Richard III tour to Plantagenet England

August 2-15, 2003

Early Booking Price, before April 2, 2003: $3550

Regular Price, from April 2, 2003: $3850

Single Supplement $480, Deposit $600

Tour Director: Professor Peter Gravgaard

Itinerary

Day 1 (August 2, 2003)

Fly to London, England. (Ask your travel agent to book you a flight arriving on Day 2 of the tour between 08:00 am and 11:00 am)

Day 2 (August 3, 2003)

You arrive in London. From your airport - Heathrow or Gatwick - take a bus, taxi or London Underground train to our meeting place: the LONDON EMBASSY HOTEL, 150 Bayswater Road, London, W2 4RT Tel (0171) 9-1212). Meeting time: 12.00 noon. Here you will meet your tour director who will take you to your hotel in Saffron Walden in his tour bus. Welcome Dinner in the evening when the tour director will explain the program.

Day 3 (August 4, 2003)

Today we visit the most beautiful university campus in Europe - you might mention the Sorbonne in Paris, Salamanca in Spain, or Heidelberg in Germany, but when it comes to beauty, Cambridge takes the prize. We spend the whole day exploring the university colleges and the town, where the names of kings and queens from the Wars of the Roses constantly catch your eye: King Henry VI founded King's College in 1441. His queen, Margaret of Anjou, re-established the existing St Bernard's College as Queen Margaret's College. Her rival, Queen Elizabeth, wife of Edward IV, continued the work, so that the college became Queens' College. (Notice the position of the apostrophe.) Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry Tudor, re-established God's House as Christ's College, and founded St John's College. Finally, Trinity College (known to many from the film, Chariots of Fire) was founded by Edward III in 1336 and re-founded by Henry VIII in 1546.

Make sure you see King's College Chapel with its fan vaulting (probably by the architect, John Wastell, from Bury St Edmunds, who also built the fan vaulting in the retrochoir of Peterborough Cathedral).

After seeing Cambridge we return to Saffron Walden for another outstanding dinner. You might want to have a look at the center of Saffron Walden, another beautiful little town (See Alec Clifton-Taylor's, Six More English Towns).

Day 4 (August 5, 2003)

Today we drive from Saffron Walden to Stamford, via Ely, Crowland and Fotheringhay.

The area was once part of the old Danelaw Country, which was settled by the Vikings, and this is borne out by numerous place names and details of local history. Our first stop is Ely. The name means "eel island" , for before the Fens were drained in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the only means of access to Ely was by boat or causeway. This explains, of course, how Hereward the Wake, the local hero, was able to withstand William the Conqueror's Norman invaders in June 1070, when Hereward was assisted by the Danes under Knud (later St Knud). This fighting between the Normans and the English rebels helped by the Danes under King Svend Estridsen and his son, Knud, continued from 1069 to 1075, only ceasing when Knud was murdered in 1086.

Ely's inaccessibility also explains why later, in 1460, Henry VI contemplated seeking refuge here when the Yorkist army approached. This was before his life became simplified by his captivity after the Lancastrian defeat at Northampton.

However, our main reason for visiting Ely is to see the wonderful cathedral with its octagonal lantern and great Lady Chapel and, time permitting, to visit the impressive complex of monastic buildings preserved here from the former great Benedictine Abbey. (The rebel tradition of Hereward the Wake lived on: during the Civil War Oliver Cromwell had his headquarters here in Ely, and there is still a Cromwell Museum close to the Cathedral.)

From Ely we drive on, via March (with St Wendreda's Church - hammer-beam construction with finely carved angels taking flight) to Thorney (Hereward's last stand), then to Crowland Abbey in the Fens. Here was written the Croyland Chronicle (also called Ingulph's History of the Abbey of Croyland) which is interesting for Ricardians because it contains the substance of the Titulus Regius (the Act of Settlement of 1484) which established the legitimacy of Richard III's claim to the throne of England. (For more information about this complicated problem, please read Jeremy Potter's Good King Richard? Or V.B.Lamb's The Betrayal of Richard III, see Bibliography.)

