Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Mackie On The Young Henry Tudor: What A King Might Need

Having marked out his borders, J.D. Mackie begins to plow anew with a single row. The Battle of Bosworth saw the death of Richard III and for Henry on the field of battle, "... by virtue of the crown which was found under a hawthorn and placed upon his head, and by the acclamations of the soldiery" Henry in fact became King. This could be so because it was violent, and on the battlefield and by proclamation of the assembled men who wanted it thus. This was at all made possible, Mackie agrees with Bacon here, because Henry proved or could prove three traditional titles of the monarchy. He had a dynastic claim. Muted, but it was there. He also had support from the rival house. In light of the long-term civil war, this could remain tenuous but was necessary. He also needed enough force - of sword or conquest -  to make it happen, as at Bosworth, and to maintain such rule. [p.46]

Henry could do all three and with a personality. There were problems with his heritage. Through it all again and again his mother played a decisive role. He had a very uncertain childhood, born two months after the death of his father, Edmund duke of Richmond. The boy was raised by his uncle Jasper Tudor in Wales and then in Brittany. His very young mother, Margaret of Beaufort, after a difficult childbirth was married off again three months after baby Henry and just before she was whisked off with her new husband.

Henry was captured as a baby with the fall of Harlech castle in 1468, but was smuggled to Brittany, by his uncle Jasper in 1470. The year after that Edward IV beat the last remaining of the Lancastrian line. Margaret's husband died fighting for the Yorkist cause. When Edward entered London again, Henry VI died and Edward was crowned king for the second time. In the following years, Margaret grew closer and closer to the King's wife, the very powerful and influential Elizabeth Woodville. When Edward suddenly died, Elizabeth began, among other things, casting about for suitors for her many daughters.

On Christmas Day, 1483, the year that Edward died and Richard then presumed to lead, Henry and a group of English men went into Rennes Cathedral and pledged loyalty to each other. On that occasion Henry himself agreed to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of the late King Edward. This was the product, Mackie tells us, of a collapsed conspiracy amongst some Lancastrian friends and even Yorkist allies and Elizabeth Woodville, enjoined to wrest control from Richard.

Richard demanded Henry's surrender. Henry escaped to Anjou in the next year. One of Henry's allies was Lord Stanley the husband of his mother, Margaret of Beaufort. She had helped carry the train of Queen Anne Neville's dress, during the coronation, as a lady in waiting to Richard's Queen. Lord Stanley his mother assured him would be loyal, but he knew he needed more men.

By 1485, the forces were lining up, more and more old Yorkist names went to the young Tudor. On the day of Bosworth it was the younger brother of  Lord Stanley, William Stanley's men who were crucial in the fight, repulsing the attack by Richard's forces, and the same William Stanley who placed the crown on Henry's head. From this moment we are told, Henry began acting like a king. He began returning slowly to London calling on his friends and his perceived enemies, inviting them all to his coronation when he should arrive. There were certain men that gathered around him quickly in these late summer months. In time, many would become central figures in his new administration.

Henry was the representative of Lancaster, he wore the red rose. But he knew he would have to marry Elizabeth of York of the white rose, the nineteen year old daughter of Edward and Elizabeth. Still, it took not six months to secure the bond with the rival house of York of the white rose. After a petition from the commons on December 10, 1485, delivered to parliament, Henry agreed to marry Elizabeth, the daughter of former King Edward IV, and niece to the Yorkist King that Henry had just met on the battlefield and dethroned. Not a mere formality, this marriage would require a dispensation from the pope in Rome. This assent from the far away see of Rome would further cement Henry's claims as rightful sovereign.

The marriage with Elizabeth in January of 1486 united the York and Lancaster lines. Along with his dynastic claim, he now only had to maintain enough force to keep the three titles of the monarchy together. There was a conspiracy led by John de la Pole, the earl of Lincoln against Henry that began that year. But Henry and his men met them on the field the next summer at the Battle of Stokes and beat them. There would be ten more years of minor uprisings and attempted usurpers. Henry would manage to put them all down and thus maintained his rule.

Jasper Tudor died 26 December, 1495.

Elizabeth of York died after childbirth in 1503. She was the mother of Henry VIII.

Lord Stanley died in 1504 and was buried with his family at Burscough Priory in Lancashire. All that is left of that are a few ruins.

Margaret of Beaufort, taking a vow of chastity would retire in 1499 to the Palace rebuilt for her in Collyweston, Northamptonshire, on the road from Stamford to Ketterring, west of Peterborough. She died in 1509, just two months after Henry VII.

