The Coronation of Charles I - A Guest Post by Jennie Gillions

Today's post comes courtesy of Jennie Gillions, author of the fabulous blog "Ink Under Skin" which is all about tattoos and skin art in history. Now, I adore tattoos; heck I'm even planning on getting one of Cesare Borgia's motto but that's a different story - so her blog is definitely a must read if you like fun stuff like that. Anyway, I'll stop rambling and let Jennie take over with her post on Charles I's Coronation!

Charles I by Van Dyke

2nd February 2013 is the 387th anniversary of the coronation of England’s arguably most rubbish king.

He has some stiff competition - Henry VI was pretty useless, and Edward II was deposed by his own wife - but Charles I, I think, wins out for managing to be the only British monarch to annoy his own people so much that they, state-sanctioned, murdered him.

And it wasn’t even as if it started well. Charles had been ruling since his father James I died in March 1625, but plague had postponed the coronation. In case that wasn’t sufficiently ominous, his wife refused to be crowned alongside him, and the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke too quietly for the congregation to hear when they were supposed to start applauding.

* * *

Charles, born a second son of James VI of Scotland in November 1600, was never meant to be king. He was, by all accounts, an unattractive child, weak and with a pronounced stammer that he retained throughout his life - his father kept him in Scotland until a year after his own accession to the English throne, in 1603. Charles’s older brother Henry was, in contrast, glorious, and Henry’s death from tuberculosis in 1612 was as tragic as it was unexpected.

Charles I in his Garter robes by Van Dyke

 Charles therefore started training for kingship late, and a combination of naivety and supreme arrogance meant he made some grave errors even before he was crowned. Charles, like his father, was an ardent believer in the concept of Divine Right, that a king was annointed by God and therefore no other man had the authority to challenge him. Unfortunately Parliament tried to challenge him in its first session of his reign, by trying to impeach Charles’s beloved best friend, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham had risen to prominence under (if rumours are to be believed, quite literally under) James VI and I, becoming the preeminent figure at court, obscenely wealthy, and in charge of pretty much anything he wanted to be in charge of. This included, in 1625, an expedition to take the Spanish port of Cadiz, which ended in ignominious failure. Parliament blamed Buckingham for the men, the money and the dignity that had been lost but Charles, in an early display of the jaw-dropping inability to compromise that would eventually kill him, dissolved the session in a huff rather than risk Buckingham.

His early reign was also characterised by his disastrous marriage, to a French Catholic princess, Henrietta Maria. Henrietta Maria was only 15 when she arrived in England, already married by proxy to a nervous 25-year-old virgin who was a strict Anglican in a country that outlawed Catholicism. Charles had agreed with her brother, Louis XIII, that she should be allowed to practise her faith openly, which didn’t go down well with her new Protestant subjects. She and Buckingham hated each other, and because Charles loved his friend far more than he loved his wife, Henrietta Maria’s first months in England were unhappy ones.

Charles I and Henrietta Maria by Mytens

 So there was no glorious victory at Cadiz to celebrate, no heir to the throne and no harmony between Protestants and Catholics at court. There was no huge parade, and the Queen, refusing to be crowned in an Anglican ceremony, watched proceedings from an upstairs window. In the embarrassing silence that followed the Archbishop’s largely unheard call for cheering, it fell to one of the Lords to whip up some enthusiasm by shouting: ‘God save King Charles!’

* * *

God didn’t. Eventually, on 30th January 1649, after an eleven year rule without a single session of Parliament, followed by two bitter, bloody civil wars, England sent its king to the scaffold.

Further Reading

David Starkey & Christopher Hibbert: Charles I: A Life of Religion, War and Treason

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charles-Life-Religion-War-Treason/dp/140398378X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359453943&sr=1-3)

Dr Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion: The Turbulent Marriage of Charles I and Henrietta http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Passion-Turbulent-Marriage-Henrietta/dp/0753828030/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359453943&sr=1-7

Happy Birthday Charles I

Today in 1600, a young prince was born to King James I and his wife Anne of Denmark. This prince, the couple's second son, would go on to become one the most famous monarchs that England had ever known - King Charles I. He would go on to declare war on Parliament in 1642 and would eventually be executed for treason on 30th January 1649. Charles has long fascinated me and during my University days I spent much of my time researching the English Civil War and the role that the Royalist army played, eventually concentrating solely on the Battle of Cheriton in 1644. For my sins I was also a part of the Sealed Knot and "fought" for the Royalist regiment, Henry Tilliers Regiment of Foote.

Charles I is an interesting character in many respects, not only for his role in the English Civil War. He was never supposed to become King in the first place, that was the role meant for his elder brother Henry Stuart. Sadly though, Henry died in 1612 and the young Duke of York became heir to the throne. Poor little Charles wasn't exactly the most healthy child, he was sickly and had problems walking, and apparently had a speech impediment too. He had spent his childhood in the shadow of his brother Henry, who he loved and tried his best to emulate but unfortunately as a child could never really live up to his brother. In fact, little Charles did not start walking properly until he was at least four years old thanks to the weakness in his legs. At the age of 16 it is recorded that he suffered from "green sickness", a rather odd illness for an adolescent young man to suffer from as it was normally said to affect young ladies! However by the time he reached his early 20's he seems to have left most of his physical illnesses behind although he apparently never really had the intellectual capacity of other young men of his age.

Charles also became bosom friends with his fathers supposed paramour George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. In George, Charles found a surrogate older brother who encouraged Charles to start looking at women (and noticed that Charles was very slow on the uptake with romance!), and even took the young heir incognito to Spain to woo the Spanish Infanta. When James I died in 1625, Charles married Henrietta Maria if France yet held Villiers above her in his affections. It wasn't until Villiers was assassinated in 1628 that Charles began to take decent notice of his wife and the two of them ended up falling head over heels in love with each other.

