The Ranters were one of a number of dissenting groups that emerged about the time of the Commonwealth of England (1649–1660). They were largely common people, and the movement was widespread throughout England, though they were not organised and had no leader.
170-619: The chaos of the Second English Civil War , the execution of King Charles I , and the animosity between the Presbyterians and Independents during the era of the Commonwealth gave rise to many sectarian groups that attempted to make sense of their society and place within that society. The Ranters were one such group. They were regarded as heretical by the established Church and seem to have been regarded by
340-406: A hospital , in medieval usage, "an institution supported by charity or taxes for the care of the needy". The subordination of the priory's religious order to the bishops of Bethlehem was further underlined in the foundational charter, which stipulated that the prior, canons, and inmates were to wear a star upon their cloaks and capes to symbolise their obedience to the church of Bethlehem. During
510-426: A 'well-ordered' monarchy was divinely mandated, but they disagreed on what 'well-ordered' meant, particularly with regards to the balance of power between king and Parliament, and on the question of where ultimate authority in clerical affairs lay. Royalists generally supported a Church of England governed by bishops , appointed by, and answerable to, the king; Parliamentarians believed he ought to be answerable to
680-496: A 1676 text eulogising the new Bethlem that their " Vast Length ... wearies the travelling eyes' of Strangers ". The galleries were constructed more for public display than for the care of patients as, at least initially, inmates were prohibited from them lest "such persons that come to see the said Lunatickes may goe in Danger of their Lives". The architectural design of the new Bethlem was primarily intended to project an image of
850-736: A 1946 film with Boris Karloff . The hospital is part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust . It is closely associated with King's College London and, in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience , is a major centre for psychiatric research. It is part of the King's Health Partners academic health science centre and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health. Founded in 1247,
1020-455: A Vomit and a Purge over again, and sometimes a Bleeding, which is no great mystery Alexander Cruden, The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured , 1739. The medical regime, being married to a depletive or antiphlogistic physic until the early nineteenth century, had a reputation for conservatism that was neither unearned nor, given the questionable benefit of some therapeutic innovations, necessarily ill-conceived in every instance. Bathing
1190-567: A clearer purpose than the distracted Parliament. He moved quickly into Kent, and on the evening of 1 June, stormed Maidstone by open force, after which the local levies dispersed to their homes, and the more determined Royalists, after a futile attempt to induce the City of London to declare for them, fled into Essex . Before leaving for Essex, Fairfax delegated command of the Parliamentarian forces to Colonel Nathaniel Rich to deal with
1360-587: A cost of £8,660: only a fraction of this sum was allocated and by the end of the decade it was clear that the problem had been largely unaddressed. Holland's successor to the post of Surveyor, James Lewis, was charged in 1799 with compiling a new report on the building's condition. Presenting his findings to the Governors the following year, Lewis declared the building "incurable" and opined that further investment in anything other than essential repairs would be financially imprudent. He was, however, careful to insulate
1530-667: A court for the trial and sentence of King Charles I. At the end of the trial the 59 Commissioners (judges) found Charles I guilty of high treason , as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy". He was beheaded on a scaffold in front of the Banqueting House of the Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649. After the Restoration in 1660, the regicides who were still alive and not living in exile were either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment. Pontefract Castle
1700-435: A despairing medical system whose therapeutic transactions were both injudicious and unnecessarily violent. In contrast, Battie presented St Luke's as a progressive and innovative hospital, oriented towards the possibility of cure and scientific in approach. Monro responded promptly, publishing Remarks on Dr. Battie's Treatise on Madness in the same year. Although Bethlem had been enlarged by 1667 to accommodate 59 patients,
1870-534: A donation of personal property by the London alderman and former sheriff, Simon FitzMary. The original location was just beyond London's wall , in the parish of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate , which for civil purposes was coterminous with the Bishopsgate Without area. The hospital was located where the south-east corner of Liverpool Street Station now stands. Bethlem was not initially intended as
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#17327719859802040-407: A fund-raising drive was initiated in 1804. In the interim, attempts were made to rehouse patients at local hospitals, and admissions to Bethlem, sections of which were deemed uninhabitable, were significantly curtailed such that the patient population fell from 266 in 1800 to 119 in 1814. Financial obstacles to the proposed move remained significant. A national press campaign to solicit donations from
2210-548: A group of people referred to as Ranters. (Whether these people were directly inspired by the Ranters in England or if the moniker was simply imported via anti-Ranter pamphlets that were so popular during this era is debatable.) The historian J. C. Davis has suggested that the Ranters were a myth created by conservatives in order to endorse traditional values by comparison with an unimaginably radical other. Richard L. Greaves, in
2380-605: A hospital, in the clinical sense, much less as a specialist institution for the insane, but as a centre for the collection of alms to support the Crusader Church and to link England to the Holy Land . De Prefetti's need to generate income for the Crusader Church and restore the financial fortunes of his see had been occasioned by two misfortunes: his bishopric had suffered significant losses following
2550-549: A less demanding set of terms which, crucially, did not require a Presbyterian reformation of the church. On 26 July pro-Presbyterian rioters burst into Parliament, demanding that Charles be invited to London; fearing that the king might be restored without concessions, the New Model Army took control of the city in early August, while the Army Council re-established their authority over the rank and file by suppressing
2720-450: A long entry throughout the house, and 21 rooms wherein the poor distracted people lie, and above the stairs eight rooms more for servants and the poor to lie in". It is likely that this arrangement was not significantly different in the sixteenth century. Although inmates, if deemed dangerous or disturbing, were chained or locked up, Bethlem was an otherwise open building with its inhabitants at liberty to roam around its confines and possibly
2890-541: A moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the trump." They embraced antinomianism and believed that Christians are freed by grace from the necessity of obeying Mosaic Law , rejecting the very notion of obedience. They held that believers are free from all traditional restraints and that sin is a product only of the imagination. The Ranters revived the Brethren of the Free Spirit's amoralism and "stressed
3060-540: A moral exemplum of what might happen if the passions and appetites were allowed to dethrone reason. As one mid-eighteenth-century correspondent commented: "[there is no] better lesson [to] be taught us in any part of the globe than in this school of misery. Here we may see the mighty reasoners of the earth, below even the insects that crawl upon it; and from so humbling a sight we may learn to moderate our pride, and to keep those passions within bounds, which if too much indulged, would drive reason from her seat, and level us with
3230-404: A penny but if you happen to have no change and give him a silver coin, he will keep the whole sum and return you nothing Inveterate letter-writer César de Saussure's account of Bethlem during his 1725 tour of London's sights. The Governors actively sought out "people of note and quallitie" – the educated, wealthy and well-bred – as visitors. The limited evidence would suggest that
3400-417: A popular attraction, yet there is no credible basis to calculate the annual number of visitors. The claim, still sometimes made, that Bethlem received 96,000 visitors annually is speculative in the extreme. Nevertheless, it has been established that the pattern of visiting was highly seasonal and concentrated around holiday periods. As Sunday visiting was severely curtailed in 1650 and banned seven years later,
3570-441: A receptacle for the very disturbed and troublesome and this fact lends some credence to accounts such as that provided by Donald Lupton in the 1630s who described the "cryings, screechings, roarings, brawlings, shaking of chaines, swearings, frettings, chaffings" that he observed. Bethlem had been built over a sewer that served both the hospital and its precinct. This common drain regularly blocked, resulting in overflows of waste at
