IN DAVS OF OLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1938, Page 8

IN DAVS OF OLD

A RQYAL WEDDING. SOME OF THE EXPENSES. An account of some of the expenses of a Royal wedding of 1251 is contained in a further volume of the Chancery Liberate Rolls of the time of King Henry 111, preserved at the Record office, which is shortly to be published. In one of the rolls is an interesting record of payments made to various tradesmen for presents bought by the King for his 11-year-old daughter, the Lady Margaret, on her marriage to the 10-year-old King of Scotland, Alexander 111 The event took place at York on December 26, 1251. Among the tradesmen employed were 13 goldsmiths, a bookseller, a cloth merchant, a potter, a brazier, an ironmonger, and a dealer in “coffers” and trunks. The heaviest account is for jewellery, the majority of which was bought from William of Gloucester, Adam Bentley, John Blakethorn, Fichard Abel, and Walter of Hungary. It amounted to £43o—about £17,000 in modern money—and the items included rings, brooches, buckles, chains, belts and garlands. These last were circlets of gold for the adornment of the hair, and 11 were bought from William of Gloucester for £55 18s 4d. They weighed 116 s Bd, or 77 ounces, the goldsmith, therefore, being paid 16s 8d an ounce. As the price of gold was 15s an ounce, he received Is 8d an ounce for his work. The plate was supplied by Henry de Frowyok, and cost in all £lO3 —equal to about £4OOO. He was paid at the same rate as William for a gold cup weighing 65s Id, a gold chalice weighing 39s Bd, and six gold spoons weighing 10s 6d, a total of 69 ounces 3 pennyweights. A silver incense bowl and pyx, weighing 34s 2d, cost 44s 2d, and thus, as silver was Is 8d an ounce, shows 6d an ounce for the making. A silver ewer, of which the weight is not given, cost £7 6s 6d. An item of particular interest is a payment of £6 3s 4d “for making new utensils out of the King’s old silver,” the goldsmith being allowed 17s for loss of weight in the melting. Another big account was that for woollen cloth of Provence, for which a merchant named John de Bosco was paid £lO4 9s 6d. The cloth was delivered _to Roger, the King’s tailor, for making up into garments. There seems reason to believe the chronicler’s statement that the extravagance of dress on the occasion aroused much comment. John Silvester, the bookseller, provided books for the Lady Margaret’s chapel, and his bill was £l3 6s Bd. Alexander the Potter, Martin the Brazier, and Alexander the Ironmonger, jointly received £l3 17s Id for cauldrons and other kitchen utensils; and Laurence le Cofrer had 45s for coffers and trunks. The former of these two accounts was probably for articles for the temporary kitchens which were always needed on the occasion of an important Royal ceremony.