Henry the Sixth granted this Priory to King's College, Cambridge, but it was afterwards transferred by Edward the Fourth to the nunnery of Sion, Middlesex; and so it continued until the general dissolution; at which period its revenues were valued at £110:12s. per annum, a considerable sum at that time, especially as the number of Monks maintained on the foundation never exceeded six; this sum, together with the government of the Mount, which was then a military post, was bestowed on Hugh Arundel, who was executed for rebellion in the year 1548. On his death it was demised to John Milliton of Pengersick, Esq., to William his son, and further to William Harris, Esq. of Hayne in Devonshire, connected by marriage with the family of Milliton. Queen Elizabeth, by Letters Patent, in the 29th year of her reign, demised it to Arthur Harris[32] of Kenegie, Esq. a younger son of the above William Harris, for life. It is in the Patent (which recites the former grants to the Millitons) described as in the note[33] below. Arthur Harris was about this time appointed Governor of the Mount, and held that appointment until his decease in 1628. It was then granted, it is supposed, in trust for the Earl of Salisbury, from whom it passed to Francis Bassett, Esq. who being imprisoned by the usurping powers in the reign of Charles the First, was obliged in order to purchase his liberty to part with it to John St. Aubyn, Esq. in whose family it now remains. The present Baronet seldom visits it, a circumstance universally regretted, for no gentleman better understands how to grace the venerable seat with Knightly dignity and splendor: Sir John too is a zealous mineralogist, and might by his presence in Cornwall contribute essentially to the progress of that science; in one respect his absence is fortunately supplied by the vigilance of his agents, and every geologist ought to feel obliged to them, we allude to the care with which they protect the picturesque and mineralogical beauties of the rocks by opposing the sacrilegious removal of any part of them.
Military History.—From the time of King Edward the Confessor, to the middle of the reign of Richard the First, the Mount appears to have been exclusively the sacred nursery of religion; the earliest transaction of a military nature was during the captivity of Richard the First, in Germany, when Henry de la Pomeroy, of Berry Pomeroy in Devonshire, having stabbed a serjeant at arms who came to summon him to appear for a heavy crime, fled into Cornwall, and cast himself upon the protection of John, Earl of that province, who readily supplied him with an armed force, for he was then aspiring to his brother's throne; with this, Pomeroy went in disguise to the Mount, and under a pretence of visiting his sister, who was in the nunnery, gained admission, and treacherously reduced it to the service of the said John; upon the return however of the King from imprisonment, he surrendered the garrison on mercy, although, despairing himself of pardon, he soon died, or as some say, caused himself to be bled to death; after this event, the Prior and the Monks were restored to the full possession of their cells, revenues, and chapel; a small garrison however was still maintained, to defend it against the sudden invasion of enemies, and in this condition, "manned out with carnal and spiritual soldiers," did the Mount remain for a space of 275 years, when another military transaction occurred to disturb its repose. After the defeat of the Lancastrians at Barnet, in the eighteenth year of Edward the Fourth, John Vere, Earl of Oxford, one of the most zealous partisans, fled from the field, set sail for Saint Michael's Mount, and having disguised himself, together with a few attendants, in the habits of pilgrims, obtained entrance, massacred the unsuspecting garrison, and seized the fortress, which he valiantly defended for some time against the forces of Edward, but was at length compelled to surrender. Sir John Arundel de Trerice, Sheriff of Cornwall, at the command of the King, marched thither with posse comitatus to besiege it, but he fell a victim on the sands, at its base, and lies buried in the chapel.
In King Henry the Seventh's reign, the Lady Catherine Gordon, wife of Perkin Warbeck, the pretended son of Edward the Fourth, remained here for safety, but after the flight of her husband, she was taken prisoner by Giles, Lord Banbury, and carried before that King.
During the Cornish commotion in the reign of Edward the Sixth, many of the superior families fled to the Mount for security, and were besieged by the rebels, who took the plain at the bottom of the rock by assault, at the time of low water, and afterwards the summit, by carrying great trusses of hay before them to obstruct the defendants sight, and deaden their shot. This situation, together with the fears of the women, and the want of food, obliged the besieged to surrender. During the civil contentions in the reign of Charles the First, the fortifications of the Mount were so much increased, that the works were styled "impregnable and almost inaccessible." The Parliament forces, however, under the command of Colonel Hammond, reduced the place, and liberated the Duke of Hamilton, who was there confined; a service which the historians of that period represent as full of danger and difficulty, and this was the last military transaction that occurred upon this romantic spot. Several batteries were erected by government during the late war, to command the western part of the bay, the eastern being too shallow to allow the entrance of large vessels.
We cannot conclude this account of the Mount without observing, that several antiquarians have considered it as the Ictis of Diodorus, whither the Greek merchants traded for Cornish Tin; the limits of this work will not allow us to enter upon the discussion, but we beg to refer the curious reader to an ingenious work, published by Sir Christopher Hawkins,[34] and to Dr. Maton's "Observations on the Western Counties." It is curious, and satisfactory, that these gentlemen should have arrived at the same conclusion upon the subject, and by nearly the same train of reasoning, without any previous communication with each other.
Sancreet.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] This Pier has lately been considerably enlarged at the expense of Sir John St. Aubyn. The work was completed only in the last Summer (1823), and will now admit vessels of five hundred tons burthen.
[25] Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Vol. i. p. 41.