All Categories - Meandering Through Time

Joan, Countess of Toulouse

4/10/2019

The first week of October 1165 is thought to be the date of birth of Joan, Countess of Toulouse, the third daughter and seventh child of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

In 1176, a Sicilian ambassador, who was in England to discuss Joan's marriage to William II of Sicily, wrote that he found the eleven-year-old princess to be a beauty. The image below is taken from a genealogical roll of the kings of England, it certainly shows she was a pretty girl.

William of Sicily and Joan were married in 1177 in Palermo, their marriage lasted twelve years until his death in 1189. There were no children born of the marriage.

History tells us that Joan and her brother, King Richard I had a close relationship, but this did not stop her being angered by his suggestion that she marry a brother of Saladin, the leader of the Islamic forces during the Crusades. However, negotiations came to nothing and Joan married Raymond, Count of Toulouse, in 1196.

It has been written of Joan that she was 'a woman whose masculine spirit overcame the weakness of her sex' a reference maybe to her heading a force during a siege of a castle while her husband was elsewhere. It is also claimed that showed that she was made of stronger stuff when she avenged her brother's death by having the man who killed him blinded and then flayed alive. However, this story if it be true at all has been linked to their mother, or to Marcadier, a general in the king's army.

In her marriage to Raymond of Toulouse, Joan gave birth to two children, Raymond in 1197 and a child in 1199, however, within a few weeks of the birth Joan was dead.

As a mark of her devotion, she was buried at her brother's side at Fontevraud Abbey.

Anthony Babington

20/9/2019

On 19th of September 1589, Anthony Babington, a one time page in the household of George Talbot, wrote to Queen Elizabeth begging her for mercy despite the fact that he and his fellow conspirators had attempted to assassinate her and place her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne.

When his plea fell on death ears he offered to pay for his release. All this was to no avail, and it was on this day that Babington was drawn on a hurdle from Tower Hill to St Giles in the Fields where he was to suffer the barbaric execution of hanging and quartering.

In the plot that now bears his name should we consider Babington as naive, an idealistic a young man caught in the slip-stream of insurrection and dazzled by the thought of the rewards that would be lavished upon him when the deed was done or did he enter into this dangerous game with malice aforethought? Either way, Anthony Babington had been approached by John Ballard, a Catholic priest, who told him that the plot was supported by Spain, but what Babington didn't know was that Elizabeth's spymaster had already uncovered the plot.

The Death of Amy Robsart

8/9/2019

Victorian artist Edward Matthew Ward is famous for his English Civil War paintings, my favourite being The Concealment of the Fugitive by Alice Lisle, whose execution, I have written about before. His 1866 work 'Leicester and Amy Robsart at Cumnor Hall' covers an earlier time, depicting the relationship between Robert Dudley and his wife Amy Robsart. Ward takes his inspiration from Walter Scott's book Kenilworth.

Amy, as you can see, is depicted as a tragic, romantic heroine, whose true cause of death, on the 8th September in 1560, has never come to light.

Amy Robsart, as you will know was the wife of Elizabethan courtier Robert Dudley who sent away her servants from her house at Cumnor Place in Oxford, was later found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and two wounds on her head. The coroner found that she had died from a fall downstairs; the verdict was 'misfortune' therefore an accidental death. History has looked at Amy's death three ways, she died as a result of an accident, she took her own life or she was murdered. The letter, dated the 24th August 1560 you see in the image below was written by Amy to her tailor in London which reads

'Edney, with my hearty commendations this shall be to desire you to take the pains for me as to make this gown of velvet which I send you with such a collar as you made my russet taffeta gown you sent me last, & I will see you discharged for all. I pray you let it be done with as much speed as you can & sent by … the carrier of Oxford, & thus I bid you most heartily farewell from Cumnor this 24th of August.'

Your assured friend,
Amye Duddley

Amy Robsart was dead fourteen days later, did she plan to take her own life, ordering a new dress as she does in the letter you could argue suggests not.

Is Amy's story been turned into a melodrama, but was there more to it than meets the eye?

