Richard Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) obtains permission to found and endow two collegiate chapels at St Mary and St Akelda’s Church, Middleham, and at St Mary’s Church, Barnard Castle.

The college at Middleham was to have six priests, the one at Barnard Castle twelve.  The priests were to offer prayers for the souls of Richard himself, King Edward IV and his Queen Elizabeth, his brothers and sisters and his father, wife and son.

While the college at Barnard Castle never materialized due to Richard’s death at Bosworth, the college at Middleham was established and continued until 1856.

(Photograph of St Mary and St Alkelda, Middleham, by D Preis)

Tags: Church, Yorkshire

Archbishop Thomas Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights.

Tags: Church

Westminster Abbey is consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

Tags: Church

For the festive season here is a special – a segment of  ‘Carols from King’s’ in 2010 at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, a chapel which was close to Richard’s heart. Beautiful singing in a beautiful setting.

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge (photograph:  Dorothea Preis)

On a visit to the King’s College Chapel in Cambridge more than 20 years ago, I bought a postcard showing “The Kings who built the Chapel”.  In spite of Henry VIII being depicted as the crowning glory, it was the inclusion of Richard III which made me buy the card.

King’s College was founded by Henry VI in 1441.  After Edward IV came to power very little was done to continue and it “suffered severely from [his] hostility”.[Ross, p.135] This changed dramatically, when Richard became King.  He gave instructions that “the building should go on with all possible despatch”.  The result was that by the end of his short reign part of the chapel was in use.[‘History of the Chapel’]

His strong support for the construction of King’s College Chapel was part of Richard’s close and long lasting attachment to the University of Cambridge.  While his connection to Oxford seems to have been cordial enough, his attachment to Cambridge was much closer.  He and his queen Anne Neville had an especially close relationship to Queens’ College, to which they made their first endowment in 1477.

Queens’ was originally founded by Margaret of Anjou and further supported by Elizabeth Woodville, who came to be regarded as a co-founder, which explains the name.  During Richard’s reign, when he made further grants to the College, Queen Anne was also considered a founder, but that was “conveniently forgotten when political circumstances changed in 1485.”[Ross, p.135]  However, Richard is not entirely forgotten:   the badge of the college includes till this day a silver boar’s head.  [‘The College Badge’, Queens’]

When recruiting, Richard displayed a marked preference for Cambridge rather than Oxford graduates.[Ross, pp.132-134]

The special attachment Richard felt to Cambridge was reciprocated by the university and they regarded “King Richard and Queen Anne as liberal benefactors”, who “deserved the annual mass which the university formally established in their honour on the morrow of their state visit in 1484”.[Ross, p.136}

Enjoy the beautiful music.  And may your holidays be happy and peaceful!

Sources:
‘History of the Chapel’, King’s College Cambridge.  URL:  http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/history.html Date accessed: 27 July 2010 – This also includes a sketch showing the different construction phases.

‘The Heraldic Arms’, Queens’ College Cambridge.  URL:  http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/general-information/historical-fun/queens-college/the-heraldic-arms Date accessed: 1 August 2010

‘The colleges and halls: King’s’, A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge (1959), pp. 376-408. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66649 Date accessed: 11 March 2010

Charles Ross, Richard III.  Methuen, London, 1988

Tags: Cambridge, Church, Holiday

Baptism of Martin Luther in Eisleben, Germany, from which his date of birth, 10 November 1483, is deducted.

He disputed the claim of the (Catholic) church that salvation could be purchased by indulgences, instead salvation is a free gift by God, received by faith in Jesus, who has redeemed our sins.  He explained his view in the 95 thesis, which he nailed on the church door in Eisleben in the evening of 31 October 1517, the evening before All Saints’ Day, when everyone would come to church.   This is often regarded as the starting point of the reformation.  While his original aim was to reform the church, the Pope saw it differently, which ultimately led to the split with the Catholic church.  As Luther was of the opinion that the Bible was the only source for knowledge of God, he translated it into German to make it accessible to everyone.

He died on 15 February 1546.

You can find out more at http://www.luther.de/en/

Tags: Church

Martin Luther (born 10 November 1483) nails his 95 thesis on the church door in Eisleben in the evening of 31 October 1517, because the next day, 1 November, is All Saints’ Day, when everyone would come to church.

