What Is: the Privy Seal

Today we have several ways of verifying a signature and proving the identity of someone, from written ID to passwords, to handwriting analysis.  In Medieval times, the best way of verifying that someone signing a document was who they said they were, that they had the right to issue the document, and that copies of the document were legitimate was by affixing a wax seal to it.  No document, from charters and deeds, to writs and royal decrees, was considered legitimate, authentic and binding unless it bore the seal and/or the signature of the person who signed it.  Indeed, even if an individual couldn't sign his or her name, a seal was still sufficient proof that the document had passed under the seal, issued by the person whose seal was attached.

Nowhere was this more important than when kings issued charters, writs and decrees.  The King possessed two seals, the Great Seal of England, and his personal seal.  For security's sake, the great Seal was required to remain in the Chancery in London or Westminster.  However, the King, who often traveled around his dominions, had to have a means of attesting his personal approval to any documents issued in his name.  Beginning with the reign of King John, 1199-1216, the King's private seal, or Privy Seal, became the means for the King to execute documents in his name.  Depending on what the document was, it needed to be passed under the Great Seal as well as the King's Privy Seal.  Other documents bore the Privy Seal alone.  It was important enough that, in 1312, during the reign of King Edward II, the barons wrested control of the King's Privy Seal from him and assigned it to a member of the Council who became known as the Lord Privy Seal, the keeper of the King's seal.  From then out, kings affixed their signet to documents as a means of authenticating their signature, and the Signet was kept by the King's private secretary. 

Edward II had a hard time holding onto his own seal no matter who kept it.  In 1322, he was nearly captured at the Battle of Old Byland by the Scots.  Edward fled, but his personal seal was left behind to be taken as a trophy by Robert Bruce.  Only during Victoria's reign in 1884 did the legal significance of the Privy Seal cease.  By the Great Seal Act, documents no longer needed the King's Privy Seal to become law or legally binding.  The Office of Lord Privy Seal still remains in England as a Great Office of State. 

Royal: Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, 1453-1471

To be born into the Plantagenet family was to face a life of danger and all too often tragedy.  Even for a king's son, succeeding to the throne wasn't a sure bet.  Each and every generation of the family had to fight for the crown of England, and keep fighting to stay on their throne.  While some boys and teenagers ended up princes in towers, locked away never to be heard from again, others were dead in battle before they left their teens.  Such was the fate of Edward of Westminster, 1453-1471, the only son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster, with his father's hold on the throne already vulnerable.  Henry VI suffered from mental health issues which often impacted his ability to rule or even function in daily life.  This left room for rival members of the royal family, primarily the York faction, who felt they had more of a right to the throne and the ability to take it.  Propaganda, fake news and mud-slinger were just as prevalent then as they are now and a common smear thrown in Edward's face and that of his mother was that the boy wasn't Henry VI's son.  Popular opinion accused Margaret of several illicit relationships outside of marriage which, if proven, would have resulted in her downfall and the loss of the succession for Edward.  Henry, though, seems to have believed the boy was his.  In 1454, Edward was invested at Windsor as Prince of Wales.  The public investiture served as a message to rival factions, and to other countries, that Edward was the true son of his father and legitimate successor.

In 1460, when Edward was 7, Henry was captured at the Battle of Northampton, and forced to agree to an Act of Accord whereby his own son Edward was disinherited, and Richard, Duke of York and his sons were acknowledged as Henry's rightful successors.  Margaret fled with Edward to Cheshire, later making it to Wales and thence to Scotland, where the King of Scots declared his support for Edward's claim.  York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, and Margaret quickly led her army toward London.  Her forces defeated an army led by the Kingmaker Earl of Warwick, who had brought Henry with him.  Henry was abandoned on the battlefield as Warwick fled defeat.  With him were two knights who had sworn to keep Henry from harm.  Margaret asked her 7-year-old what should happen to the knights and Edward replied that their heads should be cut off.  This story has been used repeatedly to suggest that Edward was already at the age a cruel child.  However, like any other child, he would've wanted to give the "correct" answer and, in that day and age, beheading was the right answer.  A lion's cub was in training.

Margaret's forces were routed at the Battle of Towton.  Henry was captured, leaving Margaret and Edward to flee back to Scotland.  After several years of trying to inspire risings from their base in the north, Margaret and her son had no choice but to flee to France.  In 1467, a Milanese ambassador wrote of Prince Edward that he talked of nothing but war and cutting off heads.  Was Prince Edward a Joffrey Baratheon in the making, or a young man spoiling for his first fight.  The answer to that question depends on whose side of the Wars of the Roses one is on.  Meanwhile, Warwick had switched allegiance from Edward IV to Henry VI and made an alliance with Margaret.  He agreed that his daughter, Anne Neville, should be married to Edward, which happened in 1470.  The union was childless and might not have been consummated.  In 1470, Warwick led an army back to England and deposed Edward IV with the help of Edward IV's brother, the Duke of Clarence.  He returned Henry VI to the throne.  Margaret and Edward rejoined Henry in England in 1471. 

On April 14, 1471, Margaret and Edward landed in England as Warwick and Edward IV advanced on each other at the Battle of Barnet.  Warwick was killed and the Lancastrian force routed.  On May 4, 1471, Edward got his first taste of battle and it was his last.  He was either killed or captured at the Battle of Tewkesbury, fighting for his father's crown and his own.  Sources differ as to what happened next.  Contemporaneous accounts indicate that Edward died in battle.  Other accounts written later indicate that men under the command of the Duke of Clarence found Edward and immediately beheaded him.  Other sources stated that he was brought before Edward IV, who asked the Prince if he'd taken up arms against him.  The Prince replied that, "I came to recover my father's heritage."  Incensed, Edward IV smacked the young man across the face with his gauntlet, then Clarence and Gloucester killed him.  The second version is the one immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part 3.  Prince Edward was buried at Tewkesbury Abbey.  His widow, Anne Neville, later married Richard of Gloucester.

Prince Edward's epitaph read:

"Here lies Edward, Prince of Wales, cruelly slain whilst but a youth, Anno Domini 1471 May fourth.  Alas, the savagery of men.  Thou art the sole light of thy mother and the last hope of thy race." 

The King's/Queen's Beasts

One of the features of Windsor Castle near St. George's Chapel are large statues of real and mythical beasts bearing shields.  These are known as the Queen's Beasts.  Each beast and the emblem on the shield it carries represents an important dynasty or family in the lineage of Queen Elizabeth.  Like many other symbols surrounding the monarch, it affirms her right to rule as Queen by virtue of descent.  Display of the King's Beasts as a visual means of asserting power began in the reign of Henry VIII, himself a Plantagenet descendant.  He had imposing statues of the beasts erected in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace.  Since that time, display of the King's/Queen's Beasts has been used during coronations and other royal ceremonies, for the same reason.  The last occasion was Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953.  Those beasts are currently in the Museum of Canadian History in Gatineau, Canada.  As would be expected of a lady with many ties back to the Plantagenets, several beasts were the badges of the Plantagenet family or one of its offshoots.  Specifically, dealing with those beasts with Plantagenet connections, they are.

First and foremost, the Lion of England.  A lion rampant, or rearing with claws outstretched, was a well-known Plantagenet symbol.  The three lions rampant, gold on a red field, was associated with the royal family and the arms of England from at least the time of Richard I, though it wasn't made part of the official coat of arms of England until the reign of James I, another Plantagenet descendant.

The White Greyhound of Richmond was a badge of John of Gaunt as Earl of Richmond.  It was also used by his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, and a grandson, Henry VII.  The Beast carries a Tudor Rose on its shield, tying the Tudors and Lancastrians together.

Long before Yale was an Ivy League College, a Yale was a mythical beast.  A white leopard-like animal with gold spots and two crescent-shaped horns on its head.  This was the emblem of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.  The Yale carries Margaret's portcullis badge, later a well-known Tudor emblem.  The Tudors touted their Plantagenet ancestry every chance they got.

The White Lion of Mortimer was a popular badge of both Edward IV and Richard III.  The lion carries a white rose on a golden sun, a badge also used by both kings.

A griffin is another mythical beat, associated with Edward III, who used a griffin as his personal badge throughout his lifetime, even when he was entitled to the lion of England.  The shield bears an image of the Round Tower of Windsor, where Edward III was born, in addition to oak leaves and a royal crown.

The Black Bull of Clarence is another device of both Edward IV and Richard III that was used extensively by Lancastrians, Yorkists and Tudors.

