Windsor Castle by William Harrison Ainsworth
BOOK III — THE HISTORY OF THE CASTLE
CHAPTER III
Comprising the Fourth Epoch in the History of the Castle—
And showing
how Saint George's Chapel was rebuilt by King Edward the Fourth.
Finding the foundation and walls of Saint George's Chapel
much dilapidated and decayed, Edward the Fourth resolved to pull down the
pile, and build a larger and statelier structure in its place. With this
view, he constituted Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, surveyor of the
works, from whose designs arose the present beautiful edifice. To enable the
bishop to accomplish the work, power was given him to remove all
obstructions, and to enlarge the space by the demolition of the three
buildings then commonly called Clure's Tower, Berner's Tower, and the
Almoner's Tower.
The zeal and assiduity with which Beauchamp prosecuted his task is
adverted to in the patent of his appointment to the office of chancellor of
the Garter, the preamble whereof recites, "that out of mere love towards the
Order, he had given himself the leisure daily to attend the advancement and
progress of this goodly fabric."
The chapel, however, was not completed in one reign, or by one architect.
Sir Reginald Bray, prime minister of Henry the Seventh, succeeded Bishop
Beauchamp as surveyor of the works, and it was by him that the matchless roof
of the choir and other parts of the fabric were built. Indeed, the frequent
appearance of Bray's arms, sometimes single, sometimes impaling his
alliances, in many parts of the ceiling and windows, has led to the
supposition that he himself contributed largely to the expense of the work.
The groined ceiling of the chapel was not commenced till the twenty-seventh
year of the reign of Henry the Seventh, when the pinnacles of the roof were
decorated with vanes, supported by gilt figures of lions, antelopes,
greyhounds, and dragons, the want of which is still a detriment to the
external beauty of the structure,
"The main vaulting of St. George's Chapel," says Mr. Poynter, "is perhaps,
without exception, the most beautiful specimen of the Gothic stone roof in
existence; but it has been very improperly classed with those of the same
architectural period in the chapels of King's College, Cambridge, and Henry
the Seventh, at Westminster. The roofing of the aisle and the centre
compartment of the body of the building are indeed in that style, but the
vault of the nave and choir differ essentially from fan vaulting, both in
drawing and construction. It is, in fact, a waggon- headed vault, broken by
Welsh groins—that is to say, groins which cut into the main arch below
the apex. It is not singular in the principle of its design, but it is unique
in its proportions, in which the exact mean seems to be attained between the
poverty and monotony of a waggon- headed ceiling and the ungraceful effect of
a mere groined roof with a depressed roof or large span—to which may be
added, that with a richness of effect scarcely, if at all, inferior to fan
tracery, it is free from those abrupt junctions of the lines and other
defects of drawing inevitable when the length and breadth of the compartments
of fan vaulting differ very much, of which King's College Chapel exhibits
some notable instances."
Supported by these exquisite ribs and groins, the ceiling is decorated
with heraldic insignia, displaying the arms of Edward the Confessor, Edward
the Third, Edward the Black Prince, Henry the Sixth, Edward the Fourth, Henry
the Seventh, and Henry the Eighth; with the arms of England and France
quartered, the holy cross, the shield or cross of Saint George, the rose,
portcullis, lion rampant, unicorn, fleur-de-lis, dragon, and prince's
feathers, together with the arms of a multitude of noble families. In the
nave are emblazoned the arms of Henry the Eighth, and of several
knights-companions, among which are those of Charles the Fifth, Francis the
First, and Ferdinand, Infant of Spain. The extreme lightness and graceful
proportions of the pillars lining the aisles contribute greatly to the effect
of this part of the structure.
