favourite’s death, and Henry IV. became King. This King’s son, Henry V.,
attempted to rival in France the exploits of his great-grandfather; and
in his retinue when the English army sailed from Harfleur were two
Michael de la Poles, father and son. Both were of high honour in the
King’s train, both set out in hopes of winning still higher honour in
the glorious conquest that was to be, but both were fated to die a
soldier’s death on the soil of the country which they had hoped to
conquer. The elder Michael, second Earl of Suffolk, died of dysentery
before the walls of Harfleur in September 1415; the younger Michael,
third Earl of Suffolk, fell mortally wounded in the battle of Agincourt,
five weeks after the death of his father. His body was brought home to
England, and lay in state in Saint Paul’s Cathedral before it was buried
in Oxfordshire.
You will find an account of the Earl of Suffolk’s death in Act IV.,
Scene 6, of Shakspeare’s play _Henry the Fifth_; and when you next read
of the wars of Edward III. and Henry V. in France, do not fail to
remember, if you yourself belong to the city of Hull, that good silver
crowns from Kingston-upon-Hull provided the wherewithal for the battle
of Crecy, and that good honest men from Kingston-upon-Hull fought,
and—in one case at least—died in the battle of Agincourt.
* * * * *
Two years after this battle, King Henry was again fighting in France,
and in his retinue was again an Earl of Suffolk. This was William, the
fourth Earl, brother of him who had been slain at Agincourt. ‘Thirty
lancers and four score and ten archers’ was the portion of the army
furnished by this Earl, and for seventeen consecutive years he served in
France as a soldier of the King. While Henry VI. was the infant King of
England, Suffolk was in command of the English army in France, and it
was his misfortune to be beaten by the ‘Maid of Orleans.’ In this war he
was taken prisoner by the French, and ransomed for the sum of £20,000.
After Suffolk’s return home as a defeated soldier we find him playing
the part of a successful ambassador. The marriage of King Henry with
Princess Margaret of Anjou was arranged by him, and for his services he
was raised to the dignity first of a Marquis and secondly of a Duke. At
the same time his heirs were granted the privilege of carrying at the
coronation of all the King’s successors a golden sceptre with a dove
upon the top—a privilege embodied in the design of the Common Seal of
the Corporation of Kingston-upon-Hull.
[Illustration: COMMON SEAL OF THE CORPORATION OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL.]
But this marriage brought the newly-created Duke of Suffolk into great
disfavour with Parliament; for he was accused of having delivered the
important province of Maine into the hands of the French, this being one
of the conditions of the marriage treaty. His enemies also accused him
of having murdered the Duke of Gloucester.
To save his favourite Duke the King banished him for five years, but his
enemies were determined that he should not escape their vengeance.
Realizing the danger he was in, he set sail from Ipswich, and hoped to
reach Calais in safety. Before his departure he wrote, on the 30th of
April, 1450, the following letter to his young son:—
My dere and only welbeloved sone, I beseche oure Lord in Heven, the
Maker of alle the world, to blesse you, and to sende you ever grace
to love hym, and to drede hym; to the which, as ferre as a fader may
charge his child, I both charge you and prei you to ... do no thyng
for love nor drede of any erthely creature that shuld displese
hym....
Secondly, next hym, above alle erthely thyng, to be trewe liege man
in hert, in wille, in thought, in dede, unto the Kyng ... to whom
bothe ye and I been so moche bounde to....
Thirdly, in the same wyse, I charge you, my dere sone, alwey, as ye
be bounden by the commaundement of God to do, to love, to worshepe
youre lady and moder, and also that ye obey alwey hyr
commaundements, and to beleve hyr councelles and advises in all
youre werks....
Wreten of myn hand,
The day of my departyng fro this land.
Your trewe and lovying fader,
SUFFOLK.
It was indeed the day of Suffolk’s ‘departyng fro this land,’ as the
following portion of a letter written in London on the 5th of May of
that year will show. The writer tells first how news had then reached
London that on April 31 the Duke of Suffolk had been captured off Dover
by a ‘shippe callyd Nicolas of the Towre,’ whose master ‘badde hym
“Welcom, Traitor.”’ Then—
Yn the syght of all his men he was drawyn ought of the grete shippe
yn to the bote ... and oon of the lewdeste of the shippe badde hym
ley down his hedde, and he should be fair ferd wyth, and dye on a
swerd; and toke a rusty swerd, and smotte of his hedde withyn halfe
a doseyn strokes, and toke awey his gown of russet, and his
dobelette of velvet mayled, and leyde his body on the sonds of
Dover.
