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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
The Gentleman's Magazine is in Georgian Books.
About half a mile west of Winterborn Abbey, in a small enclosure, just by the left hand of the road that leads from Dorchester to Exeter, are nine stones [Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas [Map]] of unequal dimensions, placed in a circular form; the diameter is about 28 feet, their distance from each other is unequal, but generally about six feet. One of them is seven feet high, another six; the rest not above three. Their inequality seems to be owing to time and the weather. On the north east is an aperture, which, whether originally left for an entrance, is uncertain; if not, there are two or three stones wanting. Some have thought they are petrified clumps of flint, others more probably, that they were brought from a quarry at Little Bridy, about a mile south west from hence, It was not improbably a Britith temple. Scarce a mile farther, lye some stones, which seem to be the remains of some imperfect ancient monuments: Hereabout is a vast number of barrows, neatly turned and campaniform, many of them are surrounded by a trench or ditch.
The common mistake, of the battle between the Yorkiils and Lancastrians being fought on the level ground below wage is Hexham, is adopted, I am assured that this happened at a place called the Lennolds, south-west of Hexham, and that the lines of intrenchment are stil to be seen.
25th March 1789. Mr. Urban, Blagdon House, Mar, 25. Considering your Magazine the most eligible for circulating at present, and preserving in future, the singular (as I believe) subject of this letter, I make no apology for soliciting it may be inserted therein. I entreat you will give me credit when I assert, that, exclusive of the incitements I have alluded to, I should not have hesitated in determining where my mite should be deposited; respect and gratitude indubitably point at the Gentleman's Magazine. Yours, &c. Tho. Bere.
8th January 1789. On the 8th of January last, I published, in the Bath Chronicle, a short account of an extraordinary barrow, or tumulus, which had been recently discovered in the neighbourhood of my residence. This I did in hope of attracting the attention of some gentleman who, from knowledge in ancient history, might have been able to give the publick information, or probable conjecture at least, relative to this new species of sepulchral monument. To invite investigation, I subjoined my address; and happy should I have been in giving every information or assistance my locality afforded me to such an one. But as no such investigation has been made by any one of competent abilities, I venture to obtrude, rather than suffer so curious a discovery to pass back into the regions of oblivion, without that respect which, I am persuaded, its singular construction demands.
The barrow is, from North to South, 150 feet; from East to West 79 feet. This looks more like a designed proportion than the effect of chance. It has been immemorially known by the name of Fairy's Toote [Map], and considered still, by our sagacious provincials, as the haunts of ghosts, goblins, and fairies.
This may be deemed the electrical tremblings of very remote superstition. The idle tale travelled down through many an age, long, long after the cadavers from which it originated had ceased to be had in remembrance. Desirous of obtaining stone for the adjacent roads, the proprietor ordered his workmen to see what the Toote was made of. They accordingly commenced their labours at the Southern extremity, and soon came to the stone D, which then was at A, with a considerable West inclination, and no doubt served for a door to the sepulchre, which, prior (and in some instances subsequent) to Christianity, was the common mode of securing the entrance of these repositories. Such as that which was placed at the mouth of the cave wherein our blessed Saviour was interred. The stone D being passed, an admirable unmortar'd wall appeared on the left-hand, and no doubt a similar one after the dotted line on the right side existed, as we find it continued in the same direction at F. This wall was built of thin irregular base freestone, less in length and breadth, but in general thicker, than common Dutch chimney tile. Its height was some what more than four feet; its thickness about fourteen inches. Thirteen feet directly North from A (where the stone D stood) the perforated stone B appears, inclining to the North about thirty degrees, and shutting up the avenue between the unmortar'd walls. — Working round the East side, at I a cell presented itself, two feet three inches broad, four feet high, and nine feet from