Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain Introduction

Seven Ages of Britain is a social and the thirteenth-century roadside cross cultural history of Britain, telling the erected in memory of Eleanor of story of the nation and its peoples Castile, queen of Edward I, or the through art and artefacts, precious classical statue of Charles II at the treasures and everyday objects. Royal Hospital Chelsea. Over the course of seven episodes, • Paintings that capture the spirit David Dimbleby journeys through of an era, like the medieval religious the nation’s past, from Iron Age devotion of the Wilton Diptych, the pre-history to the present day. This sumptuous portraits of the gentry is a history of British society told by Gainsborough in the eighteenth not through documents and written century, or the studies by Barbara records, but through the material Hepworth on the first years of the culture of each age – works of art, NHS. craft, and industry. David travels • Intricate creations of great around Britain and to locations craftsmen and women, like the • Triumphs of engineering, science overseas that have inspired British eleventh-century needlecraft of the and invention, like Henry VIII’s culture and where Britain’s political Bayeux Tapestry, the stained glass armour, the seventeenth-century and cultural influence have been windows of Canterbury Cathedral, Hooke Microscope (opposite), and most strongly felt. In a range of and the elegant furniture and cabinet- the amusement and wonder of magic locations, he admires, handles and making of Thomas Chippendale. lantern shows in the nineteenth interprets all kinds of art and artefacts • Sumptuous treasures of century. in order to tell the story of Britain. incalculable value, like the Anglo- • Examples of culture that reflect There are: Saxon shoulder clasps from the the best or worst of its society, like • Monumental sculptures, of triumph Sutton Hoo hoard, the fourteenth- the eighth-century Codex Amiatinus or commemoration, like the bust century English crown in Munich illuminated Bible, the plays of of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (pictured above right), and the Shakespeare, and the prints and excavated from the River Thames, Elizabethan Drake Jewel. paintings of Hogarth.

2 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain • Buildings, architectural features • Who was the intended audience and interior spaces that illuminate how or recipient? Do we know anything people lived, were ruled, and shaped about how the artwork or object was their environment, like the Norman received or understood at the time? Tower of London, the Georgian • What is the broader cultural context elegance of Edinburgh’s New Town, of the image or artefact? Does it fit and Government House in imperial into a particular artistic genre or draw Calcutta. upon or reference particular visual • Objects that capture the lives of ‘language’? ordinary people at a moment in time, We may need to look upon the object like the shoes and combs brought with what has been called ‘the period up with the wreck of the Mary Rose, eye’ as well as our own, given that maternal souvenirs at the Foundlings’ the prevailing culture at the time Hospital, and the Austin 7, the when it was produced may mean that ‘people’s car’. people saw and interpreted images Art and artefacts are part of our slightly differently to how we might shared cultural heritage and have a in the twenty-first century. Previous story of their own to tell. For historians, societies had different aesthetic written or textual sources dominate criteria of artistic skill, of personal what we know about past societies. beauty and of good taste, but cultural They can include documents of and historical readings of an artwork record, the treaties, Acts of or an object can be more serious Parliament and official papers; than that. A good example is the contemporary narratives, works of porcelain teapot from the eighteenth scholarship, treatises and other texts; century from the artefacts featured in newspapers, pamphlets and this booklet. The tea-party decoration speeches; public and personal letters, probably struck its original owner diaries and memoirs. However, there just as a charming domestic scene are other kinds of evidence too, what whereas, as historians, we may pick historians would call ‘visual sources’ out the black pageboy figure as a or material culture, which are the reminder of the period’s slave trade. objects and artefacts of the past that Seven artefacts have been chosen we can see and (sometimes) touch. for this booklet, one from each of Visual sources can complement or the seven ‘ages’ of history covered confirm what we know about the past in the seven episodes of the from written sources, or sometimes television series. Each is a different they can tell us something quite type of visual source: a piece of different that we would not otherwise design craftsmanship (the Bayeux know. Tapestry), an architectural feature One of the most important elements of (the Beauchamp Chapel and tomb), studying history is to learn how to a woodcut illustration (the frontispiece read and interpret the materials of the of Henry VIII’s Great Bible), a luxury past, understanding them on their item of domestic technology (the own terms, the social or historical Mostyn Clock), an everyday object context that gave rise to their creation, (porcelain teapot), a painting (the and the cultural values at the time Ochterlony portrait), and popular they were produced. For a visual culture (British cinema). Each source, an artwork or artefact, we historical artefact, in fact everything need to ask the same sorts of produced by people in earlier questions that we ask about written centuries, is a record of its society. • Artworks depicting Britons sources: As such, art, artefacts and material through the eyes of others, like the • Who produced it, in what culture have great value to historians Roman Britannia frieze in Turkey, circumstances, and why? as evidence of the past, and also the nineteenth-century Rajasthan have plenty to tell us about our frescoes, and the West African • When was it created, and how ancestors and how we have become statuette of the Queen-Empress much do we know about the historical the society we are now. Victoria. period or people it depicts?

Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 3 The Bayeux Tapestry (1066)

The Bayeux Tapestry has been described as one of the most important pieces of medieval art

Medieval art of events surrounding the Norman romantic belief that it was stitched Conquest of England in the year 1066 personally by Matilda of Flanders, It is not a woven design, so it is and, hence, is an historical source of wife of William the Conqueror, and not technically a tapestry as is great value. her ladies-in-waiting. However most understood today, but is in fact an historians now believe that the Not as clear, however, is the embroidery, stitched in at least eight Tapestry was made in England on viewpoint and provenance of the colours of yarn on eight separate the instructions of Odo, half-brother Tapestry. Records confirm that it has pieces of linen, joined together to of William, and who was made been at Bayeux in France certainly make a 70 metre (231 feet) long wall- Archbishop of Canterbury after the since the late fifteenth century, but hanging. The mere survival of the Conquest. Anglo-Saxon needlecraft its origins and ownership prior to that Tapestry since the eleventh century is was much prized in early medieval date are not certain. In older French remarkable enough to make it worthy Europe, while a number of Anglicised histories, it was sometimes called of study. However, the Tapestry is oddities in the Latin commentary ‘la Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde’ more than simply decorative: it is suggest an English commission. Odo (Queen Matilda’s Tapestry), in the an extraordinary pictorial narrative was also Bishop of Bayeux, which

x w v u Edward’s death

This section is a perfect example of the u King Edward’s bedchamber: x Westminster, the Abbey of St complexity of the Tapestry as an historical portraying a scene like this is surprising, Peter’s, built by King Edward. The Abbey source. Despite appearances, it does perhaps, for a Norman source, since it is still being finished (note the workman not just function like a cartoon strip or depicts Harold positively, but that depends fixing the weather-cock) and God’s storyboard, moving in a linear fashion, how we interpret the king’s words. Is hand descends from the Heavens (right) scene by scene. The story here flows he naming Harold as his successor, or to bless the burial, in premonition of from right to left, from Edward’s deathbed entrusting the kingdom to him temporarily Edward’s canonisation in 1161. testimony to his funeral process to the as a guardian until his ‘real’ heir, William, . location of his tomb at Westminster arrives? Abbey. One of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles records that on 4 January 1066, the day v Edward’s body is blessed and before his death, Edward took Harold’s prepared in downstairs chamber. hand and said, ‘I commend this woman [Queen Edith, Harold’s sister] and all the w The escort of bearers, including two kingdom to your protection’. small boys tolling bells, carry the elaborate jewelled bier to Westminster on 6 January.

4 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain would explain why the Tapestry A valued artefact The Bayeux Tapestry is an ended up in the town, and why he astonishing artefact of its period, and several of his known followers As well as providing a unique but also an invaluable narrative to appear prominently in the tableaux. narrative of the Norman Conquest, add to the many accounts of the the Bayeux Tapestry gives the viewer Norman Conquest. Not surprisingly All contemporary accounts of the a glimpse of several aspects of life then, in 2007, the Tapestry was Norman Conquest tell a slightly in the eleventh century. As part of awarded special UNESCO status as a different version of events and the story itself, we see hunts, feasts, documentary record on its ‘Memory of story of the Bayeux Tapestry is no the felling of timber and the building the World’ register. exception. Its main theme is the of transport ships, and finer points personal relationship between William of fashion and architecture, however of Normandy and Harold of Wessex. stylised. We also gain an insight We see Harold sail to Normandy, into the military history of the period. feast with William, fight alongside For instance, in the battle scenes, him in Brittany, and swear an oath of knights throw spears from above their some kind to him on holy relics. Was shoulder, not charge with a lance this a general pledge of friendship, under their arm, and they ride with an oath of fealty and obligation, straight legs in stirrups far longer or specifically a solemn promise than today. In strips above and below to support William in his claim to the main narrative, small marginalia succeed his cousin, Edward the depict mythical beasts, as well as Harold at Edward’s deathbed Confessor, as King of England? The tales from Aesop like the Fox and the Tapestry is elusive, but is clear in its Crow, scenes of ploughing and daily depiction of the consequences of life, and, around the battle scenes, breaking the oath when Harold takes stark depictions of corpses being the crown himself on Edward’s death. stripped of their armour as plunder.

y z { Harold’s coronation as King of the English

In a series of scenes, this panel cleverly y The Witan, the Council of Earls, in no suggestion in any written source of the shows that, in the eleventh century, there discussion, carrying the battle-axes of time – English or Norman – that the choice was no one clear path to the throne – no Anglo-Saxon housecarls (royal household was not unanimous in England. There heir by birth alone. The Anglo-Saxon title troops). On the very day that Edward was no regime change of advisers – no of the Ætheling (noble one) was held by died, 5 January, the Witan confirmed the earls fell from power – as had been the many members of a king’s family, his designation and nominated/elected Harold case before. However, the Tapestry subtly sons and brothers, and all of their sons, as King from amongst their number. questions the rightness of Harold’s reign and it marked out any man or boy with by showing Stigand prominently as though sufficient royal blood to be considered as z Harold’s coronation on 6 January, he has crowned the King. Some English a prospective king when the time came. after Edward’s funeral, which sees sources claim that Harold was crowned Harold’s accession demonstrates a mixed him enthroned and sanctified by God by Aldred, Archbishop of York; if so, process of king-making – with him being through the offices of the Church. Next why this discrepancy? By tying Harold’s at one and the same time designated, to the throne is Stigand, Archbishop of crowning to a dubious archbishop, elected, sanctified, and popularly Canterbury. whether genuinely or as propaganda, the acclaimed. We’ve seen the deathbed Tapestry throws doubt on the validity of scene with Edward, designation, as the { Outside the Abbey, there is the ceremony and, through that, raises preferred choice of one’s predecessor. acclamation and cheering by the people. questions about the legality of Harold’s Events had moved smoothly and there is claim.

Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 5 The Beauchamp Chapel (1443–75)

Personal knightly piety is given public artistic expression

Gilt bronze effigy of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, lying on a funeral bier or hearse

St Mary’s Church in Warwick is the his soul through Purgatory into Richard Beauchamp was a burial place of many of the earls Heaven. The chapel is not just a contemporary of King Henry V of Warwick and their families. The place for the dead, then, but a living and fought alongside him in his most famous tomb is that of Richard space of drama, ceremony, and campaigns in Wales and France. Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (1382– daily commemoration of his life. He was an important political figure 1439) whose descendents founded in Beauchamp’s ornate effigy and the too, serving on the Privy Council, his honour an ornate side chapel off decoration of the chapel are a final as tutor to the infant Henry VI, and the main nave of the church. This is celebration of his aristocratic status as a diplomat and royal deputy (a known as a chantry chapel. and wealth as well as an artistic lieutenant-general) in English-held lands in northern France when he Included in the legacy left to the expression of his trust in salvation. died at Rouen in Normandy in 1439, church was payment for prayers Like many other high-status tombs aged 57. to be chanted three times a day of the period, Richard Beauchamp’s in perpetuity for the deceased, final resting place combines the Beauchamp chose to be depicted in hoping that these would substitute two key ideals of the Middle Ages – the prime of life, dressed as a knight for penance for his sins and speed chivalry and intense religious belief. in fashionable armour of the Italian

6 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain Figures of family mourners known as ‘weepers’ set around the edges of the tomb style. His head rests upon an ornate tournament helmet, topped by a crest of a swan (one of his family’s badges) wearing a coronet, as a mark of his status as a peer of the realm. His membership of the Order of the Garter is shown by moulded badges around the main archway. There are other heraldic symbols around the tomb. At his feet are a bear (the main emblem of the Warwicks) and a griffin (emblem of his widow, Isabelle Despenser). Banners of the lands and titles of Beauchamp and the families from whom he and his two wives claimed descent are hung in pride of place. The bear and ragged staff emblem features again in the stained- View of the decoration of the Beauchamp Chapel glass windows along with images of Beauchamp’s favoured patron On the wall behind the effigy’s head, up prayers for his soul once he was saints, including St Thomas Becket, facing the stained-glass window, was dead and could do no more to ensure St Alban, the first English Christian a large painting of a Doom or Last his own salvation. martyr, and a Yorkshire saint, St John Judgement, depicting the souls of Work on Beauchamp’s chapel began of Beverley, whose cult was popular the dead being welcomed to Heaven in 1443, soon after his death, but he at the court of Henry V. or dispatched into Hell – the fate was not finally laid to rest there for that preoccupied most medieval As well as patron saints in the over thirty years later. The chapel people and which explains the careful windows, Beauchamp’s effigy is also had first call on the funds of his will planning of Beauchamp’s tomb and looked over by a painted figure of and, at a total cost of £2,500, it nearly the perpetual prayers for his soul. the Virgin and Child on the ceiling bankrupted his heirs. Its completion, Around the bier are small figures set directly above. His hands are raised and its lavishness, demonstrate its into arcades known as ‘weepers’, in prayerful adoration and his eyes importance to him and to his heirs. meant to represent his relations and open, gazing upwards, as if in appeal friends in mourning, and to remind to the Virgin for her intercession to them, still alive, of their duty to keep save his soul from Hell.

Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 7 The Great Bible (1539)

The Great Bible was the first authorised English edition, issued by Henry VIII

The frontispiece is a woodcut print In the aftermath of the Catholic Illustration follows the model of a Chain of showing Henry VIII (1509–47) protest of the Pilgrimage of Grace Being, a well-known image of the period where Creation was drawn as a hierarchy, himself, handing copies of the Bible in 1537, a revision of Coverdale’s with God at the top, then angels, then to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of translation was organised by mankind, then beasts of the air, sea and Canterbury, and to Thomas Cromwell, Cromwell, and the official Great Bible earth, and demons in Hell. In the vision of royal chief minister and Vice-Regent (printed in Paris) first appeared in England here, Henry is at the top of his in Spirituals, the enforcer (some churches in England in April 1539. creation, with every person of all ranks might say, instigator) of Henry’s The frontispiece gives a clear picture knowing their place under him. religious reforms. As an artefact and of how Henry regarded the new u Archbishop Cranmer and bishops an historical source of the sixteenth English Church and its scriptures – century, the Great Bible can tell us a the king is second under God; he is v God in his Heaven, gesturing good deal about these early years of the Lord’s anointed, and the minister towards Henry as his earthly representative in this endeavour. the English Reformation. of God’s Word, bestowing it upon priests and congregation. It is clearly w Thomas Cromwell and political Evangelical reformers across Europe Henry’s Bible, not that of the people, classes in the early sixteenth century agreed using the translation and editing that on the importance of translating x Henry VIII, enthroned, issues copies he chose, not them, and handing it the Bible into national languages of the Great Bible to the clergy on his right down as an act of royal patronage and the laity on his left. (vernaculars) for spreading their and clemency, not as of right. message and to support the claim y The Bible is distributed by Cranmer that faith ought to be based on Henry was keen that his subjects to parish priests (on left) and by Cromwell the Word of God. Many of these accept God’s law on the duty of to the people. translations became landmarks in the obedience to earthly power – hence z The bearded man (above) reads his development of national languages, the enthusiastic cries of ‘Vivat rex’. new English Bible privately at home. such as the German Bible of Martin Production of an authorised Bible { The new Bible is read to men, Luther (1483–1546) and, in English, that all congregations had to use women and children from the pulpit. All William Tyndale’s New Testament and reminds us that the Reformation was hearing it, whether from the priest or Miles Coverdale’s Bible. not only about radical evangelism through the window, declare ‘Vivat rex’ and personal choices of faith. It was (Long live the King) or, in English, ‘God Increasing literacy, the introduction also about obedience and religious save the King’ (detail below). of printing and growing uniformity in uniformity, this time under Henry’s the English language stimulated a command rather than the Catholic demand for religious texts in English Church. in the 1520s and ’30s. Protestantism had adherents at Henry’s court, Many historians would argue that, in among them Cranmer and Cromwell, matters of his personal faith, Henry but the King himself was not VIII would remain Catholic until he necessarily among them. Henry’s died and, in many senses, England Reformation has been called ‘an act was not truly ‘Protestantised’ in 1547. of state’, more about establishing However it was no coincidence that royal (rather than papal) supremacy the veneration of religious images over the Church in England. Royal and saints’ relics were abolished at supremacy gave the king the power the same time that every parish was as well as the duty to impose his ordered to buy a state-sponsored view of true religion within his realm. English Bible. The predominantly He had censored Tyndale’s Bible visual culture of late medieval and other religious texts in 1530, but Catholicism had been replaced by a was prepared to countenance the faith of the Word, with sermons and commission of an ‘official’ English Bible reading at the heart of worship, Bible ‘so that the people should not and thus a text-based, literate Detail of a boy listening to the Bible being be ignorant in the law of God’. Protestant English culture began. read, and praising the king