Architectural Survey of Parish Church of St Andrews and  what little remains of the  'Palace' in Collyweston, Northamptonshire which was torn down in 1640.
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notes from pp. 46-76 in J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
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Saturday, December 26, 2015

noted news December, 2015

There were a pair of mass shootings that seems to have sucked most of the air out of the media room in this month of December. One was the lone white guy in Colorado who shot up a health clinic because he'd been misled into thinking they sold dissected baby parts for money there. Three were killed, including a police officer while five more police and four civilians were wounded. The 57 year old suspect wanted to represent himself in the trial but prosecution has been delayed until mental tests can be performed to ascertain his competency. Instead of many worthwhile discussions, this cartoon seems to sum up the popular mood.
It's outrageous that a country as prosperous as the US has to suffer such indignities because of greed and how easily fear sells in the media. From mindless tragedy to worse, a few days later, on December 2nd, a man and a woman began firing at an holiday office party in San Bernardino, California. These two novice terrorists wanted to be in touch with extremist radical terrorists of the Daesh variety but probably failed to. They did amass a huge quantity of guns, ammo and explosives and killed fourteen people, wounding twenty-two more.

Then there were at least nineteen negative reactions within a week by likely xenophobes.
By the time the second week of December was finished there were many such destructive hate crimes as reported by the New York Times.
But it turns out that the terrorist org in Nigeria called Boko Haram is also getting called more deadly than Daesh. The Int'l Business Times even gives up statistics.
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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has announced a one quarter of a one percent rise in their benchmark interest rate. The economic world has been readying for this for ten years.

Minority Leader Rep Nancy Pelosi has made it clear to new US House Speaker Paul Ryan that he needs the Democrats if the House wants to do anything after passing the omnibus spending bill this month.

The State of California has decided to consider treating drug abuse as a medical condition for low-income residents.

Snapshot of shopping in Venzuela from npr.

Cool audio piece (5 min) on electric car sharing in Paris from npr.
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The month was full of protests in Minneapolis following the marked lack of communication on the part of law enforcement - why do people keep getting shot? - after the killing of Jamar Clark back in November. Many encampments have been upturned, protests quashed , lives and commerce disrupted. But the #BlackLivesMatter movement have taken up this case as their own and Minneapolis has responded in actions last month and again all this month. This included blocking off a terminal at the airport and also the trains to the huge Mall of America. This is where things were Xmas Eve.
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It's been an unusually warm December in the US with rare tornadoes and a cool summer in Argentina. Christmas Day saw the worst pollution in Beijing.

Though there was the climate deal in Paris this month.
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Mt Momotombo in Nicaragua blew for the first time in a century on December 4th.
Also early in December, Mt Aetna, Sicily blew up.
Meanwhile closest images from Ceres have made it back to Earth.

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Friday, December 25, 2015

Florence Creates Great Council To Re-establish Stability: December 1494

In Florence, the day after the French army left the city, the Thirty-Seven who sat as a temporary council, decided that in two days, a Parlemento should be called. So, on December 2, 1494, as many as two-thirds of all voting-age citizens were called to converge on the Palazzo in order to vote up or down, by audible assent, a number of measures drafted. Then, two days before Christmas, another body elected to establish a much larger Great Council which would rule Florence until the fall of 1512.

The Parlemento itself was a traditional means used in times of crisis to correct for uncertainties and instabilities in Republican Florence. The crisis was deep and the way through it had seemed impossible. But with a few probing questions the very temporary central councils thought they could plumb the will of the people, and thus, set a course for a future government. The city had just suffered a coup in the loss of the Medicean powers, the consequent invasion of the French army had set everyone aback, and back out onto the streets, and all this in just a month. What better way to find out what people thought than to ask as many of the age-appropriate male citizens what they thought, en masse?

There must have been thousands thronged there if at all possible.

The questions posed to the gathered crowd got right to the point. As Lauro Martines tells it. First, any laws in opposition to what was about to be established, were null and void. Next, any leagl or executive councils of the Medici regime were abolished. Further, all exiles and their descendents since 1434 would be allowed to return to Florence. Lastly a special commission of Twenty would be established. The purpose of this group would be to pick the next Signoria, other top officials and to reshape public authority. All this was agreed to by the Florentine crowd. [p.62]

This group of Twenty were prominent oligarchs, people with connections, families, wealth, means and goals. Five of them it was said were Medici supporters who had found a way that could most please the greatest majorities.  Some protested afterward about these before the Signoria and were shouted out. For three weeks this group of Twenty and the Signoria proposed, discussed, argued and cajoled their way to another set of resolutions.

As these intense discussions continued it became clear that the people would only abide some form of mass representation. The idea of  a Great Council like that found in Venice, would be formed in Florence. But in Florence, it instead would also include artisans, shopkeepers, merchants, small-time attorneys and the once-famous named but recently humbly-made adults. The old landed aristoctrats may not be happy about the new arrangements, but, it was reasoned, the tide was too high. The oligarchs at that time could not turn back the intensity of the people's wishes with anything less than direct representation. It did not help that there were so many armed people roaming the streets. Martines says the ambassador from Ferrara, Manfredo de' Manfredi in a letter dated 20 December seemed alarmed at all the armed men and mercenaries in the government palace, in private parties and the continuing recruitments of more of the same. [p. 63]

By December 23, a new Great Council was decided on which would draw from the entire citizenry of adult males eligible for office, some 3500 people. These would elect new office holders and pass new legislation. This body would be divided into three parts and each member would hold office for only six months. Two-thirds of this huge body would constitute a quorum but, it was the Priors of the Signoria who would convene the Council and introduce new legislature. This body would rule in Florence for the next eighteen years and until the de'Medici returned to power. [p.64]

All through November until past Christmas, Friar Savonarola preached his Advent sermons at San Marco. It must have seemed that the city hung on his every word.

