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The Ricardian Volume 12 (2000-2002)
March 2000 No. 148 ‘Henry VI and his Miracles’ This article discusses the growth of the cult
of miracles around the person of Henry VI. It also discusses the miracles
described in the official record and shows how these illustrate the
life of the times. The author also touches on the part of Richard III
in this cult. ‘The
Nobility and the Coronation of Richard III’ A discussion
of the peers at the coronation of Richard III: who was there, who might
have been there, who was not there and the possible reasons for the
all of these. REVIEW ARTICLE: A full discussion of this major new work, of
the place of medieval literature in its own time and of its relevance
to ours. June 2000 No. 149‘May God have pity on this Wretched Spectacle':
A Review of the Sources for the Battle of Barnet, 14 April 1471’ This
article examines the source material for the Battle of Barnet, 1471,
one of the most important battles of the Wars of the Roses. It compares
the information given in English and continental sources with particular
emphasis on the 'Newsletter of Gerhard von Wesel'. The positions of
commanders on the battlefield, including Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
are re-examined together with the numbers of men involved in the battle. ‘Richard
III: Central Government and Administration’ This
article discusses the nature of the administrative institutions of the
realm during Ricardian rule. It is suggested that the government of
Richard III was essentially one of continuity in administrative institutions,
methods and personnel. Turning particularly to the Council and financial
administration it portrays a reign of administrative continuity and
stability. September 2000 No. 150‘New Light on Cornelio Vitelli and the Humanistic
Studies at Oxford University in the late Fifteenth Century’ Cornelio Vitelli (c.1450–c.1525) of Cortona
in the Florentine State was named by Polydore Vergil, writing between
1514 and 1534 in his History of
England, as the first to teach both Latin and Greek at Oxford. Here
the validity of this statement is accepted, as Vitelli's first residence
at Oxford, as Praelector at New College, is assigned to between early
1485 and late 1486. Most likely then he taught both William Grocyn and
Thomas Linacre their initial Greek. Thereafter, Vitelli occupied the Chair
of Poetry at Louvain University, before briefly trying to establish
himself at Paris University. Late in 1489, Vitelli returned to England
in a vain quest for royal patronage. In 1490, he was back in Oxford
with rooms in Exeter College, where he taught in a private capacity
for some two years before returning to Tuscany. Vitelli's two Oxford
sojourns in the reigns of Richard III and Henry VII are set against
the rest of his career. Significant was his temporary appointment to
the public Readership in Rhetoric in Venice in succession to a series
of very distinguished humanists, the last being Giorgio Merula. That
Vitelli held this highly prestigious post probably explains his election
to New College. However, he rarely held an academic position for long,
which Erasmus implied was in consequence of his limited ability. Vitelli
was in holy orders, and in 1508 when he had been back on the Italian
peninsula for some fifteen years he became rector of the wealthy church
near Monterchi. He still held this in 1525, the last known reference
to him. ‘William Abell: Parishioner, Churchwarden, Limnour,
Stationer in the Parish of St Nicholas Shambles in the City of London’ This
article looks at the life of William Abell, not from the perspective
of his well-known work as a manuscript illuminator of, for example the
Eton College Foundation Charter, but from that of his role as a churchwarden
of St Nicholas Shambles in the second half of the fifteenth century.
Based primarily upon the surviving churchwardens' accounts but using
associated documents such as the wills of some of his contemporaries,
his activities are examined in the light of the administrative and liturgical
life of the parish in which he lived. The record of his pious donations
to the church, the entry recording payment for the burial of his daughter
and his more light-hearted gifts, including a barrel of ale, all provide
a more rounded view of this fifteenth-century limnour and churchwarden.
William Abell is thus fitted into the broader picture of parish life
in this period in London immediately prior to the English Reformation. December 2000 No. 151‘ “Remedying
Mischiefs”: Bishop John Russell and the Royal Title’ An examination of Russell's sermons for the
opening of Parliament. It appears that the chancellor was strongly opposed
to enacting the Act Titulus Regius of 1484, which he considered inflammatory.