Birth of Elizabeth I

8/9/2019

Anne Boleyn may have died on the scaffold, blamed by Henry VIII for failing to produce the male heir he wanted and what, everyone thought, the country needed.

How wrong they all were. Anne did succeed, she gave birth to one of our country greatest monarchs, Elizabeth I, born this day in 1533.

Elizabeth arrived at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, but the birth of a daughter was not what the Tudor dynasty needed or what it was expecting, and this can be seen clearly in the announcement of Elizabeth's birth.

The letter had already been written (as seen in the one that survives addressed to Lord Cobham) and on Elizabeth's birth, the word prince had had the letter S added.

"Right trustie and welbiloved, we grete you well. And where as it hath pleased the goodnes of Almightie God, of his infynite marcie and grace, to sende unto us, at this tyme, good spede, in the delyveraunce and bringing furthe of a Princes, to the great joye, rejoyce, and inward comforte of my Lorde, us, and all his good and loving subjectes of this his realme....."

Not the male heir Henry desired but Elizabeth turned out to be spirited, feisty and intelligent and showed all the signs of the great queen she would later be.

As Elizabeth grew into a young woman she came to understand the power struggle behind the throne, and by the time old age had crept up on her, she knew all too well the personal cost of kingship.

The Loch Ness Monster

22/8/2019

It was in the year 565 that the first sighting of the legendary Loch Ness monster was recorded.

The story of the Loch Ness monster appears in the biography of St Columba written by Adamnan, an abbot of the monastery on Iona. The text refers to "aquatilis bestiae" or water beast. This account is one of the many tales of miracles performed by this 6th-century saint.

Adamnan's account has Columba looking for a way to cross the River Ness, he writes that Columba spotted a boat moored on the opposite bank and ordered his travelling companion to swim across the river to fetch it.

While waiting he notices a tribe of Picts burying a man they say had been attacked and killed by a huge 'water beast' whilst swimming river. Columba proceeds to raise the man from the dead by placing his cross on his chest. Shortly after performing this miracle Columba and the gathering crowd watch as the great water beast rises from the depths, attracted to the surface by the splashing of the aforementioned swimming monk. Columba, writes Adamnan, invokes the powers of the almighty and brandishing his trusty cross frightens monsters who quickly swims away. Astonished by what they have just witnessed the heathen Scottish tribe of Picts fall to their knees and are converted to Christianity on the spot and are baptised in the river before the last ripple, caused by the fleeing beast, has disappeared from the water.

I can imagine Nessie swimming from the River Ness into the Loch shouting the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator "I'll be back!" and true to his word he was back nearly one thousand years later. The so-called Loch Ness Monster appears for the second time as part of the story of one Fraser of Glenvackie who is said to have slaughtered the last Scottish dragon. This story, written in 1520, states that the dragon was slain but it also states that the creature of Loch Ness had been 'lately seen.'

Lionel of Antwerp and Elizabeth de Burgh

15/8/2019

Lionel of Antwerp, the third son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault had been betrothed as a child to Elizabeth de Burgh, the only daughter of William de Burgh Earl of Ulster and Maud of Lancaster.

The marriage took place on the 13th of August in 1352.

In 1333 on the murder of her father Elizabeth became the sole heir to all the family lands in Ireland. As a baby, she was taken to England leaving the control of the Burgh lands to be fought over by the heads of three different branches of the extended family.
Lionel and Elizabeth's marriage lasted eleven years and produced one child a daughter who they named Phillipa. The marriage ended with Elizabeth's death at the age of thirty-one in 1363. It would be the through Phillipa that the Yorkist would make its claim to the throne of England.

He married secondly Violante, the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Pavia five years later. Lionel would not survive their wedding day!

There is a tiny bit more on this subject here

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-bites/a-cold-case

Battle of Tettenhall

5/8/2019

In 910 a large Viking army raided England's shores, they were defeated by an allied army from Mercia and Wessex under the leadership of Aethelflaed and her brother Edward, the children of Alfred the Great.

On the 5th of August, the Battle of Tettenhall, in modern-day Wolverhampton, would be the last major Norse invasion of England.

