The subsequent fate of the Chapel and Hospital and the land on which
they stood may be shortly stated. The site was granted, no doubt with
the buildings on it, in the year 1550 to Sir Thomas Cawarden.[14]
Cawarden had been master of the revels to Henry VIII and had established
claims to reward or remuneration from the King which had not been
satisfied on his death. He was able to establish and enforce these
claims in the early years of Edward VI. With some difficulty he obtained
in discharge of his claims on the Crown the estate and property of
Roncevall and also the church and property of the Blackfriars within the
City of London. He seems also to have secured at this time the
stewardship of Nonsuch Palace and its lands in the County of Surrey.
Footnote 14:
“A Survey of London,” by John Stow, 1603. The edition by Charles L.
Kingsford, Clarendon Press, 1908, i, p. 341; ii, p. 350.
The properties of Roncevall and of the Blackfriars soon passed from the
hands of Cawarden, probably during the period of wild speculation in
land and real estate which followed the dissolution of the religious
houses, but the stewardship of Nonsuch he continued to hold with much
tenacity in spite of the efforts to dislodge him from this favourite
position by Cardinal Pole during the reign of Queen Mary.
Cawarden died in the year 1559. In the meantime the Roncevall property
had passed to Sir Robert Brett. It was purchased early in the
seventeenth century by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, who built
himself a town house, described as a “sumptuous palace,” on the site,
using for the purpose the material of the ancient Convent. This house
was completed in the year 1605 and was known for some years as
Northampton House. It consisted of buildings arranged on three sides of
a quadrangle, and open towards the garden and river. From him the
property passed by inheritance to his nephew, Thomas Howard, first Earl
of Suffolk, the second son of Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk, who
completed the quadrangle, the house being then known as Suffolk House.
From the Howard family the property passed by an heiress to Algernon
Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in 1642; another heiress of the Percy
family brought the property to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. While
in the possession of the Somerset family and their immediate successors,
the Strand front was much improved and acquired the architectural
features so long associated with Northumberland House at Charing Cross.
By another heiress, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, the property passed into the
possession of the present Duke of Northumberland’s family.
In consequence of the construction of the Thames Embankment, and the
necessity for making a wide approach from Charing Cross, the late
Metropolitan Board of Works bought the property from the Duke of
Northumberland, in 1874, for the sum of £500,000. Northumberland House,
the last of the old river-side mansions, was completely demolished and
now Northumberland Avenue and the great buildings near it occupy the
site of the Convent and Hospital of St. Mary Roncevall.[15]
Footnote 15:
“Old and New London,” V. iii, by Edward Walford (Cassell, Petter and
Galpin). “Charing Cross,” by J. H. MacMichael (Chatto and Windus),
1905.
THE RONCEVALL PROPERTY IN LONDON; FROM INFORMATION IN AN UNPUBLISHED
MANUSCRIPT OF THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN THE LIBRARY AT
RONCESVALLES.[16]
Footnote 16:
The author is indebted to Don José Urrutia, the Abbot-Prior, for a
précis of this document.
Most of the ancient documents dealing with the history of the Priory
have been destroyed or lost as the result of war, fires and other
causes. There remains in the Library at Roncesvalles an unpublished MS.
dealing with the early history of the Priory and its dependencies,
written about the second quarter of the seventeenth century by Don Juan
Huarte. This MS. incorporates information obtained by the writer from
various sources, and especially under the date April 12, 1623, from a
certain Brother Miguel de Spiritu Sancto, who derived it in his turn
from a certain Don Francisco Olastro—(Francis Oliver?)—who is stated to
have been an ambassador from England in Madrid. This document states
that there is situated in the suburbs of London a wide street named “the
Street of Our Lady of Roncesvalles.” The houses in this street have
sculptured over their doorways a single cross according to the use of
Roncesvalles. At the end of the street is a large building, now nearly
dismantled, which was a sumptuous church in the time of the Catholic
Religion. Over the portico of the church were sculptured three crosses
of the same form, and in addition there was a clearly engraved Latin
inscription to the effect that this church was built and completely
finished in honour of the Blessed Virgin by Henry IV, King of England,
who, in addition, granted to the Community of St. Mary of Roncevall
large possessions and revenues for the service of the Priory and
Hospital. The inscription is dated in the MS. 1378, but this date, which
is clearly impossible, is probably an error of transcription for 1408,
arising from peculiarities in the formation of the figures, and there
are other errors to be noted, showing that the information is derived
through indirect channels. The inscription is given as follows:—
“Henricus quartus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Iberniæ et Irlandæ,
Princeps Gales, et Dux (_Lancastrie?_). Hanc ecclesiam
sacratissimæ Virginis et Matris Mariæ construxit locupletavit et
a fundamentis edificavit, et eam in honorem dictæ Sanctissimæ
Virginis et Matris multis possessionibus et redditibus et
inquiliniis ditavit, et eam cum suis omnibus possessionibus,
inquiliniis subditis et redditibus donavit in donum perpetuum
ordini et hospitali generali coenobii Sanctæ Mariæ Roncesvallis
in anno domini Salvatoris nostri Jhesu Christi, MCCCLXXVIII.”
The document goes on to say that the Priory possessed in England
property including the Chapel and Convent at Charing Cross
(“Caringrasso”) of the yearly value of 9,300 pounds English money,
corresponding to 8,223 Spanish ducats, and that it also owned property
in Canterbury (“Conturbel”) of the yearly value of 4,000 pounds, and in
Oxford (“Oxonia”) of 5,700 pounds. A Procurator was appointed directly
by the Abbot at Roncesvalles, who had his headquarters in London at
Charing Cross, and had complete powers of administration to deal with
the property of the Convent scattered through England, Scotland, and
Ireland, and he also directed the Hospital and other enterprises of the
Brotherhood.
The Huarte MS. also states that, in the ancient archives of the Abbey
there existed a record in alphabetical arrangement, from which it is
gathered that Henry VI of England, finding that no official was being
sent from Roncesvalles, directed one of his chaplains to obtain from
Roncesvalles an account of the property in London and Charing Cross
belonging to the Priory: “Las pertenecientes á la capilla y encomienda
de Roncesvalles situada junto á Caringrasso de Inglaterra,” and a
warrant to collect the income and charitable contributions and send them
to Roncesvalles for the maintenance of the clergy and the poor. There is
also a statement on the authority of a “military personage in the City
of London,” that there existed in London a large house which had
belonged to Roncesvalles, as shown by the crosses of the special form
used by the Order still to be seen on the stones, and that this house
had been converted into a seminary of the Anglican Church.
It will be observed that much of the information in the Huarte MS. is
traditional and cannot be accepted without careful collation with the
more complete and authentic information contained in the English
records. It is, however, of much interest to know that a document
perpetuating the memory of the Hospital of Roncevall in London still
exists in the parent House.