1.
Order of the Garter
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The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry and the third most prestigious honour in England and the United Kingdom. It is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George and it is awarded at the Sovereigns pleasure as a personal gift on recipients from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Membership of the Order is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, the order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies. New appointments to the Order of the Garter are always announced on St Georges Day, the orders emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense in gold lettering. Members of the wear it on ceremonial occasions. King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter around the time of his claim to the French throne, the list includes Sir Sanchet DAbrichecourt, who died on 20 October 1345. Other dates from 1344 to 1351 have also been proposed, the Kings wardrobe account shows Garter habits first issued in the autumn of 1348. Also, its original statutes required that member of the Order already be a knight. The earliest written mention of the Order is found in Tirant lo Blanch and it was first published in 1490. This book devotes a chapter to the description of the origin of the Order of the Garter, at the time of its foundation, the Order consisted of King Edward III, together with 25 Founder Knights, listed in ascending order of stall number in St.1431. Various legends account for the origin of the Order, the most popular legend involves the Countess of Salisbury, whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the king picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, Honi soit qui mal y pense, King Edward supposedly recalled the event in the 14th century when he founded the Order. This story is recounted in a letter to the Annual Register in 1774, The motto in fact refers to Edwards claim to the French throne, the use of the garter as an emblem may have derived from straps used to fasten armour. Medieval scholars have pointed to a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in Gawain, a girdle, very similar in its erotic undertones to the garter, plays a prominent role. A rough version of the Orders motto also appears in the text and it translates from Old French as Accursed be a cowardly and covetous heart. While the author of that poem remains disputed, there seems to be a connection between two of the top candidates and the Order of the Garter. Scholar J. P. Oakden has suggested that it is related to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and, more importantly. Another competing theory is that the work was written for Enguerrand de Coucy, the Sire de Coucy was married to King Edward IIIs daughter, Isabella, and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day
2.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
3.
Lord High Treasurer
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The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State, below the Lord High Steward, the Lord High Treasurer functions as the head of Her Majestys Treasury. Since the 17th century the office has often held, not by a single person. Such persons are known as Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the office has been in commission continuously since the resignation of Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury in 1714. The office continued in commission and the commissioners of the old office of Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain continued as the commissioners of the new combined office. Other members of the government, usually whips in the House of Commons, are appointed to serve as the junior Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the Treasury was originally a section of the Royal Household with custody of the Kings money. In 1216, a Treasurer was appointed to control of the Treasury in Winchester. The Treasurer was also an officer of the Exchequer, and supervised the royal accounts, by Tudor times, the Lord High Treasurer had achieved a place among the Great Officers of State, behind the Lord Chancellor and above the Master of the Horse. Under the Treason Act 1351 it was treason to kill him, during the sixteenth century, the Lord High Treasurer was often considered the most important official of the government, and became a de facto Prime Minister. Exemplifying the power of the Lord High Treasurer is William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, during his tenure, he dominated the administration under Elizabeth I. Since then a system has evolved which has hardly varied, next rank the Junior Lords of the Treasury who, though theoretically members of the Treasury Board, in practice serve as Government Whips under the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Lord High Treasurer, List of Lord High Treasurers List of Lords Commissioners of the Treasury
4.
James VI and I
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James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother Mary was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, in 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617 and he was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonization of the Americas began, at 57 years and 246 days, Jamess reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his predecessors. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. James himself was a scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie, The True Law of Free Monarchies. He sponsored the translation of the Bible that would later be named after him, Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed the wisest fool in Christendom, an epithet associated with his character ever since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise Jamess reputation and treat him as a serious, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, Marys rule over Scotland was insecure, and she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and he was baptised Charles James or James Charles on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. His godparents were Charles IX of France, Elizabeth I of England, Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as a pocky priest, spit in the childs mouth, as was then the custom. The subsequent entertainment, devised by Frenchman Bastian Pagez, featured men dressed as satyrs and sporting tails, Jamess father, Darnley, was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzios death. James inherited his fathers titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross, Mary was already unpopular, and her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her. In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle and she was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent. The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought in the security of Stirling Castle
5.
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset
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Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset was an English statesman, poet, and dramatist. He was the son of Richard Sackville, a cousin to Anne Boleyn and he was a Member of Parliament and Lord High Treasurer. Thomas Sackville was educated at St Johns College, Cambridge and Hertford College and he first entered the House of Commons in 1558 as one of the knights of the shire for Westmorland. In 1559 he was elected for East Grinstead, and then in 1563 for Aylesbury, with Thomas Norton, Sackville was the author in 1561 of the first English play to be written in blank verse, Gorboduc, which deals with the consequences of political rivalry. He also contributed to the 1563 edition of The Mirror for Magistrates, with the poem Complaint of Henry, sackvilles first important literary work was the poem Induction, which describes the poets journey to the infernal regions, where he encounters figures representing forms of suffering and terror. The poem is noted for the power of its allegory and for its sombre stateliness of tone. In 1566 Sackville travelled to Rome, where he was arrested and detained as a prisoner for fourteen days, for reasons not clear, in 1567 he was created Baron Buckhurst, of Buckhurst in the County of Sussex. In 1572, he was one of the peers who sat on the trial of Thomas Howard, in 1586 he was selected to convey to Mary, Queen of Scots, the sentence of death confirmed by the English Parliament. He incurred her displeasure by what she called his shallow judgement in diplomacy, in 1591, Sackville became chancellor of the University of Oxford. In 1599 he succeeded William Cecil, Lord Burghley, as Lord Treasurer, a position he kept until his death, in 1604, Sackville bought Groombridge Place in Kent. His other houses included Knole House, in Sevenoaks, Kent, Michelham Priory, in East Sussex, Sackville acquired a large fortune through his land dealings in many counties, as well as from his investments in the iron foundry business. He was an advocate of stronger enforcement of the sumptuary laws, in around 1587, Sackville was granted a royal licence to commission a suit of armour from the royal workshops at Greenwich. The finely etched, blued and gilt armour, a garniture for the field, is one of the finest and it is now part of the Wallace Collection in London. Another, similar suit of armour, featuring the same construction and decorative scheme, Queen Elizabeth acquired the manor of Bexhill in 1590 and granted it to Sackville. He was also the last Sackville to be lord of the manor of Bergholt Sackville and Mount Bures in Essex, both properties had been in the Sackville family for 459 years. In 1604 he was created Earl of Dorset by the new king and he died suddenly at the council table, having apparently suffered a stroke, referred to as a dropsy on the brain. His funeral took place at Westminster Abbey, and he is buried in the Sackville family vault at Withyham parish Church, Sackville married Cicely Baker in 1555 and had seven children, including his heir Robert, and Sir William Sackville, knighted by Henry IV of France. Reginald W. Sackville West, Works Zim, Rivkah, Religion and the Politic Counsellor, Thomas Sackville, 1536–1608, The English Historical Review,122, 892–917, doi,10. 1093/ehr/cem256
6.
