Bloody British History: Buckinghamshire - Eddie Brazil - E-Book

Bloody British History: Buckinghamshire E-Book

Eddie Brazil

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Black death at Bletchley! Pustules and pest houses. Burnt at the stake! Lollards tortured and hanged. French kings and guillotines! Exiled King Louis XVIII at Hartwell House. Farmhouse of thieves! The amazing true story of the Great Train Robbery. Buckinghamshire has one of the darkest histories on record. Its residents included the Dinton Hermit – better known as Charles I's executioner – and Sir Everard Digby, the Gayhurst nobleman who tried to blow up James I, as well as a truly apocalyptic priest at Water Stratford. With Romans running amok in the Chilterns and the Anglo-Saxons terrorising Aylesbury, this chilling catalogue of battles, deaths, diseases and disasters will make you see the county in a whole new light.

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Seitenzahl: 142

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

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INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE HISTORY OF Britain has generally been one of relative peace, innovation, triumph and victory interspersed with periods of calamity, catastrophe and bloody murder. One could say the history of Buckinghamshire has been no different. Yes, we can be proud that the county is the birthplace of the Paralympics, the Open University, the first Sunday schools and has such personalities and luminaries as John Milton, Jerome K. Jerome, Enid Blyton, Sir Lawrence Olivier, David ‘Del Boy’ Jason, and the exiled kings Zog of Albania and Louis XVIII of France as one-time residents.

Yet down the years Buckinghamshire has also seen its fair share of bloody battles, vicious murders, catastrophic disasters, devastating diseases, and enough oddballs and eccentrics to fill ten football pitches. If you, dear reader, are fascinated by the darker, more bizarre and downright peculiar aspects of the history of Buckinghamshire, then read on!

Perhaps it is no great credit to Buckinghamshire that a book of this kind could have been thrice the length. I have tried to include as broad a spectrum of the county’s dark and weird side as possible, and I apologise if I have omitted any grisly deed or deadly act. Throughout the pages I have referred, where relevant, to locations and events outside of Bucks, as the history of the county is inextricably linked to the incidents, episodes and people who have shaped the history of Britain.

I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I have had researching and writing it. I would like to thank Cate Ludlow, Naomi Reynolds and all at The History Press for their support; also my good friend Paul Adams for his help and encouragement. Finally, thanks to my wife, Sue, and my daughter, Rebecca, for their patience, sandwiches and beer.

Unless otherwise credited, all images are part of the author’s or The History Press’ collection.

CONTENTS

Title

Introduction and Acknowledgements

43 BC–AD 55

Buckinghamshire v. the Romans

AD 400–1066

Saxon Terror!

AD 1348–1666

The Black Death

AD 1455–1485

The Wars of the Roses

AD 1521

Burned at the Stake

AD 1605

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

AD 1642–1649

Skinheads v. Longhairs

AD 1649

To Kill the King

AD 1665

A Funeral Fracas in Amersham

AD 1690

It’s the End of the World – Except for Water Stratford

AD 1724–1766

The Weirdoes of West Wycombe

AD 1750

Sad Suki

AD 1777–1878

‘Fetch the Engines, Olney is on Fire … Again’

AD 1780–1852

The Scrooge of Buckinghamshire

AD 1809–1814

The Vampire, the President, an Exiled King and the Travel Agent

AD 1828

The Murder of Noble Edden

AD 1832–1849

The Scourge of Cholera

AD 1854–1870

Murder, Buckinghamshire Style

AD 1871–1891

Flying Saucers Over High Wycombe

AD 1891

The Chiltern Manhunt

AD 1890s

The Stab Monks of Chalvey

AD 1914–1918

The Great War

AD 1923–1962

Dunsmore’s Doomed Daredevil

AD 1941

The Babes in the Wood

AD 1939–1945

Buckinghamshire Does its Bit

Copyright

43 BC–55 AD

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE V. THE ROMANS

THE COUNTY OF Bucking-hamshire was created in the late ninth or early tenth century by the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great (reigned 871–899). The territory or shire, which took its name from the settlement (or ‘ham’) of Bucca’s people, covers an area of 750 square miles and stretches some 52 miles from north to south and about 20 miles west to east. It is one of the smaller English shires and today its boundaries remain pretty much the same as those defined over 1,000 years ago.

