Chester Pageant



The Edwardian period (1901-10) is sometimes portrayed as a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties, basking in a sun that never sets on the British Empire. Certainly, the era stands out as a time of peace and prosperity on the eve of the carnage of WW1 and the economic downturn which followed. There were no severe depressions, and prosperity was widespread although the city retained many of the slum coursts of Victorian Chester. Britain's growth rate, manufacturing output and GDP (but not GDP per capita) fell behind its rivals, the United States and Germany, but the nation still led the world in trade, finance and shipping, and had strong bases in manufacturing and mining. This view seems to be maintained in much popular fiction which portrays Edwardian characters in an age of post-Victorian innocence and liberation then dooms them to either drowning on the Titanic or death in the trenches.

Pageants
In 1910 entertainment for the masses was quite different to that of modern times. The radio broadcasting of music and talk intended to reach a dispersed audience started experimentally around 1905–1906, but commercially only around 1920 to 1923. In England, the first experimental music broadcasts, from Marconi's factory in Chelmsford, began in 1920. Shortly before, there had been commercial broadcasts in Europe from Germany, where it was still an offence to recieve them under the Treaty of Versailles. The first permanent cinema in Chester, with 400 seats, had opened in 1909 (initially the "Corn Exchange Cinema", then the "Picturedrome") in Eastgate Street. The Royal Agricultural Show had been held in Hoole, from 17 – 23 June 1893 (and would return in 1925).

The late Victorian and Edwardian times saw great change, with new technology, vast new imperial territories, the percieved "democratisation" of the political system and a further dominance of the urban culture over the rural. At the fin de siecle, and later, a vision of a pre-industrial "Merrie England" flourished, finding one expression in Chester in the Vernacular Revival "Black and White" architecture. In Edwardian times, pageants became an important aspect of popular engagement with the past, and often focused heavily on the medieval period. Pageans became so commonplace as to give rise to the phrase "pageant fever" and the term "pageantitis". The pageants featured different episodes and characters both historical and legendary, including Alfred the Great, King John and Robin Hood, who featured at different times and in different ways during the twentieth century. Some modern historians have raged against the innaccuracy of some of the pageant portrayals, but on the other hand perhaps a distorted view of history is better than none.

The Edwardian pageant movement is usually dated to 1905, when the playwright and theatrical impresario Louis Napoleon Parker organised and produced a community celebration in Sherborne, Dorset, to celebrate the 1,200th anniversary of the foundation of the town. As noted in: "History taught in the pageant way"




 * "Insofar as one can describe a typical English pageant from this time, it began with an episode depicting Roman times or the early medieval period, contained plenty of medieval scenes and concluded with something set in the age of the Tudors or Stuarts. Elizabeth I, the most widespread single character in historical pageants, often closed the performance: according to many pageant narratives, it was during her reign that the modern English nation had come into being. Thus many pageants culminated in scenes of Elizabethan merry-making, featuring maypoles and morris dancing."

Many communities saw their origins as being medieval, and almost all found important stories to tell from this period. However, the emphasis shifted over time, with the lessons of the "constitutional Middle Ages" featuring prominently in Edwardian pageants, whereas by the 1950s elements of the romantic and grotesque were increasingly prominent. Throughout the twentieth century, aspects of civic medievalism were an important feature in pageants. This article looks at the Chester Pageant of 1910 which straddles the boundary of fact and fiction and provides an example of how hystory was understood and myths are created.

Described by The Times as "one of the most spirited that pageantry has produced", the Chester Historical Pageant of 1910 took place in Eaton Park, the estate of the Grosvenors, between 18 and 24 July, 1910. A reported 3,000 performers were involved, although some estimates put the number at 3,500, and over 70,000 spectators attended - a considerable achievement for a city of then only 50,000. The choice of year was interesting, because 300 years earlier, in 1610, Chester had seen the performance of "Chester's Triumph in honour of her Prince" as recorded in Chamber's Book of days - a familiar book in Edwardian times. The pageants seem to have been an Edwardian innovation, some 40 major pageants took place in the years 1900-10. In three cases Cheltenham (1908), Cardiff (1909) and Chester the "Master of the Pageant" was George Hawtrey, indicating the degree of infrastructure which had evolved for the organisation of pageants.

There was a clear commercial aspect to these pageants. Chester Archives hold a copy of the contract drawn up between the Pageant and Edward Baring, which appointed Baring as 'Director of the Pageant and Business Manager'. Baring was paid:


 * "ten per cent of the gross receipts (other than from subscriptions and guarantees)... from all sources whether from the production of the said Pageant and from any Entertainments and other Functions held in connection therewith... also from the sale of effects after the Pageant when those sales have been made through the agency of the said Edward Baring".



In addition he received 'out-of-pocket expenses' and his staff were housed for all 'office-work' at 'Pageant-House' in the city. Baring had become involved with pageants in Cheltenham where he suggested a children's pageant which grew into the Gloucestershire Historical Pageant performed ten times to large audiences in July 1908. Over 2500 local amateur performers took part. It was, in all ways, a classic Edwardian pageant, drawing on the style and content of the original pageant-master, Louis Napoleon Parker. Baring went on to be an important producer of pageants in his own right in the inter-war period. Louis Napoleon Parker, in his 1928 autobiography, complained that a whole host of unworthy imitators had sprung up and commercialised his invention. The Pageant Committee also hired the Master of Properties, Master of Music and the Pageant Master. The Master of Properties was paid £50 in three instalments. Dr Bridge who was in charge of the music received £100 in two instalments plus out-of-pocket expenses and "five per cent on the first thousand pounds net profits... if such profit shall not exceed the sum of one thousand pounds".

Public Performance at Chester
The study of public performance contributes to many areas of Historiography. The best known "public theatre" at Chester is the Chester Mystery Plays, which are covered elsewhere on this site and have a vast literature associated with them. Once it was considered that the medieval mystery plays were "the popish progeny of ancient heathen theatre and full of ungodly errors and superstition" - "a Bastard of Babylon" - buffoonery far inferior to the Elizabethan theatre of Shakespeare. Later it was realised that pre-Reformation early English theatre needed to be re-interpreted as sometimes self-disparaging art which sought to disguise itself for the sake of its own preservation and that there was not a major gulf between the Medieval and the Renaisance. With renewed interest in the plays in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, and especially performance of the plays themselves, scholarship in the area blossomed. The Mystery Plays were effectively banned in 1575, but revived in the 20th Century. A new interest in the performance of medieval plays was stimulated by William Poel's production of Everyman at the Charterhouse in London in 1901; it was paired with a production of Chester's Sacrifice of Isaac, the first performance of a Chester play in modern times. One of Poel's company, Walter Nugent Monck, formed his own company and staged versions of Chester's Nativity, Shepherds, and Magi plays in Bloomsbury Hall, London, in 1906. Monck wrote to the Chester Archaeological Society offering to produce the whole cycle in the traditional manner over three days at Whitsun 1907. The proposal, which must be seen against the background of Chester's music festivals and the city's growing concern with its past, would have resulted in the first complete revival of any English play-cycle. The Society organized a public meeting chaired by the bishop to discuss it. Although the dean of Chester opposed the production, the cathedral organist, Joseph Cox Bridge, supported it, and a number of Cestrians who had seen Everyman in London or on tour reported favourably on the production. Following the meeting, the three 'Nativity' plays were performed at the Chester Music Hall on 29th November 1906 to test local reactions. An edition of the performance-text by Bridge was published to accompany the production. The production was enthusiastically received by most (as reported in the The Chester Courant and Advertiser for North Wales), although there were some objections - notably by the Dean John Lionel Darby. But the society then decided that the cost of staging the full cycle was too high and the scheme fell-though.



