UK's C19th model village: Saltaire

Titus Salt (1803-76) was born near Leeds, educated in Wakefield and served an apprenticeship with a wool-stapler in Wakefield. He moved to Bradford in 1821 with his parents & siblings at 18. In his years in Bradford he worked with William Rouse & Son, learning textile manufacture.

Titus’s father, Daniel, founded a Bradford business as a wool-stapler. In 1824, Titus joined his dad’s business, Daniel Salt and Son, expanding with a spinning business in Thornton Rd in 1834. By then Bradford was a magnet for people seeking work or a business; the city experienced a 78% population growth in 30 years due to the raw-wool-cloth industry. Alas Bradford mills flooded untreated industrial waste. 

Mill, Tripadvisor

In 1835 Titus Salt established his own business. He’d already used Eastern European wool and had secretly experimented with alpaca wool. By 1837 he found that by using alpaca as the weft, and cotton as the warp, he could produce fairly priced, durable lustrous cloth. He was the first maker of the new cloth & greatly expanded his Bradford business.

But to escape the polluted, crowded Bradford slums for greener pastures, he decided to relocate his business and his employees. Local architects Henry Lockwood & Richard Mawson planned a new community where Salt’s work force would be healthier, happier and productive. Work began in 1851 and continued for decades. Salt planned for a wide range of public buildings and amenities, so work soon started on Saltaire’s industrial community. In Aug 1854 Lockwood & Mawson hired contractors in the local press to erect a large dining hall opposite the mill with offices & kitchen. The Dining Hall fed the mill’s workforce, who lived outside.

The vast efficient textile factory was the first building done. Moved by Bradford workers’ poor lives and his religion, Salt created an industrial town in rural surroundings, named from Salt and from the River Aire in the village.

Titus purchased land near Shipley and the Mill opened with fanfare Sept 1853, Salt’s 50th birthday. The mill took in raw materials, to scour, wash, comb, draw, spin and weave, design and finish them into high quality cloth. Its 3,000 workers could produce 30,000 yards of cloth daily.

Workers' cottages, Wiki

 
Then they designed the entire village in a classical style a la Italian Renaissance. The Salts Mill and the decent houses were built from 1851-71 to allow workers to live decently, locating a large textile mill near Leeds-Liverpool Canal & railway; thus his raw materials and finished goods could be easily moved. Salt planned his workers’ village with public buildings that looked impressive and well designed for purpose. Lockwood & Mawson planned a new community where Salt’s workforce would be healthier, happier & productive. Work began 1851, until 1876. A vast and modern textile factory, the Mill, was ready first - Lockwood & Mawson designed it all. The finest work was Congregational Church, set in a spacious landscaped garden. The new church was opened in Ap 1859, a precious Victorian gem. It boasts important architectural and historical features; now the United Reformed Church is set in landscaped gardens.

Congregational Church, and later United Reformed Church 

Real Yorkshire Blog

In 1886 Titus Salt Jr proposed an Arts Exhibition that could raise funds for a new building for Art-Science education & to honour dad. The Exhibition Building was completed in 1887. It housed 14 large class rooms, central hall and gallery:  Institute of Technology and now a site for Shipley College.

The Mausoleum built onto the church has Titus' remains. Although a committed Congregationalist, Titus was not restrictive about religious worship in his town. He didn't compel his workforce to attend a church. In Oct 1866, laying a stone for a new Wesleyan Chapel was celebrated. 

Factory School, opened 1868

now Shipley College Salts Building, x.com

The lofty hall gave space for the Factory School, church services, Sunday school, reading room & library. There was space for 500+ to attend social events, concerts, lectures on current issues & celebrations. The Factory Schools opened in 1868 on Victoria Rd, for 750 people. The classrooms had central heating, gas lighting and fitted cupboards.

Playgrounds behind the schools included covered areas for bad weather. Titus and his son Titus Jr were modern thinkers in establishing quality education, but the new school’s capacity was soon insufficient to meet children's needs. Space was made available for art and science education in the Saltaire Club and Institute opposite the schools.

Victoria Hall, Alarmy

Salt Schools on Victoria Rd, Institute and Victoria Hall were built by John Barry, opening 1871. The facilities were huge, containing a lecture hall seating 800, classrooms, 2 art rooms, chess rooms, laboratory, gym, library of 8,500 books, reading room and concert venue; their task was to provide a social club and an educational institute to supply the advantages of a public house without its evils. Its ornamental belltower is seen throughout the village. Titus was keen to see adults self-improving. Building the Factory Schools was followed by a grand project opposite the new school.

Salt Hospital, with hospital marker under top window

later converted to flats

2 storeyed Salt Hospital in Victoria Rd had an Infirmary and Dispensary, 6 beds and a surgery. As demand for its services grew, it began to provide treatment for the local community plus for mill workers, closing in 1979 to become flats.

The residential area covered 25+ acres, eventually consisting of 21 streets, 2 roads, 2 terraces & 4 places. 850 quality houses of varying sizes (2-7 bedrooms) were built in William Henry St, house occupancy dependant on ability to pay the graded rents. The houses ranged widely, all superior to working-class houses in nearby Bradford & Shipley. They had a proper drainage system; water & gas were supplied to each house, and each had a back yard and a private toilet. The streets were open-ended to let in sun and air. The shops included grocers, chemist, post office, butchers, hardware shops and retail facilities. Once complete, the village comprised 800+ high quality homes, two churches, school, park, adult education institute, hospital, baths, washhouse and 45 almshouses for the aged or infirmed, fronted by a peaceful trees and plants. Almhouse residents were selected by Salt in his lifetime and later by a board of trustees: these tenants lived rent free and received a weekly pension. 

