#agincourt press

[garadinervi]

Elio Pagliarani, (1959, 1960, 1961), the Girl Carla and Other Poems, Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by Patrick Rumble, Agincourt Press, New York, NY, 2009

[whencyclopedia]

Henry VI of England

Henry VI of England ruled as king from 1422 to 1461 CE and again from 1470 to 1471 CE. Succeeding his father Henry V of England (r. 1413-1422 CE), Henry VI was crowned the king of France in 1431 CE but he could not prevent a French revival led by Charles VII of France (r. 1422-1461 CE) and such figures as Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431 CE). The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453 CE) was ultimately lost and with it all England's territory in France except Calais. Back in England, the king's weakness of character and mind, and the intense rivalry between his barons led to the conflict known as the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487 CE) between the rival houses of Lancaster and York. After an episode of insanity, Henry VI had, in effect, a regent, Richard, the Duke of York in 1454 CE. Despite military victories by Henry's wife, Queen Margaret, the king was ultimately deposed by Richard's son Edward in 1461 CE. Henry would make a brief return to the throne in 1470 CE before Edward, now Edward IV of England (1461-1470 & 1471-1483 CE), was once more victorious on the battlefield and able to declare himself king for a second time. Henry was then murdered in the Tower of London in May 1471 CE.

Succession

Henry was born on 6 December 1421 CE in Windsor Castle, the son of Henry V of England and Catherine of Valois (l. 1401 - c. 1437 CE), the daughter of Charles VI of France. The reign of Henry's father was short but brilliant. Pressing his claim to the French throne, which had started with Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE), Henry V had won a famous victory against a French army at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415 CE and then conquered Normandy between 1417 and 1419 CE. This was to be the peak of English fortunes during the on-off conflict between the two countries known to history as the Hundred Years' War. The victories allowed Henry V to sign the 1420 CE treaty of Troyes with Charles VI of France (r. 1380-1422 CE) which made Henry the French king's heir while the blood heir, the Dauphin Charles, was disinherited. All this happened while France was split between two rival factions: the Burgundians and the Armagnacs.

The English barons would entangle themselves in a spiral of competition to see who could hold most power while Henry remained a minor.

Henry V died, probably of dysentery on 31 August 1422 CE at Bois de Vincennes in France. The English king had missed the chance to become the king of France by less than two months as Charles VI died on 21 October 1422 CE. Prince Henry, not even one year old, became the new king of England and the youngest to hold such a title before or since. He would not receive his coronation until 6 November 1429 CE in Westminster Abbey, officially becoming Henry VI of England. In the meantime, the infant had two regents, appointed by Henry V before his death: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (l. 1390-1447 CE) for England and John, Duke of Bedford (l. 1389-1435 CE) for the territories in France, where, at least according to the Treaty of Troyes, he was also now the king. Another important figure was the king's great-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. These three men and others would entangle themselves in a spiral of competition to see who could hold most power while Henry remained a minor.

The Wars of the Roses were not over yet, though. Edward, the Duke of York's son, backed by the Earl of Warwick, was promoted as a replacement to his father and to King Henry. When Edward won the bloody Battle of Towton in March 1461 CE, the largest and longest battle in English history, this is indeed what transpired. Henry VI was deposed, and he, Queen Margaret, and their son Edward (b. 13 October 1453 CE) all fled to Scotland. Edward of York, just 19 years of age, was crowned Edward IV of England at Westminster Abbey on 28 June 1461 CE. Even this was still not the end of the civil war, merely a pause.

Continue reading...

[wonder-worker]

"Times of crisis, fledgling sovereignty, and social upheaval produce the ideal conditions for the flourishing of bespoke rumor, innuendo, and propaganda; and the closing stage of the Hundred Years War is a case in point worthy of attentive analysis. Whispers of sorcery and treason against Valentina Visconti; Isabeau of Bavaria’s supposed wantonness and maternal negligence; Philippe the Bold’s mighty endeavors to secure the ascendancy of his House; his son Jean the Fearless’s effective spin as an honest broker and reforming duke despite his very dirty hands, notably his “justifiable” murder of his rival, the “tyrant” Louis of Orleans; the debunking of his defense (and the subsequent in kind retribution meted out to Burgundy by Orleans loyalists) are telling illustrations of pre-modern bespoke rumor, innuendo, and propaganda. Add to these Henry V’s God-sanctioned victory at Agincourt cast as just punishment for a transgressive France (which not only resonated with the French but validated the domestic English politicking of newly minted Lancastrian sovereignty); the initially successful delegitimization and disinheritance of the dauphin Charles with the Treaty of Troyes; the parallel golden myth/black legend of Joan of Arc (and her rehabilitation)—instances all of the ways in which rumor, propaganda, and innuendo were pressed into the service of those seeking traction at the end of the Hundred Years War."

-Zita Eva Rohr, "True Lies and Strange Mirrors: The Uses and Abuses of Rumor, Propaganda, and Innuendo During the Closing Stages of the Hundred Years War," Queenship, Gender, and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060-1600 (Edited by Zita Eva Rohr and Lisa Benz)

[une-sanz-pluis]

Excerpt from the Will of Edward, 2nd Duke of York

I bequeath the best sword and dagger that I have to my lord the King … also that my saddles and harnesses be equally divided amongst my henchmen, except that I wish that Rokell should have the best… I bequeath to Thomas Pleistede £20 in recognition for the graciousness that he showed to me when I was imprisoned in Pevensey. I bequeath to Philip Beauchamp my mail shirt that he wears and that was given to me by the earl of Huntingdon, may God absolve him, and in addition, my sword that he carries and £10. I bequeath to Thomas Beauchamp my brigandines, faced in red velvet chequered black and white and £10. I bequeath to John Popham my new brigandines of red velvet that Grove made for me, the bassinet that I wear and my best horse, except the above. I bequeath to Diprant my small mail shirt, the plate armour that my lord the Prince gave me called a breastplate [Brestplate], the plackart that belonged to my lord my father, may God absolve him, my huvette [houfett] and my steel skull-cap.

