The City of
York - One of the major
cities of the world
'The history of York is the history of England '
said King George VI
The articles on this page are very wide ranging and are taking
some time to develop - so if some of them say'ready soon' please accept our
apologies - we are extending the range of available items on a week by week
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York
Roman Festival
(click on link) |
An Overview For more detail see Detailed
History
People of interest in the history of York
York was founded by the Romans in 71 AD
and soon became a major military installation of the British Province. Several
Roman Emperors based themselves at York, and Constantine the Great was
proclaimed Emporer in York.York expanded to become a major social, economic
,military and political centre of the Roman Empire.
After the fall of Rome,in the 5th
Century, the area was invaded by Anglian settlers who founded a Kingdom centred
on the city of Eoforwic, which became a centre of great learning whose
influences spread throughout Europe . In the 7th Century Paulinus
founded a small Minster on the site of the previous Roman Headquarters, which
after several periods of rebuilding over hundreds of years became the
magnificent building we see today.
In the 8th and 9th
Century , Viking incursions led to the establishment of a Viking Kingdom with
York as its capital, and in its heyday York was one of the cultural jewels of
the Viking civilisation.
After the Norman conquest, York was
destroyed but soon recovered to become one of the powerful mediavel cities of the
land, having in common with London its own mayor ( later Lord Mayor) and
Sheriff. In the 18th century, the former glories of York were fading
, but were revived as York became the centre of high society and entertainment,
and in the 19th century, George Hudson, the Railway King, made his
city the centre of a hub of railways that revived the former propsperity of the
City.
Today , York is a vibrant ,pulsating
place, sure of its place at the centre of European cultural history and
development .
The next sections of this article give
details of the different periods in York's varied history, and of the people
and institutions who helped to form the City we see today.
The different periods
in York History
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'The
Anglians 425-800' ready soon |
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' The Vikings 800 to 1066' ready soon |
'Post conquest 1066 to 1600' ready soon |
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'Early Modern 1600 to 1800' ready soon |
'Modern
period 1800 up to date' ready soon |
People of interest in
York's history
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'St Margaret Clitherow' ready soon |
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'Constantine the Great ' ready soon |
' Sir Thomas Fairfax' ready soon |
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'Eric Bloodaxe' ready soon |
'Mary Ward' ready soon |
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'King Richard III' ready soon |
George Hudson - the Railway King' ready soon |
Topics and Institutions
of interest in York's history
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The Ancient Assize of Ale ready soon |
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'Architecture of York' ready soon |
'Churches of York' ready soon |
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'The Ancient Guilds of York' ready soon |
'The Lord Mayor of York' ready soon |
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'The Mansion House' ready soon |
'Military history' ready soon |
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The Ainsty of York ready soon |
'York Minster' ready soon |
Where to get further information
The following web sites will give further information about
attractions in or near York, or topics of interest about York :-
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Heritage and attractions |
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Castle Howard |
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Harewood House |
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Impressions Gallery |
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Jorvik Viking Centre |
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Millenium Mystery Plays |
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York Brewery Company |
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York Dungeon |
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Events and information |
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Events and information (2) |
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York Archaeological Trust |
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York Minster |
Tourist Attractions in the City of York
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Historical Buildings and Streets
York Minster
- The largest medieval cathedral
outside Italy
The Bar Walls
- The thirteenth century stone
walls and gates of the City
St Margaret Clitheroe’s shrine - The house of a martyred saint
The Multangular Tower – a part of the Roman defences still
standing 25 feet high
Various medieval Guildhalls – including the magnificent
Merchant Adventurer’s Hall
The Shambles - a medieval street virtually unchanged for
600 years
Fairfax House - A beautifully
restored Georgian Town House
The Mansion House – Residence of the Rt Hon the Lord Mayor, a
member of the Privy Council
The Churches of York -
Most of the medieval stained glass of England is within York
Clifford’s Tower - A
uniquely designed stone keep of the medieval castle- a site of pilgrimage for
Jews because of the massacre
that occurred there
Micklegate - A well preserved Georgian Street
Lady Row - The
oldest surviving row of houses in England
The Roman Bath - A
public house where the Roman Baths can be visited
See 'Where to get further information - other web sites'
The National Railway Museum - Locomotives and rolling stock from 1840 onwards
The Castle Museum - a
collection of everyday objects and recreated streets
The Jorvik Museum -
The streets of Viking York recreated on original site
The Yorkshire Museum – a major regional museum with Roman
artefacts
The ARC - an
archaeological museum where artefacts from all periods can be handled
The Museum of Farming -
A museum of Yorkshire farm history
Houlgate village – a recreated Viking village
York City Art Gallery -
A well stocked broad ranging collection
The Impressions Gallery
- A modern photographic gallery
The City Archives – the best preserved
ancient records in England going back 700 years
The Bar Convent Museum – The history of
Catholicism in the North of England
See 'Where to get further information - other web sites'
York Early Music Festival in summer
The Lord Mayor’s parade in early summer
The vintage vehicle rally usually in July
The Elvington Air show in August
The Jorvik (or Viking Festival of the
Jarl) in February
The York Festival of food and drink in
Summer
The Assize of Ale in August :-
Henry III
ordered the Sheriff to test the quality of the City’s ale –
And the
onerous task is still carried out with great pageantry to raise money for
charity
In December the famous St Nicholas’ Fair, when the whole city
comes alive.
