The decision of the British High Court in the Judicial Review whether the granting of the exhumation licence for the remains which were later established to be those of Richard III was announced today at 10 am (7 pm in Australia).
The court found that “there are no public law grounds for the Court interfering with the decisions in question. In the result, therefore, the Claimant’s application for Judicial Review is dismissed.” This means Richard will be re-interred in Leicester Cathedral, just a stone’s throw away from where his been for the last 500 years.
At the press conference in Leicester Cathedral it was announced that the reburial is expected for (the northern hemisphere) spring 2015.
You can read the full judgement here and an article from the BBC here.
Tags: Archaeology, Church, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III
The decision of the High Court on the Judicial Review whether the licence to exhume a skeleton in Leicester, which subsequently was found to be that of Richard III, was valid will be announced tomorrow (Friday, 23 May 2014) at 10 am. 10 am in the UK is 7 pm in Australia.
More information here and here.
Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III
In March 2013, I spent a weekend in Leicester to attend the Richard III conference, but also used my time there to do some sightseeing. I was also lucky to be able to visit the church St Mary de Castro in Leicester. The word “lucky” is appropriate in this context, as visiting hours were limited. And in September 2013, the church had to close completely because of fears the spire might collapse [i] .it only reopened on 24 August 2014 [ii].
St Mary de Castro, from Castle Yard (© D Preis)
The limited visiting hours meant, I a short window of time before having to catch the coach back to Heathrow and the flight back to Australia, but I’m very glad that I did rush back to see it. It is a beautiful church and the people assisting visitors were incredibly friendly and helpful. I’m glad to see that mine was not an isolated experience, because a blogger remarked: “If it’s the same man who opens it up most days as the fellow who did on Saturday, you will get a warm and knowledgeable, but never overbearing welcome” [iii].
St Mary is the church of Leicester castle, hence the Latin ‘de Castro’; it was founded in 1107 as the chapel of the castle by Robert de Beaumont, who was created Earl of Leicester by King Henry I [iv]. Initially, the church was a college of 12 secular canons and a dean. However, it is possible that a Saxon collegiate church had existed on the site before the Norman conquest of 1066. A wall includes a stone, which might be a Saxon coffin lid and might have come from an earlier Saxon church.
Possible Saxon coffin lid in St Mary de Castro (© D Preis)
Robert’s son, Robert le Bossu (the Hunchback), founded Leicester Abbey and called it ‘St. Mary de Pratis’ (St. Mary of the Meadows). It seems his own foundation was more important to him, as he endowed it with the properties, which up to that point had been set aside to provide St Mary De Castro with an income. However, a few years later the Abbot and the Earl restored the college, though on a smaller scale. At the same time, it also served as a parish church, which helped the financial situation of the church. While the college was dissolved by the Chantry Act of Edward VI in 1548, it continues to be a parish church to this day.
The first Norman church was much smaller than today’s building, only approx. 40m long, without a tower or spire and no glass in the windows. Some arches and the carving of a little figure, which might depict a page or a squire indicated by the kirtle and hairstyle, remain from the 12th century church.
Little figure, possibly of a page or squire (© D Preis)
Then Robert de Blanchesmains, third Earl, the son of le Bossu, supported Queen Eleanor and her sons in their quarrel with Henry II, with the unfortunate result that the town was sacked in 1173 and the church severely damaged.
Afterwards the church was rebuilt and in the process made longer and a chancel was built, possibly chapels were added on the sides.
Norman sedilia (© D Preis)
Of interest are the sedilia (three seats for the priest and his helpers) in the south wall of the chancel. They are said to be among the finest examples of Norman work in the country, with double columns, fine chiselled decoration and characteristic chevron moulded round arches. There was also a piscina (stone basin), but this was mutilated at a later stage and only re-discovered with the aumbries (i.e. the cupboards “for to lay anything in pertaininge to the High Altar”), in the middle of the 19th century.
By the early 13th century with the increased importance and size of the castle, it was decided to extent the church, by enlarging the south chapel, for the use of the parishioners. This aisle had its own altar, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. As a result there were basically two churches under one roof, separated by the original outside wall. The new church also has sedilia (these with pointed arches) and a piscina, built in the south wall, these are in the Early English style.
Possibly before 1300, the tower was fitted inside the church, as on the outside it would interfere with the passage between the castle’s gates in case of attack. In the area underneath the tower is the font. In this area some floor tiles from the 14th century are preserved. The spire was added in 1400 and partly rebuilt in 1685. However, it was discovered to be in a perilous state and was demolished in 2013/14. There is an appeal to raise money for a rebuilding of the spire.