Chambers' coverage of the Chester Mystery Plays is quite interesting, if not always accurate. He touches briefly on the well-known plays but then turns to discuss in detail the much lesser known "Chester's Triumph in Honour of her Prince", which is possibly best described as a "unique work", beginning with an actor climbing the spire of St Peter and doing a handstand at the summit. This was played in 1610, in honour of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales who was the eldest son of James VI and I, King of England and Scotland, and his wife Anne of Denmark. Henry was not present for the performance - he was at his residence at Richmond on St Georges Day (23rd April) 1610 when the triumph was performed. On the 4th June 1610 Henry took part in a lavish ceremony which celebrated his coming of age and creation as Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

Another noted "pageant" at Chester was the 1536 "Triumph" of "Queen Dido" as performed in the mayorality of Sir Lawrence Smith. It is one of several public performances noted by Hemingway:


 * "There were besides these scripture dramas, others of a profane character which were acted occasionally on special occasions. The Shepherd's Play was acted in St John's church yard in 1515; in 1529 the play of Robert Cicell was performed at the High Cross; on the Sunday after Midsummer day 1563, the "History of Eneas and queen Dido" was played on the Rood eye, set out by one William Crofton, gentleman, and one Mr Mann, Master of Arts. In l577, the "Shepherd's Play" was performed before the Earl of Derby at the High cross, and other triumphs on the Rood eye. And in 1589, a play was performed at the High cross, called the story of "Kinge Ebranke with all his sonnes."

Hemmingway's seemingly amusing reference to Robert Cecil is actually probably intended to refer to "Robert of Sicily". Ormerod contains essentially the same information, which he lifts directly from Magna Brittanica by Daniel and Samuel Lysons.

"Triumphs", such as the "History of Eneas and queen Dido" were large, spectacular events in which the visual impact was more important than the text. Triumphs on the Roodee were among the entertainments seen by Henry Stanley, earl of Derby, in 1577. There is little surviving information on the 1563 Triumph, but it appears to have been as spectacular as would be expected. As, with one exception, no payments for it are recorded in the Chester corporation or guild records, mayor's book, etc. it may be assumed that it was privately funded. The exception is in the City Treasurers accounts for 1563/4 (ZTAR 1/11) where there is an "item paid master mayre at midsomer for the trivmthe: 26s and 8p". There is an associated note of 14s being spent on gunpowder.

In Medieval and Tudor times, Chester’s magnificent Midsummer Watch Parade was renowned throughout the country. First held during the mayoralty of Richard Goodman in 1498, it was organised by the City Guilds and took place in the years when the famous Chester Mystery Plays were not performed. The outstanding features of the show were the Giants – enormous structures made of buckram and pasteboard and carried by two or more men. Giants were a common feature of Tudor pageantry in England and Europe, but Chester was unique in that the city paraded a whole family of Giants – the Father, the Mother and two Daughters. There were also fantastic giant Beasts including the Unicorn, the Elephant, the Camel and the Dragon. Originally the Dragon was beaten by six naked boys, but this practice was banned in the late 16th century. The Midsummer show seems to have originated 1498-9 when Chester was visited by Prince Arthur visited the city with his page Thomas Cowper, although the visit was apparently from August 1498 until September of the same year. Thomas Cowper was Page of Honour to Prince Arthur (19/20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502), Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall. As the eldest son and heir apparent of Henry VII of England, Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor. His mother, Elizabeth of York, was the daughter of Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Tudor and the House of York. The Midsummer Watch Parade survived much longer than the now world-famous Mystery Plays, which were banned in 1575 and not revived until recent times. In 1599, Mayor Henry Hardware prohibited the Parade and ordered the Giants to be broken up. However, so popular was the show that it was revived the next year and continued until the 1670s. The Midsummer Watch Parade was revived in the 1990's, with the first new giant was taken for a walk through the streets of Chester at midsummer 1989. A second giant was made at Lache Junior School, a unicorn at Lache Adventure Playground and a Dragon at NACRO New Careers Training in 1990. The parade at midsummer that year was the first for over 300 years. The Winter Watch Parade was re-created by the Council in the 1990’s.

The "Book of Music" from the Pageant features the Chester Waits with recorders on its cover. Town waits or city waits were in former times in England and Scotland the watchmen who patrolled during the night, using a musical instrument to show they were on duty and to mark the hours. The instrument also probably ensured that anyone they might come across would not be surprised and assault them. This simple task later developed as the waits added more instruments and became more proficient at playing them.The usual instrument of the waits was the shawm; its loud and piercing sound suiting it to outdoor playing. They also in some cases played string instruments, and were also sometimes noted for their singing, as at Norwich. Their instruments also varied, but were for the main part loud and penetrating wind instruments such as the shawm, which was so closely associated with them that it was also known as the "wait-pipe". The "Book of Music" shows recorders which are very similar to those in the Grosvenor Museum. These were made by the French recorder maker Peter Bressan (c. 1650-1731), who moved to London at the end of the 17th century and probably made these recorders not long after. Their importance lies in their fine workmanship and the fact that four of the six comprise a complete set. The set belonged to the Cholmondeley family of Cheshire and was found in an attic around 1845. It was given to the Chester and North Wales Archaeological Society whose collections later passed into the ownership of the Grosvenor Museum.

Back in 1910 the city had resisted holding a pageant for several years. In 1907, Chester’s Mayor had declared that he thought 'pageants were overdone at the present time'. Yet, only two years later, the Council changed its mind.

The "Episodes"
The pageant illustrated the history of Chester with a series of eight historical "re-enactments" of events concerning the city. Interestingly, many of the principal characters might not be particularly well-known outside of Cheshire. All of these have a "processional character" with the actors making an dramatic entrance. In some cases this required a little re-writing of history to provide elements of theatre. Pageants were usually one-off events: they may have been staged (as at Chester) several times over the course of their run, but it was rare for them to become annual, or even regular, events. However, their legacies were significant, both for communities and individuals. As in other cases the Chester Pageant brought the community together behind performed fabrications of the local past and its folk traditions, linked to wider national narratives. The choice of which elements of history are selected for portrayal, as in the case of the sculptures at the Town Hall in Chester, says much about how a community perceives itself. The perception of "Whig History" at the time presented history as a journey from a dark and terrible past to a "glorious present" with modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. Thus the depictions play up some elements (including some fictions) and downplay others.

The analysis below contrasts the actual history with that presented in the pageant and refers to some, but not all, of the differences and similarities.

The Prologue


The pageant opened with the entrance of "Chester", in an allegorical sense. The character was played by Cecil T. Parker, the Duke of Westminster's agent (and his nephew). Parker had a prominent role in the Agricultural Show held at Chester and history provides a mixed picture of him. He seems a tireless worker, but managed to get on the wrong side of John Douglas with whom her diagreed with over the construction of "Parker's Buildings" on Foregate Street. Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster supported the pageant, although it was not a happy time for him: his only son, Edward, died aged 4 in 1909. There was another notable death just before the pageant - that of king Edward VII on the 6th May 1910. As Barbara Tuchman noted of King Edward in "The Guns of August", his funeral, held on 20 May 1910, marked "the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last."

The pageant begins with the entrance of the Band, followed by the Chorus: all take their places on the 'Stand'. The National Anthem is then played at the conclusion of which "Chester", followed by "his party", ride in from "the further end of the ground". Telephones were used to communicate instructions to performers and synchronise events. Behind him "in three rows" come the Gates, the Walls, and the Pinnacles, then all of the attendants. The Gates included the Hon. Sir Savage Lloyd Mostyn and three others), The Walls were 4 men, The Pinnacles played by 10 women and the Attendants of Chester included 6 men and 7 women. The character of Chester introduces the pageant in spoken verse with the Gates, Pinnacles and Walls acting as a rhetorical chorus. They then notice the absence of the River Dee and disperse across the ground to look for her while the choir sings. The Dee is important for a forthcoming scene with king Edgar and as the performance does not take part on the banks of the river this needs to be dealt with in a clever way, added to the semi-comic "where is she" hunt.

