John Lydgate – a remarkable man

John Lydgate c1370 -1451 by Martyn Taylor

John Lydgate of Bury St Edmunds Abbey was born in Lidgate, near Haverhill and travelled into France and Italy becoming a talented poet, his prodigious poetic output amounted to at a conservative count of about 145,000 lines. Moyse’s Hall Museum displays a stained glass image of him.

He was a contemporary of the ‘Father of English Literature’, Geoffrey Chaucer. No doubt Lydgate was heavily influenced by him. Certainly, elements within The Canterbury Tales contributed to what is Lydgates finest work, the beautiful, illuminated manuscript titled The Life of St Edmund King and Martyr.

In 1433 the young Henry VI (1421-1471) came to Bury to spend Christmas with his entourage at the abbey until Easter nearly bankrupting it as they entertained the King’s assemblage through food & drink. During the festivities, Abbot Curteys presented Henry with this wonderful Life of St Edmund manuscript.

Strangely, John Lydgate was greatly supported by the king’s uncle the ill-fated Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester who championed the arts. Once Regent for the young king, Humphrey died at St Saviours, Bury St Edmunds in February 1447 in suspicious circumstances. Henry, who lost and regained his throne during the Wars of the Roses was prone to bouts of mental illness and would also die mysteriously, in the Tower of London many years later.

An oft quoted phrase attributed to Abraham Lincoln but penned by John Lydgate could apply to Henry: “You can please some of the people all of the time and you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people al of the time.”

A postscript to this story: a signature purporting to be Lydgate’s was found in recent years on a wall in St Marys Church, Lidgate and a Blue Plaque was erected in the village in June 2013 to this remarkable man!