HORSES FOR COURSES

Readers of my novels will know that I like my characters to have nice horses, so I thought I'd look today at the various types of Medieval horse. There weren't any named breeds as such back in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries as we know them, although some were famed by region and what were required re type of horse was definitely known. Horses from Lombardy were prized as destriers. Spanish horses ditto. Norman baron Robert de Belleme was known to run Spanish grey horses on his Welsh Marcher lands in the late eleventh century.
Horses were known and named by their their function, their colour, their owners, their place of origin. We know William Marshal had a horse called Blancart, suggesting it was white. Richard Coeur de Lion had one called Fauvel, which meant it was a golden colour - perhaps a dun. A horse called Morel was a shiny black. We still have this with morello cherries. A Sorel horse was a chestnut or sorrel, a Bayclere was a bright bay, a Grisel was a grey.
William FitzStephen, talking of horses at the Smithfield Market in the later twelfth century speaks of the horse fair at Smithfield in London which is held on the 6th day of the week, barring feast days. Earls, barons, knights and all the citizens of London come out to look at the horses. 'It is a joy to see the ambling palfreys, their skin full of juice, their coats a-glisten as they pace softly in alternation raising and putting down the feet on one side together; next to see the horses that best befit esquires, moving roughly yet nimbly, as they raise and set down the opposite feet, fore and hind.... then the younger colts of high breeding, unbroken and high stepping with elastic tread, and after them the costly destriers of graceful form and goodly stature with quivering ears, high necks and plump buttocks. As these show their paces, the buyers watch first their gentler gait, then that swifter motion wherein their forefeet are thrown out and back together and the hind feet also. When a race between such trampling steeds is to begin, or perchance between others which are likewise, after their kind, strong carry, swift to run, a shout is raised, and horses of the baser sort are bidden to turn aside. Three boys riding these fleet-footed steeds, or at times two as may be agreed, prepare themselves for the contest. Skilled to command their horses, they curb their untamed mouths with jagged bits and their chief anxiety is that their rival shall not gain the lead.' As well as all the above high status horses, plough beasts and cart pullers are for sale too.

I've written up a few definitions, thoughts, and leading points below.

Destrier. A warhorse and valuable. It was ridden into battle and at tourneys but was not used for general riding purposes. Its name is supposed to come from the idea that either it led from the right hoof when galloping down a tiltyard run and turning, or that it was led from the right. There has been debate. Generally a destrier was a stallion, although I don't doubt that there some geldings and mares among the mix. The size of a destrier in the period I write about (late 11th to 13th centuries) was around fifteen hands high. This is according to equine historian Ann Hyland. It would look something like a modern Welsh Cob or quarter horse, or Frisian, or the Villanos type of Spanish Andalusian. The idea was to have a strong, stocky animal that was lively in movement, could live on poor rations if it had to, and that was capable of short, sharp bursts of speed - the shock charge i.e. it had to have the same straits as a good steer roping horse today and be strong enough to bear the weight of a mounted, mail-clad knight without sagging in the middle. Historian Matthew Bennet has also compared the destrier of this period with the stronger types of Morgan Horse. Cart horses they certainly weren't, as Medieval illustrations prove. You quite often come across destriers as gifts in the pipe rolls of the period, where they are referred to by the macho sounding Latin title of Equo or Equus. In 1208 Henry de Fontibus gave King John a Lombard destrier as a gift in order that he might take the daughter of Henry FitzHervey to wife. (The great roll of the Pipe for the tenth year of King John. Yorkshire. Nova Oblata)


Palfrey: A knight's or ladies riding horse. Highly bred and of good quality. A knight would ride his palfrey to the tournament or over longer distances and spare his destrier. These too are often found in the pipe rolls, as 'gifts' to appeast the king. Palfries could be divided up further into the ordinary and the Ambler As mentioned in FitzStephen, these horses walked first with their left side then their right rather than moving alternate hooves front and rear. This made for a much smoother pace. Tim Severin, when he followed the crusader's route to Jerusalem, took up with an ambling horse along his journey and it's interesting to read his descriptions of how smooth the ride actually is. These horses were sometimes also known by the old French Haquenai from which our word 'hack' or 'hackney' comes. Such horses are referred to from the thirteenth century. Since Henry II once had a mistress called 'Hikenai' I wonder if she was a good ride. (cough!). Seriously, I wonder if that's where the word came from.

