Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:35:50.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

TATTERSHALL CASTLE AND THE NEWLY-BUILT PERSONALITY OF RALPH LORD CROMWELL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2020

James Wright*
Affiliation:
Triskele Heritage, Sneinton, Nottinghamshire, UK. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Tattershall Castle (Lincolnshire, UK) was built for the Lord Treasurer of England, Ralph Cromwell, in the mid-fifteenth century. Cromwell was a skilled politician who rose from relative obscurity via royal service; however, he never attained high social rank and made significant enemies in the royal council. He is noted to have been a prickly and self-righteous individual who wore his new-found status in society with towering pride. The architecture of Cromwell’s major building project at Tattershall offers clues towards his personality. Architectural details – grouped and repeated motifs such as ancient family armorials, the Treasurer’s purse and the truculent motto ‘Have I not right?’ – may reveal fault lines and anxieties about Ralph’s relative place in society as he struggled for political survival.

Type
Research paper
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ackroyd, P 2005. Shakespeare: the biography, Vintage, London Google Scholar
Allmand, C 1992. Henry V, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Avery, T 1997. Tattershall Castle, National Trust, Swindon Google Scholar
Barber, R (ed) 1992. Bestiary, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Barker, J 2005. Agincourt: the king, the campaign, the battle, Abacus, London Google Scholar
Barker, J 2009. Conquest: the English kingdom of France in the Hundred Years War, Abacus, London Google Scholar
Baumgaetner, R 2010. Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings: war and politics in fifteenth century England, Trafford Publishing, Bloomington Google Scholar
Brunskill, R W 1990. Brick Building in Britain. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London Google Scholar
Brunskill, R W & Clifton-Taylor, A 1978. English Brickwork. Hyperion, London Google Scholar
Champion, M 2015. Medieval Graffiti: the lost voices of England’s churches, Ebury Press, London Google Scholar
Champion, M 2016. ‘Magic on the walls: ritual protection marks in the medieval Church’, in Hutton 2016, 1538 Google Scholar
Coulson, C 1979. ‘Structural symbolism in medieval castle architecture’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 132, 73101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, J C 1886. ‘On the manor house of South Wingfield’, Derbyshire Archaeol J, 8, 6578 Google Scholar
Creighton, O 2002. Castles and Landscapes, Equinox, Sheffield Google Scholar
Creighton, O 2009. Designs Upon the Land: elite landscapes of the Middle Ages, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Curzon, G and Tipping, H A 1929. Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: a historical and descriptive survey, Jonathan Cape, London Google Scholar
Dixon, P 1998. ‘Design in castle building: controlling access to the lord’, Chateau Gaillard, 18, 4756 Google Scholar
Dixon, P and Lott, B 1993. ‘The courtyard and the tower: contexts and symbols in the development of late medieval great houses’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 146, 93101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, T 2016. ‘Apotropaic symbols and other measures for protecting buildings from misfortune’, in Hutton 2016, 3967 Google Scholar
Emery, A 1985. ‘Ralph, Lord Cromwell’s manor at Wingfield (1439–c 1450): its construction, design and influence’, Archaeol J, 142, 276339 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emery, A 2000. Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales. Vol 2: East Anglia, Central England and Wales, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Emery, A 2018. ‘Stourton and Collyweston: two lost fifteenth-century mansions’, in Guy, N (ed), Castles. History, Archaeology, Landscape, Architecture and Symbolism: essays in honour of Derek Renn, 350–64, Castle Studies Group, Dorchester Google Scholar
Everson, P and Stocker, D 2005. ‘Masters of Kirkstead: hunting for salvation’, in McNeill, J (ed), King’s Lynn and the Fens: medieval art, architecture and archaeology, 83111, Routledge, Abingdon Google Scholar
Fairburn, J 1905. Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, T C & E C Jack, London Google Scholar
Friedrichs, R 1974. ‘The career and influence of Ralph, Lord Cromwell 1393–1456’, unpublished doctoral thesis, Columbia University Google Scholar
Friedrichs, R L 1988. ‘Ralph, Lord Cromwell and the politics of fifteenth century England’, Nottingham Medieval Stud, 32, 207–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedrichs, R L 1990. ‘The last wills of Ralph, Lord Cromwell’, Nottingham Medieval Stud, 34, 93112 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, H 1915. ‘A local patron of architecture in the reign of Henry VI’, Trans Thoroton Soc, 19, 105–40Google Scholar
Gillingham, J 1981. The Wars of the Roses, George Weidenfield and Nicolson, London Google Scholar
Goodall, J 2011. The English Castle, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Gosden, C and Marshall, Y 1999. ‘The cultural biography of objects’, World Archaeol, 31 (2), 169–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grummitt, D 2015. Henry VI, Routledge, Abingdon CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, S 2010. Medieval Church Window Tracery, Boydell Press, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Harvey, J 1978. The Perpendicular Style, Batsford, London Google Scholar
Hicks, M 2012. The Wars of the Roses, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Hislop, M 2016. Castle Builders, Pen & Sword, Barnsley Google Scholar