Deva - the personification of the River Dee, would have been familiar to the audience. In the 16th Century Willam Camden wrote:


 * The river Dee, called in Latin Dava, in British Dyfyr-dwy , that is, the water of Dwy , breeding very great plenty of Salmons, ariseth out of two fountaines in Wales, and thereof men thinke it tooke the name. For dwy in their tongue signifieth two. Yet others, observing also the signification of the word, interpret it Blac-water , others againe Gods water or divine water. But although Ausonius noteth that a Spring hallowed to the Gods was named Diuvona in the ancient Gaules tongue (which was all one with the British), and in old time all rivers were reputed Διοπετεῖς, that is, Descended from Heaven , yea and our Britans yeelded divine honour unto rivers, as Gildas writeth, yet I see not why they should attribute Divinitie to this river Dwy above all others.

The name of the river was recorded in the 13th century (in mainstream Middle English orthography, lacking the letters v and w) as flumen Dubr Duiu; many sources state that the name appears to derive from the Brythonic dēvā: "River of the Goddess" or "Holy River". The river is personified as the war and fate goddess Aerfen. It is generally accepted that the river name inspired the name of fortress at Roman Chester - Deva Victrix. The word Diva entered the English language in the late 19th century. It is derived from the Italian noun diva, a female deity and can also refer to a celebrated female singer; a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and now, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music.

Nymphs, followed by the goddess Dee and, at the end of this procession, the Tritons, all then enter followed by the fairies from different points of the arena. At the conclusion of the choir's song, Dee addresses Chester saying "...Chester dear, at thy request I am here". A dialogue in verse then ensues between Chester and the Dee; this ends with Chester announcing the first episode and all dispersing from the ground.

Agricola Returns to Deva After Defeating the Ordovices, AD 78
Arriving in midsummer of 77, Agricola discovered that the Ordovices of north Wales had virtually destroyed the Roman cavalry stationed in their territory. He immediately moved against them and defeated them. His campaign then moved onto Anglesey where he subjugated the entire island, presumably with considerable violence. Almost two decades earlier, Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus had attempted the same but Roman forces had to withdraw in 60CE because of the outbreak of the Boudican rebellion. All this is historically accurate.

In the scene portrayed in the pageant Agricola is engaged in business with his officers in Roman Chester. A "Briton" (Carantus) steals up behind him, and Agricola turns only just in time to save him­self from assassination. The native is seized by the angry soldiers, and we gather (ignoring the fact that they are unlikely to speak the same language) that the motive of the man’s action is to avenge the theft of his cattle and an assult on his bride, who had been "flagrantly insulted" by a centurion (Aufidus). The centurion is under arrest, but the Briton mistrusts the honesty of imperial justice, where the life of so important an officer is at stake and only a native woman has been, presumably, raped. Agricola has the clemency to forgive the assault up himself and "vindicates the honour of his race" by having the centurion brought to immediate trial and sending him to his death within the hour. Despite protests by some of his officers Agricola declares "'Rome is conqueror, but no tyrant. The goods of men, the virtue of women, shall be sacred to her soldiers." Before departing he address Carantus saying: "Thou art a lad of mettle, and such are the men I like".

There is no historical evidence that the incident portrayed took place. Ayako Yoshino has remarked that the treatment of the Romans and their relationship with the native Britons in the pageant was intended to underline the inherent nobility of the British, foreshadow Britain's later greatness, and demonstrate the assimilation of classical virtues within the indigenous culture. In oher words to demonstrate the justice of the British Empire. It is also worth noting that from November 1905 to March 1906, the future George V Who became king just before the pageant) toured British India, where he was disgusted by racial discrimination and campaigned for greater involvement of Indians in the government of the country.

The music played at the conclusion of this scence underlines British imperial power being the "Invocation of Sabrina" (Henry Lawes) written for the staging of John Milton's Masque, now called Comus. Few would recognise the connection with water-sprites and just hear the "Elizabethan" tune. Lawes was elder brother of fellow composer William Lawes who was "casually shot" by a Parliamentarian in the rout of the Royalists at Rowton Heath, near Chester, on 24 September 1645.



King Eadgar on his Imperial Progress With Queen Aelfthryth Receives the Homage of Tributary Princes, AD 973
"Eadgar", better known as "Edgar the Pacific" is probably better-known in Chester than in many other parts of the country brcause of his famous boat trip on the River Dee, when, according to tradition, he was apparently rowed upstream by other rulers from "Edgar's Field" to St Johns. As described by the paper read before the Historical Society (see link below) the pageant depicts how:


 * "Two years before the close of his peaceful reign, he had a splendid coronation at Bath at the hands of the masterful Dunstan, who, in those days, was “the power behind the throne.” Then, as King of the English and over-lord of many princes, Edgar came to Chester by sea, to receive the homage of those who held their titles under him. The ceremony in this City must have rivalled in brilliance and impressiveness even the crowning at Bath, by which it had been preceded. All the princes of the Isle of Albion came to render their homage and take their oaths of allegiance, and they themselves rowed Edgar in the Royal barge up the Dee to the Collegiate Church of St. John, where was witnessed a scene of splendour such as never had been known in these realms."

The storyline of this episode elaborated on the ascendancy of the Anglo-Saxon monarch as overlord of the British Isles. The concomitant notion that the English nation with its ancient pedigree was the cornerstone of modern British identity would not have been lost on the audience.

On the pageant field, stagecraft was required to represent the drama, with elves and fairies symbolizing the banks of the Dee and the monarchs seeming to row a barge that was actually on wheels and mechanically driven. On Wednesday evening of pageant week Chester Council decided to put on a more lifelike dramatisation by illuminating the river Dee itself. This caused a bit of a row over cost as neither the council nor the pageant were willing to pay for the illuminations, but in the end they went ahead, financed by a special 'Mayor's Fund', which gathered donations. During this display, the banks of the Dee were illuminated with thousands of coloured electric lights covering bridges and bankside buildings for a two-mile stretch, during which the episode's performers re-enacted the arrival of Edgar.



In reality Edgar did have his boat trip on the Dee. He probably arrived at St Johns but some historians have suggested he came downstream from Farndon. The coronation ceremony was designed by Dunstan and is largely unchanged today. In 1910 it would have been a clear reference to the forthcoming coronation of George V. Some Victorian historians saw the impressing of the sub-kings as oarsmen as an act of ritual humiliation, "Picturesque England" has this different slant on the story, commenting that:


 * "He ascended a large vessel, with his nobles and officers, and stationed himself at the helm, while the eight kings who had come to pay him homage were compelled to take the seats of the watermen, and to row him down the Dee - a most arrogant insult on the feelings of others whose titular dignity was equal to his own. Edgar crowned the scene, and consummated his disgrace, by declaring to his courtiers that his successors might call themselves kings of England when they could compel as many kings to give them such honour."

The page on Edgar's Field gives a tentative identification of the sub-kings and their subsequent history.