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#17327719859803740-576: A review of Davis' book, suggests that though a very radical fringe existed, it was probably never as organized as conservatives of the time suggested. In the mid-19th century, the name was often applied to the Primitive Methodists , with reference to their crude and often noisy preaching. Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War took place between February and August 1648 in England and Wales . It forms part of
3910-428: A significant role. The election of James Monro as physician in 1728 marked the beginning of a 125-year Monro family dynasty extending through four generations of fathers and sons. Family influence was also significant in the appointment of surgeons but absent in that of apothecaries. The office of physician was largely an honorary and charitable one with only a nominal salary. As with most hospital posts, attendance
4080-406: A sink and cold baths. Incontinent patients were kept on beds of straw in cells in the basement gallery; this space also contained rooms with fireplaces for attendants. A wing for the criminally insane – a legal category newly minted in the wake of the trial of a delusional James Hadfield for attempted regicide – was completed in 1816. This addition, which housed 45 men and 15 women,
4250-454: A specialist institution for the confinement of the insane. This process was largely completed by 1460. From the fourteenth century, Bethlem had been referred to colloquially as "Bedleheem", "Bedleem" or "Bedlam". Initially "Bedlam" was an informal name but from approximately the Jacobean era the word entered everyday speech to signify a state of madness, chaos, and the irrational nature of
4420-406: A strong iron bar about two inches wide was riveted; on each side of the bar was a circular projection, which being fashioned to and enclosing each of his arms, pinioned them close to his sides. This waist bar was secured by two similar iron bars which, passing over his shoulders, were riveted to the waist both before and behind. The iron ring about his neck was connected to the bars on his shoulders by
4590-473: A system whereby visitors required a ticket signed by a Governor. Visiting subjected Bethlem's patients to many abuses, including being poked with sticks by visitors or otherwise taunted, given drinks, and physically assaulted or sexually harassed, but its curtailment removed an important element of public oversight. In the period thereafter, with staff practices less open to public scrutiny, the worst patient abuses occurred. Despite its palatial pretensions, by
4760-458: A theatrical locale for the depiction of madness probably owes no little debt to the establishment in 1576 in nearby Moorfields of The Curtain and The Theatre , two of the main London playhouses ; it may also have been coincident with that other theatricalisation of madness as charitable object, the commencement of public visiting at Bethlem. The position of master was a sinecure largely regarded by its occupants as means of profiting at
4930-406: A variety of official positions that might have occasioned his calling to the hospital and as he lived nearby, his visit provides no compelling evidence that public visitation was widespread during the sixteenth century. The first apparently definitive documentation of public visiting derives from a 1610 record which details Lord Percy's payment of 10 shillings for the privilege of rambling through
5100-415: Is also a confluence between the term "Ranter" with the verb rent, as in to be rent away from God. Most written evidence points to the use of "Ranter" as an insult by the enemies of the sect and not a self-designated moniker. By the 1660s, the term became attached to any group that promoted theological deviance but since most of the literary evidence we have was created by those opposed to Ranters in general, it
5270-509: Is difficult to determine their exact creed. There are few primary sources actually written by Ranters, but those that do exist give us a clearer picture of what they believed. The most famous English member, Laurence Clarkson or Claxton, joined the Ranters after encountering them in 1649. Although he does not mention them directly, his 1650 tract called A Single Eye is widely believed to have been inspired by this dissenting group and directly reflects their views. Other less well known members of
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5440-426: Is not clear if any or all of these items were for the restraint of the inmates. While mechanical restraint and solitary confinement are likely to have been used for those regarded as dangerous, little else is known of the actual treatment of the insane for much of the medieval period . The presence of a small number of insane patients in 1403 marks Bethlem's gradual transition from a diminutive general hospital into
5610-539: Is remembered for the death of the young and gallant Lord Francis Villiers , younger brother of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham , in a skirmish at Kingston (7 July 1648). The rising collapsed almost as soon as it had gathered force, and its leaders, the Duke of Buckingham and Henry Rich, the Earl of Holland , escaped, after another attempt to induce London to declare for them, to St Albans and St Neots , where Holland
5780-592: Is speculated that the Bridewell Governors may have decided as early as 1598 to allow public visitors as means of raising hospital income. The only other reference to visiting in the sixteenth-century is provided in a comment in Thomas More 's 1522 treatise The Four Last Things , where he observed that "thou shalt in Bedleem see one laugh at the knocking of his head against a post". As More occupied
5950-479: Is unknown when Bethlem, or Bedlam, began to specialise in the care and control of the insane, but it has been frequently asserted that Bethlem was first used for the insane from 1377. This date is derived from the unsubstantiated conjecture of the Reverend Edward Geoffrey O'Donoghue, chaplain to the hospital, who published a monograph on its history in 1914. While it is possible that Bethlem
6120-685: The Corkbush Field mutiny . The Eleven Members of Parliament whom the army identified as opposed to its interests were removed forcibly, and on 20 August Oliver Cromwell brought a regiment of cavalry to Hyde Park, rode with an escort to Parliament and pushed through the Null and Void Ordinance , leading to the Presbyterian MPs withdrawing from Parliament. Charles eventually rejected the Heads of Proposals, and instead signed an offer known as
6290-554: The Duke of Hamilton proved to be poor and his army was so ill provided for that as soon as England was invaded it began to plunder the countryside for sustenance. On 8 July the Scots, with Langdale leading an advance guard, were near Carlisle, and reinforcements from Ulster were expected daily. Lambert's cavalry were at Penrith , Hexham and Newcastle, too weak to fight and having only skillful leading and rapidity of movement to enable them to gain time. Appleby Castle surrendered to
6460-579: The Engagement , which had been thrashed out with the Scottish delegation, on 26 December 1647. Charles agreed to confirm the Solemn League and Covenant by Act of Parliament in both kingdoms, and to accept Presbyterianism in England, but only for a trial period of three years, in return for the Scots' assistance in regaining his throne in England. When the delegation returned to Edinburgh with
6630-550: The Foundling Hospital and Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes. The donations expected of visitors to Bethlem – there never was an official fee – probably grew out of the monastic custom of almsgiving to the poor. While a substantial proportion of such monies undoubtedly found their way into the hands of staff rather than the hospital poors' box, Bethlem profited considerably from such charity, collecting on average between £300 and £350 annually from
6800-574: The Great Fire of London (1666). It would be regarded, during this period at least, as one of the "Prime Ornaments of the City ... and a noble Monument to Charity". Not least due to the increase in visitor numbers that the new building allowed, the hospital's fame and latterly infamy grew and this magnificently expanded Bethlem shaped English and international depictions of madness and its treatment. Visits by friends and relatives were allowed and it
6970-718: The Newcastle Propositions , it would have required all the king's subjects in Scotland, England and Ireland to sign the Solemn League and Covenant, brought the church in each kingdom into accordance with the Covenant and with Presbyterianism , and ceded much of Charles's secular authority as king of England to the English Parliament. The Scots spent some months trying to persuade Charles to agree to these terms, but he refused to do so. Under pressure from
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7140-643: The Solemn League and Covenant , in which the English Parliament agreed to reform the English church along similar lines to the Scottish Kirk in return for the Scots' military assistance. After four years of war the Royalists were defeated and Charles surrendered to the Scots on 5 May 1646. The Scots agreed with the English Parliament on a peace settlement which would be put before the king. Known as