Courser Comes from Chazurius - a chaser, the name used from the end of the 12th century. A horse for hunting and coursing as the name suggests. A fast hunter. The sort that was mentioned in FitzStephen's description of London in connection with 'boy racers'. The courser was the ancestor of the modern racehorse - in type if not in direct blood breeding.

Rouncy. This beast was for general all purpose riding by soldiers of lesser degree. It was a solid, all round beast that would serve you well but wouldn't draw the crowds and win friends and influence people. When the great William Marshal was down on his luck as a young man, he had to sell his cloak in order to buy a horse and all he could afford was 'un rocin' worth twenty two Angevin shillings. (I dramatised this scene briefly in The Greatest Knight). Unfortunately he needed a pack horse too, which he didn't have, so his Rouncy had to double up.

Sumpter This was what should have carried William's arms and supplies. A sumpter horse. These were really bog standard. Any lower and you'd be loading a donkey. There aren't that many illustrations of sumpters about, but in England there are plenty of native ponies that have been used extensively for haulage and on the pack routes down the centuries, so very likely the Yorkshire Fell and Dales ponies are descendants of the type, as is the ancient Cleveland Bay breed too. The latter were known as 'chapman horses' because it was the chapmen who brought the goods throughout England with their pony pack trains. These days the Cleveland has been bred up in size and mixed with thoroughbred, so is a large creature than the sumpters of yore.
Dales Pony: http://www.kellas-stud.co.uk/dales.htm
There's a description of a knackered old packhorse in the Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal.
One of William's rivals tries to fob him off with the beast, pretending it's a destrier William won earlier (some chance!). 'Whereupon Peter brought forward a pack horse of his, with the same colour coat, grey, but it had got to such an age that it was thin and worn-out, broken-backed and covered in scars. I think it was not all in one piece, indeed a lot of its hide was missing. It was tired out and weary.' I suppose that life of an itinerant knight's pack horse was not an easy one!

The Hobby Horse comes in from the end of the thirteenth century and was a small horse or middle sized pony imported from Ireland.

The Stott was a cheap workhorse or ploughhorse.  Here's one from the Luttrell Psalter.

Signed, sealed, delivered.

First of all - my website's back up - YAY!

Now to the next post.

The other day I was looking up a charter of Hugh Bigod II (d.1225) the hero of my current work in progress. I wanted to know who had witnessed the charter because the witness list is a good indicator of who a lord was relying on for support and who was in the household at that time.
Hugh's seal was apparently attached to the charter and there is a description of it in Latin by Camden, the chap who made the transcription from the Medieval document. As I read the description I became rather interested and very curious. I read Latin very badly, but I can decipher certain words.
The transcription says 'Hec est forma posteriosis partis sigilli, in qua leonis salientis ymago quam eleganter expresso erat. Anterior pars majoris latitudinis et longitudinis ert, prae se ferens ymaginem hominins equo insedentis dextra gladium et sinistra manu clypeum gestentis. In sua clypeo anterior pars leonis emergebat.'

So, I am struggling very slightly with this, but I take it, very roughly paraphrased to mean that on the back of the seal there is a lion rearing up with both its front paws on a level (leonis salientis) and that on the front of the shield there is the image of a man on horseback with a sword in his right hand (dextra gladium) and a shield in his left. Then at the end it seems to say that a lion can be seen emerging on the front of his shield.
Now then, the standard Bigod device is a red cross on a yellow back ground. That's what was carried on their shields up until the time that Roger Bigod IV (c1245-1306) took the Marshal blazon of a half-green and half-yellow background, with the famous 'scarlet lion' rampant in the foreground. The right to carry that device came down through his grandmother, Mahelt Marshal, who was, of course, daughter of the great William Marshal whose device this had once been. It seems very likely that Mahelt's son, Roger Bigod III (1209-1270) bore the traditional Bigod cross on his shield. On his equestrian seal he carried the Bigod cross too.
One source says that the seal at the beginning of this post is that of Roger Bigod II (hero of The Time of Singing), and is the seal he used as Earl of Norfolk throughout his life. The counterseal shows the Bigod cross. (A counterseal was a smaller, personal seal that a baron might keep about his person. His main seal was often kept by a trusted administrator). However, another source tells me that this is the seal of Roger Bigod IV. This is the point where I start banging my head on my desk! The armour in the sketch suggests that this is perhaps later than Roger II. Personally I would say it is Roger III because of the cross on the shield and because a list of said seals in the British museum describes the seal of Roger III as looking like this. Then again, according to Camden, Hugh Bigod's charter seal shows a lion on the shield and on the reverse. So either Hugh Bigod (Roger II's father) had a reason for adopting a lion on his shield, or the wrong seal has been assigned to that charter by future generations. I might be able to make mileage out of this anomalous lion in the novel, I don't know yet.
None of this has any bearing on my work in progress as such, except that I would like to know if Hugh Bigod really did have a lion on his shield and if so, was the reason connected with his wife? To find that out, I'm going to have to try and get to look at the seal myself. The only way to tell is to look at the style of the armour and pray that it has a legend round the outside. A 'Hugonis' would be extremely useful!
This is the counter seal of Roger Bigod IV, last earl of Norfolk of the Bigod line.

