The First Tudor Prince

Arthur Tudor
Prince of Wales

by Samantha Wilcoxson

With the birth of the first Tudor prince a sparse eight months after the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, few would have prophesied the problem of begetting heirs that would plague the short-lived Tudor dynasty. His name spoke of the high expectations that his parents, and indeed the kingdom, had for Prince Arthur. After decades of war and familial infighting, Prince Arthur would solidify the peace that had begun with the marriage of his Lancastrian father and Yorkist mother.

Born on September 20, 1486, Prince Arthur was the embodiment of God’s blessing upon the first Tudor king and queen. In contradiction to some accounts, particularly in historical fiction but not absent from works of nonfiction, Arthur Tudor was not treated as a sickly child unexpected to survive until adulthood. It is easy to assign these descriptions to him in retrospect based upon his early demise, but contemporary accounts and events in his life demonstrate that Arthur was fully expected not only to survive, but to rule. As an infant, he was described as ‘vital and vigorous.’

In 1489, shortly following his third birthday, Arthur was made a Knight of the Bath in preparation for his investiture as Prince of Wales the following February. In 1491, he was made Knight of the Garter. This same year, Arthur welcomed a younger brother, Henry, whose birth was celebrated but not with the exuberance that Arthur’s had been. There is no indication that Henry was expected to take his brother’s place as heir. While Arthur was raised up away from court and included in the governing of Wales from a young age, Henry was kept near his mother with his other siblings.

Ludlow Castle, Shropshire

Established at Ludlow in 1492, Arthur would have hardly known the brother whose name would forever come before his own. Arthur was expected to be king, and great effort was expended toward obtaining for him a royal wife. Henry would have likely looked forward to a leading role in the church to support his brother, perhaps as an Archbishop.

The negotiations for Arthur’s marriage had begun when he was a toddler. More than anything else in his life, he would be remembered for being the first husband of his brother’s wife. Katherine of Aragon insisted until her dying day that this marriage had never been consummated because of the briefness of their time together and Arthur’s failing health. During the decade of haggling over details of the match, Arthur’s health is one of few things not counted as a concern by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, further evidence that Arthur’s early death was unexpected. In fact, the Spanish ambassador, who would have no incentive to mislead his king and queen, described the young Arthur as ‘taller than his age would warrant’ and ‘of remarkable beauty and grace.’

The power couple of Spain were not afraid to make demands. Due to their concerns that Arthur’s rule be unchallenged, two executions took place. Perkin Warbeck, who had claimed to be the younger of the Princes in the Tower and therefore the Queen’s brother, was put to death after an attempted escape from the Tower. If these charges were questionable, Warbeck had undoubtedly performed other acts of treason. The scandal was the partner that was executed shortly after him.

Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick
by Edward Harding
National Portrait Gallery, London

Edward of Warwick was one of those pesky Plantagenet sons who made it easy for those who were unimpressed with Tudor rule to think of a possible substitute. Not that Edward himself had ever challenged Henry the way others, such as the de la Pole brothers, did. Son of George of Clarence and brother of Margaret Pole, Edward had been imprisoned since early in Henry VII’s reign. He was not necessarily mistreated, but neither was he allowed to truly live a life where he could become the center of rebellion for disillusioned Yorkists. His sister, Margaret, was married to a Tudor supporter, and she served in a variety of roles, serving Arthur at Ludlow and later Princess Mary. However, Edward, kept under lock and key since childhood, was seen as too much of a risk. Including him in the dubious charges against Warbeck, Edward was executed in 1499 to clear the way for Arthur and Katherine’s marriage. Certainly, this is not an action that one would undertake for a Prince not expected to survive to rule.

Coat of Arms
Arthur Tudor Prince of Wales

Arthur had been educated and raised to be king in a way that was not mirrored in the treatment of his brothers. While Arthur was made Duke of Cornwall at birth, Earl of Chester in 1489, and Prince of Wales in 1490, his brothers received titles reserved for younger sons. Henry was made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1492, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1493, and Duke of York in 1494.

Arthur was sent to govern Wales with Jasper Tudor, his father’s most loyal supporter, as the head of his council. We have every reason to believe that, with the help of his experienced council, Arthur excelled in the governance of Wales during his time there. Contemporaries praised his intelligence and demeanor.

The fact that Katherine of Aragon insisted that she and Arthur never consummated their marriage is not necessarily evidence that he was already suffering from a long-lasting illness. While couples their age were not kept from the marriage bed, they knew the dangers that young couples faced, especially mothers, but Katherine’s brother had recently died at age nineteen, a disaster that was blamed on his libido. Travel and pageantry that took place during the couple’s short marriage also kept them from sharing a bed more than a handful of times. Therefore, it is possible that, even if Arthur felt well at the wedding ceremony, business and later sickness could have kept him from his wife’s bed.

Katherine of Aragon
National Portrait Gallery

Katherine also became bed-ridden with sweating sickness at this time. It is possible that Arthur died from one of many possibilities that have been suggested: tuberculosis, pneumonia, testicular cancer, or other wasting disease. However, it seems likely that he succumbed to an illness that attacked many people of this time, rich and poor, and that could have just as easily claimed his young wife.

