Royal Posts - Sunday Stamps

This week we are free to post anything we wish.

On the 350th anniversary of the Royal Posts being made available to the public in Britain the modern Post Office celebrated by issuing this set showing Royal Mail services which has recently come into my possession.

Great Britain - Royal Mail - 350 Years of Service.

 

 

 Issued 30 July 1985

It was on the 31 July 1635 that Charles I issued a proclamation from his Court which extended the use of the Royal Mail to the public. This enabled private letters to be carried along State correspondence. Fixed postal charges were introduced to finance the Royal Posts. For more than two centuries the cost of sending a letter was beyond the means of ordinary people until Rowland Hill's proposals for a Penny Post were adopted by The Post Office in 1840.

To see what others have chosen this week link up at Viridian's Sunday Stamps-96

Nottingham Castle and the gentle Mortimer.

 A-Z Challenge 2012 - N

Nottingham Castle

In the legends of Robin Hood Nottingham Castle is the scene for the showdown between the Sheriff of Nottingham and the outlaw. However there is much more to the history of the castle than its ‘connection’ to Robin Hood.

Reconstruction of Nottingham Castle - 1896

The castle held a commanding position on a promontory known as “Castle Rock”, with 40m cliffs to the south and west. At various times it has been a major fortress and royal residence. After the execution of Charles I it was largely destroyed. The Ducal Mansion now occupying the site was built in the late 1600s.

Nottingham Castle - 2005

Built by William the Conqueror in 1067, the wooden structure with a motte and bailey design was replaced by a stone castle in 1170 by Henry II. In 1194 Richard the Lionheart regained the castle from Prince John with siege engines Richard had used during the crusades at Jerusalem - the only time that an occupier of Nottingham Castle was defeated.

In 1212 King John held sons of Welsh nobles as hostages in the Castle before ordering their execution. The boys’ cries rang round the Castle as they were taken one by one to the ramparts and hanged. Their ghostly pleas for mercy are still said to be heard within the castle precincts.

More drama occurred on the night of 19^th October 1330, when the lovers, Roger Mortimer, 1^st Earl of March and Queen Isabella were in residence. The pair were acting as Regents for the young Edward III following their murder of his father Edward II. The young king and his supporters entered the castle by the secret tunnel now known as Mortimer’s Hole and burst into the lovers chamber. Despite Isabella pleading ‘Fair son, have mercy on gentle Mortimer,’ Edward imprisoned him I the castle. Sir Roger was taken to London and executed there as a traitor; hung drawn and quartered on 29^th November his remains were stuck on spikes and left to rot on traitors gate at Tyburn.

Ghostly echoes from the time may still be heard in the Ducal Mansion now occupying the sight. Footsteps are heard pacing to and fro in the subterranean chamber where Mortimer was held. Sometimes in the castle a woman’s voice pleads, ‘Bel fitz, eiez pitie du gentil Mortimer!’

Charles I raising his standard at Nottingham Castle 1642

In August 1642 at the start of the Civil War Charles I raised his standard outside the castle walls but for most of the war the castle was held by the parliamentary forces. After the execution of the King in 1649, the castle was razed to the ground.

The site was bought by the 1^st Duke of Newcastle in the 1660s; the Ducal Mansion was completed by his son in 1678. The building was attacked and burn down by rioters in 1831. Later a local architect was appointed to adapt the Castle into a building to be used as a museum and art gallery.

The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, opened Nottingham Castle in 1878 and Nottingham celebrated being the first municipal museum and art gallery outside London.

Nottingham Castle Gatehouse 2005

Manorbier Castle, Pembrokeshire was Hilary Melton-Butcher's castle for M on Saturday.

Attributions:

• Reconstruction of Nottingham Castle 1896; Source Mackenzie, James D. (1896) The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure, Vol II. New York: Macmillan. Author James Mackenzie (1830-1900) PD
• Nottingham Castle. Nottingham Castle 2005; author Rob Bradford; Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license
• Painting by Henry Dawson 1847 of King Charles I raising his standard at Nottingham Castle 24 August 1642 public domain
• Nottingham Castle's Gatehouse 2005; author Rob Bradford; Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license

Anniversary of an Execution

350 years ago on 30 January 1661 Oliver Cromwell was executed; 2 years after his death.

Cromwell died on 3^rd September 1658. His body was embalmed and lay in state from 18^th October to 10^th November before being interred in Westminster Abbey. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Parliament decreed that men who had cheated the executioner in life were not to cheat him in death.

Cromwell’s body was exhumed and transported to the Red Lion inn at Holborn. Tradition has it that Oliver’s ghost haunts the spot.

Early next morning the body was carried on a hurdle from Holborn to Tyburn where, clad in green cloth, it was gibbeted until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. When the body was taken down its head was hacked off; the executioner took eight blows to sever the neck. The trunk was consigned to a deep pit below the Tyburn gallows.

The head, stuck up on an iron-tipped oak pole, was exhibited until 1684 on the roof of Westminster Hall. Towards the end of the reign of King James II, it was blown down in a gale. The head passed from hand to hand before coming into the possession of Josiah Wilkinson and then a Canon Wilkinson.

Wilkinson left it to Cromwell’s own college, Sidney Sussex at Cambridge University.

Eventually the head received a proper burial at Sidney Sussex where a plaque proclaims:

The actual location is a closely guarded secret.

Twelve years prior to Cromwell's execution  on 30 January 1689, King Charles I was executed.