Salt later improved conditions eg impressive Victoria Rd School site 1869. Rich outer architecture honoured educ-ation and the classes suited the 750 pupils. This big building was soon outgrown by Saltaire’s booming population. The Salt family lobbied for a new school and by 1878 it had been built. Not as charming, but big enough to cope with demand. This school is now part of Shipley College, Victoria Rd. Its Italianate richly carved architecture has columned loggias, round-topped windows, overhanging eaves, turret & school bell. The centre displays Salt’s coat of arms in a roundel surrounded by laurel leaves, scrolls and relief carvings. The school was for workers’ children, parks, boats and games. Leisure activities included a boys’ drum-&-fife band and brass band for village men. Titus Jr & wife strongly wanted education for the under-5s, leading to a separate pre-school.

With quality housing, employment, recreation, educational facilities and social services, the model town became an example of progressive C19th urban planning. The building was nearly done in 1871 when the census showed Saltaire had 755 houses and 45 alms houses, for 4,389 people.

Titus died in 1876 and was interred in the mausoleum beside the Congregational church. When his son Titus Salt Jr died in 1887, Saltaire was taken over by a partnership including Sir James Roberts from Haworth. Roberts had worked in wool mills since he was 11, had sizable business interests in Russia. Roberts came to own Saltaire, but chose to invest his money heavily in Russia, losing much money in the Russian Revolution. He endowed a chair of Russian at Leeds Uni and bought the Brontës' Haworth Parsonage for the nation. Roberts died in 1935 and was buried at Fairlight Sussex.

Saltaire Park, later Roberts Park

National Lottery Heritage Fund

Saltaire Park across the River Aire opened in C19th, designed and laid out by William Gay. The name changed in 1920 to Roberts Park when the second owner, Sir James Roberts, gifted the park to the local Council to honour his late son. The park, a key element of the model village, offered many leisure activities for the worker eg archery, croquet, cricket and pavilions. The northern portion has windy paths, landscaped gardens, pavilions, East Park lodge, promenade with shelters and Salt’s statue. And the original bandstand.

Saltaire retained ownership of the Mill until it was sold to Bradford Property Trust, 1933. The new owners arranged with Shipley Urban District Council for improvements eg new gas services, mains electricity, sewerage & sanitary services. It included a scheme to eliminate the waste-water toilets and the old type of coal store, and to erect new facilities, requiring the removal of 43 houses to open the village. In 2014 planning officers replaced front doors for historic ones.

Saltaire was selected for the World Heritage List in Dec 2001 and Europe’s Route of Industrial Heritage website as a fine example of a C19th model town demonstrating the social and economic impact of the textile industry. And it was recognised for its global influence on town planning. The model village’s buildings are individually listed with UNESCO, the highest honour going to Congregational church. UNESCO protects natural and cultural sites of global importance.

Salts Mill closed Feb 1986; Jonathan Silver bought it in 1987 to convert into a multi-functional site with an art gallery, cafes & technology company HQs. The art gallery had large rooms for Bradford-born artist David Hockney: paintings, drawings, photos, stagesets. Then book shops, art supplies, jewellery, sportswear, antiques, bicycles and housewares.

The Saltaire Collection in Shipley College has special books, documents, photos & historical objects. Note the research into residents/workers, the Salt & James Roberts families who built and sustained Salts Mill; photos & documents related to working in the mill and living in the village; legal and business documents; personal memoirs; maps; and crockery for Royal visits. The History Club has great lectures.

Saltaire, on the map of England

Credit: Salt & Light

In 2003 Saltaire Festival celebrated the city’s 150th anniversary, now held in Sept; Saltaire Arts Trail is a visual arts festival held in May. Credit to City of Bradford.

a dream city for tourists: Palermo

 

A 2023 survey by Travel + Leisure invited readers to vote on the world’s most beautiful cities. Clearly the answer differed for everyone, but see their non-exhaustive list of the world’s 25 most beautiful cities. I chose Palermo.

transport from Southern Italy to Sicily

On Sicily's Nth coast the sunny city is a dream for archit­ect­ure fans, right on the Mediterranean's cross roads. Palermo shows a striking mix of architectural styles, after centuries of conquest & differing cultural influences, a rich history of local civilisations. It changed from a Carthaginian stronghold to a Roman province, reaching its cultural peak in Arab rule (831–1072) and then Christian Norman conquerors, creating the unique Arab-Norman architectural style seen now.

Palermo has many fine museums, Sicily's Regional Gallery being housed in a stunning C15th Gothic-Catalan palace and containing iconic works of medieval and Renaissance art. Separately Palermo noted that a Goddess Artemis fragment be­l­ong­­ing to the Parthenon’s east­ern frieze on loan from Sic­ily’s Archaeol­og­ical Museum will remain in Ath­ens. And the Vatican will return Marble fragments from the Vatican Museums, with papal donations

Royal Norman Palace of the Kings of Sicily created in C12th, had the beautiful Palatine Chapel in its 2nd floor. Inside the chapel is decorated with beautiful golden mosaics, and the ceiling is very different from any other Christian church. Carved wood in an Islamic style. Tickets to the Norman Palace include entry to Palatine Chapel, Royal Apartments, Royal Gardens and special exhibitions. 

Palermo Cathedral, built 1185, was built on a Byzantine Church. See the architectural styles that reflect the long history of additions & renovations to the cathedral. In a chapel, right of the altar, lies St Rosalie, patron saint of Palermo. And see the tomb of Blessed Father Puglisi, Mafia-killed. Entry to the cathedral is free except for a visit to the rooftop for great views over the city and to the royal tombs.

The Arab-Norman architectural style features unique blends of Islamic domes & Byzantine mosaics. Palace of the Normans is a striking gold-stone example of the Arab-Norman style and home to Sicily's regional parliament,  a C9th palace representing one of Europe's most ancient royal residences. And the Palatine Chapel, completed in 1142 is one of Europe's great artistic treasures with stunning Byzantine mosaics covering the walls and ceiling.