Tower inside the church (© D Preis)
St Mary De Castro has connections to a number of famous people. In the 14th century, the early dissident and translator of the Bible, John Wycliffe, preached at St Mary. The Lollards continued to have a strong hold in the Leicester area.
St Mary de Castro might be the church where Geoffrey Chaucer married Philippa de Roet, the sister of Katherine de Roet (Swynford), in the 1360s. Their great-grandson John de la Pole, second duke of Suffolk, married Elizabeth, a sister of Edward IV and Richard III, here in 1458. His parents were William de la Pole and Alice Chaucer, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, one of Geoffrey and Philippa’s children.
Katherine de Roet and John of Gaunt, who was also earl of Leicester from November 1362 onwards [v], are among the ancestors of both Edward IV and Richard III as well as the Tudors.
In 1426, the so-called Parliament of Bats was held in Leicester. This was a time of a power struggle between the chancellor, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, and the Protector, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. As there was also a disagreement with the London mercantile community over tunnage and poundage, it was decided for parliament to sit in Leicester instead of London. John, duke of Bedford, returned from the war in France to resume his role as protector. The name ‘Parliament of Bats’ has nothing to do with flying mammals, but more with cricket bats. It refers to the lords’ retainers being armed with bludgeons, ‘battes’, although they had been instructed not to carry arms [vi].
At the time King Henry VI was only four years old. It was at St Mary de Castro that on 19 May 1426 Bedford knighted Henry VI, who in turn knighted 36 others. One of them was the then 14-year-old Richard, third duke of York (who was to become the father of Richard III) [vii]. We can only speculate that this must have been a very exciting event for the 14-year-old boy. Of course, at this time nobody could foresee the later disagreement between duke and king, which would lead to what is known today as the Wars of the Roses. All through this period the town was loyal to the Yorkists and send its forces to fight for Edward, Earl of March (later Edward IV), at Towton in 1461 [viii].
His son, Richard III, would have attended mass at St Mary de Castro. He visited Leicester [ix] several times before he became king and might very well have stayed at the castle. We know for sure that during his reign he stayed at the castle twice in 1483. During the first visit, 17 to 20 August, he wrote two letters “from my castle at Leicester”, which are extant. The second visit was 22/23 October, while assembling an army to fight Buckingham’s revolt. He also visited the town twice in 1484, but on these occasions does not seem to have stayed at the castle, which might have been in a poor state of repair by then. During his first visit of 1484, on 31 July, he visited Leicester Abbey and for the second, on 5 November, Edwards says in The Itinerary that he was at the “Town of Leicester”, though we do not know where. And of course, Richard stayed in Leicester 19-21 August 1485, before marching out to fight Henry Tudor’s army at Bosworth, supported by forces from Leicester. We do not know for sure where he stayed on this last occasion, though legend has it that he spent the nights at the Blue Boar Inn.
After his death, his body was displayed at St Mary-in-the-Newarke in Leicester, to show the people of the city who had supported him that he was dead indeed. In the meantime, Henry Tudor celebrated his victory at Coventry, where he stayed the night 24/25 August. Coventry citizens probably felt it was politic to welcome him lavishly, but in the city annals they recorded that King Richard “was shamefully Carryed to Leicester & Buryed their”[x] .
i. ‘St Mary De Castro church shut for six months over spire collapse fear’, BBC News Leicester (7 September 2013). URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-23985692 Date accessed: 13 October 2013
ii. Home page of The Collegiate Parish Church of St. Mary de Castro, Leicester. URL: http://www.stmarydecastro.co.uk/ Date accessed: 10 October 2014
iii. James Alexander Cameron, ‘The medieval churches of Leicester and their many sedilia study trip’, Stained Glass Attitudes (16 April 2013).
iv. Information on the church:
‘The ancient borough: St. Mary’s’, A History of the County of Leicester: volume 4: The City of Leicester (1958), pp. 369-380. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66579 Date accessed: 31 October 2013
Visitor’s Guide to St Mary de Castro
v. Simon Walker, ‘John , duke of Aquitaine and duke of Lancaster, styled king of Castile and León (1340–1399)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008.
vi. ‘The Parliament of Bats, 4 Hen. VI’, The History of Parliament. URL: http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1422-1504/parliament/1426 Date accessed: 12 January 2014
vii. Ralph Alan Griffiths, The Reign of King Henry VI: The Exercise of Royal Authority, 1422-1461. University of California Press, 1981, pp.80-81
viii. Mathew Morris & Richard Buckley, Richard III: The King under the Car Park. University of Leicester Archaeological Services, 2013, p.11
ix. For Richard III’s visits to Leicester see Morris & Buckley, pp.11-12; as well as Rhoda Edwards, The Itinerary of King Richard III 1483-1485. Richard III Society, 1983.