7310-504: The Tower , the Zoo , Bartholomew Fair , London Bridge and Whitehall . Curiosity about Bethlem's attractions, its "remarkable characters", including figures such as Nathaniel Lee , the dramatist, and Oliver Cromwell 's porter, Daniel, was, at least until the end of the eighteenth-century, quite a respectable motive for visiting. From 1770 free public access ended with the introduction of
7480-739: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms . The 1639 and 1640 Bishops' Wars began when Charles attempted to bring the Church of Scotland , the Kirk , into line with reforms recently enacted within the Church of England . Known as Laudianism , these changes were opposed by English Puritans and the vast majority of Scots, many of whom signed the National Covenant pledging to preserve the Kirk by force of arms. Known as Covenanters , their victory in
7650-521: The execution of Charles I in January 1649 and establishment of the Commonwealth of England , after which the Covenanters crowned his son Charles II King of Scotland, leading to the 1650 to 1652 Anglo-Scottish War . Charles I ruled the three separate kingdoms of Scotland , Ireland and England in a personal union . Thus the conflicts that started in 1639 and lasted until 1653 are known as
7820-591: The 14th century Brethren of the Free Spirit . In fact, they were causing such controversy, that by the early 1650s multiple anti-Ranter pamphlets were circulating throughout Britain. The origin for the term "Ranter" seems to come from an anonymous pamphlet titled "A Justification of the Mad Crew", where the word rant was used in reference to the enemies of those espousing this particular view, equating ranting with hypocrisy. The anonymous author calls those who would eventually be deemed Ranters "the Mad Crew" instead. There
7990-476: The 16th, thirty Flemish ships arrived with about 1500 mercenaries and – though the ships soon left when the Royalists ran out of money to pay them – this incited sufficient Kentish fear of foreign invasion to allow Michael Livesey to raise a large enough force to come to Colonel Rich's aid. On 28 July, the Royalist warships returned and, after three weeks of failed attempts to land a relief force at Deal, on
8160-441: The 1720s until the curtailment of visiting in 1770. Thereafter the poors' box monies declined to about £20 or £30 per year. Aside from its fund-raising function, the spectacle of Bethlem offered moral instruction for visiting strangers. For the "educated" observer Bedlam's theatre of the disturbed might operate as a cautionary tale providing a deterrent example of the dangers of immorality and vice. The mad on display functioned as
8330-528: The 1780s occasioned by the bankruptcy of its treasurer; further monetary strains were imposed in the following decade by inflationary wage and provision costs in the context of the Revolutionary wars with France . In 1791, Bethlem's Surveyor, Henry Holland, presented a report to the Governors detailing an extensive list of the building's deficiencies including structural defects and uncleanliness and estimated that repairs would take five years to complete at
8500-601: The American colonies, there is evidence that Ranters were actually breakaway Quakers who did not agree with the standardization of belief that occurred in the late 1670s. Although the Quakers retained their loose, sect-like character until the 1660s, they began to formalize their worship practices and set of beliefs in order to gain some stability in the New World; this in turn pushed out those who did not fall in line, creating
8670-691: The Bethlehemite bishops had relocated to Clamecy , France, under the surety of the Avignon papacy . This was significant as, throughout the reign of Edward III (1327–77), the English monarchy had extended its patronage over ecclesiastical positions through the seizure of priories under the control of non-English religious houses . As a dependent house of the Order of Saint Bethlehem in Clamecy, Bethlem
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#17327719859808840-461: The Bishops' Wars confirmed their control of Scotland and provided momentum for the king's opponents in England. The Covenanters passed laws that required all civil office-holders, MPs and clerics to sign the Covenant, and gave Parliament the right to approve all Royal councillors in Scotland. Tensions about religion and the governance of the nation were also rising in England. All parties agreed
9010-608: The Board of Governors continued to refer to the inmates as "the poore" or "prisoners" and their first designation as patients appears to have been by the Privy Council in 1630. From 1619, Crooke unsuccessfully campaigned through petition to the king for Bethlem to become an independent institution from the Bridewell, a move that while likely meant to serve both monarchial and personal interest would bring him into conflict with
9180-416: The Bridewell Governors. Following a pattern of management laid down by early office-holders, his tenure as keeper was distinguished by his irregular attendance at the hospital and the avid appropriation of its funds as his own. Such were the depredations of his regime that an inspection by the Governors in 1631 reported that the patients were "likely to starve". Charges against his conduct were brought before
9350-592: The Court of Governors of Bethlem and Bridewell observed at the start of 1674 that "the Hospitall House of Bethlem is very olde, weake & ruinous and to[o] small and streight for keepeing the greater numb[e]r of lunaticks therein att p[re]sent". With the increasing demand for admission and the inadequate and dilapidated state of the building it was decided to rebuild the hospital in Moorfields , just north of
9520-484: The Downs. He took almost a month to retake Walmer (15 June to 12 July), before moving on to Deal and Sandown castles. Even then, due to the small size of Rich's force, he was unable to surround both Sandown and Deal at once and the two garrisons were able to send help to each other. At Deal he was also under bombardment from the Royalist warships, which had arrived on 15 July but been prevented from landing reinforcements. On
9690-525: The Engagement, the Scots were bitterly divided on whether to ratify its terms. Its supporters, who became known as the Engagers, argued that it offered the best chance the Scots would get of acceptance of the Covenant across the three kingdoms, and that rejecting it risked pushing Charles to accept the Heads of Proposals. It was opposed by those who believed that to send an army into England on behalf of
9860-484: The English to withdraw their forces now the war was over, the Scots handed Charles over to the English Parliamentary forces in exchange for a financial settlement and left England on 3 February 1647. In England, Parliament was struggling with the economic cost of the war, a poor 1646 harvest, and a recurrence of the plague. The moderate Presbyterian faction led by Denzil Holles dominated Parliament and
10030-651: The English uprisings were close to collapse, Royalist hopes centred on the Engager Scottish army. It was not the same veteran army of the Earl of Leven , which had long been disbanded. For the most part it consisted of raw levies. The Kirk party had refused to sanction the Engagement (an agreement between Charles I and the Scots Parliament for the Scots to intervene in England on behalf of Charles), causing David Leslie and thousands of experienced officers and men to decline to serve. The leadership of
10200-675: The Governors engaged in protracted negotiations with the City to swap the Moorfields site for another municipally-owned location at St George's Fields in Southwark , south of the Thames. The swap was concluded in 1810 and provided the Governors with a 12 acres (4.9 ha; 0.019 sq mi) site in a swamp-like, impoverished, highly populated, and industrialised area where the Dog and Duck tavern and St George's Spa had been. A competition
10370-485: The Governors enjoyed some success in attracting such visitors of "quality". In this elite and idealised model of charity and moral benevolence the necessity of spectacle, the showing of the mad so as to excite compassion , was a central component in the elicitation of donations, benefactions, and legacies. Nor was the practice of showing the poor and unfortunate to potential donators exclusive to Bethlem as similar spectacles of misfortune were performed for public visitors to
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#173277198598010540-504: The Governors from any criticism concerning Bethlem's physical dilapidation as, rather than decrying either Hooke's design or the structural impact of additions, he castigated the slipshod nature of its rapid construction. Lewis observed that it had been partly built on land called "the Town Ditch", a receptacle for rubbish, and this provided little support for a building whose span extended to over 500 feet (150 m). He also noted that
10710-463: The Governors in 1632. Crooke's royal favour having dissolved with the death of James I, Charles I instigated an investigation against him in the same year. This established his absenteeism and embezzlement of hospital resources and charged him with failing to pursue "any endeavour for the curing of the distracted persons". It also revealed that charitable goods and hospital-purchased foodstuffs intended for patients had been typically misappropriated by
