The New Murrey and Blue blog

As a background to this tale of research misery, I should say that between 26th June and 11th July 1393 Richard II and his court were at Easthampstead, Bracknell in Berkshire. Richard’s first cousin Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, son and heir of John of Gaunt, was on a reise to Prussia. Little love was lost between the cousins. and Henry seems to have absented himself from England at every opportunity.

Anyway, to my story.

Make notes of where you find snippets of information, they said. So, yes, I now make notes. All the time. But what happens when your carefully kept notes tell you porkies?

This is what I have in my Word file for the year 1393: “At some point during this stay at Easthampstead there was amusement among RII’s courtiers about the story of Henry of Derby’s parrot. Fears 216-7.”

Fears is my way of recording Ian Mortimer‘s book on Henry IV. OK, so I dug out the book and turned to 216/7. No sign of the parrot!

Oh, my friends, which part of my note is wrong? The book? Or the pages? I want to know what it was about the parrot that had the courtiers rolling in the aisles at Easthampstead. The only mention I can find of the parrot is on page 114. Henry was presented with it somewhere in the Holy Land and it escaped on his way home to England. Was that the point? It had escaped?

So, I embarked upon a search through my considerable collection of books, checking pages 216/7 in each one. I now know that yes, the parrot escaped, but someone found it and was rewarded with 6s. A keeper was then appointed to cage it more securely. Alas, no mention of mirth at Easthampstead! Oh, but there were possibly two parrots, one lost, one found.

And yes, I’ve looked in Expeditions to Prussia and The Holy Land made by Henry Earl of Derby. The parrot is mentioned, but nothing about Easthampstead.

Then, at last, I found the relevant pages 216/7….in a book called Jerusalem Journey by H.F.M. Prescott. But guess what? Yes, the parrot is there….but still nothing about the hilarity at Easthampstead! Argh! By the way, I wonder if they’d have sniggered to his face? Perhaps not.

All in all, I’ve made a dog’s breakfast of this particular item of research. Wrong book entirely. Only half of my note in another book. And I still don’t know about Easthampstead.

Does anyone out there know?