Royal visit

Being an Anglophile I should pay attention to the royal visit to the U.S. the past few days.  Prince Charles has been here twenty some times.  I recall when I first came here in 1971, he was here quite often; that was the days before Princess Diana.  Dean Martin once “roasted” him in a “Man of the Hour” TV program, saying at the end of a date, the prince would ask, “Your palace, or mine?”




Prince Charles at Washington's tomb

Given the places he (and his wife, the future queen) visited (Lincoln Memorial, National Archives, Shakespeare Theater Co, Mount Vernon, Lincoln’s summer cottage at Silver Spring), I can be his travel company.

Prince Charles viewed the 1297 version of the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives.  I often wonder what kind of emotion evoked in him he himself being a “historical” figure.

One of the gifts he received is a US patent application of a polo stick submitted by Lord Louis Mountbatten (a great grandson of Queen Victoria, his grand uncle).  Prince Charles plays polo often in his younger days.

I was dismayed when Lord Mountbatten was killed by IRA in 1979.  He was a heroic fighter against Nazi Hitler and then Japanese aggressor.  Like JFK, the destroyer he commanded was sunk and he swam to the shore and then took charge of the rescue operation.



Lord Mountbatten, FDR and Churchill

He later became the Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia Command and on September 12, 1945 received the Japanese surrender of all Japanese forces with South East Asia Command.

To kill a hero fighting Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan is inexcusable regardless what political motive might be.

Pittsburgh has a good fortune to be named after a great English statesman, William Pitt

Pittsburgh has a good fortune to be named after a great English statesman, William Pitt.  Though he was a Prime Minister for only two years (1766-1768), he was quite influential for his long political career.  When Pitt first joined the Ministry as Secretary of State in 1756 Frederick the Great declared, “England has long been a labour, but at last she has brought forth a man.”

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Churchill wrote that William Pitt ranks with Marlborough [John Churchill, Winston’s ancestor] as the greatest English man in the century between 1689 and 1789.  William Pitt saw the beginning of the British Empire.

Americans should be forever grateful to this great Englishman who was quite sympathetic to the cause and struggle of the colonists/patriots.

Dumping the tea cargoes into the sea at Boston Harbor in December 1773 was, as John Adams wrote, “so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid, and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I cannot but consider it as an epoch in history.”

When the news reached London the cry went up for coercion and many harsh laws passed to punish Boston.  William Pitt pleaded for conciliation.

.

William Pitt became the first Earl of Chatham.  This is why Pittsburgh has Chatham University and Chatham Center, part of which is Marriott Hotel.

In his last speech in the House of Lords (April 7, 1778) he warned the nation of the dangers of French intervention and the use of German mercenaries, “My lords, if I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms—never, never, never.”  He asked the recall of English troops sent to America.

On May 11 he died as his son William was reading to him from Homer the solemn scene of Hector’s funeral and the deep despair of Troy.

The Battle of Britain Monument in London: a monument to “The Few”

While walking from Parliament Square to Churchill War Rooms and Banqueting House, one can stop by at The Battle of Britain Monument to admire and pay respect to “The Few”—whom are immortalized by Churchill’s “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

“The Few” is British fighting spirit that dated back to 1415 when the Battle of Agincourt was fought in France, during which the British troops (Henry V) were way out numbered and prevailed.

Henry V made a stirring speech before the battle, now known as St. Crispian Speech as the battle happened on St. Crispian Day.  Shakespeare immortalized the speech in his play of Henry V (Act IV  Scene 3)

King

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

 

Churchill was a historian, FDR read history for pleasure, and Hitler didn’t know history and was not aware of British fighting spirit of “The Few”.  He thought British will come to term with him once he brought Russia to her knees.

The Battle of Britain Monument is located on the Victoria Embankment between the RAF memorial and Westminster bridge / Big Ben. It is opposite the London Eye ("The wheel").

 

Westminster is made not just by stones and marbles, but words and history

Wall inscription

While Isaac Newton was being carried to Westminster Abbey, Voltaire (being exiled to England at that time) was among the many spectators of Newton’s magnificent funeral in 1727. Voltaire was moved and wrote Newton’s “countrymen honored him in his lifetime, and interred him as though he had been a king, who had made his people happy; . . . the gratitude of the nation to writers and thinkers, believing that it inspired Englishmen to greatness.”

We also read, “We view their statues in that Abbey in the same manner as those of Sophocles, Plato and other immortal personage were viewed in Athens; and I am persuaded that the bare sight of those glorious monuments has fired more than one breast, and been the occasion of their becoming great men.”