10880-435: The Governors to increase hospital revenues by opening it up to general visitors as a spectacle. After this inspection, the Governors initiated some repairs and visited the hospital at more frequent intervals. During one such visit in 1607, they ordered the purchase of clothing and eating vessels for the inmates, presumably indicating the lack of such basic items. At the bidding of James VI and I , Helkiah Crooke (1576–1648)
11050-463: The King as well. Fairfax, after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned northward to reduce Essex, where, under their ardent, experienced, and popular leader Charles Lucas , the Royalists were in arms in great numbers. Fairfax soon drove Lucas into Colchester , but the first attack on the town was repulsed and he had to settle down to a long and wearisome siege . A Surrey rising
11220-461: The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Gresham , petitioned the crown to grant Bethlem to the city. This petition was partially successful and Henry VIII reluctantly ceded to the City of London "the custody, order and governance" of the hospital and of its "occupants and revenues". This charter came into effect in 1547. The crown retained possession of the hospital while its administration fell to
11390-470: The Parliamentarian moderates. In July, Horton was sent to replace Laugharne, and secure these positions. The revolt began in Pembrokeshire , an area controlled by Parliament since early 1643. Like their New Model colleagues, the soldiers had not been paid for months, and feared being disbanded without their wages. In early March, Poyer, Governor of Pembroke Castle , refused to relinquish command; he
11560-878: The Presbyterian majority in Parliament failed to disband the New Model Army in late 1647, many joined with the Scottish Engagers in an agreement to restore Charles to the English throne. The subsequent Scottish invasion was supported by Royalist risings in South Wales, Kent, Essex and Lancashire, along with sections of the Royal Navy . However, these were poorly co-ordinated and by the end of August 1648, they had been defeated by forces under Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax . This led to
11730-482: The Ranter cohort included Abiezer Coppe and Joseph Salmon . Their central idea was pantheistic , that God is essentially in every creature, including themselves. "If God be in all things, then in all creatures that hath live whatsoever, so that wherein is man better than these, or hath any pre-eminence above these?" "My most excellent Majesty (in me) hath strangely and variously transformed this form. And behold, by mine own Almightiness (in me) I have been changed in
11900-520: The Scots from Ulster and the Carlisle Royalists (organized as a separate command owing to friction between Monro and the generals of the main army) at Hornby . On 13 August, while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley, the Scottish leaders were still disputing whether they should make for Pontefract or continue through Lancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists. On 14 August 1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton, on 15 August at Gisburn , and on 16 August they marched down
12070-408: The Scots on 31 July, whereat Lambert, who was still hanging on to the flank of the Scottish advance, fell back from Barnard Castle to Richmond so as to close Wensleydale against any attempt of the invaders to march on Pontefract . All the restless energy of Langdale's cavalry were unable to dislodge Lambert from the passes or to find out what was behind that impenetrable cavalry screen. The crisis
12240-403: The brickwork was not on any foundation but laid "on the surface of the soil, a few inches below the present floor", while the walls, overburdened by the weight of the roofs, were "neither sound, upright nor level". While the logic of Lewis's report was clear, the Court of Governors, facing continuing financial difficulties, only resolved in 1803 behind the project of rebuilding on a new site, and
12410-500: The chained and naked state of many patients, Wakefield sought to describe their conditions in such a way as to maximise the horror of the scene while decrying the apparently bestial treatment of inmates and the thuggish nature of the asylum keepers. Wakefield's account focused on one patient in particular, James Norris, an American marine reported to be 55 years of age who had been detained in Bethlem since 1 February 1800. Housed in
12580-432: The city authorities seeking protection; thereafter metropolitan office-holders claimed power to oversee the appointment of masters and demanded in return an annual payment of 40 shillings. It is doubtful whether the city really provided substantial protection and much less that the mastership fell within their patronage but, dating from the 1346 petition, it played a role in the management of Bethlem's finances. By this time,
12750-444: The city authorities. Following a brief interval when it was placed under the management of the governors of Christ's Hospital , from 1557 it was administered by the governors of Bridewell , a prototype house of correction at Blackfriars . Having been thus one of the few metropolitan hospitals to have survived the dissolution of the monasteries physically intact, this joint administration continued, not without interference by both
12920-459: The city proper and one of the largest open spaces in London. The architect chosen for the new hospital, which was built rapidly and at great expense between 1675 and 1676, was the natural philosopher and City Surveyor Robert Hooke . He constructed an edifice that was monumental in scale at over 500 feet (150 m) wide and some 40 feet (12 m) deep. The surrounding walls were some 680 feet (210 m) long and 70 feet (21 m) deep while
13090-448: The city were of much more modest status. In 1561, the Lord Mayor succeeded in having his former porter, Richard Munnes, a draper by trade, appointed to the position. The sole qualification of his successor in 1565, a man by the name of Edward Rest, appears to have been his occupation as a grocer. Rest died in 1571, at which point the keepership passed on to John Mell in 1576, known for his abuse of "the governors, those who gave money to
13260-546: The crown and city, until incorporation into the National Health Service in 1948. A Church of Our Lady that is named Bedlam. And in that place be found many men that be fallen out of their wit. And full honestly they be kept in that place; and some be restored onto their wit and health again. And some be abiding therein for ever, for they be fallen so much out of themselves that it is incurable unto man William Gregory, Lord Mayor of London, c. 1450 It
13430-560: The death-blow. On 28 August, starving and hopeless of relief, the Colchester Royalists surrendered to Lord Fairfax. The victors in the Second Civil War were not merciful to those who had brought war into the land again. On the evening of the surrender of Colchester, Charles Lucas and George Lisle were shot. Laugharne, Poyer and Powel were sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on 25 April 1649, being
13600-486: The desire to surpass the human condition and become godlike". “...for indeed sin hath its conception only in the imagination; therefore; so long as the act was in God, or nakedly produced by God, it was as holy as God...” "I can if it be my will, kiss and hug ladies, and love my neighbour's wife as myself, without sin." They denied the authority of the church, of accepted religious practice and of Scripture. In fact, they denied
13770-480: The destructive conquest of Bethlehem by the Khwarazmian Turks in 1244, and his immediate predecessor had further impoverished his cathedral chapter through the alienation of a considerable amount of its property. The priory , obedient to the Church of Bethlehem , also housed the poor and, if they visited, provided hospitality to the bishop, canons , and brothers of Bethlehem. Thus, Bethlem became
13940-529: The end of the day-to-day management by an old-style keeper-physician and its replacement by a three-tiered medical regime composed of a non-resident physician, a visiting surgeon and an apothecary , a model adopted from the royal hospitals. The medical staff were elected by the Court of Governors and, in a bid to prevent profiteering at the expense of patients that had reached its apogee in Crooke's era, they were all eventually salaried with limited responsibility for
14110-405: The end of the eighteenth century Bethlem was physically deteriorating with uneven floors, buckling walls, and a leaking roof. It resembled "a crazy carcass with no wall still vertical – a veritable Hogarthian auto-satire". The financial cost of maintaining the Moorfields building was onerous and the capacity of the Governors to meet these demands was stymied by shortfalls in Bethlem's income in
14280-558: The enemy about Carlisle and slowly fell back to Bowes and Barnard Castle . Lambert fought small rearguard actions to annoy the enemy and gain time. Langdale did not follow him into the mountains. Instead, he occupied himself in gathering recruits, supplies of material, and food for the advancing Scots. Lambert, reinforced from the Midlands, reappeared early in June and drove Langdale back to Carlisle with his work half finished. About
