A report by our Chairperson, Carol Gerrard, on the recent Australasian Convention in Perth is now available. You can read it here.
Tags: Conventions
Archive for October, 2009
30
Oct
A Tudor Smear Campaign
Earlier this month the Los Angeles Times published an interview with Philippa Gregory about her recent novel The White Queen under the promising title “Philippa Gregory on a Tudor Smear Campaign”.
In this interview Philippa explains “why she sides with those who see [Richard III] as the victim of an extraordinary propaganda machine”. The novel is told from the view point of Elizabeth Woodville. For Philippa it simply does not make sense that Elizabeth would have let her daughters stay at Richard’s court, if she thought that he had already killed her two sons by Edward. On the other hand there is good reason to suspect others like the Duke of Buckingham or Henry Tudor. However, all these possibilities got swept under the carpet by “the absolute triumph of Tudor propaganda”.
The interview concludes with stating that “Each time a production [of Shakespeare’s Richard III] gets staged, we’re repeating the lesson that Richard was nothing but a hunchback villain. That’s the tragedy”.
Thank you, Philippa, for bringing our view across so clearly!
Read the full interview here.
Tags: Elizabeth Woodville, Richard III
24
Oct
The Late Medieval Bible
At the beginning of the thirteenth century a new type of Bible emerged from Paris and southern England and spread rapidly throughout Western Europe. Innovations in script and parchment enabled the creation of single volume Bibles, some of which could easily fit a modern pocket; other features, such as the modern chapter division, introduced unprecedented ease of usage. These Bibles became the template for Gutenberg’s celebrated 42-line version and have had an influence on printed Bibles ever since. Today, hundreds of these manuscripts survive, bearing witness to one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. The ubiquity of these Bibles has only recently been met by scholarly interest, and questions remain regarding their evolution as well as their place within the medieval university, pulpit and priory.
The above information is from the Call for Papers of a conference organised by the University of Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland set to take place in Edinburgh next July, which sounds most interesting. It is called “Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible” and will take place at the Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh, 12-14 July 2010. It will bring together experts in medieval liturgy and sermons, art, religion and manuscripts, to examine the material culture of the Late Medieval Bible and its setting. Presentations, discussions and two workshops would draw on the wealth of manuscripts in the University Library and the NLS in analysing variants of text and layout, imagery and addenda.
So if any of you is in Scotland at that time, you might consider attending.
To see the Call for Papers click here.
Tags: Books
On 22 August 1485 King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth, incidentally the last British king to die in battle. The controversy over the exact site of the battle has been going on for quite some time.
Traditionally the battle was thought to have taken place at Ambion Hill near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. This is where the recently upgraded visitors’ centre stands.
However, as the British Daily Telegraph reported recently it now seems certain that this was not the case. Tests have ruled out that the battle had taken place on Ambion Hill itself, and also that the stone memorial erected to Richard III half a mile away, on the spot he supposedly fell, is situated on the wrong spot.
Latest research points to a site on low-lying ground between the villages of Shenton, Stoke Golding and Dadlington, as the most likely site. This was first proposed by the historian Peter Foss in 1990. Another theory puts the battle around eight miles away in Atherstone, where documents show Henry’s army might have camped prior to battle.
Leicestershire County Council was awarded a £1 million Lottery Heritage grant to carry out a survey, the most comprehensive ever carried out on a British battlefield. The official results will be announced early next year.
Read the full article from the Daily Telegraph here.
In this context the London and Home Counties Branch of the Richard III Society is hosting an open [i.e. open to all Society members able to attend], lecture, by Dr Glenn Foard FSA MISA, University of Leeds and the Battlefield Trust, entitled: ‘Finding Bosworth battlefield – archaeology and the future of battlefield studies’, on Saturday, 24th April, 2010, in the Wolfson and Pollard Rooms, at the IHR, Senate House, Malet Street, London, at 2.00 p.m.
Tags: Bosworth, Richard III
At the recent Australasian Convention of the Richard III Society in Perth it was announced that the recipient of this year’s Robert Hamblin award is one of us. Not only from one of the Australasian branches but from our NSW branch. It is none other than our secretary Julia Redlich! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Award, Conventions, NSW Branch
The good news is that Heraldry Australia have a very special lecture coming up – and Secretary Stephen Szabo assures us that Ricardians are very welcome to attend.
The speaker is Professor Stephanie Trigg from Melbourne University and the subject is Ladies of Eminence Known to Us: Women and the Order of the Garter. The talk is illustrated and surveys the history of women’s involvement with the Order from its foundation in 1348 to the present.
The date is Friday, October 23, the place the Mitchell Theatre on the first floor of the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts and the time 5.30pm for a 6.15 pm start.
Entry is by gold coin donation, refreshments will be served beforehand and, of course, there’ll be one of Heraldry Australia’s special raffles.
If you want to attend, please contact us at info@richardiii.com.au or get in touch with Stephen Szabo at secretary@heraldryaustralia.org. As he needs to know the numbers by Monday, October 19, it would be appreciated if you could let us or him directly know that you are coming by that date.
You might be interested to know that the 1984 British TV production The Trial of King Richard the Third can be viewed on YouTube, divided into several segments. It’s great news that this fascinating programme is now available again to a wider audience. A definite “must” for Ricardians!
Click here for the ‘Introduction’, there you will also find links to the other parts.
Tags: Richard III
