protected] and all payments should be in pounds sterling. The message to recipient box should include my name and your membership number. Please note there is a 5% surcharge on the amount payable which needs to be paid by members. By credit or debit card: the Society can once again accept credit or debit card payments through the chip and pin facility recently negotiated. Please note that there is also a 5% surcharge on the amount paid by this method, as above. To process an electronic transaction, the following details are required: cardholder‟s name as it appears on the card; card number; card expiry date; security number (the 3-digit number on the back of the card); cardholder‟s postcode; amount to be charged; category of payment (i.e. membership). By non-sterling cheque: the Society can process such cheques but due to the heavy fees levied by our bank the equivalent of £15 should be added to cover this cost.

Unfortunately it is not possible for the Society to offer members payment by direct debit nor is the Society able to accept payments by Western Union or Moneygram.

Please let me know if your circumstances have changed in a way which necessitates a change of membership category, for example full member to senior citizen (we do not hold birth dates for all members) or student to full membership. This can be done by ticking your new category on the subscription renewal form and the relevant box at the bottom of the page or by email/ letter. This helps considerably with our administration. Finally, if you are not renewing your membership, I would be grateful if you could let me know. To facilitate this there is a space on the reminder form. This will save the Society the expense of sending out reminder letters and helps us to determine the correct print-runs for our journals. Of course, I do hope you consider the Society good value for money and will continue to enjoy your membership for many years to come.

Wendy Moorhen, Membership Officer

Executive Committee Membership The Executive Committee is delighted to welcome two advisers who have been given „ex- officio‟ status to recognise the work that they do in supporting the Committee and the Society. They are John Saunders, Chair of the Bulletin Committee, and Stephen York, our new Business Manager.

Publication and Distribution Working Party Further to the article that appeared in the June Bulletin, the overseas representatives on the working party are: Australasia: David Bliss Canada: Victoria Moorshead United States: Joan Szechtman Arrangements for the first meeting are in hand.

Leeds Medieval Congress July 2011 John Saunders, and Carolyn and Peter Hammond, were at the Historical Societies Fair, held on the Wednesday of the Leeds Medieval Congress, to operate the Society‟s stall there. They had a very successful day, selling £69.50-worth of Society stock and two Trust books. They also renewed Society contacts with the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, the Wakefield Historical Society and Towton Battlefield Society, and met the representative of the International Medieval Bibliography, who told them she was responsible for entering The Ricardian on their data base.

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Bosworth Conservation Management Plan Workshop Event, 19 May 2011 Sue and Dave Wells

The Society was invited to be represented at a workshop at the Battlefield Centre on Thursday 19 May to discuss the Bosworth Conservation Management Plan (CMP). Besides ourselves, Richard Smith, Chairman of the East Midlands Branch, attended. The originator of the CMP is Leicestershire County Council. They have outsourced the development of the Plan to a local specialist consultancy. A number of local organisations were also represented, including the Battlefields Trust, heritage groups and associations, the Chair of Tourism for the area and the Richard III Foundation. The Battlefield Centre was represented by the Richards: Knox and Mackinder. The facilitator was Caroline Lloyd Brown from the consultancy. It was a very interesting session and we felt that the basis on which this will be taken forward will be one of protection and preservation. An initial presentation from Caroline Lloyd Brown explained the purpose of a CMP, which includes the following:

to inform the process of planning conservation management to take account of the needs of the area and the public to determine what is wanted from the area in the future to establish what the area needs to support its aspirations to define what is significant and of value to identify possible issues and areas of conflict

The end result will be a single volume document, planned for publication in September. However, many present felt that this was overly optimistic. The document will pull together all aspects in a non-technical format and set out the vision with recommendations for broad policies and guidance, as well as providing a framework for decision making and prioritisation. The area in question is broadly encompassed by the five „battlefield villages‟ of Shenton, Sutton Cheney, Dadlington, Stoke Golding and Upton. However, the project is not solely about the future of Bosworth battlefield site as this is one of many interests in the sub-region. It is proposed to include areas of importance such as the site of Richard III‟s encampment. It was noted that the revised battlefield site is not included in the English Heritage registered area and the Battlefields Trust is currently in talks with EH about getting the area updated to reflect the revised site. The participants were then divided into three groups; representatives were mixed over all three to aid the discussions. We were asked to discuss and feed back on matters of interest and concern under the following three broad headings, which would then be incorporated into the draft document:

(a) Values/Pride – what do you take pride in/value/enjoy in this landscape? What is your direct experience of the area?

(b) Issues – what are the current key issues or challenges affecting management of the area?

(c) Future – what do you think will be the future forces for change or key drivers acting on this area?

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The following is a summary of the comments made by all groups against these designations.

(a) Values/Pride Internationally-known site of great historic interest. Local people have a sense of pride in living in such an important area. Open landscape: a „green lung‟.

(b) Issues Lack of retail/catering facilities for tourists/visitors to the area. Affordability. Expensive car parking in particular is seen as an issue. Effects on flora and fauna of changes to landscape. Visitors will want to be able to visit the revised battlefield site. This is likely to lead to some problems with local farmers. Trespassers doing damage to land and to archaeology (night metal-detecting, etc.). Is the area capable of sustaining its increased profile and subsequent tourism?

(c) Future Will need significant infrastructure development if tourism is to be encouraged and increased. May need areas reserved for conservation of flora and fauna. Some local farmers/landowners may be willing to divert existing public footpaths to enable visitors to walk around the edges of fields within the revised site without actually walking across them and damaging crops etc. Need to safeguard the area and archaeological exploration whilst providing a balance for access to the general public. Funding: a „tourist infrastructure‟ is needed that will ensure provision of facilities. Private sector will look for a trade-off, i.e. hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, shops, etc. Great care must be taken to find the right balance. Positive result: additional local jobs and money in area to benefit local communities. Must ensure that the historical and environmental importance of the site is not subsumed by the overall plan. Protection for site, e.g. national park or heritage trail status. Smart phone apps for walks, information, etc.

It was clear that the battlefield and matters Ricardian were not the sole issues for the County Council, but it was also clear that these were at the heart of the County‟s considerations in connection with the management plan. At the time of writing, there has been no further communication on this subject and we will ensure that the membership is kept informed of developments.

Footnote: The Wrong Trousers We had a Wallace and Gromit moment as in The Wrong Trousers. We travelled up the evening before as it would be an early start at the Battlefield Centre. Naturally, for the drive we were dressed casually and took more formal clothes for the event. Somehow, between the car park and our room, Dave‟s „smart‟ trousers must have fallen off the hanger and disappeared without trace. Somebody, somewhere in Leicestershire, had a lucky find. This wasn‟t discovered until the next morning and meant that Dave had to attend in collar and tie and combat trousers. To make matters worse, he was selected by his group to report back and had to stand up and make a presentation – much to Sue‟s embarrassment. It also meant a hasty trip to M&S on our return to Essex to replace the aforementioned „smart‟ trousers.

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Shine out fair sun - and tell us the time at Bosworth Phil Stone

I don‟t know who had the idea of a commemorative sundial when they were planning the changes at the Battlefield Centre, but whoever it was deserves recognition. I must also say that, when I saw the finished arrangement, it couldn‟t have looked less like I had imagined It is set on the brow of the hill in the field between the Centre and where Richard‟s standard used to fly. (The standard has been moved closer to the new sundial.) I was expecting something like a pillar with your average type of sundial upon it but, of course, Bosworth is not your average type of battlefield commemoration. The gnomon of the sundial is a triangular blade, about three feet high, set upon the ground. It extends upwards in the form of a medieval billhook, from the blade of which hangs the crown. The gnomon is silver and decorated with the medieval rose. The base of the sundial, which is at ground level, is paved in the style of a compass rose, and includes several slabs giving detail of the events of the morning of 22 August 1485. Around the paved area is a ring of rose bushes and this is broken up by three massive wood and stone chairs. Two are thrones, one for Richard and one for Henry Tudor. The other, smaller, seat is for Thomas, Lord Stanley. Why? I was told this was for symmetry. In that case, I felt it should have been anonymous, while Beth thought that, as it was for a Stanley, it should have been on wheels so that it could be moved from side to side. Also set amongst the roses are small posts surmounted by the names of other notables at the battle and the monument is encircled by a hedge, which I think will be beech when it has grown. Offset, to one side of the sundial is an information board which also acts as a large picture frame. Looking through it, especially if standing on a line between it and the sundial, one looks out over the site of the battle, albeit in the distance now. Nearby, and overlooking all of this, is the new seat given by the Society to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Paul Sundial and King Richard’s throne Murray Kendall, complete with an informative plaque. The sundial, as well as commemorating all the fallen of Bosworth, marks the beginning of a new refurbished Battlefield Trail and it was for the opening of this new trail that Beth and I, together with Richard Smith, chairman of the East Midlands Branch, were present on 24 June. It was cold and grey as the clouds lour‟d but the rain held off as the chairman of Leicester County Council thanked everyone for the work on the Centre, etc, before cutting the ribbon and allowing us, officially, to enter the sundial site. There, we were joined by Richard III and Henry Tudor, both fully armed, and they proceeded to strike martial and confrontational poses for the photographers. That done, they walked off, not quite arm in arm, but together and clanking all the way to get out of their harness. The rest of us retired to the tea tent for refreshments and chat. The scones, filled with cream and jam, were splendid.

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This article will come out after the events of this year‟s Bosworth weekend, but I do urge members – and other visitors – when next visiting Bosworth, to look at the sundial and to walk the new trail. As well as new interpretive signage, it has some talking posts, too: a soldier tells his story of the battle. And if that is too much, relax on the seat and think of Richard – Good King Dickon!

Looking towards the battle site: an information board also acts as a picture frame

Brass Plaque Replicas

The Society has commissioned Canterbury Studios to produce an edition of brass plaques of King Richard III and Queen Anne Neville.

They will be 7 ins. by 3 ins. and mounted on simulated marble with felt backing, and an infor- mation label on the reverse. The plaques will be drilled on the reverse to enable wall mounting. The pictures shown here are early representations, and the final versions will be subject to change to ensure authenticity. We hope to have these on sale at the AGM. The proposed price is £20 per individual plaque, or £35 for the two. Further details can be obtained from the Society‟s website or the Sales Officer.

Drawn by Geoff Wheeler

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Triennial Conference 2012

Burleigh Court, Loughborough, 20-22 April

We are still taking bookings for the conference, so if you were undecided you still have time to book. There is a booking form showing the costs, etc., in the centre fold. Those of you who have already booked and paid a deposit will need to make the final payment by 31 January 2012. Don‟t forget to take off the deposit. Final details of the conference still need some fine tuning, but I am pleased to be able to confirm that Dr Tim Sutherland will speak to us about Towton and the discovery of further burial pits, as well as the cannon that was found.

Arrangements for the trip to Bosworth Bosworth will be open to the general public while we are there, so numbers entering into the exhibition will have to be restricted. Therefore we shall have to split up into groups and have timed entries. For this reason I need to know the number of people who intend to visit the exhibition so that I can organise size and times of groups. As well as visiting the exhibition people can undertake a walk around the battlefield, or just up to the sundial and new bench. Please be aware that it is a battlefield and walking may be difficult in places, so please have sensible shoes if you intend to do the battlefield trail. Tea and coffee will be provided in the education centre to prevent a bottleneck in the Barn Restaurant. Again, requirements for tea/coffee are needed so that the staff at Bosworth can prepare everything for us. Tickets will be provided for tea/coffee to prevent members of the public walking in and helping themselves. For those not wishing to walk around the battlefield, this room will be available for you to have a sit down. It will be open for us throughout the afternoon and you can have a cup of tea/ coffee when you are ready between visits to the exhibition and exploration of the battlefield. It was hoped that we might be able to arrange a visit to the new location for the site of the battle. However, this is on a working farm and, given the time of year, there will be crops growing. I‟m afraid that two coaches and a large number of people will not therefore be practical. We have no desire to upset the farmer who has been so helpful in allowing the archaeologists access to his land.

The form in the centre pages has a number of questions relating to the visit to Bosworth, which will need answers now and not on the day, so please ensure all questions are answered when you return the form.

Please note that after 30 September the £50 deposit will not be refundable. Once full payment has been made, any refund after 31 January will be at the discretion of the hotel, and will reduce the nearer we get to the event. If you do have to cancel then a full refund may only be possible if a replacement is found for your place. I would therefore advise you take out personal insurance just in case. The hotel has spa and swimming pool facilities which we shall be able to use, so bring along your cossy if you fancy a dip. Lynda Pidgeon

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Fifty Years of The Ricardian JOHN SAUNDERS

In October 1961 the very first issue of The

Ricardian was published. It was a duplicated and stapled twelve-page magazine. The cover was illustrated with a photo of the Cardiff Castle window depicting Richard III and Anne Neville. Inside could be found an article by Isolde Wigram about the Princes in the Tower, research reports, branch news, a report on a visit to Minster Lovell and a book review. Whilst some of these might still be found in today‟s Ricardian or Bulletin, much was to change over the course of the fifty years that were to follow. During the Society‟s early years there had been no regular journal or magazine, although following the re-founding in 1956 occasional newsletters and sporadic research reports appeared. With the growth in membership both at home and abroad the need for a regular members‟ magazine was becoming apparent. Christal Cook, a young member of the committee, suggested at a meeting in March 1961 that such a publication ought to be considered. The proposal was taken up and Christal was offered and accepted the role of founding editor, with a remit to investigate the means and cost of publication and publish the first issue later that year. The new venture was announced in June‟s newsletter, accompanied by a request for contributions. Christal, with the help of her friend and co-editor Heather Bennett, moved swiftly and at the next committee meeting presented a draft lay-out with costings well within the Society‟s limited resources. The cost would be £10 for 250 copies and this was agreed, along with its title The Ricardian and its publication schedule of three issues annually, appearing in October, February and May. The first issue‟s editorial proclaimed its mission: „We hope in future issues to follow the general pattern used in this one: a learned article, something to test your Ricardian knowledge, a poem, letters and questions from members, research and news reports, and a book review. There will also be space for fixtures and notices. But this magazine is yours!‟ And thus was The Ricardian born. The first issue was well received, with the committee minutes noting that „the editor was to be congratulated on the first issue; the Hon. Secretary saying that she had received many gratifying comments‟. Christal continued as editor until 1967, with Heather‟s help for the first couple of years. The format of the magazine changed little, although the range and scope of its content did improve. Shortly before stepping down Christal initiated a members‟ referendum to help decide the future policy and direction of the magazine. This was in response to growing concerns that there should be greater emphasis on research articles rather than Society news and notices. It was felt that a more serious publication would be more attractive to academic historians and improve

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the Society‟s reputation. The referendum presented four options: to maintain the status quo; to publish in two parts, separating research articles from Society news; to publish an additional annual journal to cover research articles; and lastly for occasional papers to be published to complement the existing Ricardian. Forty-six percent of the membership took part, with the fourth option receiving the largest share of the votes cast but not a majority of them. As a result it was agreed that the magazine would be published as before, but with more academic material, with more detailed research published separately on an occasional basis. In October 1967 Christal‟s last issue was published and in acknowledging her contribution as founding editor the Society‟s Chairman, Patrick Bacon, noted that The Ricardian „is the greatest single factor in giving a sense of contact, of reality and of continuity to our world wide membership‟, words that could equally apply today. Christal became a theology teacher and had no further role in the Society thereafter. The new editor was Lornie Leete Hodge. Her first issue in January 1968 was the first to be printed rather than duplicated. Unfortunately Lornie had to resign for personal reasons after only two issues, although she was to return later for another short period. The first two editors of The Ricardian: She was the author of a number of books, Heather Bennett (left) and Christal Cook including many on the Royal Family, and died in 2008. The next editor was a Canadian, Barbara Gillen, who worked in the publications department of the Institute of Strategic Research and came with useful experience. Barbara made a number of important changes, including publishing quarterly, with editions in March, June, September and December, and adding the subtitle Journal of the Richard III Society. A copyright notice now became standard, the remit was extended to cover the whole of the fifteenth century and further changes were made to the format and cover design. These changes came with the December 1968 issue, the first with the now familiar front cover depicting the badge of Richard‟s White Boar and motto set on a white background. Having made important and quite radical changes, Barbara Gillen had to stand down following the March 1969 issue due to pressure of work in her professional life. Her successor was Zarosh Mugaseth who continued with the same format, with gradual improvements in the range and quality of articles. In 1973 the decision was taken to publish a separate magazine from The Ricardian to cover internal Society matters, thus freeing it to concentrate purely on historical articles and research. This was prompted by the substantial increase in membership that had taken place that year due to the National Portrait Gallery‟s Richard III Exhibition, and recognition that The Ricardian would have a greater market outside the Society if its focus was solely on fifteenth-century history. In March 1974 The Ricardian appeared for the first time alongside the new Ricardian Bulletin. Zarosh unexpectedly retired at the end of 1974 after four and a half years of service, with one break in 1973 when Lornie Leete Hodge stepped in for two issues whilst he was ill. Patrick Bacon, now Society President, noted in paying tribute to Zarosh that the decision to introduce the Bulletin had „solved our perennial problem of publishing an erudite historical journal which raises our prestige with scholars and at the same time (in the now separate Bulletin) keeps our members informed of all the social and Branch activities which exercise us‟. Zarosh and his wife eventually retired to Lincolnshire, where they became active and very popular members of their local branch. He died in May 1997. Following Zarosh‟s departure, Peter and Carolyn Hammond stepped in to see the journal through its next sixteen issues. Under the Hammond stewardship The Ricardian became a journal

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of high academic standards. However, they were also Research Officer and Librarian respectively, and could not be expected to take on the editorship permanently. Someone else had to be found, and fortunately the Society did not have to look far. Anne Sutton had been involved with the Society‟s research agenda for a number of years and was already working with Peter on the Coronation Records of Richard III. She was the obvious choice, and that she had all the requisite skills for the job was never in doubt. Then Society chairman, Jeremy Potter, noted in an article which opened Anne‟s first issue as editor in June 1979: „As for the future, it is good news that Anne Sutton, herself the author of a number of learned articles in recent Ricardians, has agreed to take over the editorship … Peter‟s last service as editor has been to find such a worthy successor‟. Thirty-two years later and Anne is still firmly seated in the editor‟s chair. In 2003 we celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of her editorship with the special Festschrift Ricardian, which replaced the four quarterly issues. The success of this venture led to the decision to make The Ricardian a permanent annual publication, with a redesigned and enlarged Bulletin remaining quarterly. The Festschrift‟s editor, Livia Visser-Fuchs, noted in her introduction that „few people, apart from editors of journals and their close associates, realise what a Herculean labour it is to keep a scholarly journal going …‟ Whilst we recognise the contribution of all past editors, including those who dealt with the technical aspects of publication, it is undoubtedly Anne who is the editor assoluta. To celebrate her thirty-two years, December‟s Bulletin will give Anne the opportunity to reflect on her time as editor when she is interviewed by Heather Falvey. It will be a fitting finale to The Ricardian‟s fiftieth birthday. The Ricardian is our flagship journal. It is now recognised as an important contributor to fifteenth-century studies and is one of the principal reasons why the Richard III Society is taken seriously. From a duplicated and stapled twelve-page magazine in 1961 to a printed and bound one-hundred-and-fifty-two-page scholarly journal in 2011: a journey of fifty years that has seen a small acorn grow into a mighty oak.

If anyone knows the current whereabouts of Christal Cook, Heather Bennett and Barbara Gillen, please let the editor know.

BOOKS FOR SALE

I have for sale a quantity of books of Ricardian and historical interest.

All are in good condition.

Please send a SAE for a list to Jean Townsend, Wesborough Lodge Farm, Westborough, near Newark, Notts NG23 5HP

FORGET-ME-NOT BOOKS

For a list of books on the Wars of the Roses and Richard III

and the new Autumn Catalogue of history books, both fiction and non-fiction, contact Judith Ridley

11, Tamarisk Rise, Wokingham, Berks, RG40 1WG

email: [email protected]

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Thoughts from New South Wales

Dorothea Preis has sent us the following from New South Wales: The website of the New South Wales Branch of the Richard III Society (www.richardiii- nsw.org.au) recently celebrated its second birthday. We asked our members to share their thoughts about Richard III, the Society or the branch or all of them. Some of their replies follow. They are a very good example of the interest in Richard and his life and its misinterpretation that we all share, as well as highlighting the friendships and enjoyment we all get from being members of the Society. The NSW Branch not only has members from New South Wales, but also includes several from the former Queensland Branch, as well as members living in the Australian Capital Territory.