Built from 1875-97, Teatro Massimo is the largest Opera House in Italy and 3rd largest and most celebrated after Paris & Vienna Operas. Tea­t­ro Mass­imo’s copper dome is c250’ over the piazza bel­ow. From the roof­top, see the city’s terracotta skyline in the early evening.

Quattro Canti Square/Piazza Vigliena is the centre of Palermo’s historic quarter, lined with 4 Baroque buildings. Tourists can see beautiful opera performances in the square, a famous Baroque intersection that beautifully divides the historic city into 4 distinct quarters. It is an architectural marvel of squares, with baroque beauty & intricate details. Each corner is a masterpiece, with the baroque statues representing the Four Seasons. 

C16th nude sculptures at the Piazza Pretoria

 

Near Quattro Canti is Praetorian Fountain, built in Florence in C16th. When the owner lost money, he sold the fountain to the City. The fountain was broken into hundreds of pieces and shipped to Palermo to be reassembled. Because of the totally nude statues, and a convent looking out onto the fountain, it was called the Square of Shame. 

teatro massimo

Norman Palace

Palatine Chapel

Porta Nuova/New Gate next to the Norman palace was built when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V came to the Kingdom of Sicily in 1536 and crossed the arched entrance to Palermo. To honour the event, New Gate was completed in 1584, later destroyed by fire and then rebuilt more elaborately by the City Senate as the triumphal arched gateway leading to the oldest street, Cassaro.

Porta Nuova 

Like Rome's Church of the Capuchin Monks, where there are bodies & bones arranged into art, the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo opened 1599, to avoid throwing all the dead brothers into a mass grave. Originally only Capuchin friars were entombed in the catacombs, but in C17th & 18ths, it was a way for people to show their wealth and power. There are 2000+ mummified bodies in the catacombs now, dating to C16th-early C20th. Men were embalmed and put on display in their clothes, remarkably well preserved, as are their intact hair and skin. There's NO photography in this eerie historical site. 

Capuchin catacombs

The World of Sicily

Ballaro Market is the one of the oldest street-markets in Italy & Palermo’s largest. Fish, meat, fruit & vegetables are available, complete with plenty of street food stalls. Loud and crowded, the stall holders can be very vocal advertising their produce and the atmosphere in the passionate street-life surrounds its historical outdoor markets like Arabic souks. il Capo Market is smaller and quieter than Ballaro, primarily a fish market and also has plenty of street foodstalls. The best time to visit is in the morning since many stalls close after lunch. la Vucciria Market Square in Sicilian means chaos, an apt description for this small square with its fish restaurants and food trucks. 

Gorgeous coffee shops in the small lanes

A train runs from Naples to Sicily then drives onto the ferry, by day or on overnight sleepers. Or fly to Falcone-Borsellino Airport from several European cities or get a connecting flight via Rome. If driving to Sicily by car, vehicle ferries travel from different mainland ports to Messina, Sicily’s primary transit hub.

Summer is peak season but winter is the best time to visit when the mild weather is great for walking around the city. All the attractions are open, and there are smaller crowds! The only issue might be the fewer daylight hours in winter. Near the Norman Palace, relax in the Gardens of the Villa Bonnano with palms and citrus trees, offering relief from the city’s action. And Mondello Beach is just a short distance from the city centre, an iconic coastline with pure water and stunning Mediterranean views. Although Palermo was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, and since I've only spent one day there, I gratefully thank Nigel and Sue Adventures.

Tyrannicide Brief: he sent Charles I to die

Read Tyrannicide Brief: Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold by Geoffrey Robertson. Charles triggered the tragic civil wars (from 1642) when 1 in 10 Eng­lish­men died. But in 1649, Parliament struggled to find a law­yer with guts to pro­secute a king who claimed to be above the law.

In the end, they chose the radical lawyer John Cooke (1608–60) whose Pur­it­an consc­ience, pol­itical vis­ion and love of civil liberties made him stand out. Cooke might have been just an average lawyer but he was an impressive reformer. Robertson said that in the 1640s, Cooke had been the first to assert that poverty was a cause of crime. Cooke was already arguing for: a nat­ional health service; a national legal serv­ice; end most capital punishment; probation for those who stole out of hunger; and an end to the use of Latin in court.

Geoffrey Roberston's book

Note the execution of King Charles I on the front cover

Cooke was a criminologist who wrote frequently. Ev­ery­thing that came off the presses in this 1640-60 era was collected and placed in a special room in the British Library, in­cluding all the transcripts of the trials and public­at­ions. Robertson gave the Puritans the credit for the good years, all the more note­wor­thy because they had suff­ered the king’s destruction of their relig­ious beliefs. Some left for the USA, but those who remained for­ged a belief in the literal Bible and in Magna Carta, civil liberty and bills of rights. Robertson was most impressed with their fierce belief in civil lib­er­ties, but I was not. Where was the historical evidence?

What the Puritans achieved in the 1640s was the abolition of Star Ch­am­ber. They created the principle of no taxation without repres­en­t­­­at­ion, and were keen on the separation of church and state. They fought in the civil wars that the king started. The king was also guilty, as Cooke later showed, of supervising torture of prisoners of war, and of encouraging plunder by the royalist forces.

In 1649, after Oliver Cromwell's army took Charles I pris­­on­er, the new regime had to decide what to do with the king. They could have killed Charles, but a fair trial was seen as more ethical. Cooke was asked to prosecute him, esp after other suitable lawyers hid away from their Inns of Court.

In Par­liament's brief to Cooke, the judge had to end the immunity of the head of state. But the divinely appointed king WAS the law, so prosecuting him seemed impossible. Thus Cooke had to invent the crime of Tyranny (aka War Crimes today). He put Charles on trial in Jan 1649, charging him with abolishing peop­les’ civil liberties and with mass murd­er­ing citizens. In Westmin­ster Hall, as this improbable trial was starting, the king was brought in and Cooke delivered the charges.