We continue our ride from Crowland to Fotheringhay, where you can see the site of the great castle, once the property of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York (1411-1460). Richard III was born here and Mary, Queen of Scots was executed here. It was for this reason that her son, James I had the castle pulled down, stone by stone, leaving only the grassy motte behind. However, the church, St Mary and All Saints, which was built to be the dynastic burial church of the House of York, is still prominent, surmounted by the crest of Richard, Duke of York: the Falcon and Fetterlock.

We leave Fotheringhay to drive to nearby Stamford where we spend the night.

Day 5 (August 6, 2003)

Today is Sunday; we drive to Bosworth Field (via Leicester) to visit the battlefield where King Richard III was killed on 22 August, 1485. There is usually a re-enactment of the battle by English aficionados. After visiting the battlefield we drive to Royal Leamington Spa or Warwick, where we spend the night.

Day 6 (August 7, 2003)

Our first visit today is to Warwick Castle, one of the greatest in England, comparable to Windsor in size. The present castle dates back to the Beauchamps, earls from 1267 to 1449. Anne Beauchamp married Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, who thereby became also Earl of Warwick. He is known to history as "the Kingmaker". It later became the property of the Duke of Clarence, then of the Duke of Gloucester, the later Richard III.

Having seen the castle, you should take a walk through the town of Warwick to see especially the Lord Leycester Hospital and the fine houses in the High Street. Don't miss St Mary's Church with the Beauchamp Chapel which has a statue of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, the legal guardian of Henry VI when he was a young boy.

From Warwick we drive (via the Cotswolds?) to Tewkesbury where we spend the night.

Day 7 (August 8, 2003)

The Battle of Tewkesbury between Queen Margaret of Anjou 's army and King Edward IV's army took place on 4 May, 1471. Margaret was moving towards Wales to join up with the forces of Jasper Tudor in Wales, while Edward was trying to catch her before she achieved the meeting. Today we will walk the battlefield, following the stages of the battle. Next we visit Tewkesbury Abbey, one of the finest churches in England. The town itself should also be walked through and admired. (As with Saffron Walden, Stamford and Warwick, Alec Clifton-Taylor is an invaluable guide, please see Bibliography.)

In the afternoon we drive to Ludlow, where we stay for two nights. On the way we will try to follow the escape route taken by Margaret of Anjou when she learned of the disaster at Tewkesbury: she had been staying at "Payne's Place in Bushley"; from here she fled to Birtsmorton Court, and she seems to have been arrested by Sir William Stanley at Little Malvern Priory. We will visit her hiding places wherever possible. For Margaret of Anjou the Battle of Tewkesbury became her definitive defeat: her son, Edward of Lancaster, was dead, her husband, King Henry VI, would soon be killed in the Tower of London, she herself became a prisoner moving from castle to castle in England, until she was ransomed by King Louis XI of France in 1476. She died in poverty in France in 1482.

Day 8 (August 9, 2003)

We will spend the day in Ludlow, with an excursion in the afternoon to see the battlefield of Mortimer's Cross. The battle took place 2 February, 1461, and Edward of York, son of Richard of York, and later King Edward IV, here defeated the Lancastrian army of Pembroke, Wiltshire and Owen Tudor.

In the morning we will visit the formidable Ludlow Castle, the property of the Mortimer family, the Marcher lords, and therefore of Richard of York whose Fotheringhay Castle we have recently imagined, rather than seen! Ludlow Castle has an unusual circular chapel and a great hall.

After the castle you should see the fine St Lawrence Church with remarkable misericords. The rest of the morning is reserved for a walk through this handsome town: you should especially notice Broad Street and Mill Street with gorgeous black-and-white carved timber-framed houses. Just look at the famous Feathers Hotel! Ludlow also possesses some attractive Georgian stone houses. After our visit to Mortimer's Cross we will return to our hotel in Ludlow.

Day 9 (August 10, 2003)

Today we drive from Ludlow to Lincoln (where we spend the night), but we begin by visiting one of England's amazing medieval manorhouses: Stokesay Castle. The land had been given by William the Conqueror to Walter de Lacy, whose son built the great Ludlow Castle, but Stokesay got its name Stoke-Say from Stoke (=dairy farm) and Sai (from the Say family) - a member of this family built the earliest part of the house in 1240. Later the house was completed by a rich wool merchant, Lawrence de Ludlow, who bought it in 1281. Like the interesting museum at Bosworth Field a visit to Stokesay gives us an idea of how well-off people lived around 1300.

