#historian: chris given wilson

[une-sanz-pluis]

Whether or not Mowbray was, as Exeter alleged, initially involved in the plot himself, his nerve, strained to breaking-point by the rumours which circulated about his involvement in Gloucester's death, eventually snapped. In the short term, Richard was able to turn the unmasking of his plot to his own advantage by pitting Mowbray and Bolingbroke against one another and then, when the questions became too awkward, using their enmity as an excuse to brush them aside. But he underestimated Bolingbroke, and over-estimated himself. The irony is that it was probably Mowbray's revelations which saved the house of Lancaster. Did Mowbray ever know this? Almost certainly not, for he died in Venice, following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on 22 September 1399, just one week before Richard formally resigned his throne, and before he could have known for sure of the success of Bolingbroke's revolution. But Bolingbroke may have understood it. In the October 1399 Parliament, before news had reached him of Mowbray's death, he indicated his willingness to allow his old adversary to return to England.' If he reckoned that he owed Mowbray a favour, he was surely right.

Chris Given-Wilson, "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance", The English Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 432 (1994)

[waynecowles]

Daily Jot: The American Chronicles: A heritage tour - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com

People often ask what they can do as something special to get away. Whether you are camping or just touring, a heritage tour might be fun. But make sure you don’t forget essentials. Last fall, we drove up the coast of New England. Kind of a heritage tour. We had finished church on time and I rushed everybody out the door so Chris, Service Dog Charlie, and I could get on the road. We were on the toward our first stop—Valley Forge. Two hours into the trip through some of the most beautiful farmland in Pennsylvania, I received a work text where a particular file was needed. It was then that I had that shot of adrenalin like when you see the blue lights in the mirror. I had forgotten my laptop. We had to turn back.

Arriving at our campsite later that evening, we had to postpone our Valley Forge visit to the next morning. Flexibility is key when you forget things. The Valley Forge camp was where General George Washington brought his Continental Army to face one of its most important battles of the Revolutionary War. Historians would say that Washington’s army of over 8,000 men fought no battles during their winter encampment. I beg to differ. From December 19, 1777 to June 19, 1778, the fledgling army fought its most important battle—some 2,000 soldiers lost their lives.

Washington was leading his men in a battle against attrition, disease, cold weather, exposure, and starvation within a few miles of the much stronger British forces. This winter encampment tested the will of the Americans and inspired the tenacity it took to defeat the British. My 5th great grandfather David Wilson was one of them. I’m reminded of the first winter endured by the Pilgrims in Plymouth some 150 years earlier. They, too, suffered disease, starvation, exposure and cold weather. Over half of them died. But their will to survive combined with their faith in the Lord, brought them through.

Not common knowledge about Valley Forge are the books given to the men to read in their free time. Those books encouraged the men to endure through faith. They were: “The Duty of Standing Fast in Our Spiritual and Temporal Liberties,” a sermon preached in Christ Church, 1775; “The Rights of British Colonies Asserted and Proved,” 1776; and “A Sermon on the Present Situation of American Affairs,” preached in Christ Church 1775. There is often a test of the will and Spirit to achieve something important. It’s what inspires one another to work together to live. This is a lesson I’ve learned in life and it is confirmed by many instances of history. We can also see through our travels examples of the faith and will that it took to build this great nation and shape the people in it. Leaving Valley Forge for our next stop in Connecticut, we experienced one of the great people in our nation.

We were headed toward an overpass that would have clipped the top off of our camper and a man pulled along-side us motioning for us to pull over. He told us what was going to happen, then offered to take us around the overpass and put us on the path to our next stop. We didn’t get his name, but from the goodness of his heart, he saved us from ruin. Hebrews 13:2 says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Strangers or angels, our faith is our bond and inspiration. We headed on to Plymouth, MA., to visit the site of my first direct ancestors’ who came to America on the Mayflower—William Bradford, my 10th great grandfather on my father’s side and Richard Warren, my 11th great grandfather on my mother’s side.

[ivraeas]

In many respects historical scholarship has been prepared to go along with the sentiments of the St. Albans chronicler, Thomas Walsingham, who in a series of brilliantly developed vignettes cast Alice as a great villain exposed to temporary humiliation in the Good Parliament. Walsingham’s famous scene at the deathbed of Edward III, where the unworthy mistress spent the king’s dying moments stripping the rings from his fingers, seems to have had a particularly enduring impact on scholarship, which repeatedly emphasises Alice’s love of fine things as an outward sign of her greed and vulgarity. This is not to say that recent generations of scholarship have neglected to consider Alice’s significance in the substance of politics during the 1370′s. In particular, George Holmes and Chris Given-Wilson have established much fuller contexts for the accusations that led to her banishment in 1376 and the confiscation of her property in 1377. Even so, in recent years it is only James Bothwell and Ian Mortimer who have explicitly questioned the need continually to reinvent Alice in the defamatory terms used by her contemporaries. Meanwhile, historians of gender appear to regard her as so much a one-off, an exception or anomaly to the experience of most late-medieval Englishwomen, as to avoid her altogether. It is particularly remarkable in that respect how infrequently Alice appears in studies of the female condition in the later Middle Ages, even those focusing on the most obvious of her gendered attributes, her status for much of the period of her ascendancy as femme-sole, free of male “coverage” and able to assert her own independent status at law.  - (The Trials of Alice Perrers)

FC: Adina Galupa as Alice Perrers

[shredsandpatches]

Bringing together the goal of childbearing and the concept of beata stirps, Anne’s marriage to Richard may inform us of his own political agenda. What led Richard attempt to canonize his grandfather, Edward II? Chris Given-Wilson has argued that after 1397, the desire for canonization was fueled by both vindication for Edward II and the desire to acquire Lancastrian lands. But what drove the original petition in 1385? This is before the events of the Merciless Parliament and any desperate motion by Richard to salvage power. Richard would have been well aware of his wife’s heritage; it would be fitting for his to somehow match, and adding Edward II to the company of the Confessor would help toward this. And if we must ascribe French influence to Richard II, then the model of Capetian sanctity and legitimacy, substantiated by a royal saint, would be appropriate here. I suggest that Anne the person and her family history were the inspiration for this effort. A child would have continued a saintly line of Bohemia and hopefully connected it to an English one as well. Richard did not pursue this aggressively; we may well have seen a push for a new English saint if Anne reached a certain stage of pregnancy or had given birth. By 1397, the utility of a royal saint had, in Richard’s mind, changed, but initially, it was something that was much more personal on both a spiritual and dynastic level.

Anna Duch, "Anne of Bohemia: A Political Post-Mortem" (here)

This is a really good article on Anne's legacy and the tendency of historians to treat Anne as though the only significant thing she ever did was to die childless. I've read it before but I was looking something up and I hadn't remembered this part, which I think is really rather sweet. Richard wanted a lineage full of royal saints to match his wife's! 😍

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Worst of 2019 (So Far)

And now we get to the opposite of yesterday’s post: the worst of what we’ve seen so far. Time to give them a proper thrashing before they (hopefully) fade into obscurity. Disappointingly, there's a general lack of films that were bad but in an interesting way. Mostly, it’s either been the same sorta dreck we usually get with a couple of unusually offensive stories and a couple of soul-crushingly bad superhero flicks. Curious? Read on.

10. Serenity

I like to save my #10 spot on the “Worst of” list for a movie that has a chance of becoming a favorite among those who love bad movies. Serenity is competently enough made that it does not belong in the same category as The Identical or Runaway. It’s another kind of bad movie, the kind that baffles anyone who sees it and who will have film historians scratching their heads in the future. It’s not quite on the same level as 2017’s “The Book of Henry” but close. Top-notch actors at the top of their career in a story so poorly conceived it would’ve been brilliant if it weren’t awful and utterly absurd.

