Robins brought water to relieve tormented souls in Hell and. so, got their breasts scorched; their breasts were stained with Jesus’ blood; they fanned, with their wings, the flames of a fire to keep baby Jesus warm and got scorched. All these associations with Jesus make their association with Christmas and Christmas cards perfect sense.
They are the Celtic Oak King of the New Sun. The Robin is the son of the Wren. The Wren is the bird of the Old Sun, and the Robin kills his father, so the New Sun takes over from the Old Sun at the Winter Solstice. With the birth of the new Sun, the blood of the father stains the Robin’s breast. In Celtic Folklore, Robins are said to shelter in Holly trees. Robins appear when loved ones are near. If a Robin comes into your house, a death will follow.
Perhaps this gives a context for Shakespeare’s mention of a robin (ruddock he called it) which he grants the power of censure. in Cymberline. Innogen has been found dead, and amidst the floral tributes mentioned is the following:.:
the ruddock would with charitable bill (Oh bill sore shaming those rich-left-heirs, that let their Father’s lie without a Monument)
(Cymbeline, Act 4 scene 2)
They are one of the few birds to be seen all year round, and they sing all year too, but with different songs for autumn and spring. Robins sing from concealed spaces in trees or bushes. They are the first to sing in the morning, the last to stop at night, and can be triggered by street lights turning on. A Robin can sing all the notes on the scale and can sing for half an hour without repeating a melody.
They eat worms, seeds, fruits, insects and other invertebrates. Robins are aggressively territorial, and are our favourite birds. (RSPB)
On this Day
1554 – the same day at after-noon was a bear bitten on the Bank side, and broke loose and in running away he caught a serving man by the calf of the leg, and bit a great piece away and after by the ‘hokyl-bone’ witihin 3 days after he died.
Henry Machyn’s Diary quoted in ‘A London Year’ complied by Travis Elborough & Nick Rennison (my translation from 16th Century English – I think hokyl-bone might be holbourne, or holborn as we now call it.)
According to the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly, this is the time when Robins are much to be seen singing their winter song, and when it is time to protect plants, particularly Rosemary, against winter frosts.
In December, rosemary flowers with a delicate blue flower. Rosemary was one of the most important plants, metaphorically and medically. Mrs Grieve, in her ‘Modern Herbal’ says it is used in medicine for illnesses of the brain and was thought to strengthen the memory. And as rosemary helps the memory, they are symbolically/metaphorically associated with friendship, love, worship and mourning. A branch of Rosemary was given as a gift to wedding guests, so they would remember the love shown at the ceremony. It was also entwined in the Bride’s wreath;
Shakespeare uses Rosemary in his plant lore in Hamlet.
OPHELIA: There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.
LAERTES: A document in madness: thoughts and remembrance fitted.
OPHELIA: There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference.
There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say ‘a made a good end.
(sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
Ham IV.v.176
Rue is the herb of grace and has the sense of ‘regret’. Pansies are also for remembrance, and their heart shaped flowers are for love and affection. Fennel represents infidelity and Columbines insincerity or flattery. Daisies are for innocence. Violets are associated with death, particularly of the young. As to how Orphelia means them all to be understood is not entirely clear, particularly Fennel and Columbine. Some think they are directed towards Claudius and/or Gertrude.
Being evergreen, Rosemary was associated with religion and everlasting life, and called the rose of the Virgin Mary. Lying on a bed of rosemary, the Virgin’s cloak was said to have been dyed blue, and Mary is mostly depicted in a blue cloak in Renaissance paintings. And so Rosemary is especially important for Christmas. At Christmas, it was used to bedeck the house and used at funerals to remember the dead.
The Virgin Mary Googled.
Its strong aroma means it was used as an incense and also used in magic spells
Thomas More let rosemary ‘runne all over my garden walls’ because bees love it and as sacred to remembrance, therefore to friendship.
Rosemary flowering in December
I mostly use Rosemary for the very rare occasions when I cook lamb, but it is much more versatile than that, or so the SpruceEats website tells me:
‘Rosemary is used as a seasoning in various dishes, such as soups, casseroles, salads, and stews. Use rosemary with chicken and other poultry, game, lamb, pork, steaks, and fish, especially oily fish. It also goes well with grains, mushrooms, onions, peas, potatoes, and spinach. ‘
1917- End of the Battle of Cambrai in which Tanks were first used. The tanks had initial success when over 400 hundred of them were used by the British on the first day of the battle. Because the British Army did not precede the attack with the usual artillery barrage, the attack was a complete surprise and the British penetrated deep into the German Lines. But the army had too few troops to exploit the breakthrough and by early December the Germans had mostly recaptured the territory the tanks had won. So the battle was indecisive, but successfully showed the role of the tank in future battles. Casualties amounted to about 45,000 on each side.
