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Guest Post: Fabric as Power by Judith Arnopp

04/11/202302/11/2023Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

It is an absolute pleasure to welcome novelist and historian Judith Arnopp to History…the Interesting Bits today. Judith’s new book, How to Dress Like a Tudor, is one I have been excited to get my hands on ever since I heard she was writing it. The Tudors had a special talent for sumptuous gowns and bright, vibrant colours. They knew how to steal the show!

So, here’s Judith to give you a little taster of her research.

The Evolving Tudor Image: fabric as power

We have all become so familiar with royal Tudor images that we no longer really see them. One glance tells us who they are. We think we know them. They exude power, majesty and the iron fist of mastery.

Earlier portraits of the Plantagenet kings, and even the early portraits of Henry VII are very different to that of his son and grandchildren. But it was Henry VII, the first ‘Tudor’ king who began to develop the ‘Tudor’ brand.

The Tudors were the new kids on the block; nobody could foresee what sort of King Henry would make and his popularity depended very much on that of his wife, Elizabeth of York. Yorkist propaganda demeaned his claim to the throne, declaring that his mother’s line was illegitimate; that Lancaster had stolen the crown in 1399.

Henry, realising he needed to reinforce his hold on the country, embellished his family history to create an impressive Tudor dynasty. He stressed the royal connection of his mother, Margaret Beaufort, and her descent from John of Gaunt and, to strengthen his claim further, he legally removed the stigma of bastardy from the family. He reiterated the royal descent of his grandmother, Katherine of Valois and, more surprisingly, claimed descent from the ancient Welsh King Cadwaladr, and King Arthur. To further cement his link to Arthur he named his first-born son in his honour and embellished the round table at Winchester with the Tudor rose.

With the blood of both York and Lancaster flowing in the veins of his two sons and several daughters, the Tudor line looked set to continue but Arthur’s sudden death in 1502 taught Henry that a king can never have too many sons. He lost no time in teaching his remaining son, later to become Henry VIII, the finer points of kingship. He stressed the importance of his role, the unreliability of the fickle populace, and the crucial need for strong male heirs to perpetuate the dynasty. The importance of heirs was a lesson young Henry never forgot, and one he fought hard to achieve for the rest of his life.

The blooming of the Renaissance and the introduction of men like Holbein to the royal court helped to reinforce this new Tudor image and during Henry VIII’s reign new style of royal portraiture began.

I think of them as ‘power portraits’ that were loud declarations of Tudor permanence and dominance.

The one with which we are most familiar was painted by Holbein the younger after 1537, at a time when Henry was at the height of his power. He had freed himself from Anne Boleyn, and the Pope, and Jane Seymour had finally provided the son and heir he’d been craving.

Everything in this portrait is designed to impress and I certainly succeeds; we cannot take our eyes from the breadth of shoulder, the sumptuous quality of his clothes, his immovable stance, the potent codpiece, and the unflinching expression in his eye. The portrait exudes wealth, power and uncompromising control. It is an unspoken challenge.

Edward VI, and Mary I also used art to illustrate their power but it was Elizabeth, arguably the greatest Tudor of them all, who exploited royal portraiture to the full. The queen was very aware of the power of image and iconography. Encouraged by her adviser, John Dee, her portraits became more and more extreme. In every image she is majestic and fabulously dressed, her tiny frame all but

obliterated by satin, velvet, lace and jewels. In looks, Elizabeth resembled her great grandmother, Margaret Beaufort and her grandfather, Henry VII but by nature she was very much like her father.

Elizabeth’s portraits are perfect examples of Renaissance iconography. Every item represents a characteristic, not of the woman within but of the nature of her reign. It is all there; virginity, wisdom, power, world domination, military genius, and the all-seeing eye of queenship.

In The Armada Portrait c.1588 Elizabeth’s femininity is eclipsed by her magnificent clothing. She has so much padding, she appears every bit as broad and powerful as her father.

If Elizabeth’s grandfather and father had coveted England and parts of France, Elizabeth cast her ambitious eye farther – to the New World. Her hand rests on a globe and just in case the viewer should forget who wears it, the crown of England is just above. If you look closely her famously long white fingers are covering the Americas and, behind her are commemorations of the Spanish fleet being driven onto a rocky shore by a storm that became known as the ‘Protestant wind,’ inferring God’s approval in England’s victory over Spain. Elizabeth is proclaiming herself as the saviour of her people; the mother of her expanding empire; a victorious, virgin queen, blessed by God.

These are the things she wanted the world to see and believe. Her private, inner feelings were none of our concern and so they turned their faces into masks – a blank page, devoid of personality yet replete with majesty.

The portraits of the Tudors reveal so much about that far off world. Holbein in particular is invaluable to anyone studying the period. It is solely due to Holbein’s sketches taken at the court that we know exactly what was going on behind the gabled hoods of Catherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour. A particular favourite sketch of mine is of a woman on a settle which shows her sons dressed in replica garments of adult men. His sketches provide a behind the scenes glimpse of life at court, something the formality of the finished portraits don’t convey.

One of the best parts of writing How to dress like a Tudor for Pen and Sword books was the chance to closely examine the court portraits, and the informal sketches of the royal painters and trace the evolving fashions, styles, fabrics of the era. The Tudors were the new icons, monarchs to be worshipped, feared and respected and their portraits a shield, concealing every vestige of human frailty from common view.

How to Dress like a Tudor doesn’t just examine the clothing of royalty but of courtiers, commoners, children, monks and fools.

About the Author:

Judith Arnopp writes historical fiction set during the late medieval and Tudor period. Her usual focus is on the women who lived close to the monarch, women like Margaret Beaufort, Elizabeth of York and Mary Tudor but more recently has been writing from the perspective of Henry VIII himself. Her books are on Kindle, Audible and Paperback. You can find her fiction books here: http://author.to/juditharnoppbooks

She also writes non-fiction, her work featuring in many anthologies and online magazines. Her latest non-fiction, How to Dress like a Tudor published by Pen & Sword Books is available now. http://mybook.to/howtodress

Judith is a founder member of a reenactment group The Fyne Company of Cambria, and began making Tudor costumes for herself, her husband, John, and other members of the group. It was this that inspired How to Dress like a Tudor and she hopes to write more non-fiction Tudor history in the future. You can find Judith on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Goodreads, Bluesky, Instagram, webpage

Illustrations

Eliz I The Armada Portrait Wikimedia commons [[File:Elizabeth I (Armada Portrait).jpg|Elizabeth I (Armada Portrait)]]

Henry VIII After Hans Holbein the Younger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edward VI Attributed to William Scrots (active 1537-1553) [1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

My Books

Christmas is coming!

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

On the one side is Empress Matilda, or Maud. The sole surviving legitimate child of Henry I, she is fighting for her birthright and that of her children. On the other side is her cousin, Queen Matilda, supporting her husband, King Stephen, and fighting to see her own son inherit the English crown. Both women are granddaughters of St Margaret, Queen of Scotland and descendants of Alfred the Great of Wessex. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how these women, unable to wield a sword, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It show how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other.

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Out now: King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady. Nicholaa de la Haye was the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told…

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org.

Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org.

Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.

Alternate Endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my take what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

Podcast:

Have a listen to the A Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Bernard Cornwell, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved.

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Guest Post: creating Books in the Sixteenth Century by Toni Mount

28/10/202324/10/2023Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

As always, it is a pleasure to welcome my dear friend Toni Mount to History… the Interesting Bits. Toni has just written an informative and highly entertaining book, How to Survive in Tudor England, and she is here today to tell us about what went in to publishing a book in Tudor times.

Over to Toni…

Creating Books in the Sixteenth Century

A Printing Press in the sixteenth century

I’ve been really busy this year, working on three books, all at the same time, each one at a different stage of production. I’m just completing the final proofs: text and images, and compiling the index for a popular history book – a fun guide to living in the Dark Ages – my next Sebastian Foxley medieval murder mystery is with the publisher and a third book is being researched. With so much scribing and checking going on, I thought this would be an opportunity to think about how my experiences of writing, printing and publishing might compare to those of a sixteenth-century author. What sort of books would they write? How would they write them? What were the new requirements of the printing press as opposed to books written by hand?

What sort of books would they write?

Some of the answers may surprise you. Religious subjects were to the fore around the time of the Reformation and would continue to be but self-help instruction books were extremely popular. Tales with a moral were reckoned most educational. History books tended to retell Classical events, such as the Siege of Troy, the founding of Rome and the Punic Wars fought between Romans and Carthaginians, as well as stories of the Roman emperors. The heroic exploits of Alexander the Great were retold as were those of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table in various guises. Science books were appearing too. With the advent of the printing press, scholarly treatises were no longer limited to a few hand-written copies but could be widely disseminated as printed editions. Since they were usually written in Latin as the universal language of academia and the Roman Catholic Church, they could be read – if not always understood – across Europe and the Americas. Novels, as such, were not yet recognised but obviously romantic stories of heroes and heroines, along with collections such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron remained popular as ever. Poetry was also published.