As for the wife, she is not normally mentioned in the story. Edgar's family life was complicated. Edgar is believed to have married first Æthelflæd the White, daughter of Ordmaer, Ealdorman of the East Anglians, between 957 and 959. After Æthelflæd's death about 962, the traditional story is that Edgar abducted and married Wulfthryth of Wilton. He carried her off from the nunnery at Wilton Abbey. They lived as husband and wife at his residence in Kemsing for 2 years. It is unclear if they actually married or not, or if she had in fact been a nun. After the birth of one daughter, Wulfthryth was returned to Wilton Abbey, along with their child, and definitely now became a nun, eventually Abbess. About 964/965 Edgar married, possibly for a third time, to Ælfthryth, widow of Æthelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia, Edgar's adopted brother. Ælfthryth was the daughter of Ealdorman Ordgar and his wife, a member of the royal family of Wessex. Legend has it that Edgar heard of Ælfthryth's great beauty and sent Æthelwald to arrange marriage for him (Edgar) but Æthelwald instead married her himself. In retaliation Æthelwald was killed 'in a hunting accident' (at the site of "Dead Man's Plack") and Edgar married her as he had wanted. It is not known if this is true or simply romantic fiction.

Edgar died on 8 July 975 at Winchester, Hampshire. He was 33 years old. The cause of his death is not known. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar the Peaceful but was not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of England was contested, with some supporting Edward's claim to be king and others supporting his younger half-brother Æthelred the Unready, recognised as a legitimate son of Edgar. The 12 year old Edward was chosen as king and was crowned by his main clerical supporters, the archbishops Dunstan of Canterbury and Oswald of York. In the brief reign of Edward the Martyr (c. 962 – 18 March 978), his support for Dunstan's Benedictine reform movement provoked the anger and envy of those who had seen the Church as a way to gain wealth and prestige. The ascetic life and the importance of monasticism promoted by Dunstan and his colleagues were not to their liking, and so they looked for – and found – other friends in high places. Ælfhere was a leader of the anti-monastic reaction and a close ally of Edward's stepmother Queen Dowager Ælfthryth. Civil war almost broke out over the disputed succession and in the anti-monastic reaction the nobles took advantage of Edward's weakness to dispossess the Benedictine reformed monasteries of lands and other properties that previous King Edgar had granted to them. Eventually, it appears that Ælfthryth had her step-son murdered, although that may have been made-up by later writers. The earliest chronicle texts only state that Edward was killed, by the time of later chronicles it was claimed that Ælfthryth plotted the murder and eventually that she did the deed herself.

For more on Edgar and his times see: Ælfgar.

Hugh Lupus, with St Anselm, Founds the Abbey of St Werburgh, AD 1093
Hugh of Avranches was given a Palatine county with the power to make and break any law save treason in return for bankrolling Duke William's Invasion in 1066, Hugh built castles in England and made a poor job of invading Wales. He managed to arrange the marriage of his son into the monarchs family, but this was to end in tragedy. The Grosvenors claimed to be descended from him. There are several versions of this story. The one the Grosvenors themselves first put forward (in 1389) is that their ancestor was Gilbert (Gros) Venour, who they claimed was a cousin of Hugh. There is very little evidence that Gilbert actually existed.



The Welsh called him Hugh Flaidd (Hugh the Wolf or Hugh Lupus) and a wolf's head appears on his arms. In an 1086 engraving of the coat of arms the artist has gave the head of the wolf a wide grin, which might be mistaken for that of a cat - this has been suggested as the origin of the Cheshire Cat. As regards Hugh, Hemingway quotes the following:


 * He was, "saith Ordericus, not only liberal, but profuse; he did not carry a family with him, but an army. He kept no account of receipts or disbursements. He was perpetually wasting his estates; and was much fonder of falconers and huntsmen, than of cultivators of land, and holy men, and by his gluttony he grew so excessively fat, that he could hardly crawl about.

The pageant portrayed how the Earl made amends for his dissolute life by enabling Chester to become an important ecclesiastical centre, and recites the tale that Hugh recovered from an illness following the intervention of Anselm. Hugh did found (or re-found) the Abbey which later became the Cathedral with the somewhat reluctant help of Anselm. The Chester Annales record the foundation thus:


 * In hoc anno venit dompnus Anselmus abbas Ecclesiæ Beccensis Angliam qui sepius ante venerat in Angliam, veniens itaque tunc Angliam Anselmus a multis acclamatus archiepiscopus, quitanti honoris onus humiliter fugiens, rogatu nobilis principis, comitis Hugonis Cestriam venit, ibique abbatiam in honorem Sanctæ Werburgæ fundavit, et monachis ibidem congregatis Ricardum monachum Beccensem primum abbatem instituit. Quo facto, in eodem anno in reditu suo a Cestria, archiepiscopus Cantuariensis factus est. (1093 In this year the lord Anselm, abbot of the church of Bec, came to England, who before this had frequently been in England. On his coming to England this last time, Anselm was acclaimed by many as archbishop, but, humbly desiring to escape the burden of so great an honour, on the invitation of the noble prince, earl Hugh, he came to Chester, and there founded the abbey in honour of S. Werburg, and, having assembled the monks together, he appointed Richard, a monk of Bec, the first abbot. Having done this, in the same year, upon his return from Chester, he was made archbishop of Canterbury.)

In reality the situation was rather more complex. A direct consequence of the Norman invasion of 1066 was the near total elimination of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, and the loss of English control over the institutions of state such as the Church. By the time of the Domesday Book (1086), only two English landowners of any note had survived. By 1096 no church See or Bishopric was held by any native Englishman - all were held by Normans. When about to return to Bec, Anselm was refused permission by the then king (William Rufus) but the following year, when the king fell ill (and believed himself dying) Anselm was nominated to the then vacant see of Canterbury. Thus, the same story of illness has been attached to both William Rufus and Earl Hugh. Whether both illnesses occurred can only be speculated upon. The reluctant Anselm was finally consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093: this was a disaster for William as the two did not get on. Even after William's death monks would continue to try and destroy his reputation, accusing him of being homosexual and noting that he was "hated by almost all his people."

Also, Chester was already an important ecclesiastical center, having been the resting place of the remains of Werburgh since 875. In 1092 Hugh simply turfed out the previous occupants of what became the Abbey and later the Cathedral. Also, already in 1075, Peter de Leia, bishop of Lichfield (consecrated in 1067) had removed his episcopal see to St Johns Church at Chester and planned a huge new church. Chester may have been a "center of learning" since the days of Plegmund, if not earlier. Although it has been suggested that Hugh became a monk at St Werburg in Chester, four days before he died (1101), the Chester Annales simply records his death:


 * Defuncto Hugone comite cestrensi principe nobili. Ricardus puer vij annorum comitatum suscepit (1101 The noble prince Hugh, earl of Chester, being dead, Richard, a boy of seven years of age, inherited the earldom.)

A part of the "evidence" that Hugh became a monk is his supposed burial in the Cathedral with his rediscovery in 1724, wrapped in gilded leather, and deposited in a stone coffin marked with a "wolf's head", having a cross on the breast. Hemingway puts the discovery down to a "Mr Henchman, a school master". Others have argued that this was the body of abbot Simon Ripley. The "Black Dog" was the emblem of Simon Ripley, abbot of St Werbugh (now Chester Cathedral) from 1485 until 1493.

Archbishop Baldwin Preaches the Crusade at Chester AD 1189
Bishop Baldwin is known to us from the work of Gerald of Wales. The pageant has him "preaching the crusade" at Chester. In reality he was returning through Chester after preaching the crusade in Wales. Whether he could actually call for a crusade in Chester is an interesting point, as discussed below.



In 1188 King Henry II of England called for a tax to support the Third Crusade, following the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187. It was collected at the rate of a tenth of all the property and income of any person not vowing to go on crusade. It was popularly known as the "Saladin tithe" and was the most extensive tax ever collected in England up to that point. Being a tithe and not a secular tax, it was collected by dioceses rather than by shires. Baldwin of Forde, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was especially blamed for its harshness. As well as avoiding the tax, going on crusade was an opportunity for travel, wanton violence and plunder, remission for past sins that might otherwise might lead to damnation, and the gain of freedom for serfs. Not going on crusade could be viewed as cowardice.

