The great #medieval fair at #Stourbridge outside #Cambridge (https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-800-year-old-story-of-stourbridge-fair) was commemorated last weekend at the #LeperChapel with dancing, singing, storytelling & craft stalls.

The #14thCentury accounts of the #LadyOfClare record purchases there over the years: salt, often; also furs & lambskins; smoked herring, cod & stockfish; rice & almonds. #Almonds were bought in great quantity, used by the pastry chef from Paris & to indulge the pet #parrots.

@medievodons @histodons

In 2020 we published a 2nd edition of the definitive biography of the #LadyOfClare - & then we learned more about the evolution of her heraldic & visual identity. New insights came from archaeology, from archives, & from drawing & carving which brought details from hands to eyes. Two books now available @ClareCollege: booksites https://barnes1.net/FHGE/ & https://barnes1.net/seal/

#medieval #biography #14thCentury #NewBook #SealMatrix #WaxSeal #stonecarving #craftsmanship @medievodons @histodons

@RobertBigg Glad you like it! Close engagement with the seal design proved very rewarding. Once we were hands-on, #drawing & #carving brought recognition & enhanced appreciation of many small details. (It's embarrassing how much I overlooked when just looking.) Also fun that over the 3years between the new edition of the biography & the seal booklet, we learned more from both #archaeology & #archives.

#medieval #SealMatrix #LadyOfClare #ClareCollege #CambridgeUniversity

Lida the alphabetician spoke of choices in #lettering. Roxanne noted the architectural parallels with #Ely, demonstrated the #GothicSway, & explained other challenges for #stonecarving. And then the unveiling!
📹 35min in total, https://stories.clare.cam.ac.uk/unveiling-of-lady-clares-seal/

#LadyOfClare #SealSculpture #stonecarving #CardozoKindersley #ClareCollege #Cambridge

The seal, first used in 1359, is "an extraordinary depiction of female vision, & female faith in the importance of education, & a woman's power & ability to accomplish that vision... We have one of the world's greatest stonecutters a mile up the road, who also happens to be a woman."
Informative & entertaining talks by Jackie Tasioulas, & Lida & Roxanne Kindersley, preceded the unveiling of the sculpture, & are online at https://stories.clare.cam.ac.uk/unveiling-of-lady-clares-seal/
#LadyOfClare #StoneCarving #ClareCollege

The skill of the medieval silversmith & the modern stonecarvers was celebrated in a third medium with our project mementos! These were made by Cameron Newham FSA, using photogrammetry, 3D-printing, & handpainting. Tiny medieval treasures & large stone sculptures are both hard to move: these small replicas are a delight!

#LadyOfClare #14thCentury #SilverMatrix #WaxSeal #ClareCollege #heritage #photogrammetry #3Dprinting #resin #craftsmanship #medievodons #histodons @medievodons @histodons

The skill of the medieval silversmith & the modern stonecarvers was celebrated in a third medium with our project mementos! These were made by Cameron Newham FSA, using photogrammetry, 3D-printing, & handpainting. Tiny medieval treasures & large stone sculptures are both hard to move: these small replicas are a delight!

#LadyOfClare #14thCentury #SilverMatrix #WaxSeal #ClareCollege #heritage #photogrammetry #3Dprinting #resin #craftsmanship #medievodons #histodons @medievodons @histodons

Wonderful to be at Clare College to unveil the stone sculpture of the 1359 seal - greatly enlarged for visibility! Wonderful workmanship by Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, http://kindersleyworkshop.co.uk

Iconographic key & more at https://barnes1.net/seal/

#LadyOfClare #14thCentury #WaxSeal #ClareCollege #CambridgeUniversity #StoneCarving #CardozoKindersley #medievodons #histodons @medievodons

President Biden was pictured at the castle in #Carlingford - but this photo is Carlingford Friary, founded c.1305 by Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. 30 years later, the Dominican friars played a part in an intriguing story, involving the earl's daughter-in-law the #LadyOfClare, a marriage planned by King #EdwardII to his, ahem, favourite, & an abduction... 🐦 🧵 on the #Greencastle Letter: https://twitter.com/ClaireFromClare/status/1475358804329918468

#manuscript #mystery #romance #14thCentury #medieval #medievodons @medievodons

#PhilippaOfClarence inherited #ClareCastle in Suffolk, with its gardens laid out by her stylish great-grandmother Elizabeth de Burgh, #LadyOfClare. She also inherited #Usk, & it was among those title deeds that her husband's Mortimer family preserved a transcription of Elizabeth's furious indictment of tyranny, dictated in secret in 1326 & rediscovered in the 1950s. She had 4 children by age 21, & died not long after: her descendants include the #HouseOfYork. 🧵 3/
#GranddaughtersOfEdwardIII

@CandaceRobbAuthor This find is so interesting! The #LadyOfClare supported the #anchoress Anne de Lexeden, & her records of expenditure also give some insight into the reclusive lifestyle in the #MiddleAges.