John Cooke

The king did the right thing at his trial, asking by what lawful auth­ority the state disregarded sov­ereign imm­unity and put a king on trial? Cooke answered that, be­cause there were certain crimes that were so heinous they dimin­ished the whole state, a king COULD be put on trial.

The decision to execute the king was the judges to make, but perhaps they didn’t predict that the executed royal would become a martyr. King Charles I was taken to the scaf­f­old and beheaded later in Jan 1649, and for the next ten years he was remembered kindly. Executing him only inflamed the civil war further.

Cromwell appointed Cooke as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland where of course he made very progressive rulings. Naturally the wealthy land-owning lords hated Cooke.

In 1653, at the head of an army, Oliver Cromwell marched into Parliam­ent and dis­mis­sed the members.

King Charles II returned from France in 1660 and the monarchy restored. Cooke was the very first to be arrested, suff­ering a rigged trial at the Old Bailey when Charles II avenged his father. The ex-judge was taken to Charing Cross and made a very fine gallows speech: 'We are not traitors; we would have secured the lib­erty of the people and the whole groaning creation if the country had not pref­er­red servitude to freedom.' He was hung, drawn and quartered.

Cooke and other regicides were executed. Cooke’s heart and genit­als were fed to street dogs, and his head was shown at West­min­ster Hall. Samuel Pepys travelled to see some of Cooke's colleagues executed, but found that the exec­ut­ions had been sus­pended. App­ar­ently Charles II’s advisors saw the crowd turning nasty. They would have to detain republicans without trial, despite the fact that habeas corpus laws were in place. So it was decided to put all the repub­lic­ans on off-shore islands (eg Jersey) where habeas corpus wouldn't reach. Does this remind us of Guantanamo Bay?

Conclusion The key years 1640-60 was an era when extra­ordinary prog­ress was made in human rights. The sovereignty of parl­iament, indep­end­ence of the jud­ges, separation of church and state all go back to this short, important era.

The Hon Michael Kirby believed that the King Charles' trial was by legal stand­ards a dis­creditable affair. This seemed indisputable, until Robertson dug out a very old edition of the State Trials. Rob­ert­son was surpris­ed to find that Charles’ trial was far from discreditable - on the con­trary it app­eared for its time as an oasis of just­ice and fairness."

Rob­ert­son said Cooke's trial was actually the dis­cred­it­able affair. The defendants had been locked up for months in plague-filled prisons, and were brought to the Old Bailey in leg-irons to be viciously taunt­ed by pro-Charles II judges. The Cooke events, Robertson proposed, showed that a person was more likely to get a fair trial in a repub­lic­an court, than in a monarchical court. And provided a model for modern trials of criminal national leaders. 

The devil sits with 11 men: 9 regicides and 2 chaplains who supported Charles I's execution

Wikiwand

Robertson showed that some important 1640s men have been white­washed out of history by British historians, both conservative and liberal, for pol­itical reas­ons. These extra­ord­inary men, who had taken on King Charles I, were later ex­ec­ut­ed at the Old Bailey in 1660. Thus Robert­son concluded that the king’s execution was necessary to est­ab­lish Parl­iament's sovereignty and that the regic­ide trial victims should be seen as national heroes. I can agree with his first conclusion but his second conclusion sounds like a barrister, not like an historian  

Beautiful Madeira Islands near Portugal

Madeira (under blue spot), Portugal and Morocco

Wiki

Madeira’s written history started in 1418. It was then the navigators led by João Gonçalves Zarco sighted, after days afloat on the high seas, a small island that saved them from tragedy, a safe harbour they named Porto Santo Island. Next year, 1419, they reached Madeira Island.

Navigators Tristão Vaz Teixeira, Bartolomeu Perestrelo & João Gonçalves Zarco became the first settlers. Portuguese King John I (1357–1433) ordered the colonisation process in 1425 with people of modest means, ex-prisoners of Portugal and some lower nobility. Other settlers were peasant farmers and fishermen hoping for better prospects after the bubonic plagues ravaging Europe. To develop agriculture, settlers cleared parts of the dense forest with long lasting fires.

King John I statue in Lisbon

Wiki

Madeira's settlement history showed its clear potential. The islands were in a perfect geographical location, quickly making it an international point of connection, with fertile volcanic soils & subtropical climate all year. During colonis-ation, some crops were introduced that became central to Madeira's history. Sugar cane brought great economic wealth to the region. Madeira began planting sugarcane, a rare spice then, in c1450 and quickly became a large exporter of sugarcane and a popular sugar stop for European traders. From C16th, the islands were established as one of the most famous sugar producers in the world: White Gold. The use of slave labour in sugar cultivation was launched on a small production model in Madeira in 1452, the earliest place to use slave labour for sugar. This was due to its proximity to Africa’s coast, 400 km to the Canary Islands and c520 km to Morocco; but c1000 km from Portugal!

The cultivation of sugarcane continued until most production moved to Brasil. Then fishing & vegetables were the main products for Madeirans. But in order to develop Madeira's agriculture, it was essential to thin out the dense forest and to build many levadas-aqueducts. They brought water from the island’s wet north to the dry parts in the south. Today there are 2,170 km+ of levadas still used for water transport, hydroelectric power & popular walking trails with great views. Already in 17th & C18ths, Madeira's history was marked by a new culture that boosted the economy.

Madeira was marginally involved in both world wars. There were a handful of German attacks in WW1, during which Germany declared war on Portugal on Mar 1916. In WW2, Portugal was neutral but did agree to take in Gibraltarian humanitarian refugees, until the war’s end.