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Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 9 The Mostyn Clock (c.1690)

An artefact celebrating the Scientific Revolution and a new regime

The seventeenth century in Britain Figure of Britannia, crowned and Despite historians’ reservations u was one of revolutions. This is most holding a shield decorated with the with the term, the Scientific obvious politically with the Wars of standard of Great Britain (combined Revolution is a useful concept in the Three Kingdoms that saw the crosses of St George and St Andrew) in evoking the fundamental changes execution of Charles I in 1649 and use since the time of King James I & VI. of this period in our understanding the establishment of a Parliamentary v More symbols of the twin kingdoms of the natural world, and in new Commonwealth, and then the ousting of England and Scotland – the lion and ways of looking at the world, such of James II (James VII in Scotland) the unicorn on the front corners, and the as abandoning classical authorities in 1688 to be replaced by his thistle and the rose on the rear corners. and traditional teachings of Protestant daughter, Mary, and son- the Church in favour of rational w Clock dial with aperture displaying in-law, William of Orange. However, day of the week and the related classical analysis and experiments. Useful the period was also one of huge planet associated with it. time parameters are from 1543, expansion in trade and commerce: and Nicholas Copernicus’s work x Doric columns mirroring Palladian it saw a rise in economic prosperity on astronomy and the orbit of all architecture being used by Sir Christopher amongst the ‘middling sort’, the Wren and others in the rebuilding of planets around a stationary Sun, gentry and merchant classes, as London after the Great Fire (1666). to the publication of Sir Isaac well as the acceleration of scientific Newton’s Principia (1687) and his y Maker’s plaque in silver: knowledge and enquiry. laws of physical motion. ‘T. Tompion Londini Fecit’ (‘Thomas The Mostyn Clock is an artefact Tompion of London made it’). that reflects all of these patterns the coronation of William and Mary. z Casing veneered in ebony wood with of change. In its mechanics, it is silver and gilt-brass mounted decoration. This would make sense given that technologically innovative as the the clock’s rich decoration seems first year-going, striking, spring- and to run for a full year on a single to celebrate the continued union of driven clock and it was created by winding. Remarkably, the Mostyn the two kingdoms of England and the acknowledged ‘father of English Clock is a compact and elegant 70cm Scotland under the new Protestant watch-making’, Thomas Tompion (28 inches) tall at a time when other monarchs after a second Stuart (1639–1713). Tompion became year-going clocks were long-cases, deposition within forty years and the apprenticed to a London clockmaker over two metres (6 feet) in height. exile of the Catholic James II & VII. in 1664 and was an early member The clock is topped by a triumphant The Mostyn Clock was one of a series of the Clockmakers’ Company. He Britannia and heraldic emblems of table clocks produced for the royal was also one of the few watchmakers of the two kingdoms and is richly couple, but it was kept in the King’s to become a member of the Royal decorated around its casing with private quarters and he bequeathed it Society (although some historians fine silver mounts of crowns and on his death to one of his Gentlemen consider evidence on this status crossed sceptres, victory palms, of the Bedchamber, Henry Sidney, to be inconclusive), and played a military trophies and cherubs. The Earl of Romney, from whom it pivotal role in scientific developments luxurious ebony veneer of the case descended to the Mostyn family. of the late seventeenth century. On mimics the look of the most expensive Tompion was later appointed official the request of Charles II, Tompion cabinet-making of the period, with Clockmaker to the King by William III, designed two clocks for the new wood transported by the English to whom he presented a barometer Royal Observatory in 1676 that and Dutch East Indies companies. and sundial for Hampton Court as needed to be wound only once a year It rests on gilt baroque-scrolled feet, well as another year-going clock, this and, with thirteen-foot pendulums linked by modelled swags of leaves one showing the difference between on a two-second beat, provided and flowers. The mechanism is solar and Greenwich Mean Time accurate measurements needed by based on a relatively delicate verge that is still displayed at Buckingham royal astronomers. escapement, regulated by a short Palace. Thomas Tompion’s status and The Mostyn Clock was made by pendulum. It has a complex driving fame as a craftsman at his death in Tompion for William III (1689– work of six-wheel gear trains, twin 1713 is demonstrated by his burial at 1702), and believed to have been barrels and reversed pulley fusees Westminster Abbey. commissioned in 1689, the year of in order for the clock to strike hourly

