1348. The office of dean was, till the reign of Henry IV., held by a
dignitary designated by the name of "custos." John Arundel, in Henry
IV.'s reign, being the first to bear the title of "dean." At first
the chapel was dedicated to St. Edward, but gradually, owing to its
connection with the Order of the Garter, St. George superseded the
former patron saint. Later on, Henry VII. had intended to make this
chapel the tomb of his race, and the work was actually commenced when
the king turned his attention to Westminster. Henry VIII. presented the
chapel to Wolsey, and, about 1524, the Cardinal employed Benedetto of
Florence to build a sumptuous sarcophagus of black marble, decorated
with figures of copper gilt. After his disgrace, the magnificent
metalwork lay neglected till the governorships of Colonel Venn and
Colonel Whichcott, when these functionaries sold various figures
and images as old brass, and realised a very handsome sum by the
transaction. In 1805, the marble sarcophagus was removed to St. Paul's,
to mark the grave of Lord Nelson.
In 1686 when James II. was mis-ruling the land, he expended some £700
on repairing the chapel and in solemnizing high mass. In George III.'s
reign the chapel was made the Royal Mausoleum, and Princess Amelia
was the first to be interred in it. His wife, his sister, and six of
his children and grandchildren were buried in the vault before George
himself. There is room for forty-nine coffins, and already twenty-one
have been placed in it, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale having been
the last. Although the Prince Consort is buried at Frogmore, Wolsey's
Tomb-house was selected as the site for the magnificent memorial in his
honour. The interior of the chapel is lined with marble and mosaic,
the walls are covered with reliefs, the windows are of stained glass.
The cenotaph stands in front of the magnificent altar, and supports a
recumbent statue, a personification of the Christian soldier described
by St. Paul, of white marble, the face being a portrait of the Prince.
A hound, a portrait of the Prince's favourite dog Eos, sits at his
feet. This chapel, built by Henry III., and dedicated to St. Edward,
and later on, known as Wolsey's Tomb-House, remains now as the Albert
Memorial Chapel, one of the most splendid monuments of the age. In
the State Apartments there are many articles interesting on account
of antiquity or associations. The Malachite Vase in the Ball Room is
the best of its kind in England, the French tapestry is said to be
unequalled, the Sévres porcelain is exquisitely delicate and beautiful.
Many picture-frames, especially in the ante-room, are to be found,
the work of Grinling Gibbons. Portraits by Vandyck in his best style
abound, and there is a splendid series of portraits by Holbein. In the
Guard Chamber there is a shield presented by Francis I. to Henry VIII.
on the field of the Cloth of Gold, the work of Benvenuto Cellini.
The Library at Windsor is remarkably large and good, William IV. having
gathered here the various collections at Kew, Hampton Court, and
Kensington, and having brought to light many antiquarian treasures.
Amongst these are the three volumes of the collection of drawings of
Leonardo de Vinci, brought to England from Holland by Sir Peter Lely,
and bought by Charles II., and the series of eighty-seven studies in
red chalk and Indian ink of the principal personages of Henry VIII.'s
Court by Hans Holbein. The illuminated manuscripts, both European and
Oriental are of much historical interest, and amongst them may be
mentioned the "Mentz Psalter," of 1457, a copy of Coverdale's Bible of
1535, and the only perfect copy now in existence of Caxton's _Æsop's
Fables_ of 1484.
In the strong room are many gorgeous treasures of plate and jewels,
and a set of golden dinner plates sufficient for a hundred guests,
a wine-fountain taken from the Spanish Armada, Tippoo's jewelled
peacock and solid gold footstool, in the shape of a tiger's head,
and many other curiosities too numerous for mention. Some of the
state apartments, especially the library, contain fine mantelpieces
and panellings of great age, some going as far back as the sixteenth
century.
