1.
Tonbridge
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Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 40,356 in 2015. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Royal Tunbridge Wells,12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London and it belongs to the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling. Another theory suggests that the name is a contraction of town of bridges, until 1870, the towns name was spelt Tunbridge, as shown on old maps including the 1871 Ordnance Survey map and contemporary issues of the Bradshaw railway guide. In 1870, this was changed to Tonbridge by the GPO due to confusion with nearby Tunbridge Wells, Tunbridge Wells has always maintained the same spelling. Tonbridge stands on spur of land where the marshy River Medway could be more easily forded. Ancient trackways converged at this point, there is no record of any bridge before 1191. For much of its existence, the town remained to the north of the river, one part of the town is called Dryhill. Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare founded the Priory of St Mary Magdalene in 1124, a castle was built here in the 11th century by Richard Fitz Gilbert, son of the murdered guardian of William the Conqueror in his infancy. Richard was responsible for governing England in William Is many absences, the town was besieged by William Rufus, soon after his accession to the throne, because the Earl had pledged allegiance to Williams brother, Robert. It is thus hardly surprising that the arrow that killed William Rufus a few years later in the New Forest was fired by Walter Tirel who was born in town as well as the Earls in-law. It was soon afterwards taken again, this time by King John only a few months after the signing of the Magna Carta, both the Earl and his son were signatories and guardians of the document responsible for its compliance. It was subsequently besieged by Prince Edward, son of Henry III, on this occasion the besieged garrison burnt the town rather than see it fall. The town and Tonbridge Castle were rebuilt after this and in the 13th century became an official residence, the castle was finally taken by Henry VIII when its owner, the Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason. In medieval times, Tonbridge was considered an important strategic settlement. The King intended it to be a town, and a charter was issued allowing for walls to be built. The walls were never built, perhaps because the large outer bailey could have easily accommodated the townspeople in times of strife. A surrounding bank and ditch known as The Fosse was erected, today only traces of this encircling defence now remain. The historic core of the still contains a large number of working buildings dating from the 15th century
2.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
3.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Philip Sidney
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Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy, born at Penshurst Place, Kent, he was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley. His mother was the eldest daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and his younger brother, Robert was a statesman and patron of the arts, and was created Earl of Leicester in 1618. His younger sister, Mary, married Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and was a writer, translator, Sidney dedicated his longest work, the Arcadia, to her. After her brothers death, Mary reworked the Arcadia, which known as The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia. Philip was educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford and he spent the next several years in mainland Europe, moving through Germany, Italy, Poland, the Kingdom of Hungary and Austria. On these travels, he met a number of prominent European intellectuals, returning to England in 1575, Sidney met Penelope Devereux, the future Lady Rich, though much younger, she would inspire his famous sonnet sequence of the 1580s, Astrophel and Stella. Her father, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, is said to have planned to marry his daughter to Sidney, in England, Sidney occupied himself with politics and art. He defended his fathers administration of Ireland in a lengthy document, more seriously, he quarrelled with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, probably because of Sidneys opposition to the French marriage, which de Vere championed. In the aftermath of episode, Sidney challenged de Vere to a duel. He then wrote a letter to the Queen detailing the foolishness of the French marriage. Characteristically, Elizabeth bristled at his presumption, and Sidney prudently retired from court, during a 1577 diplomatic visit to Prague, Sidney secretly visited the exiled Jesuit priest Edmund Campion. Sidney had returned to court by the middle of 1581 and in 1584 was MP for Kent and that same year Penelope Devereux was married, apparently against her will, to Lord Rich. An early arrangement to marry Anne Cecil, daughter of Sir William Cecil, in 1583, he married Frances, teenage daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. In the same year, he made a visit to Oxford University with Giordano Bruno and his artistic contacts were more peaceful and more significant for his lasting fame. During his absence from court, he wrote Astrophel and Stella, somewhat earlier, he had met Edmund Spenser, who dedicated The Shepheardes Calender to him. Both through his heritage and his personal experience, Sidney was a keenly militant Protestant. In the 1570s, he had persuaded John Casimir to consider proposals for a united Protestant effort against the Roman Catholic Church, in the early 1580s, he argued unsuccessfully for an assault on Spain itself
6.
