Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry vii, was one of the most extraordinary and formidable women in late medieval England. She was also notable for her piety, and it is this aspect of Lady Margeret’s life, and in particular her patronage of the Brigittine house at Syon, that led that Professor Susan Powell to produce this weighty (in every sense) edition of a selection of her household accounts.
Powell’s Introduction is divided into five sections, three of these focused on the production, form and content of the accounts presented in the edition. Her overview of Lady Margaret’s life is ‘an extremely potted history’, understandable in one sense because there are other detailed accounts of this, although slightly more information might have been useful further to set the edited records in a broader historical context. As a prelude to the edited text, the Introduction does, however, include a most useful overview of all of Lady Margaret’s surviving accounts, both those in the volume and unpublished material in the archive of St John’s College, Cambridge. Implicit in the latter is perhaps the hope that this will spur others to continue Professor Powell’s sterling efforts and make these available in edited form. We are also introduced to members of Lady Margaret’s household, from the highest officers to lowest servants, a cast of characters who inhabit the accounts. The discussion of the relationship between her staff and companions, who included relatives and some clerics and scholars who later were to have high-flying careers, is something that should prove very useful to a range of scholars. There is also a detailed discussion of how the accounts were drawn-up and checked, an understandably complex and thorough process considering the amounts of money and range of goods and people involved. A final section in the Introduction is a meticulous investigation of the various hands found throughout the accounts, two of which Powell names the ‘“Sprawling” Hand’ and the ‘“curly” hand’; others are assigned to the documents in which they principally appear. This will be of considerable interest to some readers, but others, even aided by examples provided in the plates, may find this analysis rather daunting.
The bulk of the volume naturally is occupied by the edition itself, running to 564 pages in total. The records edited here are all financial accounts related to Lady Margaret’s household between the years 1498 and her death in June 1509. Four accounts are presented: the computes roll of William Bedell, Lady Margaret’s receiver general; a receipt and payment book of Henry Hornby, secretary and chapel dean to Lady Margaret; a selection of chamber accounts; and the accounts of Sir Roger Ormeston, bailiff of various estates and chamberlain to Lady Margaret in her final years. Each account or set of accounts is prefaced by a physical description and summary of contents, the latter of which should be of particular value to those practising their Latin or less familiar with the contemporary English. Footnotes provide further details about the accounts, helping to build a picture of the actual manuscripts, as well as glossing some potentially confusing entries.
As with most editions, it is necessary to familiarise oneself with the detailed editorial conventions (one of the very first items in the volume) fully to understand the material, but it is certainly worth doing so. The initially dry financial documents reveal the everyday life of Lady Margaret’s household, and by extension provide a glimpse into the world of the nobility and royal family at the cusp of the medieval and early modern periods. Some readers will find the different accounts of particular value, but, overall, they are a treasure-trove of details. Within the 1502–5 account (D91.20) of Miles Worsley, cofferer, we find, for example, payments for: the repair of a bason ‘which was broken in the ewrye’ (p 316 – an indication, perhaps, that Henry vii’s famous parsimony was hereditary?); a pair of slippers for her ladyship, acquired from a London merchant (p 351); and a dozen ‘grett beydes for my ladys almes folke’ (p 372, a glimpse of the minutia of Lady Margaret’s piety). Henry Hornby’s book of receipts (D102.10) reveals the complexity and drudgery of running large estates, and is especially important for being more of a working document than the tidied-up final account that so often survives. Some of the documents provide insights into Lady Margaret’s patronage at Cambridge, including for instance £71 towards the ‘workes of Crystes Collage’ (D91.19, p 523), and the supply of two ‘antefeners callys brevys’ for the same (D91.19, p 581). As well as a panoply of goods and services, merchants and artisans from a wide range of places appear throughout the accounts, often by name, as do various clerics, servants and members of the aristocracy, and as such this is a volume that will prove useful far beyond the confines of those interested in Tudor aristocratic households.
The indices – of people, places and a general index – are extensive, providing alternative spellings for names and their position or occupation. The referencing system is however rather confusing at first glance. Instead of imposing sections on the accounts, as many editions do, or using page references, Powell employs a ‘short title’ for the document in question, its second number in the ‘D’ referencing system, followed by the manuscript’s page number. This is sensible in many ways and preserves the integrity of the original documents, but readers do need to pay attention to the explanation of this. Finally, note should be made of the eighteen plates illustrating various of the accounts. This is most welcome, both for the experienced scholar interested in the hands and layouts and for students wishing to practise their palaeography. It seems rather picky to cavil about these images when many editions have none or only one or two, but colour would have been a fine addition.
Professor Powell’s excellent edition of a selection of Lady Margaret’s household accounts provides welcome access to a rich and varied source that will be of great value to a wide range of academic scholars, and is not too daunting for students and those interested in the period but less familiar with historical research. As such, it should become a standard work of reference, providing an insight into one of the most remarkable women of her age.
