Review: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: The Bodley Head Ltd (2 Oct 2008)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0224079948
• ISBN-13: 978-0224079945

I think that I can safely speak for many of us in the historical community (both writers and readers) when I say that we are – in the nicest way of course – rather nosy. That is, we want to know all about people from different times: what they looked like; what they did; how they did it. For instance, have you ever wondered whether people in the fourteenth century wore nightdresses or what the well off used to wipe their behinds with (I have!)? How about their pastimes, sense of humour or the difficulties of travelling?

Ian Mortimer’s latest book: The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England – A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century certainly satisfies that craving for knowledge of the minutiae of daily life in the Middle Ages. The book is lovingly researched and well written with a light sprinkling of humour that makes it very easy to read. The style in itself is very original for a non-fiction historical book, using a ‘guidebook’ approach that is a million miles away from the stuffiness of many ‘academic’ books. Yet, happily, the book does not suffer from a lack of sincerity or historical integrity in any way.

The topics cover a broad range of subjects for the ‘traveller’ from what the landscape will look like to what to wear, where to stay when travelling, and how to address different kinds of people that you will meet along the way. And then, of course, when they invite you to eat with them, you will know what food to expect. And then, of course, there is always the danger of falling ill. The Time Traveller’s Guide is once again at hand to tell you not only what may be wrong with you (hopefully not the plague, or leprosy!) and what medicine is available to help cure it. This book, then, is a wonderful read.

To be fair, I could not find fault either with the style or the information it offered (much to my frustration – as I always like to find at least a little criticism to balance things). To anyone who loves this period it will open up new doors to understanding the social history of the time. For writers of Medieval fiction, it is a valuable sourcebook – full of the little details that we need to make our stories come alive. So yes, I heartily recommend this book as worth every penny.

Rating = ☆☆☆☆☆ Excellent!

And for those who want to know more, Ian also has a brilliant website (with some really great articles) here: clickie

The Gwynllwg Incident 1317

November 1317 must have felt like Christmas come early to Hugh Despenser the younger. Not only had he been given his wife’s share of the inheritance of the rich de Clare estate, giving him the large lordship of Glamorgan, but three days later Edward also bestowed upon him the castle and town of Dryslwyn and Cantref Mawr. This was supposedly in lieu of 600 pounds owed to him by Edward for war services.*

Hugh was now lord of a vast amount of lands. Unfortunately, he didn’t feel it was enough. Even before his brother-in-law, Audley, could take seisin of his share of the inheritance – Gwynllwg (or Wenthlok or Wentloog as it is sometimes spelt), Hugh had pre-empted him and had entered the territory and taken the fealty of the men there. The reason why this had been so easy was that Gwynllwg had traditionally been regarded as part of Glamorgan, and its inhabitants did not feel the need to change this arrangement just because some officials in the English court decided it should be so. So the knights and free men of Gwynllwg gladly did homage to Hugh and then subsequently refused to have Audley as their overlord.

Edward was furious (I would imagine that Audley was none too pleased either!) and demanded that Hugh appear before him to explain his actions. Hugh duly turned up and pleaded his cause, stating that he had taken the oaths of fealty under ‘certain conditions’. In this case, despite Hugh’s later reputation, these conditions had nothing to do with extortion or violence but were more likely concerned with the cantref’s previous allegiances. Unfortunately for him, his powers of persuasion were somewhat lacking on this occasion and Edward was less than impressed. Hugh was ordered to give back the land and release the men from their oaths.

Hugh had no choice to obey and certainly by December, Audley had no obstacles to claiming his due. Well, apart from the good men of Gwynllwg of course, who flatly refused to do homage to him, even when ordered to do so by the king. On January 30th 1318, John de Sapy was appointed to ‘take the castle and town of Newport, and manors of Stowe, Rempy, Byueleys (sic), Maghay, and Defreneboth in the county of Wenthlok in the Marches of Wales into the king’s hands and seisin…’. Rather amusingly, even the king’s man failed to bring the rebellious men of Gwynllwg to heel. According to the Patent Rolls in an entry of March 4th 1318 it is noted that: ‘he was unable to do so because “he could find no-one who would answer to him”’.

