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Book Review - Henry VI & Margaret of Anjou by Amy Licence

10/2/2019

Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou: A Marriage of Unequals by Amy Licence.
Published by Pen & Sword, 2018.

In this dual-biography about King Henry VI and his Queen Margaret of Anjou, the author analyses both characters, Henry VI and his queen – separately and as a couple, analysing the challenges they faced, actions and the decisions they made, and how Henry’s mental health prevented them to rule the kingdom successfully. This dual-biography focusses not merely on the Lancastrian King and Queen but also at those involved in their lives, their only child, allies and enemies and ofcourse their involvement and cause of the Wars of the Roses.
A bit of a downside of the book are the typos, which doesn't change the meaning of the text, and the lack of an index.

Amy Licence’s writing style is both easy to read and engaging. Overall, Henry VI & Margaret of Anjou: A Marriage of Unequals is a well-written, informative and enjoyable read about less popular but nonetheless, interesting subjects. I recommend it to everyone interested in history and in particular to those with an interest in the Wars of the Roses.

I was given a review copy by the publisher, Pen & Sword. Personally I do not review books I have not enjoyed.

Henry and Jasper Tudor's Landing at Mill Bay 7 August 1485

8/8/2018

The painting below is now available as limited edition numbered print in the shop

Henry and Jasper Tudor's Landing at Mill Bay, 7 August 1485 © Dmitry Yakhovsky

Without encountering any obstacle at sea, the 28-year old penniless exile, Henry Tudor and his approximately 4000 followers had sailed from the port of Harfleur and safely arrived after a 6-day’s journey at Mill Bay, along the rocky Pembrokeshire coastline, on 7 August 1485.

Henry owed a lot to his cousin Charles VIII who had given his support to Henry’s enterprise by grants and loans. Henry also borrowed heavily from one of Charles’ main councillors, Philippe Lullier. Further loans were given by local French Merchants. As a guarantee for these loans Henry had given up his personal belongings but also had to leave behind John Bourchier and Thomas Grey, Marques of Dorset as a security for his repayments. Henry’s army, commanded by the young Phillibert de Chandee (who was likely a distant kinsman of Henry) consisted of mostly French and Breton men, who were provided by the French King Charles VIII, including the vise-admiral Guillaume de Casenove and the marshal of France Philippe de Crevecoeur. Additionally, four hundred English exiles, including his uncle Jasper Tudor, John de Vere, Earl of Oxford and some prominent Woodvilles, under the command of Richard Guildford and a thousand Scots, under the leadership of Alexander Bruce of Earlshall, were present on the flotilla of around thirty ships.
Preparations had been going on for their arrival and amongst those waiting on the shore was Jasper’s half-brother and Henry’s uncle, the 26-year-old David Owen, the illegitimate son of Owen Tudor who had spent the first years of his life with Henry at Pembroke Castle.

Henry’s mixed sense of relief and anxiety was obvious. He then ‘kissed the ground meekly, and reverently made the sign of the cross upon him’. Soon after their landing Henry also decided to knight eight of his foremost followers – his uncles David Owen and John, Lord Welles, Philibert de Chandée, James Blount, Edward Courtenay, John Cheyne, Edward Poynings and John Fort.
Their first task was to climb up the steep sea cliff, followed by the decision to go the village of Dale and its castle and set up camp in the village. According to Henry’s biographer Bernard André, Henry, perhaps especially mindful of his French troops, reprimanded his men not to do anything to others, ‘either by word or by deed, which you not wish to have done to yourselves’. Rules of war were crucial if authority was to be maintained and order kept.
Both Jasper and John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford inspected the French troops in order to determine what gear and weaponry they were short of. It was probably, the constable of Pembroke, Richard Williams, who hastened 200 miles over 4 days to King Richard at Nottingham to bring him the news about their landing.

Their ultimately successful Bosworth campaign had begun.

Death of Jacquetta of Luxembourg 30 May 1472

30/5/2018

Jacquetta of Luxembourg died at the age of around 56 when she died on 30 May 1472. She was the eldest daughter and second child of Peter I, Count of Saint-Pol and Margaret de Baux. Jacquetta had five brothers (Louise (who was beheaded in Paris in 1475 for treason against Louis XI), Thibaud, Jacques, Valeran and Jean) and two sisters (Catherine and Isabelle) Jacquetta married twice, first on 22 April 1433 to John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (younger brother of Henry V) The marriage was childless and the Duke died after only two years of marriage. Secondly she married to the former chamberlain of her late Husband, Richard Woodville, later Earl Rivers, at around 1437, without the King’s permission. Together they had 14 children, most importantly Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort of Edward IV, Lewis Woodville, died in childhood, Anne Woodville, Anthony, 2nd Earl Rivers, John, Jacquetta, Lionel, Bishop of Salisbury, Eleanor, Margaret, Martha, Richard, 3rd Earl Rivers, Edward Woodville, Lord Scales, Mary, Countess of Pembroke, Catherine, Duchess of Buckingham and Bedford (through her marriages to Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford.

Janet McTeer as Jacquetta in The White Queen

The Weepers of Isabella of Bourbon

8/4/2018

A recent visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam got me interested in Isabella of Bourbon (1434-1465), second wife of Charles the Bold. While visiting the Special Collections in the museum about the Middle Ages and Renaissance I came across several statues which were taken from Isabella's tomb many years ago.

Isabella of Bourbon was born in 1434 as the second daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy, a daughter of John the Fearless. Isabella became her parent's eldest surviving daughter after the death of her older sister Mary in 1448 and as part of a truce Isabella was married to her cousin Charles, Count of Charolais, alias Charles the Bold (her mother Agnes being a sister to Charles's father Phillip the Good. Charles married Isabella at Lille, France on 30 October 1454, as his second wife. Their marriage was reported to be a happy union. Caused by her early death, not much is known about Isabella's life. She died of Tuberculosis in Antwerp on 25 September 1465, aged only 31, leaving behind her husband and their 8-year old daughter Mary.

Isabella was buried in the Church of St. Michael's Abbey in Antwerp and her funeral monument was erected twelve years after her death by the order of her daughter Mary. Originally the monument was decorated by 24 weepers or pleurants with a bronze effigy of Isabella surmounted in the center. The weepers were ancestors and mourning family members, of which only two have been identified as her 14th Century ancestors from the royal house of Wittelsbach, Albrecht of Bavaria (her great-grandfather )and his father Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria (her great-great-grandfather). The weepers were dressed in earlier fashion than the time of Isabella's death because they are copies from two earlier not surviving tombs and they symbolize the importance of the Burgundian dynasty.

During the Iconoclastic Fury in the 16th Century, Isabella's monument was stripped of its decorations and the weepers vanished. Ten of the weepers turned up in Amsterdam and in 1691 the mayor purchased ten of them from a man called Pieter Vos. The weepers are attributed to the Flemish Northern Renaissance sculptors Renier van Thienen and Jan Borman, who are also attributed to have made the tomb effigy of her daughter Mary. Isabella's biggest legacy was her daughter Mary and her offspring. Isabella and Charles the Bold's only child became the heiress of Burgundy at a very young age and went on marrying the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I with whom she had two surviving children, Margaret of Austria and Philip the Handsome. Philip became the father of many children who would in the future be kings and queens across Europe, including Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

4 April 1483, death of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Exeter

4/4/2018

Today, 4 April, in 1483, marks the death of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Exeter, 1st Viscount and 5th Baron Bourchier and Knight of the Garter, at the age of around 78. He was the eldest son of William Bourchier and Anne of Gloucester and a maternal great-grandson of King Edward III. Henry was a Yorkist supporter and held the post of Lord High Treasurer with intervals from 1455 until his death. Henry Bourchier was married to Isabel of Cambridge (daughter of Richard, Earl of Cambridge and Anne Mortimer and so sister to Richard Duke of York, making him an uncle of Edward IV and Richard III) Henry and Isabel had at least seven children. Henry and his wife (a year later) were buried in Beeleigh Abbey (Essex) and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, they were reburied in the Parish Church of Little Easton (Essex) in the Bourchier Chapel.

