Category: Heritage

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St. Patrick’s Day, St Albans, Nicholas Fuentes, & Cats March 17th

Stained Glass window depicting St Patrick with a crock and a castle
Stained Glass window depicting St Patrick (source of image, lost in the mists of time!)

St Patrick

St. Patrick has a very interesting autobiography (Confession), because it is one of the only personal reminisces of life in post-Roman Britain. He wrote in the form of a letter. In it, he explains that he was captured by Irish pirates while living in a Romano-British Town.  His father we discover was a Decurion and a Deacon which suggests elements of Roman political organisation continued.  No one knows the dates of St Patrick’s life, but he lived in the 5th Century. The use of Roman titles suggests, to some, an earlier rather than a later date.   Perhaps in the early 400s. Unless, of course, you want to propose that Roman life continued later into the 5th Century than the first few decades. (which, increasingly, people are proposing.)

The town he lived in was called Bannavem Taburniae.  Many places have been proposed for it.  The closest linguistically is Bannaventa in Northamptonshire, but this seems a very unlikely place for Irish raiders to land, being about as far away from the sea as it is possible to get in Britain!

Nicholas Fuentes

Scholars have suggested South Wales and the Scottish borders most commonly.  But my favourite suggestion, but about as unlikely as Northampton, is Battersea in London.  This suggestion was made in the pages of the London Archaeologist by then editor Nicolas Fuentes. 

Fuentes was one of a pioneering group of archaeologists when Rescue Archaeology first began a campaign to record the archaeology being destroyed by massive redevelopment of town centres in the 1970s.

He changed his name from the anglicised Nicholas Farrant back to its original Fuentes. He then wrote a magnificent series of papers, in London Archaeologist, which located St. Patrick in Battersea; St Alban’s execution in London and all 12 battles of King Arthur around Greater London.

St Albans Martyrdom in London

All were well argued, but as a set they do raise an eyebrow, being unsupported by any clear evidence. And, as far as I know, without much scholarly support.  The one I really like is locating St Alban’s Martyrdom in London rather than in St Albans. It reminds everyone that the first reference to St Alban, which is by Gildas in the 6th Century, places the execution of the Saint firmly in London. It also makes sense of the story that Alban, keen for martyrdom, gets God to part the River so he can go quickly to the execution spot. The bridge it was said was full of people going to see the execution.

In Gildas’s case, the execution is in London, probably at the Amphitheatre, up a hill from the the mighty Thames. So God parted the Thames for Alban. Anglo-Saxon historian, the Venerable Bede places St Alban’s death firmly in St Albans, but the river that God needs to part there- the River Ver, is a piddle. Alban could have crossed it easily, hardly requiring even Wellington boots! Not much of a miracle compared with parting the Thames. The likely site of execution in both cases would have been the Amphitheatre, rather than the side of the hill where the St Albans execution site is located. But Gildas did mention the hill, which makes sense in the case of London and not in St Albans, as it is outside of the Roman City. away from the amphitheatre.

To my, unscholarly mind, when we worship people we tend to venerate them, at their birthplace and death place. So to me, it makes sense that St Alban’s main shrine was at Verulamium where he was born (now known as St Albans) and London where he died.

St Germanus

There is some supporting evidence from the hagiography of St Germanus of Auxerre. This tells us that Germanus came to an amphitheatre for a religious debate about 15 years after the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. After the debate, he went to a nearby shrine dedicated to St Alban. Unfortunately, the writer of the memoir is not really interested in post-Roman Britain, so does not tell us whether it was in London or St Albans. But there is an early church dedicated to St Alban just by the Roman Amphitheatre in London. For more on St Germanus follow this link to my post.

However, archaeology does not reveal any evidence early enough to support the idea that the Church is that early. Fuentes, argued that London as the Capital was likely to have been the place where capital punishments were carried out, particularly in the case of a Roman Citizen like Alban. I must note that in placing any credibility to Fuentes theory, I am standing largely alone.

stained glass window from Gloucester Cathedral of St Patrick being taught by St Germanus
Stained glass window of St Patrick and St Germanus

The Twelve London Battles of King Arthur

I’m not so convinced by the 12 Battles of King Arthur were fought in the London Area. They are more likely to have been spread throughout Britannia. But the place name evidence is never going to be identify most of the locations.

St Patrick From Battersea?

So, to the point – St Patrick in Battersea?  The evidence, as I remember it, is really only place name evidence. the suggestion that Battersea was derived from: Badrices īeg, ‘Badric’s Island’ and later Old English: Patrisey (Wikipedia), So, Patrick’s Island.  The word ‘sea’ is used in that sense along the River Thames. For example in Chelsea, Thorney, Putney derived from ey which is short for eyot (island). Also spelt ait.’

St Patrick lived as a teenage slave for 6 years, then escaped from captivity in Ireland and returned home. Trained as a priest, in perhaps Auxerre (home to St. Germanus who is another crucial witness to post Roman Britain. (See my post here.) and returned to Ireland to begin the conversion to Christianity. He is the Patron Saint of Ireland, with St. Brigitte and St. Colomba.

St Patrick from Banwell?

Another candidate for Bannavem Taburniae’ comes from Andrew Breeze FSA. I read about this in Salon IFA, the newsletter of the Society of Antiquaries. Also you can read more about it in this History First article. Breeze has revived a theory that the Saint comes from the West Country, and that the ‘Bannavem Taburniae’ is Banwell, near Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset. He suggests that ‘Bannaventa was a Latinisation of a Brittonic name that included banna, for a bend’, crook or peak. Venta is a well known word for an area of local administration or marketplace. For example, Venta Bulgarum, was the name for Winchester in the Roman period.) . He suggests that these ‘elements, as well as the Berniae element of ‘Taburniae’, can be found in the name Banwell, itself a compound name of the Brittonic ‘Banna’ and the Old English wylle, both meaning pool, or in the names of surrounding villages.’ I’m sure Fuentes did something similar for Battersea.

mage credit: Looking south from Winthill, near Banwell, Somerset, Colin S Pearson; Banwell in Somerset, Google Street View
Image credit: Looking south from Winthill, near Banwell, Somerset, Colin S Pearson; Banwell in Somerset, Google Street View

What Banwell has over the London theory is that it is more likely to have been subject to Irish Raiders than London. But, for me, it is just another theory based on placename evidence that might or might not be true. I have read any number of Archaeology books where arguments about placenames are deployed to add some solidity to some theory about King Arthur, or a tale from Geoffrey of Monmouth. I therefore distrust them all. They essentially create circular arguments.

St Gertrude’s Day

And least we forget, today is also St Gertrude’s Day, patron saint of Cats.

comical post from facebook of St Gertrude Patron saint of cats
Facebook post, posted by a friend, and about St Gertude patron saint of cats.