Karen Watts, "Armour at Agincourt – The Will of Edward, Duke of York", in The Battle of Agincourt: The Illustrated Companion (Yale University Press 2015)

Notes:

Watts' breakdown of the will is primarily interested in the evidence it reveals of the armour worn at the the Battle of Agincourt. However, it's worth pulling a few things out. The will was written at Harfleur a few weeks before the Battle of Agincourt, where York was killed - the highest ranking casualty. It was written in the aftermath of the Southampton Plot, where his younger brother, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, was executed for plotting against Henry V.

The bequest to the king:

The duke of York's first bequest is not to his family but to his king, Henry V ('mon Seignour, le Roy') and it is appropriately military and symbolic - his prized sword and dagger. It also reveals that the sword and dagger were personally owned knightly weapons.

It is probably not too surprising that York's first bequest was to Henry V, given that York had no children of his own and his brother and heir had very recently been executed. His sister, Constance of York, survived him by a little over a year but there are obvious reasons why he wouldn't bequeath her military items. York might have also been hoping that the request would result in Henry's care or acceptance of his young nephew and heir - the future Richard, Duke of York - but it's not clear from this excerpt if his nephew was mentioned. Given the context the excerpt was made in, it does seem striking that York doesn't bequeath his nephew any arms or armour.

I bequeath to Thomas Pleistede £20 in recognition for the graciousness that he showed to me when I was imprisoned in Pevensey.

York was imprisoned in Pevensey Castle in 1405 after being accused by his sister, Constance, of being involved in a conspiracy against Henry IV.

I bequeath to Philip Beauchamp my mail shirt that he wears and that was given to me by the earl of Huntingdon, may God absolve him, and in addition, my sword that he carries and £10.

I love the relationships and intimacies these items reveal.

Watts identifies Philip Beauchamp as an esquire of the duke's. The Earl of Huntingdon was possibly John Holland, the half-brother of Richard II who was killed for his part in the Epiphany Rising in 1400, or Guichard d'Angle, who died in 1380 and had been a companion of Edward the Black Prince. I think Holland is the more likely figure.

Watts identifies Thomas Beauchamp as part of York's household but singles out John Popham as "the most interesting" figure - he served on the campaign, where he was apparently knighted. He also received a life rent from York's manor of Vastern.

The items are given in detail. York apparently was a fan of a brigandine - "a body defence consisting of small plates riveted inside a textile covering" - as he had "many personal brigandines, including new ones produced by a recognised maker."

The plackart that belonged to York's father - Edmund of Langley - is a "plate defence" for the lower torso and could be worn with the brigandine - "yet another step towards full chest protection". But the latest development in that regard is the "breastplate" given to York by Henry V (when he was Prince of Wales) that York apparently believed needed to be explained and named. It was plate armour that finally protected the full chest.

[armthearmour]

Book Review: Agincourt in Context

Published in 2016 by Routledge Press, Agincourt in Context was first compiled as a special edition of the Journey of Medieval History. The volume is composed of eight papers presented to the British public at a conference at the University of Southampton in August of 2015, commemorating the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. This conference was organized by Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, who also wrote the volume’s forward, but the work was compiled and edited by Rémy Ambühl and Craig Lambert.

Each chapter of this work focuses on a separate piece of the puzzle that is Agincourt. The first chapter, entitled “The military careerist in fourteenth-century England,” written by Andrew Ayton, seeks to contextualize the military institutions which allowed the English success at Agincourt to occur. In particular, the management systems and recruitment mechanisms employed by the English crown in the fourteenth century are argued to have paved the way for “military careerists” in the late 14th century. Though this paper only makes use of English language scholarship, it relies most heavily on the primary source material for its arguments. In particular, patent rolls are very heavily featured.

Chapter two, entitled “Henry V and the Crossing to France: Reconstructing Naval Operations for the Agincourt Campaign, 1415” was written by Craig Lambert, co-editor of this volume. Lambert seeks to unpack the naval logistics which underpinned Henry V’s invasion of France, an area of the campaign which the author sees as understudied. In particular, Lambert focuses on three elements of Henry V’s naval operations: the presence of foreign ships in the English armada, the process of gathering English ships, and the use of naval patrols to protect this armada as it gathered. Both English and French language scholarship are included in this article, as well as primary documents in English, French, and Latin. Payment rolls are given particular attention by this author.

Chapter three is entitled “To Agincourt and Beyond! The Martial Affinity of Edward of Langley, Second Duke of York.” Written by Gary Paul Baker, this paper attempts to track the careers of the personal retinue of Edward Langley. As a leading captain at the Battle of Agincourt, and one of its casualties, it is argued that the men who served under him (many of whom can be recognized in the textual sources both prior to and after Agincourt) offer a unique view into the careers of the English soldiers who served at Agincourt. Like the first paper, this chapter exclusively used English language scholarship. The most important documentary sources for this paper were muster and payment rolls.

