Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors

by English Historical Fiction Authors

  By 330 A.D., sand-glasses were thought to be in use, although this is disputed because the hand-blown glass was very fragile, and no examples have survived. Sand-glasses used to be made in different sizes to measure different amounts of time. Some would be large enough to stand on the ground and require servants to lift and turn them.

  Candles with the wax scored to mark the time were widely used in poorer households who could not afford a sand-glass, or sometimes candles were fixed to a marked plate. There is evidence that Alfred the Great used a candle clock in 885 A.D.

  In 1490 the mainspring was invented by Peter Hele, or Henlein, a locksmith of Nuremburg. About this time the small domestic or table clock made its appearance, but these were expensive items and the previous more homespun methods of measuring the time continued to be used by most people.

  Clocks gradually became more elaborate. A “masterpiece” clock (a requirement for admission to the guild of master clockmakers in Augsburg) struck the hours and quarters and displayed no less than three systems of counting hours: French hours (I–XII), Italian hours (1–24, beginning at sundown), and Nuremberg hours (divided into daylight and night hours, which vary in number according to the season of the year). Complex!

  In 1541, an astronomical clock was fixed in one of the towers of Hampton Court Palace, and by 1610, glass was able to be moulded to form a protective cover for watch dials.

  In 1657, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch Physicist, made the first pendulum controlled clock, and grandfather clocks began to make their appearance in wealthier homes. The two kinds of movements are 30-hour and eight-day, which indicates how long before the clock has to be wound with a key. The melody, bell, chime, or gong sounds on the hour in the eight-day clocks and on the hour and half hour in the 30-hour clocks.

  By 1765 the centre Second hand became common. A lovely eight-day mahogany long-case clock dated around 1835 has a decorated arch dial. Often the painted dials depicted mythological scenes or the four seasons. The Met Museum has some nice examples (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/clck/hd_clck.htm).

  Around the middle of the 1800s, the spring-powered movement developed, paving the way for a variety of smaller clock cases. Many different materials were used in clocks. Wood was popular, including mahogany, oak, pine, walnut, and cherry.

  In 1858 the British Horological Institute was founded—an association of Clock and Watch Makers for the purpose of advancing their art, and The Horological Journal, the oldest periodical dealing with the craft, was started.

  Greenwich Mean Time became the standard time for the whole of the United Kingdom in 1880.

  Oh my word! Is that the time? Two thousand years has gone by and I hardly noticed. Must get on with some writing!

  And just in case you’re interested in the English Civil War, orchids, obsession, adventure, and romance, my book The Lady’s Slipper is out now, featuring the turning of many sand-glasses, the occasional church chime, and the loud tick of a pendulum clock.

  September in British History

  by Karen Wasylowski

  Give Us Back Our Eleven Days!

  Did you know that absolutely nothing happened in Britain from 3 September to 13 September, 1752? It is a fact. Nothing.

  The reason is pretty simple. The calendar used during this period was the Julian Calendar, based on a solar year of 365.25 days. Problem was, it ran a little over time and eventually the calendar fell out of line with the seasons.

  The solution: Britain decided to dump the Julian Calendar and adopt the more favorable Gregorian Calendar, and September 3 instantly became September 14. Eleven days were gone, eliminated, abolished. People protested in the streets believing their lives would be shortened. They chanted: “Give us our eleven days back!”

  September 24

  September 24 was traditionally the start of the harvest time in medieval England and a lovely ceremony, a race to harvest, called “Calling the Mare.” As the very last of the crops were being brought in, the farmers would hurriedly fashion a straw horse then go to a neighboring farm that was still rushing to finish and throw the straw mare over his hedge. They would taunt “Mare, Mare,” and that farmer would gather his final crop and do the same to any other farmer still trying to harvest. The last man to finish had to keep the straw mare all year and have it on display to show he was the slowest of them all.

  September 29

  And when the tenauntes come

  To paie their quarter’s rent,

  They bring some fowle at Midsummer

  A dish of fish in Lent

  At Christmas, a capon,

  At Michaelmas, a goose,

  And somewhat else at New Yere’s tide

  For feare the lease flie loose.

  —George Gascoine, English poet, 1577

  Michaelmas is the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of the sea and boats, horses and horsemen. Michaelmas Day is the final day of the Harvest Season, and it was also the first day of the winter night curfew and the church bells would ring once for each night of the year until that point. The bells are still rung to this day in a city called Chertsey from Michaelmas Day, 29 September, to Lady Day, 25 March.

  There are traditionally four “quarter days” in a year—Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer (24 June), Michaelmas (29 September), and Christmas (25 December). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes. They were the four dates on which servants were hired, rents were due, or leases begun.

