he marches to Malmesbury. On Thursday he arrives at
Sodbury, and learns that the Lancastrians had gone by
Berkeley towards Gloucester.^ Margaret proceeds to

^ Tlie earliest accounts having been written under Toi'kist influence,
the later histories, composed after the battle of Bosworth, and under
the Tudors, must certainly not be despised.

^ The famous lawsuit for the possession of the Castle and barony of
Berkeley, which arose early in the fifteenth century, was not finally
settled till 1609. The Berkeleys had borne the brunt of it for one
hundred and ninety-two years against the most powerful families of
the kingdom, the Beauchamps, the Talbots, the Greys, the Dudleys,
and the Sidneys, and lastly the Crown itself ; but at the close of it, the
direct heir male, seventeenth Baron by descent, was firmly established



AND FIELDS OF RUE. 389

Tewkesbury. King Edward comes to Cheltenham, and
on the 3rd of May encamps near the Lancastrian position
at Tewkesbury. On Saturday the 4th of May the York-
ists attack. Richard Duke of Gloucester leads the van;
Edward, with the Duke of Clarence, the centre ; and the
rear is commanded by the Marquis of Dorset and Lord
Hastings. The Lancastrians also move in three divisions.
The Duke of Somerset and John Lord Beaufort command
the first line ; Prince Edward, Lord Wenlock, and the
Prior of St. John, the second ; and the Earl of Devonshire
the third.

Prince Edward, the unfortunate son of Henry VI, was
taken prisoner by Sir PJchard Crofts, as is alleged ; and I
■will say no more about his death or murder, as it has been
discussed at length by Mr. G. R. Wright. On May 6th
the Duke of Somerset, the Prior of St. John's, Sir H.
Audley, Sir Gervase Clifton, and others, were executed
in the Market-Place of Tewkesbury, — a small triangular
space where the three principal streets meet. The un-
fortunate King Henry's corpse (for he had been murdered
in the Tower) was exposed in St. Paul's Cathedral on
Ascension Day, that there might be no mistake about his
demise. It was then conveyed to Blackfriars, and by
water to Chertsey, and thence to Windsor. The Queen,
after being ransomed by Lewis of France for fifty thou-
sand crowns, appears to have retired to that country, and
to have survived her husband some years.

After a lapse of two centuries we find another daughter
of France, the Queen Henrietta Maria, as unpopular in
this country as Margaret of Anjou had been ; and some
kind of a historical parallel may be drawn between the
two periods. One of Charles' bravest and perhaps most
popular acts was that when he dismissed and shipped off
to France the friends and foreigners belonging to the
Queen's court ; for the intrigues of the French and Spanish
ambassadors, through their influence, rendered any poli-
tical compromise impossible in the then distracted state

in possession of his ancestral Castle and barony. It is interesting and
apposite to this history to I'emark that the domestic troubles of the
Berkelcys prevented tlicm from taking part in the Wars of the Roses,
which inflicted such losses to life and property in the case of the other
great families. (Trails, of Brist. and Glonc. Arch. Soc, 1878, p. 9,
Part II.)

28-



390 SOME FLOWERS OF CHIVALRY

of the country, and the number of these foreigners had
mcreased to about four hundred persons. The King, in
writing from Oaking to the Duke of Buckingham, on the
7th of October 1625, says, "I command you to send all
the French away tomorrow out of the towne, if you can
by fair meanes (but stike not long in disputing), other-
ways force them away lyke so manie wild beastes, until
ye have shipped them ; and so the devil goe with them.
Let me heare no answer but of the performance of my
command. — C. R."^

In the first period under review, an under-current of
religious reforming zeal can be traced in the poems of the
time, such as distinguished the second period also. The
following lines against the Lollards might be applied to
the Puritans of the days of the Commonwealth : —

" To jangle of Job or Jeremye,
That construen hit after her entent
For lewde luste of lollardie."^

The English were always a religious people, and their
zeal sometimes led them into strange eccentricities ; but
no good piu^pose was served towards bringing back the
stray sheep by condemning the memory of Wycliffe at a
solemn Council at Sienna, and ordering his bones to be
dug up half a century after his death, and thrown to the
winds ; which was done by Richard Fleming, Bishop of
Lincoln, in the sixth year of Henry VI, at Lutterworth,
where he was buried, and of which parish he had been
the incumbent.

