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Thomasine Blight, the White Witch of Helston

27/8/2015

Stories of witches and ghosts stem from the Celts believing that evil spirits came with the long hours of winter darkness, it
is at the end of October, All Hallows Eve, that these people believed the barriers between our world and the spirit world
were at their weakest and therefore spirits were most likely to be seen on earth, they built bonfires to frighten the spirits
away and feasted and danced around fires.

Cornwall has always had its tales of the supernatural, local legends of standing stones and other landscape features
suggest a history of witches, ghosts and goblins attending night meetings and after all Cornwall is the home of the
Museum of Witchcraft. In the first half of the ninetieth century our county also had its very own witch, her name was Thomasine Blight and she went by the name the White Witch of Helston. She was born Thomasine Williams in Gwennap,
near Redruth in 1793.

It is more than likely that Thomasine first applied her trade in the market town of Redruth where she would take spells
off of cursed livestock, cure the sick, remove the curses of black witches and place her own curses on those who
displeased her. Blight's husband, James Thomas, was said to possess similar powers and for a while they had a
successful partnership but there was an indiscretion on his part and he was forced to flee, no doubt with Thomasine
cursing him all the way!

In reality, Blight was probably an independent and resourceful woman who saw through superstition but used it to
her advantage.

Thomasine died the year painting below was completed, it has been said that as she lay on her death bed, people were
carried to her on stretchers and placed beside her and with one incantation they were said to have risen up and left
perfectly cured.

This wonderful painting by if Helston's White Witch is William Jones Chapman, a travelling portrait /sport painter,
and is held in the Royal Institution of Cornwall.

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The Plague Doctor

27/8/2015

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In 1665, England under it's Stuart king, was experiencing an unusually hot summer, the city was full to bursting point with too many people. Most of whom lived in squalor, the streets were full of filth and the air was foul. It was the stench in the air that was thought to be the cause of the Great Plague which arrived in the first few months of the year. By the July, the death rate was at its peak. With so many people ill, towns and cities hired what were called Plague Doctors. These men, naturally, took steps to protect themselves and the clothing or rather costume they wore is pictured here. A long beak that covered the face, was filled with scented straw and lavender and on top of this was perched a pair of thick glasses. With their think black overcoat it must have been very difficult to administer to these petrified men, women and children.

Can you imagine being so very ill and then this 'apparition' appearing at the door?

What is surprising about these doctors is that they considered that having a positive attitude helped aid recovery and therefore they encouraged people not to think of death but of happy things in a effort to comfort .....easier said than done I'd say!

In treating people, along with the usual practice of bloodletting, these doctors brought in spiders and toads to absorb the air or placed them on the infected area, they also used bottled wind and urine baths.

All of this was to no avail, the Great Plague killed over 15% of the cities population. By the February of the following year the death rate had fallen and in the September the Great Fire saw parts London go up in flames along with it the real cause of the disease the flea/rat infested slums of the city.

The following poem in reference to the plague is found in Treatise on the Plague in 1721, it gives us a good description of
the Plague Doctor.

As may be seen on picture here,
In Rome the doctors do appear,
When to their patients they are called,
In places by the plague appalled,
Their hats and cloaks, of fashion new,
Are made of oilcloth, dark of hue,
Their caps with glasses are designed,
Their bills with antidotes all lined,
That foulsome air may do no harm,
Nor cause the doctor man alarm,
The staff in hand must serve to show
Their noble trade where’er they go.

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The Great Hall at Winchester

27/8/2015

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The Great Hall at Winchester Castle was built between 1222 and 1235 by Henry III and later extended by Edward II, it is built of flint and has, inside and out, a limestone dressings to windows and doorways. The buttresses and ancient dormers are covered with finely cut masonry and the modern open timber truss roof over the nave is covered with tiles, it is certainly an impressive medieval building.

Sadly, it is all that remains of the castle that was founded within a one year of the conquest of England.

The town itself was an important royal and administrative centre and was the seat of government before London took its place. The Treasury and the Exchequer were both based here, Empress Matilda’s army was besieged by King Stephen in 1141, Henry III was born here in 1207 and Edward I and his wife, Margaret of France were nearly killed by fire in 1302.

Today's hall houses one of the greatest items of medieval legend, King Arthur's Round Table, for it bears the names of some of the knights of Arthur's court. It was probably created for a Round Table Tournament, an event that imitated what medieval kings, such as Edward I, thought went on in the court of Arthur.

The artwork we see today was commissioned by Henry VIII to celebrate the visit, in 1522, by Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor and depicts Henry sitting in Arthur's seat above a Tudor Rose.

Removed from is position high on the wall of the Great Hall in the mid 1970's, the table was carbon dated, what they found was not a sixth century piece of workmanship, but thirteenth or fourteenth century. It is now considered to have been created during the reign of Edward I for his Round Table Tournament in 1290. A study of the kings finances for that period show a tournament was held by Edward near Winchester on April 20 of that year, the table may have been made to mark the betrothal of one of his daughters.

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Medieval Women

25/8/2015

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At the re enactment of the Battle of Bosworth this weekend, I attended a talk given by author Amy Licence, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Amy spoke of the role of the queen in the medieval period, and how society viewed them, how men viewed them and how they are often placed into different categories.

Here we can see Amy talking with Philippa Gregory before her talk.

I certainly agree with what Amy said. I have found that women are, more often than not, depicted as either a virgin or a whore, but these medieval women had far more to them. It seems that prostitutes were more widely accepted in medieval times and nuns weren't always as saintly as we are lead to believe.