Charles never really had a very good relationship with parliament, and ended up taking personal rule of the country from 1629. The next eleven years were known by parliamentarian supporters as the "eleven years tyranny". In 1640, Charles recalled parliament - he needed money to fight the second bishops war. Less than a month later, this parliament was dissolved by Charles because he wasn't going to listen to their ideas for reform. In November that year, Charles again called Parliament, again needing more money and this became known as the Long Parliament. In this one, tensions soon rose when Parliament wanted to impeach various members of the court and they also passed an act to prevent the King from dissolving parliament. In March 1641 they impeached Lord Stafford and he was placed on trial for High Treason. Charles however refused to sign the bill of Attainder but in parliament this bill went unopposed and Charles signed the bill in fear for his family's safety. Stafford was executed. In May of the same year parliament made ship money and various forms of taxation illegal - all of which had proven unpopular when the King had forced these taxes previously.

All of this lead to Charles and Parliament fighting for control - Charles believed that as King of England he should have control, Parliament believed that the King should work with them or not at all. Charles then tried to have five prominent members of parliament arrested on 4th January 1642 when he tried to take parliament by force of arms. The five men had already left. And this was the beginning of the end for Charles Stuart - Parliament seized London and in January 1642, Charles fled London.

Civil War was declared in August 1642 and Charles raised an army. Parliament did the same and it lead to a bitter 7 year period of fighting. The best known part of the civil war lasted until 1646 when Charles was arrested and imprisoned by Parliament. The second civil war was fought in 1648-9, finishing with the execution of King Charles I in January 1649 and the third civil war lasted from 1649-51 and was fought between parliament and supporters of Charles II. Following Charles I's execution in 1649, the country was run by Oliver Cromwell and the interregnum lasted until the death of Cromwell and the failure of his son Richard - leading to the Restoration of Charles I's son Charles II as monarch.

If I'm honest, the life of Charles I deserves much much more than this super brief overview. His life was really very interesting and he did so much in his reign - not all of it clever! Though that seems to be a bit of a pattern with Stuart monarchs (maybe that's why I'm so fascinated with them, really they just seemed to make life difficult for themselves). One of these days I'll do a series of posts on this most fascinating monarch, but I hope this overview has given you all something to mull over. And to finish off - Happy Birthday Charles I!

Further Reading

Frederick Holmes - The Sickly Stuarts
Dianne Purkiss - The English Civil war: A People's History
Katie Whitaker - A Royal Passion
C.V Wedgwood - A King Condemned
Tristram Hunt - The English Civil War At First Hand
David Starkey & Christopher Hibbert - Charles I: A Life of Religion, War and Treason

Winchester In The English Civil War

Having spent three years of my life in Winchester, I feel a certain affinity to the city and in particular the role that it played in the English Civil War. I first became interested in it's role during the English Civil War when I was wandering around the Cathedral for the first time and saw the statues of James I and Charles I that sit on either side of the massive main doors. The statue of Charles has a huge musket hole in it, from when Parliamentarian troops took the city. After that, it became my obsession and I spent many an hour in the University library researching what happened to this beautiful city during those turbulent years and I ended up specialising in one particular battle that had a huge effect on the City and the surrounding area: Cheriton. Of course, the city itself holds many secrets of what happened to it during the Civil War, many of which I discovered whilst doing work for University. Today, I thought I would travel away from Renaissance Italy for a bit and do a little something that goes back to my roots: Winchester in the English Civil War.

As War was declared against Parliament in 1642, the majority of Hampshire was staunchly Parliamentarian. Winchester, however, became a Royalist stronghold and began to prepare itself for a fight. Money was voted in for swords, bullets and arms. However, Winchester would soon find itself the victim of siege from the armies of Sir William Waller (commander of the Parliamentarian armies, and old friend of Ralph Hopton; a commander in the Royalist army). In the December of 1642, as the Royalist army who had fought a skirmish is Wherewall, began to withdraw to the City:

"fearing to be caught napping by active Sir William Waller and his force and the better to protect himself and his Cavaliers from the pursuit of the Parliaments force retreated to Winchester, a place not like to give him kind entertainment being full of Malignant spirits, who indeed were not a little glad at his coming, thinking themselves now secure from danger being under the wings of a bird of theire own feathers."

Yet as the troops fled to the city, they were pursued by Parliamentarian troops, and as they reached the city gates (and some of the citizens came out to help), were heavily outnumbered. As they fought, Grandison's regiment of horse rushing through the gates covered by musketeers, two entire regiments were destroyed. The city was now under siege, it's people trapped and its soldiers outnumbered. William Waller himself arrived not long after and found, as was to be expected, the gates shut to him. So he barricaded the city so the Royalists could not escape, and as he waited for his dragoons to arrive, began to plan his attack. At about 2pm on the afternoon of Waller's arrival, the Parliamentary forces attacked Winchester and by 3pm, they had started to break through the walls into the City and the Royalist soldiers holed themselves up inside the Castle. The very next day, having realised that the Castle was ill equipped to deal with a siege, the Royalists surrendered the castle.

As the Castle was being surrendered however, and terms settled, the Parliamentary troops began to riot through the city, pillaging and plundering as they went. And the Cathedral was quite possibly one of the biggest victims of the 1642 siege. The troops entered the great West Door and there, according to a description by Trussel, defiled bibles, hangings and sacred monuments. They fired their muskets at the two bronze statues of King Charles and King James, and pulled down beautiful mortuary chests containing the bones of Kings an Prelates; scattering the remains.