One of the most touching scenes documented of a man reputed to be cold and calculating is Henry VII’s anguish over the death of his firstborn son. He and his wife were shattered, as any parents would be, and there is no evidence that Arthur was raised under the shadow of eminent death based upon their shock and grief. His parents decided to attempt to have another child after Arthur’s death, a step they had not taken two years earlier after the death of his younger brother, Edmund. Arthur’s death was unexpected and the royal couple’s reaction could indicate that the Tudor fear for a lack of sons was beginning to take root.

The first Tudor prince had been welcomed to the world with great acclaim and was mourned in devastation. Let us not dismiss him as a sickly child who was quickly replaced by the charismatic brother but remember him as a life full of promise, extinguished too soon.

Photo Credits:

Portrait of Arthur Tudor by Anonymous Artist: Public Domain

Ludlow Castle: Ian Capper [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Arthur Tudor's Coat of Arms: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACoat_of_Arms_of_the_Tudor_Princes_of_Wales_(1489-1574).svg

Edward of Warwick: National Portrait Gallery, London

Katherine of Aragon: National Portrait Gallery, London

Additional Reading:

Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World by Alison Weir

Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn

About the Author:

Samantha Wilcoxson is a first generation American with British roots. She is passionate about reading, writing, and history, especially the Plantagenet dynasty. Her novel, Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen: The Story of Elizabeth of York has been recognized as a Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice. The Plantagenet Embers series continues with Faithful Traitor: The Story of Margaret Pole and will conclude with Queen of Martyrs: The Story of Mary I in 2017.

Samantha has also published two middle grade novels, No Such Thing as Perfect and Over the Deep: A Titanic Adventure.

When not reading or writing, Samantha enjoys traveling and spending time at the lake with her husband and three children. You can connect with Samantha on her blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Booklikes, and Amazon.

Book Links:

Faithful Traitor: The Story of Margaret Pole

Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen: The Story of Elizabeth of York

No Such Thing as Perfect 

Over the Deep: A Titanic Adventure

Giveaway: The Cross and the Dragon by Kim Rendfeld

From Monday, Sept. 19, to Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, you can enter the giveaway for Kim Rendfeld’s rereleased debut, The Cross and the Dragon. Kim is giving a signed paperback (U.S. only) and an ebook (international, readable on most devices including Kindle, via a 100 percent coupon from Smashwords).

Francia, 778, the tenth year of Charlemagne’s reign: Alda has never forgotten Ganelon's vow of vengeance when she married his rival, Hruodland. Yet the jilted suitor’s malice is nothing compared to Alda’s premonition of disaster for her beloved, battle-scarred husband.

Although the army invading Hispania is the largest ever and King Charles has never lost a war, Alda cannot shake her anxiety. Determined to keep Hruodland from harm, even if it exposes her to danger, Alda gives him a charmed dragon amulet.

Is its magic enough to keep Alda’s worst fears from coming true—and protect her from Ganelon?

Inspired by legend and painstakingly researched, The Cross and the Dragon is a story of tenderness, sacrifice, lies, and revenge—a novel reviewers call “addictive,” “a delightfully entertaining and thrilling read,” and “a powerful tale.”

For a chance to win, leave a comment below and say which format you would like. Don't forget to leave your contact details.

The draw will close at midnight on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016 (Pacific Time).

Editors' Weekly Round Up - September 18, 2016

by the EHFA Editors

If you missed the posts to the blog during the week, check out our weekly round-up:

Changing Faces of Britain’s Natives

by Simon J Cook

Tombs of Henry Tudor’s Queens: Part II (Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard and Catherine Par)

by Linda Root

The Ruination ofWycoller

by Annie Whitehead

Anglo-Irish Solidarity - Rags have no Race

by MJ Neary

Weird War II

by Richard Denham

Surrealist Sisters: Artistic Resistance to Nazi Occupation

by Mark Patton

We are also running a giveaway until midnight Sunday September 18th:

Wynefield's Kingdom by MJ Neary

Surrealist Sisters: Artistic Resistance to Nazi Occupation

by Mark Patton

In an earlier blog-post, I introduced the topic of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War. Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm were the only parts of the British Isles to fall under Nazi control. Armed resistance of the sort that took place in the occupied territories of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands was really not possible on such small islands, but the residents, both native Channel Islanders and a handful of immigrants, did what they could to undermine the occupying forces and their morale. By the time the Germans arrived in 1940, most men of military age had already joined the British forces, and all but a handful of the islands' Jewish population had taken refuge on the UK mainland.

The artists, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, were not native islanders but Frenchwomen, and they were also Jewish. Cahun had been born Lucy Schwob; Moore as Suzanne Malherbe; they met as teenagers, became a lesbian couple, and adopted deliberately gender-ambiguous names. Their families, both from Nantes, knew each other well, and, when Cahun's father married Moore's widowed mother, they became, technically, step-sisters.

Claude Cahun, by Marcel Moore, Jersey Heritage Collections
(reproduced under fair usage protocols).

