Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eighth - From Tudor Torture to Georgian Gaol - Chapter IV

In most Civil War histories, Norwich is kind of tucked away in a corner and ignored. Considered a strongly parliamentarian city, Puritan in its sympathies and deep within the defences of the powerful Eastern Association, it was well out of the way of the major battlefields and as such is generally treated as a remote backwater during the conflict.

What this fails to take into account, however, is the number of strongly royalist gentry in Norfolk (remember them from Kett's rebellion?) who caused as much trouble as they could for the parliamentary authorities. Bickering, brouhaha, pouty tantrums, riot and the mother of all explosions made Norwich a pretty unnerving place to be.

While the various armies rampaged across the rest of the kingdom, panic and terror gripped the good folk of Norwich. You can read about the battles and sieges elsewhere but for now we shall cower behind the city walls with the citizens, awaiting news …

Norwich Castle in semi-ruinous state. Collection of Old Dive.

The castle being in a parlous state the city magazine reported that they had placed "all the arms and powder in the armoury above the Assembly Chamber (later rebuilt as the old Bethel Hospital) and the great pieces of ordnance in the low room beneath the Council Chamber."

Uh oh … I sense a "Chekhov's Gun" situation brewing.

On the 27th of November 1642 two proclamations were brought by messenger from the king requiring aid against the parliamentarian "rebels". On receipt of which the sheriffs had a bit of a panic and called out the Norwich armed bands, had engineers repair and fortify the gates and city walls, set a curfew and sent scouts to range the countryside searching for Cavaliers or their royalist sympathisers. Booms were set across the river and a great chain sent down to Yarmouth to block the river there.

Tensions rose between the overwhelming majority of parliamentarians and the small band of royalist gentry in the city. By March 1643 things were near boiling point when, as Blomefield relates, "The cannoneer, going to uncharge one of the cannon in the marketplace, by some accident it discharged, and very much injured him, killing and wounding no less than seventeen men, women and children upon the spot."

Suspicions fell on the royalists and their houses were searched and a great quantity of arms confiscated. Their horses were also taken for the service of Col. Cromwell's forces. The more prominent royalists were "placed in their rooms" (put under house arrest).

The Guildhall and north end of the market place around 1780 (the closest I can get). 

Collection of Old Dive.

Hearing rumour of the Earl of Newcastle's royalist forces threatening King's Lynn, Norwich sent a company of volunteers to Lynn's aid together with several brass cannon. Cromwell was consulted by the Norwich authorities and it was ordered that Norwich Castle be re-fortified. "That the twelve grand companyes shall be warned by the aldermen of their companyes to work at the castell-dykes, every grand companye a day and the first companye to begin tomorrow."

Rumours were in effect the only news in the city. Fairfax was fighting in the north but news was scarce and unreliable. In March 1644, two scouts were sent out to gather news and it was not good. "Sir Miles Hobart, Tho. Hasewell, and Mr. Harry, captains for the parliament, facing Newark, were routed by Prince Rupert, and all their ordnance and ammunition taken, so that Capt. Ashwell did not bring home above thirty soldiers of all the companyes that went from hence, and but little armour."

Prince Rupert via the interweb. Dashing but impetuous cavalry commander of the royalist forces.

The people trembled and awaited the inevitable attack on the city but better news followed, and on July 18th "a thanksgiving was held at the cathedral for the victory over Prince Rupert, near York, by the Lord Fairfax, and for taking York for the use of the parliament."

Sir Thomas Fairfax, third Lord Fairfax of Cameron, courtesy the National Army Museum.

Brilliant Commander in Chief of the Parliamentary Forces.

He refused to take part in the trial and execution of the king and so survived the war and ended up collecting and binding the civil war tracts for his library (see previous post).

More nervous moments for the citizens of Norwich when in August 1645 the king took Cromwell's home town of Huntingdon, perilously close, "and alarmed Cambridge, upon which all the trained bands of the associated counties were hastily raised and those belonging to the city marched as far as the Town Close, and came back again, thinking it the safest way to sleep in a whole skin."

Huzzah for our brave trained bands, who marched all the way to Town Close (less than a mile from the city walls) then scurried back inside the gates again. But this speaks volumes about the terror of civil war.

At Christmas, Speaker Lenthall sent an order from Parliament for Norwich to basically boot out the high church ministers and enforce a more Puritan service, ordering no sermons to be preached on Christmas Day but for all the shops to remain open (giving rise to the popular canard that "Cromwell cancelled Christmas"). Much hubbub ensued as you can imagine. High and low church enjoyed punch-ups and indulged in scandalous behaviour of a most un-churchy manner.

1646 and the plague came back to Norwich to play but to the relief of all, the end of the first part of the Civil War was at hand. Blomefield again: "On the 27th of April 1646, the king went in disguise from Oxford with Mr. Hobson and Mr. Ashburnham and by a private way came to Newcastle to the Scots army, and committed himself for protection into their hands, who, Judas-like, sold him to the parliament for 200,000l. and in August, by the king's own command, all his majesty's garrisons were yielded up to the Parliamentary forces."

On 24th April 1648 there occurred, right in the heart of Norwich (just off the Market Place where the Bethel Hospital was later built along Bedlam Street) the largest explosion in seventeenth century England. This tale is condensed from "The Great Blow: Examinations and Informations Relating to the Great Blow in Norwich, 1648 (Andrew Hopper, Jean Agnew and Emily Alley: Eds), 2018", available from the Norfolk Record Society.