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton
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Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton was an important English aristocrat and courtier. He was suspect as a crypto-Catholic throughout his life, and went through periods of royal disfavour and he was distinguished for learning, artistic culture and his public charities. He built Northumberland House in London and superintended the construction of the house of Audley End. He founded and planned several hospitals, francis Bacon included three of his sayings in his Apophthegms, and chose him as the learnedest councillor in the kingdom to present to the king his Advancement of Learning. After his death, it was discovered that he had involved in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. He was the brother of the 4th Duke of Norfolk. On the death of his father in 1547 he and his brother and sisters were entrusted to the care of his aunt, Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset, who employed John Foxe as their tutor. With Foxe Howard remained at Reigate, a manor belonging to the Duke of Norfolk, on Marys accession, the childrens grandfather, the Duke of Norfolk, was released from prison, and he dismissed Foxe. Afterwards Henry Howard studied with John White, Bishop of Lincoln, while with White, Howard read largely in philosophy, civil law, divinity, and history, and seems to have acquired a strong sympathy with Roman Catholicism. On Marys death and Queen Elizabeths accession, White was deprived of his bishopric and he was restored in blood 8 May 1559. At the queens expense he proceeded to Kings College, Cambridge and he afterwards joined Trinity Hall, read Latin lectures on rhetoric and civil law in public, and applied to a friend in London for a master to teach him the lute. Subsequently in 1568 he was incorporated M. A. at Oxford and it was rumoured that he contemplated taking holy orders in the vague hope of succeeding Thomas Young as Archbishop of York. He came to court about 1570 at a low ebb, but the intrigues of which his brother and he was arrested, but, after repeated examinations, established his innocence to Elizabeths satisfaction, was readmitted to court, and was granted a yearly pension. It was generally reported, however, that he had by bad advice brought about his brothers ruin, after the execution of the Duke, his aforementioned sibling, Howard retired to Audley End, and directed the education of his brothers children. He supplied her for years with political information, but, according to his own account. Howard sought to regain Elizabeths favour by grossly flattering her in long petitions, in 1582 his cousin Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, quarrelled with him, and revived the charges of heresy and of treasonable correspondence with Mary. He was soon set free, and, retiring to St, the book was suspected of apparent heresies and concealed treason, and in 1583, after the discovery of the Throckmorton Plot, Howard was sent to the Fleet Prison. He complained to Hatton of harsh treatment, Mary, it was now asserted, had sent him a ring with a message
7.
First Lord of the Treasury
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The First Lord of the Treasury is the head of the commission exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom, and is now always also the Prime Minister. As of the beginning of the 17th century, the running of the Treasury was frequently entrusted to a commission, as of 1714, it has permanently been in commission. The commissioners have always since that date been referred to as Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the term Prime Minister was initially, but decreasingly, used as a term of derogation, it was first used officially in a royal warrant only in 1905. William Pitt the Younger once opined that the Prime Minister ought to be the person at the head of the finances, as of 1827, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has always been Second Lord of the Treasury when he was not also Prime Minister. By convention, the other Lords Commissioners of the Treasury are also Government Whips in the House of Commons,10 Downing Street is the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, and not of the Prime Minister. As all modern prime ministers have simultaneously been First Lord of the Treasury, thereafter the posts of First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister have continually been held by the same person, see the list of 20th century British prime ministers. Chief Baron of the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury List of Lords Commissioners of the Treasury E. B, roy, ed. Handbook of British Chronology, 3rd Edition Haydn, Joseph Timothy. The Book of Dignities HM Government, First Lord of the Treasury
8.
Lord Privy Seal
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The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the sinecure offices of state. Originally, its holder was responsible for the personal seal. Today, the holder of the office is given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Since the premiership of Clement Attlee, the position of Lord Privy Seal has frequently been combined with that of Leader of the House of Lords or Leader of the House of Commons. The office of Lord Privy Seal, unlike those of Leader of the Lords or Commons, is eligible for a ministerial salary under the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975. The office does not confer membership of the House of Lords, leading to Ernest Bevins remark on holding office that he was neither a Lord, nor a Privy. During the reign of Edward I, prior to 1307, the Privy Seal was kept by the Controller of the Wardrobe, the Lord Privy Seal was the president of the Court of Requests during its existence
9.
Elizabeth I of England
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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeths birth. Annes marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, edwards will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Marys reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, one of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England and it was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. She never did, despite numerous courtships, as she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, in government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo, in religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, by the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. Englands defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history, Elizabeths reign is known as the Elizabethan era. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Such was the case with Elizabeths rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, after the short reigns of Elizabeths half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard and she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn, at birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England. She was baptised on 10 September, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragons death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession, eleven days after Anne Boleyns execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537
10.
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
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William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley KG PC was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572. Albert Pollard says, From 1558 for forty years the biography of Cecil is almost indistinguishable from that of Elizabeth, Burghley set as the main goal of English policy the creation of a united and Protestant British Isles. His methods were to complete the control of Ireland, and to forge an alliance with Scotland, protection from invasion required a powerful Royal Navy. While he was not fully successful, his successors agreed with his goals, derek Wilson says, Few politicians were more subtle or unscrupulous than William Cecil. He was the founder of the Cecil dynasty which has produced politicians including two Prime Ministers. Cecil was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, in 1520, the son of Sir Richard Cecil, owner of the Burghley estate, seisyllt is the original Welsh spelling of the anglicised Cecil. There is now no doubt that the family was from the Welsh Marches, the family had connections with Dore Abbey. However, the move to Stamford provides information concerning the Lord Treasurers grandfather, David, he, according to Burghleys enemies, David somehow secured the favour of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, to whom he seems to have been Yeoman of the Guard. He was Sergeant-of-Arms to Henry VIII in 1526, Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1532, and his eldest son, Richard, Yeoman of the Wardrobe, married Jane, daughter of William Heckington of Bourne, and was father of three daughters and the future Lord Burghley. William, the son, was put to school first at The Kings School, Grantham, and then Stamford School. The precaution proved useless and four months later Cecil committed one of the rare acts of his life in marrying Mary Cheke. The only child of this marriage, Thomas, the future Earl of Exeter, was born in May 1542, and in February 1543 Cecils first wife died. William Cecils early career was spent in the service of the Duke of Somerset, who was Lord Protector during the years of the reign of his nephew. Cecil accompanied Somerset on his Pinkie campaign of 1547, being one of the two Judges of the Marshalsea and he also seems to have acted as private secretary to the Protector, and was in some danger at the time of the Protectors fall in October 1549. The lords opposed to Somerset ordered his detention on 10 October, Cecil ingratiated himself with Warwick, and after less than three months he was out of the Tower. On 5 September 1550 Cecil was sworn in as one of King Edwards two secretaries of state, in April 1551, Cecil became chancellor of the Order of the Garter. But service under Warwick carried some risk, and decades later in his diary, to protect the Protestant government from the accession of a Catholic queen, Northumberland forced King Edwards lawyers to create an instrument setting aside the Third Succession Act on 15 June 1553. Cecil resisted for a while, in a letter to his wife, he wrote, Seeing great perils threatened upon us by the likeness of the time, but at Edwards royal command he signed it
11.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
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The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Chancellor is answerable to Parliament for the governance of the Duchy, however, the involvement of the Chancellor in the running of the day-to-day affairs of the Duchy is slight, and the office is held by a senior politician whose main role is usually quite different. The position is held by Patrick McLoughlin. The position has often given to a junior Cabinet minister with responsibilities in a particular area of policy for which there is no department with an appropriate portfolio. In 1491, the office of Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster was created, in recent times, the Chancellors duties have been said to occupy an average of one day a week. Under the Promissory Oaths Act 1868, the Chancellor is required to take the oath of allegiance, the Office of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is part of the Cabinet Office. From 1997 until 2009, the holder of the title served as the Minister for the Cabinet Office. This was true of Alan Milburn, who was given the title by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004, however, in the reshuffle of 5 June 2009, the Chancellorship went to the Leader of the House of Lords, the Baroness Royall. In David Camerons first cabinet, announced on 12 May 2010, the position is currently held by Patrick McLoughlin, who is also Chairman of the Conservative Party, following Theresa Mays appointment as Prime Minister. The last holder of the post was Oliver Letwin, having been appointed in July 2014 when he was also Minister for Government Policy, following the 2015 general election, he was also given overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office and made a full member of the Cabinet. He has also been the Member of Parliament for West Dorset since 1997, list of Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster County Palatine of Lancaster
12.
