Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday 20 November 2012

Royal 65th Wedding Anniversary


Today is the sixty-fifth anniversary of the wedding of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip in 1947. It is therefore an opportunity to express loyal congratulations and good wishes to them on the occasion.

Theirs is the longest lasting marriage amongst those of British monarchs - the nearest in length is that of King George III and Queen Charlotte from 1761 until her death in 1818.

It is also a reminder in present circumstances that marriages do endure, and that traditional marriage is at the very heart of our institutions as a nation. The facts that marriages, whether of Kings or commoners, can and do endure and provide mutual support for the partners needs to be borne in mind by those who speak too easily of its decline, still more who work to undermine it, or to change it into a merely legal matter of "human rights" or personal self-fulfillment for the parties.

 
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