Nonsuch Palace, London

 

Nonsuch Palace was a magnificent edifice built in 1538 by King Henry VIII as a hunting palace and guest house for foreign visitors. However, there is nothing to see today at the site in south-west London apart from a large area of public open space (Nonsuch Park) and a more recent building. Indeed, the Palace had completely disappeared by the end of the 17^th century.

It was situated on the site of the village and church of Cuddington, which was cleared to make room for it. Merton Priory had been the patron of the church; the priory having been dissolved by King Henry, its stones were used as foundations for the Palace.

The name ‘Nonesuch’, as given in early records, indicates the desire by Henry to have a building without compare and it was, in fact, a Tudor extravaganza. It consisted of two-storey buildings ranged round two interconnecting open courtyards. Although only 150 yards long, it was lavishly decorated in the Renaissance style.

The workmen were mostly Italian and included Nicolas Belin of Modena, who had worked at Fontainebleau. His chief work at Nonsuch was a series of stucco reliefs, framed in elaborately carved slate, which went all round the walls of the inner court and along the south front. The south front had towers at each end topped by onion-shaped cupolas and ornamented with fanciful weather vanes. The gardens were formal and contained many statues.

Henry’s daughter Mary, who became Queen in 1553, was not greatly interested in Nonsuch Palace and exchanged it with Henry Fitzalan, 12^th Earl of Arundel, for estates in Suffolk. Queen Elizabeth I had a higher regard for the Palace and was happy to stay there many times.

By 1603 Nonsuch was back in Royal hands and King James I gave it to his Queen, Anne of Denmark. It was used as a royal hunting lodge both by James and his son King Charles I. King Charles II gave it to his mistress Barbara Villers, who in 1682 sold it to Lord Berkeley, and it was he who ordered its demolition and used some of its stone for his own house at Epsom.

The site was excavated in 1959-60 when the ground plan was revealed including the site of Cuddington church. Fragments of carved and gilded slate and stone were found, and much domestic refuse such as pottery, glass, pewter and bone. The site was filled in and is now under grass.

The main building that can be seen in the park today is the Mansion House, a 17^th-century farmhouse that was rebuilt in the Georgian Gothic style in 1804.

© John Welford

The Battle of Sluys, 1340

 

In 1337, King Edward III of England laid claim to the French throne, thus starting the lengthy series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. This was the first major contact between the two sides, a naval battle fought off the coast of Flanders.

In June 1340 at English fleet of 210 ships crossed the English Channel to meet a combined fleet of 190 French and Genoese ships that was drawn up in the inlet of Sluys in Flanders.

The French placed their fleet in a defensive position, lashing their anchored ships together with cables to create a floating platform on which to fight. The Genoese commander kept his galleys free behind the French lines. In response, the English placed single ships filled with knights and swordsmen between two ships packed with longbowmen. Naval battles at that time were fought aboard the ships’ decks.

Battle started at around noon on 24^th June and continued for most of the day and night.

Both sides used grappling hooks to hold an enemy ship fast while it was boarded, but it was the English who eventually got the better of the battle. This was because the English ships were free to attack the anchored French ships as and when required, and also because their longbows could produce more rapid and accurate fire than the crossbows of their opponents.

The result was a disaster for the French, with their commanders killed and 170 ships captured or sunk. Only the Genoese managed to inflict any damage on the English fleet, capturing two of their ships.

England’s victory ended the threat of a French naval invasion and brought England dominance of the channel.

© John Welford

The Battle of Solway Moss, 1542

Fought on 24th November 1542, this was a battle between an English and a Scottish army. Relations between England and Scotland had been mainly peaceful since King James V succeeded his father in 1513, but tensions had risen ever since a new alliance had been forged between France and Scotland and the English King Henry VIII had engineered a religious reformation.

On 24^th November 1542, a Scottish force of about 18,000 men crossed the border. King James did not lead the invasion in person but remained in Scotland. Shortly before the battle, which took place at Solway Moss in Cumbria, Sir Oliver Sinclair had been declared general. Most of the other senior officials in the Scottish army refused to listen to Sinclair, who had little chance of creating any cohesion because each noble and gentleman had their own retainers who would only obey their orders.

Sir Thomas Wharton led a smaller English force of 3,000 from Carlisle to intercept the Scots. When the English cavalry attacked, it pinned the Scots between the boggy Solway Moss and the River Esk. Chaos ensued and many of the Scots fled. Rumours that another English army was approaching added to the panic. Several hundred Scots drowned in their retreat, and as many as 1,200 surrendered.

The English took Sinclair prisoner, as well as several other influential Scottish aristocrats. Three weeks after hearing of the defeat of his army, King James V died, leaving his six-day-old daughter Mary as Queen. Fighting continued with the English until 1547.

© John Welford

The Puritan colonies of New England

 

The first English colony in what is now the United States of America was that of the Virginia Company, founded in 1607 during the reign of King James I. The first township was called Jamestown, after the king.

The next American colony was of a very different character; it was formed by religious exiles from England. A few Puritans, mostly from Lincolnshire, were disgusted with their treatment in England under King James I and left England to seek refuge in Holland. After ten years there, some of them decided to emigrate to North America. Other Puritans joined them, and the exiles, who became known as the Pilgrim Fathers, left Plymouth in the Mayflower in September 1620. They landed just north of Cape Cod and founded the first township which they called Plymouth.

Eight years later a larger body of Puritans in England formed a company which they called the Massachusetts Bay Company. The following year King Charles I granted them a charter and the whole body of shareholders crossed the Atlantic in 1630 to form the colony of Massachusetts. A steady flow of English immigrants during the next eleven years meant that the colony prospered. By 1644 the total population was more than 20,000.

Despite the fact that these Puritans had left their home to escape from religious intolerance, their own government was no less intolerant. John Winthrop, the first governor, was a man of considerable ability but had narrow views. Political rights in Massachusetts, no less than in England, depended on conformity with the narrow religious creed. This creed was determined by a small circle of strict Puritans who supported the governor. Anyone who differed from their rulers on minor points of religion could be subject to harsh punishment. Roger Williams, a clergyman who was driven from Massachusetts by this persecution, founded a new colony, that of Rhode Island, in 1636.

Other colonies followed, namely Connecticut and New Hampshire, the whole group becoming known as new England. These Puritan colonies were on the whole very prosperous, continuing to receive emigrants from England. Although the New Englanders tend to be less aristocratic than the Virginians, narrow religious opinion prevented the growth of a real democracy. The severance from England was more marked that of Virginia, because they regarded themselves as exiles rather than colonists.

© John Welford