On This Day

45 BC – Julius Caesar consolidated his power by defeating his main rival Pompey the Younger, and allies, at the the Battle of Munda. He went on to establish his Dictatorship, which led to his assassination on March 15th (see my post on the Ides of March)

1845 – The Rubber Band patented by Stephen Perry of St Johns Wood, London, for Messers Perry and Co,. Rubber Manufacturers of London.

Specification of the Patent granted to Stephen Perry, of Woodland’s-place, St. John’s-wood, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, and Thomas Barnabas Daft, of Birmingham, Manufacturer, for Improvements in Springs to be applied to Girths, Belts, and Bandages, and Improvements in the Manufacture of Elastic Bands. —Sealed March 17, 1845.

1861 – The Kingdom of Italy proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel as King. The unification of Italy was the culmination of the Risorgimento, led by Garibaldi, Cavour, Mazzini and Victor Emmanuel. It survived until 18 June 1946 when Italy became a Republic.

1951 – First Appearance of Dennis the Menace in the boy’s Comic the Beano. Published in Dundee, by DC Thomson. I read the Beano as a boy, along with the Robin, the Eagle, Topper, the Dandy, The Hotspur, and Whizzer and Chips. What made Dennis great was that he was a bad boy and didn’t get any better. Always at war with the ‘Softies’ – basically well-educated boys. And made us laugh with his antics. For more comic nostalgia read: nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/books-comics/british-comics-of-the-50s-60s-and-70s/

Dennis the Menace By DC Thomson – The Beano 3671, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38472209

1973 – The Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken and symbolised the end of the US involvement in the Vietnam War

‘Burst of Joy’ By Slava “Sal” Veder”, Associated Press – https://www.columbiatribune.com/picture-gallery/news/2020/03/17/today-in-history-march-17/67299331007/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153972466

First Published in 2024, republished in 2025, On This Day augmented 2026

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Lawrence Oates: ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’  March 16th 1912

photograph taken by Kevin Flude of the display of Antarctic Explorer's Kit 1912 (reconstruction) at Gilbert White's House in Hampshire
Display of Antarctic Explorer’s Kit 1912 (reconstruction) at Gilbert White’s House in Hampshire {Photo K Flude). To illustrate Lawrence Oates self-sacrifice

This post is about Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates and his self-sacrifice, on going out to his death to give the other members of the Antarctic Expedition a chance of survival. ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’ he famously said . But first, for subscribers to the email, the new section ‘On This Day.’

On This Day

1190 – The Jewish Massacre at York. From 1189, anti-Jewish riots broke out as preparations for the Third Crusade were made. The rioters attempted to steal Jewish wealth, burn down their house, and forced conversion to Christianity. The unrest spread from Old Jewry in London to Ospringe., King’s Lynn, Colchester,, Stamford, Bury St Edmunds., and Thetford,. The Jews of Lincoln took refuge in the Castle and survived.

Reconstruction of York Castle, with Clifford’s Tower, originally made of wood, shown on the top of the Hill (photgraphed by KFlude from plaques on the displays nearby)

On March 16th, the Jews of York were attacked in their houses, and sought sanctuary in the Timber Keep of York Castle, known as Clifford’s Tower. Fearful of the willingness of the Sheriff of the County to ensure their survival, the community decided on mass suicide. Fathers, killed their children and wives, then killed themselves. The two leaders, then burnt down Clifford’s Tower and died.

1660 – The Long Parliament finally dissolved. It was elected in 1642 called by Charles I, before the English Civil War, and survived to be revived to usher in the restored monarchy under Charles II.

1872 – the first Football Association Cup Final took place on the Cricket Ground, the Kennington Oval. The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1:0. The Wanderers were founded by Public School Old boys from Harrow. It began in Leytonstone, in East London 1859, originally known as the “Forest Football Club”. But then wandered around a number of grounds until they made the Oval their semi-permanent home. The Club’s last game was against Clapton Pilgrims in March 1872.

The only known Photo of the Wanderers from 1863. Public Domain, Wikipedia

The Royal Engineers were soldiers from Chatham, Kent and according to Wikipedia were: ‘the first club to play a passing game of cooperation and organisation with both their forwards and their defence’. Also the first club to have the word ‘beautiful’ applied to their game.

1956 – Fake Finnish Saint St Urho invented as a rival to St Patrick’s Day. Just as Patrick banished snakes from Ireland, Urho (which means ‘hero’) banished frogs (or grasshoppers) saving the grape crop. He was invented in the States but is celebrated by a bar in Helsinki.

1968 – the My Lai massacre, Sơn Mỹ village, Quảng Ngãi province, perpetrated by US Troops, slaughtering over 300 unarmed villages. 26 soldiers faced charges but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr. was convicted. He only served three and a half years of a life sentence (and that was served under house arrest).

Main Source Chambers Book of Days & Wikipedia

The Oates Museum in Gilbert White’s House

Last year, I went to Gilbert White’s House in Selborne. The naturalist’s House also houses the Oates Museum for Lawrence ‘Titus Oates’ and his uncle Frank. Oates was one of the ‘heroes’ I read about as a child. He epitomised what was sold as the British virtues of pluck, self-sacrifice, restraint.

Here is part of the story of Oates self-sacrifice over the days from February 29th to March 16th. 1912 as told in the diary of the commander of the expedition, Captain Scott:

Wednesday, February 29th 1912

Lunch. Cold night. Minimum Temp. -37.5°; -30° with north-west wind, force 4, when we got up. Frightfully cold starting; luckily Bowers and Oates in their last new finnesko; keeping my old ones for present. Expected awful march and for first hour got it. Then things improved and we camped after 5 1/2 hours marching close to lunch camp—22 1/2. Next camp is our depot and it is exactly 13 miles. It ought not to take more than 1 1/2 days; we pray for another fine one. The oil will just about spin out in that event, and we arrive 3 clear days’ food in hand. The increase of ration has had an enormously beneficial result. Mountains now looking small. Wind still very light from west—cannot understand this wind.

From Scott’s Polar Institute Web Site

A finnesko is ‘a boot of tanned reindeer skin with the hair on the outside’.

Monday, March 5th 1912

Lunch. Regret to say going from bad to worse. We got a slant of wind yesterday afternoon, and going on 5 hours we converted our wretched morning run of 3 1/2 miles into something over 9. We went to bed on a cup of cocoa and pemmican solid with the chill off. (R. 47.) The result is telling on all, but mainly on Oates, whose feet are in a wretched condition. One swelled up tremendously last night and he is very lame this morning. We started march on tea and pemmican as last night—we pretend to prefer the pemmican this way. Marched for 5 hours this morning over a slightly better surface covered with high moundy sastrugi.

Sledge capsized twice; we pulled on foot, covering about 5 1/2 miles. We are two pony marches and 4 miles about from our depot. Our fuel dreadfully low and the poor Soldier nearly done. It is pathetic enough because we can do nothing for him; more hot food might do a little, but only a little, I fear. We none of us expected these terribly low temperatures, and of the rest of us Wilson is feeling them most; mainly, I fear, from his self-sacrificing devotion in doctoring Oates’ feet. We cannot help each other, each has enough to do to take care of himself. We get cold on the march when the trudging is heavy, and the wind pierces our warm garments.

