A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI

No doubt archaeologists thought that all their Christmases’  had arrived at once when they first heard the breaking news of the building of Crossrail,  Europe’s largest infrastructure which will be called the Elizabeth Line (and hopefully up and running in the first half of 2022)  and the exceptional opportunities the excavations would bring. However, did they ever imagine in their wildest dreams the wealth of artefacts that would be unearthed ranging from bison bones, 68000 years old, found at Royal Oak, near Paddington, through the mediaeval period to Roman finds, including a burial site beneath the area that once covered Liverpool Street station. Since the work began in 2009 archaeologists have unearthed tens of thousands of items from 40 sites spanning 55 million years of London’s history and pre-history (1) The new railway will run from east to west through some of London’s most historical areas. It has been described as a ‘layer cake of history hidden beneath the city streets‘.

LIVERPOOL STREET STATION

Some of the most interesting finds were discovered beneath Liverpool Street station which stands right in the heart of what was once mediaeval London. Of particular interest was the south-east corner where the ticket office once stood for this had been built over the Bedlam burial grounds later known as Bethlem Hospital which had been in use since 1247 to 1815.   Eighty archaeologists worked on this site retrieving thousands of objects.   A total of 4000 burials were uncovered including a plague pit containing 30 victims from the great plague of 1665. DNA testing on teeth found in the burial grounds has also confirmed the identity of the bacteria that was behind the Great Plague. One of the most poignant finds was a necklace that was found on the skeleton of a baby.

Modern restringing of the beads found on the baby’s skeleton.  The beads are amber, white amber, cornelian, glass and bone.

Plague victim from the mass pit aged 17 to 25 probably male. 

Grave Marker for Mary Godfree, a victim of the Great Plague who died 2 September 1665.

Charterhouse Square and Faringdon

A large ditch was excavated to the south of Charterhouse Square. It may be the remains of Faggeswell Brook which flowed into the Fleet River.   The ditch formed the southern boundary of the cemetery and Charterhouse Monastery,  founded in 1371 and suppressed in 1538.  Included in the items found,  which had been dumped in the ditch to fill it in between 1580 and 1640 , were leather shoes, parts  of a horse harness dating from the late 15th century, pottery and floor tiles dated to 1300 which were probably from the monastery.  The remains of a cemetery  were discovered containing the remains of victims of the Black Death c.1348/9.   Twenty five skeletons were discovered buried in three layers.

 TWO MEN IN THEIR 40S BURIED HOLDING HANDS FROM ONE OF THE LAYERS OF THE CHARTERHOUSE BURIAL SITE.

Horseshoes were a frequent find, perhaps unsurprisingly, including a Roman version known as hipposandals.   These were temporary and designed to save the hooves from  the hard surfaces of city roads

Worcester House Stepney Green

Reconstruction of moated Worcester House built around 1450

Worcester House a 15th century moated manor house built about 1450 probably on the site of an earlier house was previously known as King John’s Palace. Rubbish thrown into the moat gives an insight into the lives of those who lived there. Among the many artefacts found were leather shoes, the remains  of a horse harness dating from the late 15th century,  dress pins, a wooden ball which was probably used as a ‘jack’ in a game of bowls or skittles. Henry VIII is known to have loved bowls but banned poor people from playing it.

Wooden ball used for playing bowls

16th century leather shoe

Tudor dress pin.  In use before buttons…!

15th century glazed goblet.  

However this is not the end of the story for this once grand old manor house for when the archaeologists had finished over four tonnes of bricks were donated to English Heritage for restoring England’s Tudor buildings.

I have merely touched upon a few of the wealth of wonderful finds from the Crossrail archaeology here.   Anyone wishing to delve deeper can find some excellent links to informative websites covering these remarkable finds.  Particularly recommended is The Tunnel Through Time Gillian Tindall.

1) Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail Jackie Kelly p18

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Henry VII on his deathbed – Wriothesley’s Heraldic Collection Vol I Book of Funerals

And so, on 21 April 1509, Henry Tudor finally expired.  He had been ill, obviously, for some time and perhaps his death was something of a relief to him. I’m sure it was for the rest of the country who probably breathed a collective sigh of relief. He had managed to keep his bony posterior on the throne for 24 years since that diabolical day at Bosworth when an anointed king was slaughtered.  It does nothing for Henry’s  reputation that he allowed the dead king’s body to be horrendously  abused  as well as the ignoble and deplorable  act of having his reign  predated from the day before the battle. But no doubt there were some that lamented his passing especially his mother Margaret Beaufort, a  most highly acquisitive woman and probably one of the most greediest.     She adored him and the pair must hardly have been able to believe their luck that he had survived the battle unscathed, probably due to the fact that he took no active part in it.

Artist’s impression of Tudor being crowned in the aftermath of Bosworth.  Artist Richard Caton Woodville Jnr. 

It must have seemed surreal to him as he wandered through the dead king’s apartments at Westminster that had now,  all this, overnight, had become his.

Bust of Henry VII: National Portrait Gallery.

He had some worrying times with bothersome pretenders to the throne popping up with annoying regularity as well as various uprisings. Whether he was plagued by his conscience we do not  know although Margaret was prone to bursts of weeping at times when she should have been happy which must have been very tedious  for those around her.

However moving on from that , what actually did see Henry off?     His health seems to have gone into a decline when he reached his 30s.   His eyes began to trouble him and he tried various eye lotions and eye  baths  made of fennel water,  rosewater and celandine ” to make bright the sight” but to no avail.  His teeth were a source of trouble with Polydore Vergil describing him as having ‘teeth few, poor and blackish‘ (1).  His eye problems must have caused him dismay as he liked nothing more than to pour over his account books to see where the pennies were going and how much he was amassing. He was predeceased by his wife, whom it is said he was fond of, and four children including his oldest son and  heir,  Arthur,  but fortunately for him,  if not the country and the Roman Catholic Church he had a surviving spare – Henry Jnr.

Death mask of Henry VII Westminster Abbey

In his interesting book, The Death of Kings, Clifford Brewer writes   “Henry had developed a chronic cough which was particularly severe in springtime.  The  condition became progressively more severe and associated with loss of weight and a general wasting . In 1507 and 1508  Henry’s spring cough become more troublesome.  He  is described as having become troubled with a tissic,  or cough,  he also suffered from mild gout.  In his Life of Henry the VII , Bacon writes

‘ in the two and 20th year of his reign in 1507 he began to be troubled with a gout but the defluxation  taking also unto his breast wasted his lungs so that thrice in a year in a kind of return and especially in the spring he had great fits and labours of the tissick’.   This suggests that Henry suffered from chronic fibroid phthisis ( chronic tuberculosis infection)  which became more and more active with  resultant wasting and debility.  This  is found in several of the members of the Tudor line.  Henry made a great effort to attend divine service on Easter Day 1509 but he was exhausted and retired to his palace at Richmond where he died on 21 April  from chronic pulmonary tuberculosis (2)”

According to Holinshed Chronicle

“.…he was so wasted with his long malady that nature could no longer  sustain his life and so he departed out of this world the two and 20th of April’.

Thomas Penn in his biography of Henry, The Winter King, describes Henry as ‘unable to eat and struggling for breath,  Henry’s mind was fixated on the hereafter.  On Easter Sunday 8th April,  emaciated and in intense pain he staggered into his privy closet, where he dropped to his knees and crawled  to receive the sacrament… later as Henry lay amid mounds of pillows,  cushions and bolsters,  throat rattling,  gasping for breath,  he mumbled again and again that  ‘ if it please God to send him life they should find him a very changed man’.  Henry  made an exemplary  death,  eyes fixed intensely on the crucifix held out before him,  lifting his head up feebly  towards it,  reaching out and enfolding in his thin arms,  kissing it fervently,  beating it repeatedly upon his chest.   Fisher said that Henry’s promises took a very specific form.  If he lived, Henry promised a true reformation of all them that were officers and ministers of his laws (3)’.  However,  as they say , man makes plans and the gods laugh and Henry did not survive to bring about the changes he  was so eager on his death bed to make.  He had left it too late.

Richmond Palace, Wyngarde c1558-62

And so Henry Tudor shuffled off this mortal coil. The King is dead, long live the King and so began the reign of his son Henry VIII and that dear reader is another story.

