The evolution of border reiving

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By Forman Armorial (produced for Mary, Queen of Scots) – This image is available from the National Library of Scotland under the sequence number or Shelfmark ID Adv.MS.31.4.2, fol.5r., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1409450

Given the borders gave us the words blackmail and bereaved it’s perhaps not surprising that the culture of the borders was on occasion lawless or that people who lived in the marches may not have regarded themselves either as Scottish or English – ties of kinship were much more important than nationality.

Let’s begin with the geography of the post-Roman world. The kingdom of Benicia was established by 547AD. When it unted with Deira in 603AD – ok, I’m underplaying it – there’s a marriage followed by a series of assassinations – the kingdom of Northumbria was formed.

By the ninth century Northumbria was one of England’s dominant kingdoms while the concept of Cumberland only really appeared as a political entity from the tenth century onwards. Saxons, Vikings, various wars, rebellions and the incorporation of Cumberland into the kingdom of Strathclyde by Malcolm I are all recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and bring me to the start of my chronology. I am not tackling King Edwin or the various political manoeuvrings of the heptarchy in this post. Let’s just stick with the borders for the time being.

1005 Malcolm II crowned king of Alba. He allied himself to Owain Foel of Strathclyde.

1006 Siege of Durham – results in the defeat of Malcolm by Uhtred of Bamburgh who later became both the earl of Bamburgh and York.

1018 Battle of Carham – the Northumbrians defeated and an eastern border between England and Scotland created.

1031 King Cnut invades Alba.

1034 Malcolm II dies. His grandson Duncan inherits the throne. At this time Scotland – which holds Cumbria on the west side of the country, possibly now extends so far south as the River Lune in Lancashire.

27 July 1054 The Battle of Dunsinane Wood also called the Battle of the Seven Sleepers. This was fought between the forces of King Macbeth, who is another of Malcom II’s grandsons, and Siward, Earl of Northumbria and his nephew, Malcolm Canmore, the son of King Duncan. Macbeth, who killed Duncan in 1040, was defeated. Malcolm remains in Scotland continuing his war with Macbeth. Siward returned to Northumbria…and as an aside Siward was rather hoping for a Scottish monarch on the throne who would support his claim to the kingdom of Cumbria.

1055 Siward, Earl of Northumbria died. He had gained control of Northumbria through judicious marriage and political manoeuvring. He supported Cnut, Harthacnut and then Edward the Confessor. He is replaced by Tostig Godwinson, a brother of Harold Godwinson (he of arrow in the eye fame). It was not a popular choice.

1058 Malcolm III (Canmore) began raiding Northumberland. Peace is eventually agreed but there are a successive series of raids resulting in the taking of slaves, cattle and tribute.

1065 Tostig booted out of Northumbria by its people who are fed up with his heavy-handedness. Morcar, the younger brother of the Earl of Mercia, is appointed in his place. It does not sweeten Tostig’s relationship with his brother Harold. Malcolm III welcomed Tostig into Scotland.

1066 Tostig returns from exile with the army of Harold Hardrada, King of Norway who is making his claim to the throne of England.

25 September 1066. Hardrada and Tostig are killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge outside York.

So far so good but in 1067, Copsi, who was Tostig’s man, submits to William the Conqueror and is sent to York as the new Earl of Northumbria. It’s a promotion which lasts five weeks before the Northumbrians murder him. Osulf, son of Eadulf, and a member of one of the region’s leading families – chase Copsi to a church near Ouseburn. Osulf sets the church on fire. Fleeing once more, Copsi was captured and beheaded. Osulf becomes earl but is murdered in his turn.

1068 Gospatric who is a relative of Uhtred of Bamburgh and Malcolm Canmore pays William the Conqueror to become Earl of Benicia He then joined in with a rebellion against the king fermented by Edwin, Earl of Mercia and his brother Morcar. Gospatric fled to Scotland and the north endured a harrying.

1069 Malcolm III takes his army south as far as Wearmouth. Gospatric submits to William the Conqueror and is sent to make was in Cumbria which is part of Malcolm’s kingdom.

Malcolm welcomes Saxon refugees from the Royal House of Wessex, including Margaret – who he married- which improves his claim to territory in the south, especially as he gave his sons English rather than Scottish names. Malcolm recognised that the Conqueror’s grasp on Northumberland was weak and was making a political play for the territory.

