Chantries

Summary.  Between 10 and 20 medieval chantry chapels around the cathedral provided prayers for the deceased. Often funded by endowments, they disappeared following Reformation.

     A chantry is a chapel or altar with an endowment from a priest or a high-ranking benefactor, and dedicated to provide prayers and litany for the dead, often the benefactor and his family, but sometimes for all Christian souls. It was to gain atonement for their sins committed during their lives and then achieve eternal peace. The earliest chantries were in the early years of the 13th-century and more than half the number of chantries founded in England were between 1425 and 1500.[1]

AI gen. chantry chapel of the type that were in a cathedral.

Most of the chantries in the cathedral were founded by men who were being commemorated, but some were founded by bishops for notable individuals.[2] The chantries were paid through lands and rents or by a grant to buy lands, with the king’s permission, to produce a yearly sum to support the chantry. The endowment provided a salary for a priest and to buy candles for the altar. They were ministered mostly by vicars, but by the end of the 13th-century a separate body of chantry chaplains emerged. Sometimes the chantry priest was appointed by descendants of the founder of the chapel.

Very early in the current cathedral there is some evidence for two chantries for the souls of two kings of England[3] and they were attached to the altar of St John. The earliest altar recorded was in the early 1220s and named St Mary’s.[4] One of the earliest chantry chapels in England was for Bishop Stavenby, probably founded in 1238.[5] In 1241, there were five chaplains attending the principal altars which must have included St Chad’s altar[6] in the nave, possibly St Peter’s altar in the presbytery (retrochoir) and St Stephen in the north transept. The altar of St Thomas was mentioned in the Sacrist’s Roll of 1345/6.[7] By the end of the 13th-century there were at least thirteen chantries attached to one of the ten altars located around the high altar.[8]

The Acts of the Dean and Chapter, 1321–84[9] listed the ten altars of the Virgin Mary, and those of Saints Chad, John, Radegund (1242), Catherine (1240s), Thomas (1321), Peter (off the choir south aisle and probably the Consistory Court, 1254, founded by Dean Mancetter), Stephen (1254), Andrew (probably in the north choir aisle), and Nicholas (probably in the south choir aisle, 1390). In 1335, the chapter ordered an inquiry into the chantries and found only five of the 20 chantries were being properly served; some being administered from a distance. Apparently, the chaplains were not being remunerated sufficiently. In 1411, Bishop Burghill gave to the thirteen chantry priests without houses a site on the south side of the Close. However, poor endowments continued with some chantries closing and some being re-dedicated and re-endowed. In 1426, 3 chantry priests had to say Mass at various altars at 6am, two more at 7am, 2 at 9am and finally 2 at 10am. Mass was also said at the Virgin Mary altar and in St Peter’s chapel. In winter there were metal balls filled with hot water to warm hands. By 1429, the poor financial state meant loans had to be secured to pay the chaplains. Evidently the chantries were not always revenue raising assets for the cathedral.

An altar for St Blaise, probably in the choir, was founded by Dean Heywood, 1457–92. The altar had an alabaster table on which scenes of the saint's life were depicted.[10] Blaize was the patron saint of wool-combers and most likely attracted the attention of pilgrims connected with the wool trade. 

AI imagined chantry to St Blaise. The alabaster table has some wool placed on it.

St Kenelm's altar was recorded in 1466.[11] In 1468, Heywood founded a chantry with the altar of Jesus and St Anne. The altar stood in its own chapel in a loft, which lay across the north choir aisle next to the choir screen. Its furnishings included statues of the Risen Christ and of St Anne, a pair of organs, and choir stalls.[12] In 1499, there was an altar of St George. A chapel was built by Dean Yotton which stood against the outer wall of the nave opposite the second bay from the central crossing. This was his chantry chapel when he died in 1512. By 1720, Yotton’s tomb was set in the nave wall. There is a reference in 1523 to Bishop Pattishall's chantry at St. Stephen's altar, located in the north transept according to Browne Willis, 1727.