After the Castle itself, the chief glory of Windsor is the Great Park,
the remnant of a tract of 180 miles in circuit, which formed the happy
hunting-ground of our mediæval kings. It is joined to the town and
Castle by the Long Walk, the noble avenue of elms planted by Charles
II. The Park is gently undulating, and dotted here and there with
magnificent oaks and beeches, sometimes standing singly, sometimes in
thick clumps. Looking from George the Fourth's Gateway to the gilt
statue which he erected to "the best of fathers," the beauty of the
landscape thrills one with the satisfaction of perfection. The spirit
of romance seems to pervade each fairy glade and hill, and visions
of days long past arise before us, when lord and ladye fair on fiery
steeds rode through the enchanted spot, and paused in their pursuit
of the bounding deer, moved by the genius of the place, to whisper
words of love. An oak measuring 26 feet 10 inches, at the height of 5
feet from the ground, is reckoned to be 800 years old. Three oaks in
Cranbourne Chase, the oldest of which is probably 450 years, are called
respectively, Queen Anne, Queen Charlotte, and Queen Victoria, these
names it is scarcely necessary to explain, having been given since
they evolved from their sapling stage. Herne's Oak, which Shakespeare
memorialises in _The Merry Wives_, was, according to some blown down in
a storm in 1863, and a sapling was planted to mark the spot. According
to others it was cut down in mistake with other decayed trees by order
of George III. At one corner of the Park there are some dozen oak
trees, all as old as the Norman Conquest.
In fact, wherever one glances, be it at an old elm, or a bit of old
carving half hidden in grass, or a china cup in the drawing-room, or a
picture in the library, from the marble sarcophagus erected in memory
of the Prince Consort to a blade of grass on the terrace, one finds
endless cause for interest and deeper investigation. Such historical
associations cling to every stone or crumb of earth, such romantic
stories are whispered to one at every turn, such echoes of old-world
times are re-called at every foot-fall, that no one could weary of
visiting again and again this wondrous spot, to dream of bygone faces,
fashions, and manners. And as one gazes, one feels the same pride in
its beauty as stirred the hearts of Henry III. and Edward III., one
understands the desire of the world-satiated Henry VIII. to rest in
peace by the side of his best loved queen under those cool gray stones,
and one feels a deep thankfulness that the storm-tossed Charles is at
rest for evermore in that calm, sanctified, world-remote spot.
And Windsor does more than turn one's thoughts down the vista of
past ages, it ennobles, it purifies. A reverence, an awe that only
the sublime can inspire, takes possession of one's heart when one
contemplates this most glorious of England's royal homes. Nor has
the hand of time dimmed its lustre. Windsor is still the home of the
illustrious Queen whom all her subjects delight to honour. It is
associated with tender memories of all the joys and many sorrows which
the Ruler of our mighty Empire has experienced during the course of her
long and glorious reign. And when we reflect on all that our Queen has
done for the welfare of our nation, and of the vast Empire over which
she rules, we can but echo the Laureate's words:--
"May she rule us long,
And leave us rulers of her blood
As noble till the latest day!
May children of our children say,
She wrought her people lasting good;
Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace; her land reposed;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her a Mother, Wife, and Queen."
And ever mindful of her great sorrow let us say:--
"The love of all Thy sons encompass Thee,
The love of all Thy daughters cherish Thee,
The love of all Thy people comfort Thee,
Till God's love set Thee at His side again."
Wallingford Castle.
BY J.E. FIELD, M.A.
The Castle, to which Wallingford owes its importance through six
centuries of our annals, may have had its origin in a primitive
fortress belonging to the original settlement upon the river-bank. But
its actual history begins in the reign of Edward the Confessor, who,
according to Domesday, had fifteen acres here, where a body of his
huscarles or military retainers lived; these acres being the same that
Milo Crispin, the Norman lord of the Castle, was occupying at the time
of the Survey.
Whatever fortress existed in Edward's day was held by Wigod, the
kinsman and cupbearer to the King; and the fact that Wigod favoured
the cause of the Norman Duke, coupled with the circumstance of an
advantageous position on an important ford of the river, caused
Wallingford and its Castle to become what they were in history.
Hither, in consequence of the welcome offered by the English Thane,
William came after the Battle of Hastings, when London was fortified
against him; and here he received the homage of Archbishop Stigand
and the English nobles. Before moving back towards London he made
the Norman influence secure at Wallingford by the marriage of his
favourite chieftain, Robert D'Oilgi, with Wigod's daughter, who
became eventually, if she was not already, heiress of the castle; for
her only brother fell in battle, fighting by William's side against
his son Robert. The King remained to take part in the festivities
of the marriage, and ordered D'Oilgi to build a castle upon his new
inheritance. In five years the castle was completed. D'Oilgi had an
only daughter, Maud, who was married to another Norman chieftain, Milo
Crispin, and after his death she became the wife of Brien Fitz-Count.
