Farnham Castle, Surrey, England

History

Farnham Castle overlooks the historic town of Farnham on the western border of Surrey.
Playing an important part in the life of the town, the Keep and the Bishop’s Palace are popular tourist attractions. Historical associations and nearly continuous occupancy make the Castle one of the most important historical buildings in the south of England.

For 800 years, the Bishops of Winchester used the Castle as a home and administrative centre. Powerful men from the Norman Conquest until the Tudors, the bishops often shaped English politics. Nine were Lord Chancellors. Most of the monarchs of England from King John to Queen Victoria visited or stayed at the castle.

The Castle consists of two parts:

The Keep, a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Put in the guardianship of the State in 1933, the Keep has been placed under the management of Farnham Castle on behalf of English Heritage.
The Bishop’s Palace, a complex of Grade I and II listed buildings. Permanently lived in for almost 900 years, the buildings reflect changing architectural styles through the centuries. Though sometimes neglected in the past, the buildings are now well maintained. Recent HLF grants have allowed the undertaking of extensive repairs and restoration work to both the Palace and the Keep.

The Bishops of Winchester

There would be no Farnham Castle without the Bishops of Winchester. They link the Castle to the centre of English history.

Supported by vast estates, the medieval Bishops of Winchester possessed great wealth and political influence. In later centuries, the bishops’ wealth and importance declined, reflecting the changing balance of power between Crown, Church and Parliament.

The Diocese

The Diocese of Winchester is one of the oldest and most important in England.

In 688, King Caedwalla of Wessex gave the Manor of Farnham to the Church. By 803, the manor belonged to the Bishop of Winchester. The Domesday Book records that Farnham had ‘always’ belonged to Winchester.

One of the great estates of England during the Middle Ages, the wealth of the diocese came from property holdings extending from Devon to the Channel Islands.

Potent figures during this period, the bishops possessed wealth, status and influence in matters of Church and State. The men appointed were often royal servants deeply involved in the king’s government.

The Reformation changed the relationship of Church and State. While the connection between Crown and Church remained strong, the bishops’ direct political influence gradually waned.

The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 marked the end of an era in the history of the English Established Church. Since the time of Queen Anne, the Anglican Church had served as an appendage of the political system. Now the bishops’ sphere of influence shrank to the Church and the care of their diocese.

The Men

Before the Reformation, the Abbey of St. Swithin’s officially chose the next Bishop of Winchester. In reality, the king or his advisors almost always selected him.

After the Reformation, the choice of the bishop gradually shifted from the Crown to the Government. Today, once again, the Church chooses its own bishop.

From Bishop Giffard’s tenuous first link to Bishop Wood’s final farewell, 55 Bishops of Winchester were associated with Farnham Castle. Some rarely visited, devoting themselves to national politics. Others had close ties to the Castle’s history.

The bishops came from many backgrounds: crown officials and royal relations, monks and lawyers, soldiers and scholars, loyal servants and rebellious subjects. Even a surveyor and a schoolmaster, a ‘saint’ and a ‘sinner’.

Farnham Castle still stands as a testimony to these men.

Henry of Blois (1129-1171)

Henry of Blois was “endowed with intelligence, educated for high office, and had an appetite for power” (Barlow). A prince by birth and inclination, he treated kings and archbishops as equals.

To some, Henry of Blois was a sort of monster: half monk, half knight. To others, he was “above gold and gems…Equal to the Muses in intellect and superior to Marcus in oratory”.

Henry was a supremely able financier and administrator. As a builder, art patron, connoisseur and collector of antiques he was without rival in his age.

A king-maker and, for a time, the most powerful man in England, Henry was a remarkable personality.

But neither his political nor his ecclesiastical activities were informed by far-sighted policies or ideals. Henry, though a “very able, curiously amiable, and in some respects even admirable man, was not, either as a man of action or of thought, absolutely great.” (Knowles)

Early Years

Born about 1095, Henry was the fourth son of Count Stephen of Blois, and Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror.

