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[Illustration: DECORATED FRONT PAGE
WARWICKSHIRE
BLACK’S
POPULAR
SERIES of
COLOUR
BOOKS]
[Illustration: WARWICK CASTLE FROM THE BRIDGE.]
[Illustration: DECORATED TITLE PAGE
WARWICKSHIRE
THE LAND OF
SHAKESPEARE
PAINTED BY
FRED WHITEHEAD
DESCRIBED BY
CLIVE HOLLAND
A&C BLACK LTD
4.5.6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1.]
_First Edition, with 75 Illustrations, published in 1906
Reprinted in 1912
Second Edition, revised, with 32 Illustrations, published in 1922_
_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
Preface to Revised Edition
To those who know Warwickshire well it will be unnecessary to either
sing its praises, as not only one of the most historic but also one of
the most fascinating of middle–England shires, or to urge its claims
for the consideration of those who love the fair, open country, winding
roads, and pleasant hills and vales. This county, of whose beauty poets
from almost time immemorial have sung, possesses an added interest
beyond the romantic elements afforded by its history, its magnificent
survivals of bygone ages in castles, manor–houses, churches, and other
domestic buildings, in that it is the land of Shakespeare. Around this
beautiful district of England still hangs some of the unfading glamour
which comes from the association with it of great deeds and great
names; from amongst the latter of which that of “the nation’s poet”
stands out with undimmed lustre as the centuries pass away.
The wealth of material which confronts both the writer and the artist
who seeks to depict with pen and brush some of the most salient
features of the county is so embarrassing that selection becomes a task
of extreme difficulty. What to leave out presents itself as a most
pressing problem, not easily solved; for, alas! space is not elastic;
and even when the question is in a measure disposed of, it is still
pregnant with regrets for the many beautiful things, historic places,
scenes, and incidents which have had to be omitted for lack of space.
To those who know the county only as one of England’s central shires,
perhaps the book may give sufficient pleasure to induce them to visit
the places described.
C. H.
EALING, W.5.
_June 1922._
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. WARWICKSHIRE AND ITS HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO
THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 1
II. WARWICKSHIRE AND ITS HISTORY FROM THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY TO
MODERN TIMES 24
III. FAYRE WARWICK TOWN: ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE 43
IV. THE STORY OF WARWICK CASTLE 70
V. COVENTRY: ITS HISTORY, ROMANCE, CHURCHES, AND ANCIENT
BUILDINGS 89
VI. KENILWORTH AND ITS PRIORY—THE STORY AND ROMANCE OF
KENILWORTH CASTLE 125
VII. LEAMINGTON 144
VIII. THE STORY OF BIRMINGHAM 154
IX. THE STORY OF SOME ANCIENT MANOR–HOUSES—BADDESLEY
CLINTON—PACKINGTON OLD HALL—MAXSTOKE CASTLE—ASTLEY CASTLE 174
X. THE STORY AND ROMANCE OF SOME SOUTH WARWICKSHIRE
MANOR–HOUSES 189
XI. SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND SHAKESPEARE’S TOWN 202
XII. A GROUP OF SHAKESPEARE’S VILLAGES 240
INDEX 256
List of Illustrations
1. Warwick Castle from the Bridge _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. Henley–in–Arden 4
3. Salford Priors 9
4. Coughton Court 16
5. Dunchurch 25
6. Southam 32
7. Warwick Castle 41
8. Leicester’s Hospital, Warwick 48
9. Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick 57
10. Guy’s Cliffe Mill 64
11. Peeping Tom, Coventry 73
12. Palace Yard, Coventry 80
13. Ufton 89
14. Kenilworth Castle 96
15. Stoneleigh Abbey 105
16. The Parade, Leamington 112
17. St. Martin’s Church, Birmingham 121
18. Baddesley Clinton Hall 128
19. Maxstoke Castle 137
20. Compton Wynyates 144
21. Burton Dassett Church 153
22. Little Wolford Manor–House 160
23. Long Compton 169
24. Ann Hathaway’s Cottage 176
25. Shakespeare’s Birthplace 185
26. Stratford–on–Avon. The Grammar School 192
27. Stratford–on–Avon 201
28. “Hungry” Grafton 208
29. Abbots Salford 217
30. Bidford Bridge 224
31. Charlecote 233
32. Rugby School 240
_Sketch Map facing p. 1_
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF WARWICKSHIRE.]
