skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Beaumaris, on the island of Anglesey, is famous for its magnificent castle, but also boasts this very fine church, which dates from the 13th century.
The finest feature of the church is the tomb of William Bulkeley (died 1490) and his wife.
In the unreformed Parliament prior to 1842, Anglesey returned one M.P., and Beaumaris another, and Bulkeley family dominated these.
The church has some fine misericords,
and an 18th century brass commemorating those patrons who donated money to help the poor of the parish. It includes the name of "Tabora the Black", presumably a former slave.
In the porch is this most unusual object.
It is the stone sarcophagus of Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John, who was married to Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, Prince of North Wales. She died in 1237. In the inscription placed above the sarcophagus, Lord Bulkeley records how in 1808 he discovered it being used as a horse-trough, and rescued it.
He placed it in the church "to excite serious meditations on the transitory nature of all subluminary distinctions": an interesting reversion to the pre-Copernican view of the universe, where the imperfect earth lies at the centre, surrounded by the sphere of the moon, beyond which are the eternal and unchanging heavens.
The island of Gozo lies a short distance north of Malta. The soil has more clay than Malta, so it retains water better and the island is greener and less arid.
We took the ferry across from the port of Cirkewwa to Mgarr, in the south-east of Gozo
From where we were taken on a one-day tour of the island. There was obviously a great deal that we didn't see, but there was plenty to encourage later visits.
Gozo, like Malta, has amazing structures built in the Neolithic period. In Gozo we were shown the Ggantija temples, erected between 3600 and 3000 B.C., which makes them older than Stonehenge. They consist of walls of enormous megaliths, within which are altars of softer stone cut into slabs.
.
The interior was once plastered and painted. It appears that cattle were sacrificed here. Some centuries later, the temples were abandoned and forgotten, and only rediscovered in the early 19th century. They were named "Ggantija" in the local belief that only giants could have built such massive structures!
Gozo and Malta were occupied by the Arabs for several centuries, before being conquered by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century. Eventually the islands came under the rule of Spain. With the rise of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire in the early16th century, the islands came under great pressure. In 1522 the ferocious Arab corsair Dragut devastated Gozo, carrying away all the people he could catch as slaves.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Hospitallers, were an order of fighting monks established in the aftermath of the First Crusade. When the crusader states were finally destroyed, they established themselves at Rhodes, from where their galleys wreaked havoc on Turkish shipping. Infuriated by this, the great Sultan, Sulemain the Magnificent, resolved to destroy them, but the Knights put up such a stout defence that in 1522, after several months of siege, the survivors were allowed to retire in good order. They were homeless for a while; but then in 1530 the Emperor Charles V granted the Malta and Gozo, in return for the annula tribute of a falcon (as in the legendary movie, "The Maltese Falcon"). From their new home, the Knights continued to annoy the Turks, but were able to survive, just, the great Turkish attack of 1565 (I will describe this in a later post)
The chief city of Gozo, in the centre of the island, is nowadays known as Victoria, in memory of the British queen, who visited and loved the place. It consists of a citadel, strongly fortified by the Knights after the great siege by the Turks in 1565, within which there is a cathedral and other buildings
.
Below the citadel is a town called Rabat, which is simply the Arabic word for a suburb
We saw this piece of scratched graffiti, showing a ship of this period.
From the citadel, there is a panoramic view of almost the whole of the island.
The Knights also first built this public wash-house, on the road from Rabat to Xlendi.
Dwejra is on the western coast of Gozo. Here we find the "Inland Sea"; a crater into which the sea flows through a fissure in the cliff. Little boats ferry visitors through this to the open water.
The cliffs inside have colourful lichens, which unfortunately didn't come out well on my pictures.
Also at Dwejra is the "Fungus Rock", where the Knights discovered a rare plant believed to have marvellous medicinal properties, and which they therefore had guarded to prevent any unauthorised access. (It is actually not a fungus at all, but a parasitic plant). The other famous sight here; the "Azure Window", a spectacular natural rock arch; sadly collapsed into the sea in 2017.
We stopped for lunch at Xlendi, a pleasant little bay.
In conclusion, Gozo is well worth a visit!
The new vicar had organised a working party to bring some order to the long-neglected churchyard, and we began the daunting task of hacking our way through the brambles and the ground-ivy. In one particularly dank and overgrown corner we uncovered some broken chunks of granite, pinkish in colour, that must once have surrounded a grave. But the only one nearby was still mostly bare earth, which the surrounding weeds had only just begun to colonise.