The others, all of them, are unendingly cheerful when in the tent. We mean to see the game through with a proper spirit, but it’s tough work to be pulling harder than we ever pulled in our lives for long hours, and to feel that the progress is so slow. One can only say ‘God help us!’ and plod on our weary way, cold and very miserable, though outwardly cheerful. We talk of all sorts of subjects in the tent, not much of food now, since we decided to take the risk of running a full ration. We simply couldn’t go hungry at this time.

From Scott’s Polar Institute Web Site

Pemmican is made of tallow, dried meat and dried berries. It is a calorie rich food stuff created by native American groups and used by expedition like Scotts. The name says Wikipedia ‘comes from the Cree word ᐱᒦᐦᑳᓐ (pimîhkân), which and adopted is derived from the word ᐱᒥᕀ (pimî), ‘fat, grease”. Sastrugi is a Russian word which are ripples or craters in the surface of the snow caused by strong winds. They make progressing through the terrain much more difficult.

Scott begins his March 16th entry unsure what the actual date is.

Friday March 16th

Lost track of dates, but think the last correct. Tragedy all along the line. At lunch, the day before yesterday, poor Titus Oates said he couldn’t go on; he proposed we should leave him in his sleeping-bag. That we could not do, and induced him to come on, on the afternoon march. In spite of its awful nature for him he struggled on and we made a few miles. At night he was worse and we knew the end had come.

Should this be found I want these facts recorded. Oates’ last thoughts were of his Mother, but immediately before he took pride in thinking that his regiment would be pleased with the bold way in which he met his death. We can testify to his bravery. He has borne intense suffering for weeks without complaint, and to the very last was able and willing to discuss outside subjects. He did not – would not – give up hope to the very end. He was a brave soul. This was the end. He slept through the night before last, hoping not to wake; but he woke in the morning – yesterday. It was blowing a blizzard. He said, ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’ He went out into the blizzard and we have not seen him since.

I take this opportunity of saying that we have stuck to our sick companions to the last. In case of Edgar Evans, when absolutely out of food and he lay insensible, the safety of the remainder seemed to demand his abandonment, but Providence mercifully removed him at this critical moment. He died a natural death, and we did not leave him till two hours after his death. We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman. We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit, and assuredly the end is not far.

I can only write at lunch and then only occasionally. The cold is intense, -40º at midday. My companions are unendingly cheerful, but we are all on the verge of serious frostbites, and though we constantly talk of fetching through I don’t think anyone of us believes it in his heart.

We are cold on the march now, and at all times except meals. Yesterday we had to lay up for a blizzard and to-day we move dreadfully slowly. We are at No. 14 pony camp, only two pony marches from One Ton Depot. We leave here our theodolite, a camera, and Oates’ sleeping-bags. Diaries, &c., and geological specimens carried at Wilson’s special request, will be found with us or on our sledge.

photo of the display at Gilbert White's House Selborne
From the display at Gilbert White’s House, in Selborne Hampshire, (Photo K Flude)

How much Oates story is tarnished by discoveries, published in 2002, that he fathered a child to a 12-year-old girl, I will leave to you to read here.

For more about Gilbert White’s House look at my post here. To read about the original Titus Oates read my post titus-oakes-flogged-from-aldgate-to-newgate-may-20th-1685/

First published in 2024, revised 2025, On This Day added 2026

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Mothering Sunday & Simnel Cake

Virgin and Child (Image on a card of unknown origin) to illustrate Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day

In 2026 Mothering Sunday is on March 15th. In 2027 it will be on March 7th. Strangely, originally not about Mothers! Mothering Sunday is the 4th Sunday in Lent. It is, in fact the day in which we are enjoined to visit our Mother Churches. It, therefore, became a day when people made processions to their Churches.  Servants and workers could go to their home parishes. But not only go to the Mother Church but also to say hello to their mothers. So, it became increasingly about Mothers. It was called Mothering Sunday when I was little and has morphed into the Americanism that is Mother’s Day.

In Church the Reading is often Isaiah 66:10–11

‘Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations.‘

Jerusalem is personified, here, as the Mother. Further associations with motherhood came from the Gospel for the day which is John 6:1–14, the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which led to associations with the bounty of Mother Earth.

In the medieval period visits to the Mother Church seem to have become fiercely competitive. The Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste decreed:

‘In each and every church you should strictly prohibit one parish from fighting with another over whose banners should come first in processions at the time of the annual visitation and veneration of the mother church. […] Those who dishonour their spiritual mother should not at all escape punishment, when those who dishonour their fleshly mothers are, in accordance with God’s law, cursed and punished with death.‘

(Letter 22.7 – Wikipedia)

Simnel Cake

It was also the Sunday in the fasting period of Lent in which the restrictions were relaxed. So a special cake called Simnel Cake was made for the purpose.

I’ll to thee a Simnel bring
‘Gainst thou goest a-Mothering
So that, when she blesseth thee
Half that blessing thou’lt give me.

Herrick Hesperides 1647

Photo: James Petts from London, England – Simnel cake (wikipedia
Easter 2012

The Simnel cake is a fine flour light fruit cake (Latin simila, fine flour), with layers of marzipan in it. It often has 11 balls of marzipan on the top, representing the 11 (not Judas) apostles. The cake is first boiled for two hours and then baked. Now, I know 95% of my American readers hate fruit cake. But believe me when I tell you – change your ways – iI’s delicious. Try this BBC’s recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easter-simnel-cake

And I’m beginning to see that cake is an emerging theme of this Almanac of the Past.

See my post on Chelsea Buns here; Lardy Cake and Doughnuts here.

Written in March 23, slightly revised in March 24, and 25, Revised 26

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St Gregory.  Punster Extraordinary March 12th

St Gregory and the Angles

Gregorius I is known as Saint Gregory the Great. Pope from 3 September 590 to his death on 12th March 604. So 12th March is traditionally his feast day. It was changed to September 3rd, the date of his elevation to Pope because 12th March was often in Lent.

His is the 2nd most popular name for Popes. This is the top 18. I guess St Peter was too hard an act to follow, but then there are only 6 Pauls? I can’t help feeling there should be six Sixtus’s?

  • John (23),
  • Gregory (16),
  • Benedict (16),
  • Clement (14),
  • Leo (13),
  • Innocent (12),
  • Pius (12),
  • Stephen (9),
  • Urban (8),
  • Alexander (7),
  • Adrian (6),
  • Paul (6),
  • Sixtus (5),
  • Martin (5),
  • Nicholas (5),
  • Celestine (5),
  • Anastasius (4),
  • Honorius (4).
  • Source: https://conclaveblog.wordpress.com

St Gregory the Great

St Gregory is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers. It is traditionally believed he instituted the form of plainsong known as Gregorian Chant. However, he was also a formidable organiser and reformer. He made changes that helped the Catholic tradition survive Arian and Donatist challenges. To read more about the Arian Heresy look at my post on St. Hilary and the Arians. (St Gregory and the Angles – why do these all sound like 80’s post punk bands?)