It seems though that Hugh fully expected to be granted Audley’s lands in the end. In an interesting entry dated May 22nd, Hugh acknowledges a debt to his father for 5000 pounds, to be annulled if he then grants him enfeoffment ‘of his lands in Wenthlok in the Marches of Wales, according to an agreement previously made between them’ (italics are mine). There are so many questions surrounding this entry – why would Hugh want to give his father lands that he would have been better off keeping for himself (presuming he had them in the first place), and why should he make such a promise, risking losing 5000 pounds when Edward had, so far, been less than helpful in aiding Hugh to achieve his rapacious aims? The words ‘premature optimism’ come to mind: Hugh was obviously confident that he would get his own way in the end – which, of course, he did – although not until 1320 when he forced a reluctant Audley to exchange Gwynllwg for some of Hugh’s English estates.

Hugh must have been gritting his teeth quite a bit during 1317/18. Not only was he not allowed to keep Gwynllwg, but he was also having problems getting hold of Dryslwyn too! In this case, it’s (now) former keeper, Thomas Blount refused to hand it over. Like Hugh, he had taken the fealty of the men there, even though he no longer had the right to. And when Hugh’s men had moved to take seisin of the place, it seems that they were repelled and that some of them were even imprisoned. According to the records it wasn’t until November 1318 that Hugh finally got control of the land. This seems to show that, at this point, despite being in the powerful office of Chamberlain (more on that in the next factual post), Hugh still hadn’t gained the affection of the king. If he had, I think that Edward would have moved more decisively and certainly more swiftly to defend his favourite’s interests. As it was it seemed that Hugh still had much work to do in that direction!

* I shall be amending the previous map to show this later today!

Sources:

The Close Rolls
The Patent Rolls
‘The Despenser War in Glamorgan’, J. Conway Davies in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 9, (1915)
The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II, Natalie Fryde
The Baronial Opposition to Edward II, J.C. Davies

Cheltenham Literature Festival Part 2 and Catching Up with Myself

I'm starting to feel like I'm meeting myself going backwards, or whatever the term is. The main Literature Festival has now finished (just Toni Morrison left to go now in a stand alone event on the 29th). It has been (mostly) fun, but I must admit, I'm glad its over so that I can spend a bit more time at my desk. I'm not the greatest extravert in the world either - so being with loads of people in a cramped space is something that I find rather exhausting.

There were two other talks of note: the first one being 'Casanova' by Ian Kelly. It was a great talk, even though not many people attended, given with great enthusiasm and humour. I have a bit of a thing about 18th Century Venice for some reason so I found it very interesting. Like so many historical characters we have come to know and love, Casanova also has his own 'baggage' of popular stories (many of them actually true!) - so it was great to hear and learn about this fascinating man.

The other talk 'From Agincourt to the Somme' had Bernard Cornwell, Richard Holmes and our own Ian Mortimer (The Greatest Traitor, The Perfect King etc) on the stage. However it seemed that the crowd were mainly there for Cornwell, and he knew it, playing to the audience like a pro. Holmes, another exuberant TV character also seemed to excel in the performance stakes. Poor Ian, meanwhile, was stuck with playing the 'straight guy' academic historian to the other two - obviously not a role that showed up his great personality and knowledge (he often found it hard to get a word in against the other two). Even so, the talk was good fun and full of interesting facts and there was yet another unseemly scrum for the book-signing afterwards (reminiscent of the John Barrowman scrum!).

Luckily, because I was there to see Ian, I was ushered ahead of the rest to his table (he and Holmes seemed largely ignored by the Cornwell fans (unjustly, in my opinion). As I had arranged to meet him before (through Alianore - thanks A!), he was expecting me and I had the privilege of waiting for him in the writers'room (a sort of green room) where he and two other friends of his were treated to free hospitality. After the signings we all went for a lovely and entertaining drink in Cheltenham for the rest of the afternoon until Ian had to meet his train. All I can say is that he is a lovely man, very devoted to history and extremely knowledgeable. I shall be doing a review on his latest book - The Time-Traveller's Guide to Medieval England soon.

