Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide

My visit to ‘Elizabeth I & Her People’ exhibition

Posted on 26th October 2013 by Tamise

The ‘Elizabeth I & Her People’ exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is a must see. Not only are there wonderful portraits on display but there also some very interesting objects as well.

‘This exhibition explores the story of the Elizabethans from the Queen, the nobility and gentry to many other talented individuals such as explorers, soldiers, merchants, artists and writers.’ (NPG website)

‘The exhibition includes many outstanding paintings of Elizabeth I and her courtiers including explorers and soldiers, and enchanting portraits of her female attendants. Visitors will also come face-to-face with lesser-known Elizabethans including butchers, goldsmiths, brewers, merchants, writes and artists. These will be shown alongside artefacts from the period including exquisite jewellery, books and coins, which give a fascinating glimpse into their way of life.’ (NPG leaflet)

My favourite item was the sweet box that either belonged to or was made for Robert Dudley to give away.

Sweet box either belonging to or given by Robert Dudley
Decorative sweet box
Iron, damascened with gold & silver
1579

You can read more about ‘The Dudley Box’ at the V&A website.

Other highlights included:

Elizabeth I: The Ermine Portrait
Nicholas Hilliard
1585

Two portraits on loan from Hardwick Hall.

Bess of Hardwick
Follower of Hans Eworth
1560

Hardwick Hall portrait of Queen Elizabeth
Unknown artist
1598-9

Memento mori ring (death’s head ring)
1550-1600
Gold, enamel
Inscribed at front of bezel + BE HOLD THE ENDE
Around the edge of bezel RATHER DEATH THAN FAILS FAYTH

According to Leanda de Lisle, Katherine (Jane’s sister), wore this type of ring.

In ‘The Sisters Who Would Be Queen’ de Lisle writes that as Katherine Seymour lay dying, she asked Sir Owen Hopton to ‘deliver a few tokens to her husband.’ Amongst these tokens was a ‘ring mounted with a death’s head. Such rings, known as a memento mori, were intended as a reminder to the wearer of their mortality. ‘This shall be the last token unto my Lord that I shall ever send him. It is a picture of myself’, she said.’ (p.269-270, de Lisle)

You can read more about the ring at the V&A website.

A Fete at Bermondsey
Joris Hoefnagel
1568-70

This painting has a view of the Tower of London in the background and you can buy a copy at the exhibition gift shop.

Elizabeth Vernon (Countess of Southampton)
c1600
Unknown artist

In the background of this portrait on the table are dress pins. You can see the real thing in a display case near by.

William Cecil’s tankard
c1575
Silver-gilt, enamel & glass

Embroidered panel with the Hardwick crest (a stag) with the initials ES
1559-64/5

John Day
Unknown artist
1562
Woodcut

De Lisle describes how Jane’s letters (to Thomas Harding and her sister, Katherine) and ‘a description of Jane’s conversation in the Tower with Feckenham’ had been sent ‘to an evangelical printer in Lincolnshire called John Day’ and that ‘Day’s press was hidden on the estate of…Sir William Cecil.’ (p.159, de Lisle)

Professor Eric Ives writes that, ‘In 1554 there appeared ‘An Epistle of the Ladye Jane, a righte virtuous woman to a learned man of late falne from the truth’, conjecturally from the press of John Day, a prolific Protestant printer who in October 1554 was arrested on suspicion of publishing material hostile to the Marian regime.’ (p.21, Ives)

What makes this exhibition come alive are the objects on display. You half expect Elizabeth and Robert Dudley to come down from their paintings and for him to offer her a sweet, for Cecil to climb off his mule and drink from his tankard, Bess of Hardwick to take up her embroidery and for Elizabeth Vernon take the pins from the display case and finish dressing.

* All italic item text is (c) National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibition runs until 5 January 2014.

You can buy tickets from the National Portrait Gallery website:

National Portrait Gallery – Tickets

Sources

Elizabeth I & Her People – National Portrait Gallery

V&A website – The Dudley Box

V&A website – Ring.

Boughton House

BBC – Your Paintings

Elizabeth I & Her People Leaflet – National Portrait Gallery

Ives, E. (2009) Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery, Wiley-Blackwell.

De Lisle, L. (2010) The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey, HarperPress.