In between the two categories can be found very strong women, the other queens Amy didn't have time to mention, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor, for instance went on Crusade where she led an army of ladies dressed in armour and Isabella of France who took up arms against the weak rule of her husband Edward II, scholars such as Felicie de Almania who spoke of the need of women doctors to treat women patients and who continued to practice medicine without a licence.

I was going to ask Amy, about Catherine of Valois, but couldn't pluck up the courage, and her alleged 'affair' with Edmund Beaufort and if she thought that Edmund Tudor might be his child? Catherine is often referred to as rather amorous or 'over sexed,' a derogatory term often thrown at women, which, it seems, is okay behaviour if you're a male!

One of the saddest things I've read about Catherine was written by Samuel Pepys in his diary in 1660.

‘by perticular favour’ took Catherine's body into his hands and planted a kiss on her mouth, ‘reflecting upon it that I did kiss a Queen, and that this was my birthday’

Sadly, Catherine's remains were still left unburied and available to view at Westminster until 1793! It was not until the late 19th century that it was removed to Henry V's chantry.

How awful is that?

The image above is Catherine of Valois's funeral effigy.

Amy's website is linked here http://amylicence.weebly.com/

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Tudor Livery Collars: Valuers don't know their Esses from their Elbows.

21/8/2015

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Edward Montagu, was Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and a member of Henry VIII's Privy Council. In 1546/7 Henry VIII presented Montagu with what has come to be known as the Coleridge Collar.

" a 20½oz gold judicial chain of office made up of 27 S-links interspersed with 26 knot-links, with an unenamelled Tudor rose flanked by portcullises at its centre"

The Coleridge family, who owned the collar until 2006 stated that they thought that King Henry VII had given the collar to the first Chief Justice of the Common Pleas during his reign between 1485 and 1509 and that Henry VIII gifted Montagu the chain when he took up his role as Lord Chief Justice.

Henry is thought to have given at least twenty such collars to loyal subject for 'special deeds.'

Lord Coleridge, fifth Baron of Ottery St Mary, whose family have owned the collar since it was given to John, Duke Coleridge, who served as the first Lord Chief Justice of England from 1880 until 1894 was being sold to help with family finances.

In 2006 Sotheby's auction house informed Lord Coleridge that the chain was a 17th century copy and on that basis it was put up for sale, eventually reaching the final selling price of £35,000. Two year later Lord Coleridge discovered that his family heirloom had been identified as the Tudor original and resold at Christie's for £300,000 and described as a

"fascinating piece of history, both as a work of art and also as a rare Tudor relic".

A case was brought by Lord Coleridge, who sought damages based on the difference between Sotheby's valuation and the later auction price. Coleridge, argued the London auction house should have advised him that the “Coleridge Collar” was worth more than a quarter of a million pounds, but Sotheby’s disagreed and fought Lord Coleridge’s damages claim in the High Court in London, the cost of which came to £1 million pounds.

Lord Coleridge lost his case, it was judged that the Sotheby’s expert made a

'“reasonable” decision when she said an aristocrat’s gold chain was worth £35,000 three years before it sold for £260,000"'

That is one hell of a difference!

What I find worrying about this is that two experts can look at the exact same object and come to two different conclusions.
That is fine if you are looking at something from a purely historical point of view, but it is certainly not alright when it comes to authenticating a piece or when the item is someone's property that is up for auction.

Apart from the families financial loss, it calls into question the historical expertise of valuers, surely in this case someone
got it wrong?

These collars have their origins in the insignia of a medieval house and were used as a mark of fealty, the Yorkist collar for instance used suns and roses, the lion of March and Richard III's white boar as a pendant. The Collar of Esses, brought into use by Henry VIII, has a portcullis or a Tudor Rose hanging from it, a fine example of this judicial chain of office can be seen being worn Sir Thomas More in Rowland Lockey painting seen below.

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Matthew Parker, The Duke of Wellington and the Great Exhibition

10/8/2015

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What do they all have in Common?

Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury was born on 6th August in 1504.

Parker served as chaplain to Anne Boleyn, was involved in implementing the Thirty Nine Articles, a set of doctrines within the Church of England, he was also an avid book collector, salvaging medieval manuscripts that were set to be destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries. His efforts meant he left us a priceless collection of manuscripts that are now housed at the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

But did you know that Matthew Parker was the first 'Nosey Parker'?

A nosey parker as you will all know, means someone who pokes their nose into other peoples business. Allegedly, people thought Parker was far too inquisitive about church matters for his own good, they also thought he had rather a long nose.

Here's the man himself. His nose looks okay to me.

The term itself, sticking your nose into other people’s affairs, can be dated back the the late 1880's. Before then, anyone called nosey was just somebody with a big nose, like the Duke of Wellington, who had the nickname Old Nosey.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation of the statement was

“You’re a askin’ too many questions for me, there’s too much of Mr. Nosey Parker about you.”

My favourite has to be the 1907 'Adventures of Mr Nosey Parker' a set of postcards illustrating the antic's of a gentleman who never minded his own business.

Nosey Parker's origins may spring from the 1851 at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park where a very large numbers of people attended the exhibition, so there would have been lots of opportunities for peeping Toms and eavesdroppers in the grounds.

Interestingly the word Parker is a medieval term, being used for an official in charge of a park, a park-keeper.

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Thomasine Blight, the White Witch of Helston

The Plague Doctor

The Great Hall at Winchester

Medieval Women

Tudor Livery Collars: Valuers don't know their Esses from their Elbows.

Matthew Parker, The Duke of Wellington and the Great Exhibition

What do they all have in Common?

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