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notes from pp. 62-64 in Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006
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Friday, December 18, 2015

old notes: printing old books, memory & new ideas; June 2007

June 27, 2007
mention of printing in The House of the Medici in the late 15th cent. in comparison to the costliness and quality of handwritten books. In the flood of new handwritten luxury items that were bought, sold, traded, dedicated and disseminated, these items were coveted by the descriminating well-to-do. [p. 169]

copyists at monasteries, convents, abbeys and colleges continued everywhere at their labors. Presses began running in Naples in 1465. This was followed by Rome in 1467, Venice and Milan in 1469, Verona, Paris and Nuremburg in 1470, William Caxton at Westminster Abbey in 1476 and Florence in 1477. ~ from The Rise and Fall of The Medieval Monastery.

Frances A Yates unwinds a bit more of the tale with respect to memory and its uses in The Art of Memory. This twentieth century classic gathers up and recounts the progress of the various threads of the transmission of memory techniques from ancient times to the enlightenment period. As late as 1482, one Oratoriae Artis Epitome by Jacopus Publicius could be published at Venice. It did so well it's 2nd edition came in 1485. But this book was known years before it was printed. An English monk, Thomas Swatwell, probably in Durham, Yates tells us, made a beautiful version of that text with illustrations, and which now sits in the British Museum. [see page 111 in above link to Yates' book on pdf]. 

Still earlier, Poggio Bracciolini had found classical counterparts in Quintillian, and as early as 1416. By the 1480's the idea had caught on that, if you possessed a skill that could be learned and which might improve your station in life, then you could be better off by learning that skill. This too had to be learned, whether by peasant, guildsman, burgher or, all too commonly, the poorer nobleman from a good line. If memory itself could be mastered then there might be no limit to the skills one could excel in. So the theory went and this seemed a new idea, again. But as with many things called new there were also different opinions, different sources, and different receptions.

Yates reminds us this 'first published treatise' on memory printed in 1482 reflected past images and techniques, forms that we would see as 'medieval'. The Oratoriae Artis Epitome of Jacopus Publicius of 1482 used a picturesque symbol, of one's own imagination, to trigger or conjure memories as distinct as abstract nouns like virtues and vices.  
"Far from introducing us to a modern world of revived classical rhetoric, Publicius' memory section seems rather to transport us back into a Dantesque world in which Hell, Purgatory and Paradise are remembered on the spheres of the universe, a Giottoesque world with its sharpened expressiveness of virtue and vice memory figures .... In short, this first printed memory treatise is not a symptom of the revival of the classical art of memory as part of the Renaissance revival of rhetoric; it comes straight out of the mediaeval tradition." [pp. 110-1]
This story of the publishing of Publicius and his memory methods, is set before the continuing story told in Yates of the textual transmission of Quintillian. This was found by Braccioloini and given its first edition in 1470, with multiple editions thereafter. But the Quintillian method would be soon contrasted with and found more popular than the more traditional methods found in Ad Herenniam and De Inventione. These had long been the source for clerical luminaries like Aquinas, & Albertus Magnus and while, ascribed to 'Tullius' were studied as basic necessity for any student of rhetoric in the medieval and rennaissance periods.

There followed another subsequent famous teacher of rhetoric, Peter Tommai of Ravenna who published in 1491 (also in Venice) his version of the Quintillian method. This also found multiple editions and lived for several audiences well into the seventeenth century. But it was the wide dissemination of his text, coupled with his advocacy of its methods, and his application of making rhetoric and these mnemonic methods practical for lay users, that made his edition so poular.  Rather than anything really new about the methods, based on Quintillian, Yates says, it was the author selling them tirelessly that allowed them to spread so widely and thus sustain their popularity. 

Jacob Burckhardt saw the trend as coming earlier. Even with regard to books of the ancient world, it was their dissemination that became the real impetus.
"Great as was the influence of the old writers on the Italian mind in the fourteenth century and before, yet that influence was due rather to the wide diffusion of what had long been known, than to the discovery of much that was new." [Civilisation of the Renaissance In Italy, iii, 3; p. 145]
Books as luxury items had become a trend for the upper classes. That in turn gave birth to the search for them and of their acquisition by more and more people over time, and only then, the basic assimilation of the ideas found in them could take flight.

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