Cardinal Beaufort

Today is the 570th anniversary of the death in 1447 at his episcopal palace at Wolvesey Castle in Winchester of Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester.

Previously Bishop of Lincoln , and one of the legitimised children of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swinford for virtually half acentury he had been at the centre of English political, diplomatic and ecclesiastical life. Translated to Winchester in 1405 following the death of William of Wykeham he was first offered a Cardinal's hat in December 1417 by Pope Martin V in recognition of the part he had played in resolving the Great Schism and Papal vacancy. Forced to decline the honour by King Henry V he finally received the red hat in 1426, after the death of the King.

The Oxford DNB life of him by Gerald Harriss, who has written the standard modern biography, can be read here.

The tomb effigy in Winchester Cathedral of the Cardinal is a seventeenth century restoration, and in addition to other carvings, such as that from Bishop's Waltham illustrated in the Oxford DNB article there is the theory, increasingly accepted I think, that this portrait, by Jan van Eyck, and usually said to be of the Carthusian Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, is in fact one of Beaufort and dated to about 1431. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the original drawing in Dresden.

The probable portrait of Cardinal Beaufort by Jan van Eyck

Image: Wikipedia

The original drawing in Dresden

 Image:bildindex.de

There is more about the portrait here, where it is still described as being of Albergati. It is however very different from the other, more ascetic, images of the Carthusian Cardinal that survive.

In the St Cuthbert Window in York Minster is another depiction of the Cardinal which I have reproduced before. It shows him with the Cardinal's hat for which he had to wait so long:

Cardinal Beaufort of Winchester

York Minster, St Cuthert Window

sVII, 1b-2b

The glass is of the 1440s 

Image: Gordon Plumb on Flickr

The effigy on the Cardinal's tomb
How much of this is original I am not sure, but if it is in essence then it is interesting that he stresses his rank as a Cardinal, and depicts him with his hat on top of his hood

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The Cardinal's tomb and chantry in Winchester Cathedral

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Wolvesey Castle is adjacent to the cathedral in Winchester and now in the care of English Heritage. Their website about it can be seen at Wolvesey Castle (Old Bishop's Palace)

A modern representation of the arms of Cardinal Beaufort

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Stand off on London Bridge

Today is the 590th anniversary of the stand off on London Bridge which averted the outbreak of more serious conflict in the capital and perhaps elsewhere.

A decade after Agincourt and little over three years after the death of King Henry V the Council ruling England for the child King Henry VI was split between factions centred around the King's younger uncle and Protector - a position that remained undefined, and hence a source of tension - Humphrey Duke of Gloucester and his uncle, and the King's great-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and later to become Cardinal.

Humphrey Duke of Gloucester

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Duke Humphrey sponsored by St Alban before the Blessed Sacrament and Christ as the Man of Sorrows circa 1430-40

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Duke Humphrey favoured a belligerent policy in France in pursuit of the English campaign, and had managed to bitterly offend the main English ally, the Duke of Burgundy by his marriage to Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland. To do so the couple had sought an annulment of her marriage to the Duke of Brabant, couisin to the Duke of Burgundy who hoped to eventually secure her territories - as indeed he did manage to in the end. Humphreye was not trusted by many of his colleagues on the Council, and they had successfully resisted his claim in 1422 to exercise wider powers in England during the absence in France of the Regent, his elder brother, John Duke of Bedford.

Bishop Henry Beaufort

Kunstjistorisches Musuem, Vienna

The Bishop of Winchester was again serving as Chancellor of the realm, and as a man of exceptional wealth was a key figure in funding loans to the Crown for the French war. An ambitious as well as an able man he had been forced by King Henry V to decline the offer of a Cardinal's hat in 1418-19.

Gloucester had returned in April from his inglorious military efforts on behalf of his wife in the Low Countries, and increasinglt polarised opinion in the government. Bishop Beaufort as  Chancellor appointed Sir Richard Wydeville (grandfather of the Queen of King Edward IV) as Constable of the Tower of London and ordered him to forbid access to others, including the Duke of Gloucester. With tension rising the Bishop now brought in Lancashire and Cheshire archers to his manor at Southwark facing London across the Thames. Beaufort later claimed that this was because he feared an attempt by Gloucester to seize the young King who was living at Eltham

At 8 or 9 in the morning of October 30th the Bishop's men morning attacked the bridge gate, and followed up " with shot and other means of warre." On the north bank Gloucester appealed to the Londoners - it was the day of the election of the new Mayor - and with whom he enjoyed a good relationship. The Londoners swarmed to repel any move by the Bishop's men into the City.

Peace was preserved by shuttle diplomacy across London Bridge carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Chichele, who had presumably come in from Lambeth, and the Infante Dom Pedro, Duke of Coimbra. A cousin of Duke Humphrey and nephew of the Bishop he was in London whilst travelling round Europe and the Near East. There is an online life of him at Peter, Duke of Coimbra, and his life is in some ways not dissimilar to that of Humphrey in many ways, in their interests, career and fate as protectors or regents for their nephews.