This kind of reading helps one to better appreciate the Abbey.  Newton was the first scientist buried among the kings and queens; Rutherford (the New Zealand-born British physicist) was also there.  J.J. Thomson (Rutherford’s teacher; in fact seven of his students went on to become Nobel laureates) is also in the Nave of the Abbey not far from Newton.  These Cambridge Men are all in good company there.

Poet's Corner

I don’t know how many times Nathaniel Hawthorne had visited the Abbey, but I know how he came to see the Poet’s Corner; he wrote, “Approaching it down Whitehall and parliament street, you pass the Abbey, and see ‘Poet’s Corner’ on the corner-house of a little lane, leading up in the rear of the edifice.  The entrance-door is at the south-eastern end of the South Transept – not a spacious arch, but a small, lowly door – and as soon as you are within it, you see the busts of poets looking down upon you from the wall.  Great poets, too . . . .”

So look for the scientists in the Nave and poets/literary figures (Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Macaulay, Alfred Tennyson, etc.) in South Transept.

Remember the Abbey is not built by just stones and marbles, but by words and history.

Janice said, and I agreed, that even the natural beauty, wonder and grandeur can be better appreciated by reading, lest beautiful scenery won’t be just “piles of stones and a pond of water” (幾堆石頭， 一汪子水而已).

Edward Confessor shrine

Elizabeth I's grave

Henry VII chapel

Henry VIII fan vaulting

Mary Queen of Scots

Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey quire

Unknown Warrior grave at Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

 

Abbey layout

 

How the religion of England was changed? What’s it got to do with touring England?

Talking about the beheading of Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII’s second wife) seems like a tabloid stuff; a topic of People magazine or one of those one grabs at the checkout line at Supermarket.  But this event is of great historical significance.  This is how a nation (England) changed her religion, breaking away from Pope and thus Catholicism.

Henry VIII tried to get a blessing from the Pope to annul his marriage with Queen Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.  Cardinal Thomas Wolsey failed his mission and almost lost his head.  This was a mission impossible for Wolsey as Pope Clement VII was then literally a “hostage” of the powerful Spanish King Charles V, who was a nephew of Queen Catherine.  (After all Queen Catherine was the daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille, who commissioned Columbus to discover the “new world”.)

It took four years for Henry VIII to completely dissolved and destroyed monasteries, large and small. In fact, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, considered religious institutions then, were afraid to meet the same fate of closure.

One of the 11 volumes of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization is Reformation; it led to the creation of Anglicanism or so-called Church of England as we know it nowadays.

Anne Boleyn didn’t do it, but things happened because of her.  She was not just a woman with a pretty face; she spent many years in Paris as the maid of honor to Queen Mary.  She was well versed in French literature, art and music.  Of note, in those days France was much more developed, cultural and sophisticated, comparing with England.  And she is the mother of Queen Elizabeth I.  By the way, T.S. Eliot was an expert on Elizabethan literature.  British would like to claim Eliot as one of their own (he was indeed naturalized as a British citizen and converted to Anglicism).  When in the Poet Corner at Westminster Abbey, we’ll see the lines from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding inscribed on his memorial stone,

“. . .the communication

Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”

And of course we’ll also see the burial site of Elizabeth I and Henry V (the theme of Shakespeare’s Henry V is about war) in Westminster Abbey.

While entering the Traitor Gate in the Tower, I’ll think about what Anne Boleyn said when she entered it coming from the River Thames.

When I see a building, be it Hampton Court Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London, I’ll also ‘see’ the people (I mention above) and think about their stories. So this is not just a morbid and macabre interest as one may suspect.

Tower of London—the saddest place on earth

The history of the Tower of London is as old as that of England; it has been nearly one thousand years old.  William the Conqueror built it by the River Thames as a fortress. It has been a tourist attraction since at least sixteenth century.  Rarely did I travel, I am always falling far behind in going places; in this case I am already 400 years late to the early tourists to the Tower.

 

The Tower has notoriety as a prison where famous people, traitor or martyr, lost their heads.  But, it is not always so in its one thousand illustrious or notorious history.  It was initially used as the fortress and palace for the kings and queens.  Many include Henry VIII and Queen Catherine, left the Tower to Westminster for coronation.  Elizabeth I (Henry VIII’s daughter) spent two months as a prisoner under the order of Queen Mary (her half-sister).  When she returned to the Tower four years later, she was to leave for Westminster for coronation, beginning the nearly 45 years of reign that comes to be known as Elizabethan era that also gave us Shakespeare.

