Pepys seems to have been evolved enough not to be influenced by service magicians and magical thinking -- but he did have a lucky hare's foot in his pocket. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
I do wonder about Elizabeth -- his behavior over the years could have provoked her into consulting a practitioner.
Thank you both for such learned anaysis of the problem I created. How could I forget the summer time adjustment -- and overlooked that Pepys was drunkenly negotiating those fields. DDdduhhh!
Both religion and magic belonged to a worldview suffused with the supernatural where the potential efficacy of spiritual technologies went without saying.
While service magic was often the domain of the clergy – who were already conduits of sacred power – the Reformation brought a dramatic ‘deregulation’ of supernatural power which saw men and women fulfilling a demand no longer met by priests. In this respect, the cunning folk are a fascinating window on the growth of literacy and the diffusion of learning to a burgeoning lower middle or upper laboring class. Some cunning folk were illiterate, but most were not and owned manuscripts referencing such recondite works as the Picatrix (a medieval Arabic compendium of lunar magic). Many were skilled mathematicians, capable of casting horoscopes. Cunning folk can be said to have stood outside the boundaries of class – consulting for everyone from the poorest to Queen Elizabeth.
This social fluidity of the figure of the wise woman or wizard reflected the universality of the human concerns they dealt with. A duchess might not have been troubled by the loss of some spoons, the matter of fertility was as important to the royal family as it was to the humblest labourer, while sinister forms of magic directed towards dispatching unwanted rivals became a valuable commodity at court.
Magic had little to do with morality, and often existed in a grey area of ethics. But where churchmen, physicians and lawyers could not help, service magicians filled in the gaps as technicians of the impossible.
'Cunning Folk' gives a human face to magic in medieval and early modern England, bringing us closer to the hopes, dreams and aspirations of both clients and practitioners. Like every other service industry, magic was at times a mercenary business, and many of the records we have arise from complaints brought by dissatisfied customers. But it is hard to conclude that service magicians did more harm than good. As Stanmore observes: ‘Instead of succumbing to the hopelessness they felt, they turned to magic – and, in doing so, they chose to hope.’
Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic Tabitha Stanmore Bodley Head, 288pp, £20
William Lilly would probably count as one of the "service magicians" explored in a new book, ‘Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic' by Tabitha Stanmore, which gives a human face to magic in medieval and early modern England.
I'm excerpting some of the book review as it gives context to Lilly's practice:
When most people think of magic and its practitioners in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, two images come to mind: the witch and the learned magus. The person accused of witchcraft (usually a woman) is a figure of pity or fascination, while the overreaching and over-learned magus is a character open to derision.
Stanmore shows in 'Cunning Folk' that magic was a more complex field of activity – and business: These ‘service magicians’ performned a grubby and transactional – yet relatably human – necessary business. Men and women who were neither liable to be accused of witchcraft, nor learned like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa or John Dee, made their living from the practice of magic.
Stanmore has already advanced our knowledge of service magicians with her book 'Love Spells and Lost Treasure' (2022); 'Cunning Folk' brings insights gleaned from the primary sources. While previous historians have focused on some of the better-known service magicians – e.g. the Jacobean wizard Simon Forman – Stanmore concentrates on the stories of the clients of these magicians, and on the types of magic they employed. While many service magicians were charlatans, the typical figure who emerges from Stanmore’s research is often more like a sort of proto-therapist: men and women with a refined understanding of human psychology who restored hope to the desperate.
In the post-Reformation society, where the clergy increasingly withdrew from a ministry of reassuring their flocks with demonstrations of sacred power, service magicians acted as a last resort for the resolution of apparently insoluble problems.
The question of whether the magic did or did not work is one that Stanmore declines to answer: ‘I don’t know, I wasn’t there.’ But people kept coming back to seasoned professionals who built up successful businesses with local and even national reputations. Service magicians delivered what people needed.
Perhaps service magicians recognized their clients were not really seeking the restoration of lost valuables, the name of a thief, or the love of a man or woman, but rather a sense of control over otherwise uncontrollable features of their lives.
In the same way religion promised the bounty of an inscrutable God who did not always deliver, so magic offered to make sense of the world – not as a rival to religion (for it was often deeply enmeshed in it), but as a pragmatic approach to the spiritual world that dealt with mundane matters of no interest to theology.
The fable of the cat is borrowed from the East. Sir William Gore Ouseley speaks of the origin of the name of an island in the Persian Gulf, relates that in the 10th century, one Keis, the son of a poor widow of Siraf, embarked for India, with his sole property, a cat: There he arrived at a time when the Palace was infested by mice and rats, that they invaded the King's food, and persons were employed to drive them from the royal banquet. Keis produced his cat, the noxious animals soon disappeared, and magnificent rewards were bestowed on the adventurer of Siraf, who returned to that city, and afterwards, with his mother and brothers, settled in the island, which, from him, has been denominated Keis, or, according to the Persians, Keish."
Keis is the name of the son of the widow in the above story, and still today, Keis is the name of a small Iranian island off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf, with much of the island being occupied by what is labelled on Google maps as an “International Airport”.
Whether there is any truth in the story of Keis and his cat, the article serves to illustrate how stories and legends develop and cross boundaries, and it is almost impossible to be sure of almost any stories about Dick Whittington and his cat.
The Victorians had a stone erected on Highgate Hill: Historic England listing provides some background of the stone: “Memorial stone. Erected 1821, restored 1935, cat sculpture added 1964. Segmental-headed slab of Portland stone on a plinth, the inscription to the south-west side now almost completely eroded, that to the north-east detailing the career of the medieval merchant and City dignitary Sir Richard Whittington (c.1354–1423), including his 3 terms as Lord Mayor of London.
