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

Welcome to the eighteenth century …

Norwich is still the second richest city in the realm (yet to be overtaken by the slave-traders of Bristol), with the Worsted industry back up and booming (again, yet to be overtaken by the factory looms of the Industrial Revolution in the north and the midlands). Happy days for the merchants and wealthy landowners; not so happy for the working poor, whose wages were still being "fixed by their employers in the Quarter Sessions at the lowest figures possible to sustain life".

Alas and alack for poor old Norwich Castle, however. Still owned by the crown, Mary having died shortly after the Glorious Revolution and William the Third not giving a damn, along came Anne who cared even less.

Not Queen Anne at all, but an excellently grumpy Olivia Colman, via the interweb.

In 1707 the Norwich Justices of the Peace - who were supposedly responsible for the upkeep of the gaol - declared it in such bad repair that many prisoners were escaping, concluding the the castle was "not fitting to detaining prisoners in."

By this time the keep roof had gone and part of the first floor had also been demolished to create a kind of open yard. The majority of the prisoners were kept in appalling conditions in the surviving rooms of the ground floor and in ramshackle, makeshift sheds erected against the walls.

Between 1707 and 1709, the city managed to screw almost thirteen-hundred pounds from the queen for repairs. "Large cracks, from the top down to the midst, and lower in the east and south sides of the keep were repaired with stone from the removed battlements."

The main spine wall had fallen and was at this stage cut down to where is remains today with "thin red bricks" used to repair the upper parts of the keep (much cheaper than stone).

One of Edward Boardman's prison demolition photos from the 1880s.

The man in the centre with the pickaxe is standing on the top of the demolished spine wall.

You can see the cheap red brick repairs to the upper levels.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

The photograph above, though taken almost two-hundred years later, shows the gaol pretty much as it would have looked during Anne's reign. Add a few huts and sheds and some miserable looking prisoners and you get the picture.

In 1711 an Act was passed at Norwich "to erect work-houses, and a court of guardians to take care of the poor; by this Act, the whole county of the city of Norwich was made one parish as to the poor, which are maintained and provided for in the work-houses in the city, one of which is at the New-hall, another in the remains of the Duke's palace (and we know what a stinking pismire that was), and the third, commonly called the Infirmary, is on the right hand of the road out of St. Austin's-gates."

Blomefield goes on at considerable (but historically necessary) length about the setting up, rules and administration of the workhouses should you be so sick of the pandemic that you decide to bore yourself to death.

Cracks in the west elevation, to be repaired using stone from demolishing the battlements.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

In the few remaining rooms of the first floor, including the chapel, now repaired with cheap brickwork, debtors were imprisoned who could afford the appropriate fees. After Anne passed irritably from this world to the next, George the First attempted to make the gaol a going concern again.

"In 1729, a debtor or criminal prisoner would have had to pay the cost of two shillings a week for a bed to himself, a fee which was still in operation twenty-eight years later. If the bed was shared by two people the cost lowered to sixpence, while three sharing would pay only threepence each.

Debtors also had the advantage of sometimes obtaining food from friends or family and were often the only prisoners able to pay the fees charged by the gaoler for nearly all other privileges, such as receiving visitors, furniture, bed-clothes, and even removal of chains or leg-irons.

Those poorer prisoners who could not afford food were provided with meagre rations of bread and water, paid for by the county."

And so Part the Eighth of our tale comes to an end. Norwich Castle had endured sieges, fire and long neglect, starting life as the most magnificent royal palace in Europe, by the time of the Georges it was a roofless ruin, housing the very dregs of society. 

The age of the workhouse, the slum, the Industrial Revolution and the triumph of capitalist greed over reason had begun. For Norwich Castle, however, things were about to take a turn for the better, as we shall see in Part the Ninth - Prison and Reform.