‘Why Richard III?’ The
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed the development of historical
and literary trends towards predominantly negative representations of
Richard III, trends which persisted into the twentieth century. This
article explores the relative continuity between medieval and modern
constructions of the last Plantagenet king while acknowledging the essentially
contested nature of the interpretations to which this royal figure is
subjected. March 2001 No. 152‘Norfolk Requiem: The Passing of the House of
Mowbray’ This
article traces the lives of John, fourth and last Mowbray duke of Norfolk,
and his duchess, Elizabeth Talbot (the youngest sister of Eleanor Lady
Butler) from 1471 until their deaths in 1476 and 1506 respectively.
It examines the fate of their children and notes the declining fortunes
of the dowager duchess in the Tudor England of Henry VII. An appendix
gives the full text of the duchess's will. ‘The Wives of Sir James Hobart (1440-1517),
Attorney-General 1486-1507’ A study
of the evidence which survives for the wives of Sir James Hobart. It
concludes that he had four: Dorothy Glemham, Margaret Lyhart, Margaret
Fotheringhay and Margaret Naunton. With some details of his property
and houses in Norfolk and Suffolk. Illustrated, pedigrees. June 2001 No. 153 ‘William,
Lord Hastings, The Calais Garrison and the Politics of Yorkist England’ Exploration
of Hastings' time as Lieutenant of Calais and what it tells us about
his role in the late Yorkist government and what light it may shed on
the politics of 1477 to 1483. Discussion on the extent to which Hastings
was able to develop a following amongst the soldiers of the Calais garrison,
based upon his chivalric and military reputation and how much this provides
the basis for a reinterpretation of the politics of the late fifteenth
century. ‘1477 –
The Expedition that never was: Chivalric Expectation in the Late Yorkist
England’ This
article discusses the English expedition planned in 1477 in response
to the plea from the recently widowed Margaret of York to her brother,
Edward IV, when the northern dominions of Burgundy were under threat
from King Louis XI of France. The author uses fresh evidence to investigate
support for a military expedition in 1477 and examine the chivalric
consequences of Edward's failure to back it. September 2001 No. 154‘Richard Lord Latimer, Richard III and the Warwick
Inheritance’ This
article carries the story of the Warwick inheritance a little further.
The residual heir of the northern Neville lands after 4 May 1483 was
Richard, Lord Latimer, a minor whose custody Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
had sought with a view to preventing him from inheriting. Almost the
moment he was king, however, Latimer's wardship and marriage were granted
to Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, whose daughter Anne was married to
Latimer before Bosworth. Once king, Richard no longer had a personal
interest in the devolution of the inheritance which should, in due course,
have made Latimer into a much a greater northern magnate than his predecessors.
For Tudor reasons this did not happen. Richard's actions here compare
with the alienation and recognition of other rights to other parts of
the Warwick inheritance, to which his attitude was understandably different
as king from when he was a mere duke. ‘The “Champchevrier Portrait”: A Cautionary
Tale’ There is a tradition that Henry VI sent an Angevin
knight, Guy de Champchevrier, to obtain a portrait of Margaret of Anjou
when the Angevin marriage was discussed at the English Court in 1443.
Margaret's 'official' biographer, J.J. Bagley, accepted the story as
'a pretty one and not improbable'. It is B.M. Cron's contention that
the story may be pretty but is so improbable as to be fantastic. Where
did it originate? ‘Cologne Merchants complain about some crimes
of Richard, Earl of Warwick, and Geroge, Duke of Clarence in 1470 and
1471’ The title of this article is self-explanatory.
