Ricardian Bulletin Summer 2008 Contents 2 From the Chairman 3 The Wills Index 4 Society News and Notices 7 New Members’ Survey 9 Who Do You Think You Are? Live 12 Media Retrospective 15 A Visit to Bruges by Sue and Dave Wells 17 News and Reviews 21 Meet The Historian: An interview with Dr Ian Mortimer 24 New Members 25 Proceedings of the Triennial Conference 2008: Part 1: Perspective 31 The Man Himself: by Annette Carson 34 Archaeological Excavations at Greyfriars, Leicester: by Chris Wardle 38 More Research - Tempting Diversions: by Toni Mount 41 Margaret of York - A Genuinely Scandalous Dispensation? - a response: by Mark Ballard 43 An Impromptu Debate 45 The Real Reason Why Hastings Lost his Head: some thoughts by Wendy Moorhen 47 Correspondence 48 The Barton Library 50 Report on Society Events 54 Future Society Events 56 Branches and Groups 62 Branch and Groups Contacts - Update 63 Obituaries 63 Recently Deceased Members 64 Calendar Contributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. All contributions should be sent to the Technical Editor, Lynda Pidgeon. Bulletin Press Dates 15 January for spring issue; 15 April for summer issue; 15 July for autumn issue; 15 October for winter issue. Articles should be sent well in advance. Bulletin & Ricardian Back Numbers Back issues of the The Ricardian and Bulletin are available from Judith Ridley. If you are interested in obtaining any back numbers, please contact Mrs Ridley to establish whether she holds the issue(s) in which you are interested. For contact details see back inside cover of the Bulletin The Ricardian Bulletin is produced by the Bulletin Editorial Committee, Printed by Micropress Printers Ltd. © Richard III Society, 2008 1 From the Chairman ’m writing this a few days after the Society appeared for the first time at the Who Do You I Think You Are? Live exhibition at Olympia, and what a success it has been for us! There was a lot of interest from people who visited our stand, many new members were recruited and there were some welcome initial sales of the Wills Index CD, and of course, we gained some signifi- cant positive publicity by just being there. (One of the new members lives just around the corner from where I grew up, so we spent a few minutes reminiscing, as you can imagine.) My grateful thanks go to all involved with this success, to Wendy Moorhen for organising everything, and especially to Josephine Tewson for her absolutely sterling work on the Saturday. She was cer- tainly our star attraction. But that won’t be the end of it. Flushed with our success, next year we will be back at Olym- pia, while this year we will be at the Leeds Medieval Congress in July (see Jane Trump’s Low Down for the background to this venture). In August we will be making our presence felt at Bos- worth, utilising the portable stand that we purchased last year. If you are going to the battlefield centre for the anniversary events be sure to visit. We are truly making our presence felt where it matters. The publication of the Wills Index is an important milestone for the Society. It is the culmina- tion of over a decade’s work by the many members engaged in its compilation and is a credit to them all. It will do much to enhance further the Society’s reputation amongst historians and re- searchers of all kinds. Again, my sincere thanks go to all those involved. As you will see, we have another full issue, and it is no understatement to say that the Bulletin just goes on getting better and better, and these are not my words, they are yours. We have the first in what, I hope, will be a regular series of interviews, kicking off with a fascinating inter- view with historian Dr Ian Mortimer. Annette Carson contributes to The Man Himself and you can read more about Annette’s views in her new book (see page 19 for details). We continue the debate around Lord Hastings with Wendy Moorhen’s response to David Johnson’s recent arti- cles. The triennial conference held in Cirencester provided some lively and thought provoking talks and we are publishing shortened versions in the Bulletin. We start with Anne Sutton’s set- ting of the scene, and Livia Visser-Fuchs’s account of what people were saying about those two princes on the other side of the channel. We also have Ken Hillier’s review of the whole week- end, which gives a real taste of what it was like to be there. You will also get your 2008 Ricardian this month; a feast of articles and reviews providing much challenging and informative reading. Can it really be five years since we launched our journal on an annual basis with the festschrift edition honouring Anne Sutton’s twenty-five years as editor? Indeed it is, and that means that, this year, we celebrate Anne’s thirtieth year as editor. To repeat words spoken at the launch of the festschrift, ‘In a world where “dumbing down” seems rife, The Ricardian has maintained and enhanced its high standards of scholarship and that has been an invaluable asset to this Society’. This remains even truer today, so we salute Anne again and may we hope that she will go on and on for many years yet to come? 2 Looking ahead to the AGM and members’ weekend in York, I ask you to get your bookings in for all the events. It promises to be a great weekend, especially with the opportunity to visit Middleham, somewhere hard to get to when you don’t have your own transport. At the moment, everywhere seems beset with bleak economic news, so let me finish with some good news. The Society has its house well in order, it’s making good progress on many fronts and the cause of good King Richard is prospering. I wish you all an enjoyable summer, and for those south of the equator, a relaxing winter. Phil Stone The Wills Index The Wills Index is the culmination of ten year’s work by members of the Society and Index to Testators of English the CD-ROM contains a tabular index to over 28,000 testators of English wills and late Medieval and early testaments that have been published in serial Tudor Wills and Testaments publications, books and other printed matter from the eighteenth century to the year 1399 –1540 published in serial 2000. The criteria for the selection of these publications, books published wills and testaments are that they were either made by the testator or proved and other printed matter by an English ecclesiastical court between 1 between 1717-2000 January 1399 and 24 March 1540. Included on the CD is a tabular summary describing the sources. There is also a leaflet to intro- duce the index, its sources and the conven- tions used. The aim of the index is to enable the user to ascertain whether a particular will, or part of it, has been published and, therefore, mak- ing it more readily accessible to historians and genealogists than an extant manuscript copy stored in a remote archive. Richard III Society You will need Microsoft Excel and Word installed on your PC/MAC in order to view the contents of the CD. The index is dedicated to the memory of four members of the project team who have sadly passed away, Daphne Booth, Philomena Connolly, Philomena Jones and Marian Treagus. The Wills Index is available from the Sales Liaison Officer. See inside back cover for contact details. It is priced at £9.99 plus £1.50 for postage and packing. There is a reduced price of £7.99 (plus p&p) for those who participated in the Wills Index Project. Members who pre-ordered the index at the Triennial Conference should now send their payment direct to the Membership Liai- son Officer. 3 Society News and Notices Richard III Society Members’ Weekend & Annual General Meeting, York, Friday 3 to Sunday 5 October 2008 Notice is hereby given that the 2008 Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society will be held on Saturday 4 October 2008 in The Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, Fossgate, York YO1 9XD The formal business of the meeting will include reports from the officers, the presentation of the annual accounts of the Society up to 21 March 2008 and the election of the Executive Committee for the next year. Exact timings for the AGM will be notified in the autumn Bul- letin. Nominations for the Executive Committee should reach the Secretary, Mrs Jane Trump, at Gorsedene, Bagshot Road, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey GU21 2SF not later than Friday 19 September. All nominations must be proposed and seconded, and accepted in writing by the member proposed. Resolutions for the Agenda, proposed and seconded, should also reach the Secretary by 19 September. If you intend to come to the AGM, please book your place by completing the booking form in this Bulletin. Call to Branches and Groups If your branch/group wishes to make a report at the AGM, please let the Secretary know by Fri- day 19 September so that you may 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 representa- tive is to be in York at the time of the AGM, in printed form, to be read at the AGM. Reports should not exceed three minutes and should consist of new material not previously reported ver- bally or in print.