The winner of the contest is.........

2/4/2018

And the winner of the Wars of the Roses Colouring Book Contest is ROSIE SIMONS!

Congratulations Rosie, you will receive Dmitry Yakhovsky's graphic novel

The Shadow of the Cross - Imprisonement
2 of Dmitry's signed limited edition prints of Isabel Neville and Richard III's Final Battle.

Thank you Ashley, Brianna, Katherine, Mandy, Rosie and Sam for sending us your coloured Richard III pages for the Wars of the Roses Colouring Book Contest! They all look lovely. As a thank you for joining you will all soon receive a unique colouring page in your mailbox.

For those who purchased The Wars of the Roses Colouring Book, we look forward to seeing your artistic creations and would be happy to share anything you would like to send us.

The Wars of the Roses Colouring Book Contest

20/3/2018

Richard III received most of the votes on Facebook when we asked followers what colouring page they would prefer to colour for the contest. Below you can click on the page, save and print it. To join the contest you can send a picture of your Richard III colouring page until 27th of March. We will then display all the colouring pages of the contestants and announce the winner. The winner will ofcourse be rewarded with some great prizes, SEE BELOW! And as a bonus we will send a special colouring page to everyone who participates. So get creative and send us your Richard III colouring page by email or through a private message on FACEBOOK. Email address is: thewarsoftherosescatalogue@gmail.com

The winner will receive:
2 limited edition signed prints
(Isabel Neville and Richard III's Final Battle)

The medieval graphic novel The Shadow of the Cross
From reknowned artist Dmitry Yakhovsky

Save image and Print!
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The Wars of the Roses Colouring Book is AVAILABLE NOW!

5/2/2018

So excited to announce that the first and only Wars of the Roses Colouring Book is now finally available for pre-order and will be released by MadeGlobal Publishing next week on the 11th of February! It was such a great pleasure for artist Dmitry Yakhovsky and me to create this colouring book. You can see the trailer, front cover and read the blurb below and (pre-) order the book now from Amazon.

BLURB:
'Debra Bayani, author of Jasper Tudor: Godfather of the Tudor Dynasty, and artist Dmitry Yakhovsky have come together to create this beautiful colouring book which will be enjoyed by both adults and young people.
The Wars of the Roses lasted for over thirty years and were a series of civil wars fought between rival claimants for the English throne: the Yorkists and Lancastrians. This tumultuous period of history saw the rise of some fascinating historical personalities, and the downfall of others, bloody battles, rebellions, murders, betrayal, and finally the unification of the warring factions.
In The Wars of the Roses Colouring Book, Debra's text introduces these main characters, events and places, while Dmitry’s stunning artwork and your colouring will bring them to life. Relax, unwind and express yourself, all while learning about the Wars of the Roses.'
Highlights include: ● Westminster Abbey ● King Henry VI ● Queen Margaret of Anjou ● Jasper Tudor ● Margaret Beaufort ● Cecily Neville ● King Edward IV ● Queen Elizabeth Woodville ● Richard Neville ● The Tower of London ● King Edward V ● King Richard III ● Queen Anne Neville ● King Henry VII ● Queen Elizabeth of York and MANY MORE.

Digitalis & Other Plant Poisons used in Medieval Times by Toni Mount

25/1/2018

Launch of The Colour of Murder, the latest book in the popular ‘Sebastian Foxley’ series of medieval murder mysteries by author and historian Toni Mount.

A Big thank you to Toni Mount for writing this interesting article about poisonous plants used in the Middle Ages and letting us host the 1st day The Colour of Murder blog tour. The Colour of Murder is the latest whodunit in the popular ‘Sebastian Foxley’ series of medieval murder mysteries by author and historian Toni Mount and was released a few days ago.
540 years ago, on the 18th February 1478 the Duke of Clarence was, famously, drowned in a butt of malmsey wine. Did he jump or was he pushed? The question has never been answered, so this was an opportunity for the intrepid investigator Seb Foxley – to finally solve the mystery.

Digitalis & Other Plant Poisons used in Medieval Times

In The Colour of Murder I feature the use of digitalis, a toxin present in all parts of the foxglove plant, though different species are poisonous to varying degrees. Foxgloves are such attractive flowers that they have been grown in gardens for centuries, despite the danger. Today, digitalis is still used in medicine for the treatment of certain heart conditions in the form of the drug digoxin. Digitalis causes slower, more intense contractions of the heart and may make it beat irregularly – it is these accentuated effects which are the causes of death. Nausea and loss of appetite are other side effects but all these symptoms could be attributed to ‘natural causes’ rather than poisoning. The side effect that was most noticeable for Seb Foxley in The Colour of Murder was that of visual distortion. Digitalis causes colour-vision changes, making everything appear greenish yellow, sometimes with mistiness or ‘snow’. Lights may seem to flicker or have haloes. I took liberties in having Seb suffer these visual problems after a single dose: patients on digoxin treatment don’t usually notice such aberrations until a few weeks after they begin to take the pills.

It is possible that Vincent van Gogh may have been taking digitalis in his later years, perhaps as a treatment for his epilepsy, although it wouldn’t have helped this condition. It would certainly explain his ‘yellow period’ and the haloes around the stars in his famous ‘Starry Night’ painting. His two portraits of his doctor both include foxglove flowers which might be another clue.

In case of an overdose of digitalis, another equally toxic substance provided the antidote: atropine from the deadly nightshade plant. Atropine causes the heart rate to increase so counters the effect of digitalis but, administered alone in a high dose, the accelerated heart rate and resultant high blood pressure can kill. Atropine was used as a cosmetic product in medieval Italy because, as a side effect, it causes the pupils to dilate, making the eyes appear larger and more striking – hence its other name ‘belladonna’ or ‘beautiful lady’. Unfortunately, even quite small doses administered as drops into the eye can cause hallucinations for up to twelve hours as well as a sense of disorientation. I wonder if it was worth it just to enhance a lady’s eyes.

Deadly nightshade belongs to the plant family Solanaceae as does the infamous mandrake and also woody nightshade. Their flowers with back-curving petals are quite distinctive and were well known to be avoided by medieval folk. This led to a great reluctance to eat any part of a plant which bore the tell-tale flowers of this family. So it comes as no surprise that when potatoes and tomatoes – also Solanaceae – were brought to Europe from the Americas, the English were too suspicious of them and it took decades before either food caught on here.

Perhaps the most notorious plant of all in the medieval period was hemlock. The Ancient Greeks used it as a means of execution, forcing the philosopher Socrates to drink it after he was found guilty of ‘corrupting the minds’ of young Athenians. He gradually experienced numbness that began in his feet and legs and paralysis. He would have died of asphyxia as he could no longer draw breath and his heart stopped. Other side effects could be excess salivation and convulsions but the Greeks knew enough of herbal medicine to have added belladonna to Socrates’ last drink to dry up any excess secretions such as saliva, and opium to ease any distress from convulsions by inducing sleep.