WARWICKSHIRE
CHAPTER I
WARWICKSHIRE AND ITS HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE CLOSE OF
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Warwickshire has rightly been termed “leafy Warwickshire,” for although
deficient in scenery cast in a large mould, which may be described
as grand or magnificent, it is undoubtedly one of the most lovely
of English counties. Though lacking the peaks and deep–set dales of
its near neighbour, Derbyshire, which it touches at its northern
limit, it is essentially a county of pleasant hills, uplands, and
fertile well–watered vales. Some of the richest meadow–land and most
picturesque woodland scenery in the Midlands lie within the confine of
Shakespeare’s shire.
Few English counties present greater attractions for the student
of the past, the archæologist, the rambler, and the tourist than
Warwickshire. Through it gently–flowing rivers, unagitated by
sudden drops from highland sources, pass on their placid ways by
rich pasture–land and fields of waving corn, or wind in tortuous
convolutions through wide–spread parks, and past historic castles and
mansions rich in traditions of the stirring times when the shire played
its part in the affairs of national history.
Warwickshire, although possessing few ranges of considerable hills, and
no very high eminences, the chief ranges being on its north, eastern
and south–eastern borders, has just that type of scenery which was so
delightfully described by Mrs. Browning in “Aurora Leigh”:—
The ground’s most gentle dimplement
(as if God’s finger touched, but did not press,
In making England!), such an up and down
Of verdure—nothing too much up or down;
A ripple of land; such little hills, the sky
Can stoop to tenderly and the wheat fields climb;
Such nooks and valleys, lined with orchises,
Fed full of noises by invisible streams;
And open pastures, where you scarcely tell
White daisies from white dew; at intervals
The mythic oaks and elm trees standing out
Self–poised upon their prodigy of shade—
I thought my father’s land was worthy too
Of being my Shakespeare’s.
Few better descriptions of the charms of this delightful county have
ever been written, although many poets have sung them. An Elizabethan
singer, Michael Drayton, said of his native shire, “We the heart of
England well may call.”
It was well, indeed, for English literature that such an one as the
Bard of Avon should have been born and have lived in this land of
pleasant pastures, leafy woodlands, and placid and beautiful streams,
and should have treasured early memories of vagrant days amid her
sylvan solitudes and river banks with which to gem his after work with
sweet imageries of rural beauties, of flowers, and the songs of birds.
Shakespeare loved his native town, and he put into almost all of
his plays some glimpses or description of the natural and unfailing
beauties of Stratford and its immediate surroundings. And still, in
the meadows in which long ago he loved to muse and wander, are found
those “daisies pied,” “pansies that are for thoughts,” the “blue–veined
violets,” and “ladies’ smocks all silver white,” of which Shakespeare’s
maidens often sing. And there are also the willow–hung brooks, and the
orchards in spring beauteous in white and pink blossom, and in autumn
rich with sun–kissed fruit.
In few parts of rural England are richer and more beautiful meadows to
be found than round Stratford. These, through which the placid–moving
Avon flows, are in spring and early summer gay with the glistening gold
of kingcups and humbler buttercups, and fragrant with meadowsweet.
And a little later on the meadow grass is shot and diapered with
mauve orchises, tall horse daisies, yellow rattlegrass, blue and
white milkwort, and frail bluebells. In the woodlands, which engirdle
Stratford a little way beyond the town, there is in spring a rich
carpet of the mingled yellow of primroses and vivid ultramarine of
wild hyacinths, and a blended odour of awakening earth and flowers.
Few counties have been better sung by poets of the past and present
than Warwickshire. And much verse which has never been traced to
Warwickshire writers doubtless owes its origin to a district which,
“beautiful as some dreamland of flowers and fruits, and kingdom of
elfish people,” is taken to the heart of all who sojourn within its
borders, be it only for a brief period.
Beautiful, however, as the county is, it has interests quite as
fascinating for the historian, student, and archæologist as for
the wayfarer and artist. There is, indeed, no lack of historical
associations and of famous houses, connected with which are many of the
traditions and gallant deeds of past ages, which give an added interest
to much that is beautiful in itself.
The history of Warwickshire contains much which is also that of
England. Its life throughout the varying ages has been a part of
that of the kingdom at large. Although the traces of the earliest
of all inhabitants are comparatively few, sufficient exist, or have
been discovered from time to time, to enable both historical and
archæological students to construct with some certainty the life of the
district in far remote times.
Of the history of Warwickshire in pre–Roman times unfortunately little
is known. Even the very name of the county itself is of obscure origin,
although it most probably has a distinct connection with that of the
tribe Hwicci, who, in common with another tribe, the Cornavii, dwelt in
the district, which was a part of the great central kingdom of Mercia,
before the Roman occupation.
[Illustration: HENLEY–IN–ARDEN.]
Of the Roman occupation, which lasted nearly 470 years, fortunately
many memorials and relics have survived. Traces of three of those
great highways which exerted so puissant a civilising influence whilst
Romans dwelt in Britain, are still to be seen in the portions of the
Icknield–Way, Watling Street, and the Fosse–Way, which are to be found
in different parts of the county. Indeed, the second of these has
given its name to one of Birmingham’s most important streets. Along a
portion of the county’s western border, too, runs the Ridgeway; and
Alcester, Mancetter, and many other spots were once Roman stations
or Roman encampments. But although the Roman occupation doubtless
affected Warwickshire with the rest of the kingdom, it was of a more
partial character than in many other districts, and appears to have
been largely confined to the immediate vicinity of the roads which the
invaders constructed. The character of the country, which was at that
time densely wooded, permitted the inhabitants to hold it against their
conquerors with some success, attacking when the opportunity served,
and then retiring into ambush afforded by the nature of the ground.
Details of the early years of the Roman Conquest are fragmentary, and
it is not, indeed, till about A.D. 50 that one finds Ostorius Scapula,
who was the second governor, erecting a string of military posts and
forts on the Severn, indicating at all events the partial subjugation
of the British. Ultimately the district of which Warwickshire formed a
part became incorporated in the province known by the name of Flavia
Cæsariensis, and latterly was called Britannia Secunda.
Comparatively few architectural traces of the days of Roman rule have
been found, and of these most have been upon the lines of the two great
roads, the Icknield–Way and Watling Street, and then chiefly in the
immediate vicinity of the camps or “stations.” Very little history,
too, relating to this interesting period has survived the effluxion of
time.
The immediate successor of Ostorius appears to have made terms with the
leaders of the Hwicci, granting to them certain concessions, and some
measure of independence, but these British chiefs later on joined with
the Silures in resisting the Romans, and an era of greater severity on
the part of the latter ensued.
Under Suetonius Paulinus the domination over this portion of Britain
was extended and ultimately rendered complete. At this period “Arden,”
which is the general Celtic name for a forest, was to all intents
Warwickshire. It certainly was the largest of all British forests, and
extended from the Avon as far northward as the Trent, and probably
stretched to the banks of the Severn on the west. Its eastern
boundary is more uncertain, but there appears considerable reason for
believing that it lay approximately along a line drawn from the town
of Burton–on–Trent to High Cross, where the Fosse–Way and Watling
Street intersect. The early inhabitants of the southern portion of
this thickly–wooded and well–timbered district were principally if
not entirely belonging to the tribe of herdsmen known as the Hwiccian
Ceangi, and this district of Arden was known as the “Feldon,” whilst
the northern portion of the county beyond the Avon was then known
as the Woodland. The first–named district was of the nature of more
open country, with pasture lands and possessing wide cultivated
areas, although well–wooded in places; whilst the second named was
thickly timbered and scarcely penetrated to any extent by the Roman
conquerors. In later times, when England was ultimately divided into
shires or counties, in those of Warwick and Stafford were incorporated
various portions of the wilder Arden of those ancient days. The name
is, however, now only preserved in Warwickshire, where it survives in
Hampton–in–Arden and Henley–in–Arden, situated in the Woodland district.
Partial as the subjection to the Roman yoke of what is now known as
Warwickshire undoubtedly was, considerable remains of the occupation
have from time to time been discovered in the shape of coins,
implements, pottery, and other antiquities at Warwick, Alcester,
Lapworth, Hampton–in–Arden, Milverton, Birmingham, and other places.