The royalist sympathisers in Norwich had for months been fomenting revolt through "petitions, inflammatory words and gestures, swearing, health-drinking" and the use of gunshots as signals. On the 24th April, around a thousand of them gathered at the Market Cross, threatening Parliament's messenger who was esconced in the aptly named King's Head Inn talking to the mayor. From there they spread through the city centre, ransacking the houses of the leading parliamentarians while shouting "for God and King Charles!"

Having plundered the houses, at around two in the afternoon the rioting crowd broke through the bolted doors of the Committee House, where the city's arms and powder had been placed for safe keeping. In scenes that must have been reminiscent of the Trumpist assault on the Capitol, the overexcited rioters overran the place, looting what they could but were somewhat careless with the ninety-eight barrels of gunpowder. One man was said to have carried some home in his hat.

Inevitably, the inevitable happened and Kerblooey! All the central Norwich churches lost their glass and many buildings around the marketplace and the old French Quarter were destroyed or damaged. The blast was heard all over Norfolk, hundreds were killed and many more wounded. The parliamentarians rounded up the ringleaders and hanged them in the market place close to the ruins. The second part of the Civil War was a pretty tense time in Norwich.

 

Reconstituted bits and bobs of mediæval stained glass in St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, rescued from the ruins of the Great Blow. Courtesy the very wonderful website "the Joy of Shards".

Much ado with Cornet Joyce, the New Model Army, the Irish campaign, the Levellers and the Putney Debates, Pride's Purge and the Rump Parliament affected Norwich not one jot but are tremendous fun to read about, though not here … well maybe later with the Putney Debates … I've not had a Marxist rant for a while.

Back in Westminster I shall pass over the trial of the king, though I do recommend you read the trial transcripts (see sources below), which include the occasional amusing moment, such as when the silver knob atop Charles' cane came off and rolled across the floor. He sat for ages, looking around him for help but nobody was going to pick it up so he had to do it himself, much to his horror at the loss of dignity.

Back to Blomefield to round off this part of our tale: "On the thirtieth day of this month (January), fifty-two minutes after one in the afternoon, was his most sacred Majesty, Charles the First, barbarously beheaded by his own rebellious subjects at Whitehall, to the unspeakable grief of all the royalists, and joy of all that vile part of the Parliament, which then usurped his regal power, seized on his dominions, banished his Queen and children, proclaimed his son and heir traitour, who to save his own life, was forced to flee from those villains who had taken away his father's."

Sic semper tyrranis! My own view being diametrically opposed to that of our dear Blomefield.

Next up, Norwich during the Interregnum.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

A  Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973

Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols

Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)

Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)

The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)

Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999

The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume IX "The Early Stuarts 1603 - 1660" Godfrey Davies (ed): 1937

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume X "The Later Stuarts 1660 - 1714" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eighth - From Tudor Torture to Georgian Gaol - Chapter III

Hokay … who fancies a break?

Right; wrap up some sarnies, cheese, apples and a crate of mild and pile in to the charabanc. We're taking a day trip from Norwich Castle up to Hull to see the start of the Civil War proper … if you need the loo you'd better go now as it's a fair old drive.

The plaque at Hull, from the interweb.

Note that it was put up during the first year of Elizabeth the Second's reign,

my guess by parliament, reminding the new monarch of her place.

By this point, Charles had alienated all but the most conservative gentry. The Irish had risen in rebellion against the "New English" settlers sent by James and Charles to rule over them, the Scottish Covenanters occupied northern England and their army had just humiliated Charles' own. Meanwhile, parliament had raised the trained bands in London and now occupied the city, trusting Charles not one inch.

Desperate for a way out Charles travelled north to parley with the Scots, basically taking back everything he had said before, ripping up his new religious rules and promising them lots of money if only they'd join his cause or at least remain neutral.

By bribery and subterfuge Charles had temporarily eliminated the threat from the north; now he needed weapons and munitions for his ragbag army of royalist gentry and the poorly-armed villagers they forced to accompany them. He could not get at the arsenal in the Tower of London as the city was under parliamentary control, but there was one other arsenal closer at hand in Hull, containing twenty-thousand weapons and seven-thousand barrels of gunpowder. Take that and he would be in a powerful position.

"My Preciousssssss."

Oooh, I wonder what's in here …

Fairfax, commander of the parliamentary forces, had recently sent Sir John Hotham (and his son's company of horse) to occupy Hull against just such a move by Charles.

From Fairfax's library to Old Dive's coffee table, inscribed possibly by Fairfax himself.

Good old Fairfax was one of the few parliamentarians (possibly the only one) to keep, bind and catalogue the civil war tracts (the equivalent of seventeenth century email exchanges between king and parliament in the run-up to hostilities). This rather historically important one now lives with me (yay), at least until I pop my clogs whence it shall go the City of Hull and hence back into the public domain where it belongs.

"The Gentrie and Commons …?"

No, Charles, you know full well it was just you and the gentry.

This lovely little tract (number nineteen in Fairfax's collection) was printed at the king's camp at York (even though it says London on the title page … parliament held London against the king but wherever he was - usually Oxford, York or Nottingham - his tracts were always stated as printed in the capital as he considered the capital travelled with him) and copies sent by riders to parliament in London. Do take the time to read it as it tells its own story of the last petulant outburst by Charles before both sides tooled up and the war kicked off.

The royalist Gentry of York advise the king to take the arsenal at Hull.

