Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories and friaries in England and Ireland, appropriated their income, disposed of their assets, provided for their former personnel and functions. Although the policy was envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s, he was given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus separating England from Papal authority, by the First Suppression Act and the Second Suppression Act. Professor George W. Bernard argues: The dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. There were nearly 900 religious houses in England, around 260 for monks, 300 for regular canons, 142 nunneries and 183 friaries.
If the adult male population was 500,000, that meant that one adult man in fifty was in religious orders. At the time of their suppression, a small number of English and Welsh religious houses could trace their origins to Anglo-Saxon or Celtic foundations before the Norman Conquest, but the overwhelming majority of the 625 monastic communities dissolved by Henry VIII had developed in the wave of monastic enthusiasm that had swept western Christendom in the 11th and 12th centuries. Few English houses had been founded than the end of the 13th century. 11th- and 12th-century founders had endowed monastic houses with both'temporal' income in the form of revenues from landed estates, and'spiritual' income in the form of tithes appropriated from parish churches under the founder's patronage. In consequence of this, religious houses in the 16th century controlled appointment to about two-fifths of all parish benefices in England, disposed of about half of all ecclesiastical income, owned around a quarter of the nation's landed wealth.
An English medieval proverb said that if the Abbot of Glastonbury married the Abbess of Shaftesbury, the heir would have more land than the King of England. The 200 houses of friars in England and Wales constituted a second distinct wave of foundations all occurring in the 13th century. Friaries, for the most part, were concentrated in urban areas. Unlike monasteries, friaries had eschewed income-bearing endowments; the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and Ireland took place in the political context of other attacks on the ecclesiastical institutions of Western Roman Catholicism, under way for some time. Many of these were related to the Protestant Reformation in Continental Europe. By the end of the 16th century, monasticism had entirely disappeared from those European states whose rulers had adopted Lutheran or Reformed confessions of faith, they continued, albeit in reduced numbers and radically changed forms, in those states that remained Catholic. But, the religious and political changes in England under Henry VIII and Edward VI were of a different nature from those taking place in Germany, France and Geneva.
Across much of continental Europe, the seizure of monastic property was associated with mass discontent among the common people and the lower level of clergy and civil society against powerful and wealthy ecclesiastical institutions. Such popular hostility against the church was rare in England before 1558; these changes were met with widespread popular suspicion. Dissatisfaction with the general state of regular religious life, with the gross extent of monastic wealth, was near to universal amongst late medieval secular and ecclesiastical rulers in the Latin West. Bernard says there was widespread concern in the 15th and early 16th centuries about the condition of the monasteries. A leading figure here is the scholar and theologian Desiderius Erasmus who satirized monasteries as lax, as comfortably worldly, as wasteful of scarce resources, as superstitious. At that time, quite a few bishops across Europe had come to believe that resources expensively deployed on an unceasing round of services by men and women in theory set apart from the world be better spent on endowing grammar schools and university colleges to train men who would serve the laity as parish priests, on reforming the antiquated structures of over-large dioceses such as that of Lincoln.
Pastoral care was seen as much more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation and performance of the daily office. Erasmus had made a threefold criticism of the monks and nuns of his day, saying that: in withdrawing from the world into their own communal life, they elevated man-made monastic vows of poverty and obedience above the God-given vows of sacramental
Freemasons' Hall, London
Freemasons' Hall in London is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, as well as being a meeting place for many Masonic Lodges in the London area. It is located in Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden and has been a Masonic meeting place since 1775. There have been three Masonic buildings on the site, with the current incarnation being opened in 1933.. Parts of the building are open to the public daily, its preserved classic Art Deco style, together with its regular use as a film and television location, have made it a tourist destination. In 1846, the World Evangelical Alliance was founded here. In 1775 the premier Grand Lodge purchased a house fronting the street, behind, a garden and a second house. A competition was held for the design of a Grand Hall to link the two houses; the front house was the Freemasons' Tavern, the back house was to become offices and meeting rooms. The winning design was by Thomas Sandby.