South to North. Here were found a perfect human skull, the teeth entire, all found, and of the most delicate white: it lay against the inside of the stone B, the body having been deposited North and South. Several other pieces of skulls, human spinal joints, arm bones, &c., were found herein; and particularly the thigh bone of a very large quadruped, which, by comparing with the same, bone of an ox, I conjecture to have belonged to an animal of that species. As the skull appeared to me larger than common, I was willing to form some conjecture of the height of that body to which it belonged, and applied my rule to it, taking the painter's datum, of allowing eight faces (from the hair on the forehead to the chin) for the whole, found it gave something more than eight feet. With this the length of the sepulchre agrees, being, as was before observed, nine feet. In this cell was also found the tooth of some large bead; but no one that has seen it can guess of what genus. At the termination of the first sepulchre, the horizontal bones in the top of the avenue had fallen down. With some difficulty, and no little danger, I obtruded far enough to see, by site light of a candle, two other similar catacombs, one on the right, the other on the left fide of the avenue, containing several human skull's, and other bones; but which, from the imminent hazard of being buried in the ruins of the surrounding masses, have not yet been entered. This, as far as it goes, is a true account of the discoveries at the Southern extremity of the tumulus. The lateral section at G has afforded as yet nothing more than a view of the unmortar'd wall, seen in the Southern extremity at H, and here at F, with the continuation of the central avenue seen. at B, and here from C to C. This avenue is constructed of very large rock fragments, consisting of three bones, two perpendicular and one horizontal, as may be seen in the representation E. Three cells are here discernible, two of which are on the West side, and one on the East; these also have human bones. The proprietor means now to proceed from B to C C, propping up the avenue with wooden posts, in the same manner in which our miners do their adits, to the lapis caluminaris veins. This mode will give the visitor an opportunity of seeing the different cells with safety and convenience. I have only to add, that the tumulus is formed of small whitish stone, of which the neighbourhood affords plenty; and that the exterior appears to have been turfed, there yet remains a stratum, five or six inches deep, of graded earth on the bones. The view I took on the spot, in one of the sneaping days of the last rigorous season. I can therefore say nothing for it, but that, if it be not a good drawing, it is a true representation. When the central avenue is cleared, I purpose to send you the ichnography. In the mean time, through your publication, I beg to present my compliments to your correspondent Owain o Feirion, who, if I mistake not, is my old college acquaintance, and other gentlemen who may have a turn for such investigation; and hope, through your valuable vehicle, to have their sentiments on this subject.— But, Mr. Urban, if no other more able hand shall give the publick conjectures relative to the history of Fairies Toote, you shall again hear on this subject from your old correspondent.
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Feb. 19 [1816]. At Mrs, Dalrymple's, Portman square, Louisa Grace, Duchess of St. Alban's (age 39); and her infant son the Duke of St. Alban's. Her Grace, who had been for some time in a delicate state of health, died three hours after her child. This interesting lady, whose premature death has caused so much concern, was third dau. of the late J. Manners, esq. eldest son of the late Lord W. Manners, uncle to the late Duke of Rutland, by Lady Louisa Tollemache (age 70), daughter to the late [Lionel Tollemache 4th Earl Dysart], and sister to the present [Wilbrahim Tollemache 6th Earl Dysart (age 76)] Earl of Dysart, The Duchess was sister to Sir W. Manners (age 49), bart. M. P. and to J. Manners (age 48), esq. married to the Duchess of Roxburgh, and also sister to Lady Heathcote, Mrs. Dalrymple, and the late Mrs. Duff. She was married to the Duke of St. Alban's in August 1802, and continued one of the brightest stars in the fashionable hemisphere until the birth of her son during the last year; when all the pleasure was forgotten in her devotion to her domestic circle, which was only disturbed by the death of his Grace, her late husband. Their remains were interred at Hanwell on the 11th inst, — The title and estates Jevolve on Lord Wm. Beauclerc (age 49), brother-in-law to the deceased Duchess.
1st June 1823. Mr. Urban, June 1.