One of the most popular religious books of the second half of the sixteenth century was Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Originally published in London by John Day in 1563 under the title Actes and Monuments, it was written by John Foxe, a Protestant, giving an account of those who had suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in England and Scotland, giving maximum coverage to those burnt at the stake during Mary Tudor’s reign. Now that Elizabeth was on the throne, the book became so popular it went through four editions and numerous reprints, including an abridged version known as the Book of Martyrs, before Foxe died in 1587. Long after his death, the book continued to influence anti-Catholic sentiments and was virtually compulsory reading for those of the Protestant faith in England.

A first edition of Foxe’s *Book of Martyrs,* 1563

Thomas Tusser [1524-80] was a farmer who fancied himself a poet. He wrote an instruction book for his fellow farmers – husbandmen – and their wives, all in rhyme. First published in 1557, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie was enlarged and republished in 1573 as Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, being reprinted numerous times. It’s a fascinating book about country life and customs in the Tudor era and the source of information for some of my articles for this magazine. My favourite Tusser couplet is:

A respite to husbands the weather may send,

But housewife’s affairs have never an end.

How true.

Moral tales were regarded as educational and could also be fun to read. Aesop’s Fables were a perennial favourite, as were the adventures of Reynard the Fox, author unknown, but they date back to the eleventh century in France. The year 1481 saw the first printed edition of The History of Reynard the Fox to come from the Westminster press, just five years after William Caxton had set up the first ever printing business in England. Subsequent reprints appeared in 1489 and, after Caxton’s death, more were produced by Richard Pynson in 1494, 1500, 1506 and 1525. In fact, there were twenty-three editions of Reynard published in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so Caxton had found a runaway bestseller.

Reynard, the anti-hero, relies on brains rather than brawn to get the better of his enemies, often having others do his dirty work. For example, in taking Tybert the Cat to the farmer’s barn where he can feast on mice, Reynard is well aware of the trap set by the farmer to catch him, after he stole some hens recently. Of course, it’s Tybert who gets trapped. But the Fox’s cleverness extends to the subtleness of a lawyer and the honeyed tongue of a courtier, saying all the right things, not only arguing his way out of trouble but to promoting his own cause at the king’s court – lessons to be learned for the would-be courtier perhaps.

One of the first scientific books was written by Robert Recorde, a Welsh mathematician living in England. Recorde was the first ‘popular science’ writer and, although he knew Greek and Latin, he taught and wrote in English so anyone who was literate could understand his work. In 1542, his text book on arithmetic, The Grounde of Artes, first introduced the plus, minus and equals signs [+, -, =] that make the writing of equations so much quicker. He read Nicolaus Copernicus’ ground-breaking book De Revolutionibus, published in 1543, that put the Sun, not the Earth, at the centre of the universe for the first time. Recorde gave the theories a lot of thought, noting his favourable conclusions in The Castle of Knowledge, published in 1551, agreeing that the new ‘heliocentric’ universe fitted the calculations more nearly and made more sense. In 1551, he published The Pathway to Knowledge, the first geometry book in English.

Robert Recorde’s The Ground of Arts [1542]

Towards the end of the Tudor period, William Gilbert, a physician in London for many years who served as Queen Elizabeth’s doctor, spent much of his time studying rocks as England’s first geologist. He was particularly fascinated by ‘lodestones’ that occur naturally as permanent magnets. Gilbert published his discoveries in his book De Magnete [About Magnets] in 1600. The book, written in Latin, soon became the standard text on magnetic phenomena throughout Europe. In it, Gilbert discussed and disproved the folktales about lodestones – that their effect was reduced if diamonds or garlic were nearby and that they could cure headaches. He replaced such odd ideas with proper physical laws of magnetism: that the north and south poles of a magnet attract each other but like poles repel.

Poetry, often of epic lengths, was far more popular in Tudor times than with today’s audience. Whereas Thomas Tusser wrote his practical instruction book in rhyming couplets, Edmund Spenser’s epic in six books, The Faerie Queene, was very different, composed in ‘Spenserian stanzas’, a form the poet invented specially. The Faerie Queene is a romance, taking elements from Arthurian legend, including a female knight, The Roman de la Rose and other medieval sources. Yet Spenser explains that his epic poem is full of ‘allegorical devices’ and intended ‘to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline’, so this too is an instruction book of sorts. The author presented the first three books to Queen Elizabeth in 1589 and was rewarded by her majesty with the very decent pension of £50 a year for life, so it was well worth the effort. Whether the queen ever read it – or perhaps Spenser read excerpts aloud to the court – we don’t know but it’s quite widely read today, often being a ‘set book’ in schools.

How would they write them?

Throughout the Tudor period, as well as for centuries before and since, the original work would have to be written out in long hand with pen and ink, occasionally on parchment but increasingly on paper. It is actually easier to make corrections on parchment because the ink can be scraped off the surface layer but it’s far more difficult with paper because the ink soaks right in. All corrections, re-writes and edits had to be copied out again which makes me ever grateful for my computer. Love poems were often exquisitely written in the final version and given as gifts to the beloved. Surprisingly, the idea of the typewriter was thought up in the mid-seventeenth century when an anonymous Englishman applied for a patent for just such a machine, supplying a full description, drawings and diagrams of his invention. Nothing ever came of it at the time, as far as we know, but more recently, the device was constructed from the diagrams and it worked! What a boon that would have been to authors and poets.

With medieval manuscripts, all the text, any artwork, images or decoration would be done by hand on the page but, of course, the process had to be repeated for every subsequent copy. This meant each book was unique and expensive to produce so the spreading of ideas and knowledge was slow. The printing press, first invented in c.1440 by the German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenburg, and brought to England in 1476 by William Caxton [see above], made the mass production of books a possibility. Gutenburg also came up with the idea of making hundreds or even thousands of individual letters out of little squares of lead alloy – all reversed mirror images – and punctuation.

What were the new requirements of the printing press as opposed to books written by hand?

Just as today, the publisher/printer would require a perfect copy of the final manuscript of the book to work from. I simply attach my – hopefully – faultless final document to an email to the publisher and click ‘send’. The Tudor author would have taken his completed hand-written manuscript to the publisher, having kept at least one other perfect copy for himself, if he was wise. This was a good idea because a few manuscripts that were used as printers’ copies have survived to the present and they are scribbled with annotations and notes for the setting of the type and other parts of the process. The author’s pristine manuscript is gone forever if he didn’t have a second copy.

If illustrations are to be included in my books, I simple email a set of high resolution images, including photographs or downloaded pictures and diagrams. One thing I have to consider that a Tudor author wouldn’t need to bother about is the minefield of copyright on downloads. Early printed books – sometimes referred to as incunabulae – most often used woodcuts as a means of illustrating the text and the printer would have no qualms about using the same woodcut in a completely different work, if it served the purpose.

A Tudor printing press was a hefty machine, often taller than a man. Gutenburg had copied the idea from the grape presses used in wine-making. The tiny individual metal letters or ‘type’ were set up by a compositor, in reverse order, right to left, into the required lines of text. Several lines were arranged at once in a wooden frame known as a galley. Once the galleys were composed, they would be laid face up in a large frame [a forme] and this was placed onto a flat stone [the bed or coffin]. The text was then inked using two ball-shaped pads with handles. The balls were made of dog skin leather – because it has no pores – and stuffed with sheep’s wool. The ink was applied to the text evenly. A damp sheet of paper was held in one frame [the tympan] by small pins: damp so the type ‘bit’ into the paper better. The sheet was then sandwiched between the tympan and another paper- or parchment-covered frame [the frisket] to fix it so it could not move, curl up or wrinkle.

The two frames with their paper sandwiched were then lowered so the paper lay on the surface of the inked type. The whole bed was rolled under the platen using a handle to wind it into place. Then came the part of the process that required the most muscle power: screwing down the platen, using a bar called the ‘devil’s tail’, so the inked type and woodcuts pressed against the paper, making a perfect impression. The bar was supposed to spring back, lifting the platen, the bed rolled out, the frames lifted and the printed paper released, all text and images now appearing the right way round.

That would complete the process for a poster but, to make a book, this sheet of pages had to be turned over and printed again, this time with the text for the alternate pages. The sheets would then be cut up and assembled in the correct order. I have printed little eight-page booklets and the logistics of getting the double-sided pages printed correctly required a bit of thinking. For an A5 booklet, pages 8 and 1 have to be printed side by side, in that order, on an A4 sheet which is then turned over and pages 2 and 7 printed on the other side. Pages 6 and 3 are then printed with 4 and 5 on the reverse. I’m sure there must be computer algorithm for this these days but imagine trying to work that out with eight or sixteen pages on a sheet to produce the 1,500 pages of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

Foxe’s book had the additional complication of being illustrated with over sixty woodcut impressions and was, at the time, the most ambitious publishing project undertaken in England. Earlier, I mentioned that previous woodcuts were often reused but Foxe’s subject matter was entirely new so every woodcut was made especially. Like the type, woodcuts also had to be made as reverse images, carved from a single block of fine-grained wood. The image also had to be ‘negative’ in that the parts cut away would appear white on the page, the ink only adhering to the raised wood remaining to give the dark lines of the picture. When Foxe’s book was finished, compiled and bound, ready for sale, it was said to weigh as much as a small infant. Well, I always think of my books as my ‘babies’ and, even with modern technology, they take at least as long to produce, from conception until I hold the final product in my hands.

