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"The Lincoln Fair" – the Battle that Saved England
Saturday 20th May, 2017, marked the 800th anniversary of one of Medieval England's most decisive battles. The Second Battle of Lincoln, also known as "The Lincoln Fair", rescued England from the clutches of Louis, Dauphin of France and future King Louis VIII.
England had been in turmoil during the last years of the reign of King John, with the barons trying to curtail the worst of his excesses. It had been hoped that he 1215 issuing of Magna Carta would prevent war, but when John reneged on the Great Charter, war was inevitable. England's disgruntled barons even went so far as to write to Philip II, King of France, and invite his son, Louis, to come and claim the throne. Louis had jumped at the chance and landed on England's shores in 1216.
Strategically placed in the centre of the country, Lincoln was a target for the rebel barons and their French allies. An important Royalist stronghold, it was held by the redoubtable hereditary castellan, Lady Nicholaa de la Haye; it had already been under siege in both 1215 and 1216. In 1215, the northern rebels had been paid to go away, while the 1216 besiegers – including the King of Scotland – fled as John's army advanced on the city. It was probably after the 1216 siege that Nicholaa made a show of relinquishing her post as castellan; however, John had other ideas:
And once it happened that after the war King John came to Lincoln and the said Lady Nicholaa went out of the eastern gate of the castle carrying the keys of the castle in her hand and met the king and offered the keys to him as her lord and said she was a woman of great age and was unable to bear such fatigue any longer and he besought her saying, "My beloved Nicholaa, I will that you keep the castle as hitherto until I shall order otherwise".¹
John went even further to show his trust in Nicholaa, who was a long-time supporter of the unpopular king. As Louis consolidated his position in the south, John made an inspection of Lincoln castle in September 1216. During the visit Nicholaa de la Haye, who held the castle for John, even though the city supported the rebels, was appointed Sheriff of Lincolnshire in her own right, a very unusual move in a male-dominated world.
The Observatory Tower, Lincoln Castle
Moving south, just 2 weeks later, the king's baggage train was lost as he crossed the Wash estuary and within a few more days John was desperately ill. King John died at Newark on 19th October 1216, with half his country occupied by a foreign invader and his throne now occupied by his 9-year-old son, Henry III. The elder statesman and notable soldier William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke was appointed Regent and set out to save the kingdom.
Following the coronation of young Henry, Magna Carta was reissued and some of the rebel barons returned to the fold, not wanting to make war on a 9-year-old king. However, Louis still had powerful supporters and did not seem keen to give up on his dream to rule England.
Louis' forces, under the Comte de Perche, marched north intending to relieve Mountsorel Castle, which was being besieged by the Earl of Chester. Chester had withdrawn as the French arrived and Perche's forces diverted to Lincoln. In early 1217, they took the city and laid siege to the castle with a small force. Now in her 60s, Nicholaa de la Haye took charge of the defences, with the help of her lieutenant, Sir Geoffrey de Serlant. Shortly afterwards, Prince Louis personally travelled up to Lincoln to ask for her surrender, assuring her no one would be hurt, but Nicholaa refused to yield.
For almost 3 months – from March to mid-May – siege machinery bombarded the south and east walls of the castle. When the small force proved insufficient to force a surrender, the French had to send for reinforcements. This meant that half of Louis' entire army was now outside the gates of Lincoln Castle and provided William Marshal with an opportunity; one decisive battle against Louis' forces at Lincoln could destroy the hopes of Louis and the rebel barons, once and for all.
Risking all on one battle was a gamble, but one that Marshal was determined to take. Spurred on by the chivalrous need to rescue a lady in distress – the formidable Lady Nicholaa – Marshal ordered his forces to muster at Newark by 17th May. While the young king, Henry III, waited at Nottingham, Marshal's forces prepared for war. The papal legate, Guala, absolved the Royalist army of all their sins – of all the sins they had committed since their birth – and excommunicated the French forces, before riding to join the king at Nottingham.
While at Newark, Marshal set out the order of battle, although not without some argument. The Norman contingent and Ranulf, earl of Chester, both claimed the right to lead the vanguard. However, when Ranulf threatened to withdraw his men, it was decided to acquiesce to his demands.
Lincoln is an unusual city; its castle and cathedral sit at the top of a hill, with the rest of the city to the south, at the hill's base. In the 12th century it was enclosed in a rectangular wall, which had stood since Roman times, with 5 gates, and the castle abutting the wall at the north-west corner. William Marshal decided not to attack Lincoln from the south, which would have meant heading up the Fosse Way (the old Roman road) and forcing a crossing of the River Witham, before climbing the steep slope to the castle and cathedral (so steep, the road going up is called Steep Hill to this day). Instead he chose to take a circuitous route, so he could come at the city from the north-west and attack close to the castle and cathedral, directly where the enemy troops were concentrated.
On the 19th May Marshal's forces crossed the River Trent and set up camp at Torksey, about 8 miles to the north of Lincoln, with some troops possibly camped 3 miles closer to the city, at Stowe.
Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. Louis' claim to England was through his wife, a granddaughter of Henry II
The English commanders included William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, his son, Young William Marshal, and nephew, John Marshal, in addition to Ranulph, Earl of Chester, William Longspée, earl of Salisbury, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, and Faulkes de Breauté. They led 406 knights, 317 crossbowmen and a large number of sergeants-at-arms, foot soldiers and camp followers.
Although Louis was in charge of the French forces in England, those in Lincoln were led by Thomas, Comte de Perche, himself a grandson of Henry II's daughter Matilda, and therefore a cousin of King Henry III; the commanders, of the English rebels in the city included Robert FitzWalter and Saer de Quincey. They led over 600 knights and several thousand infantry.
At various points in the lead up to the battle, William Marshal is known to have made some stirring speeches. When battle was imminent, he made one more;
Now listen, my lords! There is honour and glory to be won here, and my opinion is that we have the chance to free our land. It is true that you can win this battle. Our lands and our possessions those men have taken and seized by force. Shame be upon the man who does not strive, this very day, to put up a challenge, and may the Lord our God take care of the matter. You see them here in your power. So much do I fully guarantee, that they are ours for the taking, whatever happens. if courage and bravery are not found wanting.
Coat of arms of William Marshal
And, if we die …, God, who knows who are his loyal servants, will place us today in paradise, of that I am completely certain. And, if we beat them, it is no lie to say that we will have won eternal glory for the rest of our lives and for our kin. And I shall tell you another fact which works very badly against them: they are excommunicated and for that reason all the more trapped. I can tell you that they will come to a sticky end as they descend into hell. There you see men who have started a war on God and the Holy Church. I can fully guarantee you this, that God has surrendered them into our hands.
Let us make haste and attack them, for it is truly time to do so!²
As with all battles, the information gets confusing as battle commences, timings get distorted and facts mixed. No two sources give exactly the same information. So the story of a battle is a matter of putting the pieces together and making sense of various snippets of information – much as it would have been for the commanders on the day.
In the dawn of 20th May the English Royalist army marched south towards Lincoln. Marshal had hoped that, on reaching the plain in front of the city walls, the French would come out and meet him and a pitched battle would be fought outside of the city. Marshal was resting everything – the very future of England – on the outcome of that one battle. However, it seems that, although the French leaders did come out and take a look at the forces arrayed before them, they then chose to stay inside the city walls and wait for the Royalists to come to them.
The West Gate of Lincoln Castle
William Marshal's nephew, John Marshal was sent to the castle, to ascertain the situation within the city, but as he approached, Nicholaa's deputy, Geoffrey de Serlant, was making his way out to report to the English commanders that the castle was still in Nocholaa's hands. It is not hard to imagine Nicholaa or her deputy climbing the tallest towers of the castle, to watch out for an approaching relief force. Seeing the Marshal's banners appearing in the north must have been an amazing feeling.
The castle itself had 2 main gates, one in the eastern wall and one in the west, with postern gates were in the Lucy Tower to the south-east of the castle and the Cobb Hall to the north-east corner. On ascertaining that the castle still held, Peter des Roches then made his way inside, probably by the postern gate in Cobb Hall. Having met with Nicholaa de la Haye in the Lucy Tower, it seems he then made his way into the town via the postern, to check the defences and try to find a way into the city.
Des Roches' reconnaissance proved successful and he reported to Marshal that there was a gate within the north-west wall of the city, which, although blockaded, could be cleared. As Marshal set men to clearing the blockaded gate, the earl of Chester was sent to attack the North Gate as a diversion and Faulkes de Breauté took his crossbowmen into the castle via the West Gate and set them on the ramparts above the East Gate, so their bolts could fire down on the besiegers.
De Breauté fell into disgrace in 1224 and so the major source for the Battle of Lincoln – the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschale – plays down his role in the battle. However, his crossbowmen managed to keep the French forces focussed on the castle, rather than Marshal's forces outside the city. De Breauté did make a sortie out of the East Gate, to attack the besiegers, but was taken prisoner and had to be rescued by his own men; although at what stage of the battle this happened is uncertain.
It took several hours, it seems, for Marshal's men to break through the gate; but when they did, the 70-year-old William Marshal was so eager to lead the charge that he had to be reminded to don his helmet. Once safely helmeted, he led his men down West Gate, turning right to approach the castle from the north, his men spilling into the space between castle and cathedral, where the main force of the besiegers were still firing missiles at the castle.
Lincoln Cathedral viewed from the Castle. The fiercest fighting was between the 2 great buildings
The English forces took the enemy so totally by surprise that one man – according to the Histoire he was the enemy's 'most expert stonethrower'² – thought they were allies and continued loading the siege machinery, only to head struck from his shoulders.
