Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
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John Thomas Ruskin: In 1809 Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map] was rented to John Thomas Ruskin, grandfather of John Ruskin.
Before 7th May 1828 [her father] George Gray [aged 30] and [her mother] Sophia Margaret Jameson [aged 20] were married. They had fifteen children.
On 7th May 1828 Effie Gray was born to [her father] George Gray [aged 30] and [her mother] Sophia Margaret Jameson [aged 20] at Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map].
On 10th April 1848 John Ruskin [aged 29] and Effie Gray [aged 19] were married at Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map]; her childhood home.
On 20th June 1850 Effie Gray [aged 22], wife of [her husband] John Ruskin [aged 31], was presented to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 31].
1851. Thomas Richmond [aged 49]. Portrait of Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 22].
1852 to 1853. John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 22]. "The Order of Release, 1746". Modelled by Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 23]. The painting depicts the wife of a Highland Jacobite soldier, who has been imprisoned after the Jacobite rising of 1745, with an order securing his release. She holds her child, showing the order to a guard, while her husband embraces her.
1853 to 1854. [her future husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 23]. "Effie [aged 24] with Foxgloves in her hair". On display at Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton. On display at Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton.
1853 to 1854. [her future husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 23]. "Waterfall, or Effie [aged 24] at Glenfinlas".
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1853. 6th January 1853. To Rossetti's [aged 24], Blackfriars Bridge. Met there W. Holman Hunt [aged 25], [her future husband] J. E. Millais [aged 23], J. P. Seddon [aged 25], Clayton [aged 25], Munro [aged 27], whose charming group of Francesca and her lover was in Rossetti's studio, Stephens, Blanchard, C. Lucy, a Scotchman and a foreigner. Millais somewhat egotistical and little real, his attention being easily distracted. He jerked out some good remarks. Spoke highly of Ruskin [aged 33] as a friend of Art; said that Mrs. R [aged 24]. was sitting for one of his pictures. Hunt struck me as a thoroughly genuine, humorous, good-hearted, straightforward English-like fellow. Said he was bound for Syria before long. Millais spoke highly of Charles Collins [aged 24] as a good religious man?
Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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On 7th March 1854 Effie Gray [aged 25] wrote to her father: "... To go back to the day of my marriage I went as you know away to the Highlands. I had never been told the duties of married persons to each other and knew little or nothing about their relations in the closest union on earth. For days John [[her husband] John Ruskin [aged 35]] talked about this relation to me but avowed no intention of making me his Wife. He alleged various reasons, hatred to children, religious motives, a desire to preserve my beauty, and finally this last year told me his true reason (and this to me is as villainous as all the rest) that he had imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and that the reason he did not make me his Wife was because he was disgusted with my person ... then he said he would marry me when I was twenty five. This last year we spoke about it, he then said as I professed quite a dislike to him that it would be SINFUL to enter into such a connection, as if I was not very wicked I was at least insane and the responsibility that I might have children was too great, as I was quite unfit to bring them ..."
On 15th July 1854 the marriage of John Ruskin [aged 35] and Effie Gray [aged 26] annulled by the Commissary Court of Surrey on the grounds of John Ruskin being "incapable of consummating the same [marriage] by reason of incurable impotency".
On 30th July 1854 the Session Kinnoull Parish Church [Map] agreed that the "proper steps be taken to notice in the Sessions Records of Kinnoul that the following entry of marriage on Page 64 of the Records of Proclamations viz [her former husband] John Ruskin [aged 35] of Denmark Hill London and Euphemia Chalmers Gray [aged 26] in this Parish were proclaimed and married on the 10 day of April 1848 by the Revd John Edward Touch Minister of Kinnoul" had been declared null and void by the Commissary Court of Surrey" in a suit promoted by the said Euphemia Chalmers Gray".
