The following is the first in our collection of Scrabble speakers at our branch’s general meeting on 14 August 2010.
Introduction
A few months ago, when as a Scrabble Speaker volunteer I drew the letter “U”, I must admit I had no idea what to do a talk on – I could not think of even one Ricardian topic that started with the letter “U”!
But to my great relief our branch’s social secretary, Kevin Herbert, kindly came to my rescue with many suggestions, one of which was the Union of the Hanseatic Merchants, and another was the city of Utrecht. Read the rest of this entry »
As Ricardians we have known for a long time that Henry Tudor was bad news, but how bad I only recently found out.
Just a few days after Henry’s landing at Milford Haven on 7 August 1485 a never before seen disease broke out, which followed him from there via Bosworth Field to London, where by the end of October 1485 several thousand citizens had been killed by it. It is assumed that it was brought to England by Henry’s French mercenaries, who were apparently immune to it. There is clear evidence that it was spoken about before the Battle of Bosworth. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