1. The Death of Kings p110 Clifford Brewer.

2. Ibid pp110.111

3. Winter King Thomas Penn p339.

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St Erasmus in Bishops Islip’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey by Joseph Mallord William Turner c.1796.  The  original chapel of St Erasmus, built by Elizabeth Wydeville,  was the site of Anne Mowbray’s first burial and after the discovery of her lost coffin in 1964 she would be reburied in the rebuilt Chapel.  

Anne Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, was born at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, on Thursday 10 December 1472.  John Paston wrote ‘On Thursday by 10 of the clock before noon my young lady was christened and named Anne‘ (1).  Anne would die just eight years later at Greenwich Palace on or about the 19 November 1481, a few weeks short of her ninth birthday.  Greenwich Palace has been said to be have been the favourite property of her mother-in-law,  Queen Elizabeth Wydeville, as well as, presumably,  a royal nursery as only six months after Anne’s death another royal child would die there – this time her sister-in-law, the fourteen year old Princess Mary.  Anne was the sole heiress of John de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (b.1444) who had died suddenly on the 14 January 1476 when Anne was three years old.  This left her as one of the most sought after heiresses of the time and only ten days after the death of her father ‘it was known that Edward IV was seeking her as a bride for his younger son, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York‘(2).   Agreement was eventually reached between Edward and Anne’s mother, Elizabeth Mowbray nee Talbot, the Duchess of Norfolk,  with the Duchess agreeing ‘to forego a great part of her jointure and dower lands in favour of her daughter and little son-in-law, Richard, Duke of York.  This act settled also settled the Norfolk lands and titles on the Duke of York and his heirs should Anne Mowbray predecease him leaving no heirs‘ which is precisely what transpired (3).   Nothing has survived of Elizabeth Mowbray’s personal thoughts on this.   The children were eventually married on the 15 January 1478 in St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, with the bridegroom’s uncle, Richard, duke of Gloucester, later Richard III,  leading her by the hand into the chapel.  Anne is perhaps best known for being the child bride of one of the ‘princes’ in the Tower.

Framlingham Castle, Suffolk.  Home to the Mowbrays and where Anne Mowbray was born Thursday 10 December 1472.  

Following her death her father-in-law sent three barges to escort her body back to Westminster, where she lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber before being buried in the Chapel of St Erasmus in Westminster Abbey which had been recently built by Elizabeth Wydeville, the funeral costs amounting to £215.16s.10d.  This chapel was pulled down in 1502 to make way for a new grandiose Lady Chapel built by Henry VII.  When the chapel was demolished Anne’s coffin was removed to  the Abbey of the Minoresses of St Clare without Aldgate, also known as The Minories, where her mother,  Elizabeth Mowbray – in the interim – had retired to.   As her name was not listed among the burials at the Minories it was mistakenly believed that Anne had been reburied, along with others, in the new chapel dedicated to St Erasmus by Abbot Islip.   Pleasingly the Abbot had managed to rescue the Tabernacle from the old chapel before its destruction and set it up in the new chapel,  which is now known as the Chapel of our Lady of the Pew.

It’s intriguing to remember that Anne’s mother, Elizabeth Mowbray nee Talbot, dowager Duchess of Norfolk,  was sister to none other than Lady Eleanor Butler/Boteler nee Talbot (c. 1436 – June 1468) believed to have been Edward’s first and lawful wife before his thus bigamous marriage to Elizabeth Wydville.   See Titulus Regious.  So ironically Anne’s aunt, the said Eleanor, was in fact her father-in-law’s true wife –  the irony of which surely would not have been wasted on neither the king or Elizabeth Wydville unless they were both suffering from selective amnesia (4). Her mother’s privy thoughts on this scandalous situation, assuming Eleanor had told her of her secret marriage to Edward,  are unrecorded as are her thoughts on the ‘unjust and unacceptable‘ division of the Mowbray inheritance (5).  The explanation of this dishonourable treatment of the Mowbray inheritance is rather complex and I won’t go into it here suffice to say anyone interested in finding out more should read Anne Crawford’s article, The Mowbray Inheritance which covers the matter more than adequately (6).  