Beautiful, however, as is the body of the chapel, it is not comparable to
the choir. Here, and on either side, are ranged the stalls of the knights,
formerly twenty-six in number, but now increased to thirty-two, elaborately
carved in black oak, and covered by canopies of the richest tabernacle-work,
supported by slender pillars. On the pedestals is represented the history of
the Saviour, and on the front of the stalls at the west end of the choir is
carved the legend of Saint George; while on the outside of the upper seat is
cut, in old Saxon characters, the twentieth Psalm in Latin. On the canopies
of the stalls are placed the mantle, helmet, coat, and sword of the
knights-companions; and above them are hung their emblazoned banners. On the
back of each stall are fixed small enamelled plates, graven with the titles
of the knights who have occupied it. The ancient stall of the sovereign was
removed in 1788, and a new seat erected.
The altar was formerly adorned with costly hangings of crimson velvet and
gold, but these, together with the consecrated vessels of great value, were
seized by order of Parliament in 1642 amid the general plunder of the
foundation. The service of the altar was replaced by Charles the Second.
The sovereign's stall is immediately on the right on the entrance to the
choir, and the prince's on the left. The queen's closet is on the north side
above the altar. Beneath it is the beautiful and elaborately- wrought
framework of iron, representing a pair of gates between two Gothic towers,
designed as a screen to the tomb of Edward the Fourth, and which, though
popularly attributed to Quentin Matsys, has with more justice been assigned
to Master John Tressilian.
One great blemish to the chapel exists in the window over the altar, the
mullions and tracery of which have been removed to make way for dull
colourless copies in painted glass of West's designs. Instead of
"—blushing with the blood of kings,
And twilight saints, and dim emblazonings"
steeping the altar in rich suffusion, chequering the walls
and pavement with variegated hues, and filling the whole sacred spot with a
warm and congenial glow, these panes produce a cold, cheerless, and most
disagreeable effect.
The removal of this objectionable feature, and the restoration of
framework and compartments in the style of the original, and enriched with
ancient mellow-toned and many-hued glass in keeping with the place, are
absolutely indispensable to the completeness and unity of character of the
chapel. Two clerestory windows at the east end of the choir, adjoining the
larger window, have been recently filled with stained glass in much better
taste.
The objections above made may be urged with equal force against the east
and west windows of the south aisle of the body of the fane, and the west
window of the north aisle. The glorious west window, composed of eighty
compartments, embellished with figures of kings, patriarchs, and bishops,
together with the insignia of the Garter and the arms of the
prelates—the wreck gathered from all the other windows— and
streaming with the radiance of the setting sun upon the broad nave and
graceful pillars of the aisles—this superb window, an admirable
specimen of the architecture of the age in which it was designed, had
well-nigh shared the fate of the others, and was only preserved from
desecration by the circumstance of the death of the glass-painter. The
mullions of this window being found much decayed, were carefully and
consistently restored during the last year by Mr. Blore, and the ancient
stained glass replaced.
Not only does Saint George's Chapel form a house of prayer and a temple of
chivalry, but it is also the burial-place of kings. At the east end of the
north aisle of the choir is a plain flag, bearing the words—
King Edward IIII. And his Queen Elizabeth Widville
The coat of mail and surcoat, decorated with rubies and precious stones,
together with other rich trophies once ornamenting this tomb, were carried
off by the Parliamentary plunderers. Edward's queen, Elizabeth Woodville, it
was thought, slept beside him; but when the royal tomb was opened in 1789,
and the two coffins within it examined, the smaller one was found empty. The
queen's body was subsequently discovered in a stone coffin by the workmen
employed in excavating the vault for George the Third. Edward's coffin was
seven feet long, and contained a perfect skeleton. On the opposite aisle,
near the choir door, as already mentioned, rests the ill-fated Henry the
Sixth, beneath an arch sumptuously embellished by Henry the Eighth, on the
key-stone of which may still be seen his arms, supported by two antelopes
connected by a golden chain. Henry's body was removed from Chertsey, where it
was first interred, and reburied in 1484, with much solemnity, in this spot.
Such was the opinion entertained of his sanctity that miracles were supposed
to be wrought upon his tomb, and Henry the Seventh applied to have him
canonised, but the demands of the Pope were too exorbitant. The proximity of
Henry and Edward in death suggested the following lines to
Pope—
"Here, o'er the martyr-king the marble weeps,
And fast beside him once-fear'd Edward sleeps;
The grave unites, where e'en the grave finds rest,
And mingled here the oppressor and the opprest."
