_Crypt._]
The crypt (_plate thirty-two_) occupies the space under the choir. The
Abbé De la Rue, who terms it "_une jolie chapelle_," says that, in the
fifteenth century, it was denominated the subterranean chapel of St.
Nicholas; but previously to the revolution, had assumed the name of the
chapel of the Holy Trinity. It was originally entered by two narrow
staircases from the transepts. Its length from east to west is about
thirty feet: its width, about twenty-seven. The simple vaulted roof is
supported by thirty-two slender columns, sixteen of them half imbedded
in the wall, and rising from a stone bench, with which this crypt is
surrounded, in the same manner as that of the church of St. Gervais, at
Rouen. This chapel was, till lately, paved with highly-polished
vitrified bricks, each about two inches square, diversified with very
vivid colors, but of a description altogether unlike those in the
Conqueror's palace. It is lighted by narrow windows, which widen
considerably inwards, the wall being here of great thickness; and,
according to all probability, there were originally eleven of them,
though the greater part are now closed. One of them was lately filled
with bones, and bricked up. Upon the place it occupied is to be seen the
following inscription, placed between a couple of vases of antique
form:--"_Ossemens trouvés dans l'ancien chapitre des dames de la
Trinité, et déposés dans ce lieu le IV. Mars, MDCCCXVIII._"
[Illustration: Plate 33. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN.
_Capitals in the Choir._]
In the same year, at the time when these drawings were made, no tombs
whatever existed in the church of the Trinity. There had formerly been
many here; but the revolution had swept them all away.[66] Among the
rest were those of the royal foundress, of her daughter Cæcilia, the
first abbess, and of two other daughters of English kings, who likewise
wore the ducal coronet of Normandy. The most celebrated of all was that
of Matilda: according to Ordericus Vitalis, it was of exquisite
workmanship, and richly ornamented with gold and precious stones. But
the Calvinists demolished it in 1562; and, not content with plundering
the monument of all that was valuable, tore open the Queen's coffin, and
dispersed her remains. Towards the close of the same century, Anne de
Montmorenci, then abbess, caused the royal bones to be collected, and
again to be deposited in the original stone coffin; and things continued
in this state till the year 1708, when the abbess, Gabrielle Françoise
Fronlay de Tessé, raised a second altar-tomb of black marble, a
representation of which has been preserved by Ducarel. In addition to
this, she inclosed the bones of the princess for greater security in a
leaden box, which she laid in the coffin; and these happily escaped
violation in 1793, when the revolutionists destroyed the monument,
because the arms of Normandy, with which it was ornamented, sinned
against the doctrines of the liberty and equality of man. France being
once more settled under a monarchical form of government, a fresh search
was instituted in March, 1819, by the prefect of the department, in the
presence of the bishop of the diocese and Mr. Spencer Smythe, for the
discovery of Matilda's remains; and they were found and verified, and
re-interred in their original situation.--Another tomb, similar to
that which was destroyed at the revolution, is also raised over them.
The engraved stone in _plate twenty-six_, marks the place which it
occupies. Upon it is laid the original slab with the epitaph, which, by
great good fortune, escaped unhurt from the hands both of democrats and
Huguenots; and, as many of the subscribers to this work have expressed a
desire that a fac-simile of it should be inserted, as illustrative of
the form of the letters, as well as of the manner of writing in use at
that period, Mr. Cotman has had a pleasure in meeting their wishes, at
the same time, that he has not considered it as sufficiently belonging
to the publication, to justify him in making it an object of charge. The
inscription, divided into lines, and written in modern characters, is as
follows:--
"Egregie pulchri tegit hec structura sepulcri
Moribus insigne germen regale Matildem
Dux Flandrita pater huic extitit Adala mater
Francor gentis Rotberti filia regis
Et soror Henrici regali sede potiti
Regi magnifico Wlllelmo juncta marito
Presentem sedem presente fecit et edem
Tam multis terris quam multis rebus honestis
A se ditatam se procurante dicatam
Hec consolatrix inopum pietatis amatrix
Gazis dispersis pauper sibi dives egenis
Sic infinite petiit consortia vite
In prima mensis post primam luce Novembris."
