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MAIDSTONE , a marketSee also: town and municipal and See also: parliamentary See also: borough, and the county town of Kent, See also: England, 41 M
.
E.S.E. of See also: London by the See also: South Eastern & See also: Chatham railway
.
Pop
.
(1901), 33,516; See also: area, 4008 acres
.
It lies principally on the eastern See also: bank of the See also: river See also: Medway, the See also: modern See also: part spreading over the western slopes of a picturesque valley, which is intersected and environed by orchards and See also: hop gardens, this being the richest agricultural See also: district of Kent
.
The hop grounds See also: form the so-called See also: middle growth of Kent, and the town has the See also: principal grain market in the county
.
Archbishop Boniface in 1260 established a hospital here (Newark hospital) for poor pilgrims, the See also: chapel of which, with modern additions, is now St See also: Peter's See also: Church
.
The parish church of St Mary, which had existed from Norman times, was demolished in 1395 by Archbishop Courtenay, who erected on the site the
See also: present church of All
See also: prince or feudal See also: superior, for the purpose, primarily, of See also: education, goes back to early feudal times, and is parallel with the sending of boys to See also: act as pages and squires to the feudal castles
.
The See also: regular establishment of maids of 'honour (filles d'honneur) appears first in the royal See also: court of See also: France
.
This has usually been attributed to See also: Anne of See also: Brittany, wife of See also: Charles VIII.; she had a
See also: group of unmarried girls of high See also: rank at her court as part of her See also: household, in whom she took a lively and parental See also: interest, educating them and bestowing a dowry upon them on their See also: marriage
.
A slightly earlier instance, however, has been found
.
When the See also: young See also: Margaret of See also: Austria came to France on her espousal to Charles VIII., broken by his marriage to Anne of Brittany, there were in her train several filles d'honneur, whose names appear in the Comptes d'argenterie de la reine See also: Marguerite d'Autriche, from 1484–1485 and 1488-1489 (Archives de l'See also: empire K.K
.
8o and 81 quoted by A . Jai, Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire) . It is from the days of See also: Francis I. that the chroniques scandaleuses begin which circle round the maids of honour of the French court
.
The maids of See also: Catherine de See also: Medici, celebrated as the " flying See also: squadron," l'escadron volant, are See also: familiar from the pages of See also: Pierre de 1'Estoil'e (1574-1611) and Brantome
.
Among those whose beauty Catherine used in her See also: political intrigues, the most famous were Isabelle de Limeuil, Mlle de Montmorency-Fosseux, known as la belle Fosseuse, and See also: Charlotte de Baune
.
The filles d' honneur, as an institution, were suppressed in the reign of See also: Louis XIV., at the instigation of Mme de Montespan—who had been one of them—and their place was taken by the dames de palais
.
In the
See also: English court, this See also: custom of attaching " maids of honour " to the See also: queen's See also: person was no doubt adopted from France
.
At the present See also: day a queen regnant has eight maids of honour, a queen See also: consort four
.
They take precedence next after the daughters of barons, and where they have not by right or courtesy a title of their own, they are styled " Honourable."
See also: Saints
.
This See also: fine Perpendicular See also: building contains, besides many excellent monuments, the richly carved sedilia and the twenty-eight See also: oak seats used by the collegiate priests
..
Courtenay also founded a See also: college of secular canons, the ruins of which are an interesting specimen of 14th-century architecture
.
From the reign of See also: John until the
See also: Reformation the archbishops had a residence here, at which Stafford and Courtenay died
.
This Perpendicular building, with its Elizabethan See also: east front, was acquired by the corporation as a memorial of Queen See also: Victoria's See also: Jubilee in 1887, and houses the school of science and See also: art
.
The rectory, with the See also: manor, passed into See also: lay hands at the Reformation; and, having been a perpetual curacy for three See also: hundred and twenty years, the living became a vicarage in 1866
.
The grammar school was founded in 1549, and endowed with the estates of the See also: local Corpus Christi fraternity, then dissolved; the See also: hall in which the gild assembled remains, but the school is established in modern buildings on a new site
.
There are oil-mills, rope, sacking and twine factories, and cement, lime, and brick
See also: works
.
There is a considerable carrying See also: trade on the Medway
.
A museum, with public library, was opened in 1858, in an interesting building of the early part of the 16th century
.
This is the headquarters of the Kent Archaeological Society, founded by the Rev
.
L
.
B
.
Larking in 1858
.
In 1890 an art gallery was added
.
The West Kent and General hospital, the county ophthalmic hospital, county See also: gaol and barracks may be mentioned among other institutions
.
From Saxon times down to 1830 condemned malefactors were executed, and all the See also: great county meetings were held, on Penenden Heath, a See also: common situated about a mile See also: north-east of the town, and enclosed by the corporation as a public recreation ground
.
The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returns one member
.
The town is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors
.
There is evidence of a See also: Roman See also: settlement at Maidstone
.
The name Maidstone (Medwegestun, Meddestane, Maydestan), probably meaning Medway Town, is presumably of Saxon origin
.
At the See also: time of the Domesday Survey it belonged to the archbishop of See also: Canterbury, and from the reign of John the archbishops had a residence there
.
Its position in the centre of Kent gave it an early importance; the See also: shire-See also: moot was held on Penenden Heath in the 11th century, and Maidstone was an See also: assize town in the reign of See also: Edward I
.
In 1537 See also: Cranmer ex-changed the manor of Maidstone with the See also: king, and it was granted by Edward VI. to
See also: Sir See also: Thomas
See also: Wyatt
.
Edward also incorporated the town by the title of the mayor, jurats and commonalty; it had formerly been governed by a portreve and 12 " brethren." This charter was forfeited through Wyatt's See also: rebellion; a second charter was granted by See also: Elizabeth in 1J59 and confirmed by subsequent sovereigns
.
A new charter constituting a governing
See also: body of a mayor, 12 jurats and 40 common councilmen was given at the petition of the inhabitants by See also: George II. in 1747, and remained the governing charter until 1835
.
Four fairs were granted by the charter of 1559; these are now held on the 13th of See also: February, the 12th of May, the loth of See also: June and the 17th of See also: October
.
A See also: Thursday market was granted by See also: Henry III. to Archbishop Boniface, and a market every second Tuesday in the
See also: month by charter of George II
.
A corn market on Tuesday and a cattle market on Thursday are still held . The manufacture ofSee also: linen and woollen goods was introduced by Walloons, who settled here in 1567
.
This was succeeded by paper-making, now the chief industry of the town
.
The cultivation of hops has been carried on since the 17th century
.
Maidstone has been associated with various incidents of general See also: history
.
Wat Tyler broke into the prison, liberated John See also: Ball the See also: rebel preacher, and committed various depredations
.
Several of the leading inhabitants joined See also: Jack See also: Cade's rising
.
The rising of the Kentish Royalists in 1648 collapsed at Maidstone, where on the 1st of June See also: Fairfax, after five See also: hours' obstinate fighting, captured the town at midnight
.
See Victoria County History, Kent; I
.
M
.
See also: Russell, History of Maidstone (1881)
.
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