Gerald of Wales was appointed to the entourage of Baldwin on a mission to travel through Wales in order to raise money and recruit troops for the Crusade. Gerald praised Baldwin as "distinguished for his learning and religion", but also claimed that he was gloomy and nervous. Baldwin had a long-standing row with some of his clerics which caused the chronicler Gervase of Canterbury to characterise him as "a greater enemy to Christianity than Saladin". Though the Archbishop was to celebrate Mass in the four cathedrals in Wales, he was assisted by the worthy Gerald who could summon up a sermon with a fluency of speech in both Latin and French; though how much of these tongues was familiar to the local knights and common folk is not in evidence. The jester at the court of Rhys ap Gruffudd was of the opinion that if Gerald had preached in Welsh there would not have been a man left who would not have joined the cause. A number promised to go, but when the time came, almost all those who had agreed to join the crusade found some excuse not to go. No one made more fuss about this than Gerald.

Gerald recounts his six-week journey step-by-step in his delightful Itinerarium Kambriae (The Journey Through Wales). It is estimated that the journey would have covered over 760 miles. The text records the journey itself, but is primarily composed of historical, topographical, and anecdotal material relating to the areas through which the two men passed. The route tended to follow the coast and the Marcher borders with very little travel in the interior. This engagement on the ground in Wales also seems to have inspired his Descriptio Kambriae (The Description of Wales), a text valuable for being, among other things, one of the finest pieces of ethnography written in the Middle Ages. During his travels in Wales Gerald collected many strange tales of mysterious afflictions and miraculous cures, fortune-telling fish and weird hybrids. He believed, or at least recorded all of these tales.

Gerald was in Chester with Baldwin at Easter 1188. This was a complicated period in the history of the abbey and Balwin was involved in the various schemes and plots, which are discussed in more detail on the page relating to Lucian the Monk. Both Gerald and the pageant are silent on these matters in their description of the visit. The earl of Chester at the time was Ranulf de Blondeville who succeeded to the title of Vicomte d'Avranches (Normandy) and the earldom of Chester (like his father before him) as a minor in 1181 (aged 9) and attained his majority (at 16) in 1187. Henry II never got his crusade, as he was in dispute with the French and died of a bleeding ulcer in 1889. A single reference (the Chronicle of Dieulacres) has Ranulf travelling with King Richard in Crusade in 1190, although the veracity of this is doubted, however Ranulf did go on crusade, but not until 1218. Bishop Baldwin also went on crusade, with King Richard in 1190. He led the English advance guard, still involved in factional disputes. Arriving in time to join yet more disputes which he tried to solve by mass excommunication he died near Acre on 19 November 1190.

The whole incident in this episode with "Brereton" is entirely made up, as is the appearance of the earl and his countess. The countess and her mother are in fact mentioned by Gerald, but identifying them is not without problems. Ranulf de Blondeville was born in 1172. He did not marry until January 1189, when a political marriage was arranged with Constance of Brittany, the widow of Henry II’s son Geoffrey, and the mother of Arthur of Brittany. The young Ranulf de Blondeville would most likely have not been present as he spent most of his youth at court with an ailing Herry II.

Prince Edward, First Royal Earl of Chester, and Princess Eleanor, Visit Chester, AD 1256
According to the pageant, Prince Edward — son of Henry III and first Earl of Chester — came to the city in order to accept the fealty of the Welsh Princes. In this particular retelling, loyalty was given with some reluctance on the part of the Welsh. This supposed visit underlined the historic associations of Cheshire with Wales and the fact that the Princedom of Wales had, since Edward's time, been coupled with the Chester Earldom. The episode's narrative anticipated the eventual quashing of the Welsh princedoms and, yet again, the dominance of England and its ruler.



In 1256 Edward was 17 and his father, Henry III was effectively at war with the Welsh. Llywelyn, in November 1256, crossed the River Conwy with an army, accompanied by his brother, Dafydd. By early December, Llywelyn controlled all of Gwynedd Is Conwy apart from the royal castles at Dyserth and Dnoredudd as a reward for his support and dispossessing his brother-in-law, Rhys Fychan, who supported the king. Edward had raised an English army led by Stephen Bauzan invaded to try to restore Rhys Fychan but was decisively defeated by Welsh forces at the Battle of Cadfan in June 1257, with Rhys having previously slipped away to make his peace with Llywelyn. Rhys Fychan now accepted Llywelyn as overlord, but this caused problems for Llywelyn, as Rhys's lands had already been given to Maredudd. Llywelyn restored his lands to Rhys, but the king's envoys approached Maredudd and offered him Rhys's lands if he would change sides. Maredudd paid homage to Henry in late 1257. By early 1258, Llywelyn was using the title Prince of Wales, first used in an agreement between Llywelyn and his supporters and the Scottish nobility associated with the Comyn family. The English Crown refused to recognise this title however.

In reality Edward I (ruler from 1272 to 1307) is remembered as the conqueror of Wales and the "Hammer of the Scots" (accoring to legend he had this inscribed on his tombstone - "Edwardus Primus Scottorum Malleus hic est, 1308. Pactum Serva" - Here lies Edward 1st, hammer of the Scots. Keep the faith - although this appears to have been added later). He also introduced to England the repugnant practice of forcing Jews to wear yellow patches on their outer garments - before their expulsion in 1290 when he owed them money (the idea was later copied by the Nazis). When the newly crowned Edward called Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, then Prince of Wales, to Chester Castle in 1275 to pay homage, Llywelyn refused to attend ("fearing for his safety") and Edward had the excuse he needed for another Welsh war. The event is reported as follows in the "Chester Chronicle":


 * "Edwardus Rex Anglie in generali parlemento suo post coronacionem suam fecit multa statuta, decimas regni obtinuit. Idem Rex apud Cestriam venit ut tractaret cum principe Wallie Lewelino et cito pro contemptu dicti principis recessit." - Edward, king of England, in his general parliament after his coronation, made many statutes and obtained [as a subsidy a grant of] a tenth [of the goods] of the kingdom. Also the king came to Chester, that he might treat with the prince of Wales, Llewelin, and soon returned on account of the contempt with which that prince [treated his invitation].

So in truth, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd never turned up to negotiate with Edward either in 1256 or 1276, although there may have been some contact in 1257 between Edward and envoys of the Welsh ruler. With the outbreak of Edward's Welsh war in 1277, Chester Castle was made one of the three military commands from which Llywelyn's principality was attacked. Royal forces operating from the city under the command of William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, quickly brought northern Powys to submission. As in previous campaigns, workmen, soldiers, timber, ammunition, victuals and boats were assembled in the city. The royal wardrobe was also brought there in five carts. With the castle thus established as the chief base for operations in north-eastern Wales, Edward himself arrived July 1277 to lead a large force of infantry on the culminating campaign. He returned to the castle in September 1277 when it was clear that Llywelyn would be forced to surrender. As the Chronicle puts it:


 * "Eadwardus Rex Anglie intravit Walliam cum comitibus et baronibus totius Anglie et obsedit eam undique tam per mare quam per terram unde capta fuit Angleseya tandem circa festum Sancti Martini in hieme Lewelinus princeps necessitate compulsus habito magnatorum consilio et beneficio absolutionis optento venit apud Rothelanum et ibi [se] subposuit omnino voluntati et misericordie domini regis." - Edward, king of England, entered Wales with the earls and barons of the whole of England, and besieged it on every side, as well by sea as by land, so that Anglesea was captured. At length about the feast of S. Martin [November 11] in winter, Llewelin, prince [of Wales], compelled by necessity, having taken counsel of the magnates and obtained the benefits of absolution, came to Rhuddlan, and there he submitted himself completely to the will and mercy of our lord the king.