But the big problem with hemlock was always that it was easily mistaken for other perfectly edible wild plants, all belonging to the carrot family. The leaves of hemlock look like parsley; its roots are much the same as wild parsnip and carrot – in the days when carrots were pale or purplish, rather than orange – and its seeds look like those of wild aniseed. There are a number of species of hemlock, similar to look at but containing different poisons. Various water hemlocks are all deadly but it was the spotted hemlock, Conium maculatum with its dark splotches on the stem that ended Socrates’ life. Accidental hemlock poisoning could have been more frequent than we know in the days when people made full use of the ‘free food’ to be gathered in the countryside. Mistaking water hemlock for wild parsnip could prove fatal for the entire family. Anyone gathering wild plants for food really had to know what they were doing. Wild birds were often caught in nets and popped into the pot and they too could be toxic because although they can eat hemlock seeds without ill effect, it makes their flesh poisonous to humans. In the days before diagnostic tests were available, it is impossible to say how many deaths from ‘feebleness’, ‘paralysis’, ‘breathing troubles’ or the convulsive form of ‘falling sickness’ [epilepsy] might have been due to an accidental dose of hemlock.

Monkshood, aconite or wolf’s bane Aconitum napellus is another deadly plant but at least its appearance is usually unmistakeable, unless the root is thought to be that of horseradish. It’s a member of the buttercup family – all of which are poisonous to some degree – but is closely related to the beautiful, stately delphinium. Both these plants have spires of blue flowers but monkshood blossoms have what looks like a helmet or hood – hence its ancient name devil’s helmet. It is so deadly – much more so than the delphinium – that in Roman times it was a capital crime to grow it. However, in medieval times, a salve made with the root was occasionally used to treat gout as it numbed the pain; numbness can occur in the hands if gardeners touch it without wearing gloves.

The poison acts swiftly, causing a rapid but irregular heartbeat, numbness in the throat and mouth, although the tongue may feel as if its burning – a unique symptom of poisoning by aconitine: the most active ingredient in monkshood. Giddiness, chills and laboured breathing are suffered but when the numbness and paralysis reach the heart, death rapidly follows. A large dose can kill almost immediately, within minutes and, even today, there is no certain antidote and no chemical test to identify aconitine in body tissues after death. Only the burning sensation in the tongue identifies it – if the victim has time to note it. As little as a milligram or two can be fatal but, if the victim survives for 24 hours, there is a good chance of recovery without lasting ill effects.

Much of the information for this Blog came from A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup [Bloomsbury, 2015] but if you purchase a copy, I suggest you wrap it in a plain dust jacket. With so many intriguing ways of dispatching relatives described in detail, you don‘t want to give your family nightmares, do you?

The beautiful cover is juxtaposed to the horror of murder as Seb Foxley unravels the story of the death of The Duke of Clarence in the Tower of London in February 1478. See the cover created by Dmitry Yakhovsky here :

Toni Mount is a popular writer and historian; she is the author of Everyday Life in Medieval London and A Year in the Life of Medieval England (pub Amberley Publishing) and several of the online courses for www.medievalCourses.com

Her successful ‘Sebastian Foxley’ series of medieval whodunits is published by MadeGlobal.com and the latest book in this series The Colour of Murder is now available as a paperback or on Kindle.

Visit Toni's website for more info: www.tonimount.com

The paperback release 22 January and Kindle release 1 February 2018

Book Blurb
In February 1478, London is not a safe haven, whether for princes or commoners. A wealthy merchant is killed by an intruder; a royal duke dies at the Tower but in neither case is the matter quite as it seems. Seb Foxley, an intrepid young artist, finds himself in the darkest of places, fleeing for his life. With foul deeds afoot at the king’s court, his wife Emily pregnant and his brother Jude’s hope of marrying Rose thwarted, can Seb unearth the secrets which others would prefer to keep hidden? Join Seb and Jude, their lives at hazard in the dangerous streets of the city, as they struggle to solve crimes and keep their business flourishing in this new Sebastian Foxley medieval murder mystery: The Colour of Murder.

The Foxley Letters - An exclusive collection of letters …
This unique e-book in the bestselling Sebastian Foxley Medieval Murder Mystery Series is free to download. With personal letters from all the main characters, including Seb, Emily, Jude and even the wonderful Jack, this collection of letters will add to the lives and stories of those involved in the intrigue, drama and excitement of these historical thrillers set in Medieval London. You can find them HERE
www.sebastianfoxley.com

Join Toni further on her blog tour next month for more great articles

Charles the Bold's Death and Burials

6/1/2018

Charles the Bold, 1460, Rogier van der Weyden, Staatliche Muzeen, Berlin.

Charles the Bold, the last of the great Dukes of Burgundy, died on 5 January 1477 at the Battle of Nancy in his failed attempt to concur the place. His forces had been hopelessly outnumbered by that of Duke Rene II of Loraine (nephew of Margaret of Anjou). Charles’s mutilated body was discovered only two days after an extensive search through the frozen bodies that were littering the battlefield. The body of the 43 year-old duke had been stripped of his clothes and jewels and his face and body were partly eaten by animals. Identification was done by his court physician who could identify the body based on Charles’s earlier scares and long finger nails. It seemed that Charles fell from his horse and received a fatal blow to the head. With him fell the Burgundian state which his great-grandfather Philip the Bold had founded nearly a century before.

The corpse of Charles the Bold discovered after the Battle of Nancy, by Auguste Feyen-Perrin (1862).

Charles was initially buried in Saint Georges Church in Nancy but 53 years after his death, his great-grandson Emperor Charles V ordered his reburial in Bruges, Flanders. It was first sent to the Franciscan Monastery in Luxembourg where his remains found a temporary resting place until 1553 when it was brought to Bruges and interred in the now vanished St. Donatus Cathedral early that year. Several months later Charles’s remains found their final known resting place in Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Kerk in Bruges next to his daughter Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482).

Tombs of Charles the Bold and his daughter Mary of Burgundy in Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Kerk in Bruges, Belgium.

Charles’s effigy was made by sculpturer Jacob Jonghelinck (1530-1606). During the French Revolution both tombs were securely kept but the crypt was plundered. It was only during the excavations of 1979 that the tomb effigies were restored to their original state from before the French Revolution. Mary’s remains were identified but unfortunately no trace of Charles. Luckily we can still admire the splendid tombs effigies of him and Mary.

Richard's Christmas Cheer by Dmitry Yakhovsky

12/11/2017

Dmitry just finished this beautiful new Christmas painting of Richard III, 'Richard's Christmas Cheer'. Signed limited edition numbered prints can be ordered through the webshop. It would make a great Christmas gift!

Toni Mount's The Colour of Betrayal Book Launch

8/10/2017

I am very pleased to welcome author and historian Toni Mount on the website today as a 2nd stop of her book tour for the release of The Colour of Betrayal, the 4th part in the Sebastian Foxley Medieval Murder Mystery series.
Just as the 2nd part in the series, Betrayal is a novella. For The Wars of the Roses Catalogue Toni wrote a very interesting article about the Medieval Goldsmith. Enjoy!

The Colour of Betrayal is the latest whodunit in the popular ‘Sebastian Foxley' series of medieval murder mysteries by author and historian Toni Mount. Inspired by a true story from the 13th century, this new story involves the murder of a London goldsmith whilst he was ‘in sanctuary’ at St Mary le Bow church.

The Medieval Goldsmith

In medieval times, goldsmiths were organised in guilds and were usually one of the most important and wealthy of the guilds in a city. Their patron saint, Dunstan, was renowned as a skilled metal worker who had once got the better of the Devil, tweaking his nose with a pair of red-hot tongs. The guild kept records of members and the marks – hall marks – they used on their products which, when they survive, are very useful to historians. In England, the London mark is recorded in 1300 and the London Company of Goldsmiths received their first royal charter in 1327. Leo of Rozmital visited London in 1465 and remarked on the huge number of goldsmiths in the city:
The masters alone, without the journeymen, amount to four hundred but they are never idle for the size of the city and its wealth provides them with work in abundance.

Goldsmiths often acted as bankers since they dealt in gold and had sufficient security for the safe storage of valuable items. Goldsmithing often included silversmithing as well, but the brass workers and workers in other base metals, such as copper and tin, were normally in a separate guild since the trades were not allowed to overlap. Lead workers were different again – they were plumbers. Many jewellers were also goldsmiths, designing settings for the customer’s stone of choice.

