Its been a few weeks but that’s because I’ve been sewing manically and completing The Little History of Derbyshire which I would have to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and which will be out next year. In the meantime, The Kingmaker’s Women published by Pen and Sword has gone to print so should be available very soon. I’m extremely excited about this text as I’ve found out more about the Neville family’s links with Cumbria and Carlisle.
The coif has had a minor disaster – an elderly red table cloth which marked the pristine linen. My desire to avoid chemical cleansers went out of the window very swiftly and although the red mark was removed water leached into the fabric and carried the cleaning agent to the silks – which do not, I am sad to say like Dr Beckman’s cleaning agent. After consultation with the other ladies in the group I can only conclude that it reacted to the tannins in the dye and now I have a little seepage. It would have to be said that I wasn’t a happy woman for a good few hours but I now have a plan. More photos will appear as I am now stitching like a mad thing to get all that I want to do done within the time frame available to me – which explains the lack of August posts.
My actual subject for today is Thomas Linacre, pictured at the start of this post, who I began to research as one of Arthur Tudor’s tutors in the spring – He didn’t have long to influence the young prince, if indeed he ever did- but he went on to serve Henry VIII and to found the Royal College of Physicians. For those of you familiar with Linacre Reservoir near Chesterfield, there is a link. He was born in Brampton near Chesterfield although another source gives Canterbury as his birth place.
We don’t even known when exactly he was born, certainly it was around the time that theWars of the Roses took on a bloody hue in 1460 or 1461. he was educated by William Selling of Christchurch, Canterbury – lending to the argument that he was born there but there are other routes for a promising young man to travel from his home to Kent. From there he went to Oxford in 1480 where he studied Greek.
In about 1485 he travelled into Italy with Selling, who was Henry VI’s ambassador. Linacre studied in Bologna before travelling to Florence, where he learned Greek from Demetrius Chalcondylas
After that Linacre journeyed to Padua where he became a Doctor of Medicine and then returned to Oxford. He sent one of his works, published in Italy, to Henry VII in the hope that he would be appointed as one of Arthur’s tutors. In about 1501 he was appointed as Arthur’s physician. He was one of the so-called ‘New Men’ with ‘New Learning’ and corresponded with Erasmus.
He was appointed as King Henry VIII’s, and lived for some of the time with the court where he treated Cardinal Wolsey, William Warham and Richard Fox.