That was fun!
And I think a good time was had by all - even the Royalists!
There were a few last minute panics and alarums in the days leading up to the execution.
We did have a 'body double' for Richard, a short man who would walk under the cloak, with the fake head on a stick. However, he was seen drinking with Royalist sympathisers in the Crown - and the Royalists were overheard plotting to kidnap the head, so there were some fears that our man under the cloak might do a runner with the head.
Fortunately, there was just enough time to make an effigy to go under the cloak instead, to be carried by two guards. Oxfam very generously loaned us a wicker mannequin body (I promised faithfully to have it back at the shop on Monday morning, as that's the day they change their window display and they said they might need it).
Tim's model of the head is absolutely magnificent, and spookily like Richard when you put the glasses on - but just in case there was an attempt to take it, we had a reserve head made out of half a pillowcase stuffed with rags, with a face drawn on it in black marker pen.
(Both heads came with a handy carrying handle for the use of the executioner when he held it aloft.)
Rumours of Royalist plots were rife around town. Young Henrietta wanted to lead a cavalry charge to rescue Richard - but was persuaded out of it by Paul. Ponies, mixed with crowds of onlookers, as well as the procession - not a safe mix. In the event, she was there taking photos instead, as she wanted to enter an Under-18s photography competition.
And then there was this article in Way-on-High:
"Long Live the King, God Save our King.
On Sunday 27th September at 1pm the King of Hay, Richard Booth, is to be paraded, in effigy, through the town from Boz Books to the Butter Market, where malcontents and ingrates intend to execute him.
Members of the Sealed Knot Society are being brought in to add colour and gravitas. And to attract the press, which is what this is all about. But how could we want the press to see us as treacherous and ungrateful and cruel? How can we let them imagine we have turned on King Richard? Who could replace him? Peter Florence is busy with the Literary Festivals. Father Richard, already Archbishop of Hay, has enough to do sustaining us in our hours of need. Anyway he and Jimmy generate an amazing amount of publicity for Hay, in books, newspapers, magazines and on the television, just by being their own dear selves. Please, do come and shout 'God Save Our King' and 'Long Live the King' or support the King in any way you can, to show the media that Hay is the dear loving tolerant town that it is.
So many of us have benefitted from all he has done here. We owe him so much. Now is the moment to stand by him, and to stand by the reputation of Hay.
PLEASE, PLEASE DO. The members of the Tuesday Club are going to come, with banners."
I'm not entirely sure who the Tuesday Club are, except that they are something to do with the church, but it was they who put Royalist posters up all round the Buttermarket. I'm afraid they got taken down - Paul was feeling a bit paranoid after hearing about the other plots (which came to nothing).
The Sealed Knot, Col. John Birch's Regiment, turned out in force for us. We mustered at the entrance to the Cattle Market, close to Boz's shop - and just as we were about to march out, some idiot lit a Chinese firecracker. I was at the back of the procession, so I saw a lady come out of the house there and shout at him. I think she gave him a broom and made him clear the mess up. We all left him to it.
Meanwhile at the front of the march, a Royalist heckler (also Sealed Knot) fought a duel with the leader of the procession and died dramatically in the car park. He was next seen among the Royalist supporters, holding one of their placards! For there was a little demonstration by the Buttermarket, with placards, and a rather good Cavalier costume (considering the short notice). There was quite a big crowd altogether, which was very pleasing.
The King's head came off at a single blow (thanks to a short rehearsal the night before) and was duly held aloft, and after a short speech or two proclaiming the Commonwealth (and a few words from Shakespeare, who was present), the procession marched away back down Castle Street, and after stashing their weapons, retired to Kilvert's for a well-earned drink. (Edited to add: Kilvert's named their beer festival bar The King's Head, in honour of the occasion!)
Most people took it in good part - one chap said he was going to raise a Royalist regiment for next year (but since he was one of the plotters who intended to steal the head, I think that can be taken with a pinch of salt).
Someone threw an egg, but it didn't do any damage.
We might do it again next year.
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7 comments:
Well, it was all lots of fun. King Richard's head came flying off despite a lot of Royalist hecklers – I was probably the loudest of them! Several royalists turned up including Elizabeth as the Laughing Cavalier and placards decrying the execution were held aloft.
Perhaps next year we can have a trial followed by a mass hanging of all the traitors and republicans. They certainly deserve it!
Late last night, the lone egg lying next to its shell in the Buttermarket was all that was left to remind us of a very silly Sunday afternoon in Hay.
I must say that the effigy of King Richard's noggin looked remarkably like Eric Morecambe though.
Anyway, he and Little Ern are dead – so long live the King!!!!
The Cavalier was actually June Pugh - Elizabeth was in her ordinary clothes (and both were straight from church).
The Commonwealth as a body are heartened there was a measure of support for the old king at this sombre and momentous occasion, if only because it underlined earlier services rendered to the kingdom by the crown. We know we could not have acted as we did without such consideration being made; we think it (in passing) to be proper, but we have practical as well as ethereal matters to attend upon. I would fail in my duty should I not remind all citizens of Hay that thirty years henceforth cannot possibly unfold in as like a manner as thirty years now passed; anyone holding a contrary ideal would be inviting logic and fancy to share an identical definition.
We are at the beginning of a new era in time, if not wholly in mind, and there are fresh challenges lying in wait for Hay. Had we not planned to act in the interest of the nation state (rather than in favour of understandably exalted individuals), and instead spent unconscionable time in lauding the achievements of the past, then we would also have been forced to prepare ourselves for leisurely repentance in lieu of productive activity. Should any citizen, however well-meaning, believe that the Commonwealth is unaware of the past, and of the historical figures that have shaped it, then they would represent a wholly unfounded proposition.
Should any observer believe the Commonwealth insensible to the best health of the nation as among our principles - the name of Hay in foreign lands being chief among those principles - then they would cast a serious and damaging error of judgment into the midst of us all.
Outside the realm of the personal and the prosaic to Hay alone, I should add that in another momentous break with recent regal tradition, the Commonwealth has no political intrigues with the SLP, a party which in the recent European elections in Wales polled three times fewer votes than the much-reviled BNP. Our stance is indeed singular at present.
Eric Morecambe is dead. Long live the King!
The cavalier was indeed June Pugh and the Tuesday Club is a society formed some two years ago by Women's Institute members after the Hay and Cusop W.I. had closed. Their web page can be seen on the Way-on-High web site at http://www.wayonhigh.org.uk/tuesday.html
Pity someone took down the Royalist posters though. It would have all helped with the publicity.
Taking down the posters probably was a bad move on the part of the Commonwealth - but mistakes happen.
I wasn't aware that the Commonwealth had made a bad move. Had the posters been displayed elsewhere, they would certainly have been left intact. We aren't about to stifle citizens' comments. I think the Council took the view that as the Commonwealth had paid for the use of the building, then they were entitled to use the whole of the building as they saw fit. They were right in a wholly practical sense to free all possible angles for the many, many people who come to peer throught the railings. There was no substantial loss to publicity, and we didn't lobby against opposition in the visual respect. (Photographs of cavaliers and their placards were indeed sent by the Commonwealth to more than one news media. We are not against free speech, and we didn't try to suppress alternative views.) What we've certainly noticed over the last few years was a lack of posters supporting anything to do with the king; in that respect our actions certainly stimulated a departure from the norm. Plus ça change, as they might have said, after another very famous revolution.
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