Although the first Duke of Suffolk suffered this ignominious death, the
tide of fortune for his family still rose. John, his son, the second
Duke, married the sister of King Edward IV.; and in the year 1484 their
son John, Earl of Lincoln, was declared heir-presumptive to the throne
of England.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
SEAL OF EDMUND DE LA POLE
EARL OF SUFFOLK.
]
This is the high-water mark of the family fortunes. The battle of
Bosworth, and the accession of King Henry VII. a year later, altered
everything. The Earl of Lincoln took up arms against King Henry on
behalf of the pretender, Lambert Simnel, and was killed at the battle of
Stoke in 1487. His younger brother, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk,
was considered a man too dangerous to be allowed to live and was
beheaded by Henry VIII. in 1513; and his remaining brother, Sir Richard
de la Pole, having fled to Italy, was killed in the battle of Pavia in
1525.
=Sir WILLIAM DE LA POLE.=
A merchant of Ravenserodd, who migrated to Hull.
|
+-------------------+------------------+
| |
=Sir Richard de la Pole.= =Sir William de la Pole.=
A merchant of Hull; A merchant of Hull, founder
d. 1346. of the Hull Charterhouse and
| first Mayor of Hull (1332–5);
| d. 1366.
| |
=Michael de la Pole,
Earl of Suffolk.=
Mayor of Hull 1376, and Admiral
of the King’s Fleets in the Northern
Parts; Italian Ambassador and
| Lord Chancellor of England;
| d. 1389 in exile at Paris.
| |
=Richard, Duke =Michael, Earl of Suffolk.=
of Buckingham and Fought at Harfleur, and
Chandos.= died of dysentery, Sept.
d. 1889. 18, 1415.
|
+-------------------------------------+---+
| |
=Michael, =William, Earl of Suffolk.=
Earl of Suffolk.= Commander of the English army
Slain at Agincourt, in France; became =Marquis=, and
Oct. 25, 1415. later =Duke, of Suffolk=; was accused
of various crimes, exiled,
and murdered at sea, 1450.
|
=John,
Duke of Suffolk.=
Married Elizabeth,
sister of Edward IV.
and of Richard III.;
d. 1491.
|
+-------------------------+----------+---------+
| | |
=John de la Pole, =Edmund de la Pole, =Sir Richard
Earl of Lincoln.= Earl of Suffolk.= de la Pole.=
Declared heir-presumptive Beheaded by Fled to Italy,
to the English throne Henry VIII., 1513. and was killed
1484; Commander-in-Chief at Pavia, 1525.
in Lambert Simnel’s
rebellion; killed at Stoke
1487.
PEDIGREE OF THE DE LA POLES.
In all English history there is no stranger family history than that of
the De la Poles. For had there been no battle of Bosworth, the
great-great-great-great-grandson of a Hull merchant would, in all
probability, have become King John II. Such, however, was not to be, and
there is now living no descendant of the first William de la Pole in the
male line. A few years ago the female line was represented in the Duke
of Buckingham and Chandos, who was lineally descended from Richard de la
Pole, the elder partner in the ‘great Hull Firm of De la Pole Brothers.’
XIV.
MONKS, NUNS, AND FRIARS.
[Illustration: ARMS OF BRIDLINGTON PRIORY.]
Scattered over some of the pleasantest parts of Yorkshire are to be
found the ruined homes of men and women who centuries ago formed a very
distinct class among the people of our country. These men and women were
the monks, friars, and nuns of mediæval England, and their homes were
known as monasteries and friaries.
The foundation of monasteries was due to the growth of an idea that men
and women could serve God better by withdrawing entirely from worldly
affairs, and by giving themselves up to a life of continual prayer and
worship. Many were established in England during the tenth and eleventh
centuries, but the great period of their foundation was that from 1066
to 1216. During these years no fewer than 556 monasteries were founded
in our country, and 65 of these were in Yorkshire.
[Illustration: A CISTERCIAN MONK.]
According to whether a monastery was independent of all others or not,
it ranked as an Abbey or a Priory; and according to the particular code
of rules under which its inmates lived, it was inhabited by
BENEDICTINES, CISTERCIANS, or CARTHUSIANS. The monks of the Order of St.
Benedict were popularly known as _Black Monks_, and their three Abbeys
in Yorkshire were at Whitby, Selby and York. They had no House in the
East Riding, but there were Benedictine nunneries at Nunburnholme,
Nunkeeling, Wilberfoss and Yedingham.
