Later following the Reformation the kings head was buried St Michael’s Wood Street in Cripplegate.
From the story that his body was unrecognisable, comes the legend that he may have survived.
On the 9th September 1513, King James IV of Scotland was killed whilst leading his troops in the Battle of Flodden. James, the husband of Margaret Tudor, is said to have been fearless on the field of battle, lost his life in a bombardment of arrows and the sharp points of the enemy pikes. A gruesome looking corpse thought to be that of the kings was taken from the battlefield to Berwick and then to London where it lay for many years unburied at Sheen Priory.
Later following the Reformation the kings head was buried St Michael’s Wood Street in Cripplegate. From the story that his body was unrecognisable, comes the legend that he may have survived.
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One of Cornwall's famous sons, Sir Humphry Davy was born in Penzance on the 7th December 1778. Davy was later educated in the Cornwall's county town of Truro and this was followed by an apprenticeship to a Penzance surgeon. In 1797, Davy took up chemistry and was taken on as an assistant at the Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. It was here he experimented with various new gases by inhaling them which nearly cost him his life on more than one occasion, eventually though, this experimentation led to the discovery of the anesthetic effect of what we know as laughing gas. In 1815, George Stephenson, from Newcastle, claimed he was the inventor of a safety lamp for the use in coal mines but it is Davy who is credited with the invention presented to the Royal Society on 3 November 1815,
This lamp allowed coal to be mined from deep coal seams reducing the dangers of explosions from methane gas. The lamp, consisted of a wick with the flame enclosed inside a mesh screen, Davy discovered that if the mesh was fine enough, it would not ignite the methane. Sir Humphry Davy died in Geneva, Switzerland, on 29 May 1829 King Richard I was crowned this day at Westminster Abbey in 1189. The Bodleian Library in Oxford holds an account of the coronation that gives the names of those who were in attendance and a description of the event. In the account, the chronicler records Richard as the Duke of Normandy and writes how he lead the procession with
"triumphal chanting." Richard took the oath and then anointed himself, taking the crown from the alter on which it sat. According to the chronicler, the crown was so heavy that two earls helped support it above the kings head. Interestingly, during the ceremony a bat flew around Richard's head and a strange pealing of bells could be heard an 'evil omen' writes the chronicler. It is easy with hind sight to say that the recorder of the coronation was correct in his assumption, as it turned out he was. Richard I was a selfish and cruel king and a favourite of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. He only spent six months of his ten year reign in England claiming it was "cold and always raining" He bankrupted the treasury to fund his hobby........crusading. He famously said "I would sell London itself if only I could find a rich enough buyer." Richard's brother, later King John, was left to pick up the pieces. Could you run a country effectively with an empty treasury? John, was not perfect by any means, he was seen as the evil villain, a view which continues to this day. Richard however still remains an iconic figure. A hero king? A good king? I think not! King Richard I was a rebellious young man who had frequently challenged his fathers authority and had continuously been a thorn in his side. At the age of sixteen, Richard joined both his brothers, Henry and Geoffrey, in a revolt against their father whom they sought to dethrone. At an early age he showed significant political and military ability, becoming noted for his chivalry and courage, along with his physical presence, he was said to be very attractive; with hair that was between red and blond, light blue eyes and a pale complexion, these facts secured his popularity with the masses. He was also a vicious and cruel man. When crowned King of England, he barred all Jews and women from the coronation ceremony, some Jewish leaders nevertheless arrived to present gifts for the new king. On his orders Richard's courtiers stripped and flogged the Jews, then flung them out. When a rumour spread that Richard had ordered all Jews to be killed, the people of London began a massacre. Many Jews were beaten to death, robbed and burned alive, many Jewish homes were burned down, and several Jews were forcibly baptised, some sought sanctuary in the Tower of London others managed to escape. Baldwin of Exeter the Archbishop of Canterbury reacted by replying "If the King is not God's man, he had better be the devil's” Richard soon realised that his actions could destabilise his realm, on the eve of his departure on crusade, Richard ordered the execution of those responsible for the murders and persecutions. Those who were hanged were not his henchmen, but rioters who had accidentally burned down Christian homes, and to make sure that people took him serious in his actions he issued a royal writ demanding that the Jews be left alone. Not surprisingly this was not taken seriously, the following March there was further violence, including a massacre at York. Richard swore an oath to renounce his past wickedness in order to show himself worthy to take the cross. He started to raise and equip a new crusader army. He spent most of his father's treasury, raised taxes and sold official positions and lands to those interested in them. Even those already appointed were forced to pay huge sums to retain their posts including the Bishop of Ely who bid £3,000. William Longchamp coughed up an equal amount to remain as Chancellor. Instead of leaving his younger brother John in control of England in his absence he appointed as regents Hugh, Bishop of Durham and William de Mandeville who soon died and was replaced by William Longchamp. It comes a no surprise then, that John was not satisfied by this decision and attempted to overthrow Longchamp, John was more popular than Longchamp in London, and in October 1191 the city opened the gates to him while Longchamp was confined in the tower. John promised the city the right to govern itself in return for recognition as Richard's heir presumptive. Some were in support of John as Richard only spent six months of his reign in England and emptied the kingdom's coffers to pay for his crusade. According to William Stubbs in The Constitutional History of England “ He was a bad king: his great exploits, his military skill, his splendour and extravagance, his poetical tastes, his adventurous spirit, do not serve to cloak his entire want of sympathy, or even consideration, for his people. He was no Englishman, but it does not follow that he gave to Normandy, Anjou, or Aquitaine the love or care that he denied to his kingdom. His ambition was that of a mere warrior: he would fight for anything whatever, but he would sell everything that was worth fighting for.The glory that he sought was that of victory rather than conquest. ” Richard said of England it is "cold and always raining," and when it came to raising funds for his