Rory's Medieval Tour of Rye

22/09/2024

🛡️UPDATE and ANNOUNCEMENT🛡️

Good day my lords and ladies of Rye and yonder. I hope all thou had a lovely summer this year.

Unfortunately due to ongoing difficulties, the reorganisation of Rory’s Medieval Tour of Rye is taking longer than we expected.

Therefore we shall remain closed until further notice. We hope to be back in operation by the summer of next year.

Until then, we wish thee for this year….

A happy 🔥Bonfire Season,

A happy 🎃Halloween🎃,

A merry 🎄Christmas🎄 and

A happy 🎆New Year🎇.

Sir Rory de Cross

Director of Rory’s Medieval Tour of Rye.

Rory’s Medieval Tour of Rye is a small tour business in the making with the goal of guiding and educating the lords and ladies of this historic town of it's medieval past. We hold an online history quiz to test the minds of our followers every Sunday.

02/06/2024

🛡️ANNOUNCEMENT🛡️

Good day my lords and ladies of Rye and yonder.

It is with unhappy regret to inform you that inform thee that, due to the mounting difficulties of trying to run a business and personal problems. Rory’s Medieval Tour of Rye will be closed for this summer and under going a period of reorganisation. Reasons….

Since 2021, living outside of Rye for too long has taken a heavy toll on my enthusiasm and joy for my medieval home based tour business. For months I have done my best to hold on until our return to Rye, but choosing to take a break is the best course of action.

I have lost interest in becoming a tour guide, grown weary of plying quiz master and making promises to thee and failing to keep them, and I have come to view RMToR more as a social page than a tour agency. Myself, those of my family, including my assistant director, have agreed that a change of direction or reorganisation is needed.

So between today and sometime in Autumn; except for the birthdays of our followers, there will be no notifications for Medieval Brainiac Sunday Quizzes, historic events, and plans for social events including the 5th anniversary of our page this August.

BUT be rest assured our loyal followers, this is not the end. Our little page and would-be-business will survive and will still be a Medieval based and back in Rye, just under a new name with a new purpose. Until then, fair thee well and enjoy the summer and wish us luck.

Kind regards and appreciation for thy loyalty,

Sir Rory de Cross,

Director of Rory’s Medieval Tour of Rye.

Rory’s Medieval Tour of Rye is a small tour business in the making with the goal of guiding and educating the lords and ladies of this historic town of it's medieval past. We hold an online history quiz to test the minds of our followers every Sunday.

30/05/2024

On this day, May 30th in 1381 and 1431, during the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚔️Hundred Years War⚔️🇫🇷.

The 🔥Peasant’s Revolt✊🏻, driven by 👑King Richard II’s🎉 unpopular poll tax system, begins in the county of Essex and spreads.

50 years later…..

✝️Joan of Arc✝️, aged 19, is executed by being 🔥burnt at the stake🔥 in the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 controlled city of Rouen, after being tried and condemned for heresy.

28/05/2024

On this day in history…

English ships flying the colours of the Earl of Warwick, Captain of Calais, attack a heavily laden Spanish fleet in the Channel in 1458.

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, was appointed Captain of Calais – the last remaining English outpost in France – after his part in the 1455 Battle of St. Albans, and over the coming years the port would play a crucial role in the Yorkists’ future success, providing a refuge in times of crisis, and a base from which to launch fresh campaigns.

From Calais Warwick enhanced his reputation as a man of action by carrying out numerous attacks on shipping, appealing to many of his countrymen who saw his exploits as some recompense for the humiliating defeats in France; ‘erle of Warrewyk, having a strong and a myghte naveye kepte the strayte see’.

On 28th May 1458 a Spanish fleet was spotted - ‘wherof there was xvj [16] grete schippis of forecastell’ - and Warwick sent ‘fyve schippis of forecastell and iij [3] carvellis and iiij [4] spynnes’ to intercept them. The battle off Calais lasted all day, and is described in a letter from John Jernyngan to Margaret Paston: ‘and there we took vj [6] of her schippis… And as men sayne there was not so gret a batayle upon the se this xl [40] wyntyr‘.

Here, flying Warwick’s distinctive colours, one of the English ‘shippis of forecastell’ comes alongside a heavily laden Spanish ship and prepares to board her, while similar actions take place in the background. Ship design was rapidly advancing through this period, with additional masts being added, and hulls traditionally built with overlapping planks, as here (and on the mid-fifteenth century ship recently excavated in Newport), being superseded by flush ‘carvel’ planking developed in the Mediterranean and seen on the Spanish ship in the painting. Sea battles were still fought and won by boarding the enemy, with guns slow to be adopted in naval warfare.

Gouache painting, image size 18.5”x 13.5” (47cm x 35cm)

This original painting has sold, but it is available as a giclée print, each one individually printed to order on very high-quality heavyweight fine art paper, and then signed on the border by me. Full details can be found on my website - https://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/wars_of_the_roses_sea_battle_print.html

This painting also features in my book ‘THE WARS OF THE ROSES: The Medieval Art of Graham Turner’, signed copies of which can be ordered through my website - https://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/The_Wars_of_the_Roses_the_Medieval_Art_of_Graham_Turner.html

27/05/2024

On this day, May 27th in 1199.

