Meandering Through Time
  • Home
  • My Family Stories
    • Bustaine of Braunton: Introduction
    • Hunt of Barnstaple Introduction >
      • Christopher Hunt >
        • Edward Hunt >
          • Richard Hunt >
            • Richard Hunt
            • Mary Hunt
    • Lakeman of Mevagissey >
      • Peter Lakeman c1698-1740
    • Meavy Introduction >
      • 6th to 9th Century Meavy >
        • Meavy Pre Conquest >
          • 1066 and Life in Domesday England >
            • Domesday and 13th Century Charters >
              • The Anarchy >
                • Walter, Wido and William Meavy >
                  • The Beginnings of a New Era
    • Mitchell of Crantock: An Introduction >
      • William Mitchell of Crantock >
        • Samuel Mitchell of Crantock >
          • Edith Mitchell >
            • Epilogue: Lescliston Farm
    • Mohun of Dunster: Introduction >
      • William Mohun c1050 - c1111 >
        • William Mohun c1100 - c1143 >
          • William Mohun - 1176 >
            • William - 1193 >
              • Reynold Mohun c1183 - 1213
              • Reynold Mohun c1210 -1257 >
                • Alice Mohun
    • Purches of Hampshire and Cornwall >
      • Samuel Purches 1733 - 1804 >
        • Samuel Purches 1766 - >
          • William Samuel Purches 1803 - 1861 >
            • Henry James Purches
    • Scoboryo of St Columb Major >
      • James and Joan Scoboryo 1640 - 1686
    • Thomas Vaughan: An Introduction >
      • Chapter One: Monmouthshire, Wales.
      • Chapter Two: The Beaufort Patronage
      • ​Chapter Three: Out With the Old
      • Chapter Four: Kentish Connections and Opportunities >
        • Chapter Five: Getting Personal
        • Chapter Six: ​The Children of Thomas Vaughan
        • Chapter Seven: Moving on
        • ​Chapter Eight: At Ludlow
        • Chapter Nine: The Arrest
        • Chapter Ten: Three Castles
        • Chapter Eleven: The Beginning of the End
        • Chapter Twelve: A Death Deserved ?
    • Smith of Barkby Introduction >
      • Susanna Smith
    • Taylor Introduction >
      • Joseph Taylor >
        • John Henry Taylor
    • Tosny of Normandy >
      • Godehute de Tosny
    • Toon of Leicestershire: Introduction >
      • John Toon 1799 -
      • Thomas Toon 1827 - 1874
    • Underwood of Coleorton Introduction
  • Other Families
  • History Blog
  • Wars of the Roses Blog
  • The Ancestors
  • A to E
  • F to J
  • K to O
  • P to T
  • U to Z
  • Hendley of Coursehorne Kent
    • 5th to 12th Century Hendleys >
      • Gervais Hendley 1302 - c1344 >
        • Thomas Hendley >
          • Grevais Hendley c 1471 - 1534 >
            • Walter Hendley >
              • Elizabeth Hendley >
                • Ellen Hendley 1521- 1560 >
                  • Anne Hendley 1523 - >
                    • Other Hendleys
  • Pigott Family of Whaddon Buckinghamshire
  • Links
  • Contact

 Medieval Parental Love

25/9/2016

0 Comments

 
The love that we give our children is unconditional and unchanging, it has no bounds, this love creates for them a foundation on which to build their own lives. The path that a modern child takes is, on the whole, that of its own choosing, and when those steps are eventually taken our children know that they have been, and still are, loved. 
Picture
The path that the medieval child took was one that was forced on them by their parents, often for the benefit of that families
 wealth and status. As soon as they could pick up a sword, sons were dispatched to learn the art of war, and the female child, who was betrothed in the cradle was married as a teenager, often to someone who was old enough to be their father. I wonder, did these medieval parents show any emotion when they used them as pawns, when one child was out of the door, were they planning how best they would benefit from the next?

Does this mean that the medieval parent did not care for, or show love to, their children?

In the medieval world the infant mortality rate was high, a parent could lose their baby at birth, a child could die from an awful illnesses such as the plague, their grown up sons could face an early death in battle, their teenage daughters could die in childbirth, with all this, it is easy to see why these parents would have hearts of stone.
Picture
The concept of love is totally different today than it was then, I think that the more realistic view of life in the medieval era comes across to us as indifference. Where we encourage our children, they promoted theirs. Where our young choose to live the single life, our elderly often a lonely one, and the rest of us conform to the 2.5 children average, the medieval family were an extended family. Kinship was formed through family ties, so perhaps we might use the term close or strong bond instead of love. This bond led to a sense of duty, responsibility and loyalty, all the things we come to expect from the medieval person. Although we respect these three things, they are not of paramount importance to us today. 

