William Dobson self-portrait acquired jointly by the NPG and the Tate

The Art News website reported the other week that what is believed to be the earliest self-Portrait by  British painter, William Dobson, has been acquired in a major and significant joint venture by the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery. Not only has this secured the portrait for national collections but it recognises its importance as both a likeness and as a work by an often ignore but very important British artist.

Dobson, so to speak, picked up Van Dyck’s brushes when he died in 1641. At this time the country was sliding, seemingly inexorably, into civil war, and Dobson travelled with the Royalists to Oxford. It was there that most of his important commissions were painted at a studio in the High Street of the commanders and officers of the King’s army. I suspect that the initial period of the court being in Oxford were rather fun for those who established themselves in the city, but then it gradually turned to times of dearth and death, to hunger and fear as the Royalist cause floundered. Dobson himself died, in poverty and aged only 35 very soon after the surrender of Oxford in 1646.

Not only did he die tragically young but he is nowhere as famous as his works merit. Hopefully his self portrait will help to bring him the appreciation his work undoubtedly deserves 

The report about the acquisition of the portrait can be seen at Museums Jointly Acquire a $3.2 Million Painting by 'Britain's Rembrandt.' Who Was He?

Wikipedia has a life of Dobson with a good selection of his portrait works at William Dobson

Arms and the Man

I have previously posted on occasion about arms and armour in the mediaeval period and about the way in which men would don their armour before combat.

Recently I came upon a series of what appeared to be very good videos about this subject, and reflecting different periods of history. They are from Alex The History Guy and draw upon archaeological discoveries for the earlier instances and in the later ones from surviving armour and from effigies as well as written evidence. The cover aspects of earlier and late Anglo-Saxon equipment, and the gradual transition towards full plate armour in the fifteenth  century. 

They seem to me well worth sharing with my readers, and I also see that he has others on his site about military dress in later centuries.

The ones I have viewed can be seen, in chronological order, at:

How A Saxon Thegn Shall Be Armed

How A Saxon Huscarl Shall Be Armed

How A Mounted 13th Century Knight Shall Be Armed

How A Late 14th Century English Knight Shall Be Armed

How An Early 15th Century French Knight Shall Be Armed

How A Late 15th Century English Knight Shall Be Armed

Informative and with what appear to be very good reproductions of the historic clothing, the armour and of the weapons that were used.

Unraveling a medieval murder case

The Cambridge University Medieval Murder Maps project has been publicised in two online articles about revelations emerging from their research into a murder, a veritable ‘hit job’, in central London in 1337.

This is a case with everything - sex, violence, conspiracy, high society, scandal, brooding vengeance, clerical misbehaviour plus an historic setting - and m, were it not recorded in the Coroner’s Roll, is worthy of a work of historical detective fiction

The story, which moves between London, Wiltshire and Dorset, is an eye-opener to what people called, and could not, get away with in the fourteenth century, and to not a few aspects of that society.

The story was first drawn to my attention by a regular reader who forwarded to me the article from phys.org, which can be accessed at Medieval murder: Records suggest vengeful noblewoman had priest assassinated in 688-year-old cold case

Subsequently I saw a slightly shorter version on Medievalists. net, and that can be viewed at Medieval London Murder Solved: Priest Killed by Noblewoman’s Orders

A gold coin with Christian and Odin imagery from Anglo-Saxon Norfolk

The BBC News website often reports on archaeological discoveries made by metal detectors in Norfolk - in part, no doubt, due to the assiduity of my old friend Dr Adrian Marsden the numismatic expert with the Norfolk Historic Environment Service. On this occasion he has a very significant coin to bring to wider attention.

Dated to 640 to 660 the gold coin was probably struck as a commemorative or trophy piece at a time when the traditional religious system of the Anglo Saxons was existing alongside the newly introduced Christian faith. The coin reflects this as it appears to show Oden brandishing a Cross but also a pagan symbol of three intersecting triangles.

As a relic of the Conversion era this discovery is fascinating and adds to our knowledge of that time of profound transition and cultural accommodation. It is good to know that the coin will hopefully go to the collection at the Castle Museum in Norwich.

The article about it, which has some excellent photographs, can be seen at One of a kind 7th Century Anglo-Saxon coin found in Norfolk field

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Resistance to Cardinal Wolsey’s plan to suppress Bayham Abbey

The BBC News website reported on a search for descendants of the local community who were literally up in arms in 1525 in resistance to Cardinal Wolsey’s suppression of the Premonstratensian Bayham Abbey, which lies  in Kent, close to the border with Sussex.

Bayham was one of the monasteries Wolsey, as Papal Legate, sought to dissolve to provide the endowment for his new college foundations in the form of a school in his home town of Ipswich and Cardinal College in Oxford, which eventually evolved into Christ Church.

At Bayham the local community were not at all pleased with this prospect and managed to temporarily restore the displaced canons. In the longer run they were not successful.

There are still quite substantial remains of the principal claustral buildings which are in the care of English Heritage.

The article can be viewed at Search for descendants of 1525 Bayham Abbey rioters

Re-thatching a medieval tithe barn

The BBC News website has a story about the impressive restoration of the thatched barn at Upminste which dates from about 1450, being constructed using timber felled between 1420 and 1440. As a building it is a reminder of the scale of buildings which once stood in the countryside, and of the skilled use of natural materials to create them.