John Herbert (Secretary of State)
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Sir John Herbert was a Welsh lawyer, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1586 and 1611. He was Secretary of State under Elizabeth I and James I, Herbert was the son of Matthew Herbert of Swansea and was descended from an illegitimate son of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Herbert may have been educated at Christ Church, Oxford, although this is questioned and he was admitted an honorary member of the College of Doctors of Law in November 1573 and awarded MA. He was a commissioner of the High Court of Admiralty from 1575 to 1584, queen Elizabeth appointed him secretary to the Council of the North and Keeper of Signet. In 1586, Herbert was elected Member of Parliament for Grampound and he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law by the University of Oxford in 1587. In 1588, he was elected MP for Gatton and he was elected MP for Christchurch in 1593 and MP for Bodmin in 1597. In April 1600, he was appointed second Secretary of State, in 1601 he was elected MP for Glamorgan and for Wallingford and chose to sit for Glamorgan. In 1604 he was elected MP for Monmouthshire and sat until 1611 and he was appointed High Sheriff of Glamorgan for 1605 and in 1607 appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Garter for life. Herbert was a talented linguist and so was used to interrogate prisoners and on trade and political missions to Denmark, Poland, Brandenburg. He continued in office under James I, although James preferred to use unofficial secretaries such as Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke. When Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury died in 1612, Herbert hoped to succeed him as secretary of state. He was thereafter Secretary of State in name only and he died in Cardiff aged 67 on 9 July 1617, having fought a duel with Sir Lewis Tresham two months earlier. Herbert married Margaret Morgan, daughter of William Morgan of Cefn Coch
13.
Westminster
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Westminster is an area of central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically the area lay within St Margarets parish, City & Liberty of Westminster and it has been the home of the permanent institutions of Englands government continuously since about 1200 and is now the seat of British government. In a government context, Westminster often refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the closest tube stations are Westminster, St Jamess Park on the Jubilee, Circle, and District lines. Within the area is Westminster School, a public school which grew out of the Abbey. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London, the area has a substantial resident population, indeed most of its listed buildings are residential. A proportion of residents are people of limited means, living in council, hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist nearer to Buckingham Palace. The name describes an area no more than 1 mile from Westminster Abbey, the settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The need for a church, St Margarets Westminster for the servants of the palace. It became larger and in the Georgian period became connected through urban development with the City along the Strand. It did not become a local government unit until created as a civil parish. Indeed, the Cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, as such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough, centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built, the abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson onwards. From about 1200, near the abbey, the Palace of Westminster became the royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and Englands law courts, thus London developed two focal points, the City of London and Westminster. The monarchs later moved to St James Palace and the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east, the main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice. The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex, the ancient parish was St Margaret, after 1727 this became the civil parish of St Margaret and St John, the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by —, until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, which was based at Westminster City Hall in Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields, Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction
14.
Central London
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Central London is the innermost part of London, UK. Over time a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. From 2004 to 2008, the London Plan included a sub-region called Central London comprising Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and it had a 2001 population of 1,525,000. The sub-region was replaced in 2008 with a new structure which amalgamated inner and outer boroughs together and this was altered in 2011 when a new Central London sub region was created, now including the City of London and excluding Wandsworth. However, districts at the edge of this subregion such as Streatham, Dulwich. During the Herbert Commission and the subsequent passage of the London Government Bill, the first two were detailed in the 1959 Memorandum of Evidence of the Greater London Group of the London School of Economics. It had an population of 350,000 and occupied 7,000 acres. The area had an population of 400,000 and occupied 8,000 acres. During the passage of the London Government Bill an amendment was put forward to create a central borough corresponding to the used at the 1961 census. The population was estimated to be 270,000
15.
Marlborough, Wiltshire
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Marlborough is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. It boasts the second widest high street in Britain, after Stockton-on-Tees, the town is on the River Kennet. The earliest sign of habitation is a 62 feet high prehistoric tumulus in the grounds of Marlborough College. Recent radiocarbon dating has found it to date from about 2400 BC and it is of similar age to the larger Silbury Hill about 5 miles west of the town. Legend has it that the Mound is the site of Merlin. On John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the name is recorded as Marlinges boroe. The towns motto is Ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini - Where now are the bones of wise Merlin, more plausibly, the towns name probably derives from the medieval term for chalky ground marl – thus town on chalk. Roman remains and the large Mildenhall Hoard of coins have found two miles to the east of Marlborough, at Mildenhall. A later Saxon settlement grew up around The Green and two river crossings were made at Isbury Lane and Stonebridge Lane. In 1067 William the Conqueror assumed control of the Marlborough area and set about building a motte and bailey castle. This was completed in around 1100, stone was used to strengthen the castle in around 1175. The first written record of Marlborough dates from the Domesday Book in 1087, William also established a mint in Marlborough, which coined the William I and the early William II silver pennies. The coins display the name of the town as Maerlebi or Maerleber and he also established the neighbouring Savernake Forest as a favourite Royal hunting ground and Marlborough castle became a Royal residence. Henry I observed Easter here in 1110, Henry II stayed at Marlborough castle in talks with the King of Scotland. His son, Richard I gave the castle to his brother John, King John was married here and spent time in Marlborough. He also established that weekly markets may be held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, later Henry III was also married here. Henry III held Parliament here, in 1267, when the Statute of Marlborough was passed and this seven-hundred-year-old law states that no-one shall seize his neighbours goods for alleged wrong without permission of the Court. Apart from Charters, it is the oldest statute in English law which has not yet been repealed, the castle fell into disrepair by the end of the 14th century but remained Crown property
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Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
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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
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William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury
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William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC, known as Viscount Cranborne from 1605 to 1612, was an English peer, nobleman, and politician. Cecil was the son of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Elizabeth and he was born in Westminster on 28 March 1591 and baptized in St Clement Danes on 11 April. Williams mother died when he was six years old, and he was raised by his aunt. He was educated at Sherborne School and at St Johns College, Cambridge, James I raised Cecils father to the Peerage of England, creating him Baron Cecil in 1603, Viscount Cranborne in 1604, and Earl of Salisbury in 1605. As a result, in 1605, William received the title of Viscount Cranborne. In 1608, aged 17, Cranbornes father sent him to France, but quickly recalled him to England to marry Catherine and his father was determined that Cranborne should spend two years living abroad, and instructed him to return to France following his marriage. Following this ceremony, Cranborne returned to Europe, this time to Italy, travelling first to Venice, at Padua, he fell ill, and returned to England resolving never to go abroad again. Cranbornes father died in 1612, making him the 2nd Earl of Salisbury and he was soon named Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, where he gained a reputation for punctilious service to the king. James I made him a Knight of the Garter in 1624, Salisbury continued to find favour under James successor, Charles I, who named Salisbury to his privy council in 1626. Salisbury subsequently conformed during the Personal Rule, Salisbury spent much of the 1630s in improving his ancestral seat, Hatfield House. He also made Hatfield House a cultural centre, serving as patron for painter Peter Lely, musician Nicholas Lanier, however, Salisbury resisted throwing in his lot with any of the political factions, and thus remained vulnerable. When the First English Civil War broke out in 1642, Salisburys estates at Cranborne in Dorset suffered depredations, in 1648, Salisbury served as a member of a deputation charged with negotiating with Charles at the Isle of Wight. However, Salisbury refused to approve of the regicide of Charles I, following the kings execution, Salisbury decided to support the Commonwealth of England, and agreed to take the Engagement. Salisbury was a member of the English Council of State from 1649 to 1651 and he became Member of Parliament for Kings Lynn in the Rump Parliament. Salisbury subsequently retired to his home at Hatfield House, following The Restoration of 1660, Charles II appointed him high steward of St Albans in 1663. His mental faculties apparently failed in his last years, Samuel Pepys, observing him at church in October 1664, harsher critics doubted whether he had any faculties to fail in the first place, describing him as a man who never spoke of anything but hunting and hawking. Salisbury died at Hatfield House on 3 December 1668 and he was succeeded as Earl of Salisbury by his grandson, as his son had predeceased him. They had twelve children, including, James Cecil, Viscount Cranborne Charles Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, Lady Anne Cecil, married the 10th Earl of Northumberland and had issue
