ISSN 0308 4337ISSN 0308 4337ISSN 0308 4337ISSN 0308 4337 Autumn 2003Autumn 2003Autumn 2003Autumn 2003

RicardianRicardianRicardianRicardian BulletinBulletinBulletinBulletin

Magazine of the Richard III Society

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Richard III SocRichard III SocRichard III SocRichard III Societyietyietyiety

Founded 1924 In the belief that many features of the traditional accounts of the character and career of Richard III are neither

supported by sufficient evidence nor reasonably tenable, the Society aims to promote in every possible way research into the life and times of Richard III, and to secure a re-assessment of the material relating to this period and of the role in

English history of this monarch

PatronPatronPatronPatron HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG, GCVO

Vice PresidentsVice PresidentsVice PresidentsVice Presidents Isolde Wigram, Carolyn Hammond, Peter Hammond, John Audsley, Dr Morris McGee

Executive CommitteeExecutive CommitteeExecutive CommitteeExecutive Committee John Ashdown-Hill, Bill Featherstone, Wendy Moorhen, Elizabeth Nokes, John Saunders, Phil Stone, Anne Sutton,

Jane Trump, Neil Trump, Rosemary Waxman, Geoffrey Wheeler, Lesley Wynne-Davies

ContactsContactsContactsContacts

Chairman & Fotheringhay Coordinator: Phil Stone 8 Mansel Drive, Borstal, Rochester, Kent ME1 3HX

01634 817152; e-mail: ptstone@btinternet.com

Ricardian & Bulletin Back Issues: Pat Ruffle 11 De Lucy Avenue, Alresford, Hants SO24 9EU e-mail:

peterchuff@aol.com

Editor of the Ricardian: Anne Sutton 44 Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1QF

Sales Department: Time Travellers Ltd. PO Box 7253, Tamworth, Staffs B79 9BF

01455 212272; email: ricardiansales@postmaster.co.uk

Editor of Bulletin Articles: Peter Hammond 3 Campden Terrace, Linden Gardens, London W4 2EP

e-mail: griffyn@uk2.net

Secretary & Editor of Bulletin: Elizabeth M. Nokes 4 Oakley Street, London SW3 5NN

0207 351 3391, [Voice mail] 01689 823569

Executive Committee Member & Assistant Editor of Bulletin Articles: Lesley Wynne-Davies

47 Wyndcliff Road, London SE7 7LP 020 8858 1092; e-mail: lesleyboatwright@aol.com

Strategy & Overseas Liaison: John Saunders 59 Stuart Road, Plymouth, Devon PL1 5LW 01752 607832; e-mail: jrs@britishlibrary.net

Librarian Non-Fiction: Jane Trump Gorsedene, Bagshot Road, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2SF

01483 481305; e-mail:librarian@richardiii.net

Technical Editor (Bulletin) & Barley Hall Coordinator: Lynda Pidgeon, 42 Osborne Street, Swindon SN2 1DA

01793 497530; e-mail: ljp-jws@vaneyck.fsnet.co.uk

Librarian Fiction: Anne Smith 14 Lincoln Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 9TJ

01483 566979

Technical Editor (Ricardian) & Membership Liaison: Rosemary Waxman

37 Chewton Road, London E17 7DW 020 8521 4261; Fax: 020 8521 0390; e-mail rwaxman@beeb.net

Librarian Papers: Rebekah Beale 23 Guthavon Road, Witham, Essex CM8 1HD

Treasurer: Bill Featherstone 26 Strathmore Road, London SW19 8DB

Librarian A-V & Press Records: Geoffrey Wheeler 195 Gloucester Place, London NW1 6BU. 020 7724 5842

Visits Team Coordinator: John Ashdown-Hill 8 Thurlston Close, Colchester, Essex CO4 3HF. 01206 523267

Membership Department: RIMMS Ltd PO Box 16, Denbigh LL16 5ZA

Fax: 01745 812179; e-mail: info@rimms.co.uk

Webmaster: Neil Trump Gorsedene, Bagshot Road, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2SF

01483 481305; e-mail: neil_trump@richardiii.net

Research Officer: Wendy Moorhen 2 Field Hurst, Langley Broom, Berks SL3 8PQ

01753 546066; e-mail:wendy.moorhen@btopenworld.com

Wills Project: Maria Hale 6 Lady Grey Avenue, Warwick, Warks CV34 6FH

01926 422136; e-mail: wills.project@virgin.net

Subscription RatesSubscription RatesSubscription RatesSubscription Rates Full member £15; Family membership (all living at same address) £20; Senior citizen member (over the age of 65) £11,

Senior citizen family membership £15; Junior member (joining before 18th birthday) £11; Student member (over 18 in full-time education) £11; Overseas mailing charge £2. Subscriptions are due on 2 October 2003 and should be sent to the Membership Dept,

cheques and postal orders payable to Richard III Society

Website: www.richardiii.net

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RicardianRicardianRicardianRicardian BulletinBulletinBulletinBulletin Autumn 2003Autumn 2003Autumn 2003Autumn 2003

Contents

ContributionsContributionsContributionsContributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. Articles and correspondence regarding the Bulletin Debate should be sent to Peter

Hammond and all other contributions to Elizabeth Nokes.

Bulletin Press DatesBulletin Press DatesBulletin Press DatesBulletin Press Dates 15 January for Spring issue; 15 April for Summer issue; 15 July for Autumn issue; 15 October for Winter issue.

Articles should be sent well in advance.

Bulletin & Ricardian Back NumbersBulletin & Ricardian Back NumbersBulletin & Ricardian Back NumbersBulletin & Ricardian Back Numbers Back issues of the The Ricardian and The Bulletin are available from Pat Ruffle. If you are interested in obtaining any

back numbers, please contact Mrs Ruffle to establish whether she holds the issue(s) in which you are interested.

The Ricardian Bulletin edited by Elizabeth Nokes and printed by St Edmundsbury Press. © 2003 Richard III Society

4 From the Chairman 5 Society News and Notices 9 Media Retrospective 14 In Prospect 16 News and Reviews 18 The Man Himself 21 The Debate: Battling for Bosworth – Your Views 26 Towton Memorial Chapel by Moira Habberjam 29 Margaret of York: The Wedding Journey by Lesley Wynne-Davies Margaret’s Coronet by Peter Hammond 34 70 Years of the Bones: The Investigation in Westminster Abbey by Bill White 36 Correspondence 40 The Barton Library 43 Letter from America 44 Report on Society Events 47 Future Society Events 51 Branches and Groups 57 New members 61 Classified Advertisements 62 Obituaries 63 Calendar

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From the ChairmanFrom the ChairmanFrom the ChairmanFrom the Chairman

I am happy to say that reactions to the new look Bulletin have been overwhelmingly positive. Even so, we are not resting on our laurels. The Bulletin Committee is already planning more

initiatives and is even looking ahead for potential articles for 2005, the year of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Paul Murray Kendall’s Richard III, when we hope to have a series of items on both the author and the book. In this issue, we have a new feature on ‘The Man Himself’. As the introduction shows, it is a deliberate and specific focus on Richard III. I think it is an exciting innovation and it is important that we put the spotlight more on the king. He is our raison d’être, after all. And talking of spotlights, with this Bulletin you will receive a copy of the Annual Report for 2002–2003, something that shines a light clearly on the Society. This is the first time that we have produced such a report and I look forward to hearing what you think about it. Many of you will recall that earlier this year, I was interviewed by the Arts Editor of the Sun-day Times about the production of an all female Richard III at the Globe. We have a review of the play in this issue, and I am glad to note that others agree about Kathryn Hunter, who played Richard, and her resemblance to the Leicester statue! I enjoyed the update on the activities in the US and can let you know that the next Letter from America focuses on the Edward IV Roll that is in the Free Library Philadelphia. I congratulate Laura Blanchard on being our first Ricardian Alistair Cooke. We have already said that we want other overseas branches to have their say in the Bulletin, and in the Winter issue we will also hear from the Australians, when they will be reporting on the Australasian Ricardian Convention that was held in Brisbane during August. Ricardian Britain has been a favourite Society publication ever since Carolyn Hammond and Valerie Giles brought out the first edition in 1968. Little knowing what other responsibilities were coming my way, when Carolyn retired from the Executive Committee in 2001, I volunteered to take it on and prepare a new edition. Recently I wrote to branches and groups re-questing their help in gathering up-to-date information about sites relevant to King Richard, and if any individual members feel they have information that will help, I ask them, please, to get in touch. The AGM on the 4 October will be at a new venue and will have a new format. It will be an exciting one to attend, especially with the chance to hear Ann Wroe speak about Perkin Warbeck. The new format should enable more people to travel to London, and get home in good time, while still enjoying the main features of the day. The AGM is an opportunity for members to voice their views and contribute to the future direction of the Society. I look forward to meeting you on the day and listening to what you have to say.

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Society News and NoticesSociety News and NoticesSociety News and NoticesSociety News and Notices

Richard III Society’s Members’ Day and Annual General Meeting

Saturday 4 October 2003

Notice is hereby given that the 2003 Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society will be held on Saturday 4 October 2003 in the Council Chamber and Hall of Staple Inn, High Holborn,

London WC1V 7QJ

The meeting will begin at noon and the formal business will include reports from the officers, the presentation of the annual accounts of the Society to 31 March 2003 and the election of the Executive Committee for the next year. Nominations for the Committee should reach the Secretary, Miss E M Nokes, not later than 19 September. All nominations must be proposed, seconded and accepted in writing by the member proposed. Resolutions for the Agenda, proposed and seconded, should reach the Secretary by 19 September

A New Look ▪ A New Focus ▪ A New Venue

S aturday, 4 October is being restructured as a ‘Members’ Day’, of which the AGM forms a part. There will be the old favourites, an interesting lecture, a great variety of stalls,

including many new ones, and there will also be new opportunities for members to contribute. Because much of the material formerly reported by officers at the AGM has been included in the Society’s first Annual Report, which is included with this issue of the Bulletin, officers’ reports will need only to bring matters up to date, this will allow more time for points to be raised from the floor. There will also be an open forum when members will have the opportunity to pose questions and discuss matters with the Executive Committee in an informal atmosphere. Questions can be raised verbally, or written down during the day and posted on a question board: there will be a supply of ‘post-it’ notes for this purpose. Questions can be anonymous, however, if they cannot be answered on the day, you have the option to supply a name/address, so that an officer/member of committee/sub-committee can respond to you. The new format places the focus on members and we hope that this new approach will prove worthwhile. So please do come along and share your views with us and other members. The Members’ Day and AGM will be held at a new venue: Staple Inn Hall. It is the home of the Institute of Actuaries, and is situated in High Holborn, immediately outside the south side exit of Chancery Lane underground station. Staple Inn Hall is immediately behind the black-and-white half-timbered building, with access through the central archway, which takes you into Staple Inn’s Courtyard. Entrance to reception for the meeting is diagonally across the courtyard, and will be clearly signposted for you. Public transport is available via the nearest mainline station, Kings Cross St Pancras, but Staple Inn is within 10 minutes walk of Farringdon and Thameslink-Holborn stations. Bus routes include 8, 17, 25, 45, 242, 243, 341, 501 and 521. Parking facilities in Holborn are very limited. The nearest NCP is on Saffron Street just off

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Farringdon Road, approx. 10 minutes walk from Staple Inn (see map p. 50). At the weekend parking restrictions are lifted on single yellow lines and at parking meters after 13.30; parking may be available in Gray’s Inn Road. Programme

11.00 Members arrive, time to visit stalls, etc. 12.00–13.00 Annual General Meeting 13.00–14.30 Lunch 14.30–15.30 Lecture by Ann Wroe The Fate of the Princes: The Pretender’s Story – What light did ‘Perkin Warbeck’ throw on the mystery, and on Richard III, during his public career as Richard, Duke of York? 15.30 Open Forum followed by tea 17.00 Close What’s to see and do?

Major Craft Sale. The 24th sale will start at 11.00 and will run until the start of the AGM at noon and will then continue in the lunch and tea intervals. We shall have on sale: Ricardian embroidery, cakes and sweets, paperweights, RCRF Christmas cards, knitted items and baby clothes, soft toys, collage and Ricardian and other bric-a-brac.* Ricardian Sales Stall with the full range of Society/Trust publications and artefacts. Research, Website and Barley Hall – Wendy Moorhen, Neil Trump and Linda Pidgeon will have a ‘stall’: they will be delighted to talk to members about Ricardian research activities, the Society’s website and Barley Hall. They intend to have a presentation on research activities, demonstrate the website to those members who are not on-line, and show the latest plans and acquisitions at Barley Hall. Book-sellers Stall with Bennett & Kerr. Branches and Groups Table where they may showcase their publications and activities. Visits Team Table which will be hosted by members of the Team and will display information on past visits and details of future visits. Suggestions for the latter will be welcomed. Membership Department and Treasurer’s Table where Bill Featherstone will be able to receive payment of subscriptions until 14.30. Refreshments. Southern Catering Services will again be in attendance, and there will be a cash buffet, from which it will be possible to obtain a range of hot lunch dishes and desserts. Afternoon tea will comprise tea and biscuits @ £1.00 per person. Annual Grand Raffle held in aid of RCRF. Tickets are 25p each or 5 for £1 and will be on sale at the meeting. We thank the contributors and suppliers of the prizes, which are, not ranked in any order: Stained glass ‘shield’ of Richard III from Rous Roll ▪ Collage portrait of Richard III [NPG] ▪ Boar & Motto car badge ▪ ‘Silver’ box decorated with roses ▪ Boar & Motto pendant on chain ▪ College of Arms Quincentenary Medal, 1984 ▪ Richard III, Michael Hicks (Tempus, 2000) ▪ Richard’s arms and boar – artist: Linda Miller ▪ M&S ‘Magnolia’ toilet bag and four toiletries. Branch and Group Reports at the AGM. If your branch/group wishes to make a report at the AGM, please let the Secretary, know, by 19 September, so that you may be included on the AGM Agenda. Reports can be made in person by a branch/group representative, or, for over-seas branches/groups, if no local representative is to be in London at the time of the AGM, in printed form, to be read at the AGM. Reports should not exceed three minutes, and should con-sist of new material not previously reported verbally or in print. If you have any queries about any matters relating to Members’ Day or the AGM, please contact the Secretary – address inside front cover *Apropos of the Craft Sale we would warmly welcome offers of items for sale. We do appeal to members to try to provide some item(s) for the sale. If you cannot do any form of craft work, please try to look out some item(s) of jum-ble or bric-a-brac. We would of course also warmly welcome all items of any sort of craft. If you wish to bring items along on the day, it would be most helpful if you could mark them with an indication of the price(s) at which you think they should be sold. If you wish to give or send items to me in advance – do please contact the Secretary to check that the items are suitable.

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Subscription Renewal 2003–2004

Annual subscriptions become due for renewal on 2 October, and it would save the cost of reminders if members who do not pay by Banker's Order would send their subscription by that date. The rates this year are: Full Member £15.00 Families (all members of same family, living at same address) £20.00 Pensioners (over 65) £11.00 Pensioner Family (same family, same address, where all pensioners) £15.00 Junior (under 18 years of age) £11.00 Student (Over 18 in full-time education. Committee must approve each case) £11.00 Europe/Overseas Members postage supplement £2.00 Subscriptions should be sent to the Richard III Society, Membership Department, PO Box 16, Denbigh LL16 5ZA Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to the Richard III Society. A renewal form is provided in the centre of the Bulletin. To save the Membership Department time, will members paying other than £15.00, please give a brief note of explanation. Ricardian Britain – the Chairman seeks your help

Before becoming Chairman, I volunteered to produce a new edition of that excellent publication Ricardian Britain, the gazetteer of sites around the country which have connec-tions with Richard III and the House of York. The last edition by Carolyn Hammond has been out of print for far too long and people are asking for a new one. Sadly, time seems to be at a premium these days, and so this is to ask for your help. I have already written to members in the branches and groups, but I want you all to let me know about the Ricardian sites in your area. That way, we might even manage to include sites not mentioned previously. It does not matter if I get six sets of details for the same site - better that than none. Your help will be given an acknowledgement in the publication and some of the information will go into the gazetteer section of the website. I need to know the following: • The name of the site. • The owner, i.e. English Heritage, National Trust, private, other. • Where it is, i.e. the nearest town, village or landmark. • How to get there – is there public transport, is there coach or car access and parking, etc. • The Ricardian connection – obviously, this is not required for all sites. I know about

Middleham, The Tower, Bosworth, and such places! • The hours of opening. • The approximate entry fee (together with the date and any information that may be avail-

able about impending changes). • Telephone number and website address. Unless you know that a site has already been sent in, please don’t leave it to someone else. I thank you all for your consideration and look forward to receiving your recommendations and their details for inclusion in a new edition of Ricardian Britain.

Phil Stone Congratulations to the Norfolk Branch Chairman David Austin and his lovely wife Karen on their recent wedding. While not a wedding between two Ricardians Karen is learning fast! The wedding took place on 7 June 2003 in Suffolk.

Annmarie Hayek

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The Bosworth Herald

The Bosworth Herald is a broadsheet produced by Leicestershire County Council and sold at the Bosworth Battlefield Centre. The format is a series of stories or ‘articles’ surrounding King Richard, Henry Tudor and the battle and the current edition contains a number of inaccuracies. Whilst these are not seriously detrimental to King Richard’s reputation they are still extremely annoying. These inaccuracies have been raised with the Battlefield Centre which has taken our comments on board with the result that the new edition, with re-writes from John Ashdown-Hill and Geoffrey Wheeler, will eliminate the negative publicity. The rub, however, is that the Battlefield Centre has unsold copies and as this is produced with public money, they feel they cannot justifiably withdraw it. So, what would be good, is if the members of the Society could buy up as many copies as possible, as quickly as possible, so that the new edition is available as soon as possible. The Battlefield Centre is prepared to let us have copies at 30p each, as opposed to the cost of 50p on site, so if you would like to contribute and help the Society buy up these copies we would be delighted to receive your donations. Every £1 donated will buy up three and a bit copies and every £3 collected will buy ten copies. Please send your contributions to John Ashdown-Hill (see inside front cover for address). Apologies to John Ashdown-Hill whose address was wrong on the inside front cover of the Summer Bulletin: it is 8, not 13, Thurlston Close, Colchester, CO4 3HF. The address was correct on the blue booking form, but if you have not heard from John when you expected to, and feel you may have written to the wrong address, do please contact him, at the right address, or by Tel/Fax: 01206 523267. Quincentenary of the death of Richard’s other sister

The Society is marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy with plaques at Waltham Abbey and Fotheringhay. The anniversary is also being observed at Margaret’s adopted home of Mechelen in Belgium, where a conference in her honour will be held this autumn and by the series of articles in the Bulletin. But we must not neglect the fact that 2003 is also the 500th anniversary of the death of Richard III’s other sister, Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk. While Margaret took on the role of keeping Yorkist hopes alive in a Tudor age from the safety of her dower court in Mechelen, Elizabeth had the much more difficult task of keeping herself and her sons, the de la Poles (heirs of the house of York) alive in an England ruled by Henry VII. Ultimately she failed in this task. Her eldest son, John, Earl of Lincoln, recognised by Richard as heir to the throne, was killed at the battle of Stoke, and one by one, over the years, all of Elizabeth’s once numer-ous progeny also succumbed to the Tudors and her family became extinct. Elizabeth herself, however, attended the Tudor court, being close to her niece, namesake (and possibly God-daughter?) Elizabeth of York the younger, Henry VII’s queen. The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York record gifts from the queen to her aunt. We know that Elizabeth died in 1503, but the precise date is not recorded, although it is likely that she predeceased her younger sister, Margaret, who died on 23 November. Elizabeth of York senior scarcely needs a plaque, for she has something better. Her body lies at Wingfield church in Suffolk beneath the splendid tomb and effigy originally provided for her. She is, in fact, probably the only member of the house of York who still lies in her unaltered original tomb. Nevertheless, her anniversary will certainly be marked. Members of the local Ricardian groups will be taking flowers to place on her tomb on All Saints Day, Saturday 1 November (early November being the traditional time for remembering the dead whose precise anniversaries are unknown). It will be a quiet little occasion, but of course any members of the Society who are able to come to Wingfield on 1 November would be most welcome to join us. (Please contact me if you would like further details.)

John Ashdown-Hill

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Media RetrospectiveMedia RetrospectiveMedia RetrospectiveMedia Retrospective

When I was working at the National Trust I complained about certain anti-Richard state-ments in the Cotehele guidebook, and the then Regional Representative had them de-leted. The original text had been ‘In 1483 Richard Edgcumbe, prompted by current ru-mours, which were subsequently proved true, that the King had murdered the two sons of Edward IV in the Tower of London’... ‘which were subsequently proved true’ was deleted. It cannot be denied that there were current rumours as they were the main cause of Buckingham’s rebellion. And since Bucking-ham had risen openly in rebellion against the King, he was clearly guilty of treason, and could expect nothing less than summary exe-cution.

Contributed by Isolde Wigram I recently received my first Ricardian Bulletin and was pleased to see the Media Retrospec-tive section. On 12 June, a programme in the Secret History series entitled The Strangest Viking was shown on Channel 4. I heard one ‘expert’ saying, regarding disabled leaders, Julius Caesar was an epileptic; Richard III was a hunchback, or words to that effect. I believe the ‘expert’ was Professor Jeffrey Richards, Cultural Historian. I am sure other members will have noted this.

Contributed by Sylvia Sherwood Television is at it again! I was watching Brit-ain’s Finest Castles on Channel 5 (4 July) when I heard it being said, regarding the Tower of London ‘[where] the princes in the Tower were murdered...’ And this came from Professor Richard Holmes! I’m very disap-pointed: I’ve always enjoyed his warfare pro-grammes.

