gifts

MEDIEVAL POSY RINGS – GIVEN WITH LOVE…

May 10, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, art, buildings, The play’s the thing

Ashmolean Museum, British Museum, Catherine de Roet, Dorset, engraving, gifts, gold, Hamlet, Joan Hanham, John of Gaunt, metal detecting, Museum of London, posy rings, romance, Thomas Brook, Victoria and Albert Museum

Reblogged from MEDIEVAL POSY RINGS – GIVEN WITH LOVE… ‘Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?’ ‘Tis brief, my lord’ * This beauty is reputed to have been given by John of Gaunt (1340-1399) to his mistress and subsequent third wife, Katheryn Swinford (1350-1403). The inscription reads ‘alas for fayte’ which was probably…
EDWARD IV’S CAMEL

Oct 8, 2022

buildings, religion

camels, Edward II, Edward IV, gifts, Great Durnford Manor, Ireland, Patrioch of Antioch, Richard II, Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire

As I was wandering the deep valleys of darkest Wiltshire, I suddenly thought I was having a hallucination. Across the green rises, I spotted, not the usual line of ponies and horses…but three humpy Bactrian camels ambling along a trail! Not the kind of beasties one normally expects in the Wiltshire countryside. Apparently I was…
The true significance of posy rings….

Oct 29, 2021

art, culture, sources

Catherine de Roet, Countess of Salisbury, courtly love, Duchy of Lancaster, Edward III, Froissart, Geoffrey Chaucer, gifts, John of Gaunt, posy rings, royal mistresses, Troilus and Cressida, Wales

Treasure buried in fields and discovered centuries later are always in the news these days. These are usually coins, of course, but also jewellery, including posy rings. A posy ring was found in Wales very recently so I was interested to then read about the true meaning of such rings in A Crisis of Truth…

gifts

MEDIEVAL POSY RINGS – GIVEN WITH LOVE…

EDWARD IV’S CAMEL

The true significance of posy rings….