The illustrated article can be viewed at Medieval Upminster barn's thatched roof and repairs complete

Book Review: The Yorkists

The Brothers York: An English Tragedy

Thomas Penn 

Penguin  2020

Readable, Informative, Stimulating

This is a joint biography of King Edward IV -and his younger brothers George Duke of Clarence and King Richard III. Thomas Penn has produced a thank you pacy page turner, especially in the coverage of the years up to 1471 and Edward IV’s return to power. It is visually evocative but occasionally words run away with facts and accuracy. It has something of History as film script about it, or it reads rather like modern journalism - which grates at times, but makes for liveliness and immediacy. Penn’s strong visual sense conveys the reality of individuals and events. He has telling vignettes to carry his narrative forward - I shall never think of Henry Duke of Buckingham in quite the same way now I know he was using face cosmetics.

The illustrations are well chosen, and several were new to me - they are not just the old favourites reused yet again.

The book is an attempt to understand the personalities of the three brothers - which after more than five centuries is inevitably a bit challenging, but is based on serious books and research.

The attention paid to finance and banking, and to diplomatic intrigue is insightful and very helpful. It takes the reader behind the politics and faction that inevitably take centre stage in most accounts of these years.

It is I think better on the 1470s - thanks in part to the memoirs of Philippe de Commynes and the details he provides.

Penn concentrates on what is recorded rather than turning to speculation, notably with the questions around the fate of the Princes in the Tower.

It is useful for an introduction to the period or as a supplement to more traditional accounts and which injects pace and drama to a familiar story, and also stimulates reflection on these tumultuous years. 

Whether you see the York brothers as glamorous and heroic or as an appalling 

trio this is a book that will give you food for thought. How the reader understands the subtitle “An English Tragedy” will depend very much on how they construe that tragic quality - for the house of York, for their families, their victims or for the country.

Posted on Amazon  5.1.2023

( Slightly adapted )

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Walsingham

So, finally, perhaps mentally, if not physically, footsore we arrive at England’s Nazareth to seek the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham. 

My previous Pilgrimage posts about this very special place have been rather more extensive than many others on this Pilgrimage. This is in part due to the fact that we know much more about Walsingham as a shrine, and partly because I have spent much more time there than there’s any of the other shrines on this itinerary. I always seem to make the point, but it is worth making, that Walsingham is a very special place, and one to which one can very easily form a deep and emotional spiritual attachment. If readers have not visited it I urge them to do so, to visit the two Shrines, and to take time there - breathe the clean Norfolk air, breathe the the prayers of others and maybe catch the breath of the Holy Spirit.

All these previous posts can be found by following the links from my article last year. This can be found at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Walsingham

May Our Lady of Walsingham pray for Pope Leo XIV

May Our Lady, under all the titles by which we have venerated her this May, accompany us through the coming year and indeed, this life.

Ave Maria

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady on the Red Mount at King’s Lynn

This, the penultimate shrine on the Pilgrimage is, in archaeological and architectural terms, a rare survival of a type of wayside chapel that must have once been much more common. It is also a sophisticated structure in its own right.

My previous posts about it, and in particular the first one in 2020, can be accessed from that for last year, at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady on the Red Mount in King’s Lynn

May Our Lady on the Red Mount at Kings Lynn pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady “of Ardenbergh” at Great Yarmouth

 Striking out eastwards the pilgrim comes to the great medieval port and fishing town of Great Yarmouth and a shrine created as a copy of one in the Netherlands, that of Ardenbergh, and commemorating a major victory in the early stages of the Hubdred Years War.

My series of notes about this shrine can be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady “of Ardenbergh” at Great Yarmouth

May Our Lady “of Ardenbergh” at Great Yarmouth pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Oak at St Martin’s in Norwich

The pilgrimage now goes into Norwich and to a small parish north of the river Wensum - an area little visited I suspect by the average modern visitor to this historic city. Time has not been kind to St Martin’s church, and the statue of Our Lady, which like Our Lady of Islington appears to have been outside in the churchyard is long gone.

My previous pieces about this little known, but once popular, shrine - and especially that from 2020 - can be seen by going to Our Lady of the Oak at St Martin’s in Norwich

May Our Lady of the Oak at St Martin’s pray for Pope Leo XIV

The Coronation of King Charles X in 1825

Today is Ascension Day, which is a cause for celebrationin itself.  This year it falls on May 29th, which is, of course, Oak Apple Day, the celebration of the Restoration of King Charles II to the thrones of the British Isles in 1660, and also a cause for celebration. It is also the two hundredth anniversary of the Coronation of another King with the same name, King Charles X of France, in 1825 at Rheims.

This was perhaps the ultimate celebration of France’s own Restoration. The last Royal Coronation had been fifty years earlier, that of the new King’s elder brother King Louis XVI. On that occasion Charles aged.18, was present in the cathedral as Count of Artois and a Peer of France. What would have been unimaginable that celebration where the events after 1789 and the fate of the Monarchy and several members of the Royal Family.

 The events of 1814-15 restored the Bourbons to the throne in the person of the other royal brother King Louis XVIII. Although often portrayed in the robes of state associated with the coronation ceremony due to his increasing disability the ponderous but politically cautious King Louis did not put himself through the physical ordeal of the Sacre at Rheims. On his death. In 1824 his successor King Charles, more overt in his fidelity to tradition and a still physically active and indeed debonair 68 year old m, decided on having a traditional coronation at Rheims, with some modest adaptations to the ritual. Unlike the late King he had a son who was Dauphin, married, childlessly, to the daughter of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, but with the widow of the new King’s other son, murdered by. Bonapartist, in 1820 and their son, the future King Henri V,  The future looked secure. 