Contributed by Sylvia Sherwood The Strangest Viking quote was also noted by John Ashdown-Hill, who wrote to Professor Jeffrey Richards: ‘I was astounded to hear you declare that “Richard III was a hunchback”, citing him as an example of a disabled commander. I can only assume that your remark was based on hearsay and that you have not had an opportunity to examine the evidence for your assertion, which I

would summarise briefly as follows...’ John then summarised the ‘two strands of evidence ... written and pictorial’, citing von Poppelau, the lack of any reference to de-formity in early Tudor accounts (Rous Roll, Bernard André, Fabyan’s Chronicle and the Great Chronicle), and the late appearance of reference to ‘his left shoulder much higher than his right’ in More’s History of King Richard III. He goes on ‘The pictorial evi-dence parallels the written. The manuscript illustrations from Richard’s lifetime show no deformities, nor does the Society of Antiquar-ies portrait. However, the early sixteenth-century portrait in the royal collection while originally showing no deformity, has had a hump added to the right shoulder. In short, there is no evidence that Richard’s “deformity” ever existed in reality’. To this Jeffrey Richards replied ‘I am grateful for the evidence you drew to my at-tention. It may well be that crookback would be a more accurate description than hunchback, but I think that the evidence of medieval portraits is very questionable. None of the portraits of Henry V contain the hide-ous scar on the cheek left from the nearly fatal arrow wound he sustained in the battle, I think, of Shrewsbury. It could be that the hump was added to the sixteenth-century por-trait later to reflect a reality which could not be earlier admitted. At the very best, I think the answer on the deformity must be the Scot-tish “not proven” ’. To this John responded: ‘If I understand you correctly, you feel that ... the evidence of sixteenth-century portraits, painted by artists who never saw their sitter is likely to be more accurate. This is surely rather an unusual stance for a historian to take – apparently rejecting contemporary in favour of later evi-dence. Moreover the fact that, as I indicated to you, the sixteenth-century sources are in conflict as to which of Richard’s shoulder they represented as deformed, tends, surely, to suggest that they had no real knowledge in the matter. You also appear to place great emphasis on the idea that a deformity would constitute ‘a reality which could not be admit-ted’ during the victim’s lifetime. However, von Poppelau, being foreign, would have had

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no reason to flinch from revealing an unpalat-able truth and could therefore speak frankly about Richard’s appearance.’ Jeffrey Richards ended the correspon-dence by writing ‘... unless one is prepared to concede absolutely that Richard III was pure, good, beautiful and blameless, it is impossible to have a reasonable conversation with mem-bers of your society’. From The Times, 10 June, 2003 ‘Human Jun-gle’. ‘Richard III’s inherent insecurities and self-destructive tendencies ultimately lead to his downfall, culminating in the timeless line, “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse”. Clearly self-awareness training could have been beneficial in his case”. Article on the Careers Centre website about seminars at the Cranfield School of Management.

Contributed by Thomas Edlin Canadian branch member Susan Crawford recently submitted this passage from Angela Thirkell’s 1954 novel What Did It Mean?, which contains a defence of King Richard III: ‘…I do not know how many of you have read a most interesting book, which can also be got in a cheap edition, by a very distinguished and prolific writer who, alas, is no more among us, but anyone who has read that book will feel that the character of Richard of Gloucester has been till now grossly misrep-resented. The so-called hump was, I under-stand, little more than a slight malformation and not,’ she added severely ‘a cross between Quasimodo in Victor Hugo’s great novel of mediaeval Paris and Quilp,’ at which point Miss Hopgood and Miss Crowder were heard to say, the one ‘How she wished she had seen Paris before the Revolution’, and the other that ‘Just one breath of Paris and you seemed to understand the whole of the Middle Ages’. ‘Richard the Third was, in fact,’ Mrs Dunsford continued, ‘a great King and a great Englishman and that is all I have to say.’ Mrs Villars said she was sure everyone was most grateful to Mrs. Dunsford for her interesting and original contribution and she was sure the hump was not intended as any slur on Richard the Third, but simply as a token, as it were. Just, she said, as King Al-fred might be associated with burnt cakes, or King George the Third with fits of insanity, without any thought of disloyalty, which apo-logia Mrs. Dunsford graciously accepted.

Contributed by Susan Crawford From Sicken and So Die by Simon Brett. Charles Paris, rehearsing a festival/touring production of Twelfth Night, directed by a Romanian wunderkind recalls other disasters he has appeared in : “Wincing, he remem-bered a production of Richard III, in which Richard alone remained handsome and up-right, while all the other characters had been played with various disabilities. The direc-tor’s point, that deformity is in the eye of the beholder, might have had some validity in another context, but it sure as hell made non-sense of Shakespeare’s play. Charles rather treasured the notice the Wigan Gazette had given of his one-legged Duke of Clarence (Jesus, he’d been grateful to be killed off so early – the strapping was agony): ‘Charles Paris’s resolute swimming in the malmsey-butt suggests a promising nautical future for him as Long John Silver’ “.

Contributed by Jen Callow From Toronto’s Globe and Mail, 17 April 2003, re Richard III at Manitoba Theatre Centre, starring William Hurt. ‘Hurt feels the pain of Bard’s hunchback king’, by Robert Enright. ‘There is a compelling case to be made for Richard III as Shakespeare’s great-est villain. He is a kind of uber bad guy, who rolls into one character all the nasty tenden-cies of the Bard’s most watchable rogues. He has the ambition of Macbeth, the viciousness of Titus Andronicus, the perverse ingenuity of Iago and Edmund’s sense of being betrayed at birth by nature. The evidence of that betrayal is his physical deformity. He is the infamous hunchback king, described by Lady Anne, the noblewoman whose father and husband he has murdered even before the play begins, as a ‘lump of foul deformity’. What has attracted so much attention for this ‘lump’ and play .. is that film actor Wil-liam Hurt has come to Winnipeg to inhabit the dark psyche of Richard. “He doesn’t feel he has a choice”, Hurt says of the outrages Richard visits upon those who stand in the path of his journey to the throne. “He’s been dealt a very bad hand and he makes the deci-sion to burn as hot as he can burn and to take with him as many of the people who have caused him to burn as he can”. To pump life into his version of the play [Director, Guy] Sprung has set Richard III in coronation-period England, circa 1953. The

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court is busy with high-ranking military offi-cers and privy councillors. “The sense of war is still in the air”, Sprung says, “and the coro-nation was the hope of the future”. Hurt’s costume is elegant khaki and leather: he has a two-inch steel platform on his right foot, one of his arms is curled inside a leather sling that hides his misshapen hand, and his hump, while noticeable, is not overly dramatic. .. “He has a sense of being an outsider and he cuts through the bullshit of the court”, Sprung says. And then he gets to a more central rea-son why Richard is so mesmerising on stage. “The truth is, we like evil. We watch it in so many of the movies we see and Shakespeare gives it his own nod in the play. ‘You like evil? Okay, you’re going to get evil’. But this production is aiming for some-thing that goes well beyond what the director describes as “a simple good/evil morality tale. There’s a human being in there”. Hurt agrees that Richard’s character is complex. To play him he must be enraged by “the vilification and humiliation that Richard has suffered.” Richard goes so far as to use his deformity as a theatrical tool, Hurt adds. “It has to be; it was his label. ‘Therefore, since I cannot prove a lover, I am determined to prove a villain’. Therefore I will do something the most.” For Hurt, the ultimate measurement of ‘the most’ is in the play. He talks about what the work demands and how the company struggled to meet those demands. Richard III “challenges your deepest abilities”, he says. “You work with the intensity of life”.

Contributed by Robert Lesco, Canada From The Leicestershire Drinker, Spring 2003, ‘Lost Pubs of Leicester: The Blue Boar’ by Barry Lount & Chris Jinks: ‘The Blue Boar stood at the corner of Highcross Street and Blue Boar Lane (a plaque marks the spot on the gable end of a café a few doors down from the present day Richard III pub). It was the Blue Boar’s con-nection with the infamous King Richard that gives it a major role in Leicester’s history. .. There is little doubt that the inn was in exis-tence before the King’s fateful stay in 1485, what is in doubt is the origin of the name .. [possibly] the inn was named the Blue Boar before Richard’s stay, possibly so named after one of the badges of Richard Duke of York the father of Edward IV. The other main the-ory is that the inn was known as the White

Boar the cognisance of Richard III either pre his visit or on his attendance as he would dis-play his sign to inform the populace the king was in attendance. After the battle and his defeat all allegiance to him was obliterated and the white boar painted blue.’ The article then relates Richard’s arrival in Leicester, and his lodging at the inn ‘where he slept in the principal chamber in a large wooden bed gilded with gothic design’, and his departure with the legend that where his spur had struck Bow Bridge, ‘so would his head on his return’. ‘King Richard and his bed in which he slept at the Blue Boar .. the bed was to become the centre of further in-trigue’. The article reports Bosworth thus: ‘.. the King was defeated, Richard gallantly fighting to the last, a report in Nichols goes thus; “When all was lost but his life, stern Richard rushed into the arms of death to seek for Richmond, but was surrounded by his enemies, after performing the most brilliant war like achievements that history has related, he died by the hands of a multitude, who cut his body in the most shocking and barbarous manner. Richard’s body stripped naked, all tugged and torn with not so much a clout left cover his shame, was trussed like a hog over his horse, from where he was taken back to Leicester by friends over Bow Bridge, where his head brushed the coping as .. predicted’. Here the article concludes with ‘Continued in Issue 281’ so presumably read-ers will have to wait for the next issue for the story of the ‘King’s bed’.

Contributed by Mrs S M Yaxley From a review of Stop the World: the biogra-phy of Anthony Newley, Garth Bardsley, 2003: ‘Newley .. struggled on, and nurtured grandiose dreams of making his comeback with a musical version of Shakespeare’s Rich-ard III, provisionally entitled Hump!’

Contributed by Jen Callow From: ‘The Dales Festival of Food and Drink’ (Leyburn, 3-5 May 2003) Darlington & Stockton Times, Friday 25 April, 2003: “Two new blue cheeses make their debut .. both are produced in Wensleydale – one at the Hawes Creamery and the other at Fortmayne Dairy in the lower dale. Fortmayne’s King Richard III Blue follows the success of the white version of the cheese, made by dairy founder Suzanne Stirke, of Newton-le-Willows near Bedale.

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The recipe for the moist, mild cheese was discovered in a notebook hand-written by her grandmother in 1934 during a cheese making course. [This] led Mrs Stirke to produce the original Richard III cheese, which is sold in Leyburn and in Fortnum and Mason’s food hall in London. “We believe that Wensleydale cheese was originally blue” said Mrs Stirke. “It was first made at Jervaulx by Cistercian monks who came over with the Normans, and who, in France, made the blue Roquefort cheese”. Meanwhile, the maturing room at Wensleydale Dairy Products in Hawes is packed with the company’s Real Blue Wensleydale .. a revival of a recipe used be-fore the 1920s, when Wensleydale cheese was naturally blue. When the cheese began to be made on a factory scale, the white, crumbly variety became fashionable and the blue one became extinct in the dale.

Anon. I discovered an old book: Dr Brewer’s Guide to English History, first published in 1875 or 76 and running into its fifty third edition. Here are the Revd Dr Brewer’s questions and answers on Richard III: ‘Q: Who succeeded Edward V? A: His uncle Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, Edward IV’s brother. Q: What was his character? A: He was a prince of great abilities both for war and peace, but has been charged with many shocking crimes, both before and after his usurpation. It must be remembered that his character has been painted by his enemies, and probably our notion of the ‘crook-backed king’ is based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, more than on authentic history. Shakespeare wrote to please Queen Elizabeth, and, of course, the Tudors would like to see their enemy held up to detestation. Horace Wal-pole, in his Historic Doubts, has done some-thing to remove the obliquity cast on this king’s character ... Stowe affirms that he was told by persons who knew the king, that his bodily shape ‘was comely enough’, though he was of low stature. There seems to be no suf-ficient proof that one of his arms was with-ered, or one should was higher than the other, or that he halted in his gait’

Contributed by Toni Mount From the Daily Telegraph, Features, 4 July, 2003: Cassandra Jardine interviewing author Kathy Reichs: ‘Recently she examined the X-

rays of the bodies of the children found mur-dered in the Tower of London, and pro-nounced that their age and antiquity were appropriate for them to have been the little princes that Richard III had murdered’. From The Stage 26 June 2003: Sally Bram-ley’s interview with Meredeith McNeil ‘with the Women’s Company .. currently appearing at the Globe as the ill-fated Lady Jane who is forced to marry the Duke of Gloucester in Richard III. She makes an impressive figure as she enters early in this blood-thirsty drama’. Lady Jane carries a lot of hisotry with her and I needed to concentrate on her charac-ter and read about that particular period of English history. It’s a remarkable part and one I find very challenging” she says.

Contributed by Geoffrey Wheeler It finally looks as if that old cliché, beloved of actors and comedians alike, of slipping into the Olivier pose and diction whenever Shake-speare’s Richard III occurs, has at last been laid to rest. In the recently released film com-edy The Actors, starring Michael Caine and Dylan Moran, it is the Ian McKellen version, complete with Nazi uniform (though still with a long nose) that is parodied, as illustrated in Conor McPherson’s screenplay.

Geoffrey Wheeler RSC Richard … Henry Goodman, this year’s RSC ‘Richard III’ at Stratford – interviewed by Aleks Sierz (Sunday Times ‘Culture’, 6 July): ‘One of our finest actors, but a surpris-ing choice to play Richard III. Audiences have got used to seeing him play Jewish char-acters, American villains, frenetic maniacs and singing suits – and he’s not exactly in the first flush of youth. “I’ve been wanting to do Richard for years, but almost gave up”, says the 53-year old. “It meant a lot to me to play Richard and not just Shylock – it means I’m an English actor”. Now he’s glad to have a new challenge. “As with all actors, I’ve had to accept who I am and what I look like”, he says, “But I love Richard. The role has amaz-ing theatricality, full of wickedness and naughtiness”. As directed by Sean Holmes, the production is set in Victorian times, a period in which the outer restraint of English-ness hid what you really were. “In order to release the villain”, says Goodman, with an evil twitch of his pencil moustache, “you have to find in Richard what

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is not villainous about him. When the real Richard is eight years old, he gets taken by his mother to York, where his father and brother’s heads are displayed on the battle-ments. The boy is told: “That’s your dad up there – avenge him! Don’t forget!” The trauma of doing that to an eight year old ex-plains a lot.” So is his Richard a meretricious monster or a maligned monarch? “Maligned monster”, he replies, quick as a flash. Goodman has put in a long day of rehearsals, but he’s still full of energy and passion. He’s a highly persua-sive actor and works damn hard. His research included reading everything from Josephine Tey’s classic Daughter of Time, to Elizabeth Jenkins’s The Princes in the Tower. “But” he says, “you can’t act the history, you have to play the role that Shakespeare wrote.” While starring in Molière’s Tartuffe on Broadway, he clinched Richard for the RSC. “I had a meeting with Kevin Kline about a movie and the first thing he said to me was, “Oh, you’ll have a ball doing Richard – it’s such fun!” For the first few weeks of rehearsals I thought ‘What’s he talking about? There’s thousands of lines and your brain is bursting .. but now I’m starting to realise that Richard is glori-ously wicked in his irreverence. The way he runs rings around women: okay, it’s misogy-nist, but it’s also wonderful.” Jay Rayner The Observer Review, Arts, 6 July: Goodman is currently preparing for his debut as Richard III for the Royal Shake-

speare Company at Stratford, and as one of the company tells me quietly, “He is a man possessed”. Goodman agrees. “I’m dangerous to know right now”, he says. Like many ac-tors summoned to the great roles at Stratford, Goodman is in full-on Shakespeare-worship mode right now. “It’s like skiing on top of Everest” he says at one point, of playing Richard. Then in the fidgety way that he has been niggling at all afternoon at what it is to play the part he says: “One of the things that happens to Richard is that as soon as he be-comes king he falls to pieces. It all goes wrong. Maybe as a result of what has hap-pened to me I understand what it is to be someone who wants something really, really badly, but is better equipped to fight for it than to have it.” He seems pleased with this insight, as if he has just been able to add an-other layer to the character he is building.

Geoffrey Wheeler From The Battle of Bannockburn – 1314, Aryey Nusbacher, page 26, speaking of Piers Gaveston the author remarks: ‘He is dinstin-guished as a prime candidate for the honour of being the most disliked man in English history, and he has the advantage of being eligible for non-partisan hatred (unlike Oliver Cromwell), of being justly hated (unlike Richard III) and of having actually lived (unlike the Sheriff of Nottingham)’.

John Knights

‘A time there was ...’ This is the start of an occasional series in the Bulletin looking at where we were, ten, twenty, thirty years ago, as drawn from our publications. Thirty years ago – in the summer of 1973 – there was not yet, quite, a Bulletin, at all, and therefore I draw from The Ricardian of June 1973. The Editor then was Lornie Leete-Hodge, and the issue that most concerned us was The Age of Richard III – Summer Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 27 June to 7 October. The article in the Ricardian stated ‘the exhibition has two basic aims: ... to make a fresh assessment of Rich-ard, concentrating particularly on the years of his reign, ... the other to sharpen historical focus on to the Yorkist period. ... Everything known to have been directly connected with Richard or those close to him has been included, or objects very like .. books which he not only owned but used .. all the known extant portraits ...’ Other items of interest include Peter Hammond’s translation of a contemporary account of the reception of Richard III in York in 1483, Geoffrey Wheeler on Richard as Lord of Glamorgan, Barbara Ellams reporting on the spring visit, organised by Phyllis Hester to Gainsborough Old Hall, Newark, with a civic reception, Stoke battlefield, Tattershall Castle, and the ‘Angel and Royal’ Grantham, and a review of the ‘London Branch Medieval Feast’.

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In Prospect

This section of the Bulletin is dedicated to information about medieval matters that are external to the Society’s own activities and events. It can include notices about future performances of plays featuring Richard III, forthcoming historical programmes on our period, information about exhibitions and conferences on the Middle Ages, any relevant archaeological activity, in fact anything that is topical but related to the late(r) medieval period. Gothic Art of England Conference 21-23 November at the V&A The conference that accompanies the Gothic Art for England c. 1400–1547 exhibition has 22 papers being delivered over the three days. The cost per day is £50 but is subject to a 7.5% dis-count if all three days are booked, (£138 instead of £150), and includes morning coffee, sandwich lunch, afternoon tea and free admission to the exhibition. Bookings can be made by telephone +44 (0)20 7942 2209 or by e-mail: bookings.officer@vam.ac.uk, quoting booking code GOTH. The programme is available on-line at: www.vam.co.uk/vastatic/microsites/1179_whatson/documents/gothic_conference_long_version2.doc or send a stamped addressed envelope to the Research Officer for a copy. The exhibition will include two images from the Beauchamp Pageant, folio 2: Henry IV dubs Richard Beauchamp as a Knight of the Bath and folio 22: Henry V’s wedding to Katherine de Valois, although these may be subject to change. However, whichever folios are exhibited they will be illustrated in the catalogue. The book, The Beauchamp Pageant, published by the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, will be available shortly from the sales office at £43 plus postage and packing. New Series on the Middle Ages The production company, Oxford Film & Television, is making an eight-part series on the Mid-dle Ages for BBC2 which will be co-written and presented by Terry Jones. Although better known as one of the stars of Monty Python, the period is one that Jones is well acquainted with and his book Chaucer’s Knight is an imaginative and well-substantiated study of Chaucer’s hero. Each of the eight programmes will examine a different medieval archetype such as the damsel and the king, and for the programme featuring the latter they will feature the three King Richards. The aims of the series are to bring a vibrant Middle Ages world to life, to investigate the reality behind the moth-eaten clichés and to present lesser-known facts to the audience but allowing that audience to make up its own mind. This is a refreshing change from some more recent pro-grammes on history where ‘experts’ tend to preach their version of the ‘facts’. No fewer than three researchers contacted the Society in June asking for information on vari-ous aspects of Richard but they were mainly interested in his governance of the north of England and his triumphal visit to York in 1483. Inevitably, I guess, the Princes will be mentioned but with the emphasis on the ducal career of Richard, the Society was able to provide plenty of posi-tive material. With only half-an-hour to examine three kings, the coverage of Richard III will not be lengthy, but perhaps quality not quantity is the keyword. The segment on Richard will include film of York and Sheriff Hutton and the series is due to be televised in Spring 2004. The produc-tion company has a good track record, their film credits include Restoration and Jackie and Hilary, and I am encouraged to believe that their representation of Richard will be one that we, as Ricardians, can relate to. I would like to thank Moira Habberjam, Peter Hammond and Anne Sut-ton for helping me pull together the responses to the many questions asked.

Wendy Moorhen

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The Fotheringhay Organ Recital This annual event will take place on Saturday, 20 September, at 7.30 pm, when Kevin Bowyer will play works by JS Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Lefebure-Wely, Hindemith and others. Tickets are £7 from The Blacksmiths Cottage, Fotheringhay, Peterborough, PE8 5HZ. Please send an SAE. There will be a service of dedication of the new Woodstock organ the next day at 3 pm, when the preacher will be the Revd Canon Michael Covington.

Phil Stone

You may have heard on the news or in the press that a recipe for something similar to lasagne has recently been publicised from a recipe book The Forme of Cury commissioned by Richard II in 1390. This document has, in fact, long been available in print although it is only now un-der media scrutiny. However, really new discoveries do surface every now and again and there has recently been a very exciting one among the muniments at Berkeley Castle. A household account book, previously thought to relate to the Berkeley family, has now been identified as a royal account book for 1474/5. The book contains daily accounts, costs by departments of the household, e.g. pantry, wardrobe, stables and lists those on the royal payroll with a total of 355 men named. Few factual accounts of King Edward’s household survive and none contain all the sections to be found in the volume at Berkeley Castle. A paper relating to the Berkeleys, and which will include more details of the discovery, will be given to the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries in November and we hope to bring you a report in the Spring issue of the Bulletin.

Wendy Moorhen and Peter Hammond

Administrator Required

The Research Officer is looking for some help with the administration of research events such as the study weekends and triennial conferences. The duties would in-clude: • Receiving the applications from members. • Acknowledging the applications. • Maintaining a spreadsheet of the delegates with their requirements. • Listing and forwarding cheques to the Treasurer. • Sending out joining instructions. • Answering members’ queries. • Liaising on a regular basis with the Research Officer. Attendance at the event would be optional. In order to complete the above tasks the administrator will need to have a PC with Microsoft ‘Word’ and ‘Excel’ pro-grammes and access to the internet. If you would like further details please e-mail the Research Officer at wendy.moorhen@btopenworld.com or telephone 01753 546066.

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News and Reviews

Richard III at the Globe Theatre, 11 June 2003 A visit to London’s Globe Theatre to see Richard III performed as Shakespeare might have intended – sounded like a wonderful evening. But when we told friends, they wanted to know if this was the all female production! "Certainly not" we said snootily, "the Richard III Society would not associate itself with such heresy". How wrong could we be and yet how right in our original assumption that it would be a wonderful evening. Despite having written a previous report on a performance of the play at Sandal Castle, let us state for the record that we are not theatre critics and this represents our personal view of the production and the setting. In terms of the setting: this was our first visit to the Globe and we were hugely impressed with everything about it, but ouch, those uncomfortable bench seats will remain a lasting mem-ory! Perhaps they could encourage sponsorship from Radox or Deep Heat? When deciding where to site his theatre, Shakespeare obviously did not take account of the flight path to Heathrow and the noise disruption of passing jumbo jets. This was rather distracting at times – even to the cast! The Sandal Castle performance was our last experience of the play – those who were there will probably remember the weather as much as the play itself. This time, although it was again an open air venue, the weather was much kinder and we were able to concentrate on what was happening on stage – at least most of the time. The opening scene was extraordinary. The entire cast appeared together moving downstage to a heavy drumbeat in a marionette-like style. Suddenly they seemed to just melt away leaving a lone, black-clad, twisted and tortuous figure on stage. Our first view of a ‘female’ Richard, and how effective and menacing was that opening speech, by the end of which gender was no longer an issue. Kathryn Hunter relied on a very curious hop-like gait, with a twisted right arm and de-formed hand to convey Shakespeare’s monstrous creation. The shoulder appeared to be slightly higher but we could see no discernible hump as such. Her performance was menacing but with sufficient ironic humour and gleeful evil to provide balance. One thing that struck us was that Ms Hunter’s deep voice was reminiscent of Zoe Wanamaker – very fitting in the circumstances. The costumes were noticeably not of the medieval period – for example, Margaret of Anjou appeared to be attired in the fashion of Elizabeth I and one male character looked rather like James I & VI. We were rather disconcerted until we read in the programme notes that, as this would not have been a rich company, they would have relied on old stocks of clothes that were readily available without undue concern about historical accuracy. Only principal characters, such as Richard himself, would have been dressed in a style approximating the correct period. Unfortunately, owing to a surprise fit of the vapours, your correspondents missed the finale to the first part, namely the Coronation, but we understand that it was a splendid affair with the audi-ence being invited to join in as the welcoming crowd and cheer for Richard – obviously an easier task for some than for others! Strangely we felt that the best performances were from women playing men, and in particular we thought Kathryn Hunter as Richard and Amanda Harris as the Duke of Buckingham were outstanding. The female actors playing principal female characters were made up with white masks (as the male actors would have been in the seventeenth-century) which, at times created a strange, almost surreal and clown-like aspect to their performances. Even the most ardent Lancastrian would have sympathised with Richard in dealing with his adolescent younger nephew – who appeared to be a child of the twenty-first rather than the fifteenth-century. One was reminded of Harry Enfield’s Kevin. Richard’s solution was to tickle him into submission – how restrained of him when many in the audience might have been tempted to apply a swift clip round the ear! The haunting of Richard on the night before Bosworth was perhaps a weak spot in the play and most certainly the ghost of Edward IV in bloody robes did not ring true and stretched dramatic licence rather too far.