In the royal vault in the choir repose Henry the Eighth and his third
queen Jane Seymour, together with the martyred Charles the First.
Space only permits the hasty enumeration of the different chapels and
chantries adorning this splendid fane. These are Lincoln Chapel, near which
Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, is buried; Oxenbridge Chapel;
Aldworth Chapel; Bray Chapel, where rests the body of Sir Reginald de Bray,
the architect of the pile; Beaufort Chapel, containing sumptuous monuments of
the noble family of that name; Rutland Chapel; Hastings Chapel; and Urswick
Chapel, in which is now placed the cenotaph of the Princess Charlotte,
sculptured by Matthew Wyatt.
In a vault near the sovereign's stall lie the remains of the Duke of
Gloucester, who died in 1805, and of his duchess, who died two years after
him. And near the entrance of the south door is a slab of grey marble,
beneath which lies \one who in his day filled the highest offices of the
realm, and was the brother of a king and the husband of a queen. It is
inscribed with the great name of Charles Brandon.
At the east end of the north aisle is the chapter-house, in which is a
portrait and the sword of state of Edward the Third.
Adjoining the chapel on the east stands the royal tombhouse. Commenced by
Henry the Seventh as a mausoleum, but abandoned for the chapel in Westminster
Abbey, this structure was granted by Henry the Eighth to Wolsey, who,
intending it as a place of burial for himself, erected within it a sumptuous
monument of black and white marble, with eight large brazen columns placed
around it, and four others in the form of candlesticks.
At the time of the cardinal's disgrace, when the building reverted to the
crown, the monument was far advanced towards completion—the vast sum of
4280 ducats having been paid to Benedetto, a Florentine sculptor, for work,
and nearly four hundred pounds for gilding part of it. This tomb was stripped
of its ornaments and destroyed by the Parliamentary rebels in 1646; but the
black marble sarcophagus forming part of it, and intended as a receptacle for
Wolsey's own remains, escaped destruction, and now covers the grave of Nelson
in a crypt of Saint Paul's Cathedral.
Henry the Eighth was not interred in this mausoleum, but in Saint George's
Chapel, as has just been mentioned, and as he himself directed, "midway
between the state and the high altar." Full instructions were left by him for
the erection of a monument which, if it had been completed, would have been
truly magnificent. The pavement was to be of oriental stones, with two great
steps upon it of the same material. The two pillars of the church between
which the tomb was to be set were to be covered with bas-reliefs,
representing the chief events of the Old Testament, angels with gilt
garlands, fourteen images of the prophets, the apostles, the evangelists, and
the four doctors of the Church, and at the foot of every image a little child
with a basket full of red and white roses enamelled and gilt. Between these
pillars, on a basement of white marble, the epitaphs of the king and queen
were to be written in letters of gold.
On the same basement were to be two tombs of black touchstone supporting
the images of the king and queen, not as dead, but sleeping, "to show," so
runs the order, "that famous princes leaving behind them great fame do never
die." On the right hand, at either corner of the tomb, was to be an angel
holding the king's arms, with a great candlestick, and at the opposite
corners two other angels hearing the queen's arms and candlesticks. Between
the two black tombs was to rise a high basement, like a sepulchre, surmounted
by a statue of the king on horseback, in armour—both figures to be "of
the whole stature of a goodly man and a large horse." Over this statue was to
be a canopy, like a triumphal arch, of white marble, garnished with oriental
stones of divers colours, with the history of Saint John the Baptist wrought
in gilt brass upon it, with a crowning group of the Father holding the soul
of the king in his right hand and the soul of the queen in his left, and
blessing them. The height of the monument was to be twenty-eight feet.
The number of statues was to be one hundred and thirty-four, with forty-
four bas-reliefs. It would be matter of infinite regret that this great
design was never executed, if its destruction by the Parliamentary plunderers
would not in that case have been also matter of certainty.