We should look no further than Margaret Beaufort for an example of a medieval parent. History tell us she was a devoted mother, she plotted and schemed and let nothing stand in the way of getting her beloved Henry on the throne of England.
​
​What was her motivation, was it the promotion of the Lancastrian cause or was it just the love of her son ?  
Another good example is William de la Pole.
​
William de la Pole was an English commander and is remembered and blamed for the loss of French territories of Maine and Anjou, these lands formed part of the marriage contract of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou that Pole had arranged. Pole was blamed for much, a scapegoat, who was exiled and murdered on route to Calais on the 2nd May 1450. Three days before, at the family home of Wingfield in Suffolk, William de la Pole prepared himself for exile, in doing so ​he wrote a heartfelt and moving letter to his eight year old son.
Picture
Effirgy of John de la Pole at Wingfield Church, Sussex
My dear and only well-beloved son,

I beseech our Lord in Heaven, the Maker of all the World, to bless you, and to send you ever grace to love him,
and to dread him, to the which, as far as a father may charge his child, I both charge you, and pray you to set all your spirits and wits to do, and to know
his holy laws and commandments, by the which ye shall, with his great mercy, pass all the great tempests and troubles of this wretched world.

And that also, weetingly, ye do nothing for love nor dread of any earthly creature that should displease him. And there as any frailty maketh you to fall, beseech his mercy soon to call you to him again with repentance, satisfaction, and contrition of your heart, never more in will to offend him.

Secondly, next him above all earthly things, to be true liegeman in heart, in will, in thought, in deed, unto the king our aldermost high and dread sovereign
lord, to whom both ye and I be so much bound to; charging you as father can and may, rather to die than to be the contrary, or to know anything that were against the welfare or prosperity of his most royal person, but that as far as your body and life may stretch ye live and die to defend it, and to let his
highness have knowledge thereof in all the haste ye can.


Thirdly, in the same wise, I charge you, my dear son, alway as ye be bounden by the commandment of God to do, to love, to worship, your lady and mother; and also that ye obey alway her commandments, and to believe her counsels and advices in all your works, the which dread not but shall be best and
truest to you. And if any other body would steer you to the contrary, to flee the counsel in any wise, for ye shall find it naught and evil.


Furthermore, as far as father may and can, I charge you in any wise to flee the company and counsel of proud men, of covetous men, and of flattering
men, the more especially and mightily to withstand them, and not to draw nor to meddle with them, with all your might and power; and to draw to you
and to your company good and virtuous men, and such as be of good conversation, and of truth, and by them shall ye never be deceived nor repent you of.

Moreover, never follow your own wit in nowise, but in all your works, of such folks as I write of above, ask your advice and counsel, and doing thus, with
the mercy of God, ye shall do right well, and live in right much worship, and great heart’s rest and ease.


And I will be to you as good lord and father as my heart can think.

And last of all, as heartily and as lovingly as ever father blessed his child in earth, I give you the blessing of Our Lord and of me, which of his infinite
mercy increase you in all virtue and good living; and that your blood may by his grace from kindred to kindred multiply in this earth to his service, in
such wise as after the departing from this wretched world here, ye and they may glorify him eternally amongst his angels in heaven.

Written of mine hand,
The day of my departing fro this land.

Your true and loving father 
So did the medieval parent love their children?

I think the fact that William de la Pole sat down to write such a letter to his son is proof enough that they did.








0 Comments

Birth of Margaret Beaufort

11/5/2016

0 Comments

 
On the 31st May 1443 Margaret Beaufort was born at Bletsoe Castle to Margaret Beauchamp and John Beaufort,
​Duke of Somerset. 
Picture
Margaret Beaufort's Funeral Effergy at Westminster Abbey by Pietro Torrigiani
In 1455, at the age of just twelve years old Margaret had married Edmund Tudor as her second husband.

Margaret was soon pregnant and gave birth to the future Henry VII a year later. The birth of Henry, while Margaret was just a child herself, did irreparable damage, and this could account for the fact that she never gave birth again. Thirty years later, Henry was aided at the Battle of Bosworth by Thomas Stanley, her fourth husband whose family famously stood and watched
the battle, deciding at the last moment to take the side of the Lancastrian's against Richard III's Yorkist forces.