Marcel Moore, by Claude Cahun,
Jersey Heritage Collections
(reproduced under fair usage protocols). 

Before the outbreak of war, Cahun and Moore had lived in Paris, where they collaborated in the creation of art-works that combined photography, poetry and performance. Instinctively attracted to the Surrealist movement, they struggled against the misogyny and homophobia of many of its leading members, but participated in the International Surrealist Exhibition at London's New Burlington Gallery in 1936. They were also actively involved in Contre-Attaque, a group of artists and intellectuals protesting against the rise of Hitler, and the spread of fascism in France.

Flyer for the International Surrealist Exhibition (image is in the Public Domain). Organisers included Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Andre Breton and Man Ray. "Happenings" occurred all across London: Salvador Dali donned a diving suit to give a lecture, almost suffocated, and had to be rescued by the poet, David Gascoyne, who used a spanner to remove the helmet. 

In 1937, Cahun and Moore moved to Jersey, where they had enjoyed family holidays in their youth, buying a property in Saint Brelade's Bay, close to the hotel in which they had previously stayed. As war loomed, they made the brave and surprising decision, despite their Jewish ethnicity and their sexuality, to remain on the island.

Saint Brelade's Bay, Jersey. Photo: Snapshots of the past (licensed under CCA).
This is a pre-war postcard: the Germans later built a concrete tank-proof wall,
and a series of fortifications, along the top of the beach.

Bob Le Sueur, a native islander who taught me at secondary school, and who, as a young man on the island, helped to hide Russian and Spanish slave-workers escaping from the Nazis, said of the two women: "They lived as art ... everyone knew they were Jewish, but nobody turned them in." He described watching from a distance as they walked a cat on a leash along the beach, the creature squealing as the waves swept closer.

In the final year of the war, with the islands cut off from the continent, and both the German garrison and the local population on the brink of starvation, they embarked on a programme of active, but non-violent, resistance: producing leaflets and distributing them to German troops. The leaflets included excerpts from BBC broadcasts, and encouraged troops to mutiny. Karen LeRoy Harris, who curated a recent exhibition of Cahun's work in London, wrote:

"Moore spoke fluent German, a secret kept from the Nazis. The leaflets were written as if by a German officer, and signed 'The soldier without a name.' They distributed the notes themselves, on buses, in soldiers' pockets, in staff-cars ..."

In October, 1944, they were arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out: by this stage it was obvious that Germany was losing the war; and senior officers, fearful of prosecution as war criminals, did not want to be caught with the blood of civilians on their hands. They spent the remaining months of the war in prison, and were liberated by British troops on the 9th of May, 1945. Cahun died in 1954, her health, many believe, broken by her treatment in prison. Moore committed suicide in 1972. They are buried together in Saint Brelade's Churchyard, close to where they lived.

The grave of Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe at Saint Brelade.
Photo: Man Vyi (image is in the Public Domain).

In the aftermath of the war, Cahun's and Moore's artistic works were largely forgotten. All this changed when, in the early 1990s, a local collector on Jersey showed some of their works to my then colleague, and Curator of Art at the Jersey Museum, Lucy Marder. She organised a major exhibition: "Surrealist Sisters - An Extraordinary Story of Art and Politics;" and the museum went on to acquire a substantial body of their work, which has formed the basis of subsequent exhibitions in the UK, France, and the USA.

The cover of a book by Louise Downie (Lucy Marder's successor as Curator of Art at the Jersey Museum).
Most works by Claude Cahun will remain in copyright until 2024:
a Google search will reveal many of them, but they may not be reproduced.

In 2007, Claude Cahun received this tribute from David Bowie, who exhibited reproductions of some of her works in the United States:

"You could call her transgressive, or you could call her a cross dressing Man Ray with surrealist tendencies. I find this work really quite mad, in the nicest way. Outside of France, and now the UK, she has not had the kind of recognition that, as a founding follower, friend and worker of the original surrealist movement, she surely deserves."

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Mark Patton blogs regularly on aspects of history and historical fiction at http://mark-patton.blogspot.co.uk. His novels, Undreamed Shores, An Accidental King, and Omphalos, are published by Crooked Cat Publications, and can be purchased from Amazon. He is currently working on The Cheapside Tales, a London-based trilogy of historical novels.

Weird War II

by Richard Denham

The Second World War has captured the imagination like no other in history. It was the first ‘People’s War’, in which, because of technology, women and children were in the front line along with the men. The generation who fought it are still with us, although their ranks are thinning daily, and the world in which we live today is shaped to a huge extent by the events of 1939-45.

I have used ‘weird’ to mean extraordinary and have selected topics from that war which I think, for a variety of reasons, are astonishing. Let me be clear, however. I am not, in any sense, laughing at the men, women and children of World War Two. The fact that they could laugh at each other – and themselves – at the time, is in itself, astonishing. Scared to death, they found something – anything – to laugh at. So, bombed shops in London had cardboard signs reading, ‘We’re even more open than usual.’ The arrival of the American GIs in Britain in 1942 gave rise to, ‘Have you heard about the new Utility knickers? One Yank and they’re off!’ In the Reich, there was the German glance, making sure that no one saw you not making the Hitler salute (which American schoolchildren, by the way, had already adopted, by innocent coincidence).