There seems to have been an error which has crept into all our Histarians, respecting the fate of the Lady Katharine Grey, youngest daughter of Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, and the Lady Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon. The main points of her history are well known, and no doubt, correctly detailed; but it is of her death and burial that I am now speaking. Dr. Fuller, in his quaint way, gives us the following account:
"She was born at Bradgate, and (when her father was in height) married to Henry Lord Herbert, son and heir to the Earl of Pembroke; but the politic old Earl, perceiving the case altered, and what was the high way to honour, turned into the ready road to ruin, got pardon from Queen Mary, and broke the marriage quite off. This Heraclita, or Lady of Lamentation, thus repudiated, was seldom seen with dry eyes for some years together, sighing out her sorrowful condition; so that though the roses in her cheeks looked very wan and pale, it was not for want of watering. Afterwards Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, married her privately without the Queen's licence, and concealed it till her pregnancy diseovered it. Queen Elizabeth beheld her with a jealous eye, unwilling she should match either foreign Prince or English Peer, but follow the pattern she set her of constant virginity. For their presumption this Earl was fined £15,000 imprisoned with his lady in the Tower, and severely forbidden her company; but love and money will find or force a passage. By bribing the keeper, he bought (what was his own) his wife's embraces, and had by her a surviving son, Edward, ancestor to the Duke of Somerset. She died Jan. 26, 1567, a prisoner in the Tower, after nine years durance there."
It appers from Bayley's "History of the Tower,", p. 91, that on the 5th Sept. 1562, 4 Eliz. "the Ladie Katherine Grey, and the Erle of Hartford," were prisoners there: but from the following note, copied from a MS by Reyce, now in the College of Arms, relating to Suffolk Antiquities, it is equally clear that she did not die there: the note is as follows:
There lie buried in the Church and Chancel at Yoxford, the bowels of ye Lady Katherine, wife of Edward Seimour Earl of Hardford. She was daughter of Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, and of Mary the French Queen, the younger of the two daughters of King Henry VII:—of the elder, K. James and K. Charles were descended. This lady Katharine had been committed prisoner to Sir Owen Hopton, Lieftenant of the Tower, for marrying without the Queen's knowledge, and was by him kept at Cockfield Hall, in Yoxford, being his house, where she died. I have been often told by aged people in Yoxford, that after her death, a little dog she had, would never more eat any meat, but lay and died upon her grave."
This statement is corroborated by the following entry in the Parish Register of Yoxford:
The Lady Katherine Gray, buried 21st Feb. 1567." D.A.Y.
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No. V. Lady Amye Dudley.
[4th June 1787] In Cavendish-street, Portland-squ. Mrs. Margaret Coghlan (age 24), lady of John C. esq; and dau. of Col. Moncrieff.
Note. This appears to be a mis-reporting of her death. Some sources describe her as falsifying her death to avoid creditors.
Mr. Urban, Stamford, Jan 1 [1808].
The parish of Edenham in Lincolnshire comprizes the townships of Edenham, Grimsthorpe, Elsthorpe, and Scottlethorpe; and the site and demesnes of the Abbey of Vaudey, or de Valle Dei. The whole parish contains about 6424 acres of land; the whole of which, except about 160 acres, is the property of his grace the Duke of Ancaster.
The village of Edenham is situate about eleven miles North from Stamford, aud three miles west from Bourne.
The Parish Church, situate in Edenham; was formerly appropriated to the abbey of Vaudey; and is now a perpetual curacy in the donation of the Duke of Ancaster, who is Impropriator of the parith, and proprietor of the Churchyard.
The Church, dedicated to St. Michael (a South-West View of which is engraved in Plate II.) consist of a Nave with North and South Aisles, a handsome square Tower at the West end, and Chancel at the East end of the Nave, and a South Entrance Porch. The length of the Tower is 18 feet, of the Nave 71, and of the Chancel 86 feet; total 125 feet. The length of the North Aisle is 75 feet, of the South Aisle 65 feet 6 inches. The breadth of the Nave is 19 feet, and of each of the Aisles 13 feet 6 inches; total breadth 46 feet. And the breadth of the Chancel is 18 feet. The Aisles are each divided from the Nave by four arches; and a smaller arch, or doorway, separates the North Aisle from the Chancel. The arch which separates the Chancel from the Nave is circular, with round mouldings; that which separates the Nave from the Tower lofty and pointed. The arches between the South Aisle and Nave are pointed, deeply moulded, and supported by clustered columns, the smaller shafts which are completely relieved from the main supports. The arches which separate the North Aisle from the Nave are pointed; but, as well as the columns which support them, are of workmanship plainer than, and inferior to the others.