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Mildred Cooke
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Mildred Cooke, Lady Burghley was an English noblewoman and translator in the 16th century. She was the wife of Elizabeth Is most trusted adviser, William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, and her paternal great-grandparents were Sir Philip Cooke and Elizabeth Belknap. According to Bowden she was educated at home by her father, Sir Anthony Cooke, in 1559 William Bercher attested to their learning in his Nobility of Women. She served briefly at court as a lady of the chamber when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558. The Burghley household was one in learning was valued, Unlike Dudley was a scholar, a lover of books. Indeed, Cecil House was England’s nearest equivalent of a humanist salon since the days of More, Lord Burghley went on to become Elizabeth Is most trusted adviser, and he and Lady Burghley entertained the Queen on several occasions at their residences, including Theobalds. As the wife of the Queens chief adviser, Lady Burghley exercised influence in various ways and she has great influence with her husband, and no doubt discusses the matter with him, but she appears a much more furious heretic than he is. In 1560 three Scottish leaders corresponded with her regarding the Treaty of Edinburgh then being negotiated, in 1573 she wrote in Latin to her cousin, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy of Ireland, offering advice. In 1580 she was given £250 for having acted as an intermediary for a suitor petitioning her husband, three books were dedicated to her during her lifetime, Thomas Drants A Medicinable Moral, that is, Two Books of Horace His Satires. Ulpian Fulwells The First Part of the Eighth Liberal Science Entitled Ars Adulandi, Lady Burghley did not publish her own translations, however, and few survive in manuscript. She also translated a work by John Chrysostom, which has not survived, More than thirty books inscribed with her name are still extant, seventeen of them at Hatfield House. Her library included works in Greek, Latin, French and English on a range of topics including history, literature, medicine and theology. In 1580 she presented a polyglot Bible to St Johns College, Cambridge, in 1587 she presented eight volumes by Galen, five in Greek and three in Latin, to Christ Church, Oxford. She later gave two books to St Johns College, Oxford, and two books to Westminster School and she provided an exhibition for two scholars and four quarterly sermons at St Johns College, Cambridge, Lord Burghleys old college. Lady Burghley died on 4 April 1589 after 43 years of marriage and she was buried with her daughter, Anne, Countess of Oxford, in Westminster Abbey, where an enormous Corinthian tomb twenty four feet high was erected. Lady Burghley is depicted lying on a sarcophagus, at her head are her three granddaughters, Elizabeth de Vere, Bridget de Vere, and Susan de Vere, and at her feet her only son, Robert Cecil. In a recess is the recumbent figure of her daughter Anne, in the upper story Lord Burghley is depicted kneeling in his robes. A long Latin inscription composed by Lord Burghley describes his eyes dim with tears for those who were dear to him beyond the race of womankind
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Hatfield House
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Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. It is an example of Jacobean architecture. The estate includes extensive grounds and surviving parts of an earlier palace, the house, currently the home of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, is open to the public. An earlier building on the site was the Royal Palace of Hatfield, only part of this still exists, a short distance from the present house. That palace was the home and favourite residence of Queen Elizabeth I. Built in 1497 by the Bishop of Ely, King Henry VIIs minister John Cardinal Morton, the palace was seized by Henry VIII with other church properties. The nearby parish church of St Etheldredas, in Old Hatfield once served the Bishops Palace as well as the village, Henry VIIIs children, King Edward VI and the future Queen Elizabeth I, spent their youth at Hatfield Palace. She successfully defended her conduct with wit and defiance, seymour was executed in 1549 for numerous other crimes against the crown. After her two months of imprisonment in the Tower of London by her sister Queen Mary, Elizabeth returned to Hatfield. The Queen Elizabeth Oak on the grounds of the estate is said to be the location where Elizabeth was told she was Queen following Marys death, in November 1558, Elizabeth held her first Council of State in the Great Hall. The library displays a 22 feet long illuminated parchment roll showing the pedigree of the Queen with ancestors back to Adam, the Marble Hall holds the Rainbow Portrait of Elizabeth. Cecil liked to build and so tore down three wings of the palace in 1608 and used the bricks to build the present structure. The richly carved wooden Grand Staircase and the stained glass window in the private chapel are among the houses original Jacobean features. Cecils descendant, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, was three times prime minister during the years of Queen Victorias reign. The city of Salisbury in the colony of Rhodesia was founded in his time and he is also known for often putting members of his family into the Government while Prime Minister. CRUs were created to help repatriated British prisoners of war to back to civilian life. On 12 July 1945, the King and Queen visited the CRU at Hatfield, the Gardens, covering 42 acres, date from the early 17th century, and were laid out by John Tradescant the elder. Tradescant visited Europe and brought back trees and plants that had never previously been grown in England, the gardens included orchards, fountains, scented plants, water parterres, terraces, herb gardens and a foot maze
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Cecil House
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Cecil House refers to two historical mansions on The Strand, London, in the vicinity of the Savoy. The first was a 16th-century house on the side, where the Strand Palace Hotel now stands. The second was built in the early 17th century on the south side nearly opposite, when Cecil was created Lord Burghley in 1571, this London seat became known as Burghley House. In fact it was a symmetrical brick house of three storeys, with four-storey corner turrets. The garden included a mount with a path to its top, a paved tennis court, a bowling alley. The house became the residence of Burghleys elder son Thomas Cecil, created Earl of Exeter in 1605, the structure formed a notch in the north side of The Strand. It was converted in 1676 into Exeter Exchange and demolished in 1829 and it was divided by his heir the second Earl into two parts, of which the lesser was demolished in 1678 to make room for a new residential street, Salisbury Street. The site was used for the Hotel Cecil, named after this house. The Strand, southern tributaries - continued, Old and New London Volume 3, Salisbury House at London Online Smith, John Thomas. The Streets of London, pp. 144–145
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Cranborne Manor
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Cranborne Manor is a Grade I listed country house in Cranborne, Dorset in southern England. The manor dates back to around 1207/8, and was originally a hunting lodge and it was remodelled for the 1st Earl of Salisbury in the early 17th century. The house is a Grade I listed building, being extremely important both as a survival of early C13 domestic architecture and as a fine early C17 country house. The original Manor house was built for King John in the 12th century and was used as a royal hunting lodge. It is constructed of ashlar, rubble and flint with ashlar dressings, the roofs are tiled and slated, with brick chimney stacks. The house is E-shaped in plan with three storeys, attics and basement, originally, the house probably had the hall on the first floor, and other rooms over a vaulted undercroft. The windows are seventeenth century and are mullioned, in the southwestern corner there is a tower. The interior of the house has seventeenth century panelling and fireplaces in many rooms, the vaulted undercroft dates from the same period and has screens with Doric pilasters, and a gallery with arcaded panelling above. There are some remnants of the thirteenth century chapel at the east end of the house, the estate consists of a 3,000 acre in hand farm and over 1,700 acres of woods, as well as the park and gardens. The farm is mostly arable but there is pastureland, mostly riverside meadows. The Manor is surrounded by formal and informal gardens, lawns, a kitchen garden, walled gardens. It contains a water mobile named La Source created by Angela Conner, the garden is open to the public on a regular basis, but the house is not open to the public. The garden featured some of the Horticultural designs of Mollie Wyndham-Quinn, media related to Cranborne Manor at Wikimedia Commons Official site Entry at britishlistedbuildings. co. uk
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Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
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St John's College, Cambridge