Like many other younger sons of royalty and the aristocracy, Henry trained as a monk at the Abbey of Cluny. He had a flair for legal affairs, administration and political debate. His education at Cluny would have emphasised:
• the centralisation of the Church • freedom of the church from secular interference. • the need for harmony between Church and State Cluniac monasticism also permitted great ornamentation of churches, buildings and religious books. Henry had a life-long fascination with art and architecture.

In 1126, Henry I appointed his nephew as Abbot of Glastonbury. Even greater benefit from his uncle’s patronage came in 1129 when Henry was consecrated Bishop of Winchester. Allowed to retain Glastonbury, Henry became the richest churchman in England.

King Maker

Henry I’s only legitimate son drowned in 1120. In 1127, the king made his barons and bishops, swear allegiance to his daughter Matilda. Henry of Blois and his brother Stephen were among those taking the oath to accept Matilda as their future queen.

The oath was taken reluctantly because:
• the barons did not like the idea of a female ruler • Matilda was little known in England • she was arrogant, tactless and grasping • the imperial and anti-papal policies of her husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, were unpopular

Henry I died on 1 December 1135. His nephew Stephen immediately crossed the channel and within three weeks had been crowned king of England. How great a role his brother, Bishop Henry, played in the coup is unclear. It is very likely he helped his brother gain possession of the treasury at Winchester. He certainly helped persuade the Archbishop of Canterbury to crown Stephen.

The Church felt that William II and Henry I had deprived it of its proper rights, treating it as part of the royal estate. Bishop Henry and the other English bishops felt the Church should be self-sufficient and self-directing. They wanted the king only as protector.

In return for the bishops’ support, Stephen promised he would restore and preserve the freedom of the Church. He quickly disappointed hopes and soon lost the support of the Church and his brother.

In 1136, the Archbishop of Canterbury died. Henry hoped to succeed and began negotiating with the Pope. But Henry had political enemies and powerful religious adversaries. In December 1138, while Henry was away, a council led by a papal legate elected Theobald of Bec archbishop. The move looked planned and Henry blamed his brother. Thereafter, he “played largely for his own hand”.

The pope immediately compensated Henry for his disappointment with a papal legation. While papal legate from 1st March 1139 to 24th September 1143, Henry of Blois was the real ruler of the English church.

The Anarchy

In 1138, King David of Scotland, Matilda’s uncle, invaded northern England. Robert of Gloucester, her half-brother and the most powerful baron in England, declared against the king. In 1139, Matilda landed at Arundel and the ‘Anarchy’ began. It is about this time that Henry is recorded as beginning work on Farnham Castle. England was engaged in civil war for much of the following nineteen years.

In February 1141, Stephen was captured at the battle of Lincoln. In April, with the promise she would leave all ecclesiastical matters in his hand, Henry had Matilda recognized as queen. Her autocratic behaviour soon disillusioned him. When London expelled her before she could be crowned, he defended Winchester against her. After Robert of Gloucester was captured and exchanged for Stephen, Henry had his brother recognized as king again.

Queen Matilda died in 1152. In 1153, Stephen’s son and heir also died. Bishop Henry helped to negotiate a treaty in which Stephen adopted Matilda’s son as his heir and successor. On 25 October 1154, Stephen died.

Elder Statesman

Henry II was a masterful king. He regarded England as his legitimate inheritance. He set out to reclaim royal rights as they had been before 1135, including control of the Church.

Bishop Henry, an over mighty subject with a group of private castles was an anachronism in this new world. Transferring the bulk of his funds abroad, he followed them without asking for a license. He stayed away for England for several years spending time reorganising the finances of his old abbey at Cluny. During his absence, Henry ordered his castles, including Farnham, pulled down.

Henry of Blois returned to England about 1158. No longer a political power, he devoted himself to his ecclesiastical duties, his building (possibly at Farnham) and his patronage of the arts. He became “a venerable and beloved elder statesman”, retiring further and further from his ambitions and even from his riches as he drew nearer to death.

He was not, however, “a volcano wholly extinct.” Always quite fearless in his defence of the Church, he played one last small role. In the controversy between Henry II and Thomas Becket, Bishop Henry showed more moral courage and principle of conviction than many of his colleagues. He stood firm in his loyalty to the pope and the archbishop, and supported Becket in exile.

