Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:33:38.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The English Chapel Royal Before 1300

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Get access

Extract

Until quite recently music historians thought that the Chapel Royal was founded in the fifteenth century. In 1895, Henry Davey wrote: ‘We may … date the rise of English music about 1400–20, and suppose that a Chapel Royal was first set up by Henry IV or Henry V’. Since then, much pioneering archive work has been done by Mr. John Harvey, Dr. Frank Harrison and Dr. Brian Trowell. It was Grattan Flood who, in 1924, first revealed to musical scholars what the medieval historian had long known: that the Chapel Royal in England dates back at least a further three centuries. Taking his cue from Flood, Stanley Roper delivered a paper to this Association three years later, which he called ‘Music at the English Chapels Royal c. 1135–Present Day’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 History of English Music, London, 1895, p. 54.Google Scholar

2 Music and Letters, v (1924), no. 1, p. 85.Google Scholar

3 The Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series, 1896), III. 807–8; best text in Dialogue de Scaccaιo, ed. C. Johnson, Edinburgh, 1950, p. 129.Google Scholar

4 Flood speaks of ‘Richard of Nottingham and Thomas Duns, “choir boys in the Chapel Royal”,’ who were sent to Oxford by the king in 1303. P.R.O., E. 101/363/18, f.3v, in fact says only: ‘scolaribus missis ad scolas Oxonie per preceptum princιpis’; inaccurately quoted by T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administratwe History of Medieval England, Manchester, 1920–33, 11. 174, n. 1. See below, n. 50.Google Scholar

5 e.g. Henry III's capella: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora (Rolls Series, 1872–84), IV. 219–20.Google Scholar

6 Fleckenstein, J., Du Hofkapelle der deutschen Könιge, Stuttgart, 1959, 1. 11–28; P. Gorissen, ‘La Chapelle palatine des souverains carolingiens’, Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, LVI (1961), 465–70.Google Scholar

The author has elsewhere presented evidence (in a doctoral dissertation to be submitted to the University of Cambridge) to suggest that the cappella was established, in Kιng Pepin's reign, as a direct imitation of the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant and its attendant Levite priests.Google Scholar

7 Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. D. Whitelock, Cambridge, 1930, XVI (2); also ibid., XXIX. B. Thorpe, Dιplomatarιum Anglicum aevι Saxonici, London, 1865, p. 372. See also capella in the twelfth-century Chronιcon abbatιae Ramcseiensιs (Rolls Series, 1886), p. 172.Google Scholar

8 Studies in the Public Records, Oxford, 1948, p. 41; detailed discussion, F. Barlow, The English Church 1000–1060, London, 1963, pp. 121–24.Google Scholar

9 Tout, Chapters, 1. 164–67.Google Scholar

10 Tout, Chapters, 1. 67–9, 74–5.Google Scholar

11 Calendar of Lιberate Rolls (Rolls Series, 1917–), 1. 262.Google Scholar

12 Calendar of Patent Rolls (Rolls Series, 1901–) 1348–50, p. 144; for status of St. George's before 1348, see Roberts, A. K. B., St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, 1348–1416, Windsor, 1947, pp. 36.Google Scholar

13 More disputable were the colleges in Wallingford castle and Nottingham castle, the chapel of St. Mary, Liskeard, and the chapel in the manor of Nayland.Google Scholar

14 Incomplete lists in Reg. J. de Pontissara, 11, ed. C. Deedes (Canterbury and York Soc., xxx), Oxford, 1924, pp. 777–78; Calendar of Close Rolls (Rolls Series, 1900–) 1313–18, pp. 172–73, 596.Google Scholar

Mr. J. H. Denton, of Downing College, Cambridge, has advised me on this matter, and kindly passed on his material for my use.Google Scholar

15 F. LI. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain, London, 1958.Google Scholar

16 Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, 11, ed. C. Johnson and H. A. Cronne, Oxford, 1956, nos. 548, 544; ibid., 1, ed. H. W. C. Davis, Oxford, 1913, nos. 22, 315.Google Scholar