As well as this they also desecrated chantry chapels, the Lady Chapel and the medieval glass in the cathedral. They also fired their muskets at the huge West Window which depicted images of the saints. During the Restoration, new mortuary chests were made to replace the ones destroyed during this attack, and the bones gathered together and placed in them, including the remains of Kings Cnut and Rufus, Queen Emma and Bishops Wina and Alwyn. Some prominent tombs were destroyed during the attack including the tomb of Cardinal Beaufort (the effigy there now was created during the Restoration and has seventeenth century shoes depicted!) and William of Wainfleet. Whilst most of the damage was reparable, the cathedral lost some parts permanently including the medieval glass windows, ornaments and furniture.

By September 1643, the town was back in Royalist hands again after the Parliamentarians moved out of the city towards Southampton. On Monday 18th September, Colonel Sir Edward Ford marched into the city with his entire regiment. It was the day of the Mayors election, and the city would stay in Royalist hands until Oliver Cromwell would besiege the city in 1645.

For the next two years, the city stayed once more as a Royalist stronghold. The mayor of the city, William Ogle set about fortifying the castle in case the worst should happen again. He ordered the clearing of the surrounding ditches from trees, shrubs and wooden buildings that could be set fire to. And on Monday 6th November, Sir Ralph Hopton arrived in the city from Andover and he made the city his main quarters, from which he marched out to relieve the nearby Basing House from its own recent siege. It is also incredibly likely that at this point the City would have prospered - it was free from plundering parliamentarians after all. In the surrounding area, as 1643 drew to a close, much more was happening. For instance on December 12th 1643, Colonel John Boles found himself in a skirmish at Alton where he and many other defenders were killed inside the local church. The outer door of the Church of St Lawrence shows holes made during musket fire and if you look closely you can even see a few musket balls embedded in the stonework.

There is a memorial plaque to Colonel Boles on a column in Winchester Cathedral. Erected many years later, it gives Boles' name as Richard which was actually his brothers name.

As well as this, in early 1644 nearby Arundel was besieged and taken by Parliament.

The winter of 1644 was used by Hopton to get his troops back into shape after the fall of Romsey, Alton and Arundel. It was high time for him to recruit more men and get them trained in time for the next offensive in the Spring. Hopton also had to make sure than his base of operations was secure and so much of the 1644 winter was spent in building two sconces (defensive ditches or fortifications) - one upon St Giles Hill and the other upon West Hill. By 1st February 1644 Hopton had recruited and trained around 3500 foot and 2000 horse, and by mid February sent a reconnaissance force to Southampton. The sheer amount of new troops in Hoptons army meant that they had to be billeted somewhere, and many were sent to stay at the Hospital of St Mary Magdalen (which at one time had been used as a leper hospital). A few years back now, I took part in an archaeological dig at Magdalen Hill and spent most of my 4 weeks there digging in the chapel where we found evidence of seventeenth century horse gear. This matches up to a complaint sent to Hopton in 1644 by the Master of the Hospital:

"(they) have used violence to the house of God; burninge up all the seats and pues in the church, as also the communion table, and all other wainscott and timbers there, that they could lay hands on: and have converted the sayd house of God into a stable for horses and other prophane uses, to the great dishonour of God..."

By March 1644, there were plans afoot by Parliament to move back towards the west and on 25th March the army rendesvoused at West Meon. News of course reached the ears of Hopton, and during a council of War on 26th it was agreed that they should march immediately against Waller. The two armies met at Cheriton on 29th March 1644, more of which can be read about here. Following their defeat at Cheriton, instead of falling back to Winchester, the Royalists retreated back towards Basing House leaving Winchester isolated. Parliament seem to have got it into their heads that the City would be easily taken, declaring proudly in London that the City had been taken. They were wrong, and the Castle held out for another eighteen months.

On 28th September however, the city found itself besieged once more, this time by Oliver Cromwell - the Lieutenant General of the Parliamentarian Army. It took exactly a week for the City to surrender. During that week, Cromwell and the Mayor exchanged letters in which Cromwell said the only reason he was there was to save the city from ruin. Terms were not reached, and as the week progressed, Cromwell discovered that an elderly bishop was staying in the castle. Cromwell offered the man safe conduct out of the city, but was refused. So instead of giving the city another chance, he fired on the city gates and after a very short skirmish entered the city, forcing the Royalists to retreat back to the castle, which they found difficult to protect against Parliament. Impossible in fact. The castle itself was huge, made up of 8 towers which had to be manned as well as the various gates, yet the Royalists made a stirling effort in their defence. Cromwell however made sure he was well equipped to the task of taking the castle, having gun platforms built, defensive ditches dug and men lined up ready to attack. And during early October, as Cromwell was preparing his attack, the Cathedral was again being ransacked. On the 3rd October, the guns were ready and the next day the attack began. Cromwell started by firing one single shot to signal to Ogle that the attack was beginning, and sent a summons into the castle. It was ignored and the attack began. By nightfall, a breach in the walls had been made and Ogle sent men to defend it. The following day, more summons were sent to Ogle, yet he still refused to surrender although asked if his wife would be allowed safe conduct from the city as she was unwell. Although this was granted, she died on her way home to Stoke. By the Sunday evening, a breach had been made next to the black tower, wide enough for 30 men to walk through. Ogle and his troops had had quite enough, and their morale broke down completely. Ogle then sat down and wrote a letter to Cromwell, asking for a parley which was immediately accepted by Cromwell although negotiations were lengthy. Eventually, a settlement was reached and the castle was once more taken by Parliament and by 3pm the next day Ogle and his army marched out of the City, although many of the Royalists ended up joining Parliament instead.

Later in 1645, Ogle was court marshaled for surrendering Winchester castle. However, due to the size and strength of Cromwell's army he was allowed to walk free.

It was decided by Parliament that the castle should remain garrisoned in case of another Royalist rising, and Thomas Bettesworth was made its governor.

