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.
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!
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/
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. :-)
Longtime readers of my work and visitors to my website and my blog will know that as one of my threads of research I re-enact with living history society Regia Anglorum. I recently worked out that I've been a member for about 15 years now, ever since catching a performance by them at Nottingham Castle. There was a guard on the gate in Norman costume and I was so taken by his outfit that I went up to talk to him and find out where he had obtained it. He told me that he belonged to early medieval re-enactment society Regia Anglorum and that their ethos was to present the equipment and crafts of the period around the Norman conquest as accurately as possible. They portrayed Anglo Saxons, Vikings and Normans. I was immediately aware that this was something very useful for a novelist to investigate because it was bringing history off the page and into the living, fully realised 3D. Now, you might say that we are products of our own century and we can't truly know what it was like back then just by putting on the trappings of the era and swanning about in them... and you'd be right. But there's more to this re-enactment lark than that. There are many in the re-enactment fraternity who strive to understand the past and rediscover what we've lost and forgotten by recreating artefacts and techniques and by experimental archaeology and thus understand how things worked and fitted into the environment. I won't deny that there's also great fun to be had hanging out with re-enactors, but it's also a wonderful opportunity to listen and learn too. During a recent weekend event at Nottingham Castle, I talked coins, moneyers and mints with one of the most knowledgeable numismatists in Britain, who tells me that the people about whom we have the most information in 12th century society are the moneyers. Here's his brief history of coins and coin production on his website: http://livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/grunalmoneta/history.html I talked to an expert potter and observed him using a medieval potter's wheel to craft a wonderful little bowl. http://www.trinitycourtpotteries.co.uk/I talked medieval embroidery with another expert, and mail shirts with someone else who is chummy with the chaps at Leeds armoury. I also discussed shoes with a guy who is a leather expert with an archaeology degree. Purchase-wise, I came away from the event with a replica drinking glass from the mid 12thC - something that my John Marshal might just have used while entertaining mercenary captain Hubert FitzWalter at Marlborough - see the scene in A Place Beyond Courage! There's an entire community out there bursting with knowledge and enthusiasm. Re-enactors and the craftsmen, often re-enactors themselves, who serve the industry. It is so fantastic to be a part of it. As with anything one researches, one has to have a nose for the authentic versus the bull manure, but I have a reasonable working knowledge and a good sense of who to trust and who to take with a pinch of salt. I've mentioned before that it's one thing to look at a cooking pot in a museum or in the pages of a text book and quite another to use one to cook a barley broth over an open fire. One thing to see a mail shirt displayed in a glass case, another to wear it. To walk up (and down!) a twisting medieval staircase wearing a pair of turn shoes and a long dress. And for the things I don't do, such as fighting, riding and sailing, to find out from those who do, what it feels like. I was fascinated this week to see that Regia Anglorum members Ian and Hazel Uzzell had been making some 12th century kit. One of the garments is a cloak made of vair which is Russian grey squirrel fur. Cloaks of such are often mentioned in medieval inventories and miniver-lined cloaks are frequently depicted in medieval manuscripts - see below. So to see one recreated in the fur so to speak was extremely interesting. I leave you with a gallery of photographs of recent re-enactment moments, all of which have their place in my novels - or will have. Look out for miniver cloaks in Hugh and Mahelt's story!
Miniver as portrayed by Eleanor of Aquitaine: Fresco at Chinon I knew I'd seen this somewhere when I was looking to post to my blog and then I remembered that it's on the front of Sharon Kay Penman's new novel Devil's Brood!
As modelled in the 21st C by Snorri! Note too the gorgeous embroidery on his tunic neck.
A toast to John Marshal using a replica mid 12thC drinking glass
Jim the Pot at work at Nottingham Castle
Yours truly, about to salt the stew!
Hose and braies For anyone who has wondered about these sexy garments
Row, row row your boat...
Wanna fight?
A mark of silver
Photographs courtesy of Regia Anglorum, Ian and Hazel Uzzell and Ian Hicks.
A PLACE BEYOND COURAGE, published in paperback on October 16th, is based on the story ofJohn FitzGilbert Marshal, father of the great William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and Regent of England.Without John there would have been no William. Aside fromJohn’s contribution offifty per cent of William’s DNA,those all important formative years were of John’s moulding in the paternal role. The imprinting of behaviour patterns,of morals and social mores came from the family household.
Having said that, one has to add that John was also responsible for his son’s almost deathin 1152 when he carried brinkmanship to extremes at the siege of NewburyCastle.The royalist forces attacked the stronghold during the struggle for the rule of England between King Stephen and his cousin, the Empress Matilda. Finding himself beleaguered, John requested permission to seek the Empress’s consent to yield the castle.Stephen agreed to give him time, but demanded hostages as security, including John’s son William, then a child of about five years old.
John handed over the boy and used the time, not to seek consent, but to stuff the threatened keep to the rafters with men and supplies.When the appointed day came to relinquish the castle, John refused, and told the king where he could go.Stephen retorted by threatening to hang little William. John apparently replied that Stephen must do as he saw fit because he (John) had the anvils and hammers to get better sons.‘Mais il dist ke ne li chaleit de l’enfant, quer encore aveit les enclumes e les marteals dunt forgereit de plus beals’. William was threatened with all sorts of dire ends, including aforementioned hanging on the gallows, being hurled from a trebuchet and squashed against the castle walls.His father remained impervious to intimidation and it was Stephen who yielded and backed down, taking young William into his household where he stayed for the next 2 years as both continuing hostage and royal page.