Dan Spencer’s “‘The Scourge of the Stones’: English Gunpowder Artillery at the Siege of Harfleur” serves as this work’s fourth chapter. Harfleur is a landmark in the history of English warfare as the first large-scale use of gunpowder artillery by the English in a siege. Gunpowder weaponry would go on to be used in every major military operation undertaken by the English. The focuses of this chapter are the technological advancements which occurred to allow gunpowder weaponry to play such a major role at Harfleur, and a detailed assessment of the efficacy of the English guns during the siege. Spencer frequently references English language scholarship when discussing the general development of gunpowder weaponry, and relies on accounts of the siege of Harfleur and payment receipts for the other analytical elements of his argument.

Written by co-editor Rémy Ambühl, this work’s fifth chapter is entitled “Henry V and the Administration of Justice: The Surrender of Meaux (May 1422).” In a break from the pattern established by the previous authors, Ambühl seeks to examine a facet of Henry V’s campaign from the French perspective rather than the English. Among the French chroniclers, Henry V garnered a reputation as a “paragon of justice.” Ambühl’s paper seeks to understand why the English king had such a reputation among the French by examining his conduct after the surrender of the town of Meaux in 1422. Ambühl argues that the defenders of Meaux breached the “code of honor” of warfare in their defense, and that Henry V’s harsh punishment of the defenders was seen by contemporaries as an act of justice. For this paper, Ambühl draws on both English and French scholarship, and relies heavily on both English and French accounts of the Siege of Meaux and its aftermath.

This work’s sixth chapter, written by Adam Chapman, is entitled “The Posthumous Knighting of Dafydd Gam.” This paper argues that the Welsh esquire Dafydd Gam, who is commonly referred to as Sir Dafydd Gam in modern sources and who participated and died in the Battle of Agincourt, was not knighted before or after the battle as he lay dying, as some modern accounts suggest. Instead, the author points to a number of sources contemporary to the battle which refer to Gam as an esquire even after the battle to suggest that this “posthumous knighting” of Gam was fabricated in the mid 15th century by Gam’s grandson, William Herbert, in an attempt to assert his status. In addition to the aforementioned English and Welsh contemporary sources, this paper also draws upon English language scholarship.

This work’s seventh and penultimate chapter, written by Andy King, is entitled “‘Then a Great Misfortune Befell them’: The Laws of War on Surrender and the Killing of Prisoners on the Battlefield in the Hundred Years War.” This paper seeks to contextualize Henry V’s actions in slaughtering his prisoners after the Battle of Agincourt with an examination of similar events at other points in the Hundred Years War. Ultimately, while King acknowledges that such conduct was theoretically against the “code of chivalry,” he argues that it was viewed as an “unfortunate necessity” by contemporaries. This paper references both English and French language scholarship, as well as relying heavily upon contemporary accounts of battles and their aftermaths.

Presented by João Gouveia Monteiro, Miguel Gomes Martins, and Tiago Viúla de Faria, the eighth and final chapter of Agincourt in Context is entitled “Another 1415: Portugal’s Military Landscape at the time of Agincourt.” Though this paper appears unrelated to the broader context of this work, the author’s attempt to place the action of King João I in his 1415 crusade against the Muslims in Ceuta, North Africa, against a backdrop of evolving Anglo-Portuguese relations, emphasizing a distancing between Portuguese and England in the fifteenth century. This paper also examines the military reforms which took place under King João I’s reign which allowed him to embark upon his crusade. This paper includes references to English, Spanish, and Portuguese language scholarship, but relies most heavily upon an analysis of documents from the library of King Duarte I.

Each chapter includes extensive footnotes, and while no consolidated bibliography is included, the works cited by each paper are included at the end of each chapter. An index is included at the end of the work.

Agincourt in Context includes a number of exceptionally interesting papers which help contextualize the famous Agincourt campaign of Henry V. The ninth chapter, however, is unnecessary, and while interesting in its own right, does not belong in an anthology dedicated to discussing Agincourt such as this. Additionally, no account of the battle itself is provided anywhere in the text. While this is not a fact which inherently detracts from the text, it does necessitate the reader being familiar with the events of the Agincourt campaign prior to reading Agincourt in Context. With that in mind, this work is extremely useful, and should be included on the shelves of amateur enthusiasts and dedicated historians of the Hundred Years War alike.

[valorant-reverie]

Back to work on my on-again off-again Dreamling fic. I like how it’s shaping up, but I’m determined I’m gonna write the whole thing before I publish it. Here’s a rough snippet of it for anyone that might be interested, but with a slight spoiler for a certain character yet unseen cropping up, in some form, a little later on.

You have been warned! Enjoy ❤️🐈‍⬛

[REDACTED] regards Hob with considerable interest; there is a glimpse of Dream in the way he seems to puzzle him out. “You willingly stand before a tempest. Why?”

Hob shrugs. “Figure you and all your siblings have had your claws in me at one point or another, haven’t you? Save for Death, what with our deal between her, Dream, and me. But you, I’d know you from Agincourt to Flanders. Your sister Despair, she and I have been close over the years - the loss of parents, siblings, friends, lovers… My wife, our children. And their twin Desire? Well, a man cannot live for centuries and never want, can he? Fortune, knowledge, adventure, sex. Then there’s Delirium of course, with me for all my highs and lows. Never quite cowed to her call, not as some do, but I’m sure I got pretty bloody close more than a few times. And finally the eldest, Destiny. He’s got all of us in that book of his, eh? None of it is his fault, of course, but he knows it all.”

[REDUCTED] smiles. “With age comes wisdom indeed. And Dream?”

“Nice try.”

“Oh, go on. Indulge me, Hobsie,” he presses, in a voice that sounds like one of the men he used to spill blood with hundreds of years ago, before he was bound to the Endless, “Seeing as we’re such old friends. Tell me what it is that he means to you.”