Edward III and IV are responsible for the Falcon, which bears on its shield the falcon and fetterlock device that was used by both Richard of York and his son Edward IV as a personal emblem.  A fetterlock is a form of shackle, the bar of which can be displayed either open or locked, depending on which generation of Yorks was using it when.

The remaining Beasts are the Dragon of Wales and the Unicorn of Scotland, Edward I conducting extensive campaigns in both countries, which were the cause of endemic wars for decades.  Finally, the White Horse of Hanover, whose princely family to this day bears Plantagenet blood due to their descent from the royal family of England. 

 

Places: St. George's Chapel, Windsor

Orders of Chivalry existed for a variety of reasons, both military and political.  However, they were by nature highly religious institutions.  They were dedicated to a saint, usually St. George or one of the other military saints, such as St. Michael.  Investitures and yearly commemorative services included masses and a dedication to the saint as well as to the order in question.  And, orders often had a church as their particular headquarters or Mother Church.  For the Order of the Garter, found by Edward III in 1348, the Mother Church was St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where it still is today.

King Edward was busy in 1348.  In addition to founding the Order of the Garter, he founded two religious colleges, St. Stephen's in Westminster and St. George's at Windsor.  A college in a religious sense isn't an institution of higher learning.  It's a body of secular clergy with its own dean and administrative officers which aren't under the control of a religious order.  There was a chapel already in existence at Windsor, dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor.  Edward III had it rededicated to the Virgin Mary, St. Edward and St. George, as the collegiate church and Mother Church of the Order of the Garter.  Investitures of new Knights took place there, as did a yearly mass commemorating the Order's founding.  After Edward died, later kings remodeled and embellished the original structure.  Though called a chapel, under the direction of Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, it became more like a cathedral, with its own cloister, choir and chantries.

St. George's Chapel has served as a place of worship, marriage, baptism and burial for generations of English kings and queens but it isn't a chapel royal.  It's known as a Royal Peculiar, which means that it's under the direction of the monarch in consultation with its own dean and canons of Windsor.  Henry VI was the first important king buried there.  At one time, there was talk of making Henry a saint and the Chapel was a place of pilgrimage prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  Henry VIII remained partial to knighthood, St. George and the Garter, even after he'd thrown off the yoke of the Catholic Church.  He is buried at St. George's Chapel, along with his most beloved of queens, Jane Seymour.  The church was heavily damaged during the English Civil War, but when Cromwell needed a place to put Charles I's body, he chose four noblemen, including a Seymour descendant, the then-Earl of Hertford, the widower of Arabella Stuart, to take Charles body to Henry VIII's crypt in the chapel. 

The annual Garter Service takes place at St. George's each June.  The banners of the 24 Knights of the Garter hang in the Chapel and each has his or her own stall or pew to attend services there.  Numerous royal weddings, including those of several of Victoria's children and grandchildren, took place at St. George's.  The last high-profile weddings were that of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys Jones, 1999, Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly in 2008.  Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles had a blessing service after their civil wedding there in 2005. 

Royal: Joan, Fair Maid of Kent, 1328-1385

The women of the Plantagenet family were made for romance novels.  Beautiful, smart and tempestuous, with a will to power and a flair for danger, they were the nasty women of their time.  Joan of Kent, 1328-1385, mother of Richard II, a mother of a lion with lion's blood, fits the bill to a T.  She was said to be a remarkably beautiful woman, though the title Fair Maid of Kent is a later invention, not applied to her during her lifetime.

Joan had several crosses back to the Plantagenet dynasty.  Her father was Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, a son of Edward I.  Her mother was Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell, was a great-granddaughter of King John of England.  Margaret Wake was also a great-granddaughter of Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile, a daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.  When Joan was just two years old in 1330, her father Edmund of Woodstock, was executed on the orders of Queen Isabella, widow of Edward II and her lover Roger Mortimer.  Edmund's crime was that he had supported his late brother, Edward II, when most other members of the royal family supported Edward III.  Margaret Wake and her four children were placed under house arrest in Arundel Castle.  As he grew older, her cousin Edward III and his wife Philippa were kind to Margaret's children.

Little Joan inherited her father's knack for trouble.  When she was just twelve she contracted a secret marriage with a soldier by the name of Thomas Holland in 1340.  She did so in direct violation of English law, which forbid her marriage without the king's consent, and common custom, which decreed that women just didn't do such things.  Holland was dispatched overseas to the war in France and later on Crusade.  Both he and Joan kept their relationship quiet.  Joan's family arranged her marriage with William Montacute, heir to the Earl of Salisbury.  The marriage was childless and, years later, Holland came back from France a successful military commander.  The full truth of Joan's secret marriage came out.  Holland stuck to his guns and petitioned the pope to annul Joan's marriage to Montacute, by now Earl of Salisbury.  The Pope did and the King gave his consent to the marriage, or remarriage, of Joan and Thomas Holland.  The couple had five children.  Their eldest son, Thomas, Jr., inherited his grandfather's title of Earl of Kent.  Her next son became Duke of Exeter.  One of her daughters, Young Joan, became Duchess Consort of Brittany.  Through her children, Joan was the ancestress of Margaret Beaufort, Elizabeth of York and Katherine Parr.

Joan inherited her mother's title and became 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell, as well as Countess of Kent.  Thomas Holland, Sr., died in 1360, and by that time Joan had another admirer.  Edward the Black Prince presented Joan with a silver cup he had taken during his campaigns in France.  The two lovers secretly wed in 1360, but were at first reluctant to inform the King.  In 1361, the story once again came out and King Edward III secured the necessary papal dispensation.  Joan and the Black Prince were cousins and her first/second husband Salisbury was still alive, so a papal dispensation was necessary.  Through her husband, Joan of Kent became the first English Princess Consort of Wales.  She bore the Black Prince two children, Edward of Angouleme, who died young, and the future Richard II.  Unfortunately, Joan and her third husband had little time together.  In June, 1376, he died from the effects of chronic dysentery, leaving Joan with two small children.  Edward III's death in 1377 made Joan the mother of the King of England, Richard II.

Joan had lent her support to the Lollard movement, as followers of Bible translator John Wycliffe were called.  Clashes between Wycliffe's followers and royal authorities risked implicating her for heresy.  She was known for her sympathies for the poor and charitable nature.  Richard's early reign faced the dangers of the Peasant's Revolt and later Wat Tyler's rebellion in 1381.  Joan found herself trapped by the mob during Tyler's Revolt, but when his followers realized who she was, they parted and let her pass unharmed and with cheers.  She weathered her final tragedy in 1385, when her son, Sir John Holland, who was on campaign in Scotland, quarreled with and killed Ralph Stafford, a son of the Earl of Stafford, who was a favorite of Queen Anne of Bohemia.  John fled to England and took sanctuary at the shrine of St. John of Beverly.  Joan pleaded with Richard to forgive his half-brother, a process that went on for four days.  Finally, exhausted, she died in her bed at Wallingford Castle.  Richard relented and pardoned his half-brother on condition that he take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and stay gone for awhile.

Joan was buried next to the first man she truly loved, Thomas Holland, Sr., at Greyfriars in Lincolnshire.  The Black Prince, anticipating that she would want to be buried with him, had made a chantry chapel for her in Canterbury Cathedral.  The decoration of the chapel features busts said to be of Joan.  She has featured in several novels over the years, either as a man or side character. 

 

Under Armor, or Underarmor

Medieval armor was made of either chain mail, or later plate.  It could be heavy, but men who trained to wear it could move and ride around it in with as much ease as a football or hockey player can move in their body armor.  However, one thing that was essential, as it is for modern athletes, was a proper base layer and padded under armor.  These absorbed sweat and prevented chafing, and also absorbed some of the shock of being struck during battle. 

Knights started with a bass layer, including drawers and a linen shirt.  Linen is effective at wicking moisture and absorbing some BO.  Men also wore a close-fitting linen coif, sometimes quilted, over their cropped hair, to help with sweat and padding.  The main upper garment was a quilted or padded jack or gambeson, later known as an arming doublet.  Some of these had their own ties to better assist with strapping on the various pieces of upper body armor.  Hose-like garments known as chausses protected the legs.  Armor was fixed on leather laces or later with straps and buckles, and usually required one or two assistants, often squires training to be knights, in order to get ready for battle. 