From Narelle Bartley (QLD): In the early eighties I read an historical novel which gave Richard a pretty good image but it was a very small statement at the bottom of a page that really intrigued me. The statement simply advised the reader that „this document is extant‟. That statement led me to investigate the truth about Richard by reading books written by professional historians. What I actually discovered was the truth about historians and historical chroniclers i.e. that like lawyers in criminal trials only the facts that support their particular view are used to make their argument. Also, many of them, both for and against Richard, employ extraordinary feats of extrapolation about his motives with phrases such as „he must have‟ or „this meant‟. There is, in reality, so little actual evidence about Richard‟s motives and thought processes that extrapolation at a personal level is futile. And that‟s why I thank goodness for the Richard III Society whose aims include the promotion of research into the life and times of Richard III. The truth may emerge yet.

From Julia Redlich (Secretary, NSW Branch): I‟m one of the NSW Branch members who talk to various groups on a variety of Ricardian and medieval subjects. Admittedly a fair percentage of each audience is there mainly to have a chat with friends, enjoy a cup of tea and maybe find the guest speaker interesting. How rewarding it is when people come up afterwards – and want to know more. And they are not just being polite. This echoes the excitement I felt, aged 10, after watching a stage production of Stevenson‟s The Black Arrow and realising that the Richard, duke of Gloucester, was portrayed as someone quite different to the monster in my history book. I became determined to learn more about „the real Richard‟. Now, when I answer questions about his life and times, explain the connections of obscure characters on the family tree during a tea break or talk about the achievements of his short reign, I recognise the same spark of interest I felt so many years ago. I hope they continue on the same path I did, that brings fresh ideas and logical explanations – and the pleasure of meeting friends on the same voyage of discovery, and enjoy the loyalty that binds us all. Happy birthday to our website that brings us so many friends from around the world!

From Isolde Martyn (former Chair of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society and author of two published novels set in the Wars of the Roses): In this age of ultra-communication when information, public and private, significant or trivial, is spinning across the globe like invisible cobwebs, often there is no time to stop and say, „Wait a minute …‟, „How?‟ or „Can this be really true?‟ The existence of the Richard III Society is a continual reminder that historical events can be – and should be – seen from many angles. The right to be open-minded, to evaluate the facts in discussion, is a precious liberty that is lacking in many countries of this world. Five hundred

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years on, it doesn‟t really matter whether a fifteenth-century king murdered his nephews when he seized the crown, but isn‟t it wonderful for those of us who are members of the Richard III Society to have a present day society (both with a small „s‟ and a big „S‟) to discuss it?

From Leslie McCawley (NSW): My husband Doug follows the lovely Victorian custom of reading aloud to me every evening for an hour or two, as we wind down from our busy days apart. In our 14 years of marriage we have, in this way, shared hundreds of wonderful books, and we share the memories of them as other couples recall their shared journeys – for, of course, that is what they are. One such book was an old favourite of his, The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, that he was pleased to introduce me to one winter several years ago. We would lose ourselves every evening into the quest for the historical truth about King Richard and the tragic fate that befell his nephews. Who was truly to blame? After we finished that excellent volume, we decided to seek out more books about Richard III who we now agreed had been unfairly maligned by the conquering Tudors. We were hungry for more. Doug‟s next selection was The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, and we enjoyed immensely being immersed in the cultural milieu of the War of the Roses. It also had the effect of making us yearn for yet more information about this historical underdog. It was during a search for biographical information on the internet that I came across the website of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society. I was both astonished and thrilled that other people actually had the same interest in, and the same sense of indignation about, the maligning of a good man, even though it had happened many centuries ago. Seeing the posted titles of the upcoming Branch programs, we couldn‟t wait to go along and learn all we could. Until then, though, I could enjoy the website‟s riches: wonderful book reviews, articles of interest, information about meaningful anniversaries such as birthdays or battles. I learned a lot in the interim waiting for the first meeting we could attend. What a nice group of people we encountered at the meeting room at the Sydney Mechanics‟ School of Arts! True history buffs with a profound love of books, ideas, and learning. It was like coming home to find so many fascinating people who shared our, we had thought, rather arcane interests. We joined the Branch on the spot and have not missed a meeting since. That was several years ago. Membership in the Richard III Society has greatly enriched our lives, offering us intellectual stimulation through excellent programs and the fun companionship of a wide range of personalities. And our reading list is now so full of books recommended by fellow members that we shall never get through them all in this lifetime. But what a joy it is to open another volume about Richard III and hear once again the tales of fifteenth-century England!

From Judy Howard (Treasurer, NSW Branch): Being a member of the Richard III Society, I have access to like-minded people and a wealth of knowledge regarding King Richard III, the House of York and this fascinating period of medieval history. The website is great and I often marvel at how convenient and easy it is to keep up to date and in touch with people with the internet and websites such as ours. The quarterly Bulletin and the annual Ricardian are also a wonderful source of information providing up-to- date knowledge of the latest thinking and discoveries regarding all things Ricardian.

From Denise Chambers (QLD): I became of member of the Richard III Society after reading Sharon Penman‟s famous novel The Sunne in Splendour. Up until that time I had not the slightest interest in medieval history and had only vaguely heard of Richard III. I now read any book or article on medieval history I can find (or afford). The excellent journals published by our local branch and our „head office‟ in England keep me informed on so many topics regarding people and events from this fascinating period in time. Now, being retired, I‟m so happy to have lots of time to spend doing something I love.

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From Margaret Shaw (NSW): In July 1990 while on a tour of the UK I visited Bosworth Field. When I saw the well from which it is claimed Richard had drunk just before his death I decided I would like to know more about the life and times of Richard III. I visited the shop on the site and bought some souvenirs, then I saw a notice that in England there was a Richard III Society. I thought at the time I am sure Richard III has been unfairly treated through history thanks to the Tudors and Shakespeare. I certainly did not know that there was a Society in Australia. Some years later my friend Christena Dawson found out through a friend that we had a branch of the Society in Sydney. We joined and have been members ever since. Over the years I have enjoyed the many meetings I have attended, conferences and other functions. I have learnt a lot about Richard and other historical events and made some wonderful friends. Being a member of the Richard III Society is one of the best things in my life.

Editor’s Note: These contributions remind us of the „Good to Meet You‟ column which the Guardian news- paper publishes on Saturdays, in which readers talk about how they started reading the newspaper, and what they like about it. It might be interesting to do the same for our Society. Tell about how you discovered the Society and what you like about it (in not more than 250 words, please). We can‟t guarantee to publish every contribution, and reserve the right to edit and perhaps shorten them. Over to you.

The Worcestershire Branch celebrates its 25th Anniversary

Preparing Belbroughton Church Hall

The hall is a restored timber- framed barn. An account of the proceedings will be found on Mary Friend and Phil Stone pp.59-60. 19

News and Reviews

Two rival productions of Richard III Two new productions of Shakespeare‟s Richard III have been making the news this summer: the Mendes-Spacey production at the Old Vic in London, and the rather less fanfared one by the Pro- peller Company a few miles away in Hampstead. But is there anything new under the Yorkist sun? It is not even new to have two versions of Richard III being performed at the same time, as Geoffrey Wheeler tells us.

Latest Score Results: Shakespeare’s Richard 2, Propeller Company Won. For some years now academic historians have been at pains to demolish the old adage that „history repeats itself‟, but it‟s certainly the case in theatrical circles. As long ago as the 1820s the performances of Edmund Kean and J.B. Booth were immortalised in cartoons headlined „The Rival Richards‟, whilst, more recently, 1987 was dubbed „the year of the three Richards‟ (the unforgettable Georgian Rustaveli Company, John Wood at the National, and Terry Hands directing his third revival of the play, with Alan Howard, for the RSC). So it has proved again this year, when the preview and first night of Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic co-existed beside Edward Hall‟s Propeller touring company of Hampstead (see June Bulletin review, pp.33-4), and for once it seemed that the smaller ensemble came off best in this David and Goliath situation. Whilst not wishing to diminish the power of the Old Vic‟s star performer, David Benedictus in BBC Radio 4‟s „Saturday Review‟ (27 July), put his finger on one of its major faults; „the directorial flashes in this production, let alone the design, all stem from the 1992 [RSC, Sam Mendes/Simon Russell Beale] version. All the original stuff here is on repeat. It‟s perfectly valid for a director 19 years later to go back to a Shakespeare play and go “I‟ve grown up. I‟ve thought of things I‟m going to do differently”, but I don‟t understand why this is such a dull repeat‟. The previous evening‟s Nightwaves (BBC Radio 3) also alluded briefly to the differences: „One note it lacks – the play at Hampstead is absolutely full of dark, swelling despair. [Spacey] is much more vigorous, possible more “media driven”, more frantic in some ways, exciting but without the absolute desperation. Hampstead is darker, bloodier, in a spectacular way, and never stops being grisly from one moment to the next‟ (Susannah Clapp) – points echoed in some press reviews. „Two excellent and very different accounts of Richard III are on the London stage at present. While Edward Hall‟s gory production continues at Hampstead, Sam Mendes‟ spare, sinister modern-dress staging opens at the Old Vic (Financial Times, 2 July). Tom Foot in the Camden New Journal (30 June) concluded, „no doubt there will be much swooning in the aisles when the great Kevin Spacey plays Richard at the Old Vic. But I have a feeling that the savage anarchy shredding the nerves of Propeller Theatre audiences right now may get closer to the heart of the play‟. Similarly, Metro‟s Claire Allfree advised: „if you can‟t get a ticket for Kevin Spacey‟s Richard III, head down to Hampstead. You may even (whisper it) have a better time‟. And the over-riding conclusion was voiced aptly by Sebastian Shakespeare (Evening Standard 8 July) „when my wife told me that she had tickets ... for Richard III, my heart sank into a winter of discontent. The prospect of spending four hours in a darkened theatre in the company of Kevin Spacey did not immediately appeal. So imagine my delight when I was told we were off to see Ed Hall‟s all-male Propeller production. Duration? Just two and a half hours. Yippee! Shakespeare on speed. It was absorbing, pacy (sometimes too pacy) and time flew by, allowing me to drown myself in a butt of malmsey afterwards. Well, a pint of lager or two. Why are there two Richard III productions on simultaneously? Is Hall cocking a snook at the Old Vic? It makes me rather want to see how Kevin Spacey measures up. Even if it does mean spending another four hours in the theatre.‟ Geoffrey Wheeler 20

Gillian Lazar has reviewed the Mendes-Spacey version for the Bulletin, and she, too, finds things that have been done before:

Overlarding the cake A bad start! Studying the programme beforehand, I was thoroughly irritated to find Queen Margaret described as „widow of Henry IV‟. This casual attitude to historical accuracy was symbolic of the whole tone of the programme, which seemed obsessed in drawing modern parallels: Gaddafi in Libya, Mubarak et al. It was patronising not merely to suggest the analogy (and after all most of us could work it out for ourselves) but to rub our noses in the Mendes message. The heart of the play – the black heart of the play, is of course, the king himself. A convincing Richard calls for acting which combines the ruthlessness of Grand Guignol with subtlety and charisma. If Spacey displays the first in the opening of the play, as Gloucester cuts off his brother‟s Coronation film and confides his wicked plans to us, the latter is certainly missing in his wooing of Lady Anne. Whilst others have been silky and insinuating, Spacey is rough and crude. There are many effective moments in this production; an apparently devout Richard seen on screen between two monks whilst Buckingham works the reluctant crowd; the Dictator's face looming over the coronation; Richard‟s pre-emptive fall in procession; Clarence dwarfed by the silhouettes of his murderers; the friezelike banquet of ghosts before the battle. But Mendes often overlards his cake. Queen Margaret is a meaningful soothsayer to witness the retribution of her enemies, but there is a touch of the game show in the crossing off of each victim on scenic doors. Richard instructs Catesby, „Give out the Queen is grievous sick‟, as Anne lolls, dummylike and uncomprehending, on the throne beside him. The drums were terrific. But, it has to be said, this has been done before, notably by Mark Rylance‟s 20-minute drum roll before the start of Henry V at the Globe. Similarly, the stringing up of Richard‟s body after the battle, instantly reminiscent of the death of Mussolini, was done by Olivier in Coriolanus. Gillian Lazar

Many readers, including Fiona Price and Geoffrey Wheeler, have sent in review of the Mendes-Spacey version from various publications, and it is remarkable how wide a range of reactions the production generated. A number of these reviews were illustrated by the same picture, that of Kevin Spacey at the very start of the play, left leg strapped in a calliper, wearing a paper crown, his bow tie untied, sitting on a kitchen chair amid drink cans and the empty foil trays of a takeaway meal, while a black-and-white newsreel behind him shows the coronation of his brother Edward, to which, apparently, he hasn‟t been invited.

Here is a selection from the press comments: On Spacey as Richard: Susannah Clapp (The Observer, The Main Review, 3 July): „he uses his withered arm as a cosh. He lugs along his lame leg, strapped in a calliper, as if it were a giant log. His hump makes him bend not only over but into people: he looks as if he‟s about to peck them to death. Rarely have Richard III‟s disabilities looked so much like brutal assets, weapons in waiting.‟ Henry Hitchings (Evening Standard, 30 June): „Spacey is immense as the monarch habitually (and unfairly) described as a hideous hunchback ... he squirms around the stage.‟ Paul Taylor (The Independent, 30 June): „There are times when this Richard seems like a satanic second cousin of Vincent Price, with his little mocking tosses of the eyebrows, flouncily dismissive flaps of the hand, archly subversive pauses in the middle of a list ... Spacey also communicates a terrible sense of furious self-hatred, seething resentment and maternally fomented misogyny ...‟ Libby Purves (The Times, 30 June): „As he progresses from corporate

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suit to the epaulettes and medals of a 20th-century dictator, his grotesqueness is exaggerated. Yet his face ... ever evokes the dodgy-uncle charm that makes him credible.‟ Quintin Letts (Daily Mail, 30 June) feels that „Mr Spacey does not quite nail the part. He goes close, but is ultimately undone by a surfeit of sarcasm and campness ... he deploys his hands like a cartoon Latino talking about his sisters.‟ And Tim Walker (Sunday Telegraph, 3 July) says „Spacey exudes the banality of evil as the deformed king‟. [Banality? really?] But there is a compliment from Christopher Hart (Sunday Times, Culture, 3 July): „Spacey‟s diction is immaculate and he delivers the pentameter lines with a villainous relish, unlike too many Shakespeare actors, who seem to find metre embarrassing.‟ Of the other actors, „Buckingham is played with light-footed callous delicacy by Chuk Iwuji ... he rants round with a microphone like Billy Graham‟ (Libby Purves); „as each of her prophecies come true and another victim bites the dust, Gemma Jones‟s brilliantly baleful bag- lady of a Queen Margaret steals in and chalks an “X” on one of the doors‟ (Paul Taylor). Many of the reviewers praised the women: „the women are better than the men‟ (Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard, 30 June); „one of the production‟s triumphs is its foregrounding of some of the strongest roles for women in Shakespeare (Susannah Clapp); „the women are really good ... Annabel Scholey catching the eye as a Lady Anne who is catatonic with disgust at having attracted Richard‟s affections‟ (Quentin Letts). Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph, 30 June) calls Scholey‟s performance „superb‟ – but Susannah Clapp disagrees: „Annabel Scholey is too pleasing as Lady Anne: when she loses her temper, she doesn‟t so much curse as mellifluously express herself‟. There were contrasting reactions to the set. „The bare grey set (leprous brickwork, a square of doors) opens out to a long brutalist perspective‟ (Libby Purves); „the set is especially dull: essentially a greyish box with a lot of doors‟ (Christopher Hart). Production gimmicks abound: „Mendes uses captions ... flashing up names [on the wall] as each character‟s confrontation with fate approaches. That underlines the episodic structure of the play – Shakespeare did jump-cuts too‟ (Libby Purves). Susannah Clapp liked the „series of punchy episodes, each overhung by an illuminated title – „The Citizens‟, „Clarence‟, etc., finding this a „tremendously effective way of giving a spine to the action‟. But Christopher Hart thought there was „no overall unity of style and a strong sense of directorial diffidence in a production wholly dependent on a scintillating central performance. Isolated moments suggest that what the production could and should have been‟. And Tim Walker (Sunday Telegraph, 3 July) „could have done without the names of the major characters being highlighted in huge capitals above the stage – honestly, the Old Vic is a theatre, not a classroom for slow learners‟. Tim Walker also thought the period was unresolved, „black-and-white film footage, but some characters wear modern, open-necked shirts and earrings‟. There was a mixing of accents too, English and American. Christopher Hart found the paper crown and takeaway containers unconvincing: „One thing such a darkly driven character is not, surely, is a self-indulgent slob‟. At one point the crowd turn into people strap-hanging in an Underground train. All of which goes to show that reaction to a work of art is a matter for the individual. Charles Spencer thought „Mendes‟ staging feels a touch obvious and over-deliberate, leaving little room for the audience to let their own imaginations soar. Not all that many reviewers took up the point which was so assiduously made by the production and in the programme, which was illustrated by large pictures of Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak in their heyday, that there are „parallels between today‟s headline-grabbing dictators and the forerunner of them all, Richard III‟. The reviewers who also considered the Propeller company‟s production generally preferred it to the Old Vic one. (And see the letter from Heather Falvey, page 52 of this Bulletin). Finally, one may take issue with Libby Purves‟ remark that „we do not see the head of Hastings‟. She was obviously not sitting where the party from the London Branch was sitting – in the back row of the gods. From our eyrie we saw very clearly into the box that held the nasty blood-stained lump from which the eyes of the audience in the lower tiers were sheltered.

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Conference Review: Interpreting Battlefield Finds: Making the Most of Museums Royal Armouries, Leeds, Saturday 11 June 2011

roductive partnership was very much the theme of Interpreting Battlefield Finds: Making P the Most of Museums, jointly run by the Leeds Royal Armouries and the Battlefields Trust. Proceedings were opened by Dr Jonathan Riley, Director General and Master of the Armouries, who welcomed delegates and paid tribute to the late Richard Holmes. Alex Hildred, Curator of Ordnance for the Mary Rose Trust, then gave the first paper on „Interpretation of a Shipwreck Assemblage from the Battle of the Solent, 1545‟. Finds from Henry VIII‟s flagship, the Mary Rose, included 91 guns of varying size made from cast bronze, cast iron and wrought iron, complete with gun carriages, and thousands of stone, cast iron and lead projectiles. The Royal Armouries and Mary Rose Trust had created working replicas of several types of gun, and undertaken test firings to demonstrate the firepower of Tudor artillery. Armouries staff had also identified a cartridge former and gunner‟s rule (for checking cannonball sizes) in the assemblage – and, by recognising a maker‟s mark, showed that Henry VIII‟s army was using matchlock muskets imported from Gardone in Venice. The assemblage also contained more than 2,000 arrows and 172 longbows – almost equalling the total number of firearms – indicating that archery was still important at this date. Archers could achieve a more rapid rate of fire and greater long-distance accuracy than musketeers, and longbows were a useful fall-back if gunpowder was spoiled at sea; however, within a few decades developments in firearm technology would render this traditional English weapon obsolete. Tim Sutherland, Honorary Research Fellow in Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, spoke next on „Conflicts and Allies: Historic Battlefields as Multi-disciplinary Hubs – a Case Study from Towton‟. Battlefield assemblages need input from a range of experts, including scientists and museum curators, to be properly understood – exemplified by recent finds from Towton. Scanning electron microscopy of two gun fragments revealed gunpowder residues and confirmed that they came from different weapons; and neutron bombardment of a piece of lead shot at the ISIS laboratories in Oxford proved that it contained an iron core. The Royal Armouries had supported the Towton project since 1996, donating display boards for Towton Battlefield Society‟s Visitor Information Centre, and supplying material for the interpretation boards on the new Battlefield Trail. Armouries staff had also contributed to the 1996 mass grave excavation report, Blood Red Roses, and featured on last year‟s BBC TV programme „Towton 1461‟, while Dr David Starley‟s analysis of 350 arrowheads had found that the blades were brazed onto the sockets – a form of mass-production which could be carried out by non-blacksmiths. (Examination of other arrowhead assemblages have since established that this assembly technique was not confined to the Towton arrows). Replication and test shooting had also shown that rather than being a bent nail, a piece of iron associated with a skeleton at Towton Hall may be a bodkin arrowhead deformed by its passage through armour. Battlefield researcher and author Charles Jones then discussed „The Importance of Museum Collections in the Interpretation of Fulford Battlefield‟. The location of the 1066 battle between soldiers of King Harold and Harald Hardrada can be inferred by the finding of associated metal reprocessing sites. Comparison with material from the Armouries, the Ashmolean Museum and Scandinavian museums had shown the Fulford assemblage to be primarily metalworking debris: slag, hearth-bottoms, tool fragments, iron anvils, rough „billets‟ for forming into weapons, and fragments of tuyeres (perforated clay rounds which prevented the bellows catching fire when the nozzle was directed into the hearth). The finds were concentrated in „hot spots‟ either side of the water course and following the English army‟s retreat route, leading to the interesting conclusion that metal objects salvaged from the battlefield were reprocessed in situ after the battle – perhaps by Hardrada‟s army before their defeat five days later at Stamford Bridge.