1941 – Pearl Harbour bombed. The Japanese attack killed more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel were killed,. Another 1,100 at least were wounded, and eight battleships were damaged or destroyed. On December 8th,Congress approved Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war on Japan. In the Senate, the vote was 82 – 0 and 388–1 in the House. On 11 December 1941. Germany declared war on the US, in line with the Tripartite Pact between the two countries and Italy. Later that same day, the US declared war on Germany, with no dissenters from the vote.
Queensberry House to the right, with the Scottish Parliament in the background. Royal Mile, Cannongate in the foreground. (Photo: K. Flude)
Finally, this is my select booklist for Edinburgh, one of my favourite towns. I began the production of the list with Ian Rankin’s Rebus books because he is a typographical author of the highest rank. Every story brings Edinburgh, its people and its history to life. And yet set in a very readable crime fiction envelope. The Rebus I chose was ‘Set in Darkness’ because it has the Scottish Parliament at its heart. It begins with a body found in Queensbury House, which is being preserved and incorporated into the new Scottish Parliament buildings. Please read my post on the book.
Recently, published is ‘Edinburgh a New History’ byAlistair Moffat. I have ordered a copy but not yet read it, but I feel confident of my recommendation as I have read his ‘Reivers’ which is a great book about the border raiders, both North English and Scottish who raided the borderlands between Edinburgh and York during the 13th to the 17th Centuries. They inspired the young Walter Scot who collected Reivers ballads before inventing the Historical Novel.
As to Walter Scot, our Blue Badge Guide for Edinburgh, considers his long descriptive passages unreadable. But I’m not so convinced, having read Ivanhoe and Rob Roy as a boy. But if I were to recommend a Walter Scot, it would be Heart of Midlothian as it is set in Edinburgh and deals with crime, poverty, urban riots and other manifestations of life in Edinburgh in the 18th Century.
Midlothian is the country around Edinburgh, named after the legendary Celtic King Loth. The Heart of Midlothian, is Edinburgh or more precisely, a heart marked out in the cobbles outside of St Giles, on the Royal Mile, where the Tollboth (townhall and prison) and execution site for the City used to be. To this day, Edinburghers (or more correctly, Dunediners) are supposed to spit on the heart for good luck.
Old Print of the Tollbooth with St Giles to the right of the print.
It is hard to exaggerate the importance of Walter Scot. Byron said he had read them 50 times, and never travelled without them. Goethe said ‘he was a genius who does not have an equal.’ and Pushkin said his influence was ‘felt in every province of the literature of his age. Balzac described him as ‘one of the noblest geniuses of modern times’. Jane Austen and Dickens loved his books. The point is he invented the Historical Novel, and for the first time, as Carlyle wrote, he showed that history was made by people ‘with colour in their checks and passion in their stomachs.’ The only other person I can think of who was held in such universal regard was Tolstoy. There is a sense in which Scot invented our idea of Scotland.
A walk through the centre of Edinburgh has so many statues of people who made the modern world it is astonishing. So you should read: ‘The Scottish Enlightenment – the Scots Invention of the modern world‘ by Arthur Herman.
Strangely, I would recommend reading ‘the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘ which is a Novella by Robert Louis Stevenson but set in London. It was inspired by the true life story of Deacon Brodie, who was a respectable City official in the daytime and a leader of the underworld during the night.
This inevitably brings us to:
Burke and Hare: The True Story Behind the Infamous Edinburgh Murderers by Owen Dudley-Edwards
The story of Burke and Hare is well known, but it shows how important Edinburgh was as a medical centre in the early 19th Century. Bodies were shipped to Edinburgh from the London docks, such was the demand for bodies for anatomy teaching. Arthur Conan Doyle got his medical training here from a man called Joseph Bell, whose logical mind was the model for Sherlock Holmes.
My last choice is Murial Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie set in a school in Edinburgh where the teacher singles out 6 of her pupils for special education. She wants to give them a cultured outlook in life which includes her own fascistic views. Made into a wonderful film starring Maggie Smith, but also a great book.