1072 Treaty of Abernethy. Terms agreed between Malcolm and William the Conqueror who had an army as well as a network of fortifications at Warwick, Nottingham and York which secured the south and the Midlands. According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Canmore became William’s man and gave him his son, Duncan, as surety. It wasn’t long before Malcolm was raiding again and Northumbrians revolting against Norman rule.

1080 another Norman army heads north, this time under the command of Robert Curthose, William’s eldest son. A new accord is reached and things went quiet for ten years or so.

Which is a good place to stop, because although it doesn’t take me to the end of the Norman period there have been a fair few dates in this post, several murders and some very dodgy dealings.

Getting to grips with 2025

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And a very happy new year to History Jar readers – let’s hope I’m a bit more organised in 2025! I’m not sure what happened to 2024 or to December for that matter.

And with that in mind I’m having a sort out of my computer files so that I can be more organised. I’ve already come across a rather helpful document from Leeds Library and Information Service that I forgot I had. It outlines Yorkshire battles from Saxon times onwards and can be found here: https://secretlibraryleeds.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/yorkshire-battles-research-guide-viewing-version-new.pdf. I think I’ll probably do something similar for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – not that it will contain so many significant battles but it will at least help me be a bit more organised as yet another writing deadlines approach.

And talking of which – I’m giving a talk on the border reivers via Zoom this Saturday for YAHS Medieval Section at 2pm. I usually focus on the Elizabethan period so there is a little tweaking of material going on presently and, of course, I am starting a series of History Jar zoom talks on Monday 20 January on the subject of the Winter Queen, Elizabeth Stuart the daughter of King James VI/I. A place can be book at the HistoryJar via PayPal.

The Winter Queen was a rather cruel jest against Elizabeth’s husband, Frederick V of the Palatinate who was offered the crown of Bohemia but only ruled from 1619 until 1620. The problem was that the people of that kingdom were largely Protestant but their rulers were Catholic. In 1618 they rebelled against Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor, and then asked Frederick if he fancied the job. The nobles had their fingers crossed that if Frederick took the crown he would have the backing of his father-in-law, James VI/I. They also thought that the Protestant Union, which had been founded by Frederick’s father, would support him. Unfortunately for the Bohemians and for Frederick neither the king nor the union was prepared to back the new king. A year and four days after he was crowned Frederick lost the Battle of the White Mountain (which sounds as though it should be something in Lord of the Rings).

Elizabeth and her family was forced to flee into exile in The Hague while her husband became enmeshed in the Thirty Years War which had been heralded by his assumption of the Bohemian Crown. A kinder nickname for Elizabeth was the Queen of Hearts – mainly because everyone liked her.

On this day in December – An English pope

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Adrian IV depicted in the Chronicle of Casauria, second half of the 12th century

On 4th December 1154, Nicholas Breakspear was elected pope. he took the name Adrian IV. He died in 1159 but for five year’s there was an English pope. He is the only English pope to have ever been elected. Apparently he chose the name Adrian because he wished to honour Adrian I who supported St Alban’s Abbey, which was near the place of his birth.

It was Adrian IV who granted Henry II the papal bull known as the Laudabiliter which granted the king permission to invade Ireland to reform the Church there.

On this Day in December

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Let’s start the season with three, or so, kings!

Rather inconveniently I managed to bypass 1st December, and the death of King Henry I on 1 December 1135 – he’s the one who ate too many lampreys. He’d attempted to ensure his only legitimate child, Empress Matilda, would inherit his throne but in the event Matilda’s cousin Stephen nipped across the Channel, secured the treasury and claimed the throne, resulting in the so-called Anarchy.

On 2nd December 1804 there was another coronation. Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France. Pope Pius VII was apparently there to do the job but Napoleon preferred to do the job himself and make a statement about his relationship with the papacy. Most of the medieval crown jewels had been destroyed during the French Revolution including the Charlemagne’s coronation crown which was traditionally used. The monarchy had had several to choose from but they were all gone apart from the crown of Louis XV who ruled from 1643 to 1715. Napoleon had to have a crown made specially for the occasion. Napoleon called his new crown after the original and modelled it on a medieval style. The following year, Napoleon won the Battle of Austerlitz.