Almost simultaneously, it seems, the earl of Chester had broken through the North Gate and battle was joined on all sides. Vicious, close-quarter combat had erupted in the narrow streets, but the fiercest fighting was in front of the cathedral. In the midst of the melee, William Longspée took a blow from Robert of Roppesley, whose lance broke against the earl. The aged Marshal dealt a blow to Roppesley that had the knight who, having crawled to a nearby house 'out of fear, [he] went to hide in an upper room as quickly as he could'.³
The Comte de Perche made his stand in front of the cathedral, rallying his troops; and it was there he took a blow from Reginald Croc which breached the eye slit of his helmet. Croc himself was badly wounded and died the same day. The Comte continued to fight, striking several blows to the Marshal's helmet (the one he had almost forgotten to don), before falling from his horse. It was thought the Comte was merely stunned until someone tried to remove his helmet and it was discovered that the point of Croc's sword had pierced the count's eye and continued into his brain, killing him.
With the death of their leader, the French and rebel barons lost heart and started pulling back. They fled downhill, to the south of the city. Although they briefly rallied, making an uphill assault, but the battle was lost and there was a bottleneck at the South Gate and the bridge across the Witham as the enemy forces fled. The rebel leaders, Saer de Quincey and Robert FitzWalter were both taken prisoner, as were many others. In total, about half of the enemy knights surrendered.
The Exchequer Gate, which lies between the Castle and Cathedral
A sad story is related that, after the battle, women took to the river with their children, in small boats, to escape the attentions of the victorious army. However, not knowing how to control the overloaded craft, many capsized and the women and children drowned.
The city, which had supported the rebels, was sacked, churches included; the excommunication seen as permission that everything was fair game. The battle earned the name 'The Lincoln Fair', probably because of the amount of plunder gained by the victorious English army.
Immediately the battle was won, William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, rode to Nottingham to inform the king of the victory. The Battle of Lincoln turned the tide of the war. On hearing of the battle, Louis immediately lifted his siege of Dover Castle and withdrew to London. His situation became desperate, his English allies were bristling against the idea of Louis giving English land as reward to his French commanders and were beginning to see the young Henry III as rightful king – after all, the son couldn't be blamed for the actions of the father. In August of the same year Louis was soundly defeated at sea in the Battle of Sandwich, off the Kent coast. By September he had sued for peace and returned to France.
Lincoln Cathedral
In an incredible demonstration of ingratitude, within 4 days of the relief of the Castle, Nicholaa de la Haye's position of Sheriff of Lincolnshire was given to the king's uncle William Longspée, Earl of Salisbury, who took control of the city and seized the castle. However, not one to give up easily Nicholaa travelled to court to remind the king's regents of her services, and request her rights be restored to her. A compromise was reached whereby Salisbury remained as Sheriff of the County, while Nicholaa held the city and the castle.
The battle had been a magnificent victory for the 70-year-old regent, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and is a testament to his claim to the title 'The Greatest Knight'. He staked the fate of the country on this one battle and pulled off a decisive victory, saving his king and country.
Footnotes: ¹Irene Gladwin: The Sheriff; The Man and His Office; ²Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschal translated by Stewart Gregory; ³ Quoted in Thomas Asbridge's The greatest Knight
All photos from Lincoln – Castle, Cathedral and Magna Carta, © Sharon Bennett Connolly 2015. All other pictures are courtesy of Wikipedia.
Sources: King John by Marc Morris; Henry III The Son of Magna Carta by Matthew Lewis; The Demon's Brood by Desmond Seward; The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge; The Knight Who Saved England by Richard Brooks; The Plantagenet Chronicles edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Brassey's Battles by John Laffin; 1215 The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham; The Life and times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Story of Britain by Roy Strong; The Plantagenets, the Kings Who Made England by Dan Jones; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings by Robert Bartlett; lincolnshirelife.co.uk; catherinehanley.co.uk; magnacarta800th.com; lothene.org; lincolncastle.com; Nick Buckingham; The Sheriff: The Man and His Office by Irene Gladwin; Elizabeth Chadwick; swaton.org.uk; Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal translated by Stewart Gregory, usna.edu.
Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon UK, Amberley Publishing, Book Depository and Amazon US.
Telling the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from Amazon UK, and in the US from Amazon US. It is available now in paperback in the UK from from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.
English history, Medieval History, Medieval Women, Uncategorized1217, Henry III, Heroines of the Medieval World, History Heroines, King John, Lincoln, Lincoln Castle, Lincon Fair, Magna Carta, Nicholaa de la Haye, Sharon Bennett Connolly, Silk and the Sword, William Marshal
Ela: Heiress, Wife and Abbess
Model of Salisbury Castle
Ela of Salisbury was intended to be one of my Heroines of the Medieval World; however I ran out of words before I could tell her story – I had a word limit of 110,000 and poor Ela was one of the victims of this. So, I decided I would turn her into a blog post instead.
Ela was born at Amesbury in Wiltshire in 1187. She was the only surviving child – and sole heir – of William FitzPatrick, earl of Salisbury, and his wife, Eleanor de Vitré. Her father was a descendant of Walter, an ally of William the Conqueror, who had rewarded his support at Hastings with great estates which eventually passed to Ela. When her father died in 1196, Ela became Countess of Salisbury in her own right, and the most prized heiress in England.
There is a story that little Ela, only 9 years old at the time of her father's death, was kidnapped by her uncle and hidden away in a castle in Normandy, so that he could gain control of the vast Salisbury inheritance. The tale goes, that an English knight, named William Talbot, toured the Norman castles in search of poor Ela, he would sing ballads beneath castle windows in the hope that the little Countess would hear him and join in with his singing. Whether a romantic legend or a true story, who can tell?
Whether she was rescued, or never kidnapped in the first place, we do not know. However, what we do know is that, on her father's death, Ela's wardship passed into the hands of the king himself, Richard I, the Lionheart. The king saw Ela as the opportunity to reward his loyal, but illegitimate, brother, William Longspée (or Longsword), by offering him her hand in marriage. The Salisbury lands were a suitable reward for a king's son, especially one born out of wedlock.
Arms of the Longspée earls of Salisbury
William Longspée was the son of Henry II by Ida de Tosney, wife of Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, from a relationship she had with the king before her marriage. For many years, it was thought that Longspée was the son of a common harlot, called Ikenai, and a full brother of another of Henry's illegitimate sons, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York. There were also theories that his mother was, Rosamund Clifford, famed in ballads as 'the Fair Rosamund'. However, it is now considered beyond doubt that his mother was, in fact, Ida de Tosney, with two pieces of evidence supporting this. There is a charter in the cartulary of Bradenstoke Priory, made by William Longspée, in which he identifies his mother as the Countess Ida. There is also a prisoner roll from after the Battle of Bouvines, in which William Longspée is listed as the brother of Ralph Bigod.
Despite the misunderstandings over his mother, the identity of William Longspée's father was never in doubt. He was Henry II's son and served two of his half-brothers; Richard I and King John. At the time of his marriage to Ela, Longspée was in his early-to-mid-20's, while his bride was not yet 10 years old, although she would not have been expected to consummate the marriage until she was 14 or 15.
William I Longspée had an impressive career during the reigns of his half-brothers, he served in Normandy with Richard between 1196 and 1198, and took part in John's coronation in May, 1199. In 1213 he destroyed the French fleet off the Flemish coast. He commanded an army in northern France for John in 1214; and in July of the same year, he was captured at the Battle of Bouvines, after being clubbed on the head by the Bishop of Beauvais. Longspée was held for ransom and eventually exchanged, in March 1215, for John's prisoner, Robert of Dreux, who had been captured at Nantes in 1214.
Longspée returned to England shortly afterwards and was one of the signatories of Magna Carta in 1215. Longspée was still supporting John when Louis, the Dauphin, invaded England and took London; however, after Winchester fell to the French, in June 1216, Longspée defected to the Dauphin and remained in opposition to his brother for the rest of John's life.¹
Following the death of King John in October 1216, Longspée swore loyalty to his 9-year-old nephew, Henry III in March 1217. He was part of William Marshal's army at the Battle of Lincoln Fair, when Lincoln Castle and its formidable castellan, Nicholaa de la Haye, were finally relieved from a 3-month siege by the French under the Comte de Perche.
William II Longspée, 4th Earl of Salisbury
Although we know little-to-nothing of their married life, it appears to have been happy. The couple had at least 8 children together, if not more; 4 boys and 4 girls. Of their younger boys, Richard became a canon at the newly built Salisbury Cathedral, while Nicholas eventually rose to be Bishop of Salisbury and Stephen became Senschal of Gascony and Justiciar of Ireland. The oldest son, William II Longspée, 4th Earl of Salisbury, was married to Idonea, granddaughter and sole heiress of the formidable Nicholaa de la Haye, who held Lincoln Castle against the French. Young William and Nicholaa de la Haye would spend several years in legal disputes over the inheritance of Nicholaa's Lincolnshire holdings; a compromise was finally reached in which Nicholaa retained possession of Lincoln Castle, while William held the city of Lincoln, itself.
William II Longspée went on Crusade with Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1240-1 and later led the English contingent in the Seventh Crusade, led by Louis IX of France. His company formed part of the doomed vanguard, which was overwhelmed at Mansourah in Egypt, in on 8th February 1250. William's body was buried in Acre, but his effigy lies atop an empty tomb in Salisbury Cathedral. His mother is said to have experienced a vision of her son's last moments at the time of his death.