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When Henry finally appeared he was portrayed as very saintly (almost Joan of Arc) and the shoulder length blonde hair and slim build aided this impression. This led to a few hurrumphs from our friends around us but then we all know that Shakespeare and historical fact had only a passing acquaintance at the best of times. Overall we thought this was a splendid, "Must See" production. As traditionalists we were quite anxious as to whether or not we would enjoy the evening but we most certainly did and cannot recommend it highly enough. Finally, on behalf of all our friends from the Society who were there, our thanks to Elizabeth Nokes for organising the date and getting the tickets.

Sue & Dave Wells The Ewelme Endowment: The Beginning of the End? I was very fortunate to be asked by Keith Stenner to join Gloucester Branch on their visit to Ewelme in June. This village is a favorite of mine and with the prospect of a guided tour by Dr Rowena Archer it was an invitation eagerly accepted. For those Ricardians who are not familiar with Ewelme, the village boasts a stunning collection of medieval buildings, namely a church, almshouses and school built on a slope in this delightful Oxfordshire village and it is unique on two counts. The first is that these buildings are all still being used for their original purpose, a place of worship, a place of shelter and a place of education. The second is the remarkable transi tomb chest in the church of Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk with its cadaver effigy executed in alabaster and sculpted full size. The survival of these institutions is due to the endowment of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk and his wife Alice in 1437. The blessing of Ewelme was that Henry VIII did not dissolve the Chantry Chapel. The Ewelme manor was home to Richard’s heir, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln and was visited by Queen Elizabeth of York a few months before her death in childbirth in 1503. During our tour we were joined by the rector, Reverend Martin Garner, and whilst admiring the copy of the statute establishing the almshouses and the school, displayed in the Muniments Room, Martin gave us a rather disturbing piece of news. The endowment to fund the Suffolks’ good work was made up of three manors, Ramridge in Hampshire, Conock in Wiltshire and Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire and the endowment has, so far, survived intact. In 1962 they were incorporated into a charitable trust and the assets now represent a substantial sum which with careful husbandry has proved adequate over the centuries. However, recent government legislation has removed the protection of endowments of charities, and the Charity is being forced to sell one of its properties to a tenant against the wishes of its Trustees. The fact that there has been such continuity for almost 600 years I found remarkable and I believe it very sad that the wishes of Duchess Alice are now being so flagrantly disregarded.

Wendy Moorhen

Kathryn Hunter as Richard III and Amanda Harris as the Duke of Buckingham. Master of the Play Barry Kyle. Photograph by Donald Cooper. Reproduced by kind permission of the Globe Theatre.

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The Man Himself

The Coronation That Never Was: York, 8 September 1483

T he July issue of BBC History Magazine carried an article on the double corona-

tions of James I and later, his son, Charles I. It was the second time in a matter of days that the subject of a monarch having two corona-tions had caught my attention, the first com-ing from the production company making the programme on medieval kings, see page 14. The researchers of the programme had picked up a statement that Richard was crowned a second time during his visit to York. I pointed out to them that the ceremony in question was not a coronation but the investiture of Rich-ard’s son, Edward of Middleham, as Prince of Wales. I became curious, however, to see how yet another myth about King Richard had evolved and was still current in the twenty-first century. The account of King Richard’s visit to York and the events of 8 September 1483 were recorded by an anonymous cleric whose manuscript has survived in York Minster’s Library and is part of the Bedern College Statute Book. He describes how Richard and Anne, both ‘crowned’ i.e. wearing their crowns, attended Mass at the Minster and later, at the Archbishop’s Palace, before din-ner, the king invested his son and there ‘they sat, crowned, for four hours’. This was re-peated by Rous and Fabyan. The magnifi-cence of the occasion appears to have led to verbal reports that a second coronation had taken place but it is the anonymous second continuator of the Crowland Chronicle who committed the gossip to paper, ‘here on a day appointed for the repetition of his crowning in the metropolitan church, he presented his only son, Edward, whom that same day, he had

created prince of Wales with the insignia of the golden wand and the wreath’. The ques-tion to ask, of course, is who would have crowned King Richard in York? The Archbishop of Canterbury had the right to crown a king but the septuagenarian Thomas Bourchier did not accompany Richard on his progress. Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York was conspicuous by his absence during Richard’s time in the northern capital al-though he was to be named as the officiating prelate in later histories. The senior prelate in York during the visit was Richard’s friend, William Dudley, Bishop of Durham. If either Rotherham or Dudley had conducted such a ceremony there would have been a furious reaction from Canterbury as it would have been recalled that Henry II arranged, during his own lifetime, for the coronation of his then eldest son by the Archbishop of York, assisted by six bishops, during the exile of Archbishop Thomas à Becket. So what did Richard’s usual Tudor detractors have to say on the matter? Well, as the Crowland Chronicle was unknown to them, although there has been the suggestion that Vergil had read it, they make no mention of the ‘coronation’ but Vergil’s account of the visit is ambiguous ‘… (so desyrus was he to prowle after vane plause and congratulation), denouncyd a day wherin the archbishop of York, at his request, apoyntyd general proces-sion, in the solemnytie whereof himself and the queen went crownyd.’ The significant word is ‘went’ as opposed to ‘were’ but the subtleties of tense seem to have been lost on later writers as will be seen. The mention that Rotherham was present, however, coupled with the word ‘crownyd’ is the second basis for the subsequent myth which was to emerge in the seventeenth-century. Meanwhile, Richard Grafton (Chronicles of England) and

This is a new, and hopefully, regular feature of the Ricardian Bulletin which will focus on Rich-ard, both as Duke of Gloucester and as King of England. To begin the series the Research Officer has written on the development of yet another misconception about Richard, but contributions are welcome from any member. If you feel you have something to write about please contact the Articles Editor, Peter Hammond, to discuss the subject matter and timescales. The Bulletin committee considered several names for this feature and they are not convinced that the chosen one is the best so they would be delighted to receive your suggested alternatives.

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Edward Hall (Two Illustrious Families of York and Lancaster) both described Rich-ard’s visit in similar terms, Hall wrote he was dressed in ‘habite royall with scepter in hande and diademe on his hed’ and although Richard proclaimed that all should come to York where they would behold their king and queen in ‘high estate and degrees’ there is no mention of a coronation or of the pres-ence of Rotherham. Shakespeare, in his con-catenation of the events of Richard’s reign, ignores the progress, and thereby the success of the York visit when Hall, almost certainly one of the playwright’s sources, commented ‘ye common people of the Northe so rejoy-sed that they extolled and praysed hym far above the stares.’ The ‘coronation’ next surfaces in Sir George Buck’s History of King Richard III completed in 1619. He was the first known historian to have consulted the Crowland Chronicle and Buck also names Thomas Rotherham as the archbishop who ‘crowned’ Richard and it can be presumed this was based on Vergil. The eighteenth-century produced at least two anti-Ricardian accounts of the reign and, of course, the work of Richard’s other early apologist, Horace Walpole. He twice alluded to a second coronation in York in his His-toric Doubts, and also cites Rotherham as the presiding cleric. Rapin de Thoyras’s four volume History of England was published in 1732 and he boldly asserts that Richard ‘caused himself to be crowned for a second time at the Cathedral of York’. Four years later Francis Drake published Eboracum and wrote that Richard ‘made a progress into the North as far as York, in order for a second coronation in that city’ but Drake did try to scratch beneath the surface. In writing his history of the city, Drake consulted the York civic records, housed in the Council Cham-ber on the Ouse Bridge, and tried to find an account of the ‘coronation’ but had no suc-cess. However, he then makes a complete nonsense of his story when he quotes Hall and describes the king wearing his crown and carrying his scepter, but goes on to write that he ‘marched to the cathedral where archbishop Rotherham set the crown on Richard’s head in the Chapter House.’ How many crowns did Richard possess and how many could he wear at once? Sharon Turner’s History of England Dur-ing the Middle Ages, published in 1825,

takes up what had by now become a tradition and embellishes on Vergil’s opinion of Rich-ard seeking vain applause. Turner lists the costly and splendid items that Richard or-dered to be sent from the Great Wardrobe for the York ceremony, ‘the abundance and vari-ety of what he sends for, imply a solicitude for his personal exhibition’. Richard’s Victo-rian biographer, Caroline Halstead, whose major sources for this portion of her work were Turner and Drake, enthusiastically de-scribed the ‘coronation’ and roundly dis-puted that Richard exceeded his ‘preogative, or [that he] committed any outrage on the ordinary usages of the realm’ by recalling the frequent crown-wearing ceremonies by the Anglo-Saxon kings as well as by Henry III (at Gloucester in 1216 and Westminster in 1219) and Henry VI (London in 1429 and Paris in 1431). It wasn’t until 1843 when Robert Davies published extracts from the York municipal archives that the record began to be set straight. After diligently searching the re-cords he wrote ‘that not the slightest ground is afforded for believing there was a second coronation’ but he did not leave matters there. He then turned his attention to the ‘records of the official acts of Archbishop Rotherham which are in a state of perfect preservation in the archiepiscopal registry of York, have been inspected, and there is not the slightest reference to the Act of Corona-tion which that prelate is reported to have performed.’ Davies’ refutation became ac-cepted and John Guest in his 1879 Historical Notices of Rotherham noted that ‘it appears that the Archbishop was not present, and from the absence of all contemporary evi-dence of a second coronation at York, it has been satisfactorily inferred that no such cere-mony was then performed.’ Peter Hammond and Anne Sutton, in their book on the ‘real’ coronation, further strengthened the virtually watertight case, by noting that the original requisition from King Richard to the Great Wardrobe states the purpose of the delivery – the investiture. Twentieth-century biographers and histori-ans, such as Paul Murray Kendall, Charles Ross and Barrie Dobson, dismiss the story of the second coronation. The matter of course does not end there as the myth still occasion-ally emerges, for example, John Crossland wrote in The Times (16 August 1495) that ‘The seal was set on the special relationship

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[Richard and York] with a second coronation at York: Richard, his Queen Anne Nevill, and their son, Edward, walking in procession to the newly completed Minster, through streets hung with arras, and greeted by the mayor and corporation with gifts’. Before concluding this article, it is perhaps worth briefly considering what would have been the significance of a second cere-mony. There were precedents, as mentioned above, and if Richard had desired to be crowned twice, in hindsight, we could say that he merely anticipated the actions of Charles I who was crowned both in London and Edinburgh, by being crowned a second time in his northern ‘capital’, York. The Crowland continuator wrote that Richard wished ‘therefore to display in the North, where he had spent most of his time previ-ously, the superior royal rank’, a theme also adopted by Vergil and more strongly by Turner in an attempt to present Richard as vain and obsessed with his new status. A coronation ‘confirmed a monarch’s right to rule his realm in the eyes of the world’ and perhaps a second coronation would have re-affirmed Richard’s right by repetition. In the event, King Richard felt sufficiently secure

not to consider such an action but to share with his northern subjects the magnificence and excitement of an investiture and afforded them the opportunity of seeing the costly and sumptuous costumes and banners he pos-sessed. Sadly that security was to be shattered within days when news reached King Richard of rebellion in the south. What perhaps emerges as the most interesting aspect of this piece of historiogra-phy is the original source for the story, the Crowland Chronicle. A candidate for the anonymous second continuator is John Rus-sell, Bishop of Lincoln who was Richard’s chancellor. It seems to me highly unlikely, however, that somebody as close to Richard, in terms of service, would have made such a fundamental error and I believe this could take Russell out of the frame. The real chroni-cler, as has been recently suggested by David Baldwin in his biography on Elizabeth Wood-ville, was somebody removed from the do-mestic political action or whose career was perhaps in decline. I believe the reporting of this piece of tittle-tattle goes a long way to supporting that theory.

Wendy Moorhen

Fifteenth-century Factfile

English Mediaeval Coinage A variety of coins circulated in fifteenth-century England and mostly had names which to us are strange, the gold Angel, Noble and Ryal (also known as the rose noble) for example. These coins were named after their designs, the Angel for example had on the obverse St. Michael spearing the dragon and the rose noble had a rose en soleil on the reverse. How-ever, the basic unit of the currency was the silver penny of which there were 240 to the pound sterling. Until the mid-fourteenth-century the penny had been the only coin minted for many centuries but under Edward III a gold coinage was introduced, as well as the silver groat, worth four pence. With some small changes this system lasted until the reign of Henry VIII. Sums of money were given in accounts as pounds, shillings (containing 12 pence) and pence although until the Tudors no shillings or pounds were actually minted, they were coins of account only. The mark, worth 13 shillings and four pence, was also a coin of account although interestingly the Noble was originally worth 6s 8d, that is half a mark. This role was taken over by the Angel when this was struck. The vast majority of the coins circulating must have been of silver and gold coins very rare. This is borne out by a coin hoard found recently and dating from about 1460, this contained 6567 silver coins and only 136 gold. A skilled labourer earning about a penny per day would probably never see a coin larger that a groat.

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The Debate: BATTLING FOR BOSWORTH: YOUR VIEWS

Supporting Dr Jones Mrs Wendy Moorhen, Research Officer, offers support for Michael Jones, as follows:

Whilst perusing some of Geoff Wheeler’s press records I came across a letter published in History Today, which supports Michael Jones’ thesis. It was entitled ‘Or Merevale?’ and was in response to an article by Colin Richmond, published two months earlier, which raised the question of where the Battle of Bosworth took place. The writer began with the first rule of history ‘go to the best source’ and in this instance it was The Croyland Chronicle. He continues with a report that the battle was fought near Merevale and that compensation was paid to nearby villages. He concludes that ‘these hamlets were in the front line and the battle must have taken place in the country nearby’ and suggests a check on field-maps of the new site and ‘eventually a thorough archaeo-logical exploration’. This letter was published in October 1985 and the writer was David Starkey. Was this the genesis of Michael’s research? Mr Doug Weeks begins by suggesting that both armies must have used the Fosse Way to get to Jones’ battlesite and then goes on to say that:

I cannot see how the royal army (with Richard’s intention to destroy Tydder at the first opportunity) could have used King Dick’s Hole as an overnight camp site and allow the French/Scots/rebels (with Tydder’s intention to get to London) to literally steal a march on them. For Richard to initiate an attack from that position, which one can assume was in his plan, he is forced to

confront the Stanleys. It would have been much safer for him to spend the night in the Fenny Drayton area, covering both roads to London. We must remember that he did not know his opponent’s intention. There is also the problem with Dr Jones’ scenario of the invading army effectively cutting off its own possible line of retreat. In addition, if Dr Jones is correct, they would be able to see Richard’s advantage in heavy cavalry and would not choose to offer battle on a site where this could be deployed. Supporting the General Ambion Hill Area Dr Aubrey Burl offers an interesting comment on the battlesite, based on geographical observation. As he points out, the story that Richard rode out of Leicester across the town bridge over the River Soar is well established and he goes on to say that Leicester’s geography demands that to go from the inn to Bow Bridge Richard must have been travelling westwards towards Market Bosworth, rather than south and Husbands Bosworth. The neighbourhood of Ambien Hill rather than Atherstone is feasible. Supporting Dr Foss Mr Timothy Parry, author of A Church for Bosworth Field: St James’ Dadlington and the Battle of Bosworth Field (1985) supports the Dadlington site. First, Jones questions a crucial thirteenth-century document on the grounds of its ‘obscurity’. Yet there is nothing remotely ob-scure about the provenance or content of the

There has been an excellent response to the two articles by Drs Foss and Jones on the site of the Battle of Bosworth. The contributions have been edited as minimally as possible, they all contain excellent arguments and deserve to be published at length. One interesting suggestion in the letter by Doug Weeks was for a live three-way debate on the site of the battle, with speakers supporting the traditional place around Ambion Hill and the two new sites. This may one day be possible. Further letters on this topic would of course be welcome.

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1283 Hinckley–Lyre Agreement in which ‘Redemor in the fields of Dadlington’ (Redemor in campis de Daddlington) is cited. Although the original is lost, reliable transcripts were created in the mid-eighteenth-century when they were used as evidence in a court case concerning tithes at Hinckley. These are preserved at Leicestershire Record Office, tallying precisely with a copy at Evreux, Normandy, and an entry in the inventory of charters compiled at Lyre in 1738–9. There is no other known reference to a locality called Redemore in neighbouring parish records. Regarding the origin of the name, Jones disregards all evidence in pursuit of his argument. ‘Red’ as a prefix to ‘moor’ or ‘more’ does not, in medieval etymology, refer to colour but to the character of the landscape. Redemore derives from ‘redesmere’, and that is exactly what it was; an area of reedy grass-land interspersed with patches of marsh. This derivation is underlined by two early references to the battle; in a marginal note in a copy of Fabyan’s Chronicle (2nd ed., 1533) in the National Library of Scotland and in the fifteenth-century ‘Londoner's Notes’ ms at the College of Arms, in both of which ‘Redesmore’ is the form used. Margaret Gelling, the leading expert on English place-names, confirms this, showing also that in the case of Dunsmore, the prefix derives from a personal name, not a colour. So here again, Jones is mistaken.

Second, Jones encourages us to doubt the authority of William Burton.

Burton was not only Leicestershire’s first county historian and a conscientious antiquarian; he was also Lord of the Manors of Higham and Dadlington, which his father Ralph had purchased in 1585. The Burtons’ seat was at nearby Lindley Hall, on the Watling Street, and thus they would have had an intimate knowledge of the district. Ralph himself would have been in a position to converse with individuals whose parents had personally witnessed the battle. It is thus virtually inconceivable that his antiquarian son could have made a fundamental error regarding its location. In his Description of Leicestershire of 1622 (and in later manu-script editions at Staffordshire Record Office) Burton states categorically that Dadlington is ‘neere to the place where King Richard the third his field was fought’ and that in the churchyard ‘many of the dead bodies (slaine in

the said battaile) were buried’. Furthermore, under Market Bosworth, Burton notes that the battle was ‘fought in a large, flat, plaine, and spacious ground, three miles distant from this Towne, between the Townes of Shenton, Sutton, Dadlington and Stoke’. Jones also fails to account for the omission of the battle from William Dugdale’s The Antiquities of Warwickshire, first published in 1656. Dugdale (1605–86) came from Shustoke, seven miles from Atherstone where Jones sites the battle. Again, if it had really taken place in Warwickshire, it would have been unthinkable for a writer such as Dugdale with detailed local knowledge not to mention such a momentous event.

Third, Jones refers towards the end of his article to the burials of battle dead at Dadlington and the subsequent chantry, which are well known and not under dispute. However, he attempts to circumvent such embarrassing facts by suggesting that the slain were carried several miles to Dadlington churchyard before being deposited in the customary mass graves for burial. The chapel of St. James at Dadlington was until 1867 a mere chapel-of-ease to Hinckley Parish Church and of no importance. To suggest that other, more convenient, places of potential interment were ignored in favour of Dadlington, as Daniel Williams and now Jones have posited, is simply perverse.

Lastly, we come to the Dadlington License, a document with the Royal Signet, authorised by the archbishop of Canterbury, and dating from 1511, in which the battle is referred to as ‘Bosworth Feld otherwise called Dadlyngton Feld in our County of Leicester’. A mere 26 years after the battle, it would have been impossible to launch a public appeal (in this case spanning five dioceses) based upon a complete misnomer. The term ‘Dadlyngton Feld’ was acceptable to neighbouring churchwardens in both Leicestershire and Warwickshire as well as to more senior ecclesiastical officials because the battle was known to have taken place near Dadlington. This would have been verifiable from personal experience.

Mr Jeremy Flynn has made some com-

ments on the site of the battlefield, also in favour of the Dadlington site.

Many of Dr Jones’s conclusions are compelling and cannot be dismissed out of

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hand. Dr Jones’s use of place names in and around the vicinity of Atherstone, perhaps tying the local topography to the events of the battle in 1485, is deeply interesting. Names such as ‘Royal Meadow’, ‘Derby Spinney’, ‘King Dick’s Hole’ and, perhaps most fascinating of all, ‘The Bloody Bank’, may indeed lend evidence to support the relocation of the battle to the vicinity of Atherstone. So too, may the wording of the grants of compensation awarded by Henry VII, within months of the battle, to Merevale Abbey and to the villages of Atherstone, Mancetter, Witherley, Atterton and Fenny Drayton.

Unfortunately, locations can be made to fit the scant and often conflicting accounts which are left to us. A manifestation of this problem lies in the modern, reconstructed landscape of the ‘official’ battlefield today. A visit to the site and consultation with the numerous signs and replica standards showing the positions and progress of the battle are, frankly, unconvincing. Even a very recent publication, Christopher Gravett’s excellent Bosworth 1485: Last Charge of the Plantagenets, supports the traditional ‘fight for Ambion Hill’ model. Many readers will be familiar with Dr Peter J. Foss’ seminal reconstruction of the battlefield and to date I am convinced that, of all the manifold inter-pretations of the limited evidence, his is by far the most persuasive. Therefore, if a visitor stands on Ambion Hill and looks at the wide, undulating plain lying generally south-westwards they are, I believe, looking at the most likely location for the bulk of the fighting of 1485. There is, it seems to me, only one concrete link between us and the battlefield of 1485 and that is the chantry established in the early sixteenth-century at the church of St. James at Dadlington. The foundation of this chantry is likely to have been a formalisation of the role of the church in receiving battlefield dead. After all, the chantry would have been founded because it contained remains of the fallen and not vice versa. This suggests that much of the fighting, or perhaps its bloodiest episodes, took place close to Dadlington itself. The reasoning behind this is simple: the bodies of the men killed during the battle were likely to be in a terrible state. One has only to consider the discovery in 1996 of those bones buried in a mass grave from the Battle of Towton (1461) to imagine the awful

condition of the fallen. It is highly unlikely that corpses suffering the extreme damage which medieval weapons could inflict upon the human body, would have been moved very far, or en masse, in such condition. It is far more likely that localised grave pits would have been dug on the field into which the bodies from both sides, after being stripped and searched, would have been packed together as tightly as possible. It is likely to have been a rapid and unpleasant process. For a ‘lucky’ few, burial on consecrated ground may have taken place if they were deemed important enough to be retrieved or if they lay within sufficient proximity that a freshly dug pit was unnecessary. Doubtless, the bones of battlefield burials disturbed during agriculture or other work in later years would also find their way to the local churchyard for interment. I therefore find it hard to accept Dr Jones’ theory that the dead of the battle were transported several miles to be buried in Dad-lington, the first church reached on the way to Leicester. Even if Tudor was feeling particu-larly generous, this seems to me a remarkable gesture considering many of his army were French mercenaries and that the bodies (with their ghastly wounds) were being moved in late August! If Tudor was so concerned with his dead, why not bury them instead at Merevale Abbey? Surely this consecrated ground, which lies much closer to the relocated battlefield, was a more convenient resting place?