Sources:

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

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

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 X "The Later Stuarts: 1660-1714 " Basil Williams (ed): 1939

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XI "The Whig Supremacy: 1714 - 1760" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934

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

If, like Dilbert and me, you find meetings an intolerable waste of time, rest assured this is not a new phenomenon. This from Blomefield: Norwich in the reign of James the Second:

"In 1686, on May-Day, the Freemen assembled to choose a new-elect, and presented Mr. John Wrench, the youngest alderman, and Robert Bendish (that had been mayor and was now unqualified), to the mayor and court, who, because they could not take their choice, neither of them being eligible, they went home, and so none was chosen."

James the Second doing that childrens' finger trick with his right hand, by Peter Lely, 

via our jolly chum the interweb.

A chip off the old block, Jimmy inherited his dad's (Charles the First) strong belief in the divine right of kings and ruled as an absolutist tyrant, constantly proroguing parliament (see Narcissus Luttrell's Diary* in the sidebar for lots of fun with Popish Plotts, murther most foule and battles between king and parliament). Good old Macaulay described James' reign as "tyranny which approached to insanity."**

 * I promise I'll transcribe some more of it soon. I got kinda distracted by work on the Castle.

** I hate it when Wikipedia has the same quotes as I would use. Damn their eyes!

Charles the First with the future James the Second, painted by the long-suffering Peter Lely. 

via the wonders of the interweb.

Of James' battles against church, state (and sanity), many histories have been written. Should you share my Whig views, the classic account is Macauley's hugely entertaining "History of England from the Accession of James the Second" … should your views lean more to the right you shouldn't really be here anyway … Fuck along now, dearie … Shoo!

Norwich Castle, having been partially repaired and refortified during the Civil War, was once again left to rot, together with the unfortunate prisoners within. On James' conversion to Catholicism Blomefield relates that in Norwich …

"In 1687, the King suspended all penal laws respecting religion, and gave free liberty to all Papists and sectaries, to exercise their own way of worship without control; upon which the Papists had the granary granted them at the New-hall, over the sealing hall, for their publick chapel, which they made very handsome; it was opened on Sunday Dec 11, publick mass and a sermon being performed there by Mr. Acton."

"The Presbitarians(sic) built a meeting house from the ground over against the Black Boys; and the Independents repaired a house in St. Edmund's that had been formerly a brew-house."

The beautiful Octagon Chapel on Colegate, built in 1756 on the site of the old Presbyterian meeting house. Pic, courtesy the Octagon Chapel.

King James ordered nineteen Norwich common-council members thrown out and ten aldermen, including the sheriff, all replaced by his own chosen men.

The interior of the Octagon Chapel, now a Unitarian Church, where thrice yearly Old Dive attends period instrument concerts by the wonderful Bach Players.

Photos courtesy Old Dive.

James had seven bishops sent to the Tower for refusing to kow-tow to his whims. In June 1688 they were brought to be tried at the King's Bench where to the apoplectic fury of the king they were acquitted, "to the great joy of the kingdom in general, at Norwich particularly the joy was excessive."

We all need a bit of excessive joy from time to time.

By October, James was in deep doo-doo (see the histories for all the shenanigans) and the Duke of Norfolk brought a proclamation from parliament reversing the king's decrees and booting out his chosen men. I shall leave Blomefield to finish him off …

"Nov 5. William, Prince of Orange, arrived at Torbay, and on Dec 16, came to St.James's."

"Dec 1. Henry Duke of Norfolk rode into the market place at the head of 300 knights and gentlemen, and declared for a free parliament, where the mayor and aldermen met him, from the Gild-hall and consented with him."

"Dec 7 & 8. The rabble assembled in a riotous manner, pulled down and burned all the furniture of the Popish chapel lately opened at the New-hall, pillaged several houses of the Papists in the city, but were dispersed by the trained bands; but getting together again on the Friday and Saturday following, they grew so insolent as to threaten to plunder the Bishop's palace, and some of the chief citizen's houses, but several being taken up on Monday and whipped, and others imprisoned, and after punished, they ceased such actions."

Dec 23. James II went into France."

Coming soon, Norwich Castle after the Glorious Revolution.

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 IX

Fancy another quick break? Hokay, as we've reached Charles the Second let's check out my favourite feature of post-Commonwealth London … Restoration Comedies! Huzzah!

