Commemorating the marriage of the Winter Queen

With the recent 400th anniversary of the wedding of Elizabeth of Bohemia and Frederick, Elector Palatine, there has been a series of programmes on the BBC commemorating the couple and their marriage. There was a feature on the wedding music on the  Early Music Show on Radio 3 on 16th February. Unfortunately this isn't available to listen again but you can download it as a podcast here. The wedding celebrations were organised by Sir Francis Bacon and included over a week of lavish entertainments including music by Robert Johnson, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Campion and John Coperario. There were also 17th century ballads, dances and catches.

In A Point of View on Radio 4 on 24th February Lisa Jardine spoke not only of the celebrity style of the couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge of their day, but also of Elizabeth as a powerful political force in 17th century Europe. You can hear Professor Jardine's programme here and there is an article based on it here.

History Today also featured an article on the marriage of the Winter Queen which is available here. To celebrate the event we are posting up not the portrait of Elizabeth that we have hanging in the collection at Ashdown which shows her in her widowhood but the miniature of her painted in her youth by Nicholas Hilliard. This shows why she was considered to be one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe!

Ashdown House is getting ready for the 2013 Season!

Spring is around the corner, the snowdrops and daffodils are coming through and in less than 2 months, Ashdown House will be open again. We can't wait to show you around!

The 2013 National Trust Handbook does not feature any opening times for Ashdown so we're giving all the dates, times and other information here on the blog in order for people to plan their visits. I'll be repeating this throughout the season. We would like to encourage as many visitors as possible to come to Ashdown because as one of the little gems of the National Trust, this is a house well worth visiting!

Opening times for Ashdown remain unchanged from 2012. Ashdown House and the parterre gardens are open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 2pm - 5pm.

The first day of opening is Wednesday April 3rd and the season runs to Wednesday 30th October. The woodland is open all year round every day except for Fridays.

Our rather special guided tours take place at 2.15pm, 3.15pm and 4.15pm. We view the elegant entrance hall, the magnificent 17th century staircase and take in the view from the frankly splendid roof platform. Along the way we take a look at Ashdown's renowned 17th century portrait collection and give visitors some background on the fascinating characters who have been a part of Ashdown's 350 year old history, including the dashing cavalier William, 1st Earl of Craven, Elizabeth Stuart the Winter Queen, King Charles II and even Jane Austen. From the royal court to the servants' hall, Ashdown has a tale to tell!

Throughout the year there will be talks, walks and exhibitions in the Information Centre. Our talented lace makers, wood turners and re-enactors will be around to give people a flavour of 17th century life. For those who prefer to visit at their own pace there are self-guided walks around the gardens and also a children's tour. (Don't miss our gorgeous Balleroy ponies!)

Also not to be missed is the atmospheric Iron Age hillfort of Alfred's Castle, said to be the rallying point for Alfred the Great's army before the Battle of Ashdown against the Vikings in AD871.

The ancient track the Ridgeway is nearby, as is the magnificent hillfort at White Horse Hill and Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow. The picturesque village of Ashbury with its 15th century manor house and pub, The Rose and Crown, is just down the road and there is fabulous walking and cycling all around on Weathercock Hill and the Berkshire Downs.

I hope we have whetted your appetite for a visit!

For more information please see the Ashdown House National Trust page at:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ashdown-house/

You can follow us on Twitter as well on @AshdownHouseNT

There is also an information line on: 01494 755569.

For all bookings and any other enquiries please do contact the regional office on 01793 710252 or email asdownhouse@nationaltrust.org.uk or direct to this blog at ncornick@madasafish.com

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Commemorating the Battle of Ashdown

The Battle of Ashdown between the West Saxon army and the Danes, took place on 8th January 871 AD. It happened a couple of months before Alfred became King of Wessex. I've blogged about the site of the battle previously and the work local historian Peter Knott did to locate it at Ashbury.  You can read the post here. Today on the anniversary of the battle I'd like to quote from Asser's description of what happened:

"In 871 the Viking army came to Reading. On the third day two of their earls rode out for plunder. Aethelwulf, ealdorman of Berkshire, confronted them at Englefield. The Christians won the victory.