Atop the slab is a sculpture of a cat by Jonathan Kenworthy, in polished black Kellymount limestone. Iron railings, oval in plan, with spearhead finials and overthrow, surround the stone.
The memorial marks the legendary site where ‘Dick Whittington’ Sir Richard’s folkloric alter ego, returning home discouraged after a disastrous attempt to make his fortune in the City, heard the bells of St Mary le Bow ring out, ‘Turn again Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London.”
The listing states the memorial was erected in 1821, however it replaced an earlier stone, and a number of newspaper records of the existence of a stone from the 18th century, including the following from 24 October, 1761: “Monday Night about 9 o’Clock, two Highwaymen well mounted, stopt and robbed a Country Grazier going out of Town, just by the Whittington Stone, of 4s, and his Horse whip. And after wishing him a good Night, rode off towards London.”
A Country Grazier was a name for a farmer who grazed sheep or cows, and the report is a reminder of how in the 18th century, this area was still rural.
The stone marks the legendary site of where Dick Whittington heard the bells of St. Mary le Bow and decided to return to the City.
Whatever the truth of the legend, the inclusion of a cat (added to the stone in 1964) is more pantomime than history, and even in 1824 alternative sources for the cat were quoted when talking about the stone, as in the following which is from the British Press newspaper on 6 September, 1824: “Towards the bottom of Highgate Hill, on the south side of the road, stands an upright stone, inscribed ‘Whittington’s Stone’. This marks the situation of another stone, on which Richard Whittington is traditionally said to have sat, when, having run away from his master, he rested to ruminate on his hard fate, and was urged to return back by a peal from Bow bells, in the following: ‘Turn again, Whittington, Thrice Lord Mayor of London’.
Certain it is, that Whittington served the office of Lord Mayor 3 times, in 1398, 1406 and 1419. He also founded several public edifices and charitable institutions. Some idea of his wealth comes from his burning bonds which he held of Henry V to the amount of £60,000, in a fire of cinnamon, cloves, and other spices at an entertainment given to the monarch at Guildhall.
Charles II, who escaped through the northern, St. Martin's Gate, at Worcester with a few followers, which included the Duke of Buckingham, the earls of Lauderdale and Derby, and Henry, Lord Wilmot then spent 6 desperate weeks as a fugitive in hiding in England. The fleeing Royalists stopped after a 5-mile ride at an inn in Ombersley (now known as the Kings Arms) for refreshments. On the Earl of Derby's suggestion, Charles II rode north to hide in the isolated Brewood Forest, at the Boscobel estate, owned by the Catholic Giffard family, one of whom, Charles Giffard, was among the party of gentlemen who accompanied the king. It was considered the safest option that Charles should travel almost alone and the party accordingly separated near Hartlebury.
Lord Derby proceeded towards Kidderminster, where he was captured by a troop of Parliamentary cavalry and later executed.
The king arrived at Whiteladies on the Boscobel estate in Shropshire, at dawn on 4 September. The Penderel brothers were presented to him, William, tenant of Boscobel House; Richard, Humphrey, a miller at White Ladies; John, a forester, and George, a servant employed on the estate.
Charles II divested himself of the George medal that he was wearing, which he gave to Col. [Thomas] Blague/Blagge (it was later returned to Charles in France by Blague); he had his hair cut short to evade capture and donned leather breeches and a felt hat, imitating a country accent.
After the Restoration, Charles II loved to regale his friends with nostalgic accounts of his miraculous escape.
Hand-to-hand combat; 2 horses killed under him; fleeing for his life; I wonder if this repeated telling of the story was a sympton of PTSD? And this story was just this one day -- Charles' teenage and 20's were all about warfare and being hunted, and his father's execution. It was enough to break anyone. It's not surprising to me that Charles II defaulted to a life of wine, women and song when he could.
In January 1651, with the Parliamentary forces threatening the royalist position in Scotland, the decision was reached to mount an attack on England. With many of the Scots refusing to take part, and with few English royalists joining the force as it moved south into England, Charles II advanced to confront Cromwell at the head of a Scottish army, he was to suffer defeat at the Battle of Worcester, the last battle of the Civil Wars, on 3 September 1651. The battle culminated in a complete rout of the Royalist forces.
Prior to the battle Cromwell constructed 2 pontoon bridges over the River Severn and the Teme close to their confluence.
The Parliamentarians then forced a passage across the Teme and the Royalist army, although resisting stubbornly, began to be steadily pushed back. Cromwell decided to divert reinforcements from the eastern side of the town over the Severn pontoon bridge to crush the staunchly resisting Royalists. Charles II, surveying the course of the battle from the top of Worcester cathedral's tower, realised that the eastern flank of Cromwell's army was now exposed to attack and ordered an advance on the Parliamentary forces to the east of the city, in which he himself took part.
The Royalist force advanced through Worcester's Sidbury Gate and covered by their own artillery, charged the Parliamentary forces uphill. The Duke of Hamilton attacked the Parliamentary lines at Perry Wood. The Royalist cavalry, situated on Pitchcroft meadow on the northern side of the city, failed to receive orders to go to their aid. The Duke of Hamilton's head was blown off, and Charles had 2 horses killed under him in the desperate melee. Cromwell, realising the pressure his east flank was under, returned over the Severn pontoon bridge with 3 brigades of troops to reinforce it and the Royalists were finally forced into retreat back toward Worcester.
Arriving back in the city, Charles II found Royalist troops already laying down their arms, despite his admonitions "I command you - upon your honour and loyalty - charge!" they refused to advance on the enemy.
