Notable Visitors of Baynard's Castle
Advertisements
Previous page: Richard IIIBaynard's Castle was the scene of many historical events prior to its destruction in the Great Fire and had many notable visitors. Henry VII. changed the castle from a fortress to a palace. He stayed in it occasionally and made several of his solemn processions from it.
In 1505 he lodged Philip of Austria, the matrimonial King of Castile, at the castle when he was driven to England by a tempest.
The Castle was later the residence of Sir William Sydney, who died chamberlain and steward to Edward VI.
It next became the residence of the Earls of Pembroke, and on the 9th of July 1553, about a fortnight after the death of Edward VI., William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, assembled a council of the nobility and clergy at the castle, to determine whether to support Lord Arundel's motion to abandon the cause of Lady Jane Grey, and to proclaim Queen Mary. This was accordingly done instantly in different parts of the city.
It is recorded of the Earl, that "he rode on the 17th of February, 1553, to his mansion of Baynard Castle, with 300 horse in his retinue, of which 100 of them were gentlemen in plain blue cloth, with chains of gold, and badges of a dragon on their sleeves."
He died on the 17th of March, 1569-70, and was buried in the cathedral of St. Paul's with such grandeur that according to Stow the mourning given at his funeral cost the (in those day very large) sum of £2000.
Queen Elizabeth visited the Earl of Pembroke at Baynard's Castle, and had supper with him. Afterwards the Queen showed herself from a balcony to the people assembled in boats and barges upon the river; and then boarded her own barge amid a brilliant display of fireworks and cheers from the crowd.
Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, was installed as Chancellor of the University of Oxford in July 9, 1641. His second Countess, the still more celebrated Anne Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery chose to live at Whitehall, while her husband resided at the Cockpit. She describes Baynard's Castle in her Memoirs, as "a house full of riches, and more secured by my lying there."
On the 19th of June 1660, King Charles II visited the castle to dine. In the words of Pepys "My Lord [i.e., Lord Sandwich] went at night with the King to Baynard's Castle to supper."
The Earls of Shrewsbury were the last proprietors of this famous castle, and resided in it until its destruction by the Great Fire.