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Graeme Rimer, Academic Director of the Royal Armouries, rounded off the morning with „A Curator‟s Eye View: How Understanding Objects Can Assist the Interpretation of Battlefields‟. The Armouries‟ extant examples of weapons are invaluable for identifying fragmentary or concreted finds from terrestrial and marine conflict sites worldwide, and his work with other conference participants has led to many mutually beneficial discoveries. Finds from the Mary Rose helped the Armouries to date objects in their collections, and the numerous gun-shields (metal-clad wooden shields through which a small musket was fired) from its orlop deck show that these were commonly used, rather than restricted to Henry VIII‟s elite bodyguard as previously thought. Trials with Armouries‟ weapons convincingly proved that the head wound on a skull from Towton was caused by the beak of a horseman‟s hammer, and comparisons with ribbon-hilted swords from the collection suggest that a gilt-bronze fragment found at Bosworth came from a high-status weapon of similar type. Following an introduction by the Battlefield Trust‟s Chairman, Frank Baldwin, the first afternoon session returned to the theme of Bosworth. Glenn Foard, Reader in Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Huddersfield, and Steven Walton, Assistant Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Pennsylvania State University, delivered a joint paper on „The Origins of Firepower: Combining Evidence from Battlefield and Museum‟. Foard and Walton are examining early guns from museum collections across Europe to try and understand the distribution of shot found on Bosworth battlefield, determine the number/type of guns present, where they were situated on the field, and whether the smallest shot came from hand- cannons, hook guns or small mounted artillery pieces. The Bosworth projectiles are lead composites, with stone or iron added to make them of comparable weight to cast iron (no pure stone, wrought or cast iron roundshot has yet been found at Bosworth or Towton). Test firings with replica weapons demonstrate that some were shot from composite wrought iron breech- loaded guns – the gaps between the staves produce a characteristic facetted signature, and Foard believes the weight of shot used related to the construction and breech strength of the gun. Walton added that fifteenth-century firearms development was not a smooth, continuous process, but that older guns would have remained in use alongside „cutting edge‟ weapons. Natasha Ferguson, Research Assistant at the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology, University of Glasgow, spoke next on „“They Beate Them from Hedge to Hedge”: Artefacts from the English Civil War in Cornwall‟. Her theme was the relationship between archaeology and metal- detecting, and the interpretation of metal-detector assemblages. Metal-detecting is widely carried out on battlefields of all periods; artefact recovery is highly selective, depending on the detectorist‟s priorities; and much material is unrecorded and difficult to access. However, an example of good practice is one detectorist‟s accidental discovery of a Civil War battlefield at Tywardreath near Lostwithiel, and his distribution map of 3,000 lead projectiles, mostly small bore, concentrated along the road and field hedge lines (consistent with historical accounts of the battle). The poorly-cast musket balls were probably made over camp-fires by the Parliamentarians, who were under pressure and short of supplies; some are rare examples with a sprue for tying on a paper cartridge (perhaps for easier use by mounted musketeers). His assemblage also contains associated material including buckles, powder flask nozzles, bandolier caps, buttons and coins, and heavier artillery shot from nearby Castle Dore. Mensun Bound, Triton Fellow in Maritime Archaeology at St Peter‟s College, Oxford, followed with „Guns and Muskets from the Alderney Elizabethan Wreck – Recent Recoveries‟. Although British maritime archaeology is sometimes derided as „a very expensive way of telling us what we already know‟, the Alderney wreck is historically significant: it was carrying ordnance for use in the Spanish wars of 1588-95, and its loss was mentioned by Elizabeth I‟s minister William Cecil, Lord Burleigh. Sunk in 1592, only 47 years after the Mary Rose, it contained no bows or arrows, reflecting the technological advance forced on England by European gunpowder weapon developments and the threat of invasion from Spain. As well as

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cannon, the wreck has yielded wooden stocks from 55 matchlock muskets of a rare type, identified by comparison with Royal Armouries examples. Richard Morris, Research Professor from the University of Huddersfield, brought the day to a fitting conclusion with his rousing paper „Cover Him Gently: Archaeology and the Sifting of War‟s Embers‟. Beginning with the 2001 discovery of a mass grave of WW1 „Grimsby Pals‟ at Arras, he discussed how the focus of conflict archaeology has evolved from ancient to modern or „special‟ to „ordinary‟; and how excavations of recent periods are evocative rather than telling us things we don‟t know. The justification for investigating twentieth-century military installations can be spurious – as in the Defence of Britain Database project, for which extensive documentation already existed. Other structures, like the concrete acoustic detection „ears‟ in Kent, soon made obsolete by radar technology, deserve attention because they reflect a unique moment in time. Lack of direct archaeological proof that Zyklon B was administered at Auschwitz has been used to argue that, contrary to masses of archival evidence and eye-witness testimony, it never happened. Conversely, pagans and „eco-Druids‟ argued vociferously against the excavation, scientific analysis and preservation of timbers from „Sea-henge‟ because it interferes with their concepts of the site. Morris concluded that from Holocaust deniers and eco- Druids to the government, with its artificial concept of „British Society‟, people are „making history up‟ to suit themselves; so to counter this trend, in writing history we have a duty to be faithful to primary sources – and to subject those sources to vigorous criticism. And who could argue with that? Altogether, this conference, with its excellent programme of high-calibre speakers, showed how much knowledge and understanding can be advanced when battlefield archaeologists, museum curators and other specialists pool their expertise. Interpreting Battlefield Finds made an auspicious start to the series of joint ventures planned between the Armouries and the Battlefields Trust (the next conference will focus on the English Civil War) – and at £35 including beverages and lunch, it was also great value for money. Helen Cox

Book Review The Master of Bruges by Terence Morgan, Pan 2010, paperback, 311pp

Terence Morgan‟s narrator is the master of the title, Hans Memling, a fifteenth-century painter living and working in Bruges. There appear to be relatively few facts known for certain about Memling‟s life, but Morgan has taken what little there is and woven a fantastical tapestry about him, drawing the painter into the lives and fortunes of the Plantagenet and Burgundian courts, with diversions into an (unrequited) love story, medieval warfare and necromancy, all interlarded with the fictional Memling‟s theories on art and composition. The novel takes the form of a series of flashbacks describing pivotal events from December 1460 to August 1494. Every few chapters the narrative stops and the painter expounds another of his theories on art, such as „On the Mixing of Colours‟ (p.3), „On the Depiction of the Saints of Heaven‟ (p.67), „Of Faces‟ (p.181), „Of Back- grounds‟ (p.260). From the outset the artist-narrator warns us that we should not look for „truth‟ in art, for „nothing is

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as it appears. Nothing ever can be as it appears‟ (p.4); „face value is no value at all, and truth is not to be found therein‟ (p.183) for „it is all a matter of technique, of fooling the eye, of turning the falsehood into something truer than truth‟ (p.153). Whether Morgan intends the irony of these statements to extend to the telling of his tale is not clear, but it surely does. If the painter deals in lies then can we trust what he says? Early in the novel Memling meets Edward and Richard Plantagenet (Ned and Dick Plant) when he is persuaded by his friend Cakkeston to offer them emergency accommodation on their escape from England in 1470. Memling overhears a discussion between them in which Ned, with extraordinary prescience, tells Dick that „if I were to die early, the best protection for my baby [son] might be that you should declare him illegitimate and claim the land for yourself‟ (p.84) or, if Dick is unwilling to do that, „declare me illegitimate instead‟ (p.84), to which Dick reluctantly agrees. Ned and Dick disappear from the novel for some time, during which Memling becomes court painter to the Duke of Burgundy, falls in love with Marie of Burgundy (and erroneously believes she has fallen for him), paints many pictures and is involved in the disastrous battle of Nancy (January 1477) as the first official war artist. Duke Charles is killed at Nancy and Marie marries Duke Maximilian of Austria. Marie‟s death after a hunting accident in 1482 (for which we later discover Memling is responsible) leaves the painter in despair. Offered an opportunity to travel to England, Memling is thrown headlong into the life of the Plantagenet court, becoming art tutor to the young Edward and, eventually, confidant, attending council meetings and reporting back. Finally, of course, Richard takes the throne, murmuring „No, Lord God, no, not me. Please, no, not me.‟ (p.239). Bosworth comes and goes, young Edward disappears (together with a hapless young servant representing Richard) on the orders of Henry VII, and Memling succeeds in spiriting Richard out of the country, to become Perkin Warbeck. In his Afterword, Morgan says that „… almost all of the scenes in the story are real events‟ which seems a curious statement, given that there appears to be no record of Memling at the Plantagenet court, his presence at Nancy is disputed and, according to Grove Art Online, there is no evidence that he was even an official court painter and so on. Maybe we should not look for veracity, however, for as the painter-narrator says „Do not believe anything that a painter tells you. Especially when he swears that it is the truth‟ (p.153). So perhaps the whole story is simply another example of painterly artifice? Elaine Henderson Statue of Cardinal Wolsey unveiled in Ipswich Ipswich Borough Council has recently unveiled a bronze statue to the town‟s „most famous son‟, Cardinal Wolsey. A long campaign to honour the Cardinal with a permanent public memorial in his home town reached a successful conclusion at an unveiling ceremony on Wednesday 29 June 2011 as part of the town‟s Charter Day celebrations. The statue was made by David Annand of Fife, Scotland, and depicts the seated figure of Wolsey, with a book in one hand and the other hand raised as if he were teaching. Wolsey founded and built his college school in Ipswich, twinned with his other college at Oxford, now Christ Church. Ipswich still has Wolsey‟s Gate, the college watergate, and the college chapel, St Peter‟s Church. Wolsey tutored the sons of the Marquess of Dorset (son of Elizabeth Woodville). Does any reader have any further information about an exchange said to have taken place between Wolsey and a mayor of London (?) in which a positive remark was made about Richard III?

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Media Retrospective

The Kings and Queens of England In The Times on the following Saturday, 23 As part of the general jollifications surroun- April, (Opinion, Sally Baker, Feedback), ding last April‟s royal wedding, The Times on came the comment that the poster identified 16 April published „a giant glossy poster‟ of Philip II of Spain as the widower of Mary, the kings and queens of England., with perky Queen of Scots, rather than of Mary I of Eng- drawings by David Lyttleton and a few choice land. words on each. Edward IV is shown with an alcohol-suffused nose, and we are told that Homeless bones ‟he grew fat and lazy. He died unexpectedly, From Geoffrey Wheeler leaving the treacherous Duke of Gloucester in Fortean Times, April 2011, by Paul Taylor power.‟ On the other hand, Richard‟s own „How can it be that nobody is certain of the caption says, ‟Shakespeare would have you final resting place of Richard III? ... he believe he was one of the most villainous suffered a terrible death at Bosworth ... kings that ever rules, but he was also a betrayed by at least two duplicitous power- courageous soldier and a pious husband and brokers who should have made defeat by father.‟ Henry Tudor impossible, namely Lord Stan- Geoffrey Wheeler has re-drawn the ley and the Earl of Northumberland, he was pictures of Edward V and Richard III for us. repeatedly hacked and bludgeoned into the ground, even after all signs of life were gone.‟

... „Death was not enough for the victors. Richard was stripped naked and his broken body besmirched with filth ... trussed across the back of a packhorse and led from the field of battle. A somewhat sickening finale to the last great showpiece of the medieval era.‟ There is more graphic detail about the expo- sure of Richard‟s dead body: „it had been a long time, if ever, since a king had received such poor treatment in death‟. But „the removal of this strong-willed, battle-scarred Edward V: „his uncle Richard intercepted hardcase was not as popular an act as history him and threw him in the Tower of London‟. might have us believe‟. The article has much to say about the Society‟s statue of Richard III in Leicester, without so much as mentioning the Society. „In the Castle Gardens in Leicester, there stands a magnificent statue of Richard III. ... Repeatedly vandalised in its early days, it was transferred from its initial site to a less ex- posed part of the Gardens. ... The interference stopped immediately ... This striking piece of work encapsulates so much of the drama and desperation associated with its subject. It depicts Richard on the verge of defeat ... the Richard III: „a courageous soldier and a face, a picture of searing anguish, searches pious husband and father‟. the heavens in this final moment of defiance.‟

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Good King Richard and jury duty has been described as „perplexing‟. Arch- From Margaret Stiles bishop Reginald Pole claimed that Henry VII Daily Mail, 22 June 2011, letter from Rose- disliked his second son, „having no affection mary Hawley Jarman under the heading or fancy unto him. It was reported that the „Good King Richard‟ king quarrelled so violently with his son (The Daily Mail had apparently carried an Henry in 1508 that it appeared “asif he sought article the day before crediting Henry VII to kill him‟.” with creating the principle of jury duty.) „The principle of jury duty wasn‟t created by Two misguided novels and a query Henry VII. Richard III, in 1483, ordained From Susan Russell several statutes „to refine and reform the Buried, by Mark Billingham (2008): „the machinery of justice‟, one of which was .. to sanctuary tower from where. ironically, the protect innocent men against the perversion seven-year-old Duke of York had been of legal forms by „malicious neighbours‟. dragged, en route to being murdered with his Another was an act for „returning of sufficient elder brother by the future Richard III ...‟ jurors‟. Officials were forbidden to choose Sisters of the King, by Maria Perry (1998): any juror who was not „of good name and „Elizabeth‟s wicked uncle Richard had fame‟. ... It is said that in his short reign murdered the princes in the Tower, usurped Richard III performed more benevolent public the throne ... contemplated marrying his acts than any monarch before or since. But it niece, an act too horrible for the people of is difficult for today‟s teachers to promote England to stomach ... Henry Tudor had led any such knowledge: Shakespeare‟s panto- an austere life [and married Elizabeth] ... such mime villain continues to dominate.‟ marriages do not always turn into idylls of domestic happiness, but this one did.‟ Digging up Henry VIII Daily Mail, 30 July: „A German knight, From Pauline Harrison Pogmore visiting in the 15th century, reported that the Sunday Express, 13 February 2011 English not only considered themselves „the The Queen is apparently to be asked for per- wisest people in the world‟, but thought „the mission to exhume the body of Henry VIII. world does not exist apart from England‟. Two American researchers, Catrina Whitely Susan says, „I assume the said knight is and Kyra Kramer, want to find out if he was von Poppelau?‟ suffering from a genetic disease, McLeod‟s Syndrome, which causes muscle weakness Short shrift and schizophrenic behaviour. „It usually From Geoffrey Wheeler reveals itself at around the age of 40 with an Radio Times 21-27 May 2011, Susie Dent‟s episode of mental illness which gets gradually Dictionary Corner worse for the rest of the sufferer‟s life ... his In reply to a question from Jennifer Wilson of ministers knew he was as mad as a hatter, but Welwyn Garden City, „why do we give some- he was still behaving like an intelligent man. one short shrift when we have little time for It must have been terrifying.‟ them?‟: „In Shakespeare‟s Richard III, the „A spokesman for the Queen declined to king‟s confidant tells the condemned Lord comment.‟ Hastings “make short shrift; he longs to see The story also appeared as a short para- your head”. „Shrift‟ is a form of the verb „to graph in the Daily Telegraph, 14 February shrive‟, which as early as the eighth century 2011, provoking a reply on 16 February from meant the taking of confession by a priest. A a Sandra Rowden, who commented, „The convicted criminal would only have a short most likely reason for Henry VIII‟s violent time to be given „shrift‟, or absolved of their rages and lack of empathy is that he suffered sins, by the prison chaplain before execution. from an inability to feel, which comes from a The „shrove‟ in Shrove Tuesday is from the lack of love ... The relationship that Henry same root, again making penance, this time had with his father ... wasn‟t a loving one, and for Lent.‟

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Elizabeth Woodville School This Bitter Field From Iris Day from Sheila Gove Milton Keynes Citizen, 16 June 2011 History Today, May 2011, „This Bitter Field‟, „The proposed new merger school based in an article by George Goodwin on the Battle the villages of Roade and Deanshanger will of Towton. be named Elizabeth Woodville School ... The article examiness why and how so many staff, students and parents of Roade School men were killed, the conclusion being that not and Kingsbrook School ... have been voting only did strategy and circumstances play a to decide on a name. ... Elizabeth‟s status as part, but so did Edward IV‟s proclamation of the first „commoner‟ to marry an English „no quarter‟. Sheila adds, „the article contains sovereign captured the interest of students, a picture of „Edward IV on Fortune‟s Wheel, leading them to reflect on their own ideas of with the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester‟, aspiration and draw comparisons with the an illustration from the Life of Edward IV, wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince 1461, which I don‟t remember seeing before.‟ William.‟ „The next stage for developing the new from Geoffrey Wheeler school‟s identity is to create a logo. This will History Today, July 2011, Letters. also be a collaborative process.‟ Letter from Russell Dever, Towton: „... what Have Bulletin readers any ideas for this? [George Goodwin] did not mention was that it is in fact the 550th anniversary of the battle No superinjunction on Stillington and in celebration of this the landowners, the From Susan Finch and Geoffrey Wheeler Hartley Estate, have generously opened up a „Friday Night is Music Night’, Radio 2, 10 magnificent circular walk around the whole June, was devoted to celebrating 50 years of battlefield. ... As Towton is one of the few the Royal Shakespeare Company, and pro- undeveloped medieval battlefield sites in the vided an unexpected pro-Richard view when whole of Europe, this is a fantastic opport- narrator Samantha Bond announced, „Shake- unity to get a feel for the battle itself ... today speare‟s plays and his characters are so power Towton Moor is a peaceful and tranquil spot.‟ -ful that they colour our view of history. Richard III‟s reputation in particular owes as Horrible Histories: Richard’s Song much to Shakespeare and much less to his- From Christina Parker tory. In fact, the princes in the Tower, which BBC children’s programme Horrible His- Shakespeare‟s Richard so cunningly murders, tories, series 3, epsode 6, June 2011. could never have acceded to the throne. Their This included a fast-paced summary of the mother‟s marriage was declared invalid by Wars of the Roses as part of their „News at the Bishop of Bath and Wells, due to Edward When‟, followed by Richard III singing an IV‟s previous union with a lady called hilarious song in his own defence: „Tudor pro Eleanor Butler. Consequently the princes‟ -paganda, it‟s all absurd, time to tell the truth claim to the throne was illegitimate and so about Richard the Third.‟ There is even a nod they were no threat to Richard. What‟s more, to Bob Dylan‟s Subterranean Homesick Blues there is no actual proof that the princes were with Richard flipping cue-cards announcing murdered, they just disappeared. But how did „No Hump‟, „Great with Kids‟, „Ideal Hus- the bishop come to spill the beans on Edward band‟. The programme‟s rodent presenter and Eleanor? No superinjunction [audience concluded that Richard was portrayed as a laughs] or did someone put him up to it? Per- monster by Shakespeare in an attempt to haps Shakespeare was right all along.‟ please Elizabeth I, and that „Richard probably Actor Greg Hicks then gave his rendition wasn‟t all that bad.‟ of the play‟s opening soliloquy, and the BBC Concert Orchestra followed with Walton‟s Editor’s note: Download the song if you still overture to the 1955 Olivier film, played can, from YouTube or the Society‟s Facebook rather faster than on the soundtrack. page. It‟s great fun.

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The Man Himself

The York Vellum: Richard’s Coronation Visit to York JOHN SAUNDERS

A not-so-well-known achievement of the Society is its gift to York Minster in 1966 of a hand- lettered inscribed vellum, with illuminated coats of arms, of contemporary accounts of Richard‟s 1483 coronation-year visit to the city. The vellum was for display in the Minster‟s Chapter House, where it was presented to the then Dean of York, Alan Richardson, by the Society‟s Chairman, Patrick Bacon, on 9 July 1966. The art work was carried out by the York School of Art: Joan Dodds undertook the lettering and Lillian Sloane the illumination. The text of the vellum, which follows, provides a very vivid contemporary account of the preparations for King Richard‟s visit and the events that took place during it, including the investiture of Edward of Middleham as Prince of Wales. The account also illustrates the close and positive relationship that King Richard had with the city, and its regard for him.

