As cunning as a Fox

AUCKLAND CASTLE reopens to the public after its winter hibernation today. It is the region’s newest heritage attraction, mixing art with religion with history – both national and local.

A view of Auckland Castle from The Northern Echo’s archive, dated June 1959

The new exhibition at the castle is called The Power and the Glory and it transports its visitors more than 500 years back to the start of Tudor times. It takes up where the current BBC2 series The Plantagenets comes to an end, and it marks the beginning of our fascination with Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Today, Memories offers a bluffers’ guide to the background of the exhibition for those who might not have been paying attention in their schooldays.

HENRY VII

1483
EDWARD IV died. His brother, Richard, locked Edward’s two sons and heirs in the Tower of London where they were murdered – perhaps suffocated by Miles Forest, of Barnard Castle, as Memories told last year. Richard III then claimed the throne for himself, but Edward’s daughter, Elizabeth of York, formed an alliance with Henry Tudor, who also had a claim to the throne but was in exile in France.

1485
HENRY TUDOR invaded through Wales. He defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field (you will know about Richard’s body being found beneath a car park in Leicester) and became King Henry VII.

1486
TO remove opposition, Henry married Elizabeth of York, so uniting the feuding houses of York and Lancaster and bringing the Wars of the Roses to an end. The Paradise State Bed, at the heart of the Auckland Castle exhibition, is symbolic of that uniting.

1503
On February 2, Elizabeth of York gave birth to her fifth child, Katherine, who died seven days later. On February 11, Elizabeth herself died, aged 37. Although it began as a marriage of convenience, it had developed into a loving relationship and Henry is said to have been genuinely distraught at his loss.

1509
On April 21, Henry VII died of TB, aged 52. Advised by Bishop Richard Fox of Durham, Henry’s reign had been relatively peaceful, had been successful administratively, and had been fiscally prudent – Henry had developed a ruthlessly efficient way of collecting taxes. He was succeeded by his son, Henry VIII, who was conceivably conceived on the Paradise State Bed.

RICHARD FOX, BISHOP OF DURHAM

FOX was with Henry VII when he was in exile in France. He accompanied him on the invasion, and he was at his side during the Battle of Bosworth. After the victory, Fox wrote to the English nobility informing them that Henry was now their king.

Henry VII

As a reward, Henry made Fox his Lord Privy Seal – without the seal, no one could get money out of the exchequer, so this was one of the most important roles in the country.

Fox is credited with being the mastermind behind Henry’s ruthless collection of taxes. Fox devised what is known as Morton’s Fork, named after the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was a double-pronged attack on the tax avoiders. It said that if a man were was dressed, he could afford to pay his taxes, and if a man was scruffily dressed, he was clearly saving his money and so could also afford to pay his taxes.

Richard Fox, the Bishop of Durham

If only David Cameron had a man like Richard Fox...

In 1494, Henry made Fox the Bishop of Durham. The role was crucial because the Bishop had great powers in the North of England, and because Henry wanted the Scots brought to heel.

The portrait of Elizabeth of York, which makes its North-East debut at Auckland Castle...

Fox immediately started work on improving Auckland Castle: masons, carpenters, tilers and smiths were employed, and there seems to have been a big effort to dig a defensive ditch and erect a wooden fence around Auckland Park.

But almost immediately, trouble loomed on the horizon – and not from the Scots. For 30 years, Lord Clifford had nursed a grievance that a previous bishop had diddled him out of his estate of “Hert and Herthelpole” – presumably Hartlepool.

Was she the inspiration for the Queen of Hearts

When the new bishop arrived, Clifford saw his chance: he gathered hundreds of men and came swooping over Stainmore into Teesdale with the intention of seizing his coastal estate.

Fox saw him off. THE Auckland Castle archives reveal how.

“1494. Paid on the 23rd of March to divers persons of the bishoprick for their wages and expenses, being assembled to resist and impede the Lord Clyfford at the head of 1,500 men, upon Stanemore, in warlike manner, from entering into the bishoprick, in prejudice of its liberties, and taking possession of Hert and Herthelpole – £106 8s 10d.”

Elizabeth’s prayer book

So the bishop raised an army of local men, and marched up Teesdale to see off the intruder.

In 1497, the Scots mounted a more serious invasion, beseiging Norham Castle in Northumberland for two weeks. Fox relocated to Norham, saw off the Scots and countered with his own invasion of Scotland.

Then came the clever bit: he persuaded the Scottish king, James IV, to marry Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, the English king. This was the first union between the two warring countries. It led to immediate peace and, ultimately, the creation of the United Kingdom – perhaps in 2014, the Scottish referendum on independence will unpick what Fox put together in 1503.

Her signature

He was promoted to Bishop of Winchester, and remained a close advisor to Henry VII and then Henry VIII until his death in 1528. SEEN for the first time in the North-East is this portrait of Elizabeth of York, lent to Auckland Castle by the National Portrait Gallery of London.

This could be one of the most famous paintings of a monarch ever, because some people think the image of the Queen of Hearts in a set of playing cards is based on it.

Henry VII’s four-poster bed and intricately carved bedhead

Playing cards were becoming increasingly fashionable in Elizabeth’s time. Her father, Edward IV, banned the playing of cards in 1461 outside the 12 days of Christmas because it was interfering with archery practice, and her husband, Henry VII extended that ban to all gambling.

However, Henry himself liked a gamble on anything, and Elizabeth enjoyed dice and cards – in December 1502, it was recorded that she received 100 shillings “for hure disporte at cardes this Cristmas”.

Henry VII’s dazzling chasuble, or ceremonial cloak

The cards we know today were pioneered by the French – English suits were swords, clubs, cups and coins whereas around 1470 the French became settled on spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds. It is probably, therefore, a French queen on the cards and not Elizabeth, despite her long gingery hair and great beauty, and the similarity between this picture and the famous design.