Baynard's Castle
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Good article Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military installation
Baynard's Castle refers to buildings on two neighbouring sites in the City of London, between where Blackfriars station and St. Paul's Cathedral now stand. The first was a Norman fortification constructed by Ralph Baynard (Template:Fl 1086), 1st feudal baron of Little Dunmow<ref>Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, p. 129.</ref> in Essex, and was demolished by King John in 1213. The second was a medieval palace built a short distance to the south-east and later extended, but mostly destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. According to Sir Walter Besant, "There was no house in [London] more interesting than this".<ref name=Besant>Template:Cite book</ref>
The original castle was built at the point where the old Roman walls and River Fleet met the River Thames, just east of what is now Blackfriars Station. The north wall of the castle used as its foundation the Roman-era river wall from the 3rd century, distinguished by a tile-course of Roman brick.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Norman castle stood for over a century before being demolished by King John in 1213. It appears to have been rebuilt after the Barons' Revolt, but the site was sold in 1276 to form the precinct of the great Blackfriars' Monastery.
About a century later, a new mansion was constructed on land that had been reclaimed from the Thames, south-east of the first castle. The house was rebuilt after 1428, and became the London headquarters of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses. The accession of King Edward IV was agreed and proclaimed in the castle on 3 March 1461.<ref>Edward IV by Charles Ross (1974), p. 34.</ref>
The house was reconstructed as a royal palace by King Henry VII (1485–1509) at the end of the 15th century, and his son Henry VIII gave it to Katherine of Aragon on the eve of their wedding. In 1551,<ref>G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, n.s., 10, p. 406, note f.</ref> after Henry's death in 1547 and during the reign of King Edward VI, the house was granted to Earl of Pembroke (1501–1570), brother-in-law of Henry's widow, Queen Katherine Parr. Pembroke built a large extension around a second courtyard in about 1551. The Herbert family took the side of Parliament in the English Civil War, and after the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy the house was occupied by Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, a Royalist. Baynard's Castle was left in ruins after the Great Fire of London in 1666, although fragments survived into the 19th century. The site is now occupied by a BT office called Baynard House and the castle is commemorated by Castle Baynard Street and the Castle Baynard Ward of the City of London.
Norman castleEdit
Today the River Fleet has been reduced to a trickle in a culvert under New Bridge Street that emerges under Blackfriars Bridge, but before the modern development of London it was the largest river in the area after the Thames. It formed the western boundary of the Roman city of London, and the strategic importance of the junction of the Fleet and the Thames means that the area was probably fortified from early times.<ref name=Page192>Template:Cite book</ref>
Richard of Cirencester suggests that King Canute spent Christmas at such a fort in 1017, where he had Eadric Streona executed.<ref name=Page138>Page (1923), p. 138.</ref> Some accounts claim this was triggered by an argument over a game of chess; Historian William Page suggests that Eadric held the fort as Ealdorman of Mercia and after his death it may have been granted to Osgod Clapa, who was a "staller", a standard-bearer and representative of the king (see Privileges section).<ref name=Page138/>
This fort was apparently rebuilt after the 1066 Norman Conquest of England by Ralph Baynard, a follower of William the Conqueror and Sheriff of Essex.<ref>Sir Laurence Gomme, The Making of London; Ackroyd, London, p. 47.</ref> It was on the river-bank inside the Roman walls; a second Norman fort, Montfichet's Tower, stood Template:Convert to the north.<ref name=MOLAS16>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The site of Baynard's Castle was adjacent to the church of St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, on the southern side of today's 160 Queen Victoria Street (the former Times office and now The Bank of New York Mellon Centre); archaeologists have found fortifications stretching at least Template:Convert south, onto the site of the proposed development at 2 Puddle Dock.<ref name=MOLAS16/> This may be the Bainiardus mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 who gave his name to springs near Paddington called Baynard's Watering, later shortened to Bayswater.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The castle was inherited by Ralph Baynard's son Geoffrey and his grandson William Baynard, but the latter forfeited his lands early in the reign of Henry I (1100–1135) for having supported Henry's brother Robert Curthose in his claim to the throne.<ref name=Page139>Page (1923), p. 139.</ref> After a few years in the hands of the king, the castle passed to Eustace, Count of Boulogne, by 1106.<ref name=Page139/> John Stow gives 1111 as the date of forfeiture.<ref name=Stow>Template:Cite book Stow is an important source for the medieval history of London, but his dates in particular are not always reliable.</ref>
