home page   what's new?   email bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk to request updates (please mention Rutland Village by Village) or to offer new information   Rutland Village by Village only WWW Village by Village Ashwell Ayston Barleythorpe Barrow Barrowden Beaumont Chase Belmesthorpe Belton-in-Rutland Bisbrooke Braunston-in-Rutland Brooke Burley Caldecott Clipsham Cottesmore Edith Weston Egleton Empingham Essendine Exton Glaston Great Casterton Greetham Gunthorpe Hambleton Horn Ketton Langham Leighfield Little Casterton Lyddington Lyndon Manton Market Overton Martinsthorpe Morcott Normanton North Luffenham Oakham Pickworth Pilton Preston Ridlington Ryhall Seaton South Luffenham Stoke Dry Stretton Teigh Thistleton Thorpe by Water Tickencote Tinwell Tixover Uppingham Wardley Whissendine Whitwell Wing This site sponsored by   Heart of Albion

Sir James Harington (1523–91) Rutland in Tudor times Between 1485 and 1603 England and Wales were ruled by a succession of Tudor monarchs. In the 1530s Henry VIII instigated the English Reformation. This required profound shifts in religious beliefs and liturgy. Furthermore the former property of the church was acquired by the king and then sold to the nobility and gentry. Tudor Rutland followed the greater changes in England. In the villages traditional, agrarian life continued. The local gentry and nobility navigated the complex and often dangerous world of politics, religion and the royal court. In Rutland the two most prominent families were the Manners (the Earls – later Dukes – of Rutland based at Belvoir Castle) and the Haringtons of Exton. Sir James Harington (1523–91) and his wife, Lucy Sidney, consolidated their power and wealth by ensuring their children married into the families of other wealthy landowners. Many dukes, earls and barons of later centuries were descended from Sir James and Lucy. By the end of the sixteenth century the Haringtons owned about one-third of Rutland. Within Rutland a notable development occurred in 1584 when Archdeacon Robert Johnson, a prosperous churchman, founded two of England's earliest public schools at Oakham and Uppingham. Although intended to provide free education, in practice it mostly benefited wealthier families who could afford to spare their children from farm labour. Poor welfare for the poor The Dissolution of monasteries between 1536 and 1540 removed the main providers of welfare for the poor. As a result, in the second half of the sixteenth century poverty, vagrancy and healthcare had to be addressed by repeated changes to local and national legislation. In practice wealthy benefactors were still required. For example, Archdeacon Robert Johnson replaced Oakham's old almshouse in 1597 and also provided almshouses in Uppingham (demolished when the Midland Railway was built). In 1600 Sir Thomas Cecil converted the former Bishops' Palace at Lyddington into 'bede houses'. For completeness I'll mention George Gilson's armshouses in Morcott, although these weren't erected until 1612. The Reformation in Rutland The Reformation of the 1540s had little impact on Rutland because there was only one monastic houses in the county, the Augustinian priory at Brooke which had been founded by Hugh de Ferrers sometime before 1153. Although closed around 1536 extensive earthworks are still visible. Brooke Priory from R.F. Hartley The Medieval Earthworks of Rutland 1983. Brooke as it appears on Google Maps in 2025. Lyddington's Bishops' Palace The bishops of Lincoln held Lyddington and its subsiduary parishes and, by the middle of the twelfth century, had built a residence at Lyddington. Little doubt these senior clerics enjoyed hunting in Rockingham Forest. Over the next three centuries more and more of their lands were brought into cultivation, the nearby parkland was extended and fishponds created. By 1541 the residence was palatial enough for Henry VIII and Katherine Howard to visit. However just six years later Henry pressurised the then-bishop to hand Lyddington over to the crown, along with nearly half the estates of the diocese of Lincoln. By 1568 Lyddington had been given to William Cecil, based at Burghley House in Stamford. The Bede House, Lyddington. The Bishops' Palace has been known as the Bede House since about 1600 when Sir Thomas Cecil converted it to almshouses. The rectangular fish ponds survive as earthworks about 200 metres to the north-east. Lyddington in 1950. Bede House coloured red. Fish ponds to the north-east. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland's royal forests Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society with free PDFs of over forty issues of the Rutland Record Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website