The Font, which is circular, is surrounded by eight attached columns, with ornamented capitals supporting small arches; and seems (as indeed Fonts generally are) more ancient than any other part of the Church.
In the front of the Porch are two ancient shields, on one of which may be traced, crusiié botoné fitché, a lion rampant sinister; and on the other, seme of fleurs de lis, a lion rampant, Beaumont; impaling three garbs, Comyn.
The parapet walls of the South Aisle and Porch are ornamented with a Frieze, composed of square compartments with quatrefoils and various other fanciful devices.
The Tower and some part of the Church seem to be of the time of Henry VI; the residue of an earlier date. The West door of entrance to the Church through the Tower is a flat pointed arch, with quatrefoils in the groins.
There is on the floor of the South Aisle a blue marble (which seems to have been one of the sides of an old tomb) ornamented with plain shields in quatrefoils; and there are several other large stones on the floor, from which brasses with effigies and inscriptions to have been torn away.
The Pews, apparently coæval with the Tower, are of oak, open at the ends, perforated in the form of quatrefoils at the sides, and ornamented with carving of pointed arches at the ends.
In the Churchyard are remains of several antient tombs. One, a stone in the form of a wedge, at the North door, very old, is the recumbent figure of a lady resting her head on a cushion with her hands clasped in the attitude of prayer. Another on the South side Of the Church, at the East end of the South Aisle, is an altar-tomb of stone, divided, in the front, into four compartments, which are separated by crocketed pinnacles and each compartment decorated with rich and fanciful tracery, inclosing a shield of arms. The first and second have a fesse charged with three crosses botoné; the third has a bend between six martlets and the charge upon the south is nearly effaced, but appears, by an Harleian Manuscript, No. 6829, to have been, quarterly, 1 and 4 a chief indented, Neville; 2 and 3, three dolphins naiant, Simeon. On the tomb are the recumbent figures of a man in armour and his wife at his right side, his feet rest on a monkey. She is supported at the head by angels, has a canopy over her, and monks in cowls at her feet. This, in the Harleian MS. No. 6829, is said to be for a Neville of Grimthorpe and his wife but it is more probable it was for a Simeon who marred the heir-general of Neville.
Possibly these tombs were removed out of the Church. at the time when a part of it was rebuilt. I do not think they were originally designed, especially the beautiful one for Simeon and his wife, to be exposed to the weather, and a thousand accidents and mischievous sports, in the church-yard.
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At the East end of the Norih Aisle are two tablets of black marble bordered military and naval trophies; at the top of which, within a garter, surmounted by an Earl's coronet, is a shield of 25 coats,
1. Argent, three battering-rams, barways, in pale, • proper armed and garnished Azure; Bertie.
2. Or, fretté Azure; Willoughby.
3. Ermine, five chevronels Gules, a canton of the second a lion passant Or; Orreby
4. Gules, a cross moline Argent; Beck,
5. Gules, crufilé fitché and three round buckles Or; Rosceline,
6. Sable, a cross ingrailed Or; Ufford.
7. Argent; three pallets valé, Gules; Valoines.
8. Sable, a maunch Or.
9.
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All About History Books
The Deeds of King Henry V, or in Latin Henrici Quinti, Angliæ Regis, Gesta, is a first-hand account of the Agincourt Campaign, and subsequent events to his death in 1422. The author of the first part was a Chaplain in King Henry's retinue who was present from King Henry's departure at Southampton in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, and the celebrations on King Henry's return to London. The second part, by another writer, relates the events that took place including the negotiations at Troye, Henry's marriage and his death in 1422.
