The Battle of Mohács 1526

 

Today is the 500th anniversary of the battle of Mohács in 1526 when the Ottoman forces overwhelmed the Hungarian army led by King Louis II and broke the ability of the realm to defend itself. In the folk memory of Hungarians it remains an unparalleled disaster.

This was to be followed by the Ottoman occupation of central Hungary in 1541, capturing Buda exactly fifteen years later on August 29th 1541, leaving the Habsburg King Ferdinand I with the west and north of the kingdom and his rival King John I from the Zápolya family holding Transylvania, and the Holy Crown of St Stephen. The Holy Crown was eventually returned to King Ferdinand and the eastern kingdom recognised as the principality of Transylvania under Ottoman suzerainty. 161 years after the battle is 1526 a second battle, almost on the anniversary, saw the Habsburg forces smash the Ottoman army in the second battle of Mohács and free most of the historic Hungarian realm from Turkish rule.
 

 Wikipedia has a detailed account of not just the battle but the historical background, the events leading up to the battle itself and the events afterwards. This can be read at Battle of Mohács

 

There is another detailed and illustrated account of the battle from the website The Past at The end of everything: the Battle of Mohács, 29 August 1526

Recent research into the abnormally wet weather conditions in 1526 in Hungary is set out in an article from  Daily News Hungary.com at Was the weather completely different 500 years ago? This is what was recorded in the days before the Battle of Mohács

Wikipedia also has a biography of the unfortunate King Louis II who drowned in the flight from the battlefield aged only twenty. This can be seen at Louis II of Hungary

King Louis II

A portrait by Titian

Image: Wikipedia 

 His body was subsequently recovered and buried in the royal church at Székesfehévár. His widow was to act initially as Regent of Hungary for her brother King Ferdinand and then for many years as Regent of the Netherlands for her elder brother the Emperor Charles V. She retired with him to Spain and died in 1558, and is buried at El Escorial. There is an online biography of her at Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)

A jousting Sallet of King Louis II 

Decorated with the intertwined initials L and M for himself and his wife Mary of Austria.

Image : metmuseum.org

It is thought to have been looted by the Ottomans from Buda and was found in what is now Istanbul. 

It is now in the Metropolitan Museum, and there is more about it at Attributed to Kolman Helmschmid - Jousting Sallet (Rennhut) Made for Louis II (1506–1526), King of Hungary and Bohemia - German, Augsburg - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

King Harald V

 

The announcement yesterday, although clearly not unexpected, of the death of King Harald V of Norway has led to widespread national mourning and a genuine sense of loss across the national community. The crowds outside the Royal Palace in Oslo, the carpet of flowers and the comments of Norwegians to interviewers all testify to this.

King Harald V

Image: European Royal History

This is not just respect for the late King as head of state but affection for a man seen as a national grandfather and as someone who cared for his people as a national family. 

King Harald V and Queen Sonja

Image: nine.com.au

His successor King Haakon VIII comes to the throne well prepared both in his age and by having served on several occasions as Regent when his father has been incapacitated. 

King Haakon VIII

Image: nine.com.au

  

  

King Haakon VIII and Queen Mette-Marit

Image: Instagram 

The website of  The Antiquary had in interesting, and very well prepared, video yesterday evening about the historic burial sites of the Kings of Norway before the Union of Kalmar and about the modern royal mausoleum in Oslo. It can be viewed at Allan Barton - The Antiquary

The Battle of Crécy 1346

Yesterday was the 680th anniversary of the battle of Crécy in 1346, the first of the great military victories of the English forces on land in the Hundred Years War. Not only was it a devastating defeat for King Philip VI and his army with a huge number of elite casualties but it was also the battle in which the heir to the English throne, Edward, Prince of Wales ‘won his spurs’. A decade later at Poitiers and eleven years later still at Nájera he was to achieve further great victories.

