The New Murrey and Blue blog

With Christmas now upon us, and the clocks ticking away until Santa clambers down our chimneys, here’s a link—https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14068977/Tales-royal-Christmases-Merry-Monarch-celebrations-cancelled-Queen-Christmas-tree.html—to an article about royal Christmases from the 15^th century right to the present day.

There is one particular medieval Christmas to which our attention is drawn. I quote from the Daily Mail article: “….It [the celebration] didn’t impress everyone, however, and a writer at the time, the Croyland Chronicler, wrote how they disagreed with how much dancing and cheer there was, according to Royal.uk….” Which royal Christmas is being referred to? Why, 1484, and the culprit is, of course, Richard III. According to the Chronicler, Richard’s celebrations were extravagant and shameful! Really? Shameful does not sound like the Richard we know and love.

Oh dear. Poor Richard. In some quarters he was damned whatever he did. (And he has been ever since!) The condemnation of 1484 is to be found in the Continuation of the Croyland/Crowland chronicles, see here https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/resource/croyland-chronicle/ to learn about them.

On Christmas Day I will be returning to the two Christmases of Richard III, to put them in context. 1484 was definitely not a heart-warming matter for him, because he wouldn’t by any means have been in the high spirits the wretched chronicler chose to record.

In the meantime here are a few links to previous Christmas posts on this blog: https://murreyandblue.org/2021/12/23/from-st-nicholas-to-sir-christmas-to-old-father-christmas-to-santa-claus/, and https://murreyandblue.org/2021/12/20/st-nicholas-and-the-commencement-of-the-christmas-season/, and https://murreyandblue.org/2021/12/24/from-yule-log-to-buche-de-noel/ and finally (for a laugh) https://murreyandblue.org/2021/12/26/my-reaction-to-lucy-worsleys-christmas-carol-odyssey/.