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Posts from the ‘Medieval Cities’ Category

May 10

Dunwich-lepers-chapel

Dunwich 1287

Up until 1286 Dunwich was a thriving port in Suffolk, when two huge storms – The South England flood of February and the flood of Lucia 1287 - swept much of the settlement into the sea and silted up the Dunwich River. At the same time it is estimated that more than 50.000 lost their life in the Netherlands crating the Zuiderzee. Later the storms were followed by a series of new disasters leading to the demise of a city, which in its heyday was on par with London. Apart from a few ruins, tt now lies collapsed between three and ten meters below the surface of the sea.

Originally a Roman coastal fort and a Saxon settlement, Dunwich grew around the turn of the first millennium into a wealthy town. Growth depended on the introduction of new offshore fishing techniques and possibilities plus sea trade and ship-building. Before the Norman Conquest it was only one out of four towns listed as holding a regular market. In 1225 it held 18 ecclesiastical buildings plus a mint, a large guildhall and several large important houses. The population has been estimated at between 3000 and 5000. However the continuing storms pared with the regular silting of the harbour ended up in a reduction of the crown taxes from £108 to £14. Although the decline of the town was temporarily halted in the late 15th and early 16th century, the town de facto turned into a village, when the status of royal habour was transferred to Southwold after 1489.map of Dunwich 1250 2012. 211x300 Dunwich 1287

On land today the remains of the medieval town comprise the gateways and refectory of the Greyfriars monastery, the 12th century leper chapel and a tiny bit of the former churchyard of All Saints.

Muddy waters have until recently made any exploration near impossible. However a new technology, Didson acoustic sonar imaging combined with a detailed survey of all known archaeological data from the site, together with old charts and navigation guides to the coast,  has led to the production of accurate and detailed maps of the layout of the streets and the position of specific buildings as for instance the eight churches.

All this and much more can be ascertained from the final report from team, which surveyed the site for English heritage.

READ MORE:

Read the report:  5883 Dunwich, Suffolk: Mapping and Assessing the inundated medieval town.

A story of the city of Dunwich as well as more information about the project may be found at Dunwich.org

More information about the history of Dunwich can be found at The Dunwich Museum’s website

 

Mar 19

City’s Cash

City’s Cash is 800 years old and still financing The City of London. No longer cloaked in secrecy, it is still a bone of contention in the elections march 2013

Papers from Washington have been leaked. Secrets of the Vatican are still being spilled into news and media. Has the time finally come to one of the ancient pillars of England, The City’s Cash? This is the hope of the “City Reform Group”, some of whose members are running for election here in March 2013. According to their homepage the candidates have pledged to work for democracy and transparency in this most august and opaque, but also very profitable institution, run by a group of “medieval elders”.

Square Mile
The elected City of London Corporation acts as the local authority for the Square Mile business district around St Paul’s, supports the UK-based financial services industry and provides many other services and facilities for London and the wider UK. It is believed that the City of London generates app. 10% of the British Economy. Trade surpluses of £47.2bn in UK financial services and £8.3bn in professional services were larger than any other sector in 2011. According to its website, The City of London works to promote London as the world leader in international finance and business services, particularly through its Lord Mayor as well as protecting City interests in Westminster, Whitehall and Brussels. Further it is one of the most significant art sponsors in the UK, including the Barbican Centre, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Guildhall Art Gallery. It has its own police and manages almost 11,000 acres of historic and natural green space, for public recreation and health, runs three schools and the Smithfield, Billingsgate and Spitalfields markets and runs London’s largest grant-giving charity, the City Bridge Trust.

 Guildhall
The city of London cooperation has its headquarters in Guildhall, the city powerhouse since the 12th century. Mainly built between 1411 and 1440 it was designed to reflect the importance of London’s Ruling Elite. However, the West Crypt is believed to date from the 13th century although built on top of a Roman amphitheatre. The term “Guildhall” refers to both the current complex of buildings as well as the great Hall, now used as a function room.