 

Charles heads for Hull and demands access to the arms and munitions.

Charles actually arrived at the gates of Hull with three-hundred fully-armed cavalry. Hotham decided that he couldn't let them in as they'd overwhelm his own forces. So instead he told the king he could enter the city with only a dozen guards, which of course Charles dared not attempt and rejected the offer as an affront to his dignity. The king claimed in the tract that he offered to come into the city with only twenty horse but this is denied by Hotham and other witnesses.

"which did the more increase His Majesties anger against him …"

Hotham informed the king that he was under orders from parliament to occupy the city and not give up the arsenal without parliamentary assent. Charles threw a tantrum, telling Hotham that he did not believe parliament would be so seditious and traitorous and declared Hotham a traitor.

The king demands justice against Hotham.

Charles then returned to York in an almighty huff from whence he had this tract printed by his personal printer Robert Barker (part of the king's travelling entourage) and copies sent post haste to parliament demanding Hotham's head as a traitor. 

He settled down with his forces to await parliament's response. Somewhere out there in antiquarian-book-land is tract twenty of Fairfax's personal collection in which parliament informs the king that "Sir John Hotham hath done nothing but in obedience of both Houses of Parliament" and that "the declaring of him a traitor, being a member of the House of Commons is a high breach of the privilege of Parliament." (from the surviving copy in the State Papers).

At which response Charles threw a Trump-toddler-like paddy and moved south to muster in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire with his personal headquarters at Nottingham as both sides gathered men and arms and the English Civil War finally lumbered forward into an inescapable catastrophe.

Next time: The good folk of Norwich do bicker amongst themselves.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

A  Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973

Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols

Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)

Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)

The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)

Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999

The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume IX "The Early Stuarts 1603 - 1660" Godfrey Davies (ed): 1937

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume X "The Later Stuarts 1660 - 1714" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eighth - From Tudor Torture to Georgian Gaol - Chapter II

So … Charles the First … Let's take a looky.

"You're so vain, you probably think this painting's about you … &c." via the interweb.

It appears to me that - even though I don't believe he can read more than a sentence at a time - somebody must have sat a young Donald Trump on their knee and told him a story about Charles the First (probably with lots of brightly-coloured pictures). Some quotes about Chazza's character that sound strangely familiar:

"He truly believed that his regal authority was paramount and that parliament was merely a compliant instrument to finance his requirements … He had certain firm convictions that could not be altered by arguments or by events; if you agreed with him you were a friend, but any who questioned his judgement were enemies from that moment forward."

"He could never see the point of view of anyone but himself and his lack of imagination would … cost him his throne."

"… he would become enmeshed in the problems caused by his inability to use tact or craft in the affairs of the world."

The English Civil War was much less brutal than the horror and slaughter of the US version and is consequently a lot more fun to read about. Lots of galloping about and besieging one another's houses, long-haired cavaliers and short-haired roundheads mocking one another (though many on the parliamentary side kept their hair long, as befitting their status, such as Cromwell and Fairfax). 

A veritable library of books has been written on the subject, but if you want a quick, readable and occasionally amusing overview of the utter farcical confusion, Peter Ackroyd's is as good a place to start as any (see sources below).

Alexander Leslie: a proper soldier who humiliated Charles' ramshackle army in the First Bishops' War and occupied the north of England against the king. Courtesy the National Galleries of Scotland.

There were two "Bishops' Wars" just before the two main civil wars broke out; both due to Charles forcing what were tantamount to Popish rites on the Protestant Scottish Covenanters. Charles got his arse kicked verily by Alexander Leslie, the able and professional Scottish general. Diplomacy was not the king's strong point; in the days leading up to the outbreak of hostilities the king's man Sir Francis Windebank (anag: wank in bed) scaled bravura new peaks of splenetic, almost Trump-Tweetian* apoplexy, referring to:

"Those scurvy, filthy, dirty, nasty, lousy, itchy, scabby, shitten, stinking, slovenly, snotty-nosed, logger-headed, foolish, insolent, proud, beggarly, impertinent, absurd, grout-headed, villainous, barbarous, bestial, false, lying, roguish, devilish … damnable, atheistical, puritanical crew of the Scottish Covenant." Huzzah! A veritable Thesaurus of abuse and utterly unhelpful in negotiations but great fun to yell aloud when in your cups.

* Trump-Tweetian: I claim neologism of the day.

Meanwhile, back in Norwich, the plague arrived just after Charles' coronation and in an attempt to stop it spreading further into the realm the king commanded the mayor to "scour the city ditches of their filth and nuisances" which may have helped keep the 1635 plague death toll in the city down to 1,431 persons (Blomefield).

The Suckling family (whose beautiful mediæval house forms the restaurant of Norwich indie movie heroes Cinema City) at last came to the help of the poor and starving Worsted weavers (see previous posts), bestowing 6l. per annum "for ever" to provide them with bread.

Suckling House, courtesy Cinema City.

 

The oriel window at the back of Suckling House on what was Gropecunte Lane.

Pic, courtesy Old Dive.

In 1640 the Long Parliament began and ruled that it could not be prorogued except with its own consent (pop down the rabbit hole should you wish to amuse yourself with Charles' hatred of parliaments, much like Trumps' affection for Nancy Pelosi), Norwich sending its own representatives and Huntingdon sending one Oliver Cromwell. 

