750 years ago on the 9th May 1266 King Henry III ratified the murage granted for three years to  the men of Kilkenny to fortify their city.  The walling was completed in 1275.

Tolls were levied on all goods sold at markets in Kilkenny.  They were levied wherever goods were transported over or under bridges, and through gateways into towns, between the port of entry, often New Ross or Dublin,  and the destination. These taxes were known as pontage and murage and the funds gathered allocated to specific tasks such as the building and repairing of town walls and bridges. The word ‘murage’ comes from the French word for wall ‘mur’ and likewise ‘pontage’ from the French word for bridge ‘pont’.   During the Middle Ages Kilkenny was a popular destination for luxury goods such as silk and muslin, figs almonds and rice, ginger, saffron, cloves, pepper, mace and galangal.  These goods were rated by the pound weight at 1/4d per pound. As these taxes were levied at each bridge and gate at towns along the route, the cost of transporting goods to Kilkenny was expensive.  This suggests that the market for luxury goods in Kilkenny was supported by a community with enough wealth to make the journey for merchants cost effective, and the building of walls and bridges possible.

Refs:

Circle: A Calendar of Irish Chancery Letters of 1244-1509, <http://www.tcd.ie/content/irish-chancery-rolls&gt;, [accessed, 27.02.14]

Sweetman, H. S., ed Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland, 5 vols (London: Longman & Co., 1875-1886), p. 128; 796

<http://www.philarm.com&gt;

One of the most important Irish houses, Borris House, nestles in the foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains, ancestral home of the Kings of Leinster.  Borris House was built on the footprint of a Medieval castle by Irish builders, using Irish craftsmen to create the fabulous plasterwork ceilings and exterior mouldings, and Irish cabinet makers crafted the woodwork, doors and furniture.  Since it was built, Borris House has been continuously occupied by the same Irish family, the MacMurrough Kavanaghs, direct descendants of the 12th century King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough.  This makes Borris House uniquely Irish, having no Anglo Irish history as do so many of Ireland’s ‘Big Houses’.  The house is jam packed with a fascinating history full of amazing characters and wonderful stories, closely intertwined with the Butlers of Kilkenny Castle.  Touch The Past highly recommends a visit and there can be no better opportunity to discover Borris House for yourself than at the annual Festival of Writing and Ideas, hosted as usual by Borris House, from June 10th to 12th 2016.  <http://festivalofwritingandideas.com/>

William Marshal was the fourth son of John FitzGilbert, Marshal at the Court of King Stephen.  John FitzGilbert was a ruthless warrior who held castles in Wiltshire at Marlborough and Ludgershall at a time while England was embroiled in civil war and anarchy.  Side changing was common and John FitzGilbert forsook Stephen and sided with Matilda.  During the fluctuating fortunes of both sides of the conflict, FitzGilbert gave his five year old fourth son, William, as a hostage to Stephen in pledge of his good behavior during a brokered truce. FitzGilbert broke the truce, using the peaceable time to resupply and strengthen his castle at Newbury.  This resulted in him being besieged in 1152 by Stephen who threatened to catapult his hostage, FitzGilbert’s son, over the castle walls.  The ruthless FitzGilbert famously declared that he had ‘the anvils and the hammer to forge still better sons’.  Stephen forbore to catapult young William or to fulfil his subsequent threat to hang the child, and so William survived to become ‘The Greatest Knight who ever lived’!

IMAGES SHOW: KING STEPHEN, LUDGERSHALL CASTLE, QUEEN MATILDA AND A CATAPULT SIMILAR TO THAT USED BY KING STEPHEN’S ARMY.