[Illustration: Plate 33*. _A fac simile of the inscription upon the
tomb of Queen Matilda in the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity at
Caen._]
NOTES:
[51] The will of the Queen has been printed by the Abbé De la Rue,
(_Essais Historiques_ II. p. 437) from a manuscript in the royal library
at Paris; but the writer of the present article is not aware that it has
ever yet appeared in any English publication; and he therefore considers
it desirable here to reprint it, for the antiquaries of his own
country.--"Ego Mathildis Regina do Sanctæ Trinitati Cadomi casulam quam
apud Wintoniam [Winchester] operatur uxor Aldereti, et clamidem operatam
ex auro quæ est in camera mea ad cappam faciendam, atque de duabus
ligaturis meis aureis in quibus cruces sunt, illam quæ emblematibus est
insculpta, ad lampadem suspendendam coram Sancto altare, candelabraque
maxima quæ fabricantur apud Sanctum Laudum, coronam quoque et sceptrum,
calicesque ac vestimentum, atque aliud vestimentum quod operatur in
Anglia, et cum omnibus ornamentis equi, atque omnia vasa mea, exceptis
illis quæ antea dedero alicubi in vita mea; et Chetehulmum [Quetehou en
Cotentin] in Normannia, et duas mansiones in Anglia do Sanctæ Trinitati
Cadomi. Hæc omnia concessu domini mei Regis facio.
"Ex cartulario Sanctæ Trin. Bibl. Reg. Paris. no. 5650."
[52] The annual income arising from these, is stated by Odon Rigaud,
Archbishop of Rouen, in the _procés-verbal_ of his visit to this abbey
in 1250, to have amounted to one hundred and sixty pounds sterling; a
sum nearly equivalent to eighty thousand livres of the present day.
[53] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 75, t. 7.--In this figure, which
represents the south side of the building, a striking resemblance will
be observed with the architecture of the church of Than, figured in this
work, _pl. 16_.--Ducarel, in speaking of the pillars in the inside of
the chapel, says they are of a peculiar construction, and widely
different from all others that have fallen under his consideration; but
he has unfortunately furnished no engraving of them, and has even
omitted to mention wherein their peculiarity lay.
[54] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 184.
[55] Still less can any one be so by the alteration of the arches of
entrance into modern windows, which Mr. Turner did not think it worth
while to mention.
[56] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, plate 5.
[57] See _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 171.
[58] See _Britton's Norwich Cathedral_, plate 4, F. p. 32.
[59] Hadisco church, figured in _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of
Norfolk_, plate 38, affords an excellent specimen of these windows.
[60] See plate 23.
[61] See _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 252, under the head of
Bayeux Cathedral, the windows of which are remarkable for the
complicated patterns of the lead-work.--See also _Carter's Ancient
Architecture_, I. plate 79, p. 54, where this laborious author states
himself to have collected nearly all the remains of this description of
art in England. He is inclined to refer it to the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries.--In the second volume of the same work, plate 27,
fig. F. 2, is represented one of the borders of the west window of the
nave in York Cathedral, which almost exactly resembles one of these at
Caen.
[62] I. plate 28, fig. A.
[63] See _Britton's Oxford Cathedral_, plate 4.
[64] In Mr. Turner's _Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 186, this arch is, by a
_lapsus calami_, called the _eastern_, instead of the _western_.
[65] Mr. Cotman thought that he could discover visible traces of its
having been originally semi-circular, and subsequently raised and
pointed: and it is certainly most probable that such has been the case.
[66] Drawings of them all are fortunately preserved by the Abbé De la
Rue; and it is hoped some French antiquary will be found sufficiently
patriotic to cause them to be engraved.
PLATES XXXIV.--XXXVI.
CASTLE AND CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, AT DIEPPE.
[Illustration: Plate 34. CASTLE AT DIEPPE.]
The anonymous author of the _History of Dieppe_,[67] published towards
the close of the last century, traces the origin of the town as high as
the year 809, when Charlemagne visited this part of the coast of his
empire, and, observing how much it was exposed to hostile attacks,
ordered the construction of a fort upon the beach. The fort was honored
with the name of the emperor's daughter, Bertha; and as the protection
thus afforded, joined to the advantageous nature of the position, caused
the fortress, within a short time, to be surrounded by the cottages of
the neighboring fishermen, an establishment insensibly grew up, which
acquired the appellation of Bertheville.