If you wish to read about many interesting characters, places, clothing, food and pastimes of the sixteenth century, my new book How to Survive in Tudor England is published on 30^th October 2023.

About the book:

Imagine you were transported back in time to Tudor England and had to start a new life there, without smart phones, internet or social media. When transport means walking or, if you’re lucky, horse-back, how will you know where you are or where to go? Where will you live and where will you work? What will you eat and what shall you wear? And who can you turn to if you fall ill or are mugged in the street, or God-forbid if you upset the king? In a period when execution by be-heading was the fate of thousands how can you keep your head in Tudor England?

All these questions and many more are answered in this new guide book for time-travellers: How to Survive in Tudor England. A handy self-help guide with tips and suggestions to make your visit to the 16th century much more fun, this lively and engaging book will help the reader deal with the new experiences they may encounter and the problems that might occur.

Enjoy interviews with the celebrities of the day, and learn some new words to set the mood for your time-travelling adventure. Have an exciting visit but be sure to keep this book to hand.

About the author:

Toni Mount researches, teaches and writes about history. She is the author of several popular historical non-fiction books and writes regularly for various history magazines. As well as her weekly classes, Toni has created online courses for http://www.MedievalCourses.com and is the author of the popular Sebastian Foxley series of medieval murder mysteries. She’s a member of the Richard III Society’s Research Committee, a costumed interpreter and speaks often to groups and societies on a range of historical subjects. Toni has a Masters Degree in Medieval Medicine, Diplomas in Literature, Creative Writing, European Humanities and a PGCE. She lives in Kent, England with her husband.

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Out now: King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye

In a time when men fought and women stayed home, Nicholaa de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against all-comers, gaining prominence in the First Baron’s War, the civil war that followed the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215. A truly remarkable lady, Nicholaa was the first woman to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told…

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Guest Post: The Kingmaker’s Women by Julia A. Hickey

07/10/202302/10/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly1 Comment

Today it is an absolute pleasure to welcome fellow historian Julia A. Hickey to History… the Interesting Bits. I have been following Julia’s work for many years and regularly turn to her blog, The History Jar, for information and inspiration for my own work. And, apparently, Julia does the same with History… the Interesting Bits, so we’re forming a bit of a mutual appreciation society. Julia’s latest book focuses on the Wars of the Roses and, in particular, the wife and daughters of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known to history as ‘The Kingmaker.’ And here she is to give us a little taster of her book, The Kingmaker’s Women, Anne Beauchamp and Her Daughters, Isabel and Anne Neville by Julia A Hickey.

So, it’s over to Julia…

The Kingmaker’s Women, Anne Beauchamp and Her Daughters, Isabel and Anne Neville.

Julia A. Hickey

Isabel and Anne Neville led brief but turbulent lives. Their father, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick by right of his wife, Anne Beauchamp, was at the heart of the conflicts of the mid-fifteenth century, earning himself the name ‘Warwick the Kingmaker’. Countess Anne and her children were chronicled, on occasion, alongside the earl in his long-played political game spanning more than twenty years, concluding only with his death on a foggy Easter morning at Barnet in 1471. It is impossible to write about their lives without setting them in the context of the War of the Roses and the earl’s influence upon it.

Anne Beauchamp, descended from King Edward III, the Despensers and the Mortimers as well as the earls of Warwick, was married to Richard Neville in 1434 at Abergavenny when she was 8 years-old and her husband was only 6. The union was subsidiary to the wedding of their siblings Henry Beauchamp, the 13th Earl of Warwick’s heir, and Cecily Neville which was celebrated at the same time. There was no reason to expect that the marriage would transform Richard, who was heir to his father Richard Neville and his mother, Alice Montacute, the heiress of the Earl of Salisbury, into one of the most powerful nobles of the fifteenth century.

It was Anne’s unexpected inheritance of the earldom of Warwick and all its estates upon the death of her brother in 1446 followed by her young niece, named after her, in 1449 that transformed the couple’s fortunes. Anne, who had three elder half-sisters from the 13th earl’s first marriage to Elizabeth de Berkeley, was the only full-blooded relation of the 15th countess. The law, viewing the deceased countess’s collateral heirs, saw only that Anne was more closely related to her niece than the other women. Inheritance was not awarded based on direct descent from Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick who had been outlived by both his son and his granddaughter. The decision triggered a legal dispute and a feud with the families of Anne Beauchamp’s half-sisters which resonated throughout the conflict between York and Lancaster. As daughters of the 13th earl, Margaret, Eleanor and Elizabeth expected to be coheiresses to the earldom alongside their younger half-sibling. Margaret’s husband, John Talbot, contended that as the husband of the 13th earl’s eldest daughter, it was he rather than Richard Neville who should become the 16th Earl of Warwick by right marriage (jure uxoris).

The new countess travelled with her husband, oversaw the management of their estates in his absence, was party to his schemes and subject to the State’s wrath after his death. One of the consequences of the lived experience of the countess and her daughters was that they did not leave the kind of documentary trail that would help to shine a light upon their lives in present times. It was only when medieval women became widows in receipt of dower and jointure rights that they gained legal independence and a voice in the official record. Isabel, born in 1451, and Anne, born in 1456, grew up, lived and died largely unheralded in a masculine world, or so it appears at first glance. Dig deeper and the echo of women with voices demanding to be heard, including Countess Anne, can be found in court records, financial accounts, charters and wills; books commissioned by wealthy well-educated women like the Nevilles and Beauchamps; as well as the establishment of chantries and the building of parish churches throughout the realm.

Isabel Neville, who died when she was 25, was married, in secret at Calais, to King Edward IV’s brother George, Duke of Clarence in 1469. Her father was eager to link the Neville name with that of Plantagenet. Clarence was desirous of the match because Isabel was the elder daughter of one of England’s most powerful men and an heiress to vast estates. There was also a distinct possibility that Warwick would topple Edward from the throne as the relationship between the men deteriorated and place Clarence upon it in his brother’s stead. Circumstantial evidence demonstrates that Isabel was beloved by George who was only a year older than his bride. Unlike the king, Clarence had no known mistresses or illegitimate children. No one can know how Isabel felt about her husband; her experience as a fugitive in 1470, forced to give birth onboard ship to a still born child outside Calais; or the turning of her husband’s coat that September when he re-joined his brother’s cause. It had become clear that Warwick was less interested in making him king than Clarence might have previously supposed. Nor is it possible to know what the relationship between the two sisters was like when Anne Neville was placed in George’s custody in 1471 or even if Isabel supported George’s attempt to prevent the division of her parents’ estates. It is certainly true that Clarence was grief-stricken by his wife’s death and he was permitted, as he desired, to be interred next to Isabel at Tewkesbury following his own execution for treason in 1478.

The idea of heiress as powerless trophy is a trope embedded into our common view of Anne Neville, thanks to Shakespeare’s portrayal of her in Richard III as a pawn furthering her father’s ambitions. She has also served since Tudor times as a sickly cypher to illustrate Richard’s manifest evil. The story, told by Shakespeare, is based on Sir Thomas More’s History of King Richard III. In reality, Anne’s life was an example of the changeability of fortune depicted by the popular medieval philosophy of Fortuna’s wheel. History does not know if she was a woman of courage or shrewd intelligence in the way the Lady Margaret Beaufort is recognised, but John Rous who knew Anne described her as ‘amiable and beauteous and in conditions full commendable and right virtuous’. Whatever her health might have been, she was made of the same stern stuff as Henry Tudor’s mother to whom she was distantly related. Anne endured a sea battle when her father was forced to flee England in 1470; was married to Edward of Lancaster, the son of her father’s bitterest enemy; made a forced march with the Lancastrian army from the south of England to Tewkesbury in 1471; was widowed after five months of marriage; and escaped the clutches of her land-hungry brother-in-law. She preferred to risk the criminals of St Martin’s sanctuary near Westminster so that she could make a second marriage to Richard, Duke of Gloucester who would fight for her inheritance and see her returned to her own rightful position in society.

Anne’s marriage to Richard was unusual for a couple of their rank in that no dowry could be agreed for her because, by then, the estates associated with the Nevilles and the Earldom of Warwick lay within the king’s gift. The legal rights of Anne’s mother, the suo jure Countess of Warwick, were stolen from her by King Edward IV and Parliament through the simple expedient of having Anne Beauchamp declared legally dead. The countess’s letters written from sanctuary at Beaulieu following her husband’s death demanding her legal rights remain as testimony to both her own education and the potential power of aristocratic women to intervene in political decision making. The effectiveness of her correspondence to the highborn men and women who surrounded the king is best illustrated by Edward IV’s orders that she should be prevented from the continuation of her writing.

Memorial brass to Isabel Neville and George, Duke of Clarence, Tewkesbury Abbey

Had King Edward IV not died in 1483 while his eldest son was still a child, Anne Neville might have spent the remainder of her days overseeing her household and servants at Middleham as the Duchess of Gloucester. Hers would have been a story of estate management, a piety shared with her spouse, and the trials of childbirth.