The Norwich 'trained bands' (militia) were summoned and set to work ensuring the armoury at the castle was up to scratch as an increasingly petulant king made himself dangerously unpopular across the realm. Norfolk being a traditionally 'revolting' place and having suffered so much under so many kings formed the Eastern Association in 1642, together with Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, shortly joined by Lincolnshire and Cromwell's Huntingdonshire, declaring the whole of Eastern England for parliament.

One-hundred foot and fifty mounted dragoons were sent out from Norwich to Colonel Cromwell "for the peace of the region." These were soon followed by another fifty and then a flood of militia and volunteers.

The following year it was recorded, "The Virgins of Norwich, hearing of the Cavaliers' violent outrages committed upon their sex wheresoever they get the victory, are so sensible of their reputations that they have readily contributed so much money as hath raised a goodly troop of horse for their defence, which is called the Maiden's Troop."

Norwich being by then secure and the battles mostly in the west the Maiden Troop as it became known went into active service for the 1644 campaign.

Next time, Trumpists invade the Capitol … er … actually, Charles the First stamps his foot, pouts and starts a civil war because he can't get his way.*

* You may have guessed, this was re-written in Feb. 2021 in the light of recent events across the Pond.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

A  Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973

Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols

Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)

Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)

The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)

Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999

The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume IX "The Early Stuarts 1603 - 1660" Godfrey Davies (ed): 1937

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume X "The Later Stuarts 1660 - 1714" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eighth - From Tudor Torture to Georgian Gaol - Chapter I

So that was that for the Tudors. Hugely entertaining and occasionally bonkers as a family but for the common folk, especially those in Norwich, life under the Tudors had been pretty bloody grim.

Mary's Boy Child … No, not That one … via the interweb.

March 1603 … Enter stage left in a spiffy silk doublet, King James the Sixth of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scots and now also by default King James the First of England. The first and the least ghastly of an utterly appalling quartet of Stuart monarchs, he actually started quite well, hobnobbing with Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones and commissioning a new translation of the Bible in 1604 (completed in 1611) which stands, along with Shakespeare's plays as the pinnacle of the English language (in my pedantic opinion).

He also fancied himself an author, having written a book on prosody in the Scottish tongue while still a teenager. I have a nineteenth century copy of his 1597 book "Dæmonologie" which sounds exciting but is disappointingly as dull as ditch-water, even though it was said to have influenced Shakespeare in writing Macbeth. 

James was creepily fascinated by witchcraft and magicks and enjoyed personally torturing women accused of witchcraft (boy's gotta have a hobby, just a shame it was repellent) but perhaps he would have been more wisely occupied in learning to write. I mean Dæmonologie is just awful and my copy has been relegated to the stacks of "never-read-agains" in the third bedroom (next step, the charity shoppe).

Bugger all happened at Norwich Castle under his reign, though Norfolk's Blickling Hall (home of the Boleyns) got a couple of nice Jacobean fire surrounds and a spiffy new ceiling.

Jacobean fire surround at Blickling (at least "Jacobean Style" as it was finished two years after his death). Photo courtesy Old Dive.

And another one … this time with an unapologetically over-the-top Jacobean ceiling.

Looking for something positive to say about him, at the very least James the First gave us the bonfires and fireworks of November the Fifth, burning poor Guido Fawkes in effigy which cheered our childhoods mightily (chestnuts roasting on long, wobbly sticks, potatoes baked in the bonfire ash and the joys of apple-dunking). He also returned the monarchy to the traditional death of kings, expiring on 27th March 1625 from a particularly violent fit of arse-gravy. Huzzah!

My personal favourite things from his reign are not related to Norwich Castle:  The "King James" Bible, The First Folio of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson's plays (the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson: 7 Vols: 2012 is a perennial joy) and James' employment of Inigo Jones to design his masques (right royal rave-ups) and who later designed the Queen's House at Greenwich and who himself employed the genius stonemason Nicolas Stone to construct the incomparable Tulip Stair (I've got a whole other talk on that for some time later).

Jones and Stone's Tulip Stair, from the Queen's House guidebook.

Before his poor sore bottom dribbled its last, James' court had descended into a den of "bawds and catamites" (as his successor complained) "bringing much dishonour to our family" though it sounds fun to me …

The one thing James did for Norwich was to encourage the revival of the Worsted industry and most especially "Norwich Stuffs" which saw a rise in the standard of living of the "middling sorts" of Norwich, the skilled weavers and merchants, but as in all supply and demand economies, the poor labouring spinners and weavers in their leaky Norwich garrets and in their ruinous wattle and daub cottages around Worsted itself were kept in abject poverty, the profits only trickling down as far as the fat purses of their masters (plus ça change … &c).

Things were about to get mad and messianic under James' successor, Charles the First, he of the spaniels, poodle-perm eighties hairdo and an ego bigger than Trump's, believing himself the voice of God on earth (what a dickwad). Norwich's part in his downfall will follow, as will a side-trip to Hull to meet Sir John Hotham and his son, also Sir John Hotham and to take a peek at my personal favourite piece of Civil War memorabilia.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

A  Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973

Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols

Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)

Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)

The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)

Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999

The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume IX "The Early Stuarts 1603 - 1660" Godfrey Davies (ed): 1937

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume X "The Later Stuarts 1660 - 1714" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Seventh - Burn The Heretics - Chapter V

During Elizabeth's reign, in the days before the interweb the good folk of Norwich entertained themselves in simpler ways, one of which is celebrated on this appropriately odd totem pole in Chapelfield Gardens.