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Mr. Urban, Wimpole-st. Jan. 8. About half a mile S.E. of the village of Enstone in Oxfordshire, upon the hill at a short distance from the road to Oxford, there is a large stone [Hoar Stone, Enstone [Map]] standing upright, of considerable dimensions; from the road it has much the appearance of the Rollrich stone, called the King’s stone, near Long Compton, Oxfordshire.
I was induced a few years since, on my return from Worcestershire, to take a nearer view and measurement of it, by having the ground removed and cleared to the base of the stones, which convinced me that it had been a Cromlech (i.e. an inclined stone), originally standing upon three stones of smaller dimensions still remaining near it, but from which it had long since been thrown off, and set upright in the ground, with only one the stones on which it had rested, standing in its original position close by its side.
This ancient relick is situated upon a mound of earth, apparently artificial, raised about three feet above the surface of the field; and of the two other stones that supported the Cromlech, which are lying down at a short distance from it, one is partly buried under the soil.
The large upright stone is of a semicircular form; its height above the surface of the ground is eight feet two inches, its greatest width is six feet ten inches, three feet six inches thick, ten feet nine inches from the top to its extremity under the soil, and it is in the same rough state as when taken from the quarry.
Dr. Plot is the only author who appears to have mentioned this stone, and his opinion inclines to its being of British origin.
"There stands also a stone about half a mile S.W. of Enston Church, on a bank by the way side between Neat-Enston and Fulwell, somewhat flat, and tapering upward from a broad bottom, with small ones lying by it; and another near the road betwixt Burford and Chipping Norton, which I guess might be erected for the same purpose, with the two former, as above-mentioned : unless we shall rather think both these and them to have been some of the gods of the ancient Britons, as the reverend and learned Dr. Stillingfleet thinks it not improbable those pyramidal stones, mentioned by Camden in Yorkshire, called the Devil's Bolts, sometimes were. And so likewise Stonehenge in Wiltshire, which he judges neither to be a Roman Temple, nor Danish Monument, but rather somewhat belonging to the Idol Markolis, which Buxtorf sath the Rabbins called domum Kolis of which more hereafter, when I come into that county ; and into Kent, where is Kits-coty-house, which I take to be an antiquity of the same kind." — History of Oxfordshires p. 351.
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A short time afterwards I made an excursion to Kits Coty House [Map] in Kent, one of the most perfect Cromlechs existing in England, so called from Christopher, the name of an old shepherd, who formerly made it his habitation for a number of years, from which it became distinguished by the vulgar, as Kit’s Cote, or Cottage, and not; as erroneously supposed, from its having been the burial-place of Cattigern, to whose name it bears no relation.
Half a mile below this Cromlech; and fronting the same aspect, nearer to Aylesford, in a field near the road, there is a heap of stones, which was so much overgrown with coppice, elm, and white thorn, that it was nearly inaccessible. The tenant of the land upon being applied to, readily cleared it of the underwood, which enabled me to take a plan and measurement of these stones, which lie in an oval space of 89 feet circumference, within which there are now sixteen stones large and small, apparently the remains of a Druidical monument, consisting of five or six cromlechs, all now completely overthrown. Several of the smaller stones are partly covered by, and support some of the larger ones, which have fallen upon them, and are raised above the ground in a slanting position. The tenant remembers when the Cromlech marked A, was resting upon its supports, which, with some others, have been since taken away, and also the circumstance of its fall ing down in consequence of his digging under it; he asserts that human bones and pieces of armour were found beneath it, and have likewise been turned up by the plough in various parts of he same field.
These monuments are spoken of by our earliest historians as of things beyond tradition, the use of which could be even in their time but barely conjectured, and it is only by comparing Their accounts of the their accounts of the religious rites and civil customs of the Aborigines of this island, that a plausible hypothesis can be formed of the purposes for which they were erected. Edw. Rudge.
December 1848. Viscount Midleton.
