Queen Bertha of Kent - Lady Wootton's Green, Canterbury, Kent, UK.
Posted by: MeerRescue
N 51° 16.749 E 001° 05.178
31U E 366529 N 5682607
A life size bronze statue of Queen Bertha of Kent in Lady Wootton's Green, Canterbury, Kent, UK.
Waymark Code: WMEEC8
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/16/2012
Views: 3
" In 580 Bertha, the great grand-daughter
of Clovis the founder of the Frankish monarchy, married Prince Ethelbert of
Kent. She was a Christian and a former Roman building, said to be on the site of
the current St Martin's church, was adapted for her use as a chapel. Her route
there from the city started from what is now Queningate, a blocked pedestrian
gate in the southern city wall, and passed through the fields which would later
become Lady Wootton's Green. In 597 Pope Gregory sent Prior Augustine to convert
the British to Christianity and on his arrival he was allowed to use the Queen's
chapel for worship. By 601 King Ethelbert had been converted to Christianity and
provided the resources for Archbishop Augustine to build his cathedral in the
city and the abbey to bear his name outside the walls. The abbey was for the
burial of the future Archbishops of Canterbury and Kings of Kent and the Green
thus became part of a ceremonial way between the city and abbey. It also
contained the Mulberry market and from the 12th century the abbey's almonry with
an associated chapel.
The abbey was enclosed and the Fyndon Gate built by 1308, but after the
dissolution of the monasteries the King converted part into his “new lodgings”,
eventually to be leased to Edward Lord Wootton in 1612. Lady Wootton was widowed
in 1626 but lived on in her palace until she died in 1659. Eventually the garden
in front of her gates, which had also been known as Mulberry, Palace or Ambery
Green, took her name and came back into public ownership as Lady Wootton's
Green. A row of houses on Broad Street was demolished in 1896 to open the view
to the cathedral and create the public gardens. The medieval buildings
surrounding the Green were destroyed by bombing in 1942, leaving only the old
almonry building at No 1 to be rebuilt on its remaining 13th century ground
floor walls.
On May 26th 2006 two bronze statues by
Ramsgate artist Stephen Melton, one of King Ethelbert and one of Queen Bertha,
mounted on concrete plinths were installed in Lady Wootton's Green. They show
the possible scene in 597 when the King meets Bertha as she returns from her
prayers in St Martin’s church with the great news that Augustine has landed. The
site of these statues is on the route that Bertha is thought to have taken. They
were given by the Canterbury Commemoration Society to the city in recognition of
the part they played in establishing the Christian faith in England."
(Canterbury Historical & Archaeology Society)
Queen Bertha is approximately life size.
" She probably retained her Frankish style of dress. The style shown on her statue
is based on that found on the tomb of Queen Arnegunde at St Denis in Paris.
Arnegunde wore a red silk veil pinned to her hair, a fine linen shift, a violet
silk knee length tunic, a long dark red silk gown with cuffs embroided with gold
thread, linen stockings and thin leather slippers. Bertha has been given a
woollen cloak. She is wearing an Anglo-Saxon gold necklace, a Kentish disc
brooch and a chatelaine. her Latin prayer book has wooden covers bound by
leather." (Canterbury Conservation Society)