Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Chivalric caption competition


By chance I came across this image on the internet today; I had seen it once before in a general book on chivalry and it remained in my mind, begging a question, which I am delighted to set before readers.

It is taken from a genealogical  manuscript and depicts Sir Thomas Montague, 4th Earl of Salisbury
(13 June 1388 – 3 November 1428), a distinguished soldier in the Lancastrian invasion of France and who was fatally wounded by a cannon ball in the early stages of the seige of Orleans in 1428. With the Earl is his first wife Lady Eleanor Holland, Countess of Salisbury (1386- after 1413). Eleanor was the daughter of the 2nd Earl of Kent and Lady Alice Fitzalan.

 Sir Thomas Montague and Eleanor Holland

Image:thetudorswiki.com

Now what intrigues about this illustration of this well-born and well-connected couple is, of course, the chain linking them. Is it a case of the Earl saying " You will go to the tournament and enjoy it" or the Countess saying " You are NOT going to another tournament"? 

 

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