Of course, you should read some poetry by Burns, and I would begin with Tam O’Shanter the story of Tam, Maggie his horse and Nannie, the witch with the short skirt (Cutty Sark). The version above (see link) is read over a comic novel of the poem. But if you prefer the words, this is the one I read for my groups where I ruin the Scots dialect, and disgrace myself, but oh how I enjoy it! www.poetryfoundation.org tam-o-shanter
Roman Mosaic from Lullingstone Villa, Kent representing winter
This is the second day of Winter.
Winter, meteorologically speaking, is described in the Northern Hemisphere as being December, January, and February, which is, of course, a convention rather than a fact, as there is nothing about December 1st that makes it more ‘wintery’ than November 30th or December 2nd. Astronomically, winter starts with the Winter Solstice when the sun is at its lowest and so stretches from around December 21st to the Equinox around March 21st.
Logically, the solstice, when the Sun is at its weakest, should be a midpoint of winter rather than the beginning of it, with 6 weeks of winter on either side of it. This is roughly what the Celtic year does, winter starts at dusk on 31st October (Halloween/Samhain) and continues to the evening of 31st January (Candlemas/Imbolc). So a Celtic Winter is November, December, and January.
As far as the Sun goes, this is logically correct, but, in fact, because of the presence of the oceans (and to a lesser extent) the earth, the coldest time is not the Solstice when the Sun is at its weakest, but a few weeks later in January. The oceans (and the landmass) retain heat, and so the coldest (and the warmest) periods are offset, so January 13th is probably the coldest day not December 21st.
Medieval Liturgical Calendar for December. Note the image at the top which suggests this is the month for hunting bears.
My personal calendar suggests that winter begins on November 5th because this is the day I generally notice how cold it has suddenly got. My smart meter also identifies the week of November 4th being the day when the heating bill goes through the roof.
A final thought about Winter. Isn’t it strange that a small change in the axis of the planet should create such opposites? Cold and little growth, then hot and an explosion of flowers. This in the vastness of space, with unimaginably cold and unbelievable hot places and spaces which make tiny the little difference between Summer and Winter. And yet to us they are opposites, and in places extremes we find hard to survive in. Some think this is because God made the Universe just for us, but far more wonderfully it is because we, and nature, are completely adapted to this, our very own, blue planet.
Winter is hiems in Latin; Gaeaf in Welsh. Geimhreadh in Old Irish; Wintar in Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxons counted years by winters, so a child might be said to be 4 winters old.
On this day
1859 – John Brown was hanged, following his violent opposition to the Slave Trade and his raid on Harpers Ferry.
1954 – Joseph McCarthy was formally censured by the Senate for the methods used in his anti-communist campaigns.
December comes from the Latin for ten – meaning the tenth month. Of course, it is the twelfth month because the Romans added a couple of extra months especially to confuse us. For a discussion on this, look at an early blog post which explains the Roman Calendar.
In Anglo-Saxon it is ærra gēola which means the month before Yule. In Gaelic it is An Dùbhlachd – the Dark Days which is part of An Geamhrachd, meaning the winter, and the word comes from an early Celtic term for cold, from an ‘ancient linguistic source for ‘stiff and rigid’’, which describes the hard frosty earth. (see here for a description of the Gaelic Year). In Welsh, Rhafgyr, the month of preparation (for the shortest day).
For the Christian Church, it’s the period preparing for the arrival of the Messiah into the World. (see my post on Advent Sunday).
For a closer look at the month, I’m turning to the 15th Century Kalendar of Shepherds. Its illustration (see above) for December shows an indoor scene, and is full of warmth as the bakers bake pies and cakes for Christmas. Firewood has been collected, and the Goodwife is bringing something in from the Garden. The stars signs are Sagittarius and Capricorn.
The Venerable Bede has an interesting story (reported in ‘Winters in the World’ by Eleanor Parker) in which a Pagan, contemplating converting to Christianity, talks about a sparrow flying into a warm, convivial Great Hall, from the bitter cold winter landscape. The sparrow enjoys this warmth, but flies straight out, back into the cold Darkness. Human life, says the Pagan, is like this: a brief period in the light, warm hall, preceded and followed by cold, unknown darkness. If Christianity, he advises, can offer some certainty as to what happens in this darkness, then it’s worth considering.
