By Robert Hutchinson

Talk at Syon House 8.7.07

Robert thanked us for foregoing the Wimbledon finals etc. and promised that this talk would be as exciting as Wimbledon and certainly more violent!

Syon presents one of the great mysteries of English history. It is in fact a microcosm of English history. The hopes and dreams, ambitions and desires of many people are linked in this house. Dramatic events occurred in the 1530s-50s. A Queen was imprisoned here, probably in the Abbess’s lodgings, awaiting her execution on Tower Green. Henry VIII by now had such an image of himself he called himself ‘God’s Deputy’.

The story begins in 1415. Henry V founded in his Manor of Isleworth a convent of Brigittine nuns. St Birgitte, or Bridget, the daughter of a Swedish prince, was born in 1304. She later renounced her Royal status and her large family to take up a life of piety, wore a hair shirt, dropped scalding wax on herself to imitate the suffering of Christ. She was canonised on the 7th October 1491. In England the first Brigittine establishment was at Twickenham near the present Twickenham Bridge, but it moved to the present site of Syon and here was established the monastery church of St Saviour, St Mary and St Bridget. During the excavations deeper foundations and buttresses bigger than expected have been found: after their experience at

Twickenham (where the ground was found to be boggy) building here needed to be substantial. On 5th February 1426 John Duke of Bedford, the Regent of the five-year-old Henry VI, laid the foundation stone. Materials were brought by barge along the Thames from Hudleston, Yorkshire; some of this has been re-used in the Park’s perimeter walls. The church was consecrated in 1488. It had two separate naves and chancels, one each for the monks and nuns. 400 feet long and 108 feet wide and probably with a tall steeple at the west end, it was one of the great Gothic churches in England. Syon became one of the richest of all the monasteries. It was fashionable for younger daughters of the nobility to become nuns at Syon but the rules were very strict. The nuns wore white flannel chemises, a gown of grey cloth and a grey mantle. Over their head they wore a cloth fastened by a pin plus a veil adorned with five red circles, to represent the wounds of Christ. They wore shoes in summer and boots coming up to their knees in winter. The monks wore a grey tunic with a red cross on their mantles. The nuns slept on mattresses placed on straw with two blankets and two pillows. They had to maintain strict silence, only being allowed to speak at designated times of day, so they communicated with a complicated system of signs, and in Lambeth Palace Library there is a book, printed at Syon, which was owned by one of the nuns, with diagrams of the signs. They could only speak to outsiders, with special permission, through a window in company with another inmate. Once admitted, a nun could never leave, not even in death: she was buried in the cloisters. There were a number of punishable offences, which fell into various categories. A light offence might be neglect of religious duties or failure to wash. More serious was not to have confessed for fourteen days, spreading discord, or theft or witchcraft. A nun could be locked up or have corporal punishment administered by other inmates.

Syon had extensive lands in nine counties, plus income from indulgencies. Any person giving donations would be granted a number of carefully calculated days of pardon from their sins, and would be deemed to have to spend less time in purgatory. In 1492 the annual income of Syon Monastery was £1616.18s.5½d, estimated at modern values as £725,000. No wonder Henry VIII wanted to get his hands on monastic income and property.

Thomas Cromwell was the son of a brewer and cloth merchant of Putney. He became the country’s greatest minister after the fall of Wolsey. He had been Wolsey’s legal advisor, but after his fall, switched his loyalty to Henry VIII. He engineered Henry’s first divorce and organised the King’s assumption of the title of Supreme Head of the Church. Cromwell was Chief Steward of Syon from 1524 but there is no record of his ever visiting Syon so he presumably paid someone else to do so. Henry wanted to achieve religious conformity at Syon as its piety and learning were well known and respected. It had a famous library of 1400 volumes, some printed on a press at Syon. Cromwell knew about the power of words and images: he was perhaps the first spin doctor. He had a troupe of actors to perform plays with politically correct messages; in 1539 he arranged a pageant on the Thames at Westminster with two barges, one containing performers dressed as the Pope and cardinals, the other men dressed in Royal livery. This was watched by people lining the banks. The two barges fired guns at each other. The papal barge sank, Henry’s team was successful. It had been announced beforehand that anyone taking part should be able to swim! During Henry’s marital problems, Syon became known as a hot bed of treasonous gossip. Cromwell sent in spies in 1534 who sent back various condemning reports. Vicar Hale of Isleworth was reported as saying the King’s life was more filthy than that of a sow, spoke of his womanising, and that he had now taken up with this whore Anne. Yet in terms of European Royalty Henry was actually quite chaste, only indulging in four ‘dalliances’. After being arrested Hale, Richard Reynolds the Confessor General of Syon and three Carthusian priors were dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London through the streets of London still wearing their monkish habits, a fact which caused some disquiet amongst observers. They suffered the usual execution of being hanged till half dead, castrated, their entrails burned in front of them, then drawn and quartered. Reynolds’ head was stuck on Syon Abbey’s gatehouse. In 1535 Abbess Jordan and her nuns were reported to be "agreeable to everything"! But the gossip about goings on in the Abbey went on: one monk was said to have had a key made to allow wenches in. He was also the confessor to a nun and persuaded her that if she confessed to him about her activities with him she would be forgiven; he had bars pulled out from a window so he could talk to her at the nuns’ choir. John Coppinger was now nominated as Confessor-General; he had originally been against Henry’s supremacy of the Church, but obviously had changed his mind. Cromwell sent politically correct books to Syon and insisted that they be read out at dinner. But he was intent on the dissolution of the monasteries. Henry had always had a troubled exchequer so was in need of money. The monasteries were finally suppressed in 1539. Wolsey had dissolved some of the minor monasteries in the 1520s with the approval of the Pope. Cromwell had supervised this and it had paid for some of the