Of course, in the beginning the area wasn’t known as Buckinghamshire. Way back, before the Saxon Thane Bucca set up home on the banks of the River Great Ouse, and long before the quaint hamlets, picturesque villages and the rolling, leafy lanes made Bucks the most English of counties, this was an altogether different landscape – a harsh environment populated by an ancient people.

The last great Ice Age began to retreat from Britain after 10,000 BC. As the ice and tundra shrank northwards, a new terrain of woods, hills and river valleys was created. By 6,000 BC, the rising sea level finally severed Britain from mainland Europe and into this virgin landscape came hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period. Here they collected nuts and fruits, and hunted deer and wild boar. They were flint users, crafting axes, tools and spears, and evidence of their presence has been discovered all over the county, from Bow Brickhill in the north to Gerrards Cross and Chesham in the south.

These people were the early inhabitants of Buckinghamshire. Down the centuries they would be followed by many others, and all would leave evidence of their occupation upon the landscape and would help to shape the county we know today. Yet two peoples in particular would come to contest the ownership of what would become Buckinghamshire – and also the lordship of the whole of England. It would be a struggle to the death, and both sides were prepared to shed the blood of many to win.

By 100 BC, the Romans had forged an empire in the Mediterranean that stretched across most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East up to the Red Sea. The legions had conquered Gaul – modern-day France – and were poised, as many future armies would be, to cross the body of water which separates Britain from mainland Europe. However, one British tribe was determined to resist the seemingly unstoppable Roman war machine. These were the Catuvellauni, an ancient British people who, in 55 BC, controlled a vast area of southern Britain which included modern-day Buckinghamshire. If you had been resident in the Aylesbury Vale, the Chilterns or the beech woods of the southern half of the county 2,000 years ago, you could have counted yourself as one of the Catuvellauni.

The 5,000-year-old Neolithic Barrow on Whiteleaf Hill, near Princes Risborough.

They were a fierce, Celtic-speaking people, spiked – or long-haired – warrior race who painted their bodies in blue woad and charged into battle on foot or mounted on armoured war chariots. Their original capital was based at Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, yet evidence of their presence in Buckinghamshire has been discovered at Fleet Marston near Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Gerrards Cross.

In 55 BC, under their king, Cassivell-aunus, they expanded their territory by defeating their neighbouring tribes, the Trinovantes and the Attrebates. In battle, Cassivellaunus killed the pro-Roman Trinovante king, Imanuentius, forcing the slain monarch’s son to flee to Gaul seeking the help of Roman general (and soon to be emperor) Julius Caesar. Caesar duly responded by crossing the Channel with 10,000 men, but his army was met by a coalition of tribes under the leadership of Cassivellaunus. According to Caesar, this coalition was defeated, and the Roman army returned to Italy shortly afterwards. However, this may not be an accurate portrayal of the situation, as Cassivellaunus remained in control of the southern half of the country after the Roman army had retreated.

A year later Caesar returned and this time defeated Cassivellaunus in a battle south of the Thames, probably near modern Brentford. The Catuvellauni and their allies were forced to fall back to their tribal capital, where they made a final stand but were defeated; Cassivellaunus subsequently sought peace. It was a victory for Caesar but appears to have been a hollow triumph for the Roman general, for soon after the battle he departed for Rome leaving the Catuvellauni the dominant tribe in the land.