Of the couple's 4 daughters, Petronilla died unmarried, possibly having become a nun. Isabella married William de Vescy, Lord of Alnwick and had children before her death in 1244. Named after her mother, Ela married, firstly Thomas de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick and, secondly, Phillip Basset; sadly, she had no children by either husband. A fourth daughter, Ida, married Walter Fitzrobert; her second marriage was to William de Beauchamp, Baron Bedford, by whom she had 6 children.
As a couple, William Longspée and Ela were great patrons of the church, laying the 4th and 5th, respectively, foundation stones for the new Salisbury Cathedral in 1220. In 1225 Longspée was shipwrecked off the coast of Brittany and a rumour spread that he was dead. While he spent months recovering at an island monastery in France Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent and husband of Isabel of Gloucester, proposed a marriage between Ela and his nephew, Reimund. Ela, however, would not even consider it, insisting that she knew William was alive and that, even were he dead, she would never consider marrying below her status. It has been suggested that she used the 8th clause of Magna Carta to support her rejection of the offer; "No widow is to be distrained to marry while she wishes to live without a husband…"
William Longspee, Earl of Salisbury
As it turned out, William Longspée was still alive and eventually returned to his wife. However, he never seems to have recovered fully from his injuries and died at the royal castle at Salisbury shortly after his return home, on 7th March 1226. He was buried in a splendid tomb in Salisbury Cathedral.
Ela did not marry again. On her husband's death, she was forced to relinquish her custody of the castle (although she did eventually buy it back), but was allowed to take over her husband's role as Sheriff of Wiltshire, which he had held 3 times, holding the office continuously from 1213 until his death in 1226. Ela acted as Sheriff until 1228. She was known as a great patron of religious houses; she and her husband had co-founded Salisbury Cathedral and Ela herself founded 2 Augustinian religious houses. She managed to lay the foundation stones of both, at Hinton and Lacock, 16 miles apart, on the same day. The abbey at Hinton, Somerset, was endowed for monks, in memory of her husband, after they had found the original house, founded by Longspée at Hathorp unsuitable.
Lacock Priory was established in 1230 as a house for Augustinian canonesses at the village of Lacock in Wiltshire. Ela herself entered the priory in 1237 and became the first Abbess when it was upgraded to an Abbey in 1239. As Abbess, Ela was able to secure many rights and privileges for the abbey and its village. She obtained a copy of the 1225 issue of Magna Carta, which had been given to her husband for him to distribute around Wiltshire. She remained Abbess for 20 years, resigning in 1259. Ela remained at the abbey, however, and died there on 24th August, 1261.
Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
Ela of Salisbury outlived both her eldest son and grandson. She was succeeded as Countess of Salisbury by her great-granddaughter, Margaret, who was the daughter of William III Longspée. Margaret was married to Henry de Lacey, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, and was the mother of Alice de Lacey, 4th Countess of Lincoln and the unfortunate, unloved wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was killed in rebellion against Edward II, at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322.
The 3rd Countess of Salisbury was described in the Register of St Osmund as "a woman indeed worthy of praise because she was filled with the fear of the Lord."² Ela was not buried alongside her husband in Salisbury Cathedral, but within the Abbey that she had founded and ruled – and had called her home for the last 24 years of her life. Her tombstone demonstrates the high esteem in which she was held and records the words; "Below lie buried the bones of the venerable Ela, who gave this sacred house as a home for the nuns. She also had lived her as holy abbess and Countess of Salisbury, full of good works."³
Footnote: ¹With thanks to Rich Price for clarification of events; Rich is currently translating King John's letters; ²Ela, suo jure Countess of Salisbury, Jennifer C Ward, Oxforddnb.com, October 2009; ³ Ela of Salisbury stanfordmagnacarta.worpress.com
Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia
Sources: The Plantagenet Chronicles edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Brassey's Battles by John Laffin; 1215 The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham; The Life and Times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Story of Britain by Roy Strong; The Plantagenets, the Kings Who Made England by Dan Jones; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings by Robert Bartlett; lincolnshirelife.co.uk; catherinehanley.co.uk; magnacarta800th.com; lothene.org; lincolncastle.com; The Sheriff: The Man and His Office by Irene Gladwin; Oxforddnb.com; stanfordmagnacarta.wordpress.com; A Year in the Life of Medieval England by Toni Mount; The Demon's Brood by Desmond Seward; The Oxford Companion to British History, Edited by John Cannon; The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge; Britain's Royal Families by Alison Weir; chitterne.com
English history, Medieval HistoryAlice de Lacey, Earl of Salisbury, Ela of Salisbury, King John, Magna Carta, Nicholaa de la Haye, Richard I, Salisbury, William Lonspee, William Marshal
The Eternal Legacy of Magna Carta
15/06/2015 15/06/2019 Sharon Bennett Connolly5 Comments
Lincoln Cathedral's Magna Carta
June 15th 2015 was the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta.
On 1 April 2015 Lincoln Castle reopened its doors after an extensive refurbishment. The renovations included a new purpose-built, state-of-the-art, underground vault for its most prized possession: one of only four surviving copies of the original 1215 Great Charter – the Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta's new home cannot fail to emphasise the importance of this charter in the history of not only England, but also the rest of the world. Two films – Magna Carta: Challenging the Power of the King and Magna Carta: Meaning and Myth – reconstruct the events leading up to Magna Carta and chart its significance through the centuries, respectively.
But what is Magna Carta? And what makes it so important?
n many ways, the reign of King John had been a continuation of that of his father, Henry II, and of his brother, Richard I, with one significant difference. Early in his reign John had lost the French part of the great Angevin empire: Normandy and Aquitaine were now held by France. In 1214 King John returned to England following his defeat by the French at the Battle of Bouvines. The battle ended the king's hopes of regaining the lost empire.
Added to this catastrophe was the character and personality of John himself. By nature John was paranoid, secretive and distrustful. John's cruelty is widely known. He is accused of killing his nephew and rival claimant to the English throne, Arthur of Brittany; he hanged 28 Welsh hostages (sons of rebel chieftains) and he hounded William de Braose and his family all the way to Ireland and back. De Braose's wife and son died in one of John's prisons, probably from starvation.
The History of William Marshal, a biography of the great knight and statesman, states of John: 'He kept his prisoners in such a horrible manner, and in such abject confinement that it seemed an indignity and a disgrace to all those with him who witnessed such cruelty'.
Although John faced the fallout of Magna Carta, many of the injustices targeted by the barons can be seen in the reigns of his predecessors. Heavy taxes, arbitrary fines and the exploitation of wardships were long-established royal revenue earners. However, where Henry and Richard had a whole empire to exploit, John's need for money had to be met by England alone.
Even John's disagreement with the Church can see parallels in the reign of Henry II and his clashes with Thomas Becket. John opposed the election of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, and refused to allow his consecration. Pope Innocent III went so far as to excommunicate John and place England under interdict; in 1213 Philip II of France was even invited to depose him.
John finally came to an agreement with the Church in May 1213, swearing that the liberties established under Henry I would be strictly observed and allowing Langton to take up his post as archbishop. However, John broke his oath almost immediately and Langton became one of the leaders of the opposition to the king.
The barons' objections to John were almost beyond number. He had failed to face the French and had lost not only his family's Continental possessions, but also those of his barons. Few had forgotten his treachery against his brother – his attempt on the throne whilst Richard was away on Crusade. His barons even complained that he forced himself on their wives and daughters.
The barons had had enough.
The rebels were ready to fight. After occupying London they made one final attempt to prevent war, presenting the king with a list of their demands.
Following further negotiations a long detailed document was produced, dealing with particular grievances of the time and with injustices in general. It touched on the whole system of royal government. And it was granted to 'all free men of the realm and their heirs forever'.
Of its 63 clauses, some terms were asking for immediate remedies, such as the removal of corrupt administrators and the sending home of foreign mercenaries. The clause stating that fighting outside of the kingdom could not be imposed by the king was a reaction to John's recent attempts to force his English barons to help him recover his Continental domains.
Others had long-term aims. The document sought to guarantee the privileges of the Church and the City of London. Restrictions were placed on the powers of regional officials, such as sheriffs, to prevent abuses. The royal court was fixed at Westminster, for justice to be obtainable by all, and royal judges were to visit each county regularly. Taxes could no longer be levied without the consent of the Church and the barons.
Clauses included the fixing of inheritance charges and protection from exploitation for under-age heirs; the king was to take only what was reasonable from an estate (although 'reasonable' remained undefined). From henceforth a widow was to be free to choose whether or not to remarry and her marriage portion (dowry) would be made available to her immediately on her husband's death. Another clause sought to prevent the seizure of land from Jews and the king's debtors.
Magna Carta even went so far as to regulate weights and measures. It also reduced the size of the king's forests and limited the powers of forest justices.
Although most of the 63 clauses of Magna Carta are now defunct, three still remain as major tenets of British law, including 'to no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice'. That no person could be imprisoned, outlawed or deprived of his lands except by judgement of his peers and the law of the land has remained the cornerstone of the English legal system ever since.
Magna Carta was sealed at Runnymede, Berkshire, on 15 June 1215. John ordered that the charter be circulated around the towns and villages.
As a peace agreement between King John and his rebellious barons, however, it failed miserably. By July John was appealing to the Pope for help. Pope Innocent III's response arrived in England in September. The treaty was declared null and void; it was 'not only shameful and demeaning but also illegal and unjust'. By the time the letter arrived in England, the dispute had already erupted into the Barons' War.
