As a law maker Richard clearly showed that his view on education was not only a religious duty, but went much further than that. While trying to limit the activities of foreign merchants in England the statutes of his only parliament included a Proviso, exempting all merchants and craftsmen concerned in the book trade from the scope of the Act. This was clearly intended to encourage a good supply of books. [Armstrong, p.276] Books were in his day the most up to date means of spreading ideas and learning. If he encouraged books, he must have supported the circulation of ideas.
Abbey Gateway, St Albans (© D Preis)
The context between books and education becomes clear in the following example: Only a few years after William Caxton introduced the printing press to England in the mid 1470s, there was a printing press in St Albans as well, located in the Abbey Gateway. This was the third one in England, after Caxton’s in London and one in Oxford. We don’t know the identity of the St Albans printer, but he was referred to as “sometyme scole master of Saynt Albans”. [‘Printing in England’] The press in St Albans produced books between 1479 and 1486, eight of which have survived. The first six, printed between 1479 and 1483, were Latin university texts. It has been suggested that they were aimed at purchasers from Cambridge, where at that time no press had been established. [Orme, p.181]
We should not forget, however, that Richard’s appreciation for books was also a personal one. There are eighteen surviving texts, of which we know for sure that they are connected to him. In some he signed his name, two are dedicated to him and one has an indirect dedication. It seems likely that these are just a part of a far more extensive library, though without an inventory it is impossible to draw too many conclusions. [Sutton & Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III’s Books’, p.374] With these surviving books we can be sure that they belonged to him, because he put his name in the text itself. With others his name might have been on the flyleaf, which has got lost since then, or they might have been marked with his arms, which have since been changed to someone else’s. [Sutton & Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III’s Books’, p.381]
From his books, Sutton and Visser-Fuchs conclude that he was “an industrious and committed reader”, who showed a high level of education and literacy. This lead them to speculate that he could possibly in his early youth , as the youngest son, have been destined for the church, though this would have changed when his father and brother were killed and his brother Edward became king. [Sutton & Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III’s Books’, pp.384-385] Considering that many of the learned (church-) men among his close connections had humanist interests, it is surprising that among the books we know he owned there are no works of theology or humanist interest. All of us who like reading and books, can glimpse a kindred spirit when Sutton and Visser-Fuchs conclude that “He did not collect them [books] as objects but used them for what they could give him and others in the way of instruction, consolation and entertainment”. [Sutton & Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III’s Books’, p.385]
I think that all these examples of Richard’s relationships with learning, be it with learned men, the centres of learning, books ,as well as his activity as law maker shows clearly that learning was something close to his heart. I would like to close my talk with the words of the anonymous chronicler of Magdalen College in Oxford: “Vivat rex in eternum!”
Bibliography
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Anne F. Sutton & Livia Visser-Fuchs, The Hours of Richard III. Alan Sutton Publishing Pty Ltd, 1996. ISBN 9780750911849
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Part 1 – Richard III and Learned Men
Part 2 – Richard III as the Founder of Collegiate Churches
Part 3 – Richard III and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Tags: Books, Cambridge, Church, Learning, Oxford, Richard III