The early nineteenth century was an age of opulence for those in the social and political elites. When in 1804 Bonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor of the French he organised a lavish coronation for himself and Josephine, complete with a captive Pope Pius VII, in Notre Dame in Paris. The lavishness of that  occasion may well have influenced the splendour King George IV created for his own coronation in 1821 at Westminster with an extensive creation of new uniforms, and there had also been in 1818 the two coronations as King of Sweden and then as King of Norway of the former Marshal Bernadotte as King Carl XIV Johan and King Karl III Johan respectively. A splendid coronation at Rheims with the traditional pageantry would demonstrate that the Restoration was complete. So, on this day two centuries ago, King Charles X was anointed using what survived of the Sainte Ampoule and crowned with a new diamond fleur de lys  crown in the tradition mal place of the crowning of Kings of France. He was, I think, the only King to receive the homage of the Dauphin - a part of the ceremony immortalised in a painting - before leaving for the traditional banquet in the neighbouring Archiepiscopal Palace of Tau, the investiture the following day of new Knights of the Sainte Esprit and the custom of Touching for the King’s Evil. 

Wikipedia has an illustrated account of the celebrations at Coronation of Charles X of France 

Alas events in 1830 and thereafter mean this was not a ceremony that has been repeated, but many of the items used in terms of mantles and uniforms do survive at the Palace of Tau or at st Denis and they are on display at a major exhibition in Paris this summer. The carriage made to take the King to and from Rheims was slightly repurposed by Napolean III with his heraldry for the baptism of the Prince Imperial and can usually be seen in the carriage museum, the Gallerie des Carosses, at Versailles. If you visit Alnwick Castle there you can see the coach especially made for the Duke of Northumberland to attend the ceremony as the official representative of King George IV.

The 1825 Coronation is one of those historic events which one really, really, wishes one could have been present at. 

The Palace of Tau as prepared for the Coronation has been digitally reconstructed at 

L'appartement du roi au Palais du Tau pour le sacre de Charles X - 28 mai 1825

The Coronation itself has been similarly recreated at Sacre de Charles X - 29 mai 1825 - cathédrale de Reims

The restoration of the coach can be seen at 

La restauration du carrosse du sacre de Charles X

Which just leaves me to shout Vive le Roi!

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Winfarthing and Our Lady of Weston

The pilgrimage now returns, for the last time, to Wast Anglia and to two little-known villages, Winfarthing in Norfolk and Weston in Suffolk - the latter being one I added last year after perusing the scholarly pages of Edmund Waterton.

My article from last year discusses both devotions, and it has links to previous accounts of Winfarthing, and as I wrote in one, reads like something out of M.R.James. As I wrote in my first article about the shrine at Winfarthing the curious traditions and archaeological finds in the village do invite a more detailed investigation of its history. 

It can be accessed at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Winfarthing

May Our Lady of Winfarthing and Our Lady of Weston pray for Pope Leo XIV

The Papal Tiara

In my recent article about the Pope inaugurating his Petrine ministry at the Vatican a week last Sunday and his taking possession of the Lateran last Sunday I stated my great regret at the fact that the Popes since Paul VI abandoned wearing the tiara, and gave away the one his old diocese of Milan had given him upon his election. Since 2005, it is no longer used it on their coats of arms; as I pointed out in my note about Papal Heraldry saecular monarchs use a crown on their arms whether they are actually crowned or not, or even if they do not actually have a crown.

The excellent website produced by Allan  Barton The Antiquary marked the new Pope’s inauguration with a video about the history of this distinctive piece of insignia, about earlier ones which no longer survive, about the Papal Coronation and about the splendid collection of tiaras in the Vatican.

Although much of this was not new to me it was good to see so comprehensive marshalling of the relevant material. One thing where I might disagree slightly is that I think it was Boniface VIII, and not his one of his successors who added the two additional circlets above the original jewelled band of the Tiara. One I suspect sat immediately on top of that jewelled band, and was not immediately distinct from it. I say this because I think I saw in the printed inventory of Boniface VIII’s possessions mention of a Tiara with three crowns. Just when you want to have a book to hand…. I am open to correction on the point. Such a change would certainly fit with Boniface’s sweeping vision of Papal authority, and, lest you think the author of Unam Sanctam belongs to the medieval past, do not forget what Pius XII wrote in Mystici Corporis in 1943:

That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same.

One thing that I did learn from the video was that Julius II’s tiara survived until the French invaded the Papal States at the very end of the eighteenth century. Nor did I know of Benedict XV selling jewels from the tiaras to fund relief work in the First World War. The tradition of churchmen selling plate and jewels in aid of good and worthy causes is, of course, a long-standing one.

Although I suspect Allan Barton is not quite so much an enthusiast for the Papal Tiara as I am I certainly would recommend the video, which can be seen at The History of the PAPAL TIARA

The effect of watching the video was, of course, to make me yearn for, believe all the more, in its return to use.