Dr Jones’s opinions and incisive comments are extremely interesting and refreshing. Ultimately, however, I feel that the theory of the relocated battlefield fails when it comes to the suggestion of how the bodies came to rest in Dadlington. It is simply too far away from the postulated site. I cannot explain the origins of the interesting place names Dr Jones has indicated around Atherstone but unfortunately, nor can anyone else. Dr Jones himself notes the lack of provenance for the naming of ‘traditional’ sites on and around Ambion Hill but surely the counter-argument could be made that they are as equally valid as the intriguing collec-tion found near Atherstone? Once again, I feel we are drifting towards the perils of fit-ting landscapes to our fragmentary sources of evidence. It seems appropriate for me, there-fore, to end by doing exactly the same! Dr Jones (in his book) notes that a Welsh chroni-

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cler, Elis Gruffydd, writing in the sixteenth-century, commented that the battle was fought amongst ‘the Tuns’ and Dr Jones identifies these as Atherstone, Atterton and Fenny Drayton. However, a glance at a map will show that the plain where I believe the fight-ing took place lies close to the villages of Dadlington, Upton, Atterton, Shenton, Stee-pleton and Sutton (Cheney). Oh, for a time-machine! Mr Keith Stenner says The subject is now extensive so I must restrict myself to just a few observations on Dr Michael Jones’s theory on the Atherstone siting.

First, the logistics of the Atherstone location. It is a ‘given’ that Richard’s army left Leicester on 21 August and travelled south on the Fenn Lanes Roman road. To follow the new theory we must then accept that at the same time Henry’s army was located in the Merevale area and foraging in Atherstone, Witherley, Atterton, Fenny Drayton and Mancetter (all mentioned as sus-taining resultant crop damage in the grant of November 1485) having been following Watling Street on an eastward course. If we generally accept the foregoing, how does Richard get to his position on Dr Jones’s map given the location of Henry’s army? Richard would have been virtually restricted to the only usable roads (Fenn Lanes and Watling Street) since his artillery would necessitate the use of heavy teams of horses or oxen. To strike due west across the terrain involved to get to the Atherstone site while passing the foraging enemy force appears highly improb-able. A wide ‘swing’ entailing the crossing of the Sence Brook appears equally unlikely. It should also be noted that the course of the Sence Brook and the River Anker also render the proposed battlefield difficult for manoeuvering. Finally taking the conven-tional road route to the Atherstone site would entail Richard’s army leaving Leicester, with the artillery train, and covering around 20 miles in one day.

However, if we do accept this site for the battle and that the name ‘Bloody Bank’ shows that this was where battle slaughter took place (and we may compare the names Bloody Meadow at Tewkesbury and Red Gutter at Stoke Field) then consideration has to applied to the accredited burial of victims in

Dadlington which is approximately six miles from the location and was undoubtedly made into a battlefield chantry chapel by Henry VIII in 1511. Accepting that much killing occurred in the pursuit of fleeing troops it is difficult to accept the pursuit extended this distance. Also, if we employ the battle disposition suggested by Dr Jones the natural flight path for Richard’s broken army is to the north or west but, certainly, not east and through the main body of Henry’s army. If the fighting was concentrated in the Atherstone area, why were the dead not buried at Merevale Abbey, the Austin Friars at Atherstone, or the churches at Ratcliffe Culey, Witherley, Mancetter and Fenny Drayon? Are we really to believe that Henry’s exhausted troops transported a large number of bodies six miles to Dadlington when other suitable consecrated sites were available immediately at hand?

The presence of the tumulus or burial mound near Fenny Drayton is interesting but of doubtful provenance – could it be Bronze Age? Excavation might prove helpful. There are several similar mounds in the immediate area (including two just to the north-east of Ambion Hill at the end of Ambion Lane), how ‘relevant’ are these?

The Crowland Chronicle reference ‘this battle of Merevale’ could also be explained as a geographical misunderstanding. For Henry’s army Merevale was probably the last significant place of topographical reference before the battle.

Dr Jones also advocates the new site as being more suitable for a large-scale cavalry engagement which he suggests was mounted by Richard’s army. In his book he explains that the basis for this is a statement in a letter written after the battle which states ‘he came with all his division, which was estimated at more than 15,000 men’. Dr Jones says ‘This seems to be a reference to Richard’s cavalry charge’. I do think this is a difficult assumption to accept. Taking the statement in isolation there is no specific mention of cavalry (unless this is made clear elsewhere in the letter). Also, military convention of the period dictated that battles were fought on foot with horses only being employed as con-veyance to the field and for ensuing pursuit of broken formations. I am unaware that any battle in England during this period involved a massed cavalry attack from a standing

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battlefield array. To me the ‘conventional’ belief that Richard’s cavalry charge was conducted by a select group of immediate retainers, of perhaps no more than a hundred, still appears more plausible. As mentioned above, the Atherstone site, crossed by the Sence Brook and River Anker, would also be totally unsuitable for massed cavalry action.

Archaeological evidence would also point strongly to the action taking place in the area of the lower slopes of Ambion Hill and beyond towards Dadlington. There is a record of finds in relation to burials, cannon balls and gunstones. This evidence is comprehen-sively catalogued in Ken Wright’s book The Field of Bosworth. I accept that some of it is reported speech but, in total, it does represent a substantial body of evidence which demands further evaluation. In quoting this

‘evidence’ it is important to note the cannon balls/gunstones cannot be attributed to Civil War action which took place in the area as this was confined to a small cavalry skirmish, engaging no more than 120 troops and where no artillery was employed.

Having raised the above issues I would not wish to detract in any way from Dr Jones’s theories that have stimulated so much animated debate. Unless such challeng-ing concepts are raised the subject becomes jaded. In fairness Dr Jones has continually stressed his views are speculative and intended to promote debate – he has certainly succeeded in achieving this design. There is as yet no absolute proof as to the location of the exact site of Bosworth Field and Dr Jones has provided an excellent catalyst to encourage further research.

Originally published in Yorkshire Branch’s Blanc Sanglier April 1993

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Towton Memorial Chapel

MOIRA HABBERJAM

‘...begon by Richard 3, but not finishid’

A s Richard rode by the five burial mounds on the battlefield of Towton

on his many journeys up and down the Ro-man road between York and Pontefract, he must have planned the splendid memorial chapel he intended one day to build there in honour of the men who had died in the sur-rounding fields. To the pious Richard the sight of those burial mounds in unconse-crated ground, filled with the bodies of the un-honoured, if not unmourned, dead must have been a sad affront. He was, after all, aware that the bodies were of Englishmen and some of them his own kinsmen, even among the Lancastrian victims. The actual site for the chapel would have been the ob-vious one, now known as Chapel Hill, at the junction between the main route to Tad-caster and the Old London Road, where an unending stream of pilgrims could be ex-pected to join their prayers with those of the chantry priests serving within. It is easy to picture a splendid jewel of a chantry chapel standing there. It seems probable that Richard had re-fined the plan in his mind whilst he was still Duke of Gloucester, because it was very soon after he became king, on 8 September 1483, that he made an allocation of £40 out of the revenues of the Honour of Pontefract towards the building of his new memorial chapel at Towton. Other grants followed to further the project. By 19 February 1484 the manner of payment of the perpetual chantry chaplain had also been decided, and even the first priest’s identity; the wardens of the parish church of Saxton were to receive seven marks yearly out of the Pontefract revenues to pay the salary of master John Bateman and his successors. For those unfa-miliar with the area, Towton is a small ham-let in the parish of Saxton and about a mile or so from the parish church. Putting the new chantry under the care and control of the parish was a very practical solution to

what might have become a troublesome relationship. As for the actual construction of the chapel building, on 23 February 1484 the king ordered that £40 be paid to his ‘trusty and well-beloved servauntes Thomas Lang-ton and William Salley whom we have ap-pointed and commanded to see the same to bee employed upon the said building.’ The Sallay family were lords of the manor of Saxton at this time and closely connected with all the local gentry families, including the Langtons. They were great benefactors of the parish, and the three great medieval bells of Saxton church are inscribed with the name of this William Sallay of Saxton, 1468. But it is the choice of Thomas Lang-ton which shows Richard’s familiarity with the life of the area. The Langton family owned the limestone quarry at nearby Hud-dlestone and for many years had supplied the stone for repair and rebuilding at York Minster. The quarry was conveniently handy and what is more the stone was per-fect for the purpose in mind. King Richard gave his reason for build-ing the chapel quite simply. He had wanted decent Christian burial and then perpetual prayers for the dead of both sides, and al-ready by the end of 1483 he had apparently effected the exhumation of bones from the burial mounds. Just how many of the esti-mated 28,000 bodies were recovered we can only guess at, but the bones so recovered had been re-interred in three separate areas – part in the church and churchyard of Saxton and part within Towton chapel and other places near it. This suggests to me that either an ossuary was made in the founda-tions of the new chapel or perhaps merely that the bones were placed ‘within’ the chapel grounds. Saxton church and churchyard were cer-tainly used for reburial. In about 1540 when Leyland passed through the area on his itin-erary, one of the Hungate family of Saxton (also kinsmen of the Langtons and Sallays) had apparently mentioned this fact to him,

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and any Hungate would certainly have known. A deep trench, according to Master Hungate, had been dug at the boundary of Saxton churchyard for this very purpose. Many medieval incised slabs and crossheads were used in the recasing of the church tower in the later part of the fifteenth-century, and there is sufficient resemblance amongst the crosses to suggest that they were coeval and perhaps memorials to some of the slain at Towton who were buried there. It was proba-bly also about this time that Lord Dacre’s stone was placed over his body in the church-yard, no doubt by the same Sir John Moul-ton’s ‘fadir’ who ‘layid the first stone’ of the king’s new chapel. The Moultons were close kinsmen of the Dacres of Gillesland, and their arms too are engraved upon the Dacre tomb-stone. Though both families could be num-bered among the Lancastrians of Yorkshire before 1461, they were fairly soon reconciled to Yorkist rule. The work on the chapel building was ob-viously progressing well up to Bosworth, at which time everything must have come to a shocking stop. Who would have dared con-tinue Richard’s charitable work, even if the new lord of the Honour of Pontefract, Henry Tudor, had been gracious enough to continue with the payments? There was certainly no one powerful enough in the Towton area, or anywhere in the vicinity of York where the king’s death had come as such a stunning blow. In fact, there was no further mention of the chapel until 22 July 1486 when Archbishop Rotherham offered indulgences to anyone who would give alms to help finish the building. In the preamble to his missive Rotherham quotes many of Richard’s own words from the signet letters, without of course ever mentioning that Richard was in any way involved. Make what you will of that! He says ‘... a certain splendid chapel has been expensively and imposingly erected from new foundations in the hamlet of Tough-ton, upon the battleground where the bodies of the first and greatest in the land as well as great multitudes of other men were first slain and then buried and interred in the fields around, which chapel in so far as the roofing, the glazing of the windows, and other neces-sary furnishings is concerned has not yet been fully completed, nor is it likely that the build-ing will be finished without the alms and help of charitable Christians in our diocese....’

As for the roofing of the chapel, when I discovered that on 27 July 1486 the Langtons sued in the local court over the theft of 460 roof tiles from their premises, it occurred to me that those same stolen tiles might very well have been destined for Towton chapel roof. In 1502, the succeeding Archbishop of York, Thomas Savage, was still trying to in-duce the locals to donate funds to the chapel, which ‘was not so sufficiently endowed with possessions and rents as to sustain it and have divine services celebrated therein.’ Ob-viously no one had come forward to carry on Richard III’s unfinished project and hardly a mention of the subject occurs from then on until Leyland’s itinerary of Yorkshire around 1540. He noted that ‘a great chapell begon by Richard 3 but not finishid’ still remained at Towton. Of this fine chapel nothing now is left except the head of the Dacre cross on the battle site which, perhaps, was once part of the building. But even that is not certain. There have been other fragments of worked or decorated stone discovered from time to time at Towton Hall which stands on, or at least very near, the chapel site, and we may guess that the chapel was seen by the local people as a handy source of building material soon after Leyland reported on it. Such scavenging around the dissolved reli-gious houses was, after all, happening all over Yorkshire, and there is every reason to expect that the local gentry took the opportunity here also to enlarge or modernise their homes at minimum cost. And so in 1797 when the then owner of the Hall came across a mass of bones, worked stone and medieval tiles whilst extending his cellar space, it was assumed that he must have encroached upon graves in the foundations of the medieval chapel. That certainly seems to be the most likely explana-tion. Although bones have regularly been unearthed round the Hall site, it is only re-cently that archaeologists have had the oppor-tunity of studying a particular find seriously. This occurred when the Hall garage was be-ing enlarged and a significant grave was dis-covered, with several skeletons that have since been exhumed and examined by archae-ologists from Bradford University, discussed in detail in the book Blood Red Roses. There is only limited enthusiasm around for disturb-ing what is, after all, a huge burial ground, but no doubt there will be future excavations

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on the site, if only to establish those things that we probably already know about Richard III’s memorial chapel – its size and exact po-sition in the landscape. We can only guess at the most interesting thing about it, which is its actual appearance, though it would cer-tainly have been at least as splendid as the chantry chapels of Wakefield, Rotherham, or even Shrewsbury which was built to com-memorate the dead of another such battle between rival factions of the English nobility.

NOTES AND REFERENCES For Richard III’s grants under his signet for the building of the chapel, etc. see DL 42/20 fol. 14v and fol. 59, also Pontefract Receivers Accounts Ed. IV-1 Ric.III, DL 29/526/ 8390-2. Archbishop Rotherham’s register is no. 24 at the Borthwick Institute, York, fol. 73v–74. V. Fiorato, A. Boylston & C. Knusel (Eds) Blood Red Roses: the Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000.

THE RICHARD III AND YORKIST HISTORY TRUST

Richard III: Loyalty, Lordship and Law

Edited by P.W. Hammond

Papers of the Second Richard III Society Symposium April 1984, in a new edition.

Anne Crawford: The Private Life of John Howard: A Study of a Yorkist Lord, his Family and Household Michael K. Jones: Richard III and Lady Margaret Beaufort: A Reassessment Keith Dockray: Richard III and the Yorkist Gentry Anne F. Sutton: ‘A Curious Searcher for our Weal Public’ : Richard III, Piety, Chivalry and the Concept of a ‘Good Prince’ R.H. Helmholz: The Sons of Edward IV: A Canonical Assessment of the Claim that they were Illegitimate P.W. Hammond and W.J. White: The Sons of Edward IV: A Re-Examination of the Evidence on their Deaths and on the Bones in Westminster Abbey Norman Macdougall: Richard III and James III: Contemporary Monarchs, Parallel Mytholo-gies Colin Richmond: 1485 And All That, or What was Going on at the Battle of Bosworth?

ISBN 1–900289–37–7

Available to members for £15.00, including p&p, from Time Travellers Ltd, PO Box 7253, Tamworth, Staffordshire B79 9BF

Overseas members add 10% to cover surface mail charge. Cheques, in sterling only, should be made payable to Richard III Society

Price to non-members £19.50, including p&p, from

Paul Watkins Publishing, 1 High Street, Donington, Lincolnshire PE11 4TA

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Margaret of York In June, to commemorate the quincentenary this year of the death of Margaret of York, Richard III’s last surviving sibling, we published an article by John Ashdown‑Hill which discussed her birthplace. Now we are turning our attention to her wedding to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. We have an article on her wedding journey to Bruges in 1468, adapted from the tour notes provided by the Visits Team for the participants in the Society’s visit to Flanders in May 2001, whose theme was ‘In the Steps of Margaret of York’, followed by one on the coronet she wore at her wedding. In the December Bulletin we will have an article concerning her later life.

I n 1468, after a sea voyage which took a day and a half, Margaret arrived in Sluis

at 6 pm on Saturday 25 June. It was one day after the anniversary of the English victory over the French fleet, won there by Edward III in 1340 at the start of the Hundred Years’ War, but this must have been fortui-tous, as in those days sea voyages were of uncertain duration. Thoughts of that victory, however, may well have afforded Margaret pleasure, for King Louis XI of France, ever a thorn in her side, had tried to prevent the granting of the Papal dispensation for her marriage and to frighten the Florentine bankers out of lending Edward IV the money for her dowry – and had also spread rumours that she was ‘somewhat attached to love affairs’ and already had a bastard son. Careful preparations had been made in Sluis to meet her with due honour and splendour. Her betrothed, Charles the Bold, had himself checked that everything was in order in the three towns she would come to, Sluis, Damme and Bruges, but etiquette did not allow him to greet her in person. That task he deputed to David, Bishop of Utrecht and the Countess of Charney, two of his father’s many bastard children and not per-haps a tactful choice to welcome a new bride. But both were important at the Bur-gundian court, and the bishop had enter-tained Margaret’s brothers George and Richard when they were refugees in Bur-

gundy after their father had been killed at Wakefield. Simon de Lalaing, one of Charles’s chamberlains, and the Bailiff of Sluis went out on a barge to greet Margaret, accompa-nied by musicians, and escorted her into port. By now it was dark, and the people stood at the doors of their houses holding flaming torches to light her progress through the town. She was wearing a crim-son dress with a long train trimmed with black, the Burgundian colours. At the Wa-tergate she was met by the chief burghers, who gave her a purse containing twelve gold marks, and she then walked over car-pets laid in the streets to the Market Place. Here she stayed at the house of a wealthy merchant named Guy van Baenst. A platform had been erected opposite the house, on which pageants were performed for her entertainment every day for the week she stayed in the town. These pag-eants depicted scenes of suitable marriages of people in myth, legend and history. The next day she received her first royal visitors, the Dowager Duchess Isabelle of Burgundy, who was to be her mother-in-law, and the 11‑year‑old Lady Mary, Charles’s daughter by his first wife. One of Elizabeth Woodville’s uncles, Jacques, count of St Pol, was in their entourage. The greeting was the quintessence of etiquette: Margaret met Isabelle at the door of the

The Wedding Journey

LESLEY WYNNE-DAVIES

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house, and each knelt to the other for a long time; then they embraced and ‘stood still in communication for a tract of time’. Isabelle then led Margaret back into the house; they then dined in private, and it was recorded that Isabelle was pleased with Margaret’s manners and virtues. On the Monday, Charles came to visit Margaret ‘with twenty persons secretly’. The chroniclers record that they made ‘reverent obeisance’ to each other, and then Charles put his arms round Margaret and kissed her in full view of both the English and the Burgundi-ans. It was said that each time Charles visited her in Sluis he kissed not only Margaret, but all the other ladies present – but of course in those days English ladies had the reputation of kissing freely. Charles and Margaret were formally betrothed in the garden of van Baenst’s house, and their hands were joined by the Bishop of Salisbury. Margaret, now formally Duchess of Bur-gundy, stayed at Sluis until the following Saturday, entertained by firework displays, ‘castles of fire’, pageants and music. Isabelle, Mary and Charles visited her several times. She was then taken by barge up the river Zwin to Damme. Even in the fifteenth-century this river was silting up, so that larger ships had to unload their cargoes at Sluis, but the town was still prosperous, the quays still busy loading and unloading Bruges’ luxury goods. There were some large and splendid houses belonging to the leading merchants, and the house of Eustace Weyts, Charles’s steward, had been chosen as Margaret’s lodg-ing. Here the Dowager Duchess Isabelle was waiting to receive her. The citizens gave her gifts. Again she walked through carpeted streets and was entertained by tableaux, pag-eants and fireworks. The next morning Charles came to Damme in the very early morning, and they were probably married privately in Eustace Weyts’ house rather than in the church, but went to High Mass there afterwards. Charles then left on his own for Bruges. This was not as churlish as it sounds: the idea was for Mar-garet to receive a ‘Joyeuse Entrée’ for herself into Bruges, a great honour. This was the splendid entrance ceremony by which all the cities and provinces of the Low Countries welcomed their new rulers for the first time. Margaret, in a gown of white cloth of gold trimmed with white ermine, and a crimson

cloak, her hair loose and her golden coronet high on her head, travelled to Bruges in a gilded litter draped with crimson cloth of gold and drawn by matching white horses. In the procession were all the English lords who had accompanied her, the Burgundian lords and knights of the Golden Fleece, other notable persons and of course musicians. Four more processions met her at the gate of the Holy Cross and brought her into the city and to the ducal palace. Imagine the mus-tering of them, the assigning of places, and the bustling about that there must have been. Were there trumpet signals or messengers scurrying to and fro to make sure that all four started at the right time? First came the procession of the city of Bruges. The mayor and the solid citizens wore black damask, and were accompanied by more minstrels and pages. Black not only looks very respectable, but it is an expensive dye, and people in black appear prominent by contrast when everyone else is a riot of col-our. The citizens gave Margaret a gold vase full of gold pieces and an enamelled statue of St. Margaret, as well as the traditional gifts of welcome, candles and wine. The second pro-cession was that of the Burgundian church, with about 160 bishops and abbots. They did not give Margaret any material gifts, but they presumably gave her their united blessings. The third was of merchants of all nationali-ties. They gave her four white horses har-nessed and saddled in blue and white, other Burgundian colours. Christine Weightman remarks that the merchants would all have been magnificent advertisements for their own wares, in silks, brocades, damasks and velvets. The English merchants in their violet livery were probably led by William Caxton, of the Merchant Adventurers at Bruges. The fourth procession was from the ducal house-hold, the chamberlains, councillors, gentle-men and servants, all in court livery of purple, crimson and black. In this procession would have been the men responsible for many of the arrangements, and how they must have looked about them to see that everything was being done exactly as planned. All these processions went through the streets of Bruges, which were carpeted and hung with garlands, banners and tapestries, and crowded with spectators. There were pag-eants all the way to the ducal palace, mostly on biblical subjects, but one was on the mar-

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riage of Alexander the Great and Queen Cleo-patra of Egypt, which would have been a great surprise to both those parties (not to mention disconcerting Mark Anthony). The arms of England and of Burgundy were on show, and mottoes: ‘Je l'ay emprins’ (I have undertaken it) for the Duke, and ‘bien en avi-engne’ (may good ensue) for Margaret. She had probably been saying much the same thing ever since leaving London. Everything had been arranged by a com-mittee headed by Olivier de la Marche, Charles’s chamberlain, who wrote a book about it 40 years later. His portrait is in the collection at Arras which we saw on a previ-ous Society visit, and a right surly person he looks. Perhaps that’s the price of arranging jollity for others. He first attracted attention in 1454 by ‘his spirited performance as a young girl at the great feast of the Pheasant at Lille’, says Christine Weightman. He soon gained a great reputation for arranging court occasions. He brought in craftsmen from all over Bur-gundy: teams of painters, sculptors, wax‑-carvers, leatherworkers and jewellers came

from Antwerp, Ypres, Brussels, Ghent and Tournai. The Bruges craftsmen were led by Jacques Daret, who had created many dis-plays for meetings of the Order of the Golden Fleece. These teams created mechanical de-vices to be displayed at the palace, including a 41‑foot tower inhabited by monkeys, wolves and bears which danced. Bruges never forgot the show it put on for Margaret of York, and it is still re‑enacted to‑day, as the Pageant of the Golden Tree, to which the Society has organized several visits over the years. After such an account of wonders per-formed, created and worn, it is very sad to have to record that the weather was dreadful. Storm clouds came over Bruges from the North Sea, and it poured with rain all day. What a joyeuse entrée: but poor Margaret probably felt at home in the cold and wet. FURTHER READING Christine Weightman, Margaret of York, Alan Sutton, 1989.

