Category: Love

Don't you just love love?

20/2/2016

Glaisdale village lies in the North Yorkshire National Park and within this village lies an arched stone footbridge which crosses the River Esk.

This bridge is known as Beggar's Bridge and it was built by one Thomas Ferris in 1619.

Thomas Ferris, was said to have been a poor tenant farmer who tended the lands of the rich local squire. He was in love with the squires daughter whom he hoped to marry, but without the means to support her the squire withheld his permission. Determined to marry the girl he decided the only course of action was to make his fortune and the night before he was due to set sail from the fishing port of Whitby he set off to say a sad farewell to his future bride but that night the River Esk was so swollen with rainfall he was unable to see her.

Of Ferris's adventures there is no record or how much of a fortune he made, but there was enough of a fortune to impress the squire enabling the couple to marry at last. Ferris always remembered how disappointed he was at not being able to see his love that cold rainy night that he built Beggar's Bridge so that no other lovers would be separated as they were.

If indeed Ferris built this bridge why was it not named after him or given a name that would support this story? Lovers Bridge or Fortunes Bridge would have been more fitting don't you think?

This is a lovely little tale, but a tall tale no the less, made up story to fit a pretty little bridge. Who wants to imagine a couple of poor scruffy beggar's getting in the way, what's better - two lovers stealing a kiss in the moon light.

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Enduring Love

20/5/2015

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The city of Roermont stands on the bank of the River Roer and on the east bank of the Meuse River in the Netherlands.The cities large cemetery is divided by a brick wall with separates the dead of the Catholic faith from that of the Protestant.

In the middle of the 19th century a young woman, only known as J.W.C van Gorkum married a colonel in the Dutch Cavalry. The young couple had much going against them, the young woman who was Catholic and the young man was Protestant, she was of nobility he was not. Despite this and probably going against the wishes of almost everyone they knew the couple married and lived together as man and wife for almost forty years until the colonel died.

At her death, eight years later, she wished to be with her husband in death as she was in life and ordered the monument you see below. She lies on the Catholic side of the wall, he on the Protestant holding hands over the divide.

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On Valentines Day: Four Tales of Medieval Devotion

14/2/2015

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One
The Tale of the Lovers of Teruel

In the town of Teruel in Spain, there is a story of a young couple whose love for one another is the source of legend, a romantic story of doomed love.

Isabela's and Juan's story begins at the beginning of the thirteenth century in the Spanish town of Teruel. Juan Diego was poor and Isabela’s father was rich and refused permission for them to marry, with a sad heart Juan went off to war. The tearful Isabel promised to wait for him for five years saying that she would marry no other, seeing her determination Isabela’s father agreed but when the five years were up he forced her to marry another man. That very same day Juan Diego arrived home to Teruel going straight to Isabela’s house only to find that she was married. Broken hearted Juan died where he stood and was laid to rest in the Church of San Pedro covered only in a shroud. To see her lover one last time Isabela visited the church, and raising the linen shroud from his face she kissed Juan, but as soon as their lips touched Isabela fell dead to the floor.

The names of the lovers were not known until a document entitled The History of the Lovers was found in 1619 by one Don Juan Yague de Salas, a Teruel town councillor. This document named the lovers as Isabela de Segura and Juan Diego de Marcilla who had lived in the town in 1217. Even after this find the story was considered to be a myth, the story was told and retold until two bodies were found in the Church of San Pedro that were thought to be those of the medieval lovers.

In recognition of the strength of their love the town had them buried together, and it is their tomb that you see here.

In 1998 an organization called the Foundation of the Lovers of Teruel was formed with the "aim of upholding and promoting the traditions based on the love story involving Isabel de Segura and Diego de Marcilla" and every year on Valentine’s Day, their love story is reenacted .

Two
Concocting a Medieval Love Potion

"If a woman places feathers from a capon that has hatched young chickens in her husband's ear as well as hair from the right leg of his dog and from the tip of his cat's tail, he would never forget his love for her."

1425 - 1430 The Walters Museum of Art

"The trials and games of love can be disheartening, but nothing is more rewarding than finally winning someone's affection. Here, two lovers have dispensed with the games and tenderly embrace. As they hold each other tightly, flowers and golden leaves seem to spring from their very bodies, celebrating the blossoming of love within them. Although it may seem inappropriate to pair lovers with an image of Christ's death, they may be intended to remind us of the eternal joy resulting from that event."

Three
A Love Poem

Fortunes Wheel

Ah, mercy, Fortune, have pity on me,
And think that thou hast done greatly amiss
To part asunder them which ought to be
Always one. Why hast thou done thus?
Have I offended thee? I? Nay! iwisse.
Then turn thy wheel and be my friend again,
And send me joy where I am now in pain.

And think what sorrow is the parting
Of two true hearts loving faithfully,
For parting is the most sorrowful thing,
In my opinion, that ever yet knew I.
Therefore I pray to thee right heartily
To turn thy wheel and be my friend again,
And send me joy where I am now in pain.

For, till we meet, I dare well say, for truth,
That I shall never be in ease of heart.
Wherefore I pray you to have of me some ruth,
And release me of my pains so smart,
Now, since thou know'st it is not my desert.
Then turn thy wheel and be my friend again,
And send me joy where I am now in pain.

Four
A Love Letter

Image and Text Via The British Library

This love letter that is thought to be the oldest surviving Valentine's letter in English, it is dated to 1477.
It is a letter written by Margery Brews to her fiance John Paston.

"Unto my right well-beloved Valentine John Paston, squire, be this bill delivered. Right reverent and worshipful and my right well-beloved valentine, I recommend me unto you full heartedly, desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve unto his pleasure and your hearts desire. And if it pleases you to hear of my welfare, I am not in good health of body nor of heart, nor shall I be till I hear from you. For there knows no creature what pain that I endure, And even on the pain of death I would reveal no more. And my lady my mother hath laboured the matter to my father full diligently, but she can no more get than you already know of, for which God knoweth I am full sorry. But if you love me, as I trust verily that you do, you will not leave me therefore. For even if you had not half the livelihood that you have, for to do the greatest labour that any woman alive might, I would not forsake you. And if you command me to keep me true wherever I go, indeed I will do all my might you to love and never anyone else. And if my friends say that I do amiss, they shall not stop me from doing so. My heart me bids evermore to love you truly over all earthly things. And if they be never so angry, I trust it shall be better in time coming. No more to you at this time, but the Holy Trinity have you in keeping. And I beseech you that this bill be not seen by any non earthly creature save only yourself. And this letter was written at Topcroft with full heavy heart.Be your own Margery Brews.

Margery describes John as her

"'right well-beloved valentine', she tells him she is 'not in good health of body nor of heart, nor shall I be till I hear from you.' She explains that her mother had tried to persuade her father to increase her dowry - so far unsuccessfully. However, she says, if John loves her he will marry her anyway: 'But if you love me, as I trust verily that you do, you will not leave me therefore.' There was a happy ending to the story, as the couple would eventually marry."

A Happy Valentines Day To All Lovers Everywhere

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Don't you just love love?

Enduring Love

On Valentines Day: Four Tales of Medieval Devotion

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