All language subtitles for BBC Secret Knowledge 2013 Bolsover Castle.srt - eng(2)

When I was 21,

I had just finished the final
exams of my history degree,

and I went to the library one day,

and accidentally picked up
this book.

It's brilliant. I remember reading
it in one afternoon.

And it's called Robert Smythson
And The Elizabethan Country House.

The book rediscovers the work
of Smythson and his son,
who were mason-designers -

this is before the professional
architect arrives.

They were shadowy,
forgotten figures,

but they were responsible
for the greatest houses
of the Elizabethan age.

The book builds up slowly
to a huge climax which is set on
a windy hilltop in Derbyshire.

The last chapter is all about
this place, Bolsover Castle.

It was designed
by the Smythsons in 1612
for the Cavendish family,

one of the great aristocratic
dynasties in the north of England.

The castle makes an incredibly
dramatic sight

in its rather incongruous spot
above the town of Bolsover,

the place where the miners' strike
started in the 1980s.

It's a completely unexpected place
to find a fairytale castle,

which, for me,
makes it all the more magical.

I stumbled upon this place
by picking up a random library book,

but it became very important to me.

Not only as an architectural
masterpiece,

but as the perfect example
of a building that captures
the spirit of its times.

By the 1630s,

the castle had become
the pleasure palace of a playboy
cavalier, William Cavendish.

His very distinctive personality
comes across

in every quirky detail of
the masonry and decoration.

It's William's story
that I want to tell,

and to show how his very
eccentric castle

captured some of the tensions
in 17th-century England

that would eventually lead
the nation to bloody civil war.

The book that made such a deep
impression upon me

was by Mark Girouard.

He's an architectural historian
who pioneered the idea

that the inhabitants
of a building are just
as important as its designers.

He taught us how buildings
can tell stories about the past.

Here's Mark Girouard
casting his spell.

"By an unlikely miracle,

"the keep at Bolsover has survived

"as an almost untouched
expression in stone

"of the lost world of
Elizabethan chivalry and romances."

Well, by another unlikely miracle,

I managed to get a job here in my
twenties,

working for English Heritage.

I spent six years of my life here,
which I loved,

and I got sucked into
the crazy world of
the man who built Bolsover Castle.

William Cavendish,
Duke of Newcastle,

he was the ultimate cavalier
at the court of Charles I.

The castle William built is
full of secrets and hidden meanings.

You can read it in all
sorts of different ways.

I'm going to draw out one story,

because I believe William
built this castle as a gamble,

as a roll of the dice,
as an attempt to impress the king.

But we need to go back further.

It was actually William's father,
Sir Charles Cavendish,

who first began building
the castle on this site in 1612.

Sir Charles came from an eminent
northern family,

his mother was the most important
person in Elizabethan Derbyshire.

She was Bess of Hardwick,
builder of Hardwick Hall -

the amazing building just there -
you can see it on a sunny day.

Bess had climbed the ladder
to power and riches by getting
married four times.

As the poem goes, "Four times
the bridal bed she warmed,

"and each time so well performed,

"that when death spoiled each
husband's billing,

"he left a widow every shilling."

Her third son, Charles,

wanted to compete with
Bess on the housing front.

So, he acquired the ruins
of a Norman keep, just here.

Bolsover isn't grand like Hardwick,

it's quirky and eccentric
and a bit offbeat,

and to my mind,
all the better for it.

William's father,
Sir Charles Cavendish,

was a truly talented
amateur architect.

This is a very exciting moment
in history of architecture

because it's going from being
a mechanical art,

as learnt by the medieval
master mason on the job,

to being a liberal art -
something you can learn about
by reading books.

Something fit for gentlemen.

And Charles Cavendish is one of the
very first gentleman architects.

Bolsover Castle is a close
collaboration

between Sir Charles and his masons,
Robert and John Smythson,

the subjects of Girouard's book.

I see it as a team effort,

the builders themselves played
an important creative role.

But Charles Cavendish was quite
conservative in his tastes.

The new classical buildings
were starting to appear in Britain,

but what he's gone for here
is a Gothic, chivalric,

romantic re-creation of the Norman
keep that had been on the site.

However, poor old Charles
died before the castle was complete.

At 23 years old, his son William
inherited it,

and brought about
a very clear change
in the direction of the project.

So, in 1617,
our young hero, William,

took over the building project,

and very quickly put his own stamp
on the castle his father had begun.

At the same time as we get
the development of this new
profession of architecture,

we get the arrival of Classicism.

We can see the tension
between the old and the new,

the chivalric and the classical
in this building.

Essentially,
it's medieval in character.