Reenactors, of course, know all about this stuff.  For those of us who don't hang around Renaissance Faires or living history societies, there's help and hope.  At Warwick Castle in England, the wax artists of Madame Tussaud's have recreated Richard "the Kingmaker" Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and his retinue getting ready for the Battle of Barnet in April, 1471.  In the tableau, a squire helps Warwick with a piece of leg armor.  His under armor is clearly visible, including chausses, gambeson, as well as a linen undershirt.  Unfortunately, his precautions for bodily safety didn't help him.  Warwick was killed in the battle. 

 

What Is: Loveday, 1458

Despite what its name sounds like, this wasn't a Medieval version of Woodstock.  And, at times, there was nothing loving about it.  Feudal society was by its nature both warlike and litigious.  People had two means of settling their disputes, either go to war or go to court.  Both were risky propositions.  A third avenue was arbitration or mediation between the two parties, agreed to by both and either under the auspices of the courts or of the Church.  Love in those days could also mean peace and accord.  A day could refer to a specific day, or a day set aside by a court for something to happen.  Thus, a loveday was a day set aside for all parties to a dispute to come to peace and accord.

The most famous example of a loveday was that held on March 24, 1458, between the warring factions of the Plantagenet family and their various supporters.  On the one hand were Henry VI, his wife, Margaret of Anjou, and their young son.  On the other side were Richard, Duke of York, the father of four capable sons, Richard "the Kingmaker" Neville, Earl of Warwick, and the Duke of Somerset, himself a descendant of John of Gaunt.  The stakes couldn't be higher, who would inherit the English throne.  Henry VI, still vulnerable from his last bout with the mental illness that plagued him and a virtual prisoner, had no choice but to agree that Richard of York and his sons would inherited, thereby disinheriting his own son.  Of course, this was unacceptable to Margaret of Anjou, who was willing to raise an army in her son's behalf.  Fighting resumed in the War of the Roses almost as soon as the ceremony was over.

Royal: Richard, 3rd Duke of York, 1411-1460

So much attention is often given to the wives and mothers of the Plantagenet dynasty that it's easy to forget that fathers, too, played a part in shaping their children's destiny, often at the cost of their lives.  Richard, 3rd Duke of York, 1411-1460, was the principal Yorkist claimant to the throne of England for decades until his sons Edward IV and later Richard III took up that banner after his death in the Battle of Wakefield.

Richard of York had Plantagenet blood on both sides of his family.  His grandfather was Edmund of Langley, a son of Edward III and brother of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  His mother, Anne Mortimer, was the granddaughter of another of Edward III's sons, Lionel of Antwerp.  Richard had a rough life.  His mother died giving birth to him.  When Richard was a teenager, his father, Richard of Conisborough, was executed as a traitor.  Richard's uncle, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, died at Agincourt, 1415, in process of saving the life of King Henry V.  Perhaps for this reason, Richard himself was not attainted by his father's treason and was allowed to assume his uncle's title, becoming 3rd Duke of York.  He also inherited the Mortimer family properties on the death of his uncle, making him, in 1425, a wealthy and powerful man.   Powerful enough to be considered a potential threat to the Lancastrian line.

At the age of 13, Richard was betrothed to 9-year-old Cecily Neville, the aunt of the future Kingmaker Earl of Warwick.  Cecily herself had Plantagenet blood and wasn't called Proud Cis for nothing.  She was an intelligent and capable woman with a temper to match.  The couple had seven surviving children, including two future Kings of England, a future Duchess of Burgundy, and two daughters who would leave generations of descendants in the female line.  Through Edward IV, Richard is an ancestor of all English kings from Henry VIII to Prince George of Cambridge.  Richard served as Henry V's Lieutenant in France, outwardly in charge of Henry's hold on the French crown, which was always tenuous at best.  Richard of York would hold this post twice, ending in 1445 with a negotiated truce with France.  Later, he would also as King Henry VI's Lieutenant in Ireland, a post designed to remove Richard from the center of power in London.

Richard became more and more disenchanted with Henry VI's rule, believing that the King had given up too easily on his possessions in France in exchange for a French bridge, Margaret of Anjou.  Quick to perceive a potential threat to her weak husband's hold on the throne, Margaret soon developed a personal animosity Richard of York.  The counties of Essex and Kent rose in the Cade Rebellion in 1450.  Richard returned from Ireland with an army and marched on London.  York's aim was not so much to take the crown from Henry but to demand reform and to be acknowledged as Henry's heir, since Margaret of Anjou hadn't yet produced an heir.  The King allowed Richard to present his demands and kept him under house arrest in London.  Henry's position strengthened when Margaret became pregnant and as the tide of public opinion shifted against the Yorkists. 

Then in 1453, English forces suffered a defeat in Gascony that triggered a complete mental breakdown for Henry.  Unable to rule, the nobles had no choice but to convene a Great Council.  As the premier duke of the realm and a senior royal, Richard of York was necessarily included.  He was appointed Protector of the Realm and Chief Councilor on March 27, 1454.  Henry recovered his wits in 1455 and took his anger out on Richard of York, reversing much of his policies as Protector.  Realizing that Henry wasn't capable of ruling, York joined with Warwick and began recruiting support for another uprising.  After an almost skirmish at St. Albans on May 22, 1455, the King had no choice but to readmit York to his council.  York continued to govern with the King a virtual prisoner of the council.  Henry collapsed again in 1456.

York had to deal with Margaret of Anjou, who perceived him as a threat to the succession of her own son.  The power factions on the royal council gradually weakened the Yorkist position.  Some of these were put aside in a truce known as Loveday, on March 24, 1458, but they wouldn't lie dormant for long.  The King recovered and convened his council, ordering York, Warwick and others of their alliance to appear before him.  Knowing that they faced a stronger force and possible arrest, York and Warwick refused the royal summons and rose again.  The two factions met at the Battle of Ludgate on 12 October 1459.  The Yorkist force disintegrated and York fled to his properties in Ireland, Edward, now Earl of March, fled to his sister Margaret in Burgundy.  Cecily, George and Richard were held hostage at Coventry.  

While York remained in Ireland, Warwick and Salisbury fled to Calais and raised an army, returning to England.  The King was taken prisoner again at the Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1459.  Richard of York returned to England in September and marched on London, his banner bearing the royal arms of England and advertising that, this time, he meant to take the crown if he could get it.  On October 10, 1459, in front of a group of assembled nobles, Richard of York appeared with the royal standard and advanced to the throne.  He placed his hand on it, expecting the nobles to acclaim him king.  Their silence let him know that he did not have their support.  He and Henry reached the Act of Accord, wherein Henry disinherited his own son and acknowledged Richard of York and his sons as his heirs.  He was made Prince of Wales and de facto ruler of England, as Henry was still a prisoner. 

He had reckoned without Margaret of Anjou, who wasn't about to take this slight to her own son without a fight.  She enlisted the support of the Scots and began raising a Lancastrian army.  On December 30, 1460, York advanced on the Lancastrians from Sandal Castle.  The two armies met at Wakefield and the result was disaster.  York was killed in battle, as was his teenage son, Edmund of Rutland.  York's body was buried at Pontefract, but his head was put on a spike and taken to London Bridge, wearing a paper crown.  It would now be up to his sons Edward of March, now Duke of York, and Richard of Gloucester to press their family's claim to the crown of England.  Edward IV would later have his father's remains moved to the church at Fotheringhay.

The Talbot Shrewsbury Book

Not all illuminated books in the Medieval era were religious in nature.  Wealthy nobles could afford to have hand-painted volumes dedicated to a variety of subjects, hunting warfare, poetry and romantic stories.  Even better yet, the seriously wealthy could commission a hand-painted manuscript and present it as a gift, often as a commemorative of an important event.  John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury was one such wealthy nobleman.  And, his gift was a commemorative book created in Rouen, France and presented to Margaret of Anjou, a French princess who was betrothed to King Henry VI in 1444. 

The Talbot Shrewsbury Book isn't about religious topics.  Instead, it covers many subjects, all of which would be pertinent as a commemorative volume as well as a source book of useful knowledge for Margaret.  The volume contains 15 different documents, in French.  The first several pieces are songs known as chansons de geste, basically dealing with love or chivalrous deeds.  In addition to the poems were chronicles of important military leaders such as Charlemagne and Alexander the Great.  Brief treatises on chivalry and warfare are next, followed by the statutes of the Order of the Garter.  One of the illustrations is a genealogical table, showing Margaret's descent from Louis IX of France, known as St. Louis, as well as the connections by descent or marriage of the houses of Capet, Anjou and Plantagenet.  There are several illustrations in the book, including Edward II and Isabella of France, as well as Katherine of Valois and Henry V, Henry IV and Margaret, herself.  Current Plantagenet relatives were featured, such as Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and John, Duke of Bedford, uncles of Henry VI.  Even Joan of Arc, Bedford's bitter enemy, is featured in an illustration.

