The Last Days of Richard III by John Ashdown-Hill

Author:John Ashdown-Hill [John Ashdown-Hill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752462509
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

1. Most horses which appear to be white only have a white hair coat. Their underlying skin is dark in colour, as are their eyes. Such horses are therefore more accurately described as ‘grey’. Rarely, true white horses do occur, which have pink skin under their coats and usually blue eyes. It is impossible at this late date to establish whether ‘White Surrey’ or ‘White Syrie’ – if indeed he existed – was in reality white or grey.

2. On ‘White Syrie’, see J. Jowett, ed., The Tragedy of King Richard III, Oxford, 2000, p. 336 and n. 43; also N. de Somogyi, ed., The Shakespeare Folios: Richard III, London, 2002, p. 267, n. 90. For the list of Richard III’s horses, see Harl. 433, vol. 1, pp. 4–5.

3. See Θ, on John Howard’s stable, and Harl. 433, vol. 1, pp. 4–5. The list of Richard III’s horses includes twenty named mounts which were either grey (liard, lyard or gray) or white (whit). Amongst these was ‘the gret gray … being at Harmet at Nottingham’. There is no horse specifically named ‘White Syrie’, but not all the horses are named, nor are all described in terms of their colour.

4. See Θ.

5. Speede’s account is cited in J. Throsby, The Memoirs of the Town and County of Leicester, Leicester, 1777, p. 61, n.b.

6. F. Roe, Old Oak Furniture, London, 1908, p. 286.

7. S.E. Green, Selected Legends of Leicestershire, Leicester, 1971, 1982, p. 21. Green cites no source for this quotation.

8. As we have seen (above), there is no actual evidence for any such change of name.

9. Green, Legends, p. 21. Thomas Clarke was mayor of Leicester in 1583 and again in 1598: H. Hartopp, The Roll of the Mayors of the Borough and Lord Mayors of the City of Leicester 1209–1935, Leicester, 1935, pp. 75–76, 80. The story of Clark (e)’s treasure was first written down in Sir Roger Twysden’s ‘Commonplace Book’ in about 1650, and published in Nichols’ History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (1815).

10. Throsby, Leicester, pp. 14, 62, n.b. The feet, which were cut off in the mid-eighteenth century, measured 6 inches square and were 2 feet 6 inches in height.

11. There are recent rumours of a ‘Richard III bed’ at a farmhouse in Sheepy Magna (J.D. Austin, Merevale and Atherstone 1485: Recent Bosworth Discoveries, Friends of Atherstone Heritage, 2004, section 21). But an indication of the ease with which ‘Richard III beds’ may be invented, is provided by the fact that the present author was told that a wooden bedstead at the Guildhall in Leicester had belonged to Richard III. Subsequent enquiries revealed that the bed in question is seventeenth century, was purchased for the Guildhall as part of a room display in the 1950s, and has absolutely no historic connection either with Leicester or with King Richard (I am grateful to Philip French, curator of Leicester City Museums, for this information). See also below, note 16.

12. Speede, History, p. 725.

13. See the case of Jeweyn Blakecote, sortilega, in J.

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