Deciding they could no longer deal with John's perfidy, the rebel barons invited the King of France, Philip II, to claim the throne. Philip's son and heir, the future Louis VIII, accepted the offer. Having landed on the south coast, he marched for London, where he was proclaimed King of England on 2 June 1216.
John's fortuitous death at Newark in October 1216 turned the tide against Louis and the rebels. The highly respected knight and statesman, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was appointed regent for John's nine-year-old son, Henry III. Marshal's staunch loyalty was renowned throughout Europe; he was the embodiment of the chivalric code. Many barons who had previously sided with Louis saw the opportunity to come back from the brink, and rally around the young king. Marshal reissued Magna Carta and faced and defeated the joint French and rebel army at Lincoln on 20 May 1217.
Afterwards, the English were able to dictate peace terms to Louis, and the French went home. Magna Carta was issued a third time, along with a new Forest Charter (also on display at Lincoln Castle). Its reissue in 1225, on Henry III attaining his majority, is the one that made it onto the statute books.
The Legacy of Magna Carta
Lincoln Castle
It is hard to overstate the enduring significance of Magna Carta. Although it was initially a document conceived by rebel barons, the regents of Henry III exploited Magna Carta as a royalist device to recover the loyalty of the rebel barons. However, once it was issued it was used as a curb to all regal excesses. In 1265 it was invoked to create the first parliament.
By the late 1200s Magna Carta was regarded as a fundamental statement of English liberties.
Magna Carta set the precedent for future reform programmes, such as the Provisions of Oxford of 1258, the Ordinances of 1311, the Petition of Right of 1628 and the Grand Remonstrance of 1641.
The influence of Magna Carta has spread far beyond England's shores. It can be seen in the United States' 1791 Bill of Rights, in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
Although a failure in the short term, in the long term, Magna Carta established defined limitations to royal rights, laying down that standard to be observed by the crown and its agents.
It is the closest thing England has to a Constitution.
Article and Photos © Sharon Bennett Connolly 2015
Article originally published on The Review in June 2015.
Sources: Robert Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225; Dan Jones The Plantagenets; the Kings who Made England; The Plantagenet Chronicle Edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Maurice Ashley The Life and Times of King John; Roy Strong The Story of Britain; Oxford Companion to British History; Mike Ashley British Kings & Queens; David Williamson Brewer's British Royalty.
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English history, Medieval History, Medieval Women, Plantagenets, UncategorizedHenry III, Heroines of the Medieval World, History Heroines, King John, Ladies of Magna Carta, Magna Carta, Sharon Bennett Connolly, Silk and the Sword
Nicholaa de la Haye, England's Forgotten Heroine
View, from the castle. of Lincoln Cathedral
Nicholaa de la Haye is one of those very rare women in English history. She is renowned for her abilities, rather than her family and connections. In a time when men fought and women stayed home, Nicholaa de la Haye held Lincoln Castle against all-comers. Her strength and tenacity saved England at one of the lowest points in history.
The eldest daughter and co-heiress of Richard de la Haye and his wife, Matilda de Verdun, she was probably born in the early 1150s. Richard de la Haye was a minor Lincolnshire lord; in 1166 he was recorded as owing 20 knights' fees, which had been reduced to 16 by 1172. When he died in 1169, Nicholaa inherited her father's land in Lincolnshire and his position as castellan of Lincoln Castle, a position she would hold for over 30 years.
Nicholaa was married twice, her first husband, William Fitz Erneis, died in 1178. Before 1185 she married Gerard de Camville, son of Richard de Camville, admiral of Richard I's crusading fleet during the 3rd Crusade. Although her first marriage was probably childless, Nicholaa and Gerard had at least 3 children; Richard, Thomas and Matilda.
Nicholaa's husbands each claimed the position of castellan of Lincoln Castle by right of his wife; but Nicholaa seems to have been far from the normal subservient wife. When her husband was not in the castle, she was left in charge rather than an alternative, male deputy.
Lincoln castle walls
Nicholaa first comes to the attention of the chroniclers in 1191, when Prince John made a play for his brother Richard's throne. Gerard de Camville was a supporter of John and joined him at Nottingham Castle, leaving Nicholaa to hold Lincoln. Richard I's Chancellor, William Longchamps had headed north to halt John's coup and laid siege to Lincoln Castle.
The formidable Nicholaa refused to yield, holding out for 40 days before Longchamps raised the siege following the fall of the castles at Tickhill and Nottingham. Amusingly, Richard of Devizes said of this defence of Lincoln Castle, that she did it 'without thinking of anything womanly'.
In 1194, on the king's return, Camville was stripped of his positions as Sheriff of Lincolnshire and Castellan of the castle; only having it returned to him on the accession of King John in 1199.
Gerard de Camville died around 1215 and, although now a widow, it seems the castle remained in Nicholaa's hands. On one of King John's visits to inspect the castle's defences in either 1215 or 1216 there was a rather dramatic display of fealty from Nicholaa :
Nicholaa de la Haye, Lincoln Castle
As we all know, King John's reign wasn't exactly smooth sailing. He lost his French lands and was held to account by the barons of England for numerous examples of maladministration, corruption and outright murder. In 1215 he had been forced to seal the Magna Carta in order to avoid war. Although it eventually came to be considered a fundamental statement of English liberties, as a peace treaty Magna Carta failed miserably. Within months John had written to Pope Innocent III and the charter had been declared null and void; the barons were up in arms.
The West Gate, through which part of William Marshal's relieving force entered Lincoln Castle
The rebels invited the king of France to take the throne of England; instead Philip II's son, Louis (the future Louis VIII), accepted the offer and was hailed as King of England in London in June of 1216. In the same year Nicholaa prevented another siege by paying off a rebel army, led by Gilbert de Gant, who had occupied the city of Lincoln.
As Louis consolidated his position in the south, John made an inspection of Lincoln castle in September 1216. During the visit Nicholaa de la Haye, who held the castle for John, even though the city supported the rebels, was appointed Sheriff of Lincolnshire in her own right.
Moving south, just 2 weeks later, the king's baggage train was lost as he crossed the Wash estuary and within a few more days John was desperately ill.
King John died at Newark on 19th October 1216, with half his country occupied by a foreign invader and his throne now occupied by his 9-year-old son, Henry III. The elder statesman and notable soldier William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke was appointed Regent and set out to save the kingdom.
Meanwhile, Louis' forces, under the Comte du Perche, headed north and, in early 1217, took the City of Lincoln and laid siege to the castle with a small force. Now in her 60s Nicholaa de la Haye took charge of the defences. Prince Louis personally travelled up to Lincoln to ask for her surrender, assuring her no one would be hurt, but Nicholaa refused.
The Battle of Lincoln, 1217
When the small force proved insufficient to force a surrender, the French had to send for reinforcements. For almost 3 months – from March to mid-May – siege machinery bombarded the south and east walls of the castle. On the 20th May William Marshal arrived, from the north-west, with a relieving force. Having taken the North Gate of the city walls, his army proceeded to attack the besieging forces and routed the enemy; the enemy's commander, the Comte du Perche, was killed in the fighting.
The city, which had supported the rebels and welcomed the French, was sacked and looted by the victorious army; the battle becoming known as the Lincoln Fair, as a result.
The Battle of Lincoln turned the tide of the war. The French were forced to seek peace and returned home. Magna Carta was reissued and Henry III's regents could set about healing the country.
In a magnificent demonstration of ingratitude, within 4 days of the relief of the Castle, Nicholaa's position of Sheriff of Lincolnshire was given to the king's uncle William Longspée, Earl of Salisbury, who took control of the city and seized the castle.
Not one to give up easily Nicholaa travelled to court to remind the king's regents of her services, and request her rights be restored to her. A compromise was reached whereby Salisbury remained as Sheriff of the County, while Nicholaa held the city and the castle.
Nicholaa's granddaughter and heiress, Idonea – daughter of Nicholaa's eldest son Richard – was married to Salisbury's son, William II Longspée; the couple inherited the de la Haye and Camville lands on Nicholaa's death. The settlement was not ideal, however, and some wrangling seems to have continued until Salisbury's death in 1226.
A staunchly independent woman, she issued some 25 surviving charters in her name. She made grants to various religious houses, including Lincoln Cathedral, and even secured a royal grant for a weekly market on one of her properties.
A most able adversary for some of the greatest military minds of the time, and a loyal supporter of King John, she was unique among her peers. Although praised by the chroniclers, they seemed to find difficulty in describing a woman who acted in such a fashion; the Dunstable annals refer to her as a 'noble woman', saying she acted 'manfully'. One cannot fail to feel admiration for a woman who managed to hold her own in a man's world, who fought for her castle and her home in a time when women had so little say over their own lives – and at such an advanced age. Her bravery and tenacity saved Henry III's throne.
Not surprisingly, Henry III referred to her as 'our beloved and faithful Nicholaa de la Haye'.
Nicholaa de la Haye, the woman who saved England, lived well into her 70s. By late 1226 she had retired to her manor at Swaton, dying there on 20 November, 1230. She was buried in St Michael's Church, Swaton in Lincolnshire.
Footnote: ¹Irene Gladwin: The Sheriff; The Man and His Office
Photos of Lincoln Castle, copyright Sharon Bennett Connolly 2015.
Picture of the Battle of Lincoln and Magna Carta are courtesy of Wikipedia.
