Windsor Castle

by William Harrison Ainsworth

  III.

  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 muchdilapidated and decayed, Edward the Fourth resolved to pull down thepile, and build a larger and statelier structure in its place. With thisview, he constituted Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, surveyorof the works, from whose designs arose the present beautiful edifice. Toenable the bishop to accomplish the work, power was given him to removeall obstructions, and to enlarge the space by the demolition of thethree buildings then commonly called Clure's Tower, Berner's Tower, andthe Almoner's Tower.

  The zeal and assiduity with which Beauchamp prosecuted his task isadverted to in the patent of his appointment to the office of chancellorof the Garter, the preamble whereof recites, "that out of mere lovetowards the Order, he had given himself the leisure daily to attend theadvancement and progress of this goodly fabric."

  The chapel, however, was not completed in one reign, or by onearchitect. Sir Reginald Bray, prime minister of Henry the Seventh,succeeded Bishop Beauchamp as surveyor of the works, and it was by himthat the matchless roof of the choir and other parts of the fabric werebuilt. Indeed, the frequent appearance of Bray's arms, sometimes single,sometimes impaling his alliances, in many parts of the ceiling andwindows, has led to the supposition that he himself contributed largelyto the expense of the work. The groined ceiling of the chapel wasnot commenced till the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry theSeventh, 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 thestructure.

  "The main vaulting of St. George's Chapel," says Mr. Poynter, "isperhaps, without exception, the most beautiful specimen of the Gothicstone roof in existence; but it has been very improperly classed withthose of the same architectural period in the chapels of King's College,Cambridge, and Henry the Seventh, at Westminster. The roofing of theaisle and the centre compartment of the body of the building are indeedin that style, but the vault of the nave and choir differ essentiallyfrom fan vaulting, both in drawing and construction. It is, in fact,a waggon-headed vault, broken by Welsh groins--that is to say, groinswhich cut into the main arch below the apex. It is not singular in theprinciple of its design, but it is unique in its proportions, in whichthe exact mean seems to be attained between the poverty and monotony ofa waggon-headed ceiling and the ungraceful effect of a mere groined roofwith a depressed roof or large span--to which may be added, that with arichness of effect scarcely, if at all, inferior to fan tracery, itis free from those abrupt junctions of the lines and other defects ofdrawing inevitable when the length and breadth of the compartments offan vaulting differ very much, of which King's College Chapel exhibitssome notable instances."

  Supported by these exquisite ribs and groins, the ceiling is decoratedwith heraldic insignia, displaying the arms of Edward the Confessor,Edward the Third, Edward the Black Prince, Henry the Sixth, Edwardthe Fourth, Henry the Seventh, and Henry the Eighth; with the arms ofEngland and France quartered, the holy cross, the shield or cross ofSaint George, the rose, portcullis, lion rampant, unicorn, fleur-de-lis,dragon, and prince's feathers, together with the arms of a multitude ofnoble families. In the nave are emblazoned the arms of Henry the Eighth,and of several knights-companions, among which are those of Charles theFifth, Francis the First, and Ferdinand, Infant of Spain. The extremelightness and graceful proportions of the pillars lining the aislescontribute greatly to the effect of this part of the structure.

  Beautiful, however, as is the body of the chapel, it is not comparableto the choir. Here, and on either side, are ranged the stalls of theknights, formerly twenty-six in number, but now increased to thirty-two,elaborately carved in black oak, and covered by canopies of the richesttabernacle-work, supported by slender pillars. On the pedestals isrepresented the history of the Saviour, and on the front of the stallsat the west end of the choir is carved the legend of Saint George; whileon the outside of the upper seat is cut, in old Saxon characters, thetwentieth Psalm in Latin. On the canopies of the stalls are placed themantle, helmet, coat, and sword of the knights-companions; and abovethem are hung their emblazoned banners. On the back of each stall arefixed small enamelled plates, graven with the titles of the knightswho have occupied it. The ancient stall of the sovereign was removed in1788, and a new seat erected.