During the attack on the Castle, a large hole was made in the roof of the Great Hall. This Hall is one of the only remaining parts of the Castle left today, and has been used frequently throughout history including the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603, and the famous Judge Jeffries condemned supporters of Monmouth during the 1685. The hole had been caused by a grenado filled with musket shot which had killed three men. The famous Round Table which today hangs on the wall of the Hall is littered with musket shot, caused either by this grenado or possibly by stray musket shots.

Many other buildings in the city were damaged during the siege, including the church of St Clements and its surrounding buildings. This church had been used as a guard room by the Parliamentarians and ransacked by them. St Larences church in the middle of the city was also wrecked and made unsafe for usage thanks to its interiors being torn out. Hastily patched back together, it was used as a school until Charles II was restored in 1660. The Royalists also stole the bells from the towers of St Mary Kalender, a church that had already long been in ruin. This church now no longer exists within the city. My very favourite little church in the city, St Swithun's Upon Kingsgate was also badly damaged and during Cromwell's Protectorate was let out to a family who used one end of it to live in and the other to keep their pigs in!

By the end of the English Civil War, and following the execution of Charles I in 1649, Cromwell ordered that  Winchester castle be demolished. The castle was demolished in 1651, due to fears of a Royalist invasion from France under the exiled Prince Rupert. Parliament ordered that the Castle be demolished within fourteen days of receiving the instructions. The Great Hall was left standing, as was the central oval tower on the east side of the castle. This tower seems to have been left standing until Sir Christopher Wren began building a new palace for King Charles II in the 1680's. Sir William Waller seemed to be rather upset by the demolition:

"It was just with God for the punishment of my giving way to the plunder of the City of Winchester (whereof I was a freeman and sworne to maintain and procure the good thereof as far as I could) to permit the demolition of my castle in Winchester"

In 1682, the City sold the land to King Charles II for the grand sum of 5 shillings. And in 1683, the City agreed to the demolition of the Great Hall to make way for the Kings new palace but only if they could have a new hall built for them. However, when Charles II died in 1685, building of his new palace was abandoned and so the Hall was saved.

The history of Winchester during the English Civil War has long fascinated me. It was the central area that each side wanted to keep their hands on, and during the years of war certainly suffered. Not only were buildings destroyed but the Cathedral was ransacked and it's people had to put up with the pillaging soldiers not once but four times. The War also meant that the City lost one of it's biggest landmarks; it's Castle, with only a few ruins and the Great Hall left of it today. I must admit, that every time I go back to Winchester I wonder what it would have been like during the siege of 1645, what would the Royalists held in the castle have been thinking? And it never fails to get my imagination going.

Further Reading

The Civil War In Winchester - Richard Sawyer
Cheriton 1644: The Campaign & The Battle - John Adair
The Civil War in Hampshire - Tony MacLachlan
The Civil War In Hampshire - Rev G N Godwin (no link available)

Review: The Sickly Stuarts by Frederick Holmes

It's been ages since I've posted a book review on here so I thought I would delight you all and post one. I will warn you now that this review may end up with me yelling about how much I love the Stuart family and how much I want to hug them all. But I'll try not to do that.

So, this book came through my letterbox yesterday morning, and I read the entire thing in a day. Whenever this has happened previously it's because the books have been really pants. This one was however, rather good. I'd spotted Holmes' book in the shop at Hampton Court before and kept wondering whether to pick it up or not, but if I'm honest it was the price that put me off. Then I found it on amazon, nice and cheap. And so when my ex library copy arrived, I settled down to read about the medical problems of my favourite historical family. And let me tell you, I learnt a lot, especially about the Stuart monarchs who I don't know all that much about.

Holmes splits the book up into each monarch that ruled throughout the Stuart era, with one chapter that concentrated on the children of Charles I. But before Holmes gets into the nitty gritty medical history of each monarch we are given a rather good introduction to disease and doctoring in the seventeenth century. This chapter describes how rife disease was in Stuart England, London in particular, and how the ever increasing population affected said disease. We are also given a brief introduction to the various illnesses and epidemics that plagued the populace (including plague...see what I did there? lolol) as well as the various treatments that are given them. Now then, some of these treatments were a little daft, including the "hot and cold method" of treating small pox. There was one part in this introduction that really made me prick my ears up, and that was a brief mention of early methods of diagnosing diabetes (as a type 1 diabetic myself, the history of this disease is hugely fascinating to me):

"In 1694 Thomas Willis was the first to note that the urine of diabetics ‘is wonderfully sweet, like Sugar or hony’"

As I quoted on our tumblr page, this 17th century doctor really has earned my respect and I really like him (even though I don't know all that much about him) because he had the balls the taste a diabetic person's urine. Now that is pretty gross, but it really opened the door for further treatment and even (in some distant way) paved the way for the advent of insulin by Banting and Best in the 1900's. Anyway, I'll shut up about the medical history of diabetes now and get on with reviewing the book. So yeah, after this we are given an introduction to the main doctors of the Seventeenth Century, and these are the men who feature prominently as physicians to the monarchy - Theodore de Mayerne, William Harvey, Thomas Sydenham, Richard Lower, John Radcliffe, Richard Mead and John Arbuthnot.

Following this introduction, Holmes' gets right into the thick of things and begins looking at each Stuart monarch. Of course we start out with James I (VI of Scotland) and Holmes then looks at each monarch in chronological order. The layout of each chapter is exactly the same - we start out with a brief look at their medical history, stuff that made them sick throughout their reign and their death and then goes on to look at their post mortem results to come to a conclusion as to what actually killed them. And as I made my way through each of the chapters, I learnt a lot of stuff that I didn't know about these monarchs.

