_.__ -.- __.-.__ -.___ .._. -_________ ---.-.-- ------------------ -_. Richard III Society, Inc. Volume XXII No. 4 Winter, 1997 Register Staff EDITOR: Carole M. Rike 4702 Dryades St. l New Orleans, LA 70115 l (504) 897-9673 0 1997 Richard III Society, Inc., American Branch. No part may be FAX (504) 897-0125 * e-mail: caroleeword-cateringcorn reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means - mechanical, electrical or photocopying, recording or information storage retrieval - RIcARDIAN READING EDITOR: Myrna Smith without written permission f+om the Society. Articles submitted by members remain the property of the author. The Ricardian Register is Rt. 1 Box 232B l Hooks, TX 75561 published four times per year. Su bSCTI>tions are available at $18.00 (903) 547-6609 l FAX: (903) 792-73980r (903) 628-2658 annual/y. A RTIST: Susan Dexter The Richard III Society is a nonprofit, educational corporation. Dues, grants and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent 1510 Delaware Avenue l New Castle, PA * 16105-2674 allowed by law. Dues are $30 annually for U.S. Addresses; $35 for international. Each additional family member is $5. Members of the American Society are also members of the English Society. Members also i_-- / receive the English publications. All Society publications and items for sale may be purchased either direct at the U.K. Member’s price, or via the American Branch when available. Papers may be borrowed from the English Librarian, but books are not sent overseas. When a The Iron Roses - Four Tough Cookies U.S. Member visits the U.K., all meetings, expeditions and other activities are open, including the ACM, where U.S. Members are L~auru Blanchard . , . 3 welcome to cast a vote. Margaret ofAnjou, Helen Maurer . 4 Greetings From Parent Society, Elizabeth Notjes. 5 Cicely Neville , Jeanne Trahan Faubell . 6 Advertise in The Ricardian Register Dramatic History of the First Queen Elizabeth, Laura Blanchard . 10 Your ad in the Register will reach an audience of demonstrated mail Welcome to New Members . 12 buyers and prime prospects for books on the late medieval era, as well Margaret Beaufort, Kathleen Spaltro . 13 as for gift items and other merchandise relating to this period. They A Look at Ricardian Fiction Through The are also prospects for lodging, tours and other services related to travel Centuries, L,atlra Blanchard . 15 in England or on the continent. Classified advertising rates for one-time insertions: Full Page: $100; Half Page: $50; Qarter Page: On Reshaping History, Sharon Kay Penman . 16 $25 Why Write History As A Mystery?, Sharon Newman . 18 Send copy with your remittance payable to Richard III Society, 4702 Ricardian Fiction: Trash and Treasure, Dryades Street, New Orleans, LA 70115 5532. Roxane Murph . 20 Message From Fiction Librarian, Copy Deadlines: Jeanne Trahan Faubell . 24 Ricardian Reading, Myrna Smith. 25 Spring February 25 Maxwell Anderson Scholarship Fund Summer May 25 Fall August 25 Roxane Murpk . 33 Winter November 25 1997 Chicago AGM Memories, Peggy Allen . 34 Fifteenth-Century Conference . 36 33rd International Congress on Society Internet address: Medieval Studies . 37 http://www.q.org Chairman’s Report, Compton Reeves. 38 Scattered Standards . 39 Chapter Contacts . 40 Membership Application . 40 Changes of address and dues payments to: Peggy Allen, Membership, i... 1421 Wisteria l Metairie, Lki 70005 Winter, 1997 -2- Ricmdian Register E XECUTIVE B OARD CHAIRMAN : Dr. Compton Reeves Dept. of History - Bentley Hall FOURTOUGHCOOKIES Ohio University l Athens, OH 45701-2979 e-mail: [email protected] WHOSHAPEDTHE F IFTEENTH-CENTURY VICE CHAIRMAN: Dr. Sharon D. Michalove 309 Gregory Hall * 810 Wright St.. *Urbana, IL 61801 (217) 333-4145 l e-mail: [email protected] Margaret of Anjou, Cecily Neville, Elizabeth SECRETARY: Judith A. Pimental Woodville, and Margaret Beaufort - these four Iron 1248 Regent St. l Alameda, CA 94501 Roses shaped the course of the late fifteenth-century, (521) 421-0487 l e-mail: [email protected] either by direct action or by influence on key players T REASURER: Bonnie Battaglia in the Wars of the Roses. Two of these women were 5191 Hanks Exchange Road l Placerville, CA 95667 prolific breeders; two had only one child. Two were (540) 622-6470 l e-mail: [email protected] reigning queens, and two were “Mothers of Kings.” M EMBERSHIP C HAIRMAN: Peggy Allen All of them at one time in their lives demonstrably 1421 Wisteria l Metairie, LA 70005 l (504) 837-0974 ambitious, proud, pious, charitable-and uniformly e-mail: [email protected] concerned with safeguarding a royal patrimony for IMMEDIAT E P AST C HAIR MAN: Roxane C. Mnrph their dynasty. 