The Lady Chapel has frequently served as the mausoleum of saints, princes, noblemen, and dignitaries of the Church. The stately and magnificent edifice at Westminster, known as Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, was built for this purpose in 1502, by the first Tudor monarch, on the site of the original Lady Chapel, erected by Henry III. in 1220. The royal founder, his wife, and other royal personages now await the resurrection in the tomb set up in this famous building. The Lady Chapel at S. Mary’s, Warwick, which is said to be the chief ornament of that church, was also built as a tomb-house in 1443, by Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Their desire to rest in the chapel, dedicated to [p 83] the blessed Virgin, was closely associated with the idea which chiefly moved our forefathers to erect these buildings. They had been taught to believe in the invocation of saints, and were anxious to secure, for themselves and their dear ones, the mediation and intercession of the Mother of our Lord, whose influence with her Divine Son, they supposed, was all prevailing. So they founded these chapels in her honour, and solicited her good offices on their behalf by frequent services and prostrations before her image, which occupied the place of honour above “oure Ladye’s Altar” crowned as the Queen of Heaven, and profusely adorned with splendid jewels and exquisite embroidery. They believed, moreover, that as she could succour the living, so she would prevail with her Son on behalf of the dead. These sacred buildings were, accordingly, used also as chantries, where masses were offered daily, and the intervention of “oure Ladye S. Mary” was solicited to secure the release of the souls of the faithful departed from the flames of purgatory, through which, it was supposed, they must pass, to be purified from all the defilements of their earthly course, and “made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” [p 84] In frescoes on the walls, and in paintings on the windows, the Virgin was represented, interceding for the souls of the faithful as they came forth to judgment.
After the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII., and the suppression of chantries by Edward VI., many of these buildings shared the fate of the conventual churches to which they were attached. In some places the Lady Chapel was left to decay, and disappeared in the course of a few years, like that at Norwich, which fell into a ruinous condition as early as 1569. In other localities it was allowed to stand until the turbulent days of the Commonwealth, as at Peterborough, where it was taken down to supply materials for the reparation of the Cathedral, which had been greatly injured by Cromwell’s soldiers. In several places it was appropriated to other uses, and even divested of its sacred character. The elegant chapel at Ely, erected 1321–49, and said to have been one of the most perfect buildings of that age, was assigned at the Reformation to the parishioners of Holy Trinity to serve as their Parish Church, and is now called Trinity Church. The splendid specimen at S. Albans was [p 85] separated from the presbytery by a public thoroughfare, which was made through the antechapel, and a charter of Edward VI. transferred the sacred building to the authorities of the ancient Grammar School, and it was used as a schoolroom until the restoration in 1870. At S. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, the Lady Chapel has also been used for scholastic purposes, and at Waltham Abbey it has accommodated not only parochial schools but public meetings and petty sessions.
Among existing Lady Chapels, King Henry the Seventh’s Chapel occupies the first place for magnificence. The first Tudor monarch, in his anxiety to make his peace with God before his death, and to commemorate the union of the houses of York and Lancaster, determined to found a chapel in honour of the blessed Virgin, “in whom,” he declares in his will, “hath ever been my most singulier trust and confidence, ... and by whom I have hitherto in al myne adversities ever had my special comforte and relief.” He also made due provision for the celebration of masses and the distribution of alms “perpetually, for ever, while the world shall endure” for the welfare of his soul. The laying [p 86] of the foundation stone is recorded by the ancient chronicler as follows: “On the 24th daie of January 150⅔ a quarter of an houre afore three of the clocke at after noone of the same daie, the first stone of our Ladie Chapell, within the monasterie of Westminster, was laid by the hands of John Islip, Abbot of the same monasterie ... and diverse others.”[8] After its completion it was so universally admired, that Leland the antiquary describes it as “orbis miraculum”—the wonder of the world. About fifty years after its dedication the services, for which it was specially designed by its royal founder, were brought to an end by the Act of Parliament which suppressed the chantries throughout the kingdom, and then followed three centuries of gross neglect which reduced it to “an almost shapeless mass of ruins,” as it was described in 1803. Four years later, in 1807, Dean Vincent obtained a parliamentary grant for the restoration of the building, and the necessary repairs were completed in 1822. The Chapel still retains much of its ancient splendour, and the elegant and elaborate ceiling is a marvel of architectural skill. It has been used since the [p 87] year 1725 for the installation of the Knights of the Bath, and their banners are suspended over the old carved misereres or misericordes of the monks.