Following the death of his brother Richard I (the Lionheart). John is crowned 👑King of England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 at ✝️Westminster Abbey✝️ in 🏰London🏰.

His seventeen year reign would be marred by tyranny, high taxation, a series of failures, conflicts within and beyond his kingdom, and most famously……the signing of 📜Magna Carta📜.

24/05/2024

🛡️ANNOUNCEMENT🛡️

Greetings my lords and ladies of Rye and yonder.

I am certain many amongst our followers have plans to enjoy this Bank Holiday (May 25th, 26th and 27th).

So I ⚜️Sir Rory de Cross⚜️, have taken the decision to announce that there will be NO ⚜️Medieval Brianiac Quiz⚜️ this Sunday 26th.

I wish all thee joyous holidays and await to challenge thy mental fortitude next Sunday on June 9th.

24/05/2024

On this day, May 24th in 1337. The 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚔️Hundred Years War🇫🇷⚔️ between Kingdoms of England and France begins.

24/05/2024

Good morning my lords and ladies of Rye and yonder. A 🎉happy birthday🎉 to another of our followers and family.

Baroness Rita de Cross

Hip hip hoozah! Hip hip hoozah! Hip hip hoozah!

🎉⚜️👑🛡️⚔️🎊🥂🇨🇦

22/05/2024

On this day, May 22nd in 1455. Richard of York, 👑King Henry VI of England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and their forces, clash at the ⚔️First Battle of St Albans⚔️ in Hertfordshire.

Richard, Duke of York, and his allies, the Neville Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, defeated a royal army commanded by Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. Unusually, the battle was contested in the town of St Albans itself, with the bulk of the fighting taking place in the streets and a tavern being used as a redoubt. Somerset was killed in the battle, and 👑King Henry VI👑 was captured, clearing the way for a subsequent parliament to appoint Richard of York Lord Protector.

This battle was the beginning of the ⚔️Wars of the Roses🌹.

Artwork by Graham Turner
https://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/royal_blood_henry_vi_st_albans_1455.html

21/05/2024

On this day, May 21st in 1216, during the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿First Baron’s War⚔️.

At the invitation of the barons, 👑Prince Louis of France🇫🇷 joins their fight against 👑King John👑, by invading 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 with a force of several hundred ships carrying thousands of
🇫🇷French🇫🇷 knights and soldiers. Landing on the Isle of Thanet in eastern Kent.

19/05/2024

Times up! The correct answer to which historical Eddard Stark is based on is……

C. Richard, 3rd Duke of York

⭐️CONGRATULATIONS⭐️ to Rita Cross, thou art today’s ⚜️Medieval Brainiac⚜️.

❌Good tries❌ Colleen Prime and Lesleyann Coshan, better luck next time.

Fair thee and good evening my lords and ladies, until we play together again next time.

HISTORY TIP.
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Plantagenet by virtue of being a direct male-line descendant of Edmund of Langley, King Edward III’s fourth surviving son. However, it was through his mother, Anne Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, that Richard inherited his strongest claim to the throne, as the opposing House of Lancaster was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III. He also inherited vast estates and served in various offices of state in Ireland, France and England, a country he ultimately governed as Lord Protector due to the mental instability of King Henry VI.

Richard eventually attempted to take the throne, but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become king on Henry’s death. However, within weeks of securing this agreement (the Act of Accord), he was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, alongside his son, Edmund.

Richard of York became the basis for the Game of Thrones character, Eddard Stark. There are certainly similar characteristics between Ned Stark and Richard, Duke of York. While Eddard served as Hand of the King, York served as Lord Protector while Henry VI was mentally absent. Both answered for their actions against corruption of their governments with their deaths.

19/05/2024

Good morning my lords and ladies of Rye and yonder, welcome to another of our
⚜️Medieval Brainiac Sunday Quizzes⚜️.

Today once more we venture into the fantasy world of Game of Thrones. To learn about the most honourable man in Westeros. Eddard Stark.

Eddard Stark, nicknamed Ned by his friends, was the Warden of the North, the virtuous and honorable patriarch of House Stark and father of six children.

Years prior to the main story, Ned fought alongside Robert Baratheon in the rebellion that brought about the downfall of the rulers of Westeros. House Targaryen. Afterwards Robert Baratheon becomes the new ruler.

He later becomes entangled in the escalating political intrigue of King’s Landing, Ned struggles as his own sense of honor draws him into corrupt goings-on at court. Ned eventually discovers that all of King Robert’s heirs with his wife Cersei Lannister are illegitimate, the product of her in**st with her twin brother Jaime.

Before he can reveal the truth to the public, Cersei outmaneuvers Ned, and her duplicitous ally Littlefinger has the city watch arrest Ned instead of Cersei.

Fearing for safety of his children, Ned makes a public confession of his “treason”. The sadistic Joffrey, however, has Ned executed anyway for his own amusement and forced Sansa Stark to watch Ned’s severed head mounted on a spike.

QUESTION:
Which real historical figure is Eddard Stark based on?

A. Sir William Marshal

B. Sir Up-your-backside

C. Richard, 3rd Duke of York

D. Captain Hastings

Thy time starts now until 9pm tonight, good luck. NOTE, no looking online for the answer and once thou have chosen it, thou cannot change it.