Manor
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A manor in English law is an estate in land to which is incident the right to hold a court termed court baron, that is to say a manorial court. The proper unit of tenure under the system is the fee, on which the manor became established through the process of time. The manor is nevertheless often described as the basic unit of tenure and is historically connected with the territorial divisions of the march, county, hundred, parish. And so by continuance of time made a manor, of the portion reserved by the lord for his own use, termed the demesne, part was occupied by villeins, with the duty of cultivating the rest for the lords use. These were originally tenants at will and in a state of semi-serfdom and it is of the essence of copyhold that it should be regulated by the custom of the manor, as evidenced in the manorial roll produced by the manorial court. Manors cannot be created at the present day because manorial courts cannot be established with any legal jurisdiction, the statute did not apply to a tenant-in-chief of the king, who might have alienated his land under a license. When a great baron had granted out smaller manors to others, all land was differentiated by its legal status and by physical characteristics. It should be noted that legal status of land in England, demesne, land retained in-hand by the lord of the manor, without subtenant. Other land could be, Glebe, land not belonging to the reserved for the support of the parish priest. Common land, by open land, over which the lord, certain manorial tenants. For example, a right of estovers may belong to one of groups or all of them. Freehold Copyhold Customary Freehold Leasehold, the Reversion is held by its former freeholder, usually before the sale of land belonging to manors, arable, ploughed land used to grow crops. Pasture, grassland used for grazing livestock, closes, small enclosed fields created by hedge or stone wall boundaries, used for example to house ewes with their lambs requiring close observation. Marsh Woodland, a fuel resource. Furze, a resource used by the lower tenants. Fallow, land resting within the cycle of crop rotation agriculture, fishpond, used to breed fish such as carp A manor was akin to the modern firm or business or other going concern. It was further similar in that its ownership could be transferred, with the licence to alienate having been obtained from the overlord. The administration was self-contained and the new lord needed only to collect its net revenues to form his return on investment, the direction was ultimately provided by the manorial court, presided over by the lords personal steward, whose members included the freehold tenants of the manor
7.
Stephen de Pencester
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Stephen de Pencester was Warden of the Cinque Ports when the first authoritative list of Cinque Ports Confederation Members was produced in 1293. Pencester was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports for 32 years, his finishing in 1299 when the Baron de Burghersh was elected. When she inherited the parish of Tunstall in Kent and they resided both at Allington and Penshurst. When Pencester died in 1303, Margerie then married to Robert de Orreby, lee, Sidney, ed. Pencester, Stephen de
8.
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
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The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is a ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century, when the title was Keeper of the Coast, the Lord Warden was originally in charge of the Cinque Ports, a group of five port towns on the southeast coast of England. Today the role is a sinecure and a title, and 14 towns belong to the Cinque Ports confederation. The Lord Warden was solely responsible for the return of all writs to the Crown, along with the collection of taxes and his court was held in St Jamess church, near Dover Castle, and there he exercised jurisdiction broadly equivalent to that of Chancery. The coat of arms of the Cinque Ports first appeared in 1305, second amongst the earliest English known heraldic emblems, the coat of arms of the Cinque Ports displays three ships hulls and three lions passant guardant conjoined to these hulls, all in gold. These may originally have been Gules three lions passant gardant in pale Or dimidiating Gules three ships hulks in pale Or, the coat of arms of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports is set out on a red and blue background and traditionally represents the 14 Corporate Members. It was combined from 1267 with the office of Constable of Dover Castle, however, from 1708 Walmer Castle at Deal was to be preferred as the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In earlier centuries the northern limit was taken