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Caversham

On the opposite bank of the Thames to Reading is Caversham, where there was in the medieval period a shrine with widespread appeal. This may have been due not only to the actual place of pilgrimage, a small chapel would lay outside the village to the east with its statue of the Virgin but also the patronage of the Lords of the manner, the families of the Marshals, Clares and Despensers.

Today the Shrine has been recreated in the Catholic parish church in an exceedingly effective manner, and is well worth visiting. At its centre is a fine historic Flemish statue of our Lady and the Christ Child. At the end of the last century funds were raised for a crown for the statue which was blessed at an audience  in St Peter’s Square by Pope John Paul II, before being formally used to crown Our Lady of Caversham.

My posts about the shrine can be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Caversham

May Our Lady of Caversham pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Reading

The Pilgrimage remains on the banks of the Thames as it travelled west to Reading and the great Abbe founded in the Cluniac tradition by King Henry I. 

Tragically, very little survives of this one’s great building which was a focus for pilgrims to the relic collection and also the setting for numerous royal events in the middle ages.

Nonetheless, a visit to the ruins is a evocative experience given the rich history of the abbey.

My previous posts about the shrine can be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Reading

May Our Lady of Reading pray for Pope Leo XIV

.

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Windsor

Returning to the Thames Valley the next destination for the Pilgrimage is Windsor Castle and the Chapel of St George which housed the devotion to Our Lady of Windsor. 

The various statues of the Virgin in the Chapel are outlined in my post from last year together with links to post from previous years about the Chapel and its Marian tradition. This can be accessed at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Windsor

May Our Lady of windso pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Winchester

The second Hampshire shrine on the itinerary is that of Our Lady of Winchester in the cathedral in the heart of the city.

My article about this from last year links back to the first one I wrote about this shrine, in 2020, about Bishop William of Wykeham’s strong personal devotion to an image in the cathedral, and also about what survives of the statues, including that of the Virgin and Child, from the great High Altar reredos. Last year I also wrote about the surviving Marian imagery in the stained glass from the 1390s in Wykeham’s neighbouring educational foundation Winchester College.

These articles can be seen and accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Winchester

May Our Lady of Winchester pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Andover

The pilgrimage now returns to the south of England and heads to Hampshire. The first stop is at a shrine I added to the original itinerary, a long lost alabaster statue in the parish church at Andover. We know of this from an account of a Bohemian embassy which visited England in 1466. The author of the narrative was very greatly impressed by the beauty of the statue which the delegation saw on their way to Salisbury where they spent Easter and thence to the coast.

My article from last year, and the link to the previous years post, about this statue can be found at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Andover

May Our Lady of Andover pray for Pope Leo XIV

 

Papal Rome

Last Sunday morning I watched online the Papal Inauguration Mass from the Vatican and this afternoon I watched the Pope take possession of his cathedral, the Archbasilica of St John Lateran, and celebrate Mass there.

Both celebrations were dignified examples of the Latin novus ordo and definitely suggest a concern for the way in which the liturgy is celebrated under the current dispensation.

In respect of the Inaugural Mass I would obviously prefer to see a Papal Coronation. I remember watching that of Pope Paul VI in 1963, which was only an edited down broadcast later that evening by the BBC, and I have cheerfully sat through the lengthy black-and-white video of the television coverage of the 1958 coronation of Pope John XXIII. I still recall my shock at the decision not to have a coronation by Pope John Paul I and genuine disappointment it was not revived by his two successors. 

If one had seen previous Papal Inaugurations before the taking possession of the Lateran was something I had not seen, and maybe it was not available beyond the occasional newspaper photograph or newsreels of the Papal blessing from the loggia in 1958. To watch this was more of a reminder of the antiquity of the Papacy than the liturgy last Sunday. This was taking place in the much rebuilt, yet still essentially the building dedicated in 324, the oldest continuously  used church in Latin Christendom, the residence and administrative centre of the Popes until 1304, the place whence, inter alia  Leo I, Gregory I, Gregory VII, Innocent III and Boniface VIII governed the church  and which is still the cathedral and possession of the Pope, 1701 years later

Wikipedia has a useful introduction to the history and architecture of the Lateran, as well as its full and resonant titles as the mother church of Christendom, at Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran

Papal heraldry

The website of the Liturgical Arts Journal has in interesting article  about the way in which different heraldic artists have rendered the arms of the successors of Pope Pius XII. 

The author, Marco Foppoli, is an heraldic designer and artist and his critique is good as to unimaginative design and execution, as well as his comments about the lamentable abandonment of the Papal tiara - monarchs who do not have coronation ceremonies still have crowns over their shields, even if no physical crown exists at all, as in Belgium and Monaco. 

The illustrated article can be seen seen and appreciated at Italian Heraldist Marco Foppoli on the Challenges of Contemporary Approaches to Papal Heraldry

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Scarborough

This North Riding shrine is one I added to the itinerary last year. Little appears to be known of its history, but I imagine, as I wrote last year, that it must antedate the creation of the castle on the headland by King Henry II. Having a place of pilgrimage in what was an important royal castle throughout the middle ages and sixteenth century, as well as seeing action in the Civil War and was garrisoned in 1745, is unlikely unless it already existed before the mid-twelfth century castle was built.

My account of it from last year can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Scarborough

Our Lady of Scarborough pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Guisborough, Our Lady of Mount Grace, and Our Lady of Wensleydale

The Pilgrimage now moves to the North Riding of Yorkshire and in this stage to three sites which could be managed by a single days’s driving in the modern world. For those who do not know this area it would be a wonderful discovery, and for those who do an opportunity to reacquaint oneself with it.