Sources: The Plantagenet Chronicles edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Brassey's Battles by John Laffin; 1215 The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham; The Life and times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Story of Britain by Roy Strong; The Plantagenets, the Kings Who Made England by Dan Jones; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings by Robert Bartlett; lincolnshirelife.co.uk; catherinehanley.co.uk; magnacarta800th.com; lothene.org; lincolncastle.com; The Sheriff: The Man and His Office by Irene Gladwin; Elizabeth Chadwick; Nick Buckingham; swaton.org.uk.
From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Aethelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest will be released in the UK on 15 November 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon UK, Amberley Publishing and Book Depository.
English history, French history, Historic Buildings, Medieval History, Medieval Women, PlantagenetsBarons War, Earl of Salisbury, Heroines of the Medieval World, History Heroines, King John, Lincoln, Lincoln Castle, Lincoln Fair, Magna Carta, Nichola de la Haye, Nicola de la Haye, Normandy, Richard I, Sharon Bennett Connolly, Silk and the Sword, William Marshal
Lincoln Castle, a Journey Through History
The Observatory Tower
I love the school holidays. My son and I always find something historical to explore. Today, it was Lincoln Castle.
The Castle only reopened on the 1st April, 2015, after an extensive revamp. And it was teeming with visitors (apparently it was the quietest day since they reopened, so the last week must have been incredibly hectic for the staff).
Lincoln Castle was started by William the Conqueror in 1068 and has been in constant use ever since. You can follow its history, just by looking at the buildings that occupy the Inner Bailey. In its time, it has been a military fortification, a Victorian prison and is now home to Lincoln's Crown Court – and the Magna Carta!
Lincoln Cathedral's Magna Carta is one of only four surviving originals. It is now on display in an impressive purpose-built, underground vault. The Magna Carta is accompanied by an original copy of the 1217 Charter of the Forest.
There is a 20-minute video, with a very believable King John and the great William Marshal, discussing the Magna Carta and explaining its inception and significance through the centuries.
Prison Chapel
The Magna Carta Vault is a modern addition, adjoining the imposing Victorian prison. In its day, the prison was an innovation in the harshness punishment; the prisoners were held in solitary confinement for 24 hours a day.
There was no relief from the solitude, even when attending church services; the prison chapel was constructed in a way that each prisoner could see the priest, but could have no contact with his fellow prisoners. The chapel gives me the creeps everytime I visit it. I have a thing about dummies, but it's also the thought of all those prisoners only able to see the one person, in the pulpit; cut off from society and each other.
Inside the male prison
The prison included some wonderful interactive displays, with the opportunity to read the diaries of the priest, the wardens and prisoners. Kids can dress-up as prisoners or wardens, explore the separate male and female prisons, and watch videos of the inmates, explaining their crimes – and pleading their innocence!
The Castle grounds give you the sense of the thousand years of history its walls have witnessed.
It was at Lincoln that King Stephen was captured by forces loyal to the Empress Matilda, during the civil war – the Anarchy – that followed the death of Henry I (when Matilda and Stephen both claimed the throne).
From the battlements: Lincoln Cathedral
Henry VIII and Catherine Howard had visited Lincoln Castle during their northern progress of 1541, shortly before Catherine's infidelities were uncovered.
You can now walk the whole length of the walls – a third of a mile, though it can feel longer, with all the steps. You can climb the narrow spiral staircase to the top of the Observatory Tower – and take in the whole view of Lincoln, its Cathedral and the Fens.
The Lucy Tower contains within its walls a small cemetery, where executed prisoners, and those who died of disease, were buried.
The West Gate
The West Gate is a little piece of history in itself; opened to William Marshal's troops during the Second Battle of Lincoln, by the castle's castellan, Nicholaa de la Haye, whilst the castle was under siege from the army of Louis of France, who had been invited to take England by King John's disaffected barons. The Dauphin was defeated shortly after, outside the Castle's walls, and returned to France.
Remnant of the Eleanor Cross
Another memento from history, within the Inner Bailey, is the remnant of Lincoln's Eleanor Cross. Eleanor of Castile was just 7 miles from Lincoln when she died in 1290 and Lincoln's Eleanor Cross is the first marker of her funeral procession, which ended at Westminster Abbey. Eleanor's viscera (her intestines) were buried in Lincoln Cathedral, while her embalmed body was transported to London, an elaborate cross being erected at each stopping place along the way.
Inside the Victorian Kitchen
The Castle has not forgotten its younger visitors, with a little treasure trail and quiz, based on King John's loss of the Crown Jewels in the Wash.
The prize was well worth winning – chocolate coins from the Victorian Kitchen. And 'thank you' to the Victorian lady, who insisted all children pay a 1 coin tax to their parents out of their winnings – very tasty!
Whether you choose to explore by yourself, take the guided tour or simply bask in the sun of the Bailey, Lincoln Castle is a wonderful day out – for the young and old alike – I can highly recommend it.
The exercise yard and facade of the Victorian prison
My book, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK and worldwide from Book Depository. It is also available on Kindle in both the UK and USA and will be available in Hardback from Amazon US from 1 May 2018.
All pictures and article are copyright to Sharon Bennett Connolly, 2015, except the Magna Carta, which is courtesy of Wikipedia.
For further information, visit http://www.lincolncastle.com
The Crown Court building
Historic BuildingsEdwward I, Eleanor of Castile, England, Forest Charter, France, Henry III, King John, King Stephen, Lincoln, Lincoln Castle, Lincoln Cathedral, Magna Carta, Matilda, Victorian, William Marshal
Maud de Braose, the King's Enemy
Arms of William de Braose
Matilda de Braose was probably born in the early 1150s in Saint-Valery-en-Caux, France, to Bernard IV, Seigneur de Saint-Valery and his wife, Matilda. Contemporary records describe her as tall and beautiful, wise and vigorous.
Made famous by the de Braose's spectacular falling-out with King John – and the manner of her death – very little is known of Matilda's early years; though she probably spent time at her family's manor of Hinton Waldrist in Berkshire.
Sometime around 1166 she married William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, a Norman lord with land on the Welsh Marches. William was highly favoured by both Richard I and, later his brother King John.
Whilst William was away campaigning in Normandy, Matilda would be left to manage their estates in Wales. In 1198, Matilda defended Painscastle in Elfael against a massive Welsh attack by Gwenwynyn, Prince of Powys. She held out for 3 weeks until English reinforcements arrived, earning the castle its nickname of Matilda's Castle.
Hay Castle
One of Matilda's titles was the Lady of Hay and Welsh folklore has her building the Castle of Hay in one night, single-handed, carrying the stones in her skirts.
The couple had around 16 children together, who married into some of the most powerful families of the time. Their eldest son, William, married Maud de Clare, daughter of the Earl of Hertford. Another son, Giles, became Bishop of Hereford.
Of their daughters Loretta, married Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester and another, Margaret, married Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath.
A third son, Reginald, married, as his 2nd wife, Gwladus Ddu, daughter of Llewelyn the Great, Prince of Wales. Reginald's son, William, by his 1st wife married Eva Marshal, daughter of the great knight, William Marshal. It was this William de Braose who was ignominiously hanged by Llewelyn the Great, after being found in the bedchamber of Llewelyn's wife Joan, the Lady of Wales and natural daughter of King John. William had been at the Welsh court to arrange the marriage of his daughter, Isabel, to Llewelyn and Joan's son, David. Interestingly, the marriage still went ahead, although it was to be childless.
William de Braose was greatly favoured by King John in the early part of his reign. He was given Limerick in Ireland for 5,000 marks and also received the castle at Glamorgan and the lordship of Gower. William de Braose was the knight who captured the rival to John's throne, Arthur of Brittany, at the Siege of Mirebeau in 1202 and possibly witnessed Arthur's murder at Rouen in Easter 1203.
It was following Arthur's murder that things started to go wrong for the Lord and Lady of Bramber. John became increasingly suspicious of de Braose's loyalty and turned against him. This could have been for several reasons, not least being de Braose's knowledge of Arthur's fate.
Elsewhere, De Braose had fallen behind in his payments to the Exchequer for the honour of Limerick, but he had also sided with his friend William Marshal in his disagreements with the king. In addition, de Braose's son, Giles had been one of the bishops to approve an Interdict against John.
Trim Castle, Meath
Whatever the reason, in 1207 King John moved to make a public example of one of his most powerful barons, and punish him for his debts to the Exchequer. John demanded William and Matilda give up their sons as hostages.
Matilda refused and Roger of Wendover recorded her response to the soldiers sent to collect the boys, as; "I will not deliver my sons to your lord, King John, for he foully murdered his nephew Arthur, whom he should have cared for honourably."
There is some suggestion that William and Matilda realised she had gone too far, and tried to placate John with gifts. But it was too late.
John took possession of de Braose's castles and moved to arrest William. Forewarned, the couple fled to Ireland with 2 of their sons, where they took refuge with Walter de Lucy, their son-in-law and Lord of Meath. John followed after them, bringing other recalcitrant barons to heal along the way. While William de Braose tried to come to terms with the king, Matilda and their eldest son, William, escaped by taking ship for Scotland.
However, Matilda and her son were captured in Galloway by Duncan of Carrick, and having been returned to England in chains, they were imprisoned in Windsor Castle. King John made an agreement with both William and Matilda; freedom for her and a pardon for William in return for 40,000 marks.
However, being either unwilling or unable to pay, Matilda and her son remained in prison – either at Windsor or Corfe Castle – and William was outlawed, eventually escaping into exile in France, disguised as a beggar, where he died in 1211.
Matilda's fate was more gruesome; she and her son were left to starve to death in John's dungeons (though whether this was at Corfe or Windsor is unclear). Tradition has it, that when their bodies were found, William's cheeks bore his mother's bite marks, where she had tried to stay alive following his death.