In the UK, St Gregory is venerated with St Augustine for bringing Christianity to the largely pagan Anglo-Saxons. The caption to the illustration above tells the story of how he came to send a mission to the pagan Angles in Briton. It includes his two most famous puns, riffing on the similarity of the words Angles/Angels and Aella/Alleluia. But in between these two he also punned on the name of Aella’s kingdom. This was called Deira which later joined with Bernicia to become the Kingdom of Northumbria. St Gregory said he would save them from the wroth of God which is ‘de ira’ in Latin. The ire of God. Deira. No? Not hitting your funny bone?

St Augustine’s Mission

In 597AD St Gregory sent St Augustine to Canterbury. His mission to convert the Germanic peoples of the former Roman Province of Britannia. Canterbury was chosen because its King was the ‘Bretwalda’ of Britain. And he, was married to Bertha, a French Princess who was already a Christian. The enigmatic title of Bretwalda was given to Britain’s most powerful King. At the time, it was Ethelbert of Kent. So, it was a relatively safe haven for St Augustine’s mission. The King was baptised, shortly, after in Canterbury.

Stained glass window showing Baptism of King Ethelbert of Kent by St Augustine watched by Queen Bertha. In St Martins Church, Canterbury
Stained glass window showing the Baptism of King Ethelbert of Kent by St Augustine watched by Queen Bertha. In St Martins Church, Canterbury

Archbishop of London?

The mission came with a plan to recreate the ecclesiastical arrangements set up in the Roman period. From the early 4th Century there were archbishops in the two main capitals at London and York. (We know because they attended the Synod of Arles in 314). After Kent was converted, St Augustine sent St Mellitus to London. London was part of the Kingdom of Essex, ruled by St Ethelbert’s nephew, Sæberht. Mellitus was the first Anglo-Saxon bishop of London and he established St Pauls Cathedral in 604. St Paulinus was sent to convert Northumbria and established a Cathedral in York.

Unfortunately, for the plan, Sæberht died. His sons returned to paganism and Mellitus was kicked out. He returned to Canterbury, where he, eventually, became Archbishop. Ever since we have had an Archbishop of Canterbury and York and never had an Archbishop of London.

Photo of St Martin's Church - where the Church of England began. showing Roman tiles in the wall.
St Martin’s Church, Canterbury – where the Church of England began. Note the Roman tiles in the wall.

St Gregory and England

It is possible to argue (and I do) that St Gregory’s encounter with the Angles is why we are called English, not Saxons, nor Wessexians. Gregory sent Augustine to set up the Church of the Angles, not the Church of the Saxons. Saxon was the normal name used by the Romans for Germanic barbarians. The old Roman province of Brittania was by now divided into 3 Saxon Kingdoms. Essex, Wessex, and Sussex. (East, West, and South Saxons). 3 Anglian Kingdom, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria. (Middle, East and North Angles). And Kent, which the Venerable Bede says was a Jutish King of Germans from Jutland. These Kingdoms were often at war., sometimes allied, or subjected.

The Vikings then conquered most of these Kingdoms, except parts of Wessex and Mercia. After the attacks of the Vikings were beaten back, Alfred and his son, daughter and grandson reconquered or ‘liberated’ the ex-Viking areas. Alfred renamed the united kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, the Kingdom of the Anglo-saxons. Athelstan his son liberated Northumbria and other areas, and in joining it to the Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons renamed it Angeland or England.

The Church of England had made the term Anglish/English became a unifying term to unite Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Otherwise, the ‘liberated’ Angles and Jutes would have to swallow being part of Greater Wessex, rubbing in their loss of independence. Of course, it was all a bit more complicated, but it gives a summary of the formation of England, which was created by the end of the 10th Century.

St Gregory in Amsterdam

On a visit to Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum I came across this painting which features Pope Gregory the Great. He is in the left hand part of the Triptych, shown in green kneeling at the altar. It shows Utrecht in the background.

Triptych of the Crucifixion.  Showing the vision of the Crucifixion that St Gregory had while celebrating Mass (left). Crucifixion centre.  St Christopher (right)

What is fascinating is all the paraphernalia of the Crucifixion above Gregory’s head.  You’ll see 30 pieces of silver, dice to decide who gets Jesus’  robes, flails and torture devices, sponge and spear etc. Close up below.

Detail Triptych of the Crucifixion. 

For King Ethelbert’s Feast Day see my post: st-wapburga-and-st-ethelbert-of-kents-day

On This Day

Lazy Day in Anglo-Saxon Times. In the Laws of King Alfred the Great, this day was a day off for freemen.  For more on Days off in the Anglo Saxon Calender see my post on August 15th.

1689 – Catholic King James II landed at Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, in an attempt to regain the Kingdom from his daughter and son-in-law, William and Mary. James had fled to the continent following riots against his rule. William defeated James II at the Battle of the Boyne. James II returned to France never to return. Mary ruled jointly with her husband until she died of Smallpox, and he ruled alone until he fell off his horse.

1930 – Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile march to protest the British monopoly on salt in India. One of the defining moments in non-violent civil disobedience. Offering the world a possible alternative to violent revolution, or military regime change.

1999 – Former Warsaw Pact countries, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined in March 2004; Croatia and Albania joined on 1 April 2009. Montenegro 2017. North Macedonia. 2020: (Ukraine) can forget about (NATO membership). That’s probably the reason the whole thing (war) started,” said U.S. President Donald Trump on February 26, 2026

First published in 2024, republished in 2025. On This Day added 2026

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Newark & the Penny Loaf Day March 11th

River Trent from Trent Bridge, Newark on Trent by Peter Tarleton WIKIPEDIA -CC BY-SA 2.0
Newark on Trent by Peter Tarleton Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0 Newark & the Penny Loaf Day

This post is about Newark & the Penny Loaf, but as it is still Women’s Week, I’d like to share with you a discovery I have just made:

Dorothy Thurtle

Dorothy Thurtle. By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/b5/be/a6cfe553603c25fd36627e6c24d4.jpgGallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0026656.html, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36012910

By chance, a few days after International Women’s Day, I was reading the Hackney Society’s Newsletter and read about some canon bollards in Shoreditch Park, in the Dorothy Thurtle Memorial Garden. Well, my nearest Bus Stop is Thurtle Street, which always seemed a strange turtle-like name. So, I looked her up!

Turns out she was a pioneer of the Labour Party. Also, daughter of the great George Lansbury. And a redoubtable pioneer of contraception, and abortion rights. Her opinion was that the Labour Party’s commitment to equality between the sexes made no sense unless it supported contraception and legal abortion. She and her husband, Ernest, founded the Workers’ Birth Control Group. Dorothy was general secretary of Shoreditch Trades Council and Labour Party, became a councillor and eventually Mayor of Shoreditch. She was the only supporter of Abortion Law reform on the Birkett Committee, and issued an influential dissenting report. In her report, she ‘argued that because many married women would face pregnancy every one or two years until their menopause, withholding access to fertility advice and birth control was “a form of class discrimination and penalisation”‘ (Wikipedia). World War 2 delayed any reform.

