Pictures of Yorkshire (3)

My third and final post about Rievaulx Abbey.

Edward II was staying at Rievaulx on 14 October 1322 when a Scottish force, led by Edward's old nemesis James Douglas - who had nearly captured him after Bannockburn eight years before - defeated Edward's small and hastily cobbled-together force at the Battle of Byland, about 6 or 7 miles away, and swept towards Rievaulx to capture the king. Edward's cousin John of Brittany, earl of Richmond - like Edward, a grandson of Henry III - was captured after the battle, and imprisoned for the next two years.

Edward, meanwhile, was forced to flee from Rievaulx to escape from the Scots, and rode to Bridlington on the coast, where he took a ship to Burstwick and then to York. (Why he fled to Bridlington of all places, I don't know.) The Bridlington chronicler, who might have seen Edward there that night or at least talked to members of his retinue, asks rhetorically "What worse fate could befall the English than to behold their king fleeing from place to place in his own realm in the face of the Scots?" Edward was forced to leave all his treasure behind, which was trimphantly seized by the invading Scots.

Oh, the humiliation!!

Edward had also come close to being captured after Bannockburn, and lost all his baggage to the Scots, but at least that time he'd acquitted himself bravely in battle. In 1322, however, he was over 100 miles inside the borders of his own kingdom. The author of the Westminster chronicle Flores Historiarum, always Edward's harshest critic, puts the boot in, as usual: Edward "fled, spurring on his horse, trembling and defenceless." The Lanercost chronicler, also no fan of Edward, wrote "the king of England...ever chicken-hearted and luckless in war and having already fled in fear from them in Scotland, now took to flight in England, leaving behind him in the monastery in his haste his silver plate and much treasure." (The chronicler is not entirely fair to Edward here, or to him and his knights in the aftermath of Bannockburn; he says "to their perpetual shame they fled like miserable wretches," but what were they supposed to do once the battle was lost - hang around and allow the king of England himself to be captured?) The Anonimalle, which claims, apparently incorrectly, that Edward was at Byland Abbey a few miles away, not Rievaulx, says that his horses and even their harnesses were taken by the Scots, evidently because Edward left in such a hurry.

The picture at the top is a horse harness pendant, bearing Edward's arms, found during excavations at Rievaulx. (About the only thing of his the Scots missed!)

And finally, a few more pics of the abbey. Check out the fantastically blue sky in some of them - sunshine! In Yorkshire! In October!

Interior decoration from the abbey church, found during excavations.

Pictures of Yorkshire (2)

Rievaulx Abbey (2)

This is my second post today with pics of the fantastic ruins of Rievaulx Abbey - scroll down for the first one.

You can click on the pics to enlarge them.

The galilee porch in front of the abbey church, a typical feature of Cistercian buildings, with the remains of eight graves of important patrons. One is that of Isabel Ros, died 1264, and another is of a man named Jordan.

The nave of the abbey church, built in the 1150s.

In the north and south aisles of the nave stand the remains of 14th-century chapels. The stone slab in the forefront of the pic is an altar.

The north and south transepts, built in the 1150s and heightened in the 1220s - as you can see from the lighter stone and the larger windows.

The south transept from the other side.

How the south transept would have appeared in the fifteenth century.

Two chapels in the south transept.

Five chapels behind the high altar and Ailred's shrine. The middle three were dedicated to St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist and the Virgin Mary.

The north transept.

The west range, which dates from the 1130s and is the oldest surviving part of the abbey - in fact, this is the oldest surviving Cistercian building in the world. Originally, it was the lay brothers' parlour and refectory, and (above) dormitory, but after about 1300 was remodelled to make private offices for senior abbey officials.

Pictures of Yorkshire (1)

Rievaulx Abbey

Rievaulx ('ree-voh') was founded in 1132 as the second Cistercian abbey in England (after Waverley in Surrey, founded four years previously), when Walter l'Espec granted the Cistercians about 1000 acres of land in a valley a couple of miles from his castle at Helmsley - which is about 35 miles north of York and 30 miles west of Scarborough. 406 years after its foundation, on 3 December 1538, Abbot Roland Blyton and 21 monks signed the document of surrender, and handed the abbey over to Henry VIII's commissioners. Henry granted it to the earl of Rutland, who promptly set about pulling down parts of the abbey - and has, I can only hope, been languishing ever since in the part of hell reserved for people who wilfully destroy magnificent old buildings. Still, looking on the bright side, the damage could have been infinitely worse.

Rievaulx is just the most amazing place. I could have wandered around all day, soaking up the atmosphere, marvelling over it. At its height, it must have been utterly magnificent, mind-blowingly rich and splendid.

Click on the pics if you want to enlarge them.

The picture at the top is the presbytery looking towards the high altar (the large stone slab at the end) and here, how it looked in the Middle Ages, and looking upwards and sideways.

The outside of the refectory.

The high altar, with the now sadly non-existent shrine of St Ailred just behind it (nearest the camera). Ailred became the third abbot of Rievaulx in 1147 and died twenty years later. The shrine, made of gold and silver, must have been superb.

The chapter house. This is where the monks met every day, when a chapter of the Rule of St Benedict was read out (hence the name of the room), monastic business was conducted and discipline enforced. Important guests were welcomed here, so it's highly likely that Edward II was in this room on his visit to Rievaulx in 1322. The stones in the middle are graves of early abbots. It was in this room that Abbot Blyton and the remaining monks signed the deed of surrender in 1538.

Just outside the entry into the chapter house, this is the shrine of St William, first abbot of Rievaulx, who died in 1145; the shrine was constructed about a century later. William's remains were placed on the higher level, and the lower level was designed for pilgrims to crawl into, to get closer to the relics and thus benefit more from their miraculous properties. It would, of course, have once been highly decorated and lavish.

The refectory (upper level, where the lighter stone begins; the ground floor was an undercroft). From fragments of paint which remain, we know that the walls were pale pink.

Some pics of the abbot's lodgings, built for Ailred in the 1160s. Edward II probably stayed here in 1322.

Steps that no longer lead anywhere, and looking upwards.

What remains of the inner gatehouse.

A latrine shaft.

Flying buttresses outside the presbytery. The ground to the right was the monks' graveyard.

Return

I got back from holiday yesterday. We had a great time in Yorkshire, and surprisingly, the weather was pretty good - only one rainy morning during the entire week, and mostly sunny. From the third day on, though, it was unusually chilly for the time of year, only about 10 to 15 degrees (about 50 to 60 F). Just before we left, I got a bad infection in one of my root canals - oh, the pain!! Half my face swelled up - really not pretty. Although I often fantasise about being able to time travel back to Edward II's era, I have to admit that for a couple of days I felt like falling to my knees in gratitude for being born in a world with antibiotics. And strong painkillers.

I have hundreds of photos, though, wouldn't you know it, I had a disaster with my digital camera and managed to delete loads of them. If you were anywhere in the vicinity of Old Byland last Wednesday, you probably heard my scream of rage and frustration. Oh well. Still have lots of pics to post here. To be going on with, here are pics of the four great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, from top to bottom:

- Jervaulx, founded 1156

- Byland, founded 1134
- Fountains, founded 1132
- Rievaulx, founded 1132.