  It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas, almost like the marking of the end of the productive season and the beginning of the new cycle of farming. It was the time at which new servants were hired or land was exchanged and debts were paid. This is how it came to be for Michaelmas to be the time for electing magistrates and also the beginning of legal and university terms. Some Michaelmas superstitions include:

  The devil stomps or spits on bramble bushes, so don’t pick blackberries after Michaelmas.

  Victorians believed trees planted on this day would grow really well.

  In Northern England and Ireland, if you eat goose this day you will have good luck for the rest of the year.

  In Ireland, if you found the ring hidden in the Michaelmas pie you would soon marry.

  First Monday after September 4

  In a town called Abbotts Bromley in Staffordshire a colorful tradition takes place. Six men carrying long sticks with horns attached to the top march down the street. Two sets of three men each, their horns painted blue on one team and white on the other, charge each other as if to fight, then they retreat, people dance, Maid Marion is there also, along with a boy with a bow and arrow, a triangle player, a musician, and a Fool.

  September 14

  On Holy Rood Day (rood is another name for cross) children were traditionally freed from school to gather nuts.

  Other notable days in history

  September 2-6, 1666—The Great Fire of London

  September 7, 1533—Queen Elizabeth I born

  September 9, 1087—William the Conqueror dies

  September 28—St. Wenceslas Day

  September 29, 1758—Nelson is born

  Twelfth Night

  by Lauren Gilbert

  Twelfth Night celebrations have taken place since medieval times. A religious holiday initially, it celebrated the coming of Epiphany, the arrival of the Magi at Jesus’ birthplace. It is the culminating festival of Christmastide, the twelve days of Christmas.

  The English traditions of Twelfth Night are what most of us think of when the name “Twelfth Night” is used: food, especially an ornate cake and great feasting, drinking, games, plays, dances and masked balls, and other fun times.

  Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, is supposed to have b
een written to perform on Twelth Night.

  Although the Christmas tree was a 19th century custom imported from Germany, decorating with greenery, such as rosemary, ivy, mistletoe, holly, bay, and laurel was very popular over centuries, from pagan times. Christmas fires, Yule logs, and candles were also part of the celebration. Even Oliver Cromwell was not able to completely stamp out all vestiges of Christmastide and Twelfth Night during his Puritan rule, and the festivities revived again under Charles II.

  Traditionally, Twelfth Night is celebrated on either the fifth or the sixth of January (depending on how the twelve days are counted, which varies somewhat from one tradition to another). The Twelfth Night tradition still seems strong in Great Britain (witness the many pictures of the mummers’ parades, the Holly Man, and other festivities found with the simplest Google search), Hispanic cultures still celebrate Three Kings’ Night, and there are surviving traditions in the other western European countries.

  However, in the United States, Twelfth Night is no longer celebrated commonly in the traditional sense. Twelfth Night was once widely celebrated in the colonies, especially those settled by the English. The colonists brought their traditions with them and adapted them to their new environment. George and Martha Washington were married on Twelfth Night in 1759, and entertained on Twelfth Night throughout the day each year; Martha’s papers include a recipe for an enormous Twelfth Night Cake. Christmas wreaths decorated with fruit (apples, oranges, etc., which were considered delicacies) were hung on doors, as can still be seen in Colonial Williamsburg.

  The Twelfth Night Cake is customarily a ring-shaped cake with currants, candied fruits, and nuts (or any combination) baked into it. Also baked into the cake was a coin, a carved or cast-metal baby (representing the Christ Child), or a bean and a pea. Whoever got the coin or baby was the king; in the case of the bean or pea, the man who got the bean was king, the woman who got the pea was queen. The king and queen ruled the festivities. Later, the king’s privileges included providing the next year’s cake.

  This cake may be elaborately iced and decorated, often with one or two crowns, or may be light and decorated with colored sugars. (This tradition still lives in the United States in some of the Mardi Gras customs; some Twelfth Night cakes are decorated with the colors now associated with Mardi Gras: purple, green, and gold or yellow.)

  Wassailing was also a tradition during Christmastide and on Twelfth Night. Wassail (your health) involved toasting with a hot mulled cider and/or ale and was very popular in southern England from about the 14th century on. One custom was wassailing the apple trees, which involved pouring a little wassail on the trees to ensure a good harvest and good cider the next year.

  One important footnote: it was essential to remove the greenery before midnight on the sixth of January. If left up, the greenery could attract goblins or cause bad luck in the New Year, so it was traditionally taken down and burned. In America, the fruits used to decorate the wreaths were eaten as part of the celebratory feasts.

  Sources

  Beckford, Martin. “Christmas Ends in Confusion Over When Twelfth Night Falls.” The Telegraph, 1/6/2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/4126725/Christmas-ends-in-confusion-over-when-Twelfth-Night-falls.html.