The revelation that everything we've been seeing is actually part of a video game programmed by an angry teen who hates his abusive father, and that his actions are tied to those of Matthew McConaughey's character is the kind of nutty decision someone at some point should've questioned. My advice? Surprise some unsuspecting friends with it. Periodically pause the movie so they can write down how they think it'll all fit together and then watch their faces as they're proved wrong.

9. After

I’m not going to remember After down the line so this is my opportunity to give it another flogging. I can’t believe fan-fictions of real people is a real thing and that one of them was deemed legitimate and popular enough to be turned into a movie. It plays out like the clone of a clone of a clone of Twilight. At least that movie had danger in the form of vampires and werewolves. This has nothing to offer except embarrassing drama and a prepubescent’s idea of what romance and love look like. I saw it in the theater with a friend and thank goodness she was there; it made what would've been a chore... slightly more bearable.

8. Dumbo

I’ve already gone on about how I feel about Disney’s string of live-action remakes. For the most part, they fail to validate their own existences; they’re just copies of the original but with “real” actors dancing around animated backgrounds, objects and locations instead of everything being traditionally animated. Dumbo isn’t like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. It does try new things. It diverges from the source material significantly in the worst way. The titular character winds up playing second banana to a bunch of circus performers no one cares about and in the end didn’t contain an inkling of the emotion the 1941 version did.

7. Dark Phoenix

This one’s a triple-whammy. Not only was it a deeply disappointing way for Fox’s X-Men series to end, it retreaded old material in a way that was worse than X-Men 3: The Last Stand AND it was a box office bomb. By the time the story finally comes alive… it’s just about over. The whole thing feels like a mistake, bringing in aliens and asking us to invest in characters we just haven’t had enough time to fall in love with. Makes me wonder what the future of the characters is going to be like. Yes there are a number of heroes and heroines we haven’t yet seen, but are people going to care, even when the brand gets a new coat of paint from Marvel Studios?

6. Men in Black: International

Was anyone asking for the Men in Black series to return? Maybe if they'd had a dynamite story this could’ve overcome the public’s general disinterest, but this was an extremely generic plot you could figure out easily minutes in and lost touch with what endeared us to the first. Even with the combined forces of Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth failed, it to generate many laughs. Worse, to make sure I got any references or Easter egg it might drop, I re-watched all of the previous Men in Black movies, including the horrific Men in Black 2.

5. Replicas

This movie goes about itself in such a convoluted way. First, Keanu Reeves plays a scientist working for a company that wants to transplant the mind of dead soldiers into androids. Then, his family is killed in a car crash, prompting him to use the mind transfer tech to put their memories into new clone bodies of themselves. Problem is, he only has the means to clone three out of four family members. This means he has to erase all memories of his youngest daughter from the others’ brains. Following me so far? Good because it keeps going from there. Actually, that’s just the start of it. It’s a classic case of TMSGO - too much sh*t goin’ on. Even with all that, it STILLL managed to have gaping plot holes. No surprise it came and went as quietly as possible.

4. Hellboy

This one hurt. I wanted to see a superhero horror film badly. The early interviews I read about them wanting to adapt Mike Mignola’s books more closely than the Del Toro films got me excited. I was a little apprehensive when the trailers showed some goofy stuff but I figured these were included to draw people in. I should've listened to that sinking feeling. The actual film is awful, one giant mistake after another. Without a doubt, this featured the year’s worst special effects and even this I could've forgiven but the would-be humorous tone was badly misjudged and the story bloated with way too many elements that might've worked... if we weren't also trying to tell the character's origin at the same time. Hellboy ends with a teaser promising more and there’s no way we would’ve seen a sequel even if this had made money at the box office. Cool demons though, for what it’s worth.

3. Shaft

Looking back, I’m struggling to think of anything worth seeing in Shaft. I hated the film’s approach at comedy, particularly when it reverted Samuel L. Jackson’s John Shaft into the kind of man who proudly doesn’t understand modern sensibilities and spews out one homophobic joke after another. The plot was uninspired and uninteresting - not to mention generic - and none of it felt like it belonged on the big screen. On the upside, it prompted me to view the original trilogy with Richard Roundtree and those were enjoyable.

2. Simmba

Simmba is unlikely to be on the “Worst of 2019” list next January. It probably won’t be at the #2 spot. The film mixes two wildly different tones but not well. It begins as a romantic crime comedy, a dated one, sure. Simmba staging a phoney crime in order for the woman he’s attracted to to call him for help and then use the call as an excuse to stay with her through the night is creepy but I guess it might’ve passed like 20 years ago in North America. What makes this a bad film is the way it then introduces a character’s gang rape and murder as a way to prompt the anti-hero onto a righteous path. From there, it turns into this vigilante revenge film that has disturbing implications. You probably haven’t heard of it before now, much less seen it. I don’t recommend you check it out.

Runner Ups:

Aladdin

A controversial choice, as many casual filmgoers seem to have fallen madly in love with it (similar to the way they ate up 2017’s Beauty and the Beast) but honestly, what does this film do better than 1992’s Aladdin? Add an unmemorable song for Princess Jasmine to sing? Reduce the number of talking animals in order to give us more… nothing? Pile on the CGI to the point you wonder why it was made with live-actors in the first place? Like the innumerable direct-to-video sequels of classic films who've been all but forgotten, I tell you this Arabbian adventure won't endure.

Tolkien

So much potential squandered on a boring story. It didn’t take an astute viewer to recognize the film was crippled by the studio failing to obtain the rights to Tolkien’s actual work. I get the feeling we'll see another shot at a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien in a couple of years and this will be the Christopher Robin to the much superior Goodbye Christopher Robin.

The Hustle

It’s an unfunny comedy, what more is there to say? Rebel Wilson makes yet another bad career choice playing the same character she always plays. I only realized it was a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels while writing my review, which is unfortunate. Hopefully I can expunge this film from my memory soon enough and forget anything it might’ve spoiled about the original Bedtime Story or the 1988 remake.

1. Unplanned

The numerous instances of technical incompetence - mostly coming from the performers who are given lackluster material - would be enough to condemn Unplanned to this list. What made me hate the film is the way it blatantly lies and attempts to manipulate the audience into further entrenching themselves in a certain point of view through cheap, manipulative means. I can respect that genuine passion was poured into the project but the way it goes about it is shameful. Do not go see it, even if you're curious.

Yuck. That last one really left a bad taste in my mouth so I'm going to talk about a movie I did enjoy and am enthusiastic to direct you towards Alita: Battle Angel. Rosa Salazar as the titular Alita impressed me and I really dug the action scenes. I'll also right a wrong from last year by reminding you to find and watch Paddington and Paddington 2, both movies I should've put on my "Best of" lists the years they came out. I don't know what I was thinking but I keep coming back to these in my head. They're excellent for kids and adults.

And with that said, the list is over. Back to our regularly-scheduled film reviews until something big comes up. Thoughts or comments on the list are welcome and I hope you enjoyed reading.