Later in Henry's reign, the feudal barony of Little Dunmow and the soke of Baynard's Castle were granted to the king's steward, Robert Fitz Richard (1064–1136),<ref name=Page139/> younger son of Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare (d. Template:C. 1090), 1st feudal baron of Clare<ref>Sanders, p. 34.</ref> in Suffolk, near Dunmow. The soke was coterminous with the parish of St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, which was adjacent to the Norman castle;<ref>Page (1923), p. 162.</ref> the soke roughly corresponds to the present Castle Baynard ward of the City of London.<ref>Page (1923), p. 172.</ref> Both Little Dunmow and Baynard's Castle were eventually inherited by his grandson, Robert Fitzwalter<ref name=Page139/> (d. 1234).<ref name=Stownotes>Stow (1598), pp. 269–283. Kingsford (1908)'s notes on Stow's text.</ref>
Fitzwalter and the barons' revoltEdit
Fitzwalter was the leader of the barons' revolt against King John, which culminated in the Magna Carta of 1215.<ref name=DNB>Template:DNB Cite</ref> The Chronicle of Dunmow relates that King John desired Fitzwalter's daughter, Matilda the Fair (also known as Maid Marian Fitzwalter—the real-life Maid Marian of the legend of Robin Hood) and Fitzwalter was forced to take up arms to defend the honour of his daughter.<ref name=DNB/>
This romantic tale may well be propaganda giving legitimacy to a rebellion prompted by Fitzwalter's reluctance to pay tax or some other dispute. He plotted with the Welsh prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and Eustace de Vesci of Alnwick Castle in 1212. John got wind of the plot and exiled Fitzwalter and de Vesci, who fled to France and Scotland, respectively. On 14 January 1213 John destroyed Castle Baynard.<ref name=DNB/>
Fitzwalter was forgiven under the terms of the king's submission to Pope Innocent III in May 1213.<ref name=DNB/> His estates were restored on 19 July 1213 and according to Stow he was given licence to repair Castle Baynard and his other castles.<ref name=Stow/>
It is not clear to what extent the castle was rebuilt, but in 1275<ref name=Stownotes/> Robert FitzWalter, 1st Baron FitzWalter (Fitzwalter's grandson), was given licence to sell the site to Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury, to serve as the precinct of the great Dominican Priory at Blackfriars built in 1276.<ref name=Page139/> Montfichet's Tower was included in the sale, having also been destroyed by King John in 1213.<ref name=Page139/>
Building of the priory required a section of the City Wall to be repositioned and the former military functions of the castle were taken up by a new "tower" in the river at the end of the wall.<ref name=Strype>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>In his notes on Stow, Kingsford refers to the manuscript Harley MS. 538, f. 19vo.</ref> Started under the great castle-builder King Edward I (1272–1307), it was completed during the reign of his son Edward II (1307–1327) and was demolished in 1502.<ref name=Stow/> This was probably the tower of "Legate's Inn" given by Edward III to William de Ros.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref>
PrivilegesEdit
The lord of Castle Baynard appears to have had held a special place among the nobility of London. Robert Fitzwalter explicitly retained all the franchises and privileges associated with the lordship of Baynard when he made the sale.<ref name=Stownotes/> He claimed them in 1303, his son Robert tried again before the King's Justices in 1327 and his brother John FitzWalter tried again in 1347 in front of the Lord Mayor of London and Common Council, all without success.<ref name=Stownotes/><ref>In his notes on Stow in relation to the privileges of the Fitzwalters, Kingland refers the reader to Henry Thomas Riley's Introduction to Munimenta Gildhallae II. i. pp. lxxvi–lxxxiv; and Memorials of London and London Life, p. 236.</ref>
These law-suits centred on a claim to be the "Chief Banneret" of London. Created in the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), knights banneret led troops into battle under their own banner not that of a feudal superior.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> It seems that the tenure of Castle Baynard had entitled FitzWalter's ancestors to carry the banner of the City of London, and hence be leaders of the London forces. In 1136 Robert Fitz Richard had claimed the "lordship of the Thames" from London to Staines, as the king's banner-bearer and as guardian of the whole City of London.<ref name=Page193>Page (1923), p. 193.</ref>
In times of peace, the soke of Castle Baynard held a court which sentenced criminals convicted before the Lord Mayor at the Guildhall, and maintained a prison and stocks.<ref name=Page191>Page (1923), p. 191.</ref> Traitors were tied to a post at Wood Wharf and were drowned as the tide overwhelmed them.<ref name=Page192/> Fitzwalter was invited to the Court of Privilege, held at the Great Council in the Guildhall, sitting next to the Lord Mayor making pronouncements of all judgments. This may represent a combination of the post-Conquest Anglo-Norman roles of feudal constable and local justiciar with the ancient Anglo-Saxon office of staller. The latter was the king's standard-bearer in war who was his spokesman at the Danish thing, the 11th-century governing assembly.<ref name=Page192/>
New siteEdit
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A "Hospice called le Old Inne by Pauls Wharfe" is listed in the possessions of Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.<ref name=Stownotes/> He may have acquired the house by his marriage to Philippa de Mohun, widow of Walter Fitzwalter<ref name=Stownotes/> (d. 1386).
