Archaeologists Have Uncovered A Royal Palace Used By King Henry II

Newbury Today ^ | 9-23-2007

[blam]

Archaeologists have uncovered a royal palace used by King Henry II

AN ANCIENT royal palace near Kingsclere unearthed during recent excavations will be open to the public over the weekend (September 22-23).

The Royal Palace of Fremantle has lain hidden under the Hampshire Downs at Tidgrove Warren Farm, in the parish of Hannington, for nearly 900 years.

Over the last three years the site has been excavated by staff and students from the University of Southampton in association with the Kingsclere Heritage Association local volunteers.

Explorations have revealed a medieval enclosed settlement surrounded by a massive ditch - larger than many contemporary castles.

According to Peter Woodman, treasurer of Kingsclere Heritage Association, the settlement was built in 1172 as a stopping place for King Henry II on his journeys to and from his French possessions. It was later used by King Richard the Lionheart and King John, before being demolished in about 1252.

"Finds on the site include prehistoric remains as well as contemporary artefacts," said Mr Woodman.
Within the enclosure the cellar has been excavated with its access stairs, and the footings of other buildings on the site have been identified.

The landowner, Raleigh Place, a keen archaeologist, said: "This has been a most exciting time and we are all grateful to the Rev. Robert Legg the former Vicar of Kingsclere."

"He has thoroughly researched the archives to point us towards a particular set of crop marks which have turned out to be the site of the palace."

The site will be open to the public on Saturday September 22 and Sunday September 23 with guided tours of the excavation being conducted by Professor David Hinton of the University of Southampton. The first tour is at 10am and the last tour at 4pm on each day.

A range of other activities will be on offer throughout the weekend, mainly aimed at children. A team of re-enactors will provide tasters of medieval food, an armourer will demonstrate armour and weapons of the time and a medieval archer will be giving lessons in the long bow.

Children will be able to use metal detectors to find old coins, with opportunity to learn the techniques of excavation.

Everything is free-of-charge, except for a small charge for keeping the coins.

"Tidgrove Warren is a beautiful place with a wealth of wildlife," said Mr Woodman.

The site lies just north of the B3051 half way between Overton and Kingsclere (3 miles from each), is well signposted and involves driving over a part of the downs.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. This is an interesting find.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Henry II, first of the Plantagenet kings, was a (distaff) grandson of Henry I, b 1133, reigned 1154-1189 (35 years!), died at 55 or 56.

http://www.genealogyinengland.com/Information/plantagenet.htm

Edwards II and III are estimated to have literally millions of descendants in the US alone, which means that Henry II (their ancestor) does also. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

portrait

[Grizzled Bear]

“Will no one rid me of this troublesome Priest???!!!”

[MinuteGal]

"The cellar has been excavated........"

.......and still no Jimmy Hoffa.

Leni

[ken21]

bumpo.

[Alouette]

Henry II had more of France under his control than did the French king Louis VII (who had been married to Eleanor earlier).

Eleanor of Aquitane owned more of France than both of them combined.

[ValerieTexas]

He looks to have reddish hair and is wearing rouge on his cheeks and lips. Interesting break in his beard at the chin - is it to show off the Adam’s apple?

[Ciexyz]

I saw both Lion in Winter and Becket when the films first came out in theaters. My high school teachers gave us extra credit for going.

[Tully Pettigrew 1]

Interesting portrait, but it was painted in 1620, so I am thinking that it probably doesn’t look to much like Henry. Henry, Eleanor and Richard are buried at Fontevrault, Anjou, France. Their effigies would probably be more representative of how they looked without the coloring, of course.

[Tully Pettigrew 1]

Peter O’Toole played Henry in both movies and I have been a fan ever since. What a great actor he is. Richard Burton played Becket, and not too shabbily either. Together these two were dynamite.

[SunkenCiv]

Hank’s g-father was Henry I; Henry I was grandson to William the Conqueror / Usurper / Bastard; William was a descendant of Hrolf the Ganger, who was indeed a Viking adventurer, who carved a realm out of a chunk of France, and is an ancestor of many a royal house. Some of his descendants wound up ruling a short-lived Viking kingdom in Sicily (two kings, both named Roger). So, anyway, yeah, he could have had red hair; dunno about surviving descriptions.

[Ciexyz]

Richard Burton was very good in 50’s films such as The Robe and Alexander. By the time Liz Taylor and he hooked up, he was portraying aging alcoholics in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff, a film I only saw just recently on DVD - too adult for me at the time it came out, but well-done I must say.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Norman kingdom of southern Italy and Sicily was not too shabby by the standards of that period. Gregory VII is buried in the Norman cathedral in Salerno (built only about a year before his death)...he was forced to flee Rome and take refuge with his Norman allies. The cathedral in Palermo has a bunch of royal sarcophagi of that dynasty. The most notable of the batch was Frederick II in the early 13th century--Stupor Mundi.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[Monkey Face]

Excellent! It’s nice to have more information about the nuts on the tree. ;o]

[colorado tanker]

The Angevin Empire was quite something at its height. A number of English Kings were preoccupied with trying to restore it, including including fighting the Hundred Years War and the exploits of Henry V. England spent a lot of manpower and treasure trying to keep a presence in France.

[ODC-GIRL]

Through a possible family connection, Henry II could be my 26th Great Grandfather.

[Tully Pettigrew 1]

I had forgotten about The Robe, yes that was a great film. Have you ever seen Night of the Iguana? I can’t figure out why he never won an Academy Award, he was one of the finest actors ever. I had the privilege to see him play Hamlet in an off Broadway production, and at one point during the play, he hopped into a chair and started jumping up and down. I though it odd, but every production is different so I didn’t think much of it.

A few nights later Richard Burton was being interviewed on TV by Merv Griffin. Griffin asked Burton if doing the same role over and over again each night became boring at all. Richard Burton told Griffin that as long as the audience wasn’t bored he wasn’t either. Than he proceeded to tell Griffin that a few days prior he had an audience of high school students who he felt were bored, so he “hopped into a chair and starting jumping up and down to get their attention back.” I thought, OMG, that was the performance we were at, and that’s why he was jumping up and down in the chair. We made him do it. LOL!