Tradition and history point to each of these lords in turn as having
made additions to the castle which their father-in-law erected; for
Crispin is said to have been the founder of the Collegiate Church
in the southern precinct, and Fitz-Count is recorded as the builder
of the famous dungeon called Cloere Brien, or Brien's Close, in the
north-western precinct. Further additions and renovations were made
in later times; but under these Norman owners the Castle must have
extended itself to the dimensions which it retained to the last, and of
which we can still trace the relics.
[Illustration: RUINS, WALLINGFORD CASTLE.]
From the river bank a few yards above the bridge it is easy to form an
idea of what the great Norman fortress was. The lofty mound upon which
the Keep was built, perhaps a prehistoric tumulus in its origin, is
still the most prominent object, though all vestiges of the tower and
its outworks have now disappeared, giving place to a luxuriant growth
of forest trees. Close beside this mound, traces of the southern moat
are to be seen, opening out upon the ditch which still separates the
castle grounds from the meadow beside the river. The broken ground
rising within the ditch shows the line of the eastern front of the
castle with its projecting bastions overlooking the river, though all
that now remains is an ivy-covered ruin with the opening of a large
window, known as the Queen's Tower. In the background, and more to the
right, is another fragmentary ruin, forming a central portion of the
north wall; while a modern boat-house marks the outflow of the moat at
its north-eastern angle. From this point along the northern front a
triple entrenchment is clearly shown by the undulations of the ground;
the innermost ditch, close beneath the wall, being the moat of the
Castle itself, while the second is the moat of the Castle precincts
enclosing a space of intermediate ground on the west and south, and the
outermost is the moat which enclosed the whole town; the three being
brought close together in parallel lines along this side of the Castle.
It must have been from this point of view, that Leland, in Henry the
Eighth's reign, described the Castle as having "three dikes, large,
deep, and well watered; about each of the two first dikes are embattled
walls, sore in ruin and for the most part defaced; all the goodly
buildings, with the towers and dungeon, be within the three dikes."
Camden, who tells that "the size and magnificence of the Castle used
to strike me with amazement when I came hither, a lad, from Oxford,"
describes it more accurately as "environed with a double wall and a
double ditch."
South of the great mound and its protecting moat is the ruined
tower and south wall of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, now
surmounted by a modern turret; and adjoining it are some fragments
of the other buildings of the college, with a good doorway and some
windows of perpendicular character. Beyond these ruins a large portion
of the second moat is to be seen. The south-western angle of the
precincts, with the banks of the moat well preserved before it and
behind it, is occupied by the modern dwelling-house. Lastly, near the
north-western angle, where this outer precinct ends, the site of Brien
Fitzcount's dungeon is shown; and the remains of it, with massive rings
fixed to the stonework, existed here within the present century.
If the Norman Conqueror himself gained no direct advantage from the
castle which he required D'Oilgi to build, his policy certainly bore
its fruit in the days of his grandchildren. In the civil wars of
Stephen's reign Brien Fitzcount was a leading supporter of Maud, the
daughter of Henry Beauclerk and widow of the Emperor Henry IV. of
Germany. The escape of the Empress from Oxford Castle, her flight in
white garments through snow and ice by night to Abingdon, and her
safe arrival at Wallingford Castle, are a familiar tale, perhaps
embellished through the ages, but well grounded in history. Stephen
set up opposing forts across the river at Crowmarsh, and traces of them
may still be seen on either side of the road near the eastern end of
the bridge, while the meadow on the north is still called the Barbican.
Terrible stories are told of the sufferings endured by followers
of Stephen who had the misfortune to become prisoners here under
Fitzcount's custody; and for one influential prisoner, William Martel,
the new dungeon of Brien's Close was made, from which he was only
released on condition of delivering up the Castle of Shirburn and its
adjacent lands as a ransom. Throughout the war Wallingford Castle under
its indomitable lord was the most powerful of all the strongholds of
the empress; and it was here, in a meadow beneath the walls, that the
war was ended, through the treaty proposed by the Earl of Arundel,
granting the kingdom to Stephen for his life and the succession to the
Empress's son, Henry Plantagenet.