The current building, the third on this site, was built between 1927 and 1933 in the art deco style to the designs of architects Henry Victor Ashley and F. Winton Newman as a memorial to the 3,225 Freemasons who died on active service in World War I, it is an imposing Art Deco building. Known as the Masonic Peace Memorial, the name was changed to Freemasons' Hall at the outbreak of the World War II in 1939; the financing for building the hall was raised by the Masonic Million Memorial Fund. This fund raised over £1 million, it is a Grade II* listed building, both internally and externally. Central to the present building is the Grand Temple, meeting place for Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter and a majority of the lodges in the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London, as well as the annual meetings of a number of the Home Counties Provincial Grand Lodges, for other Masonic degrees and orders to hold their annual meetings. Many non-Masonic organisations use the Grand Temple for numerous events as diverse as Fashion shows and Polytechnic award ceremonies.
Bronze doors, each weighing one and a quarter tonnes, open on to a Chamber 123 feet long, 90 feet wide and 62 feet high capable of seating 1,700. The ceiling cove is of Mosaic work and in addition to figures and symbols from Masonic ritual includes, in the corner, figures representing the four cardinal virtues – Prudence, Temperance and Justice – and the Arms of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn Grand Master 1901–1939, at whose suggestion the Masonic Peace Memorial was built. A superb large pipe organ is installed, built by leading British organ builders Henry Willis & Sons and magnificently restored by Harrison and Harrison of Durham being completed in 2015 with funds provided by Supreme Grand Chapter, the governing body for Royal Arch Masonry in England and the Channel Islands; the inaugural recital on the restored instrument was given on 30 September 2015 by Dr Thomas Trotter, Organist of Birmingham Town Hall and St Margaret's Church Westminster Abbey. In addition to the Grand Temple, there are a further 23 masonic temples, or meeting rooms, within the building, used by Lodges and Chapters.
All are ornate in their various art deco styles, no two are identical. Amongst the temples which are of particular note: Temple No 1 was large and contained a series of portraits of former Grand Masters. However, the temple was converted by removing the furnishings and organ. Temple No 3, although of no unusual style in itself, contains a restored nineteenth-century chamber organ of note. Temple No 16 has a distinctive and decorated barrel vault ceiling. In addition to these 23 Temples, the Grand Temple, there are several simple and plain temples reserved for'Lodges of Instruction' and'Lodges of Rehearsal'. Unlike the Grand Temple the other 23 temples are not open to the public, as they are in constant demand by private London Lodges and Chapters for their regular meetings. 1800 lodges and chapters meet in London, a high proportion of these meet at Freemasons' Hall. The Library and Museum of Freemasonry is a museum and archive based in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a large Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and British monarchs; the building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral. Since 1560, the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site in the seventh century, at the time of Mellitus, a Bishop of London. Construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have been in Westminster Abbey.
There have been 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100. As the burial site of more than 3,300 persons of predominant prominence in British history, Westminster Abbey is sometimes described as'Britain's Valhalla', after the iconic burial hall of Norse mythology. A late tradition claims that Aldrich, a young fisherman on the River Thames, had a vision of Saint Peter near the site; this seems to have been quoted as the origin of the salmon that Thames fishermen offered to the abbey in years – a custom still observed annually by the Fishmongers' Company. The recorded origins of the Abbey date to the 960s or early 970s, when Saint Dunstan and King Edgar installed a community of Benedictine monks on the site. Between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peter's Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church, it was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style. The building was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066.
A week he was buried in the church. His successor, Harold II, was crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror the same year; the only extant depiction of Edward's abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry. Some of the lower parts of the monastic dormitory, an extension of the South Transept, survive in the Norman Undercroft of the Great School, including a door said to come from the previous Saxon abbey. Increased endowments supported a community increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, up to a maximum about eighty monks; the abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the seat of government from the 13th century, became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest. The Abbot of Westminster was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. Released from the burdens of spiritual leadership, which passed to the reformed Cluniac movement after the mid-10th century, occupied with the administration of great landed properties, some of which lay far from Westminster, "the Benedictines achieved a remarkable degree of identification with the secular life of their times, with upper-class life", Barbara Harvey concludes, to the extent that her depiction of daily life provides a wider view of the concerns of the English gentry in the High and Late Middle Ages.