This contrast between the warm inside and the cold exterior is mirrored in Neve’s Almanack of 1633 who sums up December thus:
This month, keep thy body and head from cold: let thy kitchen be thine Apothecary; warm clothing thy nurse; merry company thy keepers, and good hospitality, thine Exercise.
Quoted in ‘the Perpetual Almanack of Folklore’ by Charles Kightly
The Kalendar of Shepherds text below gives a vivid description of December weather. Dating from 1626 it gives a detailed look at the excesses of Christmas, who is on holiday, and who working particularly hard. But it concludes it is a costly month.
Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks of 1626 – December
The other section of the Kalendar then elaborates on the last six years of a man’s life, with hair going white, body ‘crooked and feeble’. The conceit here is that there are twelve months of the year, and a man’s lot of ‘Six score years and ten’ is allocated six years to each month. So December is not just about the 12th Month of the Year but also the last six years of a person’s allotted span. The piece allows the option of living beyond 72, ‘and if he lives any more, it is by his good guiding and dieting in his youth.’ Good advice, as we now know. But living to 100 is open to but few.
Kalendar of Shepherds
About the Kalendar of Shepherds.
The Kalendar was printed in 1493 in Paris and provided ‘Devices for the 12 Months.’ I’m using a modern (1908) reconstruction of it using wood cuts from the original 15th Century version and adding various text from 16th and 17th Century sources. (Couplets by Tusser ‘Five Hundred Parts of Good Husbandrie 1599, and text descriptions of the month from Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks of 1626. This provides an interesting view of what was going on in the countryside every month.
Saint Andrew was the first Apostle and, it was he who introduced his brother, Simon Peter, to Jesus. Not much about his later life is known, but the idea that he was martyred on a X-shaped cross, the saltire, is probably a medieval invention. He was a simple fisherman and so patron of fishermen, and fishmongers. Furthermore, the patron saint of Scotland and Russia; of singers and pregnant woman, and efficacious in offering protection against sore throats and gout.
His association with Russia comes from Eusebius, who quotes Origen recording that Andrew preached in Scythia. The Chronicle of Nestor says he travelled to Kiev and Novgorod and so became a patron saint of Ukraine, Romania, and Russia. (Wikipedia).
Scottish legends has St Andrew both visiting Scotland and some of his relics coming to Fife in the 4th Century or the 8th Century. St Rule was tasked with taking some of Andrew’s relics to the edges of the world, and he turned up in Fife with a kneecap, arm and finger bone which were kept in St Rule’s Church and which gave St Andrew’s name to the town. The earliest recorded name for the town is Gaelic and is Cennrígmonaid, which means something like the King’s Peninsula near the Moor. The fame of the Church changed the name of the town to St Andrews (no apostrophe as it was named before the French gave us apostrophes in the 1600s.
St Andrews is also famous as the home of golf and the oldest University in Scotland, (founded in 1412). The relics were transferred to the Cathedral, but they were destroyed in the Reformation. In 1979, the Archbishop of Amalfi gifted a piece of Saint Andrew’s shoulder blade to St Andrews and Pope Paul VI gave further remains to Scotland in 1969
In Kent and Sussex Andrewtide gave the right to hunt squirrels, and in Hasted’s History of Kent (1782) the day is said to allow the ‘lower kind’ to form a lawless rabble hunting any manner of hares, partridges, and pheasants. (Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly).
St Andrew in London
John Stow17th Century PrintSt Andrew Undershaft
On the corner of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe in the City of London is one of the very few medieval Churches that survived the Great Fire of London is 1666. It was sheltered by the firebreak that was the Leadenhall, a big market building made of stone (but with a big lead roof).
The Church is the Maypole Church as it was here the Maypole or the shaft was stored under the eves of the Church when not in use. Hence, St Andrew’s sobriquet of ‘Undershaft’. The May Day riot in 1517 put an end to the dancing around the Maypole but the pole itself survived until 1547 when, in a Puritan riot, the ‘stynking idol’ was destroyed. (see my May Day blog post here for more details of Mayday.)
This is where the great London historian John Stow is buried. His Survey of London is one of the best sources for Medieval and Tudor London. Every three years, on April 5th or thereabouts, there is a commemorative service and his quill is changed. The Lord Mayor attends and it is organised by Stow’s Guild – the Merchant Taylors.
There is also a plaque to Hans Holbein, but no one knows, for sure, where he is buried. He died in London in 1543, possibly of plague.