REFERENCES: MATILDA: HTTPS://WWW.GOOGLE.IE/SEARCH?Q=IMAGES+OF+QUEEN+MATILDA+OF+ENGLAND

STEPHEN: HTTPS://WWW.GOOGLE.IE/SEARCH?Q=IMAGES=OF=MEDIEVAL=KING+STEPHEN+OF+ENGLAND

LUDGERSHALL CASTLE: HTTP://WWW.PANORAMIO.COM/PHOTO/70756827

CATAPULT: HTTP://WWW.HISTORYNUGETS.COM/NUGGETS/2015/4/12/THE-SIEGE-OF-NEWBURY-CASTLE-1152

CROUCH, DAVID, ‘MARSHAL, WILLIAM (I)’ OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NATIOAL BIOGRAPHY. ED H.C.G. MATTHEW AND BRIAN HARRISON. OXFORD: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2004

ASBRIDGE, THOMAS, THE GREATEST KNIGHT. LONDON: SIMON & SCHUSTER UK LTD., 2015

PHELAN, MARGARET, M. ‘WILLIAM EARL MARSHAL (1144-1219)’, OLD KILKENNY REVIEW. N.S. VOL 2 NO 5 (1983)

As part of the brokered deal between Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster and Richard de Clare Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, de Clare was given MacMurrough’s daughter Aoife in marriage, and the succession of Leinster on MacMurrough’s death.  When they married, Richard was 45 and Aoife 25.

Medieval women,especially those of high rank,  were commonly used to forge and maintain political alliances.  Brought up to ‘know her place and do her duty’, Aoife bore two children, Gilbert who died in 1185, and Isabel who became 4th countess of Pembroke, heiress to large tracts of Wales and Ireland, and thus an extremely valuable commodity.  Isabel’s father died when she was just 4 years old and her mother eight years later.

No less than her mother, the orphaned Isabel was an extremely valuable pawn in a patriarchal world and as such she was made a ward of King Richard I who rewarded his loyal servant, William Marshal, with her hand in marriage and along with her came all her wealth and estates.  

It seems that Isabel and William’s relationship may have been a good and respectful one.  When recalled from Leinster by King John, William gathered his nobles at Kilkenny Castle and hand in hand with his pregnant wife, called upon them to stand firmly by her, and protect her and their lands of Leinster, declaring that Isabel was ‘their lady by birth’ thus deserving of their protection, and that he had ‘nothing but through her’.

The cynic, or the realist , might see this as a shrewd political move.  Nonetheless during their marriage they had ten children and while William was away Isabel successfully defended Kilkenny from attack in 1208 by Meiler FitzHenry, who she managed to capture, and with whom she negotiated a truce which involved him giving up hostages as a pledge for his good behavior.

Isabel proves the old adage that behind every powerful man there is a great woman and in William’s case, one without whom the Marshal could never have become Kilkenny’s ‘Greatest Knight Who Ever lived’.

References:

Images show: The Marriage of Aoife and Strongbow:  http://www.nationalgallery.ie/en/Conservation/Featured_Projects/Strongbow_and_Aoife/The_Painting/Historical%20Event.aspx

The Marriage of Isabel and William Marshal: http://www.rostapestry.com

Kilkenny Castle: http://www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/a-very-brief-history-of-medieval-kilkenny-in-pictures

Asbridge, Thomas, The Greatest Knight. London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., 2015

Crouch, David “Marshal, William (I)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. p. 822.

Phelan, Margaret, M. “William Earl Marxhal (1144 – 1219)”, Old Kilkenny Review. N.S. Vol 2 No. 5 (1983)

William Marshal was largely responsible for the shape of Kilkenny as we know it today. From his arrival in 1207 to his leaving in 1213, William Marshal set about transforming Kilkenny into the seat of the Lordship of Leinster.

His foundation of the port of New Ross was key to the success of Kilkenny as being situated at the meeting point of the Barrow and the Nore, the port facilitated the access of imported commodities directly to Kilkenny via the navigable Nore. 

In 1207 he issued a charter confirming the burgesses of Kilkenny in their freedoms and valuable privileges which protected and empowered them, by fixing their rent, confirming tax exemptions, and allowing them to institute and control their own weekly court, the Hundred Court, thus facilitating the economic growth of Kilkenny.

