ending the saga - on here anyway

ending of the saga, I am not posting any more on this blog. It's defunct, dead, deceased, drowned in the waters of blogland. If anyone is really interested in the Woodvilles, check out my new website, www.oneinspecyal.com where you will find this blog in its entirety and all you need to know about the Woodville family from a reliable historian, which is more than can be said for many I have read on the Internet ... the errors are vast, far ranging and. in some regards, downwright stupid.

You want more of the saga? Here it is

First Sunday in October. Checking out the connection between Earl Rivers and Carisbrooke Castle shows me once again he is overlooked. I own two postcards showing the Woodville Gate but in current books it is shown as the Entrance Gate (not the same thing at all) English Heritage has completely overlooked his Lordship of the Island and his work there and the postcard person who has a website has it wrongly designated. I’ve sent emails … and will proceed with the plan to write a small local booklet about Earl Rivers and his Island association. I’ve sent an email to a publisher who has small slim booklets in the local Tourist Information to see if I can interest them. They have one just on the church which belongs to Osborne House. That’s a pretty narrow market by anyone’s standard. Next visit will be to Carisbrooke Castle, not been there yet. I wanted to wait until the tourists had gone home, I need to walk and absorb and I can’t do that if it is over run with people. It’s open all year; I can go any time. I do know they need a decent guide book, the one I bought is pathetic. Just been on line and there is no other. I’ve just emailed them to say hey, look, your book is pathetic, how about getting yourself a decent one done and by the way, you left Earl Rivers out completely and have changed the name of his tower! See what answer I get.

Follow up: publisher said it was an interesting concept but not sure if it was commercially viable. I emailed back with all bookshops, WH Smith, the Castle itself, all Tourist Information Offices … and pointed out the fact that their booklet on St Mildreds is very much a limited market. See what I get back. Nothing else has come in, yet.

But – I misfiled an email the other day and went looking for it by starting at the top, looking in the first folder which is dedicated to abebooks.com and that reminded me that the bookseller had not been able to supply The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV. Yes, deadly dull and boring, but it refers to the Earl being given a gown, so I need it. The bookseller’s car was stolen, allegedly, with all books in it … he is supposed to be giving me a refund. I am still waiting … so that set me looking for the book. My first trawl through abebooks.com turned up nothing, so I went to Questia and spent an hour reading and copying pages from some very obscure books indeed, by entering yet another spelling of the Earl’s name. I’ve now checked him out under Woodville, Wydeville, Wodeville, Rivers and Ryvers. This last one produced yet more references which are downloaded and printed.

Then, armed with the correct title of the Wardrobe Accounts, (earlier I typed in Wardrobe Book) I went back to abebooks.com and secured a copy of the Privy Accounts of Elizabeth Grey and the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV. Now I’ve covered three people, the earl, Edward IV and his queen, all of whom are to be written about at some point in my writing future, before I finally metaphorically lay down my pen (mouse) (keyboard). That then meant adding these titles to the bibliography of the biography, because if I don’t keep a constant running list of what I am reading, there is no way I will remember when I get to the end of the book. One small diversion cost me an hour’s writing time but what invaluable items have come out of it! (Apart from spending yet more money on books…)

what a saga ...

It’s the first week in September and still the book buying goes on, so much I want to own! 4 volumes of the Paston Letters are here, letters written by members of the Paston family to one another or letters written to the Pastons in the 15th century. They are invaluable for historians. I have 500 letters in 4 volumes, and today ordered a book from Amazon of the letters in modern English. That means I can go back to the originals when I need to quote them. These will do for many of the upcoming books, as will the books on the Battle of Towton and several others which have arrived. Trouble is, they all need to be read and I do need to sleep occasionally…

The timeline is coming together. I have several dates on which the Earl was ‘excused Court’ which gives me questions, where would he have gone not to be at a St George’s celebration, which home was he at or was he off on a pilgrimage? I need to check all this out, but first, a timeline. I have a timeline of years, and then finally a timeline of days which I have marked ‘countdown to disaster’ but that is for me alone. That kind of comment would not go well in a biography.