The murder of the Duke of Suffolk was the commence-
ment of a civil war under Henry VI, as was the murder
of the Duke of Buckingham under Charles I ; and the
operations in Normandy, of the first period, have a paral-
lel in the unfortunate expedition to raise the siege of
Iloclielle in the second. The parallel must not be pressed
too far ; but as to the gallantry of the combatants on
both sides, it was not less admirable in one case than in
the other. The Marquess of Worcester, a descendant, in
the male line, of John of Gaunt, defended Baglan Castle,
at the age of eighty-four, in the cause of King Charles ;

1 Commenf. on Charles 7, by T. D'Israeli, vol. ii, p. 221.

2 MS. Cotton, Vespas. B, 11.



AND FIELDS OF RUE. 391

and I have singled liim out merely as bearing the title of
this county.^ The spirit of loyalty and honour which
excited the mailed nobles of Henry VI to fight d I'ou-
trance, showed itself not less strongly in the Cavaliers of
Charles and the soldiers of the Long Parliament. The
sovereigns themselves, of tlie two periods, have some
traits in common, at least in their martyrdom. Neither
was so weak as some historians would have us supj^ose.
We are indebted to Henry VI for planting seminaries of
learning which have borne good fruit in after ages, as
King's College at Cambridge, and the royal foundation of
St. Mary's at Eton. His Queen, Margaret, was the
foundress of Queen's College at Cambridge. We may
reflect upon his times when we view some of the brick-
built structures then first inti'oduced. Hurstmonceaux,
in Sussex, may be mentioned as one of the few which
have escaped the ravages of time, and portions also of
Eton College.

This King had removed his court to Coventry in 1456;
and at this place, famous also for the Parliament of 1460,
where thirty -two temporal peers took the oath of fealty
to the King and to his dynasty, is now to be seen that
beautiful tapestry which was lately exhibited before the
Society of Antiquaries. The King and Queen, and ladies
of the court, are drawn on this fine specimen of the loom,
which represents the marriage of the King with Marga-
ret of Anjou, and is supposed to have been made in Eng-
land ; and perhaps, judging from the costumes, it dates
from the reign of Henry VII.

Then as to the latter sovereign, Charles I, it would be
impossible, in a short paper, to name even all the battles
fought, or the numerous relics we have of him. In the
description of these our Society has taken a prominent
part, Mr. H. S. Cuming, V.P., F.S.A. Scot., liavhig during
many years past, at the evening meetings, produced and
commented on such relics. Certainly one of the most
interesting memorials of the period was the house or
castle of Miss Jones, visited at the Evesham Congress,
and where we saw a house with its tapestried walls and
antique furniture almost unaltered since the days of

^ An account of the siege and its p^allant defcuders is giveiV^i^pw-i;//*
Journal, X, p. 317, bj W. Beattic, M.D. ^



392 SOME FLOWERS OF CHIVALRY

King Charles and of Bishop Juxon, who resided in the
neighbourhood.^ The unfortunate monarch fell upon a
time of crisis, and England of the seventeenth century
was not the England of Henry VI.