In a bid to end the war against Japan, the Americans perfected the atom bomb, which had the desired effect but created an uneasy nightmare ‘peace’ we live with today. By no means as deadly were the parachuting sheep, the rat bombs, the cat and dog commandos, the ship made entirely of ice, the rifle that could shoot around corners, the tank that was only twelve inches high. All of these were being experimented with and developed by intelligent men and women backed by serious money and even more serious governments. And some of them actually worked!

Then there were the rumours, some spread by black propaganda, some the result of hysteria. Britain, in particular, was paranoid. Winston Churchill believed in 1940 that there were 20,000 members of the Fifth Column, working secretly for Hitler’s Germany behind the scenes. People were known to be signalling to the Luftwaffe with cigarette lighters. German parachutists were floating down over the countryside dressed as nuns. Messerschmitt pilots wore lipstick and rouge. Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, was actually Hitler’s niece. The nonsense went on and on.

Some of the bizarre tales in Weird War Two are actually true. Operation Mincemeat, placing a dead man in the sea off Spain to fool the Germans, really did make them believe an assault would take place miles from where it really happened. A Japanese soldier, unaware that the war was over, actually did surrender on his tiny Pacific island thirty years later. In the Isle of Wight, a middle-aged landlady was really sentenced to death for espionage, even if the penalty was never carried out.

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With so many millions caught up in the terrifying events of the 1940s, it is not surprising that weird and wonderful stories and events should come to light. I have tried to be even-handed. Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan, the USSR (as Russia then was) all have the spotlight thrown onto them. And what that light reveals will astonish you.

For more information or to purchase please visit:

http://www.tsquaredbooks.co.uk/weird-war-two 

Anglo-Irish Solidarity - Rags have no Race

by MJ Neary

“Artificial Famine"
The Great Famine, also known as an Gorta Mór in Irish Gaelic, is regarded as one of the greatest tragedies in Irish history, involving a number of natural and societal factors. The period of mass starvation, disease and emigration lasted for about seven years, from mid 1840s to the early 1850s, causing the population of Ireland to drop by 25%. To this day it's a very sensitive and controversial issue for many historians. When dealing with a localized disaster of such magnitude, it is tempting to demonize one particular group of people. In this particular case the finger is pointing at the Anglo-Irish absentee landlords.

John Mitchel, one of the leaders of the Young Ireland Movement during the 1840s, referred to the disaster as "artificial famine". In his own words, "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine." Being a fervent nationalist, naturally Mitchel was a little biased in distributing the blame. But there is a strong component of truth to his allegations. The landlords may not have manually introduced the parasite that destroyed the potato crops, but their harsh treatment of the tenants and reluctance to cooperate with those providing relief contributed considerably to the casualties. And there was no shortage of sympathy for the famine victims on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, history tends to recognize only those endeavors that bring results. Somehow, the voices of advocacy got muffled amidst the deadly groans. Indeed, if you review the numbers, they do not look inspiring. According to Peter Gray, Professor of Modern Irish History at Queen's University Belfast, the British government had spent a meager £7 million for relief in Ireland between 1845 and 1850, which accounted for less 0.5% of the British gross national product. It does look like the ones holding the Empire's purse strings were not terribly concerned about the situation in Ireland. Hence, the oversimplified belief that "the English engineered the famine to purge the land of indigenous Celtic population".

The Exterminator Lord
George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan (1800 – 1888) is an extreme example of an intolerant absentee landlord. Military history buffs, especially those who take an interest in the Crimean War, are well acquainted with the political and personal conflicts between Lucan and his brother-in-law James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797 – 1868). The quarrels between the two men have been the subject of many acrimonious comments by historians. They are the Tybalt and Mercutio of Victorian era aristocracy. Cardigan is considered responsible for the for the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava (25 October 1854), but some of the blame falls on Lucan as well. Historians focus on the damage these two incompetent military leaders have done to the men in their command. Not many people remember that before recklessly destroying many soldier lives in the Crimea, Lucan had destroyed many more civilian lives in Ireland. The western province of Connacht got hit the hardest. Lucan had estates in County Mayo, and he ordered mass evictions from villages like Ballinrobe. As many as forty thousand deaths were attributed to his neglect. Unsurprisingly, he earned bitter hatred of the Irish people and was nicknamed the Exterminator. The painting of him as a fourteen-year old is very illustrative of his character. It is hard not to notice the cold, vacant blue eyes.

George, Lord Bingham, aged 14

Curiously enough, his firstborn son George (1830 – 1914) who went on to inherit the title, was his total opposite. The 4th Lord Lucan, who accompanied his father to the Crimea, was sweet-tempered, modest and compassionate. As a devoted family man and philanthropist, he made a lot of effort to improve the lives of the surviving tenants on his father's land in Mayo. He never spoke ill of his father, but he did endeavor to reverse some of the damage his father had caused. 

Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet - murderer or philanthropist?