The book remained in royal hands long after Margaret's death, being mentioned in inventories of royal libraries during the reigns of Henry VIII and Charles II.  In is currently in the royal collection in the British Library in London.

Hanging, Drawing and Quartering

The climactic execution scene in Braveheart has given many the idea that this gruesome punishment was invented by Edward I especially for William Wallace.  In fact, the idea if not the procedure predates Wallace by several years.  Treason was a serious offense in any Medieval kingdom, calling for gruesome punishments.  One of the most serious of any treasonable offenses was to attempt to assassinate a king, as God's representative on earth.  In 1238, a soldier attempted to assassinated Henry III.  Henry reacted as one would expect, by ordering a punishment that would fit the crime.  The man was dragged to the place of execution behind a horse, beheaded, then his body divided into three parts.  Each port was then dragged through one of the larger cities in England, including London, and then staked on a gibbet as a warning for anyone else who might attempt the same crime.  Later, it was discovered that the man had been an agent of a known outlaw, William de Marisco, who was captured and received a similar punishment in 1242.

The next high-profile traitor to receive the sentence was Dafydd ap Gruffydd, who proclaimed himself Prince of Wales and rose against King Edward.  After he was captured, the punishment was refined, each portion of the process representing a part of the crime committed.  After being drawn to his place of execution behind a horse, he was hanged alive for the killing of various English nobles.  For further killings, he was eviscerated while still alive and his entrails burned.  For conspiring to kill the king, his body was quartered into four pieces and the pieces sent to four cities in England.  Finally, he was beheaded and his head spiked on London Bridge.  In 1305, William Wallace suffered the same fate.  His quarters were sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth as a particular lesson to rebellious Scots.

Hugh Despenser the Younger, one of the King Edward II's favorites, also suffered the punishment, which was part of common law but not officially codified as the penalty for treason.  Edward III fixed that in 1351 by issuing the Statue of Treasons, which official defined what constituted treason in English law, and fixed the penalty as hanging, drawing and quartering for men and burning at stake for women.  Nobles could have their sentence commuted to beheading at the King's pleasure.  The drawing referred to two portions of the punishment.  Offenders were initially bound and dragged behind a horse.  However, this often meant that they arrived at the scaffold barely alive and thus cheated the executioner.  A hurdle, or wooden or wicker pallet was substituted instead.  However, crowds often vented their anger on notorious criminals.  Wallace was struck with whips and stones, beaten by the crowd and had rotten food and sewage thrown at him.  The other portion of the punishment was the evisceration, which was also called drawing a the time.  In particular, the emasculation portion of the punishment for men was a symbol that their offspring were corrupted by blood, i.e., unable to inherit their property through attainder after conviction.

Hanging, drawing and quartering remained the official punishment for treason, which also encompassed religious heresy, through the reign Elizabeth I, when many English Catholics and foreign missionaries were executed by the method.  The Regicides were also executed by Charles II for having brought about the death of his father, Charles I.   It was the official penalty still on the books during the American Revolution, which meant that the Founding Fathers were actually taking their lives into their hands by signing the Declaration of Independence.  It was applied after an uprising in 1817, and modified for the perpetrators of the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820.  They were beheaded and their heads removed by a surgeon.  The penalty was ultimately abolished in 1870.

 

The Dunstable Swan Jewel

Workers excavating the site of the former Dunstable Friary, a monastery that had been broken up and destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, found an exquisite jewel.  It was a brooch, complete with a chain and a pin and catch.  It could be worn attached to clothing either as a brooch or similar to a watch fob.  The jewel was a crowned swan made of gold, with white enamel for the intricate detailing of the feathers.  The best guess was that the little bird was meant to be worn as a livery badge by a highly-placed retainer of a nobleman during the Medieval era.

Many nobles used swans as an emblem.  Both Henry IV and his son Henry V used a swan as a personal badge during certain periods of their lives.  Other nobles such as members of the Bohun family.  Mary de Bohun was the wife of Henry of Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV.  The Beauchamp family as Earls of Warwick also used the swan as a badge.  Had the little jewel belonged directly to one of the Henrys or to a nobleman, it would have been more elaborate still, such as being inset with jewels.  More likely, it was meant as a presentation piece to a high-ranking retainer who held a place in a noble's employ or as one of his adherents.

The jewel could either have been made on the Continent or by a foreign-born jeweler working in London around 1400.  Dunstable was a common site for tournaments at the period, meaning that both foreign knights and English nobles and knights would have been visiting the area.  Lancastrian armies camped there in 1458 and 1461.  Likely, the little jewel was dropped or left behind at some point and swept into a pile of rubble, where it remained until it was found by archaeologists excavating the Dunstable Friary.  It now rests in British Museum. 

Did It Happen: Wars 'N' Roses

According to every textbook on English history, the two main branches of the House of Plantagenet squared off in a bloody generations-long contest for the English throne known as the Wars of the Roses.  The House of York fought under its badge of a white rose, while the Lancastrians chose a red rose.  Eventually, the last Plantagenet king, Richard III, met his demise on the battlefield at Bosworth and his nemesis, Henry Tudor, a descendant of the red rose Lancastrians married Richard's niece, Elizabeth, the White Rose of York.  The two roses were united in the red and white Tudor rose, even as the two bloodlines were united in the Tudor dynasty.

So, did it happen?

Shakespeare says so.  In Henry V, Act 1, the supporters of Richard, Duke of York and the Duke of Somerset dramatically pluck red and white roses from bushes as a way of showing their support for either of the two quarreling dukes.  Sir Walter Scott says so.  In his 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein, which is set during the time period, the term Wars of the Roses appears for the first time.  Nevertheless, the fact remains Shakespeare was a playwright who was working under the reign of Henry VII's great-granddaughter Elizabeth I and later, great-grandson James I.  Sir Walter Scott is often credited as one of the earliest historical novel writers.  I.e., both of them wrote fiction for a living.  No.  Victorian historians were quick to pick up the handy phrase and we've been stuck with it ever since.

Well?  Did it happen?  Not quite.

First, a word about heraldry.  Without getting too complicated, families were identified by their coats of arms.  The Kings of England used the royal arms.  Various families descended from various kings, such as the Dukes of York and Lancaster, would have used variations of the royal arms with various marks or differences, which is a term of art in heraldry.  Individual lords, ladies, clerics, knights, towns and guilds had another more personal identifier called a badge.  Badges were emblems which could either be based on some aspect of the coat of arms or could be some symbol with personal meaning to the individual involved.  For example, Edward I was King of England entitled to use the royal arms.  His personal emblem or badge was a golden rose.  Members of Edward's personal household staff would have worn his badge on their livery to tell whom they served.  Badges were used much the same way as company logos on caps and t-shirts.  They can be part of an employee uniform, or they can be a means of branding.  Thus, badges could be elaborate jeweled objects of art meant to be worn on a chain of office or presented to a high-ranking retainer.  Or, it could be an embroidered or painted patch worn on a cloak or tabard.  Servants, men-at-arms and retainers of a given royal or lord wore their master's badge as a mark of employment.  Anyone loyal to a particular lord, whether he was in the lord's employ or not, could also wear the badge as a mark of their loyalty.

Things got further complicated when the same individual used a different badge during different periods of their life.  When Edward IV was a young man and titled as Earl of March, he used a sun in splendor emblem.  This created a bit of havoc at the Battle of Barnet, when followers of Edward's sun badge mistook it for a similar star badge of Earl of Oxford, fighting on the opposite side of the battle and vice versa, creating cross-fighting between the two groups.  Later, as Duke of York, Edward used the York emblem of the falcon and fetterlock.  Thus, throughout most of the War, each royal or noble personage used his or her own personal emblem, and those loyal to him or her followed suit.  The same held true at Bosworth, where Richard's men fought under his symbol, a white boar, versus Henry Tudor's red dragon.  However, the Wars of the White Boar and Red Dragon just doesn't have the same ring unless it's a karate movie.

So, what about those roses?  The white rose of York was the personal emblem of the first Duke of York, Edmund of Langley, but was not in use by either of the next three Dukes of York, Edward, Richard and his son, Edward IV.  The last two used the falcon and fetterlock.  Meanwhile, the red rose was not a Lancastrian emblem at all.  It was a later Tudor invention, brought about by the union of Elizabeth of York with Henry Tudor.  A joint badge of a white rose on a red rose became the Tudor badge used on Tudor livery, sewn onto cloaks and tabards, carved into palace walls, embroidered on tapestries, draped from chains of office and, over time, an emblem of England in general.

