A daily post on the Middle Ages by Tim Shaw.
Charlemagne's first son was named Pepin. Shortly after his birth he developed a spinal deformity that has caused historians to refer to him as " Pepin the Hunchback ." His mother was the concubine Himiltrude, a "noble girl" according to Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon). At one point Charlemagne dismissed Himiltrude from his court, but Pepin remained as a royal prince. She was dismissed because…
In William Shakespeare's Richard III , someone refers to Richard as “that foule hunch-backt toade.” It's the first recorded instance of that term for someone who had a less-than-straight spine, and—putting aside the question of whether Richard was "hunch-backed"—the term gets used in the literature of the next couple centuries to indicate a bad person. We know what a "back" is, but what is a…
Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, was one of the chief conspirators of the Southampton Plot to eliminate Henry V and replace him with Edmund Mortimer . He had an impressive lineage. His father was Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (and son of King Edward III). His mother was Isabella of Castile, daughter of the sometime King of Castile called Pedro the Cruel . Isabella had tried to…
I mentioned yesterday the links between the three men who hatched the Southampton Plot to assassinate Henry V and put Edmund Mortimer on the throne. Two of the men made a close tie with each other through the arranged marriage of their children. Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, had a daughter, Isabel. Isabel of Cambridge (1409 - 1484) was arranged to be married to Sir Thomas Grey. Her…
People in England during the reign of Henry V were still trying to use Edmund Mortimer as a focal point for a rebellion. Edmund's sister, Anne Mortimer, had married the 3rd Earl of Cambridge, Richard of Conisburgh. Richard was also a descendant of Edward III. Richard's daughter, Isabel, was betrothed to Thomas, the son of Sir Thomas Grey (Isabel was three years old, Thomas was eight, and there's…
Although he was a thorn in the side of King Henry IV —because he had a greater claim to the throne and was used as a focal point for rebellion — Edmund Mortimer (1391 - 1425) was nevertheless kept alive and safe. Near the end of Henry IV's reign, Edmund and his brother Roger were kept in the Tower of London. In 1409 they were given into the custody of the Prince of Wales, Henry, who was five years…
Young Edmund Mortimer , who was the heir-presumptive of Richard II with the strongest claim to the throne of England, was being raised by the usurper Henry Bolingbroke , now King Henry IV. Edmund's uncle, Sir Edmund Mortimer, in 1402 declared that young Edmund was the rightful heir to the throne, putting him publicly opposed to Henry's reign. Sir Edmund's sister Elizabeth was married to Henry…
Although Edmund Mortimer was only seven years old when Henry Bolingbroke usurped the throne from Richard II, he was a potential political threat. He was Richard's heir-presumptive, and his lineage gave him a greater right to the throne of England through the laws of primogeniture than Henry had. Henry treated the boy well, putting him (and his brother, Roger) in the care of a trusted retainer and…
When Henry Bolingbroke decided in 1399 to return from exile in France and force his cousin, King Richard II, to return to him the properties and titles of Henry's deceased father, John of Gaunt, he gained so much popular support that his ambitions expanded to take the Crown from Richard as well. In doing this, Richard's chosen heir-presumptive was knocked out of the running. That man was Edmund…
After the Trial by Combat affair in 1398 between Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray (which was supposed to be to the death), King Richard II exiled Mowbray for life and Henry for 10 years. They were each allowed a few weeks to put their affairs in order, and they were granted annuities to live on. Henry went to France. In 1399, Henry's father, John of Gaunt, died. Word came to Henry that Richard…
Henry Bolingbroke and his cousin, Richard, were childhood friends, but when they were older Henry became one of the Lords Appellant in 1387 who took it upon themselves to curtail what they saw as excesses and corruption in the administration of Richard when he became king. Not only had they been friends, but Henry's father and Richard's uncle, the powerful (and sometimes feared) John of Gaunt, was…
I mentioned yesterday that Henry Bolingbroke , son of John of Gaunt, married Mary de Bohun, through whom he inherited the title Earl of Hereford, but that it almost didn't happen. That uncertainty was due to the machinations of Henry's uncle, Thomas of Woodstock. The last time we saw Thomas of Woodstock in this blog he was one of the Lords Appellant , working to curtail the administration of his…