Anyway, after all this gadding about (including a very late dinner party), I can definitely say that I am looking forward to a bit of peace and normality to catch up with stuff that has been sort of ignored and abandoned over the past week or so. So apologies if I've not been visiting websites, answering posts or going on forums. And who knows, with any luck I may even get around to some writing!

Map of the Marcher Lordships at Partition of the de Clare Lands in Nov 1317

I'm a bit late with this post this week, I afraid - between work, Cheltenham Literature Festival and checking on some neglected looking horses in the vicinity, I've not been at my desk much. I had planned to do a post on the second part of Hugh's rise to power 1317-1318, but midway through I realised that what I really needed to do was to make a map of all the Marcher Lordships in Wales - detailing (as far as possible) who owned what. Hopefully this should make the next few posts a bit clearer! Some lordships have been left blank either because they don't have much bearing on the political situation at this time or because so far I've not been able to trace the lords responsible.

Anyway - here is the first map - a great tribute to felt tip pens and pencil crayons! From it you should be able to see (if you can read my hand-written scrawl) just what lands Hugh, Audley and Damory inherited from the de Clare estate (click on the image to make it larger).

A Writerly Life - The Cheltenham Literature Festival Pt 1

Mid October in Cheltenham is always an exciting time for me as it is the time for the Cheltenham Festival of Literature - one of the biggest and longest running book fairs in the world. With over 400 contributors, as you can imagine, it is quite an effort to sit down and choose the ones you want to say. Then when you have a short list, there is then the problem of timing clashes and also just simply how much you can afford for tickets! This year I managed to whittle my nominations down to nine finalists, the first three of whom I have now seen and are pictured below.

The first talk I attended was with Bruce Parry - adventurer, presenter and all-round nice guy whose series 'Amazon' has been bringing to light the plight facing the rainforest and all of its people. I met him last year at the festival - after his series 'Tribe' (where he actually lived with tribes and tried to integrate with their day to day lives) and my daughter mnaged to get a photo with him. This year though, he seemed far more popular and almost filled the 2000 seater venue to capacity. My mum and I raced upstairs afterwards to get a book signed but unfortunately didn't get there soon enough to get anywhere near the beginning of the queue. Seeing that it would have taken us over an hour to reach him (and they weren't allowing photos this time), we gave up and went and had a drink instead. At least mum managed to get a pic of him onstage though (I'm afraid that due to the circumstances some of the pics are a bit blurry! This in no way reflects on mum's ability as she is a fantastic photographer by the way!)

Bruce Parry on stage - grinning as usual!

The next talk we went to - straight after Bruce actually - was with Ray Mears - an expert on bushcraft and survival whose programs I have enjoyed for a long, long time. Yes, another secret little fascination of mine is outdoor living! Like Bruce he is a nice, genuine gent and the talk was OK - it would have been much better if it hadn't been for the woman interviewing him who acted more like a flirtatious little girly - messing with her hair, simpering and looking at her notebook for every question - rather than a professional interviewer. I think at times that even Ray was getting a bit fed up - but he is far too polite to make it obvious. He certainly ended up taking over the control of the Q&A session at the end as at this point Barbie had slid down into her chair with her notebook practicaly covering her face!

Afterwards mum and I walked a little faster to get to the signing and succeeded this time in getting closer to the front and therefore in getting a book signed and a photo! Mind you - I did feel sorry for him - you could tell that he'd far rather be out in the woods somewhere than stuck behind a desk signing hundreds of names for people he didn't know!

Mum and I with Ray Mears - he was looking a bit 'crowd-dazed' by this point!

And then yesterday we went to a talk that rates in my top five talks of all time - John Barrowman! Star of Dr Who and Torchwood as well as countless stage shows (and judge on TV shows like How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, Any Dream Will Do and I'd Do Anything). He and his lovely sister, Carol, were promoting their book (about him, written by her) called Anything Goes. I have never laughed so much in my life - the man is not only a great actor but also a natural comedian! And with his sister it turned into a great double act. The crowd loved him too - very much. In fact when he first appeared I thought they were going to mob the stage!