City’s Cash
All this is financed by, the income generated in three foundations: Bridge House Estates used to upheld the heritage in the city, the City Fund which generates income from taxes and the “City’s Cash”, a fund which has existed for more than 800 years. Income stems from school fees, rents, grants and investments. Expenditure falls on economic development, city representation, markets, open spaces and education.

It is detailed accounts of this ancient institution,

It is detailed accounts of this ancient institution – for the first time revealed in December 2012 – which some believe aught to be more transparent in the current climate of financial insecurity and even crisis.  Apparently the ancient administrative rules do not quite live up to the puritanical standards wished for in the present climate of austerity. Hence the aspirations of the reform group to overthrow the administration of present day Guildhall. According to some critiques The City of London is no more than a very powerful group of lobbyists, medieval in character and spirit.

 

Dec 20

blu-boar-richard-III

Richard III‘s Inn

The Blue Boar in Leicester – where Richard III is believed to have spent his last night before Bosworth – is being recreated

According to myth, Richard III spent his last night at a famous inn in Leicester. Leicester’s medieval castle was apparently no longer fit to accommodate a king, and Richard set up his headquarters at an inn located at Leicester’s medieval high street. Originally named the White Boar Inn – sporting the badge of Richard III – it was afterwards told that the innkeeper on the morning after the Battle of Bosworth hastily painted the sign over with some blue paint and changed the name to “The Blue Boar In”. While the White Boar was the badge of Richard III, the Blue Boar was the badge of John de Vere, supporter of Henry Tudor and post-Bosworth, the future Earl of Oxford.

Whether a fact or a popular fairy-tale may no longer be decided. A fact is though that the earliest mentioning of the inn dates from the 1570’s and the story of where Richard spent his last night at Leicester is first presented in the History of Speede in 1611. Further the actual date of the famous inn cannot be determined archaeologically, since it was pulled down in the 19th century in the name of progress.

richard III inn 300x200 Richard III‘s InnOddly enough, though, the entrepreneur Henry Goddard, who demolished the inn in the 19th century, apparently made an extremely detailed account of the structure of the timber-framed building, complete with accurate measurements in feet and inches and with precise drawings of the different fittings and joints. Looking into other archival material from the Goddard Family, researchers from Leicester University recently found this notebook by accident.

Due to its detailed information it has been possible to contract with an architect, Stephan Davis, who has made a three-dimensional cad drawing of the building. Further, on the basis of this, a scale model was produced using a 3D printer in the university’s department of physics and astronomy at the University, giving a sense of the place and offering the possibility of resurrecting the inn once more.

The Bed
Another relic from the time of Richard III is a bed, which used to be exhibited at the Inn, while claiming it to be the last one he spent a night in before Bosworth.

Apparently it was rumoured that Richard “slept ill in strange beds”. Accordingly his bed was part of his pack-train and put up wherever Richard stayed for the night. Later the bed was never claimed and became part of one of the “sights” of Britain, as claimed in a versed rhyme presented in Tom Coryat’s Crudities in 1611:

The lance of John O’Gaunt, and Brandon’s still i’ the Tower
the fall of Nineveh, and Norwich built in an hower
King Henry’s slip shoes, the sword of valiant Edward
the Coventry Boare’s shield, and fireworks seen but to bedward
Drake’s ship at Deptford, King Richard’s bedsted i’ Leyster
The White Hall whale bones, the silver bason i’ Chester

At that time the bed was still said to reside at the Blue Boar Inn probably incurring a lot of income for the Clarke’s, later innkeepers (of whom it was even rumoured that they had found a treasure of gold-coins stacked in the bottom.) At this time the bedstead  - if indeed it belonged to Richard III – was mounted with Jacobean posters. It is generally believed though that the bottom of the bed might very well be medieval.

bed richard III 300x200 Richard III‘s InnHowever, even if a proper archaeological investigation of the bed might confirm a medieval date of the timber, substantiating the myth would be near nigh impossible. Probably what was meant was, that Richard liked to bring his own bed linen plus mattresses including leather sheets, which helped to protect a sleeping person from the mites and vermin living in common beds at common inns. If Richard indeed did stay at the inn and indeed slept in the bed, he would have slept in his own bed-clothes. What would have been left behind would have been a timber-frame or bedstead, which probably had been there before he came; later this bedstead was turned into a relic having held the anointed body of the much maligned king.