Fortuna’s wheel carried Anne to the apex of society when her husband was declared King Richard III on 25 June 1483. As queen she chose to surround herself with Neville kinswomen familiar since childhood, including her own illegitimate half-sister, Margaret Huddleston who was married to the Lord of Millom. Fate continued its abrupt revolution. The loss of her only son, Edward of Middleham, followed hard on the heels of a double coronation and triumphant progress to York. It was not long before Anne became so unwell that her doctors prohibited the king from sharing her bed. As winter turned into spring in March 1485, Anne died and was buried in Westminster Abbey, leaving behind only rumour, speculation and rebellion. Five months later Richard was dead at Bosworth, buried with scant regard for ceremony, leaving Anne to be characterised as a victim rather than a woman born with a powerful name and the potential of political agency.

Even more extraordinary, the circumstances surrounding the end of Isabel and Anne Neville’s lives were both followed by accusations of murder and witchcraft. Clarence, to modern eyes at least, maddened with grief following the untimely death of Isabel in December 1476, accused one of his wife’s own household of murder. Ankarette Twynyho, possibly a trusted midwife, was shoehorned by the duke into an evolving stereotype of a witch. Clarence had no hesitation either in kidnapping the woman or having her judicially murdered. Later, the Tudor propaganda machine, whatever the truth of the matter, vilified Richard III as the murderer of his nephews, a poisoner and a man of such diabolical intensity that he terrified Anne into an early grave.

Countess Anne lived on after her daughters. Consigned to the footnotes or forgotten by history, the suo jure Countess of Warwick, declared legally dead in 1474, refused to be stripped of her voice or her rights. She may have commissioned The Pageants of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick and the Rous Roll that depict the lives of the Earls of Warwick, the countess, and Isabel and Anne. There was no such thing as a bad Earl of Warwick in her opinion. She knew that her power and that of her daughters lay in the land that they represented, in their kinship networks and the men they slept with.

A pragmatist and survivor, Countess Anne negotiated her return to legal life with the accession of the Tudors on the condition that she broke the entail that lay upon her estates and gifted then to Henry VII. When she died in 1492, she was buried next to her husband in Bisham Abbey. She left Isabel’s surviving children, Margaret and Edward, nothing, apart from a Plantagenet legacy that would see Edward, the 17th Earl of Warwick, executed for treason in 1499 and, Margaret Pole, suo jure Countess of Salisbury, butchered by an inept headsman in 1541.

Medieval chroniclers and the focus of history’s lens marginalises women like Countess Anne and her daughters by imposing a distinction between the masculine public and the feminine domestic spheres. The messy reality is that the countess and her daughters, and women like them, lived complex and sometimes contentious lives, risking everything to protect their family’s interests.

To Buy the Book

The Kingmaker’s Women, Anne Beauchamp and Her Daughters, Isabel and Anne Neville by Julia A Hickey, published by Pen and Sword is currently priced at £20.00. It is available direct from Pen and Sword as well as from Amazon and Waterstones. It is the third of Julia’s books to be published by Pen and Sword. The Son that Elizabeth I Never Had: The Adventurous Life of Robert Dudley explores the life of the Earl of Leicester’s illegitimate son while Medieval Royal Mistresses: Mischievous Women who Slept with Kings and Princes takes an overview of the women who shared the beds of some of England and Scotland’s rulers.

About the author

Julia Hickey describes herself as a general historian but is often drawn back to the Wars of the Roses and the Tudor period. Her interest in history began at an early age when she lived near Plymouth and her father recounted the story of Sir Francis Drake playing bowls before setting sail to vanquish the Armada. She has a particular passion for the reivers who operated in the borders between England and Scotland before James I ascended the throne in 1603 not only because riding names such as Armstrong and Musgrave resonate in her husband’s family tree but because a glimpse may be caught of ordinary men and women in ballads of the period. Little known or untold stories, the contribution made by women and the lives of people who populate the footnotes of History fascinate her. She is at her happiest exploring and photographing castles, ruins, cathedrals and stately homes – preferably followed by a visit to a café.

Her first degree was in English and History from the University of Kent which she followed up with an M.A. by research and teaching qualification. Since then, she has taught in a range of settings from secondary schools to venues used by the Workers Educational Association (WEA). These days she is a freelance speaker, writer and blogger at thehistoryjar.com. She can also be found at https://www.instagram.com/thehistoryjar/ and https://www.facebook.com/TheHistoryJar.

When she’s not writing, she can be found in her garden, enjoying the Peak District in all its seasons or crafting. Almost inevitably her interests take a historical turn. This year she has taken part in the Unstitched Coif, a co-created artwork and research project undertaken by a PHD student at Sheffield in association with the V & A Museum, using blackwork embroidery to stitch a previously unworked seventeenth century design.

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Out now: King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Book Corner: Crime and Punishment in Tudor England: From Alchemists to Zealots by April Taylor

21/09/202321/09/2023Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

Crime and Punishment in Tudor England: From Alchemists to Zealots tells the story of the enactment of law and its penalties from Henry VII to Elizabeth I.

The sixteenth century was remarkable in many ways. In England, it was the century of the Tudor Dynasty. It heralded the Reformation, William Shakespeare, the first appearance of bottled beer in London pubs, Sir Francis Drake, and the Renaissance. Oh, and the Spanish Armadas―all five of them! Yes, five armadas and all failures.

It was a watershed century for crime and punishment. Henry VII’s paranoia about the loyalty of the nobility led to military-trained vagrants causing mayhem and murder. Henry VIII’s Reformation meant executions of those refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. State-controlled religion―summed up through the five reigns as Roman Catholic; Anglo-Catholic; Protestant; Roman Catholic, and Sort of Protestant but I don’t mind so long as you swear the Oath of Supremacy―became an increasingly complex, not to say confusing, issue for ordinary people.

Although primary sources are rare and sometimes incomplete, the life of criminals and the punishments meted out to them still fascinates.

Read about: John Daniell and how he tried to blackmail the Earl of Essex. The Stafford insurrection of 1486, the first serious opposition to the new king. The activities of con-man extraordinaire, Gregory Wisdom, and many more.

Crime and punishment didn’t start with the Tudors and this book summarises judicial practices built on tradition from the Roman occupation. It covers often gory details―what happens to the body when it is beheaded, burned, boiled, or hanged?

Arranged in alphabetical order of crimes, it recounts tales of blackmail, infanticide, kidnapping, heresy, and sumptuary laws. Told with occasional low-key humour, the book also includes Tavern Talk, snippets of quirky information.

Dip into it at your pleasure.

I have to admit, Crime and Punishment in Tudor England: From Alchemists to Zealots by April Taylor is one of the best non-fiction books I have had the pleasure of reading this year. I have always had a fascination for the law – I was even considering it as a career at one stage, until I realised I couldn’t stand the 9 to 5 lifestyle. Give me shift work and odd hours any day! So, I have been looking forward to this book ever since I heard April was writing it.

Opening with a fabulous history of the development of England’s legal system, Crime and Punishment in Tudor England explains not only the crimes committed, but also the various legal processes under different monarchs and at different social levels. Every crime imaginable is covered, from infanticide to treason. And so are the punishments and the reasons behind them; and how often such punishments were intended to fit the crime – or to shame the perpetrator. Every part of the criminal justice system is analysed, from religious offenders to witchcraft, from capital punishment to torture, prison condition and labour camps. Crime and Punishment in Tudor England also looks into the influences on crime, such as the impact of economic and social conditions, in a century of religious and political upheaval throughout Europe.

I do have to warn you: this book is not to be read while eating, unless you have a strong stomach. April Taylor includes descriptions of the various methods of execution, including beheading, hanging, burning and the particularly gruesome method of boiling alive!

Boiling to Death

Boiling to death was not often used in Tudor England to be fair, although it was the designated punishment for coiners on the continent. The method is self-explanatory. The offender would be put into a large container which might be filled with water, oil, molten lead, wax or sometimes wine, heated to boiling point.

The most famous victim was Richard Roose, cook to the Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher. It was established that Roose had decided to poison his master and guests by serving them pottage for dinner. Fisher was known to be abstemious and did not partake of the pottage, and nobody can blame him since it sounds less than appetising.

Pottage was a kind of thick porridge that peasants relied on for centuries as a staple food. For them, it would consist of grains and vegetables, boiled in a pot and often kept simmering for hours or days to make sure it was safe to eat. If rich households ate it, often meat or fish was added, but if you can imagine a kind of hearty soup full of heaven knows what that has been boiled to extinction, you have an idea of what pottage was like.

This case became something of a political ‘hot potato’(even though nobody had yet encountered one in 1531 in England). Sixteen of Fisher’s guests became ill, one of them, a man called Curwen, died. The rest of the poisoned pottage was given to the poor, at which point Alice Trypptt also died from eating it.

Bishop Fisher had been Margaret Beaufort’s confessor and it was he who had taught the young Henry VIII the tenets of theology. However, and here is the political bit, at the time Roose conducted his ‘jest’, thinking the powder he had put in the pottage was a laxative that would make his fellow servants ill, Bishop Fisher was a vocal opponent of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. Moreover, there were rumours that the Boleyn family had engineered the poisoning. Obviously they all liked pottage.

The Spanish ambassador, Chapuys, and Thomas More, neither of whom were sympathetic to Anne, told Henry of the rumours accusing her, to which Henry is alleged to have answered that she was blamed for everything.