14450-428: The entrance of the hospital. The 1598 visitation by the Governors had observed that the hospital was "filthely kept", but the Governors rarely made any reference to the need for staff to clean the hospital. The level of hygiene reflected the inadequate water supply, which, until its replacement in 1657, consisted of a single wooden cistern in the back yard from which water had to be laboriously transported by bucket. In
14620-503: The expense of the poor in their charge. The appointment of the masters, later known as keepers, had lain within the patronage of the Crown until 1547. Thereafter the City, through the Court of Aldermen , took control and, as with the king's appointees, the office was used to reward loyal servants and friends. Compared to the masters placed by the monarch, those who gained the position through
14790-521: The facade. Functioning as both advertisement and warning of what lay within, the stone pillars enclosing the entrance gates were capped by the figures of "Melancholy" and "Raving Madness" carved in Portland stone by the Danish-born sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber . At the instigation of the Bridewell Governors and to make a grander architectural statement of "charitable munificence", the hospital
14960-540: The failure of the Digger communes, imprisoned as a Ranter, and later confined to Bethlem Hospital . John Bunyan , author of Pilgrim's Progress , wrote in his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners , that he had encountered Ranters prior to his Baptist conversion. In England, they came into contact and even rivalry with the early Quakers , who were often falsely accused of direct association with them. In
15130-445: The families and friends of inmates or by the parish authorities. It is possible that keepers negotiated their fees for these latter categories of patients. John Mell's death in 1579 left the keepership open for the long-term keeper Roland Sleford, a London cloth-maker, who left his post in 1598, apparently of his own volition, after a 19-year tenure. Two months later, the Bridewell Governors, who had until then shown little interest in
15300-509: The financial affairs of the hospital. Personal connections, interests and occasionally royal favour were pivotal factors in the appointment of physicians, but by the measure of the times appointees were well qualified as almost all were Oxford or Cambridge graduates and a significant number were candidates for or fellows of the Royal College of Physicians . Although the posts were strongly contested, nepotistic appointment practices played
15470-405: The first floor, and this is the part reserved for dangerous maniacs, most of them being chained and terrible to behold. On holidays numerous persons of both sexes, but belonging generally to the lower classes, visit this hospital and amuse themselves watching these unfortunate wretches, who often give them cause for laughter. On leaving this melancholy abode, you are expected by the porter to give him
15640-565: The first shock of Cromwell's attack on Preston Moor. Hamilton, like Charles at Edgehill, passively shared in, without directing, the Battle of Preston , and, though Langdale's men fought fiercely, they were driven to the Ribble after four hours' struggle. Baillie attempted to cover the Ribble and Darwen bridges on the Wigan road, but Cromwell had forced his way across both before nightfall. Pursuit
15810-481: The government as a threat to social order. The quote "...the bishops, Charles and the Lords have had their turn, overturn, so your turn shall be next...", published in a Ranter pamphlet, no doubt caused some concern in the halls of power. The Ranters denied the authority of churches, of Scripture , of the current ministry and of services, instead calling on men to listen to the divine within them. In many ways they resemble
15980-432: The hospital and its governors consonant with contemporary notions of charity and benevolence. In an era prior to the state funding of hospitals and with patient fees covering only a portion of costs, such self-advertisement was necessary to win the donations, subscriptions and patronage essential for the institution's survival. This was particularly the case in raising funds to pay for major projects of expansion such as
16150-639: The hospital became a modern psychiatric facility, historically it was representative of the worst excesses of asylums in the era of lunacy reform. The hospital was founded in 1247 as the Priory of the New Order of our Lady of Bethlehem in the city of London during the reign of Henry III . It was established by the Bishop-elect of Bethlehem , the Italian Goffredo de Prefetti, following
16320-404: The hospital steward, either for his own use or to be sold to the inmates. If patients lacked resources to trade with the steward they often went hungry. These findings resulted in the dismissal in disgrace of Crooke, the last of the old-style keepers, along with his steward on 24 May 1633. In 1632 it was recorded that the old house of Bethlem had "below stairs a parlour, a kitchen, two larders,
16490-414: The hospital to view its deranged denizens. It was also at this time, and perhaps not coincidentally, that Bedlam was first used as a stage setting with the publication of The Honest Whore, Part I , in 1604. Evidence that the number of visitors rose following the move to Moorfields is provided in the observation by the Bridewell Governors in 1681 of "the greate quantity of persons that come daily to see
16660-519: The hospital was originally located just outside the city walls , in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London . It moved a short distance to Moorfields in 1676, and then to St George's Fields in Southwark in 1815, before moving to its current location in Monks Orchard in 1930. The word " bedlam ", meaning uproar and confusion, is derived from the hospital's nickname. Although
16830-409: The hospital yard or onto staff and visitors. Lack of facilities combined with patient incontinence and prevalent conceptions of the mad as animalistic and dirty, fit to be kept on a bed of straw, appear to have promoted an acceptance of hospital squalor. However, this was an age with very different standards of public and personal hygiene when people typically were quite willing to urinate or defecate in
17000-410: The hospital's resources, one was supported by a parochial authority, and the rest were provided for by family, friends, benefactors or, in one instance, out of their own funds. The reason for the Governors' new-found interest in Bethlem is unknown but it may have been connected to the increased scrutiny the hospital was coming under with the passing of poor law legislation in 1598 and to the decision by
17170-408: The hospital. Dating from this latter change, the vast majority of medical responsibilities within the institution were undertaken by the sole resident medical officer, the apothecary, owing to the relatively irregular attendance of the physician and surgeon. But is there so great Merit and Dexterity in being a mad Doctor? The common Prescriptions of a Bethlemitical Doctor are a Purge and a Vomit, and
17340-408: The incurable wing of the hospital, Norris had been continuously restrained for about a decade in a harness apparatus which severely restricted his movement. Wakefield stated that: ... a stout iron ring was riveted about his neck, from which a short chain passed to a ring made to slide upwards and downwards on an upright massive iron bar, more than six feet high, inserted into the wall. Round his body
17510-513: The king would be to break the Solemn League and Covenant, and that it offered no guarantee of a lasting Presbyterian church in England; the Kirk went so far as to issue a declaration on 5 May 1648 condemning the Engagement as a breach of God's law. After a protracted political struggle, the Engagers gained a majority in the Scottish Parliament, and it was accepted. Wales was a sensitive area, since most of it had been Royalist during
17680-574: The kitchen sink blocked, and reported that "...it is not fitt for anye man to dwell in wch was left by the Keeper for that it is so loathsomly filthely kept not fit for any man to come into the house". The committee of inspection found 21 inmates with only two having been admitted during the previous 12 months. Of the remainder, at least six had been resident for a minimum of eight years and one inmate had been there for around 25 years. Three were from outside London, six were charitable cases paid for out of
17850-484: The late spring and early summer of 1814. His inspections were of the old hospital at the Moorfields site, which was then in a state of disrepair; much of it was uninhabitable and the patient population had been significantly reduced. Contrary to the tenets of moral treatment, Wakefield found that the patients in the galleries were not classified in any logical manner as both highly disturbed and quiescent patients were mixed together indiscriminately. Later, when reporting on
18020-617: The leaders of the church, who should be appointed by their congregations. The relationship between Charles and his English Parliament eventually broke down entirely, resulting in the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642. In England, Charles's supporters, the Royalists , were opposed by the combined forces of the Parliamentarians and the Scots. In 1643 the latter pair formed an alliance bound by