Extract from 'For Her Good Estate' by Frances A. Underhill, p.162 of the 2020 edition: https://barnes1.net/FHGE/

#14thCentury #15thCentury #anchorite #hermit #medieval #medievodons #histodons @medievodons

Remembering Jennifer Ward, an English historian of #MedievalWomen, and her lifelong enthusiasm for the #LadyOfClare. Is it evident in the photo? This was in 2019, part way between two favourite haunts at the #BritishLibrary & the #IHR; she had brought prized images of the marvellous #StainedGlass at #Tewkesbury. "A warm & generous scholar", as #NigelSaul wrote: https://www.mbs-brasses.co.uk/public/files/bulletin-149-february-2022-22220121154.pdf#page=19
#14thCentury #medieval #medievodons #histodons #obituary #FondMemory @medievodons

@Tony_Meredith Just stumbled across this article by Ronald Dunning on a Burgh-Darcy marriage, back in 1329: https://janeausteninvermont.blog/2013/03/13/what-jane-knew-a-1329-darcy-de-bourgh-marriage-in-jane-austens-family-tree/

Elizabeth #LadyofClare probably attended the first wedding of her husband's sister Joan de #Burgh at #Greencastle in 1312, but left Ireland in 1316 so would not have been at the second.

I think the #PrideAndPrejudice #CharacterNames allude to #UKpolitics in #JaneAusten's day, but a lot of #genealogical info was available to her: more at https://historians.social/@kawulf/109627062228137872

The lid of the largest box refers to a 'Brabantine charter'. This box has a post-quem date of 1406 and would fit a rolled #manuscript with many #seals such as the 1312 #CharterOfKortenberg. This #democratic #constitution for the #DuchyOfBrabant was signed by John the Peaceful, Duke of #Brabant. He was a son-in-law of England's King Edward I; his wife was Aunt Margaret to Elizabeth #LadyOfClare.

#medievodons @medievodons

Between 1300 & 1362, as temperatures fell & the #LittleIceAge set in, #weavers in #Greenland made thicker cloth, #WeftDominant. Fascinating #LongRead on #archaeology, the evolution of #spinning & #weaving technique, & #textile as #money, the findings of Michèle Hayeur Smith.
Also mentions Iceland's exports of #fish, which reached the #LadyOfClare in Suffolk!
Article by Francine Russo: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/viking-textiles-show-women-had-tremendous-power/

@Tony_Meredith I also found 'The Comedy of Social Distinctions in Pride and Prejudice' by John McAleer which explains that Jane Austen's great-grandmother was a Brydges & descended from Lionel Duke of Clarence - so as it happens #JaneAusten was a direct descendant of Elizabeth de Burgh #LadyOfClare. However the evidence seems compelling that Jane's #CharacterNames were directly related to political issues of her day. She started writing in Oct1796, just as Pitt proposed reforming the #PoorLaws.

The newly-discovered ships were built in the lifetime of the #LadyOfClare. Household accounts from #ClareCastle in #Suffolk record purchase of fish from Iceland, candlewax from Lübeck, & wine from the Rhine.

When we republished her biography, #ForHerGoodEstate, our map showed the barrels arriving from Northern Europe...

on a ship like the C13th Bossholmen cog, here drawn by Jon Adams & photographed by Kester Keighley:
https://cma.soton.ac.uk/when-is-a-cog-not-a-cog/

#ShipType #ShipConstruction #MaritimeArchaeology

@Tony_Meredith
This was also a time when the Cambridge colleges were commissioning portraits of those who had shaped them. Joseph Freeman painted many such men, & as far as I know just one woman – the portrait commissioned by #ClareCollege in 1771. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:freeman-joseph-17291799
#JaneAusten might also have seen the 1714 mezzotint of the #LadyOfClare by John Faber, who portrayed college founders & reformers: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw35597/Elizabeth-de-Clare-Lady-de-Burgh

I look forward to hearing your thoughts... 4/4 END

@Tony_Meredith
It seems quite possible that #JaneAusten, with her interest in history & character, especially of significant women, & access to excellent contemporary libraries, might have seen ‘A Collection of All the Wills’ edited & published by John Nichols in 1780: https://archive.org/details/acollectionallw00nichgoog/page/n12/mode/2up
The will of the #LadyOfClare is long & interesting: there’s a link to the exact page & a translation on the resource page of the biography booksite, https://barnes1.net/FHGE/ 3/

Elizabeth de Burgh, #LadyOfClare once went on a #buyingspree in London, & needed 7 horses to carry home her new #books.

This delightful anecdote was told by the late Prof Frances Underhill. During the pandemic we published a new edition of her biography, 'For Her Good Estate', doubling the length with illustrations & new commentary. All added text is #OpenAccess at the booksite:
https://barnes1.net/FHGE/

#bibliophile #biography #14thCentury #MedievalArt #medievodons @medievodons