The departure of the Romans affected Warwickshire less than some
other portions of the country at first. But there is little doubt that
the usual policy of the conquerors of drafting the bravest, best, and
youngest men into their own legions for service abroad left “the heart
of England” as badly prepared to resist the invasion of other tribes as
was the rest of the country. Depleted of many of its bravest warriors,
England was, after several centuries of reliance upon an alien power
for defence, when the Roman conquerors departed left at the mercy of
any who chose to attack. Not only were all the legions required at
home to resist the Saxon invasion under Alaric, who poured his hosts
of barbarians over the wide–spread Roman Empire, but the British youth
who had been drafted abroad returned not, and thus, as Gildas says,
Britain, despoiled of her soldiers, arms, and youth, who had followed
Maximus to return no more to their native shores, and being ignorant of
the art of war, groaned for many years under the constant incursions
and ruthlessness of the Picts and Scots.
For some considerable period after the departure of the Romans few
historical records relating to Warwickshire exist. And if, as George
Eliot wrote in _The Mill on the Floss_, “the happiest nations have no
history,” then the county which gave her and the “Bard of Avon” birth
must have been a pleasant spot for a long period. There is probably
a reasonable explanation of this circumstance when its position is
considered. Situated in the centre of England, and far removed from
the seaboard, it naturally escaped much of the storm and stress of
invasion and attack from which less happily placed districts in those
wild, early periods of national history so constantly suffered. Except
for a record that one Credda, a Saxon commander of note, successfully
penetrated into the wooded solitudes of Warwickshire, there are few
data obtainable for the construction of an historic sketch of this
region until the time of the Saxon Heptarchy. Then it became a part and
parcel of the wide–spread kingdom of Mercia, and not only enjoyed a
share of its rule and barbaric pomp and circumstance, but also played
a not inconsiderable part in the wars and feuds of the various Mercian
rulers.
[Illustration: SALFORD PRIORS.]
The capital of several of these monarchs was Tamworth; which anciently
enjoyed the distinction of standing in both Staffordshire and Warwick,
concerning which the Saxon Chronicle of 913 records, “This year, by
the help of God, Æthelflæd, lady of the Mercians, went with all the
Mercians to Tamworth, and there builded a burgh early in the summer.”
In those times Kingsbury, on the Tame, was also a place of importance
as a royal residence, and, according to Dugdale, the farmhouse,
formerly the Hall, stands on the spot where stood the palace of the
Mercian kings. Tamworth was destined to play its part in one of those
fierce and lurid conflicts between the Saxons and the Danish invaders
which took place after the town had been burned by the latter. Near
by, too, in A.D. 757, another battle took place between Ethelbald, the
tenth king of Mercia, and Cuthred, King of the West Saxons, when the
former was slain by one of his own followers. At Seckington, about five
miles to the north–east of Tamworth, is a tumulus, which not only marks
the site of the battle, but also the burial–place of those who fell.
In the latter half of the eighth century Offa, who ultimately became
the greatest ruler of the West of those times, raised the kingdom of
Mercia to a height of greatness and prosperity that it had never before
enjoyed,—an importance which it continued to hold for a period under
the rule of his son Cenwulf. Warwickshire, as a part of Mercia, must
naturally have benefited by its greatness and progress, but during the
reign of Cenwulf the seeds of a far–reaching revolution were being
sown, the fruits of which were the uniting of the kingdoms of Wessex
and Mercia by Ecgberht or Egbert, King of the West Saxons, who has been
sometimes incorrectly described as the first king of England.
The incursions of the Danish invaders, which had been of frequent
occurrence prior to the reign of Egbert, assumed a much more formidable
aspect almost ere the King had succeeded in welding together the
separate kingdoms under one head. Their first unwelcome visitations had
begun in 787, some thirteen years before Egbert’s accession.
In 868 they once again invaded and seriously ravaged Mercia. Two
years later they conquered East Anglia. A year later their triumphant
progress extended into Wessex, where they at first achieved some
successes, although that kingdom was ruled by a wise and heroic ruler
in the person of Æthelred, the brother of Alfred the Great, who
succeeded him. In the following year, 871, no less than nine pitched
battles were fought between the Danes and the Saxons.