Crusade, he was said to declare,"I would have sold London if I could find a buyer." But what we should remember is that to the king, his nobles and royal household, England was just a part of the vast estate they governed, Richard felt more French than English and therefore put the people of this land second. The Plantagenet kings before the 14th century had no need to learn the English, a language of a people they really new nothing about. Although England was a major part of his territories Richard faced no major internal or external threats during his reign, it was his French territories where he felt that he was needed. He left England in the hands of various officials, including, at times his mother. This meant that Richard was far more concerned with his more extensive French lands and he either did not know or care that the people of England were being subjected to the greed of feudal barons, contemptuous sheriffs and as history puts it the ’wicked and cowardly John’. John was no hero he was untrusting and he too was selfish but he took it upon himself to take control of a country that might have easily fallen into the hands of unscrupulous barons. Of course, that's another story. Richard I's life is viewed by his exploits whist on crusade where a great piece of medieval PR by Richard de Templo, makes the king sound like some sort of superman. "King Richard pursued the Turks with singular ferocity, fell upon them and scattered them across the ground. No one escaped when his sword made contact with them; wherever he went his brandished sword cleared a wide path on all sides. Continuing his advance with untiring sword strokes, he cut down that unspeakable race as if he were reaping the harvest with a sickle, so that the corpses of Turks he had killed covered the ground everywhere for the space of half a mile." But just as Aeschylus wrote in 458 BC "By the sword you did your work, and by the sword you die." Richard I died when he was struck down when suppressing a revolt in Limousin in France in 1199. In the March he had arrived at Chalus Chabrol Castle, it was while Richard was walking the castle's perimeter that he was struck by a crossbow bolt in the left shoulder just below his neck, fired by an archer named Pierre Basile. An attempt was made to remove the bolt but "extracted the wood only, while the iron remained in the flesh... but after this butcher had carelessly mangled the King's arm in every part, he at last extracted the arrow." Richard's wound soon became gangrenous and he died on the 6th of April 1199. One can picture the scene, a golden light shining through the castle window, the king in the arms of his mother, his blooded three lion tabard placed over a chair, he heroically gestures towards the door as his pardoned enemy walks away clutching a bag of gold. The last breath of a king drowned in the wailing of his mother. The story, that from his death bed Richard pardoned the man who fired the bolt looks like a public relations stunt to me,
what better way to reinforce the idea that Richard was the magnificent king his subjects always thought he was. My problem with this story is, how did anyone know exactly who fired that fatal crossbow bolt from out of the many armed men at ground level, the truth is of course, they probably did not. How Pierre Basile arrived at the kings beside goes unrecorded, but it is said that he was paid handsomely and sent on his way, only the very next day the poor man was flayed alive. Richard may well have ordered the death of this unfortunate archer, a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time, if he did then it was an act of vengeance, after all Richard had made grand gestures before only to go back on them later, however I believe we should look to Richard's mother, the fiery strong willed Eleanor, his most ardent supporter, as the person who ordered this man death. As was the norm Richard's heart was taken to Rouen and the rest of his body to Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou and while his mortal remains turned to dust his reputation as a handsome and mighty crusading king is as solid today as it was then. Just two weeks after the Battle of Sedgemoor, Lady Alice Lisle, whose husband had played an important part in the execution of Charles I, gave shelter to Richard Nelthorpe and John Hicks, two supporters of the Duke of Monmouth at her home of Moyles Court in Hampshire. The following day Nelthorpe and Hicks were discovered and arrested as was Alice Lisle. Alice was charged with harbouring traitors and sentenced to death by Judge Jeffrey's, the notorious 'Hanging Judge.' Jeffrey, who has gone down in history as a hard, bitter and vengeful man, replied when he was questioned about Alice's sentence, that he would have found her guilty "even if she had been my own mother" A hard man indeed. Alice was sentenced to be burnt at the stake, however because of her rank James II ordered it changed to beheading, she was executed on the 2nd September 1685, she was 78 years old.
Sitting with his astrological charts and book of symbols is seventeenth century astrologer William Lilly. Lilly was the author of such works as Christian Astrology, The Prophecy of the White King and Monarchy or No Monarchy.
These books contained predictions that made him famous and very wealthy. Lilly had begun to study astrology in 1632 when he was aged thirty, stating that his interest in the subject was "whether there was any verity in the art or not." Leicestershire born, Lilly attended Ashby de la Zouch grammar school taking easily to English and Latin which later enabled him to study classical astrology. His ambitions to attend university followed by a life in the church was put on hold when his father had money troubles, but within a year he had left his home county for London. Lilly began charting significant events that took place between Charles I and Parliament, convinced that the movements of the stars influenced the decisions made, and in 1644 he published Merlinus Anglicus Junior. By 1659, Lilly's work was popular reading and his annual almanac sold around 30,000 copies a year. His predictions of specific events eventually got him into trouble. It was in the aforementioned Monarchy or No Monarchy that he predicted the Great Plague and the Fire of London, which later he was accused of starting it to prove his point! In defense of this he said "I conclude that it was the finger of God only; but what instruments he used thereunto I am ignorant." Later in his career he was ridiculed by the likes of Samuel Pepys, he was forced to retire to his home in Surrey where he used his skills in the practice of medicine. William Lilly died in 1681. |
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After ten years in the workplace I became a mother to three very beautiful daughters, I was fortunate enough to have been able to stay at home and spend my time with them as they grew into the young women they are now. I am still in the position of being able to be at home and pursue all the interests I have previously mentioned. We live in a beautiful Victorian spa town with wooded walks for the dog, lovely shops and a host of lovely people, what more could I ask for.
All works © Andrea Povey 2014. Please do not reproduce without the expressed written consent of Andrea Povey. |