The speaker at the general meeting on June 13 was one of the Branch members, Lynne Foley. She spoke on Architecture and Excavations at Medieval Battlesites. Much of this reflected the amazing amount of recent work on the site of the Battle of Towton which employed recent forensic techniques that told us so much about the men who fought there – and whose skeletons provided information about the method of their deaths. Illustrations showed the excavation in progress (thanks to the generous owners of Towton Hall who lived with the work for 10 years) and the various weapons and other items that were uncovered. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: NSW Branch, Towton
Posted by: Dorothea Preis in News
Foyles Bookshop in London recently hosted an event called the ‘Battle of the Monarchs’. Contestants were Edward I, Elizabeth I, James I and Richard III. The aim was to decide who was England’s greatest monarch. The big surprise was that Richard was presented by Alison Weir, who – on the basis of her printed work – nobody would have suspected of too strong pro-Ricardian feelings.
As unfortunately nobody from our branch could be in London for this exciting event, we contacted Foyles asking them to let us know how it went. Today we received an answer . It seems Edward I was victorious on this occasion, but apparently it was a very close run thing. However, we were all very excited to see that Richard made the shortlist in the first place. Clearly, if they had asked us, the result would have been completely different!
Tags: Richard III
Sunday Life, the colour supplement to Sydney’s Sun Herald, recently (3 May 2009) contained a short history of the lipstick. The author Liz Henderson reports that “Colouring was fashionable for medieval courtiers in Western Europe. Both men and women wore lip rouge under King Edward IV in the 1460s…”
So we started wondering whether Richard III, as a courtier at Edward IV’s court, would have worn lip colour. And if so, what shade. Julia suggested Mellow Middleham or Fotheringhay Frost. It surely could not have been Lancastrian Red Rose!
We send this fascinating titbit to Lesley Boatwright, who is the contact for the Ricardian Bulletin, who said she would try to find out more about it. If she is successful we might find out in the September Bulletin.
Tags: Richard III
Don’t forget that our next general meeting is next Saturday, 13 June 2009, at 2 pm at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts. For all the details have a look under Upcoming Events.
Tags: NSW Branch
