"The history of York is the history of England....." - George VI

York is an ancient town with an extraordinary knack for reinventing itself over and over and over! As a city, it's had tremendous staying power, having been officially founded by the Romans in AD 71, and it truly knows how to roll with history's most popular theme of change, and its favorite game of, "who's in charge now?!"

At one time or another it has been Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman, Medieval, victim of Henry VIII's Dissolution of monasteries & churches, a city in recovery during Queen Elizabeth's reign, it's been Georgian, plagued by the plague itself, a thriving center of trade and commerce, a site of horrific Jewish massacre, and remains home of the largest medieval cathedral in Britain, and even now, thousands of years since its founding, remains a coveted destination for British history and literature pilgrims from around the world!

York Castle, Clifford's Tower: Built by William the Conquerer to subdue rebels in the North

Alyssa climbing Clifford's winding stairs

Before the Roman invasion of York in AD43, Britain was ruled by a confederation of Celtic tribes known as the Brigantes.  When the Romans arrived and conquered in their long-term Roman kind of way, 300 years passed and "Eboracum" became one of the leading cities of the entire Roman empire.  By the 5th century however, Roman soldiers were needed to defend Rome from those in  Gaul, and this was just the extended absence the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes needed to successfully invade and completely take over by the 7th century. 

Walking through ancient stone gates & along walls that still surround the city as if to defy its dicey history, it's hard to fully grasp the breadth & depth of what unfolded here from way back then, all the way through our most recent, equally dicey, but modern century. 

Because I can't help myself, taking another glimpse back at this city's history tells us that despite the legendary recapture of York from the Anglo-Saxon invaders by none other than the even more legendary King Arthur himself, York became "Eoforwic", the centre of the independent kingdom of Northumbria, and continued to be ruled by mighty Anglo-Saxon warlords.  Apparently, it's at this point in York's story that Christianity was reintroduced by a warlord who had married a Christian princess, and she, devoted to her faith, insisted that a priest be brought with her.  This priest eventually baptized the warlord and his many subjects on Easter day in 627 in a timber church.  This was to be the very first cathedral of the present day York Minster, and that priest became the first bishop of York.  Never underestimate what a marriage can bring to fruition!   In AD 866 the Vikings took over and called the city Jorvik.  By 1000 AD it was known, and remains known 1300 years later, as the city of York.

The first cathedral in the city was completed in 633AD, but the magnificence of Durham Cathedral and the great Yorkshire Cistercian abbeys spurred on the authorities here to build something even greater.  Construction of the present building started in the 13th century and continued for about 250 years.  By the love and commitment of York's citizens on more than one occasion, it was spared in various battles and during the Civil War because they eagerly surrendered on condition that none of their churches, especially the Minster, be damaged.

 

Just about anything for just the right angle on this shot!

To the Glory of the Lord that all might know of His great story and even greater love......and the heart of that love is captured and intricately designed in the window of the image below. 

As these glorious windows continue to point Man to his Maker, with all their original glass intact, they comprise the largest collection of medieval glass in Britain. My pictures fail to truly do justice to the intricacy of design.  The master craftsmen's painstaking care, drive for excellence and the achievement of perfection is nothing short of breathtaking and magnificently awe-inspiring.  

I was warmly comforted by an overwhelming awareness of the bigness of God and the smallness of me.  I am keenly aware of my own inadequacies for the needs of the people I love and the feeble limits of my own heart and arms to wrap around our hurting world, but I ultimately found such rest as I paused in weathered pews and knelt on weathered knees, in knowing that our Lord has already stretched out his arms aCross for us all, and holds this world in His scarred and loving hands.  A mystery as to how eternal scales balance the inequities of this world remains, but in the echoing vastness, there was a quiet 
and comforting peace. 

The Heart of Yorkshire Minster

The Rose of York Minster, fashioned after the lovely roses found in so many of Yorkshire's gardens.

It's a pity this picture doesn't capture the panels below these and those visitors with up-turned heads at the base who are virtually the size of ants in comparison!

A lovely view of the Minster in the distance captured by Ashley from the top of Clifford's Tower

We wandered in and around the streets and shops of York, enjoying the novelty of authentic medieval charm, hat shops with classic English style, and all the while followed by stone walls which seemed to be from the set of a King Arthur film...one's mind easily conjured images as well of the much later Robinhood and His Merry Men firing arrows into the wall's narrow loopholes (yes! that's where we get the term, though it's more of a slit than a "hole.").  Some of us visited the emergency room of the local hospital via ambulance (a thankfully & ultimately uneventful experience), and the rest became Vikings for a time as they returned to Jorvik through a museum that included an amazingly rich variety of artifacts from that time, including what archeologists believed it would have smelled like!  

Carina; famished from her hospital adventure

Yorkshire Fish and Chips were on the menu for the day; it was met with mixed review, but appreciated nonetheless!

 

Me with Elena...hungry & tired guardians! Ashley provided several of the pictures for this blog, and I must acknowledge that my history telling came from Miss Schroeder's class and guiding, a combination of brochures & pamphlets while there, all recorded in my notes, as well as some fact checking clarification from various websites once home. Hope you've gained and enjoyed an appreciation for this remarkable city and will add it to your list of desired destinations!