York

Founded by the Romans in the 1st century A.D, the city of York has a rich heritage covering every period of history ever since then.

 

In the early Middle Ages, it was the capital of the kingdom of Northumbria, and in the 9th century, it was captured by the Vikings.

 

York Minster, the city’s most well-known edifice, was founded in the 7th century, but the current building dates from the 11th century. It is a beautiful church, and has been completely restored after the disastrous fire in the 1980s. The Rose Window, with its red and white roses, was added at the end of the 15th century  to commemorate the union of the houses of York and Lancaster when Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York. After the fire, the 7,000 pieces of stained glass had cracked into about 40,000 pieces. Craftsmen took about four years to restore the window to its former glory.

 

It was also interesting to see the memorial window to Richard III, installed by the RIII Society in 1997.

 

The chapel of the medieval Archbishop’s Palace still exists, and it was here that Richard created his son Edward as Prince of Wales in 1483.

 

Substantial remains of the city walls still exist, as do the gates into the city, knows as ‘Bars’. The four main ones were Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Micklegate Bar and Walmgate Bar. After the battle of Wakefield in 1460, the heads of Richard of York and his son Edmund were displayed on spikes on Micklegate Bar, adorned with paper crowns.

 

In 1472 Edward IV set up the Council of the North, and appointed his brother Richard as its first President. Thus Richard virtually ruled the north on behalf of Edward, and he was highly regarded by the people there, and especially by the City of York. The city archives contain this record, dated 23 August 1485 (the day after the Battle of Bosworth): King Richard, late mercifully reigning upon us … was piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city.

 

It seems Richard intended to be buried at York Minster and planned to build a large chantry chapel there for priests to pray for his soul. Definitely a moot point now that his body has been found in Leicester, and plans are underway for him to be buried at Leicester Cathedral. 

Just for Fun

A slight diversion today, mainly because we didn’t visit anywhere starting with ‘J’ on our 15th century tour. Instead, I’ll show a few of the funny moments during our visits.

On our way back from York, we crossed the Towton Battlefield and stopped at Dacre’s Cross in the middle of the battlefield as we saw white roses on the cross. Although it was raining, I insisted on having a photo taken pointing to the ‘lone hawthorn tree’ (on the horizon) which marks the position of the right flank of the Yorkist forces. My friend was interrupted twice from taking the photo because of passing cars – and, as there were puddles in the road, each time I got sprayed with water. You can’t actually tell from this photo but, believe me, I was soaking wet! I wonder, too, what the occupants of the passing cars thought of this strange woman standing in the rain, pointing to an empty field!

This photo was taken on our second visit to the Bosworth battlefield, and in particular to the site where Richard III was killed. It was in the evening, and slightly misty, and it seemed oddly significant that in the next field to the memorial stone were two horses – definitely a reminder of ‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse’!!

On a visit to the church at Ashby St Leger, (home of William Catesby, one of Richard’s most trusted councillors and Chancellor of the Exchequer), we discovered that a carpet covered the memorial brass to Catesby. My friend was in the midst of rolling back this carpet when the churchwarden came in and demanded to know what we were doing! When we explained, he very kindly gave us a guided tour of the whole church – and held back the carpet so we could take photos of the brass.

One of our visits to York coincided with the River Ouse being in flood – and here was the sign outside the King’s Arms pub (with a pub sign showing Richard III) which stands on the banks of the river. The flood was actually much lower than it had been earlier in the year, when the water was almost to the top of the ground floor windows of the pub (try to imagine that in the photo below).

Finally, here is Richard III at Middleham Castle! In July 2000 a Medieval Festival was held at Middleham, with a group of re-enactors, portraying Richard, Anne Neville, Elizabeth of York, Thomas Stanley, Margaret Beaufort, and Buckingham. It was slightly surreal seeing ‘Richard’ striding  around the castle grounds in between their performances, and even more so, later in the afternoon, to sit chatting to Richard and Stanley (still in costume) outside a café in Middleham!