In the 95 theses he explains his view based on the Gospel that salvation is a free gift from God and cannot be earned by good deeds or purchased by buying indulgences . This is often regarded as the starting point of the reformation.  While his original aim was to reform the church, the Pope saw it differently, which ultimately led to the split with the Catholic church.  As Luther was of the opinion that the Bible was the only source for knowledge of God, he translated it into German to make it accessible to everyone.

31 October is celebrated in the Lutheran church as Reformation Day commemorating Luther’s stand.

Tags: Church

This weekend (18 – 19 August 2012) is the Bosworth Anniversary Weekend.  If you can, go and visit our friends at the marquee of the Richard III Society, who are selling books and merchandise – and if you are not yet a member, why not join now?

For me, this is the perfect occasion to reminiscence more about our travels during July.

After our visit to the Bosworth Battelfield Centre, we went on to Atherstone.  We had booked accommodation at a B&B, Abbey Farm, which had come highly recommended by a Society member from Canada – and we were not disappointed!  The owner, Jenny, made us feel more than welcome and showed us to our cosy rooms.

Abbey Farm (© Dorothea Preis)

I knew that the B&B had got its name from its proximity to Merevale Abbey (the address – Merevale Lane – was a certain give-away), but had not realized that some of the ruins of this former abbey would be in its garden and the only remaining buildings, the gate and gate chapel, would be right next door.

Merevale Abbey is of interest to a Ricardian, because this is where Henry Tudor stayed on his way to the battle of Bosworth.  Of course there is much more to the history of this abbey than a visit by someone on his way to overthrow a king.

The Cistercian abbey of Merevale was founded on 2 October 1148, thus sharing a birthday with Richard III.  For Cistercian houses the day of foundation was the day when:

(a) the conventus – the coetus apostolic – the abbot and twelve brethren took possession of a house ready prepared for them, that is to say, with the regular offices such as dormitory, refectory, choir, and so on, completed, and, above all, books provided;  (b) the convent having taken possession of a site destined for a monastery, settled down in temporary huts ready erected, and began to build a solid structure and a church; (c) the convent entered a house which had been surrendered by another order. This day of entry, of introduction, or of solemn inauguration, when the normal number of the monks being complete, the regular monastic life was begun, is the true and legitimate birthday of a Cistercian abbey. [Cooke, p.641]

The location was chosen because of its comparative isolation, which was in keeping with the Cistercian way of life emphasising labour and self-sufficiency.  The order was known for its technological inventions and as highly organised and industrious farmers.

Merevale Abbey was founded by Robert, Earl Ferrers, the son of his more prominent father, another Robert, who had been granted an earldom by Stephen during the civil war.  Our Robert inherited the title after his father’s death in 1139, but managed to keep himself out of the changing fortunes of the war, until supporting Henry II later.

The reign of Stephen was a time when many religious houses were founded.  The Cistercians expanded by a system of filiation, Merevale was derived from Bordersley, which in turn was derived from Garendon, which was a daughter-house of Waverley.   De Ferrers was a well-known Cistercian patron, who had also been involved in the founding of the houses higher up the chain from Merevale.   He endowed the abbey with several properties, with reference to the salvation of his own soul and those of his wife and father.  As time went on other endowments were made to Merevale.

As to the prosperity of the abbey I found conflicting evidence.  BHO indicates that the abbey experienced financial hardship through most of its existence.   However, a local website, based on the research by the local historian, John Austin, who wrote several books on the abbey, informs us that not only was it one of the largest religious houses in Warwickshire, but that “it was their success and huge wealth that led to their eventual downfall when Henry VIII needed to finance his wars in France.” [‘Merevale Abbey’, Baxterley Village]

This view is supported by Watkins, who emphasizes the abbey’s achievements in cattle farming, with a herd that indicates commercial grazing, as well as growing grain.  The monks probably also had a coal pit and a highly productive tile kiln.  He also shows that they kept their buildings, including barns, dovecots and a rabbit warren in a good state of repair.  One of their biggest achievements was an extensive complex of fish-ponds, covering 17 acres of ground, divided into seven pools.

Another indication for the wealth of the abbey was the size of the great abbey church, the nave of which is said to have been as long as the one of Tintern Abbey, another Cistercian house (according to Wikipedia 72m).   Unfortunately nothing remains of this church building at Merevale.

