Old Palace Yard

Treasures of London – Richard Coeur de Lion…

by exploringlondon


Located in Old Palace Yard outside the Palace of Westminster, this Grade II-listed equestrian statue of 12th century crusader-monarch King Richard I, known as the “Lionheart” or Coeur de Lion, is the work of 19th century sculptor Baron Carlo Marochetti. 

The nine metre high statue was originally exhibited as a clay work at the Great Exhibition of 1851 – it was located outside the west entrance of the Crystal Palace – and, despite the tail falling off soon after it was display, it was well enough received by the crowds attending the exhibition (as well as the critics) that a public subscription was raised to cast the statue in bronze. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were among those who subscribed.

It was initially proposed that the statue be placed on the site of the Crystal Palace as a memorial to the exhibition (along with a statue of Prince Albert), but this plan was put aside and, after numerous other sites were considered, the current location was settled on.

The statue was erected on the site, facing south, in 1860, although it wasn’t completed with the addition of two bronze bas relief panels until 1867. These depict Richard on his death bed pardoning Bertran de Born, the archer whose arrow caused his death, and Richard fighting Saracens at Ascalon during his crusade in the Holy Land. Two other proposed panels were never made.

The statue was peppered with shrapnel when a bomb landed only a few metres away in 1940 during the Blitz, leaving Richard’s sword bent and damaging the tail and granite pedestal. The sword was fixed soon after. Further conservation works were carried out in 2009.

Italian-born Marochetti had worked in Paris as a sculptor before following King Louis-Philippe to London after the revolution of 1848 and largely remained in the city until his death in 1867. He was created a baron by the King of Sardinia.

His statue of Richard is one of few artworks created by non-British artists in the Parliamentary estate and while Marochetti had plans to create another equestrian statue, this one of Edward, the Black Prince, to face his statue of Richard across the entrance to the House of Lords, it never eventuated. Plans to install the second statue are, however, once more being talked about.

PICTURES: Above – The statue in Old Palace Yard (David Adams); Below – Detail of the panel depicting the death of the king (Prioryman/CC BY-SA 4.0)

A Moment in London’s History – Sir Walter Raleigh leaves the Tower…

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Bloody-TowerIt was in February, 1616 – 400 years ago this year – that the adventurer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh (Ralegh) was released from the Tower of London where he had spent the last 13 years of his life. Sadly, his freedom was to be short-lived.

Raleigh had been imprisoned in 1603 by King James I – not his biggest fan – after being accused of plotting against the king and subsequently sentenced to death for treason (a sentence which was then commuted to life imprisonment).

The Tower, where he’d been imprisoned a couple of times before – most notably by Queen Elizabeth I for secretly marrying Bessy Throckmorton, one of her maids-of-honour, was to be his home for the next 13 years.

It was in Bloody Tower (in left of picture) that his rather luxurious ‘cell’ was located. Originally known as the Garden Tower, it was renamed for the tradition that the two ‘Princes in the Tower’, King Edward V and his brother Richard, had been murdered here in 1483.

The tower’s top floor was added specifically to provide more room for his family in 1605-06 (and Raleigh’s son Carew was conceived and born while he was imprisoned here). It was also during this time of imprisonment that he wrote his History of the World (published in 1614).

Raleigh was released in 1616 to lead an expedition to the New World – he’d previously been on a couple of expeditions there including one with his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert aimed at finding the Northwest Passage (but which deteriorated into privateering and led to his brief imprisonment following his return to England), and one aimed at finding the legendary ‘golden land’ of El Dorado (which he failed to do). It was again with the purpose of finding gold that he now returned to the Orinoco River region of South America.

Failure, however, was once more the outcome, and on Raleigh’s return to England, the death sentence issued on 1603 was reimposed (for his failure but also for attacking the Spanish in defiance of the king’s instructions to specifically not do so, although the blame was not all his). He would be executed in Old Palace Yard at Westminster on 29th October, 1618.

10 sites from London at the time of the Magna Carta – 4. Thorney Island…

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Houses-of-Parliament2 Both Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (these days better known as the Houses of Parliament – pictured) pre-date 1215 but unlike today in 1215 the upon which they stood was known as Thorney Island.

Formed by two branches of the Tyburn River as they ran down to the River Thames, Thorney Island (a small, marshy island apparently named for the thorny plants which once grew there) filled the space between them and the Thames (and remained so until the Tyburn’s branches were covered over).

One branch entered the Thames in what is now Whitehall, just to the north of where Westminster Bridge; another apparently to the south of the abbey, along the route of what is now Great College Street. (Yet another branch apparently entered the river near Vauxhall Bridge).

The abbey’s origins go back to Saxon times when what was initially a small church – apparently named after St Peter – was built on the site. By 960AD it had become a Benedictine monastery and, lying west of what was then the Saxon city in Lundenwic, it become known as the “west minster” (St Paul’s, in the city, was known as “east minster”) and a royal church.

The origins of the Palace of Westminster don’t go back quite as far but it was the Dane King Canute, who ruled from 1016 to 1035, who was the first king to build a palace here. It apparently burnt down but was subsequently rebuilt by King Edward the Confessor as part of a grand new palace-abbey complex.