It was not until Tudor Dynasty (especially Henry VIII) that the Tower gained the notoriety as a prison for the famous and the powerful.  John Adams was worried about ending up in the Tower when he was sent to France to replace Benjamin Franklin as the Minister to France in 1778.  His 10-year-old son (John Quincy, our sixth president) went with him, but not his wife.  Many years later Adams said, “I never would have gone anywhere without my wife.  Nothing but the deadly fear that I might be in the Tower [of London] and she not permitted to be there with me prevented my taking her.”  Abigail did join him some years later.

St. Peter Ad Vincula

The 19^th century historian Thomas Macaulay (who is buried at Westminster Abbey) wrote “In truth there is no sadder spot on the earth than that little cemetery.”  He was referring to the St. Peter Ad Vincula, a chapel inside the Tower compound, where Thomas More, Bishop John Fisher, Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and Catherine Howard were buried after their executions.

Elizabeth Walk

Many came to the Tower via River Thames and entered through the Traitor Gate, as did Princess Elizabeth (future Elizabeth I).  She refused to enter claiming she was not a traitor.  She was sent to the Tower because of Wyatt rebellion against Queen Mary I.  The history I read indicates Elizabeth was indeed innocent; her only “crime” was that she was next in line if Mary I was overthrown.  She was imprisoned in Bell Tower facing the river.  I am hoping the “Elizabeth Walk” (see photo) is opened to the tourists.  One needs to walk here and walks into history.  Walking here during her imprisonment, Elizabeth I couldn’t help but thinking how soon she would meet the same fate as her mom (Ann Boleyn—Henry VIII’s second wife) who lost her head when Elizabeth was one and one-half years old.

The muse while walking in the Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross and the Tower of London

Charles I

While on the walking tour in London, one for sure will walk around Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross and the Tower of London.  I’ll be thinking about Charles I, Churchill or even Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.  I’ll tell you why.  I have talked about Charles I previously.  The majestic statue of Charles I mounted on a horse has been in the Charing Cross since 1675 and the statue was made 30-40 years earlier.

There is quite a story of this statue, which almost “died” when Charles I was executed in 1649.  It was also removed for safety during the London Blitz.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2013/11/mourning-of-charles-i-in-front-of.html

Trafalgar Square

In the beginning of WWII Hitler really didn’t want to fight the British if he had his way (he was also careful not to provoke America).  He thought if he could conquer Russia, England will come to term with him and that’s why he launched the Barbarossa in June 1941.  German had propaganda trying to make peace with the British.  I read the followings in George Orwell’s diary.

“The frightful outburst of fury by the German radio (if rightly reported, actually calling on the English people to hang Churchill in Trafalgar Square) shows how right it was to make this move.”

“There are now rumors that Lloyd George is the potential Petain of England, . . . The Italian press makes the same claim and says L.G’s silence proves it true.” (7/25/1940)

Lloyd George was pessimistic about the prospect of winning the war against Nazi Germany, advocating a negotiated peace in May 1941; this led Churchill to compare him with Philippe Petain, who headed the Vichy government—a Nazi’s puppet.  Petain was the French general and hero during WWI and Lloyd George led the British government as the Prime Minister during WWI.  It is sad that the fighting spirit apparently faded as one aged.

 

Trafalgar Square is to London what Red Square is to Moscow or Tiananmen Square (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) is to Beijing.  The name commemorates the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar (off the coast of Cape Trafalgar, Spain) with British fleet victory over France, led by Admiral Nelson, who died when the battle was won, so it is fitting to have the Nelson’s column in the center of the Square.

Nelson Column

Herman Melville also saw the Nelson column when he lived at the Craven Street next to Charing Cross in 1849, when and where Moby Dick was conceived.  We read in Moby Dick Chapter 35 The Mast-Head,

“Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan of gun-metal, stands his mast-head in Trafalgar Square; and ever when most obscured by that London smoke, token is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for where there is smoke, must be fire.”

Churchill has other thought about where he would be hanged if the Nazi Germany won.  In the early stage of the war Churchill said the War Cabinet (comprised five men: Churchill, Chamberlain, Attlee, Halifax and Grenward)—“the ones who had the right to have their heads cut off on Tower Hill if we did not win”

Charing Cross

Before the Battle of France was all over in June 1940 Churchill hurried to Paris 3 or 4 times trying to shore up France.  In mid June 1940, on his last flight from France, he asked Ismay, “Do you realize we probably have a maximum of three months, to live?”

Charing Cross is the south edge of Trafalgar Square.  In Chapter 32 (Cetology) of Moby Dick, we read “This is Charing Cross; hear ye! Good people all,--the Greenland whale is deposed,--the great sperm whale now reigneth!”  I will tell you on another post why Melville said “This is Charing Cross”, or so I thought.