In 1546, Henry VIII, who was becoming old and increasingly paranoid about the future security of the Tudor throne, had Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey arrested and sent to the Tower. He had mentored Henry’s son, Henry FitzRoy, but was not a reformer or terribly keen on the new men who were promoted at court – in short he was something of a conservative as was his father the Duke of Norfolk. When Surrey quartered his own arms with those of Edward the Confessor it seemed to the king that Surrey intended to make a claim to the throne through his descent from King Edward I – and that, as they say, was that…Surrey was executed on 27 January 1547. The only reason that his father survived the whole experience was that Henry VIII died in the early hours of 28 January, saving the duke from the block.

Whigs and Tories – getting to grips with a market town in the 18th century

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By Unknown, style of Sir Godfrey Kneller – http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/displayRepro.cfm?reproID=BHC2648, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12055365

The two terms evolved towards the end of Charles II’s reign. The Cavalier Parliament which was dissolved in 1679 contained a loose grouping of MPs known as the Country party who were opposed to the king’s influence over parliament and the court’s attempt to secure the decisions it wanted through bribery and patronage. They weren’t very happy about religious policy either – in particular the way in which the Church persecuted Non-Conformists. Oh yes, and they didn’t want the Duke of York, who was known to be Catholic, to inherit his brother’s throne. In time this group became known as the Whigs – a somewhat derogatory term from the Gaelic meaning a horse thief.

The Tories, by contrast, believed that James should inherit the throne by right of his birth. They believed that the only way for society to be stable was to follow an order based on inheritance and birth. It should be added that they weren’t overjoyed that the Duke of York was Catholic. To start off with the Tories were more inclined to accept the concept of divine right – based on the premise of birthright.

However, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 both parties accepted the concept of a constitutional monarch with limited rights but the Tories still weren’t happy about religious toleration – they became aligned with the idea of Anglicanism. In the eighteenth century the Tories became associated with the Jacobite cause – which didn’t ultimately do them any favours at all.

It should also be added that even by the reign of George III there were two parties as such, there were connected groups linked by family, social class, and sympathy. They could perhaps be better described as factions. As the Eighteenth Century progressed, the Tories grew to be associated with the landowning classes while the Whigs tended to represent religious dissent, industrialists and those who sought electoral reform. However, it was increasingly apparent that the monarch could not rule without the support of a Whig or Tory leader who could raise sufficient votes from within their faction to pass laws or approve taxation. In time this leader would be known as the prime minister.

The French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century muddied the waters still further until the term Conservative, to which the term Tory still applies, and Liberal became the norm. The word ‘Whig’ ceased to have current political meaning. But that is an entirely different journey to the one I am making at the moment!

I’m still wandering around Colchester – which was a borough. The mayor was the returning officer who also controlled the creation of free burgesses or ‘freemen’, who had the right to vote…From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 up until 1728 there were Whig mayors and this meant that the members of parliament returned by the borough were also Whigs. The most important of Colchester’s political figures was Sir Isaac Rebow who served as the town’s mayor and MP. It was he, in pursuit of continued office, who began the practice of effectively selling free burgess status to political supporters from outside the town.

Inevitably things got nasty. There were court cases and contested elections which did nothing for Colchester’s finances at a time when its cloth trade was in decline. In 1712 the Whigs had to mortgage Kingswood Heath, or the Severalls Estate as it was called by then, to meet their costs. And it just so happened that the man who took out the 99 year lease on behalf of his daughter was none other than Daniel Defoe. For those of you who recall these things Moll Flanders had an eventful childhood until the age of 7 before being taken in by the Mayor of Colchester who raises her as though she was part of his family. Not that the writings of Defoe were any help to the mayor and corporation who continued to struggle with the borough’s finances.

From 1728 until 1740 the mayor was a Tory sympathiser. Colchester’s trade was still in decline and the Exercise Bill was not popular – five tories were elected by the disgruntled freemen as aldermen. Four of them starting with John Blatch in 1728, would become Colchester’s mayor. In order to ensure that in future Tories would represent the borough in parliament the mayor created new freemen in 1728 and more again the following year. In 1735 there was a by-election and a Tory was returned to Parliament.