[shredsandpatches]

Chris Given-Wilson is A+ in general. So is Mark Ormrod (I think he’s usually W.M. Ormrod in his publications). I also recommend the Saul bio, which is very much a political bio and doesn’t have a ton to say about, for instance, court culture, but in terms of Richard’s political activities it’s very thorough. The last chapter, which is all about trying to diagnose Richard with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, is stupid though--like, Richard was a medieval king and died over 600 years ago (well, just under 600 years ago when the book was published, but still). That’s not really a personality issue. And his major point of confusion was “Richard was capable of both great love and warmth, and great cruelty and vindictiveness,” which, yes? That’s not really grounds for an NPD diagnosis? So take that part with an entire saltshaker. I’ve heard good things about Laura Ashe’s entry on Richard in the Penguin Monarchs series (I think it’s called A Brittle Glory) but I haven’t gotten to that one yet--the bits I’ve skimmed have been solid though. Michael Bennett’s Richard II and the Revolution of 1399 is a good book on the end of the reign.

For primary source documents, there are two really good sourcebooks for the reign -- Chris Given Wilson’s Chronicles of the Revolution (covering the events of 1397–99) and A.K. McHardy’s The Reign of Richard II: Minority to Tyranny (covering Richard’s reign up to 1397). Both of them have a great selection of documents; the McHardy book is the one you’d go to for the Appellant Crisis, obviously. Some of her comments on the documents are a little weird; for instance, she says the account of Simon Burley carrying small exhausted Richard out of his coronation gives a bad impression of Burley.

For the Appellants specifically, people generally cite Anthony Goodman’s The Loyal Conspiracy although it’s pretty old by now (published in the late seventies, iirc) but I must admit I have not read it because the title annoys me so much.

There are a few essay collections out there with good stuff in them: Goodman and James Gillespie’s Richard II: The Art of Kingship; Gillespie’s The Age of Richard II; and Gwilym Dodd’s The Reign of Richard II. All of these have takes from a wide range of authors with differing opinions. 

For court culture stuff, Jenny Stratford’s Richard II and the English Royal Treasure is a detailed account of Richard’s 1399 treasure roll, with a lot of excellent essay and commentary on the pieces involved and their material significance. Gervase Mathew’s The Court of Richard II is somewhat dated but a really fun read. The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych uses the eponymous altarpiece as an entry into examining various aspects of court culture and kingly image-making (as well as talking about the physical creation of the diptych).

Richard’s reign saw a major boom in English vernacular literature -- most famously, he was a patron to Geoffrey Chaucer, albeit mostly in his day job -- so there’s a ton of literary criticism in which he features. Paul Strohm’s work is always great; most pertinent is his terrific England’s Empty Throne, which is an analysis of various stripes of Lancastrian propaganda and how Henry IV and later Henry V dealt with the breach in the line of succession. There are also some excellent chapters in Hochon’s Arrow, particularly the one about queenly intercession (which has some A+ Anne of Bohemia content) and the one about “The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse.” David Wallace’s Chaucerian Polity is also really good in this regard (and also has A+ Anne of Bohemia content). Similarly to Strohm’s England’s Empty Throne, Louisa Desaussure Duls’ Richard II in the Early Chronicles examines the picture of Richard II created by medieval historians in order to establish the information available to early modern historians such as the Holinshed syndicate and dramatists such as Shakespeare.

And I haven’t even gotten into stuff about Shakespeare’s Richard II and that’s actually what my dissertation was about--but I feel like this has been enough recommendation spam for now. 

Does anyone have some Medieval history book recommendations?

So, for context I’ve been homeschooled since kindergarten. There are a fucking ton of school books in my basement, so since I’m on my R2 kick atm I decided i wanted to do some research on the Lords Appelant. In all of the history books we have down there, NOT ONE OF THEM TALKS ABOUT RICHARD II. Either it’s the wrong time period, or just skips straight from Richard the Lionhearted to Henry V. Very disappointed and I need new history books.

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Asia and Australia Edition: Paul Manafort, Kevin Spacey, Catalonia: Your Tuesday Briefing

New Post has been published on https://usnewsaggregator.com/asia-and-australia-edition-paul-manafort-kevin-spacey-catalonia-your-tuesday-briefing/

Asia and Australia Edition: Paul Manafort, Kevin Spacey, Catalonia: Your Tuesday Briefing

The U.S. sent a nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bomber over undisclosed parts of the Pacific region ahead of President Trump’s visit to Asia, which starts in Japan over the weekend.

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Credit Marta Perez/European Pressphoto Agency

• Spain’s attorney general said that Catalan leaders will be prosecuted for declaring Catalonia’s independence from Spain.

Judges will now decide whether to charge them with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds for organizing the independence referendum held on Oct. 1.

But some reports said the Catalan leaders may be seeking asylum in Belgium.

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Credit Michael Klimentyev/Kremlin, via European Pressphoto Agency

• Russia’s strategy of using oil as a geopolitical tool to spread its influence faces a crucial test this week in Venezuela, where Moscow is effectively taking China’s place as principal banker.

The government of President Nicolás Maduro must come up with $1 billion to avert default — and Russia has been making loans and deals that could save it from collapse. What does Moscow get in return? Influence in Washington’s backyard.

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Credit Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

• Harvey Weinstein faces new sexual assault accusations that extend the span of the allegations to the 1970s.

The emotional toll is vivid for women who say they felt ashamed and isolated as they watched the Hollywood producer walk red carpets and pile up Oscars. “This has haunted me my entire life,” said a woman who accused him of raping her nearly 40 years ago.

And Kevin Spacey apologized after he was accused of sexually accosting a 14-year-old actor 31 years ago, but came under fire for using the same statement to come out as gay.

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Credit Loic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• The U.S. and China and something in common: a taste for French butter.

But rising global demand is causing prices hikes and sporadic shortages in France — prompting both mock panic and real anxiety.

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“Not having butter in France,” one woman said, “that’s appalling,”

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Business

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Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

• The iPhone X goes on sale in 55 countries and territories on Friday, after a week of booming pre-orders. Here’s our review.

• Two Silicon Valley titans, Tim Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, met in Beijing with President Xi Jinping at an annual gathering of advisers to Tsinghua University’s business school, but few details have emerged.

• President Trump is expected to name his nominee to lead the Federal Reserve this week. The names on his short list don’t appear to share his taste for aggressive financial deregulation.

• Executive expertise: Our departing Corner Office columnist interviewed 525 chief executives through the years. Here’s what he learned.

• U.S. stocks were weaker. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

In the News

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Credit Safin Hamed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• The resignation of Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan since 2005, represents more fallout from a Kurdish independence vote that many now see as a catastrophic blunder. He has no clear successor. [The New York Times]

• In Afghanistan, the Taliban are increasingly refining their own opium in Afghanistan, lifting their profits and resulting in a troubling turn for the war. [The New York Times]

• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in Israel to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Australian troops’ victory in the Battle of Beersheba today. Some of those attending are descendants of rarely recognized indigenous soldiers. [ABC]

• The deaths of three underage girls in a fire at the Indonesian fireworks factory where they worked underscores the country’s struggles with workplace safety and child welfare. [The New York Times]

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• Formal approval for the two-year trial of a medically supervised drug injecting center in inner Melbourne is expected today. [ABC]

• Chris Gayle, the Jamaican cricketer, won a defamation case against Fairfax Media. A jury in New South Wales found insufficient evidence that he exposed himself to a massage therapist in Sydney during the 2015 World Cup. [ESPN]

• The Japanese government ordered hotels, stadiums and public buildings to dumb down their language when helping foreigners during a disaster. [The Asahi Shimbun]

Smarter Living

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

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Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

• Should your spouse be your best friend?

• Clocks’ seasonal shifts offer the opportunity to assess your sleep habits.

• Recipe of the day: monster Halloween cookies.