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Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 11 English porcelain teapot (1755)

Everyday household objects can open a window onto social and cultural history

Over the course of the eighteenth was first sold in very small quantities However, tea-drinking was most century, Britain was transformed by apothecaries and pharmacies often a domestic ritual and an both as a sovereign state and as a for medicinal purposes, but was important social occasion in the lives society. Politically, the Act of Union becoming a fashionable alternative of upper- and middle-class women (1707) united the previously separate beverage in coffee- and chocolate- in the eighteenth century. In 1717, kingdoms of England and Scotland houses by the mid-seventeenth Thomas Twining opened London’s under a single Crown and one century. Charles II’s Portuguese first dedicated tea-house on The Parliament, while incorporating an queen, Catherine of Braganza, has Strand where women might purchase Act of Settlement that required the been credited with introducing ‘the their teas to be stored at home often heir to the throne to be a Protestant drink of temperance’ to the Stuart in ornate wooden tea caddies. These descendent of the Electress Sophia, court. By the early eighteenth century, caddies normally came with two inner grand-daughter of James I & VI, and tea had even replaced beer as the canisters, one for black tea and the thereby effected the Hanoverian drink of choice for breakfast in the other for green, along with a porcelain succession in 1714. Intercontinental household of Queen Anne, and these bowl in which the Lady of the House warfare, in the War of the Spanish royal connections heightened the could blend the two teas to her own Succession (1701–14), the War of the vogue for tea. Coffee-houses had taste. The taking of afternoon tea, Austrian Succession (1740–8) and the always been enclosed masculine and a social gathering of informal Seven Years’ War (1754–63), raised spaces, hotbeds of political gossip, callers, became a regular part of the Britain’s profile on the world stage, fevered debate and commercial day in the eighteenth century and, as naval supremacy proved decisive dealings. However the tea-gardens within the domestic sphere, fulfilled and its overseas possessions of the eighteenth century, such as a similar function for women as the increased, leaving it the dominant Vauxhall, which opened its doors coffee-house had done for men – an colonial and trading power. in 1732, were venues where whole occasion to meet, converse and families went to enjoy music, play forge social networks. The tea table Economically, the eighteenth century games or stroll along lantern-lit walks, was female territory, with the hostess for Britain was one of commerce and as well as providing an environment presiding, brewing the tea herself consumerism. It also witnessed the where young women and men could in front of her guests before serving identification of a ‘middling sort’ as mingle. them and herself, and with one of a social class. This was the group of merchants, retailers, entrepreneurs, bankers and manufacturers who drove the economic growth. These middle ranks – moderately prosperous property owners with family incomes of between £50 and £200 a year – comprised nearly 25% of the population by the 1780s and were the backbone of a British society described by the eighteenth-century law professor, William Blackstone, as ‘a polite and commercial people’. New money created new markets for fine and beautiful things, which were manufactured on a scale never seen before, and markets particularly for items whose use reflected the fashions, tastes and aspirant gentility of their owners. In the eighteenth century, tea was still a relatively recent arrival into Britain. It

12 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain the male guests or a daughter of the smartly and appropriately to facilitate trading ‘triangles’ in the tea cup. The house normally handing around cups. sociability amongst their peers. huge escalation in the consumption The hostess and her prized collection Until import duties were abolished of tea in Britain in the first half of the of decorated china and elegant tea in 1784, tea remained a luxury item eighteenth century is mirrored by a accoutrements were all on display and, hence, its consumption was a comparable increase in the import as she performed the ceremonies voguish status symbol for the upper and sale of cane sugar from the of tea-making. Porcelain cups and and middle classes. slave plantations of the Caribbean saucers, tea urns, boilers, spoons in order to sweeten that tea. Tea- The couple depicted on the teapot and creamers in silver or pewter, and trading by the are attended by an elaborately the teapot itself, are key examples between Britain, India and China, dressed black pageboy, who pours of how consumer fashion and the and the growing fashionability of tea- hot water from a kettle into a teapot. commodities themselves can be drinking in Britain, was one of several Although many of the 10,000–15,000 seen within an historical and cultural consumer drivers of the Atlantic slave- black men, women and children context. Items such as these signified trade triangle and of cultivating the estimated to live in Britain by the the social standing of their owners, or peculiarly sweet-tooth of the British. mid-eighteenth century were of free promised one to which they aspired, Tea features almost as an active status, others arrived in Britain as while also equipping their home participant in the history of Britain household slaves and remained so. and its empire in this period: the thirst Even for the free, especially in port u Produced by the Bow Porcelain for tea in the domestic market drove cities like London and Bristol where Factory in the mid- East India Company men to establish freed slaves, unemployed African plantations of tea across India and v Decorated by transfer printing in red sailors and their families tended south-east Asia, while its popularity enamel of a 1755 engraving, ‘The Tea to settle, domestic service was Party’ by Robert Hancock, one of the most in the British North American one of the most common forms of popular designs used on 18thC English colonies made tea an easy target for employment. ceramics monopoly and heavy taxation from w Depicts a wealthy, fashionable The African pageboy serving tea is London, becoming a symbol of unjust couple taking tea on a garden bench a vivid reminder of the metaphorical imposition and of militant resistance in x Exotically-dressed black pageboy convergence of Britain’s two key the Tea Party of 1773.