17 Regesta, 11, nos. 1260, 1299; 684, 687, 1010, 1091, 1204; Constιtutio, p. 129 and n. 7; John of Worcester, Chronicle, ed. J. H. R. Weaver, Oxford, 1908, pp. 15–6; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontιficum (Rolls Series, 1870), p. 303; Cf. L. V. Delisle, Recueιl des Actes de Henri II, Paris, 1909, Introduction, pp. 92, 96–8.Google Scholar

18 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. D. Whitelock, D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker, London, 1961, p. 164.Google Scholar

19 The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon, ed. and tr. T. Forrester, London, 1853, p. 272.Google Scholar

20 Ralph of Diceto, Opera Historica (Rolls Series, 1876), 1. 302, Roger of Hoveden, Chronica (Rolls Series, 1868–71), 1. 216.Google Scholar

21 CLR, 1. 364, 406, 441, 496; 11. 32.Google Scholar

22 Tout, T. F., The Place of the Reign of Edward II ιn English Hιstory, Manchester, 1914, 2nd edn., 1936, p. 283.Google Scholar

23 Liber Regie Capelle, ed. W. Ullmann (Henry Bradshaw Soc., XCII), London, 1961, p. 64.Google Scholar

24 Regesta, 11, no. 490; cited Richardson and Sayles, Governance of Mediaeval England, Edinburgh, 1963, p. 217, n. 2.Google Scholar

25 Itinerary in Regesta, 11, pp. xxixxxxi.Google Scholar

26 Gervase of Canterbury, Opera Hιstorιca (Rolls Scries, 1879–80), 1. 527.Google Scholar

27 Kantorowicz, E. H., Laudes Regιae, California, 1946, pp. 121–22.Google Scholar

28 See White, G. H., ‘Household of the Norman Kings’, Trans. Royal Hιstorical Soc., 4th ser., xxx (1948), 137, n. 1; Red Book, 111, pp. cclxxxixccxc.Google Scholar

29 Placitorum … Abbrevιatio (Record Commission), London, 1811, p. 95 (1200–16); cited R. A. Brown, H. M. Colvin and A. J. Taylor, The History of the King's Works, 11, H.M.S.O., London, 1963, p. 901.Google Scholar

30 Pipe Roll 34 Henry II (Pipe Roll Soc., XXXVIII), London, 1925, p. 19.Google Scholar

31 Opera (Rolls Series, 1861–91), 111. 302.Google Scholar

32 Epistolae’, in J. P. Migne, Patrologia cursus completus: Series Latιna, Paris, 1844–, CCVII, ep. XIV, cols. 4253.Google Scholar

33 CPR 1266–72, pp. 119, 372, 444, 503.Google Scholar

34 e.g. his account on the Pιpe Roll 28 Henry III (P.R.O., E. 372/88, m. 12 dors); See Howell, M., Regalian Right in Medieval England, London, 1962, on this practice.Google Scholar

35 e.g. CLR, 1. 251, 262; CPR 1232–47, p. 224.Google Scholar

36 CLR, 11. 292.Google Scholar

37 CPR 1232–47, PP. 294–95, 373, cf. P. 283.Google Scholar

38 Memoranda Roll I John (Pipe Roll Soc., LIX), London, 1943, p. 90; Rotuli de Liberate ac de Mιsιs et Praestitis, ed. T. D. Hardy, London, 1844, P. 25.Google Scholar

39 The payment of £15, (CLR, 1. 311), is three years before the chant disappears. That on ιbιd., 11. 32 runs consecutively from ibid., 1. 441.Google Scholar

40 B.M., Harl 2901, f. 35; see Richardson, H. G., ‘Early Coronation Records’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XVI (1938), 11.Google Scholar

41 Westminster Abbey, Litιngton Missal, f. 217; see Legg, J. W., Missale ad usum ecclesiae Westmonasteriensis (Henry Bradshaw Soc., v), London, 1891–97, 111, col. 714, n. 3.Google Scholar