A declaration of 1446 appears to identify this building<ref name=Stownotes/> with a town-house built on land reclaimed from the river, Template:Convert south-east of the original castle.<ref name=MOLAS7>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref> Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, rebuilt the house after a "great fire" in 1428,<ref name=Stow/> with four wings in a trapezoidal shape around a courtyard.<ref name=MOLAS7/> Excavations have shown that the Roman riverside wall, on the south side of the medieval Thames Street, formed the foundation of the north wall of the new house.<ref name=MOLAS7/> It seems that the nearby waterfront was known as Baynard's Castle even after the original castle was destroyed, and the name was transferred to the building on the new site.<ref name=MOLAS7/>
Gloucester died within days of being arrested for treason in 1447. The house was forfeited to the crown before being occupied at some time before 1457 by Edward's nephew Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, the former Lord Protector, who kept 400 gentlemen and men-at-arms at the castle in his pursuit of his claim to the throne; he was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.<ref name=Besant/>
This London powerbase allowed York's son to be crowned as King Edward IV in the great hall of the castle, whilst Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou were campaigning in northern England.<ref name=Besant/> Edward gave the castle to his mother Cecily Neville on 1 June 1461,<ref name=Topographical>Template:Cite book</ref> a few weeks before his coronation, and he housed his family there for safety before the decisive Battle of Barnet.<ref name=Besant/>
After the young princes Edward V and his brother Richard were declared illegitimate in 1483 and imprisoned in the Tower of London, never to be seen again, Edward IV's brother was offered the crown as King Richard III at Baynard's Castle,<ref name=Besant/> as recounted in Shakespeare's play Richard III.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} There are several mentions of Baynard's Castle in the play, Act III Scene 7 is the one in which Richard is declared king.</ref> His coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 July 1483.
