Following Henry VIII around Hampshire

This year has seen great interest in Tudor times, marking 500 years since Henry VIII became king on 21 April 1509. David Rymill, Archivist at Hampshire Record Office, Winchester, explores how this memorable monarch has left his mark on the county.

Henry’s best-known connections with Hampshire are perhaps military: Calshot Castle, Hurst Castle and Southsea Castle form part of a chain of coastal forts built on his orders, while his warship the Mary Rose can be seen at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. However, the closure or ‘dissolution’ in the 1530s of the monasteries and nunneries, as a result of Henry’s religious changes had a major impact on the life and landscape in Hampshire.

Some of these monasteries, such as Netley and Beaulieu Abbeys, can still be seen in ruins, while other monastic buildings, such as Titchfield Abbey and Mottisfont Priory, were incorporated into private houses, and can also be seen and visited. Today, just a few local monastery churches continue as places of worship, and Winchester Cathedral – formerly St Swithun’s Priory – is the largest.

Another example is Romsey Abbey, a nunnery since Anglo-Saxon times – it may have been founded in AD 907 by Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great. We know of more than 30 abbesses (a female superior, or mother superior, of an abbey of nuns) who led this community, including the 10th century Ethelflaeda (said to have given away all the abbey’s money to the destitute, and found the coffers miraculously refilled in response to prayer).

In 1544 the townspeople bought the church for £100, and the sale deed signed with a flourish by Henry VIII can be seen in the church.You can still see many features that would have been familiar to nuns in Henry VIII’s time. There are two roods – carvings of Jesus on the cross, dating from Saxon times and carved capitals, the top portions of pillars, include mythical beasts such as dragons and creatures very reminiscent of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Information

At Hampshire Record Office our archives and local studies collections include books and pamphlets about Hampshire monasteries, and a few rare survivals of monastic manuscripts. For further information on Romsey Abbey.