Right on my doorstep! For more read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Thurtle

George Lansbury

George Lansbury making a speech. By LSE Library – Flickr: George Lansbury, c1935, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31131566

Dorothy’s father was originally a Radical Liberal Party member. He then joined the Labour Party and became an MP for Bow and Bromley in 1910. During the struggle for Women’s Suffrage he was imprisoned. He was also imprisoned in the Poplar Rates Revolt of 1921. (He was the first labour Mayor of Poplar). After Ramsay MacDonald joined the National Government, Lansbury replaced MacDonald. He lead the few remaining ‘loyal’ Labour Party members who would not join a Conservative dominated Government. He was elected leader from 1932 to 1935, with Clement Atlee as his deputy. Lansbury was a life long Pacifist and so stood down in 1935, as he was out of step with the need for rearming with the rise of Fascism. Atlee became leader.

Canon Bollards

Smithfield., Canon Bollards Photo K Flude)
Canon Bollards in Cloth Fair (photo K Flude)

Canon Bollards are made of repurposed canons from the British Navy. They are sometimes hard to distinguish from those made from repurposed canon moulds, or bollards that are designed to look like canons.

Newark in the Civil War

I will move the Dorothy Thurtle content to International Women’s Day, by next year. Which leaves us with an abrupt change of subject! On the 11th March 1644, the Parliamentary forces were besieging the Royalist-held Newark-on-Trent. Newark was a strategic centre as it was on the River Trent and on a major road junction.  Here, the Great North Road (A1 from London to the North) and the Fosse Way (from Exeter, via the Cotswolds to Leicester) meet. It was vital for the King, as the roads linked Chester and York to Oxford.  Oxford was the King’s HQ; Chester was the key to Wales and the North West. York controlled access to the North East.

Newark withheld three sieges and only ‘fell’ when King Charles I surrendered. The Castle and other military defences were slighted.

Newark & the Penny Loaf & Hercules Clay,

During the second siege, in 1644, Hercules Clay dreamt that his house was on fire. He ignored the dream at first. Then it repeated, so he took his family out of the house (next door to the Town Hall).

Shortly after, a ‘bombshell’ hit his house, fired by the Parliamentary side.  Because of his miraculous delivery, he left £100 in his will for a distribution of ‘penny loaves’ to the poor of Newark. His Will said:

‘Upon the 11th day of March yearly forever upon which day it pleased God of his infinite mercy wonderfully to preserve me and my wife from a fearful destruction by a terrible blow of a granado in the time of the last siege’

And also he left £100 for a commemorative sermon to be read on the anniversary of the incident. The service is normally held on the closest Sunday to the 11th March. The Church is being refurbished, so instead they had an event in the Town Hall and a procession.

Clay was a Mercer and a Royalist. After his death he was fined for lending £600 for the maintenance of the Royalist Garrison. It was paid by his brother.

At the time Churches had poor or bread boxes into which the women of the Parish would place loaves for the poor.

Auction Web site showing 17th Century Poor Box used for holding loaves for the poor

For more information on Hercules Clay see https://www.clayofderbyshire.co.uk/mayors. And thanks to the Clays for the research.

Penny loaf day see https://calendarcustoms.com/articles/newark-penny-loaf-day/

Newark Penny Loaf Day and Hercules Clay Bombshell Sermon

For my post on the execution of Charles 1 look here https://www.chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet/january-28th-31st-charles-i-martyrdom-get-back/

On This Day

1702 – Elizabeth Mallet published the first English daily newspaper the Daily Courant, on Fleet Bridge, next to the King’s Arms. She, previously, dominated the publishing of ‘last dying speeches’ of people executed at Tyburn.

The Daily Courant By Edward Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street – The Daily Courant, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=880402. Elizabeth Mallet published under a male name.

1941 – Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill – this was a life-line to the UK as it enabled the supply of war materials to flow to Britain who stood alone, in Europe, against fascism. see my post for Roosevelt’s 4 freedoms.

1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev, appointed General Secretary of the USSR

First written in 2024, revised 2025, Thurtle and Lansbury and On This Day added in 2026

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Nettle. Tea, Beer, Pudding & Flagellation March 10th

Nettle – photo by Paul Morley Unsplash

Nettle Tea

The store cupboards are getting denuded of the fruits, nuts, preserves, pickles, salted and dried foods saved from the summer and autumnal abundance. Of course, this is alleviated by the reduced consumption of the Lenten fast.  (I’m continuing my lenten practice of giving up, giving up things for Lent). But nettles are budding. I take a regular cup of nettle tea. Normally, provided by the excellent Cowan’s tea emporium in the Covered Market in Oxford. But I’m running out and not due to visit Oxford for a month or so. So Charles Kightley in his Perpetual Almanac tells me that young stinging nettles are appearing and this is the time to collect own young, juicy nettles.

Here is a video about collecting them.

YouTube Video on making Nettle Tea

Nettle Beer

Or better still, change up the tea for a nettle beer:

Take a gallon measure of freshly gathered young nettles washed well dried and well packed down. Boil them in a gallon of water for at least a quarter of an hour. Then strain them, press them and put the juice in an earthenware pot with a pound of brown sugar and the juice and grated skin of a lemon. Stir well, and before it grows cool put in an ounce of yeast dissolved in some of the liquid. Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for four or five days and strain again and bottle it, stopping the bottles well.  It’ll be ready after a week, but better if left longer.

Nettle Beer was brewed for old people against ‘gouty and rheumatic pains’.

Nettle: Detecting Virgins

A more sinister use is provided by William Coles who gives a method of detecting virginity.

‘Nettle tops are usually boiled in pottage in the Springtime, to consume the Phlegmatic superfluities in the body of man, that the coldness and moistness of the winter have left behind. And it is said that if the juice of the roots of nettles be mixed with ale and beer, and given to one that suspected to have lost her maidenhood, if it remain with her, she is a maid, But if she’s spews forth, she is not.‘

William Cole’s Adam in Eden 1657.

Flagellation with Nettles?

William Camden reported that Roman soldiers used nettles to heat up their legs in the cold of a British winter. (from Mrs Greaves’ ‘A Modern Herbal). Perhaps, I should have sent that idea to PM Keir Starmer? He might have suggested the method to Senior Citizens to alleviate the loss of their Winter Fuel Allowance? (which he has now restored). Flogging with nettles was a cure for rheumatism and the loss of muscle power in the early modern period. Nettles were also added to horse feed to make their coats shine. It was used as a hair tonic for humans. 