Fort Royal, a hill to the southeast of Worcester, was stormed by the Parliamentarians, who turned the Royalist guns to fire on Worcester. As nightfall descended, Worcester's defences were stormed. Cromwell finally broke into the city and Charles II was forced into flight.
An estimated 3,000 Scots died in the battle, while a further 2,000 were captured and sent to the colonies in North America. A memorial to the Scottish troops who died in the battle was erected at the old Powick Bridge. Consisting of a 2-ton block of Scottish granite, it was unveiled by the MP Tam Dalyell, whose ancestor had fought at Worcester.
Sunset -- Phil has it as 7:49 p.m. -- 19:39 -- which seems awfully early for July.
I checked my google librarian, and it said: Sunset time: 9:07:35 pm for July 20 ... but I'm still confused about what Pepys thought the date was, and the chart says July 10 -- 9:17:56 pm July 30 -- 8:53:32 pm https://sunrise-sunset.org/gb/lon… One of these latter 2 times is correct.
"After dinner I went into the town and spent the afternoon, sometimes with Mr. Phillips, sometimes with Dr. Symcottes, Mr. Vinter, Robert Ethell, and many more friends, and at last Mr. Davenport, Phillips, Jaspar Trice, myself and others at Mother ——- over against the Crown we sat and drank ale and were very merry till 9 at night, and so broke up."
Sounds like Pepys was at an impromptu High School reunion. The word had gone around that he was visiting. Lots of "you remember when ..." stories were being told.
Pictures of The Crown as it is today, and, yes, you can eat there again. https://images.search.yahoo.com/s… This is supposed to just bring up the Crown with the church in the background, but Yahoo isn't cooperating
Sir Robert Bernard MP married secondly to Lady Elizabeth Digby, daughter of Sir James Altham, Baron of the Exchequer and Mary Stapers, and widow of Robert Digby, 1st Baron Digby.
Elizabeth Altham Digby Bernard, Lady Digby died in 1662 and was buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden. [3] * 3 Arthur Collins The English baronetage: containing a genealogical and historical account
* Confusingly, in the 17th century ladies always retained their highest rank, even if they married down the social ladder later. I have no idea if that holds true today.
In April 1640, Bernard was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Short Parliament.
Samuel Pepys consulted Bernard in 1661 about the bitter inheritance dispute over the nearby estate of Brampton, Cambridgeshire (Bernard as Lord of the Manor of Brampton was also Steward of the Manorial Court), which Samuel's uncle Robert had bequeathed to him, but which several other heirs also laid claim to.
The following year Bernard persuaded Samuel and his father to reach a compromise settlement with Samuel's uncle Thomas, who had claimed the Brampton property as his brother Robert's heir-at-law.
Samuel liked both Bernard and his second wife Elizabeth Digby, and he later became friendly with Bernard's younger son William.
Samuel's cousin and patron Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich disliked Bernard: his attitude was no doubt influenced by the bitter political feud between the Montagu and Bernard families for political control of Huntingdonshire.
It was Sandwich who had Bernard dismissed from his Recordership in 1663. Samuel was concerned that despite their previous friendly relations this would cause Bernard to hold a grudge against him, due to his closeness to Sandwich.
Bernard was Counsel for Cambridge University in 1646 and steward and judge of the Court of the Isle of Ely in 1649. He was a serjeant-at-law and was created a baronet, of Huntingdon on 1 July 1662.
An excellent article about how 17th century logic on the origins of the races has evolved into racism. BUT what we think today is different to what they thought then. https://aeon.co/essays/modern-rac…
Just a few paragraphs to whet your appetite: To help fend off polygenism, the Dutch humanist philosopher and monogenist Hugo Grotius proposed in 1642 that Native Americans were descendants of Norwegians who had moved to Iceland, then to Greenland, and then to North America. ...
The first intellectual to substantially defend polygenism was the French lawyer and theologian Isaac de La Peyrère (1596-1676). In 1655 he published “Men Before Adam” and “Theological Systeme upon the Presupposition, That Men Were Before Adam” that sparked public fascination.
La Peyrère saw that Genesis contains 2 creation accounts, and cited this as evidence that the Bible teaches that God created ‘pre-Adamites’ who were distributed throughout Earth (according to Genesis 1) before creating Adam and Eve.
Through creative interpretation of Genesis 1, La Peyrère argued that all plants and wildlife were created for humans; and on this basis, he concluded that wherever plants and livestock were created, so humans were created as well. In La Peyrère’s scheme, not only were pre-Adamite humans created before Adam, they were also distributed as mating pairs throughout the world.
Looking elsewhere to support polygenism, La Peyrère noted that, after Cain is cast out of Eden for killing Abel, he says: ‘Whosoever finds me, shall slay me,’ which suggests that other people already existed. Cain is also said to have had a wife, despite Adam and Eve not having had a daughter. One of La Peyrère’s contributions was his insistence that Adam and Eve are not the first human beings.
La Peyrère’s interpretation reduced Genesis from a global history of humanity to a history of the Jewish people.
La Peyrère further drew on a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans, which suggests sin predates Adam and Eve. La Peyrère takes this to mean there must have been sinners, and therefore people, before Adam. By way of dispatching the Biblical claim that ‘God made all mankind of one blood’ – some ancient variations say ‘from one ancestor’ – La Peyrère reads it as saying that all humans are children of God and not descendants of Adam.
As well as accounting for Indigenous peoples, La Peyrère was concerned to reconcile Christianity with those non-Biblical histories that appeared to conflict with the timeline of Genesis.