The year I’m really interested in is 1741. Meet Jeremiah Daniel – Gent. He was the Whig mayor of Colchester and thus the borough’s returning officer. His appointment as mayor was not without its difficulties. In March 1741, an assembly was called to elect a mayor. Two of the town’s aldermen were dead, four were subject to legal proceedings, and one stayed away (and quite frankly who could blame him). The remaining five aldermen, all Whigs, refused to accept nominations of two Tories and chose Jeremiah Daniel as mayor.

The result was that one of the Tory candidates took Jeremiah Daniel to court along with Colchester’s aldermen. He argued that they had ‘been chosen into their respective offices in a manner not exactly consonant to the directions in the … charters’. This prevented the confirmation of Daniel to his office .  The result was that the court dissolved the corporation saying that none of them were properly elected. This meant that the town’s charter of 1693 ceased to function -there was no mayor and no town council until 1763 when Colchester regained its charter.

And just in case – the 1693 charter provided for 12 aldermen, 18 assistants, and 18 common councilmen, who together formed the assembly. One of the aldermen was nominated mayor. So far so good. The mayor was elected annually by the aldermen from two of their number, who had been nominated by the freemen of the borough.

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/constituencies/colchester

Phillips, Andrew. Colchester a History.

Weather it is, or weather it isn’t…

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By Thomas Wyke – scan from FT magazine, 2007-09-30, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2867141

It doesn’t normally snow in the Peak District in November these days – February yes but the last couple of days have been really cold and very festive looking, if you’re tucked safely up indoors. It got me thinking about whether I could find more information about snow in the past. I’m sure that many of you are familiar with the concept of the Little Ice Age. I tend to talk about it in the context of the Tudors and Stuarts. Frost fairs were held on the Thames when it froze. In 1683 the winter took a definite turn for the worse. The Great Frost of that winter saw the Thames frozen a foot deep! The River Aire in Leeds froze solid as well and Yorkshire held its own Frost Fair. The proceedings were described by Ralph Thoresby , a non-conformist, whose father served Sir Thomas Fairfax during the English Civil War.

I wouldn’t go so far as to describe the Eighteenth Century as warm either. The tradition of frost fairs continued. As the French Revolution took a grip, the cold continued to ensure the tradition of Frost Fairs in London. And let’s not forget the fog. It was actually sometime in the 1800s when the Little Ice Age ended although the snow continued to fall. Various reasons have been given for the plunging temperatures including volcanic activity and heat in the oceans changing because of the circulation of currents.

1946 was the worst winter since 1814. In isolated villages in the Peak District people burned their furniture to stay warm and shared food. Unfortunately in Nottingham, the winter’s snowfall was followed by a thaw in 1947 which caused the River Trent to go wandering. As a result a new series of flood defences were built.

Then the next winter to find itself in the history books was 1963 which earned itself the name ‘The Big Freeze’. There were snowdrifts 8ft deep in Kent.

As I recall, the 1970s were relatively snow free in comparison to the earlier winters of the twentieth century but the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s saw some heavy snow falls. I remember walking to school because the bus couldn’t get through. However from the 1980s onwards there has been little snowfall in comparison to past winters. 2018 saw the Beast from the East which drew cold air from Russia and Scandinavia across Britain.

Now as it happens I want to find out about the weather in November/December 1921 – which was apparently the driest year on record thanks to a prolonged drought. I’m starting to dabble in novel writing again…who knows, perhaps this time it’ll get further than a box under the spare bed!

The Met Office archive reports are all available online – see the link below. So if you have a particular year you’d like to find out more about, all the information is available. Incidentally although our winters are now demonstrably warmer, it is possible that with the accompanying increased rainfall we may also once again experience more snow.

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/?s=weather+reports+1921

Still stitching but with a detour to slander…

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I’m still stitching my swirly dragon but have had to divert to knit several reindeer, a sleigh and Santa for the telephone box to be completed by the beginning of December – (don’t ask, it’s just best if I eventually post a picture.)

Medieval English work is principally associated with ecclesiastical embroidery but we have also looked at book covers, gloves, bags and pouches, and of course, boxes. These small personal items may have been made by professionals or in a domestic setting. I must admit to have a developing thing for 16th century sweet bags which were a development from my medieval meanderings!