The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais V1 Chapter 8. On July 3rd, 1855, [her husband] John Everett Millais [aged 26] was married to Euphemia Chalmers Gray [aged 27], eldest daughter of Mr. George Gray, of Bowerswell, Perth1. In accordance with the Scottish custom, the wedding took place in the drawingroom at Bowerswell [Map], and immediately afterwards came the baptism of the bride's youngest brother, between whom and his eldest sister there was a difference in age of nearly twenty-six years.
Note 1. Miss Gray had been previously married, but that marriage had been annulled in 1854, on grounds sanctioned equally by Church and State. Both good taste and feeling seem to require that no detailed reference should be made to the circumstances attending that annulment. But, on behalf of those who loved their mother well, it may surely be said that during the course of the judicial proceedings instituted by her, and throughout the period of the void marriage and the whole of her after years, not one word could be, or ever was, uttered impugning the correctness and purity of her life.
On 3rd July 1855 John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 26] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 27] were married at Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map]; see Life and Letters of Millais. They spent their two-week honeymoon in Argyleshire, Bute and Arran - see Life and Letters of Millais.
Around 1856, or sometime before, [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 26] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 27], lived at Annat Lodge, Kinnoul [Map].
1856. [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 26]. "The Blind Girl". Mathilda Proudfoot was the model for the blind girl, replacing Effie Ruskin [aged 27] who Millais first used as the model, and Isabella Nicol as her sister.
On 30th May 1856 [her son] Everett Millais 2nd Baronet was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 26] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 28] at Annat Lodge, Kinnoul [Map]. Millais wrote to his cousin: "Just a line to say that I am the distinguished owner of a little gentleman. The nurse, of course, says it is like me, adding that it is an extremely handsome production! But what nurse does not say the same thing? However, it has blue eyes and a little downy brown on the top of its head." He married 10th April 1886 Mary St Lawrence Hope-Vere and had issue.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1855-1857. 30th June 1857. Wm. Rossetti [aged 27] told me that [her former husband] Roughskin [aged 38] had married his wife [Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 29]] when she was very ill ....
On 19th September 1857 [her son] George Millais was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 28] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 29] at Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map].
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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The Diary of George Price Boyce 1855-1857. 19th November 1857. Adjourned to [her husband] Millais' [aged 28] house, just taken, No. 16 York Terrace, at about 4, and not finding him in waited and had a long and very pleasant chat with his wife [Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 29]], who has a lovely and passionate face, and whose manner is particularly engaging and ladylike withal. At her request, and afterwards backed by Millais, stayed to dinner, after which she left and I had a long chat on divers subjects with him. He spoke about Ruskin [aged 38], whom he thinks desperately ill off, and of the portrait he painted of him in Scotland, which he thought the finest thing in the way of portraiture he had yet done, and said he wanted it for the exhibition (R.A). He seemed astonished when I told him I had seen it in Ruskin's bedroom?
Around 1858. George Herbert Watkins [aged 30]. Photograph of Effie Gray [aged 29].
In 1858 [her daughter] Effie Millais was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 28] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 29].
In 1860 [her daughter] Mary Millais was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 30] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 31].
1861. John and Charles Watkins [aged 33]. Photograph of Effie Gray [aged 32].
In 1862 [her daughter] Alice Millais Baroness Stuart was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 32] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 33]. She married after July 1881 Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley 1st Baron Stuart.
From 1862 [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 32] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 33] lived at 7 Cromwell Place, Kensington.
1863. [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 33]. "The Eve of St Agnes". Model Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 34]. Location Knole House, Sevenoaks.
On 18th September 1863 [her son] Geoffrey William Millais 4th Baronet was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 34] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 35].
In 1865 [her son] John Millais was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 35] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 36].
In 1868 [her daughter] Sophie Millais was born to [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 38] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 39].
1871 Census. 7 Cromwell Place, Kensington.
[her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 41]
Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 42]
[her daughter] Mary [aged 11]
[her son] Geoffrey [aged 7]
John [aged 6]
Sophia [aged 3]
Effie [aged 13]
William [aged 43]
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1873. [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 43]. Portrait of Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 44].
