The Welsh Marches .... a bit of history to listen to ..... today on the wireless

 Now this is one I listened to and enjoyed.

And of course learned a lot.   It's the latests from Radio 4's In Our Time

"At the Hay Festival, Misha Glenny and guests discuss the impact of the Norman invasion on the people and land of Wales and across the modern border with England in what became known as The Welsh Marches, march being a term for a militarized borderland. 

Hay was one of the first Marcher lordships. Even before 1066, William the Conqueror knew that he would have to subdue the Welsh if he were to control the English and he allowed more and more Norman warlords to establish virtually their own private kingdoms in these Marches. 

Later some of the Lords were to use these bases to invade Ireland rather than conquer the rest of Wales. Marcher Lords built numerous castles such as the one at Hay and many new towns would then grow up alongside these where there was one law for the English and another for the Welsh and, though the Acts of Union under the Tudors brought an end to much of the Marcher Lords' powers, the distinct identity of these Welsh Marches continued.

With Rhun Emlyn, Lecturer in the Department of History and Welsh History at Aberystwyth University, Helen Fulton

Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol, and Huw Pryce, Emeritus Professor of Welsh History at Bangor University

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; walking with the woods, RHS Bridgewater, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Welsh Marches, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002wt1v

Margery Kempe and English Mysticism .... on the wireless today

This is one I enjoyed listening to, and of course learned a lot about the Middle Ages, the status of women in Medieval society,and the ferment of religious ideas in the time before the Reformation. 

A page from Margery Kempe's autobiography

It is one of the repeated episodes from BBC Radio 4's In Our Time series.*  

"Margery Kempe (1373-1438) produced an account of her extraordinary life in a book she dictated, 'The Book of Margery Kempe."'

She went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to Rome and Santiago de Compostela, purchasing indulgences on her way, met with the anchoress Julian of Norwich and is honoured by the Church of England each 9th November. 

She sometimes doubted the authenticity of her mystical conversations with God, as did the authorities who saw her devotional sobbing, wailing and convulsions as a sign of insanity and dissoluteness. 

Her Book was lost for centuries, before emerging in a private library in 1934.

This In Our Time episode was first broadcast in June 2016. 

With Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, Katherine Lewis, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Huddersfield and Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Location; Radio 4

Pictures; The only known copy of the mystic, Margery Kempe's autobiography, telling of her life and travels in England and on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Santiago de Compostela. The original was dictated by her to a priest of Lynn and this is probably a copy made from the original, perhaps under Margery's supervision. Courtesy British Library

*Margery Kempe and English Mysticism, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4,     https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07cyfkg  

The King, the barons and a question of power ....... today on the wireless

 As we go to the polls today it is appropriate that Radio 4 should broadcast an edition of In Our Time which examines the nature of power, and in particular how a section of the ruling class in Medieval England attempted to alter how the country was governed.*

It is the stuff of politics, and crops up in every school history book along with that earlier attempt to pull back the power of the king, which we know as Magna Carta.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the years of bloody conflict that saw Simon de Montfort (1205-65) become the most powerful man in England, with Henry III as his prisoner. 

With others, he had toppled Henry in 1258 in a secret, bloodless coup and established provisions for more parliaments with broader representation, for which he was later known as the Father of the House of Commons. 

When Henry III regained power in 1261, Simon de Montfort rallied forces for war, with victory at Lewes in 1264 and defeat and dismemberment in Evesham the year after. 

Although praised for supporting parliaments, he also earned a reputation for unleashing dark, violent forces in English politics and, infamously, his supporters murdered hundreds of Jewish people in London and elsewhere.

With David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History at King’s College London, Louise Wilkinson, Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln, and, Sophie Thérèse Ambler, Lecturer in Later Medieval British and European History at Lancaster University.

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Pictures; The Pictorial History Book, 1959

*The Second Barons' War, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vqq3

Finding Richard III ......The Reunion ...... today on the wireless

Now, I have always had a fascination for the story of Richard III, the man who made a power grab for the throne in 1483 and along the way may have murdered his two nephews, and sundry other people, including a brother  and close political allies.

Richard III, circa 1520

This is less because I am fixated by the history of kings and queens, but because from a very early age it offered up a set of mysteries, and challenges to conventional history.

More so because of the suggestion that here was a late Medievial King who was villified by the dark arts of his Tudor successors.