It is supposed that Mercia about this time was only a portion of the
kingdom of Burhred, the last native king of central England, who had
succeeded Ceolwulf. This in 874 had been divided by the victorious
Danes, and committed as a tributary state to Ceolwulf. Be this as it
may, the whole of Warwickshire, there is little reason to doubt, came
into the hands of Alfred the Great by the Treaty of Wedmore in 878,
made between him and Guthrun the Danish leader, and was ultimately
formed by him into a duchy under his daughter Æthelflæd and her husband
Æthelred.
The effects of the Danish settlement were important on the future
history of the kingdom, for it was that of a new people with different
customs, modes of life, and traditions. How far–reaching the occupation
was can be traced in local nomenclature, and the counties which
were anciently West Saxon still retain the names and boundaries
of the divisions founded by the successors of Cerdic. Mercia, in
contradistinction to the local divisions of Wessex, which were evolved
naturally, was apparently mapped out, and the extent of the Danish
settlement of the county of Warwick may be traced from the fact that
Rugby is the southernmost town possessing the Danish affix _by_, whilst
there are a considerable number of places so distinguished in the more
northern part of the county.
In the several massacres of the Danes which took place during the
period comprised by the last few years of the tenth and first years
of the eleventh centuries, the part played by Mercia, and, as a
consequence, by the district afterwards to be known as Warwickshire,
was considerable. The ultimate vengeance for these massacres, which was
taken by Swend in 1013, was shared by the Mercians as well as by the
other inhabitants of East Anglia and central England. And the coming
of Canute three years later was destined to have a far–reaching effect
upon the history of the district, and of England generally.
Arriving with his army and Eadric, the Saxon Earldorman, who had
betrayed his fellow–countrymen previously, and had, so the Chronicles
state, fled from England to escape their vengeance, Canute crossed the
Thames at Cricklade and entered and ravaged Mercia, proceeding into
Warwickshire during mid–winter’s tide, where the Danes ravaged and
burned and slew all that they could come across. Afterwards Canute and
his forces besieged London. “But,” says the Chronicler, “Almighty God
saved it.” Failing to capture the city, the Danes once more returned
into Mercia, and carried fire and sword into its vales and woodlands,
slaying and burning whatever they overran.
On the death of Æthelred the Unready two years later, in 1016, Canute
was chosen king at Southampton, and Edmund, surnamed Ironside, in
London. The latter’s reign was short but glorious; several battles were
fought with the Danes and victories won, in consequence of which Canute
agreed to a division of the kingdom between Edmund and himself. In this
division Canute took Mercia and Northumbria, and Edmund the rest of
England. In a few months the latter died in London, and Canute became
by common consent King of England.
The Danish leader’s reign brought peace and a large degree of
prosperity for the people over whom he had been destined to rule. And
during his sovereignty Warwickshire at least experienced immunity from
ravishment by fire and sword, and enjoyed a measure of good government.
In the years which immediately followed little happened to disturb
the peace of the county, although bloody feuds occasionally wrought
destruction in contiguous localities.
With the death of Edward the Confessor a brief period of unrest ensued,
whilst Harold was engaged in a struggle to retain the throne he had
ascended and in resisting the invasion of William of Normandy, who
claimed that the crown of England had been left him by Edward the
Confessor.
In the fierce Battle of Hastings, waged on the heights of Sussex,
Harold fell fighting, and with him ended the history of the country
under its Anglo–Saxon kings.
Under them England had gained a foretaste of those principles of
individual and personal liberty, in comparison with which all other
so–called freedom can be but a mockery.
The extent of the occupation of Warwickshire by the Saxons can be
easily traced by the curious from the number of _marks_, as their early
settlements were called. Thirty–one of the large number of thirteen
hundred and twenty–nine names of settlements, which have been traced
throughout the land, belong to Warwickshire. Some few of the most
notable were Leamingas (Leamington), Beormingas (Birmingham), Ludingas
(Luddington), Whittingas (Whittington), Poeccingas (Packington),
Ælmingas (Almington), Secingas (Seckington), and Eardingas (Erdington).
