If you found us after reading the paper this morning we would like to welcome you to our site.  We hope you find lots of interesting articles and would be happy to welcome you soon again.

A note of explanation to our regular readers.  We reported on Tuesday, 6 July, that Richard III’s coronation was mentioned in Column 8, a regular feature of the Sydney Morning Herald.  We were wondering whether our secretary Julia had anything to do with it, but it turns out that any prompting from her side had not been necessary.  However, efficient as ever she immediately sent an email to Column 8 thanking them for the mention of ‘our Man’ and this appears in full in today’s paper (have a look here).  Thank you very much to Column 8 and Julia as well.

The anniversary of Richard and Anne’s coronation in 1483 made it into today’s Sydney Morning Herald (could Julia, our excellent secretary, have anything to do with this?).  Column 8 lists several events connected with 6 July.  In case you are wondering about “St Sexburga’s Day” (and did not read Column 8 yesterday), St Sexburga was an Abbess of Ely in the seventh century.

Read today’s Column 8 here (the first entry) and yesterday’s here (the last entry).

We may be 550 years late for the Battle of Northampton, fought on 10 July 1460 between the Yorkist forces commanded by the Earl of Warwick and Henry VI’s Lancastrian forces, but this coming weekend there will be lots of action for latecomers like us (and more peaceful, too).  A wide variety of Battle related activities will take place at at the original battle site at Delapré Abbey,  including a re-enactment of part of the Battle.  Other attractions are: Jousting on horseback with full armour, gunpowder and large canon demonstrations, the display of a soldiers’ encampment and music from the period of the Battle.  And if all this makes you hungry and thirsty there will also be food stalls offering medieval fare.

This fun weekend will be followed by a conference on the Battle of Northampton on the anniversary itself (10 July) at the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, organised by The Battlefields Trust.  The programme promises to be fascinating with talks on “The Wars of the Roses and the Northampton Campaign”, “Developments in Warfare During the 15th Century”, “The Battle of Northampton”, “Where Is the Battlefield?” and “Finding Medieval Battlefields”.

You can find more information on the weekend at Delapré Abbey here and about the conference at Northampton Museum here.

Illustration:  War of the Roses © Andrew Jamieson, www.medieval-arts.co.uk

If you are wondering what to get your Ricardian friend or relative as a birthday present, you might like to consider the ‘Richard III Armchair’ (see here).  It was designed in 1985 by Phillippe Starck.  I’m not sure whether the 500th anniversary of Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth is coincidental.  If it was, it would be interesting to know why Phillippe Starck chose to commemorate Richard III.  The chair is supposed to be a “personification of the Shakespeare character.  The chair represents the two sides of the character in terms of being both traditional and modern, concave and convex and have both strength and delicacy.”  It’s not quite clear in which way the designer considered Shakespeare’s Richard (or the real one for that matter) as ‘both traditional and modern”.

The chair certainly looks interesting and strangely attractive, but somehow it does not look like the right kind of chair to curl up in and read a good book.

The following question comes from Pamela J Butler, one of our friends from the American Branch of the Richard III Society.  Did you know the answer?

Name a medieval woman who fits this description:

1. She lived in the late fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century for a few years.
2. She was beautiful and blonde
3. Her father was a powerful ruler, but a bit on the licentious side.
4. Her family used her as a political pawn to further their own ambitions.
5. She died in her late thirties after giving childbirth to a girl.

Yep, you got it! Read the rest of this entry »

Joan Szechtman (author of This Time) pointed us to a fabric, which is based on Richard’s coat in the Society of Antiquaries portrait (left).  This beautiful fabric is produced by Watts & Co. London and described as “A Victorian Gothic design after the William Morris School with further inspiration drawn from a 15th century portrait of Richard III”.   The company specialises in heraldic and ceremonial and has been prominently represented at the four coronations of the 20th century.  To view a swatch, go to Watts & Co., click on Textiles & Trimmings, select Black Fabrics, and then select Fairford Black/Gold Damask.  Thank you Joan for showing this to us.  And thank you Watts & Co for producing this beautiful fabric with such strong links to Richard III.

