Tudor Stuff news – A wedding!

Victoria & Adam are getting married.

An unusual post for Tudor Stuff today – just for once this blog is featuring a modern event. Victoria Taylor – co-writer of Tudor Stuff is to be married to Adam Skerrett on Friday 30th May in Kings Heath, Birmingham.

This post is dedicated with love and great respect to Victoria and Adam. I hope you have a great day & I wish you happiness for the future.

If anyone reading this feels like passing on a message then you are more than welcome to do so!

Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediments.

Love is not love Which alters

when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose Worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediments.

Love is not love Which alters

when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose Worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

PS Normal Tudor Stuff Service will be resumed with the next post

PPS Victoria & Adam – sorry for the slightly dodgy pictures – I didn’t have a lot to work with.

Read Full Post »

Coughton Court & the powder treason

Robert Catesby - leader of the Gunpowder plot, son of Anne Throckmorton of Coughton Court.

Members of the Throckmorton family from Coughton Court (See our earlier post) were involved in the Gunpowder plot, along with other Catholic families in the Midlands.  The ‘Powder Treason’, or Gunpowder Plot, of 1605 was a failed assassination attempt by a group of English Catholics belonging to the gentry, against King James I of England and VI of Scotland.

James I

A single blow

The plot was intended to kill the king and his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single blow, by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605. The conspirators had also planned to kidnap the royal children, and lead a popular revolt in the Midlands – before installing Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of King James, a child at the time, on the throne.  She was to be Queen Elizabeth II, a Catholic Queen – having been converted by her guardians.  This was not to be – however our current Queen Elizabeth II is directly descended from this Princess Elizabeth rather than her brother Charles I who took the throne after James I.

Coughton – A cold November morning in 1605

Early in the morning of the 6th November In the cold early hours of November 6th, Thomas Bates, servant to Robert Catesby, who had been overseeing the plot from May 1604, rode over the moat bridge of Coughton Court.  He climbed the stairs to the Drawing Room where a group of people, all closely involved in the then illegal Catholic community, were waiting for news.

Fr Henry Garnet

There were two Jesuit priests – Father Henry Garnet, who had celebrated a clandestine mass for the Feast of All Saints in the house just a few days before, and Father Oswald Tesimond, the confessor to Robert Catesby.  Nicholas Owen, the priest-hide builder, was also present.  Thomas Bates told them that the plot had failed, and that the conspirators were now running for their lives.

A warning ignored

Father Garnet had warned against the plot from the beginning on a matter of principle, and had said that the failure of the plan could only mean extreme hardship for the already beleaguered Catholic community.  Despite his opposition Father Garnet was implicated in the Plot and later captured at Hindlip House along with Nicholas Owen.  Father Garnet was executed, whilst Nicholas Owen died under torture in the Tower – without ever revealing the secrets of the hides he had built at Coughton, Harvington and elsewhere.

Coughton Court (Duncan Walker on Flickr: Click image)

Read Full Post »

Harvington-the secrets of the staircase.

This post takes a look at the main staircase at Harvington Hall. Like a lot of things at Harvington it has a bit of a story to tell – some of which can be told in this post, and some of it not!

A grand entrance

The original staircase dates from about 1600. This would have provided important visitors with a suitably grand entrance.

Harvington Hall was built by Humphrey Packington around 1578. After he died the Hall passed to his daughter Mary Yate. After Mary died, the Hall passed by marriage to the Throckmorton family from nearby  Coughton Court.

A replacement staircase

The Hall was not regularly lived in for over 200 years and a great many of the fixtures and fittings at Harvington were taken out.  If you want to see the original Harvington Hall staircase you have to travel to Coughton to see it. The staircase that we see today is an exact copy built between 1936 and 1947. The only things remaining at Harvington from the original construction are some candlesticks made from the bannisters and the shadow painting of the staircase seen on the walls in the pictures on this page.

A hidden purpose?

The original staircase was built around 1600 and was a substantial improvement to the Hall. However, there is a theory that this development may have served another more secret purpose.

Of the seven hiding places at Harvington, four are to be found close to the staircase. These are the most ingenious hides and the ones thought to be the work of Nicholas Owen – the famous hide builder.

In a house such as Harvington which was being used to hide Catholic Priests an attempt was made to employ servants (often Catholic themselves) who could be trusted to keep quiet about what was going on in the house. Despite this, there was always the possibility of the authorities being tipped off. Hide building and the location of such hides would have been a secret known only to a few people.