Margaret’s CoronetMargaret’s CoronetMargaret’s CoronetMargaret’s Coronet

PETER HAMMOND

I n 1468 a marriage took place between Charles the Rash, Duke of Burgundy,

and Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. The wedding was the result of long and protracted negotiations, and was part of an alliance of friendship between England and Burgundy. The young princess (she was 22 years old in 1468) gave her assent to the event in October 1467, and a few months later, after a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury with her brothers Edward IV and the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, she embarked for Flanders from the small port of Margate on 24 June 1468. She landed at Sluys the next day where she was received with great honours, and thus began nine days of the most splendid fes-tivities including jousting, receptions and banquets. The marriage itself took place at

Damme on 3 July. The Duchess is described as wearing a surcote and mantle of cloth of gold furred with ermine and being ‘rychely coroned’.1 This ‘corone’ still exists. It is very small, with a diameter across the base of just under five inches, and a maximum height of just over five inches. It is made of gilded silver, ornamented with precious stones, pearls and enamel, and follows the usual design of a lower circlet surmounted by eight tall and eight short projections. The circlet has an edging of pearls around the top and bottom of the band, and between these white enamelled roses spaced at inter-vals around it. Each rose is surmounted by a blue precious stone. The rose at the front, i.e. over the forehead, is slightly larger, and is surmounted by a diamond cross. Between each rose appear letters covered with

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translucent green, white and red enamel form-ing the inscription MARGARIT[A] DE [Y]O[R]K2 Opposite the diamond cross is an enamelled shield bearing the arms of Bur-gundy impaling France and England quar-terly, symbolising the marriage.

The circlet is surmounted by eight large fleurons; one of them (the front one) is quadrifoliate, seven of them quinquifoliate, the latter ornamented with pearls and sap-phires, and the former with a large ruby (or spinel) in a claw setting and mounted on a white rose. Below this is a small gold rose ornamented with emeralds. Alternating with each large fleuron is a smaller, lower trifoliate one, ornamented with precious stones. Unusu-ally, every fleuron curves outwards, so that the diameter is greater at the top than at the base. On the coronet below each small fleu-ron are the initials C and M joined with a knot, and below each large one a pearl. The front and rear fleurons have below them a larger pearl on a white enamel rose.

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, in the centre, are the arms of Burgundy impaling England and France quarterly. The arms are surrounded by stylised flints, the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Around the edge are the initials C and M joined by knots, and, repeated five times, Bien en Avienie, the motto of Duke Charles. The case shows traces of the original gilding.

There is no written evidence to prove that this is the coronet used at the wedding, but there is no reason to doubt that it is. The initials C and M, together with the name Margaret, and the arms of Burgundy impaling England and France quarterly, show that it was used on some such occasion – nuptial crowns were widely used in the Middle Ages. Another such coronet of the fifteenth-century and of English origin was worn by Blanche, daughter of Henry IV, at her marriage to the Elector Palatine in 1402, and still exists in Munich. The box was undoubtedly prepared for the occasion of the marriage, with not only the linked initials but also the impaled Anglo-Burgundian arms. This reasonably confident dating of the box raises of course the question of the date of the coronet. Traditionally, it was said to have been made in 1468 for the wedding, and at first sight the initials, white roses and coat of arms

would seem to support this date. It has also been suggested that it was made in 1461 to be worn by Margaret at the coronation of her brother Edward IV, and that the symbols re-lating to the marriage were added in 1468. There is nothing inherently impossible in this. The inscription MARGARIT[A] DE [Y]O[R]K certainly seems to have been added as an afterthought, with the letters be-ing crowded into an inadequate space, and they are of course partially in French, not English. The other symbols could have been added without difficulty. Such an origin would explain the apparent predominance of the white rose of York over the arms of Bur-gundy. We do have a record of the sister of a Yorkist king wearing a ‘cronell of golde’ at the coronation of her brother, that is Eliza-beth, Duchess of Suffolk, at the coronation of Richard III in 1483. It is possible that the pattern of the coronet supports this. The general tendency in the fifteenth-century was for the pinnacles of non-royal crowns to be assimilated into the circlet, i.e. to lower the fleurons. This change seems to have been taking place in the period 1450–1480, so that Margaret of York’s coro-net would have been slightly old-fashioned if made in 1468, but not so much so if made in 1461. However, this could be due to its hav-ing been made at the later date but in a more traditional design. A pattern of rosettes be-tween initials, or rows of letters making up a name, is known from the beginning of the fifteenth-century, as are alternating large and small fleur de lys. The dimensions of the coronet may support the earlier date of manu-facture, however. As seen above it is in fact very small. Margaret of York was 15 years of

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age in 1461, and although hardly a child, may have had a smaller coronet than that of a fully grown adult. In 1474, not 1475 as has usually been said in the past, Margaret made a visit to the Ca-thedral Church of St. Mary at Aachen, and in the course of the visit gave her coronet to adorn the statue of the Virgin there. At Aachen, in the Cathedral Treasury, the coro-net still remains. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. A very full contemporary description of the wedding appears in Samuel Bentley’s Excerpta Historica, pp. 227–239. This account is in the So-ciety Library. 2. This is the lettering on the coronet now. There is evidence that it was slightly different before a restoration in 1865 when the design may have been altered slightly too. See Bock and Beissel. S. Beissel, Die Aachenfahrt, Frieburg, 1902.

S. Bentley, Excerpta Historica, 1831. F. Bock, Die Kleinodien des Heil Romischen Rei-ches Deutscher Nation, Vienna, 1864. Der Deutsche Herold, Vol. 21, no. 6, p. 65, con-taining a description of the coronet. E.G. Grimme, Das Aachener Domschatz, (in Aachener Kunst-Blatter, Vol. 42, pp. 111–112, 1972). H. vander Linden, Itineraires de Charles, Duc de Bourgogne, Marguerite D’York et Marie de Bour-gogne (1467–1477), Brussels, 1936. P.E. Schramm, Herrschaftzeichen und Staatsym-bolik, Stuttgart, 1956. J. Squilbeck, Marguerite d’York et son temps, Brussels, 1967. A. Sutton & P.W. Hammond, The Coronation of Richard III, 1983. E.F. Twining, European Regalia, 1967. This article originally appeared in a slightly differ-ent form in The Ricardian, Vol. 6, pp. 362–365, 1984.

‘A time there was ...’‘A time there was ...’‘A time there was ...’‘A time there was ...’ Twenty years ago – in the summer of 1983 – the Bulletin reviewed the Society’s Quincentenary Dinner, held in London’s Guildhall, attended by the Society’s Patron HRH The Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Colin Cole, Garter Principal King of Arms, Alderman Sir Ronald Gardner-Thorpe, Peter Arnold the Mayor of Gloucester, and more than three hundred members and guests, including members from America, Australia and New Zealand. The Duke of Gloucester’s speech in proposing a toast to the memory of King Richard III left no doubts about his commitment to the Ricardian cause and was received with great appreciation. The Society’s Chairman, Jeremy Potter, asked the com-pany to remember the friends of Richard III who had fallen with him at Bosworth, and those who had defended his memory down the generations. The evening proved a remarkable occasion and a centre piece for mounting publicity for the Ricardian cause during the quin-centenary year. Elsewhere the June 1983 issue of the Bulletin featured the quincentenary calendar, ‘Quincentenary media’, Gloucester and Stony Stratford quincentenary events, and a review of the Coronation Progress Tour [aka ‘the yomp’!]

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A lthough the 70th anniversary of the opening of the marble urn in the north

aisle of the Henry VII Chapel fell in July of this year the operations had been performed in secret. Thus, few were to know of the matter until the findings were presented at the Society of Antiquaries in November 1933. The circumstances of the examination accordingly are somewhat obscure. Lawrence Tanner, Keeper of the Muni-ments of Westminster Abbey, tells us that ‘Strong representations… by responsible persons’ had been made to Dr William Foxley Norris, Dean of Westminster, with regard to examination of the contents of the urn in order to ‘elucidate the problem of the Princes in the Tower’.1 The “responsible persons” are known to have included Lord Moynihan, surgeon to King George V and Aymer Vallance FSA, a prominent member of the Fellowship of the White Boar.2 In turn, since the Abbey was a ‘Royal Pecu-liar’ the Dean had acquired the permission of George V to open the urn and study the contents, if any. So began the investigation on 6 July 1933 or, in fact, the preceding day because Mr Bishop, the Abbey’s Clerk of the works, had prudently loosened the lid of the urn in order to ensure that the Big Day went without a hitch. Present on that Thurs-day morning were Aymer Vallance, Lord Moynihan, Professor William Wright, the anatomist who was to examine the bones from the urn, plus a large number of West-minster Abbey staff. The latter included Lawrence Wright, Dr Norris and his Dean’s Verger, the Chapter Clerk, the Clerk of the Works, together with four anonymous workmen. The urn was emptied carefully

and the contents were placed upon a table. The large party of spectators retreated, leav-ing Professor Wright to his investigations for the next six days, during which the Chapel was closed to the public. The role of Lawrence Tanner in the in-vestigation has been overshadowed by the sensational results claimed by William Wright for the bones themselves. In fact Tanner performed some ground-breaking work. It was he who ascertained a date of birth for the younger of the two princes, something that was in doubt prior to this work. He is notable for a number of scoops. In a letter to The Times, CAJ Armstrong had given advance notice of the importance of Dominic Mancini’s manuscript on the usur-pation of Richard III; Tanner arranged to view Armstrong’s edited version, ahead of publication, even if it was to be quoted out of context. Similarly, Lord Wakefield of Hythe had recently made a gift of the manu-script of the Great Chronicle of London to the Guildhall Library, London. Tanner was among the earliest scholars to gain ready access to it and it was not to be published (privately) by the Corporation of London for several years more. Its internal inconsis-tencies were only touched upon during the investigation by Tanner and Wright though. Finally, Tanner brought together all the known ‘eye-witness’ or early accounts of the discovery of the bones in 1674. This was a revealing undertaking because it re-vealed mutually contradictory statements in the accounts and it is also evident that they contradict some of More’s stories of the disposal of the bodies of the murdered princes.

70 Years of the Bones: The 70 Years of the Bones: The 70 Years of the Bones: The 70 Years of the Bones: The Investigation in Westminster AbbeyInvestigation in Westminster AbbeyInvestigation in Westminster AbbeyInvestigation in Westminster Abbey

BILL WHITE

The debate in the December Bulletin will be on the subject of the bones in Westminster Abbey. We are pleased to have Bill White, an expert in human osteology, putting the case that the 1933 examination of the bones was seriously flawed and someone equally expert arguing the opposite case. To set the scene, and with the agreement of both sides in the debate, Bill White describes below what happened in 1933 and the personalities involved.

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Meanwhile, William Wright had sifted through the material obtained from the urn. He discarded anything that was not identifi-able as bone (a fragment of wood, stone building material, pieces of lead and iron nails). This was casual destruction of mate-rial evidence of environmental or forensic importance. He then compounded the prob-lem by separating out the bone that was not of human origin, sending it to Dr Hopwood of the Natural History Museum in order to identify the different animal species present. He did not ask for this material to be re-turned to him and this led to this potential evidence also being destroyed. Wright recog-nised that the jaws and teeth of the deceased children potentially represented the best means of estimating the ages at which they died, therefore he called upon the assistance of Dr George Northcroft, the immediate past President of the British Dental Association. These two authorities were agreed upon ob-serving a trait toward missing second molars in both children. This, together with the pres-ence of ‘large Wormian bones’ in the skulls noticed first by Moynihan, led them to con-clude that the children had been related. The anatomist’s conclusions, revealed to an astonished public on 30 November 1933, were that the bones had proved to be those of two children (did the dimensions of the urn suggest otherwise?). Moreover, there was evidence of consanguinity in the bones and jaws of the children and the elder child still had a red stain across the facial bones that was presumed to be a blood stain caused by suffocation. Finally, since the age of the elder child was between twelve and thirteen and that of the younger between nine and eleven years, there was no possibility that the children were still alive at the accession of Henry VII in 1485. The over-riding pre-sumption in all this was that there was ‘at least a reasonable probability that the tradi-

tional story as told by More, is in its outlines true.’ All of these assertions came under immediate attack and there has never since been a let up in such challenges. Although William Wright died largely oblivious of the furore that he had created, in a lecture delivered a year before Wright died Dr Northcroft had softened his own line. He no longer regarded the dental evidence for either age or consanguinity being as strong as Wright had portrayed.3 Several of the oth-ers involved also died soon after the investi-gation: King George and Lord Moynihan in 1936, Dr Norris as well as Wright in 1937. Lest it be thought that acquaintance with these bones was accompanied by a lethal curse it should be noted that Lawrence Tan-ner lived on until 1979. Nevertheless the bones might be thought to have blighted his life in that he was the sole participant in the investigation still present to bear the on-slaught of the very powerful attacks on the authenticity of the bones mounted by Paul Murray Kendall, Dr Lyne-Pirkis and others during the 1950s and 1960s. During his final years Tanner refused to discuss the matter, referring all enquirers to Appendix J of The Complete Peerage, volume 12, part 2, which bore a much more balanced review of the evidence than was given in the seminal re-port published 70 years ago. The investigation conducted 70 years ago was intended to dispel the mystery surround-ing the disappearance of the sons of Edward IV. Instead the debate goes on. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. L E Tanner and W Wright ‘Recent investiga-tions regarding the fate of the Princes in the Tower’ Archaeologia 1935, Vol. 84, 1-26. 2. P Lindsay On some bones in Westminster Abbey, London 1934. 3. G Northcroft ‘A lantern lecture delivered at the opening of the new headquarters British Dental Journal 1936, Vol. 60, 157-170.

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CorrespondenceCorrespondenceCorrespondenceCorrespondence

First, a round up of some of the comments received on the ‘new’ Bulletin. Dear Editor, I am writing to express my appreciation of the new format of the Ricardian Bulletin. It is an improvement on the recent publication, which was excellent in its day. Many thanks to all concerned. Additionally (and a bit late) I was very grateful to receive the soft-back copy of The Ricardian journal – a welcome surprise. Both publications express very high stan-dards of research and bring fresh interest to the subject. Best regards to all other members with appreciation and many thanks for all the ex-cellent contributions.

W J Armstrong (Mrs), New Zealand

First of all, just to say that I think the new Bulletin looks absolutely great: stylish, seri-ous, professional, but still with the fun ele-ments of the old one (especially the trips and the medieval feasting). I think the team ... has done a tremendous job.

Ann Wroe

Very many congratulations on the new Bulletin format. It really is very handsome with the arms on the cover!

Philip Jackson

Well, you have got a splendid new publica-tion! I am sure it could not be bettered, and the decision to have an annual Ricardian and a quarterly Bulletin is in my view the right one. With a nice mix of news, information and interest ... it certainly looks good.

Isolde Wigram

Just a line to congratulate ... everyone con-cerned, on the ‘new-look’ Bulletin. Both the format and the contents do the Society proud.

J C Knights I must say how much I like the overhaul of the Ricardian Bulletin – very professional both in content and presentation and so much more easy to read.

Richander Birkinshaw

Dear Editor, In response to Stephen Lark’s suggestion in the March 2003 Bulletin (p.35) endorsed by Elaine Brookbank in the Summer 2003 Bulletin (pp. 44-45) that Henry VI was too ‘other-worldly’ ever to have fathered a child, this appears to me as completely unlikely. Henry, who was king from early childhood, must have understood very well the necessity of providing a successor. He had one physical defect, revealed when his remains were ex-humed early last century, an abnormally thin skull and at the time his son was born, he was in a state of mental and physical collapse, but neither is relevant. He inherited the condition from his maternal grandfather, Charles VI of France, which his mother Catherine of France went on by her second marriage to entail on Tudors, Stuarts and Hanoverians. In contem-porary members of the line, this was defi-nitely established as porphyria, so that it is likely that Henry VI was a sufferer. Given the lack of privacy for royals of the period, Margaret of Anjou would never have risked the suggested fraud, either. I will add that anyone wanting a photocopy of my piece on Henry VI in The Ricardian, No. 43 of De-cember 1973 has only to drop me a line.

Muriel Smith (Miss), The Rails, The Green, Holyport, Maidenhead, Berks.

SL6 2JL Dear Editor, First of all I would like to congratulate the Richard III Society on the quality of the re-vamped Summer 2003 Ricardian Bulletin. It is by some distance the best issue to date, packed with first class articles and features. The undoubted highlight was the debate concerning the location of the Battle of Bosworth. I have always found the case pre-sented by Peter Foss to be highly persuasive, certainly far more credible than the traditional Leicestershire County Council version of events. However, Michael Jones’s re-interpretation of Henry VII’s compensation

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grants provides a nagging doubt, so much so that the issue, I feel, is not nearly so clear cut as I once believed. But one thing is certain: ‘The Debate’ concept is a great idea and should be re-peated as soon as possible. What about the Perkin Warbeck controversy for a future issue? Same format: two recognized writers with differing views. Finally, to add to the list of Ricardian marriages, Wendy and I first met by virtue of our mutual interest in Richard III in 1997 and were married on 8 September 2001 – a Ricardian anniversary in its own right!

David Johnson Editor: ‘The Debate’ will be a regular fea-ture in alternate issue of the Bulletin, with correspondence on the previous debate in the intervening issue. Perkin Warbeck will certainly be considered for a future ‘Debate’. Dear Editor, I found the summer 2003 Bulletin most in-teresting, and would like to comment on two different matters in the correspondence pages. With regard to the paternity of Edward IV [pp. 44–45]: the idea of using a man’s height as a possible clue to his legitimacy (or otherwise) seems to me ridiculous. He-redity is not as simple as that – as I know very well, from the example of my own family. I was fascinated by the information in the letter from Veronica Brown [p. 46]. There have been various theories to explain the last Kaiser’s irrational and intemperate behaviour, and one of them is that he suf-fered – though only mildly – from porphy-ria, which certainly afflicted his eldest sister Charlotte and her daughter Feodora of Reuss. The whole subject is treated in Pur-ple Secret by John Rohl, Martin Warren and David Hunt (first published in 1998). This includes information on the late Prince Wil-liam of Gloucester – the elder brother of this Society’s Patron, of course – who was diagnosed in 1970 as suffering from por-

phyria. Both this book and the first one on the subject – Mcalpine and Hunter’s George III and the Mad-Business (1969) – agree that the disease came from Mary Queen of Scots: it would be fascinating to know from whom she inherited it – unless it was a spontaneous genetic mutation in her or one of her parents. Purple Secret only glances at the Plantagenets, merely to suggest that Henry VI’s illness was some form of schizophrenia, as was that of his maternal grandfather Charles VI of France.

Carol Hartley Dear Ricardian Bulletin, We are prize-winning writers who have researched and written a dynamic film script about Richard III, which defies the commonly believed version of history propagated by his enemies. It has proven true that a good film script, well produced, has extraordinary potential to change minds and bring the past to life and to light in a way that no other medium can. However, a historical screenplay com-monly needs a special sort of champion to see it through. Perhaps someone with an enthusiasm to alter Richard III's place in history also has sufficient resources to be that champion. It is our hope that a member of the soci-ety may find our story of interest and put it on the path to production. Please note that a highly respected entertainment attorney represents us, in accordance with accepted legal requirements and policy. We can be contacted through the address, phone or e-mail below. Kaenan Oliver, Jay Flynn, Dominic Oliver [Oliver–Flynn–Oliver, 131 N. Belmont St, Glendale, CA 91206 USA. Tel: 1 818 240 7658; e-mail: writersact@att.net; website: writersact.home.att.net Dear Editor, At the risk of prolonging the debate, I am at a loss to understand why Isolde Wigram, in her letter (Bulletin, Summer, 2003, p. 44) seems to think that the cross ploughed up

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around 1778 in a Leicestershire field should have anything to do with the Battle of Bos-worth, rather than the result of its burial at a time such as around the dissolution of the monasteries, for example. I am afraid any more details of its provenance will not help matters, as the connection, as I said previ-ously, seems to rest solely on its decoration. Along with other supposed relics of the battle, most of which turn out to be spuri-ous, it was dismissed by Dr Peter Foss in Appendix B of The Field of Redemore (2nd edn, 1998). It would be interesting to discover just when the attribution of the ‘Yorkist sun-bursts’ first occurs. They are not com-mented upon, or any inference made, by John Nicholls in his account of its discovery (History of Leicester, Vol. 4, Part 2, p. 557) but were certainly brought to prominence when the cross was exhibited at the 1973 Richard III exhibition at the National Por-trait Gallery, and the catalogue entry cites a number of others (from the forty examples classified by Charles Oman) in addition to the two examples I gave, that bear sunbursts or roses. However, it is surely stretching the bounds of credibility to suggest that they all have any Yorkist or secular significance, when the religious motif seems a more likely explanation. Unfortunately, similar claims are made for a large number of items in the Catalogue (with a few cautionary caveats), ranging from bookbindings, alabaster triptychs, and the Eton wall paintings, to crowned ‘R’ badges, occurring in metal, on rings or in glass, where at least the alternative religious interpretation of ‘R’ for the Virgin as ‘Maria Regina’, and not Richard III, is con-ceded. Of course it is perfectly possible, as Isolde suggests, that in adopting suns and roses as part of their livery, the Yorkists were well aware of their dual significance, and it is an area that deserves fuller investi-gation, though one fraught with imponder-ables. The precise significance of the oppos-ing Lancastrian livery collar of SS is still a matter for inconclusive debate among histo-

rians and antiquarians alike. As long ago as 1956, the eminent herald H Stanford Lon-don cautioned ‘we must therefore forget the popular idea that the sun was adopted by Edward IV to commemorate the appearance of three suns before the battle of Mortimer’s Cross on the morning of Candlemas Day 1461’ (Royal Beasts, The Heraldry Society, p.31). He explains: ‘the ‘sonne shyning’ was one of the badges used by Richard II. It appears, though small and inconspicuous, on his Great Seal; it was emblazoned large on the sail of a ship in which he returned from Ireland (BL Harl MS 1319). In a fif-teenth-century list of Yorkist badges (Bodleian MS Digby 82) it is expressly given for him.’ However the evidence for its widespread use by Edward IV before 1461 is difficult to determine. Of those examples where re-mains of livery collars occur on effigies atrributed to people who died before that date, two are inconclusive with regards to definite identification, and that of the third (Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, d. 1460, at Burghfield) was probably carved after his death. Finally, may I make a small correction to the report of the Knebworth visit by Phil Stone (pp. 51-52) in the last issue? My dis-covery of the Richard III portrait now in Denver, USA, occurred before the compan-ion ones of Henry V and Edward IV, at the house appeared on The Antiques Roadshow broadcast. Anyone interested in the full story can read the illustrated account in the American Branch magazine, The Ricardian Register, Vol. XXVII, No. 1, Spring 2002, reprinted, due to local connection with the Sheldons of Beoley in Dickon Independent, magazine of the Worcestershire Branch, July 2002. Both are available from Rebekah Beale, Society’s Papers Collection.

