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Family History Societies

Letchworth
Royston
Societies
Hertfordshire Record Society




 
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Themes Explorers and Adventurers Nobel Prize Winners
Actors/Actresses and Directors Famous People Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes Historic Events Prime Ministers
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Inventors and Scientists Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects Monarchs World Heritage Sites
Composers National Parks Writers and Poets

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire lies in south-central England and borders the north of London. In 1965 part of the county was incorporated into the new Greater London.



 Towns include the county seat of Hertford; the first "garden city" of Letchworth; and the first "new town" of Stevenage.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

The Chiltern Hills spread across four counties, starting in the Thames Valley in Oxfordshire, the hills stretch in a north-east direction up through Buckinghamshire to the counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. They were designated an AONB in 1965 to protect the chalk downland landscape and the abundance of woodland which covers it, providing an important haven for wildlife only 70km from London.


Artists and Architects
The sculptor Henry Moore was buried at Perry Green in 1986.

 Henry Moore

Famous People
Nicholas Breakspear was born in Abbots Langley in 1100. He was the only Englishman ever to become Pope when he was elected as Adrian IV in 1154. He died in office in 1159 at Anagni near Rome.

Historic Events

Major Battles
In 1455 the first Battle of St Albans was the preamble to the Wars of the Roses, a series of battles for the control of the throne between the Houses of Lancaster and York. During the battle the Yorkists under the king's cousin Richard, Duke of York defeated the Lancastrians, capturing Henry VI and killing York's rival, the Duke of Somerset.

In 1461 the second Battle of St Albans took place in the town when an army led by Henry VI's wife Margaret of Anjou attacked and released the King from captivity by the Earl of Warwick.

Henry VI



 The Battle of Barnet in 1471 was a further battle in the Wars of the Roses, taking place near Hadley Green which now lies in London. The Yorkist Edward IV returned from exile to defeat the Lancastrian forces under Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick. Warwick known as "the Kingmaker" due to his power to decide who would be king, was killed in the battle, considerably weakening Henry VI's position.

 Edward IV

Rebellions and Plots
It was at Hoddesdon in 1683 that the Rye House Plot failed. The plan to kill the pro-Catholic Charles II and his Catholic brother the future James II as they returned from the horse races only failed when the king left Newmarket early. The plot was named after Rye House which stood near the road where the assassination was due to take place.

Charles II James II


Monarchs

House of Stuart
The House of Stuart



 The first Stuart king of both England and Scotland James I died at Theobalds Park in 1625. He became James VI, king of Scotland in 1566 at the age of one. In 1603, on the death of the childless Elizabeth I, he became king of England due to him being the great-great-grandson of Henry VII. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.

James I
 Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey


Nobel Prize Winners

Literature
The Irish-born winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 George Bernard Shaw died in 1950 at his home Shaw's Corner in Ayot St Lawrence where he had lived since 1906. His ashes were scattered in the garden.

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw


Martyrdom... the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.
The Devil's Disciple (1901)

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
Everybody's Political What's What? (1944)

Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation.
(Quote)


Places of Interest

Castles
Hertford Castle

Historic Buildings
George Bernard Shaw's home, Ayot St Lawrence

Stately Homes and Palaces
Hatfield House was used by Henry VIII as a nursery for his children, Princess Elizabeth spent her first fifteen years at the house and she was there in 1558 when she heard of the death of her half-sister Mary I and her accession to the throne as Elizabeth I. James I exchanged the house for Theobalds Park and the new owners became the Cecil family.

 Hatfield House
 Hatfield House in 1824


Prime Ministers
Born as Robert Gascoyne-Cecil at Hatfield House in 1830, the Marquess of Salisbury became Prime Minister three times in 1885-86, 1886-92 and 1895-1902. He died at the house in 1903 and is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Etheldreda.

Marquess of Salisbury
 Hatfield House
 Hatfield House in 1824


English policy is to float lazily downstream, occasionally putting out a diplomatic boathook to avoid collisions.
 (Letter, 1877)



 In 1848 William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, twice Prime Minister in 1834 and 1835-41, died at Brocket Hall near Lemsford. Like his successor the Marquess of Salisbury, he is also buried in the churchyard of St Etheldreda at Hatfield.

Viscount Melbourne



 Brocket Hall was also the home to another Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston, who governed in 1855-58 and 1859-65. Palmerston died at Brocket Hall in 1865 whilst still in office and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Viscount Palmerston
 Famous people buried at Westminster Abbey

Royal Consorts and Heirs

House of Plantagenet
Isabella of France, the former queen of Edward II, died in 1358 and her death has been given as either in the county at Hertford Castle where she may have lived for the last year of her life or at Castle Rising Castle in Norfolk where she had been imprisoned by her son since 1330. She was buried at Greyfriar's church at Newgate in London.

 Isabella of France Edward II


Writers and Poets
For George Bernard Shaw see Nobel Prize Winners



 The poet William Cowper was born in Great Berkhamstead in 1731.

William Cowper


No voice divine the storm allayed
No light propitious shone;
When snatched from all effectual aid,
We perished, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.
The Castaway (1799)


Graham Greene was born as Henry Graham Greene in 1904 at Berkhamsted. He died in 1991 in Vevey in Switzerland.

 Graham Greene Graham Greene


There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
The Power and the Glory (1940)


The poet Cecil Day-Lewis (father of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis) died in Hadley Wood in 1972. He had been Poet Laureate since 1968 when he succeeded John Masefield who had died the year before. He was in turn succeeded by Sir John Betjemen. He is buried at Stinsford in Dorset.

 Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis
 The poet laureates

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