A website on Cistercian Abbeys states that at the time of the dissolution Merevale Abbey had a net annual income of £254, while that of Tintern Abbey was “valued at £192, which made Tintern the wealthiest abbey in Wales at this time”. [‘Cistercian Abbeys:  Tintern’]

Mervale Abbey had a gate chapel, which was accessible to the public.  It is still standing and serves today as the parish church.  Unfortunately we could not go inside, when we visited, but I read that it has a somewhat awkward shape with an unusually large chancel.  This was to accommodate the great number of pilgrims who came to see the statue of the Virgin Mary, especially at the time of the Black Death.  Apparently there was sometimes such a crush that “many were brought to the point of death”. [BHO ‘Abbey of Merevale’]

Gate chapel of Merevale Abbey, today’s parish church (© Dorothea Preis)

Today’s parish church is famous for its medieval stained glass, which is rated as “amongst the most important Cistercian glass in the country”. [‘The Church of Our Lady, Merevale’]  The Jesse Window is dated at 1330-1340 and might have been originally in the great abbey church.  Another example are ten panels of kings and prophets, which are linked by the branches of the vine tree.  The medieval rood screen was probably also originally in the abbey church, as were three monuments of the Ferrers family.

On the website of the Kingsbury & Baxterley Group of Parish Churches you can see photographs of some of the stained glass as well as a painting of what the abbey would have looked like in its prime.  The gate chapel is at the bottom left-hand corner.

Henry Tudor was not the first prominent visitor, both Edward I (16 and 17 August and 17 September 1275) and Edward III (March 1322) had visited as well, with more peaceful intention it is to be hoped.  There is some connection to William, Lord Hastings.  His son Edward “was granted … the steward-ship of the abbey of Merevale in 1482”. [Kelly, p.142]

Prior to the Battle of Bosworth, the Stanleys were camped in Atherstone, while Henry Tudor’s army camped on the land of Merevale Abbey.  According to tradition he met with the Stanleys at the Three Tuns pub in Atherstone, where he is also supposed to have lodged.    The present day Three Tuns declares on its website that it is the cheapest bar in town with budget accommodation, so its 15th century equivalent might have appealed to Henry.  However, it seems more likely that he stayed at the abbey and also conferred there with his step-father and step-uncle there – certainly a more private location than a pub!

After winning the battle, Henry recompensed the abbey very quickly for the extensive damage his troops caused during the two days they were there:  In late 1485, the abbey was paid 100 marks in cash, with an additional 10 marks a short while later.  The town of Atherstone received £24 13s 4d to make up for the losses in corn and grain caused by the army trampling through their fields, some other villages nearby also received compensation.  These payments led Michael Jones to suggest in 2002 that the battle was fought close to Merevale Abbey, but subsequent findings published in late 2009 have contradicted his theory.

Henry returned for a visit in September 1503.  In the – still existing – gate chapel there is an early 16th century stained glass window depicting St Armel, the only one in England, which might very well have been a result of Henry’s later visit.  St Armel was said to be the founder of a Breton monastery, who also killed a dragon.  Here he is depicted in full armour carrying the dragon on a bag (you can find a picture of this window here.

Henry VII might have had sentimental feelings towards Merevale, and also his son, Henry VIII, visited the abbey with his wife, Catherine of Aragon, on 30 August 1511.  However, this did not help the abbey during the Dissolution and it surrendered on 13 October 1538.  It was bought by Lord Ferrers of Chartley on behalf of his younger son William Devereux and parts converted into a house.

Except for the gate chapel, ie. today’s parish church, only some ruins are left of the once great abbey.  However, I was thrilled to find these in the garden of Abbey Farm.  These are ruins of the refectory or frater of the abbey, quite apt for the garden of a welcoming B&B.

Some of the ruins (© Dorothea Preis)

I can wholeheartedly recommend a stay at Abbey Farm.  You will receive a warm welcome by its owner, Jenny, and find lovely rooms, and the next morning a delicious breakfast awaits you.  However, for any Ricardian (or friend of Henry Tudor, should there be any!), this B&B is a special treat due to its historical significance and connection to the events at Bosworth.