x. DeLloyd J Guth, “Richard III, Henry VII and the City: London Politics and the ‘Dun Cow’”, in: Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages: a Tribute to Charles Ross, ed. by Ralph A. Griffiths & James Sherborne. Sutton, Gloucester, 1986, pp.194-195
Tags: Castles, Church, Henry VI, Leicester, Richard Duke of York, Richard III
The NSW Branch of the Richard III Society met on 12 April 2014 at the Sydney Mechanics Institute Building in the Sydney CBD. Branch Chairperson Judith welcomed all the regulars and several new members from Wagga Wagga who had made a special effort to attend the day’s meeting during their visit to Sydney.
The regular business of the branch was suspended due to time constraints, so there were no reports presented from the officers, nor review of previous minutes. However, this business had been taken care of during the Committee Meeting that preceded the General Meeting, and the Sales Officer, Treasurer, and Webmaster reports will be in the Minutes taken by the Branch Secretary.
The NSW Branch also wishes to extend their best wishes to a seriously ill member and wish her a speedy recovery
Our Guest Speaker, the Dean and CEO of the Sydney College of Divinity, Professor Diane Speed, was welcomed and introduced. Her presentation was a comprehensive and extremely interesting overview of the existing early medieval illuminated Bibles, Gospels and Psalters in the English Cathedral libraries and museums, illustrated with wonderfully detailed images painstakingly created by the monks throughout the centuries.
The next meeting will be on Saturday, 14 June 2014, when the speaker will be circus historian and author, Dr Mark St Leon, on Fairs and Circuses.
Tags: Books, NSW Branch, Religious Life
This is how Isolde Martyn, author, past chairperson of the New South Wales Branch and welcome speaker at our meetings, spent Thursday, March 27th. A guest of the Port Stephens Libraries at Tomaree and Raymond Terrace, she spoke on her novel Mistress to the Crown, her absorbing and well researched story about Elizabeth Lambard (aka Jane Shore). Many NSW Branch members attended the launch of this book last year.
Isolde’s talk gave wonderful insight to Elizabeth the person, the problems and people she had to cope with, as well as a fascinating view of the London in which she lived, loved and – not so well known– ran a successful business. And, no, William Shore was not a goldsmith, and examples of early novels whose covers implied that Elizabeth was a goldsmith’s wife were amusing viewing if bodice-ripper style appealed.
It was, as is often the case, a shame that those attending were quality not quantity, but enthusiastic questions and opinions gave hope that a few more people now realise that history was alive and well long before the Tudors butted in! This will be helped by the sales of the book, as well as those of Isolde’s novel about Harry Buckingham The Devil in Ermine. Richard was mentioned of course, especially his “what fools these mortals be” style letter about Tom Lynom. Another attendee was thrilled to know she shared Richard’s birthday!
We can look forward to another of Isolde’s books titled The Golden Widows that will be published by Mira in August this year. And the identity of the widows? The book opens with this introduction:
It is estimated that between 1450 and 1500, during the struggle for the crown between the Houses of York and Lancaster, 62 of England’s lords and their heirs were slain. Of the 44 noble ladies who were left as widows, 21 remarried.
This is the story of two of those women, Kate and Elysabeth, whose husbands fought on opposing sides. Kate was the sister of the earl known in history as “Warwick the Kingmaker” and Elysabeth became very famous in her own right.
This will be another welcome addition to Isolde’s portraits of medieval England. Each is eminently readable as fiction, excellent for accurate research – andlet’s give a huge plus for the lists of the historically correct characters (a minimum of invented names for lesser ones) and a glossary of medieval terms.
Mistress to the Crown, published by Mira, rrp $25, ISBN 978 1743560211, soon available in a smaller paperback edition.
The Devil in Ermine, an e-book available for Kindle or from Amazon Print on Demand. ISBN: 0-9873 8469-0; ISBN-13: 978-098738460-0-7.
Tags: Books, Edward IV, NSW Branch, Ricardian Authors, Richard III
The March 2014 Ricardian Bulletin has just arrived in my letter box. If you haven’t received yours yet, it should get to you within the next days.
As always, the Bulletin contains a wide variety of fascinating articles. I am especially looking forward to reading the Man Himself section, which investigates ‘The scoliosis of King Richard III’. The article is by Dr Peter Stride from Queensland, who gave such an insightful talk on this topic at the Australasian Convention in 2013.