I wrote not too long ago about Bolingbroke and his adversarial relationship with his cousin, Richard II. It might be useful to see him as an individual, starting with his youth. Henry was born c.April 1367 at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire to John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. John was Duke of Lancaster, having inherited that title (as well as estates and great wealth) from his…
The Lords Appellant must have felt they had done good service to the kingdom of England after the Merciless Parliament of 1388 eliminated everyone who was considered a corrupting influence on King Richard II. In fact, they rewarded themselves with £20,000 for their service and the expenses of hunting down malefactors. That money may have been the catalyst for a turn of fortune. In September 1388,…
After the Merciless Parliament in 1388 had eliminated the five specific advisors to Richard II that they considered the most corrupt, the Lords Appellant decided to sweep through the rest of the administration. First came the judges that had approved all of Richard's actions. There were seven of them, and they were allowed to have trials before the House of Lords, in which they pleaded for…
A few years back I offered a brief look at the Lords Appellant , the group put in charge of England because of the excesses in the administration of the young king, Richard II. Richard tried to overthrow the Lords Appellant, but they forced Richard to call a parliament session that became known as the Merciless Parliament. Assembled from 3 February to 4 June in 1388, the goal was to deal with…
We know little of Thomas Usk's early life except that he was born in London. The name Usk appears in several records, but we cannot link the various folk with that surname together. He became a civil servant and left us some writings. He produced a poem called "The Testament of Love" (the illustration here is from one manuscript). He also wrote a certain amount of biographical detail, from which…
After the populist mayor of London John Northampton was defeated in the election of 1383 by Nicholas Brembre , Brembre worked to overturn all of Northampton's efforts to help the common people . When Northampton led a large group to protest the return to the status quo, he was arrested and imprisoned in Brembre's house. The charge was sedition, for speaking against the established order.…
Proving that "what goes around comes around"—although we should probably just allude to the medieval concept of the Wheel of Fortune —one-time Nicholas Brembre, who had persecuted former mayor John Northampton , would himself be persecuted by the Merciless Parliament, mentioned here . Brembre started as a member of the Grocers' Company, one of the Great Twelve Liveries in London, and made a lot of…
Despite his past as a troublemaker being involved in public brawls, even being imprisoned in the Tower for a time because of one in 1371, John Northampton became an Alderman for the Cordwainer Ward in 1375 to 1377, and was a member of Common in 1376 during the Good Parliament , helping to impeach Richard Lyons. In 1376 he also became one of the two annually elected sheriffs of London. Then he…
1376 was a time of unrest in England under King Edward III. The court was considered corrupt, the wealth gap was increasing, the common people felt oppressed, taxation to support Edward's wars with France were leading to defeats, the king's mistress, Alice Perrers, was seen to have a corrupting influence on him and the court, etc. Parliament had not been called for two and a half years, and it was…
John Northampton was a citizen of London his whole life, from a decent-sized family (two brothers and two sisters). He became a cloth merchant and a member of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, founded in 1361 and one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies (among the 114 that operated in London). At its founding he was named one of the "upholders," so he was probably well-known and respected at the…
When the Mayor of London says you have to dress for dinner, you dress for dinner . On the Feast of Pentecost in 1382, the Mayor of London and the Aldermen were to meet at the Church of St. Peter in Cornhill. From there they would make a procession through the City to the Church of St. Paul in Walbrook. The Mayor and Aldermen had agreed beforehand that everyone in the procession should be dressed…
Sometimes the "punishment" was more of a restriction. Take the case of Thomas Welford, who sold salted herring. He had a ship docked at Queenshithe filled with salted herring. He was a wholesaler, and sold to retailers called "hucksters"; in this case he sold them 5 herrings for a penny. The hucksters would then sell 4 herrings for a penny, but this did not give them very much profit. They…
We've talked about death and destruction in war, and all sorts of dangerous and aggressive behavior that is not seen in modern day-to-day life. Law courts in the modern era are packed with daily transgressions of civil law and violations of community bonds. So were courts in London in the Middle Ages. The pillory was a common punishment, and not too harsh. It was a wooden frame that held the head…