After Llywelyn's defeat an unsteady compromise was reached, but strained relations did not last. After Llywelyn had been lured into a trap and put to death on 11 December 1282, his brother Dafydd became ruler of Wales.

On 22 June 1283, Dafydd ap Gruffydd was captured. Dafydd, seriously wounded, was brought to Edward's camp at Rhuddlan and taken from there to Chester (presumably to the castle) and then on to Shrewsbury. On 30 September 1283, Dafydd was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for what would be described as "high treason" against the king. The execution featured dragging through the streets, hanging, drawing and quartering, apparently at the express order and design of the vengeful Edward. Edward also ensured that the heirs of the Welsh princes would trouble him no more:


 * "As the King wills that Owain son of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, who is in the Constable’s custody in the castle, should be kept more securely than he has been previously, he orders the Constable to cause a strong house within the castle to be repaired as soon as possible, and to make a wooden cage bound with iron in that house in which Owain might be enclosed at night" - (Order from King Edward I to the Constable of Bristol Castle).

There is considerable doubt that Edward was ever actually formally the "Earl of Chester", but was simply the "Lord of Chester". The pageant takes real historical figures but completely changes the events, seemingly to show the somewhat treacherous Edward I in a good light and as having the right to conquer an independent Wales.

Richard II is Brought A Prisoner to Chester by Henry Bolingbroke, AD 1399
In this episode the last Plantagenet, Richard II, appeared as the prisoner of his Lancastrian successor, Henry IV. This scene seems to imply that loyalties were divided in Chester but that Henry won the day and the support of the majority in the city at the time.

Local legend holds that Richard II hid his extensive Royal Treasure at Beeston Castle before sailing to Ireland to quell an uprising in 1399. Richard never reclaimed his treasure as he was captured, upon his return, at Flint Castle by Henry Bollingbrooke (Duke of Lancaster, and later Henry IV) and imprisoned at Chester Castle for a while in 1399. In fact, his treasure was almost certainly at Holt castle.

This is a considerable distortion of the facts in the pageant. During Richard's first years as king, government was in the hands of a series of regency councils, influenced by Richard's uncles John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock. England then faced various problems, most notably the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453). A major challenge of the reign was the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, and the 14 year old king played a central part in the "successful" suppression of this crisis. Less warlike than either his father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the "Hundred Years' War" with France. A firm believer in the royal prerogative, Richard restrained the power of the aristocracy and relied on a private retinue for military protection instead. In part this retinue was based around a political power base in Cheshire and parts of Wales.



The last two years of Richard's reign are traditionally described as a period of tyranny with the government levying forced loans, carrying out arbitrary arrests and murdering the king's rivals. Richard's regime went on the offensive exacting revenge for past humiliations and attempting to bring substance to the imagery now associated with the king's rule. The cause of Richard's actions has often been considered a result of the death of his first queen, who may have provided a restraining influence. But his tyranny reflected a reaction to a new environment: one of renewed fear. Always carrying resentment against his political adversaries, the Lords Appellant, the king now felt threatened again, and seized the initiative. Evidence of a plot against the king is unclear but he had every reason to suspect one. Sparked by a long-running dispute between the earl of Warwick and the now loyal Nottingham and the need to fund the French alliance, the king called a loyal parliament. He raised 2000 men in Cheshire, caught the Appellants off guard and tried them in parliament. In 1397 he attacked the Lords Appellant who had prevailed in 1388 and seized their lands and goods. His uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, was murdered and Richard, earl of Arundel, executed on Tower Hill. Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, were exiled. In the following year, as memorably dramatised by Shakespeare in his Richard II, the two remaining Appellants, who initially had been pardoned, Henry of Bolingbroke, duke of Hereford, the future Henry IV, and Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, accused each other of treason. Richard forbade the resulting duel and took the opportunity to exile both men.

In 1397, Richard II created the title "Prince of Cheshire", which he awarded to himself. On 13 July 1397, he ordered the sheriff of the county of Chester to collect 2,000 archers for royal service. These troops were used to overawe the parliament which met in September - sometimes known as the "Revenge Partiament". Most were then allowed to return home, but the king kept back others to form his personal bodyguard, receiving wages of 6d per day, which was the standard rate for archers in royal armies in the late fourteenth century. This wage was on a par with that of a skilled craftsman. This personal bodyguard was made up of Cheshire bowmen who were described as being intolerably arrogant, insolent ruffians who lived on far too intimate terms with king. John of Gaunt died on the 3rd February 1399. On 18th March Richard II cancelled the legal documents allowing the exiled Henry Bolingbroke to inherit his father's lands. In June 1399, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, gained control of the court of his brother the insane Charles VI ("the Mad") of France. A policy of rapprochement with the English crown did not suit Louis's political ambitions, and for this reason he found it opportune to allow Henry Bolingbroke, the exiled and now dispossessed Lord Appellant, to leave for England.

Richard attempted to return from Ireland. It seems entirely logical that his goal was to reach Cheshire, where he had two important links. Firstly, he had recruited his personal troops there and secondly a considerable part of his wealth was at his treasure house in Holt. Henry beat Richard to Chester. The Duke of Lancaster made his way to Chester by somewhat sporadic forced marches and took it without a fight on the 9th August. The Duke stayed at Chester Castle for 12 days, amusing himself by drinking the king's wine, wasting fields and pillaging houses. and presumably enjoying the use of Richard II's "Norwegian Wood" heated bathroom. While there ("this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, who all this while hath revell'd in the night"), he also found time to secure the arrest, incarceration in the Gowestower (outer gatehouse tower) and execution of Sir Peirs Legh of Lyme, one of Richard's leading retainers in Cheshire and the brother of the Sheriff - Legh's head was placed on the Eastgate. Richard arrived at Conwy to find himself hemmed in. Henry then marched against Richard at Fflint Castle to which Richard had been lured from the safety of Conwy Castle. Richard surrendered, but not before trying to escape dressed as a monk. According to Stowe's Annals, following the capture of the King, Bollinbrooke:


 * " with a high sharp voice, badde bring forth the king's horses; and then two little naggs, not worth forty francs, were brought forth."



The king was set on the one, and the earl of Salisbury on the other, and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's son, who led him straight to the castle (still wearing the monk's habit in which he had attempted to escape) and "lodged" them in Chester Castle for a few days (possibly in a tower over the outer or inner gateway, possibly in the Agricola Tower). Though his Welsh supporters almost managed to resuce him on the way to London, Richard was forced to abdicate at Westminster. He probably died soon after possibly having been starved to death on Henry's orders, or possibly having starved himself. His body was put on display to prove that he was dead and had not died violently. Rumours of his still being alive persisted but never gained much credence.

Rebellions continued throughout the first ten years of Henry IV's reign, including the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr, who declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400, and the rebellion of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. Early in 1400, there was a revolt in Cheshire, linked with the Epiphany Rising. Those involved included prominent members of Richard's Cheshire retinue and a large group of townsmen from Chester, 28 of whom, dressed in the "white hart" livery of the deposed monarch, marched to the Eastgate on January 10th 1400, removed Peir's Legh's head from the Eastgate, and unsuccessfully besieged the castle, then held by the Chamberlain of Chester, the Sheriff of Cheshire, and the Constable, William Venables of Kinderton. In 1403 Sir Henry Percy ('Hotspur'), lately justice of Chester, stayed in the city and raised the standard of revolt there before the Battle of Shrewsbury. The citizens were far less involved with the rebels than in 1400, and indeed the mayor and the constable of the castle were present at Shrewsbury in the king's retinue. In a closely fought encounter Hotspur was killed, apparently shot in the face when he opened his visor to get some air. With the loss of their leader, the battle came to abrupt end. One of the captains of the Cheshire Archers, Thomas Beeston, died at the battle fighting for Percy. Five of the other captains were excluded from the pardon which Henry IV extended to the men of the county of Chester on 27 September 1403 for the support which they had shown to Percy.