For it was King Edward, of course, who also built the first grand version of Westminster Abbey, a project he started soon after his accession in 1042. It was consecrated in 1065, a year before his death and he was buried there the following year (his bones still lie inside the shrine which was created during the reign of King Henry III when he was undertaking a major rebuild of the minster).

Old Palace Yard dates from Edward’s rebuild – it connected his palace with his new abbey – while New Palace Yard, which lies at the north end of Westminster Hall, was named ‘new’ when it was constructed with the hall by King William II (William Rufus) in the late 11th century.

Westminster gained an important boost in becoming the pre-eminent seat of government in the kingdom when King Henry II established a secondary treasury here (the main treasury had traditionally been in Winchester, the old capital in Saxon times) and established the law courts in Westminster Hall.

King John, meanwhile, followed his father in helping to establish London as the centre of government and moved the Exchequer here. He also followed the tradition, by then well-established, by being crowned in Westminster Abbey in 1199 and it was also in the abbey that he married his second wife, Isabella, daughter of Count of Angouleme, the following year. 

Lost London – The Pillories…

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Once a visible sign of London’s legal system, the city had several pillories which were used to degrade and humiliate those offenders put within them.

Titus-OatesOriginating in medieval times, the pillories were wooden contraptions in which a standing person’s head and hands were held in place and exposed to the ridicule of the crowd (not to mention their rotten foodstuffs and other less savoury things). They were a similar form of punishment to the stocks and were designed to humiliate those put within them.

They were used to punish a broad range of offenders including everyone from con-men and forgers to traders who didn’t play fair with their customers, people publishing unlicensed literature, and homosexuals.

Some people were pilloried repeatedly and additional punishments could be handed out to some put in the pillory – such as the nailing of the offender’s ears to the structure. There was cases of enraged mobs injuring the person locked in the pillory so badly that they died and the journey to the pillory – a formal parade of the malefactor before the people – was another chance for people to shout abuse and throw things at the offender.

As well as in Charing Cross where the pillory was located just to the south of Trafalgar Square, pillories were found at locations in Cheapside, Cornhill and Old Bailey in the City as well as Old Palace Yard and Tyburn in Westminster.

Among the most famous occupants of London’s pillories was the writer Daniel Defoe. The author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, he was placed here on 31st July,1703, due to his publication of pamphlets criticising the church. It didn’t prove the harshest of punishments, however – Defoe was greeted with flowers, not stones, by a crowd rather sympathetic to his cause.

Others to suffer the punishment of the pillory included Titus Oates, who fabricated a plot to kill King Charles II, and puritan William Prynne, who lost both his ears when pilloried for libelling Queen Henrietta Maria  (although they were apparently sewed back on before he lost them again for a subsequent offence).

The punishment was formally abolished in 1837 – the last time it was used was in 1830.

PICTURE: Wikipedia. Image is from Robert Chambers’ Book of Days, 1st edition.

Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with 10 royal London locations – 10. Royal relatives…

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In this, the final in our series looking at the Queen’s relationship to London we take a look at some of the key monuments to her family in the city.

• King George V (1865-1936). Queen Elizabeth II’s paternal grandfather, King George V, can be seen in a statue in Old Palace Yard, overlooked by Westminster Abbey (pictured here complete with pigeon). The work of Sir William Reid Dick, it was erected in 1947 and depicts the king wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter.

• Queen Mary (1867-1953). Paternal grandmother to the current Queen, Queen Mary the consort of King George V is commemorated with a small profile relief in The Mall, close to the corner of Marlborough Road. Also the work of Sir William Reid Dick, it was unveiled in 1967.

• King Edward VIII (1894-1972). The older brother of King George VI who infamously abdicated his crown thanks to his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson, it’s perhaps not surprising that there are no public statues to King Edward VIII in London (at least, none we’re aware of – if you know differently, please let us know).

• King George VI (1895-1952). The father of Queen Elizabeth II is commemorated in a statue in Carlton Gardens, just off The Mall. Erected in 1956, it was the work of William McMillan and as with that of King George V, depicts the king wearing Garter robes. It was moved in 2008 from nearby to its current site to form part of the joint memorial to the Queen’s  parents.

• Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (1900-2002). The long-lived Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who died in 2002 at the age of 101, is commemorated in the other half of the joint monument which stands just off The Mall. Unveiled in 2009, the statue of the Queen is the work of sculptor Philip Jackson and shows the Queen in her younger days wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter.

Next week we start a new Wednesday series looking at the history of some of London’s Olympic sites…

Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with 10 royal London locations – 8. Golden Jubilee memorials…

by exploringlondon

UPDATED: Last week we looked at some of the monuments marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in London, so this week we’re taking a look at some of the monuments marking the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrating what were then 50 years on the throne in 2002.

The year  was marked with celebrations, including a Golden Jubilee Weekend, not unlike that experienced in London over last weekend, which featured public concerts in Buckingham Palace gardens including the ‘Party at the Palace’ pop concert, flyovers including one by a Concorde with the Red Arrows, a National Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s Cathedral and a Jubilee Procession down The Mall.

