Circled With Stone, livre ebook

Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2003, Circled with Stone is the most comprehensive study to date of the fortifications of an early modern English city. The culmination of some twenty years of archaeological and documentary research, it provides a richly detailed portrait of the ancient system of walls, towers and gates which ringed the city of Exeter during the Tudor and early Stuart periods. The book traces the development of the fortifications over time, explores the many purposes which they served, and shows how they were defended against a series of major attacks: most notably during the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549 and the English Civil War.

The text is accompanied by a series of extensive transcripts from Exeter's matchless civic archives, including two newly-discovered documents relating to the Prayer Book rebellion. The book includes a wealth of illustrations and brings together, for the very first time, colour reproductions of all the early maps of Exeter, as well as a series of specially commissioned photographs of the city walls today. Designed to be accessible to the general reader, as well as to the specialist, Circled with Stone paints a uniquely vivid picture of the role which urban fortifications played in everyday life in one of early modern England's greatest cities.

Richly detailed, fully illustrated and accessible to the general reader as well as of interest to historians and archaeologists.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Part I: The History of the City Walls

Introduction

1. The Nature of the City Defences

2. Purpose and Function

3. Maintainance and Repair

4. The City Defences under the Tudors

5. The City Defences under the Early Stuarts

Conclusion

Suggested Further Reading

Part II: Documents Relating to the City Walls

Introduction

The Exeter Receivers and their Accounts

Editorial Conventions

1. Extracts from the City Receivers' Accounts, 1482-1660

2. Expenses in Repelling Perkin Warbeck, 1497

3. Extracts from the Chamber Act Books, 1511-1545

4. Purchase of Ordnance for the City, 1545

5. Expenses in the 'Commotion', 1549

6. List of the City Ordnance, 1556

7. Instructions for the Defence of the City, 1643

8. List of the City Ordnance, 1643, Annual Expenditure on the City Defences, 1485-1660

Glossary of Terms used in the Documents

Abbreviations

Notes

Indexes

Places and Subjects

Persons