Nettle Fabrics

The 18th century poet Thomas Campbell is quoted on the virtues of nettles:

“I have slept in nettle sheets, and I have dined off a nettle tablecloth. The young and tender nettle is an excellent potherb. The stalks of the old nettle are as good as flax for making cloth. I have heard my mother say that she thought nettle cloth more durable than any other linen.”

In 2012, a Danish Bronze Age Burial was found to be dressed in a shroud made of Nettle. Strangely, the nettle was not local, perhaps being made in Austria where other objects in the rich burial came from. However, the person was thought to be Scandinavian. For more have a look at this article on www.nbcnews.com.

In the Irong Age, also in Denmark, Huldremose Woman was found buried in a bog. She had a severed arm and was buried in elaborate sheep and goat skin clothes, but underneath:

‘she wore a white inner garment made from plant fibres that reached from the shoulders to below the knees. The type of plant fiber is unclear but other evidence from the time period suggests that it could have been made of nettle.’

To find out more: the-woman-from-huldremose/the-huldremose-woman-clothes/

World War 1 use of Nettle cloth

Greaves tells us that the German and Austrians had a shortage of cotton during the blockade of World War 1. They turned to nettles to replace cotton production believing it to be the only effective substitute.  It was also substituted for sugar, starch, protein, paper and ethyl alcohol. 

YouTube Video on making fabric from nettles

Nettle Pudding

Pepys ate Nettle Pudding in February 1661 and pronounced it ‘very good’.  Here is more on Nettles in history AND a recipe for Nettle Pudding! I can see I’m going to have to get out there and carefully pick myself some nettles! ( For Folklore of Nettles look here).

Nettles Photo by Les Argonautes on Unsplash

Remember, none of the above is necessarily good advice as far as medicine is concerned. For smoking herbs see my post coltsfoot-smoking-cholera

March Weather

In the early modern almanacs there is much weather and horticultural advice to be had (Weather Lore. Richard Inwards).

‘March damp and warm
Will do farmer much  harm‘

or

‘In March much snow
to plants and trees much woe‘

On This Day

March 10th is St Kessog Day. He is associated with Luss on Loch Lomond, and was Robert the Bruce’s rallying cry. St Kessog and Scotland!

241 BC – The Battle of the Aegates in which the Carthaginian fleet is sunk, and the First Punic War ends. Carthage was destroyed in the Third Punic War in 146BC. Rebuilt as a Roman City 100 years later.

1629 – Parliament is dissolved by Charles I. This was followed by a Royal dictatorship which lasted 11 years, and then led to Civil War.

1906 – Bakerloo Line Opened. The name originated from the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway. It goes from Harrow &Wealdstone in the NW to Elephant & Castle in the South East, via the Central London section which goes from Bakers Street to Waterloo, Sherlock Holmes didn’t use the Tube very much (see this post here for those times he did). There is a proposed extension from Elephant & Castle to Lewisham.

1969 – James Earl Ray sentenced to 99 years in jail for murdering Martin Luther King. While Ray was a segrationalist and a supporter of George Wallace, he maintained he was set up as the scapegoat. He died in prison in 1998.

Written 2024, revised 2025, the content on Hesiod and a Grecian Spring moved to: march-13th-hesiod-and-a-grecian-spring/. On this Day added 2026.

My trip (in March 2022) to the British Museum with my 20 month year old Grandson is posted here:

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5th of Lide St Piran’s Day March 5th

Lide 5th is St Piran’s Day. Photo of St Piran’s Oratory at Trézilidé, Finistère (wikipedia) By Kieffer92 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

March is named after the Roman War God Mars, whose Month it was. But in England it had, until recent times, a dialect name which survived in the South west of England. This was ‘Lide’.

Lide was still used in the 17th Century, and then survived into the 19th Century only in Cornwall.  The Cornish named the first Friday in March ‘Friday in Lide’. They had a proverb.

‘Ducks won’t lay till they’ve drunk Lide water’.

Daffodils were called Lide-lillies. Eleanor Parker, who is a Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford, wrote an interesting article in History Today. She called March the loudest month of the year. The early English names for March were Hlyda or Lide monath meaning stormy or loud month. Other names include Hraed monath (rugged month) and Lentmonath (month of lent).

The ‘loudness’ comes from the March winds, which were noisy – as described in this rhyme. (thanks to Millie Thom for the rhyme and all things March. )

March brings breezes loud and shrill,
Stirs the dancing daffodil.

Sara Coleridge (1802–1852), “The Months,” Pretty Lessons In Verse, For Good Children; With Some Lessons in Latin, In Easy Rhyme, 1834

There are many references to the changeable weather in March. Sometimes lovely spring days, and at others raging storms, and frosts. Parker quotes a proverb which says that March comes in:

‘like a lion and goes out like a lamb’.

In 2026, the 5th of Lide has been a beautiful spring like day, with, over the last few days a outburst of Hawthorn and Plum blossom.

St Piran

Lide 5th was a holiday for Miners, probably because it was St Piran’s Day. Very little is clear about St Piran. But he is thought to have been an Irish Missionary who founded an Abbey in Cornwall in the 5th Century. His legend says he was tied to a millstone by the Irish, who rolled the stone over a cliff. The sea was stormy, but calmed as soon as he fell into it. He floated on his stone to Perranzabuloe in Cornwall. Here he landed and got his first converts: a badger, a fox, and a bear. Then, he founded the Abbey of Llanpirran.

He is said to have reintroduced smelting to Cornwall, hence his attribution as patron Saint of Miners. Piran was martyred by Theodoric or Tador, King of Cornwall in 480. His bones scattered in reliquaries in the South West and in Brittany. He is the patron saint of Cornwall, so the week before the 5th of March is known as Pirrantide. And there are events and parades to commemorate him. People dress in black white and gold, carrying daffodils and walk across the dunes to St Piran’s Cross.

Screenshot from the Cornish Guide showing St Piran’s Cross. https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/sites/st_pirrans_cross.htm

For more about March look at my post https://www.chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet/march-1st-the-month-of-new-life

On This Day

1702 – Queen Anne becomes Queen – the last of the Stuarts. She had 18 pregnancies. The eldest survived to 11 and then died. Of the other 17, 8 miscarried, 5 were stillborn. 4 were born alive but died soon after. She had poor health, gout and drank a lot, but she might well have had an autoimmune deficiency and her body rejected the offspring. The fact that the eldest was the only one to survive might suggest rhesus disease, which can now be prevented with an injection of a medication called anti-D immunoglobulin. The problem occurs when a woman with RhD negative blood is exposed to RhD positive blood and develops an immune response to it. The first child is not affected, subsequent ones risk miscarriage.

1936 – The Spitfire makes its maiden test flight. By 1947 over 20,000 had been made and it had been in continuous production throughout the war, unlike most other aircraft.