Henry decided he must act with speed to make sure any such rumour was quashed and that neither his beloved’s character nor her family were sullied (a bit of a non-starter since she was already known as the ‘goggleeyed whore’ by the majority of the population who adored Katherine of Aragon).

Back to Henry. He immediately told Parliament he wanted a bill passing that any servant found guilty of poisoning or attempting to poison their master or mistress should be attainted for high treason and executed.

Henry was quite clever in some ways. Because he made the crime one of high treason, it meant there was no need for prior judicial process or a jury to determine the guilt or otherwise of the defendant. This was not to be the first time Henry dispensed justice with the tenets of common law.

While some of the more sensational and high profile cases are discussed – such as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard – April also introduces cases far less familiar to the reader. Encompassing murder, fraud, blackmail and all manner of crimes, April Taylor presents a fascinating insight into Tudor crimes, ably supported by actual – and fascinating – case studies. Theses case studies not only demonstrate the nature of crimes and their punishment, but also the changing attitudes to crime, and the shifting emphasis on punishments, from the dawn of the Tudor period to the royal dynasty’s demise in 1603.

Crime and Punishment in Tudor England also highlights various miscarriages of justice, including where officials accused innocent victims with the aim of appropriating their goods and property. There are some truly harrowing tales, such as the youngest felon executed in the Tudor era – a girl of the tender age of 11 – and the general treatment of children who fell foul of the criminal justice system. It makes you happy to be living in the 21st century!

April Taylor has managed to cram so much information into Crime and Punishment in Tudor England: From Alchemists to Zealots it really is an impressive tome. It is thorough and well referenced and is written in a lively, entertaining writing style, with a fair amount of wit thrown in for good measure.

I cannot recommend it highly enough. Crime and Punishment in Tudor England: From Alchemists to Zealots is a pleasure to read!

To buy the book:

Crime and Punishment in Tudor England: From Alchemists to Zealots by April Taylor is now available from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books.

About the author:

April Taylor was born in the historic county of Lincolnshire in the UK. Having caught the history bug from a young age, April has always been fascinated by the physical manifestation of times past in particularly the Tudor period. This interest deepened when she discovered one of the most important events of Henry VIII’s reign, the Lincolnshire Rebellion that led to the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, started eight miles from where April was born. April has always ensured her research is as meticulous as possible. During her study of the Tudors for her fictional Luke Ballard books, April was intrigued by frequent references to Henry VIII’s charisma. Choosing a career in librarianship, April honed her research skills but always leant towards the history of the area in which she lived. This led to numerous talks to schools and local groups, especially in Worcester, yet another place of historic importance in the UK. April Taylor now lives near the rugged coast of north-east England in close proximity to one of the priories that fell victim to Henry VIII’s Reformation. She frequently walks her golden retriever in local forests using that time to work through complicated plotlines. She sings in the medieval church and occupies her down-time dressmaking and cross-stitching.

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

Out now: King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Book Corner: The Tudors by Numbers by Carol Ann Lloyd

14/09/202315/09/2023Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

The Tudors by Numbers is a fresh look at a well-known dynasty ― through its numbers. Take a new look at old friends by learning the complicated path to 1 possible king symbolized by 1 rose, viewing the extraordinary 42 percent of the dynasty under the rule of 2 women, and considering the impact of 4 English language translations of the Bible printed in England. The Tudors by Numbers takes you behind the scenes through a different path and reveals new ways of seeing the Tudors.

The Tudors by Numbers: The Stories and Statistics Behind England’s Most Infamous Royal Dynasty by Carol Ann Lloyd is a new way of looking at the Tudors, giving a refreshing insight into the family and the 16th century.

When you think about ‘numbers’ as they relate to the Tudor dynasty, I am sure the first thig that comes to mind is ‘Henry VIII had six wives’ and I have to admit, that’s exactly where I went as soon as I saw the title of the book. I expected Carol Ann to dwell on Henry and his wives and, perhaps, add a few more numbers in the mix to flesh out the book. I actually thought there was not much breadth to looking at numbers with regard to the Tudors.

How wrong I was!

Carol Ann Lloyd presents the Tudors in a whole new light, looking at where numbers played a prominent role in England’s most famous dynasty.

It is illuminating!

The Tudors by Numbers: The Stories and Statistics Behind England’s Most Infamous Royal Dynasty by Carol Ann Lloyd is a fun, engaging volume that will make you look at the Tudors in a different light. Written in short, easy to absorb chapters, the author guides the reader through the the Tudor era, highlighting where numbers had a significant influence on the dynasty, not just in the number of wives of Henry VII or the number of ruling queens, and not just in the years.

Did Henry VII really end the Wars of the Roses by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and creating the Tudor dynasty?

Let’s find out. Let’s roll the numbers!

The Story of a Rose by the Numbers

The numbers tell us that the path to one single rose and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty was a long and treacherous road made up of many complications. The numbers tell us the real story of the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty. The most important number in Henry VII’s narrative is one. He based his claim and the establishment of his dynasty on there being:

•one heir to the Lancastrian claim to the throne: Henry himself

•one heir to the Yorkist claim to the throne: Elizabeth of York

•one marriage that united those two claimants

•one option for king, based on the above.

So, the question of who should be rightful king of England, which had rocked the country since 1399 when Richard II had been deposed, all came down to one man in 1485: Henry Tudor. Henry needed to tell his story. He decided to do so with red and white roses.

The white rose had a long history with Edward IV. It’s found on his manuscripts and features prominently in his genealogical roll, which was probably created to celebrate his coronation as King of England. After all, he had not inherited the throne from a royal father; instead, he had seized it from an anointed king in battle. To demonstrate the superiority of his family claim to the throne, his supporters created an elaborate genealogical roll filled with symbols to validate his divine right to the throne: three suns representing the holy trinity and white roses. Perpetuating the story that Elizabeth’s two brothers had died during the reign of Richard III, Henry recognised Elizabeth as the heir to the Yorkist claim. He seized on the white rose and passed the symbol on to Edward’s eldest daughter.

The red rose proved a trickier A few previous Lancastrians had used a gold rose, but not consistently. Henry Tudor’s Lancastrian predecessor, Henry VI, had used the antelope. Henry Tudor himself had initially used the symbol of the red dragon of Wales, associating himself with the mythical British King Cadwalladr. We don’t see any evidence of Henry using the red rose before Bosworth. But once he was king, he realised the power of symbolism and settled upon something that would allow him to put his stamp on the country forever. It was a masterstroke. The combination of the red and white rose was powerful in its simplicity and effective in its message. The king then went about carving that rose into buildings, emblazoning it on royal documents, and including it in portraits.

The Tudors by Numbers: The Stories and Statistics Behind England’s Most Infamous Royal Dynasty by Carol Ann Lloyd is a must-read for any Tudor enthusiast. All the great characters of the time are put in the spotlight, from the kings and queens to those who served them, from the likes of William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth’s right-hand man, to Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, men whose careers helped to usher in the Reformation and the foundation of the Church of England. As a consequence of which, Edward VI – that much desired male heir – was the first king of England to be crowned as the supreme head of the Church of England.

Every aspect of the Tudor dynasty is examined – and the numbers rolled. If you love the story of Mary Queen of Scots, Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon, you will find them here – presented in a new light.

Carol Ann Lloyd delves deep into the history of the time and uses her incredible knowledge of the dynasty in order to give the reader a fascinating insight into the Tudors. A study of the numbers highlights the great events of the period, from the dawn of the dynasty, through the pretenders who threatened Henry VII’s rule, Henry VIII’s obsession with having a male heir, to the great Elizabeth I and the twilight of the era.

The Tudors by Numbers: The Stories and Statistics Behind England’s Most Infamous Royal Dynasty by Carol Ann Lloyd is an enjoyable read and a valuable edition to the library of any Tudor enthusiast. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

To buy the book:

The Tudors by Numbers: The Stories and Statistics Behind England’s Most Infamous Royal Dynasty by Carol Ann Lloyd is now available on Amazon.

About the author:

Carol Ann Lloyd turned an obsession with the Tudors into a speaking and writing career. She shares her love of history with Smithsonian Associates, Royal Oak Foundation, Agecroft Hall, Folger Shakespeare Library and other organizations. She holds degrees in Literature and Education and hosts a popular podcast, British History: Royals, Rebels, and Romantics. She also offers workshops about using Shakespeare strategies to improve communication skills and is a member of National Speakers Association.

My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my��online bookshop.

Out now: King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available from Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon.

Coming 15 January 2024: Women of the Anarchy

Available for pre-order from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, of the successes and failures of one of the most powerful families in England, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org.

Podcast:

Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Cover Reveal: King John’s Right-Hand Lady

06/02/2023Sharon Bennett Connolly8 Comments

I am so excited!

It’s finally here!

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: the Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available for pre-order on Amazon in the UK (I will hopefully have a US release date shortly)

So, here is the stunning cover, designed by the fabulous cover design team at Pen & Sword.

And what a cover!

About the Book;

In a time when men fought and women stayed home, Nicholaa de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against all-comers. Not once, but three times, earning herself the ironic praise that she acted ‘manfully’. Nicholaa gained prominence in the First Baron’s War, the civil war that followed the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215.