From the heights of the Worcestershire Beacon we
shall be able to see, in the distance, the spot where, half
way up an ascent, the first engagement in the civil war
took place; and looking towards Worcester we may see the
field of the last battle. The first was fought at Kington,
known as the battle of Edge Hill, in 1642, where Sir
Jacob Astley and the Marquess of Hertford commanded
the King's army, 10,000 strong; and the Earl of Essex,
with 15,000 men, in the cause of the Parliament, came
from Northampton. 5,000 men were left dead on the
field, and the King had to retire to Reading and Oxford
without the conflict being very decisive in favour of either
party. The next year was fought the battle of Lans-
downe, near Bath, on July 5, 1643, with uncertain result ;
but the Royalists gained a victory over Sir William Wal-
ler near Devizes, about which we heard last year on the
spot. They, however, suffered severely at the siege of
Bristol soon after, though they captured that important
city, and laid siege to Gloucester.

In 1644 was fought the battle of Marston Moor, near
York, where 50,000 troops were engaged, and Prince Ru-
pert was opposed to Cromwell. The temerity of the Earl
of Newcastle was the cause of much loss to the Royalists ;
and the arms of the King in the North were not more
successful. The two armies again faced each other at
Copredy Bridge, near Banbury, and the King had more
success both here and in Cornwall this year, 1644. A
second battle was fought at Newbury, Oct. 27, 1 644, and
the King with difficulty succeeded in bringing off his
artillery from Donnington Castle. From the storming of
Leicester to tlie battle of Naseby some details are given
in Journal, xix, p. 25, by Sir H. Halford, Bart.

The battle of Naseby, fought in 1645, was fatal to the
King's cause. The King himself commanded in person ;
the right wing was led by Prince Rupert, the left by

^ We have also had many papers describing relics and medals of the
Commonwealth, by Mr. H. W. HeniVey and othei-s.



AND FIELDS OF RUE. 393

Sir Marmaduke Langdale. Fairfax commanded the centre
of the Parliamentary forces, Cromwell the right wing,
and Ireland, his son-in-law, the left ; and the number of
slain on the side of the latter exceeded that of the Royal-
ists, yet Fairfax made 500 officers prisoners, and 4,000
privates, and captured all the King's artillery ; so that
no victory could be more complete on the part of the
Parliamentary army.

The flight of Charles from Oxford, on 5th May 1646,
has been described, with interesting details, by the Rev.
Edmund Venables, M.A., in the Reports of the Architec-
tural Societies of Lincoln, 1877. The King left Oxford
on Sunday, 26 April, at two o'clock in the morning, pass-
in o- over Mao'dalen Brido-e as the clock struck three. He

o o o

made for Dorchester, then turned up by Henley, Maiden-
head, and Slough, under the very walls of Windsor
Castle. On Tuesday, the 28th, he was at Barnet. Pass-
ing Harrow-on-the-Hill, he took the road by St. Alban's
to Wheathamstead. On Wednesday, the 29th, he lodged
at a small inn seven miles from Newmarket, then he was
at Downham, and at a blind alehouse eight miles from
Lynn. He remained at Stamford till the 4th of May,
and reached Southwell on the 5th, sleeping at the Sara-
cen's Head, — an old inn mentioned in a deed dated as far
back as 29 Oct. 1396. Original documents relating to the
King's captivity are given by the late Secretary of this
Society, Mr. Edward Levien, M.A., F.S.A., in Journal,
xix, p. 12.

The recital of subsequent events which, led up to the
King's trial and execution need find no place here ; but
two years after the King's death we find Charles II, en-
couraged by his successes in Scotland, coming clown upon
Worcester, though with inadequate forces, to face Crom-
well's army of 30,000 men, who fell upon the city, where
some resistance was made by the Duke of Hamilton and
General MiddletOn, the former being mortally wounded ;
and the King, after some acts of personal bravery, had
to escape by St. Martin's Gate, and travelled about
twenty-six miles with fifty or sixty of his friends. The
adventure of Boscobel, and the King's concealment in the
oak, were related when we visited the spot at the Wolver-
hampton Congress ; and we saw the concealed passage



394 SOME FLOWERS OF CHIVALRY, ETC.

through which he escaped from Penderell's house, whence
he made a rapid flight to the Sussex coast, embarking
there for Fdcamp in Normandy.