18190-454: The local levies as he went, he made for Doncaster , where he arrived on 8 August, having gained six days in advance of the time he had allowed himself for the march. He then called up artillery from Hull , exchanged his local levies for the regulars who were besieging Pontefract, and set off to meet Lambert. On 12 August he was at Wetherby , Lambert at Otley , Langdale at Skipton and Gargrave , Hamilton at Lancaster , and George Monro with
18360-414: The local neighbourhood. The neighbouring inhabitants would have been quite familiar with the condition of the hospital as in the 1560s, and probably for some considerable time before that, those who lacked a lavatory in their own homes had to walk through "the west end of the long house of Bethlem" to access the rear of the hospital and reach the "common Jacques". Typically the hospital appears to have been
18530-414: The mad. Bethlem, embroiled in scandal from 1814 over its inmate conditions, would come to symbolise its antithesis . Through newspaper reports initially and then evidence given to the 1815 Parliamentary Committee on Madhouses, the state of inmate care in Bethlem was chiefly publicised by Edward Wakefield , a Quaker land agent and leading advocate of lunacy reform. He visited Bethlem several times during
18700-501: The management and treatment of the insane. Increasingly, the emphasis shifted from the external control of the mad through physical restraint and coercion to their moral management whereby self-discipline would be inculcated through a system of reward and punishment. For proponents of lunacy reform, the Quaker -run York Retreat , founded in 1796, functioned as an exemplar of this new approach that would seek to re-socialise and re-educate
18870-403: The management of Bethlem beyond the appointment of keepers, conducted an inspection of the hospital and a census of its inhabitants for the first time in over 40 years. Their purpose was "to view and p[er]use the defaultes and want of rep[ar]ac[i]ons". They found that during the period of Sleford's keepership the hospital buildings had fallen into a deplorable condition with the roof caving in and
19040-481: The night of 13 August managed to land 800 soldiers and sailors under cover of darkness. This force might have been able to surprise the besieging Parliamentarian force from the rear had it not been for a Royalist deserter who alerted the besiegers in time to defeat the Royalists, with less than a hundred of them managing to get back to the ships (though 300 managed to flee to Sandown Castle). Another attempt at landing soon afterwards also failed and, when on 23 August news
19210-529: The north. On 11 July, Pembroke fell and Colchester followed on 28 August. Elsewhere the rebellion, which had been put down by rapidity of action rather than sheer weight of numbers, smouldered, and Charles, the Prince of Wales , with the fleet cruised along the Essex coast. Cromwell and Lambert, however, understood each other perfectly, while the Scottish commanders quarrelled with each other and with Langdale. As
19380-415: The peak periods became Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun . ... you find yourself in a long and wide gallery, on either side of which are a large number of little cells where lunatics of every description are shut up, and you can get a sight of these poor creatures, little windows being let into the doors. Many inoffensive madmen walk in the big gallery. On the second floor is a corridor and cells like those on
19550-478: The placement of the hospital in the open space of Moorfields and the form of the building with its large cells and well-lit galleries had been chosen to provide "health and Aire" in accordance with the miasmatic theory of disease causation. It was London's first major charitable building since the Savoy Hospital (1505–17) and one of only a handful of public buildings then constructed in the aftermath of
19720-424: The poor, and the poor themselves." The Bridewell Governors largely interpreted the role of keeper as that of a house manager and this is clearly reflected in the occupations of most appointees as they tended to be inn-keepers, victualers, or brewers, and the like. When patients were sent to Bethlem by the Governors of the Bridewell the keeper was paid from hospital funds. For the remainder, keepers were paid either by
19890-420: The portions appear to have been inadequate also likely reflected contemporary humoral theory that justified rationing the diet of the mad, the avoidance of rich foods, and a therapeutics of depletion and purgation to restore the body to balance and restrain the spirits. The year 1634 is typically interpreted as denoting the divide between the medieval and early modern administration of Bethlem. It marked
20060-583: The power of any authority in general. “No matter what Scripture, Saints, or Churches say, if that within thee do not condemn thee, thou shalt not be condemned.” "Kings, Princes, Lords, great ones, must bow to the poorest Peasants." Gerrard Winstanley , a leader of another English dissenting group called the Diggers , commented on Ranter principles in characterizing them by their "general lack of moral values or restraint in worldly pleasures". However, another prominent Digger, William Everard , was, some time after
20230-571: The public was launched in 1805. Parliament was successfully lobbied to provide £10,000 for the fund under an agreement whereby the Bethlem Governors would provide permanent accommodation for any lunatic soldiers or sailors of the French Wars. Early interest in relocating the hospital to a site at Gossey Fields had to be abandoned due to financial constraints and stipulations in the lease for Moorfields that precluded its resale. Instead,
20400-493: The rebuilding project at Moorfields or the addition of the Incurables Division in 1725–39 with accommodation for more than 100 patients. These highly visible acts of civic commitment could also serve to advance the claims to social status or political advantage of its Governors and supporters. However, while consideration of patients' needs may have been distinctly secondary, they were not absent. For instance, both
20570-483: The reformist St Luke's Asylum of London, founded in 1751. The Bethlem Governors, who had presided over the only public asylum in Britain until the early eighteenth century, looked upon St Luke's as an upstart institution and Battie, formerly a Governor at Bethlem, as traitorous. In 1758 Battie published his Treatise on Madness which castigated Bethlem as archaic and outmoded, uncaring of its patients and founded upon
20740-658: The remains of the castle demolished the same year. Following Charles's execution, the Commonwealth of England was established. In Scotland, Charles II became the new king, the resulting tensions leading to the Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652 . Bethlem Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital , also known as St Mary Bethlehem , Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam , is a psychiatric hospital in Bromley, London . Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films, and TV series, most notably Bedlam ,
20910-454: The remnants of the Kentish revolt in the east of the county, where the naval vessels in the Downs had gone over to the Royalists and Royalist forces had taken control of the three previously Parliamentarian "castles of the Downs" ( Walmer , Deal , and Sandown ) and were trying to take control of Dover Castle . Rich arrived at Dover on 5 June 1648 and prevented the attempt, before moving to
21080-525: The report, for on 17 August Monro was half a day's march to the north, Langdale east of Preston, and the main army strung out on the Wigan road, Major-General William Baillie with a body of foot, the rear of the column, being still in Preston. Hamilton, yielding to the importunity of his lieutenant-general, James Livingston, 1st Earl of Callendar , sent Baillie across the Ribble to follow the main body just as Langdale, with 3,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, met
21250-559: The revolt collapsed as easily as that in Kent. Only in South Wales , Essex , and the north of England was there serious fighting. In the first of these districts, South Wales, Cromwell rapidly reduced all the fortresses except Pembroke. Here Laugharne, Poyer, and Powel held out with the desperate courage of deserters. In the north, Pontefract Castle was surprised by the Royalists, and shortly afterwards Scarborough Castle declared for
21420-405: The road from Lancaster, through Preston, towards Wigan , Langdale's corps having thus become the left flank guard instead of the advanced guard. Langdale called in his advanced parties, perhaps with a view to resuming the duties of advanced guard, on the night of 13 August, and collected them near Longridge . It is not clear whether he reported Cromwell's advance, but, if he did, Hamilton ignored
21590-523: The royal candidate for the post of master claimed that from its beginnings it had been superintended by an order of knights and he confused its founder, Goffredo de Prefetti, with the Frankish crusader, Godfrey de Bouillon . The removal of the last symbolic link to the Bethlehemites was confirmed in 1403 when it was reported that master and inmates no longer wore the star of Bethlehem. In 1546,
21760-401: The said Lunatickes". Eight years later the English merchant and author, Thomas Tryon , remarked disapprovingly of the "Swarms of People" that descended upon Bethlem during public holidays. In the mid-eighteenth-century a journalist of a topical periodical noted that at one time during Easter Week "one hundred people at least" were to be found visiting Bethlem's inmates. Evidently Bethlem was
