All Categories - Meandering Through Time

Death of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

20/7/2020

On this day in 1398 the death of Roger Mortimer, the 4th Earl of March aged twenty-four.

Roger Mortimer was killed in a skirmish in Ireland fighting against two of the country's rebellious clans, rashly riding out alone towards the enemy he was hacked to death. Mortimer was considered heir presumptive to Richard II.

However, the Mortimer History Society writes:

"Richard II identified Roger as the heir to the throne, apparently in an attempt to thwart the claims of Henry of Lancaster (the future Henry IV). In so doing Richard was ignoring both the accepted rules of succession and the entailment of the throne drawn up by Edward III*. It filled the Mortimers with false hope. Richard never officially recognised the Mortimers as having a claim; in fact, he placed them in an inferior position to his uncles in the order of precedence, and pointedly refused to acknowledge Roger as his heir in 1394. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that Roger would be the next king if Richard died childless."

Mortimer was buried at Wigmore Abbey, which incidentally is now owned by John Challis who played Boycie in the television series Only Fools and Horses.

I wonder how different history would have been if he had lived?

St Columb Major - The Arundell Charter

19/7/2020

In 1333 Cornish born John Arundell had aided Edward III by supplying the king with troops at Battle of Halidon Hill on the 19th July of that year.

This battle was the result of Edward's support of Edward Balliol's claim to the throne of Scotland. Edward III's actions had broken the terms of the Treaty of Northampton, which he had agreed to three years earlier.

On this day in 1333 at Berwick on Tweed, for this service to the crown, John Arundell was rewarded with the granting of a charter which gave his manor of St Columb Major the right to hold a market every Thursday, also granted was the right to hold an annual fair on the ‘day and the morrow of the Feast of St Columba the Virgin.' This charter was issued at Berwick on Tweed by Edward III and signed John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, Edward III younger brother

The text of the charter reads:

Roll 7th, Edward the Third. For Sir John de Arendel, the king to the same, health.

Know ye, that we of our especial grace, have granted and, by this our charter, have confirmed to our beloved and faithful John de Arendel, that he and his heirs, for ever, may have a market every Thursday at his Manor of St Columb Magna, and a fair every year, on the eve and on the day and the morrow of St Columba the Virgin, to these being witness..........given by our hand at Berwick on Tweed, the 23rd day of July 1333 at the battle of Halidown Hill, the 19th day of July 1333.

By writ of our Privy Seal.

St Columb Major's Charter, courtesy of Denise and Phil Tremain

The growth of the Cornish market town of St Columb Major owes much to the Arundell family. Known as the Great Arundells they were a powerful and noteworthy family. You can read more about them here:

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/scoboryo-of-st-columb-major.html

William of Hatfield

8/7/2020

Born in the February of 1337 was William of Hatfield the second son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, he would only live for five months, he died on the 8th July and his body would be laid to rest in York Minster.

The golden statue or weeper of William can be seen on the tomb of his father Edward III in Westminster Abbey.

William's older brother was Edward the Black Prince, he had predeceased their father. Both his death and that of his father and brother would leave the country in the hands of various family members notably Richard II - child monarch, John of Gaunt - an ambitious and lustful protector and Henry of Bolingbroke - a murderous would-be monarch.

The seeds of the Wars of the Roses were set!

Execution of Thomas Culpepper

3/7/2020

In 1541, Catherine Howard began a physical relationship with Thomas Culpepper, her husband Henry VIII's favourite courtier. In a letter to Culpepper Catherine wrote

“praying you that you will come when my Lady Rochford is here.”

It would be their undoing.

Adultery with a queen was high treason, Thomas Culpepper was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered but the sentence was commuted to beheading. He was executed on the 10th December in 1541.

History tells us that Thomas Culpepper was born in 1514 the son of Alexander Colepeper. If this is the case then he had an older brother also called Thomas (to have a sibling of the same name is not unusual) who was born in 1501. This Thomas Colepeper was married to my 13th great-grandmother's sister and is mentioned in his father's will and other Colepeper wills.

These predates the Catherine Howard affair, it seems strange that there is no reference to the Thomas who died that day.

You can read about Thomas's and Catherine's downfall in my blog Dangerous Talk Cost Lives.

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/dangerous-talk-costs-lives

Torrance Coombs played Thomas Culpepper in the TV series The Tudors

Tamzin Merchant played Catherine Howard in the TV series The Tudors

The Gunpowder Plotters: Ambrose Rookwoode

25/6/2020

Ambrose Rookwoode was one of the Gunpowder Plotters, he was said to have been a ‘well-built and handsome, if somewhat short’, 'genial', ‘well-lettered’, and ‘very secret.

My interest in Rookwoode in particular, was as a member of the family of Stanningfield in Suffolk who were wealthy and staunchly Catholic and his wife Elizabeth Tyrwhitt's family was also a prominent Catholic family from my local area in Lincolnshire.

It was on the 8th November 1606, at precisely 11 0'clock in the morning that over two hundred men arrived at Holbeche House where seven of the plotter were holed up. The house was surrounded and the plotters fired upon, four of them killed the other two injured including Ambrose Rookwoode.

You will know the rest of this sorry tale, on the 27th January 1607, Rookwoode was taken to Westminster Hall where he pleaded guilty, three days later he was tied to a hurdle and dragged by horse from the Tower to Westminster before being hanged, drawn and quartered along with his fellow conspirators.

King John of France in Lincolnshire

25/6/2020

In 1356, under a scorched earth policy, Edward the Black Prince headed a raiding party that made its way across France, the point of which was to undermine the French King John II by attacking the population rather than the king himself. It was at Poitiers, that John eventually caught up with the marauding English prince. Following a clash of arms, the French army soon found themselves surrounded and many of the frightened French soldiers fled the field. The king, despite being dressed in the same clothing as his personal guard, was captured.

