A visit to St George's Chapel Windsor

Today I went on an excursion organised by the Oxford University Heraldry Society to St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle - my first visit to the castle for over fifty years.

We had a fairly early start from Oxford, as we were booked in at the Chapel for 10.30. So up betimes and off to Summertown in North Oxford for my lift to Windsor. Being between other roadusers travelling times we made good progress. The jorney took us through Slough, and this, my first visit, brought home to me what Betjeman wrote so long ago about it - "Come kindly bombs and fall on Slough/ It isn't fit to live there now"...

On arrival at the King Henry VIII gate of the castle it was a slightly disconcerting sign of the times to be met by the usual attendants plus a policeman armed with a serious looking gun. Nevertheless the welcome to our group was very friendly and we had two of the Military Knights to acts as guides to the chapel and to the Garter plates of the Knights of the Garter in their stalls in the choir.

 The choir of St George's Chapel

Image:mrffriends.org

The banners of the Knights of the Garter

Image: Wikipedia 

The tour of the Chapel enabled me to see things I recalled vividly from my previous visit, plus things I had missed, such as the Beaufort chantry with the tomb of the first Earl of Worcester and, in the south choir aisle, the onetime home of the Cross Gneth, plus things that are not always accessible, such as the Rutland chapel with the tomb of Lord and Lady Roos and the brass of her parents Anne Duchess of Exeter, sister of King Edward IV  and King Richard III, and her second husband Sir Thomas St Leger. The chapel is full of  tombs and memorials of interest to anyone with a sense of history and genealogy - you almost fall over deceased monarchs - there are ten sovereigns buried in the chapel.

The earliest surviving Garter plate, which is of Sir Ralph Basset, together with those of later Knights 

Image;stgeorges-windsor.org

The tour of the stalls with the Garter plates was a rare opportunity to get a close view of this amazing collection. To view them all would take an age, but our guide, who has complied a new cross-referenced list of the plates, pointed out those of the first Dukes of Marlborough and Wellington, of Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major amongst Prime Ministers, whilst the array of foreign royalty was amazingly rich. Starting with Charles the Bold of Burgandy and Emperor Maximilian I along the way - and we had to keep moving forward through the lines of the range of stall beneath the Knight's ones, I spotted, inter alia, numerous Portuguese monarchs down to King Manuel II, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Emperor Haile Selassie,King Ferdinand I of Romania, King Charles X of France, and some other French Kings' plates could be seen in the further distance. There were two plates from the fourteenth century - though possibly not originally in the Chapel - and several of participants in the events of the Wars of the Roses.

I was a little disappointed that some of the most recent plates, such as those of the Earl of Wessex and of the Duke of Cambridge, had abandoned the traditional medieval French for English in their inscriptions - by contrast Lady Thatcher's stall plate was, for all her supposed Euro-scepticism, in traditional French.

After our tour we came out by the Dean's cloister and went for buffet lunch in the basement - the Dungeon - of the Curfew Tower, before having a tour of the Archives of the Chapel and Order. These included displays of early fifteenth century account rolls of the Dean and Chapter with the earliest references to the Garter plates, records of nominations by the Knights to fill vacancies - a practice which durvived until the time of Queen Victoria's widowhood - and which survived in an early sicxteenth century manuscript recovered by chance in London from the clearance of a private collection and returned to King George VI, and plans of the stalls and their plates.

We also were shown items from the library of the Chapel, including a Caxton, and finally the permanent display of treasures, including the illuminated Black Book commissioned by King Henry VIII about 1534-5, and which was on show at the Greenwich exhibition about him in 1991, and has group portraits of the King surrounded by the Knights of the Garter, including Emperor Charles V, King Francis I, King James V and King Ferdinand I.

 

The Black Book of the Garter

The Black Book, named after its black velvet binding, is the first surviving register of the Garter. It was begun in 1534 when Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn. However it incorporates material from earlier registers (which are now lost) dating to the reign of Henry V. The text is in Latin and it contains statutes, an account of the foundation of the Order and the record of ceremonies and elections. It is finely written and richly illuminated in the Flemish style. There are representations of the founder of the order, Edward III and his wife Philippa along with Henry V.

The pages depicted here are on the reign of Henry VIII and the ceremonies of the Order for 1534. Above left, Henry VIII is surrounded by twenty-five knights in the robes of the Order; bottom left and right, the knights in armorial surcoats, process to chapel where, above right, the three junior knights arrive.