Charles the First intended to fit up this structure as a royal mausoleum,
but was diverted from the plan by the outbreak of the civil war. It was
afterwards used as a chapel by James the Second, and mass was publicly
performed in it. The ceiling was painted by Verrio, and the walls highly
ornamented; but the decorations were greatly injured by the fury of an
anti-Catholic mob, who assailed the building, and destroyed its windows, on
the occasion of a banquet given to the Pope's nuncio by the king.
In this state it continued till the commencement of the present century,
when the exterior was repaired by George the Third, and a vault, seventy feet
in length, twenty-eight in width, and fourteen in depth, constructed within
it, for the reception of the royal family. Catacombs, formed of massive
octangular pillars, and supporting ranges of shelves, line the walls on
either side.
At the eastern extremity there are five niches, and in the middle twelve
low tombs. A subterranean passage leads from the vault beneath the choir of
Saint George's altar to the sepulchre. Within it are deposited the bodies of
George the Third and Queen Charlotte, the Princesses Amelia and Charlotte,
the Dukes of Kent and York, and the last two sovereigns, George the Fourth
and William the Fourth.
But to return to the reign of Edward the Fourth, from which the desire to
bring down the history of Saint George's Chapel to the present time has led
to the foregoing digression. About the same time that the chapel was built,
habitations for the dean and canons were erected on the north-east of the
fane, while another range of dwellings for the minor canons was built at its
west end, disposed in the form of a fetterlock, one of the badges of Edward
the Fourth, and since called the Horse- shoe Cloisters. The ambulatory of
these cloisters once displayed a fine specimen of the timber architecture of
Henry the Seventh's time, when they were repaired, but little of their
original character can now be discerned.
In 1482 Edward, desirous of advancing his popularity with the citizens of
London, invited the lord mayor and aldermen to Windsor, where he feasted them
royally, and treated them to the pleasures of the chase, sending them back to
their spouses loaded with game.
In 1484 Richard the Third kept the feast of Saint George at Windsor, and
the building of the chapel was continued during his reign.
The picturesque portion of the castle on the north side of the upper ward,
near the Norman Gateway, and which is one of the noblest Gothic features of
the proud pile, was built by Henry the Seventh, whose name it still bears.
The side of this building looking towards the terrace was originally
decorated with two rich windows, but one of them has disappeared, and the
other has suffered much damage.
In 1500 the deanery was rebuilt by Dean Urswick. At the lower end of the
court, adjoining the canons' houses behind the Horse-shoe Cloisters, stands
the Collegiate Library, the date of which is uncertain, though it may perhaps
be referred to this period. The establishment was enriched in later times by
a valuable library, bequeathed to it by the Earl of Ranelagh.
In 1506 Windsor was the scene of great festivity, in consequence of the
unexpected arrival of Philip, King of Castile, and his queen, who had been
driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. The royal visitors remained for
several weeks at the castle, during which it continued a scene of revelry,
intermixed with the sports of the chase. At the same time Philip was invested
with the Order of the Garter, and installed in the chapel of St. George.
The great gateway to the lower ward was built in the commencement of the
reign of Henry the Eighth; it is decorated with his arms and
devices—the rose, portcullis, and fleur-de-lis, and with the bearings
of Catherine of Arragon. In 1522 Charles the Fifth visited Windsor, and was
installed I knight of the Garter.
During a period of dissension in the council, Edward the Sixth was removed
for safety to Windsor by the Lord Protector Somerset, and here, at a later
period, the youthful monarch received a letter from the council urging the
dismissal of Somerset, with which, by the advice of the Arch-bishop of
Canterbury, he complied.