Will Kempe statue, courtesy Old Dive.

A certain Will Kempe, one of Shakespeare's most popular comic players, for reasons known only to himself decided to Morris Dance all the way from London to Norwich (as you do). Apparently he stopped at each village on the way, assembling a crowd outside the alehouse and proceeded to give "demonstrations of leaping." Much better than today's telly.

They could at least have spelled his name correctly. Pic courtesy Old Dive.

The journey took him nine days and was celebrated at the time as the Nine Days' Wonder, from whence we get the phrase that we now use with irony. Will and his feat are commemorated by the naming of a thoroughfare behind Norwich Forum as Will Kemp (sic) Way.

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth's visit had left the city deeply in debt and the freshly pimped houses and streets were soon falling back into decay. After the slaughter of Kett's rebellion, the bonfire of the heretics under Mary, flood, fire, famine, plague, murder most foul, drought and the decay of the Worsted industry made Norwich a pretty grim place to live during the otherwise glorious reign of Gloriana. "The Tudors" TV show it was not!

Blomefield tells us that in 1551 a gibbet was erected outside St.Stephen's Gate, wherein was hung in irons "a lad of about sixteen years old, for ravishing and quartering a child." … Nice …

One rather unfortunate man, Matthew Hammond was accused of speaking seditious words against the queen. He was set in the pillory outside Norwich Castle with his ears nailed to the wood, to be pelted by the populace for his perfidy.

Before he was freed, the Norwich hangman cut off poor Matthew's ears. Immediately after which he was dragged straight back into Norwich Castle gaol where the Bishop of Norwich accused him of blasphemy for somewhat understandably yelling the name of our Lord while his ears were being hacked from his head. Summarily pronounced guilty he was dragged back outside and burnt in the castle ditch.

As were, in short order, John Lewes, Peter Cole and Francis Kett (of Robert Kett's family of Wymondham), also for blasphemy.

On a brighter note, printing arrived in Norwich in the form of Dutchman Anthony Solen, awarded the freedom of the city for his services.

To cap it all, almost at the end of Elizabeth's reign (this from the Norwich Roll of 1601):

"On Wednesday the 29th of April, a sudden storm of hail and rain fell about five o'clock in the afternoon, which caused a great darkness, and a shock of thunder and lightning followed, with a noisome stink of brimstone, and in a moment the upper part of the spire of the cathedral was struck down, which not long before was finished with the fane thereon; the stone and woodwork therein, for twenty foot in height, was cast down on the north roof of the church, which it braked down, shaked the walls and roof of the quire, and split the spire from the south-east part from top to bottom, causing about twenty holes that men might creep through, on the north-west side; divers stones which fell out of them sunk above half-a yard into the ground of the Bishop's garden."

Blomefield quotes witness statements, including one from John Colne who was rather unwisely sheltering from the storm in the nave. He was one of several witnesses, one being the rector of Thorpe, who saw ball lightning enter the cathedral with the stink of brimstone before the spire fell.

Gloriana, as seen on the interweb.

Such then was the grim reality of life in Elizabethan Norwich … Much more fun was being had in the capital, with Shakespeare and Marlowe and the incomparably petty Robert Greene (he of "A Groats-worth of Wit"), so wonderfully played by Mark Heap in the best Elizabethan TV show since Blackadder II: Upstart Crow (highly recommended as a tonic for our times, especially for those who love their Shakespeare).

Alas and alack, with the passing of the last Tudor monarch the crown passed to the Stuarts. Ghastly people.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey: James Gairdner: 1908: 4 Vols

Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume VII "The Earlier Tudors, 1485 - 1558" J. D. Mackie (ed): 1952

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume VIII "The Reign of Elizabeth 1558 - 1603" J. B. Black (ed): 1936

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Seventh - Burn The Heretics - Chapter IV

Anyhoo … After all that mad, Marian mayhem along came good Queen Bess with a hey-nonny-nonny and a cacophony of lutes and recorders and all was jolly across the land, at least according to the world of TV costume drama. Things in Norwich Castle carried on pretty much as before, though with less burning enthusiasm than under Mary.

The Famous One, as depicted on the interweb.

Much ado occurred during the long reign of Elizabeth, though not much concerning Norwich or its castle. 

Those wishing to know more might consult a multiplicity of movies and TV shows for some hilarious misinformation (albeit with spiffing frocks and beardy men in tights and inflatable knickers), or they might consult academic history books and archives if they actually want to know stuff. Most "popular" history books I find invariably slightly less historically accurate than Blackadder II.

One snippet of historical Elizabethan fact is that Spain beat us three-one at spectacularly failed armadas. They failed first (the famous one), then we failed equally spectacularly the following year (and kept very quiet about it), then they failed twice more before both nations simply rolled their eyes, shrugged and gave it up as a bad job.

"Pray, sirrah, just how do you keep those knickers inflated?"

Elizabeth did turn up in Norwich in August 1578. Just like today when company is expected a panicky house-cleaning got under way [this being written pre-Covid … now that nobody visits I have the joy of wandering the house in my boxers, drinking vodka and binge-watching trash while shovelling junk food down my gullet … It's a dream come true for an Asperger's boy]. First up, the massive mountain of dung and offal that had built up outside Brazen Gate had to be shifted, cart by reeking, dripping cart, over the river to - you've guessed it - the old chalk workings behind our office (again).