21930-627: The same time, the local cavalry of Durham and Northumberland were put into the field for the Parliamentarians by Arthur Hesilrige , governor of Newcastle . On 30 June, under the direct command of Colonel Robert Lilburne , these mounted forces won a considerable success at the River Coquet . This reverse, coupled with the existence of Langdale's Royalist force on the Cumberland side, practically compelled Hamilton to choose
22100-484: The same yard since at least the early seventeenth century there was a "washhouse" to clean patients' clothes and bedclothes and in 1669 a drying room for clothes was added. Patients, if capable, were permitted to use the "house of easement", of which there were two at most, but more frequently "piss-pots" were used in their cells. Unsurprisingly, inmates left to brood in their cells with their own excreta were, on occasion, liable to throw such "filth & Excrem[en]t" into
22270-768: The series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639–1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms , which include the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars , the 1639–1640 Bishops' Wars , and the 1649–1653 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland . Following his defeat in the First English Civil War , in May 1646 Charles I surrendered to the Scots Covenanters , rather than Parliament . By doing so, he hoped to exploit divisions between English and Scots Presbyterians , and English Independents . At this stage, all parties expected Charles to continue as king, which combined with their internal divisions, allowed him to refuse significant concessions. When
22440-497: The setting-in of the cold weather". Spring signalled recourse to the traditional armamentarium; from then until the end of summer Bethlem's "Mad Physick " reigned supreme as all patients, barring those deemed incurable, could expect to be bled and blistered and then dosed with emetics and purgatives. Indiscriminately applied, these curative measures were administered with the most cursory physical examination, if any, and with sufficient excess to risk not only health but also life. Such
22610-463: The shops shut. This crowd – under the slogan "For God, King Charles, and Kent" – then descended into violence and riot, with a soldier being assaulted, the mayor's house attacked, and the city under the rioters' control for several weeks until forced to surrender in early January. On 21 May 1648, Kent rose in revolt in the King's name, and a few days later a most serious blow to the Independents
22780-442: The south face at the rear was effectively screened by a 714-foot (218 m) stretch of London's ancient wall projecting westward from nearby Moorgate . At the rear and containing the courtyards where patients exercised and took the air, the walls rose to 14 feet (4.3 m) high. The front walls were only 8 feet (2.4 m) high but this was deemed sufficient as it was determined that "Lunatikes... are not to [be] permitted to walk in
22950-434: The street or even in their own fireplaces. For much of the seventeenth century the dietary provision for patients appears to have been inadequate. This was especially so during Crooke's regime, when inspection found several patients suffering from starvation. Corrupt staff practices were evidently a significant factor in patient malnourishment and similar abuses were noted in the 1650s and 1670s. The Governors failed to manage
23120-491: The supply of victuals , relying on "gifts in kind" for basic provisions, and the resources available to the steward to purchase foodstuffs was dependent upon the goodwill of the keeper. Patients were fed twice a day on a "lowering diet" (an intentionally reduced and plain diet) consisting of bread, meat, oatmeal, butter, cheese, and generous amounts of beer. It is likely that daily meals alternated between meat and dairy products, almost entirely lacking in fruit or vegetables. That
23290-417: The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with its activities underwritten by episcopal and papal indulgences , the hospital's role as a centre for alms collection persisted, but its linkage to the Order of Bethlehem increasingly unravelled, putting its purpose and patronage in doubt. In 1346, the master of Bethlem, a position at that time granted to the most senior of London's Bethlemite brethren, applied to
23460-510: The valley of the Ribble towards Preston with full knowledge of the enemy's dispositions and full determination to attack him. They had with them troops from both the Army and the militias of Yorkshire , Durham, Northumberland and Lancashire, and were heavily outnumbered, having only 8,600 men against perhaps 20,000 of Hamilton's command. But the latter were scattered for convenience of supply along
23630-642: The victim selected by lot. Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament, three, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel , one of the Colchester prisoners, were beheaded at Westminster on 9 March. Above all, after long hesitations, even after renewal of negotiations, the Army and the Independents conducted " Pride's Purge " of the House removing their ill-wishers, and created
23800-538: The war, while Harlech Castle was the last of their strongpoints to surrender in March 1647. The interception of secret messages between Charles and the Irish Confederacy made it important to secure ports like Cardiff and Milford Haven , since they controlled shipping routes with Ireland. The Army Council viewed the local commanders, John Poyer and Rowland Laugharne , with suspicion, since they supported
23970-754: The west coast route for his advance. His Scottish Engager army began slowly to move down the long couloir between the mountains and the sea. The Campaign of Preston which followed is one of the most brilliant in English history. On 8 July 1648, when the Scottish Engager army crossed the border in support of the English Royalists, the military situation was well defined. For the Parliamentarians, Cromwell besieged Pembroke in West Wales, Fairfax besieged Colchester in Essex, and Colonel Rossiter besieged Pontefract and Scarborough in
24140-677: The world. This development was partly due to Bedlam's staging in several plays of the Jacobean and Caroline periods , including The Honest Whore, Part I (1604); Northward Ho (1607); The Duchess of Malfi (1612); The Pilgrim ( c. 1621 ); and The Changeling (1622). This dramatic interest in Bedlam is also evident in references to it in early seventeenth-century plays such as Epicœne, or The Silent Woman (1609), Bartholomew Fair (1614), and A New Way to Pay Old Debts ( c. 1625 ). The appropriation of Bedlam as
24310-452: The wretches of this unhappy mansion". Whether "persons of quality" or not, the primary allure for visiting strangers was neither moral edification nor the duty of charity but its entertainment value. In Roy Porter 's memorable phrase, what drew them "was the frisson of the freakshow", where Bethlem was "a rare Diversion" to cheer and amuse. It became one of a series of destinations on the London tourist trail which included such sights as
24480-458: The yard to be situate[d] betweene the said intended new Building and the Wall aforesaid." It was also hoped that by keeping these walls relatively low the splendour of the new building would not be overly obscured. This concern to maximise the building's visibility led to the addition of six gated openings 10 feet (3.0 m) wide which punctuated the front wall at regular intervals, enabling views of
24650-468: Was appointed keeper-physician in 1619. As a Cambridge graduate, the author of an enormously successful English language book of anatomy entitled Microcosmographia: a Description of the Body of Man (1615) and a member of the medical department of the royal household , he was clearly of higher social status than his city-appointed predecessors (his father was a noted preacher, and his elder brother Thomas
24820-454: Was at once undertaken, and not relaxed until Hamilton had been driven through Wigan and Winwick to Uttoxeter and Ashbourne . There, pressed furiously in rear by Cromwell's cavalry and held up in front by the militia of the midlands, the remnant of the Scottish army laid down its arms on 25 August. Various attempts were made to raise the Royalist standard in Wales and elsewhere, but Preston was
24990-620: Was constructed during the first wave of county asylum building in England under the County Asylum Act (" Wynn 's Act") of 1808. Extending to 580 feet (180 m) in length, the new hospital, which ran alongside the Lambeth Road , consisted of a central block with two wings of three storeys on either side. Female patients occupied the west wing and males the east; as at Moorfields, the cells were located off galleries that traversed each wing. Each gallery contained only one toilet,
25160-445: Was created a baronet ). Crooke had successfully ousted the previous keeper, the layman Thomas Jenner, after a campaign in which he had castigated his rival for being "unskilful in the practice of medicine". While this may appear to provide evidence of the early recognition by the Governors that the inmates of Bethlem required medical care, the formal conditions of Crooke's appointment did not detail any required medical duties. Indeed,
