A Short Account of King's College Chapel

Part 1

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A SHORT ACCOUNT OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL

LONDON AGENTS

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LTD.

A SHORT ACCOUNT

KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL

W. P. LITTLECHILD

(CHAPEL CLERK)

SECOND EDITION With Illustrations

=CAMBRIDGE:= W. HEFFER & SONS LTD. 1921

Preface to Second Edition

THE success which has attended this little work from its first appearance, and the approval with which it has been received prompts me to issue a second and revised edition.

Regret has been expressed by some, that I omitted to give a description of all the windows, and that there were no illustrations in the first edition. This I have endeavoured to remedy by giving the subjects of all the windows (with here and there a special note) and inserting some pictures of the Chapel both inside and out, also the arms and supporters (a dragon and greyhound) of Henry VII, crowned rose and portcullis, from the walls of the ante-chapel and the initials H.A. from the screen.

I am indebted to Messrs. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd., 1 Amen Corner, London, for the loan of the blocks of the former, which appeared in the late Sir William St. John Hope's book Heraldry for Craftsmen and Designers. The latter, together with three photographs of the Chapel, were specially taken for me by Mr. A. Broom. I wish also to thank the Provost of Eton, Dr. M. R. James, for permission to use some part of his description of the windows. I am also indebted to Mr. J. Palmer Clark for leave to reproduce the photograph of the ship in the window on the south side. I am also grateful to Mr. Benham and Dr. Mann for their assistance in compiling the lists of Provosts and Organists. I have again to thank Sir G. W. Prothero, Honorary Fellow of the College, for reading through the manuscript and proofs of both editions and for his valuable suggestions. In conclusion, I would ask for the kind indulgence of my readers for any errors that may be discovered in this little book, and shall be glad to have them pointed out to me.

W. P. L.

CAMBRIDGE, ST. JAMES' DAY, July 25, 1921.

Illustrations

OUTSIDE Frontispiece

PAGE

LOOKING EAST FROM PROVOST STALL face 4

THE SCREEN FROM WEST END 8

SHIP WINDOW 11

H.A. FROM THE SCREEN 27

ARMS OF HENRY VII. 35

ROSE AND PORTCULLIS 35 (Badges of Henry VII.)

The Foundation

IN the year 1441 Henry VI founded King's College for a Rector and twelve scholars. He remodelled his plan in 1443, and styled his foundation the College of St. Mary and St. Nicholas. It was to consist of a Provost, seventy Fellows, or Scholars, together with Chaplains, Lay Clerks, and Choristers. The court was originally on the north side of the present chapel opposite Clare College, and was the home of many generations of Kingsmen until about 1825. In 1829 this court was sold to the University, and the buildings thereon were demolished to make way for an extension of the University Library; but the old entrance gateway was happily spared and incorporated with the new Library building, and stands there, as a "venerable and beautiful specimen of architecture," at the present day.

On St. James' Day, July 25th, 1446, the King laid the foundation stone of the chapel, and so began a building which, as a distinguished member of the college (Lord Orford) said, would "alone be sufficient to ennoble any age." It has been classed with the chapel of Henry VII at Westminster and Saint George's collegiate church at Windsor, as one of "the three great royal chapels of the Tudor age"; but there is no edifice, except Eton College Chapel, which forms in any way a fair subject of comparison with that of King's College.

Part 2

The style is rich perpendicular, marking the point where the last Gothic meets the early Renaissance. Nicholas Close has commonly been considered to be the architect. He was a man of Flemish family, and for a few years held the cure of the parish of St. John Zachary, which church stood on the west side of Milne Street, and probably so close to it that the high altar of the church was on ground afterwards enclosed within the western bays of the Ante-Chapel. Close, in 1450, was appointed to the See of Carlisle, and in 1452 transferred to Lichfield. He certainly received from the King the grant of a coat of arms for his services, but it might fairly be said that John Langton, Master of Pembroke College, and Chancellor of the University, who also had the title of "Surveyor," a term generally admitted to be synonymous with architect, has an equally strong claim. But Mr. G. G. Scott, in his essay on English Church Architecture, says "the man who really should have had the credit of conceiving this great work was the master-mason, Reginald Ely, appointed by a patent of Henry VI to press masons, carpenters, and other workers." According to Mr. Scott's view, "Close and his successors did the work which in modern days would be done, though less efficiently, by a building committee. But they were ecclesiastics, not architects; it is the master-mason, not the more dignified 'surveyor,' to whom the honour of planning the building should be attributed."

Royal Benefactors

BESIDES the founder, whose misfortunes hindered the completion of his work, four successive kings aided in its erection. When Henry was taken prisoner at St. Albans in 1455, the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick promised to supply funds for the college buildings. For a time they kept their word, and some part of the £1,000 a year promised by Henry from the Duchy of Lancaster continued to be paid; but the defeat of the King at the battle of Towton in 1461 and the subsequent overthrow of the Lancaster dynasty checked progress. "After a long time spent in hiding in secret places, wherein for safety's sake he was forced to keep close, he was found and taken, brought as a traitor and criminal to London, and imprisoned in the Tower, and eventually suffered a violent death. He was buried at Chertsey Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed to Windsor Castle." Still, the idea was there, and it remained for a later generation only to imitate and complete. In 1483, just before Edward IV's death, we find that nearly £1,300 had been spent on the chapel, about £1,100 given by the King, and £100 by Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, Lord Chancellor of England, formerly a Fellow of the College, but it is not stated how the deficit was met. Richard III, on his accession, resumed the work with great vigour. Between May and December, 1484, about £750 was spent, nearly all of which was provided by the king.

It is stated that in the year 1506 sufficient progress had been made in the building to admit of the performance of divine service, at which Henry VII and his mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, Foundress of St. John's and Christ's Colleges, who were on a visit to Cambridge, were present; and it is said that John Fisher, President of Queens' College, Bishop of Rochester, took part as chief celebrant. Professor Willis, in The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, takes exception to this statement. He is of opinion that, as the Screen and Stall work was not finished until 1536, and as the old Chapel did not fall down until 1537 (in fact it was used on the eve of the day on which it fell), it is unlikely that the new chapel was used for service until that time. He further quotes Dr. Caius to strengthen this view.

Henry VII, who has been credited with an excessive tendency to accumulate treasure, was, next to the Founder, much the largest contributor. A short time before his death in 1509, moved perhaps to emulate the liberal example of his pious mother, he gave £5,000 to the college, with instructions to his executors to finish the building. May we not also think that Richard Fox, Founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Bishop of Winchester from 1500 to 1528, who was Henry VII's constant adviser, Privy Seal, and one of his executors, had something to do with this mark of Henry's generosity and favour? This sum of £5,000 was probably all spent by the beginning of 1512, when the King's executors made over to the Provost and scholars, in 1511-12, a second sum of £5,000.

Thus in 1515, in the 7th year of King Henry VIII's reign, the stonework of the chapel was completed; it had cost, in the present value of money, about £160,000. The stone used in the construction is of different kinds. The white magnesian limestone from Huddlestone in Yorkshire is that which was chiefly used in the lifetime of the Founder. The lower part of the walls was built of this; the upper part was built with stone brought from Clipsham in Rutlandshire in 1477. A third kind, from Weldon in Northamptonshire, was used for the vaulting of the choir and ante-chapel, executed in 1512 and the following years. The north and south porches were vaulted with a magnesian limestone, more yellow in colour, from the Yorkshire quarry of Hampole.

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