This is Sir Charles Cavendish's
vision of the past,

with the battlements and the turrets

and the outsized crossbow slits,

not really very practical
for defence,

but this is a castle for chivalry.

But if you look at the shell of the
building that William inherited,

he started to add
the new classical detail onto it.

That's why over the entrance there,

we've got that classical
pedimented doorway

and immediately over the entrance,
the classical figure of Hercules -

who is essential to the whole of the
hidden meaning in this building.

But more on him
and his significance later.

Now, when William Cavendish takes
over the completion of the castle

with all of this classical detail,

I think it's fair to say
that the local craftsmen
don't get it right first time.

Here's an example
of proper Classicism.

It's a garden gateway
designed by Inigo Jones,

top architect of the period,
and built in London.

Now, Inigo Jones understands
the secret of Classicism.

It's the mathematical relationship
between the horizontal and vertical.

It's sometimes called
"The Golden Section".

It's the harmony of parts,

everything has to be carefully
measured and in proportion.

You can see that here
in Jones's design.

William Cavendish decided that he
wanted a gateway just like this

and he sent his surveyor,
John Smythson,

to go and make a drawing of it.

Unfortunately, though, Smythson
didn't realise he had to measure.

What he's produced is a rather
crude, naive copy
of Jones's elegant design,

lacking proper
classical proportions.

The result is
that when the gateway appeared
on the building at Bolsover,

it was a slightly
bodgey version of the original.

Bolsover Castle then was a place
for architectural experimentation.

It's important to realise
that it wasn't the main family home

of this branch of the Cavendishes.

That was seven miles away
at Welbeck Abbey in Sherwood Forest.

This former monastery was
the economic centre of their estate,

it's where their business got done.

Bolsover, on the other hand,
was a holiday house,

a pleasure palace, if you like.

It was described in a poem
as being like a pearl,
like a pendant in the ear.

It was a place where
the more exotic side

of William Cavendish's character
would reveal itself.

William was a typical cavalier.

He was a charming, witty
and handsome figure.

A writer of bawdy poetry,

with a passion for the finer
things in life.

He was obsessed
with pleasure of all kinds,

but that wasn't quite
enough for him.

William longed to be taken
more seriously at court,

but he had a bit of an image
problem.

People said he spent too much
of his time dabbling

with the art of architecture,
or with his lady friends.

But William was ambitious, he wanted
to be made Master of the Horse,

an important post
in the royal household.

And he was uniquely
equipped for this.

He was the best
horseman in the country.

The Master of the Horse
was in charge of the royal stables

and of all the transport
arrangements for the court.

It was a politically important
position, close to the king

and commanding power and respect.

With typical exuberance,
William built a grand riding house,

and a range of a buildings
dedicated entirely to horses.

If I were to say the words to you,
"the cavaliers",

you'd probably think of gentlemen
with long, curly hair,

and lacy collars
and a kind of arrogant attitude.

But actually, they take their name
from the very technical
art of horsemanship,

the art of the caballero.

This isn't just riding horses
for hunting or for the battlefield,

it's teaching horses how to dance,

how to perform these astonishing
moves of an aerial ballet,

the "airs above the ground"
they are called.

Here's William Cavendish
performing the "capriole",

when the horse literally leaps
up into the air.

They need immense strength
to do this and daily training.

If you were an expert horseman
like William Cavendish,

you would have done it
every single day.

If it was raining outside,

then you would have constructed for
yourself one of these buildings.

It's a lost building type -
the riding house.

Noblemen had them in the 1630s,
up and down the country.

This is the only substantial
survivor here at Bolsover Castle.

The features are the soft, sandy
floor for the horses' hooves,

the windows that are high up,

so the horse can't look outside
and get distracted.

You need a big door to the outside,
and ideally a viewing gallery,

because you invite all of your
friends to come and see
the daily training.

William Cavendish here at Bolsover

would've been in the
riding house every day,

doing this kind of thing, taking
the horses through their exercises,

round and round these tall posts
placed in the middle there.

William Cavendish learnt how
to ride at the Royal Mews.

He shared his riding lessons
with King Charles I himself.

The King was really good at this.

It's important, actually,

for a prince or king to be able
to do this because it's symbolic.

The rider in control of the horse

is like a person in control
of their passions.

Somebody who's in charge,

somebody who is able to present
a dignified face to the world.

So, being good at riding is,
in fact, a really important part
of being a good king.

William did have a reputation
as a dilettante.

Somebody who was very frivolous.

He wasn't serious, but actually,
when he was in the riding house,
he was deadly serious.

William's talent as a horseman
was undisputed,

but he needed to sway
King Charles I.

He'd make his bid
in the best way he knew how.