Although recently widowed, and in her 60s, in 1217 Nicholaa endured a siege that lasted over three months, resisting the English rebel barons and their French allies. The siege ended in the battle known as the Lincoln Fair, when 70-year-old William Marshal, the Greatest Knight in Christendom, spurred on by the chivalrous need to rescue a lady in distress, came to Nicholaa’s aid.

Nicholaa de la Haye was a staunch supporter of King John, remaining loyal to the very end, even after most of his knights and barons had deserted him. A truly remarkable lady, Nicholaa was the first woman to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in its history. Nicholaa de la Haye is one woman in English history whose story needs to be told…

About me:

Sharon Bennett Connolly has been fascinated by history her whole life. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Sharon has studied history academically and just for fun – and even worked as a tour guide at historical sites. Sharon writes her own blog, http://www.historytheinterestingbits.com, researching and writing about the stories that have always fascinated, concentrating on medieval women. Her last book, Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey, was released in May 2021, is her fourth non-fiction book. It tells the story of the Warenne earls over 300 years and 8 generations. She is also the author of Heroines of the Medieval World, Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest and Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England. Sharon regularly gives talks on women’s history; she is a feature writer for All About History magazine and her TV work includes Australian Television’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

To pre-order:

King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is now available for pre-order from Amazon UK.

My Books:

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available, please get in touch by completing the contact me form.

1 family. 8 earls. 300 years of English history!

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

Book Corner: Edward I’s Regent by Michael Ray

28/10/202203/11/2022Sharon Bennett Connolly1 Comment

Born at Christmas 1249 to Richard, Edmund of Cornwall was nephew to Henry III and cousin to Edward I. His eventful childhood took him to Germany when his father was elected king there. He was captured at the battle of Lewes and imprisoned for more than a year. Returning from crusade, he witnessed the brutal murder of his half-brother, which left him as heir to his father, the richest man in the kingdom. Throughout his life, Edmund played a crucial role in medieval England. As Regent of England, Earl of Cornwall and the richest man in the land, he was a leading force of the late-thirteenth century. This book considers Edmund’s life, his use of his wealth to lend to the king and others and to be a major benefactor of religious houses. His piety saw him found two new religious houses, rebuild another and bring the Holy Blood relic from Germany to Hailes abbey. His record as Regent of England for three years is assessed. The wide spread of his lands, which included 13castles and more than 800 places in 27 counties, and his tenants are set out as is his place in the local community. The basis of his wealth and its sources, including money from his lands but also from tin mining and marine dues in Cornwall, is explored and his knightly affinity and his close associates and officials are considered. On a personal level, the book examines his unsuccessful, childless marriage with the sister of the Earl of Gloucester. Edmund was a key figure throughout Edward I’s rein and the late-thirteenth century. In this insightful account, the man behind England’s ‘greatest king’ is at long last brought to the fore.

Edward I’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, The Man Behind England’s Greatest King by Michael Ray is a fascinating study of a little-known but highly significant noble of the reign of Edward I. Edmund of Cornwall was the son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Richard was the younger son of King John and Isabelle d’Angoulême, and brother to King Henry III. The second son of Richard of Cornwall, Edmund’s mother was Sanchia of Provence, younger sister of Henry III’s queen, Eleanor of Provence. Edmund may ever have become Earl of Cornwall, had his older brother, Henry of Almain, not been murdered by Guy de Montfort, son of the famous Simon de Montfort, in a church in Viterbo, Italy, in 1271.

With such a dramatic inheritance, it is no surprise that Edmund’s life and deeds were no less dramatic.

I do like this new tendency to look away from England’s monarchs and turn the spotlight on those who served them. It gives a more rounded approach to history and historical biography and greatly illuminates the reigns of the kings who are served. It also demonstrates how much is still left to study in history and how wide and deep historians can go in order to gain a greater understanding of the rule of medieval kings. The relationship between baron and king was, more often than not, one of mutual trust and reliance. Edward I’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, The Man Behind England’s Greatest King by Michael Ray serves to demonstrate just how deep and essential this relationship was.

On 29 November and December 1272, Edmund and Bishop Giffard sent letters requiring Llywelyn to come to the Ford of Montgomery, the traditional place for meetings between the English and Welsh rulers, to render his homage to the new monarch and to send the 3,000 marks he owed to the King by Christmas at the latest. The King needed the money for his crusade. Llywelyn neither came nor paid and the impasse continued until well after the new King’s return.

Meanwhile neither Edmund, or his officials, were not always well-behaved in the land of the absentee King. In January 1273, Edmund’s men were accused of occupying lands belonging to Peter de la Mare which led to the Chancellor, Walter de Merton, ordering the escheator to remedy the position. Despite this, in June, Edmund was still being obstructive. A long-running dispute with the Bishop of Exeter led to a threat of excommunication. Even though Edmund was at the heart of government, he was pursued by the Exchequer over his father’s debts. However, this did not prevent Edmund from being amongst those ready to go to France to meet and welcome back Edward I. Edmund was granted protection until August 1273 but he was still in Paris in December when he received 2,000 marks from the King. Whilst Edward I did not finally arrive back in England until 2 August 1274, it seems likely that Edmund had already returned as he asked Robert Burnell to summon a council in March. Edmund was present at the King’s coronation on 19 August 1274.

From the start of the reign, tasks were entrusted to Edmund by the King. At the beginning of 1275 Edmund was ready to resolve a dispute with Flemish merchants but was unable to act as the Count of Flanders had not sent a representative. In March, the King stayed at two of Edmund’s manors, Cippenham and Risborough in Buckinghamshire, and it can be assumed that Edmund was present. The first of many royal charters to be witnessed by Edmund was attested at Westminster on 22 October 1274.

Edward I’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, The Man Behind England’s Greatest King by Michael Ray is an in-depth study of a man who was an integral part of Edward I’s government, but whose life and career has often been overlooked. Michael Ray expertly examines every aspect of Edmund’s life and career in great detail. With the use of chronicles and charter evidence, the author demonstrates the extent to which Edmund of Cornwall was an integral part of Edward I’s administration and court,, both as a cousin to the king, an administrator and a soldier.

Thoroughly researched and with extensive footnotes and bibliography, this is an excellent book in every way. t is a pleasure to read.

Edward I’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, The Man Behind England’s Greatest King by Michael Ray is an eminently readable book that could only be an asset to the study of medieval history and the reign of Edward I in particular. Whether you are studying medieval history for academia or simply as a hobby, this is a book which is not to be missed. I can highly recommend it.

To buy the book:

Edward I’s Regent: Edmund of Cornwall, The Man Behind England’s Greatest King by Michael Ray is available in hardback and Kindle from Pen & Sword Books and Amazon.

About the author:

After school in Shropshire, Michael Ray read geography and town planning at King’s and University Colleges, London. Retiring early from a planning career, he returned to KCL and obtained a PhD after a study of aliens in thirteenth-century England. He has since been published in books, journals and on websites including Academia.

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Alternate endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my stake what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

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Guest Post: Revolutionary Female Friends by Samantha Wilcoxson

08/10/202208/10/2022Sharon Bennett Connolly5 Comments

Today it is a pleasure to welcome Samantha Wilcoxson to History the Interesting Bits…. with an article about Mercy Otis Warren and her friend Catharine Macauley. Samantha’s new book Women of the American Revolution – her first non-fiction – provides a fabulous insight into the often-overlooked and severely underestimated women of the period. It is truly illuminating!

Revolutionary Female Friends: Mercy Otis Warren and Catharine Macaulay

Mercy Otis Warren by John Singleton Copley

In July 1784, Catharine Macaulay arrived in America where she visited Mercy Otis Warren. One wonders if those around them appreciated the historic value of this meeting between two early female historians. Catharine in England and Mercy in America had each written multiple works responding to events of the day in an era when women were not expected to discuss politics let alone write about it. Finally meeting after years of letter writing, it must have been an exciting introduction.

Catharine was outspoken and published in her own name, while Mercy’s satirical plays had been published anonymously. Boldly writing to American patriots to offer her support, Catharine initially corresponded with Mercy’s brother, James Otis Jr, who Catharine wrote was ‘the great guardian of American liberty.’

When James suffered from mental instability following a beating by British customs agents, Mercy took over the correspondence. Both women made astute observations on the evolving political situation. In 1767, Macaulay prophetically wrote that a democratic republic was the ‘only form of government….capable of preserving dominion and freedom to the people.’ The following year, Mercy foresaw that when British soldiers arrived in Boston ‘The American War may be dated from the hostile parade of this day.’

Catharine watched the Revolution from a distance, supporting the American colonies and encouraging members of parliament to consider their position and negotiate rather than losing them altogether. The opposite course was taken with British troops sent to Boston in 1768 and the Coercive Acts passed in 1774. Mercy had an insider’s view of the Revolution. Her husband, another James, served as Paymaster-General, was appointed to the Continental Congress, and sat on the Continental Navy Board. While Mercy was a patriot, she worried about her five sons ‘who must buckle on the harness. And perhaps fall a sacrifice to the manes of liberty.’

When Mercy met Catharine in person for the first time in 1784, she had lost no sons to war, though one had been severely wounded. Perhaps it was not until this meeting that the women realized how different they were. Through letters which focused on their shared political ideas and observations, they may have been convinced that they held more in common that they did.