All three shrines are associated with monastic houses - Guisborough was a house of Augustinian Canons, Mount Grace a Carthusian foundation and, as I argued in my post last year, I think Our Lady of Wensleydale should be linked to the Cistercian abbey of Jervaulx.

My revised post from last year can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Guisborough, Our Lady of Mount Grace, and Our Lady of Wensleydale

May Our Lady of Guisborough, Our Lady of Mount Grace, and Our Lady of Wensleydale pray for Pope Leo XIV

An inedible pie for the King

The BBC News website reports on the conscious creation of an inedible lamprey pie for the King as a gift from the City of Gloucester. This is not some backhanded insult but a celebration of a longstanding tradition of an annual gift to monarchs by the City of that medieval delicacy, a lamprey pie. Remember the fate of King Henry I, who died of a surfeit of these curious fish who live in the waters of the Severn. These daysthe pie is proffered to mark coronations and jubilees.

This lamprey pie is definitely not intended to be eaten as it is carved from stone and will be an ornamental feature in the garden of the King’s Gloucestershire home at Highgrove.

The article about the creation of this stone pie, and the tradition behind it can be seen at 

King Charles given special pie as part of ancient tradition

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Howden, of Stamford, and of Flawford

These last three locations are ones I have added to the original itinerary not because they were specific destinations for medieval pilgrims, but because they are surviving examples of later medieval devotional images of Our Lady in churches.

My observations about them can be read by following the links in my post from last year at

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Howden, of Stamford, and of Flawford

May Our Lady of Howden, of Stamford, and of Flawford pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wall at Boston

The Pilgrimage now follows the river Witham south east to the important and prosperous mediaeval port of Boston. 

My note about the statue known as Our Lady in the Wall, which links back to my first article about it in 2021, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wall at Boston

May Our Lady in the Wall at Boston pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Lincoln

The main object of Marian pilgrims in the great cathedral under her patronage in Lincoln was a bejewelled statue of the Virgin and Child by the High Altar, and close to the other shrines in the mother church of a diocese that extended from the Humber south to the Thames.

My previous posts about the shrine can be accessed from the one I composed last year at 

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Lincoln

May Our Lady of Lincoln pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wood at Epworth

The pilgrimage now goes to Lincolnshire and to the Isle of Axholme in the north-west of the county. Here, close to the small town of Epworth, was a Carthusian monastery founded in 1396 by the future first Duke of Norfolk. It became the resort of pilgrims, an early one of whom appears to have been Edmund, first Duke of York who died at Epworth on August 1st 1402; this seems the most likely explanation of his presence at what otherwise was a very remote and obscure part of the country.

Wikipedia has an account of the town and the distinct community of Axholme at Epworth, Lincolnshire

My article from last year, with various links to other websites, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wood at Epworth

May Our Lady in the Wood at Epworth pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Park at Liskeard

After visiting All Hallows the modern pilgrim must needs dash across London to Paddington and travel to Liskeard in Cornwall to the shrine of Our Lady of the Park.

My updated notes from last year can be read at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Park in Liskeard

May Our Lady of the Park pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of All Hallows Barking by the Tower

The Pilgrimage now turns into London to the famous church of All Hallows Barking by the Tower on the edge of Tower Hill. This is a church with a fascinating history stretching back to the Roman period, and which escaped the Great Fire and survived, just, the Blitz. It has strong links to the history of the Tower and Tower Hill, and to the maritime life of London. 

The medieval shrine, with its royal links, is outlined in my article and links from last year in

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of All Hallows Barking by the Tower

May Our Lady of All Hallows Barking by the Tower pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Aylesford

The final shrine on today’s stage is in the west of Kent at the Carmelite Priory at Aylesford. The village lies on the Medway - the river that divides the Men of Kent to the east from the Kentishmen to the west. 

Wikipedia has an illustrated introduction to the village and its history at Aylesford

My post about the shrine from last year links back to my first one about this shrine from 2021 at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Aylesford

May Our Lady of Aylesford pray for Pope Leo XiV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bradstow at Broadstairs

Further along the coast on the Isle of Thanet was the coastal shrine of Our Lady of Bradstow at Broadstairs. Thanet remained an island until the early modern era, and still today the landscape shows very clearly what was once the course of the channel separating it from the rest of Kent. There is more about that from Wikipedia at Isle of Thanet

My article, together with various links, from last year can be viewed at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bradstow at Broadstairs

May Our Lady of Bradstow pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Poulton

This relatively little known shrines appears to have been the resort of travellers before or after crossing the sea at Dover. It was situated just inland from the port, which then as now was a principal place of embarkation for crossing over to the continent.

My article about it from last year can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Poulton

May Our Lady of Poulton pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover

The pilgrimage now spends a day in Kent at four shrines. The first is that of Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover, and this was clearly frequented by travellers to and from the continent. From its designation it was clearly another Pièta, which were clearly quite frequent in late medieval England.