Of course, Holmes is unable to come to a definitive answer as to the right diagnosis for each monarch but he does a damn good job with the information he had available. Drawing on primary sources and post mortem reports he was able to say "ok then it is super likely that Charles II had this, but not likely at all he had this other thing because the post mortem report says this". And although I'm not trained in medicine, a lot of Holmes' conclusions made a lot of sense. OK so he used some big words for various illnesses, but he also explained what they meant and what the illness was made up of. So yes, good.

Interesting stuff I learnt from this book:

James I had dementia, weak legs and his tongue was too big for his mouth so whenever he drank anything he slobbered it everywhere. He also didn't wash his hands, only dabbed the ends of his fingers.

Charles I had weak legs (inherited from his father), a speech impediment and according to Holmes was a tad delusional (mainly because he was all "lol parliament, I'm the King and I own all so shut up and let me rule on my own).

Charles II was actually pretty healthy until he made a massive derp of himself and conducted mercury experiments without safety gear (but then, was safety gear even invented then?) and gave himself mercury poisoning which killed him.

James II was also a derp, had an epic nosebleed that meant he couldn't fight off William of Orange (later William III, or actually he probably used the nosebleed as an excuse because he couldn't be bothered...maybe). And he died in exile of a stroke and pneumonia.

William III was an epic warrior who invaded England yet was pretty sickly and had asthma and died young because of bacterial pneumonia. His wife, Mary II confused everyone and no one knew whether she died of small pox or measles - at any rate she burned loads of her letters and papers before she died. And it was actually a really bad form of smallpox that killed her.

And last but not least, Anne was never really all that healthy. She survived 17 pregnancies, only 1 child surviving until he died of pneumonia at the age of 11, and eventually it was Lupus that killed her. And she was the last of the Stuart Monarchs...

All in all, an utterly fantastic book and a brilliant read. Some of it is a little complicated and I found myself having to read a few bits a couple of times before the medical terminology sunk in. This is certainly a book I would recommend for anyone interested in the Stuart family. It makes for quite morbid reading, and I won't lie, I did shed a tear at Charles II's death but it is hugely interesting and eye-opening. A good read and highly recommended. 

Oliver Cromwell - I can't believe I am admitting this...

Oliver Cromwell by Robert Walker

Let's make on thing quite clear:

I am not a fan of Oliver Cromwell.

There, I admitted it. In my rather embarrassing days in the Sealed Knot I was a member of a Royalist regiment and as we faced the Parliamentarian army in front of the crowds we would shout insults such as "A POX ON PARLIAMENT!!". And it was those months spent in the Royalist 'army', sleeping in muddy fields and having my tent flooded on each and every occasion that I began to develop a serious interest in the Seventeenth Century.

And a serious dislike for Oliver Cromwell.

During my time reading up on the Seventeenth Century and researching the English Civil War for my Uni dissertation (the one that is going to published!) that I realised that had I lived back then, and been a man, I would have fought on the side of the King. Why? Charles I was a bit of a stubborn derp, but he believed fully in his divine right and fought to keep the traditions of England going. Oliver Cromwell on the other man was harsh and banned everything fun - including mince pies at Christmas!

That's not to say I don't respect him historically because of course I do. He tried his best to keep the country running during the Interregnum and was pretty successful. It's just the people got bored, and after Oliver died his son Richard just sort of shrugged his shoulders and left, leading Parliament to bring back the Monarchy.

Oliver Cromwell looking at the body of King Charles II

Anyway, I am currently reading "Oliver Cromwell: Our Chief of Men" by Antonia Fraser on my Kindle. It's a little weird for me, reading about the English Civil War from his point of view, and even weirder for me to be enjoying what I'm reading about him and dare I say it...

I actually feel sorry for him. And I am growing to like him.

...

Yes, you heard me correctly. The man is growing on me. It seems he was a bit of a tearaway as a child and loved getting into trouble and stealing apples from farms. Just that makes me like him more than I did before. And yes, I feel sorry for him - why? Because in the early 1630's he was suffering badly from depression and spent much of his time in bed feeling pretty useless, but he did get treatment from the best doctor in the country for it.

Now, Cromwell will never overtake Charles I and Charles II in my affections but let's just say that branching out and reading more about Cromwell has really helped me develop a new kind of respect for the man. And dare I even say it, I have developed a liking for the man. And I am very much looking forward to reading more about him

Winchester Cathedral

So yesterday after work I took myself off to Winchester to meet up with an old friend from University, and to have a wander around the Cathedral. It was absolutely fantastic to meet up with my friend and we had a few pints in one of the oldest pubs in Winchester, The Eclipse. This pub was the site of Lady Alice Lisle's imprisonment after her apparent involvement in hiding John Hicks, a dissenting minister and man who sides with Monmouth after the Monmouth rebellion. She was also executed outside the pub after being found guilty. The poor woman was in her 70's. It is said that her ghost haunts the upstairs corridor of the pub, leading to the women's toilets and I have to say it is a very very creepy corridor!

After a few pints we went and had a quick cuppa in the Cathedral cafe before I took myself off into the cathedral. It has been a good few years since I've been in there but it holds a very special place in my heart. I won't spend ages writing about the cathedral because I could probably write a book on it. My main interest is the Cathedral's links to the English Civil War - when the Parliamentarian troops took Winchester they burst into the Cathedral, smashed windows with the bones of the great people buried there, stole great treasures and desecrated the church. You can still see damage from this, particularly in the two statues that flank the great doors.

King James I

King Charles I

Musket hole in the cape of James I, some nasty parliamentarian obviously took umbrage to the statue and thought it would be fun to shoot it.