Catharine arrived in America with a new, young husband. William Graham was twenty-one when he married the forty-seven-year-old Catharine six years earlier. Mercy, who frequently gave her sons moral lectures in her letters, would have been shocked by this relationship and the rumors that Catherine also had an affair with her brother-in-law. The values of simplicity and frugality held by Mercy were not as closely held by Catharine, who patronized the Sans Souci, a fashionable club that Mercy believed was the sort of establishment that would lead the new nation into a rapid decline.

Despite a falling out over their differences on morality, Mercy and Catharine salvaged their friendship before Catharine left America. They continued their correspondence, debating the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed US Constitution as fervently as the men in congress.

Mercy opposed the ratification of the Constitution and attempted to influence state leaders with a pamphlet titled Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions by a Columbian Patriot. She was concerned that individual rights were not established in the Constitution. While some states requested the addition of a Bill of Rights, none made their ratification dependent upon it. In a moment of frustration over the course the country was taking, Mercy wrote to Catharine in 1789, ‘we are too poor for Monarchy, too wise for Despotism, and too dissipated, selfish, and extravagant for Republicanism.’

Catharine wrote a letter to George Washington, who she had met during her year in America, congratulating him ‘on the event which placed you at the head of the American government.’ She was also not afraid to share her opinions with him warning of growing inequality between two houses of legislature and the possibility of the ‘evils of Aristocracy’ which America had thus far been ‘exempt from.’

Mercy and Catharine, through their epistolatory relationship, discussed the French Revolution, the writing of Edmund Burke, women’s rights, and any number of topics that 18th century women were not meant to discuss. Their civil discourse came to an end with Catharine’s death on 22 June 1791. Mercy finally published her History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution at age seventy-seven in 1805. She died on 19 October 1814 during the War of 1812, which solidified the independent status of the United States of America.

Sources:

The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation by Nancy Rubin Stuart https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/catharine-sawbridge-macaulay-graham-1731-1791/ https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/10/catharine-macaulay-her-final-gifts-to-america-and-france-1787-1791

To Buy the Book:

Women of the American Revolution by Samantha Wilcoxson is available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword in the UK. It is available for pre-order on Amazon in the US and is now available worldwide from Book Depository.

About the book:

Women of the American Revolution will explore the trials of war and daily life for women in the United States during the War for Independence. What challenges were caused by the division within communities as some stayed loyal to the king and others became patriots? How much choice did women have as their loyalties were assumed to be that of their husbands or fathers? The lives of women of the American Revolution will be examined through an intimate look at some significant women of the era.

Some names will be familiar, such as Martha Washington who travelled to winter camps to care for her husband and rally the troops or Abigail Adams who ran the family’s farms and raised children during John’s long absences. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton is popular for her role in Hamilton the musical, but did you know she was also an early activist working tirelessly for multiple social causes? Decide for yourself if the espionage of Agent 355 or the ride of Sybil Ludington are history or myth. Not all American women served the side of the revolutionaries. Peggy Shippen gambled on the loyalist side and paid severe consequences. From early historian Mercy Otis Warren to Dolley Madison, who defined what it means to be a US First Lady, women of the American Revolution strived to do more than they had previously thought possible during a time of hardship and civil war.

About the Author:

Samantha Wilcoxson is an author of historical fiction and administrator of a history blog. She has written four full-length novels, three novellas, and two middle grade chapter books. Topics of her writing have ranged from the Wars of the Roses to America’s Civil Rights Movement. Samantha is passionate about history and exploring the personal side of events. In her writing, she urges the reader to truly experience what it might have felt like to live through a moment in history. Samantha’s most recent novel is biographical fiction featuring Catherine Donohue, one of America’s “radium girls.” She is currently working on a novelization of the life of Nathan Hale, and features in Hauntings, an anthology published by the Historical Writers Forum.

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Book Corner: King John, Henry III and England’s Lost Civil War by John Paul Davis

01/12/202101/12/2021Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

In 1204, the great Angevin Empire created by the joining of the dynasties of Henry II of England and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was fragmenting. At its height, the family landholdings had been among the largest the world had ever seen. From the border of England and Scotland in the north to south of the Pyrenees, it seemed there was nowhere in Europe destined to escape Plantagenet control. Yet within five years of his accession, King John’s grip on the family holdings was loosening. Betrayal against his father and brother, the murder of his nephew, and breaking promises made to his supporters were just some of the accusations levelled against him. When Philip II conquered Normandy, the chroniclers believed that an ancient prophecy was fulfilled: that in this year the sword would be separated from the sceptre. For the first time since 1066, England’s rule over the ancestral land was over. For John, troubles on the continent were just the beginning of a series of challenges that would ultimately define his reign. Difficult relations with the papacy and clergy, coupled with rising dissent among his barons ensured conflict would not be limited to the continent. When John died in 1216, more than half of the country was in the hands of the dauphin of France. Never had the future of the Plantagenet dynasty looked more uncertain. As the following pages will show, throughout the first eighteen years of the reign of Henry III, the future direction of England as a political state, the identity of the ruling family and the fate of Henry II’s lost empire were still matters that could have gone either way. For the advisors of the young king, led by the influential regent, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, the effects of John’s reign would be long and severe. Successful implementation of the failed Magna Carta may have ensured his son’s short-term survival, yet living up to such promises created arguably a more significant challenge. This is the story of how the varying actions of two very different kings both threatened and created the English way of life, and ultimately put England on the path to its Lost Civil War.

What a fascinating book!

King John, Henry III and England’s Lost Civil War by John Paul Davis is a study of the often overlooked civil war that took place between the First and Second Barons’ Wars of the 13th century. Very much overshadowed by King John’s struggles against the imposition of Magna Carta in 1215 and the later rise of Simon de Montfort, who was England’s ruler in all but name in 1264/5, the Marshal War often gets sidelined or ignored. Admittedly not as disruptive or even as violent as its more famous counterparts, the Marshal War was still an important event in the reign of Henry III.

In King John, Henry III and England’s Lost Civil War, John Paul Davis takes the reader on a thorough investigation into the events and politics that caused the Marshal War. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, John Paul Davis examines the reigns of both King John and Henry III in order to explain the context and background to the short-lived rebellion of 1234 of the country’s leading magnates.

A howling gale tore through the streets of Newark on the evening of 18 October 1216. A mid-sized market town located some forty miles inland from the North Sea, it was rare for a storm to give rise to the levels of concern often felt by citizens of its coastal counterparts. Lying on both the Great North Road and the Fosse Way, the area was popular with travellers, especially cloth and wool merchants in town to sell their wares. The early twelfth-century bridge over the Trent had improved the trade links further, and by the reign of Henry II, the market had become well established. Though most of the buildings were of timber construction, even at the height of winter weather damage was often repairable.
This was not the first time the town had been forced to endure such a tempest.
Behind the sturdy stone walls of the nearby Norman castle, the abbot of Croxton had far more troubling issues to address. The south riverside fortress, though by no means immune to regular splashback, was far better prepared for nature’s challenges than the earlier motte-and-bailey that had preceded it. The same lack of worry, however, could not be said of the crisis that had brought him there. Renowned for his medicinal expertise, it didn’t take him long to realise that the patient he had been asked to treat was beyond hope of recovery. Rather than prolong the inevitable, he heard the dying man’s confession and performed the last rites. The storm was over by sunrise.
Blighted by a combination of chronic fatigue, dysentery brought about from years of poor diet and a sudden fever, King John passed away in the early hours of 19 October after more than seventeen years on the throne. His final year had been a black one for England. Accusations of betrayal against his own family and an inability to keep his allies on side had contributed in no small part to humiliating defeat on the Continent. By 1214, the loss of much of his ancestral birthright had been compounded by domestic discord. Loathed in equal measure by natural adversary and should-be follower, John’s life ended ignominiously amid a strange alliance of foreign invader and baronial rebel. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, it ended through natural causes.

There are several instances where my own research crosses with John Paul Davis’s work and it was interesting to see William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Warenne and Surrey, and the son of Hamelin and Isabel de Warenne, make an appearance; William played a prominent part in the events surrounding the rebellion. I have to say, also, that King John, Henry III and England’s Lost Civil War would be a perfect accompaniment to my own book Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England, which looks at the same years, though with the focus on the women.

The research is impeccable. John Paul Davis and I apparently agree on many aspects of the period, which is encouraging! If you have an interest in 13th century history, this is definitely a book for your library. John Paul Davis fills in many of the gaps between the First and Second Barons’ Wars, an often overlooked period of history.

Written in an engaging, accessible manner, King John, Henry III and England’s Lost Civil War, is a thoroughly entertaining study of the politics, history and personalities involved in the first third of the century, from the devastating reign of King John, through the minority of Henry III and into the early years of Henry’s personal rule.

I can heartily recommend it!

King John, Henry III and England’s Lost Civil War is now available from Amazon and Pen & Sword Books.

