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.