Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Beast on the battlements
KNARESBOROUGH CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, 1561
Defence was a major preoccupation for England through much of the 16th century, with the
threat of invasion from France and Spain, and also from Scotland and the troubled north of
England. Elizabeth I inherited the problem of unrest in the north, heightened by the return
to Scotland from France of her rival Mary Queen of Scots in 1561. In that year Elizabeth
ordered a survey of northern castles which belonged to her as part of her Duchy of Lancaster,
to find out their soundness against potential attack from Scotland and how much any neces-
sary repairs would cost.
So one summer over 450 years ago the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Sir Ambrose
Cave, set out from London to spend over two months touring castles, mainly in Yorkshire,
with some in Derbyshire and Lancashire. The results were a detailed written report on each
castle's state and a portfolio of drawings. It is not known who drew them. Cave did not say
that he made them himself, nor did he claim expenses for a mapmaker, but it is possible that
an artist accompanied him on his tour. Written surveys were quite common, but it was unusu-
al for maps to be made. Perhaps Cave was influenced in having these drawings created by
his kinsman and friend William Cecil, the great Elizabethan statesman and close adviser to
the Queen. Cecil was an enthusiastic advocate of maps as useful tools of government, and he
made maps himself and annotated many others.
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