Noteworthy

Video

Murakami Balances Modernity and Tradition in Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, features works by Takashi Murakami, one of Japan’s most famous contemporary artists, alongside traditional Japanese art.

By JEAN YVES CHAINON and JOSHUA THOMAS on Publish Date October 26, 2017. Photo by Photo by Jean Yves Chainon / The New York Times. Technology by Samsung.. Watch in Times Video »

• Takashi Murakami, the master of Pop Japanese anime playfulness, has teamed with Louis Vuitton and Kanye West. But his collaboration with a senior Japanese art historian has created a profound shift in his work.

• Mali’s anti-poaching brigade, formed to protect its few hundred, extremely endangered desert elephants, has not lost a single one to poachers in nine months.

• And Luke Skywalker speaks, at last. Since “Star Wars” went supernova in 1977, Mark Hamill has been placed on a pop-cultural pedestal. It’s been a conflicted relationship, but Mr. Hamill, 66, isn’t bitter or jaded, and he isn’t just Luke. Here’s our extensive profile.

Back Story

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Credit Mike Segar/Reuters

We begin Halloween with a ghost story.

Stingy Jack invited the devil for a drink.

As Irish folklore goes, Jack didn’t want to pay for the drinks, and instead convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin that could be used to settle the tab.

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The devil agreed, but Jack ditched the tab and kept the coin. When he finally died, Stingy Jack was denied entry to both heaven and hell and instead was given a burning coal to light his way as he roamed the earth for eternity. He placed the coal in a carved-out turnip, turning it into a lantern.

Stingy Jack became known as “Jack of the Lantern,” or Jack-o’-Lantern, by the late 17th century. Elsewhere in Europe, making lanterns out of potatoes and beets was part of a fall harvest celebration. Lights were also thought to ward off evil spirits.

By the end of the 19th century, European immigrants in America switched their carving tradition over to pumpkins.

“The fortunate pumpkin is a noble fruit, a joy in the mouth of mankind, a paean of Autumn on the happy palate,” a 1942 Times article proclaimed. “The unfortunate pumpkin becomes a jack-o’-lantern.”

Remy Tumin contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Browse past briefings here.

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[newagesispage]

                                                                              April 2017

PAGE RIB

*****Welcome to sexual assault awareness month.. Be vigilant and help your fellow man or woman!

*****Lady Gaga will replace Beyonce at Coachella

*****Will they ever air the Gary Cole episode of Law and Order SVU?

*****Things are heating up in the impeachment trial of Alabama’s Gov. Robert Bentley. His lawyer claims he was denied due process. The other side says that this is just delay.

*****Does ABC have a hacking problem? I can’t even remember how many times certain people start to talk on different programs and boom.. cuts ou, jammed or temporarily interrupted with something out of left field. Is it local.. Does this happen to everyone?

*****Madonna is adopting 4 year old twins.

*****Ten percent of the bidders for the border wall are Hispanic.

*****The second to last season of The Americans is rockin’!!

*****”We know he’s crazy, we have to start protecting ourselves.” This is just one of the lines from Dave Letterman in a New York magazine interview that centered mostly on Trump. He has no qualms about calling things out. “How is a white supremacist the chief advisor to our President?” “If we get a President sometime soon who does not have a mental disorder, twitter will be useful.” You must look it up, it is worth a read!

*****Rihanna received Harvard’s Humanitarian award.

*****Roger Stone, big supporter and surrogate for Trump tried to discredit the FBI over the Iraq war. Charlie Rose had to set him straight and tell him it was a CIA report that had revealed the possible weapons of mass destruction. The man, who has a Nixon tattoo that spans his shoulders, is also under investigation for collusion with the Russians.

*****The White house is talking about creating propaganda to whip up the anti- immigrant hysteria even more: VOICE: Victims of immigration crime engagement. Some call this racist and how genocide begins.

*****Dancing with the stars is back with Charo, Mr.T, Nancy Carrigan, Simone Biles and Chris Kattan.

*****Radio shows have come full circle to become podcasts. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We still seem to like to just listen to people talk. Check out Karina Longworth with You Must Remember This. With Feud (next up for Feud: Charles and Di) going strong on FX, it is a good time to listen to her Bette/Joan episode. With Manson in the news again, there is a 12 part episode on his part in Hollywood.

*****Ann- Margret is back with Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin in Going in Style.

*****Baskets has been given the greenlight for season 3!

*****Louis CK and Albert Brooks are bringing the animated The Cops to TBS.

*****Shemar Moore will be making an appearance on the season finale of Criminal Minds. His character will be bringing the team some info about ‘Scratch.” Shemar recently told ET that he wanted Morgan to call Penelope ‘Sugar tits’ instead of ‘baby girl” , but the writers wouldn’t go for that. He is also filming a CBS pilot reboot of S.W.A.T. The Criminal Minds finale airs on May 10.

*****Should we have to put up with Jeff Sessions and his lies about the Russian ambassador? We have direct evidence of deception. Comey made it official that the Trump camp is under investigation for possible collusion with the Russian involvement with the campaign. Funny that he always shot his mouth off about Hillary but was mum on this. The Republicans questioned Comey mostly about the leaks which is important but also a great distraction.  The FBI reveals that Russia did not even try to hide their tracks. It is possible they were just gathering and then when they dumped the info they went through an intermediary. **Sean Spicer claims that Paul Manafort, (who seems to have many ties to Russia and who ran the campaign for a time and ran the RNC) had a very limited role with the campaign.  The bugging of Trump tower was laid to rest but just not by scary clown and co. They seem to believe that GCHQ, British intelligence was involved as well. Why don’t the Republican Senators get some fucking balls and quit defending this freak? Let’s hone in on this Russian connection and get this freak out of there.**Ivanka is getting an office and top clearance? Is this an Edith Wilson situation? Does the family have to keep an eye on him? Is it time to face the sad fact that he may have dementia or a mental disorder? BTW Wendy Williams mentioned that she would rather be Tiffany than Ivanka because of all the responsibility and the whole wife and daughter thing going on. Tiffany gets to be out there living it up.  Love that!**Pence is no prize either, he is always behind Trump looking like a bobble head doll. Be aware if we end up with him!

*****Hillary B. Smith is on General Hospital for a stint. Oh how I missed ya, Nora!!

*****Everyone is giving backlash about cutting funding for PBS and meals on wheels. Mick Mulvaney, director of the office of management and budget tells us it is only a 3% cut but I am guessing we will now have 3% more hungry people. He explains that a lot of people do not want their tax dollars to fund the National endowment for the arts. I do not want mine to add millions to the military budget or Mar a Lago trips or Melania’s NY shutdown (the gossip is that Trump and the first lady are basically separated). They don’t seem to give a fuck about that.**It is so great that the ‘Trump health care plan’ fell apart but Pelosi and Hoyer et al. need to stop crowing and keep fighting against the rest of the crap the majority is trying to get by with and fix the things that need fine tuning on the ACA.

***** Does anybody else find Feud and The American’s Alison Wright absolutely irresistible?? She is so fabulous!!

*****It looks like Sears and Kmart may be in the verge of going out of business.

*****Jared Kushner’s role just gets bigger and bigger. He has been appointed to reconfigure the government and deal with the border wall and negotiate peace in the Middle East. One guy? OK!

***** CBS Sunday morning informed us about the wonders of Denmark. They do have the highest cancer rates and taxes but they have the highest wages and lowest poverty rates too. They live by the word Hygge which means live simply.