The rotting heads, limbs and torsos of executed criminals were hastily taken down from the gates and the gibbets hidden away. All the livestock and feral dogs roaming the streets were penned up or knocked on the head and sold to Mister Skinner and Mister Tanner, the houses and streets along the processional route were repaired, re-plastered, resurfaced and generally pimped to the nines.

Queen Elizabeth and her massive entourage were met at St.Stephen's Gate by the mayor and "sixty of the finest-looking men in Norwich" all decked out (at their own expense) in black satin with yellow and purple detailing.

Alas poor Bess; she was was fêted with theatrical displays, dancing, lengthy and dull speeches and hour upon hour of excruciatingly execrable poetry interspersed with patriotic songs by the Norwich Waits at each and every junction during her ride from St.Stephen's Gate to the Bishop's Palace behind the cathedral. The journey of around a mile took six hours and would have taken longer but for a fortuitous shower of rain which gave the queen the excuse to cut and run and her retinue was spared several more streets-worth of tedium.

"I'm sure I felt a raindrop … Run, you buggers, RUN!"

Another gem from our infallible friend the interweb.

No pictorial record survives of the royal visit but as for the poetry, good old Blomefield quotes the whole lot; each and every woeful word should you wish to study the art of the pitifully pompous pæan and discover just why Elizabeth looked so bloody joyless all the time.

Here's a flavour; an amuse-bouche of doggerel if you will (chin up, chest puffed out, one hand on the heart and the other arm flung dramatically out to one side);

"Strong Hercules to Theseus was never such delight,

Nor Nisus to Eurialus as I have in this sight,

Penelope did never thirst, Ulysses more to see,

Than I poor Norwich hungered have, to gain the sight of thee …"

Hour after hour after hour of it. Indeed three whole days'-worth in all. It was as if Pam Ayres had swallowed a copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses and vomited vacuous verse all over poor Queen Bess.

Turns out Elizabethan poetry was not all Shakespeare and Spenser; mostly it was simply awful.

Next time, no more dreadful doggerel but instead some demonstrations of leaping.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey: James Gairdner: 1908: 4 Vols

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume VII "The Earlier Tudors, 1485 - 1558" J. D. Mackie (ed): 1952

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume VIII "The Reign of Elizabeth 1558 - 1603" J. B. Black (ed): 1936

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Seventh - Burn The Heretics - Chapter III

In an attempt to cement her reversal of the Reformation and prevent her little sister Elizabeth ever gaining the throne, Queen Mary married Catholic Prince Philip of Spain, naming him King of England (rather than prince consort) to the utter horror of the populace.

Bloody Mary … Not nearly as nice as the drink.

Jesuits flooded into the country from Spain and the Spanish Netherlands, hunting heresy with all the gruesomeness of Torquemada's Spanish Inquisition (which nobody expected). The Auto-da-Fé awaited those convicted, such as poor old Cranmer (see woodcut in previous post).

In the midst of this mayhem Mary proclaimed herself pregnant. Elizabeth was released from house arrest and confined close to her sister so that - should Mary die in childbirth - Philip would immediately marry Elizabeth to ensure a Catholic succession. Elizabeth was - understandably - aghast at the prospect.

The French ambassador ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely "to end in wind rather than anything else" and events proved him right. Mary's pregnancy had been false, brought about by her desperate desire to produce an heir.

Philip of Spain and his Chicken Legs.

Courtesy of the interweb.

Philip, who had never found Mary physically attractive and who was himself possessed of a chin like a brick and legs like a chicken, now returned to Spain and stayed there.

After a second false-alarm pregnancy (how it was conceived with her husband hundreds of miles away was conveniently never questioned; no matter how malformed his physiognomy otherwise, I'm pretty sure he couldn't have been that well-endowed), Mary was reluctantly forced to accept Elizabeth as her heir.

She died eftsoones, probably from ovarian cancer and her husband wrote in a fit of passionate grief from abroad that "I felt a reasonable regret for her death."

Back at Norwich Castle, torturer and torturee rolled their eyes and wearily swapped places yet again.

More fun with Foxe, courtesy Old Dive.

During Mary's reign the Lollards' Pit saw more than its fair share of burnings. One Thomas Rose is named by Foxe among the martyrs even though he was not burned to death. As a Lollard, he had originally been imprisoned under Henry the Eighth, hung in chains in Norwich Castle and burned with flaming torches, then hung upside-down for a bit more of the same until his screams so sickened the gaoler that he set him free, whence he fled to Germany.

Returning under Edward's reign Rose was made a minister and was fool enough to believe Mary's proclamation of religious tolerance.Within days he was back in chains and under torture, somehow escaping abroad again and this time having the good sense to stay there.

In the final years of Mary's reign the following were led from Norwich Castle down through the deluge of chamberpot effluvia along Bishopgate to the stake at which they were burned to death.

Cicely Ormes being burned to death in the Lollards' Pit.

Courtesy Old Dive.

1557: July 13th. Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper burned at the same stake.

August 5th. Richard Crashfield and John Noyes, again at the same stake. Two for one saved money on stakes it would appear.

September 23rd. Cicely Ormes, in front of a jeering mob of some two-hundred people remained praying in the flames with her arms crossed on her breast. Blomefield: "She kept them so until the sinews of her arms brake asunder, and then they fell, yea so quietly did she suffer."

Seaman, Carman and Hudson in the right-hand woodcut.

Courtesy Old Dive.

