St Andrew - Scotland's Patron Saint

Richard III

As we approach the burial date of the last Plantagenet King of England, aside from the arm-wrestingling going on between Leicester (where his body has lain for centuries) vs. York, where he had the closest associations in life, we are now hearing plans for his elaborate reburial rites.

For more information, visit the following links:

Richard III Society

BBC: Burial fit for a medieval king



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#magnacarta800th

The Queen to be the Patron of the Magna Carta Trust for 800th Anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta Trust is delighted to confirm that Her Majesty has kindly agreed to become its Patron, for the commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15th June 2015.

http://magnacarta800th.com/news/the-queen-is-patron/

Scotland -- aye, nay and now what?

The movement for Scottish independence (aye) and against it (nay) and now the question of future coronations:

"Future monarchs should be crowned in Scotland as well as at Westminster Abbey if Scotland becomes independent, a Church of Scotland report suggests.

The proposal is one of a series of recommendations which was put forward in a paper to be discussed by the Kirk's General Assembly in May.

It says the ceremony would "symbolise their role as Queen or King of Scots".

The paper has also recommended that any written Scottish constitution should enshrine the Kirk as a national church.

The report was drafted by three of the church's bodies; the Church and Society Council, the Committee on Ecumenical Relations and the Legal Questions Committee...."

To see the rest of the article, visit:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-22280078

Genographic Project Update

"...Family tree

Continue reading the main story

Analysis of DNA from ancient remains in Central and Northern Europe appears to show that the genetic legacy of the hunter-gatherers was all but erased by later migrations, including pioneer Neolithic farmers but possibly by later waves of people too.

The latest paper reveals that events some time after the initial migration of farmers into Europe did indeed have a major impact on the modern gene pool.

In the study, an international team of researchers focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), the information in the cell's "batteries". This type of DNA is passed down, almost unchanged, from a mother to her children.

By studying the mutations, or changes, in mtDNA sequences, researchers are able to probe the maternal histories of different human populations. It has enabled them to build a "family tree" of maternal ancestry, and group different mtDNA lineages together based on shared mutations."

To read the story, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22252099

The double helix discovery, then and now

Thanks to the BBC for this interesting look at the field of Genetics in the News:

A letter written by scientist Francis Crick describing his discovery of the double helix shape of DNA has been sold for $5.3m (£3.45m).

...Crick, along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, was given the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for "discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material"...

...The medal will be sold later at Heritage Auctions in New York together with the cheque and diploma Crick received as part of the prize and one of his lab coats, which has "various stains on it".

His family will donate 20% of the profit to researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

The scientist's granddaughter, Kindra Crick, said the medal had been locked away for most of the time since it was awarded.

She said: "This marks the 60th anniversary of the historic discovery of the structure of DNA and 50 years have passed since Francis Crick was awarded the Nobel Prize.

"Our hope is that, by having it available for display, it can be an inspiration to the next generation of scientists."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22090344

The Declaration of Arbroath, for Tartan Day

THE DECLARATION OF ARBROATH

(a letter to His Holiness Pope John XXII from the community of Scotland) Dated: 6th April 1320

To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules, Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy, David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay, William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne, Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.

Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner. The high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest, gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles — by calling, though second or third in rank — the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.

The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people, as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.

But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand. Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Therefore it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose vice-gerent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that we can, to win peace for ourselves. This truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved, and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much it will tarnish your Holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive. Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom. But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most High to your charge.

To conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, casting our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to nought. May the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant you length of days.

Given at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the reign of our King aforesaid.

Richard III to be buried with honors

"...next year Richard will, at last, get a king's burial, interred with pomp and ceremony in Leicester Cathedral"

We are speaking of Richard Plantagenet, King of England, who died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. I am fascinated by the DNA research conducted here, and point out that I, too, am a relation, as are many people living today if they but knew it.
While the Tudors did all they could to pretend that the Plantagenets were all killed, including a plaque at the Tower of London, the fact is that relations survived in other countries, with living descendants today.
As a child, I read Shakespeare's Richard III, and later discovered a book called the Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, and was intrigued. 
Perhaps this finding of King Richard's body will put to rest many questions about his life and death.

For more information:
The Richard III Society

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