John's treatment of the de Braose family did not lead to the submission of his barons, as John had intended, and the remainder of his reign was marred by civil war.
However when Magna Carta was written in 1215, Clause 39 may well have been included with Matilda and her family in mind:
"No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land."
Sources: sussexcastles.com; genie.com; steyningmuseum.org.uk; berkshirehistory.com; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225 by Robert Bartlett; Oxford Companion to British History Edited by John Cannon; The Story of Britain by Roy Strong; The Plantagenets; the Kings who Made England by Dan Jones; The Life and Times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Plantagenet Chronicles Edited by Elizabeth Hallam.
Telling the stories of some of the most incredible women from Medieval history, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amazon UK, in the US from Amazon US and worldwide from Book Depository. It will be released in paperback in the UK from 15 March 2019 and is available for pre-order from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon.
English history, Medieval History, Medieval Women, Plantagenets, UncategorizedArthur, Brittany, Corfe Castle, dungeons, England, France, Heroines of the Medieval World, History Heroines, Ireland, King John, Ladies of Magna Carta, Ladies of the Magna Carta, Magna Carta, Matilda, Maud de Braose, Normandy, Richard I, Scotland, Sharon Bennett Connolly, Silk and the Sword, Wales, William de Braose Llewelyn Fawr, William Marshal, Windsor
Isabel of Gloucester, the Lost Queen of England
Isabel of Gloucester is a shadow in the pages of history. I could find no pictures of her. Until recently, no one even seemed certain of her name; in the history books she has been called Isabel, Isabella, Hawise, Avice – probably due to different language interpretations and translations. However, Rich Price, who has done extensive research on primary sources from King John's reign has clarified that The Close Rolls definitely name her as 'comitissa Isabella' and 'Isabella filia Willielmi comitis', so we'll stick with Isabel.
Isabel was the youngest daughter, and co-heiress, of William, 2nd Earl of Gloucester and his wife, Hawise, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester; and therefore a great-granddaughter of Isabel de Vermandois. Although her date of birth has been lost to history – most sources say between 1173 and 1176 – she was betrothed in 1176, possibly whilst still in her cradle, to Prince John.
The youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, John was 9 years old at the time of the betrothal. However the wedding did not take place until 1189, when John was 21. Baldwin, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, opposed the marriage as the couple were related within the prohibited degrees, both being a great-grandchild of Henry I, and ordered that they should not live together as husband and wife.
John promised to seek a papal dispensation, in order to overcome Baldwin's objections – although it appears this was never obtained. Nonetheless, John and Isabel were married on 29th August, 1189, at Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire. Although they were married for 10 years, it is possible they never, or rarely lived together. They never had any children and it is during this time in his life that John's illegitimate children were born.
John succeeded to the throne on the death of his older brother Richard I – the Lionheart – on 6th April 1199. He was crowned king on 27th May 1199; the fact that Isabel was not crowned alongside him, suggests that John was already looking for a way out of the marriage. Isabel would never be styled Queen of England.
Coat of arms of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and Gloucester
Within months of his succession, possibly as early as 30th August 1199, but certainly by 1200, John had obtained a divorce on the grounds of consanguinity; the bishops of Lisieu, Bayeux and Avranches, sitting in Normandy, provided the required judgement.
However, in order to keep his hold on the substantial Gloucester lands, John detained Isabel in 'honourable confinement' for the next 14 years. He eventually arranged a new marriage for her, to a man who was over 16 years her junior.
In 1214, although probably past child-bearing age – certainly safe child-bearing age – she was married to Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, who had paid the considerable sum of 20,000 marks to become her second husband and Earl of Gloucester 'jure uxoris' (by right of his wife). Just 2 years later, in 1216, de Mandeville died from wounds he'd received in a tournament in London.
One of the Magna Cart sureties, de Mandeville was in a state of rebellion, against the crown, when he died; as a result, all his lands and titles – including the earldom of Gloucester – were forfeit to the crown. It was not until 17th September 1217, almost a year after the death of King John, that Isabel's lands were returned to her.
Hubert de burgh
At about the same time – or shortly after – Isabel was married for a third and final time, to Hubert de Burgh. Hubert De Burgh had become Chief Justiciar of England in 1215 and would rise to be Regent during the minority of Henry III. It was only several years after Isabel's death that he would be created Earl of Kent.
This final marriage was, sadly, very short-lived and Isabel was dead within months – possibly only a few weeks – of her wedding day and almost exactly a year after the death of her first husband, King John.
In spite of 3 marriages, Isabel never had children and was succeeded to the Earldom of Gloucester by her nephew, Gilbert de Clare.
She was laid to rest in Canterbury Cathedral, Kent.
Further Reading: Robert Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225; Dan Jones The Plantagenets; the Kings who Made England; The Plantagenet Chronicle Edited by Elizabeth Hallam; Maurice Ashley The Life and Times of King John; Roy Strong The Story of Britain; Oxford Companion to British History; Mike Ashley British Kings & Queens; David Williamson Brewer's British Royalty; Rich Price King John's Letters Facebook page.
Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
Out Now! Tracing the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066, Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest will be released in the UK on 15 November 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon UK, Amberley Publishing and Book Depository. It is scheduled for release in the US on 1 March 2019 and is available for pre-order from Amazon US.
Coming out in Paperback on 15 March: Telling the stories of some of the most incredible women from Medieval history, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from Amazon UK, in the US from Amazon US and worldwide from Book Depository. It will be released in paperback in the UK from 15 March 2019 and in the US on 1 June 2019. It is available for pre-order from both Amazon UK and Amazon US.
English history, Medieval History, Medieval Women, UncategorizedBristol, Canterbury Cathedral, Chief Justiciar, Countess of Gloucester, Earl of Essex, Earl of Gloucester, Earl of Kent, England, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Gilbert de Clare, Gloucester, Henry III, Hubert de Burgh, Isabel of Gloucester, Isabella of Gloucester, King John, Magna Carta, Marlborough Castle, Queen, Richard I, William Marshal


Even when the temperature is soaring high in Delhi, nothing can stop the enthusiasm and energy of fashion lovers from visiting the summer edition of Rubaru. Rubaru, which is a brain child of 3 friends, Durgesh Goel, Minal Aggarwal and Vandana Aggarwal is a collaborative effort to curate brands for a unique and stylized experience. It gives both the brands and customers their value for time and money. As a customer one gets to experience so many brands under one roof and the brands also benefit by getting a greater exposure. Such exhibitions are always a win win situation for everyone. In its 15th edition, Rubaru, yet again proved to be a fashion and lifestyle extravaganza.
Over 50 brands, specializing in summer-wear, organic materials, summer chic and wedding bling jewellery, home décor, juttis and footwear, and even interesting food products, it was a packed house at Lalit Hotel. Tarot reading on the side, bling footwear bang in the centre of the hall and noted FDCI designers Rahul Singh, Abhi Singh and Gaurav Jagtiani coming together to form the perfect ensemble for a fashionable day out. Out-of-town travellers included brands who'd come from Jaipur, Lucknow, Punjab, Himachal and even Goa.
"No two brands at our exhibition have overlapping products or styles, and I only pick brands that I enjoy or would love to shop from, to give people a quality shopping experience," says Durgesh Goel, founder of Rubaru.
The collection showcased by the designers was really chic and classy, and some of the pieces were truly mind-blowing. It seemed like a shoppers paradise. Me and my friend and my mom, enjoyed walking through the entire exhibition, picking up our choices and even posing with some of the designer pieces.
Given a chance, would have picked up a lot more stuff from the exhibition, but holding on for the next edition to indulge and splurge. Exquisite pieces of jewellery and some inso-western outfits really grabbed my attention and loved them.
A great evening spent splurging and having fun with friends..Rubaru was truly a delightful experience!
India Design ID 2017- Creativity at next level..!!
India Deign ID, is one exhibition that I look forward to every year, It really satiates my need to witness some creativity live, and OMG what creativity. This exhibition truly is an abode of creativity, so many designers, so many exquisite showcases under one roof that one cant help but keep staring and admiring the collection. The exhibition that helps create a new generation of creative and business-based talent factories to help fuel the design economy of the country, India Design ID recognises and celebrates designers and creativity from diverse disciplines in designing – interiors, product design, architecture and installations.
The event comprised of three verticals – ID Exhibit, ID Symposium and ID Satellite. This collaboration aims to bring together the design community to share their experiences, knowledge and aesthetics through exhibitions, installations and discussions.
ID EXHIBIT is an exhibition space that showcased the finest in home decoration, with high-end brands and designers unveiling their latest collections. This year, India Design ID presented themed pavilions, namely Decoration, Decoration I, Decoration II, Design and Trends. Housed within the Decoration Pavilion being the best in décor, the Trends Pavilion presented the Colour Next trend forecasts for 2017, and the Design Pavilion showcased the talents of designers and design labels.
The Decoration Pavilion included established names such as Arttd'inox, Apartment9, Antonio Lupi, Beyond Designs, K2India, Roca, BoConcept, Sarita Handa, The Pure Concept and Rational Kitchens by CJ Living to name a few.
Apartment 9 had breathtakingly beautiful interiors and was truly a class apart. Those who seek luxury and opulence, this is the brand that should be remembered.
Next I was awestruck, when I saw the statement chairs and dining table display by Kanika Bawa, must compliment the knowledge and vision the lady holds. I got a chance to personally interact with her and know more about her collection, and it would be an understatement to say that I was extremely impressed.