8th September. I sent my agent the actual synopsis and outline for the biography, detailing work done and work I want to do. He sent a note back saying he had been off line all day as the lines were down and they have to move from their lovely old offices – as they are falling down! News on Monday, he promises me. I wait…
A print arrived from the British Museum. Very expensive but then they had to photograph it specially, transfer it to CD and post it. It’s really lovely. The antique print I have of the Earl shows him clean shaven, this one, ‘Earl Rivers with William Caxton’, shows him with a heavy moustache. The psychic portrait I have of him shows him with a moustache and beard, not a usual thing in that time. All a part of his ‘being different’, I think.
I wrote to the Vatican to ask if there is a record of his visit there. No address, took a chance on addressing it to The Vatican Library, The Holy See, Rome, Italy and today, 15th Sept, received an email response from the Reference Librarian, directing me to the Vatican Archives and giving me their email address. I have emailed. Meantime, there is a response from Lambeth Palace Library, everyone is being so helpful. The curator of Pontefract Museum was charming, even if he couldn’t help. It gets more interesting as it goes. I am getting impatient to begin work but there is still a way to go with research. Many books are arriving, heavy historical tomes. They need going through, carefully. I’ve brought home a pack of Post It notelets, small ones, so I can mark the pages. The Paston Letters have a few from him, I will need to Post It mark those so I can find them quickly when I need them. Preparation.

Later: the Vatican can’t help. I can go there as a researcher if I fit their ‘Rules’ but that’s out of the question. I will take it as read he went there and had an audience with Pope Sixtus V, otherwise he would not have been given the title of Defender of Papal Causes in England.

Yet more ...

Today the ‘official’ translation arrived. Well, different interpretations. I have typed it into the beginning of the book; I will add a scan of the signature and leave the readers to make up their own minds. Another letter arrived from Yorkshire, still no information on a grave. I am beginning to think he lies in unconsecrated ground. It would make sense of the statement I received via another medium, that he does not like where he is buried. If it is unconsecrated, then he would be unhappy. I will have to work on this one, somehow. I have an idea or two…
Talkback friends (Writers News Forum) continue to be supportive and helpful. I wonder how I managed before such an invention came into my (writing) life.
The letter in the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post (identical) has produced more results. No grave but loads of helpful information and friendly people, can I ask for more? There is definitely no grave, they were thrown into a common grave and no monument was ever erected. Job for me later.

Bank Holiday Weekend.
Too many scooters here to go out on the roads, so I spent the afternoon surfing. British History Online, great help for the land holdings for the Woodvilles, lots of information downloaded, printed and stored. More work done on the duel, almost there, almost at the point of actually fighting. The preliminaries! Nowhere does it say what Lady Scales thought about her husband risking life, limb and expensive armour to fight someone for the sake of knightly valour and honour!

30th August. Books and more books being bought, the reading load gets heavier, as do the expenses. But … the heaviest and most expensive book I bought today will do duty for the other books I want to write on the Yorks, so I do not begrudge the cost. It’s all tax deductible anyway, as long as I keep a record of what I buy.

the saga of the biography continues ...

Sunday in August. Ran a few ‘strange’ words past Encarta, turned up two or three definitions, not anywhere near enough to make me wish I hadn’t spent all that money … emprise turns out to be chivalrous adventure or undertaking, so I have left it in, with an explanatory note at the start of the ‘translation.’ Some of the medieval English is clear to me, some of it is extremely difficult, especially as people had a bad habit of using ‘ and chopping up words, ‘which he p’posid’ is easy to work out but often it isn’t. I found, through Google, two of the ‘strange’ words relating to armour. That helped as well as puzzled me, why would anyone fighting a duel use a Pavis, a full body shield that archers used to protect themselves when fitting a new arrow? Unless he felt he had to offer his opponent the chance of using a pavis.
Oxford University finally said they couldn’t help, so I have turned to another translation firm. As it happens, the man I am in contact with is retiring this week, he is making it his last project, determined to get an answer for me. His early translation is opposite to that proposed by the Librarian at Oxford University, would you not know it … but still deeply religious. It is still unofficial, mere theory. I wait …
Tonight I went onto ebay (again) and typed in Earl Rivers (again) and turned up the print I have been searching for – purchased immediately. I have a beautiful print of Elizabeth Woodville, she of the hair and the eyes and the ability to capture a king and change a path of history, all grist to the Earl Rivers mill/biography. His life is so bound up with hers, it would not be possible to leave her out.
Work on The Duel goes on, 11 pages ‘translated’ into modern English and a 3 page list of ‘odd’ words to work on when the dictionary arrives. The more I read of the medieval English, though, the clearer it becomes in my mind and some words are now crossed off the list; I have worked out what they are.
My daughter called me earlier to see the programme on Windsor Castle, the man measuring the distance of the chairs to the table. ‘So much fuss,’ she commented, ‘so much ceremony.’ It was in fact reminiscent of the ceremony which accompanied this duel, the preparations for it, the ceremonial sending of the Herald to the knight to invite him to fight, the way the knight received the invitation, the return of the Herald, the arrival of the knight, and all this before they strike a single blow! Very elaborate, very ritualistic, life was dictated by rules and formalities. I need to bring this over in the book without overdoing it. The Duel will do the job well for me, it sets out the formalities of court life in Medieval times beautifully. ‘The king’s highness, my said sovereign lord’ every time the king is mentioned, without fail.
More work tomorrow…

the saga continues ...

