Everything about Forest Of Arden totally explained
Arden is an area, mainly located in
Warwickshire,
England, traditionally regarded as stretching from the
River Avon to the
River Tame. Derived from the British Celtic word
ardu, meaning "high land", the area was formerly heavily
forested and known as the
Forest of Arden. Located in the geographical centre of England, the Forest of Arden was bounded by the Roman roads
Icknield Street,
Watling Street,
Fosse Way, and Salt Road. It encompassed an area corresponding to the north-western half of the traditional county of Warwickshire, stretching from
Stratford-on-Avon in the south to
Tamworth in the north, and included what are now the large cities of
Birmingham and
Coventry, in addition to areas that are still largely rural with numerous pockets of woodland (even today, Birmingham has more trees than any other British or indeed European city.) The most important and largest settlement in the forest was
Henley-in-Arden, the site of an
Iron Age hillfort.
Thorkell of Arden, a descendant of the ruling family of
Mercia, was one of only two native English landowners in the whole of England who were not dispossessed by the
Normans after
1066, and his descendants continued to hold land in the area for centuries thereafter. One such descendant was
Mary Arden, mother of
William Shakespeare.
The Forest of Arden is stated by Shakespeare to be the setting for
As You Like It. However, since the play is also set in
France, it shouldn't necessarily be thought of as taking place in a real forest in Arden. (According to the
Oxford Shakespeare, Shakespeare's "Forest of Arden" is likely to be an anglicisation of the French
Ardennes forest.)
From around
1162, until the suppression of the order in
1312, the
Knights Templar owned a preceptory at
Temple Balsall in the middle of the Forest of Arden. The property then passed to the
Knights Hospitaller, who held it until the
Reformation in the 16th century.
Robert Catesby, leader of the
Gunpowder Plot of
1605, was a native of
Lapworth, a village in Arden. It is believed that many local families had resisted the Reformation and retained Catholic sympathies, including Shakespeare's family, whose paternal ancestors were from Temple Balsall.
Towns in the area include:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Forest Of Arden'.
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