42 Rot. de Liberate etc., p. 1 (October 1200).Google Scholar

43 Publ. Tout, Chapters, 11. 160.Google Scholar

44 P.R.O., C.47/4/1.Google Scholar

45 P.R.O., C.47/4/4, C.47/4/5.Google Scholar

46 B.M., Add 7965, ff. 123, 129; Add 7966A, f. 136; household ordinance 1279 may also refer to him.Google Scholar

47 B.M., Nero C viii, f. 15; P.R.O., E.101/373/26, f. 50; E.101/375/8, f. 3v; E. 101/376/7, ff. 16v, 87.Google Scholar

48 Publ. Tout, Place of Edward II, pp. 250–51.Google Scholar

49 H. C. de Lafontaine, The King's Musιck, London, 1909, p. 39.Google Scholar

50 Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, Queen's Commissioners, London, 1852, 1. 66–7.Google Scholar

51 Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain, p. 21.Google Scholar

52 Liber Regie Capelle, p. 56.Google Scholar

53 Reg. J. de Pontιssara, 11. 777.Google Scholar

54 Above, n. 27.Google Scholar

55 B.M., Cotton, Vitellius E XII, f. 160v (not ff. 159v–60, as given by Henderson, or f. 159, as in Maskell); text in Liber Pontificalιs Chr. Bainbridge, ed. W. G. Henderson (Surtees Soc., LXI), Durham, 1875, pp. 279–83, XXVI; W. Maskell, Monumenta ritualia ecclesiae Anglιcanae, London, 1846–47; 2nd edn., Oxford, 1882, 11, 85–8; Laudes Regiae, p. 171.Google Scholar

56 Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.11.10 (James 249), ff. 108v–9; Henderson, op. cit., p. 283; Pontifical of Magdalen College, ed. H. A. Wilson (Henry Bradshaw Soc., XXXIX), London, 1910, pp. 252–54; Laudes Regiae, p. 171.Google Scholar

57 Worcester Cathedral, MS F.160, ff. 100v–1, and 351–52; text in The Winchester Troper, ed. W. H. Frere (Henry Bradshaw Soc., VIII), London, 1894, pp. 130–31; Paléographιe Musicale, XII (1922), pp. 74–5, and facsimile fols. 201–2; Laudes Regiae, p. 172, and trscr. pp. 217–19.Google Scholar

58 CLR, 1. 197; Laudes Regiae, p. 98.Google Scholar

59 Rouen Bibl. Mun., MS. 489 (A 254), f. 71; text in Le Graduel de l'église cathédrale de Rouen au XIIIe siècle, ed. H. Loriquet and Dom J. Pothier, Rouen, 1907, 1. 69–72; facsimile ibid., pl. I. For a suggestion that laudes were sung in Saxon England, see Richardson and Sayles, Governance, pp. 406–9.Google Scholar

60 B.M., Add 35291, f. 140; Liber Quotidianus Contrarotulatoris Garderobae, London, 1787, p. 251; cited D. Stevens, The Mulliner Book: a commentary, London, 1952, p. 12, n. 7.Google Scholar

61 B.M., Add 7965, f. 146v (1296/7); Add 7966A, f. 151 (1300/1); Add 8835, f. 127 (1303/4); P.R.O., E.101/369/11, f. 177 (1305/6).Google Scholar

62 Tout, Chapters, 11. 15–6.Google Scholar

63 Coussemaker, C. E. H., Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series, Paris, 1864–76, 1. 3441.Google Scholar

64 Ludwig, F., ‘Dιe Quellen der Motetten ältesten Stils’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, v. no. 4 (Dec. 1923), 294, 315.Google Scholar

65 CLR, v. 41.Google Scholar

66 Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., v. 475.Google Scholar

The author wishes to thank Professor Dart for invaluable help in the preparation of this paper, the singers who performed the musical examples — Messrs. J. M. Buttrey, C. M. F. Brooker, G. R. Rastall, M. L. Taylor, J. P. Tate—and Mr. R. L. Parker, who made the recordings.Google Scholar