Carlisle Castle – plus comment overheard during a visit there.
Pontefract Castle is often described as the “Key to the North.” With that in mind, how many castles can you identify in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Westmorland and Northumbria. I shall list my thoughts in alphabetic order next week but must admit that I’m taking a will leap into the dark- or even oubliette- with this particular challenge.
I will be returning to the Midlands, Wales and the rest of England in due course but we might take a break from wall to wall castling in between times.
If you’re looking for a good book on the architecture and history of castles then Castle: A History of the Buildings that Shaped Medieval Britain is the book for you.
It was much easier to set the question than to produce the answer. Nor does it help that I’m losing track of the days of the week – I’m now functioning on today, yesterday, tomorrow and a shrug of the shoulders.
I hope that this challenge encouraged you to think of some of the places that you’ve visited and read about. I began with the challenge of 23 monastic houses – one for each letter of the alphabet with XYZ counting as one rather than 3 – I struggled for a little while with O. How did you all do? The only reason that I’ve got Quarr on the Isle of Wight is because I’ve visited it. Rather than produce a second separate list I’ve added as many abbeys and priories as I can against each letter of the alphabet – that is not to say that there are 625 of them. If you have them all then all I can say is “How lovely to meet you Mr Cromwell.”
A = Armathwaite, Appleby, Abbotsbury (there’s a huge monastic barn at this site), Alnwick, Abingdon, Axholme, Athelney, Amesbury, Alvingham, Aylesford and Arden. Anglesey Abbey in Camridgeshire was not in actual fact an abbey – it was more of a hermitage. As with Calke Abbey in Derbyshire it was retrospectively enlarged by its secular owners!
This is clearly not a complete list so if you have any others don’t forget to add them to your tally. If you have more than 50 then you are doing very well indeed!
I shall now have no excuse not to update the History Jar list of abbeys and priories. I started sometime ago but never finished, unlike Thomas Cromwell’s commissioners who did a very speedy job indeed.
Netley Abbey standing on Southampton Water – built by the Cistercians in the 13th Century.
Ordinance Survey produced a two volume map (a north and a south sheet) showing monastic houses in 1950. This is not in publication at the moment. There was also a Jackdaw folder produced about the Dissolution of the Monasteries. One of the documents was a map of the monastic houses of England and Wales.
The Abbey Explorer’s Guide by Frank Bottomley contains a comprehensive gazetteer of monastic houses. There is also a book by English Heritage on Abbeys and Priories.
This week I am sticking with an ecclesiastical theme. In 1529 there were more than 800 monastic houses in England and Wales. By 1547 when Henry VIII died there were none left thanks to Thomas Cromwell’s organised approach to the administrative processes that dissolved them between 1536 and 1540. The first wave of suppressions came in 1536 with the dissolution of smaller monastic houses valued at less than £200 per year. Having said that many, particularly the nunneries, received a stay of execution because there was nowhere else for the inhabitants to go. The Second Act of Suppression followed in 1539 which saw all monastic houses whatever their size or value being closed. By 1540 fifty monastic houses a month were being suppressed and dismantled.
I’m not expecting you to list all of them! Indeed, 200 of the monastic houses were friaries which brings the number down to a more modest 625. Of those, 200 were nunneries.
Firstly can you list 23 of the monastic houses – one for each letter of the alphabet with XYZ counting as one rather than 3?
And secondly how many can you name? I’m not totally sure how many I can think of, so its a bit of a challenge for me as well. You do have a slight head start as my post about cathedrals listed former abbey churches which were turned into cathedrals at the time of the Reformation.
Have you checked out the History Extra website? It’s the home of the BBC History Magazine so contains some interesting articles as well as a podcast and information about historical tv and film. Here’s a link to get you started – it’s about clerical abuses of the kind that Thomas Cromwell’s commissioners were looking for as they set off to compile the Valor Ecclessiasticus.
Time for answers – how did you do and how many have you visited?
Old Foundation Cathedrals: These cathedrals were ‘secular’ foundations dating from before the Reformation. This simply means that their chapters weren’t made up from monks in a closed order – their chapters were always run by canons who were of the world rather than being enclosed. Essentially the lack of monastic involvement meant that these cathedrals were unaffected by the dissolution of the monasteries.
In England: Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, London (St Paul’s), Salisbury, Wells and York.
In Wales: Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, and St David’s.
New Foundation Cathedrals: These cathedrals either functioned as public places of worship with monastic chapters in the medieval period or were abbeys. The Reformation was not good news for their monastic inhabitants. Cromwell reorganised the dioceses and church administration of England and Wales. New non-monastic constitutions were applied. For instance, St Mary’s Abbey church in Carlisle became the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Many cathedrals were re-founded during the reign of Henry VIII often with the last abbot or prior becoming the dean of the new chapter.