In order to make a secret hide it would have been necessary to cut through plaster, bricks, and wooden beams. As with any building project this would have involved a lot of mess and noise.  It is thought likely that the staircase construction also served to hide the activity of the hide builder.

A secret -  hidden somewhere on this page!

The entrance to one of the most ingenious hides left anywhere is hidden somewhere on this staircase. The actual hide is quite a large one, over 5ft by 5ft wide and 6ft high, when it was found it contained the remains of a  rush mat that had been left there. There is also a story that it was once possible to spy on people in the great hall from this hide.

The entrance to this hide can clearly be seen in one the pictures on this page – exactly where is it? – well, that is a secret!

Read Full Post »

Coughton Court

Coughton Court has an impressive west front which is shown at its best in the warm evening light. (Photo by Kate & Drew on Flickr: Click image)

On Saturday I paid a visit to Coughton Court in Warwickshire.  I have often driven past it on my way out of Birmingham into the countryside, but had never stopped before to have a look round.  I have to admit it has always distracted me from driving as I should, as it looks spectacular from the road.

The Throckmortons

Like Harvington Hall Coughton (pronounced Coe-ton) was home to a Catholic family who refused to renounce their faith and practice during the reformation.  The Throckmorton family were very highly connected.  Sir George Throckmorton (d. 1553) was a knight at the court of Henry VIII, and was in charge of the royal Forest of Arden.  He spoke out vociferously against the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and was imprisoned several times without trial for his outspoken views – being released once Henry believed he had calmed down – only to end up back in prison again!

George’s aunt, Elizabeth, the abbess of Denny, came to live at Coughton when her convent was closed in 1537 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  Another sister came with her, and together they lived a secluded life, continuing with the daily office in two rooms in the house.  The dole-gate from the convent is now at Coughton Court, having been found relatively recently.  You can see the hatch through which the sisters would have spoken to visitors, and given out alms.

Coughton Court (Kate & Drew on Flickr: Click image)

Recusants

In the time of Sir Robert Throckmorton, and his son and heir Thomas (1533-1614), Coughton became a centre for Catholic recusants. It is believed that Mass was celebrated in the Tower Room from which you can see in all directions.  There is a priest hole there, built by Nicholas Owen who made many of the priest holes at Harvington Hall.  The hide at Coughton was so secret that members of the Throckmorton family did not know where it was even when it was in use.  Its location was so closely guarded that it was not discovered until work on the house in 1945.

The family were subjected to heavy fines for their non-attendance at the established Church of England, and Thomas spent 16 years in prison (on and off) for the same offence.  In the Tower Room you can see the Tabula Eliensis – rediscovered in the mid-twentieth century – which is a tapestry showing the names and portraits of Catholics imprisoned for their faith.  It is believed this was displayed during mass in the house.

Coughton Court Bluebell wood (Ruthsophe on Flickr: Click image)

Other Treasures

Coughton Court houses many other historical treasures including a chair reputed to be made of the wood of the bed where Richard III spent his last night before the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, a chemise which has stitched upon it ‘of the holy martyr, Mary, Queen of Scots’ (carbon dating tests prove that the linen was woven in the year of Mary’s death in 1587), a perfectly preserved and beautiful velvet cope embroidered in gold by Queen Catherine of Aragon and her ladies-in-waiting, and the original abdication letter of King Edward VIII in 1936.

NB See the second part of this post

Read Full Post »

Now is the Month of Maying

Rosemoor (By Kewlottie on Flickr - Click Image)

We are now well into the Month of May, Spring is at it’s height and England never looks better than at this time of year. This Madrigal which celebrates May was written by Thomas Morley  in 1595, the year that Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet was first performed and Robert Southwell was executed at Tyburn.

Now is the month of maying,

When merry lads are playing

Each with his bonny lass

Upon the greeny grass.

Spring (Wanderlust676 on Flickr : Click image)

The Spring, clad all in gladness,

Doth laugh at Winters sadness,

And to the bagpipes sound

The nymphs tread out their ground.

Fie then! why sit we musing,

Youth’s sweet delight refusing?

Say, dainty nymphs, and speak,

Shall we play barley- break?

Thomas Morley 1595

So that you can also hear the tune I have added this video fromYouTube.  I considered leaving it out because it is seriously naff. I eventually decided it was too funny to leave out. Someone on YouTube likened it to Monty Python and they do have a point! See if you can watch this without thinking of Terry Jones/Eric Idle & co.

Read Full Post »