But the irruptions of the Normans, towards the close of the same, or the
commencement of the succeeding, century, gave a new color to affairs in
Neustria: places changed their names with their masters; and, no respect
being paid to the emperor or his descendants, Bertheville ceased to be
known under any other denomination than that of _Dyppe_, a Norman word,
expressive of the depth of water in its harbor. Under Rollo, we are told
that Dieppe became the principal port in the duchy. That politic
sovereign was too well versed in nautical affairs, not to be aware of
the importance of such a station; and he had the interest of his
newly-acquired territory too much at heart, not to labor at the
improving of it. It was at Dieppe that he embarked the troops, which he
dispatched, in 913, for the assistance of his countrymen, the Danes, in
their attempts to conquer England; and the town flourished under his
sway, and then laid the foundation for that maritime greatness to which
it has subsequently risen.
From this time forward, Dieppe is frequently mentioned in history:
William the Conqueror honored it with his presence in 1047, and received
in person the homage of its inhabitants, on his return from Arques, when
the surrender of that important fortress by his uncle, Telo, put an end
to the troubles occasioned by the illegitimacy of his birth. The same
monarch, during the preparations for his descent upon Britain, made a
particular call on the people of Dieppe, to arm their vessels for the
transport of his troops. They obeyed the summons; and they boast that
their ships were the first that arrived at the place of rendezvous. No
port in Normandy derived equal advantage from the conquest: the
intercourse between the sister countries was naturally conducted through
this channel; and such continued the case till 1194, when Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, defeated under the walls of Arques, was compelled to
leave this part of the province a prey to the victorious arms of
Philip-Augustus. Upon this occasion, the French monarch appears to have
singled out Dieppe as an object of particular vengeance, and he
conducted himself towards it with a cruelty for which it would be
difficult to assign an adequate reason. Not content with burning the
town and its shipping, he transported the inhabitants into the ulterior
parts of France, that they might never re-assemble and raise it from its
ashes. Brito, at the same time that he glosses over the more flagrant
part of the transaction, tells enough to leave no doubt of its truth;
and his passage upon the subject deserves attention, particularly as
being decisive with regard to the state of Dieppe at that period:
"Haud procul hinc portus famâ celeberrimus atque
Villa potens opibus florebat nomine _Deppen_.
Hanc primùm Franci sub eodem tempore gazis
Omnibus expoliant, spoliatam denique totam
In cinerem redigunt; et sic ditatus abivit
Coetus ovans, quòd tot villâ non esse vel urbe
Divitias aut tam pretiosas diceret unquam."--
In the course of the succeeding year, the treaty of Gaillon restored
Dieppe and Arques, with their dependencies, to Richard, who almost
immediately afterwards surrendered the former town to Walter, Archbishop
of Rouen, as one of the articles of compensation for the injury done to
that prelate, by the erection of Château Gaillard upon his territory.
Dieppe appears to have recovered itself with surprising rapidity: a new
church, under the invocation of St. James, was erected in 1250, that of
St. Remi being no longer sufficient for the accommodation of its
inhabitants; and these, however cruelly they had been injured by
Philip-Augustus, were among the foremost in their demonstrations of
loyalty to him as their sovereign, when the cold-blooded tyranny of John
had bereft him of the Norman diadem. In one of the first years of the
succeeding century, John Baliol, more properly called De Bailleul, a
fugitive from Scotland, sought refuge in Dieppe, and finally retired to
his paternal domain in the valley of the Yaulne, five leagues distant
from the port. The remainder of his days were spent here in the village
that bears his name; and the parochial church, which still contains his
ashes, was, till lately, ornamented with his tomb, charged with an
inscription, reciting the various events of his life.