Posts introducing Elizabeth I are coming soon

Today (Nov. 17) in 1558 Elizabeth I acceded to the throne upon the death of Queen Mary (her half-sister).  Her coronation took place at Westminster on 15 January 1559.  Elizabeth I was sent to the Tower of London by Queen Mary; one could imagine how she would feel on her way to Westminster for coronation, passing by the Tower.

She also used Hampton Court as her palace—the one used by her father, Henry VIII.  So for my “England” travel series I will use the Tower, Westminster and Hampton Court Palace to introduce Elizabeth I who fascinated me more than any queens of England.

Lin Yu-Tong (林語堂) once said, “Names like ‘the Age of Johnson’ are more suggestive to us than a name like ‘the eighteenth century,’ for only by recalling how Johnson lived, the inns he frequented, and the friends with which he held conversations does the period become real to us.”

The same is also true saying ‘Elizabethan literature’, to which Shakespeare’s work belonged, makes more sense than saying ‘late sixteenth century literature’.  I think theater also began in Elizabethan era.

Mourning of Charles I in front of the Banqueting House in London

Walking from Parliament Square half way through to Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square, one will see the Banqueting House, which is one of the historical royal palaces.  To me Banqueting House is the place to mourn Charles I.

The “House” was completed in 1622; it is influenced by the Italian Renaissance as the architect, Inigo Jones studied there.  It miraculously survived the Great London Fire in 1698.  The name is misleading as it was designed for all sorts of royal/governmental functions, not just for ‘banqueting’, although a state dinner here would be stately.  It will be closed to the visitors for official functions, if any.

Once inside one needs to look up the ceiling painting by Rubens; it is all about the royal glory and exaltation of James I (Charles I’s father).  This was despised by Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarians, with whom Charles I had a British Civil War, leading to his execution in front of Banqueting House 1649.

The execution was witness by a then student at Christ Church (College) in Oxford; he had a leave and was home at Whitehall, where the Banqueting House locates.  “. . . The Blow I saw given, & can truly say with a sad heart; at the instant whereof, I remember well, there was such a Grone [our modern Groan] by the Thousands then present, as I never heard before & desire I may never hear again.”

It is fitting for Charles II (son of Charles I) to celebrate the restoration of the throne here eleven years later.

Oliver Cromwell had no military experience, but must have military genius; his so-called New Model Army was called Ironsides. (Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem, Old Ironsides, saved the USS Constitution; I wonder whether Dr. Holmes was inspired by Cromwell’s Ironsides or not; they share the same first name.)

Oliver Cromwell’s vein ran the blood of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s counselor.  Oliver Cromwell's great-grandfather, Richard Williams, the nephew Thomas Cromwell, changed his name to Cromwell.

Poet John Milton (of Paradise Lost fame) worked for Oliver Cromwell and he had to go hiding from the followers of Charles II.  Milton probably witnessed the execution of Charles I.

Charles I’s last words were “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be!”

Lincoln liked to recite the lines of Macbeth (Act III Scene 2)—after King Duncan was murdered.

Duncan is in his grave;
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

 

British Civil War is the struggle of power between the king and the parliament.  There was also some heated debate or accusation of whether keeping the Reformed Church of England or going back to Catholicism.  Was the execution of Charles I a heinous regicide? Was it legal? Just? or even Necessary?  This is a travel post, one need not to keep the travelers away.  (Some of the photos are from  the event staged by Charles I Society in 2009).

 

Without Charles River, Boston will not be Boston as we know it.  Harvard and MIT are set up along it.  When Captain John Smith presented the map of Massachusetts to Charles I, he suggested the king to change any of the “barbarous names (usually Indian names)” and the king named this river for himself.  So all of you Bostonians, shall we say Charles I River?  I say this lest the young would think it is named after “Prince Charles”, the only royalty they are familiar with.

 

 

Henry VII Chapel: the introduction of Westminster Abbey

Unless you’re like me, a history buff with a middle name of anglophile as Joy said, Henry VII may not catch your attention; even Shakespeare skipped him.  The Bard did Henry IV (Part I & II), Henry V, Henry VI (Part I, II & III), Richard III and Henry VIII.

But Henry VII is not a king of no importance.  If you treat Henry VII the way I do him, his importance will fall into place naturally and thing will be simpler to understand.  He is associated with three things:

1)  He ended the wars of roses when he defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and united the Houses of Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose) by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, in 1486.

2)  He was the founder of the Tudor Dynasty that ended when Elizabeth I died.