Although Margaret never recognised it as a marriage she was firstly married to John de la Pole, the son of William de la
​Pole and Alice Chaucer. This marriage was later annulled.
​
Margaret's third husband was Henry, son of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, their marriage was said to be a happy one.
In Henry VII's court, Margaret liked to be referred to as 'My Lady the King's Mother' she intensely disliked the fact that
she was of a lower status than both Elizabeth of York, Henry's queen and her mother Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of
Edward IV. She also disliked the fact that she had to adhere to court protocol and walk behind the queen and was probably responsible for ​the banishment of Elizabeth Woodville in 1487. Henry was said to have been a devoted son, his death in
​the April of 1509 was probably the beginning of the end for Margaret as she was dead only two months later.
Margaret Beaufort is famous as much for her piety and gifts to churches and collages as she is for being domineering,
pushy and intimidating, she was a force to be reckoned with, but her achievements prove that medieval women did not
always take the back seat to men.

Love her or hate her she was a very strong and determined woman.
0 Comments

The Transi Tomb

23/6/2015

0 Comments

 

The Tomb of Alice de la Pole

Picture
This magnificent transi tomb at St Mary's Church, Ewelme in the county of Oxfordshire, belongs to Alice de la Pole. 

In two parts, the top section is solid and entirely made of alabaster, it is thought to be unique. Lying on top of the tomb, whose decorated sides are covered with angels holding emblazoned shields, is the life like image of the duchess, whose long face is beautifully carved, her coronated head lies under an ornate canopy. The cushion on which her head lies is supported by tiny angels who are placed there to aid Alice's soul to heaven.
Picture
After the Black Death in 1348 and its four recurrences between 1361 and 1393, people came to realise that death took what it wanted when it wanted, rich or poor, young or old. In recognition of this people of Alice's class took steps to remind others of transiency of life and therefore she is saying 'as I am now so will you be.' Alice's emaciated body is hidden and difficult to see, unlike her grand clothing in life, she is partially wrapped in a loose shroud.
Picture
​There are many tombs such as these around the country, one of the first is at Lincoln Cathedral. Alice's however, is the only intact effigy of a woman carved in alabaster in the country. Alice was a Chaucer by birth, the granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer and wife of William de la Pole.

William de la Pole was an English commander and is remembered and blamed for the loss of French territories of Maine and Anjou, these lands formed part of the marriage contract of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou that Pole had arranged. Pole was blamed for much, a scapegoat, who was exiled and murdered on route to Calais. 
Picture
Surviving the aftermath of the death of her husband, Alice was certainly a force to be reckoned with, she proved more than capable of taking care of herself and the interests of her son John de la Pole. 