Anne’s mother, Elizabeth Mowbray nee Talbot.  Her portait from the donor windows in Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk.

Anne – the nature of her final illness eludes us – would no doubt have gently receded and become forgotten in the mists of time had not her coffin been discovered by workmen on the 11 December 1964  propelling her on to the front page of newspapers leading to a modern day representative of Anne, an outraged Lord Mowbray, protesting in the strongest possible terms about the treatment of her remains.  This quickly led to the matter being swiftly resolved, and Anne’s remains, surrounded by white roses, were once again laid in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, as they had been 500 years previously.  Anne was reburied in the Chapel of St Erasmus, with erroneous and histrionic reports stating that she had been interred ‘as near as possible’ to the remains of her young husband, Richard, whose purported remains lay in the infamous urn in the Henry VII Chapel.  Later Lawrence Tanner, Keeper of the Muniments and Librarian of Westminster Abbey (and in a position to know) was to debunk this myth, writing that he, himself, had suggested that Anne’s remains be reinterred ‘very near to the probable site of her original burial place’ which was what duly happened (7).

Anne’s lead coffin with latin inscription, with her ‘masses of brown hair’. Photo from ‘London Bodies’ Compiled by Alex Warner.  Museum of London publication.

Anne Mowbray’s hair.  This is a true representation of the colour of Anne’s hair although it may have been a shade darker in her lifetime.  Photo from ‘London Bodies’ Compiled by Alex Warner.  Museum of London publication.

So what happened from the time of the discovery of Anne’s lead coffin to her reburial in the Abbey?  The story is taken up by Bernard Barrell, a former member of the Metroplitan Police, who was an ‘unofficial police contact‘ whenever a coffin was unearthed in the area.  According to Mr Barrell, in December 1964 workmen using a digging machine opened up a deep void in the ground revealing a brick vault filled with rubble, wherein they found a small lead coffin.  After a police constable had been called to the scene the coffin was transferred to Leman Street Police Station.  When Mr Barrel was called to the police station he was able to identify where the coffin had been discovered as the site of the Minories and was  medieval in date.  After satisfying the Coroner’s Office that the burial was indeed medieval and of archaeological interest he was instructed that if  he was ‘unable to dispose of the coffin to a bona fide claimant‘ within 24 hours it would be buried in a common grave in the City of London Cemetery,  Manor Park.  In the nick of time Mr Barrell noticed a plate attached to the upper surface of the coffin which had now been damaged when removed from the ground and stood upright.  On cleaning the plate with a wet cloth, Mr Barrell revealed a medieval ‘black letter’ text in Latin which was difficult to decipher however he could make out two words ‘Filia’  (daughter) and  ‘Rex‘ (King) Realising this was no ordinary burial but that of someone of high status, a medieval latin scholar was located and hastily summoned to the station, and who then deciphered the whole text which read:

The coffin was then taken by police van to the Museum of London, where the remains were examined and the coffin conserved and repaired (8).

Lawrence Tanner then takes the story over.

‘I saw the body a few days after the coffin had been opened and a very distressing sight it was and again, after it had been cleaned and beautifully laid out in its lead coffin.  She had masses of brown hair’.  Tanner as already mentioned above, suggested that a grave be made as near as possible to where she had been previously buried.  And ‘There on a summer evening, after having laid in state covered by the Abbey Pall in the Jerusalem Chamber, the body of the child duchess was laid to rest.  It was a deeply moving and impressive little service in the presence of a representative of the Queen, Lady and Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton (representing Anne’s family),  the Home secretary, the Director of the London Museum and one or two others (9)

Anne’s lead coffin surrounded by white flowers and candles, lying in state in  the Jerusalem Chamber, on the Westminster Pall.

And so, on the 31 May 1965,  Anne was reburied in an honourable place, with tenderness, love and care.  It has been speculated that her coffin had been taken to the Minories as a temporary measure and the intention was for her to be reburied when the new chapel at Westminster Abbey was completed.  Maybe, however,  I’m unconvinced.  Unhelpfully her daughter’s reburial was never mentioned in Elizabeth Talbot’s will,  despite her own request to be buried close to Anne Montgomery.  I believe it’s likely that the widowed Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, then living in retirement at the Minories, requested that her little daughter be returned to her,  with the intention that when her time came,  they would be finally buried close together.  The historian John Ashdown-Hill wrote that even though ‘the remains of Elizabeth Talbot,  Duchess of Norfolk, must have been lying quite close to those of her daughter…they were apparently not noticed’ (10).