Warwickshire is not possessed of many Saxon remains. Of architecture
dating from before the Conquest the fragments of round–headed door
cases at Kenilworth, Stretton–on–Dunsmoor, Ryton, Honingham, Badgeley,
and Burton Dassett may be mentioned. While at Polesworth nunnery, the
ruins of Merevale Abbey, and in the churches at Salford Priors and
Beaudesert there are some fragments. Occasionally Saxon jewels have
been turned up in the soil. Perhaps amongst the most interesting of
these relics are the two Saxon jewels of cut gold, one set with an opal
and rubies, and the other adorned on both sides with a cross between
two rudely–fashioned human figures, each holding a lance or sword in
one hand, found more than a century and a quarter ago at Walton Hall,
near Compton Verney. Tumuli, of course, exist in different parts of the
country, from which at various times bones, skulls, and small ornaments
have been excavated.
Until the coming of William the Conqueror Warwickshire was almost
without historians or records, although an attempt at a survey and the
accumulation of historical data had been made in the previous reign of
Edward the Confessor. Though the Saxon Chronicle gives many interesting
and valuable details concerning lands, places, and incidentally also
of the life of the people of the period, it is to the Domesday Book,
that monumental work of the Conqueror, all historians and students have
to go when in search of information regarding the English counties at
the time of, immediately prior to, and after the Conquest. The value
of this truly wonderful work as regards Warwickshire in particular is
considerably enhanced by reason of its containing a comparative report
of the nature, extent, and value of the different estates, names of
towns, and position of roads in the reign of Edward the Confessor.
From its pages one is enabled to gain a more or less vivid idea of the
extent of the county, its inhabitants, and its peculiarities at a time
when English history and that of Warwickshire was in the making.
In this wonderful work, commenced in 1081 and completed in 1086, are
to be found records of all the original Saxon landowners (many of whom
were afterwards dispossessed by their conquerors), and the value and
extent of their estates. The original holders of the Saxon manors and
estates in Warwickshire suffered severely at the hands of the Norman
invader; and the pages of the Domesday Book afford interesting evidence
of how wide–spread these confiscations were. The population of the
county at that time was a few less than seven thousand, all told.
The period immediately succeeding the Conquest was one of great
suffering for the vanquished. Year after year the Saxon Chronicle sets
down a tale of wars, pestilences, storms, and famines, and although
there is no direct reference to Warwickshire, it is certain that the
county bore its part in “the sufferings inflicted by the acts of
tyrannous man and the wisdom of God.”
From the tangle of the history of this period it is no easy task to
seek to justly estimate the part played by Warwickshire in the history
of the country at large.
But towards the end of Henry III.’s reign it was the scene of some
of the most stirring and momentous episodes of the Barons’ War. The
struggle between the King and the Barons under the leadership of Simon
de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, centred, so far as Warwickshire was
concerned, round Kenilworth and Warwick. De Montfort at the outset of
the war garrisoned the former castle and placed Sir John Gifford in
command. The latter and the troops of the garrison promptly ravaged
the country round about, destroying the manor–houses and farms of
those who were well–affected to the King. And finding that the Earl of
Warwick had espoused the Royal cause the Kenilworth garrison, under the
leadership of its governor, surprised and made a vigorous attack upon
Warwick, taking the Earl and Countess prisoners.
In the year following the Battle of Lewes was fought, on May 14, 1264,
in which the Barons under De Montfort were victorious. Prince Edward
and his troops afterwards made a forced march and appeared before
Kenilworth and routed De Montfort and dispersed his force. De Montfort
took refuge in the castle, and ultimately effected his escape. With the
small force at his command Prince Edward felt unable to successfully
attack a fortress of such strength, but in a skirmish hard by he
succeeded in capturing much booty, and no less than fifteen of the
Barons’ standards, which were destined a short time later to prove of
peculiar service to the victor.
[Illustration: COUGHTON COURT.]
Abandoning all intention of reducing Kenilworth Castle Edward and his
troops pushed on their way towards Evesham, just over the border,
in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire, bearing the captured
standards in the van. At Evesham lay the Earl of Leicester, awaiting
his son De Montfort, who, at the time of his defeat near Kenilworth by
Prince Edward, had been on his way to join the Earl, then in Wales.
