There has been much anticipation for a  new production of Richard III at the Old Vic in London with Kevin Spacey in the title role.  It is set to open on 29 June and I know that some of our Ricardian friends in the UK have got tickets to go and see it.  Kevin Spacey has been the artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre Company since 2003.

The production will be directed by Sam Mendes, both Mendes and Spacey worked together on the 1999 movie American Beauty, for which they both won Oscars.  It will be part of the Bridge Project, which has been a three-year US-British collaboration.

After the initial season in London, the production will tour the world – and will also come to Sydney, the only Australian city to be included.  This will be the first production of the Old Vic Theatre Company to be staged in Australia since 1948, when Laurence Olivier brought also Richard III.
From 1 December there will be 11 performances at the Lyric Theatre.  Tickets go on sale on 25 July.

Of course Shakespeare’s Richard III is a marvellous stage villain, but as my prof at Bonn uni all those years ago said “he does not seem to bear much resemblance to the real person”.

For more info on the stage production read the announcements in the Daily Telegraph, from Nine News as well as an older article from the Guardian.  For more info on the relationship between play and reality have a look here.

Tags: Richard III, Shakespeare

Margaret (3 May 1446 – 23 November 1503) was the sister of Edward IV and Richard III.  She married Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, in 1468.  He died on 5 January 1477 and the dowager duchess remained influential in Burgundian politics until the end of her life.

Did Margaret like Chocolate?  Hardly, chocolate hadn’t been introduced to Europe during her lifetime.  A pity really, as today Belgian chocolates are world famous and as Duchess of Burgundy, Margaret would have been right on the spot.

Chocolate was only introduced into Europe after Hernan Cortes saw the Aztecs drink the beverage during his visit around 1519.  In Belgium, chocolate was only produced on a large scale in the 19^th century and what comes to mind when we hear the term ‘Belgian chocolates’ was only developed in the early 20^th century. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Margaret of Burgundy

Our latest branch meeting was held on a chill and windy Saturday, 11 June 2011, which also marked the 555th birthday of Richard’s Lady Wife, Queen Anne Neville.  The Sydney Mechanics’ Institute’s smallest meeting room was filled to overflowing with members happy to be warm indoors.

Opening remarks were made by our Chairperson Judith, who then invited Judy to deliver her first report as our new Treasurer.

In her Secretary’s report, Julia talked about forthcoming meetings and also covered some future social events as Social Secretaries, Jane and Xavier, were unable to attend and offered their apologies.  She was pleased to confirm the venue for the 2012 Branch Ricardian biennial conference, which is to be held next May, in the Mittagong RSL.  Details will be distributed closer to the time.  You can find exact times and other information on future meetings and events in our Upcoming Events section. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Anne Neville, London, NSW Branch

Our next general meeting on this coming Saturday, 11 June 2011, promises to be a real treat.

First our member, respected historical novelist Isolde Martyn, will speak on ‘Medieval London’.  Isolde’s talks are always highly appreciated for her thorough research and entertaining presentation.

The day marks also the 555th birthday of Richard’s queen, Anne Neville, so make sure that you come and join us for the party.

The meeting will take place at our normal time and venue, 14h00 at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Tags: Anne Neville, London, NSW Branch

The Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 was fought between King Richard III and the invading army of Henry Tudor, ending with the death of Richard.  Last year, an archaeological survey finally established the actual site of the battlefield, which on subsequent maps had moved further and further eastwards from its depiction on the earliest map (Saxton 1575).

For the visitor to Bosworth the interactive visitors’ centre is a must, showing information on the battle and its consequences.  It also showcases the archaeological finds made during the survey, including the largest collection of 15th century cannonballs from any battlefield in Europe.  You can walk the new Battle of Bosworth Trail around Ambion Hill, which also includes two interpreted views across the actual battlefield site. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Battles, Bosworth

Fans of the TV series Spooks may not know of a Ricardian connection between King Richard and the actor Richard Armitage, who played the role of Lucas North.

