This was an all-important meeting, time to review the year gone by and to highlight plans for the year ahead. Judith, our Chairperson, welcomed us all, and regretted the absence of those who couldn’t make the meeting. She then gave a summary of our Ricardian year of 2010 – 2011: the many interesting talks that had been given, such Dorothea’s account of the “Blood and Roses” weekend at Oxford, Dr Penny Bishop’s talk on plagues and pestilences in the Middle Ages , Isolde Martyn on life in Medieval London and the always interesting and innovative Scrabble talks.

Several branch members had attended the biennial Australasian Convention in Melbourne, and Kevin, Julia, Helen and Denise had contributed presentations.

Judith thanked all the committee members for their hard work and contribution during the year, especially welcoming Judy who had joined us mid-year as Treasurer, easing Dorothea’s workload. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Church, NSW Branch

Julia and I were talking yesterday about Alice Chaucer, granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer and wife of John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk.  Complementing our discussion is today’s free biography of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  You can find Rowena Archer’s biography of this fascinating woman at http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/lotw/1.html, but only during this week.  While you are there make sure that you sign up for the free ‘Lives of the Week’, many of which are relevant to our period of interest.

Illustration: Alice Chaucer’s effigy in Ewelme church (photograph by Dorothea Preis)

Tags: de la Pole

We are delighted to welcome a new member to our branch, Barbara Gaskell Denvil.

As I’ve just joined the Richard III Society, NSW Branch, I thought I should introduce myself.

I actually live in Victoria, but having received a strong recommendation from a friend to seek out the inestimable Dorothea Preis, I decided to do just that.

I’m an author, and I’ve recently published my first novel FAIR WEATHER (by BARBARA GASKELL DENVIL $2.99 Amazon Kindle and soon on smashwords.com for all other e.book devices) which is a fantasy set in medieval England around the early 1200s. There’s a fair chunk of historical content, but the basic plot is pure fantasy. It seems quite popular so far and has received some good reviews.

However, my main passion is later medieval history and the life and times of Richard III in particular, which I’ve been researching for years.  My next book which is due out within the month, starts on 22nd August 1485, and covers the first months of Henry VII’s reign. This is called SATIN CINNABAR and several members of the RIIISoc in the UK have been kind enough to give it a firm thumbs up.

I was born in England (near Gloucester, which seems apt) and I hold joint citizenship but have been living here in semi rural isolation for the past 15 years.  I spent the middle years of my life living on a yacht and sailing the Mediterranean, so probably it’s high time I settled down – though itchy feet still keep me restless and dreaming.

Now retired, I’m delighted to take up the love of my youth and once again start writing. When much younger I worked for Books and Bookmen as a critic and reviewer, and published numerous short stories and articles but all that seems centuries ago.  Now the flocks of parrots and the odd wallaby in the garden seems to add piquancy to the medieval intrigues which so inspire me.

I’m delighted to have finally joined the Society, and look forward to many further years of learning – and writing – about Good King Richard.

With the best of luck to all of you.

Cheers, Barbara

Please feel free to visit Barbara’s blog!

Tags: Books, NSW Branch, Ricardian Authors

Just a short reminder that this coming Saturday, 8 October 2011, the AGM of the NSW Branch will take place.  We meet as usual at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney, at 14h00.

As it is the AGM, a new committee is to be elected.  Our branch has great plans for the future and we need new faces on the committee to achieve these.  We are organising our biennial NSW convention in Mittagong next May and will be hosting the Australasian Convention in 2013 – the year of the 530th anniversary of Richard and Anne’s coronation.  In order to make this an as memorable event as possible we need your assistance.  Please, consider in which way you will be able to help your branch.

If you have not yet done so, you will be able to bring your subscription renewal and payment to the AGM.  Remember, we have to forward our subscriptions to the UK Executive by 14 October 2011.  While the branch covers the banking charges for sending the bulk renewals to the UK, for any subscriptions and renewals received after 14 October, we have to ask you for an extra $20 to cover the cost of sending individual subscriptions.

However, our AGM will not just cover the necessary administrative matters, but will of course also feature an interesting talk.  Our Chairperson Judith will talk on Hildegard of Bingen,  It should be interesting to find out more about this multi-talented 12th century lady.