On his return from France to take up the English throne, Chazza the Second brought back some habits he'd picked up in exile. One was a sympathy for Catholicism which would cause all manner of problems that fortunately do not concern us here; another was a love of theatre and in particular of young women, one of whom would very definitely catch his eye.

One of the few portraits of Nell Gwyn where her boobies are actually covered up.

Peter Lely again, via the interweb.

From child prostitute in her alcoholic mother's bawdy-house, via pimped "orange-girl" at age thirteen (selling oranges and "other favours" to the toffs at the King's Company's new theatre on Drury Lane), an actress at fourteen, specialising in bawdy comedies and thence into the king's bed at eighteen, Nell Gwyn was only one of a veritable village of mistresses kept by Charles and bore him two sons before retiring from the stage and tragically dying at thirty-seven after a series of strokes "almost certainly due to the acquired variety of syphilis." Nell died wealthy and owned several houses, moving from one to another during the social season as she followed the king around his realm. Go, Girl!

Drury Lane Theatre in David Garrick's day, via the interweb.

Before sufficient comedies were written to satisfy the new king's taste (that women should play women's and on occasion, men's parts, that there be sexually explicit language, risqué seduction scenes, bawdiness, outrageously exaggerated characters, cross-dressing, but most of all mockery of high society and the people at his court), the early audiences enjoyed a diet of Shakespeare and Jonson.

This encouraged the birth of the serious professional actress, such as Elizabeth Barry, the first "celebrity" but as the new comedies took hold, bawdy comediennes such as Nell Gwyn and Susanna Mountfort became the fashion. Gods forgive them for what the first "celebrities" spawned in the age of TV…

Aphra Behn, the first woman to "write for bread" … hugely successful playwright of Restoration Comedies. Courtesy the British Library.

It also gave Aphra Behn the opportunity to become the first female playwright, producing successful comedies as well as more serious plays depicting the plight of women in seventeenth century England.

Breeches rôles were wildly popular, with actresses dressing as men and enjoying the resulting comedic freedom; Susanna Mountfort in particular was an expert at "roistering" in male drag. Nell Gwyn had herself in her early teens roamed London dressed in male clothing with a false beard (for reasons best know to herself). Pepys loved nothing more than going to watch the same actresses night after night if the rôle was risqué enough and adored Nell so much that he hung a nude portrait of her above his desk at the Admiralty (a proto-girlie-calendar).

Egotistical courtiers came to the royal court theatres specifically to see themselves personally mocked and satirised, the more outrageously the better. Gradually, however, with comedy's increasing popularity, new theatres opened up that admitted the "middling sorts" and even the hoi-polloi, much to Pepys' disgust and new plays were written to cater for these audiences.

I have a perverse passion for Restoration Comedies. Of the five-hundred or so that survive, a few dozen are still in the repertory canon and are played regularly (including Aphra Behn's sex comedy "The Rover"). The original scripts were published in blue tissue paper wrappers and are scarce, but you can pick up later editions for a few groats and they're well worth tracking down, especially (once Covid is dealt with) for a bit of tipsy after-dinner farce with friends.

One of the earlier "aristocratic" comedies by the Duke of Buckingham.

All booky pics courtesy Old Dive.

 

Not so many silly character names as in the later comedies as the early ones were aimed at specific people in the royal court who loved to be seen portrayed scandalously.

 

A risqué farce from David Garrick, continuing the tradition into the next century.

 

Bring on the silly names …

 

One of my favourites, by actor and playwright Colley Cibber.

 

… who himself played Lord Foppington.

 

Early celebrity autobiographies were called Apologies (for the life of whoever).

Today's celebrity autobiographies would need to be a whole lot more grovelling.

Colley Cibber's is a splendidly entertaining read.

 

Of course there had to be a reaction from the more prudish, joyless, party-poopers …

 

The most infamous of these is Jeremy Collier's rant against the immorality and profaneness of the English Stage. Originally published in 1698, by the time my 1699 copy had come out it had run to a fourth edition, so popular was it.

 

Our Mister Collier doesn't mince his words.

 

It's a laugh-out-loud read, for all the wrong reasons.

