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.


Monday 29 April 2024

Treasures from the household of Queen Henrietta Maria


By chance I came upon a Mail Online article from 2016 about a significant discovery made by divers off the Dutch island of Texel in 2014. These were, it appears, items from a vessel in the fleet of twelve which had taken Queen Henrietta Maria and part of her household to the United Provinces in 1642 on a visit to sell jewels to fund the Royalist cause in the impending Civil War. The vessel was wrecked but mud into which it sank preserved in excellent condition many of the ship’s contents.

Amongst the items which have been preserved  in the mud are a court dress thought to have belonged to Jane, Countess of Roxburghe, an embroidered walket, the binding of a Bible with the Royal Arms and a piece of plate with a figurine. 

The well illustrated article can be seen at Rags found in the sea belonged to a member of Charles I's household


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