And no, we did not finish our day at the Three Tuns.  On a recommendation from Jenny we walked, past the gate chapel, to the Rose Inn at Baxterley, which turned out to be everything you could wish for in a country pub:  friendly staff, good food – and as we were going to walk back again, we could also enjoy a beer or two.  No wonder that it was extremely busy, and this on a mid-week evening.

The Rose Inn, Baxterley (© Dorothea Preis)

To us, our “pilgrimage” to Bosworth, including the visit to the Battlefield Centre, the accommodation and the dinner, will always remain one of the highlights of our trip.

Bibliography:

Books:
Peter Hammond, Richard III and the Bosworth Campaign.  Pen & Sword Military, 2010.  IBN 9781844152599 (HB)

Michael K. Jones, Bosworth 1485 – Psychology of a Battle.  Tempus Publishing, 2002.  ISNB 0 7524 2594 3 (PB)

Articles:
Alice M. Cooke, ‘The Settlement of the Cistercians in England’, The English Historical Review, Vol. 8, No. 32 (October 1893), pp. 625-676

Michael Jones, ‘Ferrers, Robert de, first Earl Ferrers (d. 1139)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.  Date accessed: 12 Aug. 2012

Catherine Kelly, ‘The Noble Steward and Late-Feudal Lordship’, Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Spring, 1986), pp. 133-148

Andrew Watkins, ‘Landowners and their Estates in the Forest of Arden in the Fifteenth Century’, The Agricultural History Review, Vol. 45, No. 1 (1997), pp. 18-33

‘Houses of Cistercian monks: Abbey of Merevale’, A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 2 (1908), pp. 75-78. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=36495 Date accessed: 3 August 2012

‘Parishes: Merevale’, A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 4: Hemlingford Hundred (1947), pp. 142-147. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42670 Date accessed: 3 August 2012

Websites:
‘Cistercian Abbeys:  Merevale’, The Cistercians in Yorkshire.  URL:  http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/abbeys/merevale.php Date accessed:  4 Aug. 2012

‘Cistercian Abbeys:  Tintern’, The Cistercians in Yorkshire.  URL:  http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/abbeys/tintern.php Date accessed:  14 August 2012

‘Merevale Abbey’, Baxterley Village.  URL:  http://www.baxterley.com/?page_id=763 Date accessed:  3 Aug. 2012

‘The Church of Our Lady, Merevale’, Kingsbury & Baxterley Group of Parish Churches.  URL:  http://www.kingbaxgroup.org.uk/html/merevale.html Date accessed:  4 Aug. 2012

‘Remains of Merevale Abbey, Merevale’, British Listed Buildings.  URL:  http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-309215-remains-of-merevale-abbey-merevale Date accessed:  3 Aug. 2012

Links:
Abbey Farm http://www.abbeyfarmbandb.co.uk/

Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre http://www.bosworthbattlefield.com/

The Rose Inn http://www.roseinnbaxterley.com/Default.aspx

Tags: Bosworth, Church, Henry Tudor, Richard III

Death of William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester

Source: ODNB on William Waynflete

For more information on him see ‘The “elder statesman of the educational revolution”’.

Tags: Church, Oxfordshire

We started our recent trip to Europe in the UK and the first item on my agenda was visiting an exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library:  ‘Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer’.   Not being Anglican, rather than the Book of Common Prayer the drawcard for me was a book which predates the Reformation (and hence the Book of Common Prayer) – Richard III’s Book of Hours.

I had pre-booked my ticket for the first slot in the morning after the day of our arrival.  After a pleasant walk along the river, I arrived early and had enough time for a quick look at the beautiful front garden and the shop of the Garden Museum in the old St Mary’s church next door.

Lambeth Palace Gatehouse (© Dorothea Preis)

Then I joined a growing number of hopefuls waiting outside the main entrance of a brick gatehouse – which I found out later was built by John Morton.  However, it turned out these were members of an arts’ fund and waiting for a tour of the Palace, whereas the entrance to the exhibition was at the side of the complex.  Here a much smaller group of maybe 8 or 9 people was waiting and punctually at 11 the small door opened and we were admitted.

We were each handed a beautifully illustrated exhibition brochure and then our group was lead into the library (I was able to take some photos outside, but photography was not permitted in the exhibition itself) with some explanations on the building and its history.  Though the building itself is neo-Gothic, it creates the right atmosphere for viewing medieval books.

