That was the theme for this year’s Gloucester Branch study day.

Four speakers (three of them female) gave us four very different medieval women, with spicy subtitles. All four speakers obviously knew their subjects inside out and were very enthusiastic.

Tim Porter kicked off with Margery Kempe - Medieval Mystic. Born near the end of the fourteenth century in King’s Lynn, she was unhappily married. Numerous visions convinced her she should follow Christ instead. After having fourteen children her husband finally agreed to let her take a vow of chastity and go off on pilgrimage to Jerusalem - so long as she paid his debts first. As her parents were well off she was able to do this and thankfully escaped. Her’s is the first female biography, but she doesn’t mention any of her children in it!

Professor Anne Curry came next with her talk on Joan of Arc - Woman, Warrior or Witch? She was certainly the first two. Her youth and her virginity were very important to her success. She inspired the French so much that the English had to capture and kill her.

After lunch we returned refreshed for Dr Joanna Laynesmith’s talk about Cecily Neville, subtitled Queen, Saint or Whore?, thanks to Michael K Jones’ providing fresh evidence in his latest book1 that Edward IV may have been illegitimate. Cecily nearly had as many children as Margery Kempe but cared for hers! She was nearly a queen, and nearly a saint, and maybe a whore.

While her husband was heir to the throne, the royal arms, impaling her Neville arms, were put into the east window in Oddingley Church in Worcestershire. After his death, her eldest son became Edward IV, and until he married she fulfilled the role of queen.

Even after his marriage she was still central to events, with meetings in her London home, and her efforts to reconcile Edward and George of Clarence.

When Richard was asked to take the throne in 1483, the citizens came to Baynard’s Castle to persuade him.

After Richard’s death she became more pious, and ended her days in the monastery at Berkhamsted.

The earliest surviving reference to Edward IV being illegitimate was made by Warwick in 1469, and repeated by Clarence in 1478. The story of the queen being led astray by a commoner was a common theme in literature.

Jones says that Edmund’s baptism in Rouen was splendid, compared to Edward’s. But if Edward was born prematurely, a quick baptism would be essential.

York built up land in Normandy for Edmund to inherit as Edward was getting English land, so a splendid baptism reinforced Edmund’s connection to Normandy.

Cecily would have been the first English born queen since the conquest.

We broke for tea, coffee and some yummy chocolate biscuits, before Dr Rowena Archer entertained us with Alice, Duchess of Suffolk: Menace and Matriarch.

Alice Chaucer was a social climber and definitely into materialism. Although she came across as not very nice, her only son must have been all right. He escaped from a first marriage to Henry VII’s mother, and married Richard’s sister Elizabeth, becoming the father of John Earl of Lincoln, Richard’s eventual heir.

This was a very enjoyable day in excellent surroundings, made memorable by the enthusiastic speakers. Thanks very much to the Gloucestershire Branch for all their hard work in organising the day.

Next year, the Gloucestershire Branch hope to have a guided tour of Ewelme, where Alice Chaucer is buried, and have invited us to join them.

Pam Benstead

1 Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle. See review on page 6. A copy is in our branch library.

Back to contents page of magazine