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All this searching after seals, led me to wonder more about seals in general, and I found a wealth of fascinating information at the Durham University site.

The earliest seals in the medieval period were crude in execution and it wasn't until the thirteenth centure that they became sharper and more elegant of design. By the fourteenth century the simplicity of the earlier seals had been replaced by more elaborate seals with much fine detail.
The word 'seal' should only properly apply to the die or matrix that is used to make the impression on wax or whatever material is used. However, it is loosely used when talking about both the matrix and the impression itself. The seal matrix usually has a central design surrounded by a border legend. Matrixes could be made of bronze or latten (an alloy). Some of the higher status matrixes were fashioned from jet or silver. Engraved gems were common. Lead was a metal used by people of less exalted rank.
These seal matrixes were carefully guarded to prevent fraud by people not authorised to use them. Sometimes in monasteries, if discipline was lax, monks misused the seals and overspent the budget by authorising all sorts of luxuries and unnecessaries. This happened at Bury St. Edmunds in the twelfth century. Monastic abuse of seals was widespread and rules were introduced by which official documents could only be sealed in full view of the entire chapter.
In secular life, important seals, such as those belonging to towns, were kept locked in a box that was itself closed with the seals of the mayor and two constables.
Seals were often made by goldsmiths, who had the requisite skills. In the later Middle Ages (1440's) at Durham, Joss the goldsmith was paid twenty one shillings and 8 pence for making a seal for the prior.
If a seal ceased to be valid - if the owner died for example, it was customary to break it into pieces or deface it, a detail that is borne out by the very few surviving examples of seal matrices.
Most seal impression are imprinted in beeswax. This could come in several colours, cream, and green and red being common. The seals of the Norman kings appear to have been of cream-coloured wax mixed with a chalky substance that made them friable and easily breakable. By Henry II's period, seals, red had arrived and by the time his sons were sealing charters, green was the colour of the day. Seals were attached to documents by threads, by woven cords and braid, and by strips partially cut from the documents themselves.
Medieval seals generally come in two shapes. Round ones are used by laymen, whatever their rank, and oval ones are used by ladies and ecclesiasts. The general reason for this is that women and the clergy were usually depicted standing upright, which better suited the oval shield shape.
Here's an enlarged copy of the shield of Isabelle de Clare, wife of William Marshal.

Seal rings were not so much in use in the period about which I write, although they had been popular earlier on in Roman and Carolignian times, and were to become popular again later, returning to full vogue around the end of the fifteenth century.
In general terms, the larger the seal, the more important the person. Royal seals were larger than those of the magnates, and lesser gentry had smaller seals again. A bishop had a bigger seal an an archdeacon. I think it interesting that when William Marshal became a magnate, he kept the smaller, equestrian seal he had had as a knight. I wonder if it was from a sense of quiet personal pride, or to remind himself of his roots that he continued to use this seal rather than opting for an ostentatious one. Keeping the old one fits his character. He knew the things that mattered and those that didn't.
Seals were very carefully attached to documents because a document without them was invalid.
The earliest medieval seals were fixed by the wax being rivetted through a cross shaped incision cut into the parchment. From there the technique developed and seals were attached by partly cutting a strip from the parchment on the lower edge of the document and fixing the seal to this.
There was also the technique of cutting an incision into the parchment fold at the bottom of the deed or charter, passing a narrow strip of parchment or leather through this incision, and then attaching the seal to the two loose ends. Sometimes several seals were attached to a document by this method. From the end of the 12th century, silk and wool cords were used in documents concerning the higher ranks in society.
When there were a lot of seals on a document, the most important personage took preference and the grandest would begin at the bottom left hand corner and the others would progress in order of status to the bottom right.