This concludes my advertising break on behalf of Restoration Comedy. Next time we'll get back on topic.

Should you wish to pursue the phenomenon in all its colourful variety, the British Library's Introduction to Restoration Comedy is a fine place to start: https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-restoration-comedy

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

Alas and alack for the passing of Sir Thomas Browne who shuffled off this mortal coil on 19th Oct. 1682, his seventy-seventh birthday. 

He was laid to rest in the chancel of St.Peter Mancroft, the magnificent church dominating Norwich's marketplace and close to Browne's own house on Haymarket (now long gone and replaced by the Pret-a-Manger where we hold forth with our Georgian-style leftist political Breakfast Club every Saturday … at least we did until Covid and hopefully will again). 

I like to think of us sharing a coffee in the great man's drawing room though for all I know our table may have been in his privy.

Sir Thomas Browne's statue in the Haymarket; one pigeon on his head, another taking off from the burial urn he studies. He often wears a traffic cone as a hat at weekends, this being a university city. Photo, courtesy Old Dive.

Polymath and physician, his study of Norfolk Saxon cremation urns ("Urne Buriall") goes wandering wonderfully way off topic as he ponders just about every subject under the sun, as indeed do most of his books. He wrote in a style best described as "all his own" … ludicrously labyrinthine language that takes overblown purple prose right over the top into the ultra-violet. I love his style and thoroughly enjoy chewing my way through his words and ideas.

Joy and Thom ponder the enigma that is the Thomas Browne Quincunx installation in the Haymarket. Photo, courtesy Old Dive.

He wrote a multi-volume de-bunking of "vulgar errors" called Pseudodoxia Epidemica, which you can read for free online and is a real hoot as he lays into Pliny and Aristotle and all manner of others, refuting such commonly held beliefs as "That a bever, to escape the Hunter bites off his testicles or stones, whether garlic affects magnetism, or why storks live only in republics"

Some mannequins and a busker appear nonplussed by another part of the Quincunx installation.

Photo, courtesy Old Dive.

Browne was a prolific producer of neologisms - the Oxford English Dictionary lists four-thousand one-hundred and thirty-one words coined by him. Where would we be without Browne's electricity, computer, holocaust, medical, prairie, suicide, cenatory (relating or pertaining to dinner), hallucination, selection, approximate, cadaverous, follicle, inflammable, sarcophagy or indeed retromingent (animals which urinate backwards)? He may have believed in alchemy and fairies but the man was mighty!

And then, alas, he was dead … but his wonderful books remain in print to this day. His genius and captivating oddity still inspire and the recent volume by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, "The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century" is a delight.

While Browne was ruminating on life, the universe and everything, the Stuart Restoration's reaction against Cromwell's attempt at workers' rights got into full swing among Norwich's great and good. In 1674, one Elisha Philippo, a French soap boiler was somehow chosen High-Sheriff of Norfolk. His brother Onias took advantage of the troubles in France to bring over a quantity of Huguenot silk-weavers, who he set up in "a great house out of Pockthorpe Gates" (basically a sweatshop), intending to profit from them by undercutting the local weavers' already criminally low wages.

Somewhat inevitably, "this occasioned a mutiny, which came to that height, that the mob brake open one of their houses, and misused a woman so, that she died in two or three days after; the pretence was, that these people would underwork them; however the French that dwelt there were forced to quit the street that night."

"The poor being still discontented at the French that were left in the city, took occasion to assemble at the execution of Eliz. Brooks on the Castle-Hill, and coming in a large body into the market place, declared that the French came to underwork them, and that they would then quit the city of them, and accordingly going to Mr. Barnham's, in St. Andrew's parish, they pulled them and their goods out of their houses, abused their persons, &c. until the trained bands were raised to appease them, whence the principals were taken, and made to pay dear for their folly."

Mob rule seemed the norm in Norwich and London. Blomefield again: "A boy about 16 years old, named Hipkin, condemned for felony, was reprieved by the judge; however Allen the gaoler, finding a great resort of people to see him, caused a gallows to be erected, set three several days for his execution; but disappointing them, they pulled down the gallows, and burnt them, and brake his windows, and beat him; and if they had not been quelled by reading the proclamation (the Riot Act), they had pulled down his house to the ground."