During the wars of Edward III. the ships from Dieppe took the lead in
the great naval engagement in 1337; and their admiral, Béhuchet, so
distinguished himself, as to draw down upon him the marked resentment of
that prince. He was himself made prisoner and hanged; and a detachment
of English and Flemings was dispatched to destroy the harbor. The
injuries, however, now sustained, were repaired with the same rapidity
as before: Philip shewed himself no less ready to reward services, than
his opponent had been to resent offences. His letters patent, bearing
date in February, 1345, exempted the inhabitants from the payment of all
taxes and dues, for the purpose of enabling them to rebuild their
walls.--Dieppe, in 1412, was again attacked by the English, and, on this
occasion, both by land and sea; but the inhabitants made a gallant and
an effectual resistance.
Their opposition, though unavailing, was not at all less spirited in the
following reign, when they were compelled, in common with the rest of
France, to acknowledge the power of the fifth Henry. But they again
disengaged themselves from the English crown in 1431, after having
remained in subjugation to it for eleven years; and the subsequent
siege, conducted by Talbot himself in person, in 1442, only added to
their military character. During this siege, which was of great length,
the English general erected the formidable fortress, known by the name
of the Bastille, in the suburb of Pollet. The following year saw the
French become in their turn the assailants: Louis II. then dauphin,
joined the troops of the Comte de Dunois in Dieppe, and the Bastille
fell, after a most murderous attack. It was afterwards levelled with the
ground in 1689, though, at a period of one hundred and twenty years
after it was originally taken and dismantled, it had again been made a
place of strength by the Huguenots, and was still farther fortified
under Henry IV. The pious dauphin, who ascribed the capture of this
almost impregnable castle to the especial grace of the Virgin Mary,
would not quit Dieppe without leaving behind him an equally signal mark
of gratitude on his part. He accordingly repaired in person to the
church of St. James, there to place the town under her especial
protection; and, not content with this, he instituted the Guild of the
Assumption, charging the members annually to commemorate the day of
their deliverance by a solemn festival.[68]
After this time, Dieppe appears to have been exposed to no farther
calamities from warfare, except what it suffered, in common with a great
part of France, during the religious troubles, and also excepting the
bombardment by the English fleet in 1694. From the earliest rise of
Calvinism in France, the inhabitants of Dieppe had distinguished
themselves in favor of the reformation; and they were already prepared
to go to the utmost lengths in its support, when John Knox, one of the
most devoted apostles of the new faith, landed there in 1560, on his way
from Scotland to Geneva. The presence of such a man produced the effect
which might naturally be expected, of kindling the spark into a flame;
and Dieppe continued for two years in open rebellion to the court. The
inhabitants, in 1562, alarmed by the capture of Rouen, consented to
receive a garrison from our Queen Elizabeth, rather than submit to
renounce their creed; but they were obliged, in the course of the same
year, to surrender to the royal troops. Notwithstanding all this, the
Protestants of Dieppe, through the wisdom and moderation of the
governor, escaped unhurt from the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The town
was nevertheless one of the first in France to declare, in 1589, for
Henry IV. when, pursued by the victorious forces of the league, he
sought shelter in these walls, and here collected the handful of troops,
with which he almost immediately afterwards gained the important victory
of Arques. The same prince also retired hither three years subsequently,
and remained ten days in the midst of _ses bons Dieppois_, as he was in
the habit of styling them, to be cured of the wounds received in the
battle of Aumale.
Among the various royal personages, with whose presence Dieppe has been
honored on different occasions, were Mary of Guise, widow of James V. of
Scotland, and mother to the unfortunate princess of the same name, who
succeeded her on the Scottish throne. She landed here in 1549, and was
immediately joined by Henry II. who was at that time at Rouen. In 1564,
Catherine of Médicis came hither, attended by her son, Charles IX. with
a view of healing the wounds occasioned by the religious dissentions;
and, in 1618, Louis XIII. after holding an assembly of the states of
Normandy at the capital of the duchy, repaired to Dieppe, to visit one
of the most important sea-ports of his kingdom. The same attention was
shewn to the town twenty-nine years subsequently, by Louis XIV. then in
his minority, accompanied by the Queen Regent; and, in our own days, it
has been equally distinguished by Napoléon.
In this short outline of the principal events connected with the history
of Dieppe, no notice has been taken of the honor acquired by its
sailors, who have, however, on all occasions, distinguished themselves.