See 'Where to get further information - other web sites'
See also 'Where to get
further information - other web sites'
On the bypass heading North , there are a
number of out of town shopping facilities. In the City itself, there is a wide
range of shops and a wide diversity of tourist attractions. There are a number
of good guides available (we stock some at the house) . There are good rail and
bus facilities, and churches of all denominations. There are theatres, cinemas,
and also the city has a most diverse musical culture. It is a centre of the
antique book trade, and its horse racing meetings are of world renown. York is
one of England's gems - we could not hope to cover it in a few words such as
this, but some of the web sites that are cross referenced under further
information will provide much more detail.
See also 'Where to get further information - other web sites'
If you want a good pub away from the
tourists, try a village outside York. Rufforth, Askham Richard, Askham Bryan,
Poppleton (which boasts that rare kind of pub where John Wesley spent a night !
), Acaster, Bishopthorpe. They all have good pubs, many of them providing food
to a high standard , but at prices aimed at the locals instead of the tourists.
For days out, try the Dales, (Herriot
country) ,the North York Moors (Heartbeat country ), Castle Howard (Brideshead
revisited country), Whitby ( Dracula country) , Scarborough, Knaresborough,
Fountains Abey, Rievaulx Abbey,the brewery tours at Masham - even a day out to
Leeds where there are shops, the National Armouries Museum and other
attractions.
' The
Romans 71-425' Return to top of page
The Roman Ninth legion advanced on York in
71 AD in support of the local Brigantine tribal queen in a civil war that was
ostensibly threatening the Roman state, but was in reality simply an excuse for
intervention and annexation. The Brigantine capital was a few miles to the
North West at present day Aldborough, but the Romans established a camp on what
is thought to have been virgin territory, at the confluence of the rivers Foss
and Ouse. The camp subsequently became known as Eboracum and developed into a
fortress.
The legion was commanded by Quintus
Petilius Cerialis, the prefect of the Emperor and hence the direct predecessor
in office of the present day Sheriff of York.
The Romans could always choose a good
site, and the choice of York was inspired. During the glacial periods the
glaciers had not only carved out the now sheltered vale of York but had
dumped their scourings in what is known
as a glacial moraine that forms two ridges across the Vale of York. The Vale at
that time was boggy and marshy, but the ridges had been exploited by early man
as a route of communication from East
to West. Where the force of two combined rivers had burst through the moraines,
just South of York , the east/west land communication was supplemented by nort/south rive communications with outlets
to the sea, and south to the river systems of southern England. By building
their camp on the raised land between the two rivers, effectively the Romans
had water defences on almost three sides, and a camp with splendid
communications. A camp in the middle of
the vale of York effectively commanded the narrow routes to the north and
Scotland at the top of the Vale, and in later times was used by the Romans as
the command centre for the defence of England (or more correctly Britannia) on
the wall known as Hadrian’s Wall .
In time the strategic importance of the
camp was recognised and the camp became a legionary fortress. The legion was
replaced by the Sixth Legion and the Ninth Legion disappeared mysteriously into
history. Outside the fortress there developed a civil town with a forum and
other amenities. The growth in importance of the City was accelerated when it
was used by the Emperor Severus as his base for his campaigns in the North in
the early second century AD and became the de facto capital of the Roman Empire
for a period of some years. This process was repeated in the early 3rd
Century when the Caesar Constantius Chlorus was based in York , and his son,
later to become Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor in York. It is
said that the imperial palace was a magnificent sight ( probably located
somewhere near the present Norwich Union insurance building) being faced with
glistening marble and gold decorations. There is some evidence that the villa
of Constantius Chlorus may have been located at Acomb Grange.
This growth in the importance of the city
was mirrored in its legal status. First a camp, then a legionary fortress ,
then a colonia ( a city of very high status – the city of Lincoln , also a
colonia derives its name from Lindum Colonia, its Roman name) and finally, it
is thought that Eboracum attained the ultimate status of an imperium along with
a select band of other cities such as Rome and Constantinople. It is said that
the Emperor Constantine granted the keys of the kingdom of heaven to the bishop
of Eboracum along with the bishop of Rome, and hence to this day the Archbishop
of York has the same keys as the Pope in his coat of arms.
