Ricardian Bulletin Summer 2005 Contents 2 From the Chairman 3 Society News and Notices 4 Be Prepared 5 Media Retrospective 8 Stratford St Mary Church, Suffolk 10 News and Reviews 15 The Nature of Research 19 The Man Himself 22 The Debate: Who Was Perkin Warbeck? 27 King Richard the Third by Keith Dockray 29 The French Connection by David Johnson 30 Thomas Stafford: Sixteenth Century Yorkist Rebel by Stephen Lark 32 Logge Notes and Queries: What did a monk spend his money on? by L. Wynne-Davies 36 Correspondence 42 The Barton Library 44 Book Review 46 Booklist 48 Letter from America 50 Report on Society Events 54 Future Society Events 57 Branches and Groups Contacts 59 Branches and Groups 63 New Members 64 Calendar Contributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. Articles and correspondence regarding the Bulletin Debate should be sent to Peter Hammond and all other contributions to Elizabeth Nokes. 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 The Bulletin are available from Judith Ridley. If you are interested in obtaining any back numbers, please contact Mrs Ridley to establish whether she holds the issue(s) in which you are interested. For contact details see back inside cover of the Bulletin The Ricardian Bulletin is produced by the Bulletin Editorial Committee, General Editor Elizabeth Nokes and printed by St Edmundsbury Press. © Richard III Society, 2005 1 From the Chairman Those of you who were in Cambridge recently for the Society’s Triennial Conference will have had the opportunity to view some documents contemporary with King Richard that in all proba- bility have not been unfolded and looked at by anyone for over five hundred years. Marie Barn- field’s excellent review of the conference provides further details of these documents and of course all the lectures. Sufficient to say here that the weekend was a great success with all lec- tures proving entertaining and thought-provoking. It is hoped that they will eventually be incor- porated into a book based on the theme of the conference. My thanks go to everyone who played a part in making the weekend such a success. In this issue, we have another range of interesting and challenging articles. Perkin Warbeck is revisited, and very topical this is too, with a Channel 4 programme due to have been aired by the time you read this. Ann Wroe and James McDougall are elegant and authoritive combatants and I am sure their debate will encourage a lot of responses. Our series of articles commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Paul Murray Kendall’s Richard III continues with a historian’s view of the book’s impact from Keith Dockray. We also have a continuation of Lesley Wynne-Davies’ series on notes and queries from the Logge Wills, tasters for next year’s publication of the wills. The news of Bill Hampton’s passing will make sad hearing for many. Bill will long be remem- bered for his important work Memorials of the Wars of the Roses, an invaluable and oft-quoted book for anyone studying our period. In the last Bulletin, we started a series of extracts from the book, bringing the information to a new audience and Bill was very happy for this to happen. A full obituary will appear in autumn’s Bulletin. It is time for a recruitment campaign and I urge you to take up the challenge offered in the insert in this Bulletin. Membership numbers have been steady for a number of years but it is time we grew again. Membership increased significantly in 1973 as a result of the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition on Richard III and again during the Quincentenary years of 1983-85. So, it would seem that another period of growth is well overdue. Our fiftieth anniversary next year is an appropriate focus. I have written before about our impending anniversary and we are now in a position to pro- vide details of our initial plans to celebrate the event. (see page 3). The emphasis is to be on cele- bration. We have much to be proud of over the past fifty years, especially the contributions that individual members have made over the five decades, and we hope to recall and acknowledge many of these throughout the anniversary year. It would be great to see next year’s events in- volve as many of today’s members as possible, so I would especially encourage branches and groups to hold their own events. More details of all events will appear in the autumn and winter issues of the Bulletin. ‘Summer is a-comin’ in,’ and whilst we may not all ‘loudly sing cuckoo,’ I hope that we will all enjoy the various Ricardian events on offer. Amongst the many things, I look forward to join- ing the Croydon Group’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations in June, which will coincide with their tenth anniversary commemoration of the death of the much-missed Joyce Melhuish. Phil Stone 2 Society News and Notices The Richard III Society Celebrating 50 Years 1956 – 2006 2006 and all that ‘The inaugural meeting of the reconstituted fellowship took place at 7.30 pm on Thursday 26 January 1956 in room 17 of Caxton Hall. 33 members and intending members were present’. So recorded the minutes of this historic occasion. The Fellowship of the White Boar was founded in 1924 by Saxon Barton and had been revived during the 1950s, thanks mainly to the tireless ef- forts of our senior Vice-President Isolde Wigram. In 2006 we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the re-founding and we will do so with events and publications that will provide something for all our world-wide membership. Key events being planned are: A commemorative event in London Two research day seminars, including one on the battles of the Wars of the Roses. A weekend of celebrations in York around the 2006 AGM on the 30 September. This will include an anniversary dinner at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall in the evening of the 30th and a day of events at Barley Hall on the Sunday. The anniversary will also be celebrated through; Expanded editions of the four Bulletins for 2006 The launch of a number of important publications including the Logge Wills and the His- tory of the Society. A national school essay and art competition We shall be providing further and fuller details in the autumn and winter editions of the Bulletin. Members’ ideas for celebrating the anniversary will be welcome and should be sent to the chair- man in the first instance. We hope that branches and groups will initiate their own celebrations and we will include details of these in the Bulletin’s fiftieth-anniversary calendar. So let’s all make 2006 a Ricardian year to remember. Executive Committee Continued on page 14. 3 Be Prepared he Scouting movement, once derided as an inappropriate vestige of British Imperialism, T sexist and a danger to youth, is enjoying a renaissance in the 21st century with many troops burdened with a waiting list of those wishing to join. So there seems no harm in using what is a wise and practical Scout motto in a good cause. In plenty of time for a certain well known birthday (2nd October) you should have given a small ‘gift’ to the Society by making sure your subscription is paid at the correct new rate, which has already been well publicised. If you pay by cheque or one-off credit/debit card payment make sure you use the right amount. If you use a recurring credit/debit card authority then please tell the Provider in plenty of time about the change needed. Many members pay by Bank Standing Order authority and if you have paid by cheque in the past you may wish to use the form in this Bulletin to change to Standing Order but do, please, make sure you fill it out correctly and return it to the Membership Department not direct to your bank. For the many 100s of you that pay by standing order already please use the form to amend the amount you pay. This will be greatly appreciated and make life much simpler for the Member- ship Department and the Treasurer. Their joy will be complete if you follow these simple rules:- Do not send the completed form to your bank – send it to the Membership Department, whose address is on the form, so they can make sure the details are correct, Fill it out with the correct NEW subscription rate for your membership category, don’t forget to sign it either, Send it off in plenty of time – we ideally need to lodge amendments before the 1st Sep- tember - so don’t leave it to the last minute, DO IT NOW, Don’t confuse anybody by referring to the fact that you have a Direct Debit in favour of the Richard III Society – YOU DO NOT – the Society would love to collect subscrip- tion by Direct Debit but its legal status as an unincorporated association makes this al- most impossible. Standing Orders, which is how you pay, are a totally different form of payment, and Do check your bank statement to make sure that your instructions have been carried out – if there are two debits, or your account is now being debited weekly or monthly tell your bank and the Membership Department straight away.