*****The White House did not even send an official rep to This Week, they just sent some old buddy of Trumps. Will they start to run out of new faces to defend them? ** Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal wrote, “The president clings to his assertions like a drunk to an empty gin bottle.” And Bill Moyers wrote,” There’s a smell of treason in the air.” Samantha Bee likens Trumps military spending to an insecure guy who tries to make his penis look bigger. Bill Maher wonders if constitutionalist Judge Gorsuch will wonder ‘What would the slaveholders do?’ Michael Moore wrote, “Historians in the near future will mark today,3-28-17, as the day the extinction of human life on earth began, thanks 2 Donald Trump.”** Donald Trump Jr. criticized the London Mayor after the attacks.

*****And just as Scary clown 45 signed the repeal to wipe out Obama’s climate change record, An inconvenient truth sequel Truth to Power is coming out.

*****The Rolling Stones are nominated for best blues act and best blues album in the Jazz FM awards.

*****There is no clean coal!

*****The Daytime Emmy’s were announced. The Talk and Ellen lead the pack with 8 nominations. There are 5 for the View and the announcement fucked up their names. I’ll be routing for CBS Sunday morning and CBS this morning. I can’t believe that The Pioneer woman was not nominated for outstanding culinary program. I guess I will route for Trisha’s Southern Kitchen. Days of our Lives was nominated for show, directing and writing. There was best actor noms for Billy Flynn (Chad) and Vincent Irizarry (Deimos). Kate Mansi (the old Abigail) was nominated for best supporting actress and John Aniston (Victor) for supporting actor. Go Days!!!

*****The small Illinois town of West Frankfurt stood up for Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez was picked up when the immigrant ban enforcers were looking for someone else. The town vouched for him and called this out as unfair.

*****The FDA has approved food to protect food. Edipeel is a spray made out of food that can put a thin shield on fruit and protect it 5 times longer than normal. It is edible and tasteless. It will be invaluable in places with no refrigeration and help with waste.

*****Patrick Stewart is applying for American citizenship to help with the fight we are having in here at home. Agitate..Agitate..Agitate.

*****Looks like NBC has given the greenlight to an Ellen DeGeneres game show.

*****Tom Hanks sent the White house press corps an espresso machine with a note that read: “Keep up the good fight for truth, justice and the American way. Especially for the truth part.” This is a tradition he started with the Bush administration.

*****Get ready for a Big band theory spinoff.

*****Steve Martin will teach an online comedy course. The cost is $90 on Masterclass. Others who have taught are Christina Aguilera, Kevin Spacey, James Patterson, Dustin Hoffman, Werner Herzog and Aaron Sorkin. They will soon be joined by Shonda Rhimes and Hans Zimmer.

***** Caterpillar was raided by the Feds which included the IRS, CID, Inspector General and export enforcement. Word is they may be indicted for tax evasion. This could be from a 2009 lawsuit alleging the company shifted profits overseas and to offshore shell companies to avoid paying more than 2 billion in taxes.

*****Hall and Oates and Tears for Fears are set to tour.

*****This time it’s real. You see warnings on the internet all the time about your privacy rights but this time look out! The Senate has voted to repeal a set of rules aimed at protecting online data. Once again the big companies win under this administration. This could let internet providers share info. New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. states “At a time when our personal data is more vulnerable than ever, it’s baffling that senate republicans would eliminate the few privacy protections Americans have today.” The word is that millions are pouring in for their votes. Ted Cruz reportedly got 2 mil. We will be paying the big cable giants to sell our info to the highest bidder and this could keep the FCC from ever again establishing similar consumer privacy protections. And this from a man who wants privacy with his taxes. Some of the wealthy are claiming they will buy all the info of those that voted to sold us down the river and release it to the public.

*****Robert Redford has me excited about 2 films. The first is out now about the afterlife called The Discovery. It also stars Riley Keough, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Segel and Rooney Mara. The other has distribution rights just coming together. The Old man and the gun is the true story of a thief with Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover and Casey Affleck.

*****A tribute to the music of Merle Haggard will be held in Nashville with Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Loretta Lynn, The Avett Brothers, Alison Krauss and Billy Gibbons.

*****Microfiber is causing great problems with water pollution. I knew I hated fleece.

*****There has been an official request for scary clown’s tax returns.

*****”These are not good times.” –John McCain. McCain is also very worried that North Korea’s leader is not rational and needs to be handled. It is kind of frightening when our own leader is not rational.

*****Look for the live album Charlie Watts meets Danish Radio Big Band. The music which includes Stones covers was recorded in 2010 and will drop on April 21.

*****As soon as the ACA was saved, the blame game started! Scary clown and his cohorts blamed Washington for cancelling the health care vote stating that “It’s a lot more rotten than we thought.” Trump said “I’m glad it’s behind me” and then tweeted blame to the republicans and the democrats and the very conservative republicans and it just goes on. He invited us to watch his beloved friend Judge Jeanine who minced no words in that Paul Ryan needs to step down. He is adamant that he does not blame Ryan. Ok. Jeanine scolded that we all knew a businessman would not know how to legislate but he made it clear during the election that he knew more than anybody. Is the world  laughing at our “art of the deal”  tough New Yorker president who was suckered by the Wisconsin dude. Trump is like the armchair quarterback who is finally thrown into the game and does not have a clue. **Bannon bullied and threatened the night before the “vote”, telling the house members that they had no choice but it seemed to work against him and wouldn’t that be the President’s job? ** The topper was Colbert using the schoolhouse rock song, “I’m just a bill” which ended with the bill blowing his brains out.

*****Some high school kids came up with We Dine Together for the new or loner kids to make some new friends. Look it up and help to open chapters locally!!

*****Zac Brown is coming out with new music.

*****Trump has now rescinded the order Obama signed requiring firms that do business with the federal government prove compliance with federal laws and executive orders. This makes Trump look like he’s doing the right thing by leaving one of Obama’s executive orders in place that prohibits the federal government from contracting with firms that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. People from the LGBT community would have to take steps to enforce it now.** College basketball in North Carolina sort of forced the repeal of the bathroom law but they leave a regulation of bathroom access solely to the control of the legislature. It prevents local government from passing or amending their own non -discrimination ordinances pertaining to private employment.

*****There is a growing number of the French who want President Obama to run for President of France. It is possible if he were so inclined. One only has to be a resident, not a natural born citizen to run for President in Great Britain, Israel, Germany, France, Canada and France.

*****The Mount Kushmore Wellness retreat tour is coming to 16 cities with Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Cypress Hill, Method Man and Redman.

*****Are all the Russians visiting Trump and his cohorts buying their vodka at Costco?

*****Apparently Beau Biden’s widow is dating his brother Hunter Biden.

*****This year’s Seattle Hemp fest runs August 18-20.

*****Who knew that Bryan Cranston dubbed a lot of the monster voices from Japanese to English for the original Power Rangers.

*****Dimitri Rybolovlev, a Russian fertilizer businessman bought a Trump home in Florida for twice what it was worth. This was the most expensive home sale in U.S. history.  He and the Presidents planes cross paths all the time though there have been many denials of this. A Russian ambassador was sitting in the front row of Trumps first press conference as President. Reports say that Scary clown went ballistic in the oval office when he discovered that Sessions recused himself. He left for Florida without his senior staff.** Now there is an inquiry about his business with an Iranian family known as the Corleoni’s of the Caspian.

*****Ben Carson called slaves immigrants and then walked it back.

*****Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep are making a film about The Pentagon Papers to be called The Post.

*****North Korea fired 5 missiles into the ocean.

*****Beef Products Inc. is suing ABC over a story they did on a meat product they called pink slime. The judge said the suit could move forward.