The proximity of the Palace of Westminster did not extend to providing monks or abbots with high royal connections. The abbot remained Lord of the Manor of Westminster as a town of two to three thousand persons grew around it: as a consumer and employer on a grand scale the monastery helped fuel the town economy, relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter was issued during the Middle Ages; the abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings. None were buried there until Henry III, intensely devoted to the cult of the Confessor, rebuilt the abbey in Anglo-French Gothic style as a shrine to venerate King Edward the Confessor and as a suitably regal setting for Henry's own tomb, under the highest Gothic nave in England; the Confessor's shrine subsequently played a great part in his canonization. Construction of the present church began in 1245 by Henry III; the first building stage included the entire eastern end, the transepts, the easternmost bay of the nave.
The Lady Chapel built from around 1220 at the extreme eastern end was incorporated into the chevet of the new building, but was replaced. This work must have been completed by 1258-60, when the second stage was begun; this carried the nave on an additional five bays. Here construction stopped in about 1269, a consecration ceremony being held on 13 October of that year, because of Henry's death did not resume; the old Romanesque nave remained attached to the new building for over a century, until it was pulled down in the late 14th century and rebuilt from 1376 following the original design. Construction was finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry III commissioned the unique Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar (the pavement has undergone a major cleani
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, political theorist, revolutionary. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Britain, his ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, a propagandist by inclination". Born in Thetford in the English county of Norfolk, Paine migrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin, arriving just in time to participate in the American Revolution; every rebel read his powerful pamphlet Common Sense, proportionally the all-time best-selling American title, which crystallized the rebellious demand for independence from Great Britain. His The American Crisis was a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series. Common Sense was so influential that John Adams said: "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain".
Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming involved in the French Revolution. He wrote Rights of Man, in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics, his attacks on Irish conservative writer Edmund Burke led to a trial and conviction in absentia in England in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel. The British government of William Pitt the Younger, worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to England, had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies. Paine's work, which advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government, was duly targeted, with a writ for his arrest issued in early 1792. Paine fled to France in September where and despite not being able to speak French, he was elected to the French National Convention; the Girondists regarded him as an ally. The Montagnards Maximilien Robespierre, regarded him as an enemy. In December 1793, he was taken to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. While in prison, he continued to work on The Age of Reason.
Future President James Monroe used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. He became notorious because of his pamphlets; the Age of Reason, in which he advocated deism, promoted reason and free thought and argued against institutionalized religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. He published the pamphlet Agrarian Justice, discussing the origins of property and introduced the concept of a guaranteed minimum income. In 1802, he returned to the U. S. where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral. Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1736, the son of Joseph Pain, a tenant farmer and stay-maker, Frances Pain, in Thetford, England. Joseph was a Frances an Anglican. Despite claims that Thomas changed the spelling of his family name upon his emigration to America in 1774, he was using "Paine" in 1769, while still in Lewes, Sussex, he attended Thetford Grammar School, at a time. At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to his father. Paine researchers contend his father's occupation has been misinterpreted to mean that he made the stays in ladies' corsets, an insult invented by his political foes.
The father and apprentice son made the thick rope stays used on sailing ships. Brian McCartin, in Thomas Paine: Common Sense and Revolutionary Pamphleteering, states: "Making stays for ships' masts had been the primary occupation of staymakers for centuries. Another type of staymaking during the eighteenth century was a form of corset making. Whether Joseph was the type of staymaker that made stays for ships or stays for corsets is still a matter of controversy." Thetford had maintained a brisk trade with the downriver major, port town of King's Lynn. A connection to shipping and the sea explains why, in late adolescence, Thomas enlisted and served as a privateer, before returning to Britain in 1759. There, he became a master stay-maker, establishing a shop in Kent. On September 27, 1759, Thomas Paine married Mary Lambert, his business collapsed soon after. Mary became pregnant. In July 1761, Paine returned to Thetford to work as a supernumerary officer. In December 1762, he became an Excise Officer in Lincolnshire.