In addition, the celebrations included the first ever parade of all the Queen’s bodyguards – this 300 strong group featured detachments from the Gentlemen at Arms (created by King Henry VIII in 1509), the Yeoman of the Guard (created by King Henry VII in 1485) and Yeoman Warders (based at the Tower of London).

As with the Silver Jubilee, the Queen more than 70 towns in the UK and visited countries overseas including Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Among the monuments in London marking the Golden Jubilee are:

• Golden Jubilee Sundial, Old Palace Yard (pictured). Designed by Quentin Newark, this was Parliament’s gift to the Queen and was installed in 2002 as part of the yard’s revamp. The dial, which is ‘set’ to Greenwich Mean Time and can be found just outside the eastern end of Westminster Abbey, features a quote in its outer circle from William Shakespeare’s play, Henry VI, part III: “To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, thereby to see the minutes how they run: how many makes the hour full complete, how many hours brings about the day, how many days will finish up the year, how many years a mortal man may live.”

• King’s Stairs Memorial Stone, Bermondsey. This memorial stone located on the edge of King’s Stairs Gardens by the Thames in Bermondsey was first installed to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. In 2002, the other side of the stone was inscribed to mark the Golden Jubilee and unveiled in the presence of the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

• Dovehouse Green, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. We omitted to mention this last week – located on an old burial ground granted by Sir Hans Sloane in 1733,  Dovehouse Green was laid out in 1977 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee and the Golden Jubilee of the Chelsea Society and was refurbished in 2002 to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee (it reopened in 2003).

• Great Ormond Street Hospital. Not strictly a Golden Jubilee memorial, there is a plaque close to the hospital’s main entrance which commemorates the Queen’s visit to the hospital to mark its 150th anniversary in 2002, “Her Majesty’s Golden Jubilee Year”.

• Golden Jubilee Footbridges. One memorial accidentally left off the list initially was the Golden Jubilee Bridges which run along either side of the Hungerford Bridge, between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges. The new four metre wide footbridges, which feature a particularly complex design, were named the Golden Jubilee Footbridges in honor of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. They replaced an earlier – and somewhat notorious – footbridge which cantilevered off the side of the railway bridge.

PICTURE: Wallyg

King James I’s London – 7. The Gunpowder Plot

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One of the most significant events during the early year of King James I’s reign was the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot.

The plot, which involved a group of Catholic conspirators including Robert Catesby and  Guido ‘Guy’ Fawkes (you can read more about Fawkes in our earlier entry on Bonfire Night), centred on a plan to blow up the House of Lords in Westminster Palace during the State Opening of Parliament in November 1605, thus killing the king (who had aggrieved Catholics in a public denunciation at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604; it should also be noted that he was already aware of several other failed Catholic plots to kill him) and, presumably, many MPs and Lords.

It is believed they intended replacing James with his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, whom they hoped could be made more amendable to Catholic worship.

But such a plot was hard to keep mum and an anonymous tip-off to Lord Monteagle, a Catholic, not to attend the event, led authorities to eventually uncover the plot in a basement storeroom below the House of Lords where, at around midnight on 4th November, they found Fawkes guarding the 36 barrels of gunpowder.

Fawkes was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered – a sentence never fully carried out after he leapt off the scaffold and broke his neck – and the other plotters, who had fled from London soon after the discovery, were either killed during subsequent arrest attempts, imprisoned or executed.

So happy was King James I – that he had Act of Parliament passed which made the 5th November a day of thanksgiving – it remained in force until 1859. Celebrations of the plot’s foiling continue every year on Bonfire Night.

But what were some of the significant places in the event? The cellar where Fawkes was arrested no longer exists – it was destroyed during a fire in 1834.

The conspirators who had been arrested were subsequently taken to the Tower of London where King James I authorised the torture of at least Fawkes and perhaps others among the conspirators. Fawkes capitulated quickly and signed two confessions (which are now in The National Archives). Another of the conspirators, Francis Tresham, died of natural causes while in the Tower.

The eight surviving conspirators went on trial at Westminster Hall – still part of the Houses of Parliament complex today; the end of the hall is visible in the above picture – in late January 1606 and were all condemned to death for treason.

Four of them were executed on 30th January in St Paul’s Churchyard outside St Paul’s Cathedral while the remaining four including Fawkes were executed the next day outside Westminster Hall in Old Palace Yard. The heads of Catesby and Thomas Percy, both of whom had been killed during a shoot-out in Staffordshire, were set up outside the Houses of Parliament.

Arrests – and in some cases executions – of others believed to be associated with the plot continued in the following months.

Another place of note in the story of the Gunpowder Plot is Syon Park in the city’s west, now the London home of the Duke of Northumberland. The aforementioned Thomas Percy was a cousin of the then Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy, and apparently dined with the Catholic earl at the house on the night of 4th November, before the plot was uncovered.

That association subsequently led to the earl’s arrest and he was confined to the Tower for the next 15 years on the order of the king.