Brien Fitzcount took the cross and died in the Holy Land; his wife
spent the rest of her life in a convent; their two sons were lepers;
and the Castle of Wallingford passed to the new King, Henry II. The
part which it had taken in the cause of the Empress and her son had its
reward in the high position which it occupied under the Plantagenet
Kings. Henry favoured the town with special privileges, apparently
exceeding any that were granted elsewhere; and here, at Easter 1155,
he held his first Parliament. At Henry's death, Richard Coeur de Lion,
before starting for the Holy Land, gave to his brother John the Honour
of Wallingford; and one of John's first acts of rebellion was to gain
possession of the Castle also, which the King had left in charge of
the Archbishop of Rouen. When the barons under the Earl of Leicester
recovered it for the King, the Queen Dowager, Eleanor of Poitou, became
its custodian; and it is probably from her that the ruined fragment of
the east front bore the name of the Queen's Tower, and from her also,
we must presume, the meadow in front of it was called the Queen's
Arbour. The value which John set upon the place still continued when
he became King, as we may infer from his frequent visits to it, and
the additions which he made to its garrison. His younger son, Richard,
Earl of Cornwall and afterwards King of the Romans, was made Constable
at the close of John's reign; and the Castle and Honour was eventually
bestowed upon him by his brother Henry III.
Earl Richard probably did more both for the castle and the town than
any other of its lords. He lived here in great state, enriching
the townsmen by the liberal expenditure of his wealth and by the
hospitality with which he entertained the court and the nobles of the
realm. Two years after he came into possession he built the great hall
of the Castle, and though this has disappeared, some of the arches of
the bridge survive, vaulted with massive ribs, which certainly belong
to this period and are probably Richard's work. Here too he brought
his second bride, Senchia of Provence, in 1242, when the King and his
court took part in sumptuous festivities to welcome her. He was elected
King of the Romans in 1256, but the subsequent coronation at Rome,
which would have made him German Emperor, never took place. Afterwards,
when he was absent in Germany, the barons under Simon de Montfort,
Earl of Leicester, were rebelling against the King, and Wallingford
Castle fell into their hands. The Countess of Leicester was residing
here in 1262, when the Earl visited her and a hundred and sixty-two
horses were picketed within the Castle walls. The next year Richard
was again in possession, and repelled successfully an assault of the
barons; but after the disastrous battle of Lewes in 1264, it fell
into Leicester's hands once more, and both Richard and the King, as
well as Prince Henry, the son of Richard, were prisoners in it. The
two Kings were removed to Kenilworth; but the next year, when Prince
Edward, the King's son, defeated the barons at Evesham, King Henry was
restored to his throne and Richard returned to his Castle. He died in
the spring of 1272, and Wallingford Castle, together with the earldom
of Cornwall, passed to his son Edmund. The new earl maintained the
magnificence of his father. At the close of the year he introduced his
bride, Margaret de Clare, sister of the Earl of Gloucester, with a
splendid entertainment; he frequently received as a guest his cousin,
King Edward I.; and he so largely augmented the Collegiate Church of
St. Nicholas in the Castle that he is often called its founder. When
he died, in 1299, Wallingford fell to the King. Immediately upon the
accession of Edward II., the Earldom of Cornwall, with the lordship
of Wallingford, was bestowed upon his unworthy favourite, Piers de
Gaveston, who married Earl Edmund's widow; but his insolent career was
cut short by the Earl of Warwick, under whose custody he was beheaded
at Blacklow Hill. Another of the King's favourites, Hugh Despencer
the younger, held the Castle and Honour for a time, until, in 1326,
he fell a victim to the vengeance of Queen Isabella, who was now in
open rebellion against her husband. She had already become possessed
of the Castle, and eventually bestowed it upon her paramour, Roger
Mortimer. Then followed the horrible murder of Edward II. at Berkeley;
then Mortimer paid the penalty of his crimes at Tyburn, and Isabella
became a prisoner at Castle Rising. Edward III. erected the earldom
of Cornwall into a dukedom, and Parliament settled it in perpetuity
upon the sovereign's eldest son, the Castle and Honour of Wallingford
being one of the possessions by which the princely dignity was to be
supported. Thus the Black Prince became its lord for forty years.