University colleges. So Cromwell probably suggested dissolving the monasteries to Henry. The smaller monasteries went in 1536, and the last of the great monasteries was dissolved in 1541. Only the Knights of St John were left alone for a while as they were thought to be above reproach: Cromwell had been unable to get any "dirt" on them. But they too eventually had to go.

At Syon the Abbess and the monks and nuns received pensions for ‘leaving quietly’, the Abbess receiving £200 a year. She moved to Denham, Buckinghamshire where her family had estates. She died on 29th January 1545 and was buried in the parish church; a monumental brass shows her in her Abbess’s robes. She brought quite a few of the nuns with her to Denham. One of the monks was her confessor and was left property in her will. One of the nuns was left 64 shillings plus other property. Several of the nuns are mentioned by name in the will and were clearly living with her at Denham; they received similar bequests. The rest of the community went to the Netherlands. The great Abbey church was left standing; part of it became a munitions factory for Henry’s wars in Scotland.

Cromwell had arranged a marriage with Anne of Cleves, who was a protestant (so politically correct). But Henry was not impressed with Cromwell’s choice. She did not look like Holbein’s portrait of her; she was pockmarked and had body odour. Henry’s court was a hotbed of conspiracy and intrigue. Who would control England when Henry died? Who would be Regent? A conservative (Catholic) faction was Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk plus Gardener, Bishop of Winchester. They arranged a ‘honey trap’ for the King in the form of the 18 year-old Katherine Howard. She was something of a bimbo, an ‘air head’. They flouted her in front of the King at grand dinners at Gardener’s palace at Southwark, where she danced in front of the great Rose Window: Henry fell for her. But his way was blocked by Cromwell, who was against Catholic power. Cromwell died on the block at Tower Hill. Henry persuaded him to sign a letter stating that the King’s marriage to Anne of Cleves had not been consummated, implying that by this Cromwell would escape being hanged, drawn and quartered and would be merely beheaded instead. Cromwell signed the letter. But Henry had the last laugh: he employed an inept executioner who took half an hour to take off Cromwell’s head. Henry married Katherine the same day at Oatlands Palace. But Katherine’s affair with Thomas Culpepper was discovered, plus the fact that she had been extremely ‘flirtatious’ before her marriage. In 1541 Katherine was sent to Syon in the custody of Sir Edward and Lady Isabella Benton while Henry decided her fate: she was perhaps kept in the Abbess’s old lodgings. Henry was said to be ‘mad with rage’. Katherine had two rooms furnished moderately with no rich hangings. She could have six of her favourite dresses edged with gold, but none of her jewels, which went to Henry’s jewel house at the Tower of London. Katherine wavered between despair and hope. But a visiting Spanish Ambassador reported that she was imperious and difficult to please. On the 22nd November she lost her title of Queen. Two days later she was indicted for living a vicious life (before her marriage), and behaving like a harlot. On 11th February 1542 the Royal assent was given to an attainder condemning her to death; the previous day she had been taken to the Tower of London. Katherine panicked and had to be forced into a boat at a quay which was probably near the main gate at Syon. She was brought down the Thames and her boat shot the arches of old London Bridge, where if she had looked up she would have seen the severed heads of her lovers on the gatehouse. She was beheaded at Tower Green. Henry next married Katherine Parr. He died at 2am on Friday 28th January 1547. He had degenerated into a bloated old man who was rarely seen in public duirng his last few months. He was six feet two inches and may have weighed 29 stone, according to the size of his armour. He may have suffered from Cushing’s syndrome, making him psychotic. He was the first King to call himself ‘Majesty’. For three days his death was kept secret. Trumpeters still played fanfares at mealtimes as if he was still alive. It was a dangerous period; people were jockeying for position. His son Edward became King on 31st January under the Regency of Edward Seymour, who was later to become the Duke of Somerset. On Monday 14th February Henry’s body left London, accompanied by a