Alice is thought to have died on the 20th May in 1475, however it is suggested that it may have been in the June of that year. 
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    1420
    1450
    1461
    1471
    14th Century
    15th Century
    16th Century
    19th Century
    Acts Statutes And Treaties
    Adam Moleyns
    Alice De La Pole
    Alice Montacute
    Andrew Trollope
    Anjou
    Anne Beauchamp
    Anne Mortimer
    Anne Neville
    Anthony Woodville
    April
    Aristrocracy And Nobility
    Art
    Audley Family
    August
    Baron Sutton
    Battle Of Barnet
    Battle Of Blore Heath
    Battle Of Bosworth
    Battle Of Bramham Moor
    Battle Of Edgecote
    Battle Of Edington
    Battle Of Ferrybridge
    Battle Of Hedgeley Moor
    Battle Of Losecoat Field
    Battle Of Ludford Bridge
    Battle Of Mortimer's Cross
    Battle Of Shewsbury
    Battle Of St Albans 1455
    Battle Of St Albans 1461
    Battle Of Stoke
    Battle Of Tewkesbury
    Battle Of Towton
    Battle Of Wakefield
    Beaumont Family
    Berwick On Tweed
    Boston
    Bosworth Field
    Bredwardine Family
    Burgundian Wars
    Cadaver Tomb
    Calais
    Castles
    Cathedrals And Churches
    Catherine Of Valois
    Cecily Neville
    Charles The Bold
    Christmas
    Crowland Abbey
    Crowland Cronicles
    December
    De La Pole Family
    Despencer Family
    De Vere Family
    Dublin
    Duchess Of Burgundy
    Duchess Of Suffolk
    Duke Of York
    Earl Of Devon
    Earl Of Salisbury
    Edmund Beaufort Duke Of Somerset
    Edmund Earl Of Rutland
    Edmund Tudor
    Edward Earl Of Warwick
    Edward III
    Edward IV
    Edward Of Lancaster
    Edward Of Middleham
    Edward The Black Prince
    Edward V
    Elizabeth
    Elizabeth I
    Elizabeth Of York
    Elizabeth Woodville
    Execution Of Nobles
    February
    Food
    France
    Francis Lovell
    Gainsborough Hall
    Geoffrey Chaucer
    George Duke Of Clarence
    God
    Hampshire
    Henry Earl Of Lancester
    Henry Percy
    Henry Tudor
    Henry V
    Henry VI
    Henry VII
    Henry VIII
    Hereford
    Humphrey Duke Of Gloucester
    Humphrey Stafford
    Isabella Of Burgundy
    Isabel Neville
    Isabel Of Bourbon
    Jack Cade
    James I Of England
    James Tuchet
    January
    Jasper Tudor
    John Beaufort
    John Clifford
    John De La Pole
    John De Vere
    John Duke Of Bedford
    John Fiennes
    John Grey Of Groby
    John Leland
    John Morton
    John Of Gaunt
    John Sutton
    John Tuchet
    July
    June
    Katherine (daug Of Richard III)
    Lambart Simnel
    Lancaster
    Leicester
    Lincolnshire
    Lionel Of Antwerp
    Literature
    Lord Audley
    Louis XI
    Ludlow
    March
    Margaret Beauchamp
    Margaret Beaufort
    Margaret Of Anjou
    Margaret Of York
    Mary Of Guelders
    Mary Of Guise
    May
    Medicine
    Medieval Castles
    Medieval Music
    Medieval Warfare
    Micklegate Bar
    Mohun Family
    Mortimer Cross
    Neville Family
    Normandy
    Northamptonshire
    Nostell Priory
    Nottinghamshire
    November
    October
    On This Day
    Owen Glyndwr
    Owen Tudor
    Parhelion
    Parliament
    Percy Family
    Philippe De Commynes
    Phillippe Pot
    Plantagenet
    Pontifract
    Prince Of Wales
    Princes
    Princes In The Tower
    Princesses
    Propaganda
    Ralph And Edward Shaa
    Ravenspur
    Readeption Of Henry VI
    Rebellion
    Re Enactments
    Revenge
    Rhys Ap Thomas
    Richard Duke Of York
    Richard Herbert
    Richard II
    Richard III
    Richard Neville
    Richard Neville (The King Maker)
    Richard Of Conisbrough
    Richard Of Eastwell
    Richard Of Shrewsbury
    Road To Bosworth: Henry Of Richmond
    Robin Of Redesdale
    Roger Vaughan
    Rowland Lockey
    Rutland
    Sandal Castle
    Sand Sculptures
    Saxton
    Scarborough
    Second Battle Of St Albans
    September
    Shakespeare
    Skirbeck
    Statutes And Treaties
    St Paul's Cross London
    Sufflok
    Tattershall
    Tattershall Collage
    Tewkesbury Abbey
    The Arrivall
    The Beaufort Family
    The Black Death
    The Black Prince
    The Blue Boar Inn
    The Browne Family
    The De La Pole Family
    The Hollow Crown
    The King Maker
    The Legendary Ten Seconds
    The-road-to-bosworth-richard-iii
    The-road-to-bosworth-richard-iii
    The Tudors
    The Wakefield Tower
    The Woodville Family
    Thomas Browne
    Thomas Burgh
    Thomas Clifford
    Thomas Earl Of Lancaster
    Thomas More
    Thomas Percy
    Thomas Stanley
    Thomas Vaughan
    Tilney Family
    Tower Of London
    Towton 25
    Transie Tomb
    Treaties
    Tudor
    Tudors
    Tyrell Family
    Vengeance
    Vulgate
    Wales
    Walter Devereux
    Wars Of The Roses
    Wars Of The Roses In Art
    Weapons
    Welles Family
    Westminster Abbey
    William Aschough
    William Cromer
    William De La Pole
    William Hastings
    William Herbert
    William Hobbes
    William Of Hatfield
    William Of Worcester
    William Oldhall
    William Shakespeare
    Women
    Woodville Family
    York
    Yorkshire

    Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    November 2021
    January 2021
    September 2020
    July 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    December 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.