Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare, 1295-1360 – head and shoulders from the 1771 oil painting by Joseph Freeman which hangs in the Hall at Clare College.

Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke, 1303-1376 – head and shoulders from the portrait of her kneeling in a heraldic blue and white striped cloak with red martlets, BNF Latin 4223 B, f 52v.

The patrons of Cambridge’s 14th century colleges (predecessors of Trinity College, plus Clare, Pembroke, Gonville, Trinity Hall & Corpus) were convinced of universities as a public good, persevering amid war & plague. The #LadyOfClare fought tyranny, & […]

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Illuminated manuscript page, including a square image in which Marie, identified by a heraldic cloak, is kneeling in prayer to the standing St Cecilia, who carries a martyr's palm and book. Colourful foliage decorates the margins and initials; in the left margin a young man walks towards the text with his hands together as if in prayer.

#MarieDeStPol founded #PembrokeCollege Cambridge. She’s shown here with #StCecilia, patron of musicians, whose feast is celebrated on 22 Nov.
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Against a blue and gold background, three fair young men, following with their fingers the musical notation in a book. From the Breviary of Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke, founder of Pembroke College, f55r.

In her 1359 statutes for #ClareCollege Cambridge, the #LadyOfClare stipulated a schedule for religious services, including many "with notes"– illustrated here in the sumptuous breviary of her close friend #MarieDeStPol.
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#medieval #choir #choral #music #CambridgeUniversity

Illumination with gold background. The top and bottom half each show a pair of figures under two arches, with houses and towers behind. In the top half, a woman and a young man sit enthroned, both crowned, and facing each other. The young man, Louis, holds the orb and sceptre of kingship. The woman, his mother, gestures towards him with instructions or care. In the bottom half, the two seated figures are a monk with a book, and a lay scribe working on a manuscript. The young man has a blue robe with red sleeves. Authorship page from the Bible of St Louis, dated 1226-1234 between ascension to throne and marriage. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

In this illumination, the crowned Louis is older & bearded, identified by golden fleur-de-lys on his blue robe, and sitting on a throne with lion's heads. He looks concerned. From the Breviary of Marie de St Pol, Cambridge University Library MS Dd.5.5, f.295r.

🧵 PS: Louis IX, the only French king to be canonized, died on 25 Aug 1270.

🎨 with his mother, Blanche of Castile, in the Bible of St Louis, 1226-34; in the Breviary of #MarieDeStPol, c.1330s

#OTD #NameDay

Photo of a large room with magnificent timbered roof and arched window, and the remains of a timber floor above the ground-level room below. (I understand that is thought to have been the chapel, in Marie de St Pol's rebuild). Photo by Claire Barnes, 2019.

Artist's impression of the refectory with nuns dining, and other women serving, c.1350. The tables are on platforms around the edge of the building, which has a tiled floor and painted walls; the seated nuns face into the centre of the room. One nun reads from a balcony above. Detail of drawing by T Ball, J930289 © Historic England Archive. The refectory building survives, used for centuries as a barn, & the tiled floor was rediscovered in the 1980s.

#MarieDeStPol in 1336 granted the manor of Denny to the Minoress nuns of flood-prone Waterbeach. She later moved the community to Denny Abbey, from which the Templars had been evicted some decades earlier […]

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