TudorsEdit
In 1501 King Henry VII "repayred or rather new builded this house, not imbattoled, or so strongly fortified castle like, but farre more beautiful and commodious for the entertainement of any prince or greate estate" (Stow).<ref name=Stow/> Henry's alterations included five projecting towers between two existing polygonal corner towers on the river-front.<ref name=MOLAS7/> Henry stayed at the castle when attending functions at St. Paul's Cathedral.<ref name=Stow/> His son Henry VIII gave the castle to his first wife Katherine of Aragon on 10 June 1509,<ref name=Topographical/> the day before their wedding, and the Queen took up residence there.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV of Scotland, came to stay at Baynard's Castle in May 1516.<ref>Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain (Woodbridge, 2018), p. 85.</ref><ref>Thomas P. Campbell, Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty: Tapestries at the Tudor Court (Yale, 2007), p. 116.</ref> Katherine Howard journeyed to Baynard's Castle in May 1541.<ref>Katherine Howard: A New History (2014) by Conor Byrne, p. 130.</ref> Later one of Henry's favourite courtiers, Sir William Sidney (Template:Circa–1554), tutor to his son the future Edward VI, lived in the castle and made his will there in 1548.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
By 1551 the house had passed to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1501–1570), the year in which that influential courtier was created Earl of Pembroke.<ref name=Besant/> It was at Baynard's Castle that the Privy Council met to end the claim of Lady Jane Grey to the throne and proclaim Mary as Queen of England.<ref name=Stow/> Pembroke's wife Anne Parr (sister of Queen Katherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII) died in the castle in 1552.<ref name=Besant/> The house was extended to the west in about 1550 with three wings of brick, faced with stone on the river-front.<ref>Jackson (2009ii) p. 29.</ref> The second courtyard formed by this extension is clearly visible on Hollar's view of London before the Great Fire.<ref>See image File:Wenceslas Hollar - London before and after the fire (State 2).jpg</ref> Old prints show a large gateway in the middle of the south side, a bridge of two arches and steps down to the river.<ref name=Timbs>Template:Cite book</ref>
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The house remained in the Herbert family until the death of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the University of Oxford.<ref name=Timbs/> He preferred to live at Whitehall Palace while his wife Anne Clifford (1590–1676) took up residence in Baynard's Castle, describing it in her memoirs as "a house full of riches, and more secured by my lying there".<ref name=Timbs/> The 4th Earl sided with the Parliamentarians in the Civil War and died in 1650.<ref name=Timbs/> By 1660 and the Restoration of the Monarchy, the house was occupied by Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury,<ref name=Timbs/> who had fought on the side of the Royalist army in their defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Samuel Pepys records that on 19 June 1660 "My Lord (i.e. his relative Edward Montagu) went at night with the King to Baynard's Castle to supper ... [the next morning he] lay long in bed this day, because he came home late from supper with the King".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After the Great FireEdit
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Baynard's Castle was destroyed in the Great Fire of London<ref name=Timbs/> of 1666. The engraver Wenceslaus Hollar depicted considerable ruins standing after the fire, including the stone facade on the river side,<ref name=Timbs/> but only a round tower was left when Strype was writing in 1720.<ref name=Strype/> This tower had been converted into a dwelling, whilst the rest of the site became timber yards and wood wharves<ref name=Strype/> with Dunghill Lane running through the site from Thames Street.<ref name=Besant/> Richard Horwood's map of c. 1813 shows a wharf<ref>Jackson (2009ii) p. 39 Figure 10.</ref> which in 1878 belonged to the Castle Baynard Copper Company.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The remaining tower (some sources say two survived) was pulled down in the 19th century to make way for warehouses of the Carron Company.<ref name=Timbs/>
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In the 1970s the area was redeveloped, with the construction of the Blackfriars underpass and a Brutalist office block named Baynard House, occupied by the telephone company BT Group. Most of the site under Baynard House is a scheduled monument.<ref>Jackson (2009ii) p. 42 Figure 16 shows the extent of the scheduled monument.</ref>
ArchaeologyEdit
Most of the archaeological evidence for the second Baynard's Castle comes from excavations in 1972–5, before the construction of Baynard House office block. Parts of the north wing of both the original house and extension were found, including the north gate and gatetower, and the cobbled entrance from Thames Street.<ref name=MOLAS4>Jackson (2009ii) p. 25.</ref> Two east–west "limestone" walls were found; the excavator suggested that the more northerly one was the curtain wall of the pre-1428 castle, and the other was a post-1428 replacement.<ref name=MOLAS4/> The latter was surmounted by a brick facing with a rubble core, to which a rectangular pier was attached.<ref name=MOLAS4/> The castle had foundations of chalk, ragstone and mortar and was built entirely on reclaimed land.<ref name=MOLAS7/> Several phases of building in the late 17th century were also identified.<ref name=MOLAS4/> Excavations in 1981 at the City of London School uncovered the SE corner tower of the Tudor castle.<ref>Jackson (2009ii) p. 26; Figure 6 (p. 37) is a photo of the remains of the SE Tower.</ref> The London Archaeological Archive codes for the excavations are BC72/GM152, UT74, BC74, BC75 and BYD81.<ref>Jackson (2009ii) pp. 25, 28–9, see London Archaeological Archive Template:Webarchive for more details of excavations.</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Fortifications of London
- Montfichet's Tower – Norman castle on Ludgate Hill
- Tower of London