From Stokesay we drive to Lincoln via Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Tamworth, Nottingham and Newark.

Day 10 (August 11, 2003)

The day begins with a walk through the high town of Lincoln and a visit to the great Lincoln Cathedral - great because beautiful: Alec Clifton-Taylor considers it to be one of the four finest churches in England, and great because large: it is the third largest church in England, after York Minster and St Paul's. The original church, built by the Normans, was destroyed by earthquake and fire, so that the present church was rebuilt by Bishop Hugh of Avalon.

During your visit you should notice the tomb and chantry of Katherine Swynford, John of Gaunt's third wife, who nowadays is mostly known as the subject of Anya Seton's "classic romantic saga", Katherine. (See Bibliography). There is also a booklet on Katherine Swynford by the author of the standard book on John of Gaunt, Anthony Goodman.

After our visit to Lincoln we drive to Kettlethorpe, to see the remains of the manor which Katherine Swynford owned. From here we continue to Gainsborough to see the Old Hall, built in 1484 by Lord de Burgh who received King Richard III here. This is one of the best surviving medieval houses in England which are open to the public. Here you can visit a medieval kitchen and a fine timbered great hall.

From Gainsborough we drive via Scunthorpe and Crowle to Goole and Selby before approaching the Battlefield of Towton where, on 29 March 1461 took place "the lamentable Battle of Towton", in which Edward IV of the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians under Clifford, Northumberland and Somerset. We will try to give you an impression of the bloodiest battle fought on English soil - Alison Weir (The Wars of the Roses, p.284) estimates that near 40,000 men were killed.

From Towton we take you to our hotel in York (where we stay for two nights).

Day 11 (August 12, 2003)

Today's program is entirely devoted to visiting York, the old northern capital of England. The only way to see this wonderful city is on foot, so you are free to explore. But let us consider the historic background. The Romans kept one legion here and built a fort in AD 71; Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor here in 306. Later the Angles chose York as capital of their kingdom of Deira. Danish Viking York was called Jorvik and lasted from 886-954. The last Norse king was the Norwegian, King Erik Bloodaxe, who died in 954. After him the Anglo-Saxon Eadred took over. The next invader was, of course, William the Conqueror. The pattern we saw in Ely we can now recognize in York: Norman invasion - English resistance with Danish assistance - Norman repression. William's suppression of Northern England was called the "Harrying of the North". (Simeon of Durham, the chronicler, relates: "such a great famine prevailed that men devoured human flesh, horses, cats and dogs. It was terrible to see human corpses rotting in the houses and in the streets.")

On your walk through York you should try to see the following: York Minster and the Minster Close, St William's College, the Shambles, the Palace of the Danish Kings (King's Court), the Mansion House, the Jorvik Center in Coppergate, the King's Manor, the Hall of the Merchant Adventurers of York, Guildhall, Stonegate, the Citywall with gates ("bars"): Bootham Bar, Micklegate Bar, Walmgate Bar, Monk Bar. We will all get together in our hotel for dinner.

Day 12 (August 13, 2003)

We leave York today to drive to Alnwick for one night. We will stop to see the little manorhouse of Markenfield outside Ripon, if possible. From here we proceed to Middleham to see the great castle which belonged to the Neville family - Ralph Neville had modernized it, and his grandson Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, called "Warwick the Kingmaker", had made it into a "Windsor of the North". Richard III acquired the castle in 1471, and his son, Edward of Middleham, was born here.

From Middleham we drive to Durham to see the finest cathedral in England. - A bit of history: after William the Conqueror had suppressed the rebellion of the North in 1069 with his "Harrying of the North" (ie genocide of Northern England) he had a series of castles built for a stable repression of the people. Durham Castle, built 1069, and Richmond Castle, built 1071, are just two examples.

Durham Cathedral can also be seen as a response to the onslaught of the Vikings: in 664 Cuthbert had come to Holy Island. He became a saint and, in 875, fearing an attack by Danish Vikings, the monks of Lindisfarne Monastery fled with the coffin containing his saintly relics, first to Chester-le-Street and then to Durham, where a church was built to house the relics. This was to become the finest Norman church, not only in England, but perhaps the whole of Europe. So let us take our time to enjoy both Durham Cathedral and the Cathedral Close and the nearby town.