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Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 13 Sir David Ochterlony in Indian dress, c.1820

Cultural interaction and conquest during the building of Empire

The origins of the British Empire Company wielded state-like powers u Formal European portraits, including should not necessarily be seen as in the territories that it controlled. officers of Highland regiments, remind the deliberate political expansionism, These territories expanded, too, viewer that this is the official residence of given that, in many areas, empire- in the second half of the century a Westerner, and contrast starkly with rich building was not carried out by the through war against the French Indian fabrics and soft furnishings of this reception room. state, but by trading or settlement and the Nawab of Bengal, as well companies set up specifically for as forming subsidiary alliances v Male servants in attendance, one overseas activity. where, under threat of conquest, fanning Ochterlony with ostrich plumes. neighbouring princes granted The establishment of colonies in w Male and female Indian musicians. control over trade and foreign affairs North America first took place under x Nautch girls (professional dancers). in return for Company protection. the initiative of powerful individuals Troubled by claims of the Company’s y A serpentine hookah pipe at the or groups operating as joint stock financial mismanagement, the British centre of the tableau. companies under a Royal Charter, government assumed partial control such as the London Company, the z Ochterlony portrayed relaxing in the over the Indian territories in 1773, style of an Indian potentate, reclining on Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers appointing a Governor-General ornate cushions and wearing the robes and the Hudson’s Bay Company. The through whom the Company and and turban of a Mughal official. His age East India Company was first granted its directors would act as sovereign in the picture has led it to be dated to his a limited monopoly on trade with second residency, between 1818 power on behalf of the Crown. Further all countries from the South African and 1822. Acts of Parliament over succeeding Cape eastwards in 1600 and, with the decades imposed more scrutiny patronage of the Mughal emperors, on Company officials and gave an evening’s entertainment in soon established trading posts additional powers to governors until the Delhi Residency in the early (factories) at major ports across India. direct rule was imposed in 1858. nineteenth century and demonstrates By the early eighteenth century, the Ochterlony’s familiarity with and Sir David Ochterlony is a good Company had amalgamated with enjoyment of Indian culture. There example of an early British empire its only rival, developed a political is nothing of the stiffly-attired and builder. He was born in Boston, in the lobby through its enriched officers socially exclusive sahibs and American colony of , in both Houses of Parliament, and memsahibs of the later British Raj and made his fortune with the East was in the financial position of being about Ochterlony here. It is a hybrid India Company as a soldier and able to lend millions of pounds to world, reflecting the lifestyles of many as a regional official (Resident). the Treasury. Although the priorities merchants and administrators of the This anonymous painting depicts of trade and profit remained, the East India Company in this period

Sir David Ochterlony (1758–1825)

He was the eldest son of a influence in the College of Arms to career on the back of his military Scottish father (another David secure Ochterlony a position in the exploits. He was made the first Ochterlony), a merchant sea- Bengal regiments of the East India British Resident at Delhi from captain who died insolvent in Company in 1777. Ochterlony fought 1803–6 after taking a lead role when 1765. The widowed Katherine in Mysore, Rajputana and the Punjab, the city fell to the Company, and Octherlony was American-born as well as holding a command in the Resident of Delhi (1818–22) and and remained initially in the Anglo-Nepalese War for which he Rajputana (1822–4) after diplomatic family’s home in Boston before was rewarded with a baronetcy in success with Amir Khan. After falling travelling with her three sons 1815 and induction into the Order of out of favour with a new Governor- in 1770 to England. There, she the Bath in 1816. Like many British General, Ochterlony died in July married Isaac Hearst whom, it is men making a name for themselves 1825 at , where he was thought, used his growing political in India, Ochterlony built a political buried.

14 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain u v

w x y z who immersed themselves in Mughal their upbringing. His three eldest unapologetically imposed from culture, who learnt Persian and Indian daughters were married comfortably London. As opportunities in the dialects, who married or co-habited to Company officials; trust funds were empire for greater numbers of British with local women, and had mixed- left in his will for the two youngest, men and women broadened in the race children. while his son worked as Ochterlony’s later nineteenth century, ideas about interpreter. His grandson, Charles appropriate roles and behaviours Evidence from wills in Company Metcalfe Ochterlony, inherited seemed to contract. The integration archives shows that in the 1780s the baronetcy through special with local culture that ‘white mughals’ more than one-third of British men parliamentary patent in 1825. like Ochterlony enjoyed was made in India left possessions to one contemptible by fears that ‘going or more Indian wives or children, The period of cultural intermixing native’ would lead to degeneracy even if not all of them, unlike depicted in the Ochterlony painting and the decline of imperial authority. Ochterlony, were prepared openly did not last, as the Charter Act What it was to be British, particularly to acknowledge these relationships of 1813, which asserted Crown a British imperialist abroad, became during their lifetimes. Traditional sovereignty over all Company increasingly expressed in terms of claims that Ochterlony took the possessions, ended most of its difference to the colonised. evening air in Delhi with thirteen trading monopolies and opened Indian wives mounted on thirteen up India to missionaries and other elephants is heavily influenced by Western influences. The mutiny folklore. Ochterlony never married, of 1857 finished off the process. but is known to have had at least six With British victory and direct rule, children, one son and five daughters, genuine interaction with the top rank by two or more Indian women, and of the Mughul elite disappeared he wrote movingly of his worries for and the governing culture was

Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 15 Social realism on the big screen

In the twentieth century, the art-form of the people was arguably cinema

Many of the early pioneers in broader post-war improvements to reflect this changing audience goes cinematography in the late nineteenth comfort in the average home and almost without saying. century were British, such as William greater demands on the family In the 1960s, British films appealed Friese Greene who developed budget to sustain this. By 1961, it to a youthful demographic in a perforated celluloid film, and Robert was estimated that 75% of British number of ways, tapping into their Paul and Birt Acres, the first men to households had a TV set, and aspirations for independence and build and operate a 35mm camera. television often kept at home the new experiences with light-hearted Before 1914, movie audiences were ‘family audience’ who would still products like Summer Holiday as likely to view a film produced in treat themselves to a movie on high (1963), while also capitalising on the Britain or France as one from the days and holidays, but otherwise growing image of ‘Swinging London’ USA. However, by the early 1920s, infrequently so. Cinema in the 1960s internationally with Richard Lester’s US cinema had begun to dominate would be increasingly left to those verité-style Beatles’ showcases, screens on both sides of the Atlantic, who spent evening leisure outside A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and with the Los Angeles suburb of the home, so much so that, by 1960, Help! (1965), the heady mix of Hollywood becoming synonymous young adults between the ages of glamour, violence and humour of with the motion picture industry. 16 and 24 constituted almost half the James Bond franchise (1962– ), There were over 4,000 cinemas of those frequenting the cinema and taboo-breaking dramas like in Britain by 1925, but there was regularly (once a week or more). Alfie (1967). British cinema in the real expansion in the 1930s when That there would also be changes in 1960s also challenged its young the introduction of ‘talkies’ led to the output of mainstream cinema to audience, reflecting the harder edge larger, purpose-built premises to accommodate new technology, and a ballooning audience in more luxurious ‘England swings like a pendulum do – surroundings. By 1940, there were Bobbies on bicycles, two by two, 5,500 cinemas in Britain, with every Westminster Abbey, the Tower and Big Ben, town having at least one, housing The rosy red cheeks of the little children.’ almost 4½ million seats – all of which Roger Miller, England Swings were needed. Between 1934 and the (US Top 10 & UK Top 20 single, 1965–6) outbreak of World War II, there was a 10% increase in cinema attendance Carnaby Street, London, 1960s amongst the British population, with sales rising from 903 million tickets in 1934 to 990 million in 1939. Cinema-going was a huge part of everyday cultural life in the mid- twentieth century, particularly for children and young adults, and remained the most popular leisure pursuit in late 1940s and early 1950s Britain. The all-time peak of attendance was in 1946, topping 1,600 million ticket sales, while one survey conducted in 1949 found that 40% of adults visited the cinema regularly every week. However, the climate of cinema-going changed over the course of the 1950s, with the advent of TV as an accessible and affordable entertainment, alongside

16 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain of their lives along with changing Home (1966). Poor Cow was Loach’s her baby son, falls in love, and is expectations and continued debut cinema feature but was familiar devastated when he, too, is jailed for frustrations of class and gender territory for him, with a screenplay by twelve years for robbing a jeweller’s roles. The ‘British New Wave’ or Up the Junction’s author, , shop. Despite hearing in court of ‘kitchen-sink realism’ genre of British and starring the leading actor of both Dave’s long criminal past, and his filmmaking was gritty, personal yet ‘Wednesday Plays’, Carol White. Poor violent attack on the female jeweller, unsentimental, and tightly filmed, Cow is the story of three years in the Joy vows to stand by him. She first almost documentary in style and life of Joy, a resilient yet ultimately becomes a barmaid, then takes influenced by ‘Mass Observation’ fragile young mother whose world up provocative life-modelling for a policies and Ministry of Information spirals steadily downwards over camera club, and begins numerous films. Among the most realistic films, the course of the movie, seemingly affairs in an increasingly squalid and arguably having stood the test of out of her control. Joy is married to existence. She contemplates divorce time better than some others, is Poor Tom, a criminal who is violent to and from Tom, but reconciles with him on Cow (1967), directed by . contemptuous of her, and whose his release, before bitterly regretting it prison sentence for robbery holds and encouraging him back into crime Loach had learned his craft in out the possibility of a new life for in the hope he’ll be imprisoned again TV, graduating from Z-Cars to her. She starts an affair with Tom’s and she’ll be free. ‘Wednesday Play’ productions like Up friend, Dave, who is kind to her and the Junction (1965) and Cathy Come The atmosphere of Poor Cow is intense from the start, with realistic Carol White plays the young mother, Joy, in Poor Cow close-ups of Joy giving birth to her son, Jonny, and the audience almost as her confidante throughout as she acts as a narrator. Loach uses irony to prompt sympathy for her situation, such as the inter-title, ‘The world was our oyster ... And we chose Ruislip’, when Joy and Tom move to the suburbs early in the film, and the playing of the Ivy League’s 1965 hit Funny How Love Can Be from the jukebox in a café when Tom subjects Joy to crude comment and rough treatment in front of his mates. Like Loach’s TV ‘kitchen-sink’ dramas, Poor Cow is a vivid reminder in a feature film that the 1960s may have been ‘Swinging’ only for a lucky metropolitan few and, for a good proportion of the cinema audiences in suburbs and market towns, lives could still be circumscribed by poverty, class and society’s limitations.

At one point, Joy tells us, ‘All you need is a man and a baby and a couple of nice rooms to live in’. In reality, she wants more, but that basic right to health, happiness and prosperity, which is held tantalisingly beyond her grasp, permeates the film, imbuing it with an idealistic faith in humanity and society.

