Roses have featured throughout history but it is during the medieval period where their symbolism became really pronounced. Sometimes called the Rose of Provins, where it was cultivated intensively for six centuries after its introduction, it was of great economic importance. The especially fragrant red rose, still known as the Apothecary’s Rose (Rosa gallica officinalis), is said to have been brought to France from Syria in the thirteenth century by Thibaut IV, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne. The varieties in Bolton Castle’s formal rose garden include old-fashioned species with wonderful scent such as Rosa Mundi, Tuscany and Rosa Ricardii II along with a selection of Damask roses, (another old group of roses said to have originally been brought from the Middle East by the Crusaders) such as Ispahan, Celsiana and Mme. They were prized for their beautiful scent and also their medicinal qualities, as they were thought to cure many ills including catarrh, sore throats, mouth sores, and stomach disorders.
Medieval roses included wild roses, like the dog rose and the sweetbriar, grown alongside garden roses and would only have flowered for a few weeks once a year.
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