The New Murrey and Blue blog

To say that Henry VII isn’t our favourite person is a monumental understatement, but of course we Ricardians are stuck with him. We’re also stuck with his reign, which dragged on from Bosworth until his death on 21 April 1509. But his reign is important for all sorts of reasons, not least because the people who survived Bosworth were still busying themselves under the usurper, there were Yorkist rebellions….and England’s history continued as it shouldn’t have done.

If you go to this link https://www.academia.edu/77846116/A_memoir_of_the_court_of_Henry_VII_an_edition_of_BL_MS_Cotton_Julius_B_XII_fols_8v_66r_with_textual_and_general_introduction you will find a lengthy thesis, which the author introduces as: “….The memoir of the court of Henry VII for the years of 1486-90, contained in BL, MS Cotton Julius B. XII, fols. 8v-66r, represents an invaluable source for the study of court and socio-political life during the early years of the reign of Henry VII. Hitherto the only printed version of the memoir was to be found in Thomas Hearne’s edition of Leland’s Collectanea zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA….”

It’s all very interesting, once you’ve come to terms with the old spelling which forms a large portion of the thesis. It isn’t that difficult, believe me. If I (left school after ‘O’ levels and dropped History) can interpret it, anyone can!

If you want to know who was where and why during Henry’s reign, you’ll probably find it here….and you’ll learn who was conspicuous by their absence. The king’s mouder/moder gets many a mention, of course, but as far as I could see, always after the queen, which I doubt would have pleased our Margaret.

There are lengthy descriptions of Christmas, Easter, St George’s Day and so on, with what everyone did and wore, and the horses they rode or chairs/chares they were conveyed in and so on.

As always it’s the little snippets that catch attention. For instance, in November 1488:

Oh joy. Can you imagine it? The royal barge disappearing into the gloom, taking with it Henry, his queen and “my lady the kinges mouder”. I’d like to think it was the last ever seen of two of them, but unfortunately the barge reached its destination, the bishop’s palace.

The thesis from beginning to the end of the Bibliograph is 491 pages long, so it’s quite a book, and even if you don’t want to sit down and read it all, it’s well worth dipping into when the mood takes you.