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IV.—The Shrine of St. Edward the Confessor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

J. G. O'Neilly  and
L. E. Tanner
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Extract

On 16th January 1540 the abbot and twenty-four monks assembled in the Chapter House at Westminster in order to sign the deed of surrender of the monastery. To some in that gathering it must have seemed the end, but to others it was but the prelude, as perhaps they already knew, to a new life amid the old familiar surroundings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 100 , 1966 , pp. 129 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1966

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References

page 129 note 1 H. F. Westlake, Westminster Abbey, p. 209.

page 129 note 2 Walcott, M. E. C., ‘The Inventories of Westminster Abbey at the Dissolution’, Trans. London & Middlesex Arch. Soc. iv, pt. iii (1873), p. 351Google Scholar.

page 130 note 1 Rawlinson MS. D. 68 (Bodleian Library). Quoted in full in A. P. Stanley, Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, 2nd ed. (1868), appendix pp. 610–16.

page 130 note 2 Machyn's Diary (Camden Society, no. xlii (1848), 130). [Collated with original manuscript in B. Museum.]

page 130 note 3 Machyn, op. cit., p. 132.

page 130 note 4 John Feckenham was abbot of the revived monastery at Westminster from 1556 to 1559.

page 131 note 1 Cambridge University Library Ee. 3. 59, ‘La Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei’, reproduced in facsimile and edited by M. R. James for the Roxburghe Club, 1920, fols. 54, 55, 65.

page 131 note 2 In the Chapter Library, Westminster Abbey.

page 131 note 3 Chronica Majora (Rolls Series), iv, 156–7, etc.; cf. H. M. Colvin, History of the King's Works, i, 147–50.

page 131 note 4 St. Alban's Shrine: paper by Ridgway Lloyd in R.I.B.A. library: translation of a Latin description written c. 1428.

page 131 note 5 Some holes in the main rib of the vaulting were un- covered during recent cleaning. The holes had been filled with lime and hair, probably under the surveyorship of Sir Christopher Wren.

page 131 note 6 There is a contemporary list of relics in the middle of the fifteenth century in Flete's, JohnHistory of Westminster Abbey (written between 1420 and 1465), ed. by Robinson, J. Armitage (C.U.P., 1909), pp. 18–20Google Scholar, 68–73.

page 131 note 7 For the position of the relics see the will of Henry V and also of Walsingham, both quoted by W. H. St. John Hope, ‘The Funeral, Monument, and Chantry Chapel of King Henry the Fifth’, Archaeologia, vol. lxv (1914), and the Deposition of Witnesses concerning the sepulture of King Henry VI (West. Abbey Muniment 6389**).

page 132 note 1 For the text of the inscription see below and W. R. Lethaby, Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen, p. 321.

page 134 note 1 See G. G. Scott, Gleanings from Westminster Abbey, p. 59.

page 134 note 2 Opinions vary on this point. Micklethwaite, , ‘pulled right down to the ground’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, xv, 413–14Google Scholar. G. G. Scott, ‘partly demolished’, Gleanings from Westminster Abbey, p. 59; he later revised this opinion and thought that the shrine had been completely dismantled, Personal and Professional Recollections, p. 284. Lethaby, first displacement westward at building of Henry V's chantry; second displacement when coffin was replaced in Feckenham's time. There is no evidence of the first displacement suggested, nor would there have been any need to move the shrine when the chantry was built.

page 136 note 1 These are the tombs of John and Margaret de Valence, 1277 (Lethaby, Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen, p. 317).

page 136 note 2 The tomb's present position is on the south side of the Confessor's Chapel between the tombs of Edward III and Richard II.

page 136 note 3 West. Abbey Muniment 19693: Sacrist's Account Roll, 1441, which shows that it was completed in this year.

page 140 note 1 For the purpose of clarity, in discussing the relation of the slabs with the base, the dimensions given are to the nearest ¼ inch and smaller fractions (⅛ and ⅙ inch) are not used. Allowance has been made for the jointing between the slabs.

page 142 note 1 See Poole, Henry, ‘Annals of the Masonry carried out in Westminster Abbey’, Journal of the R.I.B.A., 20 Feb. 1890, p. 187Google Scholar.

page 142 note 2 Edward Hutton, The Cosmati, pp. 19–21 and pls. 42B, 43A and B, 44A and B.

page 142 note 3 In the rearranged form of the shrine the one existing column was too short to fit. The large twisted columns would also be too short and any capital they supported would, if in scale with the columns, be too wide to fit under the projection of the inscription course.

page 146 note 1 The only authority for this inscription is Richard Sporley (monk at Westminster, 1429–90), who wrote a history of the abbots and priors of Westminster Abbey (B.M., Cotton MS. Claud. A. VIII) based on Flete but occasionally expanding his text. See Flete, op. cit., pp. 31 and 114 n. The inscription is quoted in Lethaby, Westminster Abbey and the Kings’ Craftsmen, p. 321.

page 146 note 2 See also R.C.H.M. London, Vol. I. Westminster Abbey (1924), p. 28 b.

page 146 note 3 Poole, H., Journal of the R.I.B.A., 20 Feb. 1890, 187Google Scholar.

page 146 note 4 G. G. Scott, Personal and Professional Recollections, p. 284.

page 148 note 1 G. G. Scott, Gleanings, p. 165; Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey (5th ed.), p. 125.

page 148 note 2 Cf. Hutton, op. cit., pls. 19, 22.

page 148 note 3 Its history has been worked out by Tanner, Joan D., ‘Tombs of Royal Babies in Westminster Abbey’ Journal of the British Archeological Association, 3rd series, vol. xvi (1953)Google Scholar.

page 149 note 1 W. Chamden, Reges, Reginae, Nobiles et Alii in Ecclesia Collegiata B, Petri Westmonasterii sepulti (1600).

page 149 note 2 Rolls Series, Flores, iii, 61 n.

page 150 note 1 Westminster Abbey Collection.

page 150 note 2 In 1556, monastic life was resumed and Feckenham was appointed abbot.

page 150 note 3 For what is known of Modena's connexion with the abbey at this time see Westminster Abbey Muniment 64299.

page 152 note 1 The recent restoration of the canopy took approximately two years.

page 150 note 2 The manufacture of glass for mosaics was a closely guarded Venetian secret, and it is improbable that it was known in England. As the glass would have had to be brought from Italy it makes its use unlikely had the canopy been constructed in the time available. See W. Scott, ‘Medieval Fabrication of Materials for Glass Mosaics’, Journal of the R.I.B.A. iii, 516.

page 153 note 1 Higgins, Alfred, ‘The Work of Florentine Sculptors England’, Archaeological Journal, Sept. 1894Google Scholar.

page 153 note 2 Benedetto da Rovetzano was working in England from 1521 onwards. In 1524 he began Wolsey's monument at Windsor. In 1526 he made the altar of the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey. There is a style attributed to Rovetin zano in which the motif used in the canopy appears. See John Pope-Hennessy, Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, vol. 2. Cat. entry 424. See also object no. 5959 of 1859.

page 154 note 1 Philippus Sculptor is likely to have been the principal carver; J. H. Harvey, Dictionary of Medieval Architects, pp. 207–8. Don Ernesto de la Orden has suggested (in a lecture to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1963) that Philippus is Felip de Vigarny, the famous Spanish sculptor of Burgundian origin. The model is built to a scale of 1½ in. to I ft. with pieces corresponding to the actual pieces of the shrine. The model is demountable and the photographs illustrate the sequences of dismounting and rebuilding of the actual shrine described in the text.