Also during this time, both the smallpox and the Duke of York visited the city, though which was the least welcome is a matter of conjecture …

Next time, a brief but welcome break at the theatre before James the Second rears his ugly head. Popery and Revolution ahoy!

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 VII

Happy days are here again … but as our dear Blomefield reminds us it was not all royal theatres and romping with Nell Gwyn.

1665, Norwich: "Notwithstanding all imaginable precaution taken by the magistrates, the plague raged here exceedingly, as also at Yarmouth (from whence it was brought hither), and in many other places: there died in this city from Oct 3rd 1665 to Oct 3rd 1666, 3,012, whereof of the plague, 2,251. From 22nd August to the 29th, being only one week, there died 203."

"The market was removed to the north end of the Town Close by order of court, on the request of the county justices."

"Ring a ring of roses … &c."

The plague continued in Norwich through 1666 before fading away by September 1667. 1666 (the year of the Great Fire of London) was one of the few years when Norwich didn't burn down (see posts passim).

Things, however, were soon returning to some semblance of "Normal for Norfolk" and in 1668, "Mr. Noel du Faye had license to show a monstrous woman seven foot and an half in stature." We do love a good monstrous woman show here in Norfolk.

Up at Norwich Castle, the Quarter Sessions records tell us that by this time the cellars beneath the gatehouse at the north end of the bridge were already being used as dungeons due to overcrowding. 

Periodically the castle (by now officially the County Gaol) emptied its worst dregs into ships at Yarmouth and London, where they were chained and transported to the Colonies of New England and Virginia for periods of seven years servitude then left to fend for themselves. Dickens' account of their descendants in Martin Chuzzlewit suggests that this perhaps was not such a wise move.

The 1689 Sessions tell of a "women's prison and chapel" being separated off from the men's on the main floor of the keep. Felons and debtors were now kept separately but conditions for all prisoners were appalling as the gaolers were there simply to make personal profit and didn't care whether their charges lived or died.

Back to 1671 now and "The king and queen, dukes of York, Monmouth and Buckingham, with many other nobles, entered the city on Thurs Sept 28, being met at Trowse Bridge, the utmost extents of the city that way, by the mayor, with all the regalia, sheriffs, aldermen and common council, livery and militia, new clothed in red, and by them conducted to the Duke's Palace, where they lodged, and were magnificently entertained by the lord Hen. Howard."

The Duke's Palace, via the interweb.

There must have been one hell of a clean-up before the king arrived. The Duke's Palace (constructed of stones robbed from Castle Acre and Norwich's Greyfriars monastery at the Dissolution) was built on land poorly reclaimed from the river and was constantly sinking and tilting into its man-made marsh, the palace garden itself being described only shortly before as a "shitten and stinking mire". Having shortly afterwards been abandoned by the Duke and the ruin turned into a workhouse, the Duke of Norfolk's Palace eventually became so rotten and decrepit that it toppled into the pismire and the land is now the site of the less than palatial St. Andrews' multi-storey car park.

"The next day the king went to the cathedral, where he was sung into the church with an anthem, and when he had ended his devotion at the east end of the church, where he kneeled on the hard stone, he went to the Bishop's Palace and was there nobly entertained; and returning through the church, took coach at the west door, and came up to the Gild-hall in the market place, and there shewed himself to the people from the balcony, and viewed the trained bands drawn up in the market, whence coming down he rode to the New-hall and was there feasted by the city, after which they went for Blickling; it cost the city above 900l."

It was at this time that the two-headed monster of party politics evolved from the mess of conflicting interests. Norwich in the late seventeenth century was particularly riven between Whig and Tory, both originally terms of abuse.

Whig (from the Gaelic term for a horse thief) politics grew from the Scottish non-conformists who had humiliated Charles the First in battle before selling him to parliament and were strongly in favour of parliament limiting the power of kings. Add to them a bunch of lefty intellectuals in parliament supported by the common folk.