25330-449: Was designed as a single- rather than double-pile building, accommodating initially 120 patients. Having cells and chambers on only one side of the building facilitated the dimensions of the great galleries , essentially long and capacious corridors, 13 feet (4.0 m) high and 16 feet (4.9 m) wide, which ran the length of both floors to a total span of 1,179 feet (359 m). Such was their scale that Roger L'Estrange remarked in
25500-408: Was expected that the family and friends of poor inmates would bring food and other essentials for their survival. Bethlem was and is best known for the fact that it also allowed public and casual visitors with no connection to the inmates. This display of madness as public show has often been considered the most scandalous feature of the historical Bedlam. On the basis of circumstantial evidence, it
25670-416: Was fired into Deal Castle on an arrow of Cromwell's victory at Preston , most Royalist hope was lost and two days later Deal's garrison surrendered, followed by Sandown on 5 September. This finally ended the Kentish rebellion. Rich was made Captain of Deal Castle, a position he held until 1653 and in which he spent around £500 on repairs. In Cornwall , Northamptonshire , North Wales , and Lincolnshire
25840-453: Was held to design the new hospital at Southwark in which the noted Bethlem patient James Tilly Matthews was an unsuccessful entrant. The Governors elected to give James Lewis the task. Incorporating the best elements from the three winning competition designs, he produced a building in the neoclassical style that, while drawing heavily on Hooke's original plan, eschewed the ornament of its predecessor. Completed after three years in 1815, it
26010-420: Was increased to accommodate a further 30 men while additions to the east and west wings, extending the building's façade, provided space for an additional 166 inmates and a dome was added to the hospital chapel. At the end of this period of expansion Bethlem had a capacity for 364 patients. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are typically seen as decisive in the emergence of new attitudes towards
26180-405: Was introduced in the 1680s at a time when hydrotherapy was enjoying a recrudescence in popularity. "Cold bathing", opined John Monro, Bethlem physician for 40 years from 1751, "has in general an excellent effect"; and remained much in vogue as a treatment throughout the eighteenth century. By the early nineteenth century, bathing was routine for all patients of sufficient hardiness from summer "to
26350-487: Was marching on Cardiff , but was defeated at St Fagans on 8 May. This ended the revolt as a serious threat, although Pembroke Castle did not surrender until 11 July, with a minor rising in North Wales suppressed at Y Dalar Hir in June and Anglesey retaken from the rebels in early October. The Welsh rising is generally not considered part of a planned, Royalist plot, but largely accidental; however, its retention
26520-412: Was noted by Oliver Cromwell as "[...] one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom". Even in ruins, the castle held out in the north for the Royalists. Upon the execution of Charles I, the garrison recognised Charles II as king and refused to surrender. On 24 March 1649, almost two months after Charles was beheaded, the garrison of the last Royalist stronghold finally capitulated. Parliament had
26690-410: Was now at hand. Cromwell had received the surrender of Pembroke Castle on 11 July, and had marched off, with his men unpaid, ragged and shoeless, at full speed through the Midlands. Rains and storms delayed his march, but he knew that the Duke of Hamilton in the broken ground of Westmorland was still worse off. Shoes from Northampton and stockings from Coventry met him at Nottingham , and gathering up
26860-541: Was ordered that it be disbanded, but its leaders refused to do so. Charles now engaged in separate negotiations with different factions. Presbyterian English Parliamentarians and the Scots wanted him to accept a modified version of the Newcastle Propositions, but in June 1647, Cornet George Joyce of the New Model Army seized Charles, and the army council pressed him to accept the Heads of Proposals ,
27030-403: Was placed in the windows in 1816, the Governors initially supported their decision to leave them unglazed on the basis that it provided ventilation and so prevented the build-up of "the disagreable effluvias peculiar to all madhouses". Faced with increased admissions and overcrowding, new buildings, designed by the architect Sydney Smirke , were added from the 1830s. The wing for criminal lunatics
27200-535: Was receiving the insane during the late fourteenth century, the first definitive record of their presence in the hospital is in the details of a visitation of the Charity Commissioners in 1403. This recorded that amongst other patients there were six male inmates who were " mente capti ", a Latin term indicating insanity. The report of the visitation also noted the presence of four pairs of manacles , 11 chains, six locks and two pairs of stocks but it
27370-545: Was required only intermittently and the greater portion of the income was derived from private practice. Bethlem physicians, maximising their association with the hospital, typically earned their coin in the lucrative " trade in lunacy " with many acting as visiting physicians to, presiding over, or even, as with the Monros and their predecessor Thomas Allen, establishing their own mad-houses. Initially both surgeons and apothecaries were also without salary and their hospital income
27540-420: Was solely dependent upon their presentation of bills for attendance to the Court of Governors. This system was frequently abused and the bills presented were often deemed exorbitant by the Board of Governors. The problem of financial exploitation was partly rectified in 1676, when surgeons received a salary, and from the mid-eighteenth century elected apothecaries were likewise salaried and normally resident within
27710-470: Was soon joined by Rice Powell , who commanded Tenby Castle , then by Laugharne. What began as a dispute over pay turned political when the Welsh rebels made contact with Charles. Most Royalists had sworn not to bear arms against Parliament and did not participate, one exception being Nicholas Kemeys , who held Chepstow Castle for the king. By the end of April, Laugharne had assembled around 8,000 troops, and
27880-514: Was struck by the defection of the Navy, from command of which they had removed Vice-Admiral William Batten , as being a Presbyterian. Though a former Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick , also a Presbyterian, was brought back to the service, it was not long before the Navy made a purely Royalist declaration and placed itself under the command of the Prince of Wales . But Fairfax had a clearer view and
28050-546: Was supported by the London Trained Bands , the Army of the Western Association, leaders like Rowland Laugharne in Wales, and elements of the English navy . By March 1647, the New Model Army was owed more than £3 million in unpaid wages; Parliament ordered it to Ireland, stating only those who agreed to go would be paid. When their representatives demanded full payment for all in advance, it
28220-417: Was taken prisoner. Buckingham escaped overseas. Major-General John Lambert , a brilliant young Parliamentarian commander of twenty-nine, was more than equal to the situation. He left the sieges of Pontefract Castle and Scarborough Castle to Colonel Edward Rossiter , and hurried into Cumberland to deal with the English Royalists under Marmaduke Langdale . With his cavalry , Lambert got into touch with
28390-505: Was the violence of the standard medical course, "involving voiding of the bowels, vomiting, scarification, sores and bruises," that patients were regularly discharged or refused admission if they were deemed unfit to survive the physical onslaught. The reigning medical ethos was the subject of public debate in the mid-eighteenth century when the Paper War of 1752–1753 erupted between John Monro and his rival William Battie , physician to
28560-462: Was vital for future operations in Ireland. A precursor to Kent 's Second Civil War had come on Wednesday, 22 December 1647, when Canterbury 's town crier had proclaimed the county committee's order for the suppression of Christmas Day and its treatment as any other working day. However, a large crowd gathered on Christmas to demand a church service, decorate doorways with holly bushes, and keep
28730-690: Was vulnerable to seizure by the crown and this occurred in the 1370s when Edward III took control. The purpose of this appropriation was, in the context of the Hundred Years' War between France and England, to prevent funds raised by the hospital from enriching the French monarchy via the papal court . After this event the masters of the hospital, semi-autonomous figures in charge of its day-to-day management, were normally crown appointees and it became an increasingly secularised institution. The memory of its foundation became muddied and muddled; in 1381,
28900-516: Was wholly financed by the state. The first 122 patients arrived in August 1815 having been transported to their new residence by a convoy of Hackney coaches . Problems with the building were soon noted as the steam heating did not function properly, the basement galleries were damp and the windows of the upper storeys were unglazed "so that the sleeping cells were either exposed to the full blast of cold air or were completely darkened". Although glass
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