I have paraphrased most of this from the very interesting article on Durham University's site. For readers wanting to study the full article, the url is here. Fascinating stuff!
http://flambard.dur.ac.uk/dynaweb/handlist/ddc/dcdmseal/

Temporary Website Blip

Just to say that my website has temporarily gone splat due to a technical hitch. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible! Thanks to Marg at Historical Tapestry for alerting me.

Also to say that in the next couple of days - hopefully Monday night at the latest, I'll have a new post up all about Medieval seals and an interesting conundrum re one of the Bigod ones that I've been investigating and still haven't resolved.

I think I mentioned but I can't remember, that I've put an excerpt from my work in progress about Mahelt and Hugh Marshal on my novel extracts blog.
http://elizabethchadwicks.blogspot.com/

Back anon, by which time I hope I'll have a website again!

Elizabeth.

Where Did You Get That Hat?

I mentioned in my Christmas post that I was going to put up a post during the holiday season about Roger Bigod's hats.
While writing The Time of Singing and conducting the Akashic Record research, http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/akashic_record.html
I came across the detail that Roger Bigod, my hero, was rather fond of his hats. I think they served several purposes for him. They were functional and kept his ears warm and the weather out in winter, and protected him from the sun in summer. They conveyed status and propriety. They were disguises to conceal expressions and to hide behind, they were confidence boosters, and sometimes they were fun, flamboyant objects that said 'Look at me. I'm really a unique fun guy under this quiet facade.'
I asked Alison if she would draw the hats that she had seen Roger wearing in the course of our session and she very kindly sketched and coloured a selection. When I first saw them, I was a bit surprised because some of them looked slightly later in period than what I had envisaged. I sent them to a medievalist friend for evaluation. She said that what we actually know about hats in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century is very little. There are a few examples around, but to put it in context, it's like looking around the streets of Nottingham - where I live - choosing someone at random who's wearing a particular style of hat and then saying that this hat is the only sort people wore in Europe in the 21st century. There just aren't enough existing examples. We don't know enough about the variety and styles, so Roger's hats are perfectly feasible. Certainly I have found examples of similar by trawling paintings from the next two centuries and the Maciejowski Bible, dating to the mid 13th has some close relatives.
Anyway, without further ado, here's a wander through Roger Bigod's hat gallery, complete with the Akashic session context of how and where the particular hat was mentioned: I've also added some pictures from my gallery of later, conventional illustrations. Not all the hats or the circumstances appear in the novel, but they inform the background. Enjoy!
With grateful thanks to Alison King for her artwork efforts! Click on the images to enlarge.

Halellujah, it's Christmas!

I'm going to get back to proper blogging after the Christmas break. Domestic matters have expanded to fill a lot of my time for the next fortnight, but I thought I'd post a couple of Youtube vids to a couple of procrastination pieces I have enjoyed recently, and that both have a slightly Christmassy theme. Over Christmas and New Year, I also hope to post a fun blog about Roger Bigod's hats, so watch out for that in late December or early January.

So, with Seasons Greetings to Everyone:

For some years I have been following versions of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah. It's a tricky one to get right and there are as many excruciating versions as there are magnificent ones. Connoisseurs tend to cite Jeff Buckley's version as THE one of choice. Personally I prefer Rufus Wainwright's. Recently though, I have come across one that blows my socks off - and no, it's not Alexandra's X Factor version. It's by Welsh band Brigyn. THIS is the one that deserves to be the UK's Christmas number 1 by a long chalk. Enjoy!


Another of my Youtube followings are the hilarious Simon's Cat videos. Just recently, Simon's Cat has been joined by Simon's sisters Dog. This a wonderful video with a warning not to overfeed your pooch this Christmas!

Wild Hunting....