Almost 100 years later the Romans again attempted to conquer Britain. In that time the Catuvellauni, under their king, Cunobelinus, the grandson of Cassivellaunus, had expanded their domain, spreading north towards Lincolnshire, south and east into modern-day Kent and Essex, and west to parts of what would become Gloucestershire. Their capital was moved, first to Verulamium (now St Albans), and then to Camulodunum (Colchester in Essex).

An idea of how the Celtic residents of early Buckinghamshire might have looked.

Earthen ramparts of the remains of the Catuvellauni capital at Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire.

In AD 40 the son of Cunobelinus, Caratacus, became king and continued the strategy of subjugating the other British tribes. It was a military policy not lost on the Romans, who had been watching the progress of the battle-hardened Catuvellauni with increasing alarm from across the Channel in Gaul.

In AD 43 Emperor Claudius decided to check the aggression of the British tribe. He crossed the sea at the head of 40,000 troops. Much to the Romans’ surprise, they landed unopposed on the south coast and proceeded to march inland, expecting every moment to be confronted by Caratacus – but the Catuvellauni were nowhere to be seen; Claudius and his legions began to think that the conquest would be a walkover. However, Caratacus and his men were waiting for them. At the River Medway in Kent, the British tribe, their bodies painted in blue woad and driving their scythe-wielding chariots, engaged the Romans in a bloody two-day struggle. It was a vicious affair with no quarter given, yet gradually the legions began to gain the upper hand and force the Catuvellauni back. The brother of Caratacus, Togodumnus, was slain and slowly the tribesmen began to retreat. Caratacus organised line after line of defence, testing the Roman generals in a succession of battles which cost the legions considerable numbers of troops. Still the Romans advanced, and still Caratacus and his people fought on. Driven back to their territory in what would become Buckinghamshire, they made a last stand, but without the support of those tribes which had gone over to the Romans the Catuvellauni were vanquished.

Memorial detailing the defeat of Cassivellaunus, King of the Catuvellauni by Julius Caesar in 54 bc.

The Emperor Claudius, who invaded Britain in ad 43.

Caractacus, King of the Catuvellauni, in captivity and brought before the Roman Emperor Claudius.

Caratacus managed to escape the victorious legions and swore continued defiance. Fleeing to the wilds of the mountains of Wales, he organised further resistance to the Roman invasion. Once again he gave battle, and once again he and his allies were defeated – yet still the British chieftain refused to submit to the Roman commander, Publius Ostorius Scapula. He fled to the territory of the northern tribe, the Brigantes, to seek the help of their queen, Cartimandua.

But it was the end for the defiant king of the Catuvellauni; Cartimandua had allied herself with the Romans and betrayed him. He was captured, clapped in chains, and he and his family were shipped off to Rome to be paraded through the city in humiliating defeat. Even in this desperate situation, the British chieftain remained defiant. Emperor Claudius granted him one last speech and such was the passion and power of the Catuvellaunian leader’s words that the Romans were stunned into silence. Emperor Claudius was so impressed that he freed Caratacus and his family, and they remained in Rome as free citizens.

For the other British tribes there would be a different outcome. A new culture and age was dawning. Those tribes who had gone over to the Romans in the hope of retaining some form of independence and autonomy were quickly disillusioned. The Iceni rebellion in AD 60 under Queen Boudicca was defeated and the Roman Empire began its 400-year rule of the province of Britannia.

The village of Gerrards Cross, near Denham, is often associated with leafy suburbia, stockbrokers and chartered accountants. Yet this straight-laced part of middle England, only 20 miles from central London, contains the largest Iron Age hill fort in Buckinghamshire. Its double row of ditches and ramparts covers an area of 22 acres and were constructed by the Catuvellauni people over 2,000 years ago. In the late seventeenth century the notorious ‘hanging’ Judge Jeffreys lived in a house on the south-east corner of the fort. The house was demolished in the nineteenth century.

The Roman historian Tacitus recorded that Caratacus was the most formidable fighter the legions had encountered in Britain. One wonders what might have been achieved if all of the British tribes had allied in battle under his command. He was a true warrior of ancient Buckinghamshire.