ICHARD PLANTAGENET a good bought out their charges of all offices in this R friend to the Minster and city of York, City, shall, in red gowns, on horseback, meet during the years 1472-83 when, as Duke of our most dread liege lord the King at Breckles Gloucester, he served his brother King Mills, and over this, the Bridgemasters and all Edward IV, as governor of the northern parts other that hath been Bridgemasters, and all of the Kingdom, and after, as King Richard other honest men of the City, shall be in III from 1483-1485. When he fell at red ... and that all other persons, of every Bosworth Field on 22nd August 1485, the occupation, in blue velvet and muster devers, Council recorded that he had been “piteously shall meet on foot our said sovereign lord at slain and murdered to the great heaviness of St James‟s Church ...‟ this City”. In August 1483, King Richard John Kendal, Secretary to King Richard, came to York with his Queen, in the course of to the Mayor and Council, 23rd August, 1483. the triumphal progress which followed their „... I verily know the King‟s mind, and coronation. During their stay in the City, entire affection that His Grace beareth some of the ceremonies associated with it towards you, and your worshipful City, for took place in this Chapter House. manifold your kind and loving designs to His The following extracts from contemporary Grace showed heretofore, which His Grace and near-contemporary records describe this will never forget and intendeth therefore so to occasion. do unto you that all the Kings that ever Minutes of the Proceedings of the reigned did never so much ...‟ Council of the City of York. Fourth Minutes of the Council of the City of August, first year of King Richard III. York, 28th August, 1483. „At the which day it was agreed that my „At the which day it was agreed that our lord the Mayor, and all my masters his sovereign the King shall be presented at his brethren, the aldermen in scarlet, and all my coming with 100 marks in a pair of basins of masters of the twenty four, and the silver gilt, or in a cup of gold, or in a gilt Chamberlains, and also all those that have piece, and that our sovereign Lady the Queen

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shall be presented with a hundred pounds of Carlisle and St David‟s, the Earls of gold in a piece ...‟ Northumberland, Surrey and Lincoln, the 2nd September, 1483. Lords Lovell, Fitzhugh, Stanley, Strange, „At the which day it was agreed that the Lisle, and Greystoke, and many others. Creed play shall be played before our He was solemnly received by a civic sovereign lord the King on Sunday next procession at the Chapel of St James outside coming, upon the cost of the most honest men the walls and he entered the City honourably, of every parish in this City.‟ passing between various sights and Hall’s Chronicle, 15. decorations in the City to the Metropolitan „He came to the city of York, where the Church of St Peter, and there at the west door citizens received him with pomp and triumph, he was honourably received by a procession according to the qualities of their education of the Very Reverend the Dean and Chapter and quantity of their substance and ability, and all the Ministers of the said Church, and made, divers days, plays and pageants in dressed in copes of blue; he was sprinkled token of joy and solace. Wherefore King with holy water and incense, at an ornate Richard magnified and applauded of the prayer-stool by the font he said the “Our North nation, and also to show himself ... Father”, and the Subchanter of the Vicars before them in habit royal with sceptre in began the Response to the Trinity, “Honor, hand and diadem on head, made proclamation virtue”, and it was finished by the Choir that all persons should resort to York on the before the step of the High Altar, and at that day of the Ascension of Our Lord, where all point there was a pause about as long as an men should behold and see him and his “Our Father” and a “Hail Mary”, then the Queen and Prince in their high estates and Dean began the prayers, namely, “And lead degrees, and also for their good wills should us not” for the King, and this done the Dean receive many thanks, large benefits and and Canons with the Ministers retired to their munificent rewards. At the day appointed the stalls while the Amen was finished with the whole clergy assembled in copes richly organs, and then the Psalm “We praise Thee, revested, and so with a reverent ceremony O God” was begun by the Prelate acting as went about the City in procession after whom celebrant of the mass and finished by the followed the King with his crown and sceptre, Choir and organs, and immediately the appareilled in his surcoat robe royal, Subchanter began the Antiphon to the Trinity, accompanied with no small number of the namely, “Thanks be to Thee, O God”, with nobility of his realm; after whom marched in the Versicle and the Collect to the Trinity. order Queen Anne his wife, likewise And so he went in procession to the Palace of crowned, leading on her left hand Prince the Lord Archbishop. And on the Feast of the Edward her son, having on his head a demi Nativity of the Blessed Mary next (September crown appointed for the degree of a Prince. 8th) the King and Queen, wearing their The King was had in that triumph in such crowns, came to a procession in the said honour, and the common people of the North Church, attended by the Prince and all the so rejoiced that they extolled and praised him Lords, both spiritual and temporal, and the far above the stars ...‟ Bishop of Durham celebrated Mass at the The Reception of King Richard III, Queen High Altar, which was decorated with figures Anne, and Prince Edward at York. of the Twelve Apostles of silver gilt and with „It is to be remembered that on the 29th many other relics given by the Lord King, August, the Festival of the beheading of St which stood there until the sixth hour in the John the Baptist, 1483, Richard III, King of evening. And after Mass all returned to the England and France, came to the City of Palace, and there in the Hall before the whole York, accompanied by the Queen (Anne) and company Prince (Edward) was created Prince (Edward) and by many other Lords, (Prince of Wales) by the Lord King before both spiritual and temporal, namely the five dinner, and so they sat at dinner for four Bishops of Durham, Worcester, St Asaph, hours wearing their crowns, and there were

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1966. Patrick Bacon, Chairman of the Richard III Society, presents the vellum to Alan Richardson, Dean of York. Lillian Sloane, the illluminator, is on the left. present the Dean, Robert Booth, and of the lord, only of his most abundant grace most Canons, Treasurer Portington, Archdeacon graciously and abundantly gave, in relief of Poteman of York (or rather Cleveland), the the said city, in easing of the tolls, murage, Subdean, and four other Prebendaries, ten butcher pennies and skaitgild of the said City Chantry Priests, twelve Vicars Choral, yearly for ever £58 11s. 2d. ... so that from together with other Ministers of the Church.‟ then forward it should be lawful to every Grant of King Richard III to the City of person freely to come to the said city with York and its Mayor, AD 1483. their goods and chattels and them freely to „Made that the 17th day of the month of sell in the same without anything giving or September ... our ... sovereign lord the King paying for toll or murage of any of the said of his most special good grace remembering goods; and over that most graciously granted the good service that this City had done to his to the Mayor and Commonality of the said good Grace, called before his good Grace the city yearly £11 for ever ...‟ said day into the CHAPTER HOUSE OF Extract from a Minster Inventory. THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT „Item, a Cross standing on six bases, PETER AT YORK the ... Mayor, his having six angels on the pinnacles of the said brethren the aldermen and many other of the bases, and two angels on the bases holding in Commons of the said City, and then and there their hands the reliques of the chasuble or our said sovereign Lord openly rehearsed the vestment and shoes of St Peter the Apostle; said service to his good Grace done and also having white images of crucifix and of the the decay and great poverty of the said city, Two Thieves, with other images by the foot, of his most special good grace, without any and many precious stones, rubies and petition or asking of anything by the said sapphires. The gift of King Richard III.‟ Mayor, or of any other, our said sovereign

It is not clear what the Minster‟s current policy is regarding the display of the vellum, but we will be contacting them to request that it is on public view during 2012 when the City of York will be celebrating the 800th anniversary of the granting of its Charter. We are commissioning a series of new articles for „The Man Himself‟, which will appear during 2012. These will be taking a fresh look at old subjects, as well as exploring new ones.

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Papers from the 2011 Study Weekend Murder on the Tower: the death of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk HEATHER FALVEY

y interest in the death of William de la reign of King Henry VI (2nd edition, Stroud, M Pole, duke of Suffolk, came about by 1998); I.M.W. Harvey, Jack Cade’s Rebellion accident. By profession I am an early-modern of 1450 (Oxford, 1991); and Roger Virgoe, historian with a particular interest in social „The death of William de la Pole, duke of unrest and riot. I teach local history courses Suffolk‟, Bulletin of the John Rylands for the Continuing Education Departments of Library, 47 (1965), pp.489-502. the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Cade‟s rebellion was one of the major including one on „Riot and rebellion, 1380- political events in England during the 1650‟. One of the sessions is on the unrest in turbulent fifteenth century; but although it south-eastern England in 1450 that has was one of the period‟s great popular become known as „Jack Cade‟s Rebellion‟. uprisings, it achieved scarcely any of its William de la Pole, a key figure in Henry political aims. According to Harvey (p.vii), its VI‟s reign until just before Cade‟s rebellion, repercussions, however, were significant. was very unpopular, not only with his Firstly, it encouraged Richard, duke of York, political opponents, one of whom was to return to England to attempt a reform of Richard, duke of York, but also with ordinary government. Secondly, the whole of south- folk. east England was alienated from Henry VI While researching Cade‟s rebellion, I because the rebels‟ grievances were not met. came across references to a poem written Thirdly, the rebellion makes it easier to following Suffolk‟s death: the poem begins as understand how Henry VI‟s reign ultimately a lament, but very quickly turns into dissolved into what we know as „the Wars of something rather more prickly. As a result of the Roses‟. my research into early modern riots, I have As far as sources for Cade‟s rebellion are developed an interest in manuscript poems concerned, ten or more chronicles of near associated with unrest – and so I began to contemporary date, or at least based on look into the background of this poem about contemporary narratives, give a fairly detailed Suffolk. There is much more to it than meets account of events in and around London. In the eye; indeed my research is ongoing. The general, they do not contradict one another on poem was written just before, or during, essentials. Furthermore, the great legacy of Cade‟s rebellion. In the sixteenth-century the Peasants‟ Revolt of 1381 for Kent was the manuscript version, it is attributed to the common tradition of unrest. (Griffiths, p.632) rebels; certainly it reflects their sentiments. There is evidence that memories of 1381 (A copy of the poem was distributed as a acted as a spur to action in the risings of the handout at the study weekend, but it is not 1450s. possible to reproduce it here.) Regarding the political background to the In order to understand the poem‟s rebellion, there was a growth of discontent importance and relevance, it is necessary to during the 1430s and 1440s. Although there consider the reign of Henry VI up to the time was no outright unrest before 1450, during of the rebellion. The main secondary sources the 1440s there was a new degree of rest- that I consulted were: R.A. Griffiths, The lessness among Henry‟s subjects: criticisms

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levelled against him by his people. Harvey the violence, corruption and injustice (pp.31-32) provides examples of seditious committed in East Anglia by supporters of the speech from all over the country – to the duke of Suffolk is reported in the Paston effect that men did not regard Henry as fit to Letters. Suffolk‟s enemies were even more reign. Henry VI lacked those attributes alarmed by his foreign dealings. Throughout expected of a medieval monarch, although, as the 1440s the royal council searched for peace Griffiths has pointed out, he was reported to with France, with Suffolk taking a leading be fairly tall and good looking. He lacked role. Others who were also involved in bar- prowess on the battlefield; an even-handed gaining with the French became unpopular, distribution of royal justice and favours; such as Moleyns, bishop of Chichester. qualities of firm leadership; and financial In 1449 Henry‟s government had great independence. He had inherited his father‟s financial difficulties: there was a drop in military commitments and large debts, income from direct taxes and customs, added without Henry V‟s military enthusiasm and to which there were problems in cloth trade. administrative flair. Henry VI was influenced In July 1449 Charles VII of France declared by stronger-minded and more active men. His war on English-held Normandy. There was court was corrupted with favouritism and he fighting in France but parliament refused to liberally offered pardons and grants. Perhaps grant Henry taxation for war so his army was most importantly, he had affronted his underfunded, to say the least. Soldiers were subjects by the concessions offered to France mustered in November but were kept waiting in his search for a permanent peace. By the at Portsmouth. In January, Moleyns was sent late 1440s this lack of royal leadership had to Portsmouth to take to the troops the first, put the country into the hands of an long-overdue, instalment of their wages. On 9 unscrupulous „court party‟ headed by the January a mob of about 300 furious sailors duke (as he became in 1448) of Suffolk, and soldiers dragged him out of his lodgings William de la Pole, and a few others, notably into a field where they killed him. (Harvey, William Aiscough, bishop of Salisbury and p.63) He was hated as one of prominent Adam Moleyns, bishop of Chichester. They, figures of Suffolk‟s faction, who were held it was reckoned, were the ones with the real responsible for the series of defeats by the power, together with James Fiennes, Lord French in the previous six months. Saye and Sele. The House of Commons wanted Suffolk By 1447 control of the royal household arrested: on 28 January 1450, the Commons was securely in the hold of a small group of presented formal accusations against him; on men – largely Suffolk‟s dependents who were 29 January, in response to accusations of employed in the royal household – whose treason, the king had Suffolk placed in the influence extended through the household, Tower. There was much tension in London council, and departments of state. Three and the southern counties in February and individuals in particular from this group were March. An uprising was feared, not least hated above the rest: Thomas Daniel, John because troops were streaming back across Trevilian and John Say. Their greed, and the the Channel: these men were effectively large number of offices that the king granted unemployed, and troublesome. On 20 them, help explain the hatred that they February the king sent out an order to county incurred. With his supporters holding sheriffs in the Southeast to make a positions in the royal household and in the proclamation against carrying arms; counties, Suffolk‟s power extended through transgressors were to be arrested and southern and eastern England. His adherents imprisoned. (Harvey, p.68). There was much were most prominent in Norfolk, Suffolk, popular unrest in the streets of London, where Kent, Surrey and Sussex. These men and their popular verses were circulating against cronies were known as „common extortioners Suffolk and his cronies. In February and and oppressors of the lord king‟s March the House of Commons attempted to people‟ (quoted in Griffiths, p.633). Some of impeach Suffolk. Two sets of accusations

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were levelled against him: abroad there was imply a connection with the Tower of London alleged treachery in his negotiations with but apparently refers to permanent „castles‟ France; at home there was alleged embezzle- built fore and aft for military purposes. By the ment of royal funds and the perversion of later part of 1450 the Nicholas was engaged justice. (Harvey, p.69) On 17 March Henry in piratical activities in the Channel. VI found him guilty of the second set of „Whoever formally owned the ship, it seems accusations, banishing him from his realms probable that by April 1450 its crew was from 1 May, imposing a 5-year exile. That completely out of control, disgruntled and evening Suffolk fled the capital. Parliament angry like the sailors who murdered Adam left Westminster on 30 March for Leicester. Moleyns earlier in the year.‟ (Virgoe, p.496) And so, according to Harvey „That April the In the records of the King‟s Bench, Virgoe abandoned capital seethed dangerously with has found that, on 30 June 1451, Richard popular ferment‟ (p.70). I find it very Lenard and Thomas Smith were indicted at interesting that this is largely political Tonbridge (Kent), before the duke of discontent. The circumstances of the duke of Buckingham and others, for complicity in the Suffolk‟s death, which occurred whilst he was death of Suffolk. Smith was styled „late of travelling out of the country to exile by ship, Calais, yeoman alias woolpacker, alias late of caused discontent in Kent to turn into open Dover shipman‟, and Lenard as „late of action, that is, Cade‟s rebellion. Bosham, Sussex, shipman‟. Both were The main source for the death of duke of accused of being present at Suffolk‟s capture Suffolk is a letter from William Lomner to and death, and Lenard was also alleged to John Paston, dated 5 May 1450 (James have been the duke‟s executioner. Gairdner (ed.), The Paston Letters (London, Unfortunately no-one has yet found any 1904; reprinted microprint edn. 1983), vol. II, account of further proceedings against the letter 120). Having been „captured‟ by the two men in the records of the King‟s Bench, master of a ship called the Nicholas of the so we do not know the outcome. Some Tower, Suffolk was summarily tried and contemporaries believed the shipmen had executed: been acting at the instigation of one of „… and yn the syght of all his men he was Suffolk‟s influential enemies – perhaps even drawyn ought of the grete shippe yn to the the duke of York – but nothing can be proved. bote; and there was an exe, and a stoke, and Whoever planned it, the death caused „the oon of the lewdeste of the shippe badde hym frightening rumour‟ (Harvey, p.73) to spread ley down his hedde, and he should be fair ferd through Kent that the king intended to exact wyth, and dye on a swerd; and toke a rusty retribution by turning the county into a wild swerd, and smote of his hedde withyn halfe a forest. According to Harvey, „this fear doseyn strokes, and toke awey his gown of appears to have been the spark which set russet, and his dobelette of velvet mayled, and alight the already evident discontent in Kent leyde his body on the sonds of Dover; and and drew the county together into rebellion‟. some sey his hedde was sette oon a pole by it, Furthermore, the news of Suffolk‟s death and hes men sette on the londe be grette came shortly after news that the English circumstaunce and preye. …‟ army, which had finally set off in March, had Historians agree that this is a fairly been crushingly defeated at Formigny. accurate account, not that of an eyewitness Rumour had it that 4,000 Englishmen had but presumably taken at first or second-hand been killed. At home, these would have been („some sey …‟) from the sheriff of Kent‟s considered victims of Suffolk‟s treacherous servant who brought the news to London. dealings with the French. (Virgoe, p.490) Numerous fourteenth- and fifteenth- Who masterminded the plot is unknown. century manuscript poems have survived. Historians have not been able to discover with Several of those from the mid-fifteenth any certainty who controlled the Nicholas of century harshly ridicule Suffolk and his the Tower in 1450. „Of the Tower‟ does not cronies, but one in particular, to quote

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Griffiths (p.639), „surpasses them all for the he was an antiquary.) There is absolutely no cruel irony of its indictment of fifty indication of the identity of the author. All councillors, household and government three surviving versions are different – servants, and assorted ecclesiastics‟. This suggesting that each came from a different poem is sometimes called „Placebo and source. They do not just differ by a few Dirige‟. These are the opening words from words. The Stow version (Lambeth Palace two services in the office of the dead: Library, MS 306, ff.51-52) has 116 lines; the Placebo [Vespers]; Dirige [Matins]. Dirige is version in the British Library (Cotton MS the First Nocturne; the longest surviving Vespasian B, xvi, ff1v-2r) has 72 lines. These version of the poem goes on to use the versions are more or less the same up to line Second and Third Nocturnes as well. Cleverly 56 but the last 16 lines in the Cotton MS constructed, the poem puts sections of the differ from next 16 in the Lambeth MS, and Office of the Dead into the mouths of various Lambeth has a further 44 lines. It seems likely men (and one woman), most of whom were that the latter is an expansion of the Cotton closely associated with Suffolk. It is possible MS: it incorporates the names of another 26 to identify all of them. men, so perhaps it was written a little later. So, what are we to make of this poem? There are two surviving indictments of men Firstly, we do not know how widely it was who served Henry VI, one known at the circulated, although the fact that three Rochester Indictment, issued in August 1450, different versions have survived indicate that the other issued by parliament in about it was not a „one-off‟. Griffiths (p.639) states November 1450. Many of the names in these that the poem was in circulation after the indictments are the same as those in the death, on 2 May, of the hated duke; probably additional lines of the Lambeth Palace before the murder of Bishop Aiscough on 29 version of „Placebo and Dirige‟. June; and certainly before that of Lord Saye The third version is in the library of in London on 4 July: both Aiscough and Saye Trinity College, Dublin (TCD MS 516, are mentioned in the poem, as is Moleyns, but ff.116r-v). This has never been printed in full. the latter was murdered before Suffolk. John Since giving this talk, I have obtained a copy Stow, the antiquary (1524/5-1650), who of this manuscript: the poem here has 65 copied the poem into a book, added the lines. It is similar to, but not the same as, the colophon: „Here folowythe a dyrge made by Cotton MS version – some of the names vary, the Comons of Kent in the tyme of ther some lines are omitted, and the last two are rysynge, when Jake Cade was theyr different. This version is preserved in a cappitayn‟. Griffiths has commented (p.639), fifteenth-century compilation of documents, however, that the poem probably did not which includes the only surviving copy of originate in Kent because the names of what has become known as „John Benet‟s extortioners whom the Kentish rebels singled chronicle‟, although the actual authorship of out to be punished by the king – Crowmer, the chronicle is unknown. The compiler of Isle, and Est – are not mentioned in it. It Trinity College MS 516 was John Benet, seems more likely that it was „popular among vicar of Harlington (Beds), but as the events the Londoners and the magnate retainers in recounted in the chronicle indicate that the the last two weeks of June as they surged writer was present in London for much of the restlessly inside and outside London prior to period, it seems that Benet was not the author Cade‟s return to Blackheath‟. but copied the chronicle into his book – Secondly, we do not know who wrote the indeed he made comments in the margins. poem, but it had definite pro-York sym- How did he – or the chronicler – come across pathies. Of the three known surviving ver- the poem „Placebo and Dirige‟? The most sions, two were written in the fifteenth likely answer is that it was in circulation in century and the third copied out by Stow from London in writing. This opens up all sorts of a manuscript owned by one David Norcyn. (I fascinating questions about the production have yet to research Norcyn, but presumably and circulation of seditious writings …