Another controversial figure from that era is Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet (1805 – 1876), an Anglo-Irish politician, whose Lisadell House was located in County Sligo. He was the paternal grandfather of the famous Constance de Markiewicz, nee Gore-Booth, a legendary Anglo-Irish feminist and nationalist, who took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. W.B. Yeats had frequented the Lisadell estate and spent a lot of time with Constance and her sister Eva. 

Lissadell House

The stories surrounding Sir Robert's behavior during the Great Famine are contradictory. Some sources depict him as a tyrant, who evicted his starving tenant farmers and packed them into coffin ships. Other reports claim that he actually mortgaged his estate to help the tenants, and supplied them with provisions and refused to accept rents during the famine. It is hard to imagine that truth lay somewhere in the middle. Either way, the stories from the Great Famine era contributed the formation of Constance's character and deepened her concern for the poor. As she became more involved with Irish nationalism, she made the well-being of Irish workers her number one priority.

Constance with her children

The land of opportunity much closer?

To a struggling Irish farmer,  pre-Civil War America looked alluring and promising. (The unsavory component of African slavery went over their heads, as most Irish people had never seen an African person. To them, Africans were mysterious and otherworldly creatures that existed in fairy-tales.) If only they could reach the blessed shores in one piece! Since the cross-Atlantic ships were launching out of Liverpool, the famine survivors had to take a step back and travel eastward across the Irish Sea first before embarking on a much longer and harsher journey. Many of them, after seeing the conditions on the vessels that were referred to as "coffin ships" for very good reasons, started questioning their decision to move to another continent. The odds of them arriving in New York alive were rather slim. The odds of them dying and being thrown overboard were much stronger.

Furthermore, upon arrival in Liverpool they were presented with new opportunities. With the industrial revolution being in full swing, with new railroads being built all over England, there were new employment possibilities. Recruiting agents would camp out on the docks, singling out able-bodied Irishmen and Irishwomen, enticing them with promises of security and employment. Of course, there was a learning curve. Former peasants, who were used to functioning in a rural setting, had to cultivate new skills that would be applicable in an urban setting. And yes, there were many cases of exploitation and abuse, where Irish immigrants would be assigned to the most dangerous tasks and compensated less than their English coworkers. But there were also success stories. Many of the famine refugees went on to adjust well to a life in an English city. 

There was an element of resentment from the native English population. Some felt that the Irish were taking away their jobs. Others welcomed the newcomers into their communities. The influx of Irish immigrants affected the urban dynamics. As more Irish settled in England, more Catholic parishes were established. Celtic music and folklore became incorporated into the Victorian urban culture. 

The ethnic, religious and political conflict between the English and the Irish has received plenty of coverage over the centuries, but the camaraderie, solidarity and reciprocation often gets overlooked. As Victor Hugo, the definitive figure in French Romanticism pointed out, "rags have no gender, no race, no religion". 

Emigrants leave Ireland - engraving by Henry Doyle

[All images in the public domain, except - Lissadell House: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissadell_House#/media/File:Lissadell_House_Copyright_Nigel_Aspdin.jpg]

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Marina Julia Neary spent her early years in Eastern Europe and came to the US at the age of thirteen. Her literary career revolves around depicting military and social disasters, from the Charge of the Light Brigade, to the Irish Famine, to the Easter Rising in Dublin, to the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl some thirty miles away from her home town.

Her debut thriller Wynfield's Kingdom was featured on the cover of the First Edition Magazine in the UK and earned the praise of the Neo-Victorian Studies Journal. After writing a series of novels dealing with the Anglo-Irish conflict, her recent releases include Trench Coat Pal (Crossroad Press) and The Gate of Dawn (Penmore Press)

All this week, until Sunday 18th September 2016 at midnight, Marina is giving away an e-book copy of her novel Wynefield's Kingdom. For a chance to win, leave a comment HERE

The Ruination of Wycoller

by Annie Whitehead

In a hidden valley, about three miles from Colne in Lancashire, lies the village of Wycoller. It was abandoned in the late 20th century, but the story of its decline began many centuries earlier.

In order to visit the village, you have to leave your car in the car park and walk down a steep path. Even before you arrive in the village, there are clues to its history and the reason for its former prosperity.

These vaccary stones can be found in fields all around the village and are reminders of when the village of Wycoller was one of five local vaccaries, specialising in cattle rearing. In the early 14th century most of the village was involved in some capacity, including the building of cattle folds and felling timber for alterations to shippons, and there are records to show that the payment for building a house for heifers was 2s 6d.

The Tudor Aisled Barn

The Tudor age saw the village grow richer still from the textile trade, as sheep began to replace cattle. The inhabitants combined farming with the preparation of wool, spinning, weaving, and the manufacture of clothing. A field above the village still bears the name Tenter Field, a reference to the practice of stretching cloth out on tenterhooks while it dried.

The population increased, because of the weaving work. At one point in the late 18th century, 78% of the heads of households were weavers. Such was the success of the village that there were three hatters resident in Wycoller.

Above: the medieval pack-horse bridge with, below, the signs of centuries of traffic.

