Tudor Colchester
National political and religious struggles were reflected in dramatic local events in the 16th Century. St Botolph's Priory & St John's Abbey were both closed down in King Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the 1550's. IN the reign of his zealous Catholic daughter Queen Mary, forty Protestants from Colchester and the surrounding district were burnt alive at the stake as heretics, a larger proportion, relative to population, than in any other town in England.
When Mary was succeeded as Queen by her protestant sister Elizabeth, Colchester became a haven for Protestants fleeing from Flanders, where they had been defeated in a rebellion against Catholic Spain. Colchester Corporation petitioned the Queen to allow a large number of Dutch refugees to settle in the town, and more than 500 had arrived by 1575. Many of them were skilled weavers, and it was through this Dutch community that Colchester became famous for high-quality cloths known as bays and says. The district where most of the Flemish weavers lived and worked is know to this day as the Dutch Quarter, and many of their timber framed house still stand in this historical part of town.
