Coventry
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Coventry (कॉव्हेंट्री) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. It is the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, from which it is separated by an area of green belt known as the Meriden Gap; it is the third largest in the wider Midlands after Birmingham and Leicester. The marriage of Maharaja Duleep Singh’s son Victor Duleep Singh took place with the daughter of the Earl of Coventry.
Location
Coventry is 31 km east-south-east of Birmingham, 39 km south-west of Leicester, 16 km north of Warwick and 151 km north-west of London. Coventry is also the most central city in England, being only 19 km south-west of the country's geographical centre in Leicestershire.
Origin
Origins and toponymy: The Romans founded a large fort on the outskirts of what is now Coventry at Baginton, next to the River Sowe, it has been excavated and partially reconstructed in modern times and is known as the Lunt Fort. The fort was probably constructed around AD 60 in connection with the Boudican revolt, and then inhabited sporadically until around 280 AD.[1]
The origins of the present settlement are obscure, but Coventry probably began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement. Although there are various theories of the origin of the name, the most widely accepted is that it was derived from Cofa's tree; derived from a Saxon landowner called Cofa, and a tree which might have marked either the centre or the boundary of the settlement.[2]
History
Coventry had been a large settlement for centuries. Founded in the early Middle Ages, its city status was formally recognized in a charter of 1345.[3]
Formerly part of Warwickshire until 1451, and again from 1842 to 1974, Coventry had a population of 345,324 at the 2021 census,[4]
Coventry became an important and wealthy city of national importance during the Middle Ages. Later it became an important industrial centre, becoming home to a large bicycle industry in the 19th century. In the 20th century, it became a major centre of the British motor industry; this made it a target for German air raids during the Second World War, and in November 1940, much of the historic city centre was destroyed by a large air raid.
The city was rebuilt after the war, and the motor industry thrived until the mid-1970s. However, by the late-1970s/early-1980s, Coventry was in an economic crisis, with one of the country's highest levels of unemployment due to major plant closures and the collapse of the respective local supply-chain. In recent years, it has seen regeneration and an increase in population. The city also has three universities: Coventry University in the city centre, the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts and the smaller private Arden University with its headquarters close to Coventry Airport. In addition, Coventry was awarded UK City of Culture for 2021.[5]
Medieval: Around c. AD 700 a Saxon nunnery was founded here by St Osburga,[6] which was later left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016.[7] Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary.[8] It was during this time that the legend of Lady Godiva riding naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry, to protest against unjust taxes levied on the citizens of Coventry by her husband, was alleged to have occurred. Although this story is regarded as a myth by modern historians, it has become an enduring part of Coventry's identity.[9]
A market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded. At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, Coventry was probably a modest sized town of around 1,200 inhabitants, and its own minster church.[10]
Coventry Castle was a motte and bailey castle in the city. It was built in the early 12th century by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester. Its first known use was during The Anarchy when Robert Marmion, a supporter of King Stephen, expelled the monks from the adjacent priory of Saint Mary in 1144, and converted it into a fortress from which he waged a battle against the Earl. Marmion perished in the battle.[11] It was demolished in the late 12th century.[12] St Mary's Guildhall was built on part of the site. It is assumed the name "Broadgate" comes from the area around the castle gates.
By the 13th century, Coventry had become an important centre of the cloth trade, especially blue cloth dyed with woad and known as Coventry blue. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was one of the largest and most important cities in England, which at its Medieval height in the early 15th century had a population of up to 10,000, making it the most important city in the Midlands, and possibly the fourth largest in England behind London, York and Bristol.[13] Reflecting its importance, in around 1355, work began on a defensive city wall, which, when finally finished around 175 years later in 1530, measured 2.25 miles (3.62 km) long, at least 12 feet (3.7 m) high, and up to 9 feet (2.7 m) thick, it had two towers and twelve gates. Coventry's city walls were described as one of the wonders of the late Middle Ages.[14] The bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541). Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, and in 1451 became a county in its own right, a status it retained until 1842, when it was reincorporated into Warwickshire.[15]
Coventry's importance during the Middle Ages was such, that on a number of occasions a national Parliament was held there: In 1404, King Henry IV summoned a parliament in Coventry as he needed money to fight rebellion, which wealthy cities such as Coventry lent to him. During the Wars of the Roses, the Royal Court was moved to Coventry by Margaret of Anjou, the wife of Henry VI, as she believed that London had become too unsafe. On several occasions between 1456 and 1459, parliament was held in Coventry, which for a while served as the effective seat of government, but this would come to an end in 1461 when Edward IV was installed on the throne.[16]
Duleep Singh’s son Victor Duleep Singh
The marriage of Maharaja Duleep Singh’s son Victor Duleep Singh into English aristocracy, to the daughter of the Earl of Coventry, was one of the consequences of this vague Jat/Geat/Jute connection.
The Maharaja was informed on many occasions that England too had once been settled by the Jutes, distant cousins of the Jat “race”.
It is interesting how confident English historians were about the Gete/Yuezhi/Jat connection, there is of course as I've said some truth to this, though not of direct lineal descent as they believed "to trace the connection of the blood of Kadphises in the veins of Ranjit Singh."
Source - https://twitter.com/sialmirzagoraya/status/1739579548700967370?s=20
References
- ↑ "The Development and History of Lunt Fort". University of Warwick.
- ↑ Walters, Peter (2019). The Little History of Coventry. History Press Limited. ISBN 978-0-7509-8908-4. pp. 11–14.
- ↑ Coventry city charter in Latin, aalt.law.uh.edu.
- ↑ "Coventry Local Authority 2021 Census Area Profile". Office for National Statistics.
- ↑ "UK City of Culture 2021: Coventry wins". BBC News. BBC. 7 December 2017.
- ↑ Coventry's beginnings in the Forest of Arden
- ↑ Walters 2019, pp. 11–14.
- ↑ https://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/History.html
- ↑ Walters 2019, pp. 16–20.
- ↑ Walters 2019, pp. 11–14.
- ↑ Davis, R. H. C., and Robert Bearman. "An Unknown Coventry Charter." The English Historical Review, vol. 86, no. 340, 1971, pp. 535.
- ↑ Walters 2019, pp. 28–34.
- ↑ https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/history.php#county
- ↑ Walters 2019, pp. 51, 110–111.
- ↑ Home Office List of English Cities by Ancient Prescriptive Right, 1927, cited in Beckett, J. V. (2005). City status in the British Isles, 1830–2002. Aldershot: Ashgate. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-7546-5067-6.
- ↑ Walters 2019, pp. 57, 68–69.