The History of William Marshal was commissioned by his son shortly after William’s death in 1219 to celebrate the Marshal’s remarkable life; it is an authentic, contemporary voice. The manuscript was discovered in 1861 by French historian Paul Meyer. Meyer published the manuscript in its original Anglo-French in 1891 in two books. This book is a line by line translation of the first of Meyer’s books; lines 1-10152. Book 1 of the History begins in 1139 and ends in 1194. It describes the events of the Anarchy, the role of William’s father John, John’s marriages, William’s childhood, his role as a hostage at the siege of Newbury, his injury and imprisonment in Poitou where he met Eleanor of Aquitaine and his life as a knight errant. It continues with the accusation against him of an improper relationship with Margaret, wife of Henry the Young King, his exile, and return, the death of Henry the Young King, the rebellion of Richard, the future King Richard I, war with France, the death of King Henry II, and the capture of King Richard, and the rebellion of John, the future King John. It ends with the release of King Richard and the death of John Marshal.
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In 1877 [her father] George Gray [aged 79] died.
On 30th August 1878 [her son] George Millais [aged 20] died at Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map].
5th April 1881. Census. 2 Palace Gate, Kensington.
[her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 51]
Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 52]
Mary
John, Grandchild
Euphemia, Grandchild
Albert Gray, Brother-in-law
Nine servants.
After July 1881 [her son-in-law] Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley 1st Baron Stuart [aged 29] and Alice Millais Baroness Stuart [aged 19] were married. She the daughter of John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 52] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 53].
On 16th July 1885 [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 56] was created 1st Baronet Millais of Palace Gate in Kensington in Middlesex. Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 57] by marriage Lady Millais of Palace Gate in Kensington in Middlesex.
On 10th April 1886 Everett Millais 2nd Baronet [aged 29] and Mary St Lawrence Hope-Vere [aged 25] were married. He the son of John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 56] and Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 57].
In 1894 [her mother] Sophia Margaret Jameson [aged 86] died.
On 13th August 1896 [her husband] John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 67] died. His son Everett [aged 40] succeeded 2nd Baronet Millais of Palace Gate in Kensington in Middlesex.
On 7th September 1897 Everett Millais 2nd Baronet [aged 41] died. His son John [aged 8] succeeded 3rd Baronet Millais of Palace Gate in Kensington in Middlesex.
On 23rd December 1897 Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais [aged 69] died at Bowerswell House, Kinnoul [Map]. She was buried at Kinnoull Parish Church [Map] next to her son George Millais.
Adam Murimuth's Continuation and Robert of Avesbury’s 'The Wonderful Deeds of King Edward III'
This volume brings together two of the most important contemporary chronicles for the reign of Edward III and the opening phases of the Hundred Years’ War. Written in Latin by English clerical observers, these texts provide a vivid and authoritative window into the political, diplomatic, and military history of fourteenth-century England and its continental ambitions. Adam Murimuth Continuatio's Chronicarum continues an earlier chronicle into the mid-fourteenth century, offering concise but valuable notices on royal policy, foreign relations, and ecclesiastical affairs. Its annalistic structure makes it especially useful for establishing chronology and tracing the development of events year by year. Complementing it, Robert of Avesbury’s De gestis mirabilibus regis Edwardi tertii is a rich documentary chronicle preserving letters, treaties, and official records alongside narrative passages. It is an indispensable source for understanding Edward III’s claim to the French crown, the conduct of war, and the mechanisms of medieval diplomacy. Together, these works offer scholars, students, and enthusiasts a reliable and unembellished account of a transformative period in English and European history. Essential for anyone interested in medieval chronicles, the Hundred Years’ War, or the reign of Edward III.
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On 20th January 1900 [her former husband] John Ruskin [aged 80] died.
Father: George Gray
Euphemia "Effie" Gray Lady Millais
GrandFather: Andrew Jameson
Mother: Sophia Margaret Jameson