  

Archbishop Henry Chichele

Tomb effigy in Canterbury Cathedral

Image:canterbury-archaeology.org.uk

Pedro, Duke of Coimbra

Portrait believed to be of Infante Pedro, first Duke of Coimbra. Detail from the fifth panel of the polyptych Adoration of Saint Vincent, attributed to Portuguese Renaissance painter Nuno Gonçalves, composed c.1470 (possibly as early as 1450s). Originally found at the monastery of São Vicente de Fora, now held by the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon, Portugal.

Image:Wikimedia 

Their shuttle diplomacy required eight journeys across the bridge, but  peace was maintained.

London Bridge and Southwark byVissher circa 1600

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A reconstruction of London Bridge circa 1450

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A reconstruction by W.S.Brewer showing Southwark, showing Winchester House on the lower left, St Mary Overy Priory - now the Anglican cathedral - and London Bridge about 1500

Image:lorp.org

The bridge was finally rebuilt in 1831, but the  remains of Winchester House or Palace can still be seen on the Souk Bank, clos eto what is now the Annglican cathedral in Soutwark

The remains of the hall of Winchester House today

Image: Wikipedia

The following day, October 31st, Beaufort wrote to the Regent Bedford in France, urging his return, as follows:

"as you desire the welfare of the king our sovereign lord and of his realms of England and of France, and your own weal and ours also, haste you hither; for by my troth if you tarry , we shall put this land at risk of a battle. Such a brother you have here. God make him a good man. For your wisdom knows well that the prosperity of France stands in the welfare of England "

 John, Duke of Bedford

Image: Wikimedia

On December 20th the Regent arrived with his wife at Sandwich, and during the next months which included the meeting of Parliament at Leicester, a part of the Lancastrian patrimony and away from the tensions of London, brokered a deal whereby Beaufort gave up the Chancery, but did receive early in 1427 his long-desired Cardinal's hat from the hands of the Regent in Calais. Gloucester may have removed the Chancellor but got little else, save a further grievance against his uncle, that of becoming a Cardinal whilst still based in England.

Cardinal Henry Beaufort

Today is the 565th anniversary of the death in 1447 at his episcopal palace at Wolvesey Castle in Winchester of Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and previously of Lincoln, and one of the legitimised children of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swinford. For virtually half a century he had been at the centre of English political, diplomatic and ecclesiastical life.

The Oxford DNB life of him by Gerald Harriss, who has written the standard modern biography, can be read here.

My research on Richard Fleming, himself Bishop of Lincoln from 1420, suggests continuing contact between the two men from their time in Oxford about 1403-4 until Fleming's death in 1431 and that he can be interpreted as belonging to Beaufort's circle.

The tomb effigy in Winchester cathedral of the Cardinal is a seventeenth century restoration, and in addition to other carvings, such as that from Bishop's Waltham illustrated in the Oxford DNB article there is the theory that this portrait, by Jan van Eyck, usually said to be of the Carthusian Cardinal Niccolò Albergati is in fact one of Beaufort and dated to about 1431. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the original drawing in Dresden.

The probable portrait of Cardinal Beaufort by Jan van Eyck

Image: Wikipedia

There is more about the portrait here , where it is still described as being of Albergati. It is however very different from the other, more ascetic, images of the Carthusian Cardinal that survive.

In the St Cuthbert Window in York Minster is another depiction of the Cardinal which I have reproduced before. It shows him with the Cardinal's hat for which he had to wait so long:

Cardinal Beaufort of Winchester
York Minster, St Cuthert Window
sVII, 1b-2b

Image: Gordon Plumb on Flickr

Cardinal Beaufort

In connection with the feast of St Oswald yesterday one of the contributors to the Medieval religion discussion group, the Rev. Gordon Plumb, who takes fine photographs of stained glass, submitted some images from the St Cuthbert window in York Minster. The window, dating from the 1440s, lights the non-projecting south-east choir transept, and with its pair on the north, illustrating the story of St William of York, was designed to illuminate the original site of the high altar of the Minster - it is now situated a bay to the east in what was once the shrine chapel of St William. There is an article about the window here.

Amongst the details Gordon Plumb illustrates is a figure of Cardinal Henry Beaufort, born 1374/5, one of the illegitimate children of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Katherine Swynford, who was legitimised following their marriage in 1396, made Bishop of Lincoln in 1398 and translated to Winchester in 1405. He was offered a Cardinal's hat by Pope Martin V in 1417-18, but forced to decline it by King Henry V. It was not until a decade later that he was able to accept the honour, and he can be seen with it in the picture. He died in 1447.

He appears to have been a patron of Richard Fleming, who both became Bishop of Lincoln, like Beaufort, and was a contender to succeed him at Winchester in 1419, when Henry V offered his uncle the choice of retaining Winchester or the red hat - and, in effect, exile. That, due to the course of the war in France, did not come to pass.

The panels at the base of the window are difficult to see when in the Minster because of the height of the wall and the angle and I had not seen a photograph of this panel before, and due to my interest in the subject thought I would share it.

York Minster, sVII, 1b-2b, Cardinal Beaufort of Winchester