“My one constant. All of the others came and went, but Dream remained,” Hob says, the words coming more easily than he might have otherwise anticipated, “Every century, without fail save for one occasion, obviously, which was not his fault. And he’s more than made up for it,” he relents.

“You love him.”

Hob sighs. “Yeah. I really do.”

“Good.”

[linneatanner]

Book Review The Agincourt King Mercedes Rochelle #TheAgincourtKing #HenryV #Agincourt #HistoricalFiction #Plantagenet #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @authorRochelle @cathiedunn

Book Review The Agincourt King Mercedes Rochelle #TheAgincourtKing #HenryV #Agincourt #HistoricalFiction #Plantagenet #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @authorRochelle @cathiedunn Linnea Tanner FEATURED AUTHOR: MERCEDES ROCHELLE It is my pleasure to feature author Mercedes Rochelle again in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour, being held between July 2nd – 23rd, 2024. She is the author of the Historical Fiction, The Agincourt King (The Plantagenet Legacy Book 5), that was published on April 8th, 2024 by Sergeant Press (260 pages). Below are highlights of The Agincourt King, Mercedes Rochelle’’s author bio, and my 5-star review of her meticulously researched book.    Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2024/05/blog-tour-the-agincourt-king-by-mercedes-rochelle.html HIGHLIGHTS: THE AGINCOURT KING   The Agincourt King (The Plantagenet Legacy Book 5) By Mercedes Rochelle Blurb: From the day... Read the full article

[mschmdtphotography]

The Agincourt King

Book Title:  The Agincourt King Series: The Plantagenet Legacy Author: Mercedes Rochelle Publication Date: April 8, 2024 Publisher: Sergeant Press Pages: 260 pages Genre: Historical Fiction Twitter Handle: @authorRochelle @cathiedunn Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub Hashtags: #TheAgincourtKing #HenryV #Agincourt, #HistoricalFiction #Plantagenet #BlogTour…

[cppsheffield]

Centre for Poetry and Poetics Presents:

SIMON PERRIL · PETER ROBINSON · FRANCES PRESLEY · SIMON SMITH

24th of April – 6.30pm: Diamond, LT2

This event is free; students, staff and public, all warmly welcome.

Simon Perril is a poet and collagist. His poetry publications include Two Duets with Occasion (Shearsman 2024), The Slip (Shearsman, 2020), In the Final Year of my 40s (Shearsman, 2018), Beneath (Shearsman, 2015) Archilochus on the Moon (Shearsman, 2013), Newton’s Splinter (Open House, 2012), Nitrate (Salt, 2010), A Clutch of Odes (Oystercatcher, 2009), and Hearing is Itself Suddenly a Kind of Singing (Salt, 2004). His poetics essay ‘Good to Think with: My Surrealism’, along with collages and poetry, have just appeared in Shuddhashar FreeVoice 37: https://shuddhashar.com/good-to-think-with-my-surrealism/

As a critic he has written widely on contemporary poetry, editing The Salt Companion to John James, and Tending the Vortex: The Works of Brian Catling. His article ‘On Metis: Or, what the Squid and the Octopus taught me about Practice Research’, appeared in Writing In Practice 7, 2021. He is Professor of Poetic Practice at De Montfort University, in Leicester. You can see Simon give an online reading/talk with accompanying visuals here: youtube.com/watch?v=bJoI30MzLGs

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Peter Robinson has published various books of aphorisms, fiction, and literary criticism. For some of his poetry volumes and translations he has been awarded the Cheltenham Prize, the John Florio Prize, and two Poetry Book Society Recommendations. His most recent collection of poems is Retrieved Attachments (Two Rivers Press) and The Collected Poems of Giorgio Bassani (translated with Roberta Antognini) published in New York by Agincourt Press. Return to Sendai: New & Selected Poems is due from MadHat Press in the USA in September 2024.

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Frances Presley was born in Derbyshire, of Dutch-Javanese and English parents, in 1952. She grew up in Lincolnshire and Somerset, and lives in London. She studied modern literature at the universities of East Anglia and Sussex. She worked as an information specialist in community development, and at the Poetry Library. She collaborated with artist Irma Irsara on a project about women’s clothing and the fashion trade, Automatic Cross Stitch (Other Press, 2000); and with poet Elizabeth James in Neither the One nor the Other (Form Books, 1999). The title sequence of Paravane: new and selected poems, 1996-2003 (Salt, 2004) was a response to 9/11 and IRA bombsites in London. Lines of Sight (Shearsman 2009) focuses on Exmoor’s Neolithic stone sites, which also feature in a collaboration with visual poet Tilla Brading, Stone Settings (Odyssey, 2010). An Alphabet for Alina, with artist Peterjon Skelt, exploits the lexical and visual possibilities of an alphabet for girls (Five Seasons, 2012). Halse for hazel (Shearsman, 2014) initiates a new poetic syntax of marginal trees and languages, continued in Sallow, (Leafe Press, 2016), with images by Irma Irsara. Ada Unseen (Shearsman, 2019) concerns Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, mathematician and computer visionary, who lived on Exmoor. It was also a collaboration with Tilla Brading, ADADADA (Odyssey, 2022). Collected Poems 1973-2020 was published in two volumes by Shearsman in 2022.

Black Fens Viral (2020-) is written on a slow train through East Anglia’s flat, agricultural, landscape of black peat, once marshland. ‘Viral’ refers both to Covid and to a text generator known as the Markov chain, and its strange rearrangement of text resembles a viral assault. The first part of Black Fens Viral was published as a Literary Pocket Book (2021) by Steven Hitchins.