At first, he was taken to Bordeaux and then to England where he was held in various castles up and down the country. Although John was a prisoner he was afforded the privileges of a royal monarch. He purchased horses, he kept pets, he paid for his own astrologer and was able to listen to music played to him by his own band of minstrels.

One of the castles in which the French king stayed was Somerton in Lincolnshire, a large sandstone building built towards the end of the 13th century by the Bishop of Durham.

While staying at Somerton he was under the watchful eye of a member of the Deincourt family whose main residence was Blankney just a few miles away. While in 'captivity' John ordered wine from Bordeaux that came into Lincolnshire via the inland port of Boston. Also, Lincoln saw large amounts of sugar, spice and fabrics arrive at Brayford Pool that no doubt was shipped along the River Witham and transported by land to the castle.

However, all good things come to an end and it was on this day that the French king waved goodbye to the Daincourts at Somerton and left to begin his seven-day journey to the Tower of London in order to discuss the subject of his ransom.

Marriage of Richard Fizalan to Eleanor of Lancaster

25/6/2020

The Arundel Tomb can be found in the north aisle of Chichester Cathedral, on top are the effigies of Richard Fitzalan and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.

Eleanor was the great-granddaughter of Henry III and Richard Fitzalan was a wealthy and important noble during the reign of Edward III, their marriage on the 5th February in 1344 was a love match I believe. With Fitzalan, she gave birth to seven children, the second, John, was my 19th great grandfather.

Richard, Eleanor's eldest child and heir to the earldom of Arundel, claim to fame, apart from carrying the crown of England at the coronation of Richard II, was his membership of the Lords Appellant, a group of men who disagreed with Richard's rule and his reliance on favorites - Fitzalan would lose his head over it.

Thankfully, Eleanor was long gone by that time as was Richard.

The proof of the love between Eleanor and her husband defies time and lies in the request Richard Fitzalan made in his will -

"near to the tomb of Eleanor de Lancaster, my wife; and I desire that my tomb be no higher than hers, that no men at arms, horses, hearse, or other pomp, be used at my funeral, but only five torches as was about the corpse of my wife, be allowed."

Eleanor was the great-granddaughter of Henry III and my 20th great grandmother

Josephine Tey

25/6/2020

Elizabeth Macintosh, known to many a Ricardian as Josephine Tey was born on the 13th February in 1952.

An extremely private person, known to hate the press and who gave few interviews, Elizabeth Macintosh was the author of detective novels. In the 1930's Macintosh wrote under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot, however, her mysteries, including her most famous, The Daughter of Time, was published in 1951.

Six of her post war novels written under the pseudonym of Josephine Tey feature, as their main character, one Inspector Alan Grant who appears in the aforementioned The Daughter of Time. Grant is laid up in hospital with a broken leg, to keep himself occupied he reads about Richard III and decides to prove that he was innocent of the murder of the Princes in the Tower.

It was from her book Miss Pym Disposes that Tey got the idea for her novel. One of her characters, Miss Lux, a medical lecturer who dislikes the theatre calls Shakespeare's Richard III a "criminal libel on a fine man, a blatant piece of political propaganda, and an extremely silly play" it is this idea that she argued in The Daughter of Time.

The story of Richard as a murderer of innocents, states Grant is a 'very superior, first growth, dyed-in-the-wool Tonypandy,' a reference to lies and half-truths taken as correct that continues unabated and unchallenged.

A crime novel A Daughter of Time is, but it's a thought-provoking one none the less, its reasoning shouldn't be limited to Richard III's story either.

Elizabeth Macintosh's funeral took place two days before the state funeral of George VI, it was attended by her friends Dame Edith Evans and John Gielgud who played the Richard of Bordeaux in Tey's play of the same name.

Beunans Meriasek : Cornish Play

17/6/2020

In 1497, Henry Tudor, who took the crown of England from Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, began to levy taxes on the Cornish people to pay for his wars in Scotland. This lead to what history calls the Cornish Rebellion of June that year.

The rebellion began with voices of unrest in the village of St Keverne where Michael Joseph An Gof and Thomas Flamank spoke out about these taxes and what they thought the people of Cornwall should do about it. The rebellion ended on the 28th June with the execution of James Tuchet, Baron Audley who lead the rebels to London.

At that time, and written in the Cornish language was a miracle play called Beunans Meriasek, it's theme was about the struggle between good and evil. In this play, evil is represented by King Teudar.

It's likely the Cornish were using this play to criticise the king in a subtler way than that of violence.

Marriage of Jane Grey to Guildford Dudley

25/5/2020

On the 25th May 1553 the marriage of Jane Grey, the daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk and Francis Brandon and Guildford Dudley, the son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and Jane Guildford at Durham Place, Northumberland's house in London.

During the first few months of 1553, Edward VI, under the influence of the Duke of Northumberland, had made an amendment to his Devise for the Succession in which he disinherited his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth and named Jane his heir. By the May of that year and as part of his master plan Northumberland arranged the marriage of his son Guildford to Jane.

Two months later, the boy king was dead and Jane was proclaimed queen and in a surprising act of defiance refused to allow Guildford to be named king, therefore scuppering Northumberland's plans to control both Jane, Guildford and England. Soon after events took a downturn with surprising speed. By July Jane was deposed, by November she had been tried and found guilty and by the beginning of February, she was awaiting the day of her execution.

You can see the couple played here by Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes in the 1986 film Lady Jane (which I quite liked but many didn't)