"Well, isn't that odd!" said Philip, our vicar. He turned to our oldest member, who had lived in the village all her life, and asked, "Do you know anything about this, Polly?"
Polly considered. "I remember that when I was a little girl my grandmother said I must never go down to this corner of the churchyard", she said. "She didn't tell me why; but I learnt from other people that it had something to do with the lady who used to own the pub, ages ago. Perhaps she was buried here".
"The pub? You mean the empty place at the edge of the village? Nobody lives there now: it's been vacant for ages".
"Yes. The Queen's had been plenty of different owners over the years, but none have stayed long. Some have died, and the rest have just moved away, without saying why".
"But it can't be anything to do with her", someone argued. "Because this grave is clearly very recent. Look at that bare earth."
"Unless, of course, it's been deliberately disturbed!" someone else contributed, clearly with the intention of introducing a frisson of fear.
"Well, it's all a mystery", said Philip, "We'd better just continue with our work for now. Then before our next meeting we can ask around and see what we can find out. I'll have a look in the parish records".
On the way home I asked Polly, "The Queen is a rather odd name for a pub, surely? Shouldn't it be the Queen's Head, or something like that?"
"Yes, it is odd. Various landlords over the years tried to change the name, but something always went wrong. They put up a new inn sign, and it got blown down: that sort of thing".
"There's certainly no sign there now!"
"No. Granny said there was once a sign there, and a very nasty one it was. The face on it looked nothing like any queen she'd ever heard of: really ugly, and quite frightening. Children used to dare each other to throw stones at it, she said; but somehow they never quite had the nerve, and their parents used to warn them not even to think about doing it!"
"And what became of the lady who ran it?"
"I never found out. Granny wouldn't tell me. I think there were odd stories going around the village, but I never found anything out".
I must have been thinking too much about Polly's story, because that night I experienced a frightening dream. I was standing in the churchyard, beside the grave, which however was now covered with its granite. But something stirred beneath, and suddenly, to my inutterable horror, the stones rose up, cracked and fell away. The earth below was heaving, as if a giant mole was about to throw up its hill. But what emerged was not a mole. I watched, unable to move, as a dark figure clawed itself out from under the soil and rise to its feet. It was stooped, and a little less than human size. I couldn't see its face, but somehow I knew it was a woman, and of a great age. I was terrified that she would turn and see me, but instead she gathered her ragged black clothing around herself and drifted, rather than walked, towards the village. At this point I awoke in a sweat of fear. It was still night-time outside. I did not dare open the curtains even when it was broad daylight, from an irrational terror that she might be there, peering into the room.
At the next meeting of our gardening group, Philip told us, "I've been thinking about that grave. The surrounds are all broken, but I don't see how you could break granite in pieces without a heavy sledgehammer, and these have been snapped as if they were rotten twigs or biscuits. It's very strange. Oh, and I found something unusual in the archives. One of my predecessors was asked to conduct an exorcism! It came from the landlord at the pub. He said a ghost had been peering through his windows and frightening his children".
"And did he exorcise the ghost?"
"No: he rather pooh-poohed the idea; he thought it was all silly superstition. Soon afterwards the landlord put the pub up for sale and left the village".
At this stage I thought I'd tell them about my dream.
"Aye, that's what would have happened!" said Polly. "Granny said that the lady would come back, to see who'd taken her pub. Maybe she was just being curious, but I don't like to think of what might happen if she ever got in!"
"Oh, and one other thing", said Philip. "I had a dream rather like yours. Then, the next day, looking round the church, I discovered that a small amount of the communiion wine had been left in the chalice. I've no idea how this happened: it's most irregular. I wondered what to do. Then, on an impulse that I can't properly explain, I went and sprinkled it on that grave. Looking back, I know it was very silly; and you must promise you won't tell the archdeacon, please! I wonder what will happen now?"
We all wondered. The answer was, and still is, absolutely nothing. We try to avoid that corner of the churchyard, but the last time I looked, the grave had not been disturbed any further, and weeds had continued to colonise it. Whether Philip's unorthodox behaviour had had this effect, I cannot say. But the pub is still unoccupied and up for sale. I doubt if anyone familiar with the village will be buying it.