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Katherine Courtenay: Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Countess (part 1) JUDITH RIDLEY

atherine of York was the second youngest daughter of K Edward IV and his queen, Elizabeth Woodville. She was the longest living of all their children and the only one to leave offspring. They were, of course, Plantagenet cousins to the Tudor kings. Katherine was born at Eltham Palace on 14 August 1479, and may have been named after her mother‟s youngest sister, the duchess of Buckingham. In November 1480, the king granted a pension of £5 a year to Joanna, wife of Robert Colson, „nurse to Lady Katherine‟. The privy purse expenses of her father contain an item of „500 nails, bought and expended by Piers Draper at Eltham, for covering the font at the christening of the Lady Catherine his daughter‟. The political climate was fairly settled. Edward had been king since March 1461, apart from the troubles in 1469/71. Katherine‟s eldest brother, Edward, Prince of Wales, was now residing in Ludlow, training for kingship, and she and her remaining siblings were probably residing at court with their parents. As a royal princess, Katherine was mentioned in matrimonial plans with European rulers and their families. The first marriage proposal came from Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain for their infant son, Juan. As with many betrothal plans, this came to nothing before the death of Edward IV when Katherine was four years old. The death of her father changed the political scene for Katherine, when briefly she became the sister of the new king, Edward V, then niece to the following king, Richard III. Her mother moved into Westminster for sanctuary during part of the latter reign. Katherine was to live in the abbot‟s lodging with her mother and her sisters, Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne and Bridget, for a number of months. Her brother Richard, duke of York, was there for a very short time before he was sent as a companion to their older brother Edward in the Tower of London. Her other siblings, Mary, Margaret and George, had died before 1483. When Elizabeth Woodville left sanctuary it is likely that her youngest daughters shared her retirement with her. Another change of fortune for Katherine and her family came when Henry Tudor became Henry VII in August Katherine Plantagenet as now de- 1485, around the time of Katherine‟s sixth birthday. In the picted in a window in Canterbury cathedral. Photo by Geoff Wheeler

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January of the following year her eldest sister, mainly at their castles of Tiverton and Elizabeth of York, married Henry, making Colcombe. Katherine would have had a lot to Katherine a sister-in-law of the reigning king. learn about the running of a household as it The next marriage proposals came from was unlikely that her court residence and Scotland. The reigning king was James III, a education would have covered this. Two widower, when in 1486, he sought to extend a years after their marriage, in September 1497, truce with England by a triple marriage William was called upon, with his father the alliance. James himself was to marry earl of Devon, to defend the city of Exeter Elizabeth Woodville, the Queen Dowager, his against Perkin Warbeck and his followers, eldest son, the future James IV, was to marry reputedly 8,000 strong. After two fierce Cecily, the second surviving daughter of attacks on the city, the siege was a stalemate Edward IV, and James‟s second son, James, and the rebels then made their way to marquis of Ormonde, was to marry Katherine. Taunton. If Perkin Warbeck had indeed been These marriage proposals came to an end Richard, duke of York, whom he purported to with the death of James III in 1488. be, then he was the younger of Katherine‟s Elizabeth Woodville retired to brothers and brother-in-law to William Bermondsey Abbey in 1487 and it is likely Courtenay. that Katherine and her sisters remained at In 1496 Katherine gave birth to her first court under the wing of their eldest sister, the child, Henry, followed by Edward and queen. Elizabeth Woodville died in 1492, and Margaret. William and Katherine were Katherine took part in the procession which present at court in November 1501 for the followed her mother to her grave in St. festivities arranged for the marriage of Prince George‟s Chapel, Windsor. Also present was Arthur, Katherine‟s nephew, and Catherine of Grace Plantagenet, half sister to Katherine, Aragon. William distinguished himself in the being an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV. tournaments and was rewarded by the gift of We can only speculate on Katherine‟s a jewel from the bride. They were present at appearance. There are only two likenesses the betrothal of the 12-year-old Princess which possibly may be of her, one of which is Margaret to King James IV of Scotland two in Canterbury Cathedral in stained glass, in months later, and again William showed great the „royal window‟, and the other in Little skill in the jousting. It was decreed that Malvern Priory. In the latter the portraits of „Charles Brandon had right well jousted; John King Edward and Queen Elizabeth are Carr better, and the Lord William of probably originals but the others were Devonshire best‟. desecrated by Richard Culmer, the puritan Only a matter of weeks after these vicar of Chartham and restored in 1643. She festivities, the fortunes of William and may well have been tall, as her father, her Katherine took a turn for the worse. In May sister Elizabeth and her nephew Henry were 1499, Katherine‟s cousin, Edmund de la Pole, known to have been very tall. She may have earl of Suffolk and son of Edward IV‟s sister had fair or auburn hair, matching the strands Elizabeth, had been indicted before the of her father‟s hair, and the hair of her niece justices of the peace for a murder that he had Mary Tudor, queen of France, and of her committed in a fit of passion. He was sister Elizabeth, duchess of Suffolk, in pardoned by Henry VII, but fled to the court museums around the country. of his aunt Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, By October 1495, when Katherine was 16, another sister of Edward IV. Shortly she had married the 20-year-old Sir William afterwards he returned and made his peace Courtenay, who had received the honour of with the king, but a few months later he went knighthood at the coronation of Elizabeth of back to Flanders to seek the protection of his York. William came from a staunch aunt. In the spring of 1502 Henry VII‟s Lancastrian family, his father being Edward suspicion fell on other members of the House Courtenay, earl of Devon. William and of York and, without warrant or proof, Lord Katherine lived on their estates in Devon, William Courtenay, William de la Pole,

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Edmund‟s brother, and James Tyrell and his frequent companion and a senior lady in son were hurried off to the Tower of London waiting. on the charge of „mental disaffection‟. In late January we find Katherine at the Sir James Tyrell, Sir John Windham and Tower of London attending the queen who several others were tried, condemned and was due to give birth. It is not known if executed. Lord William Courtenay was Katherine was allowed to visit her husband brought before the judges but not condemned. who was kept a prisoner there. Elizabeth gave He was detained a close prisoner in the Tower birth to a daughter Katherine, named after and subsequently an act of attainder was both her sister and her daughter-in-law passed against him. He was to remain a Katherine of Aragon, who was recently prisoner for the next seven years. widowed, and possibly the Lady Katherine Queen Elizabeth took Katherine under her Gordon, widow of Perkin Warbeck. The baby wing and arranged for her children to be herself only lived for a few days. cared for by Margaret, Lady Coton, at the A further grief to Katherine was the death country house of Sir John Hussey, near of her sister, Queen Elizabeth, in February Havering-atte-Bower in Essex, a favourite 1503. The body of the queen was laid in state residence of the queen. Several entries occur in the chapel of the Tower and on the first day in the privy purse expenses of Elizabeth of Lady Elizabeth Stafford officiated as chief York for the children and also Katherine and mourner, Katherine‟s funeral dress not being William Courtenay. There are payments to completed in time. The following day Mr Ellis Hilton, groom of the robes, including Katherine took her place, attired in a full suit 10 ells of Holland cloth for shirts, a night of black and attended by the earl of Surrey, bonnet, furs for a russet gown etc. for father-in-law to her sister Anne, the earl of William; and also „to Robert Hed of London, Essex and the ladies and the gentlewomen of tailor, for making of two coats of black the court. As chief mourner, Katherine camlet for my young lords Henry and Edward kneeled alone at the head of the body and Courtenay at 2s‟. later, the cortège moving on to Westminster The death of Katherine‟s second son, Abbey, she followed on horseback with seven Edward, which occurred in June or July of other ladies led by footmen in black gowns. that year, 1502, was a further blow to his After the funeral ceremonies were parents. The queen paid for the funeral completed Katherine with her young son and expenses and also gave parting presents to his daughter were left dependent upon her father- nurse and rocker. She gave Katherine a in-law the earl of Devon. He allowed her 100 pension of £50 a year from the privy purse marks a year for the „finding and exhibition‟ and also a number of presents. On one of her son Henry and 200 marks for Margaret occasion she was given 2¾ yards of black until her marriage. Katherine would have satin of Bruges for covering a saddle and 12s. been residing in Devon between the years of 6d. for 1¼ yards of black velvet for bordering 1503 and 1509, overseeing the households at the said saddle, which may well have been in Tiverton and Colcombe and her children‟s connection with mourning for her deceased education. child. Further entries in 1502 at Woodstock and January 1503 at Richmond show that The story of Katherine Courtenay will be Katherine could well have been her sister‟s concluded in the December Bulletin.

Also in the December Bulletin ...... we hope to have a full account of the Annual General Meeting, and Dr David Starkey‟s talk. Will he be controversial,or conciliatory? Also there will be a report on the Bosworth weekend, when Callie and Gillian Kendall will be here again, to see the seat given by the Society in memory of their father, Paul Murray Kendall. There will be Lynda Pidgeon‟s talk to this year‟s Study Weekend on John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, and, we hope, some news about the Society‟s participation in the 2012 Leeds International Medieval Congress.

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Mr Lathol’s Frenzy TIG LANG

n my article about the recipes in British cause he will lack sense, threaten and abuse I Library Manuscript Harley 1628 for the people, and pull bits out of the walls.5 Poor Bulletin in June,1 I lamented that although Mr Lathol. However, if my identification of many of the recipes in this manuscript are him with Nicholas Lathell is correct, then his prescriptions for named patients, we do not „frenzy‟ did not incapacitate him for long usually know for what ailment they were from his duties: he continued to rise under prescribed. To show how very frustrating Henry VII, becoming Third Baron of the research on this manuscript can be, the recipe Exchequer.6 I will look at this time is for a named patient, The treatment prescribed for Mr Lathol in and for a stated ailment – but it is partly BL MS Harley 1628 bears no relation to the illegible due to a damaged page. treatments recommended by Gilbertus Mr Lathol, for whom the recipe is Anglicus in terms of its ingredients. As the provided, is quite an interesting person from end is illegible we cannot tell if it was to be the point of view of the original owner of the taken internally or applied to the head (as manuscript. As I stated in my article on the some of the treatments recommended by manuscript for The Ricardian,2 one Nicholas Gilbertus Anglicus for frenzy are). However, Lathell, with whom I think „Mr Lathol‟ of the the inclusion of senna inclines me to think it recipe can be identified, appears to have been was an internal treatment, as this would act as an associate of John Clerk, the king‟s a purgative (presumably with the intention of apothecary, who is a good candidate for purging the body of the corrupt humours ownership of the manuscript. Nicholas deemed to have caused the disorder). Lathell was in the Exchequer under Edward Gilbertus Anglicus recommended a variety of IV3 and was Clerk of the Pipe in the herbal applications for frenzy, as well as Exchequer under Richard III.4 The recipe is bloodletting or leeching, and the more in Latin, on f. 78v of the manuscript, and is as unpleasant prospect (to a modern reader at follows: least) of slitting a young puppy in two, „For Mr. Lathol for frenzy. Take laurel throwing out the guts, and laying the hot body leaves, anise, galingale, spikenard (illegible to the patient‟s forehead „… and when he is word) of each ½ oz., 4 oz. senna, (remainder coolde, lay to anothir‟.7 I think I‟d rather take of recipe illegible).‟ the laurel leaves and senna instead … Frenesia, or Frenzy, is defined in the Middle English version of Gilbertus Notes Anglicus‟s Compendium of Medicine as being 1 Bulletin, June 2011, p.42, Tig Lang, „Apple an abscess in the forward part of the brain or Juice Fit for a Duchess‟. in the membranes of the brain. This abscess is 2 The Ricardian, vol. XX, 2010, pp.94-102, caused by corrupt blood, or corrupt choler. Tig Lang, „Medical Recipes from the Yorkist The symptoms will be wakefulness, lack of Court‟. sense, anger, madness, and suddenly starting 3 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1461-1467, p.55. up or falling down. If corrupt choler has been 4 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1477-1485, p.406. the cause, the sufferer will be over-ready to 5 Faye Marie Getz, Healing and Society in fight or hit people, will have a dry mouth, a Medieval England, Wisconsin 1991, pp.10-ll. blackened tongue, great pain and palpitations, 6 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1485-1492, pp.98, and his urine will be dark red and his eyes 258. swollen. If corrupted blood has been the

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Historical Fact or Fiction? CHRISTOPHER RAE

or me, Hilary Mantel‟s fictional adding Wolf Hall to the reading list, if only F evocation of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf out of sheer curiosity. But why? I sense the Hall was a triumph, a redefinition of what exasperation of the scholarly historian. It is historical fiction can aspire to. But not fiction. What is the use of inventing a everyone was as enthusiastic as myself, or for conversation between Cromwell and Wolsey, that matter the Booker judges, and the most or with Wriothesley, or Anne Boleyn? It tells caustic comments seem to originate among us nothing, except what Mantel imagined. historians. Anthony Beevor was quoted as There is no evidence for any of it; it is pure saying: „The better the novel, the more fantasy. Surely the reader‟s time would be dangerous it is, because readers are more better employed in reading a genuine likely to think it‟s true. It‟s like looking at a historical account? very skilfully restored ancient vase: you just The difference between the two camps can‟t tell what‟s original any more.‟ David seems simple enough at first. If you call Starkey was less polite, writing off the book yourself a historian, you may well set out completely as „historical tosh‟. with the intention of avoiding any assertions I have to declare an interest here, since I which are not clearly supported by the have written an e-novel which deals with the evidence. There must always be that footnote Ricardian coup and subsequent events,* and I at the bottom of the page which assures the find the current tensions between historians reader that what you say is derived only from and writers of fiction fascinating. The cynic the sources. On the other hand, if you are in me suspects that some of the hostility wearing the historical novelist‟s hat you are historians express towards historical fiction perfectly entitled to make up anything you authors derives from simple competition – like. It is fiction, and within fiction the only they are after all both trying to attract readers limitations are the writer‟s imagination. in a crowded marketplace. At the same time The chief problem for anyone studying the one can easily understand why someone who late medieval era in England is the paucity of conceives of their work as a search for the primary sources. Whether you are writing as a „truth‟ can become incensed by fictional historian, or as a novelist, you soon find that accounts which appear to them to be your attempt to construct a chronology of determined bids to corrupt or obscure it. events is hampered by two major problems: For some writers of historical fiction the firstly the inconsistencies and disagreements historical research is simply used to create a between different sources, of which the plausible world in which purely fictional controversy over the dating of the death of characters can operate, and an entirely Lord Hastings is one well known example, fictional plot can be constructed. But in Wolf and secondly, simple gaps in the story. For Hall the author imagines the interactions and example, I have yet to find anything which internal reflections of real historical gives a clue as to what happened between personalities with a view to throwing fresh Gloucester‟s ill-fated attempt to persuade the light on our understanding of their possible queen to leave sanctuary on 23 May, and the motivations and significance, and I think it is Council meeting of 9 June, and, as with most here that writers such as Mantel are straying things, these dates are themselves provisional into territory which some historians consider and may be disputed. their own. The serious historian is in the business of It is difficult now to imagine someone discovering, expanding, relating and making a serious study of Cromwell without explaining what we really do know about the 41

fifteenth century, mining for nuggets of truth boy‟s face still staring back at him. He raised in the thin soil of the evidence we have. If a hand in a last farewell, then turned and you read Charles Ross, or Michael Hicks, or stepped back under the arch.‟3 Rosemary Horrox, you will expect to find The debate is a lively one, and may them dealing only with what can reasonably provide fertile ground for future be said based on the actual evidence. But the historiographers. Why did some authors think historian is often also engaged in creating a it appropriate to combine serious research coherent narrative, and may be prone to using into real historical personalities with the imagination where the evidence is particularly imaginative perspective of the novelist, and sparse, as in Ross‟s comments on Bosworth: why was this suddenly deemed controversial? „Richard III awoke in his camp at Sutton In a society whose confidence in the present Cheney early in the morning of 22 August, and the future is waning, is there more after a night troubled by uneasy dreams‟.1 anxiety about history and how it should be Sentences of this nature are pure historical interpreted? But ultimately I don‟t think we fiction, as much as anything in Wolf Hall. can expect much by way of a conclusion. It is Ross at least is not tempted into the excesses really only in the contemplation and study of of predecessor P.M. Kendall, whose rousing the primary sources themselves that we can description of Bosworth he describes thus. hope to attain a direct connection to the past „Kendall‟s account of the battle remains an which is unfiltered by someone else‟s astonishing mixture of imagination, imagination, and the people who want to speculation, and purple prose, and his engage in this way are a tiny minority. For me description of Richard‟s last moments seems the civilised general reader will want to to suggest that he was perched on the crupper become acquainted with the full range of the of the king‟s horse.‟2 best work our culture produces on an In the work of more popular historical important figure like Cromwell, or indeed writers the distinction can be even further Richard III, and that will include the work of blurred, as for example in Neil Hanson‟s both historians and novelists. book on the Great Fire of London, where the author quite happily employs an entirely Notes: fictional style of writing to make the tale of * G - Loyalty Binds Me, available as an e- the unfortunate pie-shop owner of Pudding book on Amazon. Lane more vivid: „Through eyes misted with 1 Charles Ross, Richard III, p.217. tears, Thomas cast a final look towards the 2 Ibid, p.215. receding figure and saw the pale disc of the 3 Neil Hanson, The Dreadful Judgement.