The predominant view in the 17th century, based on a literal reading of Genesis, was that the creation of the world occurred c. 2348 BCE, making Earth about 4,000 years old, while Chaldean and Egyptian creation accounts cite the creation of humans much earlier.
The Conde da Ponte to Sandwich Written from: Lixbona Date: 12 December 1661 Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 643 Document type: Original
States that Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor of "that town" [Tangier?] remains there to see the King [of Portugal]'s accounts made up; and asks his Lordship's favourable treatment of him. Portuguese with a translation.
FROM: Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Edward Edwards, 2005 Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32 Extent: 464 pages https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor -- as so often happens, the real work that makes the world go around is done by underlings, whose names are lost to history. This is the only mention I could find of the trusted and responsible Capt. Manoel de Sousa.
The Conde da Ponte turns out to be the Portuguese ambassador to London from time to time, Dom Francisco de Mello -- https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Conde da Ponte to Sandwich Written from: Lixbona Date: 12 December 1661 Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 643 Document type: Original
States that Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor of "that town" [Tangier?] remains there to see the King [of Portugal]'s accounts made up; and asks his Lordship's favourable treatment of him. Portuguese with a translation.
Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor -- as so often happens, the real work that makes the world go around is done by underlings, lost to history. This is the only mention I could find of the trusted and responsible Capt. Manoel de Sousa.
The Governors of Tetuan to the General in command at Tangier [Luis de Almeida] Written from: Tetuan Date: 17/27 November 1661 Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 625 Document type: Translation. Endorsed by Lord Sandwich.
Twelve days before date the Governors sent a messenger to Tangier, with a view to the opening of traffic between their port & that garrison; but have received neither answer nor any account of their messenger.
Renew their proffer of intercourse, if desired ...
@@@
Passport and protection for a negotiator between the Governors of Tetuan and Don Luis de Almeida, Captain General of Tangier Written from: Tetuan Date: 27 November 1661 Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 627 Document type: Translation. Endorsed as MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 625.
FROM: Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Edward Edwards, 2005 Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32 Extent: 464 pages https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
@@@
Tetuan -- Tétouan, north-central Morocco. The city lies along the Martil River (Wadi Martil), 7 miles (11 km) from the Mediterranean Sea. In the 16th century Tétouan was populated by Moorish Andalusian refugees. Spanish troops captured it in 1860 ... https://www.britannica.com/place/…
Count of Egmont [Justus Verus d'Egmont] to Sandwich Written from: Antwerp Date: 26 September 1661 Shelfmark: MS. Carte 223, fol(s). 236-237 Document type: Holograph
Reminds the Earl of the honour enjoyed by the writer in making his Lordship's acquaintance, when at Paris.
Recommends to his Lordship's favour the writer's son Justus d'Egmont, who will mention some affairs on which his advice is much desired. French.
FROM: Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Edward Edwards, 2005 Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32 Extent: 464 pages https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
@@@
Justus van (Verus ab) Egmont (Flemish, 1601–1674) Examples of his work https://www.artnet.com/artists/ju… https://www.artic.edu/artists/411… Justus van Egmont or Joost van Egmont (1601 – 8 January 1674) was a painter and a tapestry designer during the 17th century. After training in Antwerp with Gaspar van den Hoecke and working with Anthony van Dyck, van Egmont also worked in Peter Paul Rubens' workshop. He moved to France in 1628 where he was a court painter for the House of Orléans. In France he helped to found the Académie de peinture et de sculpture. He later returned to Flanders where he worked in Antwerp and Brussels. He is mainly known for his portrait paintings, although he also painted some history subjects, and produced designs for five different tapestry series. ...
The artist's success allowed him to amass a fortune which he invested into real estate in Antwerp and its surrounding areas. Starting from 1650 he signed some paintings and documents with 'Justus Verus d’Egmont'. This reflected his aspiration to be recognized as an aristocrat (just like his illustrious masters van Dyck and Rubens) based on his claim to be a descendant of the famous house of Egmont. He made several applications to get his claim to a noble title officially sanctioned but it is not clear whether or not he succeeded. [THIS LETTER INDICATES HE WAS SUCCESSFUL - SDS] When he died in 1674, his social status allowed him to be buried in Antwerp's prestigious St. James' Church where Rubens was also buried. His estate included a large collection of artworks of Flemish as well as foreign artists such as Pourbus, Rubens, Salviati, Holbein, Tintoretto, Brueghel and Vredeman de Vries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus…
So Sandwich is buying tapestries for Hinchingbrooke?
Comments
Third Reading
About William Lilly
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys seems to have been evolved enough not to be influenced by service magicians and magical thinking -- but he did have a lucky hare's foot in his pocket.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
I do wonder about Elizabeth -- his behavior over the years could have provoked her into consulting a practitioner.
About Saturday 20 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thank you both for such learned anaysis of the problem I created. How could I forget the summer time adjustment -- and overlooked that Pepys was drunkenly negotiating those fields. DDdduhhh!
About William Lilly
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Both religion and magic belonged to a worldview suffused with the supernatural where the potential efficacy of spiritual technologies went without saying.
While service magic was often the domain of the clergy – who were already conduits of sacred power – the Reformation brought a dramatic ‘deregulation’ of supernatural power which saw men and women fulfilling a demand no longer met by priests.
In this respect, the cunning folk are a fascinating window on the growth of literacy and the diffusion of learning to a burgeoning lower middle or upper laboring class.
Some cunning folk were illiterate, but most were not and owned manuscripts referencing such recondite works as the Picatrix (a medieval Arabic compendium of lunar magic).
Many were skilled mathematicians, capable of casting horoscopes.