*****Rachel Maddow got some backlash for overdoing it on her big Trump taxes show. Some think the President himself put them out.

*****SNL’s Weekend Update is going prime time. They are also going live in all time zones on April 15th.

*****Mischa Barton has filed a lawsuit over a sex tape that was filmed without her consent.

*****A tweet from Mcdonald’s had some pretty bad things to say about our President. The tweet was taken down in 20 minutes and they claim they were compromised.

*****Days alert: Did we see Nicole on the run with that poor baby? She is more street smart than to be taken advantage of by a street hustler at the little hotel. C’mon! I hate it when characters I like leave and the way they write them off seems more exciting than when they were there. Like, I want to see Teresa’s character on her secret adventure right now. I am sick of Chad thinking about Gabby moments from his past, enough! And then bam!!,  Deimos hits him where it hurts. Since Roman has retired, are they putting him in charge of the Brady Pub? I think that is perfect, he wants to take it a little easier and everybody’s favorite meeting place in Salem needs the next generation to take over.** Everyone in this country was talking about health care but I think most soap characters must have great insurance. Especially lately on Days, transplants, cancer, poisoning.. the hospital has been full up.** Hooray.. Adrienne picked Lucas, it’s about fucking time!!

*****Ben Affleck is recently out of rehab.

*****It looks like they are talking about remaking ‘The Fly’.

*****Netflix has the global rights to Orson Welles unfinished final film ’The Other Side of the Wind’.

*****Robert Blake is getting married again. His third wife is Pam Hudak that he had dated back in 1991 and previously lived in his guest house.

*****Can we all vote by mail yet?? What is the problem??

*****Looks like Kyle Bush is a bit of a hot head. He went after Joey Lagano after a race.

*****The Japanese prime minister was telling us what happened in some meetings he had with the Pres. I guess we are getting official news by way of Japan now since scary clown tells us nothing of any real importance.

*****Will Scary Clown 45 bring war as a jobs program? Where are the jobs he promised? There are many empty offices in Washington right now that could be filled with employed workers. He has many jobs to give and he won’t do it and they are firing people left and right. Look at the money we spend on getting him to Mir a Lago and the delusional investigations he wants into wiretapping etc. Just think of what a poor family could do with that money. This administration is gutting the EPA and that is just the beginning. The only good news is the stock market is up. He really behaves more like a cult leader than a President. He talks only in front of the people who worship him. I’m sure he can’t believe his dumb luck that so many Americans are uninformed. He communicates in “facts” that only he seems to understand. He sends out his minions to spread HIS intellectual pollution back to their audience of one. Charles Manson is of ill health and perhaps is not long for this world so I guess scary clown 45 is the new evil, the deplorables are the new ‘family’.

*****The liberal rednecks of comedy make me wonder when those raised with hate and or narrow teachings will rebel against their parents and become liberals filled with acceptance.

*****What is all this touching on late night talk shows?

*****Climate March on March 29. Scientists March on April 22.

*****Charlie Rose is back.

*****”The level of complete corruption from the fossil fuel industry that marks this administration is like nothing we’ve ever seen.”- Environmentalist Bill Mckibben.

*****What kind of a person could actually believe that a ‘billionaire’ who has tried to buy up sanctuaries to put up more towers with his name on them would help the environment? Will these same people who allowed themselves to be whipped up into a frenzy of fear and anxiety love it when Yellowstone disappears? Well, they do seem to be on board with everything else so perhaps they don’t care. The pain of this election is unbearable but will some good come of it? Will he and friends who say no to everything that isn’t their idea or does not help the richest of us learn anything from this? Will their eyes be open to what it really feels like when they all get on top of you? I mean are they capable of seeing what it really fucking feels like? If they hate government so much, why do they want to be a part of it? Well, of course to tip the scales in their favor.

*****Arnold Schwarzenegger has quit Celebrity Apprentice.

*****The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Time will not attend White House briefings if other outlets (CNN, New York Times etc.) are not allowed in. Good for them but perhaps they need to keep working behind the scenes on digging for the truth about scary clown 45 but not reporting every little thing he distracts us with. For instance the ‘wiretap’ stuff is proven wrong so quit talking about it and move on!** Rex Tillerson told a reporter, “I didn’t want this job.” Sources say Tillerson shuffles in and out through back doors ignoring important diplomats and his minions are not allowed to look him in the eye. Tell me this is not true!

*****Sam Rodriguez Jr., who led a prayer at the Trump Inauguration is giving a safe haven to those worried about immigration raids. His New Season Christian Worship Center also gives shelter to victims of domestic violence.

*****A young intruder jumped the fence at the White House and 2 more followers have tried to get in too.

*****Trivia lovers: We have a new worst President!

*****The Brexit process began on March 29.

*****Beauty and the Beast set some records. It was the biggest March opening ever and the biggest PG opening ever.

*****The newest Monopoly tokens are a T. Rex, a rubber ducky and a penguin.

*****Thank you Martin Sheen for inspiring Malibu to become a sanctuary city.

*****Two stolen Van Gogh’s that were found last September were put on display again in Amsterdam.

*****The 9th season of RuPauls drag race is here!

*****Florida has a wheel of fugitives that spin to focus in on certain missing law breakers.

*****The new health care plan is loaded with massive tax cuts for the rich and no budget for it. The AMA and AARP do not support it. They kept a little of the good parts of Obamacare and changed wording on some things that Dems had wanted and they had previously refused. Estimates say that 60% of Trump voters will get their repeal of the ACA but it will cost them more for health care. Big drug companies get a healthy tax break and it is like a gift to insurance companies. All the Obama haters that wanted everything repealed sound a little mixed on the tax breaks for the rich. Did they not realize that the money was coming from somewhere? It is bad enough when I see people believe a story or two from the enquirer or wonder about a conspiracy theory but the things that pass for fact in the White House is delusional. The swamp is thriving just fine!

*****Lizzie Borden is coming to the big screen with Chloe Sevigny and Kristen Stewart.

*****OMG.. The new Twin peaks has added Laura Dern, Michael Cera and Jennifer Jason Leigh!!!!

*****Way to go Ted Koppel for giving Sean Hannity a reality check. Somebody has to be the voice of reason.

*****We still don’t know much about season 7 of American Horror Story. The cast gathered at the Paley center to talk about last season. It looks like it may be about the 2016 election and we know that Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters are on board and that it will come back in the fall.

*****Funny or die is bringing us 10 episodes of Sarah Silverman’s,’ I love you America.’

*****George Conway (Kellyanne’s husband) has been nominated to lead the justice department.

*****There is a new Jack Cassidy (son of Patrick), who is joining the family in entertainment.

*****Scary Clown 45 says Obama released 122 prisoners from Gitmo when we know 113 of them were by Bush.

*****Rob Reiner, I am so glad you are out there fighting the good fight for us!

*****Hawaii has filed the first lawsuit on the new travel ban. Federal judges agree but the Trump supporters want to boycott Hawaii.

*****This is not Sean Spicer’s first time at the White house. He used to be the Easter bunny in the 2000’s.

*****A DC restaurant filed suit against the Trump hotel across the street.

*****The whole ‘Janet Jackson has a daughter’ thing is back in the news.

*****In Cold Blood killer Dick Hickock wrote his own manuscript, with some help from Kansas City journalist Mack Nations called The High Road to Hell and it has just now surfaced. Before Hickock was executed, it seems that Truman Capote would not have wanted it published. Random House had a deal with Capote and some digging has shown that he fought against the other publication.

*****The new Avatar land, Pandora in Florida looks like Summer camp and it will open around the same time at the end of May.