Edward Prince of Wales

Figure from St Stephen’s Chapel Westminster

Image: world4.eu

Wikipedia has a detailed account of the campaign and the battle at Battle of Crécy

 

King Edward III

Detail from the decoration of St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster commissioned by the King

Image:royal.uk

On Substack King Edward I has a translation of King Edward III’s letter about the events of the day and of the ensuing events, complete with a little humour at King Edward I (@edwardlongshanks1979) 

  

 A donor statue thought to be King Philip VI

and now in the Metropolitan Museum 

Image: metmuseum.org

Surveying early Christian Sculptures in southern Scotland

The BBC News website reported recently about a survey sponsored by the Sociery of Antiquaries of Scotland to record and catalogue surviving sculptural work in the churches of southern Scotland. As those involved in the study explain in the article this is the type of research done a century and more ago, but which has rather gone out of academic fashion.

 

There is a degree or urgency involved as the Church of Scotland pursues its crass policy of closing so many of its places of worship and selling them off irrespective of their age and history. Say what one may about the Church of England closing churches, but it is nothing in comparison to the cultural and spiritual disaster north of the border.

The illustrated article can be accessed at Sculpted stone study could shed new light on lost kingdoms

A fragment of a ninth century Anglian shrine or tomb found in the south aisle of Jedburgh Abbey 

Image: Reddit

One of the ideas behind the study this to look for any evidence for regional differences arising from political affiliation between those works produced in Anglian Northumbrian Bernicia in the east and those in the west from Strathclyde with its links to Ireland and artistic influences from there. 

   

My own hunch would be that the political divisions would not be such as to impede a recognised sculptor travelling across Lanarkshire or the Cheviots and finding commissions from ecclesiastical patrons. The sculptor’s own original base may well have shaped his style much more than the local allegiances of those he worked for. 

When looking at these sculptures in the report it is importantly to remember that originally these works, usually standing crosses or remains of tombs or shrines, 

would have been painted and the details highlighted. 

 

Remembering St Louis

Today is the feast of St Louis. He reigned as King Louis IX of France from his accession to the throne at the age to twelve in 1226 until his death in 1270. He was canonised in 1297.

St Louis

Image: Wikipedia 

As this year is the eight hundredth anniversary of his accession it seems appropriate to mark his feast day.

Over the years I have written several times about St Louis and to avoid repetition I will give the link to my article from three years ago. This has links to other articles about the saint-king from here on the blog and can be accessed at St Louis

There is a splendid collection of depictions and images of StLouis from across the centuries on the blog  Ad Imaginem Dei at Saint Louis of France – Saint, King and Patron of the Arts

   

Statue of St Louis dated to 1275-1325 from the Grand Reliquary of the Sainte Chapelle. It is suggested this may be the best near contemporary likeness

Image: Ad Imaginem Dei

The latest, well illustrated and detailed biography of him on Wikipedia is at Louis IX of France

One thing that is not mentioned in that, but which I gleaned from another website, and did not know, or had forgotten, is that St Louis was not the first born to his parents, but their fourth son. Medieval infant mortality was no respecter of royal blood. He is the ancestor not only of every reigning European monarch but of virtually all the other non-reigning dynasties on the continent.

Seal of King Louis IX, legend: lvdovicvs di gra(tia) francorvm rex

Image: Wikipedia 

May St Louis pray for France, his descendants 

and for us all

 

Bosworth remembered

Yesterday, August 22nd, was the 541st anniversary of the battle of Bosworth. 

As a battle it is often seen as a turning point in English history that has left a continuing legacy. That is a perfectly reasonable interpretation. 

 

However, it is still often said that Bosworth marked end of the Wars of the Roses. It was not - the last battle was fought at Stoke in Nottinghamshire nearly two years later, and until 1499 there were localised disturbances associated with the pretender Perkin Warbeck.

It is often said that King Richard III was the last Plantagenet monarch - but King Henry VII was also a Plantagenet, but of another branch of the family. 1603 would be a better date for such a change, but even then King James VI of Scots became King James I of England because he had Plantagenet blood.

It is still scaliness the the Middle Ages ended that morning in a Leicestershire field, which is also ridiculous. A better date would be 1529 with the assembly of the Reformation Parliament - and even then the mid-sixteenth century English polity had more in common with the mid-fifteenth century than the mid-seventeenth century.

 

Bosworth is important, but not for providing a useful date for teaching courses and editors.

The last few days have seen a number of stimulating articles turning up online, which may be of interest to readers.

