Capitals And Regional Centres

THE MOST STRIKING VISIBLE EVIDENCE of the Norman Conquest is the Tower of London, the square White Tower built by William to protect, and also fortify his hold upon, the richest commercial centre in the country. Commerce was the essence of its being: it was never the governmental capital. That remained for some three hundred years - from the time of Alfred to the Conqueror's nephew, Stephen - at Winchester. Alfred had refounded it as the largest of his fortified burhs; today evidences of that early period are coming up from the soil around the cathedral, including the complete foundations of the early Saxon minster. For the linest Anglo-Saxon church remaining we must go to the basilica at Brixworlh - even so, truncated of aisles and portico; and for a fine tower, to Earl's Barton: both in Northamptonshire.

The Normans signalized their rule at Winchester with characteristic will-power and energy by pulling down a section of the town (as in many other places - Oxford, for example) to build a castle, then building a new cathedral and a new royal palace. The basic pattern of streets of Alfred's capital still survives. The treasury of the realm remained here until the anarchy of Stephen's reign, when Winchester lost its primacy to Westminster, which became henceforth the capital.
Evidences of the heyday of Winchester remain in the Norman parts of the cathedral, the fresco preserved in the Holy Sepulchre Chapel, the famous illuminated Bible, and the embroideries which formed the genre of Anglo-Saxon art most admired on the Continent (along with its metal-work). The Bayeux Tapestry itself, which records the genesis and events of the Conquest; is sometimes thought to be of English workmanship; English needlework, stilchwork and embroidery, remained a speciality all through the Middle Ages. A surprising amount of this legacy remains, such as the superb chasuble in red and gold, with its winged angels and leopards, from the fourteenth century, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

By: webrock

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