Madeira gained political autonomy in 1976 after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, when a military coup ended Portugal’s endless dictatorship. Today Madeira’s population = c256,000 people, the majority of whom live on Madeira island and 5,000 people living on Porto Santo island. Of those on Madeira, almost half (105,795) live in the capital, Funchal. The population is almost entirely Catholic (96%) and tourism makes up c30% of the Madeiran GDP.

Old Town Funchal

Museum of Wine and Vine, tasting room

 

With 600+ years of history, this Atlantic archipelago protects a vast collection of monuments, churches, museums and other cultural spaces. Madeira's heritage stands out for its undeniable historical relevance. Walking in the streets of Madeira's towns and cities means enjoying direct contact with that heritage. It is a journey into the past through different architectural styles, historic spaces or artworks from the eras. Among Madeira's heritage, see King Manuel I late Gothic relics, military or modern architecture. And valuable paintings, photos, sculptures, jewellery, furniture and porcelain found in the chapels, churches, cathedrals, forts, palaces, old estates, museums or cultural centres.

The capital city, Funchal, is central to Madeira's cultural heritage. Wander down the streets of this European city to enjoy its rich heritage eg art pieces from 7 museums. These artefacts were chosen for their history and their relationship with Madeira. All the museums are ideal for exploring the archipelago's history, identity and traditions but also for discovering the region's natural wealth. 

Madeira Island vineyards

The special wine produced is globally acclaimed still, and although Madeira is mostly made with red grapes, white grapes are also common. Since C17th, Madeira’s main export has been wine, used in many traditional Portuguese dishes. In Santana municipality on Madeira’s north coast, the Museum of Wine and Vine is housed in an old restored cellar, examining wine’s complex production process. Three wine presses have been restored in the cellar, offering visitors the chance to inspect these traditional spaces and utensils used in viticulture. Additionally the Museum also has an explanatory section on the cycles of the vine. Note the Museum includes a shop for buying traditional products!

The Solar do Aposento is a traditional, wealthy house preserved in the Madeiran architectural tradition. Built mid C18th in Ponta Delgada, this agricultural property’s building came with out-buildings; the ground floor was occupied by wine stores, next to a wine press. So visiting Solar do Aposento means witnessing island life in 18th & C19ths.  Recently the site gained a small chapel and extensions near the kitchen. The interior explores various decorative styles. Most of the furniture are of C19th Madeiran origin, with pieces in mahogany and chestnut wood, like contemporary English furniture. And also Portuguese furniture from the late 18th and C19ths. And see important paintings and sculptures eg the C17th oil painting of Our Lady with Child and a polychrome, gilded upholstered wooden sculpture of St Anthony (mid-C17th). Also see a carved and gilded wooden mirror from Queen Donna Maria I (1734–1816).

Funchal family houses and beach rental houses

The Madeira Story Centre explains the archipelago’s rich history. Situated near the cable car station in central Funchal, the Centre teaches via an exhibition of authentic historical objects and interactive multi-media equipment. The Museum’s halls are organised in themes: Volcanic Origins; Legends of Discovery; Discovery of Madeira; Turmoil and Trade; Strategic Island; Madeira Development; After Navigation; and Exploring Madeira. From volcanic genesis to pirate attacks, going through the Centre suits the entire family. See the panoramic terrace, to scan Funchal city and to taste the local cuisine.

Madeira Flower Festival

each year in April-May

Beyond Madeira

The paradisal nature of the two Atlantic islands became famous around the world. Some of the European aristocracy, attracted by the therapeutic properties of this Eden, began to take up temporary residence here. Madeira flourished with tourism, and still does today.

Pope Benedict IX: young, often enthroned.

Theophyl­ac­t­us of Tusculum (c1020–c1056) became the youngest pope ever as Pope Benedict IX. The date of his birth was uncer­t­ain but his first papacy DID start in 1032. Benedict was great-grandson of Marozia, a powerful Roman polit­ician who ?was mist­ress of Pope Sergius III. Via Mar­ozia, Sergius possibly sired Pope John IX. Several of Mar­ozia's descendants became popes, and Ben­edict's immediate predecessors were his loved unc­les Popes Bened­ict VIII and John XIX.  His father was Holy Roman Emperor Alberic. This was arguably the most power­ful Italian family, enabling the family to control the papacy for a century! 

                                          

Pope Benedict IX, c1030 

Hulton Archive

The Catholic Encyclopaedia said Benedict was c20 years old when he became pontiff. But the closest source to the pope himself was the monk-historian Rod­ulfus Glaber (985-1047). He was a critic of Benedict, but still he was one of the few contemp­or­ary sources available. He said the pope was 12 in 1032, the time of his accession! As did med­ieval scholar F Donald Logan, who wrote about Benedict IX in A History of the Church in the Middle Ages.

In terms of theology and activities of the Church, he was entirely orthodox. But Benedict was accused of sodomy, best­ial­ity and homo­sexuality; he was said to have held orgies inside Lat­eran Palace. Clois­tered monk St Peter Dam­ian was horrified and wrote a treat­ise ag­ain­st all sex, especially homosex­ual­ity. Damian’s Book of Gom­orrah said it had been ramp­ant within the Catholic Church for centuries.

Benedict was also accused by Bishop Benno of Piacenza of many ad­ul­t­eries and murders. As did Pope Victor III in his Book of Dial­og­ues. But Benedict came up with one sin that no one before or since has repl­icated: selling the papacy!

The first trouble came in 1036 when political oppon­ents tried to murder Bene­dict in St Peter's Basilica Rome during mass. But Ger­man Emp­eror Conrad II restored him to power before long, and Benedict stay­ed in Rome until 1045. In those years, he continued to steal and murd­er; fed up with him, the people of Rome again drove him out.

When Ben­edict IX was ousted, his enemies replaced him with the Bishop of Sabina, Pope Sylvester III. But it took only 2 months for Bened­ict IX to re-invade Rome with force, depose Sylvester and re­turn to pow­er again. Amaz­ing­ly Bened­ict allowed Sylvester to return safely to his old bishopric in Sabina, but Sylvester was later declared an anti-pope.