as the Shoe Beacon in Essex, the courts of Brodhull and Guestling were established to protect the privileges of the Cinque Ports by the portsmen themselves. From the 15th century these courts had been replaced by the Lord Wardens Court at Dover. From the 16th century the business of the courts was the installation of the Lord Warden. The office continued to be a powerful one, in 1550 the Mayor and Jurats of Dover refused to accept a Royal Writ because it was not accompanied by a letter of attendance from the Lord Warden. The member ports parliamentary representatives were appointed by the Lord Warden at first, the office of Speaker has traditionally rotated between the affiliate townships every year dating from at least 1550. Inaugurations are begun on 21 May, and membership is ordained through a maritime tradition of a principle of the prevailing winds coming from west to east. A unique uniform is specified for the Lord Warden, the uniform is very similar to a pre-1956-pattern Admirals uniform trimmed in red and with Cinque Ports insignia. Sir Robert Menziess uniform, which he wore as Lord Warden from 1966 to 1978, is preserved at the National Library of Australia. All Freemen of the Ports, termed Portsmen, were deemed in the age of Feudalism to be barons, termed Barons of the Cinque Ports, they reflected an early concept that military service at sea constituted land tenure per baroniam making them quasi feudal barons. Writs of summons to parliament were sent to the following which representative barons of the Cinque Ports were selected to attend parliament. Thus the wardens duty in this respect was similar to that of the sheriff who received the writs for distribution to the barons in the shires, the warden and barons often experienced clashes of jurisdiction
9.
Sir John de Pulteney
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Sir John de Pulteney or Sir John Poultney was a major English entrepreneur and property owner, who served four times as Mayor of London. A biography of Sir John, written by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, however, it is inaccurate in stating the Sir John’s wife was a daughter of John de St John of Lageham, for reasons that are set out in detail in two articles by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr. His will identifies Sir Johns parents as Adam and Matilda, Sir John married Margaret, daughter of John de Bereford, citizen of London and his wife Roesia. A modern monument in the crypt lists him among the important graves lost, Sir John was a citizen of London and a member of the Drapers’ Company. His business activities included the lending of money, for instance, in July 1325, Robert Burdet of Sheepy, Leicestershire acknowledged that he owed £100 to John de Pulteney. In the following month, the Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England acknowledged that he owed John the sum of £800. John also lent money to the King, such as a sum that in June 1329 was outstanding. He served as Mayor of London in 1331,1332,1334 and 1336, other roles that he undertook included membership of commissions of oyer and terminer in a number of counties, guardian of the peace for Middlesex and roles in negotiations with Flanders. Sir John invested some of his wealth in notable building projects. ‘’’Penshurst Place’’’ was built about 1341 and this Grade 1 Listed Building includes later additions, but the large hall with its fine timber roof supported by figure corbels and its undercroft date back to Sir John’s era. ‘’’Coldharbour House, Candlewick Street, City of London’’ - Sir John constructed this mansion and it overlooked the River Thames and was occupied by the Black Prince after Sir John’s death until 1359 when it was transferred to Sir Nicholas de Loveyne. ‘’’College of St Laurence Pountney, London’’’ – He added to St Laurence church, Candlewick Street a chapel that was dedicated to Corpus Christi and this chantry chapel appears to have been established by 1332. ‘’’Carmelites or White Friars church, Coventry’’’ – Sir John paid for the construction of this monastery, ‘’’Cheveley Castle, Cambridgeshire’’’ – Little remains of this building, so it does not seem possible to say whether Sir John carried out the works that were permitted in 1341. Sir John died on 8 June 1349, a date that suggests he may have been a victim of the Black Death, in Hertfordshire, The manor of Shenley. In Kent, The manors of Ospringe, Penshurst, Yenesfield, Plumstead, in Leicestershire, The manors of Pulteney and Misterton. In The City of London, Various rents and burgages, in Middlesex, The manor of “Poplar in Stebbenheth”. Two mills and rent at East Smithfield, in Suffolk, The manor of Withersfield. In Warwickshire, Property at Napton and Shotteswell, the tenement called “le Coldherberuy” was to be sold
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