Her candy floss collection was no less than an ensemble cast, we see in movies, or we see in our own families when we look deep down. Every family has that man of the family, the father, the simple yet the strongest character, mother, the book lover, the drama queen, the fashionista, the gamer and the love dove couple to name a few, and her chairs of the dining table reflected each of these characters with great simplicity and design. It was a treat to watch this collection and I am sure that I am myself going to add a couple of chairs to my home and dedicate them to my family members.
ID Symposium, which seeks to inspire the design fraternity in India, and also offer a networking opportunity to build relationships within the industry. ID Symposium featured engaging speakers from different walks of life, such as Alberto Alessi, Humberto Campana, Sou Fujimoto, Ashiesh Shah, Sanjay Puri, Alberto Meda, Li Edelkoort to name a few.
ID Satellite, the hip offsite vertical discovers design districts of Delhi with promotions, collaborations and events across different venues through week long festivities at design districts like Lado Sarai, Meharchand Market, Shahpur Jat, Defence Colony, and MG Road with new additions at Khan Market and Greater Kailash which will have the capital buzzing with design. The participating venues will feature design-linked activities across lifestyle stores, restaurants, malls, bookshops, galleries, select public/private locations, with an explosion of launches, new collections, cocktails, previews, reviews and special events.
The event saw over 40,000 visitors, from the design trade as well as design-conscious consumers and I already look forward to the next season.
Posted in Beauty & FashionTagged Best Lifestyle Blog, Design Exhibition, Design Expo, Home Decor, India Design ID, Interiors, Lifestyle Blog, Lifestyle Blogger, Lifestyle ExhibitionLeave a Comment on India Design ID 2017- Creativity at next level..!!
2,000+Buyers Visit First HKTDC Lifestyle Expo in New Delhi!
The HongKong Trade Development Council held their first ever Lifestyle Expo on the 19th and 20th of Dec, 2016 at the Hotel The Lalit, New Delhi. The Expo had 120 Hong Kong and mainland companies participating in this first Lifestyle Expo showcasing a wide range of trendy high quality merchandise. The Expo was jointly organized by HKTDC and Trade Development Bureau of Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China. The event saw over 2000+ Buyers visit the Expo held over two days.
Hong Kong being the facilitator helped develop stronger bilateral trade relations between India and Mainland China.
High ranking officials from Indian Trade Promotion Organisation, HKTDC and Trade Development Bureau, People's Republic of China graced the prestigious event.
"We have very big hopes for the future of trade links between India and China, with Hong Kong serving as a 'super-connector' between two of the world's most populous and fastest-growing large economies," said Mr Liang. "India and China are two of the fastest-growing large economies on earth, with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) predicting GDP growth of 7.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively in 2017. Together, they have a combined population of some 2.7 billion potential consumers," he added.
The HKTDC successfully arranged over 1600 one to one business matching meetings and various networking events to further connect Hong Kong and Cineses mainland suppliers with potential buyers.
The main attraction of the Expo was the popular hktdc.com Small Orders.
This showcased over 150!products available for orders from a mere 5 pcs to 1000 units to help buyers to buy in smaller quantities to check the markets thereby minimizing their financial risk. A really worthwhile step.
A very welcome event held by HKTDC greatly appreciated by both suppliers from Hong Kong and Mainland China and Buyers from across Asia and world over.
Hope HKTDC holds many more such events to facilitate the growing business between Hong Kong and Mainland China.
Posted in Events & HappeningsTagged China, HKTDC, HongKong, Hongkong Tourism, Hongkong Tourism Lifestyle Expo, Lifestyle Blog, Lifestyle Blogger, Lifestyle Event, Lifestyle Exhibition, Lifestyle ExpoLeave a Comment on 2,000+Buyers Visit First HKTDC Lifestyle Expo in New Delhi!
Pop It Up- The Next Big Thing In Fashion, Food & Music..!!
POP IT UP will take place from Saturday, September 10th to Sunday, September 11th 2016 in Delhi at the Nehru Park, PSOI Club.
The same venue has hosted some of the notable events in the capital before and is located in the heart of the capital city and is surrounded by embassies of over 15 countries. Hence, the expat community and notable VIPs are also expected to attend the flea.
The expected footfall is between 15,000-18,000 visitors.
It is a shopping festival where visitors can discover and shop from the local and country's best upcoming artists and designers who they are unlikely to find in the city's malls. The event will have 70 stalls for the designer and lifestyle brands.
It's also a food festival where people get to sample food from dozens of upcoming chefs experimenting with world and fusion cuisines and also a bar & lounge with amazing variety of the best liquor. There will be 30 exclusive stalls for food outlets/home chefs/cafes.
It's a music festival where visitors can listen to some of the most vibrant up and coming singer-songwriters and independent musicians from all over the country. 8 handpicked bands will be performing live at the flea.
Other attractions include hair & make up workshop, cocktail making workshop, t-shirt painting, pottery workshop, pet café, free book exchange section and many more.
Here is a sneak peek from one of the designer's collection. It's called EEDHA by Heena and Vasudha- A texture for every story. Expression of pure glam merged in gorgeousness, simply styling your way!
Eedha places emphasis on fine tailoring and slick cuts, incorporating traditional Indian embroideries embellished in a refined modern approach.
Some of the other prominent designers participating in the fashion flea are Post Fold, Tj & Li, Poochki, Summation, The Patakha Closet, Desi Drama Queen, Rusari, Little Things, WearMates, Rosado, Harhighness, Hussain & Sons, Yellow Owl, Yellow Gypsy, Scherazad, Ah! StyleMe, Dastkari Collections, Ghungrooz, The Pink Seam, For Example, Khanak, Koo Koo Shop, Jewellery by Ritz, Zubiya, Naaz, A Bit Of Me, Eedha by Heena & Vasudha, Ilya, Auruhfy, Sonal Cotton Collection, Zurie, Sukriti, Bead Haus Co., Studio Enoy, Midnight Owl, Sitaara and many more..!
Ikreate takes immense pleasure in being the online media partner for Pop It Up and aims at making it a huge success together. I hope to definitely see you all there.
Those who seek participation at the festival can get in touch for floor plan, stall costs and other details at the following numbers and also follow the InstaBounce and Ikreate Facebook Page for updates.
Posted in Events & HappeningsTagged Delhi Event, Delhi Lifestyle Blogger, Designers Festival, Event Announcement, Events & Happenings, Fashion Blog, Fashion Blogger, Fashion Event, Fashion Exhibition, Fashion Festival, Flea Market, Food Festival, Ikreate, Ikreate Passions, Lifestyle Blog, Lifestyle Event, Lifestyle Exhibition, Online Media Partner24 Comments on Pop It Up- The Next Big Thing In Fashion, Food & Music..!!


text:
Q: What am I screwing up trying to download particular file types with wget? I am attempting to regularly archive a few file types hosted on a community website where our admin has been MIA for years, in case he dies or just stops paying for the hosting.
I am able to download all of the files I need using wget -r -np -nd -e robots=off -l 0 URL but this leaves me with about 60,000 extra files to waste time both downloading and deleting.
I am really only looking for files with the extensions "tbt" and "zip". When I add in -A tbt,zip to the input, wget then only downloads a single file, "index.html.tmp". It immediately deletes this file because it doesn't match the file type specified, and then the process stops entirely, with wget announcing that it is finished. It does not attempt to download any of the other files that it grabs when the -A flag is not included.
What am I doing wrong? Why does specifying file types in the way that I did cause it to finish after only looking at one file?

A: Possibly you're hitting the same problem I've hit when trying to do something similar. When using --accept, wget determines whether a links refers to a file or directory based on whether or not it ends with a /.
For example, say I have a directory named files, and a web page that has:
Lots o' files!

If I were to request this with wget -r, then I wget would happily GET /files, see that it was an HTML document containing a bunch of links, and continue to download those links.
However, if I add -A zip to my command line, and run wget with --debug, I see:
appending 'http://localhost:8080/files' to urlpos.
[...]
Deciding whether to enqueue "http://localhost:8080/files".
http://localhost:8080/files (files) does not match acc/rej rules.
Decided NOT to load it.

In other words, wget thinks this is a file (no trailing /) and it doesn't match our acceptance criteria, so it gets rejected.
If I modify the remote file so that it looks like...
Lots o' files!

...then wget will follow the link and download files as desired.
I don't think there's a great solution to this problem if you need to use wget.  As I mentioned in my comment, there are other tools available that may handle this situation more gracefully.
It's also possible you're experiencing a different issue; the output of adding --debug to your command line clarify things in that case.

A: I also experienced this issue, on a page where all the download links looked something like this: filedownload.ashx?name=file.mp3. The solution was to match for both the linked file, and the downloaded file. So my wget accept flag looked like this: -A 'ashx,mp3'. I also used the --trust-server-names flag. This catches all the .ashx that are linked in the webpage, then when wget does the second check, all the mp3 files that were downloaded will stay.
As an alternative to --trust-server-names, you may also find the --content-disposition flag helpful. Both flags help rename the file that gets downloaded from filedownload.ashx?name=file.mp3 to just file.mp3.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
E3 Press Conferences: 5 Questions
July 15, 2008 / VegettoEX / 6 Comments
So yesterday and today were the press conferences / media summits / whatever they are for Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony (in that order). As to be expected, I followed along with all the live-blogging, checked out the audio/video feeds later on, and read as much as I could possibly read.
After having a little bit of time to reflect on everything that's been said and shown, I came up with five major questions I wanted to put out there… more so as rhetorical questions than anything else.