From Durham we continue the drive to Alnwick where we spend the night.

Day 13 (August 14, 2003)

Today's program consists of visits to the "birthplace of English Christianity", the Lindisfarne Monastery on Holy Island off the Northumberland coast, and to the two great fortresses, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh.

The first monastery on Holy Island seems to date from St Aidan's arrival here from Iona. In 635 King Oswald invited him to come here and convert the Angles to Christianity. This led to the establishment of a thriving priory (St Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels), which was interrupted by the Viking raids which began in 793. Both Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh were Norman fortresses which played a role in Edward III's wars against the Scots. John of Gaunt, his son, fortified Dunstanburgh.

In the Wars of the Roses this complex of places: Alnwick, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh, Holy Island, became the scene for the heroical-comical happenings which constitute the history of Queen Margaret of Anjou between her arrival in Alnwick late October 1462 and her departure from Bamburgh for Sluys, Flanders, in July 1463. This is a story of shipwreck, of being kidnapped by robbers under the command of one "Black Jack", of being caught by English spies, of poverty, starvation and misery - as told to Georges Chastellain on her arrival at Bruges. (See Georges Chastellain, Chronicles of the Dukes of Burgundy, as quoted in Alison Weir's Wars of the Roses, p.432 and pp.316-319). It is hard not to admire the stamina and heroism of Margaret of Anjou!

After our visits to Holy Island, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh we drive to Newcastle, where we spend the night. In the evening we will have our FAREWELL DINNER.

Day 14 (August 15, 2003)

Today is the last day of the Richard III Tour. We will take you to Newcastle Airport for your return to the USA: Newcastle-London-USA. (Please ask your travel agent to find you a flight departing no earlier than 08.00 hours local time from Newcastle). BON VOYAGE. We wish you a safe journey home.

Bibliography

J.J. Bagley, Margaret of Anjou, 1948
R.Allen Brown, The Normans, 1984
A.H.Burne, Battlefields of England, 1950 Same, More Battlefields of England, 1952
Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England, London, Thames & Hudson, 1967
Same, Six English Towns, 1978
Same, Six More English Towns, 1981
Same, Another Six English Towns, 1984
Mary M.Clive, This Sun of York: A Biography of Edward IV, 1973
Philip de Commynes, The Memoirs, London, 1911
Philippe Erlanger, Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, 1970
Kenneth Fowler, The Age of Plantagenet and Valois, 1980
Antonia Fraser, ed. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England, London, 1976
James Gairdner, Life & Reign of Richard III, London 1878 (traditionalist)
Same, ed. The Paston Letters, 1872-5 (3 vols)
Anthony Goodman, John of Gaunt, The Exercise of Princely Power in Fourteenth-Century Europe, Harlow, 1992
Same, Katherine Swynford, Honeywood Press, Lincoln Cathedral Publications, 1994
P.W Hammond, The Battles of Barnet & Tewkesbury, Gloucester, 1990
Same and Anne F.Sutton, Richard III: The Road to Bosworth Field, L., 1985
Thomas Heywood, King Edward the Fourth, (play), 1599
Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages
Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, (ed. Henry T.Riley), L., 1893
E.F.Jacob, The Fifteenth Century, NY, Oxford UP, 1993
M.K.Jones & M.G.Underwood, The King's Mother
Paul Murray Kendall, Richard the Third, 1955. Same, Warwick the Kingmaker, 1957
Same, The Yorkist Age, 1962
Same, Louis XI, 1970
V.B.Lamb, The Betrayal of Richard III, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1991
R.A.Lecoy de la Marche, Le Roi Rene, Paris, 1875
Sir Clements Markham, Life of Richard III, 1906
Jeremy Potter, Good King Richard? London, 1983
Charles Ross, The Wars of the Roses. Same, Edward III, 1974. Same, Richard III, 1981
Anya Seton, Katherine
Desmond Seward, The Wars of the Roses, 1995. Same, The Hundred Years War, 1978
Same, Richard III: England's Black Legend, 1983
Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, Penguin, 1951
Alison Weir, The Wars of the Roses, 1995 Same, The Princes in the Tower, 1992
B.P.Wolffe, Henry VI, London, 1981