My post about it from last year can be seen at

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover

May Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover pray for Pope Leo XIV

Love, life and death in fifteenth century Ferrara

Six centuries ago today, on May 21st 1425, a family drama reached its bloody climax in the court of the Marquis of Ferrara. The story of Parisina - Laura - and Ugo, their guilty passion as stepmother and stepson of the same age and the unyielding punishment meted out by their husband and father, Marquis Nicolà III d’Este, himself notoriously promiscuous, has inspired writers, including Byron, composers such as Mascagni, with D’Annunzio as his librettist, and not a few indifferent artists over the succeeding centuries.

The story could perhaps only have occurred in an early Italian renaissance court, for all that variants on the ‘eternal triangle’ are the basis of so much fact and fiction.

Wikipedia has biographies of the three players in this triangular relationship at Niccolò III d'Este, at Parisina Malatesta, and at Ugo d'Este

There is an account of the story from This Italian Life website from 2016 at Once Upon a Time in the Court of d'Este. 

There is another, with portraits of the three principal players from a genealogy of the family, in a somewhat more florid style from 2021 from vitminevaganti.com at Il tragico destino di Parisina, un amore che sfida i secoli  The story has a translation app.

Looking online one is struck by the family resemblance of Nicolà and his three sons in their portraits. 

This was a violent age and culture - when Parasina was a baby her mother was apparently poisoned by her father over an inheritance, Parasina and Nicolà’s daughter may well have been murdered by her husband, a relative of Parasina, and Nicolà III himself may well have died after being poisoned on a visit to the Milanese court.

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Four Tapers in St Albans

After visiting shrines on the western side of the Midlands and in the Welsh borderlands the Pilgrimage now returns to the south-east of England and to St Albans in Hertfordshire.

In what was the premier Benedictine monastery - a status it was granted by Nicholas Breakspeare, a local man who was the son of a man who entered monastic life as a widower, and who himself reigned as Pope Adrian IV from 1154 to 1159 - was the shrine of Our Lady of the Four Tapers. This has been reinstated in the former abbey which is now the Anglican diocesan cathedral .

The somewhat involved story of the Marian shrines in the medieval monastic church can be accessed through my article last year which is at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Four Tapers at St Albans

May Our Lady of the Four Tapers at St Albans pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Kingswood

Returning across the Wye and the Severn the Pilgrimage now heads for Kingswood Abbey in Gloucestershire. This was a Cistercian foundation in the southern part of the county, and the devotion to Our Lady there appears to have been local rather than widespread in its appeal.

It is another about which little appears to be no, but I have gathered together what was available in my post, which can be found through the one from last year at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Kingswood

May Our Lady of Kingswood pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Allingtree

The Pilgrimage now ranges further west to the valley of the Wye and to the chapel of Our Lady of Allingtree on the road westwards from Hereford towards the Welsh border, and close to site of the nineteenth century Benedictine foundation of Belmont Abbey.

Little appears to be known of this wayside - and gallows-side - shrine, but I have tried to draw what there is together in my previous posts which can be accessed through the one from last year at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Allingtree

May Our Lady of Allingtree pray for Pope Leo XIV

The Order of the Bath 300

Last Friday the Most Honourable Order of the Bath held its quadrennial Service for the Installation of Knights Grand Cross in their designated chapel, that is the Lady Chapel of King Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. 

This year the service was of particular interest as it also witnessed the installation of the Prince of Wales as the new Great Master of the Order as successor to his father the King who had held the position from 1975 until his accession as Sovereign. 

Furthermore the Order is celebrating this month the tercentenary of its foundation as an Order of Chivalry in 1725. The origins of the Knights of the Bath are, of course, much earlier - probably in the twelfth century. They were a class or type of knight who had been initiated into the degree by the ritual bath, denoting purity, the admonition of older knights, a vigil and ritual dubbing. 

Some of the elements of the insignia used by the 1725 Order, notably the white knots in the collar, and the crimson mantles ( and possibly the white ones of the Officers of the Order ) derive from these early origins.

Knights of the Bath were usually created to mark coronations, royal weddings and similar royal celebrations. Under King James I it began to look a little more like an Order, with the introduction of the badge with three crowns and the motto Trio juncto in uno presumably as part of the Kings ambition to unify his realms into one polity. 

The complex history of the modern Order and its important statute revisions, notably in 1815 and 1847, changes to the insignia, the conscious inclusion of the medieval rituals and then their almost immediate abandonment, the creation of the various Officers of the Order, the revival of the installation ceremony in 1913, and much more can be found in the Wikipedia account at Order of the Bath

A much more detailed account, published in 1920, which includes a great deal about the ceremonies for the admission of later medieval and early modern knights, can be seen using the Archive website at Jocelyn Perkins The Most Honourable Order of the Bath

A friend who was in the congregation has shown me the Order of Service which has additional information about the Order and sets out the ceremonies in the Chapel. This can be seen online as part of the Westminster Abbey website about the Order and its tercentenary at The King and The Prince of Wales celebrate 300th anniversary of The Order of the Bath  | Westminster Abbey

The  one from 2022, where much is obviously the same, although not including the presence of the Sovereign and the installation of the Great Master, is available at order-of-service-order-of-the-bath-2022

One slight change is that the gold and silver coins offered at the altar that year were Victorian; this year, to mark the tercentenary they were from the reign of King George I.

