The Trust On…
The Yorkist History Trust at Leeds International Medieval Congress 2025
Continuing our Ruby Anniversary celebrations, on Tuesday 8th July the Yorkist History Trust sponsored a day of fascinating papers at Leeds International Medieval Congress. Under the very broad heading of “the Wars of the Roses”, scholars from a range of career stages and disciplines gathered to ensure that fifteenth-century studies were richly represented. Laura Rosenheim opened the first session – ‘Stories of the Death of Princes’ – with discussion of Thomas of Woodstock’s reburials at Westminster Abbey and what these might tell us about Richard II’s and Henry IV’s attitudes to cadet branches of the royal family. Gabriella Williams then demonstrated the evolution of rumours about the death of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, suggesting that members of his household contributed to speculations of murder that were sensationalised by Continental authors whose tales were later imported back into English chronicles. Finally, Joanna Laynesmith examined two royal genealogical rolls which, unusually, omit the reign of Edward V from England’s story.
Session two considered the more immediate consequences of fifteenth-century warfare, starting with Gordon McKelvie’s assessment of the principles behind ‘Victors’ Justice’, from the consequences of outrage over the earl of Salisbury’s execution to the unprecedented post battle executions at Tewkesbury. Julie Bungey used Christine de Pisan’s advice to widows as a framework for considering the fates of noble war widows in this period. Then, moving back to those suffering on the field, Tig Lang unpacked the practical and ideological implications of the complicated ingredients of John Bradmore’s Potus Magistralis – a wound potion with more than a hundred ingredients.
After lunch, Virginia Bainbridge drew on her YHT funded research into patrons of Syon Abbey in considering Yorkist support for Oxbridge foundations: members of London’s mercantile elite proved keen to follow royal fashion in their generosity to these educational establishments. Antony Musson took the session’s theme of devotion and identity a few decades further on as he revealed the rivalry between early Tudor royal chapels, including a ‘sing-off’ between Henry VIII’s and Wolsey’s chapels as well as complaints from King’s College about Lady Margaret Beaufort poaching their choristers. Weiliang Xu completed the session with the multiple layers of purpose and meaning in the exquisite microarchitecture of the 6-metre-high font cover at Ufford Church (Suff.).
The final session focused on documentary culture and memory, beginning with Adele Ryan Sykes’s explanation of London’s 1370s revolutionary Jubilee Book of laws and customs, and how that shaped the more lasting culture of the 1419 Liber Albus. Staying in London, Richard Asquith outlined the processes and purposes of parishes and companies of late medieval London who kept copies of wills and testaments, arguing that these were ‘living’ documents that had afterlives long after they were composed. Finally, Nicholas Babich focussed on a Yorkshire manuscript, the work of Robert Thornton, and specifically his intriguing glosses to the popular devotional poem Erthe.
The Yorkist History Trust’s contributions to the IMC concluded with a well-attended wine reception at which the refreshments included a splendid Ruby Anniversary cake.
By Joanna Laynesmith