Judging that he might be just a *tad* popular, mum and I prepared to do our fastest walk yet in order to get to the signing afterwards (and as we were on the end of a row we were in poll position to get through the auditorium doors!). However, we hadn't banked on the effect he seemed to have on women (and some men too). As the end applause started, it was like the first day of sales, a stampede on the African Plains! Mum nearly got pushed over by a very tall young man as he sprinted ahead and the staff on the doors panicked to get them open as the rampaging hordes came toward them! Dignity was not just thrown to the winds - it was rocket-propelled into space!

John and Carol on stage

Being sat where we were, mum and I had a naturally good head start on most of them - and we were pretty well practised at the fast walk up the stairs by now. It was also helpful that many of the fans were ahem - shall we say a little plump - so this added to our advantage and we managed to find ourselves not too far from the front of the queue yet again.

Not that we needed to have worried too much. John and his team are obviously used to such events and managed a very effiient regime of no long dedications in books (he and his sister just signed their names) with people almost being manhandled along in front of him like a prodution line. This is in no way a criticism - it had to be done so that everyone could get to him. I also noticed that the event staff surrounded him on both sides - probably to forestall any attempts by over-amourous fans to rugby-tackle him to the ground. Mum kindly allowed me to go up to the table while she struggled (think press scrum!) to get a photo from the side.

It was then my turn. I handed the book over. He looked up at me and - oh my God!!! All I could think of was 'you are gorgeous!' Most authors just look at you when they talk to you - he looks into you! Right into your eyes. Despite the numbers involved, somehow he makes every person feel like they are the only ones in the room (or that's how I felt, at any rate!). At that moment I so wanted to be a gay man! I also managed to get to shake his hand (no one else tried - but I thought, if you don't ask....). What a firm grip! My hand was still tingling half an hour later.

OK, I admit it. I am now besotted! I don't care if he is openly gay and in a very happy civil partnership - I am in love! He is now on my dream-team cast and crew for when Despenser! - the novel, becomes Despenser! - the film/TV drama etc! He's hoping to get into production in the future as well - so maybe.... producer????? ..... I can dream!

All three contributors were, each in their own ways, very positive and genuine people who really cared about what they did and the effect it has on others. I came away feeling quite uplifted. Who could ask for more?

That's me shaking hands with John (hard to see, but it was the best mum could do in the crush of cameras and the speed with which the queue was moving!). If you look closely you can see that I'm about to swoon.

Hugh's Rise to Power: (1) The Inheritance of Glamorgan

When Gilbert de Clare, the last Clare earl of Gloucester and Hereford died in battle at Bannockburn on 24th June 1314, he unknowingly set in motion a series of events that were to lead to the meteoric rise of Hugh Despenser the younger. At the time of his death, he had no living heir of his body, which meant that his huge estates would be broken up among his familial co-heirs: his sisters Eleanor, Elizabeth and Margaret. So far, so (sort of) simple. However, there was one problem, one thing that kept the lands from being divided: his wife, Maud (daughter of Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster) declared that she was pregnant. As her baby could possibly turn out to be a boy and therefore a true heir, the partition was postponed until she gave birth.

And so began a rather farcical period as nine months went by, followed by another nine months, with no birth. This continued for nearly three years with the countess contending that she was still pregnant for all of this time. Maybe people of the 14th century did not have the medical knowledge we possess now, but they certainly would have known what the normal time for a human gestation was! Therefore, the reasons why this ‘pregnancy’ was believed can only be a source for speculation. It is possible that the countess truly thought that she was pregnant – maybe she was suffering from a phantom pregnancy or some other illness that gave her the appearance of being with child. Although people at this time were not unintelligent – they did believe in miracles and the like: perhaps it was thought that her swollen belly would produce some miracle child of a longer gestation period than others. Or maybe she had suffered from a miscarriage and was unable to accept it. Or politically, maybe the countess’s fantasies of pregnancy gave the king the excuse he needed to delay the partition (for reasons below).