Benedict IX enjoyed his second papacy for c2 months, and then abdic­ated because godfather arch­priest John Gratian gave him money. Bened­ict IX had really wanted to marry his cousin and decided he would finan­ce his new life by selling his pontificate to Gratian. But she rejected Benedict.

Benedict's tomb in the monastery, died at 35.
All That's Interesting

Grat­ian made a better pope than his god­son. After sealing the deal, Gratian became Pope Greg­ory VI in 1045. This deal annoyed Syl­vester III who promptly sought to reinstate his own papacy. Gregory had bank­rupt­ed the church in buying out Benedict, so he couldn’t fight off a new claimant. His papacy lasted as long as Sylv­ester's, but this time it took longer for Benedict to return to power, as planned.

Rome’s clergy broke into 3 factions, each supporting 1 claimant (Pope Gregory, Benedict, Pope Sy­l­vester). So Henry III King of Germany & Burgundy invaded Rome to intervene. He met the candid­ates near Rome in Dec 1046. King Henry wanted to resolve the crisis, so that the legit­im­ate new pope could quickly crown him as Holy Roman Emperor.

So the Emperor opened Sutri Council in Dec 1046 to dismiss all 3 of them. Syl­vester tried to fight for his claim so he received life imprisonment. Pope Gregory admitted he was in above his skill-level and resign­ed. Even though Benedict was assured of the support of the libert­ine fact­ion, the young man didn’t show up for the pro­c­eedings and was deposed. So King Henry's selected Bishop Sugier of Bam­berg to become Pope Clement II at Christmas 1046. In return Clement quickly crowned King Henry III as Holy Roman Emperor.

Pope Clement II died mysteriously in Oct 1047, af­ter serving only 11 months as Pope. So Benedict seized the Lateran Palace in Nov 1047, and again installed him­self on the papal throne. But Benedict was driven away by Henry III's German troops in July 1048 who installed Pope Damasus II (July-Aug 1048) instead. Damasus died a month later from ?malaria.

Even after one of the shortest pap­ac­ies in history, Benedict IX did NOT go for a fourth papal term. Rather Benedict retired to a monastery near Rome where he repented and soon died, at only c36 years old. Emperor Henry III quickly returned to Rome and made Leo IX pope (1049-54), the man who ruled for 6 years and brought stability to the pap­acy. 

Emperor Henry III at the Synod of Sutri, 
rejecting all three contenders for pope. 
Hulton Archive 

Conclusion 
What a story! Benedict’s father got the Papal chair for him in Oct 1032. Benedict had three terms as pope: 1] from his election to his expul­sion for Sylvester III (Oct 1032–Sept 1044); 2] from his return to his sel­ling the papacy to Gregory VI (Apr–May 1045); and 3] from his return post-Clement II to Damasus II (Nov 1047–July 1048)'s start. He ruled during a tumultuous church era with 7 diff­erent, rapid papacies, the only man to have been Pope more than once.

NB the close subordination of pope to German emperor in mid C11th. In fact the ful­filment of the emperor’s supreme duty was to watch over the welfare of the ch­urch; the emperor was the agent of St Peter on earth. Thus 962-1046 saw the empire at its zenith and the papacy much weaker.

Thank you to Luciano Anastasi for The Tale of Benedict IX: A Papacy for Sale.

Tower of London: palace, execution, tours

After defeating the last Saxon king of England Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror/William I of England would con­trol his new kingdom. He distributed the conquered lands to his fav­our­ite nobles, a useful practice from wars in Norm­andy. They built motte-and-bailey forts and soldiers built a wooden tower to house the battal­ion, its weapons, horses, food and val­uables. The bar­r­acks could become a refuge, if the outer defences were breached. Around the hill, Norman soldiers built an enclosure for a well, rais­ing crops, feeding livestock and holding weap­ons. 

Upper photo: Tower of London

Lower photo: entrance through the Byward Towers

defended by the moat and draw­bridge

Post-Hastings William I wanted to stake his claim to Saxon lands and to control hostile subjects. Clergy­man Gundulf (1024–1108), who des­ig­ned castles & ch­ur­ches in France, became Bishop of Roch­ester in 1077 and was asked to design the new fort­ress-castle. In 1078, William ordered building the White Tower of London, a 90’ high square tower with tapering walls, soaring up over Lon­don. The 1st floor had liv­ing quarters, soldiers’ ref­ec­t­ory, dormitory and Roman­esque Chapel of St John. The 2nd floor’s rooms were for the con­stable/Tower’s comm­ander: a great hall, ch­apel gall­ery, meet­ing room and living-rooms. And there was a cellar.

The Tower took 20 years to build, only finished when William II had a stone wall built around the Tower. Then Gun­d­ulf began a stone curtain-wall enclosing land between the Tower and riv­er. Under Henry III (r1216-72) and Edward I (r1272-1307), the Tow­er reached today’s basic design: the central White Tower surround­ed by two curtain walls with their 20 towers. The main C13th entrance was via two cyl­ind­rical Byward Towers and defended by the moat and draw­bridge.

Two of the Tower’s early prisoners of state were King John the Good of France, taken in Battle of Poitiers in 1356; Char­les Duke of Orléans, captured at Agincourt in 1415.

When King Edward IV died in 1483, Richard Duke of Glouc­ester became lord protector of his son Edward V. Glouc­ester put Ed­ward and his young brother Richard Duke of York in the Tower, awaiting Edward V’s coronation. But spurred on by Glouc­es­ter, Parl­iam­ent made the 2 princes illegitimate, confirming Glouc­ester as King Richard III. Were the young Princes in the Tower mur­d­ered in the Tower in mid 1483?