01 November 1848. At Pepper Harrow, Surrey, aged 42, the Right Hon. George Alan Brodrick (deceased), fifth Viscount Midleton (1717) and Baron Brodrick, of Midleton, co. Cork (1715), in the peerage of Ireland; and second Baron Brodrick of Pepper Harrow, in the peerage of England (1796).
His Lordship was born June 10, 1806, the only son of George the fourth Viscount, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, and his fifth child by his second wife, Maria, daughter of Richard Benyon, esq. of Gidea Hall, Essex.
He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father, August 12, 1836. He married May 14, 1833, Miss Ellen Griffiths, and has left issue, whether a son or no we are not informed. Otherwise he is succeeded by his cousin Charles Brodrick, esq. barrister-at-law, eldest son of the late Archbishop of Cashel.
At an inquest held on his Lordship's body it appeared that his death had been occasioned by the fumes of charcoal. He had latterly resided almost entirely alone, and his surgeon said that be had always considered his Lordship an eccentric man, and of a very wayward disposition. ne clergyman of the parish stated that in July 18-17 Lord Midleton came to him, and communicated the intelligence that her Ladyship had left him, and that it was all his own fault. He bad frequently since appeared in a very unhappy state of mind. The jury came to the following verdict: We find that the Right Hon. George-Alan Viscount Midleton, in a certain room in Pepper Harrow mansion, Pepper Harrow-park, in the parish of Pepper Harrow, within the county of Surrey, did on Wednesday, the 1st of November, 1848, destroy his own life, he being at the time in a state of temporary insanity."
Blount's answer is dated from Cumnor on the 11th September [1560], and contains the following interesting narrative:
The same night I came from Windsor I lay at Abingdon all that night, and because I was desirous to hear what new: went abroad in the country, at my sappe I called for mine host, and asked hin what news was thereabout, taking upor me I was going into Gloucestershire. He said, there was fallen a great misfortune within three or four miles of the town; he said, my Lord Robert Dudley's wife [Amy Robsart (deceased)] was dead, and I axed how; and he said, by misfortune, as he heard, by a fall from a pair of stairs. I asked him by what chance; he said; he knew not. I axed him what was his judgment, and the judgment of the people; he said, some were disposed to say well and some evil. What is your judgmient? said I. By my troth, said he, I judge it a misfortune because it chanced in that honest gentleman's house; his great honesty, said he doth much cut (?) the evil thoughts of the people. My think, said I, that some of her people that waited upon her should somewhat say to this. No, sir, said he but little; for it was said that they wer all here at the fair, and none left with her. How might that chance? said I. Ther, said he, it is said how that she rose that day very early, and commanded all her sort to go [to] the fair, and would suffer none to tarry at home; and thereof is much judged. And truly, my lord, I did first learn of Bowes, as I met him coming towards your lordship, of his own being that day, and of all the rest of ther being, who affirmed that she would not that day suffer one of her own sort to tarry at home, and was so earnest to have them gone to the fair, that with any of her own sort that made reason of tarrying at home she was very angry, and came to Mrs. Odingstells (?), the widow that liveth with Anthony Forster, who refused that day to go to the fair, and was very angry with her also, because she said if was no day for gentlewomen to go in, bul said the morrow was much better, and then she would go. Whereunto my lady answered and said, that she might choose and go at her pleasure, but all hers should go; and was very angry. They asked whe should keep her company if all they went. She said Mrs. Owen should keep he company at dinner. The same tale doth Pirto (?), who doth dearly love her, confirm. Certainly, my lord, as little while as I have been here, I have heard diver tales of her that maketh me judge her to be a strange woman of mind. In askin of Pirto what she might think of the matter, either chance or villany, she said by her faith she doth judge very chance and neither done by man nor by herself. For herself, she said, she was a good virtuous gentlewoman, and daily would pray upon her knees; and divers time she saith that she had heard her pray to God to deliver her from desperation. Then, said I, she might have an evil toy (?) in her mind. No, good, Mr. Blount said Pirto, do not judge so of my words if you should so gather, I am sorry I said so much. My lord, it is most strange that this chance should fall upon you. It passeth the judgment of any man to say how it is; but truly the tales I do hear of her maketh me to think she had a strange mind in her; as I will tell you at my coming. (i. 402.)