Presley has written various essays and reviews, especially on innovative British women poets. She has co-translated the work of two Norwegian poets, Hanne Bramness and Lars Amund Vaage. Her work is in the anthologies Infinite Difference (Shearsman, 2010), Ground Aslant: radical landscape poetry (Shearsman, 2011), Out of Everywhere2 (Reality Street, 2015), Fractured Ecologies (EyeCorner, 2020) and Poetics for the More-Than-Human World (Dispatches, 2021). She has contributed to a collection of poetic autobiographies, Cusp (Shearsman, 2012) and its London based companion volume, Clasp (Shearsman, 2015).

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Simon Smith is a poet and translator living in London. He has previously published ten collections of poetry including a selected poems and a complete Catullus translation. His latest books are Last Morning (Parlor Press, U.S.A.) and Municipal Love Poems (Shearsman Books, U.K.) both appeared as companion volumes in 2022. 2022 also saw the publication of Source (Muscaliet Press), a collaboration with artist Felicity Allen and representation of Rimbaud’s ‘Le Bateau ivre’. He is presently working on a book-length series of prose poems, The Magic Lantern Slides. Between 1991 and 2007 he worked at the Poetry Library in London and taught creative writing and poetry at London South Bank University, The Open University, and the University of Kent from 2006 to 2022. He is Emeritus Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/.../centre-poetry-and-poetics...

recording available now:

https://youtu.be/c-pP5Avt6Zw

[upperrubberboot]

[liapher]

my first hand-bound book with a proper case! it’s a notebook for myself, but the design is once again inspired by down to agincourt (cheers to phil)

(construction notes under the cut)

⁂

ok I’m going to treat this like i treat my ravelry page, i.e. use this as a collection of notes that future me might find useful but that are probably fairly self-evident to anyone who’s done this kind of stuff before.

Here goes:

Text block: French link stitch, tipped on the endpapers, used some gauze for the spine. I don’t have a standing press, but since the book is pretty thin, I was able to just use two bulldog clips to balance the book, which made working on the spine a lot easier:

Headbands: I followed this tutorial, but only used one colour. Since my thread was really thin (very fiddly, but I wanted to use the same thread that I used for the embroidery), I wrapped it around the shoelace that I used as a core about 4-5 times before swapping the thread ends. Here, I also used bulldog clips to keep the text block upright and to keep whichever thread end I wasn’t using at a given time out of my way while also adding some tension, making the headband a bit easier to handle:

The case: I mostly followed the square back bradel binding tutorial by Darryn Schneider. That man is an absolute treasure when it comes to sharing bookbinding resources.

I used some thick paper I had lying around as the spine connector. I made the cardboard piece for the spine about 1-2 mm slimmer than recommended in the video tutorial, since that ended up looking better when I put the text block inside that initial version of the case. I used a 7 mm wide hinge, which works well I think.

After assembling the case skeleton, I decided I wanted to do cut-outs for the sun and the moon, since that way I can protect my embroidery a little better, and it allowed to to just embroider two small and easy-to-handle patches of bookcloth. It might have been slightly easier to cut out those circles before starting the case assembly, but at least this way I could easily measure the centre of the front/back cover including the hinge etc. Halfway through, I decided to switch to extra-sharp blades—the second circle is smoother, but I’m not sure if that’s because of the blade or the smidgen of experience I’d had from cutting the first circle:

Cutting smooth circles is hard! Maybe I should have attacked the edges with some sandpaper... but I was impatient.

I decided to use the same stiff paper I’d used for the hinges for covering the backs of the boards. In retrospect, it would have been easier to either use a single, large piece of paper that covers both boards and acts as the hinges, or to wait with covering the backs of the boards until after gluing on the bookcloth.

Since I wanted the bookcloth to only stick to the boards (+ spine/hinges) but not the paper reinforcement behind the holes, I put the glue on the board instead of on the bookcloth. I did the front + hinge first, smoothed everything / used the bone folder to create that crease at the hinge, then did the spine, then the back.

For the holes, it was easiest to cut away some of the cloth in the centre, then use the bone folder to mark the edges of the holes, cut a circle ~2 mm inside those edges and cut the remaining cloth edge into fringes, lift them up with the bone folder, ...

... apply some glue to the cardboard edges and the paper, use the bone folder to push the bookcloth strips into place.

I embroidered separate patches of bookcloth, glued the ends of the thread to the back of the bookcloth, cut the patches to size, and glued them on the paper in the holes (using a pretty thin layer of glue and trying to avoid the needle holes from the embroidery). Possibly not the ideal strategy yet (there are some small air pockets; I think I was handling this a bit too gingerly), but it was fairly easy, all in all. You can see the seam, but it’s not super noticeable or distracting.

For finishing the case, I pre-folded everything with the bone folder before applying glue, and I added extra incisions to the bookcloth edges where the front/back boards end, since that’s where the bookcloth was bunching up:

For casing in the text block, I used the “hanging the book in at the shoulders” trick from here. (Edit: I inserted the wrong link there and I can’t find whatever video I was referring to---I’m also not entirely sure what I meant given that this book doesn’t really have shoulders...) (Edit number 2: I figured out what I meant and described it in another post.)

For gluing the endpapers to the boards, I found it much easier to go bit by bit: apply some glue to the endpaper near the spine, use the bone folder to press it against the board and to smooth the paper, continue another two times.

[dank-weedchester]

in honor of agincourt daily, i’ve written two (!!) fics of thee fic itself

on pretending map chapter 4. missing scene between “drink enough to pretend” and waking up with a hangover, on the couch, in some sort of guy pile

if you want me, honey— lights chapter 13. what can i say. it’s the couch scene. you know you want it

hot off the presses extra extra etc etc🧍‍♂️

[heartofstanding]

So…say that I wanted to do a series on Henry V for my blog, would there be any specific books you’d recommend?