The castle would provide
the stage for a masque,

a scripted theatrical party.

It would form the climax to
a sumptuous weekend of feasting,
music and dancing.

William commissioned the celebrated
playwright Ben Jonson

to write the masque that would be
dedicated to the king and queen.

His plan was to charm his royal
guests to giving him

the prized position
of Master of the Horse.

While this may have
seemed like a great idea,

it was also a tremendous gamble.

Politically, this was a time
of growing puritanical zeal,

building up against the decadence
and indulgence
of the ruling classes,

sowing the seeds
for the coming civil war.

On a more practical
and personal level,

it would cost William
a small fortune to put it on.

He couldn't afford
for anything to go wrong.

So imagine the scene,
it's the 30th of July 1634,

that must've been
the most exciting day

in the whole history
of Bolsover Castle -

the day that the king
and queen came to visit.

Here would've been
William Cavendish to welcome them.

Now, I think that he brought
the whole castle

and gardens and paintings
and everything to perfection
for this day,

to make a particular point
to the king and queen.

This is the house of Hercules.

There he is, positioned
right over the entrance.

In mythology, Hercules
did something very, very bad,

he accidentally killed his wife
and children.

But then, he performed his
nine heroic labours
in order to redeem himself,

to get himself back
to the straight and narrow.

He was able to do this
because he had the special qualities
and abilities of a hero.

In mythology, you often see Hercules
resting in the garden of pleasure,

because he doesn't need
to keep plugging away
up the difficult hill of virtue,

because he has these
special characteristics.

You can see the relevance
to William Cavendish.

By saying, "I live in
the house of Hercules",

he's saying, "I am Hercules,
I'm entitled to enjoy myself,

"to indulge myself in pleasure,
because I also have inner virtue."

So that's the sort of scenario

which I think he's presenting
to the king and queen

as he welcomes them
and takes them into his castle.

The furniture has long
since disappeared,

but the revealing paintings
decorating the walls remain.

You can see how this concept
of William Cavendish as Hercules
might begin to work

if you imagine him bringing
the king and queen on a tour.

They've entered underneath
that statue of Hercules
over the entrance,

performing one of his nine
heroic labours.

He'd temporarily taken over Atlas's
job of holding up the globe,

and here, in the great hall,

Hercules is performing
a whole lot more of his labours,

which mainly involve killing or
subduing violent, wild animals.

My favourite picture is that one,

where he's dealing with a man-eating
mare, he's about to club it.

This is most appropriate for a
horseman like William Cavendish was.

This room is called the Pillar
Parlour, for obvious reasons.

It is one of the masterpieces
of Bolsover Castle, there's
so much going on in here.

The ceiling bosses have got winged
horses - more love of equestrianism.

And also, we've got that clash
between the cosmopolitan
and the local.

The design of the panelling
is copied from one of the royal
palaces, the palace of Tibald,

and yet the black paint
comes from local black coal dust.

Even in the 17th century,
mining was going on in this area.

The paintings in here describe
the five senses.

We've got sight...

..and smell...

and taste,

and sound

and touch.
All of these came into their own

during the masque
on the royal visit.

The king and queen, in this room,
were invited to take part
in a banquet of the senses.

A song was sung
about the five senses,

and they were given
a banquet to eat.

And by "a banquet",
I don't mean a meat feast,

I mean a special pudding course,

with special wines and sweetmeats
and desserts.

During this, perfume was burnt,
so they could smell a lovely smell,

and they could touch a velvety
carpet on the table.

The whole thing, for the king and
queen, was a banquet of the senses.

Downstairs, we experienced
bodily pleasures,

but up here we are in the elevated
world of the heavens,

with the stars on the ceiling.

In here,
we have religious symbolism.

We've got saints on the wall
and figures from the Bible.

The fireplace in here is
particularly miraculous
with the beautiful marbles

and it also shows that clash
between the old and the new.

This fireplace combines the Gothic,
pointed arch in the middle here,

with the new, classical columns
holding the whole thing up.

Once again, William
is personified in his castle.

Here he is in the corner
of the room, alongside his brother,

amongst all the saints,
aligning himself with their virtue.

Another hint to the king that he
would be a good man to have around.

And finally,
we come into the bedchamber.

You might think it's a bit odd
to invite the king and queen
into your bedroom,

But the point of the day
is this - the house is theirs.

Of course they should have access
to all parts of it.

This room forms the climax of the
tour and here Hercules's choice

between virtue and pleasure
is laid out in architectural terms.

I believe that here,
the king and queen were invited
to turn left or right

into one or the other of these
two little closets,

these private rooms for solitude
and contemplation.

