Day 10
We sadly had to say goodbye to Matfen Hall, a good thing as
my bags were heavy with guidebooks. We discussed with Kate Williams, a visiting
historian, Mary Queen of Scots. She is one of my favorites, so this was
fun.
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8
February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart[2] or Mary
I of Scotland,[3] was Queen of Scotland from 14 December
1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when
her father died and she inherited the throne. During her childhood, Scotland was governed by regents,
first by the heir to the throne, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and then by
her mother, Mary of Guise. In 1548, she was betrothed
to Francis, the Dauphin of
France, and was sent to be brought up in France,
where she would be safe from invading English forces during the Rough Wooing.
Mary married
Francis in 1558, becoming queen consort of France from his
accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland in
August 1561. The tense religious and political climate following the Scottish Reformation that Mary
encountered on her return to Scotland was further agitated by prominent Scots
such as John Knox,
who openly questioned whether her subjects had a duty to obey her. The early
years of her personal rule were marked by pragmatism, tolerance, and
moderation. She issued a proclamation accepting the religious settlement in
Scotland as she had found it upon her return, retained advisers such as James Stewart, Earl of Moray (her
illegitimate half-brother), and William Maitland of Lethington,
and governed as the Catholic monarch of a Protestant kingdom.
In 1565, Mary married her
half-cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley; they had a
son, James. Their marriage soured after Darnley
orchestrated the murder of Mary's Italian secretary and close friend David Rizzio.
In February 1567, Darnley's residence was destroyed by an explosion, and
he was found murdered in the nearby
garden. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell,
was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was
acquitted of the charge in April 1567 and in the following month he married
Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Lochleven
Castle. On 24 July 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her
one-year-old son James VI. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne,
she fled southward seeking the protection of her first cousin once
removed, Elizabeth I of England.
As a great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England, Mary had once
claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate
sovereign of England by many English
Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving Mary as a
threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the
interior of England. After eighteen-and-a-half years in captivity, Mary was
found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586
and was beheaded the
following year at Fotheringhay Castle. Mary's life and execution
established her in popular culture as
a romanticised historical character.
We were going to visit Durham Cathedral, so Michael Jones introduced
it.
Durham Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham,[2] is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the shrines of the Anglo-Saxon saints Cuthbert and Bede. There are daily Church of England services at the cathedral, and it received 727,367 visitors in 2019.[3] It is a grade I listed building and forms part of the Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site.[4][5]
The cathedral is the successor to the Anglo-Saxon Lindisfarne Priory, which was
established c. 635 but abandoned in 875 in the face of Viking raids.
The monks settled at Chester-le-Street from
882 until 995, when they moved to Durham. The cathedral remained a monastery
until it was dissolved in 1541,
since when it has been governed by a dean and chapter. The cathedral precinct formed part of
Durham Castle from the eleventh century. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms the
cathedral housed 3,000 Scottish prisoners of
war, 1,700 of whom died in the building.
The present building was substantially completed between
1093 and 1133, replacing the Anglo-Saxon 'White Church'.[6] It
is a significant example of the Romanesque architectural style, and
the nave ceiling
is the earliest surviving example of a pointed rib vault.
The Galilee chapel was added to the west end of the cathedral in the 1170s, and
the western towers built in approximately 1200. The east end was expanded in
the Early English Gothic style in the
1230s, and the Perpendicular Gothic central tower
was built in two stages in the fifteenth century. Important furnishings include
the medieval bishop's throne and Neville screen, Prior Castell's Clock, and the
seventeenth-century choir stalls and font cover installed by Bishop Cosin.
Many of the monastic buildings survive; the monks' refectory now
contains part of the cathedral library, which
holds significant collections dating back to the sixth century.[7]
Durham was very moving to seeing the shrine of Cuthbert and Bede. I was so glad we had ample time to look around as this was an amazing site.
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne[a] (/ˈkʌθ.bɜːrt/) (c. 634 – 20 March 687) was a saint of the early Northumbrian
church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit,
associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in
the Kingdom of Northumbria,[b] today
in northern England and southern Scotland. Both during his life and after his
death, he became a popular medieval saint of Northern
England, with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham
Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of
Northumbria. His feast days are 20 March (Catholic
Church, Church of
England, Eastern Orthodox Church, Episcopal Church[7])
and 4 September (Church in Wales, Catholic Church).
Cuthbert grew up in or around Lauderdale, near Old Melrose Abbey, a daughter-house of Lindisfarne, today in Scotland. He decided to become a monk after seeing a vision on the night in 651 that Aidan, the founder of Lindisfarne, died, but he seems to have experienced some period of military service beforehand. He was made guest-master at the new monastery at Ripon, soon after 655, but had to return with Eata of Hexham to Melrose when Wilfrid was given the monastery instead.[8][9] About 662 he was made prior at Melrose, and around 665 went as prior to Lindisfarne. In 684 he was made bishop of Lindisfarne, but by late 686 he resigned and returned to his hermitage as he felt he was about to die. He was probably in his early 50s.[10][11]
Bede (/biːd/; Old English: Bēda [ˈbeːdɑ];
672/3 – 26 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of
Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (Latin: Beda Venerabilis), was an
English monk,
author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle
Ages, and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History of
the English People, gained him the title "The Father
of English History". He served at the monastery of
St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles.