“Ye Chappell of oure Ladye” at S. Alban’s is also a most elegant specimen of the buildings, dedicated to the blessed Virgin. The foundations appear to have been laid by John de Hertford, abbot from 1235 to 1260. But at the election of Hugh de Eversdone, in 1308, the walls had only reached the level of the underside of the window sills, a height of ten feet above the ground. During his rule he laboured so assiduously to complete the work, that in a short time he finished it. The building, at its dedication, was so rich in detail that it is described by ancient writers as “a magnificent sight.” The work of Abbot Hugh included the exquisite carvings in stone, which represent about seventy different specimens of forms in nature. During its use as a Grammar School, from 1553 to 1870, the interior suffered much injury from the hands of the schoolboys, and was allowed to fall into a state of ruin and decay. Shortly after the removal of the School in 1870, a restoration was undertaken by the ladies of Hertfordshire, but [p 88] their good intentions were not carried into effect, through lack of the necessary funds. Lord Grimthorp then generously came to the rescue, and through his munificence the Chapel has been thoroughly and judiciously restored. It now stands once more in all its glory, as a perfect gem of architecture and one of the most elegant Lady Chapels in Christendom.
“Ye Chappell of oure Ladye” at Waltham Abbey is said to be one of the richest specimens of mediæval architecture in Essex. The building has been greatly defaced since the suppression of chantries, but still bears traces of its original glory. “The Lady Chapel,” says the late Professor Freeman, “must have been a most beautiful specimen of its style, but few ancient structures have been more sedulously disfigured.” It was erected before A.D. 1292, as, during that year, Roger Levenoth, an inhabitant, endowed the chantry, with a house and 100 acres of land in Roydon. The Chapel was in a flourishing condition in the reign of Edward III., as we find from the return made in obedience to the royal order, which was issued to the master of the ceremonies of every guild and chantry in the King’s dominions. In the Court language of [p 89] that period, which was Norman French, Roger Harrof and John de Poley, the chantry priests, are described as “meisters de la petit compaignie ordeigne al honor de Dieu et ure Donne seyncte Marie en la Ville de Waltham seynte croice.” The architect selected, as the site of the building, the space formed by the easternmost bay of the south aisle of the nave and the western side of the south transept. This peculiar position indicates that it was not the work of the monks, but that of the parishioners, who were allowed the use of the nave as their parish church from the days of King Harold II., the founder. A well-known antiquarian writes: “It seems to have been built by the parishioners, and not by the abbot and convent, and its position is due to its occupying the only available spot, and where only two walls wanted building. A similar case occurs at Rochester. Where the Abbey built the Lady Chapel it was usually east of the transept—at the east end if there was room, at the north side if otherwise.”[9] The parishioners could not erect their Lady Chapel at the east end, because the choir or presbytery had been used as the monastic church from the days of [p 90] Henry II., who, to atone for the massacre of Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, changed the secular foundation of Harold, and introduced an abbot and monks of the Augustinian order. Another Lady Chapel had probably been erected at the east end for the use of the monks, in accordance with the custom of the age, but this shared the destruction which befell the whole of the eastern portion of the church after the dissolution of the monastery in 1540. The preservation of the parish Lady Chapel is therefore due to its position at the west of the presbytery. In a transcript by Peter le Neve, Norroy King at Arms, 1698, it is stated that a chapel was dedicated at Waltham in the year 1188, by William de Vere, Bishop of Hereford, “in honore Dei [et gloriosæ Virginis Mariae] et B. Martyris atque pontificis Thomae nomine.”[10] This has led to the conjecture that reference is made to the existing building,[11] or to that which formerly stood at the east end.[12] But the original Waltham manuscript shows that it does not refer to a Lady Chapel at all, but to the Chapel of S. Thomas of Canterbury.[13]
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The masonry of the exterior of the two walls erected when the Chapel was founded, consists of alternating bands of stone, squared bricks, and flint, so that it produces a “poly-chromatic effect.”[14] There are three large buttresses of considerable projection, with pedimented sets-off and slopes, one being situated at the south-west angle, and the other two on the south of the building. Two smaller buttresses also occupy a place on the south. Niches, with pedestals for images, are still standing in the primary buttresses.
