Royal York- YorkWalk
* This fact sheet has been provided by YorkWalk. Established in 1990, YorkWalk offers a programme of themed walking tours of York throughout the year. This information is intended to assist journalists with information on different York themes and has been written to give a flavour of York’s themed walking tours.
* Other tours include the Historic Toilet Tour, the Graveyard, Coffin and Plague tour, the Guy Fawkes Trail and the Bloody Execution Tour…to name just a few. Tel: 01904 622303, www.yorkwalk.co.uk
Start the tour at York Library to view the Bust of Prince Eddie, the Duke of Clarence. He was the eldest son of Edward VII and should have married Queen Mary and been King instead of his younger brother George V. But he led a colourful life, suspected of being Jack the Ripper and implicated in the Cleveland Street scandal, which involved an establishment in London, staffed by Post Office Telegraph boys. He was sent to York in the ‘Naughty Nineties’ to be with his Regiment and died, officially, of influenza.
Nearby is the Guildhall and Mansion House, visited by many members of Royalty. Over the last two millennia York has been visited by at least six Roman Emperors, numerous Anglo-Saxon and Viking Kings, almost every mediaeval monarch from William the Conqueror (though he burnt the place down!) to Henry VIII, and numerous more recent and foreign Royalty.
Richard II gave the City a sword and mace as a sign of royal favour; these items of mediaeval regalia are still borne before the Lord Mayor, but reversed in the presence of the reigning Monarch. Richard so liked York he intended to make it his capital instead of London. Charles II was less impressed with the City’s loyalty and threatened to withdraw its charter for being rude to his brother James Duke of York, later James II because of his Catholicism.
The present Duke of York has visited the City frequently, but always had a warm welcome! It was not always so…
Micklegate Bar is the main royal entry from the south, used by Roman Emperors and every Monarch of England up to the present Queen when visiting York. Here in the past the Monarch could admire impaled traitor's heads.
In 1460 after the Battle of Wakefield the rebel Duke of York’s head was spiked here, crowned with paper crown. Shakespeare puts these words in Queen Margaret’s mouth: “off with his head and set it on York’s gate, so York may overlook the Town of York.”
When his son, Edward IV, defeated Henry VI at the battle of Towton he had his father’s head taken down and replaced by four Lancastrian heads!
The path to the Yorkshire Museum was trodden by the young Princess Victoria in 1835; one hopes she was more amused than on her next visit!
The Multangular Tower was probably built in the reign of the Roman Emperor, Septimius Severus, who was in York, dying of rheumatism in 211 AD; he was succeeded by his dissolute sons Geta and Caracalla, who took his ashes back to Rome in a golden urn. Caracalla soon found it inconvenient to have his brother help him rule and had him conveniently judicially murdered.
St Mary’s Abbey was founded by King William Rufus in 1089 ‘to atone for the many and bloody deeds he and his father (William the Conqueror) had committed in York’. He also had a guilty conscience as he was accused by the church of ‘sins offensive to God and man’ – they disapproved of his relationships with young men at the Royal Court, but took his money, to found the Abbey, and promised to pray for him! The Abbey was shut down by Henry VIII.
King’s Manor was visited by Henry VIII with his new Queen, Katherine Howard, in 1541. He probably stayed in the red brick building now occupied by York University Archaeology Department. The building has a tiny window, ‘the smallest in York’, is widely thought to be that of Henry VIII’s garderobe! Katherine Howard was soon after accused of adultery with the Courtiers, perhaps in the very rooms of King’s Manor. James VI of Scotland stayed here on his way south to be James I of England; in his honour a magnificent gateway was added to King’s Manor with figures representing, Justice, Prudence and the Sun as well as semi naked female figures-but they were wasting their time with King James! His son, Charles I, stayed in King’s Manor immediately before Civil war broke out-his coat of arms is still above the doorway, with the ‘N’ of ‘Mon’ back to front.
Bootham Bar is on the site of one of the Roman Gateways of York. Through this gateway facing north almost certainly passed the Roman emperor Hadrian in 122AD to build the Hadrian’s Wall.
York Minster was founded by the Anglo-Saxon King Edwin of Northumbria in 627AD. He was converted, after a lot of nagging, by his Christian wife, Queen Ethelburga.
