Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
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In 1835 Annie Miller was born to Henry Miller Soldier.
1853. William Holman Hunt [aged 25]. "Awakening Conscience". A mistress realises the undesirability of her actions. Note the absence of a wedding ring on her finger. Hunt hired a room at 7 Alpha Place, a "maison de convenance" to complete the painting. The painting has many symbols: the cat toying with the broken-winged bird under the table symbolises the woman's plight, a man's discarded glove warns that the likely fate of a cast-off mistress was prostitution, a tangled skein of yarn on the floor symbolises the web in which the girl is entrapped. The frame, designed by Hunt, also contains various symbolic emblems; the bells and marigolds stand for warning and sorrow, the star is a sign of spiritual revelation. [Source. Tate]. The model is Annie Miller [aged 18].
1855. John Everett Millais 1st Baronet [aged 25]. Portrait of Annie Miller [aged 20].
1857. Dante Gabriel Rossetti [aged 28]. "The Harp Player", study of Annie Miller [aged 22]".
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1858. 21st January 1858. January 21. Holman Hunt [aged 30] and Martineau called on me at 7 and stayed till nearly half-past 10. After desultory chat and looking at drawings, etc., Hunt introduced the subject which principally brought him. Having in prospect to marry Annie Miller [aged 23], after that her education both of mind and manners shall have been completed, he wished to destroy as far as was possible all traces of her former occupation, viz, that of sitting to certain artists (those artists, however, being all his personal friends, Rossetti, A. Hughes, Stephens, Egg, Holliday, Millais, Collins and myself), and as mine was the only direct study of her head, as it was, he would hold it a favour if I would give it him and he in return would give me something of his doing that I might like. At first I resisted stoutly, but finding that it was a serious point with him, and that my refusing would be in some degree an obstacle in the carrying out of his wishes with regard to her (which it would be both selfish and unkind and foolish in the remotest degree to thwart) I at last reluctantly assented to give him the study, the most careful and the most interesting (to me) and which I prize the most I have ever made. He thanked me heartily for my compliance. He gave me real pleasure by telling me that she says I always behaved most kindly to her.
Sometime before 1859 Thomas Heron Jones 7th Viscount Ranelagh [aged 46] is believed to have had an affair with Annie Miller [aged 24] which caused the break off of her engagement with William Holman Hunt [aged 31]. She subsequently married a cousin of Ranelagh's [her future husband] Thomas Ranelagh Thompson [aged 31] in 1863.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1859. 15th October 1859. Went to see F. C., and took her some apples and walnuts. Had a long chat with her. She told me that R. had had a call from Annie Miller [aged 24], who had left a card. He is in the habit, she says, of sitting in a large chair o’nights reading Balzac’s novels.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1859. 22nd December 1859. Miss Annie Miller [aged 24] called on me in the evening in an excited state to ask me to recommend her someone to sit to. She was determined on sitting again in preference to doing anything else. All was broken off between her and Hunt [aged 32]. I pitied the poor girl very much, by reason of the distraction of her mind and heart.
Called on Hunt in the evening to tell him of her visit and that, finding she was resolved on sitting again, I should ask her to sit to me instead of to any stranger. He said it seemed now as if she could do nothing else for she rejected (naturally enough) all his efforts to find employment through friends. Finding he could not get her to do what he wanted to make her a desirable wife for him, nor to wean herself from old objectionable habits, he had broken off the engagement; but the whole affair had preyed on his mind for years. The interview was friendly throughout. I had another long look at the "Christ and the Doctors" picture.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1859. 28th December 1859. Annie Miller [aged 24] came and sat to me. Rossetti [aged 31] came in and made a pencil study of her. She looked more beautiful than ever.
Around 1860. Dante Gabriel Rossetti [aged 31]. Portrait of Annie Miller [aged 25].
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1860. 11th February 1860. Annie Miller [aged 25] sat to me. Rossetti [aged 31] came in towards dusk and touched on my oil portrait of her begun, and went away with her.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1860. 27th February 1860. Miss Miller [aged 25] came to sit to me, but Rossetti [aged 31] coming in soon after, I did scarcely any work. Major Gillam paid me 16 gns. for the drawing done at Streatley of the long-grass meadow and mowers. D. G. R. put his initials to the "Borgia" and "Belle Dame Sans Merci."
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1860. 20th March 1860. Miss Miller [aged 25] kame to sit to me. Escorted her to the boat. Lent her "Wuthering Heights."
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1860. 18th April 1860. Annie Miller [aged 25] sat to me. She asked me for a little drawing of mine, and I gave her a sunset sketch done in the Valley of the Lledr, near "The Fish." Called on Millais. Finding him out I left for him my subscription to his Rifle Corps.
Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1862. 16th June 1862. Joined Henry and Mrs. Astley at the International Exhibition. Saw Annie Miller [aged 27] there looking as handsome as ever, walking with a young man1, rather a swell.
Note 1. Probably [her future husband] Thomas Ranelagh Thompson [aged 34] who she married in July 1863.
1863. Dante Gabriel Rossetti [aged 34]. "Dona en Groc" aka "Woman in Yellow". Model Annie Miller [aged 28].
1863. Dante Gabriel Rossetti [aged 34]. "Helen of Troy". Model Annie Miller [aged 28].
On 23rd July 1863 Thomas Ranelagh Thompson [aged 35] and Annie Miller [aged 28] were married.
Before 28th December 1865 William Holman Hunt [aged 38] and Annie Miller [aged 30] were engaged. He subsequently broke it off.
1866. Dante Gabriel Rossetti [aged 37]. Drawing of Annie Miller [aged 31].
1866. William Holman Hunt [aged 38]. "Il Dolce far Niente" aka "The Sweetness of Nothing(?)". Model Annie Miller [aged 31].
1871. Dante Gabriel Rossetti [aged 42]. "Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice". Models: Beatrice: Jane Morris nee Burden [aged 31], far left Alice aka Alexa Wilding [aged 24], far right Annie Miller [aged 36].
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1874. 23rd March 1874. Elizabeth King left me this evening and Mrs. Miller [aged 39] came in her place. Elizabeth is going to marry a man of the name of Waller, in an iron foundry. Paid her her wages and £1 extra as a present and gave her 3 glazed cases, one containing white and black jats, second a weasel and young rabbit and the 3rd a pair of starlings.
In April 1916 [her husband] Thomas Ranelagh Thompson [aged 88] died.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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In 1925 Annie Miller [aged 90] died at Shoreham-by-Sea. She was buried at Mill Lane Cemetery.