The interior of the Chapel measures 41 feet 7 inches in length, 23 feet in breadth, and 23 feet in height. It is approached by a steep ascent of nine long narrow stone steps, which are situated near the south-west buttress. The ancient doorway is beautifully decorated with ball flowers. The floor stands at an elevation of nearly five feet above the floor of the chancel, an arrangement which appears to be peculiar to Waltham. It was apparently built at this high level to add to the loftiness of the crypt below, which was a capacious chamber of much importance in olden times, and consists of two wide bays of quadripartite [p 92] vaulting. There is no way of access from the interior of the Church, but “the chapel is connected with the south aisle by a single arch of poor and ordinary architecture, a sad contrast to the glorious Romanesque work of the nave.”[15] At the west end there is a large and beautiful six-light, square-headed window, with a rich and peculiar arrangement of a double plane of tracery, the inner plane consisting of three arches. This window, and the four elegant windows of three lights on the south side, are supposed to have been filled with stained glass, like that of the Chapter House at York Minster, and other buildings of the same period. At the extreme south-east of the building the remains of the ancient sedilia and piscina may still be seen. The walls were adorned with distemper paintings, chocolate coloured vine-leaves on a yellow ground running round the spandrels and windows. This decoration probably included a series of paintings, representing scenes in the life of the Mother of our Lord, and concluding with her assumption and coronation as the Queen of Heaven. There was also a representation of the Last Judgment in which “Our Lady” occupied [p 93] the place of honour near her Divine Son and Lord, interceding for the faithful as they appeared before their Judge. On the removal of the plaster from the east wall during the restoration in 1875, the remains of a fresco of “the Doom” were discovered, and here are depicted the Judge of all mankind in the scarlet robes of majesty, the Virgin as intercessor, S. Michael the Archangel, presiding over the balances in which souls are weighed, the Apostles as assessors, bishops and abbots with the keys of S. Peter, admitting the faithful into the Holy Catholic Church, human forms emerging from the grave, the path of life, the chains of everlasting darkness, demons clothed in flames, and the jaws of hell. The space under this fresco was probably occupied by beautiful statuary, the image of the blessed Virgin standing in the centre, immediately above the altar of “Our Ladye.” At the dissolution of the monastery “a table of imagery of the xii. apostles,” belonging to this Chapel, was valued at ten shillings. A few fragments of statuary, supposed to have formed part of this decoration, were discovered during the restoration of the Abbey Church in 1860, and have been inserted in the south-east wall of the [p 94] chancel. These relics of the splendid past include the mutilated stone figures of four saints, probably the evangelists, beautifully carved, and a representation of the crucifixion in black marble, but the ornament of precious metal, with which it was adorned, has long since disappeared.