Four days after these things happened, King Aethelred and Alfred assembled an army and went to Reading. They reached the gate of the stronghold. The Vikings burst out. Both sides fought fiercely but the Christians eventually turned their backs and the Vikings won the victory. Aethelwulf fell there. The Vikings, after a short rest, started to advance westwards from Reading.

The Christians, four days later, advanced against the Viking army at Ashdown. The Vikings, splitting into two divisions, organised shield walls. The Christians too split up into two divisions. But Alfred and his men reached the battlefield sooner (than King Ethelred who) was still hearing Mass.

Since the king was lingering still longer in prayer, and the Vikings had reached the battlefield more quickly, Alfred could not oppose the enemy battle-lines any longer without either retreating or attacking, and he moved his army against the enemy.

But the Vikings had taken the higher position, and the Christians were deploying from a lower position. A rather small and solitary thorn tree grew there, around which the opposing armies clashed violently. The Vikings took to ignominious flight and many thousands were slain over the whole broad expanse of Ashdown."

We will never know for certain the exact location of the Battle of Ashdown unless some incontrovertible proof comes to light, which seems unlikely. Here on the Ashdown House blog we are celebrating Alfred's victory and feel Ashbury has as strong an historical claim to be the location as any other site. It's also a wonderful opportunity to post up some of our gorgeous landscape photographs of the surrounding countryside!

Gerbier and Golf

G is for Gerbier and also for golf. In the Victorian heyday of Ashdown House there was a nine-hole golf course in what is now the fields to the west and south west of the house. I have a sketch of what the course looked like and we have drawn it onto an ordnance survey map to see where it would have been.

A number of National Trust properties once had family or “informal” golf courses as part of their landscape. Many, like Ashdown, have been lost but at Lyme Park in Cheshire, Studley Royal in Yorkshire and on Lundy Island, traces remain. There is a fascinating article about the ghost of the lost golf course at Studley Royal in the National Trust Views magazine, which you can click here to see (p33).

Golf first came to England from Scotland in the 17^th century with the Stuart dynasty. At Ashdown the golf course was part of a wider sporting estate that also offered hunting and shooting and had its own cricket team. Whilst we have photographs of the early 20^th century cricket eleven I have yet to come across any of Ashdown’s golfers.

And so to the other “G,” Sir Balthasar Gerbier. Gerbier was born in 1598 in Holland and was, amongst other things, a courtier, diplomat, art advisor, miniaturist, and spy. He was also an architect who worked with William Winde for the first Earl of Craven on the plans for Craven’s “palace” at Hamstead Marshall. It seems plausible that the same combination of Winde and Gerbier also worked on the plans for Ashdown House, which were drawn up at the same time. Gerbier died at Hampstead Marshall either in 1663 (according to a petition to the king from his daughters who asked for £4000 in unpaid salary) or in 1667 (according to Gerbier's monument in the local church). He is also buried there. It seems likely that the date on his memorial is wrong and that the building of both Hamstead and Ashdown were in their early stages when he died.

Season's Greetings from Ashdown House

Very best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year from the Ashdown House Blog!

The Lost Prince National Portrait Gallery Exhibition

Last week I visited the National Portrait Gallery in London to see the exhibition The Lost Prince: The Life and death of Henry Stuart. Henry was the eldest son of King James VI and I and the elder brother of Elizabeth of Bohemia, and he died tragically young at only eighteen years old. The exhibition was fascinating on several levels, not only for the light it threw on Henry's life and the wider context of the early Jacobean court but also for the links to Elizabeth.

This exhibition celebrates Henry’s life, his interests, influences, and his place in the wider world. It is a glorious display of art and artefacts from the early 17th century. From the letters Henry wrote to his parents as a child to the highly-decorated armour he wore, the exhibition splendidly illuminates 17th century life in the court of the young heir to the throne. There are full length portraits and tiny miniatures. There is even the wooden effigy that was made to lie on top of Prince Henry’s  coffin, now missing the head and hands, which had been modelled in wax.  The exhibition is sumptuous in its reflection of the riches of the Jacobean court but it is also tragic. It was fascinating to see the expectations that had been riding on Prince Henry and the way in which his public image as a heroic, martial ruler was being built. It was also moving to see the genuine grief that erupted on his death, from the devastation felt by his family to the outpouring of grief on the streets to see the brightest star of the next generation go out: “Our Rising Sun Is Set.”