  Boyle, Laura. “Twelfth Night.” Jane Austen Centre. http://www.janeausten.co.uk/twelfth-night/.

  Doe, Martha. “The Puritan Ban on Christmas.” TimeTravelBritain.com. http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/christmas/ban.shtml.

  Levins, Sandy. “Understanding Twelfth Night: The Holiday That Time Forgot.” Camden County Historical Society, 1/3/2005. http://historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews93.shtml.

  Miller, Amy, “What Is The Twelfth Night Christmas Season?” ShareFaith. http://www.faithclipart.com/guide/Christian-Holidays/twelfth-night.html.

  Be My Valentine!

  by Marie Higgins

  When love is not madness, it is not love.

  —Pedro Calderon de la Barca

  Many are the starrs I see, but in my eye no starr like thee.

  —English saying used on poesy rings

  Loving is not just looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction.

  —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

  Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

  —Albert Einstein

  Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!

  —Thomas Hood

  I claim there ain’t Another Saint As great as Valentine.

  —Ogden Nash

  Must, bid the Morn awake!

  Sad Winter now declines,

  Each bird doth choose a mate;

  This day’s Saint Valentine’s.

  For that good bishop’s sake

  Get up and let us see

  What beauty it shall be

  That Fortune us assigns.

  —Michael Drayton

  “Be My Valentine...”

  Who was Saint Valentine…and why do people celebrate his name by writing sonnets, giving flowers, or candy to those they love?

  Here is what I researched about our dear Saint Valentine. Several articles were written about the “legend” of Saint Valentine....

  There were many different Saint Valentines who were martyred during the days of ancient Rome. Little is known about the one whose feast day is celebrated on February 14, except that he is said to have been buried on that day on the Via Flaminia north of Rome.

  One of the articles talked about a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers, he outlawed marriages for young men. The priest—Valentine—realized the injustice, defied the emperor, and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine was discovered to be going against the emperor, Claudius ordered the priest be put to death. On the eve of his execution, Valentine wrote a letter to his lover (some believed it was the daughter of one of the jailers). Valentine signed this letter, “from your Valentine”. Eventually, the Catholic Church canonised Valentine.

  It wasn’t much later until this day became associated with “love”. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season.

  Valentine greetings did not become popular until the Middle Ages. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

  When I think about my favorite Valentine’s Day, only one comes to mind. I had just met my future husband, but at the time, I was dating his best friend. Little did I know that my future husband was secretly wishing I would love him and not his friend. Anyway, it was my future husband’s idea to get some red spray paint and spray a big heart on my snow-covered lawn. That morning when I pulled out of my driveway on my way to work, I saw the heart and inside it the words “Be Mine”. Ah…that’s been the most memorable Valentine’s Day gift!

  The Origins of April Fools’ Day

  by Richard Denning

  Have you been tricked on this day by a prank or joke? Maybe you recall some famous tricks in the past. The BBC once broadcast a documentary of farmers in Italy picking spaghetti from bushes and trees after a bumper harvest. Thousands were tricked. In the USA, Taco Bell announced it had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell.

  When though did this tradition start?

  The suggestion, recorded in The Country Diary of Garden Lore, is that 1 April was the day that Noah sent a rook out looking for land as the flood waters subsided, but where that comes from I cannot find out.

  One explanation links it to ancient festivals such as the Roman Hilaria, celebrated at
the end of March when people would dress up in disguises. There are theories that this time of year with its variable weather—sometimes cold, sometimes hot—tricks men and makes us fools.

  A more substantial explanation related to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. This changed the start of the year from the last week of March/1 April as it used to be to January 1. Because it took a while for this fact to become known and accepted, people who celebrated the New Year on 1 April were ridiculed. A paper fish called a “poisson d’avril” would be stuck to their backs to show they were fools. This is still part of present day French culture.

  In England, the celebration came in about 1700 becoming more popular as the century went on. The British changed calendars in 1752 themselves, which may have encouraged the tradition. The Scots celebrated a two day event (how come they often manage to get two days out of something we English get one day from!) Hunting the Gowk Day involved sending folk on wild goose chases or false errands, whilst Tailie Day involved pinning tails or notices to people’s backsides.

  This morning my father recreated the spaghetti hoax in a picture he emailed me to show my son. Have you thought up any good ones? Or have you been the butt of an April fool?

  MayDay, MayDay, Mayday!

  by Mike Rendell

  And no, the internationally recognized distress signal has nothing whatsoever to do with the first day of May: it is a deliberate corruption of the French expression venez m’aider (“come and help me”), having been chosen in 1923 by a senior radio officer by the name of Frederick Stanley Moxford. He wanted a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency at his local airport (Croydon). It was soon picked up and is now the accepted distress call for planes and ships alike.