Historical sketches of old Charing. / The hospital and chapel of Saint Mary Roncevall. Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and the monuments erected in her memory.

by Sir James Galloway

Dissolution of the Fraternity by Henry VIII (1544).

The policy of the King, enforced in many cases by the greed of his agents and other members of the Court, could not leave the Hospital unscathed, and not even the charitable deeds of the fraternity were sufficient to save them from dispersion. The grief with which the master, wardens and members of the fraternity assembled to ratify their last official act in a corporate capacity may be conceived, and it is possible to some faint extent to imagine the feelings of despair and of bitter irony uppermost in the minds of the brethren and sisters when they heard the words of the Deed of Surrender read aloud. In this document the master, wardens, brethren and sisters of the fraternity declared that they are “specially influenced at the present time by divers causes and considerations to give and concede by this Charter to the most excellent and invincible prince, our Lord Henry VIII, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church in England and Ireland,” their Church, Hospital, and all other property and privileges. The affixing of their Common Seal to this document concludes the chequered history of the Convent of St. Mary Roncevall at Charing Cross (November 11, 1544).

Though the remaining members of the Community were deprived of their offices and ejected from the home which they had so long possessed at Charing Cross, their lot was not so hard as in the case of many others driven into the world at this time. A pittance from their income was left. There may be read in a book of payments of Edward VI, under the heading “Pencions out of Monasteries” that the guardians of Roncevall were allotted the munificent annual income of 6l. 13s. 4d. Very oddly in this document the larger sum of 8l. is entered and crossed out in favour of the smaller amount mentioned. The amount of the pension was measured with parsimonious exactness. Quarterly payments of 33 shillings and 4 pence are entered as being paid to the few surviving members of the fraternity so late as at Christmas, the Annunciation, Midsummer and Michaelmas, 1551 and 1552.

Fig. 10.—The common seal of the Fraternity of St. Mary Roncevall.
Fig. 11.—From the imperfect impression attached to the Deed of Surrender.