To those of you who listened to Helen Poole and her enthusiastic telling of the history of the Gage family with such extraordinary detail and pictures of dozens of famous and infamous characters over many generations, might wonder just how I could possibly provide a concise report! Two pages later I started again – so here goes with a short history lesson!
Helen started by asking how many of the audience had visited Firle Place and as she said a ‘solid core’ had indeed. She was fascinated by Tudor history and told us that she had worked in 14 Heritage or Museum sites in the county. We were then introduced to Sir John Gage who lived to be 77 – (1479-1556) which in Tudor times was a huge age. Even Queen Elizabeth only lived to 69. The most significant feature of the Gage family was that they were very clever at marrying the right people – particularly with land and position. Even today the estate has some 5000 acres. “Courage without fear” was their motto.
Following the death of his father, who died when his son was still a minor, John Gage was made a ward of court to a London Alderman who proceeded to extract money from the estate. Fortunately John did not have to put up with this for long as in 1502 he married Phillipa, daughter of Sir Richard Guildford, who was Comptroller of the Royal Household. This provided John Gage with his first post in the Royal Household in the reign of Henry Tudor. Moving on to Henry VIII John Gage became steadily more involved and relied upon. After a period of time in Calais, the last continental possession of England, he returned where his wife’s half brother had taken over as Head of the Royal Household and he was able to get another post in the Household.
Henry VIII had 55 palaces and John Gage became responsible for making sure that they were presentable prior to Henry’s visits. He gained many influential friends such as Sir Thomas More who even recommended John Gage as a subject to be drawn by the young Hans Holbein providing a famous portrait. John Gage’s daughter, Alice, then married Sir Anthony Browne who was possibly the best friend of Henry VIII bringing John even closer to royalty. Not only was John Gage in the Royal Household and was building up his Sussex estate but also had become an MP. Cardinal Wolsey was the right hand man of the King and his right hand man was Thomas Cromwell. When Wolsey fell, Cromwell asked John Gage – who in the meantime had been knighted – to find him a seat in parliament.
When Henry VIII was running out of money Cromwell organised the review of all the monasteries in England leading to the dissolution of the monasteries. The now Sir John Gage reviewed several of the Sussex monasteries, decided that they were too expensive for the crown and gave Battle Abbey to Sir Anthony Browne who was of course married to his daughter! Bayham went to another of his family. By now Sir John Gage was the man that the King would turn to for any problem so he soon became a Knight of the Garter and was appointed Constable of the Tower of London where he had to perform some unpleasant duties including overseeing the execution of Catherine Howard. The night before she was executed she asked Sir John Gage if she could borrow the execution block to make sure that she could place her head so that it would be cut off with one blow.
When Henry died his young son Edward came to the throne and the Court became very Protestant whilst Sir John Gage remained firmly Catholic, thus falling out of favour for the first time. When Edward died he left the throne to Lady Jane Grey who ruled for only nine days. The throne then passed to Mary who brought back Catholicism so Sir John Gage was back in favour! Mary’s decision to marry Philip of Spain was very unpopular resulting in some 300 protestant heretics being burnt to death, locally known as the Lewes martyrs.
By now Sir John Gage was very elderly and retired to Sussex and died in 1556. His son Sir Edward Gage, however, was High Sheriff when the burnings began. Over the subsequent generations the Gage family retained important positions although there was the odd black sheep but clearly it was Sir John Gage who was the most important member of the Gage dynasty and there is a magnificent memorial to him and his wife in Firle Church.
Firle Place opens 70 days per year. Everybody is welcome to the Garden Festival in the last weekend of April, Friday to Sunday 12:30 – 4:00 and Helen is on duty on the Sunday for anyone who wishes to continue their conversations!