1. Philomena Jones, Anne Mowbray, Richard lll Crown and People p.86
2. Ibid p.86
3. Ibid p.88
4. R.H. Helmholz, ‘The sons of Edward IV: a canonical assessment of the claim that they were illegitimate’, in Richard III: Loyalty, Lordship and Law, ed P.W. Hammond
5. Anne Crawford The Mowbray Inheritance, Richard lll Crown and people p.81
6. ibid p.81
7. Lawrence Tanner, Recollections of a Westminster Antiquary p192
8. Charles W Spurgeon The Poetry of Westminster Abbey p.207, 208, 209
9. Lawrence Tanner, Recollections of a Westminster Antiquary, p192.
10. John Ashdown-Hill The Secret Queen Eleanor Talbot The Woman Who Put Richard lll on the Throne p.248

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Old London Bridge from Southwark c.1630.  Unknown artist.

Old London Bridge. Claude de Jongh

There had been many manifestations of the bridge prior to this particular one, among them a  wooden one which had been brought down by a tornado in 1091, but it is this particular one most people think of when Old London Bridge is mentioned. Designed by Peter de Colechurch, a priest, chaplain and architect, building work begun in 1176 and commissioned by Henry II who was suffering pangs of guilt since the murder of his old friend Thomas Becket. To this end one of the first buildings on the bridge was a chapel dedicated to Thomas  – The Chapel of St Thomas the Martyr on the Bridge – and the starting point for pilgrimages to Thomas’ shrine at Canterbury. This chapel was completed in 1209 and was in use until 1548 when it was dissolved and begun a new life as a dwelling place,  surveyers being instructed by the Common Council that  the chapel upon the same bridge ‘be defaced and be translated into a dwellyng-house with as moche spede as they convenyentlye may‘. The upper story was demolished in 1747 when it continued in use as a warehouse until final demolition in 1832.

London Bridge in the 17th Century.  Getty images.

Antiquated, in a run down state, and at 600 years old, the old bridge had reached its sell by date at the time of its demolition and of course it was inevitable but at the same time, a place so steeped in history, is surely a tragic loss. This bridge had seen some of the most memorable occasions in London’s history and there could have been few Londoners who had not crossed over at some time in their lives. It was the site of pageants, jousts, battles and even coronation processions.  It consisted of 19 arches of varying widths with piers supported on great starlings and crossing just over 900 feet of water. The Southwark end was protected by the Great Stonegate which had a portcullis which could be closed and barred.  At the seventh arch from the southern end was a functional drawbridge before the Drawbridge Gate, where a toll keeper collected tolls from passengers on the bridge and from ships which required the drawbridge to be raised.  It was upon Drawbridge Gate that the heads of traitors were displayed. 

The bridge as it appeared in 1209 before the houses were built with the Chapel of St Thomas in the centre.  Getty Image

The earlier bridges had regularly been the focal points for invasions by  marauding Vikings but things remained more or less peaceful for our bridge until the arrival of Wat Tyler and his Kentishmen in 1381.  However, as we know, things did not go to plan for Wat or Walter to give him his correct name.   Things seem to have been relatively peaceful for some time after that interesting event although a ‘great‘ joust took place in 1395 between David, Earl of Crawford of Scotland and Lord Wells of England, the outcome of which Lord Wells found himself  ‘borne out of his saddle‘ at the third course.  Presumably they all went home then.  However, Jack Cade and more Kentishmen arrived in 1450.  In the year 1471, The Bastard of Falconbridge besieged the bridge, burnt the gate and all the houses which totalled to about thirteen at that time.  Sir Thomas Wyatt in 1553, with even more Kentishmen – what is it with Kentishmen? – marched from Deptford towards London only to find out the bridge gates had been shut. As they say man makes plans and the gods laugh

GREAT FIRE OF 1212

On the night of 10 July 1212, and only four years after the completion of the bridge,  a fire occurred in Southwark on the south side of the bridge. Pretty soon the bridge was heaving with ‘a great magnitude of  people‘ who had either gone there to watch or to try to help.  By a tragic mischance the wind blew and the northern end of the bridge also became engulfed in fire.   The fire that was raging in Southwark then  spread onto the southern approach of the Bridge and the people were trapped.  Ships came in a rescue attempt but to no avail as they were sunk by the sheer number of panicked people attempting to board them.  Stow tells us over three thousand people perished on that awful night from a combination of fire and shipwreck (2).