Tory (from the Irish for a Papist outlaw) was the royalist party and supported James the Second when he converted to Catholicism. They were also the party of the wealthy landowner and early capitalist industrialist (boo, hiss …). Right-wing exploiters of the common people.

These days, Whig has evolved first into Socialist and then sadly declined into wishy-washy centrist while Tory has barely evolved at all, remaining Tory; left and right wings of the political spectrum … the exploited 99% versus the exploiting 1%.

And look where that's got us!

Next time, Huguenot silk weavers are brought in by the Norwich merchants to undercut the wages of the locals and much unpleasantness ensues. Sir Thomas Browne passes away (an Old Dive hero), dammit.

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 VI

Wherein a great hubbub in the house …

1660 … A new king, a new era. 

Charles the Second, looking smug and smarmy via the interweb. Wouldst thou purchase an used carriage from this man?

Adopt circus barker or town crier voice for the following paragraph … Roll up! Roll up! Welcome to the Restoration! Theatres thrown open, women allowed on stage (WOMEN!), Sam Pepys, creepy sexual predator, breaks the neck of his theorbo, has his cellar filled with shit, moans about his stones and buries cheese in his garden during the Great Fire of London; plague sweeps the nation (again), Popish Plotts abound, Judge Jeffreys hangs all and sundry, John Evelyn and Narcissus Luttrell hang around the king's court collecting gossip, Pepys hangs a naked portrait of Nell Gwyn over his desk at the Admiralty, the king hangs a naked portrait of Nell Gwyn hidden behind a landscape in his chambers … oh, and the king visits Norwich (though without the dire doggerel of Queen Bess's visit).

Sam Pepys … A very naughty boy. Lely, via the interweb.

Some snippets to get a flavour …

Blomefield relates that the Norwich authorities complained to the new king about "the frequency of puppet-plays and other shews, resorting thither to the decay of trade, the meaner sort being diverted from their labours …"

Theatre-loving Charles the Second could give not a single hoot and told them to sort it out themselves.

Nell Gwyn as Cupid. Pepys had this hanging over his desk at the Admiralty.

 Narcissus Luttrell writing in his diary relates some court tittle-tattle …

"1679: July: About this time Mrs. Gwyn, mother to madam Ellen Gwyn, being in drink, was drowned in a ditch near Westminster." (she was an alcoholic bawdy-house madam so no great surprise there).

Peter Lely's Nekkid Nelly … hidden behind a landscape in Chazza's chambers, via the interweb.

"There has been for some time a flying rumour spread abroad of a black box found, wherein was contained a writing importing a marriage or contract of marriage between his majestie and the duke of Monmouths mother; which his majestie hath been pleased to take notice off, and sent for sir Gilbert Gerard to the councill, who was examined about the same (being the person who was reported to have the same,) but he denied on oath his haveing any such thing, or haveing ever seen it; and there is strict enquiry made to find out who was the first broacher of this scandalous lye; 'tis thought to be a popish story raised to scandalize his majestie and the duke."

John Evelyn, diarist, via the interweb.

 "About the same time Mr. John Dryden was sett on in Covent Garden in the evening by three fellowes, who beat him very severely, and on peoples comeing in they run away: 'tis thought to be done by order of the dutchesse of Portsmouth, she being abused in a late libell called an Essay upon satyr, of which Mr. Dryden is suspected to be the author."

"1680: February: The 26th, Mrs. Ellen Gwyn being at the dukes playhouse, was affronted by a person who came into the pitt and called her whore; whom Mr. Herbert, the earl of Pembrokes brother vindicating, there were many swords drawn, and a great hubbub in the house."

I can find no portrait of court gossip diarist Narcissus Luttrell, but a US University has his original and I have been (slowly) transcribing it for my own pleasure.

Looks like the reaction to Puritan rule was decidedly an overreaction … Restoration Comedies slandered and scandalised the toffs of London while Cromwell's legislation to help the poor against the depredations of the rich was torn up and the courts returned to corruption with a vengeance.