Sunday in August.
Ran a few ‘strange’ words past Encarta, turned up two or three definitions, not anywhere near enough to make me wish I hadn’t spent all that money … emprise turns out to be chivalrous adventure or undertaking, so I have left it in, with an explanatory note at the start of the ‘translation.’ Some of the medieval English is clear to me, some of it is extremely difficult, especially as people had a bad habit of using ‘ and chopping up words, ‘which he p’posid’ is easy to work out but often it isn’t. I found, through Google, two of the ‘strange’ words relating to armour. That helped as well as puzzled me, why would anyone fighting a duel use a Pavis, a full body shield that archers used to protect themselves when fitting a new arrow? Unless he felt he had to offer his opponent the chance of using a pavis.
Oxford University finally said they couldn’t help, so I have turned to another translation firm. As it happens, the man I am in contact with is retiring this week, he is making it his last project, determined to get an answer for me. His early translation is opposite to that proposed by the Librarian at Oxford University, would you not know it … but still deeply religious. It is still unofficial, mere theory. I wait …
I went onto ebay (again) and typed in Earl Rivers (again) and turned up the print I have been searching for – purchased immediately. I have a beautiful print of Elizabeth Woodville, she of the hair and the eyes and the ability to capture a king and change a path of history, all grist to the Earl Rivers mill/biography. His life is so bound up with hers, it would not be possible to leave her out.
Work on The Duel goes on, 11 pages ‘translated’ into modern English and a 3 page list of ‘odd’ words to work on when the dictionary arrives. The more I read of the medieval English, though, the clearer it becomes in my mind and some words are now crossed off the list; I have worked out what they are.
My daughter called me earlier to see the programme on Windsor Castle, the man measuring the distance of the chairs to the table. ‘So much fuss,’ she commented, ‘so much ceremony.’ It was in fact reminiscent of the ceremony which accompanied this duel, the preparations for it, the ceremonial sending of the Herald to the knight to invite him to fight, the way the knight received the invitation, the return of the Herald, the arrival of the knight, and all this before they strike a single blow! Very elaborate, very ritualistic, life was dictated by rules and formalities. I need to bring this over in the book without overdoing it. The Duel will do the job well for me, it sets out the formalities of court life in Medieval times beautifully. ‘The king’s highness, my said sovereign lord’ every time the king is mentioned, without fail.
More work tomorrow…

the research is ongoing

Just over half-way through August.
The Domesday Book information is here on Grafton, useful background. The Grafton Regis CD had a 4 page item on the Earl, very good stuff, I knew 98% of it but can always use the additional 2%, thank you, people.
I have an unofficial translation of the motto, deeply religious if it is right, The Grave Is Empty, or The Grave Is No More. I have asked another translation firm to have a go at it.
The two-day duel is extremely important, it has been carefully detailed in writing, but of course it is archaic. I am translating it into modern English for the modern reader, but keep running up against words I don’t recognise. Like, outrequedaunce, for a start. Having an hour to kill this Saturday afternoon, I visited the library’s reference section and consulted the Oxford Shorter English Dictionary. Outrecuidance, the modern spelling, is in there, it means excessive self-esteem, or over-weening self confidence, presumption. It also meant I came home and looked up the SOED on line and ordered a copy from Amazon. I can’t keep going to the library to look up all these ancient words! Amazon had it $50 cheaper than anyone else. I’m going for it. Time I had a decent dictionary here, one that goes back to 1700 at least. Many of the words I need will surely be in there. I am translating ‘emprise’ as enterprise at the moment, as that seems to be in context, but will check it in the dictionary when it arrives. I will be putting the original medieval transcript of the duel in the book as an Appendix so people can read it in the original, or check my interpretation, as it suits them. Words such as outrequedaunce also make me realise how educated these knights were, standards way beyond what we achieve in our day to day living now. The language has changed, got simpler to some degree. What is a problem is the constant changing of spelling, as nothing was ‘set in stone’ and it seemed to be as the mood took them.
The opening paragraph of the biography has been written. The book on writing biography said to avoid starting with ‘John Smith was born on’, which is old-fashioned. As with any book it needed a hook to drag the reader in. I think we have done that.