William of Gloucester

Royal patrons were often the goldsmiths' best customers. Henry III [1216-72] was always sending his accounts into the red with his extravagant spending sprees, buying gold and silver plate, jewelled chalices and crosses for his favoured religious foundations as well as jewellery for his own use. From 1240 onwards, Westminster Abbey became the focus of his lavish spending as he venerated St Edward the Confessor, rebuilding the saint's shrine in the abbey as well as creating a splendid mausoleum for himself and his royal descendants. Henry's accounts show that William of Gloucester was his favourite goldsmith, working as a supplier of raw materials, the designer and artist of fine items and acting as a royal clerk. William first appears in the records in 1251 when he was paid for his labour and the precious metals he used to repair some crystal candlesticks and make a gold cup for the king.

Later in the year, William supplied almost £60 worth of jewels and eleven garlands of goldwork at more than £5 each for a royal wedding in York when, on Christmas Day, Henry's eleven-year-old daughter Margaret married ten-year-old Alexander III, King of Scots, in St Mary's Abbey. A year later, William became the King’s Goldsmith officially and more lucrative commissions followed: 110 marks for a golden crown to be a gift to the King of Norway; a set of six cups for Henry’s half-sister and items for the king including rings – over 141 in one year alone – brooches and girdles; chalices, censers, crosiers and mitres as religious gifts; dishes, saucers and goblets for the royal table.

Other commissions were for Henry’s daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Castile and the Bishop of London who ordered a bejewelled mitre and matching crosier. In 1257, William was involved in the design and minting of gold pennies – the first English gold coins – and a new Great Seal for the king’s use as well as a silver image of Katherine, the king’s youngest daughter, for her burial in Westminster Abbey in that year. But William’s biggest commission was the golden shrine for St Edward’s tomb in Westminster. For the last three years of his life, William worked on little else and this sumptuous project was not quite finished when he died in 1269. It must have been a most impressive example of the goldsmith’s art.

But William’s life had not been all plain sailing: as a citizen of London, he had sided with Simon de Montfort against the king in the Barons’ Wars of 1264-5, despite being exempted by the crown from taxation as one of the perks of his royal office as King’s Goldsmith. His decision to support the barons is not easy to explain since one of de Montfort’s greatest complaints against King Henry was the monarch’s over-lavish spending on luxuries... a situation which must have benefitted William considerably. After de Montfort was defeated at Evesham by the royal army in 1265, William was imprisoned at Windsor for his part in the rebellion but, within two years, he was back in favour, working at Westminster and wealthy enough to buy up properties in London and manors in both Kent and Essex.

Sir Edmund Shaa

Edmund Shaa [or Shaw] was born in Cheshire but was apprenticed in 1450 to a London goldsmith, Robert Butler, completing his apprenticeship in 1458. Just four years later, in 1462, he received a grant for life as Engraver to the Tower of London and other English and Calais mints, an office he held for twenty years. He was a successful goldsmith all his life, having a shop, a warehouse and working houses in his will. There is no evidence that he traded regularly overseas, and, unlike many goldsmiths, he doesn’t seem to have acted as a moneylender. However, like other wealthy Londoners of the time, he did lend money to Edward IV in 1468 and, subsequently, made several private loans to the king, including the huge sum of £240 made in 1469.

Shaa was elected alderman of Cripplegate ward – the Goldsmiths’ ward – in July 1473 and became sheriff the following year. He was Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company twice and Prime Warden in 1476. In 1482, having been the unsuccessful mayoral candidate the previous year, Shaa was elected Lord Mayor and was in office when Edward IV died and throughout the tumultuous period leading up to the usurpation of Richard III. It is for his role at this time that Shaa is mainly remembered. According to Sir Thomas More, writing around 1515, it was his brother Ralph Shaa, a Cambridge graduate, doctor of theology and canon of St Paul’s, who preached a sermon at Paul’s Cross, claiming that the then Duke of Gloucester was the only lawful claimant to the throne. Ralph had formerly been a popular preacher, but so hostile was his audience on this occasion that his death in the following year was said to have been due to chagrin at the cold reception accorded to his sermon.

As Lord Mayor, Edmund Shaa was involved in the ceremonies of the coronation of Richard III, and he was subsequently knighted and sworn on to the Privy Council. The value of his commercial dealings with Richard and of the grants he received suggests the king was keen to secure his support. Shaa survived Richard’s downfall without any difficulty but died on 20th April 1488 and was buried in the Mercers’ chapel, St Thomas of Acon, but left legacies to his parish church of St Peter’s, Westcheap, and to the inhabitants of Cripplegate ward, including 400 marks for the rebuilding of Cripplegate itself in that section of the city wall which was the goldsmiths’ responsibility.

In his will, he made arrangements for prayers to be said for Edward IV, Edward’s sister Anne, Duchess of Exeter, and Lord Herbert but, wisely, he makes no mention of Richard III. Shaa held Essex properties worth over £50 per annum when he died, including Ardern Hall and Horndon House, as well as a large house in Wood Street, London. He bequeathed over £4,000 in cash, plate and jewels as well as personal and household effects and all the tools belonging to his workshop. He was survived by his wife, Juliana, a son, Hugh, who died childless a few years later, daughters Margaret (married to a mercer, Thomas Rich) and Katherine (who married William Brown, another mercer), as well as four sisters.

In his will, Edmund specified sixteen rings to be made of fine gold engraved with sacred images, to be given to named mourners. He says that his ex-apprentices, John Shaa and Raff Lathum, ‘understand right well the making’ of these rings. John was his nephew and inherited all his uncle’s property after the death of Edmund’s childless son, Hugh. John went on to become Master of the Mint, an MP, a knight and Lord Mayor of London.

Toni Mount is a popular writer and historian; she is the author of Everyday Life in Medieval London and A Year in the Life of Medieval England (pub Amberley Publishing) and several of the online courses for www.medievalCourses.com.
Her successful ‘Sebastian Foxley’ series of medieval whodunits is published by MadeGlobal Publishing and the latest book in this series The Colour of Betrayal is available as a paperback or on Kindle and was launched on October 2nd 2017.

Battle of Blore Heath 1459 Print available

23/9/2017

The Battle of Blore Heath was one of the first battles of the Wars of the Roses and fought on 23 September 1459 at Blore Heath, an area near the town of Market Drayton, Staffordshire. Queen Margaret of Anjou had ordered Audley to intercept Salisbury's force who was to join the main Yorkist force at Ludlow Castle. Audley had chosen the location and set up an ambush. His large force was about double the size of Salisbury’s but when Salisbury realized he was outnumbered he feinted to prepare for retreat, Audley took the bait and send his cavalry out to give chase. A storm of arrows fell upon the royalists force, eventually leading to brutal hand-to-hand fighting. Audley too fought in the thick of the battle along with his men but was sought out by Sir Roger Kynaston of Hordley and was hacked down and killed.

On this painting, as always made by the amazing Dmitry Yakhovsky, James Touchet, Lord Audley's men (fighting for Lancaster) face the fact of defeat by the Yorkist Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and his two sons Thomas, Lord Fauconberg and John, Marquess of Montagu. On this painting we see Audley's standard on the bottom right, Salisbury's on the left and in the middle Sir Roger Kynaston's.

Click here to order a limited edition and numbered print of this painting

Death of Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham

20/9/2017

Today, 20 September, marks the day of the death of Anne Neville Duchess of Buckingham in 1480, at the age of 70. She was a daughter to Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland and his second wife Joan Beaufort. She was, among many, a sister to Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (and so an aunt to King Edward IV and Richard III) Anne married twice, first to Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (who died in 1460 at the Battle of Northampton) with whom she had at least 10 children. Anne and Humphrey's eldest son, another Humphrey predeceased his father and died of the plague in 1458, leaving young Henry Stafford heir to his grandfather's Dukedom and succeeded him as 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Anne's second husband was Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy, with whom she had no children. Anne was buried in Pleshy, Essex.

Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland and her daughters. Anne being one of them.

Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland and his sons and daughter.

New Author Interview with Nathen Amin

17/9/2017

Read HERE the interview I had with author Nathen Amin and his recently published book The House of Beaufort: The Bastard Line that Captured the Crown.

Giveaway Time! Print of Isabel Neville's portrait

4/9/2017

EXCITING NEWS! Today and tomorrow we host a GIVEAWAY for a limited edition numbered print of this beautiful portrait of Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence (1451-1476) by Dmitry Yakhovsky. To join this giveaway you should COMMENT on the Facebook post and like Dmitry Yakhovsky's Facebook page before the 5th of September midnight (GMT+1) GOOD LUCK!

3 September 1513, death of "Garret the Great"

3/9/2017

3 September 1513, death of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, at the age of about 57. Gerald was also known as "Garret the Great" or "The Great Earl". Gerald was Ireland's premier peer and he served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1477 to 1494, and from 1496 onward. Gerald married as his first wife, Alison FitzEustace with whom he had five children. In 1477 he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland but was soon replaced by Henry Grey, 4th Baron of Codnor because it was thought an Englishman was better fit for the job. However, Edward IV was forced to re-appoint him. Gerald managed to keep his position after the House of York fell but committed treason against Henry VII on several occasions, including when supporting the pretender Lambert Simnel. Simnel's attempt to seize the throne failed and many of his supporters were killed at the Battle of Stoke field in 1487, Gerald’s brother Thomas being one of them. Thomas is claimed to have taken the lead in rallying support for Simnel in Ireland but definitely could not have been able to do so without consent of his brother Gerald. In 1494 he was send to the Tower, during which his wife Alison died. Gerald was tried in 1496 but was able to convince the King the bad intentions of the current ruling factions in Ireland. Henry realized he needed Gerald, pardoned him and promptly re-appointed him as Lord Deputy of Ireland. From then Gerald remained faithful and Henry VII allowed him to marry a second cousin of him as his second wife, Elizabeth St. John, with whom Gerald had another 5 children. While on an expedition in Kilkea in 1513, Gerald was mortally wounded said while watering his horse. He was taken back to Kildare where he died.

25 August 1485, execution of William Catesby, Richard III's closest advisor

25/8/2017

Today, 25 August, in 1485, execution by beheading of William Catesby in Leicester, at the age of about 35. He was the son of Sir William Catesby of Ashby St Ledgers and Philippa Bishopston.
Catesby and one of Richard III closest friends and advisors. Catesby had been captured at the Battle of Bosworth or soon after.

Just before his execution Catesby made his last will, leaving its fulfilment entirely to his wife, 'to whom, I have ever been true of my body.' He wished his wife to restore all the land he had wrongfully purchased, and to divide the rest of his property among their children. 'I doubt not, the king will be good and gracious lord to them; for he is called a full gracious prince, and I never offended him by my good and free will, for God I take to my judge I have ever loved him.' And even more remarkable he wrote : 'My lords Stanley, Strange, and all that blood, help and pray for my soul, for ye have not for my body as I trusted in you. Perhaps suggesting he had surrendered to the Stanleys who had promised him protection but broke word and handed him to Henry for execution.

Catesby lands were confiscated but eventually in 1496 restored to his son George. Catesby was buried in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin and Leodigarius in Ashby-St-Ledgers.

24 August, in 1507, death of cecily of York

24/8/2017

Stained glass depiction of Cecily of York, probably 1482–83, formerly Canterbury Cathedral, now Burrell Collection

Cecily of York, Viscountess Welles died on this day (24 August) in 1507, at Sandown or Hatfield, at the age of 38. She was the 3rd surviving daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. As so many of her time, Cecily is a little known woman and only some key events in her life are known. In 1474 a marriage alliance was agreed between Edward IV and James III of Scotland, Cecily was betrothed to the future King James IV . But by 1479 the alliance collapsed and the marriage plans were off. On 15 January 1478 Cecily was present at the wedding of her 4-year old brother Richard to the 5-yearl old Anne de Mowbray, Countess of Norfolk at St. Stephen’s Chapel in Westminster. In 1480 Cecily, along with her sister Mary, was named Lady of the Garter, the oldest and highest British order of chivalry. Cecily would marry three times, first to Ralph Scrope (the marriage was annulled on the accession of Henry VII, her future bother-in-law) secondly she was married to John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles, uncle of the half-blood to Henry VII (John was a son to Lionel Welles and Margaret de Beauchamp. Making Cecily sister-in-law to Margaret Beaufort) and thirdly to Thomas Kyme, an obscure squire, who it is said she married for love and without the King’s permission. For this Cecily was banished from court but after the intervention of Margaret Beaufort some of her lands were restored to her, but only for a lifetime and not for her to pass on to her husband or children. It is not clear where Cecily was buried, according to Hall's Chronicle Cecily died and was buried in Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight and according to others she was buried in Hatfield or Kings Langley.

Cecily of York's signature.

Exclusive Richard III prints by artist Dmitry Yakhovsky

19/8/2017

I'm very excited and pleased to announce that, to commemorate the Battle of Bosworth, you can now order a limited-edition print of a unique Richard III painting exclusively done for The Wars of the Roses Catalogue by the amazing artist Dmitry Yakhovsky. There are only 50 prints available, so don't miss out and order one now on the website! To order it click HERE

Here you can see the process of painting:

7 August 1485, Henry Tudor's arrival at Mill bay

7/8/2017

Henry Tudor's arrival at Mill Bay 7 August 1485, by Graham Turner.

Without encountering any obstacle at sea, Henry Tudor and his c. 4000 followers had sailed from the coast of Harfleur arriving safely at Mill Bay, along the rocky Pembrokeshire coastline after a 6-days journey on 7 August 1485.
Preparations had been going on for their arrival and amongst those waiting on the shore was Jasper’s half-brother and Henry’s uncle, the 26-year-old David Owen, illegitimate son of Owen Tudor who had spent the first years of his life with Henry at Pembroke Castle.

Henry’s mixed sense of relief and anxiety was obvious. He then ‘kissed the ground meekly, and reverently made the sign of the cross upon him’. Soon after their landing Henry also decided to knight eight of his foremost followers – his uncles David Owen and John, Lord Welles, Philibert de Chandée, James Blount, Edward Courtenay, John Cheyne, Edward Poynings and John Fort.

Tomb effigy of Henry's uncle Sir David Owen in St. Mary's Church in Easebourne, Sussex (courtesy of Jean McCreanor)

Their first task was to climb up the steep sea cliff, followed by the decision to go the village of Dale and its castle and set up camp in the village. According to Henry’s biographer Bernard André, Henry, perhaps especially mindful of his French troops, reprimanded his men not to do anything to others, ‘either by word or by deed, which you not wish to have done to yourselves’. Rules of war were crucial if authority was to be maintained and order kept.
Both Jasper and John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford inspected the French troops in order to determine what gear and weaponry they were short of. It was probably, the constable of Pembroke, Richard Williams, who hastened 200 miles over 4 days, to King Richard at Nottingham and told him the news about their landing. Good news also came, the people of Pembroke ‘were ready to serve Jaspar ther erle’.