York Wills Update No fewer than eleven members responded to the call in the June Bulletin for volunteers to type up the 88 wills in English from the Prerogative Court of York from the late fifteenth century. Doreen Leach, one of the original transcribers, still had well over half of the wills on her hard disk, but in the format which is required when transcribing, in double spacing with the lines numbered and abbreviations marked. That is, if the will had e.g. s’vice, it was transcribed as such, but for publication we need the abbreviation extended to service. Doreen sent me all the files, and I allocated three wills to each of nine of the other volunteers as their first batch, while Doreen did the rest. The eleventh volunteer, June York, can still cope with floppy disks, so I sent her disks with three wills which the original inputter had thoughtfully typed in three different formats each, none of which was the one the Research Committee decided upon for publication. Most of these wills have been returned by the typists now, and they are standing by to receive their second batches, which will happen the moment the Bulletin has gone to the printers. This time it will be hard copy and not in electronic form. So we are nearly half-way there already. My grateful thanks to all volunteers. Lesley Boatwright

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Your Queries Answered (1) The Questionable Legend of Sir Henry Wyatt ANNETTE CARSON

Last September, Fiona Price asked about a sequence in Hilary Mantel‟s novel Wolf Hall, in which Sir Henry Wyatt tells Cromwell that he had been imprisoned and tortured under Richard III. What lies behind this story? Annette Carson and Geoffrey Wheeler looked into it, and Annette has written this article for the Bulletin.

ir Henry Wyatt was a fascinating I can locate that has anything to say about the S character whose career encompassed matter. I have also found extremely valuable espionage as well as military action and high background background in Agnes Conway‟s office.* Most writers, however, concern Henry VII’s Relations with Scotland and themselves mainly with grisly tales of Ireland, 1485–1498.1 I can confirm that there imprisonment and torture in the cause of is no surviving account by Henry Wyatt Henry VII, which became the stuff of Wyatt himself, and that just two versions are derived family legend. Interest among Ricardians was authentically from the family‟s own recently aroused by Hilary Mantel‟s account traditions: they occur in letters and papers of this legend in her novel Wolf Hall. With now held mainly in the British Library. There Richard III mentioned in an unpleasant light, exists no complete transcription or it is relevant to ask how true it is. publication of the entire collection, and The different versions of Henry‟s story are regrettably space is insufficient for too numerous to list, and some can actually be transcription here.2 found in respectable publications. The most The earliest relevant document is not popular tales may be summarised thus: actually lodged in the Wyatt collection. It is a 1. He was imprisoned and tortured in the letter written in April 1538 by Henry‟s son, Tower of London for two years on account of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, his support for Henry Tudor. Languishing in containing advice to his own son – in support his cell, he was saved from starvation by a cat of which he cites the laudable example of the who brought him pigeons to eat. boy‟s grandfather, Henry, as a God-fearing 2. His torture is usually described as one man who earned the grace of God which or more of the following: being racked, force- „preseruid him in prison from the handes of fed mustard and vinegar, and having horse- the tirant that could find in his hart to see him barnacles applied to his mouth. The barnacles rakkid, from two yeres and more prisonment were a hinged and toothed metal pinching in Scotland, in Irons and Stoks, from the instrument used by farriers to curb a restive danger of sodeyn changes and commotions horse by gripping and squeezing its sensitive divers, till that . . . he went to him that lovid upper lip area. him …‟ etc.3 3. He was interrogated by none other than The words here are confusing, and having Richard III, who personally oversaw his been unable to inspect the original document I torture. cannot say whether the punctuation is Drilling down to the original sources, I original. What it makes perfectly clear, as have accessed every original Wyatt document supported by other evidence, is that Henry‟s

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lengthy incarceration was in Scotland. No have corresponded with the Tudor camp in suggestion of the Tower of London occurs in Brittany. If Wyatt was involved in this or any Wyatt tradition until as late as 1702, and something similar, and was important enough enquiries of the present Tower authorities to be racked, why did they let him go? have revealed no documentary record of it. Henry Wyatt was fond of a good story, As a celebrated Tudor figure, immortalised by and his dashing exploits must have provided Holbein, one would expect to find some plenty of them. If he did have a brush with the mention had Wyatt been imprisoned there. authorities in the summer of 1483, my guess Less clear is the letter‟s opening phrase is he was held on suspicion and warned by about preservation from the hands of the Richard III‟s men that they wouldn‟t hesitate tyrant that could find in his heart to see him to rack him if they thought he was fomenting racked, which can be read in more than one rebellion. A lucky escape from the hands of way. Was he saved by God from being the tyrant was a better tale than years spent subjected to the rack? Or was he racked and rotting in a Scottish dungeon. God permitted him to survive the ordeal? If There seems no reason not to believe, with the latter – which is what seems generally Agnes Conway, that Henry was tortured at assumed – several questions must be the hands of some Scottish baron. Possibly answered. Most importantly, why is it that, of the barnacles immobilized his mouth while all the tortures his family‟s papers so noxious substances were forced down his graphically record, no other document ever throat. The Wyatts made much of this in their mentions the rack? family records and iconography. Henry I have always found the OED on himself chose barnacles in his coat of arms in Historical Principles enlightening on archaic place of the previous boars‟ heads, and had usage, and under the verb „rack‟ one can find the devices woven into carpets. instances in the 1570s–80s where it referred Moving on to not only to literal racking, but also being the Wyatt papers, otherwise affected by physical pain or mental of which the stress. We still speak of being „racked‟ in this relevant parts way. Might Thomas have been using the were compiled in word in its metaphorical sense? 1727-31, we With reference to the „tyrant‟ – assumed already find to be Richard III – even more questions are overlays of raised by the fact that he never set foot in assumption and Scotland during his reign. We know Wyatt embellishment was ransomed and released from his Scottish acquired through prison upon Henry VII‟s accession in the years of retelling. autumn of 1485 (his earliest recorded grant of Our main source Barnacle office was on 11 October);4 so if he had been lies in an individual document: „Passages held there „two years and more‟, when and taken out of a Manuscript wrote by Thomas where did Richard III get his hands on him? Scott of Egreston … concerning the family of Can it have happened in 1483? Wyatt of Alington‟. These „Passages‟ were Let us imagine Wyatt was apprehended by copied out by Richard Wyatt in 1731.6 the crown on a secret mission before that Richard was a great-great-great-great- which got him captured in Scotland. Richard grandson of the famous Henry, so he was was moving around the country on progress scarcely in any position to judge whether the from 21 July, but he wrote from Oxfordshire tales he was copying were true. The on 29 July ordering a case to be tried in document‟s author, Thomas Scott, was London which seems likely to have been the Henry‟s great-great-grandson, and although attempt, reported by Stow, to abduct the sons nothing is known of its provenance, we may of Edward IV from the Tower.5 The guess at its date of writing from an anecdote it perpetrators, who were executed, were said to contains which derives from a publication of

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1655.7 It therefore appears that a gap of some him a pigeon.‟ Having persuaded his gaoler to 170 years has elapsed. prepare the birds for eating, Henry survived In the intervening years the Wyatts and, understandably, was ever afterwards experienced the best and worst of fortunes. very fond of cats. Henry rose high and grew rich in the service Henry‟s prowess as a raconteur emerges of Henry VII, being a councillor and with more family anecdotes, one of which is entrusted with many commissions including said to have delighted Henry VIII. His military work, diplomacy, and acting as the experiences resume: „Besides his king‟s agent/spy, mainly in Scotland. Under imprisonments he was divers times put into Henry VIII he enjoyed even higher office, divers kinds of tortures, among others with an was created Knight of the Bath, and knight- instrument made like the smith‟s barnacles. I banneret at the Battle of the Spurs. In 1503 know not what wrong they did unto him, that his son Thomas (the elder) was born, and they might pour vinegar and mustard into his brought the king‟s displeasure upon the nostrils and head.‟ „One time after his family through his association with Anne torment, the Tyrant himself examined him, Boleyn. At the time of her downfall he was and joining flattery to fury, told him, saying, thrown into the Tower of London, and Wyatt why are thou such a foole? Thou endured the same fate again briefly in 1561. servest for moonshine in the water. Thy Lack of space prohibits recounting the details, master is a beggarly fugitive. Forsake him or those of the rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the and become mine who can reward thee and, I younger, his son, executed in 1554, whose swear unto thee, will.‟ To this the unbowed attainder plunged the family into disgrace and Henry protested undying loyalty to his poverty. In 1570 the family was restored in master, at which „the Tyrant stood amazed‟, blood, and Thomas‟s son George, obsessed and turning to the lords around him, lamented with rebuilding the family‟s status, how much happier was Tudor, having such a commissioned several famous Wyatt friend, than he himself whose lords were portraits. By now it will be clear that by the ready to leave him. (This moralistic picture of time Thomas Scott set down the tales of his Richard bereft of support is exemplified, of forebears, a tone of vindication and course, in Shakespeare.) rehabilitation prevailed. Here are the extracts The narration concludes with Tudor relevant to Henry‟s experiences. gaining the throne, welcoming our hero „He was imprisoned often, once in a cold „coming out of imprisonment and affliction in and narrow Tower, where he had neither bed Scotland‟, and publicly announcing that he to lye on, nor cloathes sufficient to warm him, owes his crown to the superhuman strength nor meat for his mouth. He had starved there, and constancy of Henry Wyatt. There follows had not God …sent this and his Country‟s an account of Wyatt‟s outstanding qualities, martyr a cat both to feed and warm him. It with more anecdotes redounding to his credit was his own relation unto them from whom I and that of his family. had it. A cat came one day down into the Reference is made later in the papers to dungeon unto him, and as it were offered the well known stone tablet set up in Boxley herself unto him. … After this she would Church in 1702, which Richard Wyatt reveals come every day unto him … [and] … bring was erected by his father, Edwin. This

There is a portrait of Sir Henry Wyatt, with his cat in the act of pulling a pigeon through his cell window, in the possession of the earl of Romney. It has the following Latin couplet and translation written on it (thanks to Geoffrey Wheeler for locating this picture):

Hunc macrum, rigidum, maestum, fame, frigore, cura Pavi, fovi, acui, carne, calorie, ioco.

This knight with hunger, cold and care, neere starv’d, parchid, pytid, Iollie Beast did feede, heale, cheere, with dyett, warmth and playe

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contains the earliest known statement that on behalf of Henry VII, not in the South or Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of West, but in Scotland and the tumultuous London, so now we know who was Border country. responsible. Of the story of the cat, Richard „can find no remains‟ other than some Notes paintings depicting the episode. Still in the * With thanks to Geoffrey Wheeler for family is one composed of a copy of supplying much of the material that made this Holbein‟s portrait of Henry in affluent old article possible. age, his elder-statesman figure sitting 1 Cambridge, 1932. incongruously against a background of 2 Anyone who would like the unabridged dungeon and barred window, while his results of my research is welcome to contact faithful cat delivers him a pigeon. Some me at [email protected]. couplets at the bottom tell the story. 3 Kenneth Muir, Life and Letters of Sir Unfortunately the old Dictionary of Thomas Wyatt, (Liverpool, 1963) pp.38-41. National Biography, available on the internet, 4 Calendar of Patent Rolls 1485-94, p.74 recounts the tale that Henry was imprisoned (with thanks to Marie Barnfield). in the Tower of London for two years by 5 Annette Carson, Richard III: The Maligned Richard III and „racked in Richard‟s King (Stroud, published in 2009), pp.130-1. presence‟. Although modified by the Oxford 6 BL Add MSS 62135-62138. Relevant DNB of 2004, it is too late to undo the harm sections are in 62135 (2 vols), vol 2, ff. 359- now done. Moreover the new edition opines 369 and 456. that in 1483 he „probably participated‟ in 7 David Loades, ed., The Papers of George Buckingham‟s Rebellion.8 One can only Wyatt, Esquire (London, 1968), p.4. regret that the writer failed to consult Agnes 8 DNB (1885-1900) and ODNB (2004), s.v. Conway, whose researches clearly show that Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder. Wyatt specialized in espionage and intrigue

Your Queries Answered (2) A Canonical Minefield MARIE BARNFIELD

Stephen Lark raised this question after attending the Norwich Study Day on 13 November 2010, when a speaker remarked that the eldest Beaufort child was born only just after his mother‟s husband (Hugh Swynford) died. Did not English law automatically make him Swynford‟s legitimate son unless proven otherwise? Lynda Pidgeon fielded the question, and asked for a volunteer to answer it.

he Beaufort business was a canonical later) – as I understand it Stephen‟s starting T minefield, and I‟d like to take this premise is correct: i.e. the legal assumption excuse to cogitate on how lucky Gaunt was to was that the father of a married woman‟s get away with it all, and how dodgy Henry child was her husband. But this was only a Tudor‟s antecedents must have looked to his default position, and could be challenged as contemporaries. Stephen himself admits. In most cases such a It seems we don‟t have a date for John challenge would come from the cuckolded Beaufort‟s birth, but assuming for the sake of husband, but dead men don‟t complain much. argument that he was indeed conceived Gaunt did recognise John as his son, and during Sir Hugh‟s lifetime (but more on this Katherine no doubt confirmed this – as the

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mother she would be in the best position to [occulto], their orator to the apostolic see had know. I‟m reminded of Mancini‟s claim that taken back to them from the pope a letter of Cecily Neville threatened to bastardise credence [quoddam breve credentiale] Edward IV by giving evidence of her adultery marked [signatum] by the pope‟s hand, and to a tribunal. I can‟t see any reason why related to them that, as was also contained in Gaunt would recognise John as his own child the letter itself, the pope had given his (viva if he did not have good reason to believe he voce) consent. They now doubt lest, the said was. impediment having been afterwards divulged Evidently, at the time Gaunt fathered the and apostolic letters on the subject of such Beauforts he was married to Constance of consent not being forthcoming, their marriage Castile and can therefore have had no plans to may not be impugned, divorce follow, and marry Katherine. Indeed, in recognising the grave scandals arise. (De mandato.)‟ Beaufort children as his own he was creating (From: 'Lateran Regesta 43: 1396-1397', an obstacle to such a future union, because Calendar of Papal Registers Relating to Great under canon law it was forbidden to marry a Britain and Ireland, Volume 4: 1362-1404 person with whom one had „polluted‟ a (1902), pp. 542-546. URL: http://www.british previous marriage by adultery (this is the -history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=96467) same rule that would have prevented Edward It‟s interesting that this dispensation IV from quietly making an honest woman of claims adultery on Gaunt‟s part only, so Elizabeth Woodville after Eleanor Butler‟s perhaps John Beaufort was not conceived death). Gaunt and Katherine evidently until after Swynford‟s death after all. Jones succeeded in obtaining a papal dispensation and Underwood cite in evidence Froissart‟s from this impediment before marrying, claim that John Beaufort was conceived in together with legitimation of all their little double adultery, and Richard III‟s bastard Beauforts, but they overlooked proclamation, according to which Henry another, lesser, impediment arising from Tudor‟s „moder was doughter unto John duc Gaunt‟s having stood godfather to Thomas of Somerset, son unto John Erle of Somerset, Swynford. So they sent to Rome again, and son unto dame Kateryne Swynford, and of her again the Pope obliged (what a powerful man in double advoutrow goten‟. But Richard, or Gaunt was!): his scriptwriters, may merely have been „Ratification and confirmation of the drawing on Froissart, and in any case there marriage contracted by John, duke of were only two months between Gaunt‟s Lancaster, and Catherine de Swynforde, marriage to Constance and Sir Hugh damsel, of the diocese of Lincoln, with Swynford‟s death in which such a doubly dispensation to remain therein, offspring past adulterated child could have been conceived. and future being declared legitimate. Their Also, I have read that there is no real petition contained that formerly, after the evidence for John Beaufort having been born death of his wife Constance, duke John and in 1372 as claimed by J & U (http:// Catherine contracted and consummated groups.yahoo.com/group/ marriage (not being ignorant that John had richardiiisocietyforum/message/4730). been godfather to a daughter of Catherine by I guess the most that could be said is that, another husband, and that afterwards, while IF John Beaufort had been conceived during Constance was still alive, he had committed the life of Sir Hugh Swynford, then the adultery with the said Catherine, an petitions on which the papal dispensations unmarried woman, and had offspring by her); were based would be incomplete and flawed, and that they considered such marriage to be and consequently the dispensation that lawful, inasmuch as, the said impediment of legitimised the Beauforts might be invalid. compaternity not being notorious but private

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Your queries answered (3) Henry Tudor’s path to the throne ANNETTE CARSON

In the March 2010 Bulletin (page 34), Philippa Langley asked, „Having read various accounts as to where Henry Tudor actually stood in line to the English throne, could someobody finally answer this particular question? And if they could list all those who stood before him, and in order, even better.‟ Annette Carson has sent us this answer.

don‟t claim to be an expert on genealogy, Beaufort Act of Legitimation it could not be I but perhaps I could offer a partial response ignored. Both Henry V and Henry VI could to this question. have created legal instruments whereby it was We need to establish five parameters at rescinded and the Beauforts allocated a place the outset. The first is when. Are we in the Lancastrian succession. They did not enquiring about Henry‟s place in the do so. Therefore at the very least the position succession in August 1485, immediately upon of the Beauforts was questionable. Perhaps the death of Richard III? the best response to Philippa‟s question, Second, there is the position of Edward, therefore, is to answer it in two ways: first earl of Warwick, and the sons of Edward IV. with the bar in place, and second with the bar As at 1485, Warwick had been set aside from ignored. the succession by Act of Parliament, citing With these five parameters in place, his father‟s attainder. However, Henry VII Henry Tudor‟s status can be discussed. On would soon repeal that act, and ,by doing so, page 206 of my book I give the line of repeal Parliament‟s decision that Edward V succession of the immediate, legitimate, male and Richard of York were illegitimate. Yorkist royal family members at the death of Making the assumption suggested above Richard III, ignoring Warwick and the would avoid this thorny problem. illegitimate offspring of Edward IV. On page Third, are we to regard the legitimate 207 I show the subsidiary lines of succession (senior) line of succession as vested in the other than members of the royal houses of house of Lancaster or the house of York? York and Lancaster, and eschewing the Fourth, are we to count females as Beaufort line. These are a simple but perhaps candidates in their own right, or merely as helpful place to start. vessels whereby the royal blood is As for counting heads, I will leave that to transmitted? the genealogists, of whom I‟m sure our And fifth, we come to the vexed question membership has plenty. of the bar on the Beaufort succession, expressed in writing by Henry IV. In my Editor’s note: Annette gave us copies of the book, Richard III: The Maligned King, I tables, but unfortunately we do not have the address this question (among other space to reproduce them here. People considerations) and argue that, whatever the interested in counting heirs should consult her constitutional technicalities, once this book. impediment had been inserted into the

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Another de la Pole? STEPHEN LARK

hose who attended this year‟s Study no evidence of who her parents were or if T Weekend in York will have spent two they were married. days thinking about the de la Pole family. I If Marguerite was child of a de la Pole she wonder how many were aware that rather could be one of three things: the true than dying out in the sixteenth century descendant of the dukes of Suffolk, a possible descendants are alive today? conscious fraud or of an illegitimate line. It is usually said that none of the six Unlike „Perkin‟, she probably never came to (possibly seven) de la Pole brothers, sons of England or boasted of her descent. I think the John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, left first option is the most likely but who could surviving issue. These seven sons were have been her father? Marguerite seems to John, earl of Lincoln: married, but killed have lived to 1599 and most probably married at Stoke in 1487; Edward, archdeacon of as a teenager. If so then only Richard seems Richmond: died in 1485; Edmund, earl of at all likely to have been her father. Of his Suffolk: married in c.1496, exiled 1501-2 and brothers only William lived long enough to lived abroad, mostly as a prisoner. Sent to the father a child who must have been born no Tower on his being returned to England and later than about 1515 if she married in 1539 beheaded in1513; Humphrey: a priest, dead and died in 1599. In 1515 William was then by 1513; William: married in c.1497, in the Tower where he stayed for the rest of imprisoned in c.1502 and never emerged from his life. The other reason to suggest that the Tower. Almost certainly dead by 1539; Marguerite‟s father was Richard was the fact Geoffrey: possibly a clergyman if he existed that William never claimed the title duke of (there is doubt: probably a conflation of two Suffolk as did Richard, giving a reason for other brothers); Richard: exiled from Marguerite claiming Suffolk as part of her summer 1501 and never returned to England. name. Lived mostly in France and entered the Research and email correspondence has French service. He called himself Duke of shown that it is claimed that Richard had an Suffolk, claiming the throne as grandson of affair with a Lorraine woman after 1514, Richard, duke of York. Known abroad as the which resulted in the birth of a daughter White Rose, he died at the battle of Pavia in Marguerite. He apparently also had a liaison 1525. with Sybille, a Metz goldsmiths wife. If any of these left descendants how do we Richard was also betrothed to a daughter of decide which? The trail starts with a lady Frederick, duke of Holstein, but there is no calling herself Marguerite de la Pole Suffolk. evidence that he was actually married to her. She was lady in waiting to Marguerite, Queen By her husband the Seigneur de Brenieu of Navarre, and was married, at Château de Marguerite had six children some of whom Fontainebleu on 21 July 1539 to Cibaud de have descendants. These were: Jacques: he Tivoley, Seigneur de Brenieu. We know of no had a daughter but no other descendants; claim by her to be queen of England, duchess Pierre and Claude: were killed during the or countess of Suffolk, the peerage titles French Wars of Religion, without issue; a presumably because of her sex and the fourth son: also died without issue; Leonore: kingdom because of the attainder of the male she married Jean de Secondat and is the de la Poles (although this did not stop Richard ancestor of the Louis de Buade, Comte de de la Pole making a claim). The main reason Frontenac who was Governor of (French) for a lack of claims may be because there is Canada, the philosopher de Montesquieu and

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the Comte d‟Estrades, an Admiral. The de Dupont, Jacques, (ed), Cahiers de St Louis, Montesquieu male line still flourishes and I 1976-87 have a letter from the current Baron; Eccles, W.J., Frontenac: The Courtier Marguerite: her descendants fled to Governor, 2004. Switzerland at the Revolution, and now Peter-Gabriel Nicholas Huth de Loriol, include the South London genealogist Peter- Comte de Loriol Chandieu (by email). Gabriel de Loriol. Luc Chaput in Canada (by email). Henri Marie de Secondat de Montesquieu et Sources (and Correspondents) de Roquefort, Baron de la Brede (by email). Chandieu, Loriol de, Ancestor list of Francois -Louis de Buade, 1999