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St Johns College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, in constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The aims of the college, as specified by its Statutes, are the promotion of education, religion, learning, the colleges alumni include the winners of ten Nobel Prizes, seven prime ministers and twelve archbishops of various countries, at least two princes, and three Saints. HRH Prince William was affiliated with St Johns while undertaking a course in 2014. St Johns College is also known for its choir, its members success in a wide variety of inter-collegiate sporting competitions. In 2011 the college celebrated its quincentenary, an event marked by a visit of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The college was founded on the site of the 13th-century Hospital of St John in Cambridge at the suggestion of Saint John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and chaplain to Lady Margaret Beaufort. However, Lady Margaret died without having mentioned the foundation of St Johns in her will, and it was largely the work of Fisher that ensured that the college was founded. He had to obtain the approval of King Henry VIII of England, the Pope through the intermediary Polydore Vergil, the college received its charter on 9 April 1511. In November 1512 the Court of Chancery allowed Lady Margarets executors to pay for the foundation of the college from her estates, when Lady Margarets executors took over they found most of the old Hospital buildings beyond repair, but repaired and incorporated the Chapel into the new college. A kitchen and hall were added, and a gate tower was constructed for the College Treasury. The doors were to be closed each day at dusk, sealing the monastic community from the outside world. Over the course of the five hundred years, the college expanded westwards towards the River Cam, and now has eleven courts. The first three courts are arranged in enfilade, St Johns College first admitted women in October 1981, when K. M. Wheeler was admitted to the fellowship, along with nine female graduate students. The first women undergraduates arrived a year later, St Johns distinctive Great Gate follows the standard contemporary pattern employed previously at Christs College and Queens College. The gatehouse is crenelated and adorned with the arms of the foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort, above these are displayed her ensigns, the Red Rose of Lancaster and Portcullis. The college arms are flanked by curious creatures known as yales, mythical beasts with elephants tails, antelopes bodies, goats heads, and swivelling horns. Above them is a tabernacle containing a figure of St John the Evangelist
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Union of the Crowns
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The Union of Crowns followed the death of Elizabeth I of England — the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, who was Jamess unmarried and childless first cousin twice removed. The Union was a personal or dynastic union, with the Crown of Scotland remaining both distinct and separate—despite Jamess best efforts to create a new throne of Great Britain. However, England and Scotland would continue to be states, sharing a monarch with Ireland, until the Acts of Union of 1707 during the reign of the last Stuart monarch. The marriage was the outcome of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, concluded the previous year, the marriage merged the Stuarts with Englands Tudor line of succession, despite the improbability of a Scottish prince acceding the English throne at the time. However, many on the English side were concerned by the implications of matrimony. The peace did not last in perpetuity, it was disturbed in 1513 when Henry VIII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, in response France invoked the terms of the Auld Alliance, her ancient bond with Scotland. James duly invaded Northern England leading to the Battle of Flodden, in the decades that followed, Englands relations with Scotland were turbulent. The line of Margaret Tudor was excluded from the English succession, though, in the last decade of her reign it was clear to all that James VI of Scotland, great-grandson of James IV and Margaret Tudor, was the only generally acceptable heir. Cecil advised James not to press the matter of the succession upon the queen but simply to treat her with kindness, in March 1603, with the queen clearly dying, Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne. Strategic fortresses were put on alert, and London placed under guard, Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March. Within eight hours, James was proclaimed king in London, the news received without protest or disturbance. On 5 April 1603, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return three years, and progressed slowly from town to town, in order to arrive in the capital after Elizabeths funeral. Local lords received James with lavish hospitality along the route, and Jamess new subjects flocked to see him, as James entered London, he was mobbed. The crowds of people, one reported, were so great that they covered the beauty of the fields. Nevertheless, all London turned out for the occasion, The streets seemed paved with men, stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children, open casements filled up with women. Whatever residual fears many in England may have felt at the prospect of being ruled by a Scot, the greatest and most obvious of these was the question of his exact status and title. James intended to be King of Great Britain and Ireland and his first obstacle along this imperial road was the attitude of the English Parliament. In his first speech to his southern assembly on 19 March 1604 James gave a statement of the royal manifesto
26.
Tudor period
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The Tudor period is the period between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period which ends with the completion of the reign of Elizabeth I in 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII. In terms of the century, Guy argues that England was economically healthier, more expansive. Following the Black Death and the depression of the late 15th century. The export of woollen products resulted in an upturn with products exported to mainland Europe. Henry VII negotiated the favourable Intercursus Magnus treaty in 1496, the high wages and abundance of available land seen in the late 15th century and early 16th century were replaced with low wages and a land shortage. Various inflationary pressures, perhaps due to an influx of New World gold and this was a period of significant change for the majority of the rural population, with manorial lords beginning the process of enclosure. Historian Geoffrey Elton revolutionized the study of Tudor government with his 1953 book The Tudor Revolution in Government and he argued that Thomas Cromwell, who was Henry VIIIs chief minister from 1532 to 1540, was the author of modern, bureaucratic government, which replaced medieval, government-as-household-management. Cromwell introduced reforms into the administration that delineated the Kings household from the state and he injected Tudor power into the darker corners of the realm and radically altered the role of Parliament. This transition happened in the 1530s, Elton argued, and must be regarded as part of a planned revolution, by masterminding these reforms, wrote Elton, Cromwell laid the foundations of Englands future stability and success. However, Eltons thesis has been challenged by recent historians. The Tudor Government raised an amount of revenue from the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The clerical income from First Fruits and Tenths, which went to the Pope. The Tudor Government gained further revenue from the lands by receiving rents from confiscated lands. Altogether, between 1536 and Henrys death, the Government collected £1.3 million, this influx of money caused Cromwell to change the Crowns financial system to manage the money. He created a new department of state and a new official to collect the proceeds of the dissolution, the Court of Augmentations and number of departments meant a growing number of officials, which made the management of revenue troublesome and expensive. Partly because of the new revenue raised from the dissolution of monasteries and these were the six courts or departments of state, each fully organised with its own specialised officials, equipped with seals and habitat, and responsible for a particular kind of revenue. The growing number of departments meant that the number of officials involved increased, there were further financial and administrative difficulties in 1540–58, aggravated by war, debasement, corruption and inefficiency, which were mainly caused by Somerset
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Stuart period
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The Stuart period of British history usually refers to the period between 1603 and 1714 and sometimes from 1731 in Scotland. This coincides with the rule of the House of Stuart, whose first monarch of Scotland was Robert II, the period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I from the House of Hanover. The Stuart period was plagued by internal and religious strife, the English Civil War took place during the reign of Charles I, the second Stuart monarch. The war ended in victory for the Parliamentarians, after this conflict, the line of Stuart monarchs was temporarily displaced by the Commonwealth of England. Their rule lasted from 1649 to 1660, oliver Cromwell ruled directly from 1653 to 1658. After Cromwells death the Commonwealth fell apart, the Convention Parliament welcomed Charles II, son of Charles I, to return from war and become king. This event was known as the English Restoration, Stuart England was consumed with internal affairs. During 1600-1650 the king made repeated efforts to colonize Guiana in South America and they all failed and the lands were ceded to the Dutch in 1667. James Is foreign policy placed much higher priority on European affairs, the Anglo-Dutch Wars were a series of three wars which took place between the English and the Dutch from 1652 to 1674. The causes included political disputes and increasing competition from merchant shipping, religion was not a factor, since both sides were Protestant. The British in the first war had the advantage with larger numbers of more powerful ships of the line which were well suited to the naval tactics of the era. The British also captured numerous Dutch merchant ships, in the second war Dutch naval victories followed. This second war cost London ten times more than it had planned on, and it ended the fights over mercantilism Meanwhile, the French were building up fleets that threatened both the Netherlands and Great Britain. In third war, The British counted on a new alliance with France, the Dutch gained domination of sea trading routes until 1713. The British gained the colony of New Netherland, and renamed it New York. Historians have long regarded the overthrow of King James II in 1688 as a break in English history. Pincus argues that this revolution was the first modern revolution, it was violent, popular and he rejects older theories to the effect that it was an aristocratic coup or a Dutch invasion. Instead, Pincus argues it was a supported and decisive rejection of James II
28.