Lambeth Palace Library (© Dorothea Preis)

We were left to view the exhibits at our own pace and it was nice to be able to do so without being crowded.  The exhibition is displayed in 10 cases, the first of which was the most interesting to me, covering “Public & Private Devotion before the Reformation”.

The first book exhibited is the Chichele Breviary (MS 69), which belonged to Archbishop Henry Chichele (c.1362–1443).  It is one of only two books of his which are known to have survived to this day.

The second was the book I really wanted to see:  Richard III’s Book of Hours (MS 474).  A book of hours “was the private book of devotions of the layman in the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance”.  [Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, p.2]

It was open on the calendar page and I could read the entry for 2 October (or rather what the explanation card next to it said, as the original entry was somewhat cut when the book was rebound in the 16th century):

hac die natus erat Ricardus Rex Anglie III apud ffoderingay anno domini Mcc [cc lij]
on this day was born Richard III King of England AD 1452 near Fotheringhay (own translation)

This was added by Richard himself, obviously after 6 July 1483, as he refers to himself as king.  His handwriting is large, though tidy and even.

The manuscript was not made for Richard, but was produced c.1420 for an unknown owner.  As Sutton and Visser-Fuchs state it is “a very useful, solid, unflamboyant and English manuscript for his daily use”. [Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, p.2]

It is believed that he had the book with him at Bosworth and that it was found there after the battle.  In his speech at the opening of the exhibition, the Archbishop of Canterbury remarked:

There’s a personal book of ours belonging to Richard III in this library which does not seem to have brought him a great deal of good fortune, though he carried it at the Battle of Bosworth.

Henry Tudor gave the manuscript to his mother Margaret Beaufort, who seems to have made some half-hearted attempt to scratch out his name at various places, though fortunately not this one.

Standing next to a book, which Richard held in his hands, and seeing his handwriting was certainly a special and moving moment for me.  It was probably the closest I would ever get to the king I have been studying for some time.

The rest of the of the exhibition contained various other beautiful and interesting books, most having some royal connection, from the centuries up to an order of service from the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in Case 8.  Coming from the Cologne area, I was pleased to meet Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne from 1515 to 1547, in Case 2.

However, before leaving the library I returned to Case 1 for a last glimpse of King Richard III, represented by his book.

Afterwards I made my way to the Goldsmiths’ Hall to visit another exhibition:  ‘Gold:  Power and Allure’, featuring more than 400 gold items from 2500 BC to the present day.  One of the exhibits was the Middleham Jewel, which is normally on display in York.

The gold lozenge-shaped jewel was found in September 1985 near Middleham Castle. It is beautifully engraved and a large sapphire is mounted on the front.  It is estimated that it was made between 1450 and 1475, certainly for a wealthy person.  Whether there is any connection to Richard III is not known, though it has been speculated that it might have belonged to Richard’s mother, Cecily Nevill.  It was beautifully displayed with both the front and back being visible.

Due to time pressure, I didn’t pay the exhibition the attention it deserved, though I spotted an Angel from the time of Richard’s reign.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Facebook page of the Richard III Society for alerting me to both these fascinating exhibitions.

Bibliography:

Duffy, Eamon, Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570.  Yale University Press (2006).  ISBN 9780300117141, p.33

Sutton, Anne F. & Visser Fuchs, Livia, The Hours of Richard III.  Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd (1996).  ISBN 0750911840

‘HRH Prince Charles opens exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library’, The Archbishop of Canterbury (1 May 2012).  URL:  http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2469/hrh-prince-charles-opens-exhibition-at-lambeth-palace-library Date accessed:  14 June 2012

‘The Middleham Jewel ‘, The Richard III Society.  URL:  http://www.richardiii.net/2001_archive.htm Date accessed:  3 Nov. 2010

Karl, Werner, ‘Ananizapta and the Middleham Jewel’, Sammelblatt des Historischen Vereins Ingolstadt, 110. Jahrgang (2001), S.57 ff.  Available at URL:  http://www.ingolstadt.de/stadtmuseum/scheuerer/ing/ananiz05.htm Date accessed:  20 March 2010

Tags: Books, Church, Richard III