I will conclude this recital by remarking that at both
periods herein referred to, and of which we are now
tracing the records in this county, the influence of a
foreign power, and the connexion of the Government with
foreign politics, have been greatly the cause of the domes-
tic disturbances and the unpopularity of the ruling
powers. True to the letter are the words of Shakespeare
put into the mouth of Lord Hastings : —

" Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas
Which he hath given for fence impi'egnable.
And with their help only defend ourselves.
In them and in ourselves our safety lies."

{King Ilenrij VI, Part III, Act iv, So. 1.)



395



NOTES ON THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL
COSLANEY, NORWICH.

BY C. H. COMPTON, ESQ.
{Read Nov. 18, 1885.)

In the course of my vacation rambles since our Congress
at Brighton this autumn, I paid a visit to the Rector of
the parish of St. Michael Coslaney, in Norwich, which
enabled me to obtain some information respecting the
early history of the church of that parish, M'hich I now
offer in the hope that it may prove of interest.

Blomefield, in hm History of Norfolk (vol. iv, p. 492, ed.
1818), gives a list of rectors commencing with Edward
Oram of Acle (or Ocle) Market, in Norfolk, a.d. 1300, from
Avhich it appears that there was a church in the later
part of the thirteenth century. I have not been able to
trace any part of so old a structure.

The church as it now stands is of late fifteenth or early
sixteenth century work, and consists of a nave and north
aisle, chapel, chancel, and remains of a south aisle, ter-
minating eastward in the Thorpe Chapel ; a chantry
chapel, the interior of which existed in a more perfect
form at the commencement of this century, when Blome-
field wrote his History of Norfolk. A comparison of his
description with the present state of the church will
show the changes which have taken place since that
period.

Blomefield says (vol. iv,p. 492) the church was commonly
called "St. Miles^ in Coslaney", and that it was a rectory
valued at £13 : : 8 in the King's books, and being sworn
of the clear yearly value of £14 : 12 : 2, it was discharged
of first fruits and tenths. The total endowment at that
time was £70 per annum ; it is now stated to be £80 in
The Clergy List.

Thorpe Chapel is thus described by Blomefield : "At

' Docs this account for the fumiJy suriiamo of Miles as a corruption
(sometimes) of Micluiul ?



396 NOTES ON THE CHURCH

the east end of the south aisle is a chapel of beautiful
workmanship, made with freestone and black flints. This
is the chantry chapel of the Virgin Mary, which was
built, and endowed with lands and houses in Norwich,
Barnham, Broom, Hemingham, Sprowston, Heigham, and
Wood Dallyng, by Robert Thorp (he was burgess in Par-
liament in Richard Ill's time), the founder, in the time
of Henry VII. He lies buried here under a stone which
hath his own efiigies and those of his three wives, and
three boys and two girls ; but the inscription is lost. It
had the arms of Thorp, az., three crescents arg. on the
first shield ; and the same arms impaled with those of his
three wives. His second wife's arms remain, viz., a fess
nebule between three wolf's heads erased."

The first chantry priest was Sir Bicharcl Wallome or
Waller. He and the several other chantry priests, his
successors, were buried in the chapel. The following in-
scription on the tomb of John Webber, one of the chantry
priests, is thus given by Blomefield : —

" Orate pro anima Johannis Webber Arcium Magistri et Cantarie
hujus Ecclesie quondam Cappellani qui obiit a° D'ni M°v.c,xxvii°
cujus aiiime propicietur cleus."

There are now no remains left of the tomb of Robert
Thorp or of any of the chantry priests.

In A.D. 1524 Robert Long, citizen of Norwich, and
Agnes, his wife, gave to Gonville Hall, in Cambridge, the
perpetual donation to this chantry, on condition that
they constantly nominated an honest priest, or Fellow of
their College, to reside in the house belonging to Thorp's
Chantry priest in Norwich, and daily to serve the said
Chantry.