Gunpowder Plot
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Catesby may have embarked on the scheme after hopes of securing greater religious tolerance under King James had faded, leaving many English Catholics disappointed. Fawkes, who had 10 years of experience fighting in the Spanish Netherlands in suppression of the Dutch Revolt, was given charge of the explosives. The plot was revealed to the authorities in a letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle. During a search of the House of Lords at about midnight on 4 November 1605, most of the conspirators fled from London as they learned of the plots discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Several made a stand against the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men at Holbeche House, in the battle, Catesby was one of those shot. At their trial on 27 January 1606, eight of the survivors, including Fawkes, were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, details of the assassination attempt were allegedly known by the principal Jesuit of England, Father Henry Garnet. Although he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, doubt has been cast on how much he knew of the plot. As its existence was revealed to him through confession, Garnet was prevented from informing the authorities by the absolute confidentiality of the confessional, although anti-Catholic legislation was introduced soon after the plots discovery, many important and loyal Catholics retained high office during King James Is reign. Between 1533 and 1540, the Tudor King Henry VIII took control of the English Church from Rome, English Catholics struggled in a society dominated by the newly separate and increasingly Protestant Church of England. The penalties for refusal were severe, fines were imposed for recusancy, Catholicism became marginalised, but despite the threat of torture or execution, priests continued to practise their faith in secret. Queen Elizabeth, unmarried and childless, steadfastly refused to name an heir, many Catholics believed that her Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, was the legitimate heir to the English throne, but she was executed for treason in 1587. In the months before Elizabeths death on 24 March 1603, Cecil prepared the way for James to succeed her, some exiled Catholics favoured Philip II of Spains daughter, Infanta Isabella, as Elizabeths successor. More moderate Catholics looked to Jamess and Elizabeths cousin Arbella Stuart, despite competing claims to the English throne, the transition of power following Elizabeths death went smoothly. Jamess succession was announced by a proclamation from Cecil on 24 March, leading papists, rather than causing trouble as anticipated, reacted to the news by offering their enthusiastic support for the new monarch. Jesuit priests, whose presence in England was punishable by death, also demonstrated their support for James, for decades, the English had lived under a monarch who refused to provide an heir, but James arrived with a family and a future line of succession. His wife, Anne of Denmark, was the daughter of a king, Jamess attitude towards Catholics was more moderate than that of his predecessor, perhaps even tolerant. During the late 16th century, Catholics made several assassination attempts against Protestant rulers in Europe and in England, including plans to poison Elizabeth I. Much of the rather nervous James Is political writing was concerned with the threat of Catholic assassination and refutation of the argument that faith did not need to be kept with heretics
29.
Gidea Hall
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Gidea Hall was a manor house in Gidea Park, the historic parish and Royal liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, whose former area today is part of the north-eastern extremity of Greater London. The first record of Gidea Hall is in 1250, and by 1410 it was in the hands on one Robert Chichele. In 1452 Sir Thomas Cooke, a Lord Mayor of London, bought the estate and in 1466 was granted a licence to crenellate, the manor work started in 1466 with the construction of a moat and other alterations which were not finished until 1568. The main house and two adjacent wings formed three sides of a courtyard with a colonnade on the fourth side and various outbuildings. Maria de Medici, the mother-in-law of King Charles I stayed at Gidea Hall in 1638 on her way from Harwich to London, although by then the hall was falling into decay. By the time of the Commonwealth the buildings were ruinous, but were not finally demolished until 1720 when Sir John Eyles had a new mansion built on the site. An investigation into the spring in 1910 recorded that it had drained, filled up. The later Gidea Hall was of brick, the house was demolished in 1930. The wall, railings and gate from the early 18th century remain and are now Grade II listed structures, media related to Gidea Hall at Wikimedia Commons 1786 map showing Gidea Hall 1881 map of Essex showing Gidea Hall
30.
Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter
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Sir Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, KG, known as Lord Burghley from 1598 to 1605, was an English politician and soldier. Thomas Cecil was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, by his first wife. He was the half-brother of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, Anne Cecil and it has been said that William Cecil considered Thomas to be, hardly fit to govern a tennis court. This quotation is both unproven and unfair, Cecil was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He served in government under Elizabeth I of England, first serving in the House of Commons in 1563 and he was knighted in 1575 and appointed High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1578. He accompanied the Earl of Leicester to the Dutch Republic, where he was distinguished for his bravery, in 1585 he served as governor of Brielle - an English Cautionary Town. He did not have relations with Leicester, but he was very loyal to Sir John Norreys. In 1584 and 1586 he was Member of Parliament for Lincolnshire and it was during this period that Queen Elizabeth made him a Knight of the Garter in 1601. He was created Earl of Exeter on 4 May 1605, the day his half-brother Robert Cecil. Unlike his brother, however, he did not become a government minister under James I, the Cecil family fostered arts, they supported musicians such as William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Robinson. The latter, in his youth, was in the service of Thomas Cecil, by his first wife, Thomas Cecil had eleven children, William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter. Lucy Cecil, who married William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester, Mary Cecil, who married Edward Denny, 1st Earl of Norwich. Dorothy Cecil, who married Sir Giles Alington, Elizabeth Cecil, who married firstly Sir William Newport alias Hatton, and secondly, Sir Edward Coke. Frances Cecil, who married Nicholas Tufton, 1st Earl of Thanet, Lord Exeter is buried in the chapel of St John the Baptist, Westminster Abbey. Wimbledon Palace - The house Sir Thomas Cecil built Foster, Joseph, the Royal Lineage of Our Noble and Gentle Families
31.
Francis Bacon
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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England, after his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism and his works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth, but after the accession of King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was later created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621, because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years of age. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his wife, Anne Bacon. His mothers sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health, which would plague him throughout his life. He received tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a leaning toward Puritanism. Bacons education was conducted largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum and he was also educated at the University of Poitiers. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious intellect and his studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as then practised were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, on 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Grays Inn. A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain, during his travels, Bacon studied language, statecraft, and civil law while performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, Burghley, the sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so. Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt, Bacon stated that he had three goals, to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church
32.
Sorbonne
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The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which was the historical house of the former University of Paris. The name is derived from the Collège de Sorbonne, initiated during 1257 by the eponymous Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris. The university predates the college by about a century, and minor colleges had been founded already during the late 12th century, during the 16th century, the Sorbonne became involved with the intellectual struggle between Catholics and Protestants. The Collège de Sorbonne was suppressed during the French Revolution, reopened by Napoleon during 1808 and this was only one of the many colleges of the University of Paris that existed until the French revolution. After months of conflicts between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration closed that university on May 2,1968. Students at the Sorbonne campus in Paris met on May 3 to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. More than 20,000 students, teachers and other endorsers marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to make out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again, may 10 marked the Night of Barricades, where students used cars, wood, and cobblestones to barricade the streets of the Latin Quarter. Brutal street fighting ensued between students and riot police, most notably on Rue Gay-Lussac, early the next morning, as the fighting disbanded, Daniel Cohn-Bendit sent out a radio broadcast calling for a general strike. On Monday,13 May, more than one million workers went on strike, negotiations ended, and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover police still occupying the schools. When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous Peoples University, during 1970, the University of Paris was divided into thirteen universities, managed by a common rectorate, the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris, with offices in the Sorbonne. The building also houses the École Nationale des Chartes, the École pratique des hautes études, the Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne, nowadays, the use of the name refers more often to Panthéon-Sorbonne University for French public especially students in France. But, all Parisian universities like to refer as their ancestor, some alliances of universities use that name, like Sorbonne University. Listing of the works of Alexandre Falguière List of works by Henri Chapu La Sorbonne
33.
William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham
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See Baron Cobham for other simultaneous creations of the title. Sir William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham, KG was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, although he was viewed by some as a religious radical during the Somerset protectorate, he entertained Elizabeth at Cobham Hall in 1559, signalling his acceptance of the moderate regime. William Brooke was the son of George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham, Brookes father died in 1558 when he was just over thirty. Brooke married Dorothy Neville, daughter of George Neville, 5th Baron Bergavenny in 1545, but the marriage was unhappy, Brooke seems to have attended The Kings School, Canterbury and Queens College, Cambridge before 1544. He spent much of his life in Europe. In the early 1540s he visited Padua, at the end of the decade he served in northern France, where his father was in charge of Calais and in 1549 accompanied Pagets embassy to Brussels. In 1555 he served as MP for Rochester, in the late 1550s, Brookes opportunities expanded in a number of areas. His father died, making him Baron Cobham, his first wife died and he became Warden of the Cinque Ports, a position in which he wielded great power over a large number of seats in Parliament. Most important, the accession of Elizabeth, and his friendship with William Cecil made him a powerful noble. Elizabeth deputed him to inform Philip II of Marys death and this embassy was only the first in a long series of missions and intrigues. Along with Cecil, he numbered among his friends some nobles, such as Thomas Howard and he suffered some months house imprisonment as a result of a very tangential role in the Ridolfi plot. In 1578, he joined Francis Walsinghams failed mission to the Low Countries, in the late 1580s, he helped John Whitgift search for the author of the Martin Marprelate tracts. Brooke was made a Knight of the Garter on 14 April 1585 and he was involved in a minor capacity in the events that ended with the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. During the Armada crisis, he was on a mission to Alexander Farnese. By the early 1590s he had assumed an active role in government. His daughter married Robert Cecil in 1589 and his second wife died in 1592. He succeeded Baron Hunsdon, as Lord Chamberlain in August 1596 and he married secondly Frances Newton, by whom he had four sons and three daughters, Maximilian Brooke, eldest son and heir, who died without issue. Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, who married Frances Howard, widow of Henry, Earl of Kildare, after his death his widow married secondly Francis Reade
34.