The end came suddenly , as with all Roman
life, when the legions departed in 425 AD to meet the inroads by barbarians
into Italy and the Emperor Honorius told the citizens who petitioned him to
defend them against Saxon raiders that they should look to their own defence.
Within a generation, only a ghost of Roman life continued although it is
probable that the defences of the city continued in use thereafter. Clearly,
such a site of good communications and relatively easy defence would commend
itself to any invader or settler.
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Guy Fawkes -
the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions !
Guy Fawkes
was born in York, in a house just off Stonegate. Young's Hotel in Petergate
claims to be his birthplace, but actually the house is behind the site of the
present hotel
Guy Fawkes was a pupil at St Peter's School in
York and was a member of the plot to kill King James I and restore the Catholic
faith, by blowing up the Houses of Parliament at the State opening by the King.
The plot was betrayed and the plotters were arrested, and Guy Fawkes was hung
drawn and quartered.
The celebration of Guy Fawkes night or Bonfire
night on November 5th, when bonfires are held to commemorate 'gunpowder,treason
and plot' in fact arose out of the commemoration of a quite different event,
some 80 years after Guy Fawkes was executed. On 5th November 1688, King William
and Queen Mary ascended the throne after the Glorious Revolution that
instigated the system of constitutional monarchy. It is this event that was
originally celebrated on 5th November.
Peter Brown and Carol Brown of Acomb Grange,York are previous
holders of the offices of Sheriff and Sheriff’s Lady of York.
The Crown offices of the Sheriffs of England are one of the oldest
official offices, with their roots traceable to the seventh century. The ‘Shire
Reeves’ were the officers of the Crown in each county enforcing the King’s law
and representing the Crown in legal and official duties. The present day High
Sheriffs of the Counties of England can trace their offices back to the tenth
century. The thirteen city sheriffs of England and Wales, ( in a typically
English way they rank over the High Sheriffs) exercise the same functions in
the Cities that have a status of a County. These are places such as London,
Berwick,Lichfield and,of course, York.
The present office of Sheriff of York was created in the 14th
century by King Richard II. At a time when the King was weak and the City was
strong, the City of York gathered unto itself many powers that were quasi
independent of the crown, such as the right to raise an army in arms, to levy
taxes, and to appoint its own Sheriff. All other Sheriffs of England are
appointed by the Monarch, by the process known as ‘pricking’. The Sheriff of
York, on the other hand is appointed by the Lord Mayor of York, and can hold
office for one year at a time, whereupon he can be removed by the monarch. His
official title is Her Majesty’s Sheriff of the City and County of York. Under a
typically English and later British compromise, the Lord Mayor of York ranks
second to London in the State order of precedence, but the Sheriff of York
ranks over the Sheriffs of London. Only York and London, in England , have Lord
Mayors who are holders of a Crown Office and are Privy Councillors, and
entitled ‘Right Honourable’ . All other Lord Mayors in England are creations of
the Municipal Reform Acts of the nineteenth century.
Richard II commanded the first Sheriff to ‘test the allegiance of
men assembled in company in York, by requesting them to draw their swords in
salute with their left hands’ ( ie the none threatening hand). When sword carrying became less common, this
eventually transmuted itself into a toast of a drink. To this day, in York,
whenever the Sheriff attends any event, it is always the Sheriff who gives the
Loyal Toast ( and ill behove any host who seeks to ask any other person present
to perform the task). Etiquette demands that when glasses are raised in the
Loyal Toast, they are raised with the left hand.
The quasi independence of the City from the Crown, and its right to
raise its own army is signified in the City Coat of Arms, by the Cap of
Maintenance, the Norman equivalent of a monarch’s crown. Befitting this status,
the Sheriff of York is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces of Yorkshire,
who owe their allegiance to him, and through him or her to the present day
Queen. To many Sheriffs of York, this only takes ceremonial form, in that a
Sheriff will attend many military ceremonies such as beating the retreat and
take a salute, but it can take a more substantial form in that in times of war,
the Sheriff is kept informed of events, as indeed happened when Peter Brown was
Sheriff during the Gulf War in 1991. During their year of office, Sheriffs can
expect to fly with the RAF, sail with the Royal Navy, and observe Army
exercises, and have even been known to experiment with missile units !
