The greater part of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle dates from the reign of King Edward IV, and he was the first of our kings to be buried there, 1483. The body of his rival Henry VI was removed to Windsor from Chertsey Abbey in 1484. The beautiful Rutland Chapel in St George’s Chapel was built by Sir Thomas St Leger in memory of his wife Ann, sister of Edward IV. St Leger was beheaded by Richard III, but was buried in the chapel and a brass to himself and his wife still remains on the wall there.
After the Wars of the Roses peace reigned in Berkshire for many a long year, and the county no doubt increased in wealth and prospered generally. A considerable part of the land was in the possession of the Church, but in the days of King Henry VIII the whole of the monastic institutions were swept away.
Owing to the dissolution of the monasteries a large part of the land in Berkshire passed into the hands of the Crown. Some of it was granted to Oxford colleges and much to private persons.
In 1544 three persons, Testwood, Filmer, and Peerson were burnt at Windsor as heretics, and in 1556 Julius Palmer, Master of Reading Grammar School, John Gwin, and Thomas Askew were burnt at the sandpits near Newbury.
Elizabeth, before her accession in 1558, lived for some three years at Sir Thomas Hoby’s house at Bisham; indeed she was practically a prisoner under the charge of Sir Thomas and his wife’s sisters. When she came to the throne Elizabeth like her predecessors lived a good deal at Windsor, and we hear of visits by her to Reading, Englefield House (Sir F. Walsingham) and other places. It was in her days that the tragedy took place which made “Cumnor Hall” known all over the world, though its celebrity is due more to Scott’s novel Kenilworth than to history. The real facts were, however, sufficiently tragic. Amy, the daughter of Sir John Robsart, married Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, in 1550. Ten years later she was found dead, at Cumnor Place, which had been recently purchased by Anthony Forster the steward of Lord Robert. Foul play was suspected and it was suggested that Dudley had reasons for wishing to get rid of his wife as she stood in the way of higher ambitions. There were no “haunted towers of Cumnor Hall” for Cumnor Place was not a large house. Now only a few remains of walls are left on the site.
St George’s Hall: Windsor Castle
At the beginning of the Civil War Berkshire was generally Royalist, and the county was the scene of much fighting during the whole war, an account of which can be found in any History of England. The Earl of Essex captured Reading after a siege in 1643, and on September 20th of the same year there was a hard-fought battle between Charles and Essex near Newbury. Lord Falkland, who was on the King’s side, was killed at this battle, and a granite monument to his memory stands on the high ground south of the town.
Statue of Queen Victoria at Windsor