Recently I had a week touring Malta and Gozo, its sister island. We stayed at Mellieha in the north of the island. Like many Maltese towns it has an enormous church with a vast dome: a recent building, but with a far older shrine to "Our Lady of Mellieha" below it. In this picture, Mellieha bay is the larger area of sea to the right of the church: Gozo can be seen on the far side of the sea to the left.
From here it is no great distance to the capital, Valletta, though it can take over an hour because of the narrowness of the roads. The bus fare was only 1.50 Euros, and travelled there three times.
Valletta was built after the Knights Hospitaller had repelled (just!) the great Turkish siege of 1565, and named in honour of the man who commanded them. Within massive fortifications, it is built on a regular gridiron pattern, and contains several fine museums and noble Baroque buildings
as well as the "co-cathedral" of St. John the Baptist, which is supremely over-the-top, and owns two Caravaggio paintings.
The view over the Grand Harbour fromValletta I would rate as one of the finest in the world
The best way to view the massive fortifications is from the little boats plying the harbour. They look like gondolas with outboard engines!
These fortifications were built by the Knights after the great siege, in case the Turks attacked again - but in fact they never did.
Mdina, the old capital of Malta, is in the centre of the island. It also has impressive fortifications.
Within the walls there are many fine old buildings,
and an impressive cathedral
From the walls, you can see almost the whole island.
Outside the walls of Mdina is Rabat (which is merely the Arab word for a suburb). It is noted for several mazes of catacombs from the early Christian period
.
Malta has several unique temples, constructed from enormous rocks. They date from the Neolithic period, around 3,500 B.C., which makes them older than Stonehenge and a thousand years earlier than the Pyramids. This is the one at Hagar Qim, near the south-western coast of the island.
There are few surviving buildings that date from before the great siege of 1565. But in more recent times there has been a massive campaign of church-building. Even quite small towns boast huge churches, often with soaring domes; the most spectacular being at Mosta
Many of the hillsides still have terraces of tiny fields, supported by drystone walls originally built by the Arabs. Some are still farmed, but others have reverted to scrub or to thickets of prickly pear cactus; another Arab introduction.
I saw no farm animalsat all: we were told they were always kept indoors.
The coast has some spectacular features, such as the Blue Grotto.
But there are also modern seaside resorts, such as Marsaxlokk in the south-east.
Gozo, the island a short distance north of Malta, is quite different in many ways. I shall deal with Gozo in a later post.
It is often asserted that the last invasion of England was in 1066, but this is by no means the case.
When King John's disastrous reign finally came to an end in 1216, his son and heir, Henry, was no more than nine years old, and without any sign of being a forceful character. The boy was now crowned as Henry III; but many of the barons who had rebelled against John were of the opinion that Louis, the younger son of Philip Augustus of France (the greatest of the French mediaeval kings) would make a much better King of England.
Louis was already in England, and was willing to take the crown. But William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, the most respected knight of his age, remained loyal to the ruling family, and attacked and defeated Louis and his supporters at Lincoln in May 1217
.
.
Soon afterwards, French ships in the Channel were defeated off Dover. Louis withdrew to France, and as a result of the death of his brother became King Louis VIII of France in 1223. But, without the determination of William Marshal, England could easily have had a King Louis I.
Young King Henry III now enjoyed a reign of 56 years, one of the longest in British history. But "enjoyed" is probably the wrong word, since he displayed complete ineptitude for the job. For a while he was little more than a prisoner and puppet of Simon de Montfort. But Henry's very incompetence proved to be of crucial constitutional importance, since it resulted in the first appearance of an English Parliament.
I recently visited Malta. The island and its nearby smaller sister-island of Gozo are unique in many ways. Malta is rocky, with thin soil on top of the limestone base, and is almost wholly without rivers. (Gozo, having more clay in its makeup, is rather greener) The stone, being rather soft, has been eroded into unusual shapes, and has given rise to natural features like the Blue Grotto
and the "inland sea" at Dwejra, reached through a narrow passage (though the famous "Azure Window" there has now collapsed into the sea).
During the last Ice Age there was a land bridge northwards to Sicily and Italy, and as the increasing cold drove subtropical animals southwards, they reached Malta, from where they could advance no further; so when the ice melted and sea levels rose, they were cut off. The poor vegetation and lack of many natural predators meant that evolutionary natural selection produced and extraordinary range of creatures, all now extinct, such as dwarf elephants and hippos alongside giant dormice. The bones of many of these strange beasts, all now extinct, can be seen at the archaeological musem at Ghar Dalam in the south-east of Malta, near Marsaxlokk.
