The French landed at Sandwich, retook Rochester Castle, and compelled
John to flee. John, crossing over the Wash, in his march from Lynn in
Norfolk into Lincolnshire, suffered great loss through the return of the
tide swamping the rear of his army, all his money, and stores. He
himself escaped to Swineshead Abbey, in the Lincolnshire Fens, where a
monk is said to have administered poison to him. With great difficulty
and exhaustion the monarch arrived at Newark, where he died in the
October of the year 1216.
From this time onward the city enjoyed comparative peace, and exercised
the privileges granted by Edgar, Edward the Confessor, and William the
Conqueror.
Till the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. the royal
franchise of Ely, in several statutes, was recognised as the county
palatine of Ely. Henry, by Act of Parliament, remodelled the privileges,
and ordered the justices of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, and
justices of the peace for the Isle of Ely, to be appointed by letters
patent under the Great Seal. The dissolution of the monasteries also was
the means of converting the conventual church into a cathedral--much
more appropriate to the dignity of the Bishop, whose title had been
granted, as we have seen, by Henry I. in 1107. This ecclesiastical
building, first a conventual and then a cathedral church, was commenced
in 1081, and entirely completed in 1534. The dedication to St. Peter
and St. Ethelreda was changed to "The Holy Trinity."
It is a magnificent cruciform structure, displaying the many changes
that took place in ecclesiastical architecture from the early years of
the Norman Conquest down to the latest period of English style.
The main feature is the extraordinary variety of arches built according
to successive styles. Though this peculiar treatment suggests an
unfinished appearance, it cannot rob the church of its wonderful beauty.
There is a departure from the general plan of other cathedrals. The nave
is continued through an extended range of twelve arches. It belongs to
the Late Norman period, and its completion probably dates from about the
middle of the twelfth century. From 1174 to 1189 the western tower and
the transepts were built by Bishop Ridall. Bishop Eustace, between 1198
and 1215, erected the Galilee or western porch, a noble Early English
structure. Much at the same time a curious coincident is noticeable.
Bishop Pudsey was busy at Durham building the Galilee or Western Chapel,
which is such a noble adjunct to that city's cathedral.
[Illustration: ELY