The counter story caught the imagination of a fourteen year old, and was matured by academic biographies, and that excellent novel, "The Daughter of Time", by Josephine Tey.*

So I shall be listening to Finding Richard III from that excellent Radio 4 series, The Reunion.**

And today "Kirsty Wark reunites the archaeologists, scientists, a religious leader and a distant relative involved in the remarkable search for, identification, and reburial of the last Plantagenet king.

Richard III was the last English king to die in battle and the first to have his genome sequenced. The discovery and identification of his remains is one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told.

After his death on Bosworth Battle Field in 1485, Richard's body was hastily buried in a Friary in Leicester. But over the years, rumours spread that his bones had been dug up and flung into a nearby river.

Others believed that his body could still be in its original burial place, now under a council car park. Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society wanted to know for sure.

The dig started on 25th August 2012 and, within hours, bones had been found. Dr Richard Buckley lead the University of Leicester's archaeological team and confesses that no-one really believed they would find him. But as osteologist Dr Jo Appleby uncovered more of the remains, she discovered he had a curved spine and serious head wounds.

Richard III and Ann Neville, 1483

More research was needed to be sure they had got their man. Professor Turi King, an expert in DNA, and Jo Appleby explain the painstaking process to identify the remains and to match the DNA with relative Michael Ibsen, and how they found out more about the way the King lived.

David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, became embroiled in a legal battle over where the remains should be re-interred – York or Leicester – as some distant relatives of the King challenged how the University had looked after the remains.

As well as giving a DNA sample, Michael Ibsen was also a carpenter and reveals how he ended up making his first ever coffin – fit for a medieval king.

Historian and writer Thomas Penn explains the impact of this momentous discovery on our understanding of history and of the man himself.

Producer: Karen Pirie

Series Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4"**

Pictures; Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520, after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828, source Richard III Society website via English Wikipedia and detail from the Rous Roll showing King Richard III in the centre with his wife Anne Neville on the left and his son Edward, Prince of Wales on the right. Showing his various heraldic crests  and his white boar badge, with the Warwick bear of his wife, 1483, digitized image, Add MS 48976, British Library, John Rous

*The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, 1951

**Finding Richard III, The Reunion, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tvgf

Medieval Pilgrimage …. today on the wireless

Now I know that pilgrimages are not unique to Europe or to the Christian religion, but this offering from the In Our Time series on Radio 4 will be interesting.

They are part of the Middle Ages, feature in the Canterbury Tales, and remain a fascinating topic, mixing as they do piety, with adventure, penance for a judged misdemeanor or crime and an opportunity to make money from the pilgrim, who was happy to buy a souvenir and perhaps less happy to pay for guided tours and the entrance fee to some holy places.

All of which brings me to the programme which went out just after 9 am today, but I always listen to later, because the editor always adds a “bonus ten minutes” of bits that were missed out.

“Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea and experience of Christian pilgrimage in Europe from the 12th to the 15th centuries, which figured so strongly in the imagination of the age. 

For those able and willing to travel, there were countless destinations from Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela to the smaller local shrines associated with miracles and relics of the saints. 

Meanwhile, for those unable or not allowed to travel there were journeys of the mind, inspired by guidebooks that would tell the faithful how many steps they could take around their homes to replicate the walk to the main destinations in Rome and the Holy Land, passing paintings of the places on their route.

With, Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, Kathryn Rudy, Professor of Art History at the University of St Andrews, and Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval Studies and Dean of the School of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson”.

Pictures; pilgrim badge from the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, late 15th century, Museum of London, https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/thomas-becket-life-and-death-badges#/ and badges from Kent, 12th – 15th Century, Pilgrim Badges, Canterbury Museums & Galleries, https://canterburymuseums.co.uk/beaney/explore/people-places/pilgrim-badges/

*Medieval Pilgrimage, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s9qp

Voices from the Middle Ages ....... Piers Plowman ...... on the wireless

Piers Plowman is a collection of  poetic and prose works from the 1380s through the reign of Elizabeth I and beyond, and reflect economic, social, political, and religious grievances.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's poem, written around 1370, about a man called Will who fell asleep on the Malvern Hills and dreamed of Piers the Plowman. 

This was a time between the Black Death and The Peasants’ Revolt, when Christians wanted to save their souls but doubted how best to do it - and had to live with that uncertainty. 

Some call this the greatest medieval poem in English, one offering questions not answers, and it can be as unsettling now as it was then.

With Laura Ashe, Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, University of Oxford, Lawrence Warner, Professor of Medieval English at King’s College London, and Alastair Bennett, Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson"*

Picture; Folio 170r from the 14th century Luttrell Psalter, showing "en:drolleries." At the bottom is a plowman.

*Piers Plowman, In Our Time,  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nvsl