The Black Book shows the impact of the Reformation as in later admissions, various decorations of the Order that are depicted have been mutilated and wiped out to eliminate ‘superstitious’ elements.

Image and text :little-miss-sunnydale on Flickriver.com 

As well there is  in the display the Red Book, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I, and the Blue Book from the reign of King Charles I. Also on display were a tally list of votes in the papal conclave of 1676 - how that got to Windsor is unknown - and handwritten nominations by several seventeenth century Knights, including the future King James II.

This was fascinating day out, and I am very grateful to the organisers for arranging it. If any reader gets the chance to have such a tour I warmly recommed doing so. In any case Windsor is so rich in fascinating things to see that any visit, or indeed repeated visits, is definitely something to do.




    

Cross Neith - Y Groes Naid

In my last post I referred to the Cross Neith, and thought I would edit together the entry on Wikipedia - which knows nothing of its history after 1283 -  and some archive articles on the excellent website of St George's Chapel at Windsorto give an account of this once famous and treasured relic.

The Cross of Neith or Cross Gneth (Welsh:Y Groes Naid or Y Groes Nawdd) was a relic believed to be a fragment of the True Cross which had been kept at Aberconwy by the kings and princes of Gwynnedd, members of the Aberffraw dynasty who established the Principality of Wales They believed it afforded them and their people divine protection. Aberconwy had a Cistercian abbey, whose remains are thought to be incorporated in the present parish church of Conway which replaced it as part of King Edward I's series of new towns and castles, and the monks were transferred to a new site at Maenan, further up the river Conwy. With them they took the stone coffin and bones of Prince Llywelyn the Great - the coffin can still be seen in the church at Llanwrst.

The origins of the Cross Gneth, also known as the Croes Naid, remain obscure. It was a reliquary containing a piece of wood believed to be from the True Cross on which Christ had died. It may have derived its name from a priest, Neotus, who supposedly brought the piece of the True Cross to Wales. It is not known when it first arrived in Gwynedd or how the Princes had inherited it, but it is possible that it was brought back from Rome by king Hywel Dda following his pilgrimage in about 928. According to tradition it was handed down from prince to prince until the time of Llywelyn the Last and his brother Dafydd.

Following the complete defeat of Gwynedd and the subjugation of the Principality, following the death of Llywelyn in 1282 and the execution of Dafydd in 1283, this holy relic was taken by the English along with the other spiritual and temporal artefacts, such as Llywelyn's coronet, of the Principality.

The Alms Roll of 1283 records that a cleric named Huw ab Ithel presented this "part of the most holy wood of the True Cross" to King Edward I at Aberconwy. It then accompanied the king as he finished his campaign in north Wales before being brought to London and carried through the streets at the head of a procession in May 1285 which included the King, the Queen, their children, magnates of the realm and fourteen bishops.

The relic was first taken to Westminster Abbey. King Edward I regarded the relic as his own personal property, taking it with him on triumphal progresses through England, Wales and Scotland. During the reign of his son, King Edward II, it was lodged for safety in the Tower of London, where it remained until 1352, when it was given by King Edward III to his newly founded College at Windsor. This was soon after the foundation of the Order of the Garter in 1348. It was to prove an excellent source of income for the Dean and Canons, who benefited both from its prestige (it was accounted the ‘chief treasure’ of St George’s Chapel) and from offerings from the constant stream of pilgrims who came to Windsor to pray before the famous relic, and it remained the focus for pilgrimage and devotion for over two centuries.

In the easternmost bay of the south aisle of the choir of the present chapel is a carved and painted boss which represents King Edward IV and Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury 1450-81and also Dean of Windsor 1477-81, kneeling on either side of a Celtic cross which stands on a small mound: this then is the ‘Cross Gneth’ or ‘Croes Naid’.

This beautifully carved and brightly coloured roof boss, to be found in the easternmost bay of the South Quire Aisle, depicts one of St George’s Chapel’s most famous relics, the Cross Gneth. Kneeling on either side of this Celtic cross are King Edward IV and Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, 1450-1481, Dean of Windsor, 1478-1481, and Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, 1475-1481.

Image: St George's Chapel Windsor

In addition, one of the carved angels surrounding the east window holds a Celtic cross and a further coloured boss in the Nave also depicts a Celtic cross.