What Is: a Manciple

One of Chaucer's colorful characters is someone known as a manciple.  He serve as a purchasing agent for a group of attorneys, and although he is illiterate, he's managing to feather his own nest in his position.  So what is a manciple.

A manciple was a purchasing agent for a large institution, such as a college, monastery, or law court, similar to a modern-day procurement officer or quartermaster.  Not only were they in charge of requisitioning food and other items, manciples who worked in private households might also be in charge of making sure that the right items of food were apportioned for meals and that foodstuffs and other items weren't wasted.  In Medieval times, lawyers and judges were often itinerant, traveling from one city to another wherever court sessions were held.  A manciple would have been responsible for securing their accommodations and food.  Because both money and provisions traveled through his hands, such a person could make a bit of money for himself selling provisions on the side or giving and receiving kickbacks from merchants. 

Some institutions still use the term manciple to refer to their procurement officers, including the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.  The Charterhouse in London also has a manciple.  It is a title in some orders of Freemasonry. 

Queen: Elizabeth of York, 1466-1503

Elizabeth of York is best known as the mother of the Tudor dynasty but she was, by virtue of her birth, the last Plantagenet queen consort of England.  A main character in Philippa Gregory's novels, The White Queen (played by Freya Mavor), and The White Princess (Jodie Comer), Elizabeth comes across as an incestuous schemer who stops at nothing including the murder of her own aunt-by-marriage, and conniving to place a Yorkist pretender on the English throne at the expense of her husband and sons.  It's easy to make this fictional leap because that's what Plantagenets did.  Well, not always. 

Elizabeth was born in 1466, the oldest daughter of Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville.  Elizabeth Woodville was reckoned a great beauty in her day and her eldest daughter inherited the best from two genetically blessed parents.  The Tudor golden hair and brilliant complexion was her contribution to the gene pool.  Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville had ten children, of whom 2 boys and 5 girls survived.  Elizabeth's had a happy childhood, but all that changed in 1483, when Edward IV died unexpectedly.  Her uncle, Richard of Gloucester, moved quickly to secure the throne for himself.  Edward V, Elizabeth's older brother, was placed in the Tower for safekeeping.  Alarmed, Elizabeth Woodville took her remaining son Richard of York, and her daughters into sanctuary at Westminster Abbey.  And here's where the plot thickens.  Richard approached Elizabeth Woodville and coaxed or demanding that she release her youngest son into his care.  Elizabeth either allowed it and allowed young Richard to go with his uncle or, according to later rumor, substituted a biological child of Edward IV while sending the real Richard of Shrewsbury incognito to his aunt Margaret of York in Burgundy.  Soon after joining his brother in the Tower, both boys disappeared into history, becoming the famous Princes of the Tower.

After the disappearance of her son, Elizabeth Woodville took other steps to secure her children's future.  She opened communication with Margaret Beaufort, Lady Stanley, the mother of Henry Tudor, offering Elizabeth's hand in marriage if and when Henry chose to invade England and claim the crown.  Meanwhile, Richard III again persuaded Mama Elizabeth to allow her daughters to come back to Court as blood princesses.  While her acquiescence may have been a sign that she didn't believe Richard III responsible for the boys' deaths, it may also be that, in reality she had no choice.  Richard could make it a command had she pressed the issue.  Rumors soon swirled that Richard had his eye on his eldest niece, Elizabeth.  Richard's wife Anne was in failing health and, without an heir, Richard would need a young wife capable of bearing sons.  The rumors also suggested that Elizabeth connived with her uncle to hasten Anne's death.  The rumors forget one thing.  Richard III had declared all his nieces to be illegitimate.  It would have been not only incestuous but self-defeating for him to marry Elizabeth when an alliance with a foreign princess would have served him better.  When Anne finally did die in 1485, Richard took care to publicly deny any rumors that he would marry Elizabeth and sought a double marriage with the royal family of Portugal, himself with a Portuguese princess, and Elizabeth with her brother, to dispose of the issue.

Henry Tudor put a crimp in these plans by invading England and killing Richard at the Battle of Bosworth.  With her uncle and brothers dead, Elizabeth arguably had a claim to the crown in her own right.  But England still wasn't ready for a Queen Regnant, and Henry Tudor had no plans for a double monarchy a la William and Mary.  He had himself crowned King of England and then, on January 18, 1486, he and Elizabeth of York were married in Westminster Abbey.  Elizabeth gave birth to the first-born Arthur on September 20, 1486, eight months after their wedding.  Then, on November 25, 1487, Elizabeth was crowned Queen Consort of England.  She would have seven children in all, but only Arthur, Margaret, Mary and Henry would survive.  Far from being a conniving schemer, Elizabeth left politics to Henry.  She preferred looking after her children at the nursery palace of Eltham, needlework and charity, music, dancing, and caring for her greyhounds. 

Then, tragedy struck.  In 1502, her eldest son Arthur, newly married to Katherine of Aragon, died of tuberculosis in Wales.  Both Henry and Elizabeth were beside themselves with grief.  Elizabeth comforted her husband by reminding him that Henry, Jr., was healthy and that she and the King were both young enough to have further children.  She became pregnant with a final daughter, Katherine, and gave birth to her in the palace of the Tower of London on February 2, 1503.  Katherine survived only a few days.  Elizabeth caught childbirth fever and died on February 11, 1503, her 37th birthday.  Henry VII and his surviving three children were devastated.  The King withdrew into seclusion for days and young Henry would be profoundly moved by his mother's death for the rest of his life.  He ordered candles and masses each year for her death anniversary until his own death as a widower in 1509.  Although his health was never strong after the double blow of Arthur and Elizabeth dying, he died of illness and not grief. 

Elizabeth claimed her place in popular culture.  The nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpense speaks of a queen in her parlor eating bread and honey.  Some believe this refers to Elizabeth of York.  She's also the face of the Queen of Hearts in the standard playing card deck.  Her wooden funeral effigy survives to this day, as does the double tomb effigy of gisant of her and Henry VII.  Elizabeth's personal badge, the white rose of York over the red rose of Lancaster/Tudor is the basis of the Tudor Rose, still an emblem of England.  Now, as for Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Elizabeth's long-lost brother Richard of York, likely Flemish and born in Tournai around 1483.  He bore a close resemblance to a young Edward IV, gaining support from James IV of Scotland, who offered him a marriage to the daughter of one of his leading nobles, Katherine Gordon, daughter of Earl of Huntly.  Warbeck also gained the backing of Margaret of York, Elizabeth's aunt.  He landed in England in 1497 and his movement quickly gained steam.  He was quickly captured and placed in the Tower.  Though Warbeck's origins are unclear, most modern historians doubt he was Richard of Shrewsbury, though he may have been a biological son of either Edward IV, or maybe even Margaret of York.

His wife, Katherine, was sent to live with Elizabeth and her children at Eltham Palace.  There's no evidence that Elizabeth ever supported Warbeck or believed that he was her long-lost brother, Richard.  There's also no evidence that she supported any attempts by her young cousin, Edward of Clarence, Earl of Warwick, to claim the throne.  Elizabeth may have been loyal to her birth family, but her responsibility would lie first to her mother and later her sisters.  And that meant keeping on Henry Tudor's good side.  Later, when her own boys Arthur and Henry were born, Elizabeth would have observed the first rule of all Plantagenet mothers of lions, to safeguard her own sons' inheritance at all costs.  In a push comes to shove, she would have done whatever was needed to keep her sons on the throne, even against other Yorkist claimants.  Margaret of York had no children and would have had the luxury to bank on a Yorkist claimant.  Elizabeth had no choice but to stick by Henry Tudor and make sure one of their boys carried her claim to the throne.  Any other Plantagenet queen worth the name would've done the same.  It was that simple.

Places: Pontefract Castle, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

If ever there was an award for most ill-fated castle in English history, Pontefract Castle near Wakefield, West Yorkshire would have to be a top contender.  Among other things, it saw the murder of a King and the beginning of the downfall of a doomed English Queen.

Construction on the castle began in 1070 by a Norman baron known as Ilbert de Lacy.  He'd been given the site as a reward by William the Conqueror as part of the Norman conquest and, as usual with such sites, the original structure was wood replaced with stone over time.  Ilbert's descendant, Robert de Lacy, failed to support King Henry I during a struggle within the Norman dynasty for the throne and the irate King confiscated the castle.  The Lacy family remained connected enough with it that Roger de Lacy paid King Richard 3,000 marks for the Honour of Pontefract, or the right to use the land.  The Castle itself remained in royal hands until John granted the Castle back to the Lacy family.  They built a large stone donjon or keep for the castle during their tenure.