Frances Newton, Baroness Cobham
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Frances Newton, Baroness Cobham was an English aristocratic woman who served Queen Elizabeth I of England as a Lady of the Bedchamber, and was one of her closest female friends. She was the wife of William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham. Her mother was Margaret Poyntz, a daughter of Sir Anthony Poyntz, Sir John Newtons surname was originally Cradock and he was of Welsh origin. Later in Elizabeths reign, Francess sister, Katherine also entered the Queens service, upon her marriage, Frances Newton was styled Baroness Cobham as her husband had succeeded to the title of Baron Cobham two years previously. They made their home at the Brooke family seat, Cobham Hall in Kent, where Queen Elizabeth paid them a visit on 17 July 1560 during her summer progress, and many years later on 4 September 1573. Frances was one of the Queens closest female friends, and Frances preferred to remain at court, however, together William Brooke and Frances had seven children, Maximilian Brooke, eldest son and heir, who died without issue. Elizabeth Brooke, who married on 31 August 1589 Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, Frances Brooke, who married firstly, circa 1580, John Stourton, 9th Baron Stourton, and secondly Sir Edward More of Odiham, Hampshire. Margaret Brooke, who in 1584 married, as his wife, Sir Thomas Sondes of Throwley, Kent, by whom she had a daughter, Frances Sondes. Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, married Lady Frances Howard and he was implicated in the Main Plot against King James I. He was executed for treason against King James I. After his death his widow married Francis Reade, Lady Cobham died on 17 October 1592 at Cobham Hall, Cobham, Kent, and was buried in the Cobham Parish Church. In 1567, Lady Cobham was painted with her husband, children, the Complete Peerage, edited by Vicary Gibbs. The Complete Peerage, edited by Vicary Gibbs, a Memory of Honour, The Life of William Brooke, Lord Cobham. Everingham, Kimball G. ed. Magna Carta Ancestry, A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, new Discoveries Concerning the Portrait of the Family of William Brooke, 10th Lord Cobham, at Longleat House. Dutch Crossings, Journal of Low Country Studies
35.
St Clement Danes
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St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th century by the Danes, the current building was completed in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren. Wrens building was gutted during the Blitz and not restored until 1958, the church is sometimes claimed to be the one featured in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons and the bells do indeed play that tune. However, St Clement Eastcheap, in the City of London, St Clement Danes is known as one of the two Island Churches, the other being St Mary-le-Strand. There are several theories as to the connection between the Danes and the origins of the church. A popular theory is that in the 9th century the Danes colonized the village of Aldwych on the river between the City of London and the site of Westminster. This was at a time half of England was Danish. At Aldwych the Danes founded a church, hence the part of its name. Alternatively, after Alfred the Great had driven the Danes out of the City of London and they had been required to accept Christianity, in either case, being a seafaring people, the Danes named the church they built after St Clement, patron saint of mariners. Also possible is that the Danish connection was reinforced by a massacre recorded in the Jómsvíkinga saga when a group of unarmed Danes who had gathered for a service were killed. The 12th century historian William of Malmesbury wrote that the Danes burnt the church on the site of St Clement Danes before they were slain in the vicinity. The church was first rebuilt by William the Conqueror, and then again in the Middle Ages. A new chancel was built part of the churchyard in 1608, at a cost of more than £1,000. Shortly after the Great Fire, further repairs to the steeple were attempted, but these were found impractical, soon afterwards it was decided that the rest of the church was in such a poor state that it too should be completely rebuilt. St Clements was rebuilt between 1680 and 1682 to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, incorporating the tower which was reclad. The new church was constructed from Portland Stone, with an apse at the east end, a steeple was added to the tower in 1719 by James Gibbs. The interior has galleries on three sides supported by pillars, continued above gallery level as Corinthian columns, supporting, in turn. Wren used the scheme again at St Jamess Church, Piccadilly
36.
Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland
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Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1614 and 1622. He was created a Baron in 1628 and succeeded to the title Earl of Cumberland in 1641, Clifford was the son of Francis Clifford, 4th Earl of Cumberland and Grisold Hughes and a member of the Clifford family which held the seat of Skipton from 1310 to 1676. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1607 he became joint Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland. He was elected Member of Parliament for Westmorland in 1614, and was re-elected in 1621, in 1621 he became Custos Rotulorum of Westmorland. He was created Baron Clifford in 1628, Clifford was a supporter of Charles I during the so-called Bishops Wars in Scotland, and also during the Civil War until his death. He succeeded to the title of Earl of Cumberland in 1641, Clifford married Frances Cecil, daughter of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Elizabeth Brooke. They had one child, Elizabeth Clifford, 2nd Baroness Clifford who married Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington
37.
Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)
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Westminster was a parliamentary constituency in the Parliament of England to 1707, the Parliament of Great Britain 1707–1800 and the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801. It returned two members to 1885 and one thereafter, the constituency was first known to have been represented in Parliament in 1545 and continued to exist until the redistribution of seats in 1918. The constituencys most famous former representatives are Charles James Fox and John Stuart Mill, the City of Westminster is a district of Inner London. Its southern boundary is on the bank of the River Thames. It is located to the west of the City of London, to the south of Holborn and St. Pancras and to the east of Kensington, before 1545 the area which became this borough constituency was represented as part of the county constituency of Middlesex. Until 1885 the constituency had two representatives, in the 1885 redistribution of seats the Westminster area was divided into three single-member seats. The official definition of the areas included was the Westminster district, in the north-east was the constituency of Strand and to the west that of St Georges, Hanover Square. In the 1918 redistribution the Metropolitan Borough was divided into two single member constituencies, Westminster St Georges in the west and Westminster Abbey in the east, the Abbey division incorporated the area of the 1885–1918 Westminster constituency. This was a constituency, because it represented the centre of British government and had such a large electorate that it was independent of the control of a patron. Before the Reform Act 1832 the right to vote was held by the male inhabitants paying Scot and Lot and this was an extensive franchise, by the standards of that era. Westminster had the largest electorate of any borough in the Kingdom, only the largest county constituency of Yorkshire had more voters. Sedgwick estimated the electorate at about 8,000 in the first half of the eighteenth century, namier and Brooke estimated that there were about 12,000 voters later in the century. The large size of the electorate made contested elections immensely expensive, in the sixteenth century the Church officials associated with Westminster Abbey had a large influence in the area, but as the community became bigger that became less important. The Court had some influence, because of the royal residences. The use of funds to bribe the electorate was not unknown. Local landowners who were prepared to stir up ill-will by threatening to evict or raise the rents of tenants voting the wrong way, unlawful means were sometimes used to make sure that the right candidates were elected. In 1722 the election of two Tories was declared void because of rioting which prevented some Whigs voting, in 1741 a Whig returning officer called upon the assistance of some troops to close the poll before the Tory candidates could catch up to the Whig votes. The Treasury spent the enormous sums of more than £8,000 in 1780 and £9,000 in 1784, in unsuccessful attempts to defeat the opposition Whig leader Charles James Fox
38.
