Aston Hall and the Civil War

1180 Words3 Pages

Aston Hall is one of the last Jacobean mansions to be built. The hall was built by the famous Sir Thomas Holte, who was a man known for his intelligence and the land he owned around several parts of the country, including Warwickshire. As a child, Thomas Holte grew up in a wealthy family as his ancestors had owned land for several hundreds of years before him and he inherited this. He was able to attend college in Oxford and he later went on to attend the Inns Court and it was there that he received the knowledge that he needed for owning land. His father died when he was just 21 years old but that didn’t seem to stop him.

When the King came to London from Edinburgh, Thomas Holte was one of the men that came to meet him and for this, he received a knighthood. In 1611, he managed to buy himself a baronet from the King, which meant that his family had more status and power than others. For this, Sir Thomas Holte decided to build Aston Hall to show off how wealthy he was.

The hall was designed by a land surveyor from London named John Thorpe. Construction of the hall started in 1618 and despite the hall being incomplete, Sir Thomas Holte and his wife, with several of their sixteen children moved in, in 1631. Four years later, Aston Hall was complete.

The Civil War

The First English Civil War started in 1642 until 1651 and it caused division among the country as to whose side they were on. The war was a battle between the Parliament and King Charles 1, who was the leader of the Royalists. Conflict between the two had always been there as Charles had never gotten on with the Parliament ever since the start of his reign. The disagreement between the two started in 1621 when James chose to discuss his son, Charles getting mar...

... middle of paper ...

...ompletely. During this attack, two parliamentarian troops got killed and this caused the Parliamentary troops to get even angrier. More of the Royalists got killed from the vicious attacks being made by the Parliament. After three more days of the hall receiving cannon balls to its south end and more Royalists getting killed, Sir Thomas Holte finally surrendered and he was put in prison. As for Aston Hall, it was taken by the Parliament but Sir Thomas Holte managed to get it back from them by paying them a lot of money.

Works Cited
• http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/parliament-1625-29.htm

• http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/charles1.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/makhist10_prog11a.shtml

• http://www.historyonthenet.com/Civil_War/royalist_or_parliament.htm

More about Aston Hall and the Civil War

Open Document