Meanwhile, back in Norwich we fretted about the lower orders spending their time at puppet plays when they should have been toiling for the profit of their "betters" while we continued - in ever greater numbers - to empty our prisons (including regular batches of the worst dregs of Norwich Castle) and ship our criminals, vagrants and unwanted children across the Pond to become the future GOP.

Sorry about that …

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 V

Many are the legislative, financial and social reforms of Cromwell's Protectorate that were deemed so beneficial to the country that the succeeding monarchs kept them on the statute books, quietly ignoring who had framed them (all, that is, except Oliver's attempts to alleviate the suffering of the poor at the expense of the rich and his reforms of the corrupt court system).

Wart? What wart?

Cue Austin Powers 3 "Moley moley moley" scene …

Ollie, courtesy the interweb.

Here in Norwich things were nowhere near so bad as before the Civil War. Norwich Castle officially became the County Gaol and the torture chambers were dismantled (possibly sold off to what passed as the local BDSM community back then). No more folk were burned to death in the Lollards' Pit and the buildings and church windows wrecked in the Great Blow were gradually repaired.

Bit of a bummer then that, "In 1656, on Sunday July 20, about five in the evening, was a most terrible tempest of thunder and lightning, with hail stones as big as pullets eggs, which did great hurt to the corn, glass windows &c. to the value of 3,000l. in the city and adjacent country."

More rescued pieces of stained glass from the Great Blow, this time in St.Peter Hungate. Courtesy St.Peter Hungate.

In 1657 parliament offered Cromwell the crown which he mercifully turned down, albeit after weeks of hemming and hawing. He would have made a fine monarch, being a more than able administrator and organiser and a brilliant commander of armed forces, but monarchs tend to be hereditary and his son Richard was a wet slap, as useful as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking party, as the country would soon discover.

As Blomefield records: "In 1657, the Lord Protector Cromwell being proclaimed in London with great solemnity on July 1, on the 10th following he was proclaimed here, the mayor, justices and aldermen, riding in scarlet gowns, and the sheriffs in violet gowns, attended by two trumpeters, and two companies of volunteers, and the city waits, the whole company were gallantly entertained at the mayor's."

"In 1658, Sept. 3, the grand Usurper died, on which day the wind was so very high, that much damage was done in many places: and on the 7th of the same instant, the mayor received letters intimating his death, and ordering Richard Cromwell, his eldest son, to be proclaimed Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland …"

Note the change from "Lord Protector" to "grand Usurper."

A year or so later, Richard the wet slap was "laid aside" and his parliament kicked out by the army. General George Monck marched down from Scotland to London and somehow managed to negotiate the restoration of the monarchy in the teeth of violent dissent by the army, culminating in the Declaration of Breda, guaranteeing leniency for all but the regicides. On 14th May 1660 Charles the Second was declared king and all manner of merrie mayhem ensued, as we shall learn in good time.

George Monck, by Peter Lely, via the interweb.

But back to the good parts of Oliver's Protectorate …

First up: the "reform of the existing legal procedure, involving as it did, delay, uncertainty, corruption and of encouraging a disregard of legal obligations by the rich to the derogation or the ruin of the poor." (Inderwick, and following).

"The Quarter Sessions tried small actions of debt and trespass, the tediousness and cost (of which) were almost unbearable."

"In the superior courts, matters were even worse. Over twenty-thousand cases … were standing for judgement in the Court of Chancery, some of them even ten, twenty or thirty years old, and in some not less than five-hundred orders had been made."

"Everyone connected with the Courts of Justice exacted exorbitant fees, and gave preference in the cause list to those suitors who paid them best."

Under the Tudors, trade had been protected and prices regulated, ensuring or attempting to ensure the labourer a fair day's wage for a fair day's work.

"Under the apathy of the Stuarts … wages were fixed by their employers in the Quarter Sessions at the lowest figures possible to sustain life." (my emphasis).

"Then was formulated by the Protector, the Council and the army the 'Instrument of Government' … whereby for the first time in the history of this country the representation of the people was put upon a uniform and popular footing … No members were given to the old and rotten boroughs, but the counties had members in proportion to their population, and the large towns had a fair share of representation."

