Things that interest me but not others. I live but two miles from the small hamlet of Salton, with its interesting church, photos you will find here. Apparently in the 12th century the Scots tried to burn down the church it had a thatched roof, and according to what I have read, it happened twice. Again at a later date. We forget the bloody history of wars that Britain went through, mostly of course because of the tribal nature of its inhabitants. That at one stage of its history before the Norman invasion, there was a series of smaller kingdoms such as Elmet, Deira and Bernicia, and the midlands were called Mercia.
Battle after battle for supremacy of course and Yorkshire being near the Scottish tribes was the first to feel the brunt of the raids from the North. Can you imagine the small bands of Scottish men that came on raiding escapades over the moors. The poor farmers and their families up on the moors slaughtered by hungry savage men for the food and cattle. then of course the armies, quickly assembled by the Yorkshire barons to fight the insurgents off. Kings battling for power, all added to the plight of the ordinary person in service to his lord. Well we live through a relatively calm time now but history documents a different tale.
Stephen’s reign was known as the Nineteen Long Winters. During this period the Scots, under King David I, twice invaded England. On the first occasion, in 1136, the Scots were bought off, but they left behind a garrison at Malton, where Eustace FitzJohn was left in charge. The most serious incursion was in 1138, when the Scots, aided by some English? traitors, advanced through Northumberland and Durham and arrived in the North Riding. King Stephen was otherwise occupied, and the Yorkshire barons were left to their own devices. They gathered in York, where the redoubtable Archbishop Thurston took the lead. He ordered his priests to muster the men of each parish and to lead them against the invaders. Thurston himself, although old and infirm, was with difficulty dissuaded from acting as a general. The army which marched to meet the Scots near Northallerton included many of the famous Yorkshire barons—the Mowbrays, the de Lacys and the Percys. Battle was joined in a field three miles north of Northallerton, on 22 August 1138, and after two hours of fierce fighting the Scots were routed. Thurston’s suffragan, the Bishop of Orkney, said Mass for the French-Norman and English soldiers in front of a ship’s mast fastened to a ‘mighty huge chariot supported with wheels’. On top of the mast was a pyx—a silver box, containing the wafer bread of the Mass, ‘that Christ Himself might be their leader in the fight’. On crosspieces below the pyx were fixed the sacred banners of St Peter of York, St Cuthbert of Durham, St Wilfred of Ripon and St John of Beverley. The battle thus became known as the Battle of the Standard.
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On yet another occasion the Scots paid a visit to Salton. From 1318 to 1322, during the reign of Edward II, Scottish armies made havoc in the north of England. They laid Ryedale waste, they burned Scarborough, Northallerton, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge; at Myton on the Swale they massacred an army of monks, canons, serving-men and farm labourers which William Melton, Archbishop of York, had collected. It was at some time during these four unquiet years that they came to Salton. They must have done much damage in the village, for, in the reign of Edward III, the Prebendary of Salton asked the king to reduce the value of the assessment of his Yorkshire estate because it had been much wasted by the Scots. This request was granted by the king, and Archbishop Zouche, Lord Treasurer of England, granted a certificate to the Prebendary of Salton reducing the valuation of his estate at Salton from £41 to £21.
Good to remember these imes at a time when we are living through a crisis of a different kind. Good to remember that all things pass.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find is when we look at the churches around and enjoy their peacefulness, it is wise to remember, the thundering priest or vicar frightening the congregation to death and the incidents of wars that are played out in the country. Religion/state/royalty
DeleteI remain fascinated by the very similar wars in this country, 500 years later, leading up to our revolutionary war. The British and the French alternated arming native Americans. We called these the French and Indian Wars. I believe for you, the Hundred Year War. They ended with the revolution. I love history, too, especially how much we have not learned.
ReplyDeleteI know little of the American Wars Joanne, another thing to learn about. I do know about our religious dissidents who emigrated to America to start new lives and many were successful. Many of our churches through our Civil War in the 17th century were desecrated by the Roundheads. Small things like cutting the noses of the noble lord statues, stabling their horses in the churches, mostly about disrespect.
ReplyDeleteThere's a stone pillar at a lay-by on the A167 just north of Northallerton that commemorates The Battle of The Standard. I stopped there last summer and photographed it and thought about the killing and why. The idea of those "sacred banners" you mentioned is quite spooky. Thank you for explaining the name of the battle.
ReplyDeleteHistory is like a long tapestry, unwinding its truth. One of the questions is why did the religious heads have so much input, the answer will of course come rolling back, it was all to do with power.
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