Crazy Christmas Query I was intrigued by Phil Stone‟s report in the last Bulletin (p.34) about the evening meal at which his host was „looking for someone who has dispassionately collated all the theories on the disappearance on the Princes without coming down on any particular side or the other‟. Perhaps the theories could be collated by when they become possible chronologically, because I did something like this in my talk at the Cirencester conference.* First, the boys could have died in the reign of Richard III. We have the traditional murder by Richard III or on his orders. An alternative I should have pursued is murder by someone else, such as Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, not as an agent of Richard but for his own reasons (Paul Murray Kendall and others), or at the behest of Margaret Beaufort, Lady Stanley (Jenny Powys-Lybbe, Bulletin, December 2009 ). They may have died from natural causes or by accident, e.g. in trying to escape from the Tower (Lesley Boatwright, Bulletin, Summer 2006). Secondly, the Princes may have survived Richard III. They had two options – to assume other personae (Jack Leslau, David Baldwin‟s Richard of Eastwell), or to get clear before announcing they were still alive. They may not have succeeded in this; they could have been murdered by Henry VII. They may have got away to become the pretenders usually known as Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. This model seems to allow for most possibilities, but I don‟t see, if you go any further, how you can avoid coming down on one „particular side or other‟. For example, rumours that Richard III had murdered his nephews are taken as evidence by those who believe he actually did so, whereas opponents of this view point out that rumours the Princes were still alive persisted after his death. I suppose you could try to be impartial by saying that with respect to a certain fact X that some people think it‟s true, while others think it‟s false. But then you get a long list of facts which is probably too difficult to interpret anyway. The trouble is that this arrangement doesn‟t work with the Princes turning up as pretenders. I suggested that pretender A whom the Irish crowned in Dublin in 1487 claimed he was Edward V, but he was killed at the battle of Stoke and Lambert Simnel was an impostor substituted by Henry VII after the battle. Pretender B claimed he was Richard, duke of York, but Henry said he was an impostor called Perkin Warbeck, so he should be who he claimed to be (Diana Kleyn) or who Henry said he was (Ian Arthurson). It‟s interesting that the two pretenders could be the Princes in the Tower, but I warned against getting over-excited. It could be that the pretenders were neither who they claimed to be nor who Henry said they were, and Ann Wroe explores this possibility in the case of Perkin Warbeck. So here we have three values: true, false, and neither. Actually we also have three values over Richard III murdering his nephews: true, false, and don‟t know, and probably most of those at the Cirencester conference admitted to the third. The usual two-valued logic with true and false is difficult enough, but we are now getting into multi-valued and modal logics. The mind boggles. Gordon Smith * The Society‟s Triennial Conference, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, April 2008. 50

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 the effigy is of alabaster, and Claude Blair From Marilyn Garabet, Oban, Argyll thinks that the Purbeck link between the tomb I was intrigued to read Marcus Herbert‟s of the Yorkist and the „knight with his soul in article „The Minster Yorkist‟ in the recent his hands‟ reveals that a family living in the Ricardian [vol.XXI, 2011, pp.1-22] but how I Minster area during the fifteenth century „had wish I could have told him that I had changed at least indirect connections with the Purbeck my mind concerning the Yorkist being Sir marblers‟. James Crowmer as far back as 1993, when I Although it is impossible to identify the corresponded with our President, Peter „soul‟ knight with any certainty, if Claude Hammond, on the subject, and he convinced Blair is correct with his date ofd 1460 for this me that the Yorkist was more probably a effigy, a possible candidate might be Sir John Cheney. I never ventured into print with my Cheney who died in 1467, given Marcus revised opinion but now wish that I had. Herbert‟s remark that „preparation for I thought Marcus Herbert‟s article was medieval funerals usually took place well in excellent and wondered if, in solving the advance, including the commission of a mystery of the Minster Yorkist, we might suitable monument‟. have unearthed the identity of yet another unknown soldier. Lying beside the Yorkist‟s Marcus Herbert writes: present-day monument in Minster Abbey I would like to thank Marilyn Garabet for her church is another unidentified effigy of a fully kind comments regarding my article. I wasn‟t -armoured knight and, intriguingly, his aware of Claude Blair‟s article but agree that praying hands are cupping between them a the „soul‟ effigy may very well be the latest small oval medallion with the figure of a man example of Purbeck marble funerary scul- carved upon it, presumed to represent his soul pture extant. However, I don‟t believe that the in prayer, though this has recently been effigy commemorates Sir John Cheyne (d. disputed. The figure is much mutilated and 1467). He served the royal household as a the remains of the feet lie on a now- sergeant-at-arms under Henry VI and as such unidentifiable animal. Curiously, this effigy I would have expected a collar of esses to was discovered in 1833, buried five feet down have been proudly displayed on the effigy. It in the churchyard, and it may be yet another is an extremely crude piece of sculpture and I refugee from St Katherine‟s chapel, where the have certainly never seen another quite like it. Cheney family were buried. The „knight with As for the effigy of William Cheyne, it is his soul in his hands‟, as he has been called, questionable as to whether the Purbeck altar was thought to date from the early fifteenth tomb on which he lies was originally part of century and, in a footnote to his article, his monument and may well have been made Marcus Herbert says that the armour is „of a for his father, or even grandfather William (d. style consistent with the 1440s‟. However, an 1441). Ultimately what is evident is that article in the Church Monuments Society much more needs to be done regarding the Newsletter, 1993, by Claude Blair, entitled „A Cheyne family and I have begun to write a late Purbeck marble effigy at Minster, Isle of further article on their other remaining Sheppey, Kent‟, convincingly re-dates this monuments. I also think the Crowmer family effigy to around 1460 and says it is „the latest needs further research and I believe an example of Purbeck marble funerary alabaster altar tomb, probably one of theirs, sculpture recorded‟. The Minster Yorkist‟s remains in the church at Tunstall, Kent, and, panels are also of Purbeck marble, although ironically, is currently being used as the altar.

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A truly gory production Spivs and limps From Heather Falvey From Angela Moreton, Yorkshire One of the perks (!) of being a member of the I wonder if I might reply to a couple of points Bulletin Committee is proof-reading the raised in Geoffrey Wheeler‟s long letter in the Bulletin and therefore reading items before June Bulletin? The first is Geoffrey‟s suspicion they are published. In early May I read that I “may not have seen” Paul Daneman‟s through Philippa Langley‟s review of Richard Richard III in An Age of Kings since then. III by The Propeller Company (Artistic Geoffrey actually made a video copy of the Director, Edward Hall) (published in June series for me just before the millennium. His 2011 Bulletin, pp.33-34). I was so struck by suggestion that I have misunderstood the word Philippa‟s review of the production that I “spiv” is an intriguing linguistic reflection on checked Propeller‟s website. There, the play the famous North-South divide which has was described as „a hugely entertaining and plagued Ricardians for years (quite apart from diabolical adventure that tells the story of one the fact that we may have different man‟s journey to heaven, then back to hell‟. I dictionaries). My understanding of „spiv‟ is immediately booked tickets for my two „wide boy‟, a charming but usually amoral (adult) daughters and me to see one of the character with an eye to the main chance: a performances at the Hampstead Theatre, good example in recent popular culture would London. be Private Walker in Dad’s Army, or even Del And what an excellent production it was. Trotter in Only Fools and Horses. I was very That it had an all-male cast gave it an air of interested, when I asked several Northern-born authenticity, since the original was written for friends how they understood „spiv‟, to learn a male company; that they were not wearing that they had exactly the same mental picture as „authentic‟ (i.e. period) costume mattered not I did; one of them actually said straight away, at all. It was a truly gory production, with „a wide boy‟. It must be something to do with chainsaws and drills being used for some of being born north of Trent. the murders, making „blood‟ spray Laurence Olivier‟s use of a single crutch everywhere. Richard was larger than life – (not two like Antony Sher) on the Old Vic tour just as Shakespeare characterised him – and of Australasia in 1948 resulted from his (unusually), through the casting of the tall adoption of a limping gait in the role of actor Richard Clothier, he quite literally Richard. As Geoffrey says, Olivier had injured towered over both his enemies and his his leg (he had torn a cartilage in the knee), and henchmen. Clothier played Richard as a the actor later said that the limp had set up a powerful and purposeful man, and drew the weakness in the „straight‟ leg. One night in audience under his spell by asides, and nods performance he was so carried away with the and winks that let them in on his game while rage of the role that he broke the end of the he gulled his victims. He played the audience crutch over the head and shoulders of George like a fiddle, and there were numerous Cooper who was playing Brackenbury, and occasions when there was outright laughter at stagehands had to supply a replacement crutch his machinations. Tragedy? What tragedy? I at short notice. (My source for this account is am a big fan of Shakespeare the dramatist and Garry O‟Connor‟s Old Vic Theatre Company’s take the view that his Richard III is more of a British Council Tour of Australia and New comedy than a tragedy, in the sense that the Zealand 1948, 1984, pp 103-4. I assume it„s ever-increasing pile of bodies laid at reasonably reliable.) Richard‟s door, if not his feet, gives the play the air of a farce. This production conveyed Bulletins and more this brilliantly. From Dorothea Preis, New South Wales Thank you, Philippa, for bringing this To start with, let me explain that the NSW particular production to our attention; and branch receives their Ricardians and Bulletins thank you Propeller for portraying Shake- in bulk, and we then distribute them to our speare‟s Richard as he should be portrayed. members who live all over New South Wales,

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the Australian Capital Territory and Queens- of Ampthill. Records show him owning other land. The MBags are delivered to our family lands in the area, including Maulden. Two business, because there is always someone members have pointed out that he carried the available to receive them. Sword of State at Richard III‟s coronation. Last week, my husband brought home a From 1460 he remained a loyal Yorkist, box, which contained to my pleasure the 2011 and lived into Henry VII‟s reign. He was Ricardians and the June Bulletins. Impatient certainly prominent at a number of important to start reading, I had a quick look whether Yorkist events, including the re-burial of the there were copies for all our members, duke of York. His role at Richard‟s coron- grabbed my own copy and those of two ation makes him, for me, the most likely, friends, who I was meeting for coffee the indeed the only, contender. following morning, but left the rest in the I have written an article on Sir Edmund as box. contender for the ownership of the boar, A day or two later our members could no which will appear in the Beds and Bucks longer be denied their pleasure (well, my group‟s journal, The Rose and Crown, in excuse is that there was a weekend in January 2012. between) and I wanted to take the remainder to the post office. The box was rather bulky to Des élément inédits en français carry through a shopping centre, so I From Garry Marnoch, Toronto transferred the envelopes to a big shopping On p.22 of the March issue of the Bulletin bag. And suddenly I noticed something bright a request was made to confirm interpretation green at the bottom of the box. Intrigued I of a French phrase „des éléments inédits en had a closer look and found a Lloyds TSB français‟ used to describe the contents of Cashpoint card. Meurtres à la Cour de Richard III, by Sophie This was certainly a big surprise I hadn‟t Cassagnes-Brouquet. Did the book contain expected. I contacted Stephen York, the brand new material, or did it translate into Society‟s new Business Manager, who French material already available in other quickly came back with the information that languages? the card belonged to someone connected to I requested confirmation from a French the distributors and that I could destroy it as it teacher in Toronto, Jacqueline Todd, who had been cancelled. conferred with a native-born francophone, I would like to thank Stephen for sorting and their reading is that the book presents this matter so quickly – and for taking over material not previously published elsewhere. this role. Our first delivery went without any That heightens interest in this book for hiccups (and we‟ve had a few of those over Ricardians. the years) – and we certainly got more than we had bargained for. I‟m sure the owner of Paul Murray Kendall’s university the card was also happy to know where her From Professor Compton Reeves, USA card had ended up. Thank you for sending the March 2011 issue of the Bulletin. Kendall and I were professors Update on the Maulden boar badge at Ohio University, not Ohio State University. From Rose Skuse, Buckinghamshire Ohio University was established in 1804, and Just to update you on the ownership of the Ohio State University some six decades later. Maulden boar badge (Bulletin, March 2011, Because of its early foundation, Ohio Uni- p.44) the person I have come up with should versity benefited from the generosity of the have been glaringly obvious: Sir Edmund English Parliament by being gifted with Grey of Ruthin. He was involved in a dispute Record Society publications such as the about the ownership of Ampthill, near Maul- Statutes of the Realm and the Valor Eccle- den, in Henry VI‟s reign, and after letting the siasticus, which are a treasured part of the Yorkists through at the battle of Northampton library collection. These books were greatly was rewarded by Edward IV with the manor appreciated by me as a research historian.

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The Barton Library

Addition to the Non-Fiction Book Library Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses by David Santiuste (Pen and Sword, hardback, 2010) A new biography of Edward IV, reassessing his reputation as a military commander, but also covering his role as a man and as a politician and diplomatist.

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

„Richard III, Brittany and Henry Tudor‟ by C. S. L. Davies (Nottingham Medieval Studies, vol XXXVII, 1993, pp. 110-126). Argues that the patent authorising the provision of 1,000 archers for service with the Duke of Brittany was not issued in June 1484 as previously assumed, but in June 1485.

„The Alleged “Sack of Bristol”: International Ramifications of Breton Privateering, 1484-5‟ by C.S.L. Davies (Historical Research, vol 67, 1994). Questions the authenticity of the story of the burning and pillaging of Bristol in 1484 by the Breton privateer Jean de Coetanlem, recounted in various modern French accounts of naval affairs and by Charles Ross in his Richard III.

„The Yorkist claim to the throne of Castile‟ by Anthony Goodman and David Morgan (Journal of Medieval History, vol II, No 1, 1985). Explains why the heirs of Isabel of Castile and Edmund of Langley considered their claim to the throne of Castile superior to that of Isabel‟s elder sister Constance, Duchess of Lancaster, and the use made of this claim by successive generations of the House of York.

„Arbitration in Gentry Disputes of the Later Middle Ages‟ by Ian Rowney (History, Vol 67, No 221, 1982). Discusses the mechanisms of arbitration and the reasons for its popularity in the late Middle Ages.

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

Additions to the Audio-Visual Library Audio BBC Radio 4: Plantagenet, the second trilogy of Mike Walker‟s medieval saga, as fast-paced and blood-spattered as its predecessor (see June 2010 Bulletin, p.56), has similar intelligent and superior scripts. (1) „Edward I – Old Soldiers‟ sees the king (Philip Jackson) after Queen Eleanor‟s death, make a tactical marriage to the French king‟s sister, amid the intrigue, plotting and skirmishes, taking in the Scots wars, with William Wallace, the siege of Stirling Castle, etc.

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(2) „Edward II – the Greatest Traitor‟ has, of course, to compete with Marlowe‟s „mighty line‟. Mortimer (Sam Troughton) is the narrator, looking back to chart the rise and fall of the king and his favourites, Gaveston and Despencer, together with his (Mortimer‟s) passionate affair with Queen Isabella. The French king admits his sister is „as devious as the devil‟s daughter‟, though it is Despencer who suggests her soubriquet, „the She-wolf of France‟. Unsurprisingly, that favourite device of all such period dramas, the chess scene, makes its appearance, redolent with symbolism: „three more moves and I would have taken your queen‟; and though it is liberally interspersed with bloody battles and executions, the author omits the traditional gruesome death scene of the king at Berkeley. (3) „Richard II – And All Our Dreams Will End in Death‟ is the reign seen through Richard‟s eyes (Patrick Kennedy), with this time even stronger dramatic comparisons to be made, not only with Shakespeare, but twentieth-century versions by Gordon Daviot (Richard of Bordeaux, 1933) * and Lydia Ragosin‟s Time-Honoured Lancaster (1965).* Inexplicably, the reign of Edward III has been omitted from the sequence, though it is surely also crammed with incident, as shown by the anonymous Chronicle play, now claimed to be by Shakespeare,* so that unfortunately a large part of the allotted 60 minutes of playing time is here taken up with the events in the life of Richard‟s father, the Black Prince, at Crécy and the siege of Limoges. This results in an even more truncated and breathless run through the principal events, wisely concentrating on those omitted by Shakespeare. So we have the Peasants‟ Revolt (preceded by a rather laboured pun, where it is suggested „we call the poll tax after de la Pole‟ – who in one of the few factual errors is referred to as the earl of Sussex, not the earl of Suffolk). Marriage to Anne of Bohemia follows, and her influence on the king‟s court in shifting the focus from war and conflict to peace, culture and the arts. All the correct historical boxes are ticked: there are references to the exaggerated fashion of pointed-toed shoes, Richard‟s invention of the handkerchief, his Cookery Book, the Wilton Diptych, etc., together with the demolition of Shene Palace after Anne‟s death. The resistance of the Lords Appellant follows, and Sir Simon Burley‟s arrest produces another execution scene with gory sound-effects. Thoroughly complicit in Gloucester‟s death, Richard delivers the warrant in person. The scene of Coventry lists is omitted and Bolingbroke is already in exile when Gaunt dies, and in a matter of moments we are in Pomfret‟s dungeon (no deposition scene either), where Henry improbably visits the king, and their resulting exchange produces one of the few modern anachronisms, when he retorts, „I‟ll get back to you on that‟. As with Edward II, no death scene ensues, but Richard is left alone in his reverie, dreaming on the past. It remains to be seen if the author will continue the series into future reigns, though since the plays are billed as being „inspired by Holinshed‟s Chronicles‟ doubtless they will be resolutely traditional, with no room for radical revisionist views. * Items marked with an asterisk are also available from the Library.

Videos / DVDs Channel 4 TV Romance and the Royals: David Starkey on the background to love-matches in history, including Katherine Swynford, Elizabeth Woodville, etc. (see June Bulletin, pp.38-9). A History of the World: the Battle of Towton (BBC 4 TV) with Terry Deary, the author of Horrible Histories. Available as a 30-minute live-from-air DVD, or commercially produced disc with 55 minutes of „extras‟, unused footage featuring experts on the Armoury, Tim Sutherland, Thom Richardson, John Waller, together with Julian Humphrys and Helen Cox, in association with the Towton Battlefield Society. With thanks to Ann Cole (Wilts) and Roger Sansom (Essex) for continuing to record TV items during the enforced interruption to my ability to do so. Geoffrey Wheeler

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

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Future Society Events

Christmas at Fotheringhay Saturday, 10 December, 2011

It‟s that time of the year for you to start booking your places for Christmas at Fotheringhay – old friends, a good lunch, the uplifting experience of the Carol Service – for many it is the start of the Christmas season. At 12.30 pm there will be a buffet lunch in the village hall, which will include a vegetarian option for those who have let me know beforehand. Desserts will include Christmas pudding and fruit salad and there will be wine or soft drinks as desired, followed by coffee and mince pies. It is also to be hoped that Kitty Bristow will hold one of her raffles. The Carol Service begins at 3.00 pm in the medieval church of St Mary and All Saints. It is similar in style to the Festival of Nine Lessons and the music will be led by the St Peter‟s Singers. The coach from London will leave Charing Cross Embankment at 9.30 am, getting back between 7.00 and 7.30 pm. Pick-up in Bromley at 8.15 am will be available for those who let me know.

It will not surprise anyone, I‟m sure, to learn that the costs have had to go up again this year. Everyone is aware of the relentless rise in food prices, but added to this is the increased cost of travel. The coach company that we have used in one guise or another since these outings began 30 years ago has gone bust and another, slightly more expensive one, has had to be arranged. The cost may seem steep, but they really are remarkably good value. If we were to pay what we should for the village hall as well as a commercial price for the meal, and if we paid the choir what they could command for their services, we would be adding another £15-£20 a head for what is a wonderful day out.

If you wish to take part (and who could not?), either by coach or using your own transport, please let me know as soon as possible which you require:

a) lunch and a place on the coach b) lunch after making your own way to Fotheringhay c) just a place in the church (so that we can estimate the seating required)

The costs will be as follows:

a) £ 38.80 to cover cost of coach, lunch, choir, admin., etc. b) £ 21.00 for lunch, choir, admin., etc.

Please complete the coupon in the centrefold, and return it to me with a cheque, endorsed „Fotheringhay‟, as well as an SAE, as soon as possible. (Contact details on the inside back cover.) There is no problem with disabled access to the village hall or the church.

Remember: no SAE, no reply – no reply, no place! Phil Stone

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Bruges Golden Tree Pageant: Saturday 26 to Monday 28 August 2012 Celebrated in Bruges in 1468, the wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York was the occasion for the greatest rejoicings that city had ever known. These celebrations were called after the prize of the tournament which concluded them. This trophy consisted of a symbolic jewel made of gold, representing a tree. Every five years the city of Bruges holds a pageant, consisting of tableaux, and acting and singing and dancing groups displaying a wealth of brilliantly- coloured period costumes, which recalls these festivities given in honour of the princely couple. The next pageant is due to take place on Sunday 27 August 2012. (Note: in 2012, 28 August will be Bank Holiday Monday; the Society‟s Bosworth Commemoration is due to take place on Sunday 19 August; the Olympic Games will run from 23 July until 12 August, and the Paralympic Games from 29 August until 12 September.) West Norfolk Travel (WNT), which successfully made the bookings for our visits to Avignon and Calais, are again helping the Visits Committee. They have an option on 15 single and 8 double rooms for the nights Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 August 2012 at the Novotel Bruges Centrum Katelijnestraat Bruges 8000 Belgium. The double rooms can be converted into triples. Cost sharing double/twin room £132, single room £202, and triple room £107. These rates are all per person for the two nights, and include tax and breakfasts on the Sunday and Monday mornings. (These rates are based on 1.10 euros to the £1 and are subject to change ) The pageant tickets are due to go on sale in September 2011. Approximate cost £13 each. We have looked on the Eurostar website for approximate fares as at May 2011, which were: standard non-flexible £80 return. Standard senior £77 return, for which travellers must be at least 60 on day of travel. Tickets are not exchangeable nor refundable. Fares no doubt will increase in 2012.