Sir John Elwyn, who afterwards became rector, was
the last Chantry priest. He had a pension for life of
£6:13:4 out of the revenues of his Chantry. The whole
of these revenues were granted by Edward VI, a.d. 1547,^
to Sir Edward Warner, Knt., and Richard Catline, gentle-
man, to be held of the King as of his manor of Draiton,
in Norfolk, by fealty, only in free socage, and not in
capite.

^ Chantries were abolished, and their revenues vested in the King,
by statute 1 Edward VI (1547).



OF ST. MICHA.EL COSLANEY. 397

The Master and Fellows of Gonville and Caius College
were also patrons of the rectory, and continued so until
1867, when the advowson was granted to the Church
Patronage Society, who are the present owners. The
coat of arms of Gonville and Caius College was on the
west end of the church in Blomefield's time. This has
since disappeared.

The nave of the church is covered with lead, and is
saidHo have been rebuilt by John Stalon,who was Sheriff
in 1511, and Stephen Stalon, who served that office in
1512 ; and lies buried at the west end, with an inscrip-
tion on his tomb, which existed most probably on a brass
in Blomefield's time, but has now disappeared, with many
others, which in 1739 were, says Blomefield, reaved and
stolen out of the church, and the churchwardens adver-
tised a reward to any persons that would discover who
stole them. The following is the inscription on Stephen
Stalon's tomb as given by Blomefield : —

" Orate pro anima Stephani Stalon quondam vicecomitis Civita-
tis Norwici qui obiit ini° die Februarii A" Dni 1527 cuius aninie
propicietur deus. Amen."

The early brasses which remain in the church are those
of which I have taken rubbings which I have exhibited
this evening. They are three in number, the principal
being in the north aisle, consisting of two female figures,
with the following inscription : —

" Orate pro animabus Henrici Scolows quondam Aldermanni
Civitatis Nonvici et Alicie Consortis sue qui quidem Heiiricus
obiit XXV die Dec. A'' Diii m°vc xv°."

At each corner of this tomb is a representation of one
of the four symbols of the Evangelists. The wdiole of this
brass work is in fine preservation. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the symbol representing the man at the north-west
corner of the stone slab is covered by a portion of a
modern stove, which prevented my getting as satisfac-
tory a rubbing of this brass as of the others.

It will be observed that the inscription at the feet of
the two effigies does not correspond with them, as it
refers to Henry Scolows and Alice his wife, whilst the

^ BlouicOeld, Uitilorij of Norfolk, vol. iv.



398 NOTES ox THE CHURCH

two effigies are those of two women. There is a brass
inscription near this tomb which exactly answers to these
effigies. It is —

"Orate pro animabus Helene et Elizabethe Godfrey filiarum
Will: Godfrey Vicecomitis Civitatis Norwici quarum animabus pro-
picietur deus A° diii xv g.xxx°."

The brass on which this inscription is engraved is, how-
ever, too long to fit into the sj)ace occupied by Henry
Scolows' inscription, which exactly agrees in length with
the space between the feet of the two female efiigies. I
have not been able to gain any information which ex-
plains this difficulty. Alderman Henry Scolows (or Scol-
house, as Blomefield calls him) was said to have been a
benefactor to the parish.

The only other brass remaining is an inscription with-
out figures, as follows : —

" Hie Jacet Eicti French quondam Civis et Aldermanus Norwici
atque quinquies Maior Civitatis Norwici qui obiit die March A"
dni 1500 prima ho' post meridiem. Cujus auimam propicietur
Deus Amen."