In this reign an undertaking to convey water to the castle from Blackmore
Park, near Wingfield, a distance of five miles, was commenced, though it was
not till 1555, in the time of Mary, that the plan was accomplished, when a
pipe was brought into the upper ward, "and there the water plenteously did
rise thirteen feet high." In the middle of the court was erected a
magnificent fountain, consisting of a canopy raised upon columns, gorgeously
decorated with heraldic ornaments, and surmounted by a great vane, with the
arms of Philip and Mary impaled upon it, and supported by a lion and an
eagle, gilt and painted. The water was discharged by a great dragon, one of
the supporters of the Tudor arms, into the cistern beneath, whence it was
conveyed by pipes to every part of the castle.
Mary held her court at Windsor soon after her union with Philip of Spain.
About this period the old habitations of the alms-knights on the south side
of the lower quadrangle were taken down, and others erected in their
stead.
Fewer additions were made to Windsor Castle by Elizabeth than might have
been expected from her predilection for it as a place of residence. She
extended and widened the north terrace, where, when lodging within the
castle, she daily took exercise, whatever might be the weather. The terrace
at this time, as it is described by Paul Hentzner, and as it appears in
Norden's view, was a sort of balcony projecting beyond the scarp of the hill,
and supported by great cantilevers of wood.
In 1576 the gallery still bearing her name, and lying between Henry the
Seventh's buildings and the Norman Tower, was erected by Elizabeth. This
portion of the castle had the good fortune to escape the alterations and
modifications made in almost every other part of the upper ward after the
restoration of Charles the Second. It now forms the library. A large garden
was laid out by the same queen, and a small gateway on Castle Hill built by
her—which afterwards became one of the greatest obstructions to the
approach, and it was taken down by George the Fourth.
Elizabeth often hunted in the parks, and exhibited her skill in archery,
which was by no means inconsiderable, at the butts. Her fondness for dramatic
performances likewise induced her to erect a stage within the castle, on
which plays and interludes were performed. And to her admiration of the
character of Falstaff, and her love of the locality, the world is indebted
for the "Merry Wives of Windsor."
James the First favoured Windsor as much as his predecessors; caroused
within its halls, and chased the deer in its parks; Christian the Fourth of
Denmark was sumptuously entertained by him at Windsor. In this reign a
curious dispute occurred between the king and the dean and chapter respecting
the repair of a breach in the wall, which was not brought to issue for three
years, when, after much argument, it was decided in favour of the clergy.
Little was done at Windsor by Charles the First until the tenth year of
his reign, when a banqueting-house erected by Elizabeth was taken down, and
the magnificent fountain constructed by Queen Mary demolished. Two years
after wards "a pyramid or lantern," with a clock, hell, and dial, was ordered
to be set up in front of the castle, and a balcony was erected before the
room where Henry the Sixth was born.
In the early part of the year 1642 Charles retired to Windsor to shield
himself from the insults of the populace, and was followed by a committee of
the House of Commons, who prevailed upon him to desist from the prosecution
of the impeached members. On the 23rd of October in the same year, Captain
Fogg, at the head of a Parliamentarian force, demanded the keys of the
college treasury, and, not being able to obtain them, forced open the doors,
and carried off the whole of the plate.
The plunder of the college was completed by Vane, the Parliamentary
governor of the castle, who seized upon the whole of the furniture and
decorations of the choir, rifled the tomb of Edward the Fourth, stripped off
all the costly ornaments from Wolsey's tomb, defaced the emblazonings over
Henry the Sixth's grave, broke the rich painted glass of the windows, and
wantonly destroyed the exquisite woodwork of the choir.
Towards the close of the year 1648 the ill-fated Charles was brought a
prisoner to Windsor, where he remained while preparations were made for the
execrable tragedy soon afterwards enacted. After the slaughter of the
martyr-monarch the castle became the prison of the Earl of Norwich, Lord
Capel, and the Duke of Hamilton, and other royalists and cavaliers.
Cromwell frequently resided within the castle, and often took a moody and
distrustful walk upon the terrace. It was during the Protectorate, in 1677,
that the ugly buildings appropriated to the naval knights, and standing
between the Garter Tower and Chancellor's Tower, were erected by Sir Francis
Crane.