‘Secret Marriage: A Dramatic Representation’
A review of
the secret marriage scene from Webster's play The Duchess of Malfi
as evidence of the kind of marriage which may have taken place between
Edward IV and Eleanor Talbot. December 2001 No. 155 ‘Richard
Redman: The Yorkist Years (c. 1461-88)’ Joseph
A. Gribbin
Redman came from a notable northern family whose
main seat of residence was situated at Levens in Westmorland. He entered
the Premonstratensian abbey of Shap and became the abbot of his community
before 1458. Redman was appointed commissary-general of the English
Premonstratensian abbeys amid some controversy which lasted until 1466
when he successfully retained the position for over forty years. He
proved to be a zealous Visitor, holding regular visitations and provincial
chapters, and was appointed bishop of St Asaph in North Wales in 1472,
retaining his abbacy in commendam. Bishop Redman served Edward
IV and, with his family, was closely aligned to the regime of Richard
III, serving on the king's council, accompanying Richard on his itinerary,
and participating in the negotiations with the Scots in 1484. The death
of King Richard on Bosworth Field led to a period when Redman's involvement
with the English Crown was lessened, under Henry VII, and even his implication
in the Lambert Simnel revolt of 1487. Redman's alleged involvement in
the rebellion brought to an end his association with the House of York
but he continued to serve the Crown, Church and Premonstratensian order
until his death in 1505. ‘A
Memoir on Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby’ Raymond
J. Skinner John Britton, the celebrated Wiltshire antiquary
and topographer, collected a large amount of material regarding the
Lady Margaret for his proposed entry in connection with the Gresham
Commemoration Prize for the occasion of Queen Victoria's succession
to the throne in 1837. His work, however, was never submitted in competition
- the prize eventually being won by Caroline Halsted. My attention was drawn to Britton's little-known
work by a brief reference in his autobiography of 1849. Fortunately,
his working papers and various drafts of his incomplete work exist today
as Cambridge University Library Ms 00.6.89 and consist of over 200 pages
of notes, preliminary and subsequent drafts, transcripts of letters
between Margaret and her son, the king, as well as Britton's own research
correspondence with various authorities. Britton's Memoir
is notable for the unusual view which he takes of the Lady Margaret's
character and motivations; in this he departs quite radically from the
view of her accepted in most quarters - both then and today - of the
countess as a pious, virtuous and learned figure of moral virtue and
unsullied integrity. Britton took a much cooler and sceptical view of
his subject. March 2002 No. 156 ‘Four
Weddings and a Conspiracy: The Life, Times and Loves of Lady Katherine
Gordon’, Part 1 Wendy
E.A. Moorhen First part of a biography of Lady Katherine
Gordon, from her early years up until the death of her first husband,
Perkin Warbeck, in 1499. "Although she never directly affected
history, Lady Katherine was on the periphery of important events in
both Scotland and England due to her family relationships, her marriages
and position at the English court." June 2002 No. 157 ‘Four
Weddings and a Conspiracy: The Life, Times and Loves of Lady Katherine
Gordon’, Part 2 The second part
of this biography sees Lady Katherine as a pensioner of the man who
condemned her husband, Henry VII. For the next nine years she is at
the Tudor court but intriguingly there is a gap in payments to her which
leads to speculation that she may have found another role outside of
the Court. With the death of Henry VII, however, Lady Katherine married
a royal servant, James Strangeways, and on his death she swiftly married
Matthew Craddock who governed Glamorganshire in South Wales on behalf
of the Earl of Worcester. The death of her third husband once again
brought Lady Katherine back to the Tudor court during the critical period
when Henry VIII sought to divorce his Spanish wife, Katherine's former
mistress, Katherine of Aragon. September 2002 No. 158 The concluding
article details Lady Katherine's marriage with a Gentlemen Usher of
the Chamber, Christopher Ashton, and her return to the demesne granted
to her by Henry VII. Following her death in 1537, Kit Ashton established
himself in Berkshire, causing grief to this neighbours in a series of
litigation cases before he challenged the queenship of 'Bloody Mary'
with his son-in-law Henry Dudley and like his wife's former husband,
Perkin Warbeck, sought to establish an alternative claimant to the throne
of England. December 2002 No. 159 An account of Richard's triumphal visit to York
as the culmination of his royal progress following his coronation in
London July 1483. ‘The English Delegation to the Conferenced at
St Omer (1463)’ The conference at St Omer, attended by delegates
of England, Burgundy and France, was a resounding diplomatic success
for England's relatively new Yorkist government. ‘The Inquisition Post Mortem of Eleanor Talbot,
Lady Butler, 1468 (PRO C 140/29/39)’ A reproduction of the full text in Latin with
English translation of the IPM of Edward IV's putative wife with a commentary
on her lands.
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