Further reading:

W.H. Blaauw, ‘On the effigy of Sir David Owen’, pp. 25, 38, 39, vol. 7, History and Antiquities of that county, The Sussex Archaeological Society, vol. 7 (London 1854).
Fabyan, p. 672.
Harleian 78 fo. 31v.
Vergil, p. 216
Debra Bayani, Jasper Tudor, Godfather of the Tudor Dynasty, p. 187-208 (MadeGlobal Publishing 2015)

The Crown of Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy

3/7/2017

My visit to the Cathedral Treasury of Aachen in 2013 gave me some additional information about a little object which has been in the possession of the Treasury for nearly 640 years. It’s the coronet of a Duchess of Burgundy, Margaret of York, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville and sister to the Kings Edward IV and Richard III.
This coronet is said to be the only medieval British royal crown still surviving. This, however, is not true, there is another crown worn by Blanche, daughter of Henry IV, at her marriage to Louis III, the Elector Palatine, in 1402, and still exists in Munich. Naturally this fact does not make Margaret’s crown any less valuable and interesting.
There is a possibility that Margaret wore her crown already in 1461 at the coronation of her brother Edward IV when she was 15 years of age and that it was adjusted for her in 1468 when she wore it at her wedding to Charles the Bold on 3 July in Damme, near Bruges. It is very notable that this crown is incredibly small, with a diameter across the base of just under five inches, and a maximum height of just over five inches. The size does not make it any less splendid than it is. Between each rose appear letters covered with transparent green, white and red enamel forming the name Margarit(a) de (Y)o(r)k and the initials C and M adjoined with a knot appear repeatedly. The white rose of York with a diamond wreath in the front, corresponds with the enamelled coat of arms bearing the arms of Burgundy, France and England quarterly, which symbolises the marriage. Furthermore the circlet is made of gilded silver, ornamented with precious stones; a diamond cross, adorned with two edgings of pearls and surmounted by eight large fleurons; the one in the front is quadrifoliate (4 leaves)with a large ruby in a claw setting and mounted on a white rose, the other seven quinquifoliate (5 leaves) ornamented with pearls and sapphires. Below this is a small gold rose ornamented with emeralds.

There is also a leather case for the coronet, the sides ornamented with a design of dragons and gothic foliage pressed into the leather. On top are the arms of Burgundy impaling England and France quarterly. The arms are surrounded by flints, the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Around the edge are again the initials C and M joined by knots, and, repeated five times, ‘Bien en Avienie’, ‘May good come of it’ the motto of Margaret of York.
So how did her crown ended up in Aachen? It is known that Margaret travelled to Aachen on a few occasions and it’s recorded that she spent some time here on 22 July 1474 and that either on this occasion or another, she donated her crown to the admired statue of the Virgin Mary of the cathedral. A child-sized crown was also constructed for the Christ Child, this, unfortunately does not exist any longer. Up until now, the crown serves as jewellery during the procession with relics.

Shortly after her marriage to Charles the Bold in 1468, Margaret of York commissioned Dialogue de la duchesse de Bourgogne à Jésus Christ from her almoner Nicolas Finet. The illustration above is taken from this book.

Queenship in England Book Tour Conor Byrne

16/2/2017

'Between 1308 and 1485, nine women were married to kings of England. Their status as queen offered them the opportunity to exercise authority in a manner that was denied to other women of the time. This book offers a new study of these nine queens and their queenship in late medieval England.

       Isabella of France, wife of Edward II
     Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III
       Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II
       Isabelle of France, second wife of Richard II
       Joan of Navarre, wife of Henry IV
       Katherine of Valois, wife of Henry V
       Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI
       Elizabeth Wydeville, wife of Edward IV
       Anne Neville, wife of Richard III

The fourteenth- and fifteenth-centuries were frequently characterised by dynastic uncertainty and political tensions. Scholars have recognised that the kings who ruled during this time were confronted with challenges to their kingship, as new questions emerged about what it meant to be a successful king in late medieval England. This book examines the challenges faced by the queens who ruled at this time. It investigates the relationship between gender and power at the English court, while exploring how queenship responded to, and was informed by, the tensions at the heart of governance.
Ultimately Queenship in England questions whether a new model of queenship emerged from the great upheavals underpinning the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century polity.'

“An interesting and accessible exploration of medieval queenship in relation to gender expectations.” – Amy Licence, author of Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII’s True Wife
“A very readable and thoroughly researched book that looks at the role of late medieval Queens of England in an original way.” – Toni Mount, author of A Year in the Life of Medieval England

Queen Margaret of Anjou

Queen Elizabeth Woodville

Queen Anne Neville

In the summer of 1453, the thirty-one year old Henry VI of England suffered a mental breakdown. So serious was this breakdown that the king was unable to show awareness of anything that happened around him for well over a year. The king’s breakdown could not have occurred at a worse point, for the fragility of the English polity continued to be threatened by political tensions occasioned by faction at court and crises in diplomacy. In this difficult context, Henry’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, gave birth to their only son, Edward, on 13 October 1453. What should have been a glorious occasion, celebrated with jousts, banquets and public thanksgiving services across the realm, instead contributed to the outbreak of violence and dynastic rivalry that was to plague England, intermittently, for the next thirty years. Moreover, Henry’s breakdown prevented him from immediately recognising his son as his heir; only at Christmas the following year would he do so. The king’s failure to do so encouraged scurrilous rumours that the queen’s son was not the offspring of the king, but was the product of an adulterous liaison, perhaps with Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset. Margaret’s reputation, and the honour of her husband, were not the only issues at stake in the mid-1450s, however. Her son’s inheritance was in danger, for Henry’s breakdown facilitated the ascendancy of Richard, duke of York, Somerset’s enemy and a powerful figure with his own claim to the throne.
Margaret of Anjou’s queenship was controversial in her lifetime and the queen herself a notorious figure both in life and in death. Her tenure as consort, which formally lasted fifteen years, and her political activities as the effective head of the Lancastrian party, which ended only with Henry VI’s final defeat in 1471, exemplifies the tensions between gender and power at the heart of governance. Yet what is often forgotten, or insufficiently recognised, is how conventional Margaret’s queenship was for the first decade or so of her tenure. Like Isabella of France, who has also been depicted as a ‘she-wolf’, Margaret did not actively set out to usurp her husband’s role, nor did she relish the prospect of the conflict that was a consequence of partisan politics. Instead, like Isabella, Margaret largely conformed to contemporary expectations of the queen’s roles and the spheres of activity in which the queen was thought to participate. However, her husband’s breakdown and the diplomatic and political crises of the mid fifteenth-century led to the Wars of the Roses and a crisis of kingship and, perhaps by extension, to a crisis of queenship. This crisis affected not only Margaret but also her successors, Elizabeth Wydeville and Anne Neville, both of whom were consorts of Yorkist kings.