I have several blog posts to write of a historical nature but with Christmas suddenly appearing on the horizon (erk, where did that spring from?) and a bereavement in my husband's family, I thought I'd post a couple of less labour intensive posts to keep things ticking over. Early December saw the re-issue of my first ever published novel The Wild Hunt. It was published in 1990, having been picked off the slush pile by Carole Blake of the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency in London http://www.blakefriedmann.co.uk/ It went on to win a Betty Trask Award, which is an award in the UK for first novels of a romantic or traditional nature for young novelists under the age of 35 - which I was then. The award was presented by HRH the Prince of Wales at Westminster. Wow, what a start to a career, especially as previous to this I'd been stacking shelves in supermarkets to make ends meet.
The Wild Hunt is I guess what you'd call a romantic historical adventure novel. The relationship between the hero and heroine fairly to the fore and the protagonists are imaginary, although set against a solid enough historical background - the Welsh Marches of the eleventh Century. It has been sold to 16 countries and even now is still earning the royalties in far flung parts of the globe. For that reason, although I now write biographical fiction and am very into my Marshals and Bigods, I have tremendous fondness for Guyon and Judith, the hero and heroine of The Wild Hunt.
It's strange to think that when I began writing this novel, my strapping 22 year old was an infant of eighteen months! I can remember sitting in the foyer of a Bridlington guesthouse, notebook in hand, writing the opening chapter. Who knew it would lead to this. To celebrate the publication, I've made one of my youtube trailers - just a short one. See below. The 2008 edition of The Wild Hunt is an all-singing, all-dancing spiffy new version in that I've re-edited it, and in so doing deleted 15,000 words without losing any of the story. I guess I've learned to cut some of the verbiage .
I've also found a moment to post 2 small excerpts from the work in progress - the story of Mahelt Marshal and Hugh Bigod. It's rough draft at the moment, but here's a quick preview. http://elizabethchadwicks.blogspot.com/

The Wild Hunt Trailer

Toilet Training or setting the bog standard.

I'm busy preparing a piece about the many duties and tasks of the royal Marshal. What did the position mean for John Marshal and his sons and their sons? What did it entail? I have all the information in my head and dotted around various books, but I want to bring it together.
Anyway, that's what will be going on in the future, either the next blog or a couple of blogs down the line depending on my work schedule.

For the moment though, I thought I'd have a quick drop in to talk medieval latrines.... more specifically what a couple of castles have had made of theirs by the powers that be. I have to say that my mind (and eyes!) have boggled (pun intended!) at both of these portrayals of the medieval privy.
Joanne Mcauley, a reader from Northern Ireland visited Carrickfergus Castle and sent me this photograph she took of 'King John' ensconced on the privy. For some obscure reason his braies and hose are down around his ankles and almost off his legs. Ummm...how about no?
King Saul demonstrates quite neatly how it's properly done here in a piece from the Maciejowski Bible. Although at the time he is in a cave and David is sneaking up behind him to steal a piece of his cloak!













I understand that a scene like this might serve to entertain children and giving them an interest, since all things scatalogical appear to fascinate them - and many adults too. 'Oh look this is where King John did a poo!' But is it necessary? Is it respectful? Is it accurate? To me the answer to all three would initially be absolutely not. The further back in the past we go, the easier it is to belittle it. But then on second thoughts, the thirteenth Century Maciejowski Bible has no qualms about portraying a king involved in his necessary business, so one could argue that the portrayal is part of a long tradition. You pay your money and you take your pick - although of course one has to take mindset into consideration. That's not something I have time to discuss here and now, but I'm saving it up for a future blog.
Meanwhile, at Old Sarum, English Heritage has tarted out their thirteenth century placard reconstruction of the privy with paintings from the Bayeux Embroidery. Eh?
Just take a look at the naked couple above the toilet door. (click on the image to enlarge it). You will find the exact same couple in the border of the Bayeux Tapestry - see below. Speculation about them is rife, but it appears to allude to a sexual scandal of the day. So what are they doing decorating the walls of a thirteenth century garderobe. In fact what are any of the panels doing there? Did they put pictures of sexual scandals on their privy walls? Especially copied from a three hundred year old embroidery? Since Old Sarum is administered by English Heritage, you would think they'd strive to get it right.

It's interesting that an attendant is holding out the necessary wipes to the chap sat on the privy. There is evidence that nobles used to take their servants into the privy with them and have them on standby to hand out the medieval equivalent of toilet paper. I have heard people say that hay was used and moss but have never seen any primary source provenance for this myself - although doubtless it existed. I would think hay would be a bit awkward myself, but I haven't actually tried any experimental archaeology in this area it has to be said! However, I have read in primary source that rags were used as bum fodder. The King of France, when talking to William Marshal about traitors, says that in the manner of rags, they are to be used, and then thrown away down the latrine. I wonder if that's how scraps of material come to be found in cess pits when archaeologists are digging around. Was the privy the final destination of garments that had been used until they were threadbare? I suspect so.

P.S. and not connected with any of the above, but has anyone realised the pun in Harry Potter concerning Moaning Myrtle who hangs out in the toilet? There's a well known little plant called the 'Bog Myrtle'. - Get it?
The medievals used it for flavouring their beer. :-)