Cunning folk can be said to have stood outside the boundaries of class – consulting for everyone from the poorest to Queen Elizabeth.
This social fluidity of the figure of the wise woman or wizard reflected the universality of the human concerns they dealt with.
A duchess might not have been troubled by the loss of some spoons, the matter of fertility was as important to the royal family as it was to the humblest labourer, while sinister forms of magic directed towards dispatching unwanted rivals became a valuable commodity at court.
Magic had little to do with morality, and often existed in a grey area of ethics. But where churchmen, physicians and lawyers could not help, service magicians filled in the gaps as technicians of the impossible.
'Cunning Folk' gives a human face to magic in medieval and early modern England, bringing us closer to the hopes, dreams and aspirations of both clients and practitioners.
Like every other service industry, magic was at times a mercenary business, and many of the records we have arise from complaints brought by dissatisfied customers.
But it is hard to conclude that service magicians did more harm than good. As Stanmore observes: ‘Instead of succumbing to the hopelessness they felt, they turned to magic – and, in doing so, they chose to hope.’
Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic
Tabitha Stanmore
Bodley Head, 288pp, £20
The complete review at
https://www.historytoday.com/arch…
About William Lilly
San Diego Sarah • Link
William Lilly would probably count as one of the "service magicians" explored in a new book, ‘Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic' by Tabitha Stanmore, which gives a human face to magic in medieval and early modern England.
I'm excerpting some of the book review as it gives context to Lilly's practice:
When most people think of magic and its practitioners in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, two images come to mind: the witch and the learned magus.
The person accused of witchcraft (usually a woman) is a figure of pity or fascination, while the overreaching and over-learned magus is a character open to derision.
Stanmore shows in 'Cunning Folk' that magic was a more complex field of activity – and business: These ‘service magicians’ performned a grubby and transactional – yet relatably human – necessary business.
Men and women who were neither liable to be accused of witchcraft, nor learned like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa or John Dee, made their living from the practice of magic.
Stanmore has already advanced our knowledge of service magicians with her book 'Love Spells and Lost Treasure' (2022); 'Cunning Folk' brings insights gleaned from the primary sources.
While previous historians have focused on some of the better-known service magicians – e.g. the Jacobean wizard Simon Forman – Stanmore concentrates on the stories of the clients of these magicians, and on the types of magic they employed.
While many service magicians were charlatans, the typical figure who emerges from Stanmore’s research is often more like a sort of proto-therapist: men and women with a refined understanding of human psychology who restored hope to the desperate.
In the post-Reformation society, where the clergy increasingly withdrew from a ministry of reassuring their flocks with demonstrations of sacred power, service magicians acted as a last resort for the resolution of apparently insoluble problems.
The question of whether the magic did or did not work is one that Stanmore declines to answer: ‘I don’t know, I wasn’t there.’
But people kept coming back to seasoned professionals who built up successful businesses with local and even national reputations.
Service magicians delivered what people needed.
Perhaps service magicians recognized their clients were not really seeking the restoration of lost valuables, the name of a thief, or the love of a man or woman, but rather a sense of control over otherwise uncontrollable features of their lives.
In the same way religion promised the bounty of an inscrutable God who did not always deliver, so magic offered to make sense of the world – not as a rival to religion (for it was often deeply enmeshed in it), but as a pragmatic approach to the spiritual world that dealt with mundane matters of no interest to theology.
About Dick Whittington and His Cat
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
The fable of the cat is borrowed from the East.
Sir William Gore Ouseley speaks of the origin of the name of an island in the Persian Gulf, relates that in the 10th century, one Keis, the son of a poor widow of Siraf, embarked for India, with his sole property, a cat: There he arrived at a time when the Palace was infested by mice and rats, that they invaded the King's food, and persons were employed to drive them from the royal banquet.
Keis produced his cat, the noxious animals soon disappeared, and magnificent rewards were bestowed on the adventurer of Siraf, who returned to that city, and afterwards, with his mother and brothers, settled in the island, which, from him, has been denominated Keis, or, according to the Persians, Keish."
Keis is the name of the son of the widow in the above story, and still today, Keis is the name of a small Iranian island off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf, with much of the island being occupied by what is labelled on Google maps as an “International Airport”.
Whether there is any truth in the story of Keis and his cat, the article serves to illustrate how stories and legends develop and cross boundaries, and it is almost impossible to be sure of almost any stories about Dick Whittington and his cat.
The original article has maps, pictures and more "facts" https://alondoninheritance.com/lo…
About Dick Whittington and His Cat
San Diego Sarah • Link
Now for the myths.
The Victorians had a stone erected on Highgate Hill:
Historic England listing provides some background of the stone:
“Memorial stone. Erected 1821, restored 1935, cat sculpture added 1964. Segmental-headed slab of Portland stone on a plinth, the inscription to the south-west side now almost completely eroded, that to the north-east detailing the career of the medieval merchant and City dignitary Sir Richard Whittington (c.1354–1423), including his 3 terms as Lord Mayor of London.
Atop the slab is a sculpture of a cat by Jonathan Kenworthy, in polished black Kellymount limestone. Iron railings, oval in plan, with spearhead finials and overthrow, surround the stone.
The memorial marks the legendary site where ‘Dick Whittington’ Sir Richard’s folkloric alter ego, returning home discouraged after a disastrous attempt to make his fortune in the City, heard the bells of St Mary le Bow ring out, ‘Turn again Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London.”
