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Wednesday, 02 March 2005 |
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The Collections ...Two beautiful books that were used at Evesham Abbey for that purpose are shown in the museum. One is an illuminated psalter of the 14th century, the other a copy of the rare 'Matthew' bible printed in i537.The Evesham copy is remarkable because it contains manuscript notes made by one of the monks, John Alcester, who became the parish priest at Hampton (near Evesham) some years after the suppression. There is one note describing the very moment of suppression on the evening of Friday, 30 January, 1540 when the king's men entered the abbey church during Evensong and stopped the service. Until then the power of the abbot of Evesham had been that of a spiritual and temporal magnate. He owned wide lands, administered justice within them, sat in Parliament, and was not subject to any ecclesiastical jurisdiction but that of the pope. No exhibit in the museum evokes his power more strongly than the 'great chair' of Evesham Abbey, a massive and elaborately carved oaken throne of 14th-century date. It is without parallel in this country. Evesham is remembered in history books for the battle fought there on 4 August, 1265 between the armies of King Henry III and Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, the champion of constitutional reform. Leicester's forces, who had spent the night at Evesham, found themselves at dawn hopelessly trapped in a great bend of the Avon. In trying to fight a way out they were annihilated. Leicester was killed and his body was buried in the abbey church. A room in the museum is devoted to a display illustrating the career of Simon de Montfort, the course of the battle, and its curious sequel in which he was for many years revered as an uncanonical saint. Pilgrims sought his tomb in the abbey and took water from a pool on the battlefield hoping for miraculous cures. With the suppression of the abbey, its estates and jurisdictions were broken up and fell into many different hands. In the town of Evesham the abbot's authority was partly inherited by the corporation set up by a charter of James I in 1604. The second and 'governing' charter of the borough of Evesham, dated 1605, is displayed in the museum. Except for a brief suspension in the i68os it remained in force until the borough was abolished in 1974. The borough plate, some of it dating from the 17th century, was rarely seen during the corporation's lifetime but is now shown with the charter. The judicial power of the corporation, which had its own court of quarter sessions until 1835 and its own police force from 1835 to 1874, is illustrated by the manacles and heavy studded doors preserved from the town gaol. Evesham returned two members to Parliament until 1868 and one until 1885. The elections induced high feeling; there was much bribery, and riots were not unknown. Broadsides in the museum give an impression of the ruthless spirit in which the campaigns were then waged. |