Aethelflaed's husband was Athelred, King of Mercia, it was on his death in 911 that Aethelflaed took the title of "Lady of the Mercians." Her succession has been described as the 'only case of a female ruler of a kingdom in Anglo-Saxon history' and 'one of the most unique events in early medieval history.'

Some twenty years earlier Aethelflaed had founded an abbey in Gloucester not too far from the original 7th century St Peter's Abbey. In 909, following a Saxon and Mercian raid into Lindsey, a Danish territory, they seized the remains of Saint Oswald. This relic had rested at Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire since 642, it was taken to St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester were Aethelflaed renamed it St Oswald’s Priory.

Following the Battle of Maserfield, also on the 5th August, St Oswald's remains arrived in Bardney in Lincolnshire, you can read how the abbey's monks refused them entry here.

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/battle-of-maserfield-and-the-death-of-oswald-of-northumbria

The Reverend William Spooner

22/7/2019

The 22nd of July 1844 is the date of birth of the Reverend William Archibald Spooner the son of William and Jane Lydia Spooner. Despite having a varied and successful academic career sadly he is only remembered for his 'Spoonerisms.'

William Spooner has been described as an "albino, small, with a pink face, poor eyesight and a head too large for his body with a reputation that was of a genial, kindly, and hospitable man" Quite naturally he disliked the fact that he was seen as an absent-minded professor. He was far from that, Spooner was ordained as a deacon and a priest and lectured in ancient history, divinity and philosophy at New College Oxford

The act of getting one's words mixed up is sometimes known as a Marrowsky, a term taken from the name of a Polish count who was prone to mixing up his words. However, it is more commonly known as a Spoonerism because the Reverend Spooner also confused his words.

In reality, Spooner is known to have actually uttered only two phrases incorrectly

"The weight of rages (rate of wages) will press hard upon the employer" and announcing the hymn Conquering Kings Their Titles Take as "Kinkering Kongs Their Titles Take"

Many of the other Spoonerisms were probably made up by his young students for a laugh but I wonder how funny he found it? Speaking as someone who suffers from mixing up the written word, who has trouble getting across exactly what they mean and is sometimes ridiculed for it, I really do feel for him.

Death of William Montague

3/6/2019

On the 3rd of June in 1397 occurred the death of William Montague, 2nd Earl of Salisbury.

Montague is remembered as a soldier, seeing action under Edward III during the hundred years war. He was a founder member of The Order of the Garter.

He is often remembered for his marriage to Joan of Kent which was annulled by Pope Clement VI when it came to light that Joan had married Thomas Holland secretly and without permission. Despite this Joan and William are said to have remained close and he became a loyal supporter of Richard, later Richard II, Joan's son by Edward, the Black Prince.

Montague's marriage to Elizabeth Mohun resulted in at least one child, his son, also named William. William would die in an accident in a tournament in 1382 leaving no heir and when William himself died fifteen years later the Earldom of Salisbury was inherited by his nephew, John Montague. In his later years, Montague was preoccupied with litigation spending much of his time fighting for his inheritance and land.

Bisham Priory (The burial of the Earl of Warwick)

He was buried in Montague Priory in the village of Bisham in Somerset.

Arthur of Brittany

29/3/2019

On the 29th March 1187 the birth of Arthur, Duke of Brittany in Nantes in France to Geoffrey, son of Henry II, and his wife Constance.

Arthur's paternal uncle King Richard I had no children and before setting off on his most favourite pastime - the Crusades he named the boy heir to his English throne. However, in 1199 when Arthur was twelve Richard had a change of heart and made his last remaining brother John heir. Quite a sensible thing to do as a country with a minor on the throne is nothing but trouble.
Richard was dead by the end of March 1199 and despite his estate being in order, there was trouble anyway.

The barons of England supported Arthur - of course, they did !

England's hero the great William Marshall and John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine stood on John's side.

The story goes that King John ordered his nephew's death and claimed the throne for himself. By the beginning of 1200, the boy had gone missing never to be seen again.

It is interesting don't you think that the story of Arthur shows similarities to the disappearance of Princes in the Tower two-hundred years later?

Heir’s to the throne go missing, their wicked uncle does the dirty deed and then the bodies are lost forever.