1558: May 19th. A threesome: Will Seaman, Thomas Carman and Thomas Hudson. That's them in the photo above, being burned alive "by the persecuting Papists at Norwich in the County of Northfolke."

July 10th. Richard Yeoman, who was tortured miserably at the stake before being burned.

You beginning to see a pattern developing here?

In Foxe's words, across the realm:

"There are said to have perished in the flames, 5 bishops, 21 divines, 8 gentlemen, 84 artificers, 100 husbandmen, servants and labourers, 26 wives, 20 widows, 9 virgins, 2 boys and 2 infants; the one springing out of its mother's womb as she was at the stake and most unmercifully flung into the fire at the very birth.

64 more in these furious times, were presented for their faith, whereof 7 were whipped, 16 perished in prison, 12 buried in the dunghills, and many more lay in captivity condemned, but were delivered by the opportune death." (of Mary).

Ah, the good old days of Merrie Tudor England …

I wonder if death by burial in a dungheap is still on the Statute Books. So many politicians, bankers, hedge-fund managers and the like deserve nothing less.

Another Norwich barbecue, courtesy Old Dive.

And so we bid a not-so-fond farewell to Queen Mary Tudor and look forward to the reign of Gloriana, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn. Will she be any better a monarch? That remains to be seen. We shall meet her next time and also revel in the most execrable poetry ever written. If you've been reading ahead in Blomefield you'll know just what I mean; if not, you're in for a treat.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775

Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey: James Gairdner: 1908: 4 Vols

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume VII "The Earlier Tudors, 1485 - 1558" J. D. Mackie (ed): 1952

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume VIII "The Reign of Elizabeth 1558 - 1603" J. B. Black (ed): 1936

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Seventh - Burn The Heretics - Chapter II

Little King Edward, the Godly Imp, sadly only made it to fifteen years old, succumbing to a lung infection, the days of Norman and Plantagenet royal death by arse-gravy being deemed rather passé by the Tudors. Rumours were rife that Mary had had the Imp poisoned but most historians now discount this.

Desperate as he was to prevent Mary coming to the throne; afraid - quite rightly it turned out - that she would return the country to Catholicism, the dying Edward named as his successor the Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant with a lesser but still legitimate claim to the throne.

Lady Jane Grey, contemporary portrait via the interweb,

depicted wearing one of those pushy-uppy heaving bosom tops 

so beloved of Claire Foy in the TV Wolf Hall

(just watching her breathe damned near killed me).

Scrivens! Cremuell, pass the smelling salts!

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn, before breathing in …

Ah, the tragedy of the Nine Days' Queen … Poor Queen Jane managed to hang on for just nine (count 'em) days, holed up in the royal apartments at the Tower of London. She would never leave …

Mary stormed down from Framlingham Castle (one of the homes of our old friends the Bigods) with fourteen-thousand soldiers, one-thousand cavalry, eight-hundred Catholic nobles and her little sister Elizabeth in tow. Queen Jane was deposed and later quietly executed under a false charge of treason. All that's left of her now is the Bob Dylan song … adopt nasal whine: "Won't you come see meee, Queen Jane?" &c.

As Foxe tells us, to gain her army Mary initially proclaimed that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion.

For those of you not used to reading black-letter, Mary gathered the fighting men of Norfolk and Suffolk to Framlingham Castle …

Mary Tudor's promise, from Old Dive's 1621 Foxe.

"The Lady Mary promiseth faithfully that she would not alter religion".

"The Suffolke men; who being always forward in promoting the proceedings of the Gospel, promised her their aide and help, so that she would not attempt the alteration of the Religion, which her brother King Edward had before established …

To make the matter short, unto this condition the(y) eftsoones agreed, with such promise made to them that no innovation should be made of Religion, as that no man would or could then have misdoubted her."

Yeah, right … "Eftsoones" by-the-bye, is archaic Middle English for "soon afterwards".

So how long did Mary keep her promise?

Before her bottom had even warmed the throne all the leading Protestants, including Latimer and Cranmer, were thrown into prison and all-round bad-hat Stephen Gardiner freed from the Tower to act as her arch-persecutor.

Stephen Gardiner … Boo! Hiss …

It was all change again at Norwich Castle as Catholics and Protestants swapped places for the third - and not for the last - time. "Okay, get off the rack; now it's your turn to torture me."

Within a month of coming to her throne, Queen Mary reversed all of Henry and Edward's religious reform laws and revived the Heresy Acts. Then she set to a'burnin' with uncomfortable relish. Bloody Mary imprisoned and tortured thousands and managed to burn more than two-hundred-and-eighty people at the stake in her mercifully brief reign.

My Foxe describes each and every one with gleefully ranting, canting rhetoric and delightfully illustrative woodcuts.

Delightfully illustrative woodcuts of poor old Cranmer getting the Bloody Mary treatment.

Courtesy Old Dive.

Next time … What Mary Did Next … you might want to peep through your fingers at that one.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition.

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey: James Gairdner: 1908: 4 Vols

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume VII "The Earlier Tudors, 1485 - 1558" J. D. Mackie (ed): 1952

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume VIII "The Reign of Elizabeth 1558 - 1603" J. B. Black (ed): 1936

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Seventh - Burn The Heretics - Chapter I

Part the Seventh, wherein Bloody Mary runs amok and the phrase "I'm gonna get mediæval on yo ass!" first enters the lexicon.