3)  He built a chapel in Westminster Abbey that now bears his name and that is the story of this post, a good way to introduce Westminster Abbey.

Henry VII initially built this chapel at the eastern end of the Abbey to hold the body of Henry VI (his uncle) and used as a Lady Chapel (a chapel inside Westminster Abbey dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary).  He tried to persuade the Pope to canonize Henry VI; but it never happened as the “price proved too steep”.  Instead it became his mausoleum, thus Henry VII Chapel.

 

I have told the story of why the pious Henry VI deserved consideration of a sainthood in this post,

“Henry V and Henry VI; Father & Son and how we should tour England”,

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2013/10/henry-v-and-henry-vi-father-son-and-how.html

Like Henry VI’s King’s College Chapel (of Cambridge U) or Eaton College Chapel, Henry VII Chapel is also a great royal chapel of the Perpendicular age.  The most striking feature is its pendant fan vault ceiling, an architectural wonder of all time. 

 

One cannot top what Washington Irving said in describing the flamboyant, festive interior decorations,

 

 

“The very walls are wrought into universal ornament, encrusted with tracery, and scooped into niches, crowded with the statues of saints and martyrs.  Stone seems, by the cunning labour of the chisel, to have been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft, as if by magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb.”

 

The architect of the chapel is English, but the decoration reflects the Italian Renaissance.  Henry VIII (son of Henry VII) commissioned the Italian master, Pietro Torrigiani to build the tomb of Henry VII and his queen, who died in childbirth.  The four young angels sitting at the corners of the King and Queen’s tomb-chest displays “the Florentine Renaissance at its purest and most poignant.”  And that leads Francis Bacon to say the parsimonious King “dwelleth more richly dead than he did alive in any of his palace.”

 

 

While in the chapel one will also look for the tombs of Elizabeth I, Mary I (Elizabeth’s half-sister), Mary Queen of Scots, Charles II (Charles I is not here, that’s is another story), William III, Mary II and Queen Anne.

Blenheim Palace: The story of Duke of Marlborough, Winston Churchill’s ancestor

One place I like to visit is Blenheim Palace (Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, OX20) , not only is it the birthplace of Winston Churchill (the savior of civilization as we know it from Hitler’s Nazi), but also its rich history of England.  It is only 8 miles away from Oxford where we will visit Christ Church (College) and Trinity College.

Blenheim Palace (the only private mansion in England that is called a palace) was given to John Churchill, by Queen Anne (her death in 1714 marked the end of Stuart era) for her appreciation of Churchill’s (later the first Duke of Marlborough) victory over French force at Blenheim (a German town) in August 1704, an important battle that kept French from the gates of Vienna.  The mansion was named after this battle.

Great Hall

The palace was built by the architect Vanbrugh in commemorating the glorious victory at Blenheim; one will see the splendor of the Great Hall, in which one will see a map of Blenheim battle field and Great Court, in which one can see a 30-ton marble bust of Louis XIV, which was a spoil of war that the Duke had taken from Tournai in 1709.  The visit to Blenheim is not complete without seeing its splendid gardens.

While researching to write the biography of his ancestor, Winston Churchill visited Blenheim, Germany in 1932; he somehow missed the chance to see Hitler, who was then already in power.

It is safe to say that the greatest [political] affair between FDR and Churchill saves  the civilization from Hitler’s Nazi.  They spent 113 days together and had more than 1000 correspondences during the war.  FDR sent the first letter to Churchill on 9/11/1939, it began with “My dear Churchill:--It is because you and I occupied similar positions in the World War [WWI]  that I want you to know how glad I am that you are back again in the Admiralty.. . .I shall at all times welcome it, if you will keep me in touch personally with anything you want me to know about. . . I am glad you did the Marlboro [Marlborough] volumes before the thing started--and I much enjoyed reading them.” 

At that time Churchill was not appointed as the Prime Minister yet.  FDR misspelled Marlborough as Marlboro as he must have been thinking or smoking his Marlboro cigarettes.  I haven’t read Churchill’s “Marlborough: His Life and Times” (a 4-vollume set) yet, but I’ll as my ambition is to read everything Churchill wrote, except his one novel.  One will get the most of the visit if one reads Churchill’s Marlborough.

Being an admirer of FDR’s New deal, Churchill sent a copy of his Marlborough (Volume 1) to the White House, inscribed, on October 8, 1933, “With earnest best wishes for the success of the greatest crusade of modern times.

”Here is a YouTube of the Blenheim Palace,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5bbgtI9z_g

 



Clock Tower