Oooh *rubs hands together with glee* @oldshrewsburyian might also be able to chime with some recs too.

My absolute favourite book on Henry V is Malcolm Vale's Henry V: The Conscience of a King (Yale 2016). It's an exploration of Henry's kingship outside of the image that dominates - the warrior king. It explores his administration/bureaucracy, his relationship with the church, the English language and the (peaceful) arts as well as his will and legacy. But with such a focus, it's not the best introduction to Henry V. The best introduction, imo, is probably Anne Curry's Henry V: From Playboy Prince to Warrior King (Penguin Monarchs 2015).

My other recommendations would be:

Christopher Allmand, Henry V (Yale Monarchs 1992). This is the standard biography of Henry but it's in the older format of the Yale Monarch series of half-bio, half-thematic study and the biography section is a bit brusque for my liking. Some parts are out of date (e.g. the discussion of Henry's birthdate) but that doesn't really matter.

G. L. Harriss (ed), Henry V: The Practice of Kingship (Oxford University Press 1984). An out-of-print but fantastic collection of essays about Henry and his kingship.

Gwilym Dodd (ed), Henry V: New Interpretations (York Medieval Press 2018). Another fantastic essay collection - and in print.

Katherine J. Lewis, Kingship and Masculinity in Late Medieval England (Routledge 2013). This is a gender-studies-focused analysis of Henry V and Henry VI's reigns and images, using Henry V as the exemplar of "manly kingship" and his son who was seen to abjectly fail at both manhood and kingship.

Paul Strohm, England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422 (Yale 1998). This is chiefly concerned with the Lancastrian efforts to legitimise their reigns after the deposition of Richard II so it's less focused on Henry V's reign and person but still fascinating. I don't agree with all of Strohm's conclusions (e.g. he argues the Southampton Plot was a fabrication which to me is frankly absurd) but there is a lot of interesting things here.

For Agincourt, you can't go wrong with Anne Curry. She's published extensively on Agincourt (Agincourt: A New History is her account of the battle) and if there's a book worth reading on the battle that she hasn't written, she's probably written an introduction for it. A decent pop history account is Juliet Barker's Agincourt: The King, The Campaign, The Battle (Abacus 2005).

Anti-recs under the cut.

I do not recommend the following:

Ian Mortimer, 1415 . This is only worthwhile reading to enjoy Malcolm Vale tearing it apart in Conscience of a King. It's really, really bad.

Desmond Seward, Henry V as War Lord. Haven't read this, don't plan to, a decision confirmed by learning that Seward actually compares Henry to Hitler.

Keith Dockray, Henry V. Another entry in the "Henry V was a monster!" genre. The opening paragraph is basically "Shakespeare's Henry V presents the king as unquestionably heroic and I'm here to tell you that's a lie" because apparently no one thinks to read any of the mountains of criticism on Shakespeare's Histories before they dunk on them.

Timothy M. Thibodeau, Henry V, Holy Warrior. I had such hopes for this but it was seriously disappointing. Half-basic summary of other historians' work on Henry, half arguing that Henry was a zealous bigot who saw his war in France as the equivalent of a crusade.

[oumaheroes]

Old Age

Word Count: 1772

Characters: Canada, England, and France

---

There were some days where Canada truly felt his age.

Most of the time how old he was didn’t really hit him. He happily pottered around work or home as easily as he imagined most humans his physical age did: running for a train he was almost certainly going to miss, tripping down the last few steps on a flight of stairs because he was staring at his phone and wasn’t watching his feet, or spilling coffee on himself when he missed his mouth taking a sip.

His colleagues, despite knowing who he was, spoke to him as an equal and Canada could happily pass weeks, or sometimes even months, without consciously being aware of how old he was- or even really what he was.

It was easy to forget, surrounded by humans every day, that he was not one. His ministers and co-workers spoke to him without questioning his position that high in government- that was admittedly unusual for a face as young as his. Occasionally, he’d bump into a young intern or graduate who didn’t know him and he’d have a nice, genuine interaction before a look of shock crossed their face when someone high up greeted him respectfully. It was a helpful, yet stark, reminder.

But overall, when you were surrounded by people who did know it never really hit him that his presence or job was something he took for granted and the passing of time was something he didn’t really take notice of. It was normal. He was there, he was called Matthew, sometimes, or Canada, but both were his name and the potency of what he was, was surprisingly quite forgettable.

Of course, what he was was never something he could completely avoid. Someone would mention a time, or a date, or a thing that had happened and Canada would immediately feel the distance widen between them all as it was made obvious that, to everyone else, what they were discussing was history. It was something passed, something that had happened to other people too long ago to properly connect with on an emotional level. An old battle, an old political bill; something that someone long long dead had said or written that now remained only as faint ink on curling, dusty paper.

But to Canada it was there in his head, the words clear and as easy to recall as if they were spoken to him yesterday. A benefit of nationhood, he supposed, to be fully aware of things that had political consequence, to be able to trace the makings of himself back through time and see how they spiralled and grew.

History wasn’t just words, to him, or mere events. Such things made up the foundations of himself, the building blocks of his life and he felt them thrum through him like a song, twisting and moulding him into being.

Becoming aware of his age and the difference between himself and humans were when Canada really felt the weight of the years he carried. Over three hundred of them made themselves known, hanging off his shoulders and settling down to his legs to hold him up. It was easy to briefly forget how old he was, but that knowledge was impossible to rid himself of entirely- Canada was made up of history, of the bones of time and they cracked together as he moved through his life to remind him of who he was with every step.