  The altar was formerly adorned with costly hangings of crimson velvetand gold, but these, together with the consecrated vessels of greatvalue, were seized by order of Parliament in 1642 amid the generalplunder of the foundation. The service of the altar was replaced byCharles the Second.

  The sovereign's stall is immediately on the right on the entrance to thechoir, and the prince's on the left. The queen's closet is on thenorth side above the altar. Beneath it is the beautiful andelaborately-wrought framework of iron, representing a pair of gatesbetween two Gothic towers, designed as a screen to the tomb of Edwardthe 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 fordull colourless copies in painted glass of West's designs. Instead of--"blushing with the blood of kings, And twilight saints, and dimemblazonings"--steeping the altar in rich suffusion, chequering thewalls and pavement with variegated hues, and filling the whole sacredspot 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 offramework and compartments in the style of the original, and enrichedwith ancient mellow-toned and many-hued glass in keeping with the place,are absolutely indispensable to the completeness and unity of characterof the chapel. Two clerestory windows at the east end of the choir,adjoining the larger window, have been recently filled with stainedglass in much better taste.

  The objections above made may be urged with equal force against the eastand west windows of the south aisle of the body of the fane, and thewest window of the north aisle. The glorious west window, composed ofeighty compartments, embellished with figures of kings, patriarchs, andbishops, together with the insignia of the Garter and the arms of theprelates--the wreck gathered from all the other windows--and streamingwith the radiance of the setting sun upon the broad nave and gracefulpillars of the aisles--this superb window, an admirable specimen of thearchitecture of the age in which it was designed, had well-nigh sharedthe fate of the others, and was only preserved from desecration by thecircumstance of the death of the glass-painter. The mullions of thiswindow being found much decayed, were carefully and consistentlyrestored during the last year by Mr. Blore, and the ancient stainedglass replaced.

  Not only does Saint George's Chapel form a house of prayer and a templeof chivalry, but it is also the burial-place of kings. At the east endof 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, werecarried off by the Parliamentary plunderers. Edward's queen, ElizabethWoodville, it was thought, slept beside him; but when the royal tomb wasopened in 1789, and the two coffins within it examined, the smaller onewas found empty. The queen's body was subsequently discovered in a stonecoffin by the workmen employed in excavating the vault for George theThird. Edward's coffin was seven feet long, and contained a perfectskeleton. On the opposite aisle, near the choir door, as alreadymentioned, rests the ill-fated Henry the Sixth, beneath an archsumptuously embellished by Henry the Eighth, on the key-stone of whichmay still be seen his arms, supported by two antelopes connected by agolden chain. Henry's body was removed from Chertsey, where it was firstinterre
d, and reburied in 1484, with much solemnity, in this spot. Suchwas the opinion entertained of his sanctity that miracles were supposedto be wrought upon his tomb, and Henry the Seventh applied to havehim canonised, but the demands of the Pope were too exorbitant. Theproximity of Henry and Edward in death suggested the following lines toPope--

  "Here, o'er the martyr-king the marble weeps, And fast beside himonce-fear'd Edward sleeps; The grave unites, where e'en the grave findsrest, And mingled here the oppressor and the opprest."

  In the royal vault in the choir repose Henry the Eighth and his thirdqueen Jane Seymour, together with the martyred Charles the First.

  Space only permits the hasty enumeration of the different chapels andchantries adorning this splendid fane. These are Lincoln Chapel, nearwhich Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, is buried; OxenbridgeChapel; Aldworth Chapel; Bray Chapel, where rests the body of SirReginald de Bray, the architect of the pile; Beaufort Chapel, containingsumptuous monuments of the noble family of that name; Rutland Chapel;Hastings Chapel; and Urswick Chapel, in which is now placed the cenotaphof the Princess Charlotte, sculptured by Matthew Wyatt.

  In a vault near the sovereign's stall lie the remains of the Duke ofGloucester, who died in 1805, and of his duchess, who died two yearsafter him. And near the entrance of the south door is a slab of greymarble, beneath which lies one who in his day filled the highestoffices of the realm, and was the brother of a king and the husband of aqueen. 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 aportrait and the sword of state of Edward the Third.