1946 – Churchill makes his”Sinews of Peace” Speech in which he coins the phrase ‘Iron Curtain. President Trueman invited the unemployed Statesman to Fulton Missouri to make the speech. In 1961, the proposal was made to commemorate the speech by reconstructing the blitzed City Christopher Wren Church, St Mary Aldermanbury in Fulton, Missouri. The Church was shipped to the States, rebuilt and rededicated on the 7 May 1969.

First published in 2024, rewritten March 2025 Revised, On This Day added 2026.

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Dung, Time to Manure your Garden March 4th

Hen’s Dung. Image by Anja from Pixabay

John Worlidge knew all about dung. And it is all spread out in his ‘Worlidge Systema Agriculurae’ of 1697 brought to my attention by Charles Kightly’s Perpetual Almanac.

Worlidge tells us that although it used not be esteemed, but Hens and Pigeons’s Dung is the best if mixed with common earth or sand, and let to rot. He says:

Pigeons or Hens dung is incomparable, one Load is worth ten Load of other Dung, and therefore it’s usually sown on Wheat (or Barly) that lieth afar off, and not easily to be helped; it’s extraordinary likewise on a Hop-garden.

… It’s generally little set by, because our Fore-fathers did not make any great matter of it, and because they understand not the strength and power of it; for when they take it out of the houses it’s of a very hot nature, and must needs injure some things, if laid thereon; but if it be mixed well with common Earth, Sand, or such-like, and let lie till it rot well together, you will finde it a very rich Manure, and of value to answer a great part of your Poultreys expence.

I have known a Quince-tree whereon Poultrey always pearched, that by reason of the Rain washing to its Roots the salt and fatness of the Dung, did bear yearly an incredible number of very excellent Quinces.

To read the Systems see https://quod.lib.umich.edu. For more on Worlidge wisdom see my post on Hawthorn.

Before we turn to the sweet Quincwe I’ve found a poem about dung:

Dilbert Dung Beetles Delicacy

Mr. Camel is fascinated by his friend Dilbert Dung Beetle’s diet.
He thinks eating up excrement, feces and manure is a riot.
It is tasty! Delicious! You should try a salty elephant pie!
Dilbert Dung Beetle says. You would love it if you gave it a try!

Mr. Camel watches Dilbert dig in, gulping down gobs of the stuff.
He thinks it must have a weird smell, but Dilbert can’t get enough.
You might sample a tiny bit Dilbert says, it is delicious you see!
Mr. Camel shakes his head and says “Sorry, it does not appeal to me.”

© Caren Krutsinger

All things Quince

Homemade Quince J
am (just out of the freezer
Homemade Quince Jelly

I made quince jam this winter for the third year running from my Father’s Tree. Likely to be the last year as he is 98 and has just gone into a lovely home. It’s very easy to make (although very hard to cut up the fruit) and delicious because it is not too sweet. Here is a recipe (not necessarily the one I used}. Indeed, my most successful year was when I didn’t use a recipe, just boiled the fruit with sugar to taste. Beginner’s Luck, I expect.

Quince is mentioned once in Shakespeare, when the Nurse says the pastry makers are calling for Quince and Dates. (Here is a recipe for Tudor Quince Pie) And of course, the mechanicals theatre director is Peter Quince the Carpenter. But the most famous reference is in the Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Quinces are native to the Caspian Seas, and Wikipedia says spread to England when planted at the Tower of London at the order of Edward I. Quinces were sacred to Aphrodite. and taste great with Cheese (dulce de membrillo) if you are in Span. The Balkans have an aqua vita called rakija. Quince is considered old-fashioned and not grown very much in gardens in the UK.

First published on March 4th, 2026

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The Feast Day of St Winnold March 3rd

Portrait of Saint Guénolé (St Winnold) after a bust in silver on a reliquary from the Church Saint-Guénolé in Locquénolé.Public Domain Abgrall Jean-Marie (1846-1926) – Bibliothèque nationale de France

Here is a weather poem in which St Winnold appears

First comes David, then comes Chad.
And comes Winnold, roaring like mad.
White or black.
Or old house thack.

St David’s Day was March 1st. St Chad, the 2nd. St Winnold’s Day is the third of March. Winnold is his English name, and Winneral, or Winwaloe or Guénolé his Celtic names.

The poem suggests that snow, rain or wind is going to come on these three days. When the wind roars, it will threaten the thatch of houses. If the storms do not come in the first 3 days, then they will come on the last three days of March, which were called ‘the Borrowing Days’. Or so it is said.

St Winnold was around 50 years (460 – 3 March 532) after the end of Roman Britain. His family was from Cornwall. He was the son of a Prince Fragan of Dumnonia, and St Gwen the Three-Breasted, His mother’s Feast day is October 3rd. She is a Saint of fertility, because of God’s Gift of an extra breast. They moved to Brittany to escape a British Plague. Their son grew up to be holy and was the founder and first abbot of Landévennec Abbey (the Monastery of Winwaloe). It is south of Brest.

Winwaloe became what is known as a ‘phallic saint’ because he was associated with fertility. Wikipedia says this came about because of confusion about the origin of his name:

‘his name was thought to derive from gignere (French engendrer, “to beget”)’

St Winnold’s Breton name is Guénolé. How this etymology works is not clear to me! But surely, he as likely to have got a reputation for helping people with fertility problems from his mother? Supplicants would make a wax phallus to persuade the Saint to help them conceive. There are several churches/ chapels dedicated to him in Wales, and a Priory in East Anglia.

You might like to read my post about St Blaise Day & The Tadpole Revels February 3rd, or on St Chad.

On This Day

March 3rd 1847 Alexander Graham Bell was born. He was born in Edinburgh, and lived Scotland, in London, Canada and the US.

First written August 2024, republished MArch 2026

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Spring & the Month of New Life March 1st

March from the Kalendar of Shepherds – French 15th Century

Spring & March

This is the beginning of Spring, meteorologically speaking. There is nothing magical about this day that makes it in any sense actually the start of Spring. It is a convenience determined by meteorologists. They divide the year up into 4 blocks of three months based on average temperature, and the convenience of keeping statistics to months. It could be that spring starts on 2nd March. 14th February.  Or the 1st of February as the Celts favoured.

The Venerable Bede in his ‘The Reckoning of Time’, written in 725 AD, quotes more diversity of dates:

However, different people place the beginnings of the seasons at
different times. Bishop Isidore the Spaniard said …, spring [starts] on the 8th kalends of
March [22 February],…

But the Greeks and Romans, whose authority on these matters, rather than that of the
Spaniards, it is generally preferable to follow, deem that spring [begins] on the 7th ides of February [7 February],…

Noting that summer and winter begin with
the evening or morning rising and setting of the Pleiades, they place the
commencement of spring and autumn when the Pleiades rise and set
around the middle of the night.

There is nothing that says we have to have 4 seasons. Egypt had three seasons, the tropics have two. Celts divided the year into 8. Plants have been blooming, sprouting and budding since January, and some will wait until later in the year. Lambs have been born since January. But scientists and society find it easiest to keep statistics on a monthly basis so March 1st it is.