As well as this, as you head up towards the altar, hidden away on one of the columns is a tiny brass plaque:

The picture isn't very clear because I couldn't get my camera to work properly. This brass is a memorial to Colonel John Boles who was killed in action at the Battle of Alton in 1643 - the plaque incorrectly dates his death to 1641 and also calls him Richard who was actually his brother! The brass reads:

For this renowned Martialist Richard Boles of the Right Worshipful Family of the Boles in Linckhorne Shire, Collonell of a Ridgment of Foot of 1300, who for his gracious King Charles the First did wounders at the battle of Edge-hill. His last action to omit all others, was at Alton, in this county of Suthampton was surprised by five or six thousand of the Rebels; which caused him, there quartered, to fly to the church with near four-score of his Men, who there fought them six or seven hours; And then the Rebells breaking in upon him, He slew with his Sword six or seven of them. And this was slain himself, with sixty of his men about him. 1641.

His gracious sovereign hearing of his Death gave him his high Commendation, in that passionate Expression,

"Bring me a Mourning Scarf, I have lost one of the best Commanders in the Kingdome"

Alton will tell you of that famous Fight

Which this man made, and bade this world good night

His vitrtuous Life fear'd not Mortalyte;

His body must, his ventues cannot die

Because his Blood was there so nobly spent:

This is his Tombe, that Church his Monument.

Richardus Boles Wiltoniensis in Art. Mag

Composuit posuitq: Doleus

An Sni 1689

The plaque always brings a tear to my eye, despite it showing the wrong name and date. But it's OK, because it was erected in 1689 so I can guess I can forgive them. They were probably too busy partying to care too much about it.

As I was wandering around the Cathedral as well, I came across a statue of a rather dashing Restoration gentleman in a periwig:

I couldn't read the writing underneath that said who he was, so I stopped a bloke in monks robes - he probably wasn't a monk, but they looked like monks robes - and asked him. He tried to read it and said he couldn't make out the name but that he had been a soldier. Now this morning, as I was looking through my various books on the English Civil War in Winchester I discovered that this rather dashing man was Sir John Clobury who died in 1687. He was a soldier who payed close attention to literature and claimed to help General Monke restore the Monarchy is 1660! I knew there was a reason I liked the statue!!

Of course there is a lot more in the Cathedral than Seventeenth Century awesomeness and I took so many photographs it in unreal. Here are just a few of them.

I am always stunned when I see these medieval wall paintings - they are apparently one of the finest examples in England. They date from the 12th Century but were covered yup in the 13th Century but a new layer of plaster. They were discovered by a fall of plaster in the 19th Century but it's only since the 20th Century that they were able to be fully restored.

Bishop Fox's tomb and Chantry Chapel

Cardinal Beaufort's Tomb

Beautiful medieval floor tiles. We found very similar ones at the Mary Magdalene Leper Hospital on the outskirts of Winchester when I took part in a dig there.

The shrine of St Swithun. This memorial stands on the site of the original shrine that was destroyed by Henry VIII and his commissioners in 1538. St Swithun was an Anglo Saxon bishop of Winchester and subsequently became the city's Patron Saint. AND THERE IS STILL A ST SWITHUN'S DAY!!! It is said that on his day (15th July) whatever the weather is, it will stay like that for 40 days!

A random statue of Joan of Arc

The heart burial of Bishop Aymer de Valance

Tomb of Bishop Gardiner, that slimy bloke from The Tudors - not the actor but the actual Bishop who was a bit of a nasty piece of work. The cadaver shown here is really unsettling, it has worms and stuff carved into it...

I thought I'd take a picture of the info board...

This building kept making me stop and have 17th Century feels

STOP GIVING ME ALL THESE FEELS

Isn't it just breathtaking?

Tomb of the famous William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester until his death in 1404. He made many of the alterations that we see in the building today.

Very out of focus photo of a rather beautiful ceiling

And that was that, after spending a good few hours wandering around and having too many feels at all the Seventeenth Century stuff as well as getting too many feels about the earlier stuff (especially Henry VIII destroying the Shrine, that nasty man!), I was ushered out as they began to close. 

I haven't gone into the history of the building itself because that is a different post for a different day. But the building has lasted for many many hundreds of years and seen so much. Every time I visit I see something new, and it always takes my breath away. Winchester Cathedral has to be one of my favourite places in the entire world.

Further Reading

Sawyer R, 2002, Civil War in Winchester, Rowanvale Books: Salisbury

Till, M, 2005, Winchester Cathedral Guide Book, Scala: London

Charles I & Henrietta Maria: A Love Story

Charles I and Henrietta by Mytens

The love story between Charles I and Henrietta Maria is the stuff of legend. As we wander around the great Royal Palaces in London, the couple gaze down at us from portraits, and you can just tell that these two were very much in love. Despite their differences in the early part of their marriages, despite their differences in religion they ended up falling very much in love with each other. That's not to say their marriage was easy, far from it, but their story is so sad and never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

The pair first met in Paris in 1623 when Charles was travelling to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to discuss a possible marriage to the Spanish Infanta. Whilst travelling Charles saw the young Henrietta Maria at a French Court entertainment. The visit ended badly however, despite it being a rather romantic gesture for Charles. The Duke of Buckingham argued with the Spanish King's chief minister Charles attempted to see the Infanta alone and was warned off by the Queen to said his suite was useless and the Infanta herself Dona Maria was disgusted at the prospect of marrying a heretic (the Spaniards were devout Catholics). And so upon his return to England, Charles began to look elsewhere for a bridge, and feelers began to be put out in France. Buckingham sent an emissary to Paris who received an interview with the Queen Mother, Marie De Medici. The emissary was sent back with a purse full of gold and an optimistic report. And in January 1624 King Louis of France sent King James I a present of falcons, huntsmen and horses. Things were looking up. In February 1624 the first official approach to the marriage was sent to France with a man by the name of Henry Rich, Viscount Kensington. He described Henrietta in a letter to Buckingham as a "lovely, sweet young creature".