I am particularly enthralled by William Huggins, Huggans or even Hogan, the Keeper of the Gardens at Hampton Court, presenting Elizabeth I with an annual New Year’s gift of sweet bags – these may have been quite small, as they could have been to contain potpurri to keep some of the less pleasant smells of court life at nose length. He began making his gifts in 1561 and continued until his death in 1588, whereupon Mrs Huggans is found listed as the annual gift giver. William also made sweet waters for Elizabeth.

Museum of London

The family originated in Norfolk. He can be found as a scholar with his brothers at Cambridge. He left without taking a degree and entered Lincoln’s Inn to train as a lawyer – rather than undertaking a horticultural course somewhere! In 1555 he was elected to parliament. It seems that his family’s patron was the 4th Duke of Norfolk (who was, coincidentally, married Thomas Audley’s only surviving daughter, Margaret).

Hogan had only the one job that has made its way into the history books – Keeper of Hampton Court Gardens, a place incidentally which Elizabeth I was very fond of. In 1564 he wrote to William Cecil. In May 1565 he received a grant of lands specifically to help pay his debts. He transferred them to Francis Barker, a Merchant Taylor. And then in 1588 he died…

There’s much more to be found out about William’s ‘brother’, John Appleyard, who was married to William’s sister, Elizabeth. It was on his behalf that William had written to Cecil in 1564 on the matter of a privateering venture. In 1567 the connection got William into a spot of bother when Appleyard agitated against the Earl of Leicester while he was staying with William at Hampton Court. At which point a light went on in my head! John Appleyard was one of Amy Robsart’s half brothers. And in 1567 he claimed that the jury, which found her death to have been accidental, had been bribed.

So, in one short step we’ve moved from embroidered bags and sweet water to bribery and murder, not to mention shadowy conspirators. Appleyard was interviewed, as indeed was William Huggans – who knew nothing. Appleyard admitted that he had slandered the Earl of Leicester (which was probably a very sensible decision under the circumstances). William was required to answer the following questions according to Cecil’s own notes:

How often did John Appleyard inform you of any offers made to him to provoke him to prosecute matter against my lord of Leicester? Where were you when Appleyard went over the Thames to speak with one that came to move him in such a purpose? Who came to fetch Appleyard? How many persons did you see on the other side of the Thames with Appleyard? Did Appleyard stand or walk whilst he communed with the party? &c., &c.

(‘Cecil Papers: 1567’, in Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House: Volume 1, 1306-1571( London, 1883), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-cecil-papers/vol1/pp342-352 [accessed 13 November 2024].)

I’m not sure how to discuss embroidered household textiles after that massive diversion. Bed hangings, cushions and table carpets aren’t going to have quite the same impact and I’m not sure that even I can wedge heraldic embroidery, including banners, ceremonial clothing, regalia, funeral palls, surcoats and horse accessories, into the tribulations of Amy Robsart’s extended family.

For further reading on medieval embroidery, rather than the matter of Amy Robsart ( Chris Skidmore, Death and the Virgin is an excellent read on the subject) other than Tanya Benham and Jan Messent, and the V and A catalogue of their Opus Anglicanum exhibition:

– A.G. Christie’s English Medieval Embroidery, was until recently, the book on the medieval methods of embroidery. It can be accessed on line, which is very handy indeed:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20386/20386-h/20386-h.htm

And if you’re feeling particularly inspired Mary Symons Anrobus and Louisa Preece’s book dating from 1928 is also worth a look:

https://archive.org/details/needleworkthroug00antr

And last but not least, a real book rather than an online facsimile , Barbara Snook’s English Embroidery, published during the 1970s by Mills and Boon.

Bayeux Stitch – threading into history

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William, Duke of Normandy raising his visor to show that he is unharmed. Depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry.

While the Bayeux Tapestry isn’t the earliest piece of English embroidery in existence, it is the most famous. Most of us can identify 1066 as one of the most important dates in the nation’s history and know about the tapestry which William’s half-brother, Bishop Odo, commissioned. At the time of the conquest there were, according to Messent, ten nunneries in England (not counting any double houses) – inevitably that particular thought has resulted in a list- Nunnaminster, or St Mary’s, at Winchester; Romsey, Shaftesbury, Wimborne and Wherwell in Dorset; Wilton and Amesbury in Wiltshire; Barking in Essex; Reading St Mary’s Abbey- the lands of which were granted by William the Conqueror to Battle Abbey in 1071; Bath Abbey. Leominster was closed in 1046 after Stein Godwinson kidnapped its abbess and there were none left in the north or in Kent thanks to the Vikings. Many of them were strongly associated with the royal family and in the aftermath of the conquest many Saxon aristocratic women found sanctuary behind their walls.