Geoffrey Wheeler Dear Editor, Am I the only person who gets extremely upset at simple wrong information written about the Ricardian period? I have fumed about this for many years, and would dearly like to know if I am being too fussy. I am

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well aware that anyone can make a mistake but some of the simple things that are easy to check continue to get into print. Recently, I read the new Osprey Cam-paign book Towton 1461. One of the excel-lent pictures in the book shows a picture of the modern bridge at Ferrybrigde, and states that the said bridge crosses the River Wharfe. Please can someone tell me if I am wrong in thinking that this should have been the Aire. On more certain ground came a mistake in a little book called The Bowmen of Eng-land. This has rechristened William Neville Lord Falconbridge rather than his correct title Lord Fauconberg. Is this perhaps an anglicised version of his title? If so I prefer the original. Then the August issue of the

BBC History Magazine, contains a review on the new book on Margaret of Anjou by Helen E Maurer, which gives the informa-tion that Edward IV was twenty-one at the time of Towton. If we are going to try and educate future and present generations on this period that we all find so fascinating should we not take more care? The facts mentioned are really easy to check. Someone out there is going to read one or all of these and think they are true. Am I alone in finding this annoying? After all this is exactly what good old Will Shakespeare did, and we are all trying to put this to rights.

Pauline Harrison Pogmore

FifteenthFifteenthFifteenthFifteenth----century Factfilecentury Factfilecentury Factfilecentury Factfile

Seals in England A seal may be defined as a way of attaching a personal mark to a document to authenticate it (a grant or deed for example) or to prove that it was the property of a particular person, usually by making an impression in softened wax and attaching the impression to a document. By the fifteenth-century every landowner of any pretension had his own seal as did organisations such as religious houses. The royal seal is the best know example of a seal, and by this is usually meant the Great Seal of the realm which authenticated major documents but was also used on charters and letters patent to subjects. The Great Seal was held by the Lord Chancellor in the fifteenth-century as indeed it still is. The king had several other seals, one, the Privy Seal was originally the secret seal of the king (and was called secretum as late as the reign of Henry VIII) although it soon became the seal of a Department. The king then began to use a seal called the Signet for more private business or to authenticate an order to issue a document bearing another seal. More than one Signet existed at any one time.

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The Barton LibraryThe Barton LibraryThe Barton LibraryThe Barton Library

Latest Additions to the Library

Listed below is are some books that have been kindly donated to the Library. The books have been donated by Jenny Cook from Battersea. I am extremely grateful to Jenny for these dona-tions. All the books are hardback unless otherwise described. BARBER Richard (ed) The Pastons: A Family in the Wars of the Roses (Penguin Books, 1984 reprint of a 1981 publication, 208 pages, paperback). A selection of letters with background infor-mation as to their content and the events influencing them as well as daily life for this medieval family. MATTHEW Donald Atlas of Medieval Europe (Phaidon Press, 1983 240 pages). This large atlas surveys the history of European culture and society from the decline of the Roman Empire to the discovery of America in the late fifteenth-century, with special emphasis on the fruits of civilisation, divided up into urban society, rural society and the arts. Subjects covered range from science and medi-cine, everyday life and the social structure to cathedral building, music and manuscript illumination. The maps are designed primarily to help the reader untangle the web of medieval politics and every major region of Europe is provided with at least one map. REEVES Marjorie The Medieval Monastery (Longman - Then and There Series, 1982 reprint of a 1958 publication, 90 pages, paperback) Aimed at younger readers, this book charts the medieval history of Rievaulx and Fountains Abbeys and describes daily life for the medieval monk living there. SOUTHERN RW Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Penguin Books - Peli-can History of the Church 2, 1983 reprint of a 1970 publication, 376 pages, paperback) A his-tory of the medieval Church and how it intertwined with medieval society, concentrating on the social mechanisms of religious change during this period. The period covers 700 to 1520 and subjects include the Papacy, divisions in Christendom, the church order and religious orders. WILDERS John and others/BBC The BBC TV Shakespeare: Richard III (BBC, 1983 144 pages, paperback) This book accompanies the BBC TV production of Richard III in 1982. Ron Cook played Richard, Zoë Wanamaker, Anne, Julia Foster, Queen Margaret and Annette Crosbie, the Duchess of York. The book contains the full text of the play with accompanying notes on the scene breaks and cuts in the BBC TV production. There is an introduction on the play and the production and a full glos-sary. The book is illustrated with colour and black and white photographs from the BBC production. Postal Book Auction

This year, thanks to the very kind donations of various members, I have some tempting books on offer to the highest bidder. The money raised will of course go towards Library funds. This is a very important money-raising event so I hope you will all bid away furiously! The books are all hardback and in reasonable but not new condition, unless otherwise de-scribed. I have given a very rough estimate of their value but you can bid above or below that-figure - each book will be sold to the member who puts in the highest bid for it. In the event of identical bids, the winner will be the bid received first. Please don’t put in bids ‘£1 higher than anyone else’ as it is not really fair and won’t be accepted!

Please send your bids to me: Mrs Jane Trump, Gorsedene, Bagshot Road, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey GU21 2SF or email them to me at: neil.trump@btinternet.com to arrive before Wednesday 1 October 2003. If you wish to be reassured that I have received your postal bid(s) please enclose a stamped addressed envelope. Do not send any money now! The successful bidders will be notified by post and the cost of postage added to the invoices,

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unless you would like to collect the books from Knaphill in person or can pick them up at the AGM on 4 October 2003. It would be very helpful if you could add a note to your bids saying if you expect to be at the AGM and giving me a phone number for contacting you to check.

I regret that I shall not be able to write to everyone who puts in a bid, so if you do not hear from me it will mean that your bid was unsuccessful and another member has bought the book(s).

The non-fiction books for sale are: BARRACLOUGH G The Medieval Papacy (1979, pbk) £8 Good condition, with plastic dust cover BENNETT M The Battle of Bosworth (1985) £15 Plastic cover, beautiful condition BINDOFF ST Tudor England (1978, pbk) £5 No. 5 in The Pelican History of England series. Tatty at edges and text has been underlined on several pages CHEETHAM A The Life and Times of Richard III (1972) £10 Second copy – dust jacket slightly tatty £9 CHRIMES SB Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VII (1964) £7 COOK DR Lancastrians and Yorkists: The Wars of the Roses (1984, pbk) £6 Seminar Studies in History series - good condition DENING J/COLLINS RE Secret History: The Truth about Richard III £4 and the Princes (1996, pbk) DREWETT R/REDHEAD M The Trial of Richard III (1984, pbk) £6 Second copy – cover slightly worn £5 EDWARDS R The Itinerary of King Richard III: 1483-1485 (1983, pbk) Seven copies £4 each HANKEY J (ed.) Richard III by William Shakespeare. Plays in Performance Series 1981 £8 HARVEY J The Plantagenets (1967, pbk) Reprint of 1959 revised edition of 1948 publication. Two copies £3 each-HARVEY J The Plantagenets (1971, pbk) £4 Reprint of 1959 revised edition of 1948 publication. HARVEY J The Plantagenets (1976, pbk) £4 Reprint of 1959 revised edition of 1948 publication HAWLEY-JARMAN R We Speak No Treason (1971) Novel about Richard seen through the eyes of people around him. Good condition. £7 HUTTON W The Battle of Bosworth Field (1974) £8 Facsimile reprint of 1813 second edition by J Nichols Second copy, no dust jacket £6 JACOB EF The Fifteenth Century: 1399–1485 (1961) £12 The Oxford History of England series KENDALL PM Richard III (1972, pbk) Reprint (aged) £4 KENDALL PM Louis XI (1974, pbk) £5 Reprint of 1971 publication KENDALL PM Warwick the Kingmaker and the Wars of the Roses (1973, pbk) £4 Reprint of 1957 publication LAMB VB The Betrayal of Richard III (1972) £5 Reprint of 1959 publication - beautiful condition LANDER JR The Wars of the Roses (1965) £6 History in the Making Series. Dust jacket tatty. LEGGE ALFRED O The Unpopular King: The Life and Times of Richard III Both volumes. 1885 edition - quite aged. (I will accept bids on the pair of volumes before bids on the separate volumes.) £10 pair or £5 each LINDSAY P King Richard III (1933) (dust jacket tatty) £8

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MACALPINE J The Shadow of the Tower (1971, pbk) £4 To accompany BBC series on Henry VII (some pages loose.) MANCINI D The Usurpation of Richard III, £8 translated by CAJ Armstrong (1984, pbk) good condition MORRIS C The Tudors (1976, pbk) £5 Reprint of 1955 publication MYERS AR England in the Late Middle Ages (1986, pbk) £5 Reprint of 1952 publication PEREIRA WD The Battle of Tewkesbury (1983, pbk) £4 Fictional account of Tewkesbury, following the historical sequence of events) PITKIN Richard III Paperback Pitkin Guide Series - good condition £3 POLLARD AJ Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (1991, pbk) £11 Good condition Second copy - front cover slightly creased £9 POLLARD AJ The Middleham Connection: Richard III and Richmondshire 1471–1485 (1983, booklet) £3 POTTER J Good King Richard? (1983) Two copies £12 each PRONAY N/COX J (eds) The Crowland Chronicle Continuations 1459–1486 (1986) £14 ROSS C The Wars of the Roses: A Concise History (1976) £10 each Two copies in good condition. ROSS C Richard III (1981) Good condition £10 ROWSE AL Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (1966) £6 Tatty dust jacket ROWSE AL Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (1968, pbk) £3 Reprint of 1966 publication ROWSE AL The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Cultural Achievement (1974) £3 Reprint of 1972 publication (pbk) I know the above book is not strictly Ricardian in content but a member kindly gave it to me as part of a collection of books and, with this year being the quadcentenary of Elizabeth I’s death, I thought someone might like to buy it. SEWARD D Richard III: England’s Black Legend (1983) Two copies, nearly new £9 each ST AUBYN G The Year of Three Kings: 1483 (1983) Two copies - both in good condition. £9 each WALPOLE H Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign £8 of Richard the Third (1987, pbk) Beautiful condition WARNER P The South (1975) £3 Part of the Fontana British Battlefields series. Small book - quite worn WATERS G King Richard’s Gloucester: Life in a Mediaeval Town (1983) £4 Booklet WEIR A The Princes in the Tower (1997) £6 Small paperback WEIR A The Princes in the Tower (1993) £8 Large paperback WILKINSON B The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216–1485 (1982, pbk) £6 WILLIAMSON A The Mystery of the Princes: An Investigation into £9 a Suppose Murder (1978) Good condition

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Letter From AmericaLetter From AmericaLetter From AmericaLetter From America

Highlights 2002–2003

T he past year has seen the American Branch advancing Richard's standard on both academic and popular fronts. It saw the publication of our second collection of conference

proceedings, from our 1998 ‘Traditions and Transformations’ conference. It was reviewed by Hannes Kleinecke in the September 2002 Ricardian. We also made three awards to graduate students working in late medieval English history and culture: Lisa H. Cooper, Columbia University. ‘Unto oure craft apertenying:’ Representing the artisan in late medieval England (grant renewal); John Thomas Sebastian, Cornell University. Lay religious practices in fifteenth century English Anglia as evidenced through early English drama and vernacular mystical and visionary writings; Tara N. Williams, Rutgers University, Womanhood in the Chaucerian Tradition. Final decisions on our 2003 awardees are still pending. We continue our support of the York townhouse, Barley Hall, by sponsoring an annual American Branch day on 4 July. In both 2002 and 2003 groups of American Branch members toured Ricardian sites under the leadership of longtime member Linda Treybig. In 2003 the tours included wreath-layings or other commemorative activities at Bosworth, Tewkesbury, and Middleham. Our quarterly magazine, the Ricardian Register, continues to be arguably the most professionally produced of the Branch magazines, with 32 pages professionally printed on glossy paper, abundantly illustrated with photographs and line drawings. The last four covers have featured striking collages contributed by Geoffrey Wheeler. If you would like to see our publication, it is available from Rebekah Beale, Paper’s Librarian. Our website continues to draw visitors from all over the world, with many students using our online library in their course work. Our sales officer, Peggy Allen, has come up with a new product that has been very popular with the membership -- an enameled Yorkist Rose on a murrey background, available as a pin, lapel pin or pendant, designed by artist Susan Dexter. Many individual Ricardians have taken the initiative to bring Richard's case to a wider audi-ence in this past year. To give three examples: Anne Smith provided a display and gave a lecture at a local performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III; Anthony Collins wrote an article for the playbill and also took out a playbill advertisement when Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre did the play; and Virginia Poch singlehandedly ran a Richard III booth at two different Florida renaissance fairs within a month of each other. Our 2002 Annual General Meeting, in Detroit, Michigan, was a stunner -- with workshops, sales tables, fabulous decorations, and memorable entertainment. Photos from the AGM are posted on the American Branch intranet. (Details on how to reach the American Branch intranet are on the Society’s intranet -- consult the webmaster for your password if you do not already have one.) As we approach the end of our Ricardian year, we are in the throes of final planning for our 42nd AGM, held this year in Phoenix, Arizona. Next year we will participate in our first ever International AGM, when we join forces with the Canadian Branch and meet in Toronto. We are looking forward to finding new ways to tell Richard’s story and to enjoy warm Ricardian fellowship in the months to come.

Laura Blanchard

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Report on Society EventsReport on Society EventsReport on Society EventsReport on Society Events

Renewing the Entente Cordiale – Angoulême 2003

O n 1 May 2003 thirty six Ricardians set off by coach from London for a stay in An-goulême in France. An article in my morning paper reminded me that the centenary of

the famous British/French alliance falls next year. Different parts of France had also for many years been the favourite destination for the Society Continental trip, but not so much in recent times – hence the title of this piece. The journey to our overnight stopover in Chartres proceeded smoothly, though with fre-quently changing weather conditions - these were to be a theme of the holiday. We caught only a distant glimpse of Chartres’ famous cathedral and left behind the more unconventional charms of the business park on Friday morning, though a replica of the Statue of Liberty in shocking blue brightened these up. There was another long journey south still to come. We travelled through mile after mile of rolling wooded countryside, crossing the Loire at Tours and arriving at Chauvigny at lunchtime, pulling up in the tree-lined town square. Here Michele Seeburger, who had driven down from her home in Paris, joined us for a couple of days. Looming over the town on a huge rocky crag was a complex of castles and the Church of St Pierre. A bracing walk to the summit (a brisk breeze turned rather brisker) was rewarded with a fine view but closed castles and a Church of St Pierre in mid-restoration – its out-standing carved capitals could only be admired on post cards. But it was pleasant to actually explore France after so many hours of watching it pass the coach windows. We resumed our journey to Angoulême and our hotel. The hotel was excellently situated in the centre of Angoulême on the square where the town’s covered market was situated and close to several restaurants. The old town is situated on a high plateau, surrounded by ramparts and with fantastic views over the modern town, the river Charente and the surrounding countryside. This whole region was an area of French Protestant strength after the Reformation and so became much embroiled in religious conflict in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries. Angoulême Cathedral suffered because of this and then suffered again from nineteenth-century attempts at restoration. But it was still an imposing sight from the outside and also had an interesting interior. I was surprised that this Catholic cathedral had no ornate high altar, instead a rather austere wooden screen. There were statues of St Michael (patron of the army) and Joan of Arc in the south transept, the lat-ter given by the daughters of Angoulême in 1909. It was poignant to think of this gesture of piety and patriotism a few minutes later at the war memorial on the ramparts. Further along the ramparts there was a surprise - an old red telephone box given to Angoulême by British Telecom and the people of Bury. I wonder what the Angoumois gave Bury back ? The Comic-Strip Museum down the hill offered a modern aspect to the city and the many cartoons depicted there offered some light relief, though the French text could be more challenging. It was also pleasantly cool there on a hot day. Bordeaux’s handsome waterfront and old town date largely from the eighteenth century and the prosperity the city enjoyed then, when it was well situated to take advantage of France’s colonial links with North America and the Caribbean. An earlier period of prosperity came with the links forged with Plantagenet England after the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II. This period was well covered in the Musée d’Aquitaine. One Plan-tagenet monarch with particularly close ties to the city was Richard II, who was born there (Elizabeth Mackintosh, a.k.a. Josephine Tey, wrote a play in 1932 about the king under her other pseudonym of Gordon Daviot – entitled Richard of Bordeaux). One museum exhibit was a fine contemporary painting of Richard’s marriage with Isabelle of France in 1396,

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though the artist had sacrificed accuracy to style somewhat – depicting a seven-year-old child as a tall young woman. The Musée was not air-conditioned, but still a welcome break from the hot (31°C!) and dusty streets. The cathedral appeared to be in the middle of having its exterior cleaned and being a Sunday it was lucky that the outside was the more interesting part, with our cameras being pressed through the railing to snap the decorative features. If Bordeaux was slightly spoiled by the heat then Poitiers the next day was rather spoiled by pouring rain. The west front of its cathedral had to be admired peering from beneath an umbrella. Our fluent and informative guide took us round the cathedral and gave us a thor-ough survey of its history and features – among the most interesting of the latter being the original stonemasons’ marks. However, the rose window, apparently considered the second best in France, could not really been seen at its best in the gloom. The cathedral had, like that of Angoulême, suffered from the iconoclasm of the sixteenth-century and nineteenth-century attempts at rectification. This formed the second part of the tour; the first being the considera-bly smaller Baptistery of St John nearby, built in the fourth-century and the oldest Christian building in France. One of the inscriptions inside it was the first piece of vernacular French to be found anywhere and it had been the first building to be preserved by the state, when threat-ened by demolition in 1830 to make way for a new road – so a building of great significance. The centrepiece was the octagonal baptistery in the floor – the significance of the shape being that it was transitional between the earthly square and the heavenly circle. The rest of the day was free to take in other sights. The great hall of the Palais de Justice was particularly impres-sive and provided an interesting contrast between the Ricardians, on one side, and the lawyers working there on the other. While we were appreciating its size and statues and contemplat-ing the great trials and events that had been held there; they were flitting in and out of court-rooms to the side and whispering in corners, oblivious to their all too familiar surroundings. The highlight of Saintes for me was the splendid remains of the Roman amphitheatre there. The contrast with their humdrum suburban surroundings perhaps added to the specta-cle. It was still possible to imagine what it must have looked like and notice the difference between the great, soaring arch through which the games’ participants would have entered the arena and the low dank tunnel where their bodies would have been removed. A few hundred metres away was the eleventh-century church of St Eutrope and I wondered what its builders had made of the already ancient ruins that they overlooked – a handy stone quarry or some-thing more? In its low crypt the church itself contained an association from Roman times – the simple tomb of St Eutropius, Saintes’ first bishop from the third century. The church had a slightly odd appearance from having lost its nave, but its west tower rivaled the city’s Ca-thedral as a landmark on the skyline. The Cathedral left a rather sad impression, as the last bishop had been executed during the French Revolution and so it was now really no more than a parish church – its side chapels damp and decaying. La Rochelle, like Bordeaux, forged close links with the French Caribbean and North America in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries but also like Bordeaux had a rich earlier history as well. The principle landmarks are the three great medieval towers around the port and waterfront. The Tour de la Lanterne showed the towers’ roles as a prison for pirates and prisoners-of-war in centuries past with many of their inscriptions on the wall still visible. Not unexpectedly a goodly number were English – including one made by a luckless John from Hull. The Tour de la Chaine told the history of the town and in particular its role as a Protes-tant bastion after the Reformation before Cardinal Richelieu besieged and slighted the town in 1628 after a bitter fifteen-month siege. The Tour St Nicholas was devoted to showing the towers’ role as a medieval fort and its gift shop provided the only reference to Richard III of the entire holiday. It was a small figurine that was supposedly depicted a Chevalier de Rich-ard III – it was eagerly snapped up anyway. La Rochelle was perhaps the most enjoyable day

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of the holiday – the sea, the boats in the harbour, and the chance to have a delicious and lei-surely lunch in a restaurant on the harbour front with a bottle of wine all made it that much more special. By the time we left even the weather had become hot and sunny. However, idylls are made to be shattered and on the journey back for our last night in Angoulême the weather broke into a violent thunderstorm. The next morning, before leaving Angoulême for the last time, many of us rushed round the covered market near the hotel using our French and our euros to acquire a few delicacies. Lunch on the move would be part of the day’s schedule as we started the long journey home. One of the other main events was a stop at St Savin to see the eleventh-century Romanesque church and its medieval wall paintings, depicting scenes from the Old Testament, that had earned the building the status of a World Heritage Site from UNESCO. Our guide, Natalie, was Austrian and was most apologetic for speaking her third language so well. She threatened to launch into a full political, economic and social history of the region but the looks of panic and alarm she received seemed to put her off. She gave us a thorough explanation of the church paintings, though her unjustified modesty about her English meant she kept pausing for correction as we craned our necks at the ceiling. We then pressed on for Chartres and our return overnight stop – but with a 45-minute visit to the city thrown in as a special treat. We made straight for the famous Cathedral. Of course, the visit was far too short to appreciate the fully glory of the building – the great space, its glass, its statuary and carvings – but I think everyone was glad that the effort had been made. It impressed me as a genuinely spiritual place, though full of tourists like us, something all too rare in an age when cathedrals serve as visitor attractions. It would be wrong though to compare this magnificent cathedral with the others that we had seen – they had been battered and bruised by the particular history of a particular region. Chartres was en fête in red, white and blue as 8 May is celebrated as VE Day in France. Near where the coach was parked wreaths had been placed on the memorial to Jean Moulin, local prefect and resistant, mur-dered by the Gestapo in 1943. The next day we made for the ferry at Calais and our individual journeys home. Peter Lee gave a few brief but well chosen words of thanks to the organisers Lesley Wynne-Davies and Derek Verdin who had worked so hard and to our driver Phil Dixon, who had indeed shown his customary calmness, helpfulness and good humour whatever the situation. A mention should also go to the very friendly Michele Seeburger who assisted in the organisation and was a helpful linguistic and cultural interpreter for the rest of the party. For example, she told some of us that the gift boxes we saw in a patisserie window in Angoulême were intended for children’s confirmations in the Catholic Church as these happened in May. Next year is Ire-land so Ricardians will have to learn to understand the craic instead.

