Joan Martyn and Forgotten Womens' Histories
In early June 1452, Joan Martyn put forward a petition to Henry VI, appealing for compensation. She alleged that, during the king’s visit to her hometown of Canterbury the previous summer, his guard Nicholas ap Rhys went to cut off the hand of her husband, Thomas, with a sword. Joan reached out to protect him, and ap Rhys, mid-swing, brought the blade down on Joan’s wrist by mistake. Joan successfully received compensation from Henry; a life grant of 2d per day fulfilled by the mayor, bailiffs and farmers of the city. 2d was not a great deal of money, even in 1452. The National Archive’s Currency Calculator gives the amount’s modern estimated worth at around £5.20. For some context, Henry paid his minstrels ten marks a year - which works out at an equivalent worth of around £11 per day in today’s money.
We don’t know the reasons for Thomas Martyn’s punishment. Could he have been caught stealing? Perhaps he had committed a violent offence, in the presence of the king? In 1464 Edward IV ruled that if anyone were to strike another in the palace of Westminster the culprit would lose his right hand. With increasing tension throughout the realm and subjects’ general dissatisfaction with their king by the 1450s it’s certainly plausible. Joan may well have reached out to try to prevent the sentence being carried out in the hope of buying more time to explain, but then suffered the loss of a hand herself.
Joan’s brutal and violent story is just one of those that have been buried in records, unacknowledged, for almost six hundred years. And yet she lived through one of the country’s most turbulent and paranoid episodes. It was in Joan’s spirit that Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses was written.
Women fulfilled so many roles during the conflict that affected not only England but also Wales, Scotland and Ireland during the fifteenth century. They were mothers, overseeing the education and social rise of their children. They were also wives, adapting to life after husbands had died in battle, some arranging for the return of their war-battered bodies while others fought to retain marital estates.
Countesses and duchesses also played more political roles, but women from lower levels of society were pivotal to the conflict, too. Midwives, nurses and gentlewomen supported royal families and built up a nursery of all-important heirs that, it was hoped, would bring much-needed peace. Servants and ladies also acted as spies and facilitators; sending messages between sides and gently encouraging switches in allegiance between key players in the wars. Innkeepers mopped dried blood from their courtyards and women were stopped for directions by those on military service. Abbesses and nuns were also heavily involved, whether praying for peace or hiding from arrows and guns fired just outside their walls. It was a real honour to delve into the ‘forgotten’ history of the Wars of the Roses and discover the many ways the conflict affected womens’ lives at every level of society.
Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses is now available from the Pen and Sword website, or pop in and ask for it at your local bookshop. I can also send you a signed and dedicated copy if you like, which you can order on my online shop. Alternatively, if you can get to Reading, Berkshire, please consider coming along to my book launch on 20 March, where you can pick up a signed copy, a goody bag of related treats and see work developed by local artists on the themes in the book. Entry is by ticket, available here (books and goody bags must be pre-ordered via the ticket option).
It’s been a good few years in the making; visiting museums, cathedrals, parish churches and even some of these womens’ homes to gain a greater understanding of them, and I’m so pleased to finally get their stories out in the open. Thank you for your support as always, and I hope you enjoy it :)
Jo
PS Find bonus content for the book over on my YouTube channel - I’ve uploaded one episode on Forgotten Women of Reading, and more will be uploaded soon!