The listing states the memorial was erected in 1821, however it replaced an earlier stone, and a number of newspaper records of the existence of a stone from the 18th century, including the following from 24 October, 1761:
“Monday Night about 9 o’Clock, two Highwaymen well mounted, stopt and robbed a Country Grazier going out of Town, just by the Whittington Stone, of 4s, and his Horse whip. And after wishing him a good Night, rode off towards London.”
A Country Grazier was a name for a farmer who grazed sheep or cows, and the report is a reminder of how in the 18th century, this area was still rural.
The stone marks the legendary site of where Dick Whittington heard the bells of St. Mary le Bow and decided to return to the City.
Whatever the truth of the legend, the inclusion of a cat (added to the stone in 1964) is more pantomime than history, and even in 1824 alternative sources for the cat were quoted when talking about the stone, as in the following which is from the British Press newspaper on 6 September, 1824:
“Towards the bottom of Highgate Hill, on the south side of the road, stands an upright stone, inscribed ‘Whittington’s Stone’. This marks the situation of another stone, on which Richard Whittington is traditionally said to have sat, when, having run away from his master, he rested to ruminate on his hard fate, and was urged to return back by a peal from Bow bells, in the following: ‘Turn again, Whittington, Thrice Lord Mayor of London’.
Certain it is, that Whittington served the office of Lord Mayor 3 times, in 1398, 1406 and 1419.
He also founded several public edifices and charitable institutions.
Some idea of his wealth comes from his burning bonds which he held of Henry V to the amount of £60,000, in a fire of cinnamon, cloves, and other spices at an entertainment given to the monarch at Guildhall.
About Battle of Worcester
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Charles II, who escaped through the northern, St. Martin's Gate, at Worcester with a few followers, which included the Duke of Buckingham, the earls of Lauderdale and Derby, and Henry, Lord Wilmot then spent 6 desperate weeks as a fugitive in hiding in England.
The fleeing Royalists stopped after a 5-mile ride at an inn in Ombersley (now known as the Kings Arms) for refreshments.
On the Earl of Derby's suggestion, Charles II rode north to hide in the isolated Brewood Forest, at the Boscobel estate, owned by the Catholic Giffard family, one of whom, Charles Giffard, was among the party of gentlemen who accompanied the king. It was considered the safest option that Charles should travel almost alone and the party accordingly separated near Hartlebury.
Lord Derby proceeded towards Kidderminster, where he was captured by a troop of Parliamentary cavalry and later executed.
The king arrived at Whiteladies on the Boscobel estate in Shropshire, at dawn on 4 September. The Penderel brothers were presented to him, William, tenant of Boscobel House; Richard, Humphrey, a miller at White Ladies; John, a forester, and George, a servant employed on the estate.
Charles II divested himself of the George medal that he was wearing, which he gave to Col. [Thomas] Blague/Blagge (it was later returned to Charles in France by Blague); he had his hair cut short to evade capture and donned leather breeches and a felt hat, imitating a country accent.
After the Restoration, Charles II loved to regale his friends with nostalgic accounts of his miraculous escape.
John Maitland, 2nd Earl of Lauderdale
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Henry, Lord Wilmot, made the 1st Earl of Rochester in recognition of his part in Charles' escape; sadly he died before the Restoration, the first Col. of what became the Life Guards:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, who also died before the Restoration
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Col. Thomas Blague/Blagge https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Col. Charles Giffard of Whiteladies Priory and Boscobel House
https://www.essentially-england.c…
The Penderel brothers who worked for the Giffards
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Hand-to-hand combat; 2 horses killed under him; fleeing for his life; I wonder if this repeated telling of the story was a sympton of PTSD? And this story was just this one day -- Charles' teenage and 20's were all about warfare and being hunted, and his father's execution. It was enough to break anyone.
It's not surprising to me that Charles II defaulted to a life of wine, women and song when he could.
About Battle of Worcester
San Diego Sarah • Link
Since we have lost the BCW Project -- sigh -- this from https://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk…:
In January 1651, with the Parliamentary forces threatening the royalist position in Scotland, the decision was reached to mount an attack on England.
With many of the Scots refusing to take part, and with few English royalists joining the force as it moved south into England, Charles II advanced to confront Cromwell at the head of a Scottish army, he was to suffer defeat at the Battle of Worcester, the last battle of the Civil Wars, on 3 September 1651.
The battle culminated in a complete rout of the Royalist forces.
Prior to the battle Cromwell constructed 2 pontoon bridges over the River Severn and the Teme close to their confluence.
The Parliamentarians then forced a passage across the Teme and the Royalist army, although resisting stubbornly, began to be steadily pushed back.
Cromwell decided to divert reinforcements from the eastern side of the town over the Severn pontoon bridge to crush the staunchly resisting Royalists.
Charles II, surveying the course of the battle from the top of Worcester cathedral's tower, realised that the eastern flank of Cromwell's army was now exposed to attack and ordered an advance on the Parliamentary forces to the east of the city, in which he himself took part.
The Royalist force advanced through Worcester's Sidbury Gate and covered by their own artillery, charged the Parliamentary forces uphill.
The Duke of Hamilton attacked the Parliamentary lines at Perry Wood.
The Royalist cavalry, situated on Pitchcroft meadow on the northern side of the city, failed to receive orders to go to their aid.
The Duke of Hamilton's head was blown off, and Charles had 2 horses killed under him in the desperate melee.
Cromwell, realising the pressure his east flank was under, returned over the Severn pontoon bridge with 3 brigades of troops to reinforce it and the Royalists were finally forced into retreat back toward Worcester.
Arriving back in the city, Charles II found Royalist troops already laying down their arms, despite his admonitions "I command you - upon your honour and loyalty - charge!" they refused to advance on the enemy.