On August 27, 1765, he was dismissed as an Excise Officer for "claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect". On July 31, 1766, he requested his reinstatement from the Board of Excise, which they granted the next day, upon vacancy. While awaiting that, he worked as a stay-maker. Again, he was making stay ropes for shipping, not stays for corsets. In 1767, he was appointed to a position in Cornwall, he asked to leave this post to await a vacancy, he became a schoolteacher in London. On February 19, 1768, he was appointed to Lewes in Sussex, a town with a tradition of opposition to the monarchy and pro-republican sentiments since the revolutionary decades of the 17th century. Here he lived above the 15th-century Bull House, the tobacco shop of Samuel Ollive and Esther Ollive. Paine first became involved in civic matters, he appears in the T
Dandy horse
The dandy horse a derogatory term for what at the time was first called a Laufmaschine a vélocipède or draisienne, a pedestrian curricle or hobby-horse, is a human-powered vehicle that, being the first means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, is regarded as the forerunner of the bicycle. Powered by the rider's feet on the ground instead of the pedals of bicycles, the dandy horse was invented by Karl Drais in 1817 and patented by him in France in February 1818 using the term vélocipède created by or for him, it is known as a Draisine, as a draisienne (French: in French and English. In English, it is sometimes still known as a velocipede, but that term now has a broader meaning; the dandy-horse was a two-wheeled vehicle, with both wheels in-line, propelled by the rider pushing along the ground with the feet as in regular walking or running. The front wheel and handlebar assembly was hinged to allow steering. Several manufacturers in France and England made their own dandy-horses during its brief popularity in the summer of 1819—most notably Denis Johnson of London, who used an elegantly curved wooden frame that allowed the use of larger wheels.
Riders preferred to operate their vehicles on the smooth pavements instead of the rough roads, but their interactions with pedestrians caused many municipalities worldwide to enact laws prohibiting their use. Designs avoided the initial drawback of this device when it had to be made to measure, manufactured to conform with the height and the stride of its rider. An example is Nicéphore Niépce's 1818 model with an adjustable saddle for his'velocipede' built by Lagrange. However, in the 1860s in France, the vélocipède bicycle was created by attaching rotary cranks and pedals to the front-wheel hub of a dandy-horse; the dandy horse has been adapted as a starter bicycle for children, is variously called a balance bike or push bike. Buster Keaton rides a dandy-horse in his 1923 film Our Hospitality, set in the 1830s. Keaton's technical crew were unable to obtain a vintage dandy horse, so they built one to match existing drawings and prints. Keaton donated the machine to the Smithsonian Institution, which had lacked an authentic example.
George Arliss, as the title character of the 1929 film Disraeli, rides a dandy-horse through a London park until he collides with a pedestrian. This occurs in the opening scene of the film, set in the 1830s, when Disraeli was still a writer and a famous dandy. In the 1997 film Amistad, a citizen is seen riding a dandy-horse through a forest trail when the escaped slaves first land on American soil. A bi-annual magazine called "dandyhorse", based in Toronto, promotes art and cycling culture. H. E. Lessing: How sophisticated was the draisine? The Boneshaker #159 T. Hadland and H. E. Lessing: Bicycle Design - An Illustrated History, MIT Press, Cambridge. Reynaud: L'Ère de la Draisienne en France 1818-1870, Éditions Musée Vélo-Moto, Domazan 2015 Balance bicycle Outline of cycling New Scientist issue 2484, 29 January 2005, "Histories: Brimstone and bicycles"
Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford is a title, created six times in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 in favour of Henry IV's third son, who served as regent of France, he was made Earl of Kendal at the same time and was made Earl of Richmond the same year. The titles became extinct on his death in 1435; the third creation came in 1470 in favour of nephew of Warwick the Kingmaker. He was deprived of the title by Act of Parliament in 1478; the fourth creation came 1478 in favour of George, the third son of Edward IV. He died the following year at the age of two; the fifth creation came in 1485 in favour of Jasper Tudor, half-brother of Henry VI and uncle of Henry VII. He had been created Earl of Pembroke in 1452. However, as he was a Lancastrian, his title was forfeited between 1461 and 1485 during the predominance of the House of York, he regained the earldom in 1485 when his nephew Henry VII came to the throne and was elevated to the dukedom the same year. He had no legitimate children and the titles became extinct on his death in 1495.