William Marshal replaced the wooden castle with a stone quadrangle castle, and to extend the size of the town he acquired the land between James’ Street and the Breaghagh River from the Bishop, Hugh de Rous, thereby making High Street his thoroughfare from the Castle to St. Canice’s Cathedral.  He endowed St. John’s Abbey,   known as ‘The Lantern of Ireland’ due to the numerous tall Gothic windows glowing with candlelight, and his sons, William and Richard, endowed the Black Abbey and St. Francis’ Abbey respectively.  Outside in the hinterland, William Marshal endowed the Abbey at Graiguenamanagh and the Priory at Kells.

William Marshal’s patronage facilitated the development of Kilkenny into a thriving and prosperous town of wealthy merchants, with tenants, artisans, and servants making up a population in the mid-13th century of 2,500 to 4,000 people.  The foundations of the city we know today were laid by William Marshal, The Greatest Knight Who ever Lived.

References:

Images show: William Marshal The Flower of Chivalry from the Ross Tapestry.

http://www.rostapestry.com/panel_7_william_marshall.htm

The Thriving Port of New Ross  http://www.rostapestry.com/panel_13_thriving_port.htm

St. John’s Abbey  http://www.historickilkenny.com/#!st.-john%275-abbey/zoom/c1pwt/dataltem-ihscqn0x2

William Marshal’s Effigy   http://www.gethistory.co.uk/historical-period/medieval/normans-beyond/william-marshal-the-story-of-a-remarkable-man

Asbridge, Thomas, The Greatest Knight (London: Simon & SSchuster UK Ltd., 2015)

Bradley, John, ‘Kilkenny’, in Irish Historic Towns Atlas vol II. (Bray: Royal Irish Academy, 2005)

Crouch, David ‘Marshal, William (I)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Ed H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) p. 822

Phelan, Margaret, M. ‘William Earl Marshal (1144 – 1219)’, in Old Kilkenny Review, N.S. Vol II No. 5 (1983)

Lady Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was considered extremely beautiful and became known as The Rose of Raby.  She has a reputation for piety and was found buried with a Papal Indulgence which, it was believed, would secure her place in heaven.  But, was she really such a paragon of piety? A more worldly woman than Cecily would be hard to find, so how does her worldliness reconcile with her alleged piety and how did she come by the Papal Indulgence?

The basis of her piety seems to stem from a detailed description of her daily routine which was almost monastic in its religious observance.  This description can be found in ‘Orders and Rules of the House of the Princess Cecil, Mother of King Edward IV’, and appears to have been written for a third party. ‘Me semeth yt is requisyte to understand the order of her owne person, concerninge God and the worlde’.  Read in conjunction with her Will, it may be possible to discern some clues in answer to the above question.

Cecily was an enormously worldly woman.  Cecily’s mother maintained a library, and the circumstances of her birth ensured that Cecily was born into a life of education, wealth and high political power.  She was the granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, and the daughter of Ralph Neville, Ist Earl of Westmorland and his wife Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland.  Cecily was the mother of both Edward IV and Richard III, and aunt to one of the most powerful magnates of the realm, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as Warwick the King Maker.  Cecily was notoriously extravagant, fond of luxury and wealthy in her own right.  At one point she spent over £608 on a single set of crimson velvet robes lined with ermine and embroidered with over 300 pearls.

Cecily was to be found at the centre of political life.  Having been captured by Lancastrian troops in 1459 after the battle of Ludford Bridge, she threw herself on the mercy of Henry VI, and pleading successfully for herself and her people, she was released into the custody of her sister in London.  In September 1460 she left London to meet her husband, Richard Duke of York, on his return from Ireland.  The pomp and ceremony attending this re-union perhaps reflects Richard’s aspirations to the throne.  When widowed, Cecily sent her youngest son to the court of the Duke of Burgundy for safety, thus galvanising the Duke’s support.  It is interesting that Cecily herself remained in London even though Margaret of Anjou had just won the battle of St. Albans in February 1461.  The fact that she did not flee leads one to surmise that she may have been aware that the situation was about to change, as indeed it did when her son Edwardand her Nephew Warwick were welcomed back to London, and Edward was crowned King in June 1461.