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Contemporary Account of the Funeral of Amy Robsart.
Mr. Urban, Oxford, June 20 [1850]. In compliance with the invitation contained in your Magazine for April last, p.411, I send you a transcript of the account of the splendid funeral of the heroine of Walter Scott's Kenilworth. It has been copied from the MS. in the Ashmolean collection, with as much accuracy as possible, but the orginal is occasionally very obscure, and in those places it is very difficult to arrive at an absolute certainty as to the reading. I shall leave to glossarists and historical antiquaries more competent than myself, to explain the doubtful words and illustrate the bearing of this document (if it has 'any') upon the cause of poor Amy's death. I send it to you in conformity with your request, and in order to complete the series of documents upon this subject published in your Magazine.
I have not thought it necessary to print common contractions. The copy will therefore be understood to be a transcript of the MS. in extenso, except where there was any doubt as to the actual word. Yours, &c. A. J.
The funerall of the lady Amye Robsert (deceased), wife of the lord Robert Dudley, knight of the Garter, anno 1560.
(Ex. MS. Dugdale, T. 2, fol. 77.)
Thenterment of the right noble lady Amey Robsert, late wyffe to the right noble the lord Robert Dudelley, knight and compaignion of the moste noble ordre of the Garter and master of the horsse to the queenes moste excellent majestie, whoo departed out of this world on Sounday, beinge Our Lady day the VIIJ day of September, at a keepe of one Mr. Forster, IJ myle of Oxford, in the seconde yere of the reigne of our soveraigne lady queene Elizabeth, by thet queene of England, Fraunce, and Irelaund, defendour of the Faith, &c. Anno domini 1560.
Fyrste, after that the said lady was thus departed out of this transsetory world, she was saffely cered and coffened, and so remayned there tyll Fryday the [blank] day of the said moneth of September, on the which day she was secreately brought to Glouster college a lytell without the towne of Oxford, the which plasse of Gloster couledge was hanged with blake cloth and garnesshed with skocheons of his armes and heres in palle1, that is to say, a great chamber where the morners did dyne, and at there chamber where the gentillwomen did dyne, and beneth the steres a great hall, all which places as afforesaid were hanged with blake cloth and garnesshed with skochions; the howsse beinge thus furnesshed ther the corsse remayned till the buryall, and till suche tyme as all things were redy for the same.
Note 1. So for hers in pale
The mannour of the garnessinge of the churche with the hersse.
Item, it was appoynted that the said corsse should be buryed in Our Lady churche in the said towne of Oxfourd, the which churche was hanged with blake cloth and garnesshed with skochions, and in the mydell eyle, in the upper ende, ther was maid a hersse IIIJ square, conteynynge in leingth X fote, and in bredth VIJ fote and a haulf, and in height X fote on the sydes, and on the tope XIIIJ fote, and from the tope came rochements to eche corner of the said square frame; in the which tope of the hersse was set IJ skochions of armes on paste paper in metall wrought with compartements of gold, and bereth ther penseles round aboute them; beneth that the said tope was kevered all over with fyne blake cloth, and in every square ther was sett IIJ skochions in metall, then on the rochements ther was set penseles of sarsenet in metall with bages; then on the square beneth the saide rochements went a bredth of blake velvet, on the which ther was pyned skochions in metall, on eche syde IIJ and on eche end IJ, and at the upper ege of the velvet ther was set penseles rounde aboute, and at the neither ege ther was fastyned a vallence of blake sarsenet wrytten with lettres of gold and frynged with a fringe of blake sylke; ther was a flouer1 of bords, and under that flouer ther was a vallence of bokeram with armes on the same; the IIIJ postes were kovered with fyne blacke cloth, and on eche poste was fastened IJ skochions, and on the tope of every poste ther was a great skochon of armes on past paper with a compartement on the nether parte of the rayles of the saide hersse was hanged doubled with blake cloth and garnesshed with skochions. Then IIIJ foote from the same hersse went a rayll of tymber, the which was covered with blake and garnesshed with skochions in lyke manner as aforsaid, and betwene the said ralle and ‘the hersse ther was set VII stoles, that is to say, at the hedd one and one eche syde IIJ the which were covered with blake cloth, and cussions at the same to knele on; the quere was also hounge and garnesshed in lyke maner, and at the upper end of the said quere was maid a vaute of bryke where the said crosse was buryed. Thus all things redy the day of the buryall was appoynted, the which was Sonday, the [blank] day of September, on the which day they proced to the churche in lyke manner.