Agas Map 1561 showing St Andrews (right centre)
Last Day to get married before Advent.
Traditionally, you could not marry after Advent and before 12th Night. So now might be the last chance to marry before that bump gets too big!
19th Century Illustration (Author’s Copyright)
Wedding dresses were traditionally whatever pretty dress you had. White only became derigueur once Queen Victoria wore one, and the costs of material reduced because of mass production.
First Published on 30th November 2022, Revised and republished on 30th November 2023, Advent weddings added in 2024
There is a 0% chance of snow, in London and 20% in Glen Shee, Scotland, according to the Snow Risk Forecast. And here is an appropriate medieval recipe:
To make a dish of Snowe
Take a potte of sweete thicke creme and the white of eight egges and beate them altogether with a spoone then putte them into your creame with a dish full of Rose Water and a dishfull of Sugar withall then take a sticke and make it cleane and then cutt it in the ende fowre square and therewith beate all the aforesayd thinges together and ever as it ariseth take it of and putte it into a Cullander thys done take a platter and set an aple in the middest of it and sticke a thicke bush of Rosemarye in the apple then cast your snowe upon the rosemarye and fill your platter therewith and if you have wafers cast some withall and thus serve them forth
Before fridges, snow gave the chance for ice cream and other cold desserts. The problem was keeping it for longer than the cold spell. So many Stately Homes had ice-houses. The V&A had an ice-house just outside their glorious, Henry Cole commissioned restaurant. There is an ice house preserved at the Canal Museum, in Kings Cross. It was set up by Carlo Gatti in 1857 to store ice shipped in from Norway. Another one, in Holland Park, dates from 1770 and served the infamous Fox family (PM Charles James Fox etc).
The first ice house was in Mesopotamian, but in the UK they were introduced by James 1 at his palaces in, first, Greenwich Park, and then Hampton Court. An ice house generally consists of a pit in the ground, brick lined, which tapered to a point. Above was a circular, often domed building. The ice was protected by insulation such as straw, and this structure would allow ice to be available all through the summer.
Ice House Dillington, Somerset
My great-grandmother hung a basket outside the window in winter to keep things cold. On my fridge-less narrow boat, I have been known to keep milk and butter outside the door, and to suspend and submerge wine in a plastic bag in the canal in high summer. Butteries and Pantry’s were typically cut into the ground to make them cooler. A Roman Warehouse in Southwark, of which the wooden floor still survived, had a ramp down to the floor which was cut into the ground surface. The ramp suggests it was used for storing barrels where they were kept cool.
Sketch of Roman Warehouse found in Southwark.
For more on Icehouses (and an Icehouse in York) and the history of ice cream, see my post from August.
Catherine was high-born, beautiful and learned. She disputed with pagan learned men against the worship of idols. She wiped the floor with them, and Emperor Maxentius had 50 of the learned men burnt alive for their failure to answer adequately.
Catherine was imprisoned, where many people came to visit her and were converted to Christianity. The most illustrious visitor was the Emperor’s wife, Valeria Maximilla who was, herself, martyred. Then, the Emperor offered to marry Catherine, but she refused to abandon her faith, so he had her tortured. In prison, she was fed by the holy dove and had visions of Christ.
Her gaolers then tried to break her on a wheel, although the wheel broke, killing spectators with the splinters, she stood steadfast. Two hundred soldiers were converted to the faith on the spot. They were then beheaded, followed by Catherine herself. Milk, not blood, flowed from her severed veins.
The persecution in the early 4th Century was real, but it wasn’t driven by Maxentius, who came to power promising religious tolerance. But, following the accession of Constantine the Great, Maxentius’s reputation was blackened. There is no contemporary evidence for the events of Catherine’s life. There is a modern theory that her tale was conflated with the remarkable story of Hypatia of Alexandria (d. 415), a pagan and a real learned woman; The first female Mathematician we know any facts about. She was murdered by a rampaging mob of xenophobic Christians.
Catherine is remembered by the firework: the Catherine Wheel and is, of course, the patron of Philosophers, Theologians, and Royal women; young women, students, spinsters, and anyone who lives by working with a wheel: carters, potters, wheelwrights, spinners, millers. And, I imagine, Formula 1 drivers.