After his marriage with Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, in 1361, this
was their most frequent place of residence. Here also the princess
remained during the nine years of her widowhood, and here she died,
and probably was buried, in 1385. Meanwhile the Black Death had visited
the town in 1343; the population had been greatly diminished; several
of the fourteen churches had been closed, never to be re-opened; the
prosperity and attractiveness of the place was gone, and the Castle
was no longer chosen as a favourite residence of royalty. But when it
reverted to the crown at the death of the Princess, it was kept up as
a military fortress of the first rank, under a constable appointed
by the king, and its prominence in history was scarcely lessened.
John Beaufort, the son of John of Gaunt, became constable in 1397,
and two years later Thomas Chaucer was appointed. He was the reputed
son, probably the step-son, of Geoffrey Chaucer the poet, and was
almost certainly, like his predecessor, of royal but illegitimate
parentage. Under his custody, the youthful Queen Isabella of Valois,
the affianced bride of Richard II., was protected at the time of
Bolingbroke's invasion, until Richard became a prisoner and the Castle
surrendered to the usurper, when the child-queen was carried from one
place to another, and at last, in her fourteenth year, returned as
a widow to her home in France. A letter of the new King, Henry IV.,
to his council, relating to Queen Isabella's departure, is dated from
Wallingford in 1402. Chaucer was still the constable when the Castle
and Honour were settled by King Henry V. upon his bride, Katherine of
Valois, at their marriage in 1420. Two years later, the infant King
Henry VI. succeeded to his throne, and in 1428, when he was taken from
his mother's care, the Castle of Wallingford was assigned to him as
one of his summer residences, under the guardianship of the Earl of
Warwick. Chaucer died in 1434, and William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk,
his son-in-law, appears to have succeeded him as constable of the
Castle. Here Suffolk had under his charge an important captive, Owen
Tudor, an esquire of the body to the king, as he had been previously
to Henry V. with whom he had fought at Agincourt; and here in his
dungeon a secret marriage is said to have taken place between Tudor and
the Dowager Queen Katherine, who had long been attached to him, the
ceremony being performed by a priest who was his fellow-prisoner, while
a servant who attended him was the only witness. Suffolk, now raised
to a dukedom, was accused by the populace of betraying his country to
the French and preparing to fortify Wallingford on their behalf; and
while the King befriended him, he was barbarously beheaded at sea; but
his widow Alice, Chaucer's daughter, was made custodian of the Castle
in his place. The House of Lancaster had raised Alice de la Pole to her
dignities and honours; yet when the commencement of the Wars of the
Roses favoured the rival house, she at once transferred her support
to the Yorkists. In 1461, Edward of York became King, and the reward
of Alice's faithlessness was the marriage of the young Duke, her son,
with the lady Elizabeth, the King's sister, while she herself retained
her Castle. There the heartless duchess and her son received under
their custody the ex-Queen Margaret of Anjou, who had been the friend
and patroness of her youth, but who now remained for five years her
prisoner, until in 1476 her ransom was paid, and she returned to France.
In the events of the succeeding years there is little of immediate
connection with Wallingford. Lord Lovell, who had been a ward of the
Duke of Suffolk, was made constable by Richard III., but he fled to
Flanders when his master fell at Bosworth. Henry VII. reinstated
Suffolk in the office, which he held for life, in spite of the
rebellion of his son, Lord Lincoln, whom Edward IV., his uncle, had
designated as his heir. After him the office was held for a time by
Arthur, Prince of Wales. On one occasion at least, in 1518, Henry VIII.
and his Court appear to have been residing here. Some twelve years
later he entirely renovated the College of St. Nicholas; to which
shortly afterwards "a fair steeple of stone," as Leland describes it,
was added by Dr. Underhill, the Dean. No new appointment to the office
of constable appears until 1535, when it was granted to Henry Norris, a
nephew of the Lord Lovell who had held it fifty years before; but after
six months he fell a victim to the King's displeasure and died upon the
scaffold. In 1540 an Act of Parliament separated the Castle and Honour
from the Duchy of Cornwall and annexed it to the Crown.