AD 450–1066

SAXON TERROR!

ROMAN POWER BEGAN to decline in Britain about AD 409. Continued raids upon the eternal city forced the legions to abandon the province of Britannia and return home to defend Rome, leaving the Romano-British at the mercy of increasing attacks by Saxon pirates from Demark and Germany, Picts from the north and Irish raiders from the west. The British king, Vortigen, sought the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries in quelling the bloody incursions and the legendary Hengist and Horsa helped stem the tide of the hordes streaming across the abandoned Hadrian’s Wall. Yet it was soon to be the emerging English who would be fighting the Romano-British for control.

The Saxon mercenaries saw what riches the land of Britannia contained, and wanted it for themselves. They sent word back across the North Sea to their kinfolk, and soon a mass migration of Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Northern Germany and Denmark arrived on the eastern shores of the abandoned Roman province.

Most of them came for plunder and war, but others would settle peacefully in the new land. Many would marry into Romano-British families and adopt existing customs and names, and throughout Buckinghamshire one can still find place names that are of British rather than Anglo-Saxon origin.

However, back in the fifth century the struggle for control of Britain between Saxons and the Romano-British continued in a series of bloody battles. Out of this misty period of history known as the Dark Ages emerged a legendary warrior by the name of Arturious. As the Saxons moved further west into Britain they were met in battle in about AD 500 by King Arthur at Badon Hill, probably in modern-day Wiltshire. Here the invaders were halted, but only for a time.

The invaders not only came with fire and sword but also with a new religion. Roman Britain was a Christian province, but the Anglo-Saxons worshiped gods including Woden, Thunor and Twi (from where derive our modern names for Wednesday, Thursday and Tuesday). Monasteries across the island were attacked, including one battle in Cheshire where the Saxons massacred 1,200 monks. They also practiced blood sacrifice, and many Saxon graves have been discovered throughout Buckinghamshire with the remains of mutilated or decapitated skeletons. In numerous burials the headless bodies of women were laid on top of the male corpses, suggesting that the spouse of a dead warrior was also ritualistically killed to accompany her husband to the next world. Other burial sites have revealed that some females – possibly slaves – were buried alive. It seems that if the Angles and Saxons were not slaughtering monks then they were putting the native inhabitants to the sword.

During the reign of West Saxon King Cerdic (AD 519–534) the Romano-British were defeated at the battle of Chearsley, near Long Crendon. In AD 571 the English captured Aylesbury, one of the last remaining British strongholds, when it was stormed by Cutwulph, brother of Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons.

Despite this unremitting violence, in the year 597 Pope Gregory, in an attempt to guide the bloodthirsty pagans towards a more peaceful existence, sent St Augustine to convert the heathen English to Christianity. In the early seventh century Aethelberht of Kent was the first Anglo-Saxon king to be baptised and accept Christianity. Although most of the pagan kings would eventually follow, some held on to their pagan beliefs, in particular the kingdom of Mercia.

Between AD 500 and 850, what would become England was divided into seven separate kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy. It consisted of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Wessex, Essex and Sussex. Over the years each would experience supremacy and subjugation. However, by the year AD 796, the kingdom of Mercia, or Middle Angles, which stretched from the River Humber in the north to the Tamar in the south west, became the dominant force in England. The county of Buckinghamshire would eventually emerge from the territory of Mercia more by necessity than design.

After AD 800, following years of petty squabbling, the kingdoms of England were forced to unite to face a common enemy. In that year terrible portents appeared over Northumbria when heathens destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne by rapine and slaughter. The Vikings had arrived!

Alfred the Great, King of the Anglo-Saxons, who saved England from total Danish conquest.

Throughout the ninth century, England was continuously raided by the Danes, and one by one the English kingdoms fell under the yoke of Viking power. The year AD