John: I suspect, for the future destiny of the Holme manor, was the marriage of John of Gaunt and Blanche in 1359. This date was surely a moment of destiny for the Carpenters of the day. John of Gaunt then became the Duke of Lancaster and thereby possessor of all Blanche’s Lancastrian lands, including our manor, the Holme. Allied to the newly minted Duke of Lancaster was the Warwickshire Beauchamp line that ended with Henry. The Beauchamp arms, and the arms of Bishop John Carpenter of Worcester, were nearly identical. Henry Beauchamp became the legal guardian of King Henry VI and John Carpenter his (the king’s) household chaplain. The London merchants with Town Clerk John Carpenter lent Henry VI his money. Woven into all of this was the Beauchamp wealth, much probably wool derived and processed into cloth by possible Carpenter connected cloth makers. John becomes Bishop just two years before the death of Henry Beauchamp, which was the beginning of the reversal of fortunes of the Lancasters with the marriage of Henry Beauchamp’s sole hier Anne to the Nevilles who opposed Henry VI. I understand that one of Annes daughters married a Carpentier from Flanders. Was this an international trade manuver? One more factor in this was John of Gaunt’s own mother Queen Phillipa of Hainaut in Flanders. Surely part of John of Gaunt’s baggage were all manner of economic connections ties to Flanders, as well as the well known political ones. Next week I will be able to present the evidence of massive Flemish Carpenter involvement in the Low Country cloth market, chiefly in Douai, right in the traditional Nord heartland of the continental Carpenters. Sincerely, Bruce Carpenter