They did so particularly in the year 1555, when, unassisted by their
king, or by any other part of France, they armed their merchant vessels,
and attacked and defeated, and nearly destroyed, the Flemish fleet,
consisting of twenty-four sail of ships of war. At all times they have
been considered as supplying some of the best men to the French navy, so
that the President de Thou pronounced them to be entitled to the highest
glory in nautical affairs. They lay claim to the honor of having first
planted the standard of Christianity upon the coast of Guinea, where
they established a settlement in the fourteenth century; of having been
the first who discovered the great river of the Amazons; and also the
first who sailed up that of St. Lawrence. Even to the present day, they
carry on a considerable traffic in small ornaments made of ivory, a
humiliating memento of their connection with Senegal: but all the rest
of their commerce is dwindled into the fishery, and a small portion of
coasting-trade.
The castle, (the subject of _plate thirty-four_,) stands upon a steep
hill; and, on approaching the town from the sea, has a grand and
imposing appearance. Its walls, flanked with towers and bastions, cause
it to retain the look of strength, the reality of which has long since
departed. The earliest portion of the building is probably a high
quadrangular tower, with lofty pointed pannels, in the four walls. Even
this, however, cannot have been erected anterior to the year 1443; for
it is upon record that the Sieur des Marêts, the first governor of the
place, then began to build a castle here, to protect the town from any
farther attacks on the part of the English army. The inhabitants, during
the reign of Henry IV. obtained permission to add to it a citadel; but
the whole was suffered almost immediately afterwards to fell into decay.
[Illustration: Plate 35. CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, AT DIEPPE.
_West front._]
[Illustration: Plate 36. CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, AT DIEPPE.
_East end._]
The church of St. Jacques, figured in the _thirty-fifth_ and
_thirty-sixth plates_, is the largest, and considerably the most
interesting of the two parochial churches of the place. It had the
singular good fortune of escaping, together with the castle, nearly
uninjured from the bombardment, during the reign of our third William,
which laid the town in ashes. It was begun about the year 1260, but was
little advanced at the commencement of the following century; nor were
its nineteen chapels, the works of the piety of individuals, completed
before 1350. The roof of the choir remained imperfect till ninety years
afterwards; while that of the transept is as recent as 1628. Thus it is
a valuable specimen of the ecclesiastical architecture of successive
ages. In the lines of the transepts are traces of the early pointed
style, apparently coeval with the church at Eu: the friezes are
ornamented with small pierced quatrefoils, as in that building; and the
portals, now mutilated, are in the same style.--The nave is of much
later date; and the vaulting, though Gothic, is intermixed with Grecian
members and scrolls.--The triforium in the choir is filled with elegant
perpendicular tracery. The Lady-Chapel is perhaps one of the last
specimens of Gothic art, but still very pure, except in some of the
smaller members, such as the niches in the tabernacles, which end in
scallop-shells, instead of terminating with a groined canopy. The bosses
of the groined roof are of the most delicate filagree work, and the
vaulting is also ornamented with knots pendant from the ribs.--The
pannel-work round the chapel takes circular terminations in each pannel;
but filled within with an elegant tracery, terminating with the
acanthus.--The windows of the chapel are acutely pointed.--The
horizontal mullions, (an unusual feature in French architecture,) are
ornamented on the outside with the ovolo. The nave is supported by
flying buttresses, each filled with tracery of eight mullions.--The
tower at the south angle of the west front is lofty, and in the
_perpendicular style_. In the north aisle of the choir is an elegant
screen, which probably incloses a chantry-chapel, and, like the
lady-chapel, exhibits a singular mixture of pointed forms, interspersed
with Roman members: parts of it resemble the tomb of Bishop Fox, at
Winchester.
NOTES:
[67] _Mémoires Chronologiques pour servir à l'Histoire de Dieppe et à
celle de la Navigation Française, Paris, 1785._--(2 vols. 8vo.)
[68] This festival was attended with ceremonies of the most absurd
description, which were continued till the time of the revolution. They
are detailed at length in the _Histoire de Dieppe_ I. p. 68; and a brief
account has lately been given of them in English, in _Turner's Tour in
Normandy_, I. p. 24.
PLATE XXXVII.
TOWER OF THE CHURCH AT HAUTE ALLEMAGNE, NEAR CAEN.