Astronomically, the seasons are more rationally divided by the movement of the Sun. So Spring begins on the spring or vernal equinox, 20th or 21st of March. For my Spring Equinox post go here.

Anglo-Saxon March

In Anglo-Saxon ‘Hrethamonath’ is the month of the Goddess Hretha. Bede gives no further information on who she was and nothing else is known about her. Her name is Latinised to Rheda. J R. R. Tolkein used the Anglo-Saxon calendar as the calendar for the Shire where the third month is called Rethe.

For the Anglo-Saxon, spring was looked forward to with great joy after the bleakness of winter. Christian Anglo-Saxons also saw this as the pivotal month in the year. It was in March that the world was created, and the Messiah conceived, revealed, executed, and ascended to heaven. See my post:

The Beginning of the Universe as We Know It; Birthdays of Adam, Lilith, & Eve; Conception of Jesus, Start of the Year March 25th

In Welsh the month is called Mawrth, (derived it is thought from the Latin Martius). Gaelic Mart or Earrach Geamraidth – which means the ‘winter spring’.

Medieval/Early Modern March

The illustration (above), from the Kalendar of Shepherds, shows that in Pisces and early Ares preparation was still the main order of the farming day, clearing out the moats, and preparing the fruit trees. Lambing is also increasing in number. And the early modern text below from the Kalendar gives a fine description of the joys of spring.

Kalendary of Shepherds- Description of March.
March in the Kalendar of Shepherds.

For more details of the Kalendar of Shepherds look at my post on December.

Roman March

March the 1st was the beginning of the Roman year in Rome’s early days. The Month was named after Mars, the God of War, as Mars was the patron God of the Rome. March was also the beginning of the campaign season, and the army was prepared, and ceremonies held to Mars. The Salii, twelve youths dressed in archaic fighting costumes led a procession singing the Carmen Saliare. March 1 was also the Matronalia a festival celebrating childbirth motherhood. Dedicated to the Mother Juno Lucina,

Ovid & March & Kalends, Nones & Ides

Ovid says the year started on the Kalends of March. Here is what Britannica says about their strange system of dividing months:

‘In a 31-day month such as March, the Kalends was day 1, with days 2–6 being counted as simply “before the Nones.” The Nones fell on day 7, with days 8–14 “before the Ides” and the 15th as the Ides. After this the days were counted as “before the Kalends” of the next month’.

More about this if you read my post on the Ides of March and Julius Caesar.

At the beginning of his book, Fasti, Ovid provides the story of Rome’s foundation. Mars took Silvia the Vestal while she slept. She later gave birth to Romulus and Remus. He also gives details of how Rome was organised. In the piece of the long text I have chosen below he discusses Romulus’ arrangement of the year. It is a year that began on the 1st March, and had only 10 months. 10 is the number of digits we have and the length of pregnancy (so Ovid says).

Ovid wrote in his almanac poem the Fasti:

So, untaught and lacking in science, each five-year lustre
That they calculated was short by two whole months.
A year was when the moon returned to full for the tenth
time:
And that was a number that was held in high honour:
Because it’s the number of fingers we usually count with,
Or because a woman produces in ten months,
Or because the numerals ascend from one to ten,
And from that point we begin a fresh interval.

So Romulus divided the hundred Senators into ten groups,
And instituted ten companies of men with spears,
And as many front-rank and javelin men,
And also those who officially merited horses.
He even divided the tribes the same way, the Titienses,
The Ramnes, as they are called, and the Luceres.
And so he reserved the same number for his year,

It ís the time for which the sad widow mourns her man.
If you doubt that the Kalends of March began the year,
You can refer to the following evidence.
The priest’s laurel branch that remained all year,
Was removed then, and fresh leaves honoured.
Then the king’s door is green with Phoebus’ bough,
Set there, and at your doors too, ancient wards.
And the withered laurel is taken from the Trojan hearth,
So Vesta may be brightly dressed with new leaves.
Also, it’s said, a new fire is lit at her secret shrine,
And the rekindled flame acquires new strength.
And to me it’s no less a sign that past years began so,
That in this month worship of Anna Perenna begins.
Then too it’s recorded public offices commenced,
Until the time of your wars, faithless Carthaginian.

Lastly Quintilis is the fifth (TXLQWXV) month from March,
And begins those that take their names from numerals.
Numa Pompilius, led to Rome from the lands of olives,
Was the first to realise the year lacked two months,
Learning it from Pythagoras of Samos, who believed
We could be reborn, or was taught it by his own Egeria.
But the calendar was still erratic down to the time
When Caesar took it, and many other things, in hand.
That god, the founder of a mighty house, did not
Regard the matter as beneath his attention,
And wished to have prescience of those heavens
Promised him, not be an unknown god entering a strange
house.

He is said to have drawn up an exact table
Of the periods in which the sun returns to its previous
signs.
He added sixty-five days to three hundred,
And then added a fifth part of a whole day.
That’s the measure of the year: one day
The sum of the five part-days is added to each lustre.

Translated by A. S. Kline online here:

For much more about the Roman Year (and leap years) look at my post here.

On This Day

St David’s Day – It is also the Feast of St David, (or Dewi) the patron saint of Wales, who lived in the sixth century AD. Little that is known about him is contemporary but he was an abbot-bishop. His hagiography was written in the 11th Century and not very trustworthy, but the aim was to show the independence of the Welsh Church from Canterbury. His association with the leek is unexplained.

293 – Inauguration of the Tetrarchy

Diocletian reorganises the Roman Empire to be a Tetrarchy with himself and Maximian the Augusti, one in the East the other in the West. Below them were Constantius Chlorus and Galerius the Caesars.

Coppermine Photo Gallery - Coppermine Photo Gallery; Bishop, Aubrey. Imperial Imagery of the Tetrarchy. Rhodes College. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024. Historic map of Roman Empire during the first tetrarchy
Coppermine Photo Gallery – Coppermine Photo Gallery; Bishop, Aubrey. Imperial Imagery of the Tetrarchy. Rhodes College. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024. Historic map of Roman Empire during the first tetrarchy CC BY-SA 3.0

Below them were Prefectures run by Prefects, who controlled officials called the Vicarious. Britannia, was a Diocese ruled by the Vicarious in London. The Diocese was divided into 4 Provinces,. In charge of those were the Governors, who were now civilians rather than military figures.

Later dioceses of the Roman Empire, around 400 AD By Mandrak – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6088363

The reorganisation was designed to provide a peaceful career path for ambitious men, but in that it failed.

1562 – Massacre in Wassy France, when sixty-three Huguenots were killed and the French Wars of Religion began. Many Huguenots came to Britain, and many settled in Spitalfields, London. My family believe we are Huguenots from the East End.

1628 – Charles I decrees that the ship tax should be extended to every county. This was not put to a Parliament, and illegal impositions like this eventually lead to the English Civil War in 1642. (see my post on the beginning of the Civil War here:

First Published in 2024, and revised in 2025