A previous Dottie Tale looked at the history of Sopwell Priory in St Albans, but the women living there were only mentioned in passing. However, some of the women of spirit and intellect associated with the priory deserve a closer look. One of them is the first woman translator whose name is known: Dame Eleanor Hull (c.1394–1460). I wanted to find out more about her.
Terence Morgan, The Master of Bruges. Pan Books, London, 2011. ISBN 978-0-230-74413-4 (paperback)
I would like to thank Heather, who told me in 2011 about this novel. I bought it the next day and enjoyed it tremendously. I first posted a review on the website of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society, but to commemorate Hans Memling’s death on 11 August 1494, here is a slightly updated version.
In the early 1980s, I had the opportunity to spend a year as a German assistant at two schools in Hertfordshire, one in Hatfield, and the other one was Chancellor’s School, at the eastern side of the village of Brookmans Park.
Chancellor’s School first opened its doors to students in September 1964, so anyone expecting medieval looking buildings will be disappointed – it’s rather run of the mill sixties’ style functionality. However, the name reflects a connection to more interesting times. The teachers told me that the school owes its name to Sir Thomas More, sometime chancellor of Henry VIII, because it was built on land which once belonged to him. When during the year of A Man for All Seasons was performed in nearby Welwyn Garden City, they invited me to go and see it with them.
This morning, I remembered a wonderful day 10 years ago, when I had the opportunity to see Richard III’s Book of Hours and the Middleham Jewel, both in one day. I wrote afterwards about the visit on the blog of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society, but it was such a memorable experience that it is also a suitable Dottie Tale.
Continue readingImagine you were travelling in medieval times from London to St Albans. The main road was still -as it had been since Roman times – Watling Street. Originally, Watling Street ran through the Roman town of Verulamium, but medieval St Albans and its abbey, founded by King Offa in 793, lay a bit to the northeast. According to the Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, the medieval town was created by the sixth abbot Ulsinus (or Wulsin) in the mid-10th century[i]:
Abbot Wulsin was famous for his spiritual and worldly achievements. He loved the district and people of St Albans and looked after their interests. He brought the people from the surrounding areas together and made them live in the town itself, providing and enlarging a market place. He helped them construct buildings by providing money and materials. He built the churches of St Peter to the north, St Stephen to the south, and St Michael to the west, with a dedicated share of land, to improve both the appearance and resources of the town, and to care for the souls of its people.[ii]
The original route of Watling Street would have by-passed his new town, so he re-routed it to attract visitors to the town and his new churches. Now travellers were to turn off at St Stephen’s Church, go down St Stephen’s Hill and up Holywell Hill.
The new route was not without problems though. The River Ver needed to be crossed, initially there was a ford, but a bridge was built in the 12th century. And Holywell Hill was – and still is – rather steep. Travellers found it easier to go along Green Lane (now Cottonmill Lane) and Sopwell Lane, which turns into Holywell Hill after the steepest bit.[iii] As a consequence many inns and hostels were being set up along the route. To this day, Sopwell Lane is regarded as one of the “best pub crawls in England”.[iv]
This little detour took our medieval traveller not only to a pub but also to the topic of this post: Sopwell Priory, dedicated to St Mary. Sopwell was one of three local daughter-houses of St Albans Abbey, the other two were another nunnery, St Mary de Pré, and a leper hospital dedicated to St Julian.
Continue readingI would like to thank Dr Heather Falvey and Dr Sean Cunningham for all the information they kindly shared with me and all their generous support. All errors, of course, remain my own.
Some time ago, while looking for something completely different and getting carried away by all sorts of distractions, I came across the mention of a “Sergeant of the King’s Bakehouse”.
The reference was to an existing brass in St John the Baptist Church in Shottesbrooke, Berkshire. It shows a man in armour with his hands held in prayer, bare headed with shoulder-length hair. He seems to be standing on a mound of grass, with a flower between his feet.
Underneath is an inscription, which explains that this is Richard Gyll Esq, Sergeant of the Bakehouse for both Henry VII and Henry VIII, and bailiff of the “Seven Hundreds of Cookham and Bray” and that he died on 7 August 1511.
Here lyeth the body of Richard Gyll squyer late sergeat of the Bakehous wt kyng henry VII and also wyth kyng henry the VIII and bayly of the VII hundred of Cokam and Bray.[i]
The reference to an official of a bakehouse caught my eye, because I like baking bread. And it is a necessity, too. For someone used to the variety and taste of German bread, the average Australian bread is not very exciting. Therefore I decided to find out more about Richard Gyll. Fortunately, his will is still extant. It gives us some information about his personal circumstances (see below).
Read more: A Sergeant of the King’s Bakehouse: Richard Gyll (d.1511) Continue reading
For Halloween, the Salisbury Journal told his readers a ‘Ghostly tale of Henry, Duke of Buckingham’. It seems that the ghost of Henry Stafford is haunting the Salisbury Museum in the Cathedral Close, which used to be the Diocesan Training College. The college was established in 1841 to train female teachers for Church of England schools in the diocese of Salisbury.
For his involvement in the 1483 rebellion against King Richard III, Henry Stafford, second duke of Buckingham was beheaded in the Market Square in Salisbury on 2 Nov. 1483.
Continue readingSome time ago, I came on social media across the painting of a woman. The information said that this was a portrait of Elisabeth Bellinghausen. However, it was Elisabeth’s surname which had me intrigued.
The village next to the one where I grew up is called Bellinghausen. Bellinghausen is also a frequent surname in the area. Naturally, I wondered whether this lady had anything to do with “our” Bellinghausen, given that it is only approx. 35 km to the south-east of Cologne. On a clear day, you can see Cologne Cathedral in the distance. So it is not that far-fetched to think that someone from the village of Bellinghausen had moved to Cologne, where the family would become very influential.
I had wanted to find out more about her for quite some time. And then the other day, there were some more exciting news about her portrait.
Though the once thriving market town of Hertford declined after the Conquest, this does not mean that nothing of note happened here. Hertford’s claim to fame is that it had the first recorded commercial paper mill in Britain.
Today, Hertford has the atmosphere of a quiet country town rather than that of a bustling and prosperous trading centre. However, in its Anglo-Saxon days that was completely different.
It all started when – according to Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – Edward the Elder (reigned 899 to 924) established a burh (a fortification) on the north side of the River Lea, “betwixt the Memer, and the Benwic, and the Lea” [i] in 912 (though there is some controversy about the year, it might have been 911 or 913 as well). The following year, his forces built another one on the southern side.
Edward the Elder (Wikimedia Commons)
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