He had burned, he had bled, he had died. He had seen.

That was the point of him. To watch to passage of time and remember it, to hold the memory of his people within him and use their voices and experiences to push for the continuation of the future. Their future.

Canada was his people, was made by his people for his people and as he sat amongst them, discussing old old moments long gone with humans who could only read and dream of them, the distinction of what he was would hit him like a thunderbolt.

It was heavy, to be so old. To have seen so many things, to have lived through so much. To be what he was.

He had just had one of those instances. He and his cabinet had spent the entire morning discussing the founding of their nation and its independence in order to plan for the yearly celebrations and Canada had suffered through the whole time feeling every second of his age press against him.

When talks finally drew to a close and he could escape, Canada dragged his ancient body towards the centre of town. England and France were visiting, along with the rest of the UN, and he’d promised to meet them both for lunch before they too were pulled into an afternoon of far more internationally inclined meetings.

If he were honest with himself, what Canada really wanted to do was go home and watch TV; switch his brain off so that he could numb himself with bad reality shows. It was a good pastime that he enjoyed with guilty abandon and one that he would much rather have preferred doing. However, he’d made a promise and Canada was nothing if not a nation of his word.

Sadly.

England and France were already there when he arrived, tucked away in a corner table. France glanced up as the door jingled with his entrance, waving him over with a smile. Canada nodded at the waiter who motioned him through and settled himself down in a chair at their table between them.

‘Good afternoon,’ France greeted him with his usual cheek kisses, hair tickling Canada’s nose as he leant in close, ‘you arrived just on time, I was about to throw Arthur out of the window.’

‘You wish,’ England looked up from his phone and shot him a quick, but warm smile, ‘Hello Matthew.’

Canada’s heart sank. He really wasn’t in the mood to play mediator today, ‘Dare I ask why?’ he said, turning to France.

France gave an effortless shrug and settled back in his seat, ‘Do I really need a reason?’

‘Yes.’

Both England and Canada spoke at once and France gave a sly grin, ‘I won’t darling, you don’t deserve the trouble,’ he patted Canada’s knee soothingly and politely ignored England’s muttered “as if you could” from across the table, ‘but the idiot seems to think he’s correct about something which he very much is not.’

‘Oh, of course,’ England retorted immediately, ‘you can’t remember properly but I’m the one who’s wrong.’

‘Yes.’

‘No.’

‘What is it?’ Canada interjected quickly. The waiter who had greeted him at the door was shooting their table looks of alarm out of the corner of his eye and Canada smiled at him apologetically, ‘Maybe I could help.’

To his surprise, England and France shared a look, something unspoken passing between them, ‘You weren’t about yet,’ offered France, sounding apologetic.

‘When was it?’

‘Oh, not too long ago,’ England waved a hand airily, ‘only six hundred years or so.’

Canada blinked, ‘Six hundred?’

‘Or there abouts,’ England frowned again, ‘I’m not sure when exactly, but I know France is wrong.’

France scoffed, ‘You can’t remember when it is, but you know I’m wrong?’

‘Obviously. I know it was about fifty years after Agincourt, I’m not sure of exactly when but-‘

‘Well, there you go! You’ve muddled it up with something else.’

‘I haven’t! You held that ball, the one with the fucking shit tonne of flowers everywhere, and were displaying those golden goblet things you were so damn proud of and I gave you that stupid painting-‘

‘No!’ France interjected angrily, ‘You took that painting and then were made to give it back.’

‘I didn’t! It was my bloody painting- Jesus fucking Christ,’ England held his head in his hands, ‘that’s not the point, I’m using that as a reference-‘

‘Yes well, pick a reference that has a grain of reality in it, would you?’

England opened his mouth to argue back again but Canada didn’t hear him, by now long tuned out of the conversation.

Only. Only six hundred years ago. Canada couldn’t even imagine that amount of time, couldn’t imagine having lived so long that six hundred years was considered to be a mere drop in the ocean.

But to these two, it was. England and France had both been alive for millennia, had known each other for that long and had been alive without each other for even longer before that.

Sitting next to them, his own existence suddenly felt like nothing, felt insignificant in the history of mankind. What had Canada seen, that these two had not? He couldn’t even begin to imagine. Three hundred years felt more than enough.

It hit him, then, how long most of their kind had lived. He’d realised this before, of course, but still the comprehension about the difference in age between him and most of the world left him dumbstruck anew. Fuck, what about China; Lord only knew how old he really was. There wasn’t a point in history that it didn’t seem as though China hadn’t been around to experience, even from across the world. Whole empires and civilisations had risen and fallen and most of the nations Canada knew had personally been involved in them somehow. It was astounding to consider all the people who had lived throughout the centuries that, to Canada, felt like nothing more than characters in a story.

What on earth was three hundred years to age like that? To history that felt so ancient to him, so disconnected that it didn’t really even feel real, but that was as normal to most nations as his own history was.

How many years would Canada have to live until three hundred was something he would describe as ‘only’?

‘Are you alright, lad?’ Canada was jolted out of his spiral to find England looking at him with concern, a hand on his arm.

‘Yeah, sorry,’ he shook his head, ‘it’s just- you’re both so old.’

England coloured and France laughed, ‘We’re not old,’ England jabbed a thumb in France’s direction, ‘Well, he is.’

‘It is more about how you feel and act, dear, that’s more important and in that regard, you are far older than I.’ France yelped suddenly as England kicked him under the table, ‘Does the truth sting, Arthur? Is that why you felt the need to vent your frustrations on me?’

‘As if I need more of a reason-‘

They began again, in earnest, but Canada let them continue uninterrupted, silently and guiltily enjoying the feeling of being a child once more.