William of Wykeham (1366-1404)

An able manager and a builder, William of Wykeham rose from humble beginnings to powe/r and great wealth. He used his wealth and influence to the benefit of English education.

Early Years

He began in the office of the Constable of Winchester Castle, then moved into royal service as a clerk. In his early twenties, with “no other advantages than his skill in architecture”, he came to the attention of Edward III. During the next 21 years he rose rapidly.

In 1356, he became overseer of building works at Windsor Castle. By 1359, he was chief warden and overseer of other royal palaces, parks, and manors. He built the Round Tower and Eastern Ward of Windsor Castle for the king. He probably also rebuilt five other castles – Winchester, Portchester, Wolvesey, Ledes and Dover. Others are believed to have been rebuilt or enlarged by him.

The king paid for these services with the incomes of various churches, a common practise. Perhaps it bothered Wykeham for in 1362 he was ordained.

In 1364, he was made Keeper of the Privy Seal and in 1367 Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England.

Bishop of Winchester

Wykeham was not as good at politics as he was at building castles. King Edward aged prematurely and his third son, John of Gaunt, assumed power. In 1371, Wykeham was charged with abuse of official power and embezzling royal revenues. Ordered to pay an enormous fine, the revenues of his See were confiscated. He was forbidden to go within twenty miles of Court.

He found a home in the Abbeys of Merton and Waverley (near Farnham). When the other bishops declined to act in Convocation without his presence, his estates were restored. King Richard II granted Wykeham full pardon, declaring him “wholly innocent of all the charges”.

Wykeham took little part in politics after this period. He was Chancellor again briefly from 1389 until he resigned in 1391. Instead, he concentrated on his Episcopal duties and devoted his vast wealth to the promotion of learning.

In 1379, Wykeham founded New College, Oxford. He based it on a completely new collegiate system. This served as a model for future endowments and had a revolutionary effect on university education.

In 1382, he founded a College at Winchester for seventy “poor” scholars (to be recruited from the least wealthy of the middle class). This took elementary education from the hands of the monks. It established education on an entirely different plan that had an influence far beyond his own times.

In Wykeham, the “splendid, munificent prelate, blameless in character,” (Milman, History of Latin Christianity) we see the medieval bishop at his best. He chose his motto, “Manners Makyth Man”, when he became Bishop of Winchester. Generally taken to mean that virtue alone is truly noble, it could be a reference to court etiquette and Wykeham’s origins. In his own times, the secular arts Wykeham practised did not meet with universal approval. With no striking powers as statesman, orator or divine, he left his enduring mark on his own and future ages.

William Waynflete (1447-1486)

William Waynflete was one of the great educationalists of late medieval England. Personally loyal to Henry VI, he survived as Bishop of Winchester through a period of great political strife.

Early Years

A schoolmaster without church or governmental connections, Waynflete’s election to the richest and one of the most influential sees of England was unusual and unexpected. Nothing suggested that he would be the one to replace a skilled politician of royal blood.

From minor Lincolnshire gentry, Waynflete was ordained and probably took a theology degree at Oxford. In 1430 he was made ‘headmaster’ at Winchester College. This was not really a very senior position. He was the grammar master who taught the boys assisted by an usher.

He remained at Winchester for eleven years. But during this time, he seems to have attracted the attention of Cardinal Beaufort and later that of Henry VI. In 1441 Waynflete became the first provost of Eton. This brought him into regular contact with the king.

Bishop of Winchester

His election as Bishop of Winchester was surprising and swift. Less than a week passed from the death of Cardinal Beaufort to Waynflete becoming bishop. He was the king’s choice: “pure right trusty and welbeloved clerc and concelloure “. The speed seems to have been to out-manoeuvre the king’s council who in the past had blocked the king’s choices.

In bowing to the king’s wishes, the prior of St. Swithin’s recommended Waynflete to the pope as a “man whose discretion, knowledge and blameless way of life are to be commended”.