HENRY Vs FUNERAL CORTEGE

Henry V died on the 31 August 1422 in Vincennes in France not quite seven years after his great victory at Agincourt.   His funeral cortege snaked its slow way from Dover to Westminster Abbey passing over the Bridge.  His effigy lay on top of his coffin on a chariot drawn by four horses.  It can be imagined the grief stricken crowds and sombre silence as the warrior king was taken to his final resting place.  His heir was but a babe of nine months.   It’s well known how that story panned out and I’ll not go into it here.  Suffice to say that day must be counted as among the saddest  in the Bridge’s long history.  

QUEEN ELIZABETH WOODVILLE’S CORONATION PROCESSION 24 MAY 1465

Queen Elizabeth Wydeville Royal Window Canterbury Cathedral.

The Coronation Procession of Edward IV’s consort, Elizabeth Wydeville or Woodville, as she is more commonly known,  entered London via the bridge at Bridge Foot accompanied by an assemble of dignitaries  (who had met her at Shooters Hill) and  been instructed to appear  ‘in suche apparel as is according to youre astate and honour‘ (3)  One can only hope that someone remembered to remove  the heads of traitors from the Drawbridge Gate where they were displayed.  As it transpired the marriage of Edward and Elizabeth turned out to be a bigamous one, he already being married to another, Eleanor Butler nee Talbot.   This bigamous Wydeville marriage was to become the tragic rock that the House of York tragically foundered upon but this story is  covered fully elsewhere and I shall not go into it here.  Returning to that day the procession must have been a sight to behold.  Accounts  of the costs incurred that day are extant today so we do know, among other things,  that a room was hired overlooking Bridge Foot from a shoemaker called Peter Johnson and from there a choir sung to the queen – costing the sizeable sum of 6s 8d.  An enormous amount of work was undertaken to get the bridge decorated after which the workmen headed to The Crown, an alehouse at the Southern approach to the bridge where the costs of their food and drink, paid for by their employer, amounted to £2 6s 10d.  Among the other expenses incurred that day include :- One ounce of saffron for dying the flax to make the hair for the angels and maidens 10d,  900 peacock feathers for making the angels wings 21d, 3 pounds of flax bought and used in the likeness of hair for the angels and maidens 9d.  For the cleansing done at the drawbridge at the approach of the queen 3s 4d.  For the carriage of forty five loads of sand sprinkled on the bridge against the approach of the queen, for each load 4d 15s.

A close up of a view of Bridge Foot 1616.   The Crown Alehouse can be seen directly to the right of the gateway.  Claes Jansz Visscher 1586-1652 (4)

Londoners and anyone interested in the history of London should be grateful to John Stow who left behind so much information about medieval London including the Bridge before so much of it disappeared.  His statue in St Andrew Undershaft,  City of London.  Note the quill which is replaced every five years.

The beginning of the end of the Old Bridge came in the late 18th century when the buildings were removed to enable the road to be widened.  Inevitably this led to the decision to build a new London Bridge thirty metres upstream, which upon completion our lovely old bridge, on which so much history had taken place, was demolished in 1832.  I wonder what Peter de Colechurch would have said if he had known when he begun the building of his  wonderful bridge that it would stand and endure for six hundred years.         The Demolition of Old London Bridge, 1832, Guildhall Gallery, London

2) ibid p43

3) The entry of Queen Elizabeth Woodville over London Bridge 24 May 1465 Anne E Sutton & Livia Visser-Fuchs.  This is a very detailed article , which I have drawn heavily from here, covering everything anyone would need to know about the procession.  

4) Thanks to the Know Your London blog for drawing my attention to the closeup of the engraving.  

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