 Brown Willis plan of cathedral, 1720, published 1727

In 1535, there were seventeen chantry chaplains. Endowments brought in £95 annually. With Reformation came the dissolution of the 17 cathedral's chantries in 1548 and the termination of chantry chaplains.[13] They narrowly escaped losing all their property at the beginning of 1549 under the terms of the Chantries Act of 1547. Across England around 2,000 chantry chapels and guild chapels disappeared. In Staffordshire some of the chantry chaplains found livings elsewhere, but most received a pension[14] and left. The chantry chaplains' college of houses was sold to London speculators and came eventually into the hands of the corporation of Lichfield. All statues on the high altar and in the chapels were removed and by the end of 1549 the chantry chapels had been dismantled. The richest at the time of Dissolution was the chantry to the chapel of St Nicholas.

Ironically, in 1546 Henry VIII died and he ordered in his will that masses should be said for his soul in the chantry chapel which he had built at Windsor.[15] In the reign of Mary, 1553-1558, an attempt was made to revive chantries, to restore their lost possessions, and to repair the damage done to the chapels ; but the property of the chantries, which had in most cases passed into the hands of private individuals could not be recovered. Consequently, few new chantries were founded and few repaired.[16]

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[1] P. Biver and F. E. Howard, ‘Chantry Chapels in England,’ Archaelogical Journal, (1909), 66, 1, 3.

[2] H. E. Savage, ‘The Great Register of Lichfield’ (Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library, 1923), 3. An expanded publication is H. E. Savage, ‘The Great Register of Lichfield Cathedral, known as Magnum Registrum Album’. In the Third Series of The Collections for a history of Staffordshire, (1924), Staffordshire Record Society, 1–365. This ‘Great White Register’ was, Savage suggested, started in 1323.

[3] Henry I and Edward I are likely dedications. It would not be surprising to know Richard II either had a dedicated altar or at one time it was intended to have one (author’s view).

[4] H. E. Savage (1924), 15.

[5] E. L. Cutts, Parish priests and their people in the Middle Ages in England, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, (1898), 451.

[6] H. E. Savage (1924), 331.

[7] J. C. Cox and W. H. S. J. Hope, ‘Sacrist's Roll of Lichfield Cathedral A.D. 1345’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (1882), 4, 107–138.

[8]  M W Greenslade and R B Pugh, 'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970),153.

[9] Bodleian M.S. Ashmole. 794, Part 1, fol. 48–9.

[10] H. E. Savage, Thomas Heywode, Dean (Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library, 1925), 9–10.

[11] Lichfield Cathedral Library, MS. Lichfield 4, f. 21v. Kenelm, as a boy, inherited the throne of Mercia. On a hunting trip to a forest in Worcestershire (Clent?) he was killed by his jealous sister. Kenelm’s head fell to the forest floor, but his soul took flight in the form of a dove which flew to Rome to inform the pope. The pope made him a saint.

[12] Ibid. 11–18. Also, Lichfield Cathedral Library MS. Lichfield 4, fol.22v and 31.

[13] The 17 chantries terminated and their value are listed in T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 13–4.

[14] Ibid, 14.

[15] P. Biver and F. E. Howard (1909), 3.

[16] Ibid 4.

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, 1366, in the archbishop’s palace of Bordeaux in Aquitaine. He was made king at the age of 10 upon the death of Edward III, and crowned at Westminster Abbey on 16 July 1377. During his 22-year reign, 1377 to 1399, he was a frequent visitor to Lichfield 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 16.

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 Anne of Bohemia his queen, 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 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 when she was older Isabella, daughter of Charles VI of France. 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. 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. 

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 for Christmas in 1398, lodged in the bishop’s palace and received a papal nuncio and an envoy of the Eastern Emperor, Manuel II. Tournaments with jousting were held daily, probably up to his birthday in 1399, and a banqueting hall was built next to the great hall of the palace. He had a bodyguard of 400 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. 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 beyond the Friary.

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 at Hull. 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 with the help of two residents. There is a version he jumped into the moat.

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 34. His interment at the Dominican friary church at Kings Langley in Hertfordshire was conducted by his friend, Bishop John Burghill.[xv] 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.

Richard II with orb and sceptre on the west front. This representation of an older man is inexplicable. Richard died at the young age of 34. All known images show a beard-less man with a round, almost feminine f

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[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.