In 1328 the only ever marriage of an English King took place in the Minster. The teenage Edward III married Phillipa of Hainault. Prince William of Hatfield, one of their sons who died in infancy is buried in the Minster. Their wedding reception turned into a drunken brawl, with the French entourage of the 14 year old queen chasing the women of York; the result was 547 French and 242 English dead-quite some wedding reception! Edward was not over impressed with the city as before making a later visit, he wrote: “The King, detesting the abominable smell abounding in the said city more than any other city in the realm, from dung and manure and filth and dirt, wherewith the streets and lanes are filled and obstructed... orders them to keep them clean…!”
In 1961 the Minster was the scene of a Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The bride, Lady Katherine Worsley, was a local girl from nearby Hovingham Hall.
Next to the Minster is St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, where Guy Fawkes was baptised in 1570 – he was born in nearby Stonegate. In 1605 he almost succeeded in blowing up James I at the State Opening of Parliament.
Next to the south transept of York Minster is the recent statue of Constantine the Great. He was proclaimed Emperor in York in 306AD on the death of his father, the Constantinus Chlorus-the second Roman Emperor to die in the city! Constantine became the first Christian Roman Emperor after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where he had a Vision of a Cross. He is shown in the statue contemplating a sword broken in battle, but forming the shape of a Cross.
The flagged walkway past the Minster is called ‘Queen’s Path’ as the present Queen passed this way in 1972 to present Maundy Money.
St William’s College has a statue above its door of St William of York. He was the illegitimate son of Emma, the illegitimate half-sister of King Stephen. He was deposed as Archbishop of York, allegedly for too much feasting and giving of parties! On his reinstatement the whole population of York flocked onto Ouse Bridge; the bridge collapsed under their weight, but all were saved by his prayers. Consequently he was made a saint after his death in 1154, said to be poisoned by his rivals. Next door is the National Trust shop, once the home of George Hudson, the ‘Railway King’; his ambition was said to be to ‘make all Railways come to York’. He succeeded in that, but fell from grace due to shady financial dealings, and died in poverty.
Nearby is the Richard III Museum in Monk Bar. Here visitors can judge the facts and decide for themselves whether or not Richard III murdered his young nephews, the Princes in the Tower. But Richard is still very popular in York, and was in his lifetime – not least because he halved the City’s tax bill! So delighted was Richard with the city that he decided to invest his son Prince of Wales in York Minster in 1483. The ceremony was so impressive that many in other parts of England thought he had celebrated a second Coronation. Later after the Battle of Bosworth the City council recorded this epitaph, “that King Richard, late mercifully reigning over us, was through the great treason of the Duke of Norfolk piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this City.”
King’s Square is where the Viking rulers of York lived. The first Viking King was called ‘Ivor the Boneless’. He had no strength in his legs and had to be carried into battle on a shield, but had superhuman strength in his arms, with which he took swipes at his enemies with a battle-axe! Another Viking King rejoiced in the title of ‘Ragnar Hairy Britches’ – hardly very regal! The last, bloodthirsty, Viking King of York was Erik Bloodaxe. He got his nickname by murdering all his five brothers to become King of Norway, but was driven out for his cruel and ruthless rule. He ended up as the last Viking King of Jorvik, murdered in 954 with an axe through his skull from some fellow Vikings with a grudge against him.
Queen Victoria paid only one visit to York in 1854 and was definitely not amused! She arrived at the old Railway station in 1854, on her way to Balmoral. She had stated that this was a private visit, to be without ceremony. But the city council laid on a military display and erected stands for spectators; the Queen’s temper was not improved when some of these collapsed and there was an unseemly scuffle. When the Queen eventually went to the Royal Station Hotel for her lunch, she was shocked to be presented with bill to pay. She got up and said she would never visit York again, and never did. Whenever the Royal Train passed through York thereafter, she always made sure the blinds were firmly pulled down! Present members of the Royal Family are however frequent visitors to York and always receive an affectionate welcome.
For any further information and your free guide to York please contact: York Visitor Information Centre, Tel: 01904 550099, email: info@visityork.org or visit the website at www.visityork.org
Press contact: Kay Hyde, PR Manager - Visit York, Tel: 01904 554451, email: kh@visityork.org website: www.visityork.org