*****Conan tweets have been on fire lately.

*****Ski joring that mixes skiing with horses is becoming more popular. I expect to see my cousin Cat doing it real soon.

*****A study of 6,000 UK teens showed that high achieving students were 50% more likely to use Marijuana occasionally.

*****Worldwide poverty has been cut in half.

*****Tomi Lahren has been suspended from her show Tomi on The Blaze network. She told the ladies of The View that she is pro -choice. Glenn Beck has spoken out against her. The network tag line is ”a platform for a new generation of authentic and unfiltered voices.” Hmmm.

*****Can’t wait for The Pollinator from Blondie. The new LP drops on May 5 with some help from Joan Jett, Laurie Anderson and Dev Hynes.

***** So.. Obama could not even get his Supreme Court nominee looked at but a President who is under investigation expects his pick to sail right thru?

*****Studies show that Subway chicken is only 50% chicken.

*****How wonderful that Michael Moore is showing Taylor Hackford’s Hail Hail Rock ‘n Roll in his Michigan theatre to honor Chuck Berry.

***** Look for Michael Nesmith’s new book and cd,  Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical riffs!

*****R.I.P. Robert Osborne, Fred Weintraub, Joni Sledge, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Breslin, Chuck Barris. Robert James Walker, the victims of the London attack,

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That [Henry Bolingbroke] did indeed accuse Mowbray of the murder of Gloucester is confirmed by the Continuatio Eulogii. It was this, surely, which drove the King to anger, for a discussion of Gloucester's death was the last thing that Richard wanted, and it is hard to believe that Bolingbroke was so naive as to be unaware of this. To raise the subject at this stage was a calculated gamble. Perhaps he hoped that the King would take fright and proceed to judgment against Mowbray as rapidly as possible. Richard, on the other hand, may well have interpreted Bolingbroke's audacity as a covert attack upon himself, for it was, after all, his contention that Gloucester had died a natural death. To have given judgment against Mowbray at this stage would have seemed almost like an admission of guilt on his own part. Once again, then, the King was in a quandary. In the event, nothing more was heard of the Duke of Gloucester's death, but of one thing we may be sure: Bolingbroke's decision to raise the issue made it unthinkable for the King to allow him to be proved right.

Chris Given-Wilson, "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance", The English Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 432 (1994)

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In December 1397, Mowbray's nerve broke. Hardly surprisingly, it was in Bolingbroke that he chose to confide: not only was Bolingbroke the man most obviously in a similar position to himself, but he was also directly threatened by the schemes of Richard and his supporters. But what, when faced with such allegations, could Bolingbroke do? To remain silent would lay him open to a charge of conspiracy; to flee would be an admission of guilt; to devise a counter-plot was potentially suicidal. So he did the sensible thing - he came clean. He told his father, and Gaunt told the King. This too was sensible - from the Lancastrian point of view, at any rate - for it put Richard on the spot. He had no real option but to deny his involvement in any plot and, subsequently, to confirm Gaunt and Bolingbroke in their tenure of the Lancastrian inheritance. There was, however, one major problem with the course of action taken by Gaunt and Bolingbroke: it must have appeared very much like a betrayal of Mowbray, who, according even to Bolingbroke's account, had confided in the latter in order to warn him and his father of the impending fate of the house of Lancaster. Yet there is, of course, an alternative explanation: according to the allegation made by the Duke of Exeter in 1399, Mowbray himself had been one of the original plotters, along with Bagot and the King, against the house of Lancaster. Given what we know of Mowbray's character - 'changeable' is a generous epithet - it is quite possible that, despite having initially conspired with the King to destroy Gaunt and Bolingbroke, Mowbray later (possibly because of the deterioration in his relations with Richard, possibly even in an attempt to goad Bolingbroke into some precipitate action which would hasten his downfall and thus restore Mowbray to favour with the King) decided to reveal the details of the plot to his former ally - omitting, naturally, the crucial fact that he had been one of its instigators. True or not, it is at any rate quite credible that this was what Bolingbroke believed to have happened - or, perhaps, what Bagot told him had happened, for presumably Bagot must have undergone interrogation before sealing his recognizances. If Bolingbroke thought he was being set up, his decision to go to the King makes even more sense; moreover, he would have had no compunction in throwing Mowbray to the wolves.

Chris Given-Wilson, "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance", The English Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 432 (1994)

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Despite the understandable silence of many of the contemporary chronicles on the subject, there can be little doubt that speculation over the succession was rife during the I390s. What made that speculation so politically explosive was the enormous wealth and power of the house of Lancaster. Gaunt was the greatest landholder in England, the possessor of an estate worth some £10,000 a year net. That Richard and his satellites coveted it, as Mowbray alleged, should hardly occasion surprise, and although the details remain hazy, there is plenty of evidence of a plot at court against Gaunt and his family at this time. According to Walsingham, Bagot admitted at his trial in October 1399 that he had once planned the death of Gaunt, but claimed that he had been pardoned by both Gaunt and the King. The London chronicler provides a more circumstantial account of that episode: according to this version, the Duke of Exeter asserted in Parliament that it was Bagot, Richard, and Mowbray who were behind the plot, Bagot allegedly declaring that 'we shulde never have oure purpos but affter the deeth off John, late Duk off Lancastre'. Bagot could make no answer to Exeter's accusation, which is hardly surprising, since a number of documents enrolled in Chancery - which also help to date the plot - reveal that Bagot's involvement in the conspiracy was no secret. On 1 March 1398 Bagot was obliged to enter into a recognizance to the King, stating that, under pain of payment of £1,000 he would not in future make any attempt to disinherit Gaunt, his wife or any of his children. Two days later, Bagot appeared personally in Chancery and gave a further undertaking to the effect that 'if John duke of Guyenne and Lancastre, his wife or any of his children shall in time to come be by him slain, upon proof thereof he shall be put to death without other judgment or process'. At the same time - that is, on 1 March - Bagot was pardoned for any 'treasons, felonies, trespasses and misprisions' which he had committed before 6 January [I398]. The implication of these bizarre documents is, firstly, that Bagot had been plotting precisely that from which he now undertook to desist, and, secondly, that his scheming against the house of Lancaster began earlier than 6 January 1398. In other words, his plot was not a consequence of the outbreak of the dispute between Mowbray and Bolingbroke, for that did not become public knowledge until at least two weeks later, but it was one of the 'facts' behind the allegations which sparked off the dispute.

Chris Given-Wilson, "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance", The English Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 432 (1994)

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That Mowbray was the person immediately responsible for Gloucester's murder seems virtually indisputable - although it is surely equally indisputable that ultimate responsibility for the murder must lie with the King. But whatever the truth of the matter, it is pretty clear that right from the beginning Mowbray was regarded as the chief suspect. This is unsurprising, given that his was the custody into which Gloucester had been delivered; it is also confirmed by the testimony of the ubiquitous Bagot. In the bill which he presented to the Parliament of 1399, Bagot recalled a conversation which he claimed to have had with Mowbray when the two of them were riding down Savoy Street towards Westminster one day in October 1397. Mowbray had asked him, a touch warily no doubt, whether he knew how the Duke of Gloucester had died. 'Nay be my trouth,' replied Bagot, 'but the peple seyth that ye have murdred him.' To which Mowbray 'swore grete othes nay', insisting that he had in fact saved Gloucester's life for three weeks and more, contrary to the wishes of the King and certain other lords, and that he had never been so fearful for his life as when he returned from Calais to tell the King that his uncle was still alive. It was only after this, and only 'ffor drede off the kyng, and eschewyng off his owne deeth', that he had eventually done the deed. Mowbray's attempt to disclaim responsibility for the murder is of course understandable, but his story also has the virtue of helping to explain what is often seen as the most puzzling aspect of Gloucester's murder, namely the fact that news of the Duke's death was apparently made public some weeks before it actually occurred. If what Mowbray said was true, it must also have raised unwelcome questions in both his mind and that of the King: for surely, in the nature of their complicity, each had a hold over the other. On the one hand, public suspicion of Mowbray's involvement in so terrible a deed left him dangerously exposed; on the other hand, if he were ever to be openly accused of Gloucester's murder, it was more than likely that he would seek to deflect the blame on to Richard. A conspiracy of silence about Gloucester's murder was therefore in the interests of both men.