With no experience of diocesan or royal administration, Waynflete proved to be a conscientious bishop committed to his diocese and his cathedral. Winchester had an administrative structure that could operate with minimal participation by the bishop. But records show his personal involvement in the most routine of matters. His residence within the boundaries of his see was almost uninterrupted and he tried to visit even the most remote of his parishes.

Though not his driving interest, Waynflete also applied himself conscientiously to the political duties expected of him. His relationship with Henry VI was primarily personal. His only real period of active political power was while he was Chancellor from 1456 to 1460. This made him head of the Privy Council and the king’s foremost advisor, a man of potentially great political influence. He used his position to act as mediator in a period of increasing political polarisation and to further his educational interests.

Education had begun to change in the previous century. Wykeham’s foundation of New College Oxford had introduced the beginnings of the collegiate system. Some teaching texts had been translated into English.

The fifteenth century saw far greater changes;
• the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge increased in both number and size • European humanists were making an impact on English thought and learning • Greek began to be taught and new grammar textbooks were written • the introduction of printing provided a faster and cheaper way of reproducing the new learning

In all these developments Waynflete had an interest or played a central role. Winchester gave him the resources to indulge his interests in education. He used his position and considerable financial resources to become an educational patron and founder of Magdalen College, Oxford.

In 1461, Edward IV deposed Henry VI. Because of his close association with the House of Lancaster, Waynflete fell out of favour. He withdrew from politics apart from regular attendance at parliament.

The next nine years were spent safeguarding his position as bishop. His educational projects had to wait for a time, but he made careful use of patronage to gain allies. His foundation of Magdalen College dominated the last decade of his life.

Waynflete was bishop of a rich and potentially powerful see for almost forty years. He ploughed its resources – financial, political and administrative – into in the promotion of education in England. He also invested extensively in the construction of a number of magnificent early Renaissance style brick buildings, including a grand entrance tower at Farnham Castle.

A conscientious man who excelled as an administrator, Waynflete was a man of energy, enthusiasm and personal loyalty.

George Morley (1662-1684)

Next to the carrying of a good Conscience towards God out of the World with him, I think the next care every man ought to have, is to leave a good name or memorial of himself in the World behind him; especially if he be or have been a man of any Eminency of Place, or Office, or Order, either in the Church, or State…

Other People at Farnham Castle

There have been fifty-five Bishops of Winchester since the Norman Conquest. While the record is not always clear, some connection with Farnham Castle can be made for most of these men.

But thousands of other people, from monarchs to gardener’s boys, have also passed through the Castle gates. Sometimes all we have is a name or a profession, recorded in the Winchester Pipe Rolls or other archive. The majority are unknown and unknowable with no record left.

The English Civil War

While never the site of a major battle during the English Civil War, Farnham and its Castle were still strategically important.

It served as a Parliamentarian garrison town for an army dependent on foraging. And its location meant it blocked the route from the western strongholds of Charles I to:

• the south coast
• Royalist sympathisers in Kent • gunpowder production centres in the Tillingbourne Valley • iron-founding in Weald of Sussex and Kent and associated gun-casting and manufacture of shot

In October 1642, Captain George Wither became commander of a Parliamentarian garrison at Farnham Castle. In November, he evacuated the Castle following reports of Royalist advance across Thames into Surrey.

A Royalist posse under John Denham, High Sheriff of Surrey, occupied the Castle a few days later.

Dragoons and horse commanded by Colonel Sir William Waller stormed and recaptured the Castle on November 26. On December 29, Waller ordered the northeastern wall of the keep blown up.

In February 1643, Waller was appointed Major-General of the Parliamentary Western Army. Colonel Samuel Jones took up duties as the commander of the Farnham garrison.

At the end of the year, a Royalist army of over 8000 troops massed on the heights to the north of Farnham Park. When Waller refused to be drawn from a defensive position around Castle, the Royalists withdrew.

Lord Goring made a final Royalist hit-and-run raid upon Farnham in January 1645. In April, Colonel Samuel Jones resigned his commission as Castle commander and Colonel John Feilder took up command.