However, there is no proof that it was England’s nuns who created the tapestry in their workshops or who designed the work, certainly the embroidery wasn’t completed by anyone amateur. For instance the castles were all completed the same way. Outlines were stitched first, then blocks of colour filled in being stitched from left to right, then top to bottom. It has been suggested that there may have been a conveyor belt approach with different groups of women being responsible for the different elements described. This and the fact that the eight panels of ground fabric were embroidered before they were stitched together suggests that the workshops were highly organised. (Lester-Makin, Alexandra, ‘The making of the Bayeux Tapestry: who made it, how long did it take, and how has it survived?’, BBC History Extra (October 2019)).

Oh and just for purposes of comparison – There were 10 nunneries in 1070 but there were 138 by 1270…

So on to the joys of Bayeux Stitch – and the delights of Tanya Bentham’s book by the same name. The embroidery has to be formed on a frame as the first part of the stitch is too unstable not to use one. I managed to break my frame – I don’t know how and we aren’t going to discuss it! For the time being I’m using a frame composed of four adjustable stretcher bars and rather a lot of drawing pins to secure the fabric.

Part 1 – the laid work – the thread is laid over the ground in parallel rows taking account of the curves in the design. The aim is to avoid gaps between the rows. It looks like satin stitch but unlike satin stitch the embroiderer does not take the thread across the back of the work. It makes sense – the thread would have been expensive. Hiding it at the back of the embroidery where it can’t be seen is a waste of resources. There is only a small stitch running around the end of the infill.

part 2 – Couching. A thread is laid at right angles to the laid thread and then couched into place by using a series of neat stabbing stitches, or in French – les picots. Tanya helpfully provides diagrams for what happens if the couching is too far apart. It was a rooky error and I made it. As a result I over compensated and the first infill is far too dense. I would have been told off for wasting time and resources – definitely not a candidate for an Anglo Saxon embroidery workroom. Having said that I like the texture even if it hasn’t got much in the way of a pattern going on. Really the parallel rows should be about 4mm apart and the stab stitches should be staggered so that they don’t pushed the laid work aside – which sounds very straight forward, and ends up looking a bit like a pattern of bricks. It is a straightforward stitch, but only once I’d made all the errors that Tanya warned me against. Oh yes and friction causes wool thread to wear and break if you’re not careful…I knew that so I’m not quite sure why I ended up spending a good five minutes painstakingly having to thread my needle with a truncated end so that I could weave it in. Like I said, definitely not good medieval embroiderer material.

part 3 – The outline really should be worked first in stem stitch or split stitch but Tanya advises completing the outline for the dragon last in her wonderful pictorial instructions.

However despite my various ineptitudes when it comes to couched and laid stitch, I love Tanya Betham’s book and my swirly dragon which will become more proficiently embroidered with the passage of time but I don’t think I’ll be progressing to Opus Anglicanum silk threads quite just yet even though I do want to tackle the Steeple Aston cope angel and horse!

You will note in the first image that despite having a frame I have managed to wrinkle the ground fabric by pulling the laid stitches too tight but didn’t spot it until unpicking might have caused some very poor vocabulary choices.

Messent, Jan. The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderers’ Story. (Search Press)

Medieval embroidered bags and purses

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Purses could be used for carrying personal goods, for giving money to the poor – as in an alms purse or aumônière-, they could be used for storing religious relics or to carry seals.

The purses which survive are often heavily embroidered. They may have been produced by professional embroiderers, nuns or by a woman with sufficient funds to be able to buy the silks to make the purse herself. The alms purse of Marie de Picquigny (France 1342) worked on linen in silk and gold thread is on view at the Musee de Moyen Age, Cluny Paris. It would seem that women’s purses were most likely to be of the drawstring variety.

The Lovers’ Purse,  Hamburg, Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe 
Purse, Silk, linen, gold leaf, French
14th Century Purse The Met Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art

They often depict a couple engaged in the pursuit of courtly love. In the first example the young man is offering his companion a ring while in the second the couple are playing a game with a hood. Stylised oak trees provide a garden setting – and a reminder of allegorical gardens of romance. The Lovers’ Purse dates from about 1340.