Howard Choppin

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Future Society EventsFuture Society EventsFuture Society EventsFuture Society Events

The Visits Team would like to record amendments to the team: Ros Conaty, Marion Mitchell and Caroline West have recently joined the team, and Derek Verdin has recently left. Lesley Wynne-Davies will be standing down as Visits Team Coordinator as from the AGM 2003. The team wishes to record its thanks to all – to new members for being willing to come on the team and undertake the work, and to Derek Verdin, who has served from 2000 to 2003, and whose work has been invaluable in planning and costing visits, acting as ‘receipt of custom’, and introducing us to and liaising with Barnes Coaches. Lesley took over as Visits Team Coordinator when Don Jennings retired from that role, and has been part of the Visits Team since 1995, when the team was formed to carry on the work of Joyce Melhuish. A fuller appreciation will follow in the next Bulletin.

Elizabeth Nokes, Visits Team minuting Secretary New Announcements and Forthcoming EventsNew Announcements and Forthcoming EventsNew Announcements and Forthcoming EventsNew Announcements and Forthcoming Events

York Study Weekend – 16-18 April 2004 The next Society study weekend will take place on 16–18 April at the College of St John, York. The theme of the weekend will be Medieval Women and it will cover such topics as ‘Royal and Noble Ladies’, ‘Women in Trade’, ‘Housewives and Children’ and ‘Ladies of Ill Repute’. Sue Taylor will be giving a performance of her one-woman play, ‘Margaret Paston’ at Barley Hall where we hope to have other attractions culminating in the now traditional medieval banquet (see p. 53 for the 2003 event). Further details and booking form will be in the Winter Bulletin.

Wendy Moorhen Bookable EventsBookable EventsBookable EventsBookable Events Christmas at Fotheringhay – Sunday, 14 December 2003 It is time to make your booking for this much loved annual event. As before, lunch will be in the Village Hall. There will be a choice of starter, hot or cold, and for the main course there will be jacket potatoes with a cold turkey buffet. A vegetarian option will be available for those who let me know in advance. The choice of dessert will include Christmas pudding. Also included in the price is a glass or two of wine or a soft drink, as desired. The Carol Service, in Fotheringhay Church begins at 3.00 p.m. Similar in style to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, our service is shared with members of the parish, some of whom take part. As ever, the music will be led by our friends, the wonderful St. Peter's Singers. This event has long been accepted as one of the highlights of the Ricardian social calendar. It is a great chance to meet up with old friends, and to make new ones too. For many, it makes a delightful start to the Christmas season. As usual, there will be a coach from London, leaving Charing Cross at 9.30 a.m. and getting back between 7.00 and 7.30 p.m. There will also be pick-ups in Bromley and Wanstead for those who let me know. On the way, there will be a stop in Cambridge, though this is not usually re-peated for the return journey. If you wish to join the party, either on the coach or using your own transport, please let me know as soon as possible whether you will require: (a) lunch and a place on the coach – total 45 available (b) lunch after making your own way to Fotheringhay – total 35 places

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(c) just a place in the church (so that we can estimate the seating required) The costs will be as follows: (a) £23.45, to cover hire of coach, the driver's tip, lunch, choir, admin., etc. (b) £14.00, for lunch, choir and admin., etc.

Phil Stone, Fotheringhay Coordinator

If you wish to attend, please complete the booking form in the centre of the Bulletin Requiem Mass and Rose Planting, Clare Priory, 13 March 2004 In 2004 the Society’s annual Requiem Mass on the occasion of the anniversary of the death of Queen Anne Neville will, for the first time since it was instituted, be held outside of London, at Clare Priory, Suffolk. Over the years many members have come to love St Etheldreda’s Church, Holborn (where the Requiem has always previously been held) and have enjoyed the St Albans Centre buffet lunch. However, Clare Priory is a delightful place to visit, as the many members who came to the unveiling of the plaque there last year discovered. Also it has very close histori-cal links with King Richard III’s and Queen Anne Neville’s families, being the burial place of, among others, Lionel, Duke of Clarence and Edmund Mortimer). Nor are we abandoning our links with St. Etheldreda’s, or indeed, with Westminster Abbey. It is envisaged that the annual Requiem will return to St. Etheldreda’s in 2005. Clare Priory is proud that among its few surviving fragments of medieval stained glass there is a fifteenth-century white rose of York, marking the close links which existed at that time be-tween the priory and the York family, who were its patrons. In 2004 the Norfolk Branch will be offering the priory a new white rose of York. A living one! A bush of rosa alba semiplena, the medieval flower which gave the house of York its emblem, will be planted in the priory garden. This will take the place of our usual wreath laying at Queen Anne Neville’s tomb. The change of venue for the 2004 Requiem is in response to a request from the Norfolk Branch. Clare is close to Norfolk Branch territory, and the Branch, which is celebrating the silver jubilee of its foundation in 2004, specially requested that the 2004 Requiem should be held in East Anglia. When the Requiem was instituted, it was promised that it would not always be held in London, and while the Norfolk Branch’s request is the first formal proposal for an alternative venue, the Requiem organisers would be glad to consider similar requests from other regions in future years. To make things easy for members who wish to come from the London area, there will be a coach from the Embankment, which will stop additionally at The George, Wanstead. To allow for the journey to Clare, the programme will be slightly different from previous years. The coach will make a lunch stop at Stansted Service Station (members are welcome to bring their own lunch if they wish) and there will be no lunch organised at Clare. Instead we shall have tea at the priory during the afternoon. It is hoped that, in addition to the coach party from London, many members from other parts of the country will choose to come to Clare using their own transport, to join in the service, the visit to Clare, the opportunity to meet members from other areas and the opportunity to witness the special rose planting to mark the occasion. Programme: 9.30 Coach departs Charing Cross Embankment 9:45 Coach collects from outside The George, Wanstead 10.45 Coffee break/early lunch stop at Stansted 12.30 Approx. coach party arrives at Clare 1.00 Requiem Mass for King Richard III & Queen Anne Neville, celebrant the Prior of Clare 2.15 Tour of Clare Priory OR free time to visit places of interest in Clare 3.15 Rose planting in the priory garden

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3.30 Tea at the priory 4.45 Coach party departs for London If you wish to attend this commemoration, whether in the coach party or using your own transport, please complete and return a booking form, (or supply the same information on a piece of paper) as we shall need to know numbers (for production of essentials such as service booklets and tea!) Please send your booking to Mrs. Rosamund Cummings, 5, Avon Road, Canvey Island, Essex, SS8 ODH, by 14 December 2003, enclosing a SAE for final details of the programme (which will be sent out early in February 2004). Please enclose two SAEs if you require immedi-ate acknowledgement of the booking. For those using their own transport there is no charge. For those using the coach the cost will be £15.50 (cheques payable to Richard III Society, please, and marked REQUIEM on the back. N.B. this is the cost of the coach travel only). Please note that there will be a collection during the service and that tea should be paid for on the day (£1 per head).

John Ashdown-Hill

If you wish to attend, please complete the booking form in the centre of the Bulletin Ireland Wednesday 19 May – Tuesday 25 May 2004 In 2004 what has usually been called the ‘Continental Visit’ will be based in Ireland, with firmly Ricardian themes, for we shall be on the tracks of Perkin Warbeck / Richard, Duke of York, and of the Fitzgeralds, earls of Desmond. This visit will start from Dublin, to which participants should arrange to make their own way, meeting at the Holiday Inn on Wednesday 19 May. The first two nights will be spent in Dublin before heading south-west to spend the remainder of our stay in Cork. On the morning of 25 May we shall return to Dublin for midday, ready for participants to make their own ways home. The provisional programme for the visit is as follows: Estimated costs are £365.00 per person (sharing in a twin bedded room) or £550.00 for single occupancy. As usual, prices are somewhat approximate at this stage, and may vary slightly, de-pending on the eventual number of participants and on the exchange rate. Unfortunately the sin-gle supplement is quite costly in Ireland, but it can, of course, be avoided if people are willing to share a room.

Wed 19 May Meet at Holiday Inn, Dublin

Thu 20 May Visit Dublin; evening lecture

Fri 21 May Visit Kilkenny; continue to Cork

Sat 22 May Visit Cork

Sun 23 May Visit Youghal & Waterford

Tue 25 May Visit Cashel. Return to Dublin for departure.

Mon 24 May Visit Blarney, Limerick and Adare (Castle Desmond)

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These prices include six nights accommodation in Dublin and Cork with breakfast (together with evening meal in Dublin on the night of 20 May only), also coach travel from 21 – 25 May, a tip for the coach driver, and administration costs (including the production of our usual written tour guide). Not included in these prices are entry fees, insurance, lunch and evening meals (other than on 20 May), and travel to and from Dublin. Please note that because of the varied travel to Dublin, we would ask participants on this visit to make their own arrangements for insurance. We estimate that it should be possible to arrange a cheap flight to Dublin from the UK for less than £40, and in due course we shall provide further information to help participants in this re-spect, although participants remain responsible for their own travel arrangements to and from Dublin. If you would like to join us in Ireland, please complete the appropriate booking form and send it by Saturday 11 October to Rosemary Waxman, 37, Chewton Road, London E17 7DW. Your form should be accompanied by a deposit of £50 per person and two SAEs size DL/C5 – i.e. A4 folded in three - one for acknowledgement of your booking, and the second, for precise informa-tion on costs etc. when these become available.

John Ashdown-Hill and Rosemary Waxman

If you wish to attend, please complete the booking form in the centre of the Bulletin

Reminder Waltham Abbey Plaque Unveiling – Saturday, 18 October The Waltham Abbey Plaque commemorating Margaret of York will be unveiled on Saturday 18 October. If you would still like to attend this event and have not yet booked, please contact John Ashdown-Hill (see details and booking form in June Bulletin).

John Ashdown-Hill

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Mid Anglia Group The group had planned to start 2003 with a video afternoon, based around a virtual reality recon-struction of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, and the South Essex Group’s production of Elizabeth Woodville’s Revenge. The temporary absence of electricity, however, effectively forestalled these activities, which have now been rescheduled to follow our next AGM in November. Our visit to Bures in April was more successful. Bures is a strange village, partly in Essex and partly in Suffolk. We visited the parish churches in both counties and climbed the castle mound which gives the Essex hamlet of Mount Bures its name, marvelling at how tiny the vanished tim-ber ‘castle’ must have been. The high point of the day, however, was our visit to the tiny but fas-cinating St Stephen’s chapel, lost in the middle of fields and hard to find. It is said to stand on the site where King St. Edmund was crowned king of the East Angles, but the chapel is thirteenth century. It was consecrated by Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Inside the chapel we could still see some of the consecration crosses which Cardinal Langton traced upon the walls. The chapel, which is privately owned, but still in use from time to time, houses three splendid medieval tombs which originally stood in the long vanished Earls Colne Priory. They are tombs of the de Veres, Earls of Oxford. In ‘our’ period, of course, the de Veres were very notably on the wrong side, but these de Veres were of a slightly earlier date, having died before anyone was faced with making a choice between Lancaster and York. In June we met in Felixstowe, welcoming David Austin, chairman of our neighbouring group in Norfolk, who gave us a lively illustrated talk on ‘The Development of the Medieval Warrior’. Visitors are always welcome to join us for any of our activities. To check dates venues and times please contact John Ashdown-Hill. Our forthcoming programme is as follows:

Branches and GroupsBranches and GroupsBranches and GroupsBranches and Groups

18 Oct Unveiling of commemorative plaque to Margaret of York, Waltham Abbey, Essex & civic reception (with South Essex Group – see booking form in June Bulletin).

1 Nov Wreath laying at tomb of Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk, Wingfield Church, 2 pm

22 Nov AGM & video afternoon (postponed from February). 2004 17 Jan

Visit; Colchester Castle Museum Resources Centre (fifteenth-century seals) and St. John's Abbey Gatehouse, Colchester. (Meet Colchester Castle – War Memorial Gate, 2 pm)

2 Mar Talk by Dr. Michael Jones, author of the controversial new book of the Battle of Bosworth (joint meeting with the Friends of Colchester Museums) Castle Museum, Colchester 7.30 pm (members £1, visitors £2).

New South Wales Members of the Sydney NSW Branch should have realised the year ahead was be well, shall we say – interesting - when they turned up for the AGM last October only to find that the usual venue was closed for major reconstruction into apartments. Nothing daunted, we held the meet-ing in the gardens outside. The first event to occupy us was Britfest, a great gathering held at the foot of the Blue Moun-tains. Our ‘pavilion’, decorated in Ricardian colours, held an excellent display of information and

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illustration, and we were delighted with the public's response. Visitors were invited to write their name on a small flag and pin it on our large map of medieval England. At the end of the day, the winners were those closest to special Ricardian places - such as York, Middleham, St. Albans and Tewkesbury. Prizes included a basket of Plantagenet wines, sets of books written by Isolde Martyn (who has won awards in Australia and the U.S.) donated by the publishers, as well as our Richard III Society pens. In December, we held our Christmas Lunch where we welcomed Michael Hodgetts as a guest. He contacted us after reading an item in The Sydney Morning Herald and spoke to us about his book ‘Not King Richard’ generously giving away several copies to members. By our first meeting in 2003 our newly elected Secretary and Treasurer had to stand down from the committee but happily, two of our former committee members were prepared to return. Hampered by soaring rental costs and insurance requirements, we found a temporary venue for our February meeting where the talk was given by our Research Officer on Pilgrims and Pilgrim-ages. In April, all members contributed to a programme of medieval castles and ghosts. The latter were most popular - especially the story about the ghosts of the two princes who assured an Eng-lish psychic that it wasn’t their uncle ‘whodunit’ and that Richard was very upset by the way he was regarded in modern times. We are doing our best, Your Grace..... Midyear we arranged to return to our old ‘home’ at the Don Bank Museum in North Sydney, and this was where our June meeting was held with a programme of medieval prose as well as our annual book sale. In spite of the difficulties about meeting places, our members’ support has been very hearten-ing. They are the true embodiments of ‘Loyaulté me Lie’ and we are looking forward to the new year’s programme of research and learning.

Irene Peacock Norfolk Branch Programme 2004

Annmarie Hayek

17 Jan Link up with South Anglia Group. Further details from Branch Secretary

7 Feb Video evening, at 8 Norwich Road, Hethersett. Three course meal and video: £8.00. From 17.30

13 Mar Requiem Mass for Richard III and Anne Neville at Clare Priory, Suffolk, 13.00, followed by rose planting ceremony and tea

17 Apr Branch AGM, followed by A History of the Richard III Society, John Saunders, tea and cutting of Silver Anniversary Cake. Special guest: Dr Phil Stone, Chairman of the Richard III Society. 14.30–17.30 approx.

15 May The Excavation of the mass grave at Towton, Veronica Fiorato

5 Jun Medieval Banquet – contact Branch Secretary ASAP

19 Jun The relevance of sculpture: the late medieval period and renaissance Stephen Hines, sculptor. (Stephen is the sculptor at work on the memorial to the Towton dead and his talk will hopefully include ‘live’ sculpting)

31 Jul Dedication of plaque and service in the cathedral to celebrate 25 years of the Norfolk Group. Further details to follow

3-5 Sep Yorkshire Weekend. Secure your place with £10.00 deposit (non-returnable)

30 Oct ‘Elizabeth of York’, Dr Joanna Laynesmith

13 Nov Study Day at the University of East Anglia, Death of Kings, featuring Prof. Carole Rawcliffe, Alison Weir, Dr Phil Stone and Dr Michael K Jones

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Queensland Branch In May 2002 we attended the Bell Shakespeare Company's production of William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Richard III. In a production that hardly stopped to draw breath (the whole thing being compressed into two hours with no interval - a symptom of the television age). The typically unpleasant Richard was played by Australia's leading ‘Richard III’, John Bell. Cos-tumed in late eighteenth-century style, he was a curious hybrid of that other great northern anti-hero Heathcliff, and the third Edmund Blackadder. The Branch approached the theatre before the season commenced to ask whether we could mount a display in the foyer, and although we were told that this was acceptable and in fact wel-come, the material we provided was never displayed. More successful was our appearance at the annual Abbey Museum Tournament and Fayre in July, held over two days for the first time. Apart from our usual appearance in the grand parade of groups in costume, two of our members delivered talks as part of the lecture programme. Publicity Officer, Blair Martin gave his ‘Richard III - hunchbacked fascist or cause celèbre?’, and webmaster, Steven Weier, delivered a speech entitled ‘Wars of the Roses - for Dummies’. Both were aimed at the general public and very well received. As is customary, the Branch held two social events outside the monthly meetings: one to cele-brate Richard and Anne’'s coronation in July, and the other for Richard's birthday in October. Several members and guests enjoyed the Coronation lunch in August, and we were able to mark the 550th birthday of Richard in appropriate style. We went to Venice! Alas not the famed La Serenissima on the Adriatic Sea. This time we met on a balmy evening at the Venice Café Bar, on the banks of the Brisbane River in the heart of the city, and a sumptuous meal was enjoyed by all, as well as good wine and conversation. We were deeply saddened by the unexpected and untimely death of Carol Fox on 26 November 2002. Carol had been one of the founding members of the Queensland Branch and undertook the duties of Branch Treasurer for many years, only retiring, reluctantly, in 2001. We are all left with fond memories of Carol and she is truly missed at our monthly meetings. Discus-sions are underway to find a suitable memorial for her, such as an essay competition for school students in Queensland. The biggest event in this year’s calendar for us is the 2003 Australasian Ricardian Conven-tion, which we are hosting in Brisbane, under the sub-title 'Splendour in the Sunne'. There is much organising to be done and we trust the outcome will be an interesting and rewarding week-end. We are expecting fellow Ricardians from Australia, New Zealand and even a few from far-ther afield. Members of the Queensland Branch convey our best wishes to all Ricardians around the world, and look forward to meeting you should you find yourself in this marvellous corner of the planet!

Lesley Webb, Correspondence Secretary, Queensland Branch West Surrey Group – Spring – Summer 2003 The past few months have seen our membership increase to sixteen, which is very encouraging, especially as some of our members live quite a distance away from the Guildford area, where we hold most of our monthly meetings. In November 2002 Michael K Jones came to speak to us about his recent book Bosworth 1485: psychology of a battle. In December more than twenty of us had a superb Christmas lunch at Squires Holt, a very pleasant restaurant between Guildford and Farnham. January brought our AGM which was held at Jane and Neil Trump’s house at Knaphill. Plans were made and forth-coming meetings arranged, giving us a full and varied programme for the coming year. The high-light of the occasion was the availability of the Barton Library, which some of our members were

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able to peruse and take advantage of. In February, twelve of us met to hear a talk by Vikki Jacobs, adapted from her thesis on George, Duke of Clarence. She portrays him as far from being ‘false, fleeting, and perjured’ and attributes much of his bad characterisation to Shakespeare, as has been Richard’s. She maintains that he was loyal to his friends, generous to the church and once he gave his word he kept it until people broke faith with him, as with Warwick. It was an interesting talk and she put a good case for many aspects of George’s life and actions. At our March meeting one of our members gave a talk on ‘Richard’s religion’, which he has recently studied. Although the obsession with religion of the poorer people in the early middle ages was probably wan-ing somewhat by the late 1400s, it still formed an important part in the daily life of great households. Richard was obviously very pious and prayer was important to him. He owned a Wycliff bible and in his book of hours he identified with King David. He cared for the church in many ways, creating chantries and colleges, with plans to do a great deal more. Sadly this never came to pass, owing to his premature death. In April we had a talk by David Santiuste on the Duke of Somerset. May saw what has now become a regular event – our Medieval Lunch. The members ex-celled themselves this year with a most mouth-watering spread. We also had a talk on medie-val cooking and diet by Jo Cresdee. At the end of May we were invited by the Richard III Foundation Inc., to attend a study day at Downside Abbey School in Somerset. We had the magnificent buildings and grounds to ourselves as the boys were still on their spring half-term holiday. We had an enthralling talk on the history of the Benedictine Abbey, Jo Cresdee spoke to us again about food in the middle ages, David Baldwin spoke about his book on Elizabeth Woodville, and one of ‘Richard of Gloucester’s senior archers’ gave a very amus-ing account of ‘life in the Gloucester household’. After the talks, book signing and tea, we were privileged to be given a tour of the beautiful abbey by a very senior and very charming monk. Next we dashed at full speed to the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford castle, some twelve miles away. We had been invited (also by the Richard III Foundation) to attend a memorial service to commemorate the birth at the castle and subsequent martyrdom of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, a service held there annually in the tiny ancient church within the cas-tle. At the time of her birth Margaret’s parents, Clarence and Isabel, were staying at the cas-tle, which was then part of Richard of Gloucester’s estates. I found it very moving to be seated beside the very font that she had, in all probability, been baptised in within a few days of her birth. Following the service we enjoyed refreshments in the castle grounds before leav-ing for a pleasant journey home on a warm summer evening. A week later we spent a week-end in lovely Ludlow and attended the medieval fair at Leominster with a re-enactment of the battle of Mortimer’s Cross. In spite of some heavy showers on Sunday, we were able to ex-plore Ludlow and visit the castle, where a few of us climbed to the top of the keep to photo-graph the spectacular views.

Renée Barlow Worcestershire Branch We have had an eventful few months. Following the AGM we visited Much Wenlock in Shropshire, which is a beautiful little village, and while not large it has many unusual shops, and a lovely little town museum, much dedicated to the modern Olympic Games which a local doctor instigated. We also visited the English Heritage controlled Wenlock Priory which is a magnificent and very atmospheric ruin. In June we had a stand at Leominster medieval fair, held just outside Leominster on the Old Hereford Road. This was the first year it has been held and while the weather was not good, the event was fun - apart from the borrowed marquee which said on the label ‘erect in 60 seconds’ but which took a good half hour to put

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up. We did not let the weather spoil our day. In July the sun shone with a vengeance at the re-enactment of the Battle of Tewkesbury and it was too hot for anyone, but the fighters did carry on a valiant effort and the fair was good as usual. The branch had a stand in the main tent and the sun shone on and on. On Saturday Michael K Jones gave two lectures in the council offices and I was able to attend the second of these and thoroughly enjoyed it. Future programme: 18 Oct Fundraiser and business meeting, Chaddesley Corbett Village Hall 8 Nov Richard III and his Churchmen by David Down, St Nicholas Hall, Warndon, Worcester 7 Dec Christmas Lunch. Church of Holy Innocents, Kidderminster

Jane Tinklin Yorkshire Branch During the last year members of Yorkshire Branch have continued their usual local group meetings, taken part in Society events, gone on Society trips and organised and/or attended various other occasions, sometimes in connection with the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Medieval Section and the Richard III Foundation Inc. I would like to record the Branch Com-mittee’s thanks to all those who keep the Branch going by producing items for sale and flow-ers for Middleham, organising events, supplying ideas, providing hospitality (particularly our Treasurer Christine Symonds, whose home frequently suffers Ricardian invasion), spying out the land for visits – our Chairman, John Audsley, must have driven thousands of medieval miles over the last thirty-odd years – working on research and Branch publications or coming to loiter about our famous tent when required. Last year, for the first time, the Branch produced Christmas cards: these were well re-ceived, and are also available this year. Members will be able to order them at the Society’s AGM or by contacting myself on 0113-216-4091: cards are 50p. each, postage varying with size of order. Please note our Branch AGM, on Saturday 6 September at 13.30 at Wheatlands Hotel, Scarcroft Road, York, and for our forthcoming Medieval Banquet, which will be held on Saturday 25 October at 19.30 for 20.00, at the Black Swan, Peaseholme Green, York – a new venue for this event. As I write, details of the menu and price have yet to be finalised: any members who would like more information should ring John Audsley on 0113-294-2656. Please note that places are limited to a maximum of approximately 40 – tickets on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Tickets will be available from: Mrs C J Symonds, 2 Whitaker Ave, Bradford, BD2 3HL, email: symondsscj@aol.com, to whom subscriptions for our magazine Blanc Sanglier, due before December, should also be sent. Branch members should have re-ceived booking forms with their August Newsletter.