Below the boss with its depiction of the Cross, the King and the Bishop there are two recesses opposite one another. Below the one on the north side of the aisle is carved an inscription, with the letters delineated in black. It reads as follows:

Who leyde this booke here The Reverend Fader in god Richard Beauchamp Bisschop of this Diocyse of Sarysbury and wherfor to this entent that Preestis and ministers of goddis chirche may here haue the occupacion therof seyyng therin theyr divine servyse and for alle othir that lystyn to sey therby ther devocyon  askyth he any sp’uall mede  yee asmoche as oure lord lyst to reward hym for his good entent praying euery man w’os dute or devocion is eased by thys booke they woll sey for hym this commune Oryson Dne Ihu xpe: knelyng in the presence of this holy Crosse for the wyche the Reverend Fadir in god above seyd hathe grauntid of the treasure of the Chirche to eu’y man xl days of pardun

Who laid this book here? – The Reverend Father in God Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of this Diocese of Salisbury.
And for what? – For this purpose: that priests and ministers of God’s church may use it, saying by it their divine service, and for everyone else who wishes to use it to say their prayers.
Does he ask for any spiritual gift? – Yes, as much as Our Lord wishes to reward him for his good intention, beseeching every man whose duty or prayers are eased by this book to say for him this common prayer: Domine Jesu Christe, kneeling in the presence of this holy cross, for which the Reverend Father in God named above has granted from the treasure of the Church to every man 40 days’ pardon.

The book which would once have lain in the recess was probably a copy of the Sarum Porthos, or Breviary – a liturgical book containing prayers, hymns, psalms and readings according to the Sarum Use, the variant of the Catholic liturgy most widely used in medieval England. A case containing a modern day prayer book now stands in the recess. The ‘Holy Cross’ referred to in the inscription is the Cross Gneth, which is thought to have been displayed in the other recess, and from which its size can be estimated.

The ‘treasure of the church’ is the Treasury of Merit accumulated by Christ and the good works of Catholics, by means of which indulgences may be granted to individuals to reduce the punishment they will experience in Purgatory. In this case, praying before the Cross Gneth  - ‘knelying in the presence of this holy Crosse’ - would earn the amount of pardon equivalent to that gained by forty days of penance.

On the construction of the new St George’s Chapel in the fifteenth century, the boss was installed (in about 1480) as part of the vaulting above the altar and shrine dedicated to the Cross Gneth, which was to be moved there from the old Chapel to the east. What better way could the King, who commissioned the new Chapel, and the Bishop of Salisbury who as Master and Surveyor of the Chapel oversaw its construction, be celebrated in stone, or draw attention to devotion to the Cross?

Listed in the 1534 inventory of the treasures of the Chapel made during the reign of King Henry VIII the Cross remained at Windsor until 1552 when it was confiscated by King Edward VI’s Commissioners, along with the other relics and treasures belonging to the Chapel, and which seem to have ended up in the Tower of London ‘awaiting the King’s further instructions’.

In recent years some Welsh Nationalists have agitated for the return of the Cross. For that, alas, there can be little hope - such a reliquary was, no doubt, less durable than the Stone of Scone has proved itself to be.

In 1963 the post of Wales Herald Extraordinary was established and in 1967 he was assigned a badge, which shows the Cross Gneth encircled by a thirteenth century crown.

The Cross in the badge of Wales Herald Extraordinary

Image: Wikipedia

More on the Westminster chasuble at Wardour

Earlier this month I posted about the Westminster chasuble at Wardour and I now see that the New Liturgical Movement has a piece about it with a much better photograph than the one I managed to find. The article can be viewed here.

The accompanying notes show how the vestment ihas been assembled from two seperate ones. The main fabric can be associated with Catherine of Aragon's marriages at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but the embroidered orphreys are a generation older and appear to be linked, through Bishop Richard Beauchamp of Salisbury, with the marriage, which he performed, of Margaret of York, sister of King Edward IV, to Charles Duke of Burgundy in 1468 (not 1408 as it says on NLM).

Bishop Beauchamp was very much associated with the Yorkist court, and he is depicted on a particularly interesting and splendid roof boss of St George's Chapel Windsor kneeling with King Edward IV before one of the great relics of the chapel, the Welsh Cross Gneth. There is a picture and an article about the boss and the Cross Gneth here. As Bishop of Salisbury from 1450-81 and ex officio the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter the Bishop was extensively involved the the King's rebuilding of the chapel in the 1470s.