About the author:

John Paul Davis is the international bestselling author of eleven thriller novels and four works of historical non-fiction. His debut thriller, The Templar Agenda, was a UK top 20 bestseller; The Cortés Trilogy has also been an international bestseller. As well as being a thriller author, his debut work, Robin Hood: The Unknown Templar, has been the subject of international attention, including articles in The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post and Nottingham Evening Post, mentions in USA Today and The Independent and reviews in the Birmingham Post and Medieval History Journal. His second work, Pity for the Guy, was the first full-length biography of Guy Fawkes and was featured on ITV’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show in November 2011. His most recent work on Henry III, The Gothic King, was released in 2013. His latest work of non-fiction, A Hidden History of the Tower of London, also published by Pen & Sword, was released in February 2020. He was educated at Loughborough University and lives in Warwickshire. His websites are http://www.officiallyjpd.com and http://www.theunknowntemplar.com. Twitter: @unknown_templar.

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Guest Post: Trial by Combat – Rough Justice by Toni Mount

28/06/202128/06/2021Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

It is an absolute pleasure to welcome author and historian Toni Mount back to the blog, with an article based on her research for her latest non-fiction book, How to Survive in Medieval England. Toni has a wonderful way with words to the extent that her books – fiction and non-fiction alike – are a pure pleasure to read.

So, without further ado, it is over to Toni:

Trial by Combat – Rough Justice

My new book, How to Survive in Medieval England, published by Pen & Sword, is a guide to travelling in history: what to expect, how to dress, how to stay safe and what to look for on the menu.

If you were able to go back in time to medieval England, so much would be very different and so many things missing – all technology, from engines to the Internet. All work would be done by hand. In medieval England, the law sometimes works quite differently from the way we expect today. Trial by Ordeal was a means of deciding who was innocent and who was guilty. A suspect or the accused would be taken to a church and with a priest presiding, subjected to one of a number of horrific acts.

Trial by Fire – a priest (centre) blesses the ordeal as the accused (left) takes the red-hot iron in hand.
[Readers may note the accused wears ‘motley’ – parti-coloured cloth – a sure sign of untrustworthiness.’

A favourite was Trial by Fire. In this case, a piece of iron was heated to red-hot in a brazier and the accused had to remove the metal from the fire – by hand! His burns would be bandaged and left for a week. When inspected by the priest at the end of seven days, if they were healing well this was God’s decision and the accused was innocent. But if the burns were septic and weeping, that was also God’s doing and proved the accused was guilty because God was not on his side.

Trial by Water could be similar with the accused having to plunge his hand into a cauldron of boiling water. Or, an alternative Ordeal by Water involved throwing the accused into a pond or river, though this one always seems most unfair to me. If the accused sank and, therefore, probably drowned, he was innocent because the water, having been blessed by a priest, ‘accepted’ him. If he floated, he was guilty because the blessed water refused him. In which case, he would be hanged, so he died either way.

Another method was Trial by Combat in which the accuser and the accused fought it out with weapons. God would cause whoever was telling the truth to win the battle.

In 1249, a gang of thieves was terrorising Winchester, Salisbury and Guildford, specialising in stealing expensive clothing and shoes. The gang was often violent and, although folk in the area knew who they were, they were too scared to accuse them.

Top right corner – Walter (left) fighting Hamo (right) and Hamo (top centre) being hanged after he lost
[https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2018/09/judicial-combat-barbarous-relic-or-timeless-litigation-strategy/]

In my new book, I include some imagined interviews with real people of the time as a means of telling about true aspects or incidents in their lives. Let’s speak to Walter Blowberme, a member of this notorious gang of thieves:

‘Now Walter, you were caught in the act, I believe, and admitted your crimes. Tell us what you did.’

‘Well, see, we stoled all this valuable stuff, didn’t we? Good cloth, shoes, some jewellery and silver cups. Made a fine profit ’til I got caught, filching a gold brooch. I knewed this meant a date wi’ the hangman for me so I told the sheriff I’d be an approver.’

‘What is an approver?’

‘You don’t know? What a dim-wit. It means my life’ll be spared if I telled the court the names of ten others involved in the crimes. I didn’t want t’ do it, ’cos they was my mates but a man has t’ lookout for hisself.’

‘So you snitched on your fellows. What happened then?’

‘I named six fellows from Guildford who was all members of the gang. They was all arrested, tried and condemned. I didn’t feel too bad about them ’cos I never liked most of ’em, except Tom. It was a shame about him. But I still needed another four fellows convicted to save my own neck, so I accused three from Hampshire. They wasn’t in the gang; just fellows I knowed and didn’t like much. They was found not guilty and released so I had t’ name four others as gang members. It’s a good thing I know so many folk and don’t like none of ’em. These four was nasty bits o’ work, I can tell you, but when the sheriff tried to take ’em, three managed to escape. But because they never turned up in court, they was found guilty anyway. The fourth fellow, Hamo Stare – my sister’s husband what I never liked – was brung to trial but things was so complicated, the judge offered Hamo a trial by ordeal.’

‘I thought trial by ordeal was made illegal by the Church?’

‘Don’t ask me; I’m not the judge. Anyhow, Hamo chosed trial by combat and I, as his accuser, had to be his opponent. We had wooden clubs and shields and fighted ’til we was both bloody but Hamo gave in first. The judge declared God had gived me most strength, so I must have spoke truly against Hamo. Hamo was hanged – good riddance – and I’d managed to get ten fellows convicted, so my life was spared but I got banished from the district forever ’cos I admitted being guilty of so many crimes.’

‘But you didn’t mend your ways, Walter?’

‘Nay. Couldn’t resist some silver bits, could I? I comed t’ London and just six months later I got caught, thieving a chalice and candlesticks from St Mary-le-Bow church.’

‘And this time there is no second chance for you, is there, Walter?’

‘Nay. This time it’s the gallows for me. T’morrow. Pray for me soul, won’t you?’

Judicial tests and ordeals had been abolished at an important Lateran Council meeting, held by the pope in 1215, stating that churchmen may ‘neither pronounce nor execute a sentence of death. Nor may they act as judges in extreme criminal cases, or take part in matters connected with.’ This meant trial by ordeal no longer had God’s sanction – a priest had to be present as His representative – since it was God who determined the outcome. However, obviously, such trials must have continued for at least another thirty years.

A naughty priest in the stocks along with his mistress – churchmen’s punishments were not so bad.
[https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/monks-sex-drink-gamble-history-pope/]

Churchmen could no longer sit in judgement but neither could they be tried in a state court. They had to be tried in church courts by their fellow clerics and a death sentence could never be past, even for murder. So, in medieval England, if anyone could prove they were a man of the cloth, or a nun, then they could, literally, get away with murder. Here’s how: only trained clerics can read Latin; so if the accused can read the Bible – always in Latin – he must be a churchman. To prove a person can read, the same passage is always required to be read aloud from the Bible: ‘Oh loving and kind God, have mercy. Have pity upon my transgressions.’ (Psalm 51, Verse 1.) This meant that any forward-thinking criminal learned this verse by heart, in Latin, even if he couldn’t read a word. It saved the necks of so many miscreants, it was known as the ‘Neck-Verse’ and got a great number of very guilty people out of trouble.

Readers can find out far more about medieval lives, meet some of the characters involved and get a ‘taste’ of the food of the time in How to Survive in Medieval England, my new book from Pen & Sword, published on 30th June 2021 and available for pre-order now on Amazon.

About the book:

How to Survive in Medieval England by Toni Mount
Pen & Sword History (30 Jun. 2021)

Imagine you were transported back to Medieval England and had to start a new life – without mobile phones, ipads, or social media. When transport meant walking or, if you’re lucky, horse-back; how will you know where you are or what to do? Where will you live? What is there to eat? What shall you wear and how can you communicate? Who can you turn to if you fall ill or are mugged in the street,? All these questions and many more are answered in this new guide book. How to Survive in Medieval England is a handy self-help guide with tips and suggestions to make your visit to the Middle Ages much more fun. Learn the rules so you don’t get into trouble or show your ignorance in embarrassing
situations and read interviews with the stars of the day, from a celebrity chef to King Richard III himself. Have an exciting visit but be sure to keep this book to hand.

About the Author

Toni Mount is a history teacher and a best-selling author of historical non-fiction and fiction. She’s a member of the Richard III Society’s Research Committee, a regular speaker to groups and societies and belongs to the Crime Writers’ Association. She writes regularly for Tudor Life magazine, has written several online courses for http://www.MedievalCourses.com and created the Sebastian Foxley series of medieval murder mysteries. Toni has a First class honours degree in history, a Masters Degree in Medieval History, a Diploma in English Literature with Creative Writing, a Diploma in European Humanities and a PGCE. She lives in Kent, England with her husband and has two grown-up sons.

Web http://www.tonimount.com

Social https://www.facebook.com/toni.mount.10/ https://twitter.com/tonihistorian https://www.instagram.com/toni.mount.10/

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1 family. 8 earls. 300 years of English history!

Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey is now available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US and Book Depository.

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Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available from Pen & Sword, Amazon and from Book Depository worldwide.

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The Evolving Tudor Image: fabric as power

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Creating Books in the Sixteenth Century

What sort of books would they write?

How would they write them?

What were the new requirements of the printing press as opposed to books written by hand?

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The Kingmaker’s Women, Anne Beauchamp and Her Daughters, Isabel and Anne Neville.

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Revolutionary Female Friends: Mercy Otis Warren and Catharine Macaulay

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Trial by Combat – Rough Justice

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