Should your find yourself in England this summer there is a number of events organised by the Lincolshire Branch which should be of interest.  The first one is the

Annual Requiem Mass Saturday, 26 June 2010

Shrine of Our Lady of Ipswich

The Annual Requiem Mass for King Richard III and Queen Anne Neville will be held on Saturday 26 June at the Church of St Mary at the Elms, Ipswich, and will be celebrated according to the Anglican rite. This church houses the restored shrine of Our Lady of Ipswich (Our Lady of Grace) – a shrine patronised by the Plantagenet royal family, and specifically by members of the house of York and its adherents.

The church can be found just behind the New Wolsey Theatre, at 68 Black Horse Lane Ipswich.  All Society members and friends are welcome to attend.  The Requiem will begin at 12 noon.  Afterwards there will be free time for lunch, and during the afternoon there will opportunities to visit places of interest (either individually or as part of a guided walk).

Members should make their own way to Ipswich (which is easily accessible by train from London Liverpool Street Station in about an hour, and which has excellent park-and-ride schemes to the town centre, serving a bus stop close to the church).

If you are planning to attend, there is no booking form to complete, but please email, telephone, or write to John Ashdown-Hill (louis-john@live.co.uk) indicating how many people will be coming with you, as this is helpful for the production of service booklets, and determining numbers of members interested in a guided walk in the afternoon.

John can also be contacted for any further information that you may require.

There is no charge for this event.

Information on two further fascinating events by the Lincolnshire Branch can be found on their website (here).  The first of these  is a lecture “Henry VIII – Builder or Destroyer?”  by Dr Jonathan Foyle on 3 July 2010.  The other one is on “The Lady & the Unicorn – the Story of a Tapestry”  by Jean Townsend on 7 August 2010.

(Image:  Suffolk Churches)

When earlier this year archaeologists made the discovery of the true location of the Battle of Bosworth public, they showed various artefacts that led to the discovery.  One of them, and for me the most fascinating and poignant one, was a small silver boar badge.  The White Boar was Richard’s emblem and badges like this would have been worn by his knights.  They were primarily awarded at ceremonies like Richard’s coronation or the investiture of his son as Prince of Wales.  It is believed that this one was lost from the tunic of one his knights as he fought alongside his rightful king against the usurper Henry Tudor. Read the rest of this entry »

From our friends at Barley Hall in York (more info here), or to be precise from the April 2010 issue of Quid Novi?  A newsletter for the friends and supporters of Barley Hall, we learned that the York Archaeological Trust has agreed to take over the Museum at Micklegate Bar and make it one of their attractions.  This means that the Bar joins Barley Hall as the second mediaeval attraction in their portfolio.

Micklegate Bar in York (author’s own photograph)

Micklegate Bar is York’s most important gateway and has served a number of important roles since its construction in the 12th century, including being the main point of entry through which a reigning monarch enters the city.

The new museum will open later in May and an interesting programme of events has been planned.  To celebrate the launch of the new exhibition, the Wars of the Roses will be brought to life in York once more with various Bank holiday events and talks to tie into.

The programme kicks off on 29 May at Barley Hall with the drama of The Queen’s Tale: Margaret of Anjou.  The following day there is a coach tour to Sandal Castle.  31 May sees Helen Cox launching her book The Battle of Wakefield Revisited at Micklegate Bar and at the Mansion House there is a series of talks on Great Battles of the Wars of the Roses.

Later in the (Northern hemisphere) summer there will be a series of guided tours to various battle sites in the area.  For Ricardians the most interesting would surely be the one to Sheriff Hutton on 15 June, and a day at Pontefract Castle and the Wakefield battle site under the heading Dukes, Earls and Nursery Rhymes: Yorkshire at War in the 15th Century, which is led by Helen Cox, on 1 August.  For more information on all these fascinating events check out the website of Barley hall as well as that of the Jorvik Viking Centre (here).