Swan Song to the 14th Century

Dunstable swan

Wife of Bath &A Decidedly Unreligious Carol

AlisounFive husbands - Jankyn

Kyrie Aleyson or Jolly Jankin

Kyrie, so kyrie,Jankin sings merrily,with Alison.

As I went on Christmas dayin our procession,I knew jolly Jankinby his merry voice.Kyrie eleison.

Jankin began the Serviceon Christmas day,and yet it seems to me it does me goodso merrily he began to say,'Kyrie eleison'.

Jankin read the Epistlevery pleasingly and well,and yet it seems to me it does me goodas for ever I gain eternal reward,Kyrie eleison.

Jankin at the Agnuscarries the pax-board:he winked but said nothing,and on my foot he trod,Kyrie eleison.

Let us bless the Lord,Christ shield me from shame,thanks be to God as well -alas! I am with child,Kyrie eleison.

Pax Brede (pax board)

Art of 14th Century EnglandInternational Gothic

Italian InfluencesPortraits

International Gothic

• Disputed term• Characteristics ascribed– Stylized forms, refinement, prettiness, restrained

vitality, decorative fantasy, and sumptuous color• Combines Italian naturalism, Flemish realism

and French courtly art

Giotto and Approach to Perspective

• Use of color to emphasize foreground and background

• Less realistic in depicting supernatural events

Giottio St. Francis Trial by Fire, Bardi Chapel

Giotto St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata Bardi Chapel

Psalter of Robert de Lisle, 1310-20 Crucifixion Gorleston psalter

St. Omer Psalter Last Judgment

Egerton Genesis Feast of Jacob Giotto Last Supper Padua

Egerton Genesis3rd Q., 14th C.Babel

Egerton GenesisWeaving

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Byward Tower, Tower of London

Richard II

• 1390s

‘he liked to sit ostentatiously from after dinner until vespers, talking to no one but watching everyone; and when his eye fell on anyone, regardless of rank, that person had to bend his knee towards the king ...'

Wilton Diptych 1395-99Richard II presented to the Virgin and Child by St. John the Baptist,Saints Edward the Confessor and Edmund

Orb on Banner

Wilton diptych, side panels

Richard II – Treasure Roll

• Compiled for Henry IV to list jewels and plate of Richard and his queens

• 1206 entries• 28 meters long• Includes many objects

taken in 1397

Only surviving crown of 11 listed

Richard in Wilton Diptych

Image of St. Michael

• Painting of similar image to one given by Charles VI to Richard

• Version pawned by Charles to his brother-in-law and not returned

• Disappeared in 1801 during Napoleonic occupation of Bavaria

Richard’s Courtiers

They were "knights of Venus rather than knights of Bellona, more valiant in the bedchamber than on the field of war, armed with words instead of weapons...” Walsingham

On King Richard’s Ministers

Ther is a busch that is forgrowe;Crop hit welle, and hold hit lowe,Or elles hit wolle be wilde.

Extravagances of Richard IIRoyal Palace at Sheen

1384 and 1388 • 2,000 painted tiles "for the King's bath,"

large bronze taps for hot and cold water, • Fireplaces and personal latrines in all rooms

Personal dress and invention of Richard II

1388 Order for [A First]“small pieces of linen made to be given to the lord king for blowing and covering his nose.”

• Tunic of pearls, other precious stones and gold• "hanselyn" embroidered with leeches, water, and

rocks and embellished with fifteen whelks and fifteen mussels of silver gilt, and fifteen cockles of white silver. The doublet...was embroidered with gold orange trees...and adorned with 100 oranges of silver gilt, weighing 2 1b. 1/2 oz. Troy

VideoThe Deposition of Richard II

Professor Jennifer PaxtonThe people, "by ancient statute and recent precedent,” had a remedy for royal wrongs.

Duke of Gloucester

Impeachment of Michael de la Pole

• High crimes– Dereliction of duties– Loss of Ghent

• High misdemeanors– Obtaining benefits from office– Misappropriating funds

Not guilty because he did not bear sole responsibility

Guilty

Letters of Henry

• Before capture of Richard – 21 Richard II

• After capture– 1399

• After receiving the crown– 1 Henry IV

Conviction of Household Personnel

• 1388• Appellants accuse Brembre,

Pole, de Vere and Neville of treason

• Brembre found not guilty but then charged with concealment

• Chief Justice Tresilian dragged from Westminster Abbey and killed

Froissart Chronicles

1387 Richard; Ten Questions

Supremacy of the monarch or of the law?9. How should the man be punished who had moved in the 1386 parliament to "send for the statute by which King Edward [II] . . . had been adjudged in parliament?" The justices answered that this man and the one

"who, under pretext of this motion, had brought that statute to parliament" should be punished "as traitors and criminals."

Answers

• No minister could be impeached without the crown's agreement

• It was treasonous to limit the royal power. • Only the king could choose ministers• The King called and dissolved parliament at his

will and determined its business.

Exeter and Salisbury meet HenryBritish Library Harley 1319

Earl of Northumberland received by Richard at Conway

Northumberland swearing an oath on the sacred host that Richard would remain king

Richard II, disguised in a priest's cowl meets soldiers of the Earl of Northumberland at Conway

Richard and Henry at Flint Castle

Richard delivered to the citizens of London

Henry before Parliament to claim the crown

Accusations against Richard

• Distributing possessions of the Crown to unworthy persons

• Maintained a bodyguard of unruly and violent Cheshiremen and ‘surrounded the parliament with a great number of armed men and archers whom he had gathered there for the purpose of overawing the people

Accusations against Richard

• Interference in local elections• Failure to respect property rights• Inconsistent behavior leading to loss of trust• Seeking papal approval for his actions• ‘He dissipated it [parliamentary grants

normally only given in time of war] prodigiously upon the ostentation, pomp and vainglory of his own person’

Accusations against Richard

• Allowed accusations by the ‘young, strong and healthy’ against the ‘aged, impotent, lame or infirm’ to be brought before the Court of Chivalry where the only defense was by arms

‘Chaucer’ Astrolabe

Have a Merry Holiday