In 4 July 1648, the House of Commons ordered ‘such effectual Course with Farnham Castle, as to put it in that Condition of Indefensibleness, as it may be no Occasion for the Endangering of the Peace of that County…’

George Villiers

Duke of Buckingham

The son of a penniless Leicestershire squire, George Villiers was introduced to James I in 1614. Regarded as the most beautiful man in Europe, he was soon the king’s new favourite.

Their affair probably began in August 1615 at Farnham Castle. Many years later, Buckingham wrote to James asking “whether you loved me now . . . better than at the time which I shall never forget at Farnham”.

Prince Louis

Louis, son of Phillip II of France, invaded England in May 1216 at the invitation of rebel barons.

In June, the castles at Reigate, Guildford and Farnham surrendered to Louis’ forces. King John died in October and his nine year old son was crowned Henry III. After an occupation of ten months, Farnham Castle was retaken for the new king.

The Magna Carta had been signed at Runnymede in June 1215. An agreement between King John and his barons, the Great Charter defined with precision the obligations of feudal society and guaranteed the liberties of the Church.

The barons, however, seemed intent to be rid of John. They immediately broke their promises about observance of the peace. Within five months of the signing of the Charter, a civil war had begun.

John looked for help from abroad. The pope declared the Magna Carta illegal and unjust.

The barons also looked for help abroad. They offered the crown to Louis, dauphin of France. He justified his claim through:
• a fictitious trial condemning John for the murder of his nephew Arthur of Brittany • ‘hereditary’ right through Louis’ marriage to the granddaughter of Henry II

On 18 October, King John died and his nine year old son inherited the crown. Personal hostility to the king could no longer sustain the rebellion. A sporadic war dragged on, but peace was made on 12 September 1217.

Isaac Walton

Isaac Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, was Bishop Morley’s friend for more than forty years. He offered Morley refuge before he went into exile on the continent.

When Morley became Bishop of Winchester shortly after the Restoration, he employed Walton as his steward. Walton continued to live with Morley for two decades. He dedicated three of his books to Morley. His will, made the year he died, refers to personal belongings in Farnham Castle.

William Cobbett

William Cobbett was a journalist and political radical, attacking corruption in government and a vocal advocate for reform. In 1821 William Cobbett started a tour of Britain on horseback, his observations eventually being published in a book Rural Rides.

Born in Farnham in 1763, Cobbett worked briefly as a gardener’s boy at Farnham Castle.

“At eleven years of age my employment was clipping of box-edgings and weeding beds of flowers in the garden of the Bishop of Winchester…I had always been fond of beautiful gardens; and a gardener, who had just come from the King’s gardens at Kew, gave me such a description of them as made me instantly resolve to work in these gardens. The next morning, without saying a word to any one, off I set, with no clothes, except those on my back, and with thirteen half-pence in my pocket.”

World War II

Camouflage Development and Training Centre

In 1940, an ill-equipped Britain faced invasion by Germany. There was a desperate need for concealment and deception, but ‘there was no one to preach the gospel’.

The War Office set up a Camouflage Development and Training Centre (CDTC) at Farnham Castle, an ideal site. Close to airfields and military bases with classrooms for lectures and grounds for demonstrations, the Castle accommodated thirty soldiers.

Painters, designers and architects trained with regular officers before being posted as staff officers, usually to the Royal Engineers. The creative community included:

• designers Steven Sykes and Ashley Havinden
• painters Blair Hughes-Stanton, Edward Seago, Frederick Gore and Julian Trevelyan. • conjurer Jasper Maskelyne • zoologist Hugh Cott

The CDTC

• developed new methods of concealment and deception • trained troops in visual awareness and how to merge into their surroundings • produced training pamphlets and posters

As the threat of invasion receded and Britain went to a more offensive war, the emphasis changed from concealment to deception. Courses run at Farnham ‘opened the eyes of the Army to the possibilities of surprise’.

Trevelyan later recalled ‘the feeling of returning to school induced by the outdoor exercise and stale classroom smell’. He shared an attic bedroom with a New Zealander who sat up in bed knitting socks until the lights were turned out.

But at Farnham there were some compensations of a ‘more civilised nature, including a well-stocked cellar’. Fred Mayor decorated the rooms with modern masters from his London gallery.