Fort Royal, a hill to the southeast of Worcester, was stormed by the Parliamentarians, who turned the Royalist guns to fire on Worcester.
As nightfall descended, Worcester's defences were stormed.
Cromwell finally broke into the city and Charles II was forced into flight.
An estimated 3,000 Scots died in the battle, while a further 2,000 were captured and sent to the colonies in North America.
A memorial to the Scottish troops who died in the battle was erected at the old Powick Bridge. Consisting of a 2-ton block of Scottish granite, it was unveiled by the MP Tam Dalyell, whose ancestor had fought at Worcester.
About Battle of Worcester
San Diego Sarah • Link
A picture of the priest's hole in Boscobel House where Charles II hid:
https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
About Battle of Worcester
San Diego Sarah • Link
A picture of the priest's hole in Boscobel House where Charles II hid:
https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
About Saturday 20 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sunset -- Phil has it as 7:49 p.m. -- 19:39 -- which seems awfully early for July.
I checked my google librarian, and it said:
Sunset time: 9:07:35 pm for July 20 ... but I'm still confused about what Pepys thought the date was, and the chart says
July 10 -- 9:17:56 pm
July 30 -- 8:53:32 pm
https://sunrise-sunset.org/gb/lon…
One of these latter 2 times is correct.
Regardless, I think we can assume Pepys was walking home though the fields he knows so well at dusk.
https://sunrise-sunset.org/gb/lon…
About Saturday 20 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"After dinner I went into the town and spent the afternoon, sometimes with Mr. Phillips, sometimes with Dr. Symcottes, Mr. Vinter, Robert Ethell, and many more friends, and at last Mr. Davenport, Phillips, Jaspar Trice, myself and others at Mother ——- over against the Crown we sat and drank ale and were very merry till 9 at night, and so broke up."
Sounds like Pepys was at an impromptu High School reunion. The word had gone around that he was visiting. Lots of "you remember when ..." stories were being told.
About Crown (Huntingdon)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pictures of The Crown as it is today, and, yes, you can eat there again.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/s…
This is supposed to just bring up the Crown with the church in the background, but Yahoo isn't cooperating
https://images.search.yahoo.com/s…
But it is cooperating for this picture. Go figure.
About Elizabeth Digby
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sir Robert Bernard MP married secondly to Lady Elizabeth Digby, daughter of Sir James Altham, Baron of the Exchequer and Mary Stapers, and widow of Robert Digby, 1st Baron Digby.
Elizabeth Altham Digby Bernard, Lady Digby died in 1662 and was buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden. [3] *
3 Arthur Collins The English baronetage: containing a genealogical and historical account
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…
* Confusingly, in the 17th century ladies always retained their highest rank, even if they married down the social ladder later. I have no idea if that holds true today.
About Sir Robert Bernard
San Diego Sarah • Link
In April 1640, Bernard was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Short Parliament.
Samuel Pepys consulted Bernard in 1661 about the bitter inheritance dispute over the nearby estate of Brampton, Cambridgeshire (Bernard as Lord of the Manor of Brampton was also Steward of the Manorial Court), which Samuel's uncle Robert had bequeathed to him, but which several other heirs also laid claim to.
The following year Bernard persuaded Samuel and his father to reach a compromise settlement with Samuel's uncle Thomas, who had claimed the Brampton property as his brother Robert's heir-at-law.
Samuel liked both Bernard and his second wife Elizabeth Digby, and he later became friendly with Bernard's younger son William.
Samuel's cousin and patron Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich disliked Bernard: his attitude was no doubt influenced by the bitter political feud between the Montagu and Bernard families for political control of Huntingdonshire.
It was Sandwich who had Bernard dismissed from his Recordership in 1663. Samuel was concerned that despite their previous friendly relations this would cause Bernard to hold a grudge against him, due to his closeness to Sandwich.
Bernard was Counsel for Cambridge University in 1646 and steward and judge of the Court of the Isle of Ely in 1649. He was a serjeant-at-law and was created a baronet, of Huntingdon on 1 July 1662.
This is taken from the Wiki page Terry pointed us to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…
About Samuel Pepys and Slaves
San Diego Sarah • Link
An excellent article about how 17th century logic on the origins of the races has evolved into racism. BUT what we think today is different to what they thought then.
https://aeon.co/essays/modern-rac…
Just a few paragraphs to whet your appetite:
To help fend off polygenism, the Dutch humanist philosopher and monogenist Hugo Grotius proposed in 1642 that Native Americans were descendants of Norwegians who had moved to Iceland, then to Greenland, and then to North America. ...
The first intellectual to substantially defend polygenism was the French lawyer and theologian Isaac de La Peyrère (1596-1676).
In 1655 he published “Men Before Adam” and “Theological Systeme upon the Presupposition, That Men Were Before Adam” that sparked public fascination.
La Peyrère saw that Genesis contains 2 creation accounts, and cited this as evidence that the Bible teaches that God created ‘pre-Adamites’ who were distributed throughout Earth (according to Genesis 1) before creating Adam and Eve.
Through creative interpretation of Genesis 1, La Peyrère argued that all plants and wildlife were created for humans; and on this basis, he concluded that wherever plants and livestock were created, so humans were created as well.
In La Peyrère’s scheme, not only were pre-Adamite humans created before Adam, they were also distributed as mating pairs throughout the world.
Looking elsewhere to support polygenism, La Peyrère noted that, after Cain is cast out of Eden for killing Abel, he says: ‘Whosoever finds me, shall slay me,’ which suggests that other people already existed. Cain is also said to have had a wife, despite Adam and Eve not having had a daughter. One of La Peyrère’s contributions was his insistence that Adam and Eve are not the first human beings.