He was interviewed by Vulpes Libris (a collective of bibliophiles writing about books) in 2009, and revealed that he was named Richard because he was born in Leicester on 22nd, and further, that one of his father’s favourite books was The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman.  Quoting Richard Armitage:

I read this many years ago.  In recent years it has lead to a tentative interest and line of research into the rehabilitation of this story.  As an actor, it’s a project I would love to achieve.  I believe it is a great story, a socio-political thriller, a love story and a dynastic tragedy.  My challenge is to convince commercial producers to see beyond ‘history lesson’, but I strongly suspect that this will be a long way off…, I may even be producing by the time someone … realizes the potential for this project.

The full interview can be located here (http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/in-conversation-with-richard-armitage)

Tags: Media

For those interested in medieval coins an online company www.time-lines.co.uk/richard-iii-coins-197-0.html has coins for sale, several from the reign of Edward IV, costing from £110 – £325.

The site features a fine coin of Richard’s time, an extremely rare London Mint, Long Cross Halfpenny.  As this item has now sold, the image is available but not the price.

Oh well, I comfort myself with the thought that I could not probably have afforded it given its rarity, but at least the images of all the coins are well worth a look.

Tags: Edward IV, Medieval Life, Richard III

A few items discovered in my never-ending task of trying to relieve my bookcases of excess material (96% of those selected to be discarded always return home).

In a copy of No Turn Unstoned * by Diana Rigg (a wonderful actor mainly remembered for her leather-clad Emma Peel in television’s “The Avengers”) she compiled a collection of awful theatrical reviews and among them:

Ian Holm in The Wars of the Roses.  Shakespeare’s Richard III, Stratford- on -Avon, July 1963.   Reviewed by The Times.

Mr Holm still presents Gloucester as a likeable juvenile, open-faced and friendly in spite of his hump and surgical boot. Mr Holm’s reading  …fails totally to develop in Satantic magnitude.  Instead of the boar, the bottled spider or the bunchbacked toad, Mr Holm remains a high-spirited minor;  he exhausts his lung power in the later scenes, but finishes up on Bosworth Field loaded down with an armour of medieval weapons crooning to himself like a baby inside his visor. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Shakespeare

Today the website of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society is celebrating its second birthday.  We asked our members to share their thoughts about Richard III, the Society or the branch or all of them.  Following are some of their replies.  Celebrate with us and read their experiences.

From Narelle Bartley (QLD):

In the early eighties I read an historical novel which gave Richard a pretty good image but it was a very small statement at the bottom of a page that really intrigued me.  The statement simply advised the reader that “this document is extant”.  That statement led me to investigate the truth about Richard by reading books written by professional historians.  What I actually discovered was the truth about historians and historical chroniclers i.e. that like lawyers in criminal trials only the facts that support their particular view are used to make their argument.  Also, many of them, both for and against Richard, employ extraordinary feats of extrapolation about his motives with phrases such as “he must have” or “this meant”.  There is, in reality, so little actual evidence about Richard’s motives and thought processes that extrapolation at a personal level is futile.  And that’s why I thank goodness for the Richard III Society whose aims include the promotion of research into the life and times of Richard III.  The truth may emerge yet!

From Julia Redlich (Secretary, NSW Branch):

I’m one of the NSW Branch members who talk to various groups on a variety of Ricardian and medieval subjects.  Admittedly a fair percentage of each audience is there mainly to have a chat with friends, enjoy a cup of tea and maybe find the guest speaker interesting.

How rewarding it is when people come up afterwards – and want to know more.  And they are not just being polite!  This echoes the excitement I felt, aged 10, after watching a stage production of Stevenson’s The Black Arrow and realising that the Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was portrayed as someone quite different to the monster in my history book.  I became determined to learn more about “the real Richard”.

Now, when I answer questions about his life and times, explain the connections of obscure characters on the family tree during a tea break or talk about the achievements of his short reign, I recognise the same spark of interest I felt so many years ago.  I hope they continue on the same path I did, that brings fresh ideas and logical explanations – and the pleasure of meeting friends on the same voyage of discovery, and enjoy the loyalty that binds us all.

Happy birthday to our website that brings us so many friends from around the world!

From Isolde Martyn (Former Chairperson of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society and author of two published novels set in the Wars of the Roses):

In this age of ultra-communication when information, public and private, significant or trivial, is spinning across the globe like invisible cobwebs, often there is no time to stop and say, ‘Wait a minute…’, ‘How?’ or ‘Can this be really true?’