Richard II possibly deserved to be deposed, but the event kicked off not only the "Wars of the Roses" in the mid-to-late fifteenth century but also a renewed war with France. The two sides exhausted each other so completely that eventually only Richad III was left, and was then defeated by Henry Tudor, a Welshman.

(a) King James I visits Chester, AD 1617; (b) The Midsummer Revels (c. AD 1620)
James I of England was also James Vi of Scotland. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. Despite this, the pageant uses James as a symbol of a United Kingdom, something which did not in fact come into existence until the Act of Union of 1707.

At the time of the accession of [http://chester.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Timeline#James_I_.2824_March_1603_-_27_March_1625.29._Descendant_of_Henry_VII._Never_Earl_of_Chester. James I] to the English throne (1603) Chester had other concerns: there was a plague running riot in the city. There was a plague in London at the same time with at least 30,000 dead in 1603. This was part of the second plague Pandemic, a major series of epidemics of plague that started with the Black Death, which reached Europe in 1348 and killed up to a half of the population of Eurasia in the next four years. Although the plague died out in most places, it became endemic and recurred regularly. A series of major epidemics occurred in the late 17th century, and the disease recurred in some places until the late 18th century or the early 19th century. The plague which heralded the accession of the Stuart rulers actually reached Chester in September, 1602, in a glover’s (or musician's) house in St John Street (then Lane), where seven died, and kept increasing until the weekly deaths reached sixty. This particular plague cycle may well have been associated with the movement of troops through Chester in support of the Irish wars and the famines of the past years. War, famine and pestilence being known as companions. This did not stop some ascribing the plague to the accession of king James, or associating it with Kepler's Supernova.



In this comic scene of the pageant, James, who was given a pronounced Scottish accent, was shown as a pompous figure, fond of flaunting his erudition but unable to impress Chester's Mayor who turned down the reward of a knighthood from the King. The scene ends with a Puritan addressing the King at one point stating: "King James, cast from your court the painted Jezebels"; to which James replies: "haud your tongue, ye bletherin' deil". As the King moves off, a witch appears, and he is seen to turn his face away from 'the evil eye'; he shouts "Awa wi' ye" at a Scot who suddenly breaks through to deliver a petition. Two men then remark on James's merits as a King and whether he might be described as "a loving and learned King" or "the wisest fool in Christendom", after which all exit the arena at different points.

It is true that James I visited Stuart Chester in August 1616. As the most senior alderman, William Aldersey presented the king with a gold "standing bowl" chock full of gold coins (100 Jacobins) on the city’s behalf. It is true that he was offered a knighthood and refused it, but this may well have been because James would have wanted an additional payment for that. He records the event himself without mentioning the knighthood:


 * "12 October 1616 - The Kinges maiesty Came the 23rd day of august to the Lea hall to Sir George Calueley and there had a banquet, and from thence the same day to the Citty of Chester, where he was banqueted in the pentice, and presented with a Cupp of gold by the Citty. and from thence went to Vale riall [word cancelled] the same night beinge Saturday where he rested till mondey, and then came to the nante wiche that night and so away." - ALDERSEY FAMILY COLLECTION CR 469.

The annalists of Vale Royal record the events as follows (one or other has the year wrong), but they do mention the last-minute offer of a knighthood:


 * "1617 On the 23d of August our city was graced with the royal presence of our sovereign King James who being attended with many honourable earls reverend bishops and worthy knights and courtiers besides all the gentry of the shire rode in state through the city being met with the sheriffs peers and common council of the city every one with his foot cloth well mounted on horseback. All the train soldiers of the city standing in order without the Eastgate and every company with their ensigns in seemly sort did keep their several stations on both sides of the Eastgate street. The mayor and all the aldermen took their places on a scaffold railed and hung about with green and there in most grave and seemly manner they attended the coming of his Majesty. At which time after a learned speech delivered by the recorder the mayor presented to the king a fair standing cup with a cover double gilt and therein an hundred jacobins of gold and likewise the mayor delivered the city's sword to the king who gave it to the mayor again. And the same was borne before the king by the mayor being on horseback The sword of state was borne by the Right Hon William Earl of Derby chief chamberlain of the county palatine of Chester. The king rode first to the minster where he alighted from his horse and in the west aisle of the minster be heard an oration delivered in Latin by a scholar of the free school after the said oration he went into the choir. And there in a seat made for the king in the higher end of the choir he heard an anthem sung. After certain prayers the king went from thence to the Pentice where a sumptuous banquet was prepared at the city's cost which being ended the king departed to the Vale Royal. And at his departure the order of knighthood was offered to Mr Mayor but he refused the same." (as quoted in Hemingway)

James I held court at Vale Royal for three or four days (see: Leche House for more on this) and had only visited Chester for a few hours. The brevity of James's visit may have disappointed the citizenry of Chester, for the Corporation assembly book records that:


 * "the streetes to be cleansed, houses to be outwardly beautified if his Maiestie should happilie by his presence so honor this Citie"

James was probably far happier with the hunting and feasting at Vale Royal than what appears to have been rathet stuffy ceremonials at Chester. King James dubbed Mary Cholmondeley the "bolde lady of Cheshire" because she rebuffed his offer to advance the political careers of her sons (for which the King probably wanted a significant financial contribution).



As regards the Puritan, this may be a reference to the much later William Prynne, whose story can be found on the page about John Bruen. For the origins of the witch, while king of Scotland, James VI became utterly convinced about the reality of witchcraft and its great danger to him, leading to the North Berwick witch trials that began in 1590. James was convinced that a coven of powerful witches was conspiring to murder him through magic, and that they were in league with the Devil. In 1597, with the end of the trials, James published his study of witchcraft, "Daemonologie". Shortly after becoming king of England he passed his "Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits". The witch incident in Chester is entirely fictitious.

The next part of this episode, for which the visit of the king appears as a pretext is a "big dance number" in the form of "Midsummer Revels". As described by one newspaper:


 * "all the freaks of the revels were on display, including four marvellous giants in fearsome attire, a huge dragon vomiting fire, a ship merchant's mount, a camel, an elephant and castle, and numerous other strange devices, guarded by guild boys with banners"

These features are all taken from the former Midsummer Show, with one important change that in the original the boys with banners were for some reason naked. This section also Maypole dancing, and another sortie by the fairies that had appeared in the introduction and Episode II. Extravagant dance displays were a particular feature of this pageant.

Siege of Chester. Visit of King Charles, AD 1645
In the scene, a crowd, including townsfolk, is gathered looking in the direction of the Battle of Rowton Heath, some two miles away. At the front of the crowd Lord Byron, Alderman Cowper and Lord Gamul discuss good news from the battlefront. At this, Parliamentarian troops suddenly appear (making their way to the battle) causing alarm amongst the crowd. Shakerley returns from the fight and complains that cavalry reinforcements from the King’s army have not yet arrived. Charles and a party of ladies including Lady Gamul then enter, and the King at last grants reinforcements. Lady Gamul explains that the King has been watching the battle from the "Phoenix Tower". A wounded cavalier then appears stating that the battle is lost, the help coming too late; he then falls dead. Wounded men from the battle are seen. Charles tells Lord Byron that he is to hold out for eight days before surrendering Chester and then rides off. Byron asserts that Chester could withhold a longer siege.