On the 11th May 1625 Henrietta Maria De Bourbon was married by proxy to the recently ascended Charles I of England on a special stage built at the doorway of Notre Dame. This was a catholic ceremony, as Henrietta was a devout catholic. However part of the marriage treaty said that even though Charles would allow Catholics in his country, he would remain protestant and so when Henrietta arrived in England, they would be married in a protestant ceremony. The Duke of Buckingham stood in as Charles' proxy bridegroom. Sadly the relations between Henrietta and Buckingham were not the greatest, and after the wedding they managed to fall out over Cardinal Barbarini when Henrietta decided to go and meet the Cardinal when Buckingham had come to call on her. She said it was a courtesy due to him being the Pope's representative. Buckingham was also getting rather irate with the length of time it was taking Henrietta to get ready to depart France for England. She ended up leaving Paris in June of 1625, arriving in Dover on Sunday 12th June. Hasty messengers were sent to King Charles to tell him that his bride had arrived in England. He arrived at 10am on the Monday morning while Henrietta was still at breakfast. She fell to her knees, speaking to him in French, and he raised her and covered her in kissing. They then retired for an hour into a private room - what did Henrietta think of this twenty four year old man, his stiff and awkward manner and a stammer that gave him difficulty in speaking. After they reappeared and Henrietta introduced her servants for him they had some dinner and set out for Canterbury. It was here that the couple had their first quarrel. This was caused by Madame St Georges who followed Henrietta into the carriage and sat down with her. Charles may have been unaware that this lady was Henrietta's maid of honour and was expected to stay close but in any case he had planned to give Buckingham's mother and sister the honour of sitting with them and so ordered her out. Henrietta protested, loudly but Charles was unmoved by her tears and wouldn't give way until the French ambassadors stepped in and made the point that she was alone and thus clung to St Georges. Henrietta resented the fact that Charles gave way to her ambassadors instead of her and Charles never forgave St Georges.

At Canterbury, the couple were married in person at St Augustine's Church on 13th June, following which they spent their wedding night at Lord Wotton's house. The next morning Charles apparently appeared very jovial whilst Henrietta was said to be very sad. Henrietta's religion also forbade her from being crowned in an Anglican service and when she suggested being crowned by a Catholic this did not go down well with Charles and his court. Instead she had to watch from a distance as her husband was crowed, and the fact that she was never crowned Queen of England went down rather badly with the citizens of London.

Henrietta Maria by Van Dyke

Following their marriage, Charles liked to call Henrietta just simply Maria, whilst the people called her Queen Mary, a stark comparison to Charles' catholic grandmother Mary Queen of Scots. Henrietta was a devout Catholic, and rather unapologetic about it. In fact the entire retinue she brought from France were catholic and it caused some consternation with her husband. So much so that in June 1626 Charles had them removed from her service. This did not help the arguments between the couple, and their early years of marriage were fraught with arguments and disagreements.

But following the assassination of Buckingham in 1628, relations between husband and wife began to improve. Buckingham had been Charles' best friend and a royal favourite, and now that his beloved "Steenie" was gone, he transferred his love for the man onto his wife. The two ended up falling head over heels in love with each other, had a grand total of 9 children together (some of whom sadly died) and stuck together through the turbulent years of Civil War. Even when apart, they would write letters to each other professing their love.

When Civil War broke out in 1642, Henrietta was at the Hague raising money for the Royalist cause, even gong so far as to sell her Crown Jewell's, but this proved difficult as many of the larger pieces were considered too expensive to sell. And many were put off in case Parliament said that she had sold them illegally. Whilst she was successful in selling the smaller pieces, press back in England made out she was doing so to buy guns for a religious conflict which only increased her unpopularity. In February 1643 she managed to make it back to England, her fleet avoiding parliamentarian navy and landing in Yorkshire. She and her party took refuge in the town but Parliament began bombarding it and they took refuge in some nearby fields - Henrietta then defiantly returned to the little house for her dog who had been left behind. She spent the next year with her husband, after meeting up with him at Kineton before leaving her at Abingdon in 1644. It was the last time they would ever see each other.

Charles I and Henrietta Maria by Van Dyke

In 1646 Henrietta settled in Paris whilst her husband continued fighting, after taking shelter with the Scottish and in July her son, Prince Charles joined her. Whilst in France she sent letters to her husband asking him to set up a Presbyterian government in England to get the Scots help, and was incredibly anxious about him, and she was horrified when Charles refused the peace offered to him by Parliament. The second civil war in 1648 did not last long however and ended up with Charles being captured by Parliament.

On January 30th 1649, Charles I was executed on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House, London, accused of high treason. News of his death sent Henrietta into deep mourning, and she wore black for the rest of her life. She was no longer Queen of England, but Queen Mother to the young King Charles II. During the continued exile of her son, she began to concentrate more on her faith and her children, particularly little Minette - she took her faith so seriously that she tried to convert both Princes, York and Gloucester to convert. These attempts obviously angered Charles II who was determined to remain protestant and this brothers and heirs should also.

Henrietta, Duchesse De Orleons aka Minette

When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, Henrietta Maria returned in the October, partly due to the fact that her other son James Duke of York had gotten Anne Hyde pregnant and James was proposing marriage. Henrietta was incensed at this news, she despised Clarendon and did not want Anne as a daughter in law - her son should, after all, be marrying into royalty! However Charles II ended up agreeing to the match and there was nothing she could do, or say, to stop it. Charles gave into her possession Somerset House where she lived, and a generous pension although she still was not very popular among the people and described as a "plain old woman". After going to France to see her daughter Minette married to The Duke of Orleons' in 1661 she intended to spend the rest of her life in England, this was not to be however and by 1665 she was very very unwell and blamed her illness on the English Weather. And so she returned to France where in 1669, after seeing the birth of her granddaughter she died at the Chateau De' Colombes in Paris after taking laudanum to help her sleep. Her doctors had previously said that her illness, although painful, would not prove fatal. That night she realised that, despite having felt better during the day, sleep wasn't going to come naturally and so she asked for the laudanum. She fell into a drugged sleep which she did not wake from, and died on 10th September 1669 between three and four o clock in the morning.