In England: Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester and Worcester had already existed prior to the reformation as cathedrals. In addition, Henry created new bishoprics and cathedrals from Bristol (the Holy and Undivided Trinity), Chester, Gloucester, Oxford and Peterborough.
Modern Foundation Cathedrals or Parish Church Cathedrals: from the mid 1800s (the first dates from 1836) a number of new cathedrals have been established which reflect the changing population of England and Wales. They include cathedrals based upon former parish churches, to meet the needs of new dioceses.
In England: Blackburn, Birmingham, Bradford, Chelmsford, Coventry, Derby, Guildford, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Ripon, St Albans St Edmundsbury, Sheffield, Southwark, Southwell, Truro, Wakefield
IN Wales: Brecon, Newport
Cannon, Jon. (2007) Cathedral: The Great English Cathedrals. London: Constable.
Jenkins, Simon. (2016) England’s Cathedrals. London: Little Brown
Constructing the Tower of Babel German, Regensburg, about 1400–1410 Tempera colors on parchment MS. 33, FOL. 13 – showing the skills needed to build a medieval cathedral
There are actually 18 cities in England and Wales without an Anglican cathedral which comes as a bit of a surprise as I learned at school that in order to be a city then a cathedral was required. Equally there thirteen towns with Anglican Cathedrals that do not have city status – just goes to prove that the stuff you learn as a child isn’t necessarily correct…
Your challenge for week 4 is to name as many cathedrals in England and Wales as you can – location rather than which saint is involved – though if you can think of location and exact name please do so!
A cathedral is, of course, the main church in a diocese – or administrative area under the pastoral care of it’s bishop. It is where the bishop has his or her cathedra or throne.
There are three groups of cathedrals. Many cathedrals were once part of a monastic foundation. When Henry VIII closed them down in the 1530s many were re-founded as cathedrals which means that quite often the last prior or abbot of an abbey became a cathedral’s first dean. This kind of cathedral is a New Foundation Cathedral whereas Old Foundation cathedrals were never part of the monastic scene – they were run by secular canons i.e. they were part of the wider world and they were in place before the Reformation. There are nine Old Foundation Cathedrals in England and Wales. The third group are Modern Foundations which were created in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. A cathedral in this group is sometimes called a parish church cathedral. The modern foundations reflect the way in which populations changed due to industrialisation and urbanisation.
Illustration of Edward the Confessor taken from the Bayeux Tapestry
Having been out for my hour’s walk yesterday with History Jar challenges on my mind – and no I do not feel the urge to take up jogging, thank you all the same -I now have a long list of challenges for the blog.
This week’s challenge is a two part challenge. Firstly, where have English monarchs and their consorts been buried since 1066? And secondly, the obvious answer is Westminster Abbey. There have been thirty kings and queens buried there according to the Westminster Abbey website. Without looking them up, how many of the 30 can you name?
Edward the Confessor was buried in the newly completed Westminster Abbey on 6th January 1066. He was placed before the high altar but on 13th October 1163 he was moved to a shrine which Henry III improved upon with the addition of mosaics but of course in 1540 the shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII’s vandals.
At the time of the coronation in 1953 there were a number of decorations set up in London composed of royal devices in their various forms. Amongst them, in Westminster Abbey, stood ten six foot tall royal heraldic beasts. Their inspiration was taken from the heraldic beasts at Hampton Court Palace originally placed there by Henry VIII, gaining them the name “the King’s Beasts.”
These beasts, and others like them may be found on coats of arms, heraldic badges used on the liveries and standards of various families and the two heraldic supports of a shield of arms.
The royal arms and their beasts have changed across the centuries – the Tudors added a royal beast, as did the Stuarts for example.
Royal arms can be seen in churches across the country. It became usual for churches to do this following the Reformation – and was a very visual way of the population being reminded exactly who was in charge. Royal arms can also be found in various stately stacks around the country as assorted nobility and gentry used their building projects to demonstrate their loyalty to their monarch.
So, your challenge this week, is to name as many royal beasts as you can that have been linked with the royal family since 1066. And just to get you started here is a link to an old post about the lion and the unicorn https://thehistoryjar.com/2016/05/14/the-lion-and-the-unicorn-2/
By all means add the royal beast into the comments box – and if you wish the person who introduced it into the royal family.
Pinches, J.H. &R.V. (1974) The Royal Heraldry of England. London: Heraldry Today
Stanford London, H. (1953) The Queen’s Beasts. London: Newman Name
Last week I set the first History Jar Challenge which was to name as many English royal consorts as you could since 1066. There are, I think, 38 of them. Not all royal spouses became kings or queens alongside the monarch in question. How did you do? There will be another challenge on Saturday!
The Normans
William the Conqueror = (1) Matilda of Flanders. Following the conquest she was crowned as William’s consort in 1068.
William Rufus = unmarried.
