This small corner of the web concentrates mainly on the life and times of Hugh Despenser the younger, as well as the reign of Edward II and the fourteenth century in general. It contains snippets of some (though certainly not all) of the research I have done in order to write a novel about him (and hopefully, later, a biography as well). Oh yes, some 21st century stuff sneaks its way in too, from time to time!
A couple of months ago I went on a slightly unscheduled tour of the area around York. One of the places I visited was Beverley Minster - a beautiful cathedral-like building in what is now a small and out of the way town. But Beverley used to have far more importance in medieval times - it was a place of great religious importance and it was also an important trading town for the region's prosperous wool trade. All of this made Beverley the 10th largest town in England by 1370.
The town was founded in the 7th century by John, the Bishop of York - later known as John of Beverley. He was later canonised to become Saint John of Beverley and many miracles were attributed to him thus promoting the church as a lucrative place of pilgrimage. The incoming wealth enabled a much grander church to be built and the current structure, most of which dates from about 1220, is considered to be the most architecturally impressive religious building in Britain that is not a cathedral.
St John, whose bones still lie under the floor in the nave, was also an important saint for the several kings of England. A Banner of St John, kept at Beverley, was supposed to aid the English in their battles against the Scots; Edward I, Edward II, Edward III and Henry IV all stopped off at the minster to pay their respects and collect the banner to take with them in their campaigns - with very mixed results! Obviously it didn't do Edward II much good - but Henry V credited his victory at Agincourt to the saint's intervention. Edward I was a great devotee of the saint (small surprise given his Scottish ambitions). Other famous followers were Julian of Norwich and St John Fisher (martyred by Henry VIII in 1535).
Pictures: Top: A view of Beverley Minster
Second: The Frith Stool - Anglo-Saxon in origin, it is connected to the Minister's rights of Sanctuary.
Third: The beautiful canopy of the Percy Tomb (either Eleanor or Idonea Percy 14th C)
Fourth: The nave looking towards the quire.
Postscript 1: Apologies for the strange formatting - Blogger is playing up for me today!
Postscript 2: The post that I've been banging on about is still in preparation - but nearly there! In fact it isn't even the post it started out as - through research etc it has somehow become bigger (in scope), slightly different (in topic) and much, much more of a pain in the ass to write! I am just waiting on the confirmation of one small detail and then I will be able to put it up!
While the next 'Hugh' post is still in progress, I'll just let you know how the work on the new web site is going. All of my archived posts are now loaded onto it and the 'design' work has also been finished. 'All' I have to do now is to load Alianore's posts (which will probably take the next few weeks!), cross link everything, get it online and test. But I can tell you already (at the risk of blowing my own trumpet) that it looks fab.
Both blogs will still appear and be easy to access and there will also be an Edward II merchandise page! Alianore and I are hoping to have guest writers as well. Fingers crossed, this will be one of the biggest and best history sites on the web. And, if things go well there are also plans for an Edward II Society and, if I can work it, virtual tours of castles by videocam.
I am really getting into this new technology stuff! Last weekend I went to Tewkesbury Medieval Festival - as I do every year. As always, it was fantastic and the stalls tempted alot of money from my purse. I even have a new 15th C costume for Destrier events, including some authentic leather shoes which will need a bit of breaking in! Anyway, back to the technology: I took some video while I was there - nothing to get too excited about though, unless you were taking part. I filmed the long (8 mins) walk past of all the re-enactors marching down to the battlefield. Among them was newsman John Sergeant, who was doing some filming and also the 'Despenser' crew I talked to last year. If you are interested, the video is below - as you'll see, I had some fun with iMovie doing it!
There will be another Hugh post along shortly - I am in the middle of preparing it. But to avoid a 'post drought' I thought I'd share a video with you. It's from footage taken by some wonderful un-named and unknown (to me) person at the Camelford Charter 750 Medieval Joust which I attended as a member of Destrier (my first show!). This site is supposed to be the location of Camlann, Arthur's last battle, so it was quite fitting to have such an event here.
Here are Destrier in action - thanks also to Nathan Bale for putting the footage together.
It's always good to see knights in action - even if they aren't 14th century!And if you are wondering where I am, thankfully I am a tiny dot in the distance! And just in case you were wondering, yes, those are the modern equivalent of destriers and they require a degree of skill to handle them.
It was a fantastic show and I really enjoyed my time there, despite having to come home early through illness - next time I shall be seriously reconsidering the camping option!
Thankyou to everyone in Destrier who made me feel welcome and also for all the laughter!
As it's 30 degrees plus in my sunlounge, I can't tay on my computer for any length of time - and the fan has to be trained on the Mac, not me! Therefore I haven't been able to do much in the way of research. So, instead, here's a selection of search terms that have graced my Sitemeter stats over the past month or so...
most unpopular art of queen isabella A little known fact was that Queen Isabella was a completely terrible artist. Luckily, none of her drawings exist today.
sir gower bannockburn Ah, that well-known chivalrous knight, famous as the 63rd best knight in Europe. He also came second in a silly knight name competition - behind sir Marmaduke Thweng
post mortem greetings ‘Is anyone there? Knock once for yes and twice for no…’
lady with one nostril coronation street I'm sure that Edward would have found that most entertaining.
speculative pictures A series of paintings (rather unpopular of course) by Queen Isabella which speculated a hundred horrible deaths for Hugh Despenser. In the event, his execution only used a few of them.
medieval tea stalls It wasn't such a hard life for peasants after all. As they couldn't pop into a coffee shop after work (because coffee hadn't been invented yet) they popped into a medieval tea stall. Oh, hang on a minute, tea hadn't been invented yet either...
i want a pictuer of ducking stool at the time of elizabethan 1 yes, well, I want an iPhone, but we can’t have it all, can we?
llywelyn bren youtube Obviously Llywelyn's been planning his comeback tour for some time.
this is that banished naughty montague? No, it’s probably that banished naughty Despenser. I can feel Shakespeare turning in his grave…
lordships for sale scam I bet Hugh wished he’d thought of that one. Mind you, William de Braose beat him to it with Gower!
execution sadism castration Yes, the 14th Century has it all. Actually, that would make a good byline for the novel!
steal inheritence by falsely accusing insanity Hugh missed a trick with this one too.
cucking stool Definition: A stool used for cucking bad people. They would be tied to it and thrown in the cucking pot. If they came out well-cucked and tender then they were innocent – and dead.
the back of a medieval knight Probably the best way to look at him if he is plum ugly from the front. And you can pull faces without any form of nasty retribution!
ladies cheltenham college corporal punishment I think you’ve come to the wrong site…
what was the girl barons jobs in medieval They probably they kept the boy barons happy.
bad parts of london in the 14th century That depends what you’re looking for mwahahaha