Born on lands belonging to the twin monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in
present-day Tyne and Wear, England, Bede was sent to Monkwearmouth at
the age of seven and later joined Abbot Ceolfrith at Jarrow.
Both of them survived a plague that struck in 686 and killed the majority of
the population there. While Bede spent most of his life in the monastery, he
travelled to several abbeys and monasteries across the British Isles, even
visiting the archbishop of York and King Ceolwulf of Northumbria.
His theological writings were extensive and included a
number of Biblical commentaries and other works of exegetical erudition.
Another important area of study for Bede was the academic discipline of computus,
otherwise known to his contemporaries as the science of calculating calendar
dates. One of the more important dates Bede tried to compute was Easter, an
effort that was mired in controversy. He also helped to popularise the practice
of dating forward from the birth of Christ (Anno Domini—in
the year of our Lord), a practice which eventually became commonplace in
medieval Europe. He is considered by many historians to be the most important
scholar of antiquity for the period between the death of Pope Gregory
I in 604 and the coronation of Charlemagne in
800.
In 1899 Pope Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church. He is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation.[a] Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work made the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons, which contributed significantly to English Christianity. Bede's monastery had access to a library that included works by Eusebius, Orosius, and many others.
Leaving Durham, we then visiting Harewood house. On the way
Nicola discussed Margaret Beaufort and the Stanleys,
Lady Margaret Beaufort (pronounced /ˈboʊfərt/ BOH-fərt or /ˈbjuːfərt/ BEW-fərt; 31 May 1443
– 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the
Roses of the late 15th century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch.[1] She
was also a second cousin of Kings Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III of England.
A descendant of King Edward III,
Lady Margaret passed a disputed claim to the English throne to her son, Henry Tudor. Capitalising on the political
upheaval of the period, she actively manoeuvered to secure the crown for her
son. Margaret's efforts ultimately culminated in Henry's decisive victory over
King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. She was thus
instrumental in orchestrating the rise to power of the Tudor dynasty. With her
son crowned Henry VII, Margaret wielded a considerable degree of political
influence and personal autonomy. She was also a major patron and cultural
benefactor during her son's reign, initiating an era of extensive Tudor
patronage.
Margaret is credited with the establishment of two prominent
Cambridge colleges, founding Christ's College in 1505 and
beginning the development of St John's College, which was completed
posthumously by her executors in 1511.[2][3] Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, a 19th-century
foundation named after her, was the first Oxford college to admit women.[4]
We then arrived at Harewood where we were introduced to Mary,
Princess Royal. Mary, Princess Royal (Victoria Alexandra Alice
Mary; 25 April 1897 – 28 March 1965) was a member of the British royal family. She was the only
daughter of King George V and Queen Mary,
the sister of kings Edward VIII and George VI,
and aunt of Elizabeth II. In the First World
War, she performed charity work in support of servicemen and their
families. She married Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles (later
the 6th Earl of Harewood), in 1922. Mary was given the title of Princess
Royal in 1932. During the Second World
War, she was Controller Commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The
Princess Royal and the Earl of Harewood had two sons, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of
Harewood, and Gerald David Lascelles.
Harewood House (/ˈhɑːrwʊd/ HAR-wuud, /ˈhɛər-/ HAIR-)[n 1][1] is a country house in Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built between 1759 and 1771, for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy West Indian plantation and slave owner. The landscape was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown and spans 1,000 acres (400 hectares) at Harewood.
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| Mary's fan |
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| Mary's wedding photo |
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| A table full of scones-my kind of lunch! |
Still home to the Lascelles family, Harewood House is a
member of the Treasure Houses of England, a marketing
consortium for ten of the foremost historic homes in the country. The house is
a Grade I listed building and a number of features
in the grounds and courtyard have been listed as Grade I, II* and II.
We had lunch and a tour of the house. By chance there was an exhibit of Jane Austen and Turner there so Lynn and I visited that. It was an exhibit that brought together the work of the artist and author for the first time examining their perspectives of the British country house in the nineteenth century. I was amazed at some of the items we got to see. A double bonus for sure!
We all tiredly left for the Grand Hotel for goodbyes and
cocktails. A lot of people left to catch trains to get flights home. Lynn and I
stayed and took a transfer to Manchester the next morning. Thank goodness, our
bags were heavy!
I am so glad I took this tour as a whole new world of
medieval British history has opened. People had come from the US, Australia,
Canada and Mexico and it was hard to say goodbye to them. Wonder what next year’s
tour will bring? I love Alison Weir and England!
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Fun times with my travel favorites! |