four mile long procession. It reached Syon at 4pm and was borne to the West door of the monastic church. The coffin was placed within a "hearse" which was a temporary structure, part of the ceremonial of a funeral service, and made of wood embellished with gold, candles and the armorial shields of the dead person. On top of the coffin was a wax image of the King wearing a crown and sceptre. This was carried into the Vestry overnight. Accounts for the King’s funeral still survive at the National Archives. Masses were said over the coffin. The Lord Steward of the Household set a watch. During the night ‘putrid matter’ is reported to have leaked from the coffin: it had been predicted in 1534 that dogs would lick the King’s blood. Now curs came in and did just that. But did the coffin actually fall and crack open? In the morning plumbers came to solder the coffin and a dog was seen licking the King’s blood and could hardly be shooed away. Early that morning the procession set off for Windsor. The King was buried there on the 16th February in an unmarked grave. Henry had spent a fortune on his tomb but it was never completed. He had stolen Wolsey’s sarcophagus but this was later used in Nelson’s tomb at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Abbey church at Syon was demolished in 1547. Demolition of the monasteries was done in a number of ways. At Lewes Priory, an Italian military engineer plus twelve Italian workmen pulled it down in ten days, which would be difficult to achieve even these days. The roofs of the churches would be stripped off first, the walls undermined with tunnels. But at Syon there is no sign of "sapping": the walls were apparently carefully removed – the stone was needed for re-use. The roof bosses may have been first removed, which was a dangerous procedure. Often there are signs of industrial activity: the lead would be melted down and made into ingots. But again, at Syon there is no sign of this. Some monasteries were left alone after the stripping of the lead because it cost too much to transport stone. At Syon the materials were recycled by Somerset who was granted the site. In a doorway and brick wall adjoining the laundry cottages there is evidence of some of the stone. There was now a reformist, protestant government. England was almost bankrupt. So Edward needed money. Churches were stripped of brasses, bells etc. Seymour presided over it all: his wife fell out with Queen Katherine Parr over which of them had precedence. Seymour began to build himself a great house in the renaissance style using material from Syon Abbey. But trouble was brewing. In 1549 appeared the new Book of Common Prayer which prompted riots, plus there was the sheep tax and new enclosures. Somerset fell from power in a coup d’etat. His goods were sequestered, including the former belongings of the third Duke of Norfolk which he had had brought to Syon, although his wife managed to carry away four caskets of goods to their property at Wimbledon. Somerset was executed in 1552. The very protestant King Edward may have been something of a prig. He briefly recorded the execution of his uncle in his diary. John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, acquired Syon. On Edward’s death, Lady Jane Grey accepted the crown at Syon House. She was taken to London by boat and proclaimed Queen, but was displaced by Henry VIII’s daughter Mary Tudor after nine days. Jane was beheaded a year later. Papal authority was now re-established and the protestant liturgy swept away. In 1557 Syon was restored to the Brigittines; Cardinal Pole had found them at Durmont in Flanders. Katherine Palmer became the new Abbess and was joined by some of the nuns who had been mentioned in Agnes Jordan’s will, as well as Margaret Daley who had been the Treasurer. But there were problems in recreating and ‘restocking’ Syon Monastery. Of the former nuns, some were too old, and some of the younger ones had married. In 1558 Mary died, probably of cancer of the stomach, and her sister Elizabeth succeeded her. She almost immediately annexed some religious houses including Syon, which was again dissolved. The nuns settled in Lisbon, but in 1861 returned to Britain and established themselves in Devon, where they still are today. In 1594 the Percys acquired Syon through marriage and have been there ever since. Today’s house has been remodelled around the shell of the Tudor house.

So Syon was a stage on which were played out some of the dramas of the Tudor Age.

Transcribed from notes by Yvonne Masson 8.7.2007