But the boom could not last; handloom weavers were no match for the mills in nearby Trawden, Winewall, and Colne. Between 1820 and 1871 the population fell from around 350 to 107, and those who remained were mostly farmers.

Then, in 1890, the Colne Water Corporation announced plans to flood the village to make a reservoir. The buildings were not under threat, but nearly 200 acres of prime farmland were bought up by the Corporation. Underground water reserves were discovered and the work never went ahead, but it was too late. Wycoller became but a ghostly shadow in the valley, with buildings becoming derelict.

The main attraction in the village is the ruin of Wycoller Hall. This building seems to serve as a symbol of the history of the village. Where once it was a splendid 16th century manor house, with a magnificent fireplace, it is now a ruin, open to the elements since the late 19th century when the roof was taken off and sold. Originally owned by the Hartley family, the hall was extended in the late 18th century by its last owner, Squire Cunliffe.

A drawing showing how the fireplace would have been used 

A keen gambler, Cunliffe also borrowed money against Wycoller Hall to fund the building work. He died - heavily in debt - in 1818. The property passed to his nephew Charles Cunliffe Owen, but Charles could not afford to pay off the debts and the estate was divided up among the creditors. The hall passed to a distant relative, and then to the Rev. John Roberts Oldham. The latter arranged for large parts of the stonework to be sold off to build the cotton mill at Trawden.

Wycoller is situated between Pendle and Haworth. Links with the latter are well-documented: Wycoller Hall was frequently visited by Charlotte Bronte and it was the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre.

No such established link exists between Wycoller and Pendle, but as my companion remarked on the day we visited, it is not hard to imagine that many pedlars passed through, in the times of prosperity. Is it possible that this one passed through Wycoller at some point?

From the confession of 'Pendle Witch' Alison Device, 30th March 1612 (as recorded by Thomas Potts in Discovery of Witches, 1613): 'At which time she met with a peddler on the high-way, called Colne-field, near unto Colne: and she demanded of the said peddler to buy some pins of him; but the said peddler sturdily answered that he would not loose his pack; and so she parting with him: presently there appeared to her the black dog, which appeared unto her as before: which black dog spoke unto her in English, saying "what wouldst you have me to do unto yonder man?" Alice asked the dog what it could do and it told her it could lame the man, who, before he was gone 'forty roodes (300 yards) further, he fell down lame.'

The clapper bridge, above, has various names, which sum up the history of Wycoller: hints of a much earlier age are contained in the name Druids' Bridge, it was also known as the Hall Bridge, because it is the nearest of Wycoller's seven bridges to the hall, and it has been referred to as the Weavers' Bridge, because of the generations of handloom weavers who used it to cross the river.

There is one, final, poignant note about this once thriving village. Just like the pack-horse bridge, the clapper bridge had a deep groove where the stone had been worn down by the journeys back and forth of the clog-wearing weavers. But in 1910 the groove was chiselled smooth by a local farmer, after his daughter had a fatal accident on the bridge.

Wycoller repays a visit. The tiny, peaceful hamlet contains within it many visual hints of a rich and varied history. Inhabited once more, nevertheless it retains a silence that respects its past and allows the visitor to sit, contemplate, and listen for the ghosts of a once lively hub of industry and trade.
For a look 'behind the scenes' pop over to my blog HERE.

[This is an Editors' Choice post, and was originally published on 26th September 2015]

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Annie Whitehead is a history graduate and prize-winning author. Her novel, To Be A Queen, is the story of Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, who came to be known as the Lady of the Mercians. It was long-listed for the Historical Novel Society’s Indie Book of the Year 2016 and has been awarded an indieBRAG medallion. Her new release, Alvar the Kingmaker, which tells the story of politics, intrigeu, deceit and murderAelfhere in the time of King Edgar, is available now. She has recently contributed to 1066 Turned Upside Down, an anthology of short stories in which nine authors re-imagine the events of 1066 and ask 'What If'.
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TOMBS of HENRY VIII’S QUEENS: PART TWO by LINDA FETTERLY ROOT

Westminster Abbey

If the pop quizzes so popular on social media were to ask: ‘Which of Henry VIII’s wives is buried at Westminster?’,  I suspect the correct answer would be the least popular.  I would have guessed Katherine Parr, a woman of untarnished reputation and an Anglican scholar. And I would be wrong.  So would scores of others who had been to the site and read the grave markers in Henry VII’s Lady Chapel where the other Tudors are interred. The last of Great Harry’s wives to die is buried at an obscure location in the nave. Her name is Anne of Cleves.

ANNE OF CLEVES:  

The German princess Anne of Cleves is as obscure in death as she had been in life. She is buried in the nave, and for political and security reasons, her grave is not easily accessible to the public because it is within the sanctuary.  It is said that a visitor standing on the tip of the toes can see the marker, a rather recent addition which is only slightly higher than the floor. Apparently, there was a more visible tomb which was obscured to make a place for another queen’s mother and grandmother to sit at Elizabeth II’s coronation.  Earlier photos of the site are copyrighted and licensed at a king’s ransom.

