St Michael's Mount is a lofty pyramidal island, exhibiting a curious combination of slate and granite, rising 400 yards from the shore of Mount's Bay, in Cornwall, England. It is united with Marazion by a natural causeway cast up by the sea, and passable only at low tide.
History
The Mount may be the Mictis of Timaeus, mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (IV:XVI.104), and the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus. If so, it is one of the most historic spots in the west of England.
It may have been held by a religious body in the time of Edward the Confessor and given by Robert, count of Mortain, to the Norman abbey of Mont Saint Michel. It was a priory of that abbey until the dissolution of the alien houses by Henry V, when it was given to the abbess and Convent of Syon at Isleworth, Middlesex. It was a resort of pilgrims, whose devotions were encouraged by an indulgence granted by Pope Gregory in the nth century.
Henry Pomeroy captured The Mount on behalf of Prince John, in the reign of Richard I. John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, seized it and held it during a siege of twenty-three weeks against 6,000 of Edward IV's troops in 1473. Perkin Warbeck occupied the Mount in 1497. Humphry Arundell, governor of St Michael's Mount, led the rebellion of 1549. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was given to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, by whose son it was sold to Sir Francis Basset. During the Civil War, Sir Arthur Basset, brother of Sir Francis, held the Mount against the parliament until July 1646. It was sold in 1659 to Colonel John St Aubyn and is now the property of his descendant Lord Levan.
The Island Today
The chapel is extra-diocesan and the castle is the residence of Lord St Levan. Many relics, chiefly armour and antique furniture, are preserved in the castle. The chapel of St Michael, a beautiful 15th-century building, has an embattled tower, in one angle of which is a small turret, which served for the guidance of ships. Chapel Rock, on the beach, marks the site of a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims paused to worship before ascending the Mount. A few houses are built on the hillside facing Marazion, and a spring supplies them with water. The harbour, widened in 1823 to allow vessels of 500 tons to enter, has a pier dating from the 15th century, and subsequently enlarged and restored.
St Michaels Mount is still owned by the St Aubyn family, but visitor access is controlled by the National Trust.
Original article based upon 1911 Encylopedia Brittanica entry