La Peyrère’s interpretation reduced Genesis from a global history of humanity to a history of the Jewish people.
La Peyrère further drew on a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans, which suggests sin predates Adam and Eve. La Peyrère takes this to mean there must have been sinners, and therefore people, before Adam.
By way of dispatching the Biblical claim that ‘God made all mankind of one blood’ – some ancient variations say ‘from one ancestor’ – La Peyrère reads it as saying that all humans are children of God and not descendants of Adam.
As well as accounting for Indigenous peoples, La Peyrère was concerned to reconcile Christianity with those non-Biblical histories that appeared to conflict with the timeline of Genesis.
The predominant view in the 17th century, based on a literal reading of Genesis, was that the creation of the world occurred c. 2348 BCE, making Earth about 4,000 years old, while Chaldean and Egyptian creation accounts cite the creation of humans much earlier.
https://aeon.co/essays/modern-rac…
About Thursday 12 December 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Conde da Ponte to Sandwich
Written from: Lixbona
Date: 12 December 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 643
Document type: Original
States that Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor of "that town" [Tangier?] remains there to see the King [of Portugal]'s accounts made up; and asks his Lordship's favourable treatment of him.
Portuguese with a translation.
FROM:
Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Edward Edwards, 2005
Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32
Extent: 464 pages
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
@@@
The King of Portugal = Alfonso VI was the brother of Queen Catherine of Braganza
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor -- as so often happens, the real work that makes the world go around is done by underlings, whose names are lost to history. This is the only mention I could find of the trusted and responsible Capt. Manoel de Sousa.
The Conde da Ponte turns out to be the Portuguese ambassador to London from time to time, Dom Francisco de Mello --
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Thursday 12 December 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Conde da Ponte to Sandwich
Written from: Lixbona
Date: 12 December 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 643
Document type: Original
States that Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor of "that town" [Tangier?] remains there to see the King [of Portugal]'s accounts made up; and asks his Lordship's favourable treatment of him.
Portuguese with a translation.
@@@
The King of Portugal = Alfonso VI was the brother of Queen Catherine of Braganza
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Captain Manoel de Sousa, Factor -- as so often happens, the real work that makes the world go around is done by underlings, lost to history. This is the only mention I could find of the trusted and responsible Capt. Manoel de Sousa.
About Sunday 17 November 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Governors of Tetuan to the General in command at Tangier [Luis de Almeida]
Written from: Tetuan
Date: 17/27 November 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 625
Document type: Translation. Endorsed by Lord Sandwich.
Twelve days before date the Governors sent a messenger to Tangier, with a view to the opening of traffic between their port & that garrison; but have received neither answer nor any account of their messenger.
Renew their proffer of intercourse, if desired ...
@@@
Passport and protection for a negotiator between the Governors of Tetuan and Don Luis de Almeida, Captain General of Tangier
Written from: Tetuan
Date: 27 November 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 627
Document type: Translation. Endorsed as MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 625.
FROM:
Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Edward Edwards, 2005
Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32
Extent: 464 pages
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
@@@
Tetuan -- Tétouan, north-central Morocco. The city lies along the Martil River (Wadi Martil), 7 miles (11 km) from the Mediterranean Sea. In the 16th century Tétouan was populated by Moorish Andalusian refugees. Spanish troops captured it in 1860 ... https://www.britannica.com/place/…
Don Luis de Almeida, Captain General of Tangier -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lui…
About Thursday 26 September 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Count of Egmont [Justus Verus d'Egmont] to Sandwich
Written from: Antwerp
Date: 26 September 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 223, fol(s). 236-237
Document type: Holograph
Reminds the Earl of the honour enjoyed by the writer in making his Lordship's acquaintance, when at Paris.
Recommends to his Lordship's favour the writer's son Justus d'Egmont, who will mention some affairs on which his advice is much desired.
French.
FROM:
Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Edward Edwards, 2005
Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32
Extent: 464 pages
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
@@@
Justus van (Verus ab) Egmont (Flemish, 1601–1674)
Examples of his work
https://www.artnet.com/artists/ju…
https://www.artic.edu/artists/411…
Justus van Egmont or Joost van Egmont (1601 – 8 January 1674) was a painter and a tapestry designer during the 17th century.
After training in Antwerp with Gaspar van den Hoecke and working with Anthony van Dyck, van Egmont also worked in Peter Paul Rubens' workshop.
He moved to France in 1628 where he was a court painter for the House of Orléans.
In France he helped to found the Académie de peinture et de sculpture.
He later returned to Flanders where he worked in Antwerp and Brussels.
He is mainly known for his portrait paintings, although he also painted some history subjects, and produced designs for five different tapestry series. ...
The artist's success allowed him to amass a fortune which he invested into real estate in Antwerp and its surrounding areas.
Starting from 1650 he signed some paintings and documents with 'Justus Verus d’Egmont'. This reflected his aspiration to be recognized as an aristocrat (just like his illustrious masters van Dyck and Rubens) based on his claim to be a descendant of the famous house of Egmont.
He made several applications to get his claim to a noble title officially sanctioned but it is not clear whether or not he succeeded. [THIS LETTER INDICATES HE WAS SUCCESSFUL - SDS]
When he died in 1674, his social status allowed him to be buried in Antwerp's prestigious St. James' Church where Rubens was also buried.
His estate included a large collection of artworks of Flemish as well as foreign artists such as Pourbus, Rubens, Salviati, Holbein, Tintoretto, Brueghel and Vredeman de Vries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus…
So Sandwich is buying tapestries for Hinchingbrooke?