The Dominican Abbey at Poissy allowed its nuns to embroider purses for their visitors. Christine de Pizan’s daughter was nun at the convent and a companion to Princess Marie. The nuns were still producing embroidery when Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner in England during the sixteenth century. She ordered coifs with gold and silver crowns on them (Owen, p.386).

In 1317 when Queen Jeanne of Burgundy was crowned her accounts show the purchase of 12 embroidered purses, 6 embroidered velvet purses, 6 embroidered samite purses and 16 other purses – most of which she must have given away as gifts (Farmer 87-88). Mahout of Artois gave away a purse embroidered with pearls in 1319. (Ibid, 88). Farmer returns to the topic in The Silk Industries of Medieval Paris (2016).

It should be noted that the production of highly decorated bags did not end in England with the Reformation. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were notable for highly decorated sweet bags.

https://threegoldbees.com/projects/embroidered-lovers-purse

Farmer, Sharon. ‘Small Mercery Goods,’ in Medieval Clothing and Textiles, volume 2. Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Robin Netherton (eds). (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006)pp. 87-89

Owen, Mrs Henry & Egerton, Mary Margaret. The Illuminated Book of Needlework. Comprising Knitting, Netting, Crochet, and Embroidery. By Mrs. Henry Owen. Preceded by a History of Needlework, Including an Account of the Ancient Historical Tapestries. Edited by the Countess of Wilton. (London, 1847)

Volume 1

The Fishmongers’ Pall

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I Spy Couching Stitch | PieceWork

The Fishmonger’s Pall was made specifically for the merchant’s guild, for use at the funeral of company members as the beginning of the sixteenth century . It is made from Italian cloth of gold and the four side panels which are linen are embroidered with silver gilt and silks. Unsurprisingly the embroidery has a ‘fishy’ theme. St Peter – the fisherman, appears at the top and bottom ends of the pall and there’s a mermaid and a merman as well as dolphins and the guild’s coat of arms. It was described in 1862 by the Gentleman’s Magazine as ‘perhaps as perfect a specimen of the various processes go embroidery as could be found anywhere, and the magnificent piece of cloth of gold and velvet forming the centre should be carefully noticed.’ (Vol 213, p.38).

Mermaid on Fishmonger's Pall embroidered with gold and silver wire

There is an awful lot of gold work in evidence. The couching creates density and texture while the embroidered figures composed of split stitches, satin stitches and brick stitch among others tell a story of immortality and a Christian soul on its journey to heaven -even the peacock feathers sported by the angels around St Peter speak of immortality and peacocks symbolise immortality because their feathers return better than ever each year. There are peacock feathers on the Toledo Cape as well – a reminder perhaps that just as the imogees and emoticons of today as readable there was an entire visual language of religion and belief which began to drain away with the Reformation. Perhaps just as important, the whole thing shouts abut the prestige of the Fishmonger’s Guild.

I Spy Couching Stitch | PieceWork

The embroiderer even used different kinds of gold thread to create the density of texture. Most gold thread was linen wrapped in sliver gilt ‘foil’ but they have also used drawn wires called ‘damask gold’ which doesn’t appear before the fourteenth century and purl thread which is a twisted coil of wire. It adds greater dimension to the coat of arms and crown. The embroideries themselves have a three dimensional look because there are padded areas that have been embroidered across. The mirror even shows a reflection because of the way that the silver thread surface of the mirror has been couched. For more information about embroidery stitches used on the pall follow http://www.zenzietinker.co.uk/opus-anglicanum/ which will open in a new tab. It also offers some excellent close up images of the pall.

Panel from the fishmonger's pall featuring a mermaid and merman worked in goldwork embroidery.

The fishmongers’ pall is not the only one in existence but it is certainly the finest because of the depth of its embroideries and the finesse with which the shading has been applied – it certainly has to make you wonder what was destroyed at the time of England’s Reformation. And it also goes to show that the Reformation took something of a toll on an industry that had thrived throughout the medieval period. The embroidery on the Fishmongers’ Pall have depth and nuance that develop the earlier forms, even though the themes and images may be the same.

V and A, English Medieval Embroidery Opus Anglicanum (London and New Haven: Yale University Press)