The existence of the Richard III Society is a continual reminder that historical events can be — and should be — seen from many angles.  The right to be open-minded, to evaluate the facts in discussion, is a precious liberty that is lacking in many countries of this world.  Five hundred years on, it doesn’t really matter whether a fifteenth century king murdered his nephews when he seized the crown, but isn’t it wonderful for those of us who are members of the Richard III Society to have a present day society (both with a small ‘s’ and a big ‘S’) to discuss it?

From Leslie McCawley (NSW):

Discovering Richard III

My husband, Doug, follows the lovely Victorian custom of reading aloud to me every evening for an hour or two, as we wind down from our busy days apart. In our 14 years of marriage we have, in this way, shared hundreds of wonderful books, and we share the memories of them as other couples recall their shared journeys – for, of course, that is what they are.

One such book was an old favourite of his, The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, that he was pleased to introduce me to one winter several years ago. We would lose ourselves every evening into the quest for the historical truth about King Richard and the tragic fate that befell his nephews.  Who was truly to blame?  After we finished that excellent volume, we decided to seek out more books about Richard III who we now agreed had been unfairly maligned by the conquering Tudors.  We were hungry for more.

Doug’s next selection was The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, and we enjoyed immensely being immersed in the cultural milieu of the War of the Roses.  It also had the effect of making us yearn for yet more information about this historical underdog.  It was during a search for biographical information on the internet that I came across the website of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society.

I was both astonished and thrilled that other people actually had the same interest in, and the same sense of indignation about the maligning of a good man, even though it had happened many centuries ago.  Seeing the posted titles of the upcoming Branch programs, we couldn’t wait to go along and learn all we could.  Until then though, I could enjoy the website’s riches:  wonderful book reviews, articles of interest, information about meaningful anniversaries such as birthdays or battles.  I learned a lot in the interim waiting for the first meeting we could attend.

What a nice group of people we encountered at the meeting room at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts!  True history buffs with a profound love of books, ideas, and learning.  It was like coming home to find so many fascinating people who shared our, we had thought, rather arcane interests!  We joined the Branch on the spot and have not missed a meeting since.  That was several years ago.

Membership in the Richard III Society has greatly enriched our lives, offering us intellectual stimulation through excellent programs and the fun companionship of a wide range of personalities.  And our reading list is now so full of books recommended by fellow members that we shall never get through them all in this lifetime!  But what a joy it is to open another volume about Richard III and hear once again the tales of 15th century England.

From Judy Howard (Treasurer, NSW Branch):

Being a member of the Richard III Society, I have access to like-minded people and a wealth of knowledge regarding King Richard III, the House of York and this fascinating period of mediaeval history.  The website is great and I often marvel at how convenient and easy it is to keep up to date and in touch with people with the internet and websites such as ours.  The quarterly Ricardian Bulletin and the annual Journal are also a wonderful source of information which provides up to date knowledge of the latest thinking and discoveries regarding all things Ricardian.

From Denise Chambers (QLD):

I became of member of the Richard III Society after reading Sharon Penman’s famous novel The Sunne in Splendour.   Up until that time I had not the slightest interest in medieval history and had only vaguely heard of Richard III.  I now read any book or article on medieval history I can find (or afford!).  The excellent journals published by our local branch and our “head office” in England keep me informed on so many topics regarding people and events from this fascinating period in time.  Now, being retired, I’m so happy to have lots of time to spend doing something I love.

From Margaret Shaw (NSW):

In July 1990 while on a tour of the UK I visited Bosworth Field.  When I saw the well from which it is claimed Richard had drunk just before his death I decided I would like to know more about the life and times of Richard III.

I visited the shop on the site and bought some souvenirs, then I saw a notice that in England there was a Richard III Society.  I thought at the time I am sure Richard III has been unfairly treated through history thanks to the Tudors and Shakespeare.  I certainly did not know that there was a Society in Australia.

Some years later my friend Christena Dawson found out through a friend that we had a branch of the Society in Sydney, we joined and have been members ever since.

Over the years I have enjoyed the many meetings I have attended, conferences and other functions.  I have learnt a lot about Richard and other historical events and made some wonderful friends.

Being a member of the Richard III Society is one of the best things in my life.

Tags: NSW Branch