The Trust is currently undertaking a range of exciting projects relating to the later Middle Ages. Find out more about each one by clicking on the titles below.
The trustees of the Yorkist History Trust have begun a project to produce a series of translations of contemporary Latin chronicles of the Wars of the Roses. These will be published in parallel with the Latin originals in affordable volumes, accessible to students as well as experienced scholars.
Transcription of a the last will and testament of Sir Ralph Verney (d.1478), followed by the accounts submitted by his executor, Henry Danvers, to the Court of Chancery, and the related Chancery petitions. Prefaced by a critical introduction to the creation and preservation of the accounts as well as the methodological and historiographical issues.
A study that draws together both English and European archival material to investigate the life and career of Robert Fabyan (d.c.1512), chronicler and alderman of London.
The riches of the important archive of the English Hospice in Rome, which welcomed English travellers when staying in that city, while not unknown, have yet to be fully explored. This project will cover the Libri and the series of deeds that remain in the hospice, as well as documents preserved in English archives, revealing much on Englishmen and women who stayed there in the late Middle Ages. Of particular note are the daily accounts for the period 1479 to 1484 with the names of pilgrims who stayed at the hospice.
The purpose of this project is to transcribe, edit, and translate, the diplomatic letters, letters of credence and letters of instruction sent between the English and Burgundian courts in the Yorkist period (1461-85). Largely, these letters were sent by, or on behalf of: Edward IV; Charles the Bold; Margaret of York; Maximilian of Austria and Mary of Burgundy. However, some letters written by Burgundian diplomats (like George Baert) also survive. The volume will take a wider view of Anglo-Burgundian relations and intends to include sources relevant to political, commercial, social and cultural relations between England and Burgundy. The transcriptions of these important documents will be accompanied a facing English translation and full explanatory notes.
The London Journals contain brief minutes of the meetings of the City’s Common Council and Court of Aldermen. A complete text of the journals for 1483-85 will add greatly to our knowledge of the reign of Richard III and the lead up to and immediate aftermath of the battle of Bosworth.
The common law is one of the great under-explored areas for the study of late medieval England. But problems of language and interpretation means it has been comparatively neglected, especially for the later fifteenth century. The project aims to open up and further study of a crucial aspect of royal government and politics for a turbulent decade by calendaring the indictments of the Court of King’s Bench (The National Archives series KB 9), the senior criminal court in England. They detail the jurors, the victims, the perpetrators, and the crime committed. The chronological spread of the calendar will allow some comparison to be made of Richard’s reign with the last years of Edward IV and the first few of Henry VII between 1480 and 1490.
The so-called ‘Smithfield tournament’ of May and June 1467 between Anthony Woodville and the Bastard of Burgundy was the most spectacular chivalric event of Edward IV’s reign. This volume will include detailed description of this event that includes the political context, biographies of those involved, and an edition of the surviving English, French, Dutch and Latin accounts of this event, with translations where needed. On the basis of all these documents the whole story will be told, focussing in particular on the report of a Burgundian visitor who accompanied the Bastard and who provides fascinating and entertaining pictures of the practical and social aspects of this state visit, such as details of dress, the Burgundian guest’s brief visit to the deposed Henry VI in prison, secret meetings with the king, an ironic description of Anthony Woodville’s efforts to impress with his many coats of arms, the visitors’ witnessing the opening of Parliament, the mutual showing-off of the two combatants, a description of the banquet held at Grocers’ Hall, where the all-male overseas company finally ‘saw the ladies’ (all listed by name by Anthony Woodville’s wife herself), a tennis match in which King Edward and the Bastard lost their money.
Jan Gossaert, Portrait of a Man, possibly Jan Snoeck, c. 1530, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