The man who stood to gain the most by the division of the inheritance was Hugh Despenser the younger. As the husband of the eldest daughter, Eleanor, he was in line to receive the largest and wealthiest portion, notably the lordship of Glamorgan. In total the lands stood to bring him an annual income of £1,415 4s. 11 ½d of which Glamorgan by itself was worth £1,267 6s 9 1/4 d. And that total did not include the estate reversions which totalled just over £880 pounds. For a man who had had few lands of his own before, this must have seemed like a gift from God. No wonder then that he was eager to claim it.

Unfortunately, Maud’s ‘pregnancy’ stood in his way and it seemed that Edward was not going to make it easy for him to claim his wife’s share. Despenser did not, of course, take the delays lying down (no jokes about that line please ;-) ) but was a frequent petitioner at chancery and parliament calling for the farce to be ended. Edward fielded various excuses, including that the countess’s pregnancy was well known in the places where she lived, and also that the matter was a complicated one, so complicated in fact that certain prelates and men versed in canonical law who had investigated the matter could not agree on what the final outcome should be. The best statement of all though was that Hugh:

could, and ought to, if he thought it would help him, according to the law and custom of the realm, and the course of chancery used in such cases, have sued out a writ of the lord king's chancery to have the belly of the aforesaid countess inspected by knights and discreet matrons, that is to see whether the said countess were pregnant or not: and if so, then when she was expected to give birth.

Following this with:

And since the aforementioned countess was always prepared to undergo such an examination, and the said Hugh and Eleanor had not observed that due process, their negligence ought not to prejudice the said pregnancy, but rather to redound to the harm and prejudice of the same Hugh and Eleanor.

In other words Hugh and Eleanor should put up and shut up, as they had not followed ‘procedure’. As this was said in Parliament (Lincoln, January 1315), one can only imagine the anger and humiliation Hugh must have felt at being publicly treated in such an offhand manner.

It should be realised that in 1315 Hugh was far from being the favourite that he would later become. In fact it seems that Edward did not have much regard for him at all, despite his father’s position at court. As far as I can see, there are three main possible reasons why Edward was keen to play along with Maud’s ‘pregnancy’ and delay the settlement:

1. Edward did not want a man he neither liked nor trusted having such wealth and power (remember, Hugh had sympathies for Warwick and the Contrariants some years before).

2. Edward wanted to retain the revenues of the lands for as long as possible.

3. Margaret and Elizabeth, Eleanor’s sisters, were both widows at this point. Edward may have decided to prolong the process of partition until he had found suitable husbands for them, ones that he trusted and perhaps hoped would keep the younger Despenser in check.


It was actually probably a mixture of all three reasons. This is why Maud’s ‘pregnancy’ was very convenient in its timing – no matter who believed it and why. Of course even Edward must have realised that it could not go on forever. And also Hugh was really becoming a thorn in his side – especially after he besieged and took Maud’s castle of Tonbridge later that year.

Therefore he redoubled his efforts to get the other two de Clare women safely remarried. He had ordered Elizabeth back from Ireland in late 1315 and must have had someone in mind for her (maybe even her future husband Roger D’Amory). However, in February 1316, Elizabeth was abducted from Bristol castle by Theobald de Verdon who very soon after married her. Verdon was probably no stranger to Elizabeth as he had been Justiciar of Ireland while she lived there. Therefore it is very possible (and I think likely) that they planned the illicit marriage in order to forestall her being given to anyone else. Edward, of course, was understandably furious to be undermined in such a way and fined them both a huge sum of money.

Verdon was 17 years older than his new wife – even so, when he died six months later at 37, he was still a youngish man. There is unfortunately no record what he died of but I would guess it to be a sudden illness rather than an accident. The young Elizabeth (she was still only 20), pregnant with his child, retired to Amesbury Priory where she gave birth to a daughter (Isabella) in March 1317. At least she would have had good company there – her aunt Mary was a nun there and her niece, Gaveston’s daughter Joan had also been sent to the Priory.