To set the scene, in mid-1645 the Royalist troops had been badly mauled at the Battle of Naseby (14 June) and Langport (10 July). Charles maintained a stronghold in Wales and had retreated from most of England, but still hoped to link up with his allies in the north, bring in troops from Ireland and then perhaps drag victory from the jaws of defeat. Bristol had fallen (10 September) and so King Charles's only port was Chester, then besieged by Parliamentary forces after much fighting for strategic control of Cheshire. Charles gathered what men he could and marched north along the Welsh border in the hope of relieving Chester and consolidating his forces with those of his supporters in Scotland, particularly Montrose. His course northward was paralleled by parliamentary forces under Sydenham Poyntz who had been instructed to prevent Charles from breaking out into the Midlands. At Chirk Castle, Charles, learning that Boughton had been overrun and that Chester itself (whose walls had been breached) might soon fall, hastened northward to the beleaguered city, arriving on 23 September 1645. At dawn the next day the main Royalist force crossed Holt Bridge, and soon clashed with the Parliametary forces who had marched towards the city overnight. By nightfall, the Royalists were defeated in a series of running battles which included clashes at Golborne Brook, Rowton and Hoole before ending almost at the walls of Chester in what was to be one of the last battles of the first Civil War. Charles spent the night at Gamul House then left Chester in retreat to Denbigh, along an undefended road, accompanied by only 500 horse. In Januaty 1646 an agreement for surrender of Chester was reached. The sick and wounded were allowed to stay in the city until they recovered, and the able bodied could leave in safety. On the 3rd February Lord Byron at Chester finally surrendered. The Parliamentary leaders had promised to respect ancient buildings and Churches in Chester. But when their soldiers marched through the City Gates in triumph, they ran wild. During the Parliamentary occupation of Chester many Churches were damaged, and the High Cross where the historic Brereton had beaten the drum to recruit for Parliament and been arrested by then mayor Cowper was destroyed. Sir Francis Gamull, now the mayor, bargained with the Roundheads that the tombs of his family should not be harmed, and this explains the fact that the Gamull monuments in St Mary on the Hill are almost the only relics of the kind in Chester that escaped destruction.

This episode included a performer — Major Shakerley — playing his ancestor, the Royalist supporter Jeffrey Shakerley, and the battle takes place "off stage". Lt. Col. Jeffrey Shakerley of Warden's Regiment brought news of the original clash somewhat south of Rowton. A local man, knew the most direct route to the city which avoided the besieging forces. He crossed the River Dee in a wooden tub (a large vessel used for the slaughtering of swine), rowing his make-shift boat across the deep and wide waters of the Dee, along with a servant. His horse swam alongside the tub and he managed to carry the message within 15 minutes. The action featured other messengers arriving to deliver the bad news that Royalists were set to be defeated at nearby Rowton Heath whereas the fighting was actually much more spread out. Charles did watch a part of the fighting from the "Phoenix Tower" (also sometimes now called King Charles' Tower) which had been adorned with the phoenix when restored in 1613. He also watched a part of the fighting from the top of the Cathedral where he was almost shot - a sniper's bullet killing a man standing next to him. The actual details of the somewhat complex battle can be found on the page on the Civil War.



At the end of each days performance of all eight scenes the entire cast of well over 3000 reassembled in what must have been a spectacular display for a grand finale.

Conclusions: History or Entertainment?
Historians still have divided opinions over pageants. Most consider them "harmless fun", while a small hard-core object to their sometimes less than accurate portrayal of "historical fact" (or current opinions of it). All of the events portrayed in the Chester pageant have some basis in reality and a link with Chester (some more than others) but all are mixed in with "made-up" detail. A common thread running through the series of episodes is the continuity of English rulership over Britain as one united kingdom and the good goverance of the church. All the female roles are secondary, with no appearance by Elizabeth I, who was normally an important character in Pageants. Other missing characters include Werburgh (apart from a silent role as relics at Edgar's coronation) Æthelflæd and Plegmund.

The view of history portrayed in the pageant was somewhat biased. Britain is implied to have inherited all the "good" qualities of the Romans (supposedly ensuring fair treatment and justice for all members of their empire); the Scots and the Welsh are shown as naturally subject to Edgar (and his probably murderous queen); the Duke of Westminster's position is established by his being a successor to the Norman Earl Hugh; Edward I attempts diplomacy with the Welsh; Bishop Baldwin recruits for a just intervention in the Middle-East; Henry Bolinbroke's ursurpation of Richard II is agreed by the people of Chester, and the people of Chester support the monarchy in the Civil War. However, depiction of history in the light of the present day, including the idea that it represents some kind of inevitable progress is still commonplace.

Today pageants are certainly not forgotten, but they are rarely performed and do not attract the number of performers, organisers and spectators that they did in their heyday. They tend to be restricted to rare events such as the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, and are expensive to stage: the cost of the four hour London specatacle was £27 million. It is easy, therefore, to overlook their importance in communities across the country during the twentieth century. Pageants generated considerable comment in the press, both local and national, and featured frequently in novels and plays. Moreover, they spawned a substantial culture of printed ephemera and souvenirs, including programmes and books of words, cutlery and crockery, commemorative medals and so on. The verb "to padge" or "to paj", meaning to participate in a pageant, was in popular usage during the first third of the twentieth century.

There is an emerging literature on historical pageants. One of the most significant contributions to this is Ayako Yoshino’s 2011 study of the Edwardian period, "Pageant Fever", which focuses on the early pageant craze and the productions of the most important pageant-masters: Parker, Lascelles and Frank Benson. Yoshino considers the consumerist appeal of pageantry and its relationship with a growing domestic and international tourist industry: small towns sought to attract the increasing number of middle- and upper working-class holidaymakers and day-trippers, and Yoshino argues that Edwardian pageants were as much a form of spectacle that appealed to the growing ranks of consumer society as they were the solemn acts of historical representation that some purported to be.

One thing that is certain is that many of the participants in the 1910 pageant at Chester had a very good time. A small profit was made for charity and the only person who is known to have lost out is the tennant farmer whose land was used, and who recieved comparatively small compensation for his loss of use of the land and the inevitable damage. Perhaps some slighly biased views of history were supported, but on balance it appears that the pageant successfully showed that there was more to Chester's history than the Romans and the Civil War.

Performance Art in Chester

 * Chester Mystery Plays;
 * Queen Dido;
 * Chamber's Book of days;
 * Shakespeare and Chester;
 * Midsummer Watch Parade;
 * Minstrel Court;

The Episodes

 * Timeline for Chester;
 * River Dee;
 * Roman Chester;
 * Edgar's Field;
 * Hugh of Avranches and the Cathedral
 * Gerald of Wales and Bishop Baldwin;
 * Richard II and the story of his Royal Treasure;
 * Leche House for the visit of James I
 * Charles II and the Civil War;

Online

 * Chester Historical Pageant;
 * Joe Smoe's excellent history;
 * Chester Pageant 1910.: Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society 17. Vol 17, pp. 107-119
 * The Music of the 1910 Chester Historical Pageant;
 * "History taught in the pageant way": education and historical performance in twentieth-century Britain;
 * Chester Waits
 * Restaging The Past: a study of pageants;

Others

 * Historical Pageants and the Medieval Past in Twentieth-Century England: The English Historical Review, Volume 133, Issue 563, August 2018;
 * The Place of the Past in English Culture c. 1890-1914: Past & Present, No. 186 (Feb., 2005),
 * The Pageant of History: Staging the Local Past, 1905–39: from "Filming and Performing Renaissance History";