The Order of the Cistercians, or _White Monks_, received its name from
the Abbey of Citeaux in Normandy. In this the rules were stricter and
the life harder than among the Benedictines. The Cistercians believed
that the work of a man’s hands was as acceptable an offering to God as
the recitation of prayers and the chanting of psalms, and hence they
became great farmers and wool-growers.[29] Yorkshire was particularly
their county, and the great Abbeys of Fountains, Rievaulx, Jervaulx and
Byland were some of the wealthiest and most powerful in England. In the
East Riding the Cistercians had an Abbey at Meaux and a nunnery at
Swine.
Footnote 29:
In 1280 the monks of Meaux owned 11,000 sheep and 1000 beasts.
[Illustration: A BENEDICTINE NUN.]
A still stricter Order of monks was that of the Carthusians, who
received their name from the Abbey of Chartreuse in the south-east of
France. From the popular corruption of the word ‘Chartreuse’ into
‘Charterhouse,’ their monasteries became generally known as
_Charterhouses_. One of these was established at Hull by Sir Michael de
la Pole,[30] and there was in the North Riding another at Mount Grace,
near Northallerton.
Footnote 30:
Close to this Carthusian monastery Sir Michael also built—in 1384—a
_Maison Dieu_, or Hospital, for twenty-six poor men and women, ‘feeble
and old.’ Its buildings were pulled down during the second siege of
Hull, but afterwards replaced by others. This is the ‘Charterhouse’
that exists to-day, the present buildings dating from 1780.
The life of a monk or a nun was one spent apart from the world but, at
the same time, in common with all other inmates of the monastery or
nunnery. The inmates worked together, prayed together, had their meals
together, and slept in a common dormitory.
Their life was also one of absolute devotion to carrying out the rules
of their Order. Each inmate took, on entering the religious life, the
three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. By the first, no monk or
nun might own separate possessions except the necessary clothing and
bedding. Thus, one mattress, two pairs of blankets, two counterpanes,
one cowl and frock, two tunics, two pairs of vests, four pairs of
breeches, two pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks, two pairs of
day-boots, one pair of night-boots, one night-cap, two towels, one
soiled-linen ‘pokett,’ and one shaving cloth formed the wardrobe of a
Black Monk. In addition he might possess a silver spoon, and then his
outfit was complete. By the second vow he bound himself never to marry,
and by the third to obey implicitly the orders of his superiors.
* * * * *
The Houses of these monks and nuns were, with slight exceptions here and
there, constructed on certain definite lines, which can best be
illustrated by a plan of the Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstall, near Leeds.
Surrounding all was a wall, not shown in the plan.
The arrangement of the various buildings was very simple. Foremost in
importance ranked the _church_, which was always the first building to
be erected and that on which the greatest wealth was lavished. To the
south of this were attached the domestic buildings, grouped round a
central _cloister court_. Of these the most important were the _chapter
house_, in which the monks assembled each morning to hear a chapter from
the Latin rules of their Order; the four _cloisters_ or covered walks in
which the daily tasks of the monks were performed; the _frater_ or
_refectory_, in which their midday meal was served; and the _dorter_ or
_dormitory_, in which they slept. This last ran above the line of
buildings to the south of the south transept, and had a staircase
leading directly into this as well as one leading into the east
cloister.
[Illustration:
THE CISTERCIAN ABBEY OF KIRKSTALL.
_From ‘Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society,’ Vol.
III._
]
The other buildings included the _sacristy_ or treasure-house; the
_library_; the _locutorium_ or parlour, which was a meeting-place for
conversation as well as a school for the novices; the _infirmary_ for
sick monks; the _calefactory_, or warming-house, where a fire was kept
burning from the first day in November till the following Easter; the
_kitchen_; the _cellarium_ or store-room; the _hospitium_ or
guest-house; and the _Abbot’s house_.
Attached to each House of the Cistercians was a band of _conversi_, or
lay brethren, the uneducated portion of the community, who did all the
rough work of the House. Their frater and dorter were separate from the
other buildings, the dorter running over the cellarium; and they
attended service in the nave of the church, whereas the monks used the
choir or chancel.
Such was the general plan of a Cistercian monastery or nunnery. That of
the Benedictines did not differ from it except that their churches were
larger and more magnificently built than those of the Cistercians, and
their fraters ran east and west instead of north and south.
Look at the outer wall of the south aisle of Bridlington Priory Church,
and you will at once notice something strange. The windowless wall and
blocked arches are due to the fact that the Abbot’s house adjoined the
church at this spot. Look along the wall farther to the east, and you
will see plainly the brackets on which once rested the roof beams of one
of the four cloisters.