St Catherine in London
St Catherine Coleman (Wikipedia: Robert William Billings and John Le Keux: The Churches of London by George Godwin (1839))
There are several Churches in London dedicated to St Catherine or St Katherine, dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria. The one in Coleman Street, rebuilt by Christopher Wren and his team, was demolished in the 1920s. There was a Chapel to St Catherine at Westminster Abbey (c1160), the ruins of which are visible in St Catherine’s Garden. I am sure that St Katherine’s Dock and St Katherine’s Cree Church are also so dedicated, but cannot as yet find a dedication for either. Katherine of Aragorn was patron of the Royal Foundation of St Katherines’ which gives its name to the Dock.
Ruins of Chapel of St Catherine, Westminster Abbey
There are customs that have attached themselves to St Catherine including the baking and eating of Catten Cakes. These are really a biscuit (or cookie) made of dough, and cinnamon and dried fruit. Carraway seeds are also suggested. Here is a recipe: Its a good day for rituals and prayers to summon a husband. Katherine of Aragorn was also commemorated on this day, and lace makers would play ‘jump the candlestick’. If they put the candle out they had bad luck. Katherine of Aragorn is said to have introduced lace making to England.
Finally, St Margaret is the Saint who suffered probably the most torture in her convoluted route to Martyrdom, and you can read more about her on my post which includes an article about medieval attitudes to these terrifying stories of martyrdom, illustrated by a reredos on display at the V&A, in Kensington, London here.
On this Day
1471 – the Thames froze over strongly enough to hold a Frost Fair upon it.
‘In the year 1434 a great frost began on the 24th of November, and held till the 10th of February, following ; whereby the River Thames was so strongly frozen, that all sorts of merchandizes and provisions brought into the mouth of the said river were unladen, and brought by land to the city.’
1715 – the Thames froze again 281 years later
‘The Thames seems now a solid rock of ice; and booths for sale of brandy, wine, ale, and other exhilarating liquors, have been for some time fixed thereon; but now it is in a manner like a town; thousands of people cross it, and with wonder view the mountainous heaps of water that now lie congealed into ice. On Thursday, a great cook’s-shop was erected, and gentlemen went as frequently to dine there as at any ordinary. Over against Westminster, Whitehall, and Whitefriars, printing presses are kept on the ice.’ (description of 14th January 1716 of the remaining ice by Dawkes’ News Letter.
Both quotes are from a list of times the Thames froze you can see here: https://thames.me.uk/s00051.htm. I have no idea where the evidence comes from for the Roman and Saxon era freezing, but the author says the source of it is:
‘The earliest chronology is given by Charles Mackay in “The Thames and its Tributaries”, 1840. He omits to mention how he knows!‘
1952 Agatha Christie’s the ‘Mousetrap’ opened in London, so it has now been continuously running for 72 years if my maths are correct.
First published on 25th November 2022. Revised and republished 25th November 2023 and 2024
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Musician’s Chapel, St Cecilia window. 17 August 2022, Andy Scott
November 17th is St Cecilia’s Day She is the patron saint of musicians and was martyred in Rome in the Second or Third Century AD. The story goes that she was married to a non-believer, and during her marriage ceremony she sang to God in her heart (hence her affiliation with musicians). She then told her husband, that she was a professed Virgin, and that if he violated her, he would be punished by God. Ceclia told him she was being protected by an Angel of the Lord who was watching over her. Valerian, her husband, asked to see the Angel. ‘Go to the Third Milestone along the Appian Way’ he was told where he would be baptised by Pope Urban 1. Only then would he see the Angel. He followed her advice, was converted and he and his wife were, later on, martyred.
The Church in Rome, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, is said to be built on the site of her house, and has 5th Century origins. My friend, Derek Gadd, recently visited and let me use these photographs:
St Cecilia in London
There is a window dedicated to her in the Holy Sepulchre Church-without-Newgate, In London, opposite the site of the infamous Newgate Prison. Henry Wood, one of our most famous conductors and the founder of the Promenade Concerts, played organ here when he was 14. In 1944, his ashes were placed beneath the window dedicated to St Cecilia and, later, the Church became the National Musician’s Church.
This window is dedicated to the memory of Sir Henry Wood, C.H., Founder and for fifty years Conductor of THE PROMENADE CONCERTS 1895-1944. He opened the door to a new world Of sense and feeling to millions of his fellows. He gave life to Music and he brought Music to the People. His ashes rest beneath.