3501 Medina Avenue l Fort Worth, TX 76133 (817) 923-5056 l Fax: (817) 924-6433 We know their names and, for the most part, only the bare outlines of their lives. We have hints of their personalities; their story survives in legal documents, C OMMITTEES propaganda screeds, or the garbled accounts of chroniclers and foreign observers. ARCHIVIST:Jeffrey & Toni Collins Each in her own way tried to influence the out- 4 Clement Brooke Lane l Elverson, PA 19520-9524 come of a dynastic quarrel, and each experienced C HAPT ER C OORDINATOR: Cheryl Rothwell stunning and repeated reversals of fortune. The cir- 6033 Sam Smith Road l Birchwood, TN 37308 l (423) 961-2515 Fax: (423) 961-2519 l e-mail: [email protected] cumstances of their lives have fueled the imaginations LIBRARIAN : A.udio/Visual: Yvonne Saddler and the pens of five centuries of dramatists and 26584 NW LofalI Road l Pulsbo, WA 98370 novelists. (360) 697-1278 l e-mail: 75247,[email protected] In this section, four Society members take a look at LIBRARIAN: Fiction: Jeanne Faubell the Iron Roses. Although we had hoped to look at all 2215 Westmoreland l Falls Church, VA 22043 l (703) 532-3430 four in both fact and fiction, we were not able to do so LIBRARIAN: Research &Non-Fiction: Helen Maurer for the Margarets. Margaret Beaufort cunningly 24001 Salero Lane l Mission Viejo, CA 92691 l (714) 768-0417 e-mail: [email protected] eluded the interlibrary loan program and left Kath- leen Spaltro high and dry in the fiction department. RESEARCH OFFICER: Dr. Sharon D. Michalove Helen Maurer interrupted the writing of her Ph.D. 309 Gregory Hall* 810 Wright St.. l Urbana, IL 61801 (217) 333-4145 l e-mail: [email protected] dissertation (on Margaret of Anjou and issues of fif- teenth century queenship) long enough to outline P UBLIC R ELATIONS O FFICER: Marianna K. Preston 728 Swathmore Dr. * Newark, NJ 19711 l (302) 368-9213 some of the issues as she sees them with the under- standing that someone else would handle the fiction. S ALES 0FFICER:John McMillan 16311 N. W. 120th Place l Alachua, FL 32615 Alas, the supplementary essay on Margaret of Anjou e-mail: [email protected] in fiction did not arrive in time to be included here. S CHALLEK MEMORIAL/GRAD: Nancy Northcott One final aside: it’s difficult to decide between Ce- 1915 Euclid Avenue l Charlotte, NC 28203-4707 cily and Cicely Neville. The section editor has chosen (704) 334-7793 l [email protected] Cecily as the most common usage during Cecily’s own S CHOOLS C OORDINATOR: Anne Vineyard lifetime. Her Ricardian Register biographer, Jeanne 4014 Broken Bow Lane l Garland, TX 75044 Faubell, has chosen the CiceZy spelling for reasons out- T OUR C OORDINATOR: Dale Summers lined in an explanatory footnote. Since neither Ce- 218 Varsity Circle l Arlington, TX 76013 . (817) 274-0052 cily’s contemporaries nor Cicely’s modern historians WEBMASTER: Laura V. Blanchard seem to be overly concerned about this inconsistency, 2041 Christian St. l Philadelphia, PA 19146 though, there may be variation within pieces of this (215) 985-1445 l FAX (215) 985-1446 e-mail:[email protected] section as well. -Laura Blanchard Ricardian Register -J- Winter, 1997 Helen Maurer She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France... it has led to certain assumptions about her allegiances Women are soft, m&a’, pitful, andflexible; that have colored our overall perception of her role Thou stern, obdurate,Jinty, rough, remorseless.1 and public personality as queen. As a result, her po- litical activities are retrospectively constructed around argaret of Anjou was an uppity woman, or so the poles of opposition (to York and the Nevilles) and 1M,e have been told. In early 1456, perhaps collusion (with Somerset specifically, and possibly with a hint of grudging admiration, she was with his predecessor, Suffolk). This means that while observed to be “great and strong labored” as her York’s own intentions and role, for example, have un- power expanded. After the Lancastrian defeat at dergone considerable reassessment, the analysis of Towton, however, George Neville, bishop of Exe- Margaret’s role has remained relatively static. ter, new-made chancellor and brother to Warwick the Kingmaker, contemptuously referred to her as “the wife,” as if to underline the impropriety of her meddling in olitical affairs that were not properly her concern.f Shakespeare immortalized the image of a transgressive Margaret: a harlot and a harridan who both betrayed and ruled her weak and ineffec- tual husband, Henry VI; a vengeful she-wolf who could place a paper crown on York’s head to mock his ro al claim before stabbing him with her own hand:Y Although historians have by now rejected Shake- spearean excess - Margaret’s alleged adultery is sup- positious at best, and she was in Scotland when the battle of Wakefield took place - they still have per- petuated a view of Margaret as political actor that is not so far removed from her fictional persona.