Angela Moreton

Amendment to Branches and Groups South Essex Group

Mrs Maureen Collins, 41 Linkway, Hornchurch, Essex RM11 3RN

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New MembersNew MembersNew MembersNew Members

UK 1 Jul 2001—31 Dec 2001 Mr R Abdy, Sheffield Mr J Firth, Doncaster Mrs J Kirk, Gravesend Dr A Ashworth, Burgess Hill Mrs J Forsyth, Lasswade Dr A Lacey, Orwell Miss J Barker, Northampton Mr A Fuller, Wickford Mr G Lea, Ipswich Mrs M Bellamy, Malvern Ms A Gay, Port Talbot Mr D Legge, Surrey Ms N Belshaw, Halifax Mrs Gebbie, Milton Keynes Mr T Linforth, Edinburgh Mr N Bintcliffe, Huddersfield Revd R Goadby, Chesterfield Mr Marshall, N’castle/Tyne S Birch, Chester Ms B Gooding, Guildford Miss M Martin, W Bromwich Mr E Boardman, Leicester Mrs P Gray, Brackley Miss S Maskery, Leeds Mrs A Brennan, B’Ham Mr M Griffin, Stratford Miss J Miller, E6 Mr & Mrs Bridgwater, Yorks Mr S Halls, Tunbridge Wells Mr E Morris, Kingstone Mr D Brown, Pevensey Revd P Harbord, Rotherham Miss Nicholls, Middlesboro Mr S Brown, South Croydon Mr J Harbottle, Bracknell (F) Ms C Oligeirsson, SE1 Mrs J Bunney, Flitwick Dr H Harper, London W13 (F) Mr T Orrell, Bolton Mrs A Burdess, Ascot Ms B Harvey, Lincoln Miss G Puff, Leeds Mr D Burton, Dunfermline Mrs C Hill, Accrington Mrs F Rakok, Harrold Mr N Cairn, Northolt Mrs L Holmes, Bourne (F) Mrs C Richardson, Wakef’ld Miss J Cave, Kingsbridge Miss S Hood, London E17 Mrs J Sharrock, Bedford Ms D Cherry, Chertsey Mrs G Howard, B-on-Crouch Mr P Shepherd, Plymouth Mrs D Clark, Dunstable Mrs M Jackeman, SE6 Mr R Skinner, Broad Hinton Mrs S Collings, Watford Mr L Jackson, Nuneaton Miss H Smith, Witham Miss L Cowburn, North’ton Miss H James, Cardiff Mr B Smith, Cannock Mrs C Cowley, Basildon Miss B James, Knighton Mrs S Smith, Witham Mrs C Crouch, Bedford Mrs L Jebb, Reading Mrs A Smith, SW16 Mr & Mrs Dear, Kings Lynn Mr R Jenkins, E Kilbride (F) Mr G Sutton, SE3 Mr R Deason, Farnborough Mrs J Johnstone, Stone Mrs M Taylor, Keighley (F) Mr T Doran, Liverpool Ms J Jones, Wootton Wawen Mr C Townsley, Watford Mr R P Drew, Bath Mr D Kerriston, Ravenshead Mr J Turner, Colne Mr P R East, Arnside Dr J Kilgallon, Stockport Mrs S Watson, Wakefield Mr B Edwards, Peterborough Mrs G King, Chesterfield Miss C Watt, Edinburgh Mrs A Evans, Penzance Mr A Kinghorn, Fleetwood Mr R Williams, Dawlish Overseas 1 Jul 2001—31 Dec 2001 Mrs E Arnott, USA Mr D Fitzgibbon, Australia Miss C Moss, Australia Ms A Brown, Germany Mrs P Gallart, Spain Mr & Mrs Owen, Australia Mrs R Burgess, Australia Mr J Gray, Canada Ms G Picard, Canada Mr J Carr, Canada T Hargreaves, Canada Mrs A Porter, Australia Dr M Corner, Czech Rep Ms E MacNevin, Canada Dr J Rocca, Sweden Mrs M Cowley, Canada Mr R Millard, Canada Mr D Wooten, USA Dr A Cranston, Sweden UK 1 Jan 2002—30 Jun 2002 Mrs A Allen, Kington Mrs J Barr, Spalding Mrs J Buckley, Penrith Mrs A Anderssen, Br’Water Mrs K White, Salcombe Miss S Byron, Lewes E J Baker, Great Milton Mr A Brewer, Dorchester Mr D Campbell, Glasgow Mrs M Barlow, New Barnet Mr J Bridger, NW10 Dr R Carr, Kidlington Miss E Clemson, Redditch Mr D Kendrick, Birmingham Miss M Roberts, Sc’thorpe

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Mr & Mrs Court, Warwick Ms P Kennedy, Yeovil Ms S Roesch, Wirral Mrs J Cruise, Crewe Mr A Knight, Nuneaton Mr P Servini, Worcester Dr J Davis, Chesham Mr R Long, Bolton Mr & Mrs Shires, Wakf’ld Mr & Mrs Eastwood, Leeds Mrs Marshall, Burton/Trent Mrs C Spencer, Colne Mr A Emery, Lowestoft Mrs J Miller, Callington Mrs A Spencer, Tamworth Miss K Fairbairn, SE19 Mr B Morriswood, Cambridge Mrs Spettigue, Launceston Ms S Flynn, Accrington Mr Mottram-Playfoot, Bolton Mr R Stansfield, Heywood Mrs P French, Bristol Ms B Palmer, Hawkhurst Mrs S Starbuck, Hinkley Miss C Gainsborough, WC1 Miss G Paxton, Morecambe Mr E Swainsbury, Bristol S Gibson, Sutton Mrs C Phillips, Walsall Mr M Sykes, Selby Mr & Mrs Gill, SW19 Mr A Phillips, Burton/Trent Mr R Taylerson, Sh’wsbury Dr P Gooderham, Sh’wsbury Mrs M Pinchbeck, Hull Mrs S Thickins, Cwmbran Mr P Grainger, Farnborough Mrs Powys-Lybbe, Devon Ms S Thorpe, St Austell Mr G Hamer, Hereford Mr S Randall Eaton Socon (F) Mr R Ward, Bedford Mr J Hill, Burnley Miss I Rees, N1 Mr J Williamson, Farnham Mr M Horton, Ashford Mr A Ricketts, Fareham Overseas 1 Jan 2002—30 Jun 2002 Ms S Cavalheiro, Canada Dr D Neal, Canada Ms P Dahlgren, USA Mr W Cooper, Canada Ms M Posey, Canada Mrs L Hedger, Australia Mrs J Glendinning, NZ Mrs J Benham, Australia Ms K Barker, Australia Ms M Howell, Canada Ms P Clarke, Australia Mrs P Stuart, USA Mr D Johnson, Canada Mr R Hook, Australia A Klocke, Germany Mr R MacLean, Canada Ms L Moores, Australia Mr H Van Valen, N’Lands Ms L McGregor, NZ Ms D Smith, Australia I Heidleberger, Austria UK 1 Jul 2002—31 Dec 2002 Dr M Allen, Cambridge Mr M Chartier, Lewes Mr E Gosnay, Leeds Dr S Allsop, Dronfield Mr T Clark, Kenilworth Miss J Hall, Harrogate Mr S Barnes, IOW Mr R Cole, Northallerton Mrs A Halliday, Wirral Mr C Barton, SW9 Mrs J Cole, Berkhampstead Mrs J Hamby, Formby Mrs R Beale, Witham Mrs P Comber, Bourne Dr J Hayes, Bath Mrs E Beckett, Barrow (F) Ms K Coulling, Lancaster Ms A Hayes, Weybridge Miss J Beeby, Bolton Mr L Craig, Hebburn Mr G Heath, Durham Mr G Beer, Rochester (F) Mr R Crane, Skegness Mr C Heaton, Skipton Miss N Benathan, Lancaster Mr J Craven, Lancaster Mr M Hely, Banham Mr & Mrs Birch, Cambridge Mr M Dalby, Cromer (F) Mr F Hepburn, Cheltenham Mr L Black, Swansea Mr S Darlaston, Weston/Mare Mrs N Hickman, Nott’ham Miss R Boreham, Edinburgh Mr & Mrs Dellar, Woking Miss H James, Willenhall Mr I Bromley, Shrewsbury W Doe, Nottingham Miss A Jayes, Leicester Mr N Brownlee, Liverpool Mrs I Duncan, Warrington Mrs K Kemp, Brambridge Ms J Bungey, Enfield Ms G Edwards, Swansea Mrs J Kennard, Salisbury Mr C Burns, Canterbury Mrs A Evans, Narberth Mrs C Kennedy, Rushden Mr R Butcher, Maidstone Mrs N Evans, Crawley Mrs A Knight, Leyburn Mr D Candlin, Hildenboro (F) Mr D Fisher. York Mrs L Leo, Mitcham Mrs S Carney, Smallfield Miss C Gahan, Liverpool Mr O Levy, NW10 Dr E Carter, Leicester Miss C Gaskell, Sheffield Mrs C Lewis, Wilmslow Mr D Cash,Nuneaton Mr R Gee, Leeds Dr Lindstrom-Thomas (F) Mr D Chantler, Whitton Miss S Goldsmith, Croydon Ms M Lowles, Hinckley Mrs A Lucas, Leeds Mrs J Roper, Jersey Mr C Thompson, E18 Miss A Manning, Chester Mrs A Rushton, Gainsboro Mr D Thompson, Mansfield Dr K Marfell, Shipley Mrs F Russell, Yaxley (F) Mrs J Thorogood, V. Water Mr D Martin, Salisbury Mrs W Sanders, Beaconsfield Mrs M Thurston, Norwich

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Mrs A Mearns, Wirral Mr J Sands, Sidcup Mrs M Timms, Swindon Ms A Mizon, SW18 Ms J Sayer, Norwich Ms K Tudor, Reading Miss P Myles, Ringwood Col J Sewell, Haslemere Mr R Varey, Lancaster Mr D Oldroyd, Biggleswade Mrs S Sherwood, Aylesbury Mrs A Vousden, Nottingham Mr R Pethick, Sheffield Mr H Simpson, Nottingham Miss Waddington, Woodford Mr A Pilkington, Stourbridge Mrs Skuse, M’ton Keynes (F) Mr D Walton, Addlestone Mr R Portman, Sutton C’field Mrs P Smith, Shoreham-by-sea Mrs D Watson, Ripon Mrs C Powers, Harpenden Mr J Smith, Loughton Mrs P Webster, Sevonoaks Mrs P Pradey, Birmingham Mrs F Snoxall, Congresbury Miss A White, Ashford Mr D Quait, Tiverton (F) Mr & Mrs Stead, Cottingham Mrs Whitehead, St Leonards Mr W Radclyffe, C’bourne Mrs R Stroud, Edinburgh Mr G Wilson, SW19 Mrs A Redmond. Liverpool Mrs J Tarrant, Abingdon Miss Woodifield, Wimborne Mr T Rees, Redhill Mr R Tatlock, York Mrs E Worrall, Chester-le-Street Mr F Reid, Southport Ms E Teal, Guernsey Mr F Wragg, Sheffield Mr D Richardson, Bradford Mr Templeman, Sheffield (F) Mrs E York, Uckfield Overseas 1 Jul 2002–31 Dec 2002 Mrs K Adler, Sweden Ms N Grant, Canada Ms V Moorshead, Canada Mr D Bean, Canada Ms J Harris, Austraia Ms D Preis, Australia Mrs K Elmazis, Australia Ms M Jacyshyn, Australia Ms M Ralston, Canada Mr A Foster, Australia Mrs J Lowe, Australia Ms M Smith, Australia Mr H Gilis, Belgium Mrs B McAleer, Canada Ms N Terrett, Australia Mrs W Gill, Australia Mr E Moles, Canada Mrs M Travers, Australia UK 1 Jan 2003–30 Jun 2003 Mrs S Barnham, Tonbridge Miss I Eliatamby, Colchester Mr G Jones, Norwich Miss C Bennett, St Albans Mr A Fennely, Bolton Miss T Kempson, M-Keynes Ms E Benns, Baldock Mrs T Ferries, Slough Miss V Land, Grays Mr D Besag, N’Castle/Tyne Ms H Fields, York (F) Miss G Land, S. Ockendon Mr W Biggs, Farnborough Mrs J Figg, Ilford Dr A Lee, Bath Lady Blundell-Shean Mrs J Flynn, Salford Mr K Matthews, Nailsea Mr E Bottomley Mrs M Francis, Peterborough Mr M McKenna, SE1 (F) Ms A Brown, E11 Dr K Francis, Glasgow Mrs D Middleton Dr H Burl, Birmingham Mr R Gleadell, Chigwell Mrs J Miller, Preston (F) Mr J Catesby, South Molton Mr D Goodchild, Wrexham Mr P Moon, Loughton Mrs J Chambers, Dunstable Mr G Grange, Slough Mrs C Nix, Newton Abbot Ms S Clarkson, Stamford Mrs G Gray, Trowbridge Mr M O’Donnell, Enfield Mr R Colclough, Dagenham Miss L A Hamilton, Banbridge Mrs G Palfreyman, Nott’hm Mrs J Cousins, Cardiff Mr R C Harcourt, Leigh-on-sea Ms C Parker, Sheffield Col M Davies, Chelmsford Mrs S Harper, Teddington Mr R Parr, Stockport Mr J Dawson, Lytham Dr C Hart, Telford Ms E Patrick, Leyland Mr J Denham, Atherstone Mrs P Hobson, SW11 Mr M Pegg, Malvern Mrs S Desmon, Dorchester Mr K Hopkins, Chislehurst Mrs D Penn, Tividale Miss C Dimelow, Newcastle Miss R Horton, Colchester Miss A Pennell, Sudbury Mrs R Donatini, Birmingham Miss S Ingman-Greer, Kendal Mr C Perkins, Bromsgrove Miss D Draper, W’ton Mr J Jackson, Crewe Miss H Perkins, Oxford Ms I Duncan, Cambridge Dr M Jones, Croydon Mr R Reid, Sunderland Mr M Richards, Oldham Mr P Startin, Wolverhampton Dr W Wallace, Edinburgh Mrs I Ridley, Otford Mr Stewart-Wilson, St Andrews Mr M West, NW3 Ms G Roberts, Lowestoft Ms S Stringer, Hinckley Ms Westrop, Downh’m Mkt Mrs J Robinson, Bradford Mr R Takeda, Cambridge Mr A White, Leicester Miss J Rydill, Bath Miss H Teal, Halifax Mrs Wilkinson, Sevenoaks Mr M Saunders, Rotherham Mrs J Thompson, Burgess Hill Mr A Willcocks, Huntingd’n Mrs J Savage, Wolisham (F) Ms J Thwaites, Leomister Ms E Wilson, Gtr Langdale

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Binders for the New Bulletin

The Society's sales officer has ordered binders for the new style Ricardian Bulletin and these will be available at the AGM and by post from 1 October. The cost will be £4.75 plus 56 p postage and package. For multiple orders the p&p costs are 91p for two and £1.68 for three binders.

If you have recently stocked up on the A5 size binders which are now redundant, the Society is offering a new for old deal. Please send back your unused A5 bind-ers and we will replace them free of charge, though we will ask you to bear the cost of re-turn postage to the sales officer.

The sales officer still has a limited stock of the A5 binders, so if you have been thinking of buying some to file your Ricardians or Bulletins, this is your last chance to purchase as we will not be buying any further binders in this size. These are priced at £4.75 plus p&p as detailed above.

Mrs J Scorthorne, Spalding Mavis Timms, Westcliff Mrs D Winny, Oxhey Mr D Smith, Cambridge Miss A Turner, Milton Keynes Mrs V Withey, Chigwell Miss K Soker, NW1 Mr R Van Allen, Bromley Mr G Wright, Ilkley Miss R Sperry, Nottingham Mr T Walker, SW19 Mr T Young NW1 Dr V Stapley, Stockton Overseas 1 Jan 2003—30 Jun 2003 A&J Blythe, Australia Mr K Le Roy, USA Mrs Standring-Green, Belgium Dr D Brodt, Germany Mrs P Merino, Mallorca Mr R Taylor, France Ms J Campbell, France Mr I Motard, France Mr R Taylor, Canada Dr U Grassnick, Germany Mrs M Read, Australia Ms M Towers, Canada Mr L Kenny, Ireland Ms K Rennie, Canada Mr G Wearne, Australia Ms D Kolesar, Canada Mrs H Rowe, Australia Mr M Zabka, USA Mr O Lahmann, Canada Miss V Sery, France American Branch members 1 Mar—31 May 2003 Martin B Adams Beverly O Harrison Sharon Raible Soorya Bateman Robert J Kenney Jr George Sapio Angela Bolger John A Leuthauser John Stallard Nancy Donovan Ruth Madden Robert E Sullivan Jule S Dubner Gloria J McCary Judy Tessel James S Dunahoo Edward L Nolan Gwen Toma Karin Durette Zoe O’Brien Morven Troost Richard F Endress Tina Ponzetti Joseph H Waters Lee Gilliland Barbara Radd Clive Willingham

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Classified AdvertisementsClassified AdvertisementsClassified AdvertisementsClassified Advertisements

Self-catering period cottage six miles from Bosworth battlefield to let all year round, sleeps up to 4/6 people. Please call Lorraine on 01530-450451 for further details Looking for a speaker? Ann Wroe, author of Perkin, A Story of Deception, will happily talk to branches or groups. No fee required; travel expenses appreciated. Please contact her on 0207-830-7044 [daytime] or email: annwroe@economist.com Desire the Kingdom A Story of the Last Plantagenets. An historical novel by Paula Simons Zabka based on the lives of Richard III and Anne Neville of Warwick, the last Plantagenet King and Queen of England who stood at the center of treason, turmoil and tragedy during the Wars of the Roses. This novel confronts the mystery and controversy that, to this day, still haunts the reign of Richard III. “ … It is just terrific .. The author has an intensely personal way of developing each of the charac-ters” Ilysa Magnus, The Historical Novels Review. US $16.95, UK £10.00 (no shipping costs). Cheque or money order to Bosworth Publishing Co., 5863 Erlanger Street, San Diego, CA 92122, USA. Website orders: zabka.com/literary. Available at the Bosworth Battlefield Centre Bookstore. Rosanda Books specialists in out-of-print Ricardian fact and fiction. If you would like to receive our catalogues please write to 11, Whiteoaks Road, Oadby, Leicester, LE2 5YL, or e-mail: dbaldwin@themutual.net. Back issues of The Ricardian and Bulletin for sale – 1982 to date. £20.00 ono plus p&p. Enquiries to Joss O’Kelly, 4, Lichfield House, Bishops Walk, Aylesbury, Bucks HP21 7LE, or email: joss@bigwig.net.

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Doreen Lewis The Devon and Cornwall Branch was saddened to hear of the recent death of Doreen Lewis who joined the branch in its very early days. She had a quiet and unassuming manner with a considerable knowledge of medieval history. One of her particular interests was John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln and she wrote several essays on his life. Doreen dropped out branch activities a few years ago because of family commitments, although she retained her interest in Richard III. She came to several of our annual reunion teas in Exeter but sadly was too ill to attend this year.

Shirley Stapley

Geoffrey Richardson OBE It is with deep regret that we announce the death of Geoffrey who passed away after a long illness on 8 May 2003. Geoffrey was known to members world-wide thanks to the wonders of the internet with its capacity for communication and also through his many books giving us his insight into medieval England. His early retirement gave him even more time to share his thoughts of his favourite period of history. He will be missed not only by Richard III Society members but by the friends he had in his beloved Yorkshire. Prayers were said for him at this year’s Middleham Festival Week at the parish church where as a regular visitor at its many events he will be remembered by many.

Christine Symonds

David Walton It is with great sadness, that the West Surrey Group announces the death of Dave Walton, who had only joined the Society and the West Surrey Group last year. Even though Dave was only with us for a short time, he quickly became a popular member of the group and became our treasurer in January of this year. We learnt of Dave’s tragic death from his sister and brother-in-law, who had informed us that when he returned from holiday in South Africa, he suddenly became ill and was admitted into hospital, where he died unexpectedly on 16 April of thyroid and lung cancer. Our condolences go to his sister and all members of his family.

Rollo Crookshank

ObituariesObituariesObituariesObituaries

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The Society runs a calendar of all forthcoming events: if you are aware of any events of Ricardian interest, whether organised by the Society - Committee, Visits Team, Branches/Groups, or by others, please let the Editor have full details, in sufficient time for entry. The calendar will also be run on the website, and, with full details, for members, on the intranet.

CalendarCalendarCalendarCalendar

Date Event Originator

Sep Globe Theatre season, includes Richard III

Sep – 8 Nov RSC Stratford season, includes Richard III

6 Sep Yorkshire Branch AGM

7 Sep Visit to Eltham Palace Visits Team

4 Oct AGM. Staple Inn Hall, High Holborn, London Secretary

9 Oct – 18 Jan 2004 Gothic: Art for England 1400–1547. Exhibition at the V&A Museum, London

18 Oct Visit to Waltham Abbey for the unveiling of Margaret of York plaque Visits Team

18 Oct Greater Manchester Branch Study day

1 Nov Ceremony for Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk at Wingfield See p. 8

15 Nov Norfolk Branch Study Day Warrior Kings

14 Dec Fotheringhay Nine Lessons and Carols, and Fotheringhay lunch; also unveiling of Margaret of York Coordinator plaque see p. 15

2004

13 Mar Requiem Mass at Clare Priory Visits Team, see p. 48

16–18 Apr Study Weekend at York on Medieval Women Research Officer, see p.

19–25 May Visit to Ireland – Dublin and Cork Visits Team, see p. 49

2–5 Jul Visit to Devon and Cornwall Visits Team

13 Nov Norfolk Branch Study Day Death of Kings