In due course the bedstead was sold, finally ending up at a manor North West of Leicester, Donington le Heath Manor House. This is a remarkable is a surviving example of a family home built around seven hundred years ago; although modernised in 1618 it still oozes of the Middle Ages. This rare and beautiful house is a valuable historic resource for the local community as well as for the whole country. Today it is kept as a museum as well as rented out for local events. The bed may be seen there…

Reconstructing the Site of Richard III’s Last Resting Place before Bosworth - Press release from Leicester University

READ MORE:
Speede, J.: The History of Great Britaine. London 1611 (1614) as quoted in The Last Days of Richard III by John Ashdown-Hill. The History Press 2010

Read other articles about Richard III and the dilemmas and politics in connection with the reburial.

Oct 23

chambre-medievale

Medieval Paris

Archaeological and archival digs tell the story of buildings long gone.

With its more than 200.000 inhabitants around 1300, Paris was one of the largest cities in medieval Europe at that time; even London could not compete with its 80.000 inhabitants at the same time.

However, while Medieval London burned in 1666 and the rest in 1940-41, Paris never suffered the same fate. On the other hand medieval Paris was brutally destroyed in the 19th century; first by Napoleon, later by Napoleon III and his prefect, baron Haussmann.

Maisons medievales 225x300 Medieval Paris

Nevertheless, during the 20th century interest in recovering the pitiful remains through archaeology and archival studies grew. According to the “Archives Nationales” it is now time to review all this new information and present an overview to the public – hence the exposition this autumn at the Archives Nationales. With maps, models, manuscripts and pieces of sculpture the exhibition tells the story of the grand hotels as well as the more ordinary homes of the burghers and artisans in the city.

The exhibition is curated by Stephen Hamon, who is professor at the University of Picardie together with Jules Verne and Valentine Weiss from the National Archives.

La demeure médiévale à Paris
Hôtel de Soubise, rue des Francs-Bourgeois 75003 Paris
17.10.2012–14.01.2013

READ MORE:

La demeure médiévale à Paris
Somogy éditions d’art – 
Archives nationales
Paris, 2012

La demeure  médiévale à Paris : répertoire sélectif des principaux hôtels, 
Paris
Archives nationales, 2012

 

 

Oct 18

Ambrogio_Lorenzetti-palazzo-publico-siena

Medieval Day in Italy

Medioevo in Libreria 2012 – 13

It sounds poetic in Italian but looses all charm in translation: “The Middle Ages at the Bookshop”

Nevertheless the event has been on the agenda in Milan since 2001. The format is a thematic day organised around a guided tour, a screening of a film and a lecture in the afternoon at the traditional bookshop, Libreria Feltrinelli at Via Manzoni 12 in Milan.

medioevo 211x300 Medieval Day in Italy

This year the organisers have chosen the theme: The Italian City in the Middle Ages. Accordingly the morning is filled with an excursion to the Castle of San Giorgio, later at eleven a film is shown: In Viaggio nel Medioevo. A journey through pictures and music, directed by Pino Distaso for Italia Medievale. Later in the afternoon Professor Maria Pia Alberzoni from the Catholic University of Milan will lecture on Milan in the Middle Ages.

However the most interesting part is that last year more than 800 people took part in the event!

Medioevo in Libreria 2012 – 13

Enjoy (part of) the film at Pina Distaso at YouTube