Summary. It is most likely the construction of the third cathedral began during the long reign of Henry III and it is recorded he was involved in shaping parts of the cathedral. This is consistent with his great interest in church architecture in other cathedrals. How much he participated in leading the construction is uncertain, but the bishop was with him.
King Henry
III reigned from 28 October 1216, aged 9, to his death on16 November 1272 aged
65. Henry's reign of 56 years was the longest in medieval English history. He was devout and known for his public show of piety;
being widely regarded as ‘Rex Christianissimus’ (a most Christian King). He encouraged
elaborate church services and the veneration of relics, was often moved to
tears by sermons, was extremely interested in architecture, sculpture, painting
and providing silverware, vestments and candles for churches. In the first 18
years of his majority, he built 18 new chapels, 10 for himself and 8 for the
queen. By the 1250s he was sustaining over 50 chapels and supporting many
Dominican and Franciscan houses.
Notably, he rebuilt Westminster Abbey,[1]
added to Lincoln Cathedral, St Georges Chapel at Windsor, rebuilt parts of
Gloucester and Worcester cathedrals and appears to have accomplished much at
Lichfield. His churches show an Early English Gothic style of architecture.[2] He
made Westminster Hall the principal throne room of the land with a permanent
marble throne set on the dais behind a massive marble table.
Henry III
drawn by Matthew Paris at the beginning of his Historia Anglorum. He is
holding his magnificent Westminster Abbey, Note is drooping left eyelid.
Henry III
statue on the west front with him holding his beloved Westminster Abbey. Henry
was devoted to Edward the Confessor as
his patron saint and
Westminster Abbey was where he lay for pilgrimage.
A start date of 1216, at the
beginning of Henry’s reign, would be plausible for the planning of a new
cathedral. Around 1220, Henry granted a licence to Lichfield to obtain stone
and wood for presumably the preparation, or early construction (central tower
and south transept), for a third cathedral. Further licences followed.[3] He
might have passed through Lichfield in 1226 having been in Nottingham and then
travelling on to the Welsh marches. If so, he would have seen the beginning of
a new cathedral. Henry was at Lichfield in 1235, 1237, and 1241[4]
(probably to increase his funds to pay off a large dowry given away on his
sister’s marriage) and these must have been the years of intense construction.
Inevitably Henry would have instructed ways to build the cathedral and would
have been assisted by Bishop Roger de Meuland,[5]
1258–95, who was a kinsman, perhaps a cousin,[6] of
Henry.[7]
In 1243, Henry issued a
commission to Walter Grey, Archbishop of York.[8] to
expedite the works at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in which he ordered a lofty
wooden roof, like the roof of the new work at Lichfield (probably the
choir roof, though some think the south transept[9]
and some think the north transept), to appear like stone work with good ceiling
and painting. The same has been said of the wheel window on the south transept.
Choir roof. Is this the spur for the wooden roof at St
George’s Chapel, Windsor?
Wheel window above the south transept drawn in Stebbing Shaw's book 1798
The nave ornamentation and
arcades are like those at Lincoln and elsewhere and the spheric triangular
windows high up in the clerestory are like those at Westminster Abbey.[10] The
nave wall ornamentation can be possibly linked to the king and queen’s liking
for 5-petalled roses from Provence. If so, it is the beginning of the rose
emblem for England.
Triangular windows in the nave
Side of nave wall decoration of five lobes in a circle
Henry’s hand appears to be behind much of the building of the west end of the cathedral.
Original
head sculpture at the east end of the north nave aisle (bay 1). Eleanor of
Provence, young wife of King Henry III, (she was 12 and he 28 when they
married) introduced a new type of wimple to England. This veil, usually of
linen or lace, covered a pillbox cap which meant the wimple would not fall over
the face. Is this Eleanor?
Henry was deeply interested in
relics and stories of saints. He must have known about the origin myth of
Lichfield and the massacre of a thousand Christians, see the post, ‘Lichfield's
founding myth-take it seriously.’ The legend was also known to Matthew Paris, c.1200-59,
a chronicler for St Albans with a great love of its saints and traditions. It
was Matthew who wrote in a margin of his copy of the works of William, the monk
at St Alban, Hoc apud Lichefeld evenit
(this is the result of Lichfield),
meaning this is where the massacre occurred. Whence it is called Lichefeld
meaning field of corpses. Johnson,[11]
believes Matthew Paris was informed by Richard, bishop of Bangor and John
Mansel, one of Henry III’s councillors. Richard might have told Matthew there
was documentary evidence at Lichefeld and John would have been very supportive
of a foundation story for the new Cathedral with his king having a keen
interest.
[1]
J. Hillson, ‘St Stephen’s Chapel Westminster: Architecture, Decoration and
Politics in the Reigns of Henry III and the Three Edwards (1227–1363)’ Unpublished
PhD thesis, University of York, (2015), 92–107.
[2]
D. Carpenter, Henry III. The rise to power and personal rule 1207-1258. (Yale,
Newhaven and London: 2021)1-763.
[3]
For further references to licences given by the king for work on the cathedral
in 1231, 1235, and 1238, see the post, ‘Dating the cathedral.’
[4]
M W Greenslade, ed. 'Lichfield: The cathedral', in A History of the
County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990), also British
History Online www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp47-57
[5]
Also spelt Meuleng, Meulent and Molend and could have indicated an ancestral
connection with Meulon in Normandy.
[6]
J. R. H. Moorman,
Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century (Rev. ed.).
(Cambridge: 1955), 159.
[7]
The king had taken a dislike to the previous bishop, Roger de Weseham.
[8]
In 1243 Henry III instructed
Thomas de Gray “to cause work to go on both in winter and in summer until the
king’s chapel of Windsor is finished, and to have a high wooden roof made after
the manner of the new work at Lichfield, so that it may appear to be stonework,
with good panelling and painting”. Calendar
of the Close Rolls, Vol. 5: 1242–47,
39; H. M. Colvin, ed., The
History of the King’s Works: The Middle Ages, 2 vols (London: HMSO,
1963), 2: 868.
[9]
R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings
recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral.’ The Archaeological Journal, (1861),
18, 1--24.
[10]
Is there a sculpted head of Henry III in the Chapter House? There ought to have
been.
[11]
D. Johnson, 'Lichfield' and 'St. Amphibalus': the story of a legend, South
Staffs. Archaeological and Historical Society transactions for 1986-1987. (1988),
1-13.
[12]
D. Johnson, 'Mr. Greene's MSS.': Richard Greene's Notes on the history of
Lichfield’. South
Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society transactions for 1988-1989.
(1990) 30, 64-69.