As Queen mother Cecily had prodigious influence and power, and as Rowena Archer notes, women of her class were ‘workmanlike, and active, increasingly literate, and familiar with the workings of the law’.  In 1469 Cecily tried to persuade her son George and her nephew Warwick not rise against Edward IV, and in 1470 she tried to reconcile Edward and George at her home at Baynards Castle.  When Edward died in 1483 he named his brother Richard as Protector, and his sons, also Edward and Richard, were lodged int he Tower of London ostensibly for their protection.  Simultaneously rumours began regarding the legitimacy of Edward IV’s birth.  Although Cecily complained loudly of the injury done her in the matter, her son Richard’s campaign to take the crown was launched from her house.  One could therefore speculate  as to the extent of her involvement in that campaign, and as to her knowledge of the fate of the Princes in the Tower.  

In the eyes of the Church, Cecily could have been considered guilty of the sins of pride, gluttony, wrath and possibly adultery.  Perhaps she felt the need of a little help in securing her place in heaven.

It seems that the aforementioned description of her daily schedule may have been the testimonial which secured the Papal Indulgence.  It was written in English which suggests it may have been written by a lay person who did not have Latin, and it is not unreasonable to surmise that it may have been written by her steward Richard Lassey.  But, why would he write such a testimonial?  The answer could perhaps lie in the fact that Lassey was involved in the Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, a rising against Cecily’s grandson-in-law, Henry VII.  The fine required to pay for his pardon in relation to the Conspiracy amounted to the enormous sum of £200.  As Cecily’s Will provides specifically for the funding of Lassey’s fine, it seems that he was indebted to her.

Given her worldliness, it seems improbable that Cecily was as pious as her daily schedule suggests.  It seems quite probable however, that being indebted to Cecily, Lassey wrote the description of her daily schedule specifically in order to provide a testimonial required to procure a Papal Indulgence thus ensuring Cecily’s place in heaven.

Thus it is possible that Cecily’s life may not have been quite as pious as history has led us to believe and that her reputation for piety has been gained by thoroughly worldly means.

References Images:

Lady Cecily:  https://www.pinterest.com/tudorqueen6/cecily-neville-duchess-of-york/

Edward IV:  http://www.historicalportraits.com/Gallery.asp?Page=Item&ItemID=1128&Desc=King-Edward-IV-%7C-Renold-Elstrack,-or-after

Richard III:  http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/facevoice.html

Princes in Tower:  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/genetics/article3678271.ece

Baynards Castle:  http://www.britania.com/history/londonhistory/lon-pal2.html

Literary References:

Amt, Emily, Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe: A Source Book, ed. by Emily Amt (New York: Routledge, 1993) pp. 1-9 (p. 7)

Archer, Rowena E, ‘Piety in Question: Noblewomen and Religion in the Later Middle Ages’, in Women and Religion in Medieval England, ed. by Diana Wood (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2003) pp. 118-140 (p. 119, 125)

Church of England. Province of Canterbury Prerogative Court, Wills from Doctors’ Commons: A Selection from the Wills of Eminent Persons, ed. by John Gough Nichols and John Bruce (London: John Bowyer Nichols and Sons, 1863) pp. 1-9 (p. 1, 2, 4, 5)

H. C. G. Matthew and Biran Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004), vol 10, pp. 798-799 (p. 798, 799).

‘Orders and Rules of the House of the Princess Cecil, Mother of King Edward IV’, in A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household Made in Divers Reigns. From King Edward II to King William and Queen Mary.  Also receipts in Ancient Cookery (London: John Nichols, 1790) pp.  36-39 (p. 37)

susandhigginbotham.blogspot.ie/2010/07/will-of-cecily-duchess-of-york.html  [accessed 18.10.12]