Hourihane, C (ed) 2012. The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture Vol 4, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Huizinga, J 1921. The Autumn of the Middle Ages, University of Chicago Press, Chicago Google Scholar
Hutton, R (ed) 2016. Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke Google Scholar
Jacob, E F 1961. The Fifteenth Century 1399–1485, Clarendon Press, Oxford Google Scholar
James, T B 1990. The Places of Medieval England, Seaby, London Google Scholar
Johnson, L 2019. Shadow King: the life and death of Henry VI, Head of Zeus, London Google Scholar
Johnson, M 2002. Behind the Castle Gate, Routledge, London Google Scholar
Johnson, M (ed) 2017. Lived Experience in the Later Middle Ages, Highfield Press, St Andrews Google Scholar
Keevil, G D 2000. Medieval Palaces: an archaeology, Tempus, Stroud Google Scholar
Kelsall, J 2000. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester 1391–1447, Fraternity of the Friends of St Albans Abbey, St Albans Google Scholar
Kirby, J L 1951. ‘The issue of the Lancastrian exchequer and Lord Cromwell’s estimates of 1433’, Bull Inst Hist Res, 24, 121–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lecouteux, C 2000. The Tradition of Household Spirits, Inner Traditions, Rochester and Toronto Google Scholar
Le Roy, G 2017. The Bishop’s Palace, Wells, Somerset: a guide to the Bishop’s Palace, The Palace Trust, Wells Google Scholar
Lewis, M 2016. Richard, Duke of York: king by right, Amberley, Stroud Google Scholar
Liddiard, R 2005. Castles in Context, Windgatherer Press, Macclesfield CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, N 1925 (1983 edn). A History of English Brickwork, Antique Collectors Club Ltd, London Google Scholar
Lyte, H C M (ed) 1903. Patent Rolls of the Reign of Henry III Vol 2, HM Stationary Office, London Google Scholar
Lyte, H C M (ed) 1910. Patent Rolls of the Reign of Henry VI Vol 6, HM Stationary Office, London Google Scholar
Mansel-Sympson, E 1910. ‘Tattershall Castle and Church’, Trans Thoroton Soc, 14, 2649 Google Scholar
Marshall, P E 2015. ‘The Angevin donjon and its legacy in post-Conquest Britain’, in Oram, R (ed), A House that Thieves Might Knock At: Tower Studies 1&2, 198213, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
Morris, R 1989. Churches in the Landscape, J M Dent & Sons, London Google Scholar
Mortimer, I 2007. The Fears of Henry IV, Vintage, London Google Scholar
Mortimer, I 2009. 1415: Henry V’s year of glory, Bodley Head, London Google Scholar
Payling, S J 1986. ‘Inheritance and local politics in the later Middle Ages: the case of Ralph, Lord Cromwell, and the Heriz inheritance’, Nottingham Medieval Stud, 30, 6796 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payling, S J 1995. ‘A disputed mortgage: Lord Cromwell, Sir John Gra and the Manor of Multon Hall’, in Archer, R E and Walker, S (eds), Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England: essays presented to Gerald Harriss, 117–36, A C Black, London Google Scholar
Platt, C 1982. The Castle in Medieval England & Wales, Chancellor Press, London Google Scholar
Rawlinson, K 2011. ‘“In Chapel, Oratory or Other Suitable Places in Their Houses”: religious routines and the residences of greater medieval households’, in Airs, M and Barnwell, P S (eds), The Medieval Great House, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
Roberts, D L 2018. Lincolnshire Houses, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
Rogasch, J 2014. ‘Building biographies’, in Smith, C (ed), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 1030–3, Springer-Verlag, New York CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, A 2002. Kings in the North: the House of Percy in British history, Weidenfield & Nicolson, London Google Scholar
Rose, M and Hedgecoe, J 1997. Stories in Stone: the medieval roof carvings of Norwich Cathedral, Herbert Press, Huntingdon Google Scholar
Ross, J 2016. Henry VI, Penguin Random House, London Google Scholar
Savage, J J 1961. Saint Ambrose: Hexameron, Paradise and Cain and Abel, Catholic University of America Press, Washington DC Google Scholar
Simpson, W D 1935. ‘The affinities of Lord Cromwell’s tower-house at Tattershall’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 40, 177–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, W D 1960. The Building Accounts of Tattershall Castle, 1434–72, Lincoln Record Society No 55, Lincoln Google Scholar
Smith, L C (ed) 1964. The Itinerary of John Leland in or About the Years 1535–1543: vol 1, Centaur Press, London Google Scholar
Speight, S J 2004. ‘Religion in the bailey: charters, chapels and the clergy’, Chateau Gaillard, 21, 271–80Google Scholar
Steane, J 2001. The Archaeology of Power, Tempus, Stroud Google Scholar
Thompson, M 1998. Medieval Bishop’s Houses in England and Wales, Ashgate, Aldershot Google Scholar
Thompson, M W 1987. The Decline of the Castle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Thorpe, D E 2011. ‘Writing and reading in the circle of Sir John Fastolf (d 1459)’, unpublished doctoral thesis, University of York Google Scholar
Turville-Petre, T 1998. ‘The persecution of Elizabeth Swillington by Ralph, Lord Cromwell’, Nottingham Medieval Stud, 34, 174–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underhill, N 1978. The Lord Chancellor, Terence Dalton, Lavenham Google Scholar
Virgoe, R 1973. ‘William Tailboys and Lord Cromwell: crime and politics in Lancastrian England’, Bull John Rylands Libr, 55 (2), 459–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, C 1981. ‘The site of Cromwell’s medieval manor house at Lambley, Nottinghamshire’, Trans Thoroton Soc Nottinghamshire, 85, 75–7Google Scholar
Wight, J A 1972. Brick Building in England, John Baker, London Google Scholar
Wolffe, B 1981. Henry VI, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Woodcock, A 2011. Gargoyles and Grotesques, Shire, Oxford Google Scholar
Woolgar, C M 1999. The Great Household in Medieval England, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar