Friary

Summary.  A large Franciscan Friary was built on the south edge of the town in 1237. After a fire in 1291, it was rebuilt in stone. It was demolished with Dissolution in 1538.

           St. Francis of Assisi, 1181–1226, founded the Franciscans in 1209. It was a mendicant order meaning it relied solely on alms to survive.  Probably, Bishop Alexander Stavensby,1224–38, initiated a Franciscan Friary, c. 1237,[1] in Lichfield by giving 4 acres of free burgage plots for the friars to set their house on. The bishop supported King Henry III and he favoured Franciscan monks. The king allowed oaks to be cut from neighbouring forests to build a wooden church. The Sheriff of Lichfield was authorised in 1241 ‘to clothe the Friars of Lichfield.’ In 1286, Edward I provided eight oak trees from Cannock Chase for further building, and this is thought to have been the completion of the church.[2] However, soon afterwards a fire destroyed much of the town and some later narratives suggest the fire included the original church on 4 May 1291.[3]  The friary was rebuilt in stone and with extra buildings expanded over an area of 12 acres, 4.8 hectares. Perhaps, builders in the last stages of constructing the cathedral helped or advised on building a large Friary church.

Location of Friary site. It was adjacent to Bird Street and St John Street, formerly known as Lichfield Street.

Wall plaque giving approximate dates. A later date of 1237 is now accepted.

 

The Franciscan ‘Grey Friars’[4] were noted for poverty, simple living and caring for the unwell in the Community, which earned gratitude from the residents of the town. Many donations for the upkeep of the friary were recorded, but not everyone agreed with this view. Richard Fitzralph was dean of Lichfield, 1335-46, who became Archbishop of Armagh and was invited by the pope to review mendicant friars. He concluded they abused their stance of being poor. He claimed Christ never begged but worked as a labouring carpenter, and to survive by alms was not Christian. It also undermined the work of clergy helping in the community.

The precise layout of the Friary is uncertain, but it was unusual in having two cloisters, a small one off the choir and a large one off the nave.[5] The nave, IIO x 60 feet, had five bays with piers shaped as a regular octagon and semi-octagonal responds at the west-end. A stone seating ran along the whole of the north wall from the crossing to the north door from which three steps led down into the Church. There was a bishop’s lodging,[6] though it is unclear whether the cathedral bishop or another stayed on the site. A cemetery is thought to have existed north and east of the choir. The large cloister was 80 feet square.

 

Possible layout for Lichfield Friary. The church had a similar unusual compass inclination as the cathedral. It is presumed the tower and spire were at the crossing, with a spire similar in height to the cathedral, c. 60 m. Its total length has been estimated as 60-70 m. The right to pipe water was given in 1301 and the water was given for free.[7] It is thought the water passed through wooden (alder) pipes. Three tanning pits have been found and either they preceded the Friary or were part of the friary workshops.

 

Artistic reconstruction of the Friary as depicted on Lichfield District Council city visitor board.

 

In 1934, a road was built through the site and a cursory examination made of remaining stonework. From this a drawing was given of how the Friary might have been laid out.

1934 drawing of the possible layout on the Friary Road site. It shows a large cloister on the side of the choir. There appears to be no great tower. There is an opinion that the 1930s archaeological examination was imperfect.

 

After 301 years much was demolished with Dissolution[8] in 1538. Notice was served on August 7 and an inventory showed the friary was in debt. The friars were dismissed five days later, claiming they had nowhere to go. It was placed in the hands of a Richard Wetwode and constables of the town. A group of eight men bought the associated buildings on the understanding they defaced the tower, cloister, choir and church within four months and pull down the lot within three years.[9]

The sale, October 1538, described, two cloisters, hostelry, infirmary, refectory, chapter house, brewhouse, stable, kitchen, buttery, vestry, choir, water conduits, church and steeple.[10] The adjacent land was sold cheaply for £68 in 1545 to the Master of St Mary’s Guild, who turned it into a private house and garden. The only buildings to survive were the dormitory on the west range and a house known as ‘Bishop’s Lodging’ in the south-west corner. In I745, the Duke of Cumberland used the lodging for a short time as his headquarters during the Young Pretender’s invasion. The city took over the management of the Friaries’ water supply forming the Lichfield Conduit Lands Trust. In 1920, 11 acres of the Friary estate were bought by Richard Ashmole Cooper, who gave it to the city to develop housing and lay out a new road across the site. The former school and library on the south side of the road almost certainly includes fabric from the cloistral ranges.

 

Drawing of surviving buildings known as The Friary,[11]

1638 Map of the Friary site.[12]

             Bassett believed the Friary site interrupted an important through-route along Bore Street which was diverted along one end of ‘Friars Alley’ before returning to its original line.[13] The church lay along this important route and it was suggested this originally straight route was once the high-street of the town.

 

AI rendition of the church and adjacent cloister with Franciscan monks.

 

In 2016, an excavation found a boundary wall with a ditch. From this much 13th and 14th-century pottery sherds were found, as well as two fragmentary shoes. Excavations at the site also recovered large quantities of ornamental floor tiles and two metal gaming counters with a 14th-century date. A portion of the north nave wall still stands to a height of c. 0.8 metres. A doorway could be original and would have allowed access to the nave from Friars Alley. It would allow public access to the church nave, but avoid entrance to the rest of the friary precinct. The church site has still to be examined archaeologically in a systematic way.

AI rendition of a 1782 drawing of the remains of the Friary buildings viewed from the southeast.

Another AI rendition of an early drawing

 

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[1] Some accounts have 1229. There is no certainty Bishop Stavensby gave the land for a friary, see G C Baugh et al, 'Friaries: The Franciscan friars of Lichfield', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, ed. M W Greenslade and R B Pugh (London, 1970), 268-270. 

[2] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 481 was of the opinion it had a fine Gothic appearance, with massive gates, thick walls, and windows of coloured glass. Three fields or pastures on the west part of the Lodging were commonly called the Barr Plecke, the Colyers Plecke, and the Orchard. A watercourse ran from a place called Poole-furlong(e) to the Crucifix (water outlet) in Lichfield Streete. The water pipes and outlet still exists, though rebuilt. Poole furlong could be at Aldershawe or more likely along the Trunkfield brook. Another source of water mentioned was Fowlewell, near Aldershawe.

[3] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Volume 1. (London: 1691), stated ‘the city of Lichfield and the entire house of the Friars Minor were burned’. Harwood (1806), see note 2, wrote most of the town was destroyed, but not the church. Bassett (1980), 105, note 18, indicated that Harwood could have been correct. The church was some distance from the rest of the town.

[4] They were later called Grey-Friars, from their habit, which, in imitation of their founder, was a long grey coat down to their heels with a cowl or hood and a cord or rope about their loins, instead of a girdle. The friar’s cowl was in the shape of a bag, narrowing towards the end. It was fastened to the upper part of the coat behind and was hung ready to cover the head, or to fill with provisions, or with whatever they might receive in their supplications from house to house. Harwood (1806), 481 see note 2.

[5] A. R. Martin, Franciscan architecture in England, (Manchester: 1937), 29.

[6] Ibid 37

[7] In I30I, Henry Champanar, or Campanarius, son of Michael de Lichfield, bell-founder, granted to the Friers Minor exclusive rights in his water heads and springs at Aldershaw, a hill about one mile southwest of the Friary.

[8] Letters and Papers Henry VIII Volume 13, part 2 August 1538 section 6-10. By the time of the Dissolution of the religious orders in the 1530s approximately 189 friaries had been founded for a number of different groups of friars, each with their individual missions. 

[9] C. Upton, A history of Lichfield, (Stroud: 2001), 42.

[10] P. Laithwaite, ‘The Lichfield Friary’, Birmingham Arch. Soc., trans. (1934)  LVIII, 53- 55.

[11] H. Snowden Ward, Lichfield and its cathedral: A brief history and guide. (Bradford: 1893), 18.

[12] J. Hill map from plate 7 in Harwood (1806), 480, see note 2.

[13] S. R. Bassett, ‘Medieval Lichfield: A topographical review’. Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, (1980), 22, 104.

King Richard II liked Lichfield

Summary.   King Richard visited the secure, fortified cathedral many times in the last years of his reign. He was imprisoned in a tower after capture by Henry Bolingbroke. His chaplain became the bishop.  

     Richard was born 6 January 1367, in the archbishop’s palace of Bordeaux in Aquitaine. At 4 years of age, he was brought to England and never wanted to return to France. He was made king at the age of 10 upon the death of Edward III, and crowned at Westminster Abbey on 16 July 1377. He was bilingual and, perhaps the first king to speak fluent English. During his 22-year reign, 1377 to 1399, he was a frequent visitor to Lichfield and the diocese in the last years of his life.

AI Richard II aged 10 at his coronation adapted from a portrait at Westminster Abbey, painted mid-1390s.

Richard married Anne of Bohemia, the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV in 1382. The marriage was diplomatically significant. 

Marriage of Richard and Anne in the Liber Regalis of Westminster Abbey, MS 38, f.20. Both were aged 15. Strangely, Richard did not receive a dowry and he paid much for the marriage.

In 1385, Richard le Scrope[i] was elected by the pope to be Bishop of Chichester, but this was rejected by Richard II. Instead, on 18 August 1386 the pope, Urban VI, made him the 54th Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry[ii] and consecrated him on the following day. Richard must have agreed.[iii] Scrope, aged 47, was installed in Lichfield on 29 June 1387 and Richard with Queen Anne of Bohemia, both aged 21, the Archbishops of York and Dublin and various earls and knights attended. The ceremony was followed by a huge feast in the bishop's palace,[iv] to which all the clergy and the leading citizens of Lichfield were invited, which must have stretched the resources of the Close.

AI rendition of the installation of Bishop Richard Scrope in 1387. He is holding Chad’s Gospels and sits alongside Richard and Anne. Standing are the Archbishop of York and various earls.

After many mishaps and mistakes Richard lost the trust of his nobles and the Commons. His dependence on a small number of favourite courtiers caused discontent.  Richard saw this as an affront to his royal prerogative, so from February to November 1387, he toured the country to muster support, but only managed to find it in Cheshire, an area in the diocese of Lichfield. He then had to reconcile with his adversaries and this led to peace for the next eight years. Anne died in 1394, aged 28, of the plague and Richard mourned her death. He then had a close relationship with Robert de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, which resumed resentment within his court. In 1396, a truce with France was agreed which lasted 28 years, and as part of the truce Richard agreed to marry Isabella, daughter of Charles VI of France when she came of age. The diplomacy was possibly Richard’s greatest achievements.

AI Richard agreeing to marry Isabella aged 6 when she came of age. He was 29. From an anonymous painting c. 1450.

           Richard by now was displaying odd behaviour; he was exhibiting anxiety and paranoia, and was prone to stammering. He saw himself as divine and absolutist, and not to be questioned. He had no immediate heir and this was adding to the growing tension in his court. Between 1397 and 99, Richard had many of his old adversaries executed and, in their place, promoted nobles that supported him. In 1398 Richard summoned the Parliament to meet in Shrewsbury Abbey and announced that no restraint could legally be put on the King. This ‘Revenge Parliament’ met at the centre of the diocese. He now decreed to be addressed as ‘royal majesty’ or ‘high majesty’. Furthermore, he began to spend extravagantly on clothes, jewellery, rich textiles and completing Westminster Hall. He became interested in the occult, and had an obsession with Richard I and his grandfather Edward II. He was showing clear signs of narcissism.

Richard spent Christmas at Lichfield in 1397, staying until mid-January, including a celebration of his birthday on 6 January. At this festival two hundred tons of wine, and two thousand oxen, were consumed. He visited Lichfield at least six times in 1398. He is recorded as being at Lichfield on 8, 17–20 January; 24–27 May; 22–26 June; 8 September, 25 December to 6 January 1399. This is over 30 days accommodation, and it is most likely the visits were longer than recorded.

AI rendition of Richard arriving with his Cheshire bowmen bodyguard. 

AI King Richard II entering the west door of the cathedral in 1397.  Ahead is Dean Thomas de Stretton. 

Lichfield bishop’s palace would have been a good residence for Richard. The partly moated and fortified cathedral would have appealed to this insecure king. The ornate cathedral with its sumptuous Chad’s shrine would have satisfied Richard’s taste.   

          In 1397, Bishop Richard Scrope visited the pope and was appointed Archbishop of York, probably on the recommendation of Richard. The king then forwarded his chaplain and confessor John Burghill, to be bishop of Lichfield.[v] He was installed at Lichfield on 8 September 1398, and the enthronement was attended by three archbishops, Canterbury, York, and Dublin, five bishops, four dukes, and four earls. The fully robed clergy met the new bishop at the west end of the Close and were surprised to find him bare-footed. Burghill was a Dominican or Black Friar, and this was a demonstration of his belief in asceticism, though some detractors described it as miserliness.

AI gen. King Richard II greeting Dominican John Burghill to be Bishop of Lichfield. Behind are three archbishops, five bishops, four dukes, and four earls.

They processed to an atrium at the west end door,[vi] which was possibly built with an extension inwards and outwards of the central doorway.[vii] Oaths were said in the atrium before the party filed to the high altar for the commission. 

AI rendition of King Richard and Bishop Burghill entering the west doorway with an added atrium. The archbishops in the atrium were ready to announce oaths of allegiance.

West front drawing from ‘The Builder’, (1891), February 7, 108–9. It shows a pair of buttress foundations discovered under the paving outside the west front, probably during Scott's work in 1850s.[viii] The rubble foundation between the end pillars was revealed in 2000.[ix] Was this part of an outward and inward projecting atrium or narthex?

A feast followed in the bishop’s palace to which all the cathedral clergy were invited. . A monk of Evesham listed the feast needed twenty cattle, three hundred sheep, and a daily large quantity of poultry.

AI Richard II in 1398 being toasted by Bishop Burghill in the feast following the installation of the bishop.

             In 1398, Archbishop Roger Walden ordered celebrations on the feast of St Chad.[x] This could have been at the behest of Richard and supported by the new Bishop of Lichfield. It shows Richard’s strong interest in the power of saints and their miraculous intercessory power.[xi]  Richard returned to Lichfield for Christmas 1398, lodged in the bishop’s palace and received a papal nuncio and numerous foreign guests. A banqueting hall was built next to the great hall of the palace. The feast was magnificent and acquired almost legendary status. This time his Queen Isabelle was with him. Tournaments with jousting were held daily  probably up to his 32nd birthday on January 6 1398. In 1208 Lichfield had a public duelling ground east of Upper St John Street. He had a bodyguard of 311 Cheshire bowmen,[xii] which must have stretched the residency in the Close. Parliaments were held around the Midlands, but never in London or inexplicably at Lichfield. There was a parliament in Coventry in January 1399 with letters patent issued from 11th to 18th. The same occurred at Heywood, Shropshire, and Newcastle-under-Lyme in February.To invite his adversaries to the confines of The Close must have been too risky.

AI rendition of King Richard taking interest in the jousting. The jousting field is thought to have been outside the town defences, just beyond St. John's Hospital where an area was known as 'the duelling ground'.    

On 1 June 1399, Richard journeyed to Ireland with a large army to restore his dwindling authority. This gave an opportunity for his exiled and dispossessed enemy, Henry Bolingbroke, to return from France and land on the Yorkshire coast. He invaded with a small force that quickly grew in numbers. Richard hurriedly returned landing at Conway, but could not raise any support; his army was still in Ireland. On 19 August, Richard surrendered to Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, at Flint Castle, promising to abdicate if his life was spared. Both men then made their way to London, broken by a short stay at Chester and then Lichfield. On the evening of 23 August, the party arrived at Lichfield and Richard was imprisoned in one of the towers, most likely the north-east tower and part of the Bishop’s Palace. Harwood thought the larger southwest tower was used. [xiii]  That night Richard escaped through a window of the tower, but then was recaptured in an adjoining garden. He was removed from the Close and transferred to the house of the Archdeacon of Chester, on the corner of Beacon Street and Shaw Lane. Ten to twelve armed men kept close guard over and Richard complained that he was not even allowed a change of clothes.

AI rendition of Richard escaping from the tower at night with the help of two residents. There is a version he jumped into the moat, but he is caught in a garden. The story was told by a Frenchman who accompanied the king.

North-east tower remains. Was this the tower used to imprison Richard II, or was it the southwest tower known to have a dungeon?

On arrival in London, 1 September, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. A commission, including Archbishop Scrope,[xiv] a past friend of Richard, visited the king and agreed, perhaps reluctantly, on his imprisonment. Richard was later moved to Pontefract Castle and died, some say starved to death, on or around 14 February 1400, aged 33. His interment at the Dominican friary church at Kings Langley in Hertfordshire was conducted by his friend, Bishop John Burghill.[xv] His body was later removed by order of Henry V to Westminster Abbey. Afterwards, Burghill became a great benefactor leaving much to the cathedral, and this was warmly commemorated after his death in 1414.

           

When the Lady Chapel was built a screen was erected across the cathedral behind the high altar and east of Chad’s shrine. Wyatt found part of the screen when he was joining the choir to the Lady Chapel in 1788.[xvi]  During the Victorian renovation 'a rayed rose and hart' was found on one piece of the old screen and could have been the emblem of Richard and Anne.[xvii] An inn in Sadler Street was named the White Hart.

Is this the hart emblem remarked upon by Robert Bridgeman? The canopy also has several sculpted roses. [xviii]

There are a number of 14-century chapter houses, York, Lincoln, Westminster and Salisbury that have dedications to the Virgin Mary. At Lichfield, above the door is a triangular painting of ‘The Assumption of Mary’. In the bottom right corner stand several ‘Black Friars’, clearly showing their black cappa or cloak above their white habit. This suggests Bishop John Burghill commissioned this painting and thus a date around 1398–1414 is likely. St Mary is surrounded by angels and the two at knee height have an outline of adult faces. The one on the left of the painting appears to be wearing a crown. The one on the right appears to be a woman. It would be plausible to assume they are Richard and Anne. Perhaps, then the figure to the bottom left is the dean, Thomas de Stretton. If this could be verified, it is a remarkable painting.

Assumption of Mary painting. Revealed after removal of limewash in the 19th-century Gothic Revival. 

Figures left and right of Mary. Superimposed is the head of Richard II from The Wilton Diptych.

 

Richard is positioned on the right hand of Chad on the west front, which reflects his love for Lichfield. Since his appearance at Lichfield is well after the completion of the cathedral it suggests his exalted position was favoured by the Victorian sculptors. He is sculped as an older man.

AI rendition of Richard from a description before his death at the age of 33.

Later examination of his tomb show a man 6 feet 2 inches tall with a round, feminine face. He could quickly fly into a rage, and he stammered. Dressing extravagantly, devotion to his wife, favouring certain nobility and preferring diplomacy over war has led to the notion he was unmanly and weak. Recent analysis shows this to be false.

[i] He was also a friend, with family connections, with the Earls of Northumberland, the Percy family.

[ii] H.E. Savage, The Church Heritage of Lichfield, Unpub. St Chad’s Day Address (1914) claimed the title from 1386 was transposed to Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. He also stated the electing body at Coventry no longer existed. The addition of Chester to the title had ceased in 1350. H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra Volume 1.,(London: 1691), 450, has ‘Ricardus Scrope. Episcopus Lichfeldensis & Coventrensis. His predecessor Walterus Skirlaw also has this order, but his predecessor Robertus Stretton (449) gives priority to Coventry. Richard II must have agreed with this new order of title.

[iii] J. Gould, ‘Lichfield and Richard II’, Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, (2001), 39, 16–21, from which much of this post has been constructed. See also J. Tait, 'Scrope, Richard', Dictionary of National Biography, li (1897), 144-47. The burgesses of Lichfield appear not to have accepted Scrope’s elevation especially if decided by the King.

[iv] Lichfield Dean and Chapter Acts Book, i, f. 15v.

[v] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. Volume 1. (London: 1691), 451.

[vi] This description of the ceremony comes from H. E. Savage, Bishop John Burghull, (note the misspelling), an A. C. Lomax publication (Lichfield: 1924), 1–24. It was taken from the Chapter Acts Book, 52–3.

[vii] Beneath the flagstones outside the west end large door has been found a stone buttress foundation. It is not known when this atrium (narthex?) was built and demolished. This is referred to by W. Rodwell, Lichfield Cathedral: Conservation Plan. Unpub. report in Cathedral library (2006), 5. Rodwell believed there was a previous large, lower, west front.

[viii] The buttresses are mentioned by W. Rodwell, Notes on the 'gallery' and other features at the west end of the nave. Unpub. assessment in Cathedral Library, (1989). Rodwell’s view was they would fit perfectly an early 13th-century west front; and at the same time invite closer comparisons between Lichfield and Wells.

[ix] W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral: 3. Archaeology in the nave. Unpub. paper in the Cathedral Library, (2000).

[x] D. Wikins, Concilia magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae a Synodo Verolamensi. (1737) Volume 3, 235. See also H. E. Savage, (1924), 5.

[xi] N. Saul, Richard II (New Haven and London: 1997), 142–3.

[xii] Ibid, 393. Richard employed a bodyguard of yeoman archers who came from the area around Macclesfield and were known as the Cheshire Archers. They were elite soldiers. 

[xiii] There are some accounts that have Richard escaping from the Archdeacon’s House. H. E. Savage (1924), see note 10, had Richard imprisoned in the fabled town Castle in Castle Dyke Street and Frog Lane. T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 292, has him in the south-west tower which had a dungeon, and where there is now Newton’s building. It is possible there were members of the Close who helped him to escape.

[xiv] Some years later, Scrope opposed Bolingbroke and was beheaded at York.

[xv] Thomae Walsingham Historia Anglicana, ed. H. T. Riley (Rolls Series, 1846), 246.

[xvi] J. Britton, The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield, (London: 1820) 32. In The carvings of Lichfield Cathedral. (2010), Cathedral booklet, 11, it is suggested the sedilia either side of the altar contains part (the canopy) of the 15th-century screen. It is made of Bath limestone and invites the question of where was it sculpted? Its rich detail would have been appropriate for being near to Langton’s Lady Chapel.

[xvii] See note 3, J. Gould, (2001), 18.

[xviii] J. Gould (2001), 22. A White Hart is depicted on the timber ceiling of St Mary’s Hall, Coventry.