Anne of Cleves' days as Henry’s consort were short-lived. She was never crowned and Henry swore the marriage was never consummated. Apparently,  the bride was too sexually naïve to know, one way or another, or perhaps she was astute enough to keep her mouth shut. Henry exercised  no such restraint. He found his bride ill-mannered, unappealing and malodorous. He complained of sagging breasts. He is quoted as referring to her as The Flanders Mare. Considering his expanding girth and abscessed leg wound, one might find his comment coming from the pot who called the kettle black. By 1540, the historical Henry was no longer the well-proportioned, athletic Henry portrayed in the Anne of Cleves episodes of the Tudors.

The Holbein Portrait {PD US} Wikimedia 

The king had entered into the marriage contract based on a portrait he had commissioned from court portraitist Hans Holbein, but looks were not the only matter of concern.  A match with a daughter of the Duke of Cleves was meant to solidify his alliance with the German states.  Once contracted, there was no diplomatic way to avoid a wedding without making enemies of the German princes, which Henry could ill-afford. Thus, in January 1540, a disgruntled Henry went through with the ceremony, but neither Holbein nor Thomas Cromwell recovered from the king’s disfavor.  After the wedding night, Henry told Cromwell that he had not liked her much before the bedding, and afterward, he liked her not at all. In February, she was told to leave the court. In early July, the marriage was annulled for lack of consummation and allegations of a pre-contract between Anne of Cleves and the heir to the House of Guise.  By the end of the month, Cromwell had paid for his failed matchmaking with his head, and on the same day, Henry married adolescent Kathryn Howard.

Anne of Cleves stayed on in England.  The king gave her the title of the King’s Sister. She never spoke ill of Henry and had a good relationship with both of his daughters. She is open game for historical novelists because she left an empty slate. She made no enemies and kept her opinions to herself. She survived Henry and his 5^th and 6^th consorts and avoided confrontation during Somerset’s protectorate of Edward VI  and during the Boy King's reign.  When the powers behind the throne rejected Lady Jane Grey and declared for Mary Tudor, Anne of Cleves joined the Lady Elizabeth in the parade marking Mary I's entry into London.  When Catholicism was in vogue during Mary’s reign, Anne abjured the Protestant faith she had adopted when she came.  She ended her days at Chelsea Old House after Queen Mary became suspicious of her relationship with Elizabeth and Frances Brandon, the Duchess of Suffolk.  She lived in quietude, known for the efficient management of her estates, her pleasant temperament, and her generosity to her servants. Henry could have done much worse.

And he did.

KATHRYN HOWARD

Church of Saint Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London (Wikimedia)

Henry's fifth wife, young, vivacious and unfortunately, promiscuous Kat Howard takes us on our second visit to the Church of Saint Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. In today’s terms, she would be called a Trophy Wife. At the time of her marriage in July 1540, she was probably no more than nineteen.  Kathryn was one of a brood of several children born to Lord Edmund Howard, the financially challenged younger brother of the Duke of Norfolk. Queen Anne Boleyn’s mother had been their sister. The dead queen had been a cousin.  Kathryn’s parents were both previously married with children.  Hence, Kathryn had so many older siblings of the whole and the half that her parents did not bother to record her birth date. It is believed to have been between 1521 and 1523.

With too many daughters in the family, her parents sent her to Lambeth House to live in the household of her paternal grandmother Agnes, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, who ran an ex-officio home for high-born but impoverished surplus daughters. In that setting,the seeds of Kathryn’s fall were sown.  A visit to the Dowager’s household would have found it well-managed in every respect but one—the supervision of the teenage girls who had been deposited there.  The atmosphere portrayed in the mini-series The Tudors is reasonably accurate.  The girls lived in a dormitory and behaved as if it were a long term sleepover. It was a fine place for a robust good time, but not a training-ground for queens.

Kathryn was not a beauty nor was she especially bright, but she was a Howard and vivacious. How far her sexual dalliances as a ward of Lady Agnes Howard may have progressed is a case in controversy. The popular nominees as the girl’s despoiler include her music teacher Henry Mannock, her cousin Thomas Culpepper, and a young aristocrat, Francis Dereham, to whom she was possibly betrothed. Kathryn  might have married Dereham, had she not met the king on a visit to the Bishop of Rochester’s House. Henry's interest did not escape the attention of Kathryn's uncle, the Duke of Norfolk.

Not much later in a move probably brokered by Norfolk, she left her grandmother’s house to become a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves.  Norfolk and the Catholic faction promoted her rise in the king's affection. Already determined to rid himself of his German bride, Henry had discovered a replacement more to his sexual taste,  and the Catholic faction saw a way to get rid of both the German consort and Thomas Cromwell, who was already the subject of Henry's animus.

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk

Weeks after Anne of Cleves agreed to an annulment on terms allowing her to remain living comfortably in England, Henry married Kathryn at Oatlands.  She was likely not yet twenty and he was forty-nine, obese and diseased. But he was infatuated with his young bride.

