Royal Flush

In 1854 the City of Kingston Upon Hull finally came off a Monarchical Blacklist, albeit an unsubstantiated one, and felt the Civic Pride that goes with hosting a Royal Visitor in the personage of Queen Victoria herself and her entourage. 

This marked a period of 215 years of being by-passed, fobbed off and ignored by nine almost successive Rulers (interspersed by the Cromwell Commonwealth years) which for a major Port Town and place of regional and strategic importance will have caused the Elders and the well-to-do of Hull to ask why this was the case. 

Of course the event of 1639 when the citizens of Hull denied access to its Armoury to King Charles the First which effectively marked the beginning of the English Civil War established in the minds of  successive Royal Houses that there was a healthy mistrust of those who claimed the Divine Right over the population in this corner of the country. 

It had not always been that way. 

In 1293 Edward the First on his way back from a campaign in Scotland called to stay at Baynard Castle in Cottingham. Whilst hare coursing along the banks of the River Hull he recognised the merits of the point of convergence with the Humber Estuary. He is said to have questioned local shepherds about the depth, tides and ownership of the shoreline before approaching the Monks of Meaux and initiating a land swop with them so that he could promote the idea of a fortified town and a secure harbour. So was born Kings Town Upon Hull, shortened to Kingston Upon Hull. 

In 1300 Edward returned and pronounced Hull to be a most handsome town. The crossing of the Humber between Barton and Hessle to reach Hull was charged at thirteen shillings. 

In 1332 Edward the Third arrived at the town for an unspecified purpose but then again he was monarch and did not need to justify himself over anything he wanted to do. 

It was another 67 years before Henry the Fourth approached the town having made a landing by ship at the port of Ravenspurn to the east. The Mayor of Hull, John Tutbury, at the news of the visitor ordered that the bridges be raised, the town gates closed and the townsfolk put on notice to arm themselves. This was a point blank refusal to welcome the Royal Party. 

Relations with the House of Tudor were much more amenable by the time of Henry the Sixth and he was warmly welcomed for a 4 day stay in 1448 during which he approved of the fortifications. 

Looming in the years following was the Wars of the Roses that was a series of sporadic battling from 1455 to 1485 between the Houses of Lancaster and York. 

Hull became a bit of a pawn in the power struggle on a couple of occasions in the Wars which emphasised its strategic importance although even to the present day its location on the eastern edge of England has meant a perception of remoteness and separation from the rest of the country. 

In 1464 one of the contenders in what amounted to a Proxy Civil War, Edward the Fourth made a surprise visit to Hull in a bid to secure the town in the knowledge that Henry the Sixth could mount a rival campaign. Edward made sure he came back mob handed in 1471 when he brought an army of 2000 men. It is not clear what actually transpired but it seems that Edward felt that he was not welcome in Hull and so marched past the walls to the nearby town of Beverley. 

The eventual inheritance of the Lancastrian claim by The House of Tudor led to the illustrious and controversial reign of Henry the Eighth. 

In a bit of a fawning and embarrassing action the representatives of the people of Hull persuaded Henry to stay for a few days which was a bit of a deviation from his planned journey from London to York in August 1541. This entailed an official delegation meeting the Royal party at the boarded bridge near Newland and a show of allegiance and loyalty involving a lot of kissing of the Kings White Rod before processing to the Beverley Gate entrance to the town. 

The King stayed for three days at the Manor Hall and his royal coffers were swelled by a gift of £100 (£85000 in todays money). 

Henry the Eighth must have thought he had found a bit of a cash cow as he invited himself back to Hull in the following month. 

In that time he was pretty busy in meddling and mischievous actions. 

His visit coincided with the campaigning by two Citizens for the position of Mayor. Henry put forward his own candidate and the outcome was a foregone conclusion. He also proposed construction of a new castle and blockhouse to modernise the fortifications and a new dyke from Newland to Kingston. 

These political and civil engineering feats were nothing however compared to Henry's penchant for affairs of the heart. 

He had heard that Lord Wake, who was the occupant of Baynard Castle (a host castle for Edward the First in 1293) had a most beautiful wife. He invited himself to dine at the Castle but his intentions were thwarted by the destruction of the place in a momentous fire within a matter of hours of his announcement. The perpetrator was actually Lord Wake himself who had done it out of fear that his wife would be the centre of unwelcome attention from the philandering monarch. 

To his credit the King offered the sum of £2000 (£1.8 million in todays money) for the reconstruction but this was never taken up, naturally to avoid being beholden and therefore susceptible to a sort of indecent proposal scenario. 

So fast forward through history to the arrival at the town walls of the beleagured Charles the First in 1639. 

In a huge tantrum at not being welcomed or admitted to Hull Charles is reputed to have urged the townspeople to "fling the traitor over the wall, throw the rebel in the ditch" referring to his adversary, Sir John Hotham. 

This began the fall from Royal favour of Kingston Upon Hull until 1854 when the long awaited opportunity arose to express loyalty and allegiance to a ruling monarch.