The Castle passed by marriage under the control of a Plantagenet descendant, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and here is where the tragedies associated with this castle begin.  In 1322, Thomas became involved in a war against King Edward II's favorites, the Despenser father and son.  After a loss at the Battle of Boroughbridge, Thomas took refuge in the Castle.  Edward II besieged the Castle, tried his cousin for treason in the great hall, and ordered his execution.  Thomas is buried in Pontefract Priory and his tomb there became a minor shrine.  The Castle went to Henry, Duke of Lancaster, and later to the most famous Lancastrian Duke, John of Gaunt.  It became one of Gaunt's many personal residences and he spent a great deal of money on making the fortress a home.  After Gaunt's death, Richard II intended to give the Castle to one of his own favorites.  The prospect of losing this Castle in particular aroused the wrath of Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, who'd been in exile when his father died.  Bolingbroke landed at Ravenspur and went right away to Pontefract Castle, making it his first base in England.

In a strange irony, it was Richard II who found himself at Pontefract in 1400, a prisoner who'd been forced to relinquish his crown to Bolingbroke, now Henry IV.  Richard died at Pontefract, most likely murdered, though no one is sure exactly when or how.  The Darcy family became guardians of the Castle on behalf of the Royal Family, until 1536, when Thomas Darcy surrendered the Castle during the Pilgrimage of Grace revolt against Henry VIII.  Henry viewed the act as treason, and later had Darcy executed.  Henry and his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, stayed at the Castle in 1541 during their tour of Yorkshire.  There, Katherine had a tryst with Thomas Culpepper that would later prove to be her ruin.  In 1569, another woman doomed to the block, Mary Stuart, stayed briefly at the Castle.  The Castle was besieged three times by Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War.  In 1649, the castle was slighted, or deliberately destroyed, to prevent future use as a base by Royalist supporters.  The remains of the Castle are still discernable today.

Almost a Queen: Mary de Bohun, c 1368-1394

The women who married into the Plantagenet family provided vital links between the generations, even if they never wore a crown.  One such was Mary de Bohun, c 1368-1394, the wife of Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV.  She would give birth to four remarkable sons who fit the term, band of brothers, even if the phrase was a later invention.

Mary herself had lion's blood.  Her father was Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford.  Her mother, Joan FitzAlan,  was the daughter of the 10th Earl of Arundel and Eleanor of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, a grandson of Henry III.  Mary was also a descendant of Welsh prince Llewellyn the Great.  Mary and her sister Eleanor were the sole heirs to their father's vast inheritance.  Eleanor was married to another Plantagenet, Thomas of Woodstock.  In order to keep the entire FitzAlan inheritance for Eleanor, Thomas tried to force Mary, who was 14 years old, to become a nun.  John of Gaunt and Mary's aunt stole her away from Thomas and took her to Arundel Castle, where she married Henry of Bolingbroke in 1380.  John of Gaunt wanted to keep the marriage unconsummated until Mary was at least 16, but Mary and Henry had other plans.  She soon became pregnant with a child that lived only a few days after birth. 

Mary was at Monmouth Castle where she gave birth to the future Henry V, 1386-1422.  Next came Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1387-1421, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, 1389-1435, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 1390-1447.  Two girls followed, Blanche, 1392-1409, who later married the Elector Palatine of the Rhine.  Philippa, 1394-1430, married Eric of Pomerania and eventually became Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.  Thus, all of Mary's surviving children did quite well for themselves.  All the boys were able military commanders, Henry V being the victor of Agincourt and John of Bedford being Joan of Arc's nemesis.  Mary didn't live to see her children grow up.  She died in childbirth to Philippa and was buried at the Church of Annunciation of Newarke in Leicester.  The elaborate Psalter given to commemorate her and Henry's marriage survives, showing her likeness on the cover.

Did It Happen: Chastity Belts

The Plantagenets were no stranger to extra-marital sex and its resultant scandals.  While men could get away with a Rosamund Clifford or Jane Shore on the side, or hope to marry their Katherine Swynford or Eleanor Cobham, women weren't so lucky.  The punishment for adultery, especially for a noble or royal woman where dynasties and bloodlines were at stake, was technically a form of petty treason punishable by death.  Usually, this mean divorce and life imprisonment, sometimes in a convent.  Still, the rumors swirled about Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, Katherine of Valois and Elizabeth of York.  What were they up to, and with whom? 

Because women's morals were policed so heavily in the Medieval era, a popular myth has sprung up to symbolize just how much the men  in their lives had control over how these women lived.  According to the myth, when a man/knight had to be away for war/crusades, he would make his wife wear a lockable belt that prevented anyone, including her, from accessing her private parts.  These belts became known as chastity belts.  They survive today in BDSM and other circles, as does the myth.

So, did it happen?  No.

First off, there's no mention of chastity belts as a specific device during the time of the Crusades, 11-14th century.  Writers such as Gregory the Great, Alcuin of York and other made reference to belts of chastity, but it's unclear now if they were speaking metaphorically or in real terms.  Second, no matter what these churchmen thought, there are no physical specimens of such a device dating from the time of the Crusades.  If there were such a thing as a chastity belt, surely some enterprising Plantagenet king would have invented it, but nada.  And it wasn't as if there wasn't a need.  Richard III's DNA as retrieved via his many-times collateral descendants showed some breaks in the genetic code, indicating there may have been some unknown putative fathers for some royal babies.  A few royal women were fooling around and would've paid a heavy price had they been found out.  The blood royal was the most precious asset a royal dynasty owned.  If there was a way to keep it secure, they would've done so.  However, there's no mention of such a device anywhere and no specimen dating from that time period has come down to us. 

The first mentions of what we understand as a chastity belt were in 1405, in a book on then-existing military technology, describing iron breeches worn by women in Florence, with drawings.  Once again, though, no specimen from the period has survived and there are no other mentions that the women in Florence or anywhere else were wearing such belts for any reason.  Venetian references from the 16th and 17th century are also lacking in evidence that wealthy men actually made their wives wear these belts.  Supposedly, one was found in the grave of a young woman in Austria and dated to the 1560's, but her skeleton, the belt, and any records regarding her no longer exist.  There are specimens in various museums claiming to be from the Medieval era, but some of these are more likely 19th century sex toys, not a real Medieval chastity belt.  For example, the Musee de Cluny in Paris claimed for several years to have belts belonging to Catherine de Medici, wife of Henri II, and Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV.  However, these items dates to the 19th century, not to the 16th or 17th century when those women lived.  Thus busteth the myth!

Royal Maundy

Today Queen Elizabeth performed a special ceremony that monarchs of Great Britain have performed off and on for centuries.  She attended a Maundy Thursday service at Leicester Cathedral, then distributed packets of specially minted Maundy Money to 91 men and 91 women, one each for every year of her life.  The recipients were pensioners, elderly retirees remarkable for their community service and service to the crown, though not necessarily poverty-stricken.  In doing so, Elizabeth shared a common bond with the least likely of her Plantagenet forbears, King John, who actually started the ritual around 1213.

The word Maundy is a corruption of the Latin word Mandatus, as in the mandate or commandment Jesus gave to his followers at the Last Supper.  "If I, your Lord and Master, washed your feet, so you ought to wash the feet of one another."  Beginning in 5th and 6th century England, there were church services on Maundy Thursday, but the foot washing was performed by religious and clergy, not royalty.  Beginning in 1213, John of England began the habit of distributing alms as well as linen shirts and parcel of food to twelve poor people, as well as washing of feet on some occasions.  The recipients were picked for their poverty to the number of 12, as in the 12 Apostles.  They were then entitled to the King's charity for life, a much needed benefit in the years before pensions and welfare benefits.  And, very often, the feet of these common people would be prewashed beforehand, just in case.  John and other early kings kept Maundy services at several different times throughout the years, and successor kings added their own traditions.

