Budleigh Past and Present

    A copy, in All Saints' Church East Budleigh, of one of the best known portraits of Sir Walter formerly attributed to Zuccaro but now to the monogrammist 'H' (? Hubbard) and dated 1588. It shows Raleigh in court dress at the height of his favour with Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh had been appointed Captain of the Guard in 1587   Raleigh does not have a reputation as a peacemaker. Courtier, poet, soldier, explorer, historian he certainly was, and for most of his life, an enemy of Spain. In 1618, after his disastrous second voyage to Guiana resulted in the reinstatement of the death sentence there was jubilation at the Spanish court.     Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, a title awarded by King Philip III of Spain in 1617. Image credit: Wikipedia Such was the hatred he inspired there that Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in London, demanded that Raleigh and his crew be hanged in Madrid.    The 2007 film Elizabeth – The Golden Age, d...

     The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, a painting by the French Huguenot François Dubois (1529–1584)  Elsewhere on this blog I posted my editorial 'Remaining Thoughts', published in the Autumn 2016 Fairlynch Museum newsletter The Primrose.  As I wrote it, I had various things in mind, including the little-known story of East Budleigh's Huguenot refugee Daniel Caunières (1661-1739). He was appointed as vicar in 1689, four years after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes during the reign of Louis XIV.  Caunières went on to become Rector of Filleigh, near Barnstaple in 1704. He was appointed on 10 March 1722 as chaplain to 27-year-old Lord Hugh Fortescue (1695-1751), later to become 14th Baron Clinton.  My little piece of bloggerel can be sung to the tune of 'La Marseillaise'.  (My words are much nicer).   We’re going to sing a song of freedom Of bravery and liberty; Of Daniel Caunières, a...