It seems that in this instance Edward somewhat lacked sensitivity, for even before Verdon was cold in the ground he was already planning her marriage to his current favourite Roger D’Amory. Elizabeth was obviously not too keen on the match for her uncle wrote her several letters on the subject, even calling her ‘his favourite niece’ (what Eleanor – who was usually his favourite - must have thought about this is not recorded!). Edward and D’Amory also visited her at Amesbury during her pregnancy (as if being a pregnant widow wasn’t stressful enough) to make her see sense. Eventually, finding herself outnumbered by those who supported the king’s proposals (including the queen, Isabella and her aunt Mary) she reluctantly agreed and the pair were married probably between the dates of her Churching ceremony, the 30th April and 3rd May 1317, as a grant made at that time describes her as D’Amory’s wife.

Margaret was a little easier to deal with. She was widowed in June 1312 when her husband, Piers de Gaveston was killed by Edward’s enemies, the earls of Warwick and Lancaster. Since then she had stayed with Edward’s court, with the king paying all of her expenses, as well as giving her a large allowance to live off. Therefore she was probably more familiar with the man Edward had chosen for her to marry. Hugh Audley (or d’Audley) was another of Edward’s favourites of the time and would therefore have been seen around court quite a lot. He was close in age to Margaret and had been one of Edward’s household knights since 1311. He was also related to Roger Mortimer – at this point still in Edward’s favour. There do not seem to have been any objections about the marriage but it still took until 28th April 1317 for it to happen.

The countess was not the only reason why the partition was delayed. It appears that the Inquisition Post Mortem into the earl of Gloucester’s death became confused over who were actually the heiresses and quite a few returns named an Isabella instead of Elizabeth. Because of this confusion, an escheator was ordered to carry out an investigation – presumably just to make sure that such a person, as Isabella did not actually exist. As you can see, bureaucracy could be just as finicky and annoying then as now!

Finally, with all the heiresses wed – two of them to Edward’s favourites, and their identities confirmed, Edward now started the process of the partition of the lands. There was no longer any reason to carry on with the pregnancy farce and it was finally concluded by the king’s council that there was no baby (finally!). The men appointed to oversee the portioning of the lands were Hervey de Staunton, John de Foxle and William de Ayremmyne. Despite the time that had already passed, the process of carving up the estates still took another few months. Finally, on November 15th 1317, the order to grant the divided inheritance to the three de Clare girls was made.

Hugh’s portion, as expected, was the biggest and best, containing the lordship of Glamorgan (including the castles of Llanblethian, Kenfeg, Neath, Llantrisant, Caerphilly and Whitchurch) as well as a few scattered properties in England. Through their marriages, Audley and D’Amory also inherited well – mainly the English de Clare estates but also some in and bordering upon Wales. For example, Audley was given the county of Gwennllwyg which was a bit controversial as it had previously belonged to Glamorgan – an issue that was soon to cause trouble (see next post) and D’Amory was given Usk – a territory that bordered Glamorgan on the east. To make such ambitious young men neighbours in a time when land equalled status and power was, in effect, to ask for trouble. And it wasn’t long before trouble stirred – as I shall show in the next post – Hugh’s Rise to Power.

Sources:
The Parliamentary Rolls
‘The Despenser War in Glamorgan’ – J. Conway Davies
Margaret de Clare, Countess of Cornwall – Edward II Blogspot (Alianore)
Elizabeth de Clare – Edward II Blogspot (Alianore)

Normal (?) Service Resumed and... Books! (The Monday Morsel)

Oh it's so good to get back to a normal blog routine! Whenever I'm away from my 14th Century studies for more than a few days I get a bit 'homesick' and find myself drifting back to the books.

Mind you, in retrospect I really needed some rest time. I started the week with a toothache which ended up as a dental abscess for which I needed antibiotics and a couple of visits to the dentist. The the antibiotics then played havoc with my body, so I needed more treatment for that. And then, to cap it all (and probably because of all that had gone before) I had what I term a 'time of fuggyness'. I had a couple of days when I would get half way through a sentence and then forget what I was talking about - or I would go into a room for something and when I got there I couldn't remember for the life of me what it was. I had trouble talking, reading, in fact doing anything that required me rubbing two braincells together. Actually - if you read the post on oak galls you will notice an unusual (for me) amount of typos - all due to fuggy brain syndrome!