Inmates wrote of torture in Bell Tower records and torture objects used in 1500s & 1600s are in the Royal Arm­ouries.

By the 1500s Henry VII abandoned his Tower Palace home after losing his firstborn son. His most lasting contribution was founding the Tower Yeo­men of the Guard, direct ancestors of today’s Yeoman Warders/beefeaters.

Yeomen of the Guard

guarded the tower interior, including the crown jewels

Then the site became a notorious prison, the Tower’s most famous prisoners being gaoled by nasty King Henry VIII. When Henry sought to divorce Cather­ine of Aragon and split from the Cath­olic Church, Thomas More wouldn’t accept the king as supreme head of the Church of England. More was gaoled in the Tower, convicted of treason and executed.

2 of Henry’s wives went to the Tower. Anne Boleyn gave him one daug­h­t­er (later Elizabeth I) but no sons, so Anne was arrested for treason & executed in 1536. Henry’s 5th wife, Catherine Howard, was arrested & executed for adultery.

Inevitably the Catholics and Protestants battled on. Young King Ed­ward VI, who’d been raised a Prot­es­tant, created his Device for the Succ­es­sion (1553), dis­inheriting his Catholic half-sister Mary and his Prot­estant half-sister Elizabeth. Instead his crown passed through his aunt’s line to her Prot­estant granddaughter Jane Grey. But noone told Jane & only 3 days after Edward’s death in 1553 she became became queen anyhow. Queen Jane quickly lost the support of her entire Privy Council; in 1553 the Catholic Mary was formally declared by Parl­iament as the next mon­ar­ch. And although Queen Mary rel­uc­t­antly signed Jane’s death warrant, Jane’s trial and execution quickly followed.

 (ex Queen) Jane Grey was executed, 1553

Historic UK

Queen Mary’s fears about usurpers continued. She gaoled her half sister, Princess Elizabeth-whom Mary believed had masterminded the plots. So in 1554, 20-year-old Eliz­a­b­eth was also kept under house arrest in the Tower, living as mum Anne Boleyn had. Still, finding no evidence of treason, Mary moved Elizabeth from the Tower to house-arrest elsewhere.

Mary died in 1558 and Elizabeth took the throne. The new queen still used the Tower to hold enemies of the crown; from Walter Raleigh to Guy Fawkes, infamous prisoners and deaths at the Tower maintained its notorious reputation. Even Samuel Pepys was ac­cus­ed of complic­ity in the Popish Plot, selling naval secrets to France and piracy. He was imprisoned there in 1679 and eventual­ly disch­arged, but was later re-gaoled for plotting to restore exiled King James.

The Tower also stored chancery records, relating to diplomatic corr­es­­p­on­dence and government­ decisions, plus pr­operty ownership docu­m­ents and tax­at­ion. The Records Office was in the Wake­field Tower, the largest in the Tower of London complex, where it remained un­til 1858. Only then did the Public Records Office move to Chancery Lane.

Now the blood has been cleaned up, the Tower is London’s most famous tourist site. Admire the Crown Jewels, including the coron­ation reg­a­lia worn at a new monarch’s investiture, and the cerem­on­ial regalia worn at the State Op­ening of Parliament. St Edward’s Crown is a C17th replace­ment for Saxon King Edward the Confessor’s crown.

Crown jewels

British Heritage

  

Russian Grand Duchess Anna Anderson?

Romanov family with Grand Duchess Anastasia seated far right.
Credit: Ati

In July 1918 Bolshevik revolutionaries shot Czar Nicholas II, Czarina Alexandra, four Grand Duch­esses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, son Tsarevich Alex­ei and 4 servants. Their bodies were taken from the Yekaterinburg cellar in the Urals, and buried in the forest, yet rumours started that the body of the Grand Duchess Anastasia had not been accounted for. Did she hide in the closed cellar?

Since 1918 many women called them­selves Missing Anast­asia. But only two women gathered subs­tant­ial support. See an earlier post about Anna Anderson and the other pretenders.

The princesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia

Alexander Palace, 1916

Anna Anderson was suicidal and was sent to Dall­dorf Mental Asylum in Berlin in 1920. One of the pat­ients believed Anna was the Grand Duchess and two years later Anna also started believing the story. So the Czarina of Russia’s brother, Ernest Louis Grand Duke of Hesse, hired private investigator Martin Knopf in 1927 to discover who she really was.

He found she was Franziska Schanzkowska, who’d worked in a munitions factory in WW1. After her fiancé was killed at the front, a grenade fell out of her hand and exploded. She had head in­juries and a foreman was killed in front of her.

In 1928 she moved to USA and liv­ed off Rus­sian Princess Xenia Georgievna, a distant rel­ative of the Romanovs. But Anna had to return to Germany. For 20 years she struggled to get her name recognised by the Eur­op­ean courts.. and failed. In 1968 she moved back to the USA wh­ere she married a wealthy man. And­ers­on died in the USA in 1984.

More recent events Canonisation of the dead Romanovs in Nov 1981 told the world the Orthodox Church made them saints. This was based on the bel­ief that all the ro­y­al family were all totally, irrev­oc­ab­ly murdered.

The bodies of Tsar, Tasarina and 3 of the daughters were found in the woods outside Yekaterinburg in 1991. Exhaustive post mortem exam­in­ations con­firm­ed that the bodies were indeed the Romanovs, so they were quickly was buried in a vault in Saints Peter & Paul Cathed­ral, St Petersburg. But this did not end the rumours because the son and one of the 4 daugh­t­­ers might still have been alive.

Questions remained: had Grand Duchess Anastasia really es­c­aped from Russia and later resurfaced as Anna Anderson? Tissue samples were kept after And­ers­on died, so plans could fin­ally made for post-mortem DNA tests. In 1994 DNA tests on a lock of Anna's hair and sur­v­iving med­ic­al tissue samples sh­owed that her DNA did NOT match any Romanov rem­ains.