Question #5: What's with Nintendo and all the mini-accessories?
Seriously, what's going on? First we had Wii Play and the extra remote… that made perfect sense. Mario Kart Wii came with the little plastic wheel that really doesn't do anything beyond hold it upright for you and I can't figure out how on Earth Jeff is able to play that way and win. Then came WiI Fit and the balance board. Next comes Animal Crossing with the WiiSpeak and Wii Sports Resort with the Wii MotionPlus. Is this all calculated on Nintendo's part, combined with how well the Wii version of Guitar Hero III (with, obviously, its own required peripheral) has done? Is it how they're able to complement their enthusiast+mainstream media attention? What's so special about this generation? While it's true that they've done similar things in the past (look at the NES era with things like the U-Force, NES Advantage, etc.)… something seems different about today, and it's irritating me that I can't see through them.
Question #4: How well-integrated will this 360/Netflix setup be?
The main gamertag on our 360 is my own, which is set up for Gold. The Netflix account is under the woman's name, whose 360 gamertag is only Silver. How tightly integrated is this going to be? Will I be able to tie our household's existing Gold gamertag to our household's existing Netflix account? So long as there's not someone sitting there literally checking each name against each name against each gamertag and so on and so forth… it should be OK. I don't see why it wouldn't be…
Question #3: How did FUNimation get to be so big with the gaming companies?
If you know anything about my main gig, you'll know why I'm asking this. How weird was it to see FUNimation's name right up there with all the big movie companies for Sony's video service rollout? We've discussed FUNimation's rise in the domestic anime industry in great detail over on Daizenshuu EX (both in the general website updates and our podcast), so I'll leave the rest of the discussion for over there.
Question #2: How will "Animal Crossing" evolve and innovate?
The biggest complaint we had about the "first" and "second" games (yes, I understand there was an N64 game in Japan) was that once you paid off your mortgage to Mr. Sleezebag Nook… there simply wasn't much else to do. Sure, you could make sure you got all of the fruit trees, you could talk to your neighbors, and you could catch all the fish… but there was hardly enough "end-game" content (can you even call it that with this series?) to keep us around for a ridiculous amount of time. So Nintendo, are you going to just re-release the same game yet again? We already know we'll be able to talk to each other with the new WiiSpeak, and it sounds like there will be a good amount of group-based communication available to us… but what are we actually going to be able to / have to DO? We'll just have to wait for more information on the game…!
Question #1: Is backwards compatibility dead?
Sony had announced that come September, the current 40 GB will be discontinued in favor of a reversioned 80 GB, which itself will take on the same feature-set as the current 40 GB… which, if you're playing along at home, means you lose your PS2 backwards compatibility for good. Nintendo did not mention Virtual Console at all (OK, fine… that's paid emulation), Microsoft did not mention Xbox Originals at all (OK, fine… that's also paid emulation, but at least you can still pop those discs in if you have them), and Sony is pulling PS2 backwards compatibility entirely.
What do you think about this? Is backwards compatibility still relevant? Does anyone really care? As you may have heard at the end of our first podcast episode, our topic for episode numero dos is going to be just that… backwards compatibility. We definitely have a lot to say on the matter, but we're eager to get your thoughts in ahead of time so we can share them on the show.
e3microsoftnintendorhetorical questionssony
Random DBZ Image: #001
No more convenience store arcade machines
Jaime/Karasuhebi
This might have been in one of my many feeds in Google Reader today and I just missed it but…how did you get a/v feeds for the press conferences? I watched them on G4. Are they on G4 On Demand already?
I think backwards compatibility is pretty much dead, yes. I really don't want it to be dead, though. I still play PS1 and PS2 games! I sold my PS1 soon after I got my PS2 (which is something I regret to this day); imagine if the PS2 didn't have backwards compatibility. I wouldn't have been able to play FFVII again! (on a console, at least).
So yeah…I really really really don't want backwards compat. to go away. And if it does…well @#$%. I guess I'll have to keep all of my consoles and have to plug 'em in whenever I want to play an old-gen game. :-
-Jaime/KB
So far this E3 has been lame as hell. There really weren't any surprises and that always makes for a boring E3. Besides stuff we already knew about what surprising game is coming out ? Nothing. Just RE5 and Final Fantasy XIII. Pathetic. I'm really disappointed in Nintendo too.
About the Wii Motion Plus, it seems like a really big change (wrists) to split up the user base on. It was mentioned on the 1up podcast, but how will developers make games that take advantage of this when they know not every Wii owner will have the add-on? It would be easier to just ignore it.
As far as backwards-compatibility goes, it sucks that Sony is phasing it out. I wonder how much of a strain it would be on production costs to just add software-BC to the 40 gig. But its sad that we started with a perfect 60 gig with BC, but we are ending up with an 80gig without BC.
Also, the inclusion of Funimation made me smile. Sony knows gamers and anime fans usually overlap, its such a good idea to bring in one of the biggest US anime companies.
At first I was excited about the "price cut", but it took me awhile to realize it's just the 40 gig… with 80 gigs! If I wanted a gimped PS3 with 80 gigs I would have bought the 40 gig and replaced the hard drive! If they are saying that the current 80 gig is being phased out as well… I don't know if I would still want a PS3 without some kind of BC…
LSSJ4
This E3 was truly a letdown. There was so much expectation and speculation. None of it happened. The big three had such good chances to show somethings fans would really want. Microsoft was trying to hard to be Nintendo with their whole redesign of the 360 interface. Nintendo had like one game that somewhat appeals to the the core demographic (Animal Crossing?).Sony seemed to have the best show, they actually had games for both groups of gamers. I'm a Nintendo fanboy so, me saying that about Sony surprises me.
Taku128
Does Virtual Console really count as backwards compatability? You're not actually playing your old game cartridges on the Wii, you're buying ROMs of said games to play on Wii.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Can you believe it, today marks our 15th year writing to each other! I remember searching the Internet looking for a site to gain a pen pal and found a website called Friendship. I checked out different profiles not expecting much then I see your smiling face. You were wearing a t-shirt with a fierce, roaring tiger on the front. It made me think immediately: we both adore tigers and felines in general and I like this honest, smiling face. Shortly after I wrote you and waited to see if you would write back.
You did and since then we have written back and forth nearly every day about such topics as our families, our cats, work, social activities, problems, books, movies, television and on and on I could go.
I bet you are wondering why in the world is Bonnie writing about this? Why well I really appreciate what we have as e-mail pen pals and how strong our friendship is. I just wanted you to know how much it means to me to have you in my life. I look forward each day to reading what you typed then responding back. If one of us is a day slow, we are sure to type a message of concern. Then the next time one of us is online it is a hurry to let the other one know all is good with a promise next time to if possible forewarn the other if a message will be late. That is just how close we are!
Just so you know I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you, yes I know I wrote that several times in this message but I can't help stressing it… just this once! I promise!


University of San Diego is one of the 138 private 4-year, not-for-profit colleges in California. Its campus is medium in size and located in San Diego. The institution offers both undergrad and graduate degree programs.
In the 2017 fall enrollment, 1,210 freshman students enrolled, and approximately 1,089 students returned for their sophomore year (which makes its freshman retention rate 90%).
Every year 82% of students graduate in 150% of the time it takes to complete their respective studies.
University of San Diego's in-state tuition for 2017-2018 academic year was $47,100, and fees were $608. Out-of-state tuition and fees for the same period were $47,100 and $608 respectively.
The University of San Diego Master of Science emphasizes advanced focus in nursing in theory, practice and research.
The faculty of the USD nursing program work to maintain strong research program allowing the school to be awarded the largest research grant in the history of the University. The Nursing Clinical Simulation Laboratory is the only one of its kind in the state of California allowing students to experience expert clinical practice utilizing cutting edge technology.
The program offers seven areas of emphasis Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Dual Adult-Gerontology Nurse, Executive Nurse Leader, Clinical Nurse Leader, Practitioner/Family Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Practitioner/ Family Nurse Practitioner, Dual Pediatric and Family/Lifespan, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Family Nurse Practitioner, and Health Care Informatics.
Three MSN options are also offered in Mind-Body-Spirit Health Care option, the Latino Health Care Option and Nursing Education.
The post BSN DNP program is also offered for Registered Nurses who are interested in preparing for primary care. The program is a 3 year full time program with part time study options available.
The curriculum ranges from 78 semester credits to 91 semester credits depending upon the concentration of study and prior courses taken.
Students who complete the program will be eligible to apply for national board certification.
The School of Nursing and Health Science accepts students to the Master of Science in Nursing Program for enrollment in the both the spring and fall semesters.
The University of San Diego Master of Science in Nursing, program is intended for students who possess a baccalaureate degree in nursing. The curriculum for the MSN program focuses on theory, practice and research.
The MSN program offers a range of options including Health Care Informatics, Executive Nurse Leader, Adult Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Family Nurse Practitioner, Clinical Nurse Leader, Dual Pediatric Nurse Practitioner/Family Nurse Practitioner, Dual Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner/Family Nurse Practitioner, Family/Lifespan Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Dual Pediatric Nurse Practitioner/Family Nurse Practitioner.
The program requires core courses for all specialties designed to prepare students in their area. The program consists of 78-91 semester credits adding up to three years of full time study with part time study options available as necessary. The program is a campus based program with classes offered one or two days a week. Clinical experiences are tailored to the specific needs of the various options.
Students who successfully graduate from the program will be eligible for national board certification.
In 2017-2018 academic year, 85% of University of San Diego's students received financial aid. Below is the breakdown of the financial aid provided to students.