This one represents virtue.

This first closet is the closet
called "Heaven".

It represents virtue.

It's incredibly richly decorated
with these gold,

Chinese, oriental-type scenes.

And the walls are set with cupboards

so you could store your musical
instruments or your books in here.

But the main thing is the ceiling.
Look at it, it's incredible!

This is a ceiling
all about religion and virtue.

There are the symbols
of the Passion,

the baby angels are all crying
because Jesus has just
been crucified.

But right up on the ceiling,
there he is going off to heaven.

It's quite an unusual
depiction of Jesus.

There's a William Cavendish
twist going on here.

Jesus is shown enjoying himself.
He's dancing.

The other closet was about the
Christian version of the afterlife,

this one is a complete contrast.

Here we've got the classical
version of the same thing.

The gods and goddesses
of Mount Olympus
and they're enjoying themselves.

Basically, they're having an orgy.

This closet is always
known as "Elysium".

Here's a footnote,
in the 19th century,

the castle became used
as the local vicarage.

When the vicar was taking
guided tours around,

he didn't call this the Elysium
closet, he referred to it as "Hell".

The king and queen
would have been invited to choose
between virtue and pleasure.

But I think I know which was
William Cavendish's favourite.

This closet seems
a lot more personal to me.

This is where Hercules himself
has ended up, sitting in the corner.

And over the window, there
is a very intimate little motto.

It says, "All is but vanity".

As if William Cavendish is saying,

"I may be a duke, I may be
the owner of this fabulous castle,

"but in this little private room,
I'm just a human being."

The other reason I think this is
the more important closet,

that pleasure is more important
than virtue,

is that this is a closet
with the view.

And it looks right down
on the Goddess of Love
in that garden of pleasure below.

It's a fountain that's
all about love of different kinds.

On top is the Goddess of Love,
Venus.

She's surrounded
by her little naked, urinating boys,
protecting her.

But around the outside
she's being attacked

by these leering, lascivious men
in white in the niches,

and also by the so-called
"priapic beasts" of Bolsover,

and they are pretty X-rated.

The Venus statue was based
on a slender, elegantly turning
classical figure,

although here, like the gateway,
we get the Derbyshire version.

She's been transformed
into a more solid local lass.

And if she were to stand upright,
we'd see that one leg
is longer than the other.

But rather than sneer
at the dumpy Bolsover Venus,

I think we should celebrate her
as an example of British classicism.

She's bold and characterful
and she makes us smile.

This is a fountain for a man
who definitely places
pleasure over virtue.

After the tour was over,
the castle proved the perfect

setting for putting on Ben Jonson's
theatrical event, Loves Welcome,

to amuse and impress King Charles I.

Different historians have their
own interpretations

about where the masque might
actually have been performed.

But it does contain the stage
direction "in a garden" like this.

So, I think we can imagine all
the courtiers up there

around the top of the wall walk,

with the actors and the scenery
and the musicians down here.

This painting shows the king
and queen at a masque
dressed as Apollo and Diana.

They are seated
on a mechanical floating cloud

and the Bolsover production
had one too.

It was also a little bit risque.

Jonson's script poked fun
at short people, a bold move

when both the king and William
himself were not terribly tall.

So, what did the king
and queen make of all of this?

They must have had some sort
of discussion about the relative
merits of pleasure and virtue.

Did King Charles say, "Well, William
Cavendish, you are a cheeky chappie,

"but I like the cut of your jib!"

Or did he find all this kind
of excess rather distasteful?

Was he going to give
William Cavendish the job?

Was the whole thing going to work?

Well, no, it didn't.

And, in many ways, William's masque
was a massive miscalculation.

The choice of Ben Jonson
as author was poor,

Jonson was out of favour at court.

William had misjudged
the character of the king as well.

Charles was a cold and cerebral man.

He wasn't interested in debauchery.

Finally, times were a-changing.

The Puritan party
was growing in strength.

The luxury of the court
was becoming increasingly unpopular.

The last word on William's
great party would be that of the
judgemental Earl of Clarendon.

He said, "Yes, it was
a stupendous entertainment.

"But God be thanked,
no man ever imitated it."

And William would never get
the job of Master of the Horse.

He was left severely out of pocket

and with his reputation tainted,

the party was definitely over.

William Cavendish would've
wanted us to remember him

as a great poet
and a great courtier.

We don't.

But I don't think
that his life was wasted.

Because we can still enjoy
the incredibly evocative
ruins of his house.

It's an outrageous, idiosyncratic
castle that captures

the cavalier spirit of its creator.

And for me, this will always be
the place where I found my vocation,

through an accidental encounter
with a book when I was just 21.

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