The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and ArchitectureDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and Architecture
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Cathedrals -- Great Britain; Church architecture -- Great Britain
On the bridge across the Calder there is a beautiful little chapel or
chantry, dedicated to St. Mary (30 feet by 24 feet). This was built
and endowed by Edward IV. in memory of his father, Richard, Duke of
York, killed at the battle of Wakefield in 1460. It was restored in
1847. Near here was fought the famous battle between Queen Margaret,
wife of Henry VI., and the Duke of York, whom this chantry
commemorates. Wakefield was an ancient seat of manufacture, foreign
weavers being established here by Henry VII.
[Illustration Wakefield Cathedral Herbert Railton]
[Illustration Chantry Chapel on Wakefield Bridge Herbert Railton]
LINCOLN CATHEDRAL
The city of Lincoln has a history of profound interest. The first view
of its mighty minster rising above the lower houses of the city is
most impressive, and the whole place teems with historical
association. Professor Freeman states that Lincoln has "kept up its
continuous being through Roman, English, Danish and Norman conquests."
Before the advent of the Romans it was a British stronghold, and bore
a Celtic name--Lindum; and when the conquering legions came they made
it one of the chief towns of the empire, and honoured it with the rank
of a "colony"--hence Lin_coln_, "the colony of Lindum," thus
preserving its ancient name, and adding the title of its dignity. The
only existing Roman gateway in England is here, and the remains of a
basilica, mosaic pavements, altars, sepulchral monuments, testify to
the greatness of Roman Lincoln. The Anglo-Saxons wrought much havoc,
and devastated the city. Here came St. Paulinus in 627 A.D., and
converted the Pagan Saxons to Christianity. The fierce Danes attacked
Lincoln and made it their chief town, the principal member of their
League of the Five Towns (Leicester, Stamford, Derby, Nottingham and
Lincoln). Before the Norman Conquest it ranked fourth among the cities
of England. Then came William the Conqueror, who raised a castle and
made it the base of his operations against the northern counties.
Lincoln soon was raised to a position of great ecclesiastical
pre-eminence, when Remigius of Fécamp became the first Norman bishop,
and ruled the vastest diocese in England, extending from the Humber to
the Thames. The city was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries one of
the greatest trading towns in the country, the resort of traders both
of land and sea. Here King Stephen was vanquished and carried off a
prisoner to Bristol. Here King John received the homage of William the
Lion of Scotland. The din of wars and battles has often been heard in
the streets of Lincoln; in the Wars of the Barons against the young
King Henry III., the Wars of the Roses, and above all in the great
Civil War, when the city was stormed and sacked by the Roundheads.
Here Edward I. summoned his first Parliament. Here kings have held
their court and worshipped in the minster, and here a most formidable
insurrection arose in consequence of the arbitrary acts of Henry VIII.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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