In some cases the domestic buildings lay to the north of the church, but
this was exceptional. Advantage was usually taken of the protection
afforded by the church against the biting north winds of winter, an
advantage not to be despised by those who had to live in unwarmed stone
buildings on the bleak moorlands of Yorkshire. One can imagine a
shivering monk returning from his two hours’ service in the church at
two o’clock on a cold winter’s morning, and piling on the bed his whole
wardrobe in a vain endeavour to keep the marrow of his bones from
freezing into solid ice. It was worth something to be an Abbot. For the
Abbot’s house had fire-places, and there would be little fear of his
forgetting to make use of such a comfortable privilege.
[Illustration: THE PRIORY CHURCH, BRIDLINGTON.]
* * * * *
As was mentioned earlier in the chapter, the monk lived in common with
his fellows. In winter his time-table was as follows:—
7 a.m.—Prime—a prayer,[31] hymn, and three psalms.
8 a.m.—Mixtum or breakfast.
8–30 a.m.—Morning mass.
9 a.m.—Chapter, followed by confession of sins and punishment for
faults.
10 a.m.—High mass.
11 a.m.—Dinner.
12 noon.—Manual work.
5 p.m.—Vespers.
6–30 p.m.—Collation—a short reading in the chapter house.
7 p.m.—Compline—a service in the church.
7–30 p.m.—Bed.
12 midnight—Matins and Lauds—services in the church.
2 a.m.—Bed.
Footnote 31:
The prayer with which the daily life began was this: ‘O Lord God
Almighty, Who hast brought us to the beginning of this day, so assist
us by Thy grace, that we may not fall this day into sin, but that our
words may be spoken and our thoughts and deeds directed according to
Thy just commands.’
Strict regulations were made with regard to the church services, manual
work, and meals. Each monk had some definite occupation for his working
hours. He was a stonemason, a carpenter, a worker in metals, a scribe,
or a farmer; and his work must be carried out in silence—a very needful
exception being made in the case of the blacksmiths.
Each monk’s dinner allowance was one pound of bread and a pint of wine
or ale, with two cooked dishes and fruit or salad. Mondays, Wednesdays,
Fridays, and all the days in Lent were fast days, when no meat might be
eaten. On these fast days there were allowed as cooked dishes to every
two monks either two plaice or mackerel, or four soles, or eight
herrings or whiting, or ten eggs. No breakfast was the rule on fast
days, and to avoid excess of blood due to good living, each monk was
‘cupped’ four times a year.
Table manners were also looked after. ‘No one was to clean his cup with
his fingers, nor wipe his hands, or mouth, or knife, upon the
tablecloths.... Salt was to be taken with a knife, and the drinking-cup
was to be held always in both hands.’
[Illustration:
A CORNER OF THE CLOISTER COURT AT KIRKHAM PRIORY.
The two arches at the back formed the lavatory, where the monks
washed their hands before passing into the frater by the door
on the left.
]
More severe by far was the life of the Carthusians. They lived solitary
lives, each in his separate two-roomed cell, never talking to others,
and not even seeing others except at matins and vespers. A Carthusian
never ate meat and always wore a hair shirt next his skin. It is
therefore not surprising that this Order did not become a popular one.
* * * * *
So far we have been dealing with monks and nuns. Besides these there
were the REGULAR CANONS—men who lived under a _regula_, or rule, as did
the monks, and who took the same three vows, but who were generally
priests, while the monks were generally laymen. The Augustinian Canons
had priories at Bridlington, Haltemprice, Kirkham, North Ferriby and
Warter, and there was a Gilbertine nunnery at Ellerton and a House for
both Gilbertine Canons and Benedictine Nuns at Watton. Here the canons
and nuns had each their separate domestic buildings, but they shared the
church, the canons using one half of it and the nuns the other half.
[Illustration:
THE BAYLE GATE, BRIDLINGTON.
Formerly one of the gateways to the Priory grounds.
]
Quite distinct from monks and canons were the FRIARS. Monks were
concerned with one thing only—the salvation of their own souls. Hence
their monasteries were, as a rule, built in desolate spots, far removed
from the centres of population. The churches of the canons were, in most
cases, partly used as parish churches, the prior of the convent being
also the rector of the parish. Friars were concerned with the salvation
of the souls and bodies of other people, hence they established
themselves in populous towns. _Fratres_, or _frères_, they were to all
poor people, whether they were Dominican Friars, Franciscan Friars,
Carmelite Friars, or Austin Friars.
[Illustration:
A WHITE FRIAR IN HIS STUDY.
