I hope that followers of the History Jar are enjoying ‘guest post Mondays’ as much as I am. It’s wonderful to meet fellow writers over the Internet, if not in person. Today’s guest post is by Jo Romero, a talented writer and artist. Like me, Jo is fascinated by the women who end up as footnotes in history and like me she has written about Anne Neville (Hickey, Julia A., The Kingmaker’s Women, Pen and Sword). I love the vibrancy of her portraits and the cross section of society that she has drawn upon.
Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses and Their Portraits
I have always been fascinated by ‘forgotten’ stories, the ones history books tend to skip over. Over the years I’ve uncovered tales of Elizabethan pirates, a sword fight in seventeenth century Reading and some local allegations of witchcraft. But one area of history I’ve always been drawn to are stories of forgotten women. My book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses has recently been published by Pen and Sword Books, and was the result of two years’ research into letters, family documents, public records and chronicles. It was fascinating to uncover the many ways women from all sections of society shaped and were influenced by the fifteenth-century fight for the crown between the Houses of York and Lancaster.
Among them were women of power who needed a new, modern assessment. Alice Chaucer Duchess of Suffolk was initially a loyal supporter of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, but historians later dismissed her as selfish and power hungry after her switch from Lancaster to York. A fresh look at the evidence simply demonstrates that she was an adept politician who made intelligent and informed decisions for the benefit of her son and his future. Anne Neville, Richard’s III’s queen, is also often ignored in history books dealing with the period, but was one of the wars’ central characters.
There were others, too: Joan Conys, an innkeeper who ran The Swan Inn during the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, when archers and foot soldiers fought in the streets. Gonnora Dowtton, the abbess of Delapré, assisted, according to one source, in the burial of the dead after the Battle of Northampton in 1460. And in 1450, one innkeeper would have mopped dried blood from her courtyard after the murders of local officials on her premises.
While writing the book, it was important for me to present these woman as three-dimensional characters to try and help readers ‘get to know’ them. I researched items in their wills and inventories and visited places they worked, lived and worshipped. In many cases I was able to see brasses and effigies that commemorate their lives. This formed the basis for a number of portraits that I also completed to help us see beyond the stylised depictions of them in brass or stone.
Elizabeth Fitzherbert was the wife of a Derbyshire Sheriff, Ralph Fitzherbert. Ralph was a supporter of Richard III, and the king’s boar badge – a sign of allegiance – can be seen carefully carved onto his effigy. I created Elizabeth’s portrait based on her effigy at Norbury, although there is also a cast of the monument at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Elizabeth wears a butterfly headdress with an elaborate cap, along with a stunning necklace depicting the Virgin and Child on a pendant. A visitor to Norbury in the nineteenth century noted that traces of red, gold and green paint could be seen on her clothing and I have represented this in my portrait of her. I was lucky to find out a lot about Elizabeth, her children and other aspects of her life during the 1480s.
Another often-forgotten woman from the period is Joan Canynges. Joan was the wife of William Cangynges, a celebrated Medieval celebrity of Bristol and wealthy merchant. He served repeatedly as Mayor, and was known to both Henry VI and Edward IV. In 1461 the couple were recorded hosting Edward at their home shortly after his accession. A look at women’s roles in the household during the fifteenth century revealed that it would have been Joan behind many of these arrangements ensuring rooms were ready, food was ordered and suitable entertainments were provided for the king. The Canynges’ lived near St Mary’s Church in the Redcliffe area of the city in a large and extravagant building with a viewing tower so William could spot his ships laden with goods approaching the harbour. Joan’s effigy can be found with William’s in St Mary’s Church, and my portrait of her was based on this likeness. Medieval effigies are often very stylised and it is difficult to find distinguishable, individual features. Very often these likenesses were created as a symbol of their person rather than as a faithful representation of how the person looked in life. However Joan and William’s effigies do have definite individual characteristics and it is likely that this is how we would have seen them if we could time-travel back to fifteenth-century Bristol. I’ve drawn her in the clothing and colours she wears in her monument.
Finally, I wanted to bring Anne Neville to life in my drawing. She experienced so much of the conflict, and is not often acknowledged for the effects it had on her, as well as her role as a participant. Her father, grandfather and first husband were all killed in or immediately after battle, while her marriage to Edward Prince of Wales forged a Lancastrian alliance between Margaret of Anjou and her father, the Earl of Warwick. Tudor historians portrayed Anne as the depressed and tragic wife of Richard III, but traces of her role as consort suggest she was, from what we can see, in fact a dutiful and active queen. It is unfortunate that she was, to some extent, overshadowed by the actions of her father and second husband. I based my likeness of Anne from two very stylised contemporary depictions of her: on the Salisbury Roll and the Rous Roll. I love how Anne’s expression is a little off guard, as if we’ve caught a glimpse of her across a room.
About the book:
Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses: The Untold History Behind the Battle for the Crown by Jo Romero
The book seeks to acknowledge the wider roles of women during the Wars of the Roses at all levels of society. It dives into their families, daily lives, homes and fashions, depicting them as the flesh and blood participants they were, against the backdrop of these wars. They were involved behind the scenes of battles, suffered legal consequences, and supported their families commercially and politically. They were negotiators, diplomats, commanders, rebels and spies but they were also wives, mothers and daughters.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Forgotten-Women-of-the-Wars-of-the-Roses-Hardback/p/24403
Jo Romero has loved history for as long as she can remember, and achieved her BA (Hons) degree in History: Medieval and Modern, at the University of Hull in 1998. She is a history blogger at the Love British History blog and is active on social media. Jo is also an artist, and posts work depicting historical buildings and people under the social media profile @sketcherjoey.
Links:
Blog: https://www.lovebritishhistory.co.uk
Facebook: https://facebook.com/lovebritishhistory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovebritishhistorypics
Instagram (art): https://www.instagram.com/sketcherjoey