Henry I =
(2) Edith of Scotland who became Matilda of Scotland upon her marriage to Henry. Henry I’s mother Matilda of Flanders was Edith’s godmother and it is said that at her christening she pulled at Matilda’s head dress signifying that one day she would rise to her godmother’s rank. She died on 1st May 1118 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
(3) Adeliza (there are alternative spellings and pronunciations) of Louvain.
Stephen = (4) Matilda of Boulogne who was the niece of Edith/Matilda of Scotland.
The Empress Matilda was never crowned queen of England. And you will be delighted to hear that there aren’t any more Matildas!
The Plantagenets
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Henry II = (5) Eleanor of Aquitaine
Richard the Lionheart = (6) Berengaria of Navarre
John =
Isabella of Gloucester but she was never queen of England due to an annulment on the grounds of consanguinity.
(7) Isabella of Angoulême. She was crowned in Westminster in 1200 when she was 12.
Henry III = (8) Eleanor of Province
Eleanor of Castile
Edward I =
(9) Eleanor of Castile (after who the Eleanor crosses are named.)
(10) Margaret of France
Edward II = (11) Isabella of France – one of English history’s she-wolves.
Edward III = (12) Philippa of Hainhault. They married in 1328 in York Minster during a snow storm – which was unfortunate as the minster was without a roof at the time.
Richard II =
(13) Anne of Bohemia. She died of plague in 1394 at Sheen Palace. Richard was so devastated that he ordered that the palace be demolished.
(14) Isabella of France who was a child at the time of her marriage. Following Richard II’s usurpation by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke she returned to France.
Henry IV =
Mary de Bohun who died before Henry became king.
(15) Joan of Navarre became queen upon her marriage to Henry in 1402 but she wasn’t crowned until the following year.
Henry V = (16) Katherine of Valois who would marry Owain Tudor following Henry’s death.
Henry VI = (17) Margaret of Anjou (another she-wolf)
Edward IV = (18) Elizabeth Woodville (and this is not the time to discuss whether or not Edward was a bigamist)
Richard III = (19) Anne Neville
The Tudors
Elizabeth of York
Henry VII = (20) Elizabeth of York
Henry VIII = famously married six times. He believed that he had only ever been legitimately married to Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr – one because she produced a son and the other because he died before she could be toppled from the rather tenuous position as Henry’s spouse.
(21) Catherine of Aragon
(22) Anne Boleyn
(23) Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves – not crowned because Henry took against her.
(24) Katherine Howard
(25) Katherine Parr
Edward VI = unmarried
Lady Jane Grey was never crowned although she was proclaimed queen.
Mary Tudor and Philip II of Spain part of the Woburn Abbey Collection
Mary I = (26) Philip II of Spain. The Spanish Match as it was known was deeply unpopular. Although Philip became king he had very little power.
Elizabeth I = unmarried
The Stuarts
Anne of Denmark by Gheeraerts
James I = (27) Anne of Denmark
Charles I = (28) Henrietta Maria
Charles II = (29) Katherine of Braganza
James II =
Anne Hyde who died before James became king.
(30) Mary of Modena
William III and Mary II who were married to one another.
Anne = George of Denmark – was raised to the English peerage prior to Anne becoming queen but was never crowned as prince consort.
The Hanoverians
George I = Sophia Dorothea who never became queen of England because George divorced her for adultery before he became king of England. She spent the remainder of her life locked up in Ahlden Castle in Germany.
George II = (31) Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach
George III = (32) Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. There is a possibility that he married bigamously.
George IV =
Maria Fitzherbert – who was Catholic and therefore the marriage was against the 1701 Act of Settlement and the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. This marriage was deemed to be invalid.
Caroline of Brunswick. It wasn’t a happy marriage. She was forcibly barred from attending George’s coronation so was never crowned.
William IV = (33) Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Victoria = (34) Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Edward VII =(35) Alexandra of Denmark
The Windsors
George V = (36) Mary of Teck
Edward VIII was proclaimed king but never crowned, preferring to abdicate in order to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson.
With self-isolation and social distancing becoming a way of life some of you have said that it would be good if I could become a bit more interactive. I admit that this isn’t particularly interactive but it’s a start! Others of you have said that you need something to think about and someone suggested a quoting activity.
Your history challenge this week– should you choose to accept it- is to name as many of England’s royal consorts as you can (no cheating). According to my ruler that lists all the monarchs- not including the Empress Matilda or Lady Jane Grey there have been 41 kings and queens of England. But who were they married to? Answers next Saturday.
Store cupboard of quotes – Add your favourite quote about history in the comments. Let’s see what you come up with! Ideally add the quote and who said it. By all means say why you like it. There are no prizes I’m afraid, just the satisfaction of doing it. My favourite quote about history is actually from Winston Churchill, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
In future I will add a quote challenge on a Sunday but I thought it would be good to make a start. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