(_From Abbot Gasquet’s ‘English Monastic Life.’_)
]
The followers of St. Dominic were the teachers, the followers of St.
Francis the doctors, of the middle ages. _Black Friars_ and _Grey
Friars_ they were in the language of the common people. Beverley had its
Dominican and Franciscan Friaries, while Kingston-upon-Hull had its
Carmelite and Austin Friaries—the names of the two latter remaining
to-day in our ‘Whitefriargate’ and ‘Blackfriargate.’
* * * * *
It is difficult for us to realise what enthusiasm there was in the olden
days for that which was called ‘the religious life.’ ‘It is good for us
to be here, for here a man lives more purely, falls more rarely, rests
more safely, and dies more happily’ was the honest thought of each of
the _religious_ in early days.
But as with all other human institutions, these good ideals perished in
the course of time. Men did not continue to live up to the rules of
their Order. Even in Chaucer’s time—that is, before the year 1400—the
typical monk had travelled far away from his vows of poverty and
obedience.
Full many a dainty horse had he in stable.
* * * * * *
Greyhounds he had as swift as fowls in flight;
Of riding and of hunting for the hare
Was his delight, for no cost would he spare.
* * * * * *
He was not pale as a tormented ghost,
A fat swan loved he best of any roast.
Chaucer’s friar was likewise a wanton and merry man, who knew the
taverns well in every town.
His tippet was aye stuffèd full of knives,
And pins also, fit for to give fair wives.
And certainly he had a merry note,
Well could he sing and play upon a rote.[32]
Footnote 32:
A violin with three strings.
XV.
SAINT JOHN OF BEVERLEY AND HIS MINSTER.
[Illustration:
ARMS OF BEVERLEY
MINSTER.
]
Each of two East Riding villages, Harpham and Cherry Burton, claims to
be the birthplace of Saint John of Beverley. His date of birth is even
more uncertain than his place of birth; but we know that he was sent to
school at the monastery at Canterbury, and afterwards became an inmate
of the famous monastery of St. Hilda at Whitby. Then he was for nineteen
years Bishop of Hexham, and finally, in 705 or 706, was ‘translated’ to
York, and thus became the fifth in the long line of eighty-nine
Archbishops from Paulinus to Cosmo Lang.
While John was Bishop of Hexham he purchased a plot of ground in
Beverley, and on it built a church which he placed in charge of a small
number of canons. The surrounding country was then nothing but swamp and
forest—the swamps of the river Hull and the wild woodland whose name has
come down to us as ‘Beverley Westwood.’ So fond of this church was John,
that in 718 he gave up his Archbishopric and retired to Beverley, where
he died three years later.
John’s church suffered the fate which came to nearly all the monasteries
and churches of those far-off times. The ravaging Northmen fell upon it,
and it was not till the reign of King Aethelstan that it recovered from
their attacks.
Then its fame began to grow. In 934 Aethelstan was marching north to
make war upon the Scots, and when at Lincoln met—so the story runs—a
band of pilgrims who joyously declared that they had been healed of all
manner of diseases by visiting the tomb of the blessed John of Beverley.
Their story induced the King to pay a visit to the same tomb; so he
journeyed directly north, crossed the Humber, and went on to Beverley,
while his army went round by the longer branch of the old Roman road to
York.
Arriving at Beverley, Aethelstan besought the aid of the holy Bishop
John, and placed his knife on the high altar as a pledge of the rewards
that he would bestow upon the church if he were successful in his
journey. Thereupon a vision of John of Beverley appeared before his
eyes, and he heard the words, ‘Pass fearlessly with your army, for you
shall conquer’—words which certainly came true enough.
Believing that his success was due entirely to the power of the holy
Bishop whose banner he had brought with him from Beverley, the King, on
his return, liberally fulfilled his pledge, and endowed John’s church
with grants of lands, tolls, and the right of Sanctuary.
=Swa mickel fredom give i ye,=
=Swa bert may think or egbe see=—
is the way in which a charter of much later date than the time of
Aethelstan describes the King’s gifts to John of Beverley’s church.
[Illustration: BEVERLEY MINSTER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, FROM THE
NORTH-EAST.]
So great after this became the fame of the miracles performed at the
tomb of the founder of the church, that in 1037 the Pope ordered that
John of Beverley should thenceforth be ranked as a Saint. His bones and
other relics were then laid in a magnificent shrine in front of the high
altar, and the story of the fate which came upon the sacrilegious
Toustain in 1069 is sufficient evidence of their power.[33]
Footnote 33:
See page 152.
* * * * *