And so we continue our merrie tale in Tudor times with Norwich Castle serving as prison and torture chamber for Lollards and early Protestants, then for Catholics, then for Protestants again and then for Catholics once more as kings and queens played and lost the Game of Thrones.

Edward VI, the Godly Imp.

After Henry the Eighth's festering leg finally did for him, young Edward the Sixth succeeded to the crown. Somerset's fall from grace after the disastrous slaughter of Kett's rebellion was swift, he was booted out even before Kett was hanged and soon after was himself executed. 

His successor, Northumberland was out to loot crown and country for all he could get. It was his stupid idea to halve the value of the currency (see previous post) and the resulting famine and disaster led to him losing the Treasury, handing it to Norfolk man Thomas Gresham (he of the grasshopper, the tale of which is somewhere in the dim recesses of my blog), who somehow managed to drag the economy back from the brink.

Thomas Cranmer, looking very po-faced on the interweb.

Edward developed anti-Catholic tendencies from a young age, particularly under the influence of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. They got together a bunch of reformers and traditionalists to bash out a new form of liturgy for the nascent Church of England, which became the first version of the Book of Common Prayer.

This, being a compromise by committee, pleased no-one and put both Catholic and Protestant noses out of joint. Under the influence of the more zealous Protestant reformers, the Imp had Cranmer revise the Book of Common Prayer in an ever more anti-Catholic manner, effectively abolishing the Mass and outlawing the adoration of Saints and their relics.

Foxe admiringly called the little fella "The Godly Imp."

Old Dive's facsimile of Elizabeth the First's Book of Common Prayer.

Enlarge it and you'll find Death having a whale of a time in the margins,

complete with silly rhymes.

At the Imp's behest, those Lollards still surviving in the Norwich Castle torture chamber were set free and replaced with Catholic activists, mostly Jesuits. The burnings and torture went on; the tortured and torturers just switched places.

Gotta love Christianity …

Next time, Eddie kicks the bucket, the tragedy of Lady Jane Grey and Mary stages a coup.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition.

The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.

Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey: James Gairdner: 1908: 4 Vols

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume VII "The Earlier Tudors, 1485 - 1558" J. D. Mackie (ed): 1952

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume VIII "The Reign of Elizabeth 1558 - 1603" J. B. Black (ed): 1936

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Sixth - Fire and Rebellion - Chapter X

Ah, the gentry … never did learn to clean their shit up. That's what the poor are for, after all.

Two-hundred-and-sixty-two cartloads of this.

Having occupied the market place for many a week, Warwick's army now marched home, conveniently forgetting to clear up after themselves.

The good folk of Norwich emerged from their burnt-out ruins to find the market place so filled with horse dung, human dung, dog and many other dungs, piles of rotten food and waste, bits of burnt buildings, scattered cannonballs and the odd bit of a corpse that the dogs hadn't got to yet, that it took twenty-four days to clean it up.

Two-hundred-and-forty-eight reeking cartloads were carried away for dumping into the old chalk workings across the river in Thorpe (just behind our office).

The Guildhall having been Warwick's personal headquarters and prison, it took twelve days to clear all of that out, with an additional twenty-four cartloads of filth dumped on Thorpe.

That's not counting the disposal of over three-thousand corpses from the battlefield. Norwich Cathedral's infirmary was overrun with the wounded and dying, an awful lot losing limbs from the cannonade or dying from infected arrow or pike wounds.

Inevitably, famine followed and the cemeteries were overflowing. 

Fortunately, the little King Edward the Sixth let the city off land taxes for the next three years on condition that the money was used to repair and rebuild the wrecked buildings, bridges and gates and to set the poor to work doing it. 

The Poor doing the shit work.

Courtesy Monty Pyhon's Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune from Holy Grail.

As if the poor hadn't suffered enough, having been kicked off their land then slaughtered in their thousands for protesting about it and starved to death in the famine that followed, in April 1551 the sweating sickness returned for one of its regular visits, leaving hundreds more Norfolk corpses in its wake.

Happy days …

Could things possibly get any worse for the homeless, pox-ridden poor of our fair city and the long-suffering agricultural workers toiling for the large landowners? Of course they bloody well could … and they did!

Badly clipped silver penny of the period, via the interweb.

Over at the Treasury, the coin of the realm was found to be so clipped and debased that the boy king proclaimed that "every shilling would now be worth sixpence and every groat, tuppence."

This was a double blow to the poor as the shortages and famine had driven prices sky high and now their hard-earned wages were suddenly worth half their face value. No more bread for them … their new menu consisted eating grass, weeds and any animal they managed to catch, be it dog, cat or rat. Steal a loaf of bread and it was the gallows for you. Dig up a turnip or scrump an apple from a landowner's estate and get hanged from the nearest tree.

All in all then, not that much of a golden age for Norwich. But things were about to get even worse when Bloody Mary set up her torture chamber in Norwich Castle and her barbecue in the Lollards' Pit.

We shall learn that happy tale next time.

Sources:

Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition. 

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.

The Paston Letters: 1422-1509 : Old Dive's 1910 edition: 4 vols.

A History of the County of Norfolk, Vol 2: ed. William Page: 1906

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005  

Mediæval Norwich: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983 

Kett - 1549, Rewriting the Rebellion: Leo R. Jary: 2018

Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk: Frederick William Russell: 1859 

Tombland: C. J. Sansom: 2018 (fictionalised account with historical essay appended)

The Oxford History of England: Volume VII "The Earlier Tudors, 1485 - 1558" J. D. Mackie (ed): 1952