Kat Howard's uncle and his allies who had promoted her so vigorously had not wasted any time by vetting her. Not long after her honeymoon, Kathryn renewed her relationship with her cousin Tom Culpepper, meeting with him privately in trysts arranged by her cousin-by-marriage, Lady Rochford, sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn. Kat Howard had never been especially discreet, and her new royal status did not change that.  The anti-Howard faction took notice, even if  their smitten king did not. When they had enough evidence, they presented it to the king. After ordering the queen's  arrest, he never saw her again. The men in Kathryn's past were quickly dispatched.  The queen's case presented some dicey legal issues, and  trial was delayed so Parliament could pass a law making it a capital offense for a consort to withhold knowledge of prior sexual conduct. Also, a Bill of Attainder would eliminate the need for an embarrassing trial. Soon any issues stemming from a precontract with Dereham were moot. Culpepper had confessed to a relationship with Kat while she was queen before he died. Evidence included a  letter to Culpepper before his arrest which Kathryn signed 'Yours as long as life endures,' which turned out to be not very long at all for either of the lovers. The cuckolded King of England wanted blood.

By January 1542, enemies of the Howards had accumulated enough evidence of an on-going affair with Culpepper to send both the silly queen and her lady, Jane Rochford, to the block. The two women joined their Boleyn relatives  in the pile of bones in the floor of Saint Peter ad Vincula.

Norfolk was included in the attaint, but his fall was more of a bounce.  Soon he was back in favor and appointed Lieutenant of the Armies. His eventual fall from grace had more to do with his conservative but astute decision to lift the siege on Montreuil and retreat to Calais, which embarrassed Henry during his war against the French. The behavior of his two royal nieces had little to do with it.

KATHERINE PARR:

A slightly different likeness of Katherine Parr
Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Seymour, Baron Sudeley

Katherine Parr is buried in Saint Mary’s Church at Sudeley Castle. It is the only private English castle to have a Queen buried on its grounds.  

Young Elizabeth

After Henry VIII’s death, the dead king's son Edward VI gave Sudeley 
to his uncle Thomas at the same time he made him a baron, probably at Thomas’s older brother Edward Seymour’s suggestion. Edward, Earl of Somerset was the self-appointed Protector of the Realm.  After their marriage, Seymour and his wife, who had been granted the title Queen Dowager for Life, resided at Chelsea with Lady Jane Gray and Lady Elizabeth as their wards.

Those who remember their Tudor history will identify Sudeley as the new home of Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, who, driven by ambition that outstripped his wit, married Henry’s widow and later broke her heart by making advances to his ward, the adolescent Lady Elizabeth, later Queen of England. Both women suffered over the love triangle. Seymour's unbridled ambition later put Elizabeth's life at risk. 

By the time Katherine became pregnant, Elizabeth had been sent to Hatfield in disgrace. The Queen Dowager moved her household to Sudeley for her laying in.  Six days after delivering a daughter, she died. She had not been a young woman when she married Seymour, and although she had been widowed twice when she married the king, all of her prior marriages had been childless. She would have been 35 at the time she gave birth to Seymour’s child.  Pregnancies were dangerous under the best of circumstances, but a first pregnancy in what was then well into middle age was especially precarious.  Some of  Seymour’s vociferous enemies suspected poison. Others blamed it on the stress his dalliance with Elizabeth caused the Queen. Nevertheless, although she had been heartbroken when she caught him and Elizabeth embracing, Katherine had forgiven her husband and had renewed a warm correspondence with Elizabeth, who sent a hand-knit baby gift.

Katherine Parr was buried at Sudeley Castle in Saint Mary’s Chapel. Thomas engaged in a series of madcap maneuvers aimed at displacing his brother Edward. In the last escapade, he shot the young king's dog. Seymour was executed for treason seven months after Katherine died. He is buried in the floor at the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower.

Queen Katherine's lead coffin was not identified until 1782. When it was opened, her corpse was well preserved. Drunken grave robbers ravaged the site ten years later, and what was left was buried in the tomb of one of the castle’s subsequent owners. Gothic architect George Gilbert Scott restored the site in the early 19th century and commissioned John Birnie Philip to create a tomb effigy for Katherine Parr. It seems a suitable resting place for a woman who understood the concept of duty but was never bound to silence and who appreciated beauty. She was a competent scholar and the first female English  writer to publish under her own name in England.  She was a gifted woman who deserved better of the men in her life. Her writings are available through the Women Writers Project and on Amazon.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

 Photographs are from Wikimedia Commons.  Online sources are numerous. Print sources include:  

John Field, Kingdom Power and Glory, A Historical Guide to Westminster Abbey, James& James, 1996: Derek Wilson, The Tower of London, Constable/Dorset 1978:and Julia Fox, Jane Boleyn: The True Story of Lady Rochford, Ballantyne Books, New York, 2009, among others.

LINDA FETTERLY ROOT is a former major crimes prosecutor, armchair historian, and author of the historical novels in the Legacy of the Queen of Scots series, and two epic novels set in the life and times of Marie Stuart. She lives in the historically rich ‘wild west’ north of Palm Springs, on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, with her canine partners Maxx and Maya, and assorted wild things. https://www.amazon.com/Linda-Root/e/B0053DIGM8/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1473349726&sr=1-2-ent