Francis Walsingham
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Sir Francis Walsingham was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her spymaster. Born to a family of gentry, Walsingham attended Cambridge University. Walsingham rose from obscurity to become one of the small coterie who directed the Elizabethan state, overseeing foreign, domestic. He served as English ambassador to France in the early 1570s, as principal secretary, he supported exploration, colonization, the use of Englands maritime strength and the plantation of Ireland. He worked to bring Scotland and England together, overall, his foreign policy demonstrated a new understanding of the role of England as a maritime, Protestant power in an increasingly global economy. Francis Walsingham was born in or about 1532, probably at Foots Cray, near Chislehurst and his parents were William and Joyce Walsingham. After Williams death, Joyce married the courtier Sir John Carey in 1538, careys brother William was the husband of Mary Boleyn, Anne Boleyns elder sister. Of Francis Walsinghams five sisters, Mary married Sir Walter Mildmay, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer for over 20 years, and Elizabeth married the parliamentarian Peter Wentworth. Francis Walsingham matriculated at Kings College, Cambridge, in 1548 with many other Protestants, from 1550 or 1551, he travelled in continental Europe, returning to England by 1552 to enrol at Grays Inn, one of the qualifying bodies for English lawyers. Upon the death in 1553 of Henry VIIIs successor, Edward VI, many wealthy Protestants, such as John Foxe and John Cheke, fled England, and Walsingham was among them. He continued his studies in law at the universities of Basel and Padua, Mary I died in 1558 and was succeeded by her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth I. At the subsequent election in 1563, he was returned for both Lyme Regis, Dorset, another constituency under Bedfords influence, and Banbury, Oxfordshire and he chose to sit for Lyme Regis. In January 1562 he married Anne, daughter of Sir George Barne, Lord Mayor of London in 1552–3, Anne died two years later leaving her son Christopher Carleill in Walsinghams care. In 1566, Walsingham married Ursula St. Barbe, widow of Sir Richard Worsley, the following year, she bore him a daughter, Frances. Walsinghams other two stepsons, Ursulas sons John and George, were killed in an accident at Appuldurcombe in 1567. By 1569, Walsingham was working with William Cecil to counteract plots against Elizabeth and he was instrumental in the collapse of the Ridolfi plot, which hoped to replace Elizabeth with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1570, the Queen chose Walsingham to support the Huguenots in their negotiations with Charles IX of France, later that year, he succeeded Sir Henry Norris as English ambassador in Paris. One of his duties was to continue negotiations for a marriage between Elizabeth and Charles IXs younger brother Henry, Duke of Anjou, the marriage plan was eventually dropped on the grounds of Henrys Catholicism
39.
Chief Ministers of England
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Among them are regicides, revolutionaries and loyal subjects who among other things, created Parliament, and a few became monarchs themselves. The Chief Ministership, being an office, had many titles, sometimes none at all. It was a dangerous position, and prior to 1700. 940–957, Æthelstan Half-King, so called because he had almost as much power as the king himself, 1550–1553, John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, 1st Duke of Northumberland, executed by Mary I. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–9 furthered this process and by the time of Queen Anne, from 1693 onwards, the government was increasingly dominated by the Whig Junto. The Kingdoms of England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. In the immediate aftermath of the death of Queen Anne in 1714, as a stopgap, Parliament elected Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield Regent, or acting king until the new monarch arrived to take his crown. Later, George, Prince of Wales reigned as regent for six months from July 1716 to January 1717 when the King went to Hanover. In the early part of the reign of George I of Great Britain, who could not speak English, from 1717 to 1721 Lords Stanhope and Sunderland led the administration jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland managing home affairs. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned in April 1721, Townshend, thus the First Lord of the Treasury came to be the most powerful minister and the prototype of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and its dominions. Colliers Encyclopedia, Volume 9 Electron Gun to Fischer, p. 184-5, colliers Encyclopedia, Volume 11 Germanium to Heath Hen, p. 372-3
40.
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
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Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup détat against the government and was executed for treason, Essex was born on 10 November 1565 at Netherwood near Bromyard, in Herefordshire, the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys. His maternal great-grandmother Mary Boleyn was a sister of Anne Boleyn and he was brought up on his fathers estates at Chartley Castle, Staffordshire, and at Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, in Wales. His father died in 1576, and the new Earl of Essex became a ward of Lord Burghley, in 1577, he was admitted as a fellow-commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1579, he matriculated, and in 1581 he graduated as Master of Arts. On 21 September 1578, Essexs mother married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth Is long-standing favourite, Essex performed military service under his stepfather in the Netherlands, before making an impact at court and winning the Queens favour. In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and widow of Sir Philip Sidney, by whom he was to have several children, Sidney, Leicesters nephew, died in 1586 at the Battle of Zutphen in which Essex also distinguished himself. In October 1591, Devereuxs mistress, Elizabeth Southwell, gave birth to a son who survived into adulthood. Essex first came to court in 1584, and by 1587 had become a favourite of the Queen, in June 1587 he replaced the Earl of Leicester as Master of the Horse. After Leicesters death in 1588, the Queen transferred the late Earls royal monopoly on sweet wines to Essex, in 1593, he was made a member of her Privy Council. Essex underestimated the Queen, however, and his behaviour towards her lacked due respect and showed disdain for the influence of her principal secretary. On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, in 1591, he was given command of a force sent to the assistance of King Henry IV of France. In 1596, he distinguished himself by the capture of Cadiz, so when the 3rd Spanish Armada first appeared off the English coast in October 1597, the English fleet was far out to sea, with the coast almost undefended, and panic ensued. This further damaged the relationship between the Queen and Essex, even though he was given full command of the English fleet when he reached England a few days later. Fortunately a storm dispersed the Spanish fleet, and though there were a few landings, Essexs greatest failure was as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a post which he talked himself into in 1599. The Nine Years War was in its stages, and no English commander had been successful. More military force was required to defeat the Irish chieftains, led by Hugh ONeill, Essex led the largest expeditionary force ever sent to Ireland—16,000 troops—with orders to put an end to the rebellion. Essex had declared to the Privy Council that he would confront ONeill in Ulster, rather than face ONeill in battle, Essex entered a truce that some considered humiliating to the Crown and to the detriment of English authority
41.
Essex in Ireland
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Essex in Ireland refers to the military campaign pursued in Ireland in 1599 by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, during the Nine Years War. In the following year Essex found himself with no choice but to offer his services, the ensuing campaign failed, and Essex returned in disgrace to England, where he made a treasonable challenge to Crown authority. He was convicted and put to death in 1601, in the 1590s Essex was especially popular in London, where he was considered a pillar of Protestantism. At the height of the Anglo-Spanish war he pushed an offensive strategy, supporting the Dutch rebels, the Queens principal secretary, Lord Burghley, strongly opposed this strategy, preferring peace and a steady hand in Ireland. In April 1598 he confronted Essex in the Council chamber for the last time. In the summer, during the Council debate over the appointment of the military commander for Ireland, Essex turned his back on the Queen. He laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, but was back by the Lord Admiral. Before leaving the chamber Essex said, he neither could nor would put up so great an affront and indignity, tradition has it that he also called the Queen, as crooked in her disposition as in her carcass. The faction fight resumed, and Essex and the younger Cecil each tried to diminish the influence by proposing the Irish appointment of members of the opposing faction. Once the list of candidates was exhausted the Cecil faction named Essex as the remaining option. On December 30 the Queen formally opted for him, not merely as her deputy in Ireland but as Lord Lieutenant, on Twelfth Night Essex danced with the Queen at a party for the Danish ambassador. She had misgivings over the details of the campaign, but preparations were settled by the first week of March 1599, the army was fixed at 16,000 troops, with 1,300 horse. Among the troops were 2,000 veterans from the Netherlands campaign, led by Henry Dowcra, Essex also had command of a squadron of five warships with an assortment of fly-boats, which was intended for a landing at Lough Foyle in the north. An emergency rendez-vous for the squadron was appointed at Berehaven in the province of Munster. Ultimately the ships were confined to southern waters and played no part in the northern campaign, the army was the largest ever sent to Ireland, and was fully equipped with munitions, clothing, artillery, victuals and ships. The expected cost of the campaign was put at £290,000 per annum, Essex departed London on 27 March 1599. Prayers were offered in the churches for his success, and he was cheered on in the sunshine for four miles through a line of citizens, until it began to rain. With him were the noblemen Blount and Southampton, both of whom had had their original commissions cancelled by the queen and were now attending on Essex in a private capacity
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