Note 1. Floor.
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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
The ordre of the procedinge to the churche with the said corsse from Gloster colledge to Our Lady Churche in Oxford.
Furste, the IJ conducters with blake staves in there hands to led the waye.
Then the pore men and women in gownes to the nomber of IIIJXX.
Then the universsities IJ and IJ together, accordinge to the degres of the colleges, and before every housse ther officers with ther staves.
Then the quere in surpleses singenge, and after them the mynester.
Then Rouge Crosse pursuvant in his mornynge gowne, his hod on his hed, and his cote of armes on his bake.
Then gentillmen havinge blake gownes with there hoods on ther shoulders.
Then Lancaster herauld in his longe gowne, his hod on his hed.
Then the baner of armes borne by Mr. Appelyard in his longe gowne, his hod on his hed.
Then Clarenceulx, king of armes, in his longe gowne, and his hood on his hed, and in his cote of armes.
Then the corpes bore by VIIJ talle yeomen, for that they wey was farre and IIIJ assystants to them, and on eche syde of the corsse went IJ assystants touching the corse in longe gownes, and ther hoods on ther hedds, and on eche corner a banerolle borne by a gentleman in a longe gowne, his hod on his hed.
Then the cheiffe morner, Mrs. Norrys, daughter and heire of the lord Wylliams of Thame, her trayne borne by Mrs. Bauteller the younger, she being assysted by Sir Richard Blunte, knight.
Mrs. Wayneman and my lady Pollard.
Mrs. Doylly and Mrs. Buteller thelder.
Then Mrs. Blunte and Mrs. Mutlowe.
Then IIJ yeomen in blake cotes, to seperate the morners from the other gentlewomen.
Then all other gentlewomen, haveing blake, IJ and IJ.
Then all yeomen, IJ and IJ in blake
Then the majour of Oxford and his bretheren.
Then after them all that would, and in this ordre they proced to the churche in at the weste dore, and so to the hersse, wher the corsse was plased, and on eche syde of the hersse without the ralles stod gentlemen holdinge the bannerroles, and at the fete stod he that held the great banner; then the morners were plased, the chieff at the hed, and on eche syde IIJ;
thus, every man plassed, the service began, firste sarteyne prayers, then the X commandments, the quere answeringe in prykesong, then the pystel and the gospell began, and after the gospell the offering began in manner followinge:—
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Firste,
The order of the offeringe.
Fyrste the cheff morner came fourth havinge before her the officers of armes, her trayne beinge borne, the assystante ledyng her, and thother morners followinge her, went to the offeringe and offered and retorned agayne to the hersse.
Then after she had maid her obeyssyaunce to the corsse she went upe agayne, havinge before her Garter, and offered for herself and retorned.
Then offered the assystante to the cheiffe morner, and thother IIIJ assystants havinge Clarenceulx before them.
Then offered thother VJ morners, IJ after IJ having before them Lancaster herauld.
Then offered all gentillmen, IJ and IJ havinge the Rugecrosse pursivante before them.
Then the mayor and his brethren offered, havinge an offycer of armes before them.
Item, the offeringe thus don the sermon began, mad by Doctor Babyngton, Doctor of Devynytie, whose antheme was Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur.
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