Posts Tagged ‘Francis Lovell’

27
Aug

The King’s Dogge

   Posted by: Dorothea Preis    in Bookworm

The King's Dogge

Book Review:  The King’s Dogge

The following review is by Rob Smith of the New Zealand Branch and was first published in the August 2014 Ricardian Recorder. We thank Rob for his permission to post it here.

Nigel Green, The King’s Dogge: The Story of Francis Lovell, Troubador Publishing Ltd (2014) ISBN 9781783068425

This novel, written in the first person, portrays the life of the King’s Dogge, Francis Lovell up to Bosworth. A sequel is promised. A mixture of known historical facts and events coupled with the author’s vivid imagination results in, to my mind, a rather laborious narrative.

Lovell’s progression from his early days, to his service with Montague and Warwick and thence to their demise at Barnet is informative enough as is his consequent meeting with the Yorkist hierarchy and his entry into Richard’s service. Lovell’s service to Richard in Carlisle and the Border encounters with outlaws and the Scots are laid out but possibly over-emphasised. What I was to find throughout is the author’s tendency to concentrate on the minutia of lesser happenings while allowing other more significant events to be passed over lightly or ignored completely, perhaps relying on the reader’s knowledge to fill in the gaps. However, to be fair, this is a story about Lovell and if he was not involved in these events the author may consider it inappropriate to dwell on them.

What is interesting is Green’s portrayal of the various characters, not least Richard. The author’s Richard is a loyal brother but a vacillating, indecisive king and a pawn in the hands of a scheming Anne Neville who is determined to bring down the Woodville faction for what they did to her father, Warwick. She is shown as the power behind the throne. As Lovell rises to the top in Richard’s service he starts to question and has doubts about his King but remains steadfastly loyal to the end.

Buckingham, Hastings, the Stanleys, etc. are as we know them; Ratcliffe comes out OK but Catesby is shown as a fat, scheming, lawyer, self- serving from the outset as he climbs the ladder of influence, culminating in his engineering of the murder of the Princes (with Richard’s acceptance ), and his ultimate betrayal at Bosworth, being in league with the Stanleys and Northumberland conspiring beforehand in their treachery.

Incidentally, Tudor takes no part in the battle having been hidden away for his safety with decoys taking his place. Did Shakespeare get it right? …. “ I think there must be six Richmonds in the field/Five have I slain today instead of him” (Richard III Act V, Scene iv).

The King’s Dogge is an interesting portrayal of an important figure in Richard’s life but it lacks bite and requires patience and determination to reach the conclusion.

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27
Mar

… AND LOVELL OUR DOG

   Posted by: Dorothea Preis    in News, Ricardian Places

The following information I heard on the highly informative ‘Ricardian grapevine’.  I  have not been able to find any press notices or similar about it, but thought it might be of interest to visitors of our page.

Should you be visiting the Henley-on-Thames area in Oxfordshire between Easter and December this year, you might be interested to know that there will be a small exhibition on Francis Lovell, who once owned the property.   Though from what we heard, it will just be information and image displays, a visit to a place which belonged to Richard’s loyal friend is always a treat.

And if you are also a Downton Abbey fan, you might already have caught a glimpse of Grey’s Court:   the picnic scene in series 3 was shot there.  As this series is at present screening in Australia, viewers here will have seen the family outing only a few weeks ago.

You can find out more on Grey’s Court here, though there is no mention of the exhibition, at least not yet.

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