The Russell family holds the titles of Earl and Duke of Bedford. John Russell, a close advisor of Henry VIII and Edward VI, was granted the title of Earl of Bedford in 1551, his descendant William, 5th Earl, was created Duke following the Glorious Revolution; the subsidiary titles of the Duke of Bedford, all in the Peerage of England, are Marquess of Tavistock, Earl of Bedford, Baron Russell, of Cheneys, Baron Russell of Thornhaugh in the County of Northampton, Baron Howland, of Streatham in the County of Surrey. The courtesy title of the Duke of Bedford's eldest son and heir is Marquess of Tavistock; every Duke from the 5th Duke onwards is descended from Charles II of England. The family seat is Bedfordshire; the private mausoleum and chapel of the Russell Family and the Dukes of Bedford is at St. Michael’s Church in Chenies, Buckinghamshire; the family owns The Bedford Estate in central London. Other titles: Earl of Kendal and Earl of Richmond John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, third son of Henry IV Other titles: Earl of Kendal and Earl of Richmond John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, regranted his dukedom with the standard remainder, died without issue Other titles: Marquess of Montagu and Baron Montagu George Neville, 1st Duke of Bedford, nephew of Warwick the Kingmaker, succeeded as Marquess of Montagu and Baron Montagu in 1471, deprived of all of his honours in 1478 George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Bedford, third son of Edward IV, died in infancy Other titles: Earl of Pembroke Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford, uncle of Henry VII, regained his earldom a few months after his nephew's accession.
He died without legitimate issue. Other titles: Baron Russell John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, a close advisor of Henry VIII, was created Earl of Bedford, by a close advisor of Henry's son Edward VI, was further honoured by him Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, son of the 1st Earl Edward Russell, Lord Russell, eldest son of the 2nd Earl John Russell, 3rd Baron Russell, second son of the 2nd Earl, summoned to Parliament by writ of acceleration Francis Russell, Lord Russell, third son of the 2nd Earl Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford, son of Francis, Lord RussellOther titles: Baron Russell of Thornhaugh Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, cousin of the 3rd Earl and son of Lord Russell of Thornhaugh William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford, eldest son of the 4th Earl, was created Duke of Bedford in 1694 Francis Russell, Lord Russell, eldest son of the 5th Earl and 1st Duke, died unmarried Rt. Hon. William Russell, Lord Russell, second son of the 5th Earl and 1st Duke, father of the 2nd Duke, was attainted and executed in 1683 Other titles: Marquess of Tavistock, Baron Howland, Earl of Bedford, Baron Russell and Baron Russell of Thornhaugh William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford, was created Duke of Bedford in 1694, after the Glorious Revolution Francis Russell, Lord Russell, eldest son of the 1st Duke, died unmarried Rt.
Hon. William Russell, Lord Russell, second son of the 1st Duke Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford, only son of Rt. Hon. William Russell, Lord Russell William Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, eldest son of the 2nd Duke, died in infancy William Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, second son of the 2nd Duke, died young Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford, third son of the 2nd Duke, died without issue John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford and youngest son of the 2nd Duke John Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, eldest son of the 4th Duke, died in infancy Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, second son of the 4th Duke and father of the 5th and 6th Dukes Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, eldest son of Lord Tavistock, died without issue John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, second son of Lord Tavistock Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford, eldest son of the 6th Duke William Russell, 8th Duke of Bedford, only son of the 7th Duke, died unmarried Francis Charles Hastings Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford, eldest son of Maj.-Gen.
Lord George Russell, second son of the 6th Duke George William Francis
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