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| Anglo-Saxons
and Danes |
Formed
part of East Anglia, the kingdom of
the East Angles. The kingdom stretched
as far south as the river Stour, across which lay the kingdom of the
East Saxons (Essex). In the west lay the kingdom of Mercia. It also
included Ely.
The
county name derives from it being the "place of the North Folk"
so as to differentiate the area from the southern part of East Anglia,
Suffolk, which was the "place of the South Folk".
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| Artists
and Architects |
The
landscape gardener Humphry Repton
was buried in 1818 in Aylsham.
Humphry
Repton
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| National
Parks |
The Norfolk
Broads is a network of waterways and was designated a National
Park in 1989.
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| Prime
Ministers |
Prime Ministers |
Britain's
first Prime Minister
Robert Walpole
was born at Houghton
Hall near New Houghton in 1676 and was buried in the church in
the grounds in 1745. Walpole served as First Lord of the Treasury
under the first of the Hanoverian monarchs George
I.
The German-born king could not speak English which led to Walpole
exercising much more power than had before been the case for the position
he held. He governed as the most important or "Prime" Minister
of a small group of Ministers, the beginnings of the future Cabinet
system of government.
Walpole was not only the first to hold the post but he also held it
the longest, staying in office for a total of 20 years and 314 days
between 1721 and 1742. He was also the only Prime Minister to have
been imprisoned in the Tower
of London, when he was convicted of corruption in 1712.
Robert Walpole
Famous
people imprisoned at the Tower of London
All those men have their price.
Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole (1798)
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| Royal
Consorts and Heirs |
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House of Plantagenet |
In 1330 Isabella of France,
the former Queen of Edward II, was banished to Castle
Rising Castle by her son Edward III.
She had married his father in 1308 and remained Queen until
Edward II's murder in 1327, a murder in which she, together
with her lover Roger
Mortimer, were implicated. The pair ruled the country as
regents for the next three years until the young king finally
wrested back control. Mortimer was executed and Isabella imprisoned.
She spent the rest of her life at Castle Rising and her death
in 1358 has been given as either here or at Hertford Castle
in Hertfordshire
where she may have lived for the last year of her life. She
was buried at Greyfriar's church at Newgate in London.
Isabella
of France
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|
House of Tudor |
The
birthplace of Henry VIII's second wife Anne
Boleyn is not recorded and the year of her birth ranges
from 1501 through to 1507. If she was born in 1501 then she
was possibly born at Blickling
Hall in Blickling, where her family were living at the time.
If she was born in 1507 then it's more likely that she was born
at Hever Castle in Kent
where her family then resided.
Anne became Queen in 1533, giving birth to the future Elizabeth
I
the same year. Unable to provide Henry with a male heir she
was accused of adultery and imprisoned in 1536 in the Tower
of London. Soon afterwards she was beheaded privately on
Tower Green and
is buried in the chapel there.
Anne
Boleyn
Anne
Boleyn
Famous
people imprisoned at the Tower of London
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| Writers
and Poets |
The
poet Thomas Shadwell was born at Brandon
in 1642. In 1689 after the Glorious
Revolution he was appointed Poet
Laureate,
succeeding John Dryden who had been forced to give up the post the
previous year when James II fled the country. Shadwell held the position
until his death in 1692 when Nahum Tate succeeded him.
Thomas
Shadwell
Glorious Revolution
Poets
laureate
Words may be false and full of art,
Sighs are the natural language of the heart.
Psyche (1675)
The
political writer Thomas
Paine was born in Thetford in 1737. He experienced at firsthand
both the American and French Revolutions becoming a citizen of both
countries. He wrote The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason,
works which were for many people at the time controversial. His free-thinking
views led him to be accused of treason in England, imprisoned in France
and ostracized in the U.S., even though he had supported their fight
for independence.
Thomas
Paine
Thomas
Paine
My country is the world, and my religion is
to do good.
The Rights of Man (1792)
The
author of the first gothic novel The Castle of Otranto and
son of the the first "Prime Minister" Robert Walpole, Horace
Walpole was buried at Houghton
Hall near New Houghton in 1797.
Horace
Walpole
The
poet William
Cowper died at East Dereham in 1800 and is also buried in the
village.
William
Cowper
Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.
The Task (1785)
The author of King Solomon's Mines Henry
Rider Haggard, was born at Bradenham in
1856. He was buried at Ditchingham in 1925.
Henry
Rider Haggard
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Nelson Society