The Concerts are now called the BBC Proms and continue an 18th and 19th Century tradition of, originally, outdoor concerts, and then indoor promenade concerts. At the end of the 19th Century, the inexpensive Promenade Concerts were put on to help broaden the interest in classical music. Henry Wood was the sole conductor.
Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek described the Proms as “the world’s largest and most democratic musical festival”.
The Eight-week Festival is held at the Royal Albert Hall. It moved here during World War 2 after the original venue, the Queen’s Hall, was destroyed in the Blitz in May 1941.
First Published on November 17th 2023 and revised in November 2024
St Margaret should be better known in England because of her important rule in the bloodline of the English Monarchy. Her story is also of interest as it intertwines with the events of 1066 and of Macbeth.
She was the granddaughter of King Edmund Ironside. He was the last English King before the Danish Kings took over. This is what a draft of the text for my book on the Kings of Britain says about him:
King Edmund II 1016
Edmund was born in around 988AD and nicknamed Ironside. He was a formidable warrior who spent his short life fighting the Danes. In 1016, he was crowned in St Pauls Cathedral. Although he was defeated in battle by King Canute, the son of King Swein of Denmark, Edmund’s prowess won him a peace treaty in which England was divided between the two Kings. Unfortunately, Edmund died unexpectedly and Canute inherited the Kingdom. Edmund was buried in Glastonbury Abbey.
To buy ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died – the history of the Kings of Britain in Bite-size Chunks’. click here.
Edmund’s wife Edith and her 2 children were exiled to Sweden and then, somehow, got to Hungary. Edmund’s eldest son was called Edward the Exile and was married to Agatha. Margaret was their third child. In 1056 Edward the Confessor invited the family back to England and soon made Margaret’s father the heir to the throne. Unfortunately, he died in 1057. He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral.
The rest, as they say, is history. Edward the Exile’s son, Edgar the Atheling was only 6 or 7 and the throne was disputed between William of Normandy, Harald Hadarada of Norway, and Harold Godwinson.
In short, Margaret’s brother Edgar the Atheling was briefly chosen as King after the death of Harold, but was forced to cede the throne to William the Conqueror, after the defeat of Harold Godwinson (Harold II). William was crowned King in December 1066. Margaret was forced to flee and went to Scotland.
You can read what happened, in my detail, in my posts on the three battles that decided England’s fate in 1066.
In 1070, Margaret married the Scottish King Malcolm III ( Mael Column Mac Donnchada).
Malcolm was the son of King Duncan (murdered by Macbeth – see my book Divorced, Beheaded, Died for a short biography). In 1040, Malcolm fled to England, but returned with English help to defeat Macbeth at Dunsinane. After his first wife’s death he married the deeply pious Margaret. Their court was very influenced by Saxon and Norman ways. She helped aligned the Church more closely with the rest of Christendom, and brought up her children piously.
St Margaret’s Chapel at Edinburgh Castle. Built by her son King David. (Photos by the author)
The Royal couple had 6 sons and two daughters. Her son David became one of the most influential Kings of Scotland; introduced Norman ideas of feudalism, and created Boroughs to strengthen the Scottish economy. So, in many ways, Margaret had an influential role in ‘modernising’ the Scottish Monarchy from its Gaelic clan-based structure to a more European style that was ruled from the Lowlands and spoke the Scots version of English, rather than the Gaelic version of the Celtic branch of languages.
She died on 16th November 1093 AD and is ‘particularly noted’ for concern for orphans and poor people. There is an annual procession to her altar, followed by Evensong at Durham Cathedral on the following day. She was buried at Dunfermline following the violent death of her husband. The Abbey has recently celebrated the 950th anniversary of Queen Margaret consecrating the site.
Margaret’s daughter, Matilda, married the son of William the Conqueror, King Henry I. This marriage was important for the Normans because it added a strong dose of English Royal blood to the French Norman Royal line. Their daughter was the formidable Empress Matilda, designated heir to the throne of England and founder of the Plantagenet line of English Kings and mother of Henry II.
Matilda has a plausible claim to having been the first ruling Queen of England. But she was never crowned because of the disruption caused by the usurpation of the throne by King Stephen.
Margaret’s brother Edgar the Atheling had an extraordinary life, living into his 70s. He continued to fight against the Norman rule of England, mostly from Scotland. Eventually, he reconciled with the Norman dynasty but was involved in any number of disputes, rebellions and dynastic fights.
First Published on November 19th 2021. Revised on Nov 15th, 2023, and 2024