The Parish Registers commence in the year 1558, and
are in excellent preservation. The first christening is of
Amye Austen, who was christened 17 Nov. 1558. The
first marriage is of Antony Walker to Jane Mynees, 1 7
May 1558; and the first burial is of William Leke, who
was buried 27 Sept. 1558. In the burial entries for the
year 1619 is the following, written in a bold, round hand
instead of the small, abbreviated style of that period: —

"Henricus Fawcett Generosus Aldermanus Civitatis Norwici
Parochianus hujus Eccles muniiicentissimus sepultus fuit 29 Jany.
1619."

He was buried in the north chapel, and a tomb erected
against the east wall of that chapel. All that now
remains visible of this tomb consists of a mutilated coat
of arms, an escutcheon emblazoned, containing a bend
and crescent in chief for difierence, the whole covered
with a thick coating of yellow plaster. Blomefield states
that in his time the tomb was broken through to make a
passage into the vestry, and that his arms (on a bend
three dolphins with a crescent git. for difierence) still re-



OF ST. MICHAEL COSLANEY. 399

mained. This vestry was removed about four years ago,
when some repairs and restoration svere done to the
chui'ch, amongst which Mr. Wilham Bullard, the head of
the large brewery firm in the parish, refaced the exterior
of the Thorpe Chapel with flints, and put an eastern win-
dow in the chancel as a memorial to his late father, there
being none previously.

It is a pity that some care was not taken to preserve
Avhat remained of Henry Fawcitt's tomb instead of obli-
terating it by fresh plaster. It would be a very easy task
to remove this coating, and open out the tomb.

The Communion-plate belonging to this church is speci-
ally interesting. It consists of a silver chalice, G^ inches
in height by 4 inches and three-sixteenths in diameter ;
the diameter of the base, 3 inches and five-eighths. It
has an elegantly chased gilt band about Ij inch below
the rim. The paten forms a lid to the cup, and has the
following inscription on the base : —

" Saynt Micha
eil of Cosla
nye A° 1567."

Both the cup and paten are in good preservation.

The copy of Blomefield's Ncnfolk, in the MSS. Depart-
ment of the British Museum (Add. MS. 23,0 IG), has plain
and coloured drawings : of -a demi-angel holding a scroll,
projecting from the w\all of the east end of the church ;
the font ; the stones which carried four brasses ; painted
windows and shields of arms ; carved ornaments on the
roof; and carved eml)lems of the four Evangelists above
the west door in the church.



400



NOTES ON SOME ANGLO-SAXON CHARTEES

OF THE

SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES

RELATING TO SUSSEX.

BY WALTER DE GRAY BIRCH, ESQ., F.S.A., HON. SEC.
{Read at the Brighton Congress, Aug. 20, 1885.)

Anterior to the Domesday Book, compiled in the year
1086, all history is dark and glimmering; and although
there are many bright spots well illustrated by this or
that writing, and many historical incidents, and many
time-hallowed localities of which it may be said we have
little more to learn, on the other hand there are innu-
merable phases of historical research which even in these
late days of the world are still but as labyrinthine pass-
ages and mazy subterranean pathways not illuminated
even by the faintest ray of light from the miner's lamp of
scientific progress.

Let us apply these ideas to the county history of
Sussex in the seventh and eighth centuries, as illustrated
by Anglo-Saxon charters, and by the texts of original
documents relating to localities in the county during that
period. The county of Sussex does not possess any very
large number of these documents, notwithstanding the
immense acreage of the land, and the numerous parishes
which represent Saxon or ante-Saxon centres of life and
industry. Seventeen documents alone remain, and with
the exception of three they all come from two Registers
of the Cathedral and Dean and Chapter of Chichester.
These MSS. were accessible to the Editors of the New
Monasticon Aoiglicammi, and to Kemble when he com-
piled his well-known Codex Diplomaticus in 1842.

To the collection of texts which the period under notice
has fortunately been able to preserve in the Chichester
Registers, I am much gratified that I have been able to
add two new charters of considerable interest, which up



CHARTERS RELATING TO ST^SSEX. 401

to witliin a very recent period were unknown ; and I