---

AN:

I must admit that not much thought or plot went into this. I wanted to write something short and somewhat silly as a treat for spending most of yesterday editing. Ideally, one day I want to take this concept and explore it more with greater care and detail because I think it’s something a newer nation like Canada would really struggle with.

300 years is a long time, and I’m sure it must be hard for him to feel that age and then go and speak to anyone from the Old World and be met with the reality of how truly old their kind can be. Canada is a baby, despite the centuries he has collected for himself, and I feel like there would always be that conflict within him about how old he feels around humans comapred to how old he is next to other nations. Maybe this idea is best explored as a headcannon rather than a fic, but I had a fun time writing it.

Anyway, that is my tuppence worth- thank you for reading!

[une-sanz-pluis]

For a ‘warrior-king’, the fact that [Henry V] took part in only two pitched battles – Shrewsbury and Agincourt – in his military career is cause for reflection. His personal courage, exemplified on both occasions, is not in question. But an aversion to battle in the field, and its enormous risks, was not entirely uncommon among later medieval commanders – the lessons of Courtrai (1302), Bannockburn (1314), Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356), Najera (1367), Aljubarrota (1385), or Tannenberg/Grünwald (1410) were certainly learnt by some of them. Henry’s attempts to negotiate himself and his army out of the predicament in which they found themselves on the very eve of Agincourt suggest a certain reluctance to put his quarrel to the test of God’s judgment in those adverse conditions. His subsequent war in France was to be one of sieges, economic warfare and attrition, not even punctuated by pitched battles. With the exception of the ill-judged fight at Baugé (1421), for which Clarence paid with his life, the conquests of 1417–22 were gained by the steady and patient reduction of fortified places, generally along the river valleys of Normandy and the Île-de-France. This form of warfare was especially well suited to the king’s abilities and talents. A concern for logistics, for the effective deployment of siege artillery, together with close supervision of military organisation and finance,16 and an insistence on the conduct of war by a disciplined force, backed up by an uncompromising administration of punitive, drumhead justice, all played to his skills and aptitudes. None of these measures was carried out without some concern for the non-combatant and ‘civilian’ population. It was imperative to gain their respect and their acquiescence, if not their loyalty, if any kind of conquest and occupation was ever to succeed. It has recently been argued that ‘the expulsions at Harfleur and the pillaging of Caen were … uncharacteristic of Henry’s actions in Normandy, and his subsequent treatment of Norman towns was marked by conciliation and clemency’. Much the same could be said of his behaviour towards other areas in his French conquest.

Malcolm Vale, Henry V: The Conscience of a King (Yale University Press, 2016)

[cinematicnomad]

7 and/or 8, 12 for 911, and 28 for the fic writer questions please 😊

007. share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it. answered here ✌️

008. share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“He doesn’t remember me looking away, doesn’t remember how I got distracted trying to help other people and he fell into the water—to him, all that matters is that I was there. So I’m going to be there for him today. Because he needs me, and I need to be there for him. Even if he doesn’t ask for me by name.”  There’s a moment, and then his breath hitches, and he says, wrecked, “He’s my kid. You both need to accept that.”  Mom looks shocked, and Dad shakes his head, confused. His voice is adamant. “He’s your friend’s child, Evan. Don’t be absurd.”  “He’s mine. And—and maybe Eddie’s mine too. We haven’t—I mean, this is new but—” he’s floundering now, his gaze anywhere but on them, his parents. He thinks of last night, of Eddie’s forehead pressed to his, of that moment before anything could have happened. He wets his lips with his tongue. “But—I want him to be.”  Stunned, his mother starts, “Evan—” “You know my name is Buck,” he interrupts. “People call me Buck, they have since I was a kid. You know that.” 

this was v hard to choose, but i selected this exchange between buck and his parents from my fic so show me (family) (written before s4)—i like how much emotion is packed into this exchange, how much conflict. the way buck's dad is dismissive and buck's mom is confused and there are layers of issues here—how they don't know about how important chris is to him, how buck is working out his feelings for eddie in real time in front of an audience, how buck is realizing how little his parents know him, not even konwing the name he prefers to be called, etc etc.

012. is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more? um. nahhh, not for me i don't think. my inspiration comes so sporadically that there's really not enough data to pinpoint a pattern lol

028. share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much. @woodchoc-magnum is insanely prolific and writes wildly different fics while always making sure to keep her characterization on point. i love that there's almost always a guarantee of some solid angst but ALWAYS with a promise of a happy ending. AND i get the bonus of reading her drafts as she works through the fics which just makes me feel all sorts of special 😅

@isthatbloodonhisshirt talk about prolific, over the winter this year i went on a tear reading (and sometimes re-reading) an insane number of their sterek fics. i love long fics and some of these are a doozy (their longest is over 400k!) but they are ALWAYS interesting and well-written and totally in-character.

@seperis i have been making my way through my...i don't even know, 6th? re-read of the down to agincourt series. this is the best example of insane world building i've ever witnessed not to mention the slowest slow burn to ever burn. every time i return to this series i discover something new and i just can't wait to see what it goes.

also i know you only asked for 3 but here's an extra 4th:

@ellanainthetardis i don't really know how i stumbled across their fics—i've honestly never been a big hunger games fan, i read the books once in college and otherwise enjoyed the movies and never sought out fic. but a few years back i somehow came across their hayffie fics and they just opened my eyes to this whole dynamic i hadn't considered. again, this is another person who is insanely prolific and i've read almost all of their ao3 and i read their HADS updates every week and have done for years now because they are just. THAT good.

✨40 questions for fic writers✨