Deceived by the standards the forces of the Barons prepared not to
resist the advancing army, but to welcome it, under the mistaken
impression that the force was that of their expected friends.
After the fierce engagement, fought on a torrid August day in 1265, on
the high ground known as Green Hill, between the roads to Birmingham
and Worcester, and about a mile outside the town, in which not only was
the Earl of Leicester, Henry de Montfort and many nobles slain, but the
power of the Barons finally broken, Simon de Montfort, who had escaped,
fled to Kenilworth and afterwards to France.
After the conclusion of the Barons’ war, for almost two centuries
this most lovely of English counties rested in the tranquillity which
during that period marked the years as they passed in central England,
whatever happenings fell to dwellers on the coasts.
Only the merest echoes of the French wars of Edward III. and the
glorious victories of Crecy and Poitiers seem to have reached the
peaceful vales of Warwickshire; though old Records and Chronicles
bear witness that the country contributed of her money and her sons
to uphold the might of England. And the same may be said of the brave
doings at Agincourt, Crevant, Verneuil, and Herrings; and the defeat
sustained at Patay which counted for so much in the future history
of the race. At most the disturbing influence of these wars was
represented by the rumours, which travelled not fast in those times,
the visits of the recruiting officers of the day, the appeal for
followers made by some manorial lord, or the breathless tales told by
returned wounded, or veterans from the “stricken fields” of fair France.
The religious life of the county was, as in other parts of England
at this time, ministered to by the monks of foundations, such as
Warwick Priory; Stoneleigh Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded by
the monks of Radmore, Staffordshire, who relinquished their estates in
that county to Henry II. in exchange for those of Stoneleigh; Temple
Balsall, near Knowle, erected by the Knights Templars in the reign
of Richard II.; Combe Abbey, near Coventry, the second Cistercian
foundation in the county, built in the reign of Stephen; Merevale
Abbey, near Atherston, founded and richly endowed by Robert, Earl
Ferrers, in the middle of the twelfth century in one of the most
beautiful spots in the northern part of the county; and the once
magnificent Maxstoke Priory, built in 1336 by William de Clinton for
an establishment of the Augustines. From these and other religious
houses emanated what of learning and religion the countryfolk knew in
the Middle Ages, and with the passing away of the monkish owners at the
time of the Dissolution, although abuses had undoubtedly crept in which
called loudly for and needed stringent action and redress, Warwickshire
was the poorer. It was to the monasteries and religious orders, rightly
or wrongly, that the humble folk had looked for salvation, protection,
and healing in the ancient days when almost all learning as well as
knowledge of physic was to be found within cloistered walls.
With the accession of Henry VI. of Winchester, weak and totally
unfitted to govern during the turbulent times which lay in the
immediate future, trouble soon manifested itself amongst the powerful
nobles; these the King proved quite unable to reduce to order. To
make matters worse nearly the whole of the vast possessions held by
England in France, which had been won by the triumphant arms of Henry
V., were lost, adding to the bitterness and discontent which already
was bringing the country at large to a state bordering upon anarchy.
The serious family quarrels which had commenced whilst the King was
still a minor, involving many of the noble houses, either in support
of the claims of the House of York or the House of Lancaster, became
acute. Shakespeare, in “Henry VI.,” well and vividly pictures the
historic scene in the Temple Gardens, in front of which in those days
flowed a “clear, reed–begirt Thames,” which was destined to give the
coming contest its name, and describes the quarrel between the Earl of
Somerset and Richard Plantagenet. The Earl of Warwick, whilst in the
company of the latter, by tradition is stated to have plucked a white
rose, which was afterwards adopted as the badge of the Yorkists, and
whilst doing so he makes the following speech:—
This blot that they object against your house
Shall be wiped out in the next parliament,
Call’d for the truce of Winchester and Gloster;
And, if thou be not then created York,
I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Meantime, in signal of my love for thee,
Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose:
And here I prophesy,—This brawl to–day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple Garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.