Anastasia, c1914                                                                            Anna Anderson, c1917

Ati                                                                                                   Ati 

This claim was investigated by com­paring Anna’s DNA with DNA ext­racted from the Ro­m­­anov bones. Mat­ernally inherited mitochondrial DNA, which is pass­­ed un­ch­anged from mother to child, was analysed from each of the samples. If Anna had really been Anastasia, her mitoch­ond­rial DNA should have been a perfect match to her mother’s and sister’s DNA. As most historians ex­pected, multiple diff­erences were detected between Anna’s DNA prof­ile and the DNA profile of her mother and sisters. Anna Anderson was just an imposter!

So who WAS Anna Anderson? Instead Ander­son's mitochondrial DNA was compared to that of Carl Maucher, a great-nephew of Franz­iska Schanz­kowska via the maternal line. The DNA profiles from Anderson and Mau­ch­er were a close match, provid­ing strong evidence that Anna And­er­son was indeed Franzisca Schanz­kow­ska. We may never know the rea­s­ons she claimed to be a Romanov, but perhaps her mental illness led her to believe that she truly was a Grand Duchess.

Unexpectedly, in 2007, the 4th daughter and the son were found cremated near Yek­ater­in­burg. It was never verif­ied if the 4th sister was Maria or Anastasia, but ALL 4 girls had been proven by DNA testing to be part of the royal family.

Her story has been adapted into plays, cartoons and films includ­ing the film Anastasia (1956) that earned Ingrid Bergman an Oscar for her role as the Romanov princess. And the award-winning film Anastasia: The Myst­ery of Anna (1986). But remember that the DNA tests from the above studies had not been carried out before the plays and films were made. The true DNA profile of Anna Anderson had not been confirmed, or denied, before 1994.

Thanks to allthatsintersting. 

 

London's worst 2 years ever: 1665, 1666

 The Bubonic Plague of 1665-1666 had been known in Europe for cent­uries. In England, this was the worst out-break of plague since the Black Death of 1348.

The Plague Window in Eyam Church

Historic UK

It was the rat, attracted by impoverished, rubbish-filled city streets, that brought in the black rat-flea. It was the flea that carried bacteria and caused the plague. The Bubonic Plague created buboes i.e swellings in the lymph nodes found in the armpits, groin & neck, and victims experienced splitting headaches, vom­iting, swollen tongue and fever, turning the victim’s skin black.

Incubation took only 4-6 days and when the plague appeared in a household, the house was sealed, thus condemning the whole family to death! These houses were distinguished by a red cross and the words ‘Lord have mercy on us’ on the door.

The plague started in the Far East and quickly spread through Eur­ope. In London it began in the poor, overcrowded parish of St Giles-in-the-Field outside the city walls. In May 1665, only 43 people died. But the death rate began to rise during the hot summer months and at its peak in August, 31,160 people died. While 68,600 deaths were formally recorded in the city in 1665, the true number was probably 100,000, c15% of London’s population.

Sometimes whole communities died and corpses littered the streets, since there was no one left to bury them. In other places the corpses were brought out at night in answer to the cry,’ Bring out your dead’, put in a cart and taken away to the great gaping plague pits dug into the earth.

King Charles II and his Court fled for Hampton Court in Surrey, then to Oxford. People who could afford to send their families away from London in these months did so - most doctors, lawyers & merchants fled the city. So Parliament was postponed and had to sit in October at Oxford. Court cases were also moved from Westminster to Oxford.

The Lord Mayor of London and the aldermen remained in London to enforce the King’s orders to try and stop the spread of the plague. The poorest families had no choice but to remain in London with the rats and the plague victims. Watchmen locked and kept guard over infected houses. Parish officials provided food. Searchers looked for dead bodies and took them, always at night.

Consider the measures taken by King Charles II in response to the plague. All trade with London and other plague towns was stopped. The Council of Scotland declared that the border with England would be closed. There were to be no fairs or trade with other countries. This meant many people lost their jobs, including those who worked on the River Thames. Orders to the mayors ensured that no stranger was allowed to enter a town unless he had a formal Certificate of Health. No furniture was to be removed from an infected house. There were to be no public gatherings like funerals.

A couple suffering the buboes of bubonic plague

C15th Toggenburg Bible

The plague spread across England. York was one city badly affected. The plague victims were buried outside the city walls and it is said that they have never been disturbed since then, as a pre­cau­tion against a resurgence of the dreaded plague. The grassy emb­ankments below the city walls are the sites of these plague pits.

Memorials were placed everywhere. In some towns and villages in England there are still the old market crosses which have a dep­res­sion at the foot of the stone cross for vinegar. In Derbyshire the small village of Eyam, 6 ms north of Bake­well, has a story of tragedy and courage that will always be remembered. The Plague Window in Eyam Church still recalls the era.

So how did the plague ever end? Did the black rat develop a greater resistance to disease? If the rats did not die, their fleas would not have needed to find a human host and fewer people would have been infected. And the humans who had not died also started to develop a stronger immunity to the dis­ease. After 1666, more effective quarantine methods were used for ships coming into the country.

King Charles II returned to London in Feb 1666, then the gentry returned. Tradesmen opened their businesses again, and life might have returned to normal. Then in Sept 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed much of cent­ral London. Fortunately the fire also helped to kill off the black rats and fleas that had carried the plague bacillus. When the City was rebuilt after the Fire in brick and stone (not wood), the streets were widened and the open sewers were eradicated. This was the last major plague that London ever saw! 

Two men discovering a dead woman in the street in London, 1665.
Photo credit: Wellcome Trust

Read Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, 1722. And Samuel Pepys’ Diary gave a vivid account of London’s empty streets. The Lost City of London – Before the Great Fire of 1666 is an excellent blog.