The Pageants of the Birth, Life, and Death of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, is an illustrated biography of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (1382–1439), (British Library MS Cotton Julius E. iv. The Pageants of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick – Medieval manuscripts blog. The manuscript dates to the 1480s and constitutes a truly splendid series of fifty-three exquisite line drawings in a brown ink on twenty-eight parchment folios delineating the life of the Earl. It does this by showing the various occasions in a series of vivid images of his life, depicting the Earl in settings contemporary to the period of the manuscript’s production. The original resides in the British Library and has been reproduced on three occasions in outstanding facsimile editions. It is known that the manuscript was later owned by the Herald, Robert Glover (1544 -1588), before passing into the hands of the renowned collector, Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571 – 1631). It was finally bequeathed to the nation by Cotton’s grandson, Sir John Cotton (1621 – 1702).
The manuscript is a unique resource for the study of costume, armour, architecture and customs of the period, all depicted in a collection of “pageants”, a series of interesting and varied highlights from the Earl’s life. However, the artist achieves more than this, capturing within the images a lively nature to his characters, a real sense of human presence, unusual for many other contemporary manuscripts.
The basic facts about the Pageants have long been established. As indicated it is made up of fifty-three-line drawings with brief accompanying comments describing each period in the Earl’s life. It would appear to date to the reign of Richard III, (certainly folio 28 shows Richard III with crown and sceptre) although the date of commissioning has been considered as somewhere between 1483 and 1492. The Earl’s daughter Anne Beauchamp (1426-1492) was the probable commissioner, widow of Richard Neville ‘the Kingmaker’, Earl of Warwick (1428 -1471), who may initially have viewed it as an exemplar for Prince Edward, her grandson (thus the Yorkist emphasis in the genealogical tables of folios 27b and 28). Although Edward was dead by early 1484, a further hypothesis has it being made after 1485 to impress the new king, Henry VII. This seems a little improbable due to the Yorkist emphasis, although indeed Henry VII did restore Anne’s inheritance in 1487 and was married to Elizabeth of York. Research has been undertaken on the possible artist of the manuscript, whilst this makes for a fascinating and scholarly study, they have never been identified. Clearly the content of the illustrations is informed by someone with a knowledge of or was well informed of the events portrayed. However, it is suggested that the style and composition of the drawings indicates the possibility of an artist trained in Flanders.
We have chosen one Folio (4b.) to illustrate each of the three facsimiles to make for a comparison. This shows the Earl being invested with the Order of the Garter. It well illustrates many of the facets of the illustrations in this manuscript.
The three facsimile editions commence with the lavish publication of 1908 by The Roxburgh Club. The Club was founded in 1812 and is the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world. It has a membership limited to just forty, chosen from among those with distinguished libraries or collections, or with a scholarly interest in books. The 1908 “Pageant” publication was undertaken by the then member, William, Proby, Earl of Carysfort (1836-1909) who provided an Introduction. The volume was printed by Horace Hart of Oxford University Press, establishing a link, for the first time, between the university presses and the Club. Hart was congratulated and presented with a volume by Carysfort. Hart inserted a letter from Carysfort, expressing his satisfaction at the printing, into his volume.
Each of the forty members was presented with a copy and a small number of extra copies were printed. As might be imagined this is an impressive and elusive publication, the fifty-three plates being printed in a tint matching the manuscript and each protected by tissue guards. Textually it contains the Introduction by Carysfoot and a history of Richard Beauchamp taken from ” The Baronage of England” by William Dugdale, the seventeenth century antiquary. It is bound in the standard Roxburghe binding maroon half leather with maroon cloth covered boards.
The manuscript was again printed in a more mundane but quite adequate, “trade” edition, published by Longmans, Green & Co in 1914. This time it has Introductions by two leading scholars of their day, Viscount Harold Arthur Dillon (1844-1932) and William Henry St John Hope (1854-1919). Dillon was a leading authority on armour, serving as curator of the Armouries at the Tower of London. St John Hope was a leading antiquary and published extensively. Amongst his major work was his Architectural History of Windsor Castle, which he began in 1893, and completed twenty years later in 1913, an undertaking for which he was knighted. So, for its time these scholars well served the “Pageant”.
The publication reproduces the manuscript in monochrome, photo-engraved by that eminent typographical expert, printer and antiquary Emery Walker (1851-1933), making for a clear image on the page, perhaps the clearest if not most refined of all of the facsimiles. The binding is of a grey printed paper covered boards with a grey cloth spine.
Certainly, this edition produced in 1914 at a moderate price increased the accessibility to students over the always elusive and expensive Roxburghe edition.
We had to wait some eighty-nine years for the next facsimile edition. This time published in 2003 by Shaun Tyas/ The Richard III Society and Yorkist Trust with a fine scholarly Introduction and “Life” of Richard Beauchamp together with an informative commentary on the illustrations by Alexandra Sinclair. This edition is the first full colour reproduction of the manuscript using modern printing technology, making for a better comparison to the original, whilst at the loss of some clarity but greater fidelity compared to the earlier editions. It is printed on a gloss clay stock paper which however reproduces the illustrations well. It is bound in green boards, a hardback binding with an attractive printed dust-wrapper. It may lack some of the tactile appeal of the earlier editions, but this is more than made up for in the scholarly advance and the still ready availability to modern readers.
Any one of these volumes is well worthy of study and handling, each has its own particular merit, certainly (if unable to visit the British Library to experience the original), more pleasurable than viewing images on a screen.
You can order a new copy of the Shaun Tyas edition here Beauchamp from Rickaro Books BA PBFA – AbeBooks
It is clear that Richard Beauchamp is a fortunate man to be still remembered seven centuries on by two superlative memorials. The first was the completion in 1450 of his chantry chapel in St Mary’s, Warwick, which contains the truly splendid tomb with its gilt cast metal effigy. Here the Earl is shown in possibly a Milanese armour, accurate to every last strap, buckle and hinge which is of a style certainly later than his time of death. The effigy is in full relief, as complete to the back as to the front. The images below being drawn and etched by Charles Alfred Stothard (1786-1821) in 1813. In his letters Stothard tells the account of turning the effigy over to be able to draw the rear detail. The effigy lies upon a tomb chest covered with its original gilt hearse, surrounded by his family in the form of cast metal “weepers”.
The second being this manuscript of his “birth, life and death” still admired and studied even if it may have been originally produced as a piece of political propaganda for the Beauchamp family in troubled times. Two truly memorable and sumptuous memorials of a life well lived.