In the bloody struggle, which lasted intermittently for a period of
thirty years, and was foreshadowed so accurately by Warwick’s speech,
his own county was destined to play a far more intimate and important
rôle than many other parts of England where, indeed, the battle
royal between the houses of York and Lancaster was regarded with
comparatively slight interest. With the final rupture of the parties,
which took place in 1455, Warwickshire entered upon another period
of unrest, such as had afflicted its peace, progress, and prosperity
during the Barons’ War.
The struggle was possibly rendered the more disastrous from the fact
that the county was divided in opinion regarding the merits of the
“rival Roses.” The supporters of the House of York numbered many of the
most powerful families in Warwickshire, in addition to that of Richard
Neville, Earl of Warwick, destined to go down to posterity as “the King
Maker.” But while the town of Warwick was for York, this advantage
was somewhat counterbalanced by the strong Lancastrian sympathies of
Coventry, but twelve miles distant.
Henry of Lancaster and his Queen, Margaret, had sedulously wooed the
latter town by frequent visits, and also by making it and several
adjoining parishes a separate county. Coventry saw a good deal of the
Red Rose faction, and at the re–commencement of the war, which had
languished after the first battle of St. Albans in 1455, at the time
the Earls of Warwick and March (the latter of whom was afterwards made
Edward IV.) set out for London in search of the King’s forces, the
Lancastrians were actually quartered at Coventry. The troops, however,
did not remain long in the town, but marching south–east under the
command of the Duke of Buckingham, encountered the Yorkist forces at
Northampton on July 10, 1460, suffering a disastrous defeat, when
Henry himself was captured. Amongst the more notable Warwickshire
adherents of the King who fell was Sir Henry Lucy, of Charlecote, near
Stratford–on–Avon.
Ten years later saw Warwick “the King Maker” espousing the cause of
Lancaster. After his quarrel with Edward IV. he had fled to France,
and there at the Court of Louis XI. had met with and been reconciled
to Margaret, and exiled Queen of Henry VI. of Windsor, and Edward’s
own brother the Duke of Clarence. In the same year (1470) Warwick and
Clarence made a descent upon England, and Edward fled to Flanders.
On the landing of Warwick, Henry VI., who although deposed was still
alive, was proclaimed; and for a short period the Lancastrian dynasty
may be said to have been restored.
On the return of Edward in the following year the Earl of Warwick
took the field at the head of the Lancastrian forces. He was not long
destined, however, to profit by his change of sides, for, encountering
the army which Edward, who had been rejoined by the Duke of Clarence,
had hastily gathered together at Barnet, “the King Maker” was utterly
defeated and slain on April 14, 1471. The landing of Margaret, which
had taken place at Weymouth on the same day, caused the Lancastrian
forces to rally after the battle of Barnet, but they were finally
overthrown on May 4 at Tewkesbury, after which Edward, son of Henry and
Margaret, was treacherously assassinated by the King and his brother;
and the Duke of Somerset, who had been captured, executed.
With the defeat and death of “the King Maker” Warwickshire’s active
participation in the struggles of the rival Roses may be said to have
come to an end.
A few years later the House of Warwick became allied to that of York
by the marriage of Richard III. with Anne, daughter of the Earl of
Warwick, and widow of the unhappy Edward V., who had been murdered by
Richard, his uncle.
The final struggle between the rival Roses took place not in
Warwickshire, but in its sister county Leicestershire at Market
Bosworth, in the sanguinary battle of August 22, 1485, which by the
defeat and death of Richard III. brought the Plantagenet line of
English sovereigns to an end.
Upon the accession of Henry of Richmond after the battle of Bosworth,
the Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence, was imprisoned in the
Tower. And on the advent of Perkin Warbeck, who represented himself
to be Richard, Duke of York, son of Edward IV., the fact of Warwick’s
imprisonment was used by King Henry VII.’s enemies to his injury and
disparagement.
The fate of Warbeck was destined ultimately to involve that of the
unfortunate Earl of Warwick. Bacon puts the position in a brief phrase,
which cannot be easily surpassed for vivid imagery. He says, “it was
ordained that the winding ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the true
tree itself.”
By the execution of the Earl upon Tower Hill in 1499 the male line of
the Plantagenets, which had flourished in great royalty, power, and
renown from the time of Henry II., came to an end; and there was no
other Earl of Warwick for a period of nearly half a century.