Posted in Exhibitions | Tagged National Portrait Gallery | Comments Off

Medieval Lives with Helen Castor Part 3 tonight 9pm BBC4

Posted on 23rd October 2013 by Tamise

Helen Castor’s new series ‘Medieval Lives’ concludes tonight at 9pm on BBC4.

According to her website, ‘this exploration of the medieval experience of life’s great rites of passage includes stories of the 15th-century Paston family, as told in Helen’s book BLOOD & ROSES.’ (Helen Castor.com)

The final episode of this three part series looks at death.

This is what the press has to say:

‘Most of the time we try not to think about death, but the people of the Middle Ages didn’t have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor – even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months.

However, for the people of the Middle Ages death wasn’t an end but a doorway to everlasting life. The Church taught that an eternity spent in heaven or hell was much more important than this life’s fleeting achievements and there was much you could do to prepare for the next life in this one.

As historian Helen Castor reveals, how to be remembered – and remembering your loved ones – shaped not only the worship of the people of the Middle Ages but the very buildings and funding of the medieval Church itself.’

(BBC4 website)

‘In the final episode, Dr Helen Castor sheds light on how the Catholic church shaped medieval folk’s desire for a “good death”.

In the 13th century, the Pope formally adopted the concept of purgatory: a dimension characterised by “darkness, fire and terror”, which seems to have held great prominence within the medieval collective consciousness. The best way to curtail your stay there was to leave behind money for masses; effectively, the rich could buy their way out of purgatory by paying bribes to the church. Henry VII, for example, left sufficient funding for 10,000 masses to be said immediately after his death, to give his soul a turbo-charged route to heaven.

This is a striking insight into a very different world, but Dr Castor plays it straight down the line; you won’t find gimmicky gothic cemeteries or creaking mausoleum doors here.

Historian Helen Castor explores how mortality was perceived in the Middle Ages, revealing that people looked upon death as a beginning rather than an ending – a doorway to everlasting life. The prospect of reaching Heaven and being remembered in a good light shaped not only people’s behaviour, but also the buildings and funding of the Church itself.’

(Gary Rose, Radio Times website)

You can view a clip here:

BBC4 – Medieval Lives: A Good Death

Episode 3 – A Good Death will be repeated:

BBC 4
Thursday 24 October – 03.00
Sunday 27 October – 23.00

Sources

BBC4 – Medieval Lives
Radio Times.com

Posted in TV | Tagged Helen Castor, Medieval Lives | Comments Off

Politics, Patronage and Prostitution: The Experiences of Medieval Women- Special Interest Event at Christ Church Oxford

Posted on 21st October 2013 by Tamise

Christ Church College, Oxford have asked me to mention their special interest event that Helen Castor will be speaking at next year.

Heloise & Abelard
(c) Musee Conde & The Bridgeman Art Library

‘Politics, Patronage and Prostitution: The Experiences of Medieval Women’ runs from 3-6 April 2014.

From the Christ Church website:

‘Every Spring Christ Church holds a Special Interest Weekend open to the public. In April 2014 we are having a single topic weekend on ‘Politics, Patronage and Prostitution: The Experiences of Medieval Women’. This weekend offers the chance to hear papers from a group of specialists on those matters which involved and concerned women generally. By sampling some individuals, such as Christine de Pisan, Heloise, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Joan of Arc, as well as taking a look at the experiences of those less famous, we shall endeavour to answer the question: what was it like for women to live in the medieval world?’

Marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine & Louis VII of France
(c) Musee Conde & The Bridgeman Art Library

Speakers include:

Dr Rowena E. Archer
Christine de Pisan (c.1364-c.1430) and Other Sources on the Lives of Medieval Women

Dr Frederik Pedersen
Tying the Knot: Love, Law and Marriage in the Middle Ages

Dr Helen Castor
She-Wolves: Queens and Power in Medieval England

Dr Hugh Doherty
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204): Duchess, Crusader, Queen

Dr Francis Woodman
Medieval Women as Patrons of Architecture

The Lady and the Unicorn
(c) Musee National de Moyen Age et des Thermes de Cluny, Paris & The Bridgeman Art Library

Professor Caroline Barron
Was There a “Golden Age” for Women in Medieval London?