There is an interview with Philippa Langley and Wendy Moorhen looks at ‘The new Ricardian era: the impact of the Greyfriars dig on the Society and its work’. Another article looks at Richard III’s chapel at Towton and one at ‘How to rebury a medieval king: a lost rite of reinterment’. Other treats are an article on George, Duke of Clarence, one on William Hobbys, and so much more.
I have just put the kettle on and am looking forward to some serious reading!
This essay was written by Rachel during the course of her studies towards a Master’s degree at the University of New England.
“Have you drunk any malificium, that is, herbs or other agents, so that you could not have children?”[1]
Were contraceptives and other means of family limitation such as abortion, infanticide, and child abandonment practised in medieval Western Europe? If so, what remedies and methods of contraception were used, to what extent, and were they successful? Early research into the topic concluded that contraception was virtually unknown in the Middle Ages and that medieval people did not have a ‘contraceptive mentality’. [2] However, more recent investigations have produced a plethora of writing which clearly demonstrates that medieval society not only knew about various forms of contraception and abortifacients; they used them to such a degree that medical texts, church doctrine and the common literature of the time are strewn with references to their use. Documents are littered with contraceptive recipes and methods and contain warnings and prohibitions against certain herbs, many of these originating in antiquity. Contemporary research into the history of human fertility control has therefore ceased to ask when contraception became common place and effective, and instead questions how family limitation was practised prior to the eighteenth century.[3] The idea and practice of controlling the number of children conceived and born has been employed across all cultures through time, although the methods and efficacy vary.[4]
Tags: Medical Knowledge, Medieval Life, Women
This is the second part of the talk Bruce MacCarthy gave at the general meeting of the New South Wales Branch on 8 February 2014.
Fontevraud Abbey is where Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard Coeur de Lion and Isabella of Angouleme were buried. Today, within the abbey church one can see their recumbent effigies, though their bodies are no longer there.
The Abbey is located in the Pays de la Loire region, approximately 65 km south east of Angers, and about 300 km south west of Paris – 3- 4 hours of driving from Paris (longer if you are cautious about driving on the right hand side of the road.) It was considered one of the greatest monastic cities in medieval Europe. The Abbey is impressive both in its size and its originality.
The Order of Fontevraud was founded around the turn of the 12th century by Robert of Arbrissel, an itinerant reforming preacher. The first permanent structures were built between 1110 and 1119. There was a group of monasteries. Saint Marie housed nuns and Saint Lazar housed lepers; Saint Benoit was for the sick and La Madeleine was for “fallen women.” Saint Jean l’Habit housed monks. Interestingly, given the dominance of men in those days, the overall community was managed by an abbess, as had been decreed by the founder, and it became a refuge for women from noble families, especially repudiated queens and daughters of royal and aristocratic lineage.
General view of Fontevraud Abbey (photograph by Pierre Mairé, obtained under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)
The counts of Anjou had supported the Abbey over the years. Indeed, one of Henry II’s aunts was Abbess there. Over the years there were numerous noble abbesses, including members of the Bourbon family.
Given his family long association with the Abbey, it was not surprising that Henry II was buried there after he died in France. Richard also died in France, and his request to be buried at the feet of his father was honoured. Eleanor retired to the Abbey and became a nun. When she died, she was buried beside her late husband. Although John died and was buried in England, his son Henry III apparently crossed to France to witness the burial of his mother Isabella at the Abbey. Later, his heart and the heart of John were buried at the Abbey.
With the fall of the Angevin empire, the fortunes of the Abbey suffered. While it was protected by the Bourbon family during the religious wars of the 16th century, its life as a functioning Abbey ended during the French Revolution.
Following a Revolutionary decree in August 1792 which ordered the evacuation of all monasteries, and the Order of Fontevraud was dissolved. The last abbess a Madame d’Antin, died in Paris in poverty. The Abbey was pillaged by revolutionaries in 1793 and the Royal tombs were desecrated. As far as I am aware, no one knows exactly what happened to the bodies of the Angevins, but fortunately the effigies remain to this day, as I saw to my delight in October 2010.
The decision by Napoleon to transform the Abbey into a prison in 1804, saved it from destruction. It remained a penal institution from 1804 until 1963 but, as prisoners were used as labourers on the transition from penal facility to its former life as a monastery, the very last prisoners left Fontevraud as recently as 1985.
The Abbey of Fontevraud is the icon for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Val de Loire. Today, as a “Cultural Encounter Centre,” the Abbey is a renowned site for concerts, symposiums and exhibitions. It also plays a role in creative development thanks to artists’ residencies that are welcomed by the abbey.
On offer at the Abbey is a range of thematic visits off the beaten path that can be shared with the whole family: “The underground passages”, “The last days of the Abbey: before the Revolution”, “The Central prison ” and also “The nuns’ daily life”.
Having been a monastic town for seven centuries, the Abbey of Fontevraud has an architectural style rich in terms of spiritual meaning but also punctuated by the manual activities, which were part of everyday life there. One can walk in the footsteps of the nuns, and explore the Roman kitchens, the cloisters, the dormitories and the large refectory. It was in the process of being restored when I was there and no doubt it is now in even better shape than it was four years ago.
For those who have always dreamt of sleeping in an abbey, the “Hotel du Prieuré Saint Lazare” offers 52 rooms. Ours was a comfortable ensuite room overlooking an orchard.
The hotel has mod cons like Wifi, and the gastronomic “Saint Lazare” restaurant. Guests at the hotel are free to enjoy the site and amble around the gardens.
There is so much to see at Fontevraud, that one could spend days wandering around the Abbey and the surrounding town. I commend it to you as a “must see” visit on any trip to France.
Tags: Eleanor of Aquitaine, France, Henry II, Richard I
This is the first part of the talk Bruce MacCarthy gave at the general meeting of the New South Wales Branch on 8 February 2014.
Today, some historians divide the Plantagenets into four distinct Royal Houses: Angevins, Plantagenets, Lancaster and York but, collectively, the Plantagenet family as they are now known formed the longest-running dynasty in British history, with 14 kings over more than 330 years from 1154 to 1485. Even if we similarly group together the Hanoverians and their successors, from George I onwards, they have so far provided only 11 kings and queens and are only in their 300th year in 2014.
In my two journeys to Europe, I have always tried to visit places with Plantagenet connections. For example, I have been to the ruins of Dürnstein Castle, where Richard I was held captive by Duke Leopold of Austria in 1192-3. In May 2008, my wife and I toured King John’s castle in Limerick. This castle was built on the orders of King John, and was completed around 1200. It is well worth a visit for the excellent historical displays. Of course, we also visited the Richard III Museum in York, when we were there in 2010, and I recall an article on this museum in your 2011 journal.
Tags: Crusade, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Magna Carta, Richard I
The first branch meeting of the new year was convened on Saturday, 8 February 2014, back at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts building on Pitt Street, after a year of meeting at a venue in the Rocks. There was a very good turnout of members, including a young visitor interested in learning more about Richard for their HSC studies.
Welcoming remarks were offered by our Chairperson, Judith, followed by very brief remarks from the Treasurer, Secretary, and Sales Officer each reporting that all was well in their particular area of responsibility. The Webmaster advised that the branch website had been upgraded and was now working better than ever.
Our guest speaker was the former Member for Strathfield, Mr Bruce MacCarthy, with an in-depth review of the Angevins and Plantagenets, including the dramas between cousins Stephen and Matilda, the marriage of powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, two of whose sons – Richard and John – both became Kings. He explained that his interest in the Plantagenet dynasty had begun when he was only 5 years old, when his father obtained a copy of his family tree. It had originally been prepared as evidence in an application to the House of Lords for a vacant peerage, sadly unsuccessful. At the top of this family tree he had seen the name of a king – King Edward III. He told us that the claim was not proven, as there was an area of doubt in the late 1600’s; but the idea of having a King as an ancestor had fascinated him. He and his wife paid a visit several years ago to Fontevraud Abbey in France’s Loire Valley, where King Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and (parts of) King Richard the Lionheart are buried, and he was able to tell us a great deal about the beauty of this place and how much it meant to him. The text of his talk is on our website.
After the excellent presentation, the raffle was drawn with prizes including many fine books kindly donated to the branch by Kevin from his personal Ricardian collection. We then had a lovely afternoon tea augmented with food generously shared by the Australian Chinese Women’s Association, which was meeting in the next room. There was ample time for chatting, and catching up, and it was a good start to another exciting year for Ricardians.
The 12 April 2014 meeting will feature the Dean and CEO of the Sydney College of Divinity and formerly University of Sydney’s Senior Lecturer in Middle English Studies, Dr Diane Speed, on the topic of ‘Medieval storytelling and illustrations’. It is sure to be a wonderful talk, and we hope you will be able to join us.
Tags: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Matilda, NSW Branch, Richard I