John's son Henry III made the Maundy ritual a family affair, with his sons assisting him in passing out the alms and other gifts.  Edward I limited the Maundy ritual specifically to Maundy Thursday.  Edward III gave fifty pence, one for each year of his life, to fifty elderly men.  From him came the idea that the recipients were numbered to the years of the monarch's life, not the 12 Apostles.  By this time, other members of the royal family, including the queen and other leading nobles, might keep their own Maundy services, distributing alms and food independently of the king.  The money given was in regular coins.  The custom of specialized Maundy Money dates from the 18th century.  In later years, monarchs discontinued the foot-washing portion and sometimes did not attend, sending the Lord High Almoner in their place.  In the early 20th century, Princess Marie Louise, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, convinced her cousin George V to resume attendance at Maundy.  Today, the sovereign gives out two purses.  A red purse holds the commemorative Maundy Money.  A white purse contains regular coins in the same nominal amount.

Royal: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 1390-1447

The Plantagenets could fight with one another but stood as one against a common enemy.  The sons of Henry IV, Henry V, King of England, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Clarence, 1390-1447, were a close-knit bunch.  When Humphrey was wounded on the battlefield at Agincourt and in danger of being overrun by French knights in 1415, Henry came to his aid.  So did their cousin, the Duke of York, who was killed trying to cover the King and Humphrey. 

Humphrey's place of birth is not known.  His mother was Henry IV's first wife, Mary de Bohun, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford.  Thus, Humphrey was named for his grandfather.  Like his older brothers, Humphrey was schooled in the arts of war and chivalry, but he was also a man of letters who amassed a considerable personal library.  Duke Humphrey's Library is part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.  In 1422, Humphrey married Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault in her own right.  At the time, they were the It Couple, Humphrey praised as a chivalrous knight, skilled commander and generous patron and benefactor of Oxford University.  Jaqueline, beautiful, proud and used to getting her way.  They had no children and their marriage was annulled in 1428.  Humphrey then married his mistress, Eleanor Cobham, by whom he had an unnamed son who died in infancy, and a daughter, Antigone, later Countess of Tankerville.  Eleanor would become embroiled in a bizarre plot to kill the unpopular Henry VI by means of sorcery.  She maintained that she'd sought the aid of a wise woman for potions to help her conceived children.  The alleged witch was burnt at the stake and Eleanor was made to do public penance at Paul's Cross, forced to divorce her husband and was imprisoned in various castles the rest of her natural life. 

Humphrey served in various positions under both Henry V and Henry VI, both in Parliament and as a member of the Privy Council.  He was a skilled commander in the ongoing Hundred Years War, his knowledge of classical siege warfare coming in handy several times.  He also became Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.  In 1422, on the death of Henry V, Humphrey was made Lord Protector to his young nephew, Henry VI and later claimed the Regency after his older brother Bedford's death.  This latter claim was rejected by the Lords in Council.  In 1436, Duke Phillip of Burgundy attacked Calais, the last English stronghold on the Continent.  Humphrey was made garrison commander and successful withstood the siege.  In person, he was known as being generous to the poor.  However, this all-around successful life couldn't last long.  In 1448, he was accused of another plot against Henry VI, but died of a stroke before he could be arrested and brought to trial.

He was buried at Bury St. Albans, but local legend had him buried in Old St. Paul's Cathedral.  In reality, the tomb belonged to John, Lord Beauchamp de Warwick.  Thieves and other petty criminals often sought sanctuary in the Cathedral, where they relied on the alms of the clergy to sustain them until they decided to give themselves up for trial.  Needless to say, they often went hungry.  Perhaps in a nod to Humphrey's reputation for alms-giving, the phrase, to dine with Duke Humphrey, meant to go without a meal.  A Humphrey picnic meant later the same thing.  Duke Humphrey was given the manor of Greenwich and began building a house there which he called Belle Court.  It would grow to become Placentia and later Greenwich Palace, showpiece of the Tudors and Stuarts before becoming a Naval hospital and old sailors home, then the Naval Observatory.

Margaret of York's Crown

Royal weddings have always been a source of great spectacle and public interest.  The same held true for a wedding in 1461 uniting Princess Margaret, daughter of the 3rd Duke of York and Cecily de Neville, to Charles the Bold, future Duke of Burgundy.  The crown, custom made for Margaret in 1461 is a golden circlet or coronet.  It's topped with enameled White roses, for the House of York, surrounded with a band of pearls and contains Margaret's monogrammed M around the band.  No one knows who made it.  At the wedding, Charles is described as wearing an equally splendid gold crown.  Perhaps it was a wedding gift from him or his family to his new bride.

The festivities surrounding their wedding continued for days in the Burgundian capital city of Bruges.  The memory of them so made their mark on Bruges' citizens that parts of the wedding are reenacted every few years, the last occasion being in 2012.  Meanwhile, sometime after her death, Margaret's beautiful crown ended up in the Cathedral Treasury of Aachen Cathedral.  Aachen is in Germany.  While we don't know when or exactly how a crown in Bruges, now part of Belgium, wound up in Germany, it's fairly easy to guess the eventually circumstances that brought this important piece to a place in which it would be kept safe for future generations.  Charles the Bold had a daughter Mary, from his first marriage.  Mary married into the Austrian Habsburg family, Maximilian of Austria.  She would later die, leaving him a widow with two young children.  Margaret would raise their son Phillip for several years before her own death in 1503.  By that time, Maximilian was the first Holy Roman Emperor of the Habsburg dynasty.  Aachen was the city where Holy Roman Emperors were crowned.  With Margaret's childless death, her jewelry and personal effects would have passed into Phillip of Burgundy's possession and eventually into that of his family, the Habsburgs of Austria.  At some point, this beautiful crown from an English princess made its way into the treasury of Aachen's cathedral.

Like the Crown of Princess Blanche, which is in the possession of the treasury of the Residenz Palace in Munich, this is only one of two English crowns dating from the pre-Civil War era that are known to survive.  During the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell ordered the Crown Jewels and other regalia to be sold for the value of their gold and gems.  With the exception of a few minor pieces, all the other crowns, scepters, orbs and other objets d'art would have been scrapped out and lost forever.  These two crowns, worn by English princesses far from home, are faint glimmers of the lost glory that was the Plantagenet dynasty at its height.  In yet another miraculous twist, Aachen and its cathedral were heavily bombed during World War II.  It's a wonder that any of its famous treasurers, including Charlemagne's Throne and a jeweled bust containing his skull, survived, but they did. 

Royal: Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, 1446-1503

Today Burgundy is one of the historical regions of France, famous for its fine wines.  During the Medieval area, Burgundy was an independent Duchy whose power rivaled that of the French kings.  The court of the Burgundian dukes was known for its opulence and style.  Later, Burgundian court ceremonial would become the precedent for English and French kings.  An ally of England throughout the Hundred Years War, the Burgundian ducal family was staunchly pro-British.  One reason for this may have been that the then Duke of Burgundy was married to a Portuguese princess who was a granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  She wanted an English wife for her son Charles, the future Duke Charles the Bold, the last Duke of an independent Burgundy.  Margaret of York, 1446-1503, the daughter of Richard, 3rd Duke of York and his formidable wife, Cecily Neville, was an obvious choice.  Margaret was described as being nearly six feet tall, with grey eyes, an attractive woman but not beautiful by the standards of the time.  Intelligent and articulate, she had an outgoing personality.

Charles' father believed that a French alliance was in the best interest of Burgundy and overruled his wife, marrying Charles to Isabella of Bourbon.  Charles and Isabella had a daughter, Mary, but no surviving sons.  When Isabella died, Charles needed to find a new wife and father an heir, pronto.  At 19, Margaret of York was still unmarried, and her brother, Edward IV was now king of England.  Charles quickly offered for her hand in marriage.  Immediately there were snags.  Edward IV wanted Charles' daughter Mary for his brother, George, Duke of Clarence.  Charles didn't want to tie both himself and his daughter to England and backed off.  The King of France weighed in, because he didn't want a marriage between the two traditional allies, England and Burgundy.  Negotiations dragged on and Margaret was promised to a Portuguese prince who'd been offered the throne of Catalonia.  Eventually he died, and she was recycled back onto the marriage market.  Then, Phillip of Burgundy died, making Charles the new Duke of Burgundy.  Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, Earl of Warwick was plotting against Edward, who needed to make an alliance with someone.  Margaret left England in 1468, making a dangerous channel crossing despite threats that she would be seized and held hostage if any French ships encountered the English flotilla bearing her to her new home.  Luckily, she arrived safely and in June, 1468, she met her future husband Charles and her stepdaughter Mary.  The three bonded immediately and remained a happy, blended family for the rest of their lives.

