The position of the Priory, close to the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester, made it convenient for many functions. In this church were married, in 1406, Edward Holland, Earl of Kent, and Lucia, daughter of the Lord of Milan. Here also, in 1424, was married James the First, King of Scotland, a poet and scholar, of whom Drummond of Hawthornden wrote that “of former kings it might be said that the nation made the kings, but of this king, that he made the people a nation.” His bride was Joan, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, and niece to Cardinal Beaufort.
“The fairest and the freshest yonge flower
That e’er I saw, methought, before that hour.”
In 1539 the House was suppressed and given to Sir Anthony Brown, whose son became Lord Montague, giving his name to the ancient cloister of the Monastery. In the following year the church was made parochial, including the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, which stood beside it, as St. Gregory stood beside St. Paul’s, or St. Margaret by Westminster Abbey, or St. Peter-le-Poor beside the Church of the Austin Friars.
A great many monuments are in the church: the chancel, transepts, and tower, with the Lady Chapel, still remain, forming the finest of the old churches in the whole of London.
Here lie buried, according to tradition, Mary, the foundress; the two benefactors, Pont de l’Arche and Dauncey—a wooden figure may represent one of them; John Gower, on whose monument may still be read the words which he wrote for it:—
“En toy qui es Filz de Dieu le Père,
Sauvé soit qui gist sous cest pierre.
Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, is buried in the Lady Chapel; Dyer the poet, who died 1607; Edmund Shakespeare, brother of the poet, somewhere in the church; Laurence Fletcher, one of the shareholders in the Globe, who died 1608; Philip Henslow, who died 1616; John Fletcher, who died 1625; Philip Massinger, who died 1639. On the tomb of Richard Humble, who lies with his two wives and his children, are the lines:—
“Like to the damask rose you see,