Draft Programme Sat 26 August 2012: late morning Eurostar train to Brussels. Train to Bruges. Mid-afternoon check into hotel. Rest of day free. Dinner own arrangements. Sun 27 August 2012: Golden Tree pageant. Free morning. Lunch and dinner own arrangements. Mon 28 August 2012: Free morning. After lunch (own arrangements) collect luggage from hotel. Train to Brussels, check in Eurostar terminal. Back to London, arriving mid-evening.

The following will be included in the cost: two nights‟ accommodation at the Novotel, two breakfasts, and taxes. Eurostar and train from London to Bruges, and return (standard class), a pageant ticket for each participant, a tour guide booklet and admin charge. We regret we cannot give you total costings at this time. The following are not included : taxis between the hotel and Bruges station, lunches, dinners, entrance fees, gratuities and travel insurance. You will need a valid passport. Certain non-EU citizens may need a visa. You are also advised to obtain an Euro Health Insurance Card. Participants will be responsible for their own travel insurance. There is a booking form in the centrefold. Please complete it and send with a deposit cheque of £100 per person drawn in favour of the Richard III Society and marked „Bruges‟ on the back, to Rosemary Waxman, 37 Chewton Road, Walthamstow London E17 7DW, by the closing date of 1 December 2011. Bookings will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis. Please send one SAE for an immediate acknowledgement and another, A5 size, for further information. Alternatively, we can acknowledge your booking by email, which means you will only need to send the A5 SAE. Deposits will only be refundable if we are unable to find accommodation for you. We will ask you for details of your insurance and an emergency contact in due course. If you have any further enquiries please contact Rosemary Waxman (address above). Tel 020 8521 4261, (answerphone), email: [email protected]

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Branches and Groups

Devon and Cornwall Branch Anne Painter has sent a list of Branch events, at which all members are welcome. The meetings will take place at the University of Plymouth, commencing at 12.00 noon. Please check with the Secretary (Anne Painter, address on the inside back cover as Fiction Librarian) for exact meeting instructions. Note: the Branch now has disabled access to all of its meetings. Saturday 10 September: a talk by Keith Stenner on „Bosworth Field – More Conspiracy than Battle‟. Saturday 12 November: Annual General Meeting, preceded by a talk by Dr Liz Tingle of the University of Plymouth on „Late-Fifteenth-Century Brittany‟. Saturday 8 December: Branch Christmas lunch. Venue to be confirmed. Saturday 14 January 2012: a talk by Professor Anthony Musson, Director of the Centre for Legal History Research, Exeter University. Dr Musson is a specialist on the private lives of medieval and early Tudor lawyers and their role in English society. Tuesday 13 March 2012: Society Chairman Phil Stone will give a public lecture at the University of Plymouth entitled „Richard III – A Bloody Tyrant?‟ Saturday 12 May 2012: a talk by the Society‟s Research Officer, Lynda Pidgeon, on „John, duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth Plantagenet‟. Saturday 14 July 2012: Branch day trip to Exeter. Lunch and a conducted tour of the cathedral.

East Midlands Branch This has been a year of meeting and greeting, beginning with the enjoyable encounter at Fotheringhay Church last July when we joined the pilgrims from Wakefield at the end of their journey to honour the anniversary of the arrival of the body of Richard, duke of York, for reburial in 1476. The memorable service of Compline had been organised by our own Gill Carter and her husband Geoffrey, and this was greatly enhanced by the superb musical contribution which they had arranged to be performed by a group of specially selected singers from some of Leicester‟s renowned musical societies. The sound of the appropriate medieval music they had chosen was quite breathtaking. Also in July we were greeted by Jean Townsend of the Lincolnshire Branch on our visit to Bottesford Church. After viewing the remarkable tombs of the Manners family we enjoyed an afternoon tea of true Ricardian proportions at her delightful home. In September we were well met in the lovely town of Stamford, where our Chairman, Richard Smith, led a guided walk which revealed the medieval aspects of this historic town. The speakers we have greeted for our autumn and spring lecture series have included Gareth King telling „Medieval Myths and Legends‟, appropriately followed by David Baldwin who introduced his new book on Robin Hood. The history of Leicester Castle was explored by Dr Richard Buckley, and Richard Knox brought us up to date with the latest discoveries on the real site of Bosworth Battlefield. Our final speaker was Richard Thornton, whose lifetime of research into the genealogy of Katherine Swynford led to a fascinating evening of revelations. Our thanks to our Secretary, Sally Henshaw, for arranging such a tremendous programme – but just wait until you see what is in store for next season! Three more events involved welcoming friends old and new. Last October the Society‟s AGM was held in Leicester for the first time, and hopefully not the last. As a Branch we were delighted that our former Chairman and long serving Ricardian, Margaret York, was presented

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with the Robert Hamblin Award for her years of devotion to King Richard‟s cause. Our Branch‟s third Study Day, in June, was yet again completely sold out, with four excellent speakers on the subject of „The Power Behind the Throne‟, and a few days later we set off for the battlefield to join a group of American members to examine the „new‟ battle site. A warm welcome is extended to any members who have not yet contacted our Branch. Our Secretary will be pleased to hear from you. Marion Hare, Vice-Chair

North Mercia Group It‟s that time again. I thought I would send you another report from the North Mercia Group. Membership has stayed static, but there are usually ten to twelve members at meetings. Our May meeting was no exception, consisting of members giving a brief talk on a favourite medieval artefact or building, and I was absolutely thrilled at the enthusiasm shown. I „snitched‟ the idea from Helen Ashburn, of the Greater Manchester Branch, who was in at our inaugural meeting and helps with ideas for meetings. Our outing to Buildwas Abbey and Much Wenlock was very successful if a trifle damp. We had hoped to have a picnic lunch, but the rain decided otherwise, so we ate in our cars and then typically, just as we‟d finished the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the day. We ended the day with an incredible afternoon tea at the Copper Kettle in Much Wenlock, which will talked about for years, and I have a sneaking feeling we will be remembered at the'Copper Kettle for our ability to down sandwiches cakes, and scones. There was not a lot left. Much to be recommended. Our July meeting took the form of a discussion of the Jack Leslau article on the Nostell Priory painting. Members were presented with a copy of the painting and down-loaded the article from the internet. It certainly provoked a lively debate, which was good to hear. Opinions were very varied. Our next meeting is our Bosworth meal at the Boar's Head at Walgherton on 20 August. In September we are going to visit Croxden Abbey in Staffordshire, before having lunch in Denstone and then a visit to Ashbourne. We have a full programme for the rest of the year and we are also beginning to discuss next year‟s programme, which will be our third year. That is just amazing. So there we are. Looking forward to another fun-filled three months. Marion Moulton

Worcestershire Branch The Branch AGM took place in April at the Beauchamp Community in Newland, near Malvern. The afternoon began with members being treated to a guided tour of St Leonard‟s church, the former parish church which is now in the care of the Community and serves as its chapel. Built in 1864 on the site of a far older building, it did indeed prove to be the promised „gem of Victorian Gothic splendour‟, entirely decorated in the elaborate spirit fresco medium. The Community was planned by Charlotte, the wife of the third Earl Beauchamp, whose family home was at nearby Madresfield Court, the real Brideshead, which the Branch had visited previously. Sadly, she died before it could be established, but her husband subsequently completed the foundation, which still exists today. Almshouses for the residents form three sides of a quadrangle with the church making the fourth side. The cloister chapel is the half-timbered chancel from the old church. After the tour the business meeting was held in a room leading off the cloister. The minutes of the last AGM and the various reports were read and agreed and the officers and members of the committee were re-elected, with the addition of one new member. The Chairman, Judith Sealey, however, did not stand for re-election, having completed five years 59

in the post. Pat Parminter was proposed, seconded and elected unopposed as the new Chairman. On behalf of the Branch, she thanked Judith for her very hard work and excellent leadership which had seen a continuing high standard of meetings and the arrival of some new members. There followed a general discussion of ideas for future speakers and destinations for outings. After the conclusion of the meeting, a delicious tea was kindly provided by June Tilt, who is a member of the Beauchamp Community as well as of our Worcestershire Branch and had thus enabled us to arrange the visit. June was thanked by all those present for a most enjoyable afternoon. In May the Branch visited Rock church, near Great Witley in Worcestershire. The outing was arranged by Ralph Richardson, a former Chairman of the Branch, and began with lunch at the Hundred House Hotel in Great Witley. Members then moved on to the church of St Peter and St Paul at Rock, which is the largest Norman church in Worcestershire. It has some of the finest examples of twelfth-century architecture in the West Midlands. The main body of the church, including the splendid chancel arch, was built around 1160 and is noticeably larger than many other Norman churches. Further additions were made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Now inside the church for safekeeping are the village‟s old oak whipping post and stocks, together with an ancient medieval chest, hewn from the trunk of a single oak tree. The Twenty-fifth Anniversary Banquet in June was a huge success, greatly enjoyed by all. It took place at Belbroughton church hall, which is a beautifully restored timber framed barn of a design which would certainly not have seemed strange to Richard III, though he might have been puzzled by the modern facilities, happily tucked away out of sight. Members decorated the hall with pennants, banners, and shields with Yorkist emblems as well as three beautiful brass rubbings. The long tables were laid with white cloths and murrey and blue runners, adorned with white roses. Many members, and indeed some of their guests, were in costume. Music was provided during the evening by the Arden Consort, who sang and played beautifully and wore lovely costumes they had had made especially for the occasion. As well as later works, they played some fifteenth-century music (of which sadly little survives) which they had researched,. They had an impressive array of late medieval and sixteenth-century instruments which added wonderfully to the atmosphere. An excellent meal was provided by the Banquet Committee, together with drinks and a raffle. The Branch was delighted that Phil Stone, the Chairman of the Richard III Society, accepted our invitation to join us on such a happy occasion. He proposed the health of the Branch, to which Branch Chairman, Pat Parminter, replied. Members look forward confidently to the next successful twenty-five years. Carol Southworth Pictures of the Anniversary Banquet on page 19.

Yorkshire Branch Members of the Branch attended the 550th anniversary commemoration of the battle of Towton on Palm Sunday, at Towton Hall. The weather was beautiful and warm, which encouraged large crowds to watch the various re-enactments and living history displays in the field by the Hall, including a visit by a falconer whose presentation is always much enjoyed. There were more stalls inside the barn than in previous years, and we were disgusted to be placed by a Percy banner. Fortunately, this did not affect our sales. We attracted some new subscribers and sold several of our new line: booklets on individual Yorkist families by Pauline Harrison Pogmore. These include the Nevilles, Scropes, Metcalfes, Strangeways and Constables, among others. The booklets are available from our Secretary and cost (variously) £2 or £4 depending on their length. The Branch Spring Lecture, named now in honour of our late Chairman Arthur Cockerill, took place in York on 7 May. Scowen Sykes spoke on „Towton: Not Just a Bed of Roses‟ and gave a vivid and enjoyable exposition of some of the many theories concerning the battle of 1461, as well as the earlier history of the battle site and its surroundings. A particularly interesting point concerned the naval support given to the forces of Warwick and Fauconberg,

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their ships reaching Beverley and Ferrybridge. Scowen pointed out the differences in the terrain and afforestation we see today from the lie of the land in 1461, and explained the aftermath of the battle according to some recent finds. He had also brought a small exhibition of information and artefacts connected with Palm Sunday Field. There was a good attendance and I think everyone there enjoyed Scowen‟s enthusiastic and very knowledgeable talk. On Sunday 5 June, a lovely sunny afternoon, a small party of members visited Conisbrough castle in South Yorkshire. Its great cylindrical keep was built in about 1180 by Hamelin Plantagenet, earl of Surrey and half-brother of Henry II, on the site of a Norman castle. Hamelin was also responsible for similar work at Sandal, which was excavated some 35 years ago. Edward III conferred the estate of Conisbrough on his youngest son, Edmund of Langley, and Queen Philippa administered it for him during his minority. Edmund became the first duke of York and was succeeded by his son Edward, who was killed at Agincourt in 1415. Edward‟s brother Richard, earl of Cambridge, had been beheaded for treason in the summer of 1415 but Conisbrough passed to his widow, Maud, who lived there until her death in 1446. The castle then passed to Edward‟s son Richard, duke of York, who is thought to have been born there in 1411. Richard was killed at the battle of Wakefield in 1460 and, with the accession of his son to the throne as Edward IV, Conisbrough became a royal castle and the estate passed to the crown. 20 June saw Committee members meeting Linda Treybig and her party of visiting American Ricardians in Middleham, and then the visitors were taken around Conisbrough a couple of days later. It is always such a pleasure to meet Linda and her group – some members return to England every year, but this summer there were several first-timers – especially as their interest and appreciation of King Richard‟s home castle tends to remind us how impressive it is. One can get a little blasé just living down the road from such places. We spent an enjoyable morning looking around Middleham castle and church, and then went up to Castle Bolton where I think some of us were amazed at the astonishing hike in admission and parking charges from last year. A new feature at the castle is a boar farm, where visitors can see the young animals being fed. Not every castle – even Ricardian ones – can claim this! Our Bosworth commemoration at Middleham and our AGM will be reported on in the December Bulletin. The Yorkshire Branch banquet will be held, as advertised, at 7.30 for 8 p.m on Saturday 22 October 2011, but please note the change of venue. We had hoped to book Bedern Hall, York, again, but their hire charges have almost doubled since our 2009 banquet was held there, and so the Committee has decided to return to another atmospheric York property, the Black Swan on Peaseholme Green. Although it has been altered and partly rebuilt, the building dates from the early 15th century, and we have held two successful banquets in the panelled room on the first floor. Branch members should have received menus and booking forms with their August magazine and Newsletter. Please note that mediaeval costume is obligatory. Early notice: the Branch wreath-laying at the Duke of York‟s statue at Sandal will take place at 2 p.m on Saturday 31 December 2011. Angela Moreton

Full contact details for Branches and Groups will be found on pp. 56-7 of the March 2011 Bulletin, with an update on p. 21 of the June 2011 Bulletin. We have not been notified of any further changes of details since then.

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New Members

UK, 1 April to 30 June 2011 Scowan Sykes, Wakefield, Yorkshire Caroline Atkinson, Ledbury, Herefordshire Adele Sykes, Camblesforth, North Yorkshire Colin Brady, Fareham, Hampshire Richard Broadbridge, Oxford Overseas, 1 April to 30 June 2011 Natasha Choolhun, Billericay, Essex Catherine Brush, Washington, DC Julia Cruse, Lamberhurst, Kent Mervyn Gilbart-Smith, Vancouver, BC Michael Elliman and Arthur Canning, Angela McDermott, Redfern, New South Evesham Wales Sebastian Field, Gloucester Erika Millen, Indianopolis, IN Philip Glossop, Sandhurst, Berkshire David Hunting, Ashby-de-la-Zouche, US Branch, 1 April to 30 June 2011 Leicestershire Carl Brook, Bel Air, MD Tracey Mell, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Joan Cerussi, New York, NY Angela Nelson, Rossendale, Lancashire Chloe-Marie Clougher, Sandwich, MA Andrea Rucroft, Colburn, North Yorkshire Brandy Collins, Oceana, WV Lynette Smith, Poole, Dorset Jillian Copeland, Mays Landing, NJ Peter and Mrs H. Smith, Worthing, West Joann Koch, Lebanon, CT Sussex Donald Parker, Greenwich, CT Natasha Stanyer, Leominster, Herefordshire

Recently Deceased Members

Sally Adamson, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire (joined in 1987) Joyce Croft, Herne Bay, Kent (joined by 1977)*

*Joyce Croft was one of the most prolific contributors to the Logge Wills project, joining at the very beginning, in 1994, and transcribing 43 out of the 379 entries. Only three volunteers on the project transcribed more (Bryan Longfellow doing 149, Moira Habberjam at least 100, and Heather Falvey 66. Wills were each transcribed twice, independently.) Wills Joyce worked on included those of Ralph Shaa, who preached that famous sermon in 1483 on „bastard slips shall take no root‟, John Pake, father-in-law of the chronicler Robert Fabian, and Richard Rawson, mercer and alderman of London, one of whose executors was the Nicholas Lathell about whose „frenzy‟ Tig Lang writes on page 40.

We cannot be more accurate about how long Joyce had been a member of the Society, but our extant records show she was a member in 1977. Unfortunately, when we employed a commercial organisation to deal with subscriptions, they omitted to preserve some of our earlier records, a matter of great regret. Now that subscriptions are back in house, of course, full records are kept, but we cannot restore what was lost..

We have also had some sad news about Bryan Longfellow. His son Andy wrote to say that Bryan has Altzheimer‟s Disease, and does not even read or listen to the radio now. He adds, „At 89, he is towards the end of his life, but being involved in the Richard III Society was a passion of his and meant very much to him‟.

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Obituary Peter William Lee 1932-2011

It was a great shock when my beloved husband, Peter, died so soon after our trip to Libya. He never really recovered from the journey home. He was taken into hospital a week after our return with suspected dehydration, but when he did not recover further tests were done and he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a very aggressive form of cancer, and died in hospital two months later. Peter joined the Society in 1994 but didn‟t start to take an active part until 1997 when he joined the „Castles and Saints‟ trip to Northumberland, one of his favourite parts of England. After this he frequently joined the visits in England. His first visit to the continent with the Ricardians was to Holland in 1999, when we first met. He joined the London Branch, of which he was chairman from 2004 to 2008. He was also a member of the Thames Valley Branch from 2007. He gave talks to both branches about his 600-year-old medieval house in Warwickshire, which he loved so much, and did extensive research into the history of the building, its owners and occupants. He was interested in history and was always researching into some project or another. He was born and brought up in Basingstoke, travelling to school at Winchester by steam train, which started a lifelong love of steam trains. We have been on many journeys on steam trains and whenever we were on holiday looked for a heritage railway line. He was a civil engineer by profession, specialising as a river engineer, so we also had to have a boat trip whenever we were away. His interests included archaeology, industrial archaeology, ancient history, British history from prehistoric to medieval, Roman history, canals and religion. Peter always wanted to be doing things and helping with whatever needed to be done. He was very generous with his time. He had a great sense of humour and was such fun to be with. I miss him very much and I am sure many others do too. I should like to thank all members of the Society for the cards and good wishes for Peter when he was ill, for the kind letters and cards of sympathy sent to me, which were a great comfort,and for the lovely flowers, which cheered me up. Special thanks to those who were able to attend the funeral and thanksgiving service. Peter was such a lovely man and would have appreciated all your concern for me. So often in the sympathy cards people said what a lovely man he was, so kind and considerate. Thank you too for the donations sent by the Society and individual members for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Diana Lee John Blake It is with sadness that the Lincolnshire Branch report the death of one of their long-serving members, John Blake, at the age of 82. John was affectionately known as „Big John‟, and will be greatly missed by all of us. Anne Buyers We regret to announce the death, on Sunday 31 July, of Mrs Anne Buyers, the co-founder of the Canadian Branch of the Society. She was 96. An obituary will appear in the December Bulletin.

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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

2011

1 October Society Annual General Meeting Executive Committee (see pp. 3-6)

22 October Yorkshire Branch Medieval Banquet Yorkshire Branch (p. 61) Black Swan, Peaseholme Green, York

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

12 November Devon and Cornwall Branch AGM Devon and Cornwall Branch University of Plymouth, 12.00 noon (p.58)

10 December Christmas at Fotheringhay Chairman (see p.56)

31 December Wreath-laying at the duke of York‟s statue, Yorkshire Branch (p.61) Sandal, 2.00 pm

2012

20-22 April Triennial Conference at Burleigh Court Research Committee (see Conference Centre, Univ. of Loughborough p.13 and centrefold)

26-28 August Visit to Bruges for the Golden Tree Pageant Visits Committee (see p.57 and centrefold)

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