In the Neolithic period, some time before 3000 B.C., much earlier than the Pyramids, an unknown people built temples of enormous stones at Ggigantija, Hagar Qim and several other sites. The absence of large trees on the islands meant the stones were apparently rolled into place on pieces of limstone roughly carved into balls.
Then, approximately 500 years later, these people disappeared; the temples were abandoned and only rediscovered recently.
In recorded history the islands were occupied by a succession of neighbouring powers: the Carthaginians, the Romans and then the Byzantines. In A.D. 60 Saint Paul was shipwrecked on a tiny islet off the east coast on his way to Rome, and according to tradition converted the Roman governor Publius to Cristianity. There are masses of early Christian catacombs below Rabat in the centre of Malta.
In 870 came Moslems from North Africa, who bequeathed Arabic place-names which are still in use, such as Mdina and Rabat, and also introduced dry-farming techniques, terracing the hillsides with drystone walls to create tiny fields. The result of all this was a Maltese language that is like no other: of Punic and Arabic roots but with borrowings from French, Italian and English. Until recently it had no written form; then it was rendered into the Latin alphabet, with often confusing results.
Roger, the Norman King of Sicily, took the islands in 1090, and for the next 500 years they were ruled by whoever controlled southern Italy: Normans, Germans, French and Spaniards. But in 1530 there came a major and decisive change.
The Knights of the Hospital of St. John, commonly known as the Hospitallers, were an order of fighting monks, originally established soon after the First Crusade. After the final expulsion of crusaders from the Holy Land, they took to the sea, basing themselves first at Cyprus and then at Rhodes, harrying the Turks with their swift war galleys. In 1523 they were driven from Rhodes after a protracted and bitter Turkish siege,and in 1530 the Emperor Charles V granted them Malta as a base. The island was in many ways inferior to Rhodes, but enjoyed the great benefit of a deep and easily defended harbour. This is the view across the Grand Harbour, from where the city of Valletta now stands. The Knights established themselves on the twin promentaries of Birgu and Senglea (The guns in the foreground are British, dating from the 19th century)
The Knights had little contact with the native peoples of Malta, who were for the most part illiterate peasants; but the Maltese probably appreciated that the Knights at least protected them against pirates and slave-raiders from north Africa.
They had only a few years in which to fortify their new home before the Sultan Suleymain the Magnificent despatched an enormous expedition to destroy them once and for all. From May to September 1565 the Knights survived the siege, though barely. The old capital of Mdina in the centre of the island also held out, and eventually the Turks withdrew, having suffered huge losses. (I shall be describing the great siege in more detail in a later Blog post).
The fortifications around the Grand Harbour are very impressive
but it should be remembered that all these massive defences were erected after the siege, in case the Turks ever attacked again. The same applies to the equally impressive fortifications at Mdina
and the citadel of the town now called Victoria, on Gozo
After the siege the city of Valletta was built; named in honour of the Grand Master who had successfully repelled the Turks, Jean Parisot de la Vallette, who died in 1568. It is very much a planned city, with a gridiron street plan, magnificent Baroque buildings
and the "Co-Catherdral" of St John the Baptist, which is supremely and stupendously over-the-top. It is home to two Caravaggio paintings,one of them enormous!
In fact,the Turks never did attempt another invasion, and the next time Malta was attacked was by Napoleon in 1798, on his way to Egypt. The Knights promptly surrendered without firing a shot. A few years later the French occupying force surrendered to the British navy, and Malta became part of the British Empire
After a long period of peace, the coming of the North African campaign in the Second World War found Malta perilously positioned right on the crossroads of the supply routes of British and Axis forces; and with only a handful of outdated aircraft for its defence. The country was heavily bombed by the Germans and Italians, with the dockworks in the Grand Harbour being the main target; and submarines placed the islands under a tight blockade. Spitfires and Hurricanes were dispatched in summer 1942; but even so that August the country was within a fortnight of being forced to surrender by sheer starvation before the battered remains of a convoy of food and fuel were towed into the Grand Harbour, and Malta survived. Malta was granted the George Cross for its heroism: a unique award.
There is a fine exhibition of Malta in the war at Fort Elmo in Valletta. Every day there are ceremonial firing of British cannon from Valletta in celebration of Malta's survival.
In 1964 Malta became and independent state within the Commonwealth, and voted to become a republic ten years later.