Dr Martin Ingram
Common Women, Public Good? : Prostitutes and Society in Later Medieval England

Henrietta Leyser
Kiss and Tell? Abelard and Heloise Revisited

Dr Hannah Skoda
Warrior, Visionary or Heretic? : Trying to Understand Joan of Arc

Dr Maria Hayward
Power Dressing in the Middle Ages: How Women Used Clothing to Assert Their Position in Society

Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II
(c) Fontevrault Abbey, France

You can download the brochure:

Politics, Patronage and Prostitution: The Experiences of Medieval Women Brochure

View of Baynards Castle
(c) The Bridgeman Art Library

For cost details and how to book:

You can either book online at:
Christ Church Oxford – Special Interest Event

Or phone:
+44 (0)1865 286848

Further details

Please direct all enquiries to:

Special Interest Weekend
The Steward’s Office
Christ Church
Oxford, OX1 1DP

Email: specialinterest@chch.ox.ac.uk
Web: www.chch.ox.ac.uk

Christine de Pisan presenting her book to Queen Isabella of Bavaria
(c) British Library Board

Sources

Christ Church Oxford – Special Interest Weekend

* All images from the Politics, Patronage and Prostitution: The Experiences of Medieval Women brochure

The British Library
The Bridgeman Art Library
Fontevrault Abbey

Posted in Conferences | Tagged Conferences, Helen Castor, Medieval Women Special Event | Comments Off

Medieval Lives with Helen Castor Part 2 tonight 9pm BBC4

Posted on 16th October 2013 by Tamise

Helen Castor’s new series ‘Medieval Lives’ continues tonight at 9pm on BBC4.

According to her website, ‘this exploration of the medieval experience of life’s great rites of passage includes stories of the 15th-century Paston family, as told in Helen’s book BLOOD & ROSES.’ (Helen Castor.com)

The second episode of this three part series looks at marriage.

This is what the press has to say:

‘Dr Helen Castor continues her advance through life’s ‘great rites of passage’ by looking at marriage. Using as examples a royal wedding (Catherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur, the future Henry VIII’s older brother) and one bringing together two Norfolk gentry families, she shows how the church put its stamp on marriage after reforms in the 12th century – and also became sterner about sexual sin…Castor…describes a typical medieval wedding, including the priest ‘putting the couple to bed.’

(p.64, The Culture, Sunday Times, 13 October 2013)

‘Unlike birth and death, which are inescapable facts of life, marriage is rite of passage made by choice and in the Middle Ages it wasn’t just a choice made by bride and groom – they were often the last pieces in a puzzle, put together by their parents, with help from their family and friends, according to rules laid down by the Church.

Helen Castor reveals how in the Middle Ages marriage was actually much easier to get into than today – you could get married in a pub or even a hedgerow simply by exchanging words of consent – but from the 12th century onwards the Catholic Church tried to control this conjugal free-for-all. For the Church marriage was a way to contain the troubling issue of sex, but, as the film reveals, it was not easy to impose rules on the most unpredictable human emotions of love and lust.’

(BBC4 website)

‘Dr Helen Castor dips into the sacrament and significance of marriage during the Middle Ages. Medieval wedlock was, she explains, often used to forge links between families. But it was also, of course, a passport to the pleasures of the flesh at a time when fornication was punished with public whippings and excommunication (not to mention eternal damnation).

The church is again cast in the role of arch-killjoy when Dr Castor unveils a 13th-century statute instructing parishioners on “proper” matrimonial behaviour. “Marriages are to be celebrated with reverence,” it commanded, “not with laughter and ribaldry. Not in taverns, with public eating and drinking.” How strictly this was adhered to, however, is anybody’s guess.

Historian Helen Castor explores marriage in the Middle Ages, revealing how family and friends were often heavily involved in the coupling of two individuals. She also discovers how the Catholic Church tried to impose controls on matrimony after the ability to hold a wedding almost anywhere had led to a free-for-all, driven by the unpredictable human emotions of love and lust.’

(Gary Rose, Radio Times website)

You can view a clip here:

BBC4 – Medieval Lives: A Good Marriage

Episode 2 – A Good Marriage will be repeated:

BBC 4
Thursday 17 October – 02.30
Sunday 20 October – 22.00

Sources

The Culture (The Sunday Times)
BBC 4 Medieval Lives
Radio Times.com