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.


Saturday 9 January 2016

Jacobite commemoration


Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the funeral of the Stuart claimant King James III and VIII in St Peter's in Rome, and to commemorate the events of his death and burial H.M. Ambassador to the Holy See laid a wreath at his tomb. The ceremony, which was ecumenical in spirit, is described by the Ambassador on his blog, and I am very grateful to the friend who forwarded the link to it to me. The post, together with a photograph of the wreath laying, can be seen at
http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/nigelbaker/2016/01/08/history-and-healing-remembering-the-stuarts/

The Special Correspondent also sent me a Jacobite link yesterday, and I am similarly grateful to him. In my post about the death of King James III and VIII I quoted the fact that from January 14th 1766 the Papacy recognised King George III as the British monarch. The Holy See never extended to the cliamant King Charles III and King Henry IX the formal recognition as monarch it had extended to their father. However it was not, apparently, until 1792 that that implicit recognition was given formal and explicit form in a Papal brief, and was responded to by the claimant who styled himself in Rome 'Cardinal Henry called Duke of York' (i.e. saying by implication  that despite being called Duke of York he was King incognito ) in a protest against Pope Pius VI's decision. It can be read at http://www.jacobite.ca/documents/17921104.htm


http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/blmu/large/nsc_blmu_t9110_large.jpg

'Cardinal Henry called Duke of York'
A portrait at Blairs Museum, Aberdeen

Image:bbc.co.uk 

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