During the early years of her marriage, Margaret concerned herself mainly with the interests of her servants, and was especially active in matchmaking. The queen also spent lavishly on gifts for her favourites, but her gift-giving also served a political purpose. The duke and duchess of York, for example, were provided with gifts that served to indicate Margaret’s desire to be on good terms with them. It is a useful reminder that the young queen did not actively seek conflict with a duke that she had allegedly always disliked and feared. Margaret was also reported to be an effective intercessor, and those involved in Cade’s rebellion of 1450 were said to have been pardoned due to the ‘humble and persistent supplications, prayers and requests of our most serene and beloved wife and consort the queen.’
However, Margaret’s marriage was not especially popular among the nobility and commons for several reasons. Firstly, there were complaints that the queen had arrived in England without ‘any peny profite, or foote of posession’, and this led to the view that England had been deliberately ensnared by the wiles of the crafty French, whose corrupt practices were well known. Margaret was also criticised, and has been subsequently, for allegedly favouring the interests of her homeland, in pressuring her husband to cede Maine and Anjou to the French in 1445-6. Given the context of the Hundred Years War, in which ownership of territories on the continent was fiercely contested by both the English and the French, that this claim could seriously damage the queen’s reputation is obvious. However, it has been suggested that Margaret was actually pressured by both her father, Renee of Anjou, and by the king of France to encourage Henry VI’s decision to cede Maine and Anjou, and ultimately it was the king who bore responsibility. That Margaret’s marriage was unpopular, at least in some circles, is demonstrated by a statement from 1447, two years after the queen arrived in England, in which the keeper of Guildford gaol allegedly wished that the queen was drowned and the king hanged, for nothing had gone right since they had married. Over the years, criticisms directed at Margaret only increased, rather than decreased. The following year, a farm labourer was apprehended for questioning Margaret’s claim to be queen of England, given that she had failed to provide her husband with an heir. Contemporaries experienced great anxiety when their queen seemed unable to conceive, and during the uneasy diplomatic and political circumstances of the late 1440s, it is unsurprising that Margaret was ridiculed and criticised on account of her childlessness.
Margaret’s position on the eve of the Wars of the Roses, therefore, was a difficult and ambivalent one. On the one hand, she had admirably conformed to contemporary expectations of queenship, in succeeding in the traditional spheres of intercession, household management and patronage, which was afforded by her apparent closeness with the king. But her childlessness seriously undermined her position and contributed to criticisms of Henry VI’s legitimacy as king. Even when she provided her husband and the wider realm with an heir in the autumn of 1453, it did not greatly strengthen her position or shore up support for Henry’s kingship. This was also affected by the aggressive posturing of the duke of York, who complained that the royal couple and the duke of Somerset had ostracised him. York’s aggressiveness, and the king’s inertia, meant that Margaret was compelled to play a more politically active role than her contemporaries, and perhaps she herself, expected.
In her political actions, however, Margaret was highly circumscribed because, like Isabella of France, her actions had to be seen to be legitimised and sanctioned by her husband. Given Henry VI’s mental deficiencies, however, it was difficult for Margaret to secure the much-needed legitimacy. Any authority that she wielded was entirely dependent on her husband and this authority was significantly diminished in the aftermath of the first Battle of St Albans in 1455 and the establishment of York’s protectorate shortly afterwards. Nonetheless, the queen positioned herself as the head of an anti-Yorkist power base in 1456 and, considering her actions in the context in which they were taken, this ultimately leads to the conclusion that she had very little choice. It is crucial to state that, during these years, Margaret was careful to exercise authority with reference to her husband and son, and she represented herself as concerned with seeking her son’s rightful inheritance to the throne.

Nonetheless, the queen’s actions were misrepresented by hostile Yorkist propaganda that depicted her as a vengeful, aggressive virago content with dominating her victimised husband. She was presented as responsible for the ills befalling the kingdom, while the Yorkists were constructed as the bringers of peace and the much-wronged victims of the Lancastrian government’s tyranny. Margaret’s attempts to exercise legitimate authority were undermined by the effectiveness of the Yorkist propaganda, which was exacerbated further by continuing rumours that her son was the offspring of her adulterous liaison with Somerset. In Lancastrian circles, however, the queen was praised for her fortitude and her loyalty to her son and to her husband. During the years of crisis that ultimately ended with Edward IV’s accession in 1461, Margaret effectively took on the more masculine authority associated with the king, for example, seeking the military assistance of Scotland and promoting a marriage alliance for her son. Ultimately, Margaret’s efforts came to nothing, for in 1471 her husband – who had been under the control of the Yorkists – was murdered in the Tower of London and her son was slain at the Battle of Tewkesbury.
The politically active role taken on by Margaret of Anjou overshadowed the conventionality of her first decade as England’s queen, in which she effectively conformed to contemporary expectations of queenship and how its incumbent should behave and act. Her husband’s breakdown and the toxic combination of political and diplomatic tensions at court, however, compelled the queen to actively wield authority as the head of the Lancastrian party, but it is worth stressing that this authority was legitimised by publicly declaring that her concerns were for the restoration of her husband to the throne and for her son to succeed him as king. Like Isabella of France, Margaret may have initially been successful in her actions as a result, but the effectiveness of Yorkist propaganda and the gradual destabilisation of the Lancastrian party contributed to increasing criticisms of the queen and the Lancastrians more generally. Whether we can speak of a crisis of queenship during the late 1450s and early 1460s, it is apparent that Margaret’s successor and rival, Elizabeth Wydeville, was faced with difficult questions when she became queen following her marriage to the first Yorkist king, Edward IV.
Elizabeth’s husband had usurped the throne of England and it was, therefore, important for her to play an active role in legitimising Edward’s status as king. Margaret of Anjou had been criticised for her political actions and for her alleged partisan activities. As a result it was crucial for her successor to distance herself, consciously or otherwise, from Margaret’s controversial model of queenship. To do so, and to legitimise her husband’s claim to the throne, Elizabeth presented herself as traditionalist and as the ideal.
As a case in point, Elizabeth enjoyed a more modest income than her predecessor as part of Edward IV’s reforms to the royal household. Her expenditure was also more restrained than Margaret’s had been; the Lancastrian queen, as mentioned earlier, had spent lavishly on gifts for those in her favour. The queen was also effective in her household management and was determined to ensure that her rights and prerogatives were not threatened. Therefore, when she learned that Sir William Stonor was usurping her rights in the forest of Bernwood, she warned him to desist immediately. In reproaching Stonor, Elizabeth demonstrated her concern to ensure that her own interests were not threatened, while displaying a concern for the security of her tenants residing in the area.
Both Elizabeth and her family, traditionally, have been identified as scheming and avaricious. However, it was not Elizabeth’s fault that she had so many siblings, and contemporaries expected that one should seek to advance the interests of one’s kin where possible; it was something of a moral obligation. Dislike and resentment of the Wydevilles among the nobility has probably been exaggerated, because there is no evidence, aside from the earl of Warwick, that the Yorkist nobility resented marriages between their families and that of the queen’s. Wider criticisms of the Wydevilles have also more specifically led to accusations that Elizabeth was cold, greedy and arrogant; even her appearance has been attacked. However, her contemporaries generally praised Elizabeth’s conduct. In 1472, William Alyngton, speaker of the House of Commons, lauded the queen’s ‘womanly behaveur’ and ‘greate constance’ during a time of trouble. This praise contrasted markedly with contemporary criticisms of the ‘strong-laboured’ and ‘manly’ Margaret of Anjou.