The wedding was an extravagant affair, even by Burgundian standards.  Scenes from the wedding festivities are reenacted every few years in the former Burgundian capital of Bruges.  Margaret's golden crown remains today in the treasury of the Cathedral of Aachen.  She was instantly popular with her husband's subjects.  The only downside was that Margaret and Charles remained childless.  Meanwhile, back in England, Edward IV's throne was on shaky ground.  In 1469, George of Clarence and his father-in-law Warwick marched on London, forcing Edward and Richard to flee.  They had a welcome in Burgundy.  Charles intervened by ordering the London merchants to swear loyalty to Edward or face losing trading rights in Burgundy.  That worked and London rose against Warwick and Clarence.  Not to be outdone, they backed a Lancastrian-French invasion that put Henry VI back on the English throne.  Once again, Edward IV fled to stay with Margaret in Burgundy.  At first, Charles was reluctant to support his brother-in-law against the French-backed Lancastrians.  He was learning the hard way that to marry into the Plantagenet family meant an overload of drama.  Margaret won out and Charles agreed to back Edward, who would have to do most of the heavy lifting of putting together an invasion force and reclaiming his throne.

During all of this turmoil it was Margaret and her mother-in-law Isabella who monitored events in London and kept each other and Charles updated on what was going on.  Margaret hoped to bring about a reconciliation between Clarence and Edward IV.  Then, with Isabella, Henry VI and his son dead, Charles chose to use his mother's Lancastrian descent as a pretext to claim the English throne for himself.  Margaret ultimately convinced him to back her brother Edward instead.  But the once happy marriage between Margaret and Charles was disintegrating, as was the fortunes of Burgundy.  Charles became more grandiose, occupying himself with grand schemes for making Burgundy a larger kingdom by conquering neighboring territory.  To do this, he picked continuous fights with erstwhile allies.  France was able to lure away Burgundy's international customers and wreak havoc on the economy.  Charles arranged the marriage of his daughter Mary with Maximilian of Austria, one of the other love stories of history that ended tragically, and died in battle in 1477.

Margaret was now a widow, without a son to protect her interests.  Mary was still a young girl and it would be many years before she and Maximilian would marry.  Meanwhile, she had a kingdom to rule and dangerous enemies to pacify.  Margaret provided Mary with guidance and advice.  Despite offers of marriage to Mary from the King of France to his own son, Margaret encouraged Mary to remain committed to Maximilian.  In 1477, Margaret oversaw the elaborate marriage festivities of Maximilian and Mary.  France remained a threat, carving off pieces of Burgundian territory for itself.  Margaret secured aid for Mary and Maximilian from Edward IV to keep what little territory remained of Mary's inheritance.  When Mary's oldest son Phillip was born, the French attempted to spread rumors that the child was a girl.  Margaret, as Phillip's godmother, held up the naked baby to the assembled crowd, to prove that he was very much a boy.  Mary's next child, a girl, was named Margaret, after the stepmother who had stood so loyally by her.  Margaret was a patron of learning and letters, including Englishman William Caxton, who introduced printing to England.

Tragedy struck in 1478, when Margaret's brother Clarence was secretly murdered or executed in the Tower of London.  Then, in 1482, Mary of Burgundy fell from her horse while hunting and died.  Maximilian was forced to make land concessions to France to stave off an invasion.  The Dutch people resented his rule and he was imprisoned in 1488, forced to make more concessions to gain his release.  When Maximilian returned to Austria, he left Margaret in charge as regent of what was left of his son's inheritance in Burgundy, which wasn't much.  Then, Edward IV died in 1483 and Richard, at Bosworth, in 1485.  The Plantagenet family was no longer the ruling family of England.  Margaret supported several pretenders to the lost Yorkist claim, but none of them were successful.  Margaret herself died in 1503, after a long and tumultuous life fighting for, and with, the ones she loved most of all. 

Places: Raby Castle, Durham

Baronial families during the Plantagenet era depending on their strings of impressive castles both as a means of defense, as residences, and as leverage in the constant power play between the throne and the great landowners.  Titled landowners were called barons because of their rights over their lands and the tenants of those lands, even if their actual title was duke or earl.  The Neville family, who were titled as barons of Raby Manor near Staindrop in Durham, began building the castle in 1367-1390.  At the time, it was their main seat of power.  Cecily Neville, the Rose of Raby, was born here in 1415.

The Barons Neville of Raby, later Earls of Westmoreland, were closely linked to the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family.  That is, until Cecily married the Yorkist claimant and gave birth to sons who would later further the Yorkist claim.  The Nevilles remained Catholics long after many other leading families converted to Anglicanism.  In 1569, the 5th Earl of Westmoreland led the failed Rising of the North, a plot to rescue Mary Queen of Scots and place her on the throne instead of Elizabeth I.  Incidentally, both were great-granddaughters of Cecily through her son Edward IV and granddaughter Elizabeth of York.  The Rising failed and Queen Elizabeth seized Raby Castle.  In 1626, cash-strapped Charles I sold Raby and another former Neville castle, Barnard, to Sir Henry Vane the Elder.  The Vane family made several changes over the years, altering the castle from Medieval fortress to great house.  The Vane family were collectors of fine paintings and objects of art, and were eventually made Barons Barnard by the Crown.  Today the castle remains in the Vane family as Barons Barnard and is open for tours on a seasonal basis.

Rose of Raby: Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, 1415-1495

The granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, Cecily Neville was born to a family closely connected to power.  Her nephew was Richard "the Kingmaker" Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, but Cecily was his match if not more in ambition.  She was known as the Rose of Raby, because she was born at Raby Castle in Durham.  Beautiful, intelligent, proud and temperamental, known as Proud Cis because of her demeanor, Cecylle, as she signed herself, was meant to be a mother of lions.  Her father, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland, was the warden of young Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and keeper of the Yorkist claim to the English throne.  He and Cecily would have known each other prior to their being betrothed in 1424, when she was 9 and Richard was 13.  They were married and living together by 1429. 

Cecily would bear 13 children, six of whom, Joan, Henry, William, John, Thomas and Ursula, would die as babies or young children.  Her other children were Anne, Duchess of Exeter (whose descendants would later preserve Cecily's DNA and bring Richard III back from oblivion), Edward IV of England, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, who died in his teens, Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, George, Duke of Clarence (butt of Malmsey Clarence), and Richard III.  Cecily not only survived all these pregnancies, but often followed her husband to his various postings around England and France, taking her family with her.  During the Wars of the Roses, while her husband fled into exile in Ireland, Cecily remained in England, working secretly on behalf of the Yorkist cause.  The Yorkist victory at Northampton in 1460 allowed Richard, Sr., to return to London.  Cecily carried his royal standard before him into the city.  By the terms of the Act of Accord, Richard would be Henry VI's heir and Cecily Queen of England.  But it was not to be.  In 1461, Richard, Sr., was killed at the Battle of Wakefield along with his 13-year-old son Rutland, and Cecily's brother Richard, Earl of Salisbury.

Cecily sent George and Richard to safety in Burgundy and braved the consequences in England.  She moved to Baynard's Castle in London while her son Edward successfully reasserted the Yorkist claim to the throne, making her queen mother in all but name.  She adopted the royal arms as part of her own coat of arms and Edward allowed her the precedence of a dowager queen at his court.  Her reputation came into question when her nephew, the Kingmaker, and her son Clarence began spreading rumors that Edward IV was actually a bastard lovechild.  Cecily attempted to make peace between Edward, George and the Kingmaker but was unsuccessful in doing so.  The Kingmaker briefly deposed Edward in 1470-71, but he was killed at the Battle of Barnett and George sent to the Tower.  George died or was executed secretly in 1478.  Edward IV died in 1483, leaving his two young sons under the protection of his youngest brother, Richard.

Richard launched an inquiry into the circumstances of Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville and found that Edward had previously been engaged to another lady, making the marriage invalid and any subsequent children illegitimate.  With his nephews removed from the line of succession, Richard III was crowned King of England, with Cecily taking part in the coronation ceremony as one of the attendants of Queen Anne Neville, her own great-niece.  After Richard's death at Bosworth in 1485, Cecily retired from public life and devoted herself to religious works, earning a reputation for charity and piety.  She died peacefully in 1495 at the ripe old age of 80. Through her granddaughter, Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII Tudor, Cecily is the grandmother of every British sovereign down to Elizabeth II and her family.  She was also great-grand-aunt of Henry VIII's 6th wife Katherine Parr.  In fact, all of Henry's wives save Anne of Cleves had some Plantagenet ancestry.  Her mitochondrial DNA survived in her daughter Anne's descendants, who were used to prove that a battered skeleton under a parking lot in Leicester was in fact Richard III.