The Rose of Raby by Evelyn Payne-Ellis

Raby Castle Gardens with thanks to Gardenvisit.com 

Title: The Rose of Raby

Author: Evelyn Payne-Ellis

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey 

Cecily Neville was born at Raby Castle in County Durham. She married Richard Duke of York and had thirteen children: two of her sons became king of England (Edward IV and Richard III), and her daughter Margaret became Duchess of Burgundy. When Detective Inspector Alan Grant starts researching Richard III (labelled the original Wicked Uncle for imprisoning and then murdering his young nephews) from his hospital bed, he starts by reading as many books as he can find on the subject. One is Evelyn Payne-Ellis’s historical novel about Cecily Neville and her family: The Rose of Raby. The book is extensively discussed and quoted from, and Grant feels he learns something about Richard III’s childhood, and thus his character.

Also included in The Daughter of Time is Tanner’s Constitutional History of England, a fat volume filled with many facts and statistics, and two history books: one a child’s reader, and the other intended to help you pass exams. Tanner calls Richards III’s only Parliament the most liberal and progressive within record, but accepts without question that he was responsible for the murder of his nephews. (Although there is a book called Tudor Constitutional Documents by JR Tanner, I can’t find any record of the Constitutional History.)

Also important reading for Grant is Sir Cuthbert Oliphant’s somewhat pompous history which I am pretty sure does not exist although I did come across a blog post by someone who wrote a school essay about Richard III using several references to Sir Cuthbert. It seems though, that he was merely a fictional authority on the period not a real one.

Then there’s The Life and Reign of Richard III by James Gairdner which appears to be a real book.

The less said the better about Sir Thomas More’s History of Richard III.

Josephine Tey uses her existing police detective to investigate a well-known historical “truth” and effectively turns the story on its head. Everyone knew Richard III killed the little Princes in the Tower, and now everyone knows that Henry VII might have done it instead. Although there are historians who still believe the original theory (one of them at least qualifies as a complete nutter if you ask me), most people these days seem to think Richard III had no reason to carry out (or give orders for) these murders, and therefore did not.  

There’s a Wikipedia article about Cecily Neville which provides much interesting information. And then there seem to be a considerable number of books about her. And here’s the Wikipedia article about The Daughter of Time which goes further than the remit of my blog.

The Rose of Raby seems to be an extremely enduring nickname. There is a four book series by Cynthia Sally Haggard. The first two parts are called Rose of Raby. I see from the reviews on Amazon that at least one person thought they were buying the fictional book featured in The Daughter of Time. I also read it’s very short and extremely fictional. The series dates from 2011.

Also available, but hard to get hold of, is The Rose of Raby: A Life of Cicely Neville, Duchess of York by Guy Paget. Since this was published in 1937 I think there is no doubt that Josephine Tey had read it. Apparently it is a lightly fictionalised version of Cecily’s life.

And then there are plenty of bloggers who have something to say, although one has thought about not just Richard III or his mother Cicely, but also Evelyn Payne-Ellis.

And if you haven’t yet lost the will to live, this is an interesting blog post you might like to take a look at.

Also featuring in The Daughter of Time but nothing whatever to do with Richard III, is a long running play called To Sea in a Bowl. Alan Grant’s friend Marta Hallard is starring in this play along with Atalanta Shergold whose boyfriend Brent Carradine acts as research assistant for Grant. After his adventures researching Richard and discovering how much history is hearsay, if not downright lies, Brent plans to write a book to be called History is Bunk.

In a sea of fictional books it’s The Rose of Raby that really stands out here. It seems a shame it hasn’t been written. But then Evelyn Payne-Ellis didn’t exist to write it.

Raby Castle with thanks to HistoryExtra.com