Nathan Amin has written several good books about the Beauforts and the Welsh ancestry of King Henry VII and he has had a number of posts on his Substack site Hireath

One of these is the text written about 1500 by King Henry VII’s court poet and chronicler Bernard Andre which purports to give the speech made by the Earl of Richmond, as he still was, when he landed at Milford Haven at the beginning of August, or, perhaps, before Bosworth itself. The text as given doubtless was improved with classical references by Andre, but the substance is, presumably, what the future king said, as the article discusses. The later rhetorical skills of his granddaughters Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I can be seen in this address.

 

The speech can be read at Henry Tudor's Speech Before Bosworth

Nathan Amin also had a post about two surviving finds from the battlefield and about his own involvement in the annual commemoration at Bosworth - One Day, Two Kings

  

Andrea Povey has an Substack article about an object I was unaware of - a carving which may depict the crucial event of the battle with the death of King Richard III. The carved wooden panel is part of a much altered bed belonging to Rhys ap Thomas who may have struck the fatal blow to the last Yorkist monarch.

The illustrated article can be seen at Boasting of Killing a King 

Such has been the growth of Ricardian sentiment that it is King Richard who receives most of the attention in coverage of Bosworth. The young exile who risked all and won gets less attention as the hero of the day and as an individual.

One of the best sites doing historical facial

reconstructions of figures from the past, despite a rather overly earnest and loaded voiced introduction, a good study of what King Henry VII actually looked like. It uses the death mask, the works of Pietro Torrigiano and the Michael Sitow’s portrait from 1505. That painting always gives the impression of catching the King on a bad day, and the video’s facial recreation does redress that.

The video can be seen at Royalty Now Studios

 

King Henry VII

Bust by Pietro Torrigiano

Image: V&A Images 

Chester Castle Chapel re-envisioned

Chester Castle has seen many changes and many rebuildings over the centuries whilst still retaining significant historic features. One such is the thirteenth century chapel of St Mary de Castro in the Agricola Tower. Built about 1210 as part of the gatehouse to the inner ward it contained the chapel, which was painted in the latest style in the 1240s. This was presumably part of a series of alterations to extend the residential accommodation in the inner ward and involved blocking the gateway in the Agricola Tower.

The Earldom of Chester, which included the castle, escheated to the Crown in 1237, and in 1241 King Henry III compensated surviving claimants from the late Earl’s family with land elsewhere. Finally in 1246 the Earldom was annexed to the Crown, subsequently being bestowed on the reigning monarch’s eldest son, as it still is.

The decorative scheme of the chapel would appear to reflect the court culture of King Henry III, so well documented in his surviving archives, but of which tragically little survives in situ. The chapel at Chester does at least give us a building and traces of paintwork to begin to imagine what it once looked like.

Work in recent years has exposed the fragmentary remains of the decorative scheme and this has now been studied and a reconstruction created. I first came upon this on the Substack site of The Fake History Hunter which stresses the importance of colour in medieval life, and it can be accessed at The Fake History Hunter (@fakehistoryhunter)

The English Heritage website to which it links, and which discusses the remaining artwork and seeks to reconstruct it, can be found at The Chester Castle Chapel Wall Paintings

The reconstruction of the original scheme in the chapel 

Image: English Heritage 

The effect created in the reconstruction is not dissimilar to that made by the Arena or Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, painted by Giotto in 1303-05. Wikipedia has a detailed account of that masterwork at Scrovegni Chapel

Wikipedia has an illustrated history of Chester Castle and its buildings which can be viewed at Chester Castle

Medieval Gardening

Recently I came upon a video from Medieval Way  based upon Jon Gardener’s 1440s The Feate of Gardening, the earliest surviving guide written in English to the practicalities of gardening.

Beyobd his text nothing else is known about Gardener. What can be gleaned from his poem can be seen summarised in Jon Gardener | Encyclopedia.com

JSTOR has a link, if you subscribe or have access, to an article from Garden History vol 13, pt 2, 1985 by the distinguished architectural historian John H. Harvey entitled ‘The First English Garden Book: Mayster Jon  Gardener’s Treatise and its Background’

  

Creating a medieval garden

1470-75

Bibliotèque de l’Arsenal

Image : Medieval Histories