Chris Given-Wilson, "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance", The English Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 432 (1994)

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In the light of these considerations, it is perhaps surprising that historians of Richard's reign have for the most part either dismissed or simply ignored Mowbray's allegations, usually on the grounds that either he or Bolingbroke was probably lying. It is perfectly possible that at least one of them was lying, but that does not mean everything they said was a lie. Mowbray's allegations must be seen in context: the court of King Richard was a dangerous place in the late I390s; plots and rumours of plots abounded. Yet the plots and the rumours were not unfocused: reduced to their essentials, they reveal that the real political fault-line then was the power of the house of Lancaster.

Chris Given-Wilson, "Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance", The English Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 432 (1994)

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It was later this same year, on 6 July 1406, that [Jean de] Clermont sent a letter to Thomas of Lancaster, Henry IV's second son, challenging him to personal combat.  Although written and sealed by Clermont, this challenge was in fact issued jointly by him and Jean de Foix (eldest son of Count Archambaud). The two counts, together with six other 'knights and esquires, gentlemen of renown and of arms and without reproach', challenged Prince Thomas and any other seven similarly irreproachable knights or esquires on the English side to meet them in a combat a oultrance at a time and place to be agreed, before mutually-chosen judges and with mutually-agreed weapons. The aim, said Clermont, was for all concerned to win honour and renown, and more specifically to 'deliver' him and Jean de Foix from the vows which they had sworn, 'for love of our ladies', to wear certain chivalric tokens on their persons until such time as liberation might prove forthcoming. It is interesting, moreover, to see from Clermont's letter that he had apparently already heard that Thomas had expressed an interest in 'delivering' him from his vow. In other words, this was not a challenge sent out of the blue, but rather the formalization in writing of some earlier, more informal, approach. What is more, Thomas did later formally accept this challenge, for on 28 February 1410 Henry IV issued a letter saying that his second son had been asked by 'our dear cousin' the count of Clermont to respond to certain points of arms; that Thomas in turn had asked the king to be allowed to do so; and that as a result the king was granting a safe-conduct to Clermont, three hundred of his servants and their horses and equipment to come to England pour les ditz pointz d'armes accom-pliers. Whether Jean de Clermont ever followed Werchin across the Channel to joust with Prince Thomas is unclear (given the lack of confirmatory evidence, it seems unlikely), but Anglo-French combats were certainly being planned...

Chris Given-Wilson, "'The Quarrels of Old Women': Henry IV, Louis of Orléans, and Anglo-French Chivalric Challenges in the Early Fifteenth Century', The Reign of Henry IV: Rebellion and Survival (York Medieval Press 2008)

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It was Gaunt who arranged Henry's marriage. The object of his attentions was Mary, the co-heiress to Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex and Northampton, who had died at the age of thirty in January 1373, leaving no sons, two underage daughters, and a very substantial inheritance. The elder daughter, Eleanor (born in 1366), was married to Gaunt's brother, Thomas of Woodstock, earl of Buckingham, probably in 1374. What now happened to Mary (born in 1369–70) was naturally a matter of considerable interest to Buckingham. As long as she remained single, the entire Bohun inheritance would fall to him; were she to marry, he would be obliged to share it with her husband. Inconveniently, other duties now deflected his attention. On 3 May 1380, he indented with the king and council to lead an expedition to Brittany with a retinue of 5,000 men. During the following two months he did what he could to ensure that the Bohun patrimony did not slip from his grasp during his absence: on 8 May he obtained a royal grant of the custody of Mary's share of the inheritance during her minority; on 22 June Eleanor came of age and Thomas performed his fealty to the king for his wife's share of the lands. Shortly before leaving he even took the precaution of bringing Mary to stay with her sister at Pleshey castle (Essex), where he arranged for her to be instructed by nuns with the intention that she should join the order of St Clare. According to Froissart, ‘the young lady seemed to incline to their doctrine, and thought not of marriage’. Hopeful of having ensured the integrity of his inheritance, Buckingham shipped his troops to Calais and, on 24 July 1380, set out with his army on a campaign from which he would not return for nine months. No sooner had he done so than Gaunt made his move. Three days after his brother's crossing, he secured a royal grant of Mary's marriage, ‘for marrying her to his son Henry’, and shortly after this induced her mother, Joan countess of Hereford, to spirit her away from Pleshey and take her to Arundel, where the young couple were rapidly betrothed. They were married on 5 February 1381 in a service held at Countess Joan's manor of Rochford (Essex). The connivance of the king and council, who would have been aware of the blow this inflicted on Buckingham, is a measure of the financial and political leverage Gaunt exercised in Richard II's minority government. Gaunt attended and presented Mary with a ruby, as well as paying for the festivities; Henry's sisters, Philippa and Elizabeth, each gave their new sister-in-law a goblet and ewer. The king and Edmund earl of Cambridge (Gaunt's younger, and Buckingham's older, brother) may also have been there, for ten royal minstrels and four of Cambridge's minstrels received gratuities from Gaunt for enlivening the proceedings. There was nothing hasty or clandestine about the wedding.

Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV (Yale University Press, 2016)

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Just as these tussles were reaching their climax, tragedy struck: on 24 March 1394 John of Gaunt's wife Constanza died, then three months later Mary de Bohun also died, giving birth to her sixth child and second daughter, Philippa, at Peterborough. The last time that Henry saw his wife alive was probably when he spent a few days at Peterborough in the spring. Since Constanza's funeral had already been planned for 5 July at the Lancastrian mausoleum at the Newark in Leicester, it was decided that Mary would also be buried there on the following day. No record of her funeral expenses has survived, although the large sum of £608 spent on Constanza's funeral might have included Mary's service as well. On the other hand, she may have left instructions to be buried without pomp, for her religious inclinations were of that stamp. It is difficult to imagine that Henry did not mourn their unshared future. Although she was no more than twenty-five, and none of her children was aged more than seven at the time of her death, between them she and Henry had already succeeded in instilling in their offspring an inclination towards a reflective mode of personal religion and a passion for beautiful prayer-books. The fact that three of the Bohun psalters ended up in Germany or Austria and another two in Copenhagen was almost certainly a consequence of the marriages of their two daughters, Blanche and Philippa, to the son of the Holy Roman Emperor and the king of Denmark, respectively: that is to say, they took with them the psalters bequeathed to them by their parents, which suggests that they valued and used them. As to their sons, John and Humphrey were among the most noted bibliophiles of their age, while the future Henry V's literary sensibility and pietistic devotion are well documented. It would be strange to imagine that their upbringing played no part in the development of these traits. Her children certainly did not forget Mary. Nineteen years after her death, when Henry V came to the throne, one of his first acts was to pay a coppersmith to make an effigy of his mother to be placed over her tomb.

Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV (Yale University Press, 2016)