Brandon - Tudor Knight
by Tony Riches
Publication Date: December 3, 2018
Preseli Press
eBook; ASIN: B07L3YGBWJ
Genre: Historical/Tudor/Biographical
Brandon becomes Duke of Suffolk, but his loyalty is tested fighting Henry’s wars in France. Mary’s public support for Queen Catherine of Aragon brings Brandon into dangerous conflict with the ambitious Boleyn family and the king’s new right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell. Torn between duty to his family and loyalty to the king, Brandon faces an impossible decision: can he accept Anne Boleyn as his new queen?
Available on Amazon
For more information please visit Tony’s website and his blog The Writing Desk. He can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
Visiting Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk,
Home of Charles Brandon, Tudor Knight
One
of the highlights of the research for my new book, Brandon - Tudor Knight was my trip to Suffolk to see what I could
uncover about his Charles Brandon’s manor house at Westhorpe. The house
features prominently Brandon, as well
as in my previous book, Mary - Tudor
Princess.
Like
many Tudor houses, it was demolished in the mid eighteenth century, but I was
keen to see what I could learn from the site and its location in the Suffolk
landscape. Westhorpe became the main residence for the Brandon family up to the
time of Mary's death.
Charles
Brandon had been made Duke of Suffolk by King Henry VIII and rebuilt Westhorpe
using Mary's French dower income. He used the moated site of the former de la
Pole property, although the new building was on a grander scale.
When
Mary died her French income ceased and Brandon found himself back in debt to
the Crown. He soon remarried, to his young ward, the wealthy heiress Katherine
Willoughby, (the subject of my current work-in-progress, which continues
Brandon’s story) and his Suffolk manor house was taken over by royal trustees
in 1535.
An
inventory of the property three years later in 1538 records a moated house of
brick decorated with terracotta panels, built round an open courtyard 126 feet
square. The main range of the house on the eastern side was approached from the
west over the moat by an arched bridge, the lower parts of which survive to
this day, and that:
'All the wyndowes of the said place be at this present
well glassed, and all the walls of the same of bricke and imbateled, leyed over
with playster cheker wise white and blake, and all the houses covered with
tyle, the gatehowsse and the towers covered with leade'.
A
feature of the house was an internal corridor with windows overlooking a large
central courtyard. On the south side
were four main rooms, linking at the east end with the service rooms at the
lower end of the Hall. The east range contained the Hall, measuring some
seventy feet long, with mullioned bay windows onto the courtyard, with service
rooms and five other rooms over which was the Brandon's Great Chamber, with
large bay windows to the east and west.
A
dining chamber overlooked a garden to the east, which is thought to have been
designed in the French style, like those Mary would have known in the royal
palaces of Paris. A tower and private chapel (where Mary lay in state from 25
June until 21 July, 1533) formed the north eastern corner.
The
buildings now on the eastern edge of the moat are on the site of the Tudor
kitchens, boiling house, pastry house, scalding house and wet and dry larders.
When the house was being demolished in the late 1760s, Westhorpe was visited by
the antiquarian Thomas Martin of Palgrave, who wrote:
'I went to see the dismal ruins of Westhorpe Hall,
formerly the seat of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. The workmen are now
pulling it down as fast as may be, in a very careless and injudicious manner.
The coping bricks, battlements and many other ornamental pieces, are made of
earth, and burnt hard, as fresh as when first built. They might, with care,
have been taken down whole, but all the fine chimnies, and ornaments were
pulled down with ropes, and crushed to pieces in a most shameful manner. There
was a monstrous figure of Hercules sitting cross legged with his club, and a
lion beside him, but all shattered in pieces. The painted glass is likely to
share the same fate. The timber is fresh and sound, and the building, which was
very lofty, stood as when it was first built. It is a pity that care is not
taken to preserve some few of our ancient fabrics.'