There is more from the Westminster Abbey website about the Order and the service last Friday at Order of the Bath | Westminster Abbey

The processions at the Service last Friday can be seen on the Royal Family Channel. Unfortunately, this does not include the ceremonies in the Lady Chapel of King Henry.VII, and what there is would actually benefit from some judicious editing. That said it does give an idea of the occasion. The video can be seen at  Prince William Receives New Title Previously Held by King Charles

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Tewkesbury

The final destination on today’s session of the Pilgrimage is the abbey at Tewkesbury, a church for which I have a great love, both as a wonderful, powerful medieval building and as a church rich in historic associations and monuments. At Tewkesbury, in the best possible sense, you breathe the air of the medieval centuries.

Devotion to the Virgin at Tewkesbury appears to originate in the Anglo-Saxon period, long before the great Norman Benedictine Abbey was founded in the early twelfth century, and which housed the statue until the dissolution in 1539.

My article, with the appropriate links, from last year can be accessed at Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Tewkesbury

May Our Lady of Tewkesbury pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Worcester

The Pilgrimage now goes to the cathedral of Worcester for the next place of devotion on the itinerary. My post from last year. Together with various links from previous years, can be accessed at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Worcester

The late medieval diocese of Worcester had a particular link with the Roman Curia. This was because the four successive Bishops of Worcester from 1497 to 1535 were absentee Italians, provided to the See with the full approval of the English Crown  The highest achiever of these was Cardinal Guilio di Giuliano de’Medici, Bishop in 1521-2, who was to be elected as Pope Clement VII in 1523. Even after the deprivation in 1535 of the last of these  four, Girolamo Ghinucci, his tenure was naturally still accepted by the Holy See, and an exiled English diplomat at the Imperial court was appointed to Worcester when Bishop Ghinucci, died in 1541. More than a decade later this man, Richard Pate, was able under Queen Mary I to occupy the position, only to be deprived, imprisoned, and then exiled after 1559. Details of all five can be found in the links on the Wikipedia article Bishop of Worcester

May Our Lady of Worcester pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Evesham

The Pilgrimage now crosses the country to the valleys of the rivers Avon and Severn. The first shrine on the itinerary is that of Our Lady of Evesham, which has a strong claim to being one of the very earliest Marian shines in England and indeed in western Europe.

Glastonbury claims, arguably justly - and not simply on a legendary basis - a much earlier origin, but that is shrouded in mists and mysticism, not emerging fully into the historical record before the seventh century.  Evesham enters history with a foundation story involving Eoves’ encounter with Our Lady and his bringing St Egwin to his meeting with the Virgin    This narrative is strikingly similar to later stories of Marian apparitions and can be located in time and place. Evesham may be more recent than Glastonbury in its origin but it is more than three and a half centuries earlier than Walsingham.

My post about the shrine from last year, which requires the reader to navigate back to my first post about the shrine from 2020, which includes more about the history of the devotion and the abbey. These links can be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Evesham

May Our Lady of Evesham pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Kersey

Last year I added another shrine to the itinerary by including the statue of Our Lady of Pity in the parish church at Kersey in Suffolk. This was a Paris shrine with an appeal that extended over there rather wider area..

My article from last year can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Kersey

After I posted that I was contacted by my friend Simon Cotton, who has a great knowledge of the churches of East Anglia, and who drew my attention to an article he had had published in the April 2021 edition of New Directions  This is about the shrine at Kersey, its physical remains in the south aIsle of the church, and which also looks at other local parish shrines in the region during the later medieval period. Not only is it handsomely illustrated but he included the text of a 1464 grant of an indulgence by Pope Pius II to the shrine. 

His article ‘Lost Shrines of Suffolk’ can be found by going to the website of New Directions and searching for the April 2021 issue, where the article is on pp 14-16

May Our Lady of Kersey pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady at the Pillar in St Edmundsbury

The Pilgrimage returns to East Anglia and to St Edmundsbury.- Bury St Edmunds - to a shrine in the parish church of Saint Mary rather than in the great Benedictine abbey. 

The story of the shrine is set out in my post from last year at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady at the Pillar St Edmundsbury

May Our Lady at the Pillar in St Edmundsbury pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Doncaster

The pilgrimage now moves a little further south to Doncaster and to the shrine of Our Lady in the Carmelite friary in the town centre.

My article from last year about the shrine, its history and revival, together with other links,  can be viewed at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Doncaster

May Our Lady of Doncaster pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady on the Bridge at Wakefield

Recrossing the Pennines and following the course of the River Calder eastwards the Pilgrimage crosses that river at Wakefield on its way southwards. As it does so on the fourteenth century bridge it comes to the famous bridge chantry dedicated to Our Lady.

My account from last year of this precious survival, together with other links to aspects of its history and architecture, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady on Wakefield Bridge

May Our Lady on the Bridge at Wakefield pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Chester

Remaining on the western side of the Pennines the Pilgrimage now moves to Cheshire and to what was the abbey of St Werbergh, and, since 1541, has been the cathedral of Chester.

My article from last year can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Chester

Looking at it again I see that managed to forget to include the link to the account of the abbey in the VCH Chester. That can be seen at The abbey of Chester

In addition there is a very readable account of the history of the Benedictine monastery in 

R.V.H. Burne The Monks of Chester (1962)

May Our Lady of Chester pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Fernyhalgh

This article is an addition to the other stops on the Pilgrimage. In previous years I checked to see if there were examples of surviving Catholic Marian shrines in the notably recusant county of Lancashire. The only one I came across was the Ladyewell at Fernyhalgh just outside Preston. This, however, appeared to not have a recorded history before the 1680s and we have been a product of the recusant era. I therefore did not include it as this Pilgrimage is concerned with medieval places of devotion.