The good folk of our American Colonies learned from this and over the following century began to formulate their own ideas, but here in England the Restoration turned the clock back and it would be more than a-hundred-and-fifty years before the Reform Acts were passed and some semblance of sanity began to return. As for the revenge of the Court of Chancery on the poor, one need only read Bleak House and weep at Jarndyce v. Jarndyce …

Oliver did more for the labouring classes and the poor than anyone until Kier Hardie in the early twentieth century with the founding of the Labour Party, but history is written by the victors and the victors were once again the Stuarts.

Next up: Restoration.

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 V

1649, and the king's head rolls across the platform outside Whitehall.

Er … so we've killed the king; now what do we do?

Oooh, I wonder what's in this one …

Gosh, it's Ashcam's Discourse!

Whadda'ya mean you've never heard of it?

Anthony Ashcam (or Ascham if you believe the interweb … I prefer to believe his title page in my little booky above) had been giving this very subject some serious thought the previous year. He became embroiled in a pamphlet war with royalists who argued that they could not be obedient to Parliament simply because it was de facto in power. His thoughts were taken up by Thomas Hobbes after the Restoration and form part of the basis for our current constitutional monarchy.

A jolly important constitutional document: "how farre a man may lawfully conforme to the power and Commands of those who hold a Kingdome divided by Civill Warre."

In Three Parts! Collect the set! Builds week by week into an astoundingly dull-sounding book that is a surprisingly good read.

 

… even if the third part gets a tad preachy.

Ashcam/Ascham argued successfully that to keep society from chaos, people's self-interest inevitably led to their giving allegiance to any de facto power that was capable of protecting their lives and livelihoods, regardless of the legality of the upcoming proposal to put the king to trial for his life.

Cromwell and the army agreed and made an attempt at rule by Parliament alone. Rule of the people by the people for the people. Yeah, that's gonna work …

On May 30th in Norwich, Alderman Andrews proclaimed the Act for Abolishing Kingly Government.

The Colonies were beginning to have an impact on Norwich life; that summer, "Several young men and boys, clothed at the charge of the city, were carried to London, bound apprentices, and sent to Virginia and New England." I wonder where their descendants are now?

On June 26th an insurrection plot was discovered in Norwich in support of the future Charles the Second. Cromwell sent judges to Norwich, where in December, "in great pomp, with the sword and mace &c. on Saturday they condemned six, who were executed the Monday morning following, on a gallows erected between the cross and the well in the market place (about where Joe's Pet Food stall now stands), on Tuesday they condemned six more, on Wednesday, being Christmas Day, they passed sentence on Mr. Cooper, a minister at Holt, who was hanged there, on Thursday 26th, five more were condemned, on Friday, Col. Saul and a shoemaker were condemned, and after hanged at Lyn, on Monday Dec 30th, Major Francis Roberts, and Lieutenant John Barber, and two others were condemned, the two former were hanged on the gallows in the market, and the other two at two several market towns; one Mr. Will Hobart, who gave witness against Mr. Cooper, was the next day himself condemned, and hanged at Dearham."

Rather incongruously the very next sentence in Blomefield reads, "Mackerel, good and fresh, were sold in the market for 17 a penny, hops were 12l. a hundred, and wheat, 20s. a comb." The fish market was only yards from the gallows where so many were left hanging. At least they'd stopped burning folk (except witches).

Jolly Ollie. Photo courtesy Old Dive.

In 1652, the Long Parliament, or at least the Rump of it, having sat for twenty years was dissolved by Cromwell. He had found it necessary to institute a mini-parliament to set rules; parliament when left to itself got nothing done but bicker. There were no parties back then, just a load of landowners, Puritans and army members yelling about their own self-interest.

On December 16th, 1653, Oliver assumed the title of Lord Protector and on the 22nd was proclaimed such at Norwich.

This is way too huge a subject to be covered here, but the books in my sources (below) will provide many happy hours of rabbit-hole-spelunking for those who wish to fill in some historical gaps.

Next time we'll take a quick look at the Protectorate and the good things that came from Oliver's rule before scurrying on to the Restoration, which promises to be a whole lot funnier.

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 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