In
1839 John Wodderspoon, in Historic Sites and Other Remarkable and Interesting
Places in the County of Suffolk noted
that:
'The Hall of Westhorpe was of large dimensions and had
attached a chapel with cloisters in which existed a fine window of stained
glass. The gardens of large extent were kept
in the style of the continental pleasure grounds, the princess having imbibed a
taste for the quaint conceits of the French mode of gardening by her brief
sojourn in France. The whole building is
however removed.’
In
1988 trial excavations were undertaken to establish the accuracy of the earlier
descriptions and measurements, principally by examining the gatehouse. Part of
the cobbled floor of the gatehouse was exposed, as well as part of the inner
courtyard.
Exploratory
trenches were excavated on the inner edge of the moat adjacent to the bridge.
These revealed the walls of the southern half of the gatehouse, which appeared
to be 22ft square. The walls varied from 60 to 90cm in width and were built up
on three courses of brick footings. This building was bonded into the moat
wall.
Another
trench was dug next to the southern arm of the moat, with the intention of
finding the wall of the outer court. The moat wall was located and at its
eastern end it was built over by several later walls. At its west end the moat
wall formed a straight join with a wall made of re-used Tudor building
materials of terracotta, glazed floor-tile and brick.
The
pottery recovered was mostly early to mid 18th century, coinciding with the
final phase of occupation, although several Tudor sherds were found. Quantities
of roof tiles and two sizes of brick were also found. Amongst these were
fragments of moulded bricks, including a moulded mullion. Green-glazed
floor-tile was found in the gatehouse and red-glazed ones were re-built into a
later wall.
Much
terracotta was discovered, confirming the extensive use of terracotta
decorations as described in the demolition account. Several pieces, including a
panel and a capital, were found in the gatehouse area. A large fragment of a
window mullion was recovered and many small fragments of roll mouldings and
panel were found.
In
1990 the Suffolk County Council archaeological service undertook more
investigation of the site following de-silting of the eastern arm of the moat.
This included excavation of the base of the north-eastern tower, which
consisted of flint and mortar with stone quoining, on a foundation of crushed
building material over a raft of elm planks on timber piles. It was estimated
that the tower measured 10 metres (32.8ft) by 8.5 metres (27.9ft).
In
1991 a grant was obtained as part of an English heritage project to pump the
moat dry and recover and study the terracotta fragments. These proved to be
press-moulded, which might explain the reversal of the crosses on Brandon's
coat of arms over the doorway of the present building:
Westhorpe
Hall moated site and associated fishponds were scheduled in July 1999 under the
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and deemed to be of
national importance. The listing states that the moated site of Westhorpe Hall
is of particular historical importance because of its association with Charles
Brandon and his wife, and the surviving descriptions of the great house which
he built here show that it was an outstanding example of early 16th century
domestic architecture.
After
living with every detail of Mary and Charles Brandon's lives for the past four
years it was amazing to walk in their footsteps over the Tudor bridge which
they crossed so often. The village of Westhorpe is a beautiful place and
although it is a shame the Tudor manor house was demolished, I am grateful to
Patrick Barker for his time and allowing me full access to such a fascinating
site.
Tony
Riches
Sources:
Note
among the papers of Thomas Martin (d. 1771). quoted in Edward Wedlake Brayley
and John Britton (1813). The Beauties of England and Wales (Suffolk, p 203),
and in John Wodderspoon (1839). Historic Sites and Other Remarkable and
Interesting Places in the County of Suffolk.
Archaeology
in Suffolk 1987 compiled by Edward Martin, Judith Plouviez and Hilary Feldman
Gunn,
SJ, Lindley, PG Archaeological Journal Volume:145 January 1988
Suffolk
Institute Report and notes on some findings, 2002
Architectural
Terracotta from Westhorpe Hall, Suffolk,
Anderson, S, The Archaeological Journal 2003.
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away a paperback copy of Brandon-Tudor Knight!
To enter, please use the Gleam form below.
Giveaway Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on March 19th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open internationally.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspicion of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– The winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.
Thank you so much for hosting Tony's blog tour, Heather!
ReplyDeleteAmy
HF Virtual Book Tours
My pleasure Amy!
Delete