However, being a bit persistent, I looked again online and found other sites which gave more details and indicate that what is now the Lancaster diocesan shrine of the Ladyewell and the recusant church and school at Fernyhalgh does indeed have a late medieval origin, in 1471, and may indeed be a restoration of an older shrine. I am therefore very happy to add it to the route.

Wikipedia gives an introduction to the site at St Mary's Church, Fernyhalgh

Our Lady’s well Preston gives more information than other sites about earlier chapels on or close to the site. It also suggests that the site replaced, or supplemented another, now lost, Lady Well near the site of the Franciscan friary in Preston.  Its loss was a either consequence of the reformation or of the development of the town in the nineteenth century.

Other articles recount the story of the 1471 vow and the quest for Fernyhalgh as named in a revelation to the stranded seafarer at A Lancashire tribute to Our Lady - The Christian Heritage Centre, at Our Lady’s Well (Ladyewell), Fernyhalgh, Lancashire,

at Fernyhalgh - St Mary - Taking Stock

and at Our Lady’s Well, Fernyhalgh, Preston, Lancashire

The story of the straying cow and the crab apples is very reminiscent of a longstanding English ‘legendary’ tradition associated with miraculous discoveries and foundations going back to Anglo-Saxon writers, notably in the Mercian shires. This fact may help to give a context for what might seem a mere folk tale, or, indeed, simply implausible.

Those of you who are intrigued by the death of the “last English Carthusian” in 1821, and think either they all died in the sixteenth century or think “what about Parkminster?” the answer lies elsewhere. James Finch, who died aged 72 in 1821, not as one site says in 1621 - which does not fit for authentic dating - must have been the last member of what was known as Sheen Anglorum in what is now Belgium. This was the Charterhouse founded by King Henry V at Sheen ( now Richmond ) and which went into exile like the nearby Bridgettines of Syon after the death of Queen Mary I. They survived as a house for English monks abroad until the misguided reforming enthusiasm of the interfering Emperor Joseph II closed such contemplative Orders in 1783. There is an account of the monastery from Wikipedia at Sheen Anglorum Charterhouse

May Our Lady of Fernyhalgh pray for Pope Leo  XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Brougham

Turning northwards the Pilgrimage now comes to the church at Brougham. Little appears to be known about this devotion beyond the reference to it by John Leland. 

My article about it from last year can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Brougham

May Our Lady of Brougham pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Furness

The pilgrimage now crosses the Pennines to the Furness district of Lancashire and the shrine at the sizeable Cistercian foundation of  Furness Abbey.

My post from last year about this devotion can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Furness

May Our Lady of Furness pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Jesmond

Moving further north across the Tyne into Northumberland the Pilgrimage now comes to the western side of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the shrine of Our Lady of Jesmond.

My article from last year about the shrine and its history before and since its ruination can be found at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Jesmond

May Our Lady of Jesmond pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Cathedral

The second shrine that is on the Pilgrimage in Durham Cathedral route is that of Our Lady of Bolton which was in the main cathedral.

Judging from the description that survives it appears to have of the same type as one which survive in churches of collections on the continent where the figure opens to disclose either the Godhead, as here, or those who find refuge in the Virgin’s intercession.

My article from last year with links to more details about the statue can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Cathedral

May Our Lady of Bolton pray for Pope Leo XIV

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Galilee at Durham Cathedral

The pilgrimage now heads to the north east of England and the Palatinate of Durham. It has two shrines to visit, both within the cathedral at Durham. 

The first is in the Galilee Chapel and the statue of Our Lady of Pity. This was a request image of the Virgin in late medieval piety across Europe but few instances survive in England, and are usually alabasters that survived the destruction of the sixteenth century in private hands. The type of statue that was in Durham or survives in contintetal collections and which anticipate Michelangelo’s sculpture in the Vatican, has not survived in England.

My article from last year, together with relevant links about this now lost example at Durham,  can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Galilee at Durham  

May Our Lady of Pity in the Galilee at Durham Cathedral pray for Pope Leo XIV

Magna Carta - bargain price

 

The BBC News website and that of the Daily Telegraph both report today about the re-identification of a copy of the 1300 Magna Carta as being one of the Chancery originals, and not, as had been thought since the 1940s at least, an inferior copy made about 1325. 

The document was bought for £7 in 1946, by the Harvard Law School - Americans get very excited about Magna Carta - but is thought to originate from Westmorland as the Sheriff’s copy of the re-issue by King Edward I.

Close textual examination of the manuscript revealed it was by the same hand, and included the same variations, as other surviving examples from the 1300 re-issue. The identification is the work of two of our preeminent historians of the thirteenth century, David Carpenter and Nicholas Vincent.

The BBC article can be seen at Harvard cut-price Magna Carta 'copy' now believed genuine

The Daily Telegraph account can be viewed at Harvard’s $27 copy of Magna Carta revealed to be $21m original

In addition the Daily Telegraph has an entertaining opinion piece by another very distinguished thirteenth century historian, David Abulafia, about the identification, although he appears to have missed the point that this copy has been shown to be from the  1300 reissue along with other copies of the text, rather than, as had been thought hitherto, from about 1327. His article can be read at Has Harvard actually found the Magna Carta?