She was buried in the Cathedral at St Denis, given all of the pomp that a daughter of France deserved.

The story of Henrietta and Charles never fails to bring a tear to my eye. Despite their early differences they really did love each other, and after she was widowed she stayed perpetually in mourning. She supported her husband through the English Civil War, helped him, stayed true to him and remained loyal to the Royalist cause. She wasn't popular, especially with Parliament, but to her it didn't matter. She stuck by her husband through thick and thin, loved her children and fought to help bring about her son's restoration. She was a woman to be reckoned with, with so many layers and facets of her personality. Henrietta Maria has to be one of my favourite Stuart Queen's, because quite frankly, she was a bit of a bad ass.

Further Reading


Plowden, A, 2001, Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen, Sutton Publishing: Gloucester

Hampton Court Take Two

So as I'm sure you're all aware from the amount I've been harping on and on about it on twitter and facebook for the past few weeks that yesterday I went to Hampton Court. The main reason for the visit was to see the Wild, the Beautiful & The Damned, all about sex and beauty at the Court of Charles II. But of course, Hampton Court isn't all about that and there was plenty of other stuff to see and do. So here we go, complete with lots and lots of photos!

Of course, Hampton Court is full of Tudor bits and bobs and is best known as "the home of Henry VIII", as well as the stories that haunt the entire Palace. The one that always gets me is that Hampton Court is where Henry found out that Katherine Howard was having it away with other men, thanks to Cranmer leaving him a note in the Chapel Royal. Katherine was confined to her chambers (the staff reckon this was where Mary II's chambers now are) and she ran down the gallery where all the Tudor Portraits now hang, screaming out for him. Is this a true story? Who knows, but there are plenty of stories about visitors getting creeped out in the gallery, and staff members noticing some funny goings on!

Hung along the so called Haunted Gallery are an absolute cornucopia of Tudor portraits, including the famous family portrait, the famous portrait of the young Edward VI and the well known face of Henry VII.

At the end of this gallery you have the Great Watching Chamber. When we were here last time, a dude dressed up as Henry VIII received petitions in here, and I had the honour of asking him to help my "unmarried sister" find a husband. Today there were no costumed interpreters (they were too busy in the courtyard) but the room still managed to take my breath away.

Just off from here is the Great Hall, where the royalty would have eaten their dinner/massive banquets. My photos of the Hall didn't come out very well, but here goes...

Now then, earlier on I mentioned costumed interpreters. We found these in Clock Court...

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn decided to have a full scale argument about the fact Katherine of Aragon was still making his shirts! After Anne stormed off, Henry just couldn't work out what he had done wrong and wandered off leaving George Boleyn to get help from the audience! Later on, Anne was much happier as Katherine was no longer allowed to make his shirts and she was going to made Marquess of Pembroke. I did wonder whether George took forward my suggestion of flowers!

After lunch we decided to take a walk around the Gardens because the weather was actually AMAZING and last time we were there it was raining too hard to even think about going for a walk around them. I was absolutely stunned at their beauty. And it was Charles II who introduced the central avenue of trees!

After this, we headed back inside and discovered a whole wing of the Palace that we had never seen before. I spotted a sign pointing to William III's apartments leading to an extraordinarily grand staircase. Now the staircase I had seen before but we hadn't gone up there, which is a shame because I was completely in awe seeing these wonderful rooms.

At first I thought this was a painting of a group of people in the room where we were standing. But at a closer look I realised that it was actually a photograph of people re-enacting a scene from the time of William III! This room as well (I didn't manage to get any pictures due to rubbish lighting) was decorated with guns all over the walls in incredibly beautiful patterns. After this we were taken through a series of room which made up grand bedrooms, huge rooms with gorgeous portraits hung on the wall...

And then I was surprised by this guy...

Standing there, in all regal and kingly glory was Charles I. I may have had a bit of a moment when I saw it and jumped up and down squealing with joy. Yes, I adore this man almost as much as I adore his son and I have far too many feelings for the Stuart family. They were just incredibly unlucky, and made some bad decisions but just...wow. I adore them. As you may have gathered from my 17th Century, Stuart family rambles on this blog. And after this room full of fab, there were even more rooms that just made me long to live in the palace. Oh, and I discovered the royal toilet as well!

Wait? More Charlie? I'm not sorry at all. Anyway, after finding more fabulous portraits of Charlie I we stumbled across this absolutely stunning corridor which reminded me, somewhat weirdly, of the mansion from the original Resident Evil game.

Isn't it just fantastic? And the best bit was that there was literally no one there! It seems these parts of the Palace are much less known about than the Tudor areas, which is so sad because these hallways and galleries are just absolutely stunning.

And that was that. I'm sure there are many more nooks and crannies to discover in this fantastic palace and I will say now that next time I go I will be spending more time in the Stuart and later era rooms than the Tudor parts. Just because...I mean look at them. I just adore Hampton Court, and it has a really special place in my heart - mainly for the massive Charles II portrait that hangs in Mary's apartments. But not only that, it's like something out of a fairy tale with so many hidden gems it's unreal. I doubt I will ever love anywhere as much as I love Hampton Court, the stories that just come at you from every angle. It is certainly a very magical place. Now, I will leave you with a picture of me and a wooden man getting drunk in Base Court.