The Sheriff is responsible for the maintenance of law and order in
the City, so is theoretically responsible for the organisation of the Courts and the provision of legal
resources. In practice,today, almost all of this work is done by the official
organs of state. However, even today, the Sheriff appoints as his Under Sheriff
a local lawyer who appoints Sheriffs Officers whose duty it is to enforce the
orders of the High Court with writs of fi fa, which can involve the seizure of
goods. In the days before a police force, the Sheriff would carry out policing
duties in the city. The Sheriff is the senior judge in the City, and tradition
dictates that he appears in Court in such a role on at least one occasion in
the year. Again, in practice, he does as he is told by a real judge.
One of the responsibilities of the Sheriff is to raise taxes, known
as the fee farm of taxes. In the middle ages, the Sheriff would collect the
taxes, and pay a part to the Crown, retaining a part for himself. Following a
charter of Richard III, only those taxes on the sale of goods and chattels in
the city that have been approved by the Sheriff may lawfully be raised on the
citizens of York. In order to give full legal effect to the taxes raised by
parliament, even to this day, the Inland Revenue and H M Customs and Excise pay
an annual peppercorn to the Sheriff of York to enable them to collect taxes in
the city.
One of the less pleasant tasks of a Sheriff was to organise
executions, and attend executions, and this occurred well into the twentieth
century, until the abolition of the death penalty in the 1960s.
In order to give full effect to his wide ranging powers, the
Sheriff had the power to raise a ‘posse comitatus’ – the power of the County.
In other words he could call up citizens into an militia to enable him to
enforce his writ or to deal with natural disasters or emergencies. The word
posse creates an image of a band of horsemen in the Wild West, but it is in
fact a very ancient English law enforcement technique. The posse was last
called up in York in 1947, during
serious flooding, when in fact
the posse consisted merely of the local army battalions. It is unlikely that a
posse would be called up in future, because although the power still exists,
the need for it has been superseded by legislation, such as the Emergency
Powers Act, which gives local authorities power to take steps in an emergency.
The office of sheriff as a representative of the Crown epitomises a
number of both English and British constitutional niceties.
One is the checks and balances of allegiance within the
constitution so that allegiance is owed to a person with no power. This means
that the armed forces and the judiciary have no authority of their own accord,
yet the Sheriff cannot override them except in extremis.
Another is the different threads of authority running through the law.
On the one hand is Royal Power, a residual power that still remains when all
else fails, and is known as the Royal Prerogative, and is the authority which
the Sheriff exercises. On the second hand is the Common Law, derived from
German tribal laws of the Angles and Saxons, which places checks and balances
between the Royal prerogative and the rights of citizens. And on the third hand
is the authority of Parliament, which over centuries has chipped away at the
Royal power and has advanced and strengthened its own power to control events.
A simple example of this is how the Courts, the Police and Emergency Powers are
now governed principally by parliamentary legislation, where once they were the
province of the Sheriffs.
There is one interesting area where the Sheriff of York has immense
theoretical powers, but in reality no power at all. Under the laws of
succession to the Crown, upon the death of a monarch, the Privy Council meets
and serves a writ of succession upon the Sheriff of York, as the senior Sheriff
of London, and upon the Sheriff of Edinburgh as the senior Sheriff of Scotland.
The two Sheriffs then mull over the matter of the vacant Crown, and are under a
duty to annotate the writ with the name of the person who they believe to be
the first in line practising Protestant descendant of the Electress Sophia of
Hanover. If the two names are the same that person assumes the role of
Sovereign of the United Kingdom. If the two Sheriffs cannot agree , they must
try again. When the law was created shortly after the Union at the beginning of
the eighteenth century , there were not many descendants of Sophia around, so
it is provided that if the two Sheriffs run out of names of persons descended
from Sophia, then the Sheriff of York proclaims the Lord Mayor of York as King
of England, and the Sheriff of Edinburgh proclaims the Lord Provost of Edinburgh as King of Scotland and the Union
is dissolved.
In reality, the minute the Queen dies, Charles will be proclaimed
King and the two Sheriffs are unlikely to have any part in the proceedings !
The Sheriff of York, as the Queen’s representative, is not
permitted to enter the House of Commons during his year of office. The last
time that happened it was the primary cause of a Civil War ! When Peter Brown was Sheriff, he had
forgotten this when he was invited to take a drink with the MP for York at the
House of Commons, and he was requested to leave in no uncertain terms.
When emigrants left these shores for America in the Seventeenth
century, the powers of the Sheriff were still largely unrestricted by later
Parliamentary legislation. This meant that the concept of the English
Sheriff as it was at that time found
its way unfettered to America. In most present day States in the USA, the
Sheriff as law enforcer is the primary role, but there are a number of States
where Sheriffs have some of the other broader roles of the English Sheriffs. It
is America where the posse is most familiar, but it is firmly rooted in an
English system of Govermment going back to pagan Anglo Saxon times.
Last modified 21/02/2007