Tags: NSW Branch

The big problem for the coming weekend is to decide which party to attend.  There is the barbecue in honour of Richard III’s birthday in the Southern Highlands hosted by the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society.  However, if you can’t make this, you might consider the party at the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre.

The Bosworth party in honour of Richard’s 559th birthday will take place from 11h00 to 15h00 on Sunday 2 October 2011.  The highlight will be at 12h00, when King Richard III dressed in full battle armour will tour the courtyard with his ‘men at arms’.

David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Communities, said:

This is a great opportunity to celebrate what would have been Richard III’s 559th Birthday! The Battle of Bosworth was a defining moment in British history and had King Richard lived, the Country may have been on a completely different course. The celebrations at the Battlefield will take visitors back to medieval times and will be a great day out for the whole family.

More info:  ‘You are cordially invited to King Richard III’s Birthday Party!’, In Loughborough

Illustration:  © Andrew Jamieson, www.http://www.jamiesongallery.com

Tags: Bosworth, Richard III

Although, as a general rule, novels aren’t the ideal source for historical research, it is always heartening to find our particular branch of the Plantagenet family appearing in imaginative pages.  Happily, in this case, House of Echoes is by Barbara Erskine, who has a degree in medieval history, and her many novels have a commendable ring of authenticity.

In some of her books people of today are linked with characters and events in history and in this story (published by HarperCollins) the connection is with Edward IV (and Richard gets a mention).  Great reading for lazy afternoons, but the chilling mystery could make it a no-no for late-night reading.

Tags: Books, Edward IV

The NSW Branch of the Rchard III Society now has its own facebook page.  Make sure that you visit us!

You can find us here.

Tags: NSW Branch

Plans are well under way for our day-long conference on Saturday, 12 May next year at the Mittagong RSL from 10h00 – 16h30 (registration from 9h30). We have some interesting speakers lined up to include such subjects as Medieval Coins, the Nevill family, Royal Relics and Richard III on Stage.

Expect the usual raffle, sales tables, quizzes of course, as well as morning and afternoon teas and lunch.  We will arrange somewhere for dinner for those staying on after the conference and, on Sunday, hopefully something as interesting as our last visit to the Southern Highlands for a conference.

Keep the weekend free in your diary for our biennial conference!

Tags: NSW Branch

There are, of course, plenty of them, but naturally we picked up on this one from The Book of Hoaxes, by Stuart Gordon that was published by Headline some time ago.

Richard Nixon wasn’t the only Tricky Dicky in history, at least if Tudor propaganda and Shakespeare are to be believed.  In 1485 a desperate villain, surrounded by enemies, shouted `A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’  But too late.  He was slain.  His crown, found snagged on a bush was placed reverently on the head of his conqueror.  So died Crookback Dick, alias Richard III, the scheming hunchback who had murdered two innocent little children (the `Princes in the Tower’) to grab the crown.  Now the Welshman, Henry Tudor was king – King Henry VIII.  A new more glorious era was about to begin, culminating in the reign of his grand-daughter, Elizabeth.

Right had prevailed.  Evil had been vanquished.

But it wasn’t quite like that. Richard was the victim of one of the most successful posthumous smear campaigns ever mounted.

Why? Because Henry had no real right to the throne at all. The Wars of the Roses had been raging for years; all England was in turmoil, and Henry had grabbed what wasn’t his.  How to justify his act and secure what he had seized? How to persuade the English that a Welshman was their legitimate ruler?

For a start, by painting his predecessor as black as possible.

Thus Crookback Dick, hunchback and murderer!

There is no proof that Richard was either.  On the contrary he appears to have been an astute, capable ruler.  But the Tudors, later aided by Shakespeare’s dramatic skills, got away with it.  The mud they threw has stuck ever since.  Some historians and writers … have tried to rehabilitate him – but, as usual, ‘history is the lie commonly agreed upon’.   In popular imagination Richard will always be an evil, black-garbed hunchback stealing into the Tower to smother two little cherubs, before dying a coward’s death in battle, defeated by the heroic Henry …

Naturally Ricardians beg to differ and will continue to do their level best to prove the truth about the last Plantagenet king of England.

Tags: Books, Richard III