Thereupon followed 2 more days of sleeping for long periods. And now I'm right as rain (what a strange saying). But, ugh, I sooo hate fugginess! What made it even worse this week was that I had a fuggy attack during a lesson and I lurched from either monotonous rambling to looking rather confused as what I was supposed to say next, or - even more embarrassing - mixing the whole sentence up completely. I think the students must have thought I'd lost the plot!

Anyway, despite the fuggy intervals I still managed to get a few things done, the most pleasant of which was a repeat visit to Chepstow castle and Tintern Abbey on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day (out of the cold blasts of winds, anyway). I also started on one of the books on my reading list for my uni class which was Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Now, apologies to any who love the book - and I know they exist - but I have found it to be terribly hard going and with stories that make even Eastenders look cheerful. I reckon if I'd tried to read the book in one go I would have ended up hurling myself off a very tall building! Saying that though, it is good writing. I just wish it had a bit more get up and go!

On a happier note, I also received a nice little parcel from Amazon this week containing my long-awaited delivery of Ian Mortimer's new book: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. I expect that Alianore will want to do the full review on this, seeing as she helped Ian with his first draft - so I will merely say this: It's fantastic! Buy it! Read it!

Hugh Despenser’s Martial Career

Although Hugh was trained as a knight and could therefore be assumed to be somewhat proficient with a sword and a lance as well as a good horseman, he is more often thought of as a courtier and an administrator than a warrior. Although it’s true that he never undertook the leadership of any military campaign, unlike his arch-enemy Roger Mortimer, there is still evidence that he was no stranger to combat. For a start, as a squire (to whichever lord he was esquired to) he would have most likely accompanied his master to tournaments – and even to war. Although there is no mention, it is possible that he may have served in one of Edward I’s Scottish campaigns as a serving squire.

And then there are the things we do know about:

1) 1309: Hugh was one of those present at the Tournament of Dunstable. According to the heraldic rolls, he brought with him a retinue of ten knights – mostly his father’s men. Unfortunately, no records exist to tell us how he did.

2) 1314: Hugh was present at the battle of Bannockburn and was among the king’s bodyguard which fled the field with him. As Edward most definitely took part in the fighting, during which he was described as having fought like a lion (Trokelowe), it must be presumed that Hugh also was in the thick of it.

3) 1315: he attacked and took the castle of Tonbridge. At the time it was in the care of Maud de Clare, Gilbert’s widow and the lady who had the 3 year ‘pregnancy’ - a reason why the partition of the de Clare lands had been delayed. Hugh was obviously getting very fed up of protesting to Edward that Maud really couldn't still be expecting after such a time!
Although the castle fell easily and with scarcely any bloodshed, it was still an act of warlike defiance against the king. It was, however, only a token display, as almost immediately afterwards Hugh returned the castle to Edward.

4) 1316: Hugh attacked John de Ros in parliament – allegedly by accident whilst defending himself. Not really an act of war, but it does show that Hugh was not afraid of conflict – or of pulling a fast one!

5) 1319 (Dec): There is an entry in the Patent Rolls which mentions Hugh coming to the rescue of Lady Badlesmere who was besieged in her lodgings at Chesthunt by a group of men intent on making her pay a fine for her release. It’s nice to know that Hugh had a chivalrous side – even if it is a puzzle as to why he was in Hertfordshire when Edward was up in York. As chamberlain, his duties lay with the king and in 1319, surely, he was still consolidating his position at court.

6) 1321/22: Hugh’s ‘adventures’ in piracy. If he took part in the actual taking and raiding of ships as the chronicles suggest then he must have seen a bit of fighting. He certainly would have been exposed to some tough conditions on the waters of the Channel in winter.

7) 1322: Boroughbridge and Scotland. He was certainly with Edward during this time, although it is less certain that he took part in any actual fighting. He did however flee Byland with Edward when the Scots made a huge advance and nearly caught them.

So, as this shows, although he wasn’t a great warrior figure of the time by any means, he was at least capable of donning a harness of armour or wielding a weapon when he needed to.