The New Murrey and Blue blog

When in 1485 did Richard III watch the Coventry Mystery Plays….?

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Coventry Mystery Play – from https://www.mediastorehouse.com/north-wind-picture-archives/literature-theater/mystery-play-performed-medieval-coventry-england-5881975.html

According to this site, which is all about the play entitled the Coventry Carol, and details its history: “In Coventry — where Richard III attended plays shortly before he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field — the plays lasted for longer than in other cities.” Well, whatever he watched, it wasn’t the Coventry Carol, which wasn’t even written until 1594. But Coventry mystery plays stretch back to the 12th century and were staged once a year. And are today as well!

Coventry Plays today – from https://www.coventrysociety.org.uk/news/article/call-for-the-return-of-the-mystery-plays.html

So I wondered when exactly Richard watched them. Well, Wikipedia Wikipedia  says: “ Richard III visited Coventry and saw the plays there on Corpus Christi day in 1485, just a couple of months before he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth.”

Corpus Christi is, of course, a moveable feast that falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday…or 60 days after Easter Sunday. So I started searching for which date it was in 1485. According to this page, Easter Day fell on April 12 that year. But this one says it was April 3! That’s a helpful start. If there isn’t agreement about Easter Day in 1485, how can I work out the date of Corpus Christi?

Well, April 12 1485 was a Tuesday, so that’s wrong. April 3, however, was indeed a Sunday! Yippee. We’ll go with Easter Day 1485 being April 3. Sixty days after that was Thursday, June 2! A Thursday! It fits.

So, based on my calculations, Richard III watched the Coventry plays on Thursday, June 2…Corpus Christi in 1485! Trinity Sunday had fallen May 29.

The precise date is immaterial as far as the above article is concerned, for it relates the story of the Coventry Carol. It’s definitely worth a read and includes musical extracts/links.

from https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2012/julyaugust/feature/the-body-christ

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  1. aferry88 Avatar
    aferry88

    Thanks.

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  2. Glenis Brindley Avatar
    Glenis Brindley

    Well done on working that out!

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. maryeflowre Avatar
    maryeflowre

    The evidence for Richard having watched the Coverntry Corpus Christi plays in 1485 is apparently in Anne Sutton’s article ‘Camera Principis’ in the 2019 Ricardian, and she references it in her new book The King’s Work. Unfortunately I can currently lay my hands on every issue of the Ricardian except the 2019 one.
    If you want to calculate the dates of movable feasts, or know what day of the week any particular date was in any particular year, this is the website to use:
    http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cal/medcal.shtml
    rr just google “medieval English calendar” and it should come up. This site gives calendars both by calendar year and regnal year, and gives the date of Easter for every year. So from that you will see that your source was completely correct, and in 1485 Easter fell on 3 April.

    Another essential ricardian resource is the late Rhoda Edwards’ Itinerary of King Richard III 1483-5, which is now available online
    http://www.ricardianresources.online/5_rhoda_edwards.php
    The relevant page is 37, which shows that Richard dated warrants, etc, from Coventry on 31 May, Corpus Christi Eve, then nothing further went out until 6 May when he was at nearby Kenilworth. So it does look extremely likely that he would have witnessed the plays in Coventry. In fact, it’s hard to see how he could have missed them without appearing rude.

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