When Stephen died in 1154, the Empress’s son, Henry II, came to the throne and the wounds of the devastating civil war began to grow scars.The adulterine castles hastily thrown up during the conflict were torn down by Henry’s order.There is no mention of Newbury, but historians speculate that it was one of these temporary fortifications.Suffice to say, no remains have ever been found.Newbury itself has yielded no evidence of any kind of fortification. There’s a traditional site called ‘the Castle’ but it is thought to refer to the ruins of a cloth factory and can’t be dated back beyond the Tudor period.
There are some mounds in the grounds of North Lodge at Hamstead Marshal, which stand upon the site where once John Marshal had a substantial manor - probably fortified.Again, historians have suggested that these mounds were the remnants of protective mottes built during the twelfth century civil war to protect the manor.Having personally visited these mounds and walked the grounds, my own feeling is that that this suggestion is a non starter.Stephen could easily have defeated John had he made a stand at Hamstead, and one of the things John wasn’t, was a fool when it came to building castles.He wasknown as a cunning builder.The Gesti Stephani says of him: castella miri artificii in locis sibi competentioribus construere.’ (he built castles, designed with wondrous skill in the places that best suited him).He was a thinker, a planner.A cool and calculating soldier. His nearest secure base of operations that we know about was at Marlborough.He also had a castle at Ludgershall. But the writer of the Histoire says that his castle was at Newbury.So where might it have been?I think I know….
At an Akashic Record session on the third of July 2007, I asked my friend, Akashic consultant, Alison King, if she could tune into John Marshal and ask him where the castle at Newbury had stood.I had come to this session armed with Ordnance Survey map 158 and as I struggled to open it out (the thing was as big as I was!), Alison urgently asked me to move because John had come through to her and was keen to guide her index finger to the place where the castle was on the map.Alison had her eyes closed.I managed to get the map laid out on the floor and she leaned over and put her finger decisively on a particular spot. ‘Here,’ she said.We did this more than once and each time Alison’s finger came down on the same precisely the same mark.I took a biro and marked a cross under her fingertip as best I could.Alison said that her finger was guided with the firm decision she has always been aware of in John’s character.A few days ago, I got my husband to stand in the garden with this same map opened out so you can get an idea of the size of it.I’ve used the paint programme to draw a ring around the original cross made by Alison in July of 2007.I’ve also cropped it down to a close up – see picture 2.The cross is towards the top right.
When I studied the map and checked it out on Google Map coordinates, I thought that it looked interesting.
It was on the outskirts of Newbury and close to Hamstead Marshall, but my eye was untrained.I had corresponded briefly with a reader who lives in the area and who has an archaeology qualification.She had once e-mailed me wondering where the missing castle might be.I sent her a scan of the map with the ‘X’ marks the spot that John Marshal had shown us.The reader - S. was very interested to see it because she said that it was strategically a very important site, being the highest point on a ridge overlooking two rivers, the Lambourn to the north and the Kennet to the south. The Roman road - Ermine street coming from Cirencester to Speen, must have been very close by.Today the land forms part of the grounds of a private home called Speen House.Alison and I were excited and delighted at this news.Initially we didn’t take it further than that and just noted that it was circumstantial corroboration.
Then, in August of 2008, S. invited us to Berkshire as she lives more or less on top of where John Marshal, William Marshal and many of their kin and descendants used to call home.We were thrilled at the invitation and arranged to travel down there and spend a couple of days in ‘Marshal’ country.On day one, we went to Old Sarum.Our road took us down the Newbury Bypass and past part of the land John Marshal had told us was the site of his castle.As we were driving, Alison said she had John coming through saying, ‘You are coming to visit me.’We thought at the time that it was a reference to our forthcoming meeting with S, however, that wasn’t the entire story.
When we did meetS. the next day, she showed us a close up of a different picture of the same area on the map I had sent her, showing clearly that there were ramparts on the spot at Speen. (I've drawn them in using the Paint programme again on the smaller closeup of the OS map). The county archaeologist had confirmed this.No one knows their dateline, but there have been Roman finds nearby.So why not medieval?Fortifications and ramparts are regularly adapted and reused down the centuries.John Marshal was renowned as a cunning builder of castles and Speen would have been tailor made for his skills, especially if he was throwing up defences in a hurry and this place was‘a strategically important site.’
Another circumstantial point that backs up the Speen site theory is the detail that William Marshal granted himself a market at Speen in 1218, thus confirming strong Marshal interests in the place.We didn’t know any of this until our visit to see S.
S. was wonderful and managed to secure us permission to go and look at the ramparts at Speen House.This was a personal invitation and I didn’t feel it was appropriate to take photographs.However, while we were there, Alison’s psychic antennae went haywire - I have never seen her this way before and she had never experienced anything like it herself. She had John Marshal coming through powerfully and strongly, greeting us and saying that this was the place where he had made his stand.Although I sometimes share snippets of Akashic material with readers, what came through and what was said, was, I feel, very personal to John and not appropriate to the public domain.However, as far as confirmation that this was the place is concerned, we were left in absolutely no doubt, and also that the events were traumatic.
Whether evidence of 12th century occupation will ever show up on a dig I don’t know, because the fortifications would not have stood for very long and the site is now private property and thick with rhododendron bushes and trees.Even so, I am convinced that Speen is the site of John’s castle at Newbury.It fits better than anything else that has yet come to light, and when the builder himself has crossed the divide of 800 years to show me in person as he best he can, then yes, I believe.
Elizabeth Chadwick on the publication date of A Place Beyond Courage.
October 16th 2008
As a post script I have to add that when I was writing A Place Beyond Courage, I had no idea where the castle was myself, so I left it vague and open to conjecture. Owing to the publishing process, I can't go back and rewrite that part of the novel just now, but perhaps at some future point I will.