Elizabeth was praised mainly because of her successes in motherhood, thus contributing to the legitimisation of her husband’s claim to the throne and, by extension, confirming the rightfulness of Yorkist rule. In 1470, while Edward was in exile following the Lancastrian restoration, the queen gave birth to a son, Edward, at Westminster. Two more sons, Richard and George, followed. Elizabeth also gave birth to several daughters, the eldest of whom, Elizabeth of York, would become queen of England as the wife of Henry VII. However, it was not solely in her motherhood that Elizabeth Wydeville enjoyed lasting success as queen. Her intercessory activities also conformed to contemporary ideals of how the queen should exercise authority. She assisted the Merchant Adventurers in their bid to obtain a rebate of part of the £2000 demanded by Edward IV when their payments of tunnage and poundage had fallen into arrears.
In almost every respect, Elizabeth Wydeville was the ideal late medieval queen, and her conduct was generally praised by her contemporaries. She consciously distanced herself from the controversial model of queenship espoused by her predecessor, and instead followed a more traditionalist, and idealised, version of queenship that restored an element of stability to the disordered realm and contributed to perceptions of Edward IV’s legitimist rule. However, her husband’s death in 1483 made Elizabeth’s life difficult. In a demonstration of pragmatism, she reached an accommodation with his brother and successor, Richard III, who had usurped the throne in place of her son, Edward. Ultimately, Elizabeth went on to see her daughter become queen of England as the wife of the first Tudor king. Edward IV’s consort had become queen as the wife of a usurper; her queenship likewise closed with a usurpation.
Elizabeth’s successor, Anne Neville, was also the wife of a usurper. Her position, however, was the more difficult of the two, because Elizabeth’s husband had been widely accepted as king when he seized the throne in 1461. Richard III was not, and his reign was undermined by political dissent and intermittent rebellion. Elizabeth’s successes in childbirth, moreover, confirmed divine approval of Edward’s seizure of the throne and evidenced the prosperity of the House of York. Anne Neville had given birth to a son, Edward, several years before she became queen, but the prince’s death in 1484 and the queen’s subsequent childlessness contributed to wider concerns that Richard’s exercise of rule was not lawful.
There is little surviving evidence of Anne’s queenship, but it appears that her model of queenship was also traditional. Unlike her two predecessors, Anne did not exercise authority either formally or informally; instead, she remains a shadowy figure. She dispensed patronage at Queen’s College, Cambridge and appears to have been interested in St. Winifred; it is possible that Anne acted as patron for William Caxton, who published a life of the saint. In her piety, Anne was entirely traditional. There is very little evidence of Anne’s household management or her activities as either intercessor or patron. Possibly, this is due to her increasing marginalisation at court, which was exacerbated by the death of Prince Edward and Richard’s concerns that his wife’s barrenness undermined his position as king. Rumours circulated that Richard intended to marry his niece, Elizabeth; Joanna of Portugal was also a mooted bride.
Anne Neville’s inability to exercise authority as queen was largely due to the circumstances in which she and her husband had come to the throne. Richard’s reign was one of the shortest in post-Conquest history, and Anne predeceased him by five months. The brevity of her tenure, therefore, did not allow Anne to develop her own lasting model of queenship. Richard’s reign was undermined by political dissent and rebellion, thus making it highly important for Anne to produce heirs with which to legitimise her husband’s rule. Her failure to do so only contributed to his weakening position. In the eyes of her contemporaries, Anne’s barrenness rendered her insignificant. Although other consorts, such as Anne of Bohemia, could make up for their childlessness with successes in other areas, such as intercession, there is little evidence that Anne Neville did so. She appears to have been a loyal helpmeet and consort to her husband, but in other areas her influence was highly limited.
The queenships of Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Wydeville and Anne Neville differed markedly from one another, in part due to the contrasting fortunes of the monarchs they married during the political and dynastic turbulence of the Wars of the Roses. Margaret was compelled to actively wield authority as a result of her husband’s incapacity, but increasing criticisms of her actions demonstrated the fraught relationship between gender and power during the late fifteenth-century. Her successor, Elizabeth, consciously distanced herself from Margaret’s militant model of queenship, and instead conformed to traditional expectations of queenship by contributing to her husband’s legitimist rule, in bearing children and in enjoying success as an intercessor, patron and lord. Anne Neville’s queenship is shadowy, partly due to the brevity of her tenure and partly due to the lack of evidence. She did not enjoy the successes of her predecessor and, unlike either Margaret or Elizabeth, was not an effective political actor.

Conor Byrne studied History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of Katherine Howard: A New History and Queenship in England, both published by MadeGlobal. Since 2012 he has run a historical blog and was formerly editor of Tudor Life Magazine. His research to date specialises in late medieval and early modern European history, with a focus on gender, sexuality and the monarchy.

The Death of the Greatest Survivor of the Wars of the Roses - Jasper Tudor +21 December 1495

21/12/2016

Stained glass window of Jasper Tudor and his wife Katherine Woodville, Cardiff Castle

As the year 1495 approached its end, so did the life of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford and Earl of Pembroke. Jasper had made his last will on 15 December at his manor at Thornbury and died there six days later on 21 December. In his own bed he died as one of the greatest survivors of the Wars of the Roses at the age of about 64. Jasper’s body was embalmed and his entrails buried at nearby St. Mary’s Church. The church, which still stands today, must have been a frequent place of worship for the Duke while staying at Thornbury. In his will Jasper requests for his body to be buried 18 miles south of Thornbury ‘in a place convenient’ at the Abbey of Keynsham and for his tomb to be honourably made to suit ‘the estate it hath pleased God to call me to’.

Thornbury Castle

St. Mary's Church, Thornbury, where Jasper's entrails were buried.

Jasper was the son of Owen Tudor and dowager Queen Katherine de Valois (widow of Henry V), half-brother to Henry VI and uncle to Henry VII, to whom he devoted his life. Jasper’s steadfast loyalty towards his family and his tactics to survive against all odds were the main reason the Tudors were able to ensure the English throne. Jasper’s importance to his nephew was unmistakable by the presence of the King and his queen at his uncle’s funeral. His remains, however, were lost during the Dissolution of the Monastries under his great-nephew Henry VIII.

If anyone would like to see the original will, just message me and I'd be happy to send a pdf.

Read below for the transcript of Jasper's will in the original spelling:

In the name of god, Amen. I Jasper Duke of Bedford and Erle of Pembroke make
my testament and last Will in this forme folowing furst I bequeath my soule to almightie god to our blessed
lady the moder the virgine Mary and to all Saintes my body to be buried in the monasterie of our Lady
of Keynesham in a place convenient Where I will that my Tombe be honorable made after thestate that
it hath pleased god to call me to And therupon to be employed an hundred markis Item I will
that certeyne my Lordshippis Maners landes and tenements with their appurtenances which I have in fee
simple aswele in the Counties of Notingham Derby and Warwyk as in the Marche of Wales and ellis
where the some of fourty pounds yerely of the same with licence and agreament of my soverayn lord
the king to be amorteysed for the fyndyng of iiij preestis to syng perpetually in the saide church and Monastery
aswele for my soule and for my faders soule as for the soules of the noble memorie Kateryne some tyme
Quene of England my moder And of Edmund late Erle of Richemonde my brother and of all
other my predecessours Item I will that in defaute hereof some or ij benefices of the value of xl
or l poundes yerely above all charges of the patronage of my saide soverayn Lord of myne or of any
other where the same may bee best obteyned by speciall labor and meanes of me or myne executours
be impropried to thabbot and convent of the saide Monastery perpetually for the tyme being to thentente
v or vj preestis shalbe founde daily to syng in the saide Monasterye aswele for my soule as the
soules aforesaide Item I will that in defaulte of both the premisses and c li to be delyvered unto the saide
Abbot and Convente by myne executours in redy money to thentente that ij preestis shalbe perpetually
founde in the saide Monastery to syng daily for me And the soules above rehersed according to an offer
made by the saide Abbot and Convent in that behalf And the suretie herof to be dyvysed by my
counsell lernede. Item I bequeath to the saide monasterie my best gowne of cloth of gold for vestment
to be made to the honor of God and his blessed moder Item I will that the day of my internment
at Keynesham there be distributed amonge every poor man and woman that will take it ijd a pece and
lykewise at my monethis mynde Item I bequeath to the monasterie of blessid sainte Kenelme of Winchecombe toward the bilding of the same xxli and my long gowne of crymesyn velvett to
make a coope there to the honor of god and the sainte Item I bequeath to the church of Thornebury
toward the reparation of the same xli Item I bequeath to the saide church a gowne of blak velvett

Book Review - The Shadow of the Cross - Imprisonment by Dmitry Yakhovsky

26/11/2016

The Shadow of the Cross – Imprisonment by Dmitry Yakhovsky, September 2016, MadeGlobal Publishing.
I confess that I usually don’t read graphic novels, but this one seemed to be very different. The attention to detail in this book is impressive and each page is a work of art on its own with exquisite scenes. Not many words are needed for the illustrator and author Dmitry Yakhovsky to vividly describe an exciting story about an imprisoned woman and the Cathars, set in medieval Carcassonne. I cannot wait to discover what happens next in the second part and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medieval history. For the sheer beauty of the water colour images alone this book is worth its purchase. As a huge bonus it’s telling a captivating story.