There was a lot of interesting information on Elizabeth as well and the exhibition provided a wonderful insight into her relationship with her brother. The first portrait of Elizabeth on display was the full length one of her painted by Robert Peake the elder when she was seven years old. Peake was a favourite portraitist of the royal children. The picture was commissioned by John, 1st Baron Harington of Exton, in whose household at Coombe Abbey Elizabeth grew up until the age of 12.  Harington's son, Sir John Harington, was a close friend of Prince Henry and there is a matching painting of Henry and John with a similar background. This depicts a hunting scene and could have been painted with Coombe as background.

John Harington's role in Henry's life was also very curious. It was a period when young men were expected to travel  to complete their education (similar to the Grand Tour of the 18th century.) Foreign travel was, however, dangerous to the health.  William Craven's youngest brother died on such a foreign tour in 1636. So John Harington travelled on Henry's behalf since it was too risky for the heir to the throne to go abroad and he sent back detailed reports of the places he visited. Like Henry, Harington died young, aged only 23, his promise unfulfilled. A print of him in the exhibition shows him holding a baton, the symbol of military command.  Contemporaries considered him the very epitome of a virtuous Protestant knight.

There was also a portrait of Henry on display that had been part of the Craven Collection until it was sold off in 1966.  This had been commissioned by or given to Elizabeth of Bohemia. This really did make me speculate on the relationship between Elizabeth and William Craven (again!) A portrait collection was considered a very personal possession - Charles I inherited most of the art collection that had belonged to his mother and his brother, for example - so for Elizabeth to bequeath her collection to William Craven was, I think, most significant. 

Amongst the other portraits was a dazzling miniature of Frederick, the Elector Palatine, Elizabeth's husband, and a stunning sea piece depicting the departure of Elizabeth and Frederick for the Netherlands after their wedding.  Prince Henry was a great supporter of the marriage between Elizabeth and Frederick even though his mother was not, and he was planning much of the entertainments and celebrations for the wedding when he died. He and Elizabeth were close; they wrote affectionate letters to one another in their youth and after Elizabeth came to court at the age of 12 they spent much time in each other's company and had a genuine bond. This was demonstrated when Henry died. His last coherent words were to ask for his sister. After he died she did not eat for two days and cried ceaselessly. The other portrait of Elizabeth in the exhibition was painted in 1613, shortly before Elizabeth's marriage and just after Henry's death. In it Elizabeth wears a black arm band on the sleeve of her gorgeously-decorated gown and also an elaborate black locket containing an image of her dead brother. Elizabeth and Frederick's son and heir was named Frederick Henry for her brother and the poet Henry Peachum wrote the poem "Prince Henrie revived" to commemorate the birth. It was clear that there were hopes that Prince Henry's intelligent and courageous spirit would live on in his nephew.

Ashdown Park Farmhouse

We are at the letter "F" in the A - Z of Ashdown and today I am blogging about Ashdown Park farmhouse, which is situated in Ashdown village, on the green. There are records that state that the farmhouse originally had a date stone over the door with the date inscription of 1617. I'm not sure whether the blank stone that is there now is new or whether the inscription was destroyed. Either way it is a pity that the original carving no longer remains.

I used to assume that date stones such as these marked the year of building but apparently that is not always the case. At Ashbury Upper Mill, for example, there is a date stone in the wall from 1792, which was not the year of build but marked the year when the building underwent major restoration. If the same is true of Ashdown Park farmhouse this makes sense of the suggestion that the building has an earlier, medieval core. The Ashbury estate came into the Craven family in 1625 so the renovation of the farm earlier in the century took place when the estate still belonged to the Essex family.

A lot of additional work was done to the farmhouse in the 18^th century when it was extended. Many of the features, including the windows, are late 18^th century. I think it's a beautiful building in a lovely position on the village green.