The altars, desks, and tables in the Lady Chapel were covered with plates of silver, as in the crypt beneath, which was also, in those days, a splendid chantry, served by its own priest, who was called “the Charnel Priest.” The sacramental vessels and plate, which were of great value, were sold after the suppression. Dr. Thomas Fuller, Incumbent of Waltham Abbey in 1648, gives the following extracts from the churchwarden’s accounts: “1549. Imprimis.—Sold the silver plate which was on the desk in the charnel, weighing five ounces, for twenty-five shillings. Guess,” adds the historian, “the gallantry of our church by this (presuming all the rest in proportionable equipage) when the desk whereon the priest read was inlaid with plate of silver.” “1551. Item.—Received for two hundred seventy-one ounces of plate, sold at several times for the best advantage, sixty-seven [p 95] pound fourteen shillings and ninepence.”[16] The inventory of goods made by order of Henry VIII. also mentions “iiii. tables [of oure Ladye] plated with sylver and gylte, every one of them with ii. folding leves.” The Chapel was furnished besides with “a lytell payre of organes,” valued at xxs., at the dissolution of the monastery, when Thomas Tallis, the father of English church music, was organist of the Abbey Church, and presided at the “greate large payre of organes” in the Choir. He was assisted by John Boston, of Waltham, who probably performed on the smaller instrument in the Lady Chapel. Both names are mentioned in the pension list, Tallis receiving xxs. for wages and xxs. reward, and Boston iiis. for wages and iiis. reward.
A large number of wax tapers and candles was consumed annually at the various services held in the Lady Chapel and Crypt. In the return made by Sir Roger Harrop and Sir John de Poley, masters of the two chantries in the reign of Edward III., it is stated that every man and woman in this guild paid a yearly subscription of sixpence towards the expenses, and at the feasts of “oure Ladye” all [p 96] “Christiens” of the company gave five burning tapers (tapres ardant); in honour of our Lord four large torches; and on other special occasions fifteen tapers. Lights were also kept burning during the solemn requiem and funeral services, when prayers were offered that perpetual light might shine upon the souls of the departed. It is most likely that this impressive ceremonial had been observed in both chantries, when the body of Queen Eleanor rested for the night in the Abbey Church on its way to Westminster, and again when the remains of her royal consort, Edward I., were deposited for three months before the tomb of Harold. The wax in stock for these memorial services at the suppression was sold by the churchwardens as follows: “Item.—Sold so much wax as amounts to twenty six shillings.” Dr. Fuller remarks on this transaction, “So thrifty the wardens that they bought not candles and tapers ready made, but bought the wax at the best hand and paid poor people for the making of them. Now they sold their magazine of wax as useless. Under the Reformation more light and fewer candles.”[17]
In the days of the chantry, lands, tenements, [p 97] and other gifts were presented and bequeathed that “obits” or prayers for the dead might be offered before the altar and image of “oure Ladye.” Dr. Fuller gives the following account of “obits” at Waltham: “The charge of an obit was two shillings and two pence; and, if any be curious to have the particulars thereof, it was thus expended: to the parish priest, three pence; to our Lady’s priest, three pence; to the charnel priest, threepence; to the two clerks, four pence; to the children (these I conceive choristers) three pence; to the sexton, two pence; to the bellman, two pence; for two tapers, two pence; for oblation, two pence. O, the reasonable rates at Waltham! Two shillings and two pence for an obit, the price whereof in S. Paul’s, in London, was forty shillings! For, forsooth, the higher the church, the holier the service, the dearer the price, though he had given too much that had given but thanks for such vanities. To defray the expenses of these obits, the parties prayed for, or their executors, left lands, houses, or stock to the churchwardens.”[18] These obits were abolished when the chantries were suppressed in the first year of the reign of King Edward VI. [p 98] “Now,” says Dr. Fuller, “was the brotherhood in the church dissolved, consisting as formerly of three priests, three choristers, and two sextons; and the rich plate belonging to them was sold for the good of the parish. Superstition by degrees being banished out of the church, we hear no more of prayers and masses for the dead. Every obit now had its own obit, and fully expired; the lands formerly given thereunto being employed to more charitable uses.”[19]