Richard II

“You will build five balingers at your own expense.” Signed The King….

Nov 30, 2022

anniversaries, battles, sources, travel

balingers, naval power, Richard II, River Thames, staple of Calais, Susan Rose

When it comes to medieval ships, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine what they were like. Cogs, crayers, shallops, barges, balingers, wherries and many others abound. Well, wherries of various descriptions are still around now, as are barges, but what we may fondly envisage as a brightly painted narrow boat was no such thing. Perhaps it…
What does a horner do….?

Nov 24, 2022

art, culture, sources

Calendar of Patent Rolls, drinking horns, Guilds, horners, Kavanagh Charter Horn, Richard II, Worshipful Company of Horners

In recent days I’ve been happily trawling my way through the Calendar of Patent Rolls concerned with the reign of Richard II, and came upon the 1389 entry below. My curiosity was pricked. What sort of horn did a horner deal with? The musical instrument? Animal horn? So I did a little investigation, and discovered…
A joust involving two Scottish lords who don’t seem to have existed….

Nov 16, 2022

buildings, sources

Agas map, Anthony Wydville, Antoine of Burgundy, banner-bearers, Earls Marshal, Earls of Mar, injuries, jousting, Kocborne, mystery jousters, Philip the Good, Richard II, Scotland, Sir Nicholas Hawberke, Sir Peter Courtenay, Sir William Darell, Smithfield, The Chronicles of England, Thomas Mowbray Earl of Nottingham

Excerpt from The Brut or The Chronicles of England, ed. Friedrich W.D. Brie (London, 1906), pp. 343-4, 348. “….[1393]….And in the seventeenth year of his [Richard II‘s] reign, certain lords of Scotland came to England to win renown through deeds of arms. And these are the persons: The Earl of Mar, who challenged the Earl Marshal of…
Joan/Joanne/Joanna Holland, Duchess of York

Nov 13, 2022

anniversaries, battles, genealogy, law, sources

Alianore Countess of March, Alice Fitzalan, Anne of Bohemia, Catherine de Roet, Duchess of Lancaster, Edmund of Langley, executions, Fitzhugh family, Froissart, Henry IV, Henry Scrope Baron Masham, Henry V, Isabella de Valois, Joan Holland, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, Order of the Garter, Philippa de Bryan, Richard Earl of Cambridge, Richard II, Sandal Castle, Sir Henry Bromflete, Southampton plot, stepchildren, Thomas Holland, Wales, widowhood

Joan Holland was born about 1380, one of the many children of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and his wife Alice Arundel (aka Fitzalan) and the second-eldest daughter. It seems to have been Kent’s policy to marry his daughters into every family that could conceivably inherit the throne. Accordingly, towards the end of…
The art that made us

Nov 8, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, culture, humour, religion, Science, television reviews

Aphra Benn, Armada, Arts and Crafts, Barbara Hepworth, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry, BBC2, Beowulf, Black Death, Bloomsbury Group, British Empire, Burns, Charles I, Colonel Blimp, Cool Britannia, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, David Threlfall, Death and the Gallant, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth I, embroidery, English Civil War, Festival of Britain, First World War, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Fire of London, Hanif Kureishi, Harry Potter, Hogarth, Industrial Revolution, Jane Austen, Jarrow march, John Foxe, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Joshua Reynolds, Julian of Norwich, kitchen sink drama, Llancarfon, Margery Kempe, Mary Stuart, murals, Norman conquest, Oliver Cromwell, Phillip Larkin, Piers Plowman, poetry, pre-Raphaelites, Reformation, Restoration, Richard II, Roman Britain, Rubens, satire, Second World War, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Orpen, St. Cadoc’s church, St. Paul’s, stained glass, Stuarts, The art that made us, The Fighting Temeraire, The unknown soldier, Tracey Emin, Trainspotting, Turner, urbanisation, van Dyck, Walter Sickert, Welsh Bible, William Cobbett, William Morgan, William Shakespeare, Wilton Diptych, York Minster

This is another fascinating BBC2 series, illustrating English and British history through the evolution of our art. The eight one-hour episodes, narrated by David Threlfall (Men of the World), feature:The Roman and pre-Roman periods, Beowulf, the Norman conquest and the Bayeux Tapestry; The Black Death, Wilton Diptych, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich,…
John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (c 1350-1400)

Nov 7, 2022

anniversaries, battles, genealogy, religion

Anne Neville, Barons Montagu, Christine de Pizan, Cirencester, Conwy, Counter-Appellants, Edward I, Epiphany Rising, Henry IV, Henry V, Ireland, Isabel Neville, Joan “Beaufort”, Joan of Acre, John Earl of Salisbury, Lollards, Lord Mayors of London, Lord Morley, Mary de Bohun, Maud Francis, Monthermer Barony, Nevilles, Orleans, Parliament, poetry, Prussia, Ravenspur, Richard II, Richard of Salisbury, Richard of Warwick, summary executions, Thomas Earl of Salisbury, Thomas of woodstock, Wakefield, William Earl of Salisbury

John Montagu (or Montacute) was the son of Sir John Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu (d 1390) and Margaret de Monthermer. It follows that he descended from Joan of Acre, and through her, from King Edward I. He was also the nephew (and, as it proved, the heir) of William Montagu, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. There…
Exchanged treasures at celebrations of Richard II’s second marriage….

Oct 27, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, law, religion, sources

Anne of Bohemia, bears, Calais, Charles VI, Edward III, Forest of Ardres, France, Holy Trinity, nef, non-consummation, peace treaties, rainfall, Richard II, royal marriages, St. George, St. Michael, tents, tigers

In October 1396 King Richard II of England married for the second time. His first marriage had been a love match. He and Anne of Bohemia had adored each other and he’d been devastated by her sudden death, possibly of the plague. He was still only 28, a childless widower, and like his namesake the…
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…
Bolingbroke and his flute….!

Sep 30, 2022

anniversaries, battles, culture, humour

“Lancastrian”, flutes, Henry IV, Henry VII, Lancastrians, lutes, music, Richard II, usurpation, Wars of the Roses

I feel it’s time to take another pop at a Lancastrian King Henry. On this occasion it’s Henry IV, the warlike Lancastrian usurper who murdered his cousin Richard II and stole the crown. A process that led to the Wars of the Roses. So definitely not one of my favourite kings. When it comes to…
Medieval tarts that look just like mince pies….

Sep 23, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, culture

Durham House, feasts, Food, John fordham Bishop of Durham, John of Gaunt, mince pies, Monk’s modern mediaeval cuisine, payne puff, Richard II

“….‘Payne puff’ appears on the menu for a feast held for King Richard II and John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, by John Fordham, Bishop of Durham, at Durham House [see here] in London, on September 23rd 1387. It was served on the third course which also included pottages (an almond broth and a…