SIMON OF SUDBURY, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
In a niche in the vestry of St. Gregory's Church, Sudbury, Suffolk, is preserved the skull of the murdered archbishop: beneath the niche is placed the following inscription, which appears to me worthy of a place in your pages:—
"The head of Simon Theobald, who was born at Sudbury, and thence called Simon of Sudbury; he was sent when but a youth into foreign parts to study the civil law, whereof he was made doctor: he visited most of the universities of France, was made chaplain to Pope Innocent, and auditor rotæ, or judge of the Roman court. By the interest of this Pope he was made Chancellor of Salisbury. In the year 1361, he was consecrated Bishop of London; and in the year 1375 was translated to the see of Canterbury, and made Chancellor of England. While he was Bishop of London he built the upper part of St. Gregory's in Sudbury; and where his father's house stood he erected a college of secular priests, and endowed it with the yearly revenue of one hundred and twenty-two pounds eighteen shillings, and was at length barbarously beheaded upon Tower Hill, in London, by the rabble in Wat Tyler's Rebellion, in the reign of Richard II. 1382."
This inscription is written in an old hand on a piece of parchment. On turning to Stow's Annales for an account of these transactions, I find a very interesting relation of the circumstances above mentioned. I trust to be excused if I add a few brief extracts. King Richard had ordered the Tower gates to be opened to the rebels, though—
"There was the same time in the Tower 600 warlike men, furnished with armour and weapon, expert men in armes, and 600 archers, all which did quaile in stomacke."
Stow's Annales (edit. 1601, 4to.), p. 457.
The rebels having entered, conducted themselves with unbridled license, and "with terrible noyse and fury" laid hands on the archbishop, "drew him out of the chappell," and proceeded at once to put him to death:
"He, kneeling downe, offered his necke to him that should strike it off; being stricken in the necke, but not deadly, he putting his hande to his necke, said thus, a ha, it is the hand of God: he had not removed his hand from the place where the payne was, but that being sodainly stricken, his fingers ends being cut off, and part of the arteries, he fell downe; but yet he died not, till being mangled with eight strokes in the necke, and in the heade, he fulfilled most worthy martyrdome."
Stow's Annales, p. 458.
Thus "barbarously" was the prelate murdered; the rebels then took his head, fastened it "on a pole, and set it on London bridge, in place where-before stood the head of Sir John Minstarworth." (Ibid.) Stow proceeds to relate some more particulars relative to the archbishop's history, stating that "he builded the upper end," that is, I conceive, the chancel "of St. Gregorie's Church at Sudbury;" and concludes his account by saying:
"He was slaine as ye haue heard, and afterwards buried in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury."
Ibid.
Now Godwin, in his valuable work De Presulibus, states, that his body was buried under the high altar of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. But in Winkle's Cathedrals (London, 1836), vol. i. p. 38., we find Stow's account corroborated; for—
"The monument of Archbishop Sudbury, who was beheaded in 1381 [1382], is in the northern aisle, nearly parallel with the altar; it bears no effigy, but is surmounted by a sumptuous canopy of very elegant architectural design, but now much mutilated."
Of course, the fact that his monument is in the cathedral, does not prove that his body was buried there. I shall be glad to learn from any of your correspondents, what evidence there is for Godwin's assertion. Gostling, in his Walk in and about the City of Canterbury (5th edit. Cant. 1804), though he mentions the prelate's benefactions to the cathedral (pp. 12. 79.), and his tomb (p. 220.), does not state his place of sepulture. At p. 60., however (note ‡), in a brief notice of St. Dunstan's Church, he says:
"In a vault under the family chancel of Roper here is kept a skull, said to be that of the great Sir Thomas More; it is in a niche of the wall, secured with an iron grate, though some say his favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, who lies here, desired to be buried with it in her arms. The vault being full, was closed up not many years since."
This curious coincidence is at least worth noting.
I trust that the interest necessarily attaching to any remains of so celebrated an historical personage, will prove a sufficient apology to your readers for the length of this note.
W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.