Robert Murphy,Sixties British Cinema (1992), pp.151–2

Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain 17 Learning with The Open University

You’ll be part of Europe’s largest Openings courses Reformation of the sixteenth century; academic community with over the civil wars of the British Isles in Making sense of the arts (Y160) 210,000 students learning with us the seventeenth century; slavery and each year and with over 570 courses This introduces some of the key serfdom in the Atlantic world in the available in a range of fascinating ideas and ways of thinking involved eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and challenging subjects, you’re sure in studying the arts and humanities. the development of nation states in to be inspired. We call our flexible You’ll explore poetry, history, and western Europe following the French study method ‘Supported Open art history at the same time as Revolution; and European imperialism Learning’ – it’s study that fits around developing a range of learning skills. in Africa. you and your life. Short courses You can start with a single course Level 3 courses in an area of interest or in a topic Heritage, whose heritage? (A180) Empire: 1492–1975 (A326) that’s relevant to your job, or your This course is a brief introduction Empires have had a remarkable future career. And, if you want, you to the key issues affecting heritage impact on world history over the last can follow a programme towards a decision making. This course five centuries. You’ll study a wide qualification such as a certificate, a enables you to take a critical look range of primary sources, including diploma or a degree. at the ‘heritage industry’. If you letters and diaries, newspapers, want to get involved in a heritage political papers, paintings, Choose from courses in: Arts campaign, it should enable you to photographs and newsreel footage. and Humanities, Business and be more effective in pursuing your Management, Childhood and Youth, enthusiasms. Film and television history (AA310) Computing and ICT, Education, You will study a range of films and TV Engineering and Technology, programmes focusing particularly on Environment, Development and Level 1 courses the social role and cultural influence International Studies, Health The arts past and present (AA100) of film in America, Britain and Western and Social Care, Languages, This broadly focused course Europe. You will be introduced to Law, Mathematics and Statistics, introduces you to university-level various methods involved in the study Psychology, Science or Social study in the arts across a range of of film and television history and will Sciences. subject areas, including history, art learn to place films and television history, philosophy, classical studies, programmes in their historical history of science, religious studies, Beginning to study contexts. If you have no experience of higher music and English. It is structured education, deciding to become an around four themes, guiding you Supporting you all undergraduate student can be a big through some of the basic concerns step. Our Openings programme of of arts subjects: Reputations; the way introductory courses are specially Tradition and dissent; Cultural Whatever you decide to do we’re right designed to help you develop encounters; and Place and leisure. behind you and you’re never alone. your learning skills and build our With many courses you’ll benefit from confidence – perfect for new learners. Level 2 courses unrivalled one-to-one support from Our Short courses, such as Heritage, Exploring history: medieval to your tutor who can be contacted whose heritage, are for people who modern 1400–1900 (A200) by telephone, email or face-to-face. may already have study experience, This course is a varied and wide- Your tutor will provide advice and but who don’t want to commit to a full ranging introduction to historical guidance throughout your studies undergraduate course straight away. study and will teach you the and will give individual feedback on If you have an interest in arts or techniques of professional historians. your progress. Your Regional Centre history, other Open University It covers: fifteenth-century France, is also on hand to answer any queries courses on offer include: Burgundy and England during the you may have. Hundred Years’ War; the Protestant

18 Exploring History Seven Ages of Britain Find out more Acknowledgements To learn more about our courses and qualifications and to find out Grateful acknowledgement for what it’s like to be an OU student, the use of images is made to the following sources: visit our website at www.open.ac.uk Front cover call our Student Registration and Enquiry Services on 0845 300 60 90 Helmet from the ship-burial at Sutton e-mail [email protected] or Hoo © The Trustees of the British Museum write to The Open University, PO Box 197, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6BJ Introduction BBC Why not try our Seven Ages Quest game. Go to www.open2.net/sevenages The Beauchamp Chapel The Open University is creating a map featuring your ideas about Effigy – © Rex Harris heritage. What would you save as your heritage? Why not take part by Stained glass – © Rataedl/Dave/Flickr visiting www.open2.net/savingbritainspast and tell us about a place, Weepers – © Rataedl/Dave/Flickr object or practice that means something to your sense of identity and The Great Bible community. © The London Art Archive/Alamy The Open University has a wide range of learning materials for sale, The Mostyn Clock including self-study workbooks, videos and software. For more © The Trustees of the British Museum information visit the website www.ouw.co.uk English porcelain teapot Victorian Tea Party – © Mary Evans Picture Library Published in 2010 by The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, Teapot – V&A Images, Victoria and MK7 6AA, to accompany ‘Seven Ages of Britain’, first broadcast on Albert Museum BBC1, 2010. BBC Executive Producer: Basil Comely Sir David Ochterlony in Indian BBC Programme/Series Producer: Jonty Claypole Dress Sir David Ochterlony in Indian Academic Consultant: Dr Rachel Gibbons Dress – © The British Library Board Broadcast & Learning Executive: Caroline Ogilvie 1023910.271 Broadcast Project Manager: Maria Ferebee Social realism on the big screen Graphic Designer: Peter Heatherington Carnaby Street © Harold Chapman / Editor: Alison Littler TopFoto 1967 ‘Poor Cow’, Carol White © Everett Collection / Rex Features

The book to accompany the series is published by Hodder & Stoughton and includes over 200 illustrations and chapters by an expert on each age

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