  Adjoining the chapel on the east stands the royal tombhouse. Commencedby Henry the Seventh as a mausoleum, but abandoned for the chapel inWestminster Abbey, this structure was granted by Henry the Eighth toWolsey, who, intending it as a place of burial for himself, erectedwithin it a sumptuous monument of black and white marble, with eightlarge brazen columns placed around it, and four others in the form ofcandlesticks.

  At the time of the cardinal's disgrace, when the building reverted tothe crown, the monument was far advanced towards completion--the vastsum of 4280 ducats having been paid to Benedetto, a Florentine sculptor,for work, and nearly four hundred pounds for gilding part of it. Thistomb was stripped of its ornaments and destroyed by the Parliamentaryrebels in 1646; but the black marble sarcophagus forming part of it, andintended 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 SaintGeorge's Chapel, as has just been mentioned, and as he himself directed,"midway between the state and the high altar." Full instructionswere left by him for the erection of a monument which, if it had beencompleted, would have been truly magnificent. The pavement was to be oforiental stones, with two great steps upon it of the same material. Thetwo pillars of the church between which the tomb was to be set were tobe covered with bas-reliefs, representing the chief events of the OldTestament, angels with gilt garlands, fourteen images of the prophets,the apostles, the evangelists, and the four doctors of the Church, andat the foot of every image a little child with a basket full of red andwhite roses enamelled and gilt. Between these pillars, on a basement ofwhite marble, the epitaphs of the king and queen were to be written inletters of gold.

  On the same basement were to be two tombs of black touchstone supportingthe images of the king and queen, not as dead, but sleeping, "to show,"so runs the order, "that famous princes leaving behind them great famedo never die." On the right hand, at either corner of the tomb, was tobe an angel holding the king's arms, with a great candlestick, andat the opposite corners two other angels hearing the queen's arms andcandlesticks. Between the two black tombs was to rise a high basement,like a sepulchre, surmounted by a statue of the king on horseback, inarmour--both figures to be "of the whole stature of a goodly man anda large horse." Over this statue was to be a canopy, like a triumphalarch, of white marble, garnished with oriental stones of divers colours,with the history of Saint John the Baptist wrought in gilt brass uponit, with a crowning group of the Father holding the soul of the king inhis 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, withforty-four bas-reliefs. It would be matter of infinite regret that thisgreat design was never executed, if its destruction by the Parliamentaryplunderers would not in that case have been also matter of certainty.

  Charles the First intended to fit up this structure as a royalmausoleum, but was diverted from the plan by the outbreak of the civilwar. It was afterwards used as a chapel by James the Second, and masswas publicly performed in it. The ceiling was painted by Verrio, and thewalls highly ornamented; but the decorations were greatly injured by thefury of an anti-Catholic mob, who assailed the building, and destroyedits windows, on the occasion of a banquet given to the Pope's nuncio bythe 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 twelvelow tombs. A subterranean passage leads from the vault beneath the choirof Saint George's altar to the sepulchre. Within it are deposited thebodies of George the Third and Queen Charlotte, the Princesses Ameliaand 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 desireto bring down the history of Saint George's Chapel to the present timehas led to the foregoing digression. About the same time that the chapelwas built, habitations for the dean and canons were erected on thenorth-east of the fane, while another range of dwellings for the minorcanons 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-shoeCloisters. The ambulatory of these cloisters once displayed a finespecimen of the timber architecture of Henry the Seventh's time, whenthey were repaired, but little of their original character can now bediscerned.

  In 1482 Edward, desirous of advancing his popularity with the citizensof London, invited the lord mayor and aldermen to Windsor, where hefeasted 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, andthe building of the chapel was continued during his reign.

  The picturesque portion of the castle on the north side of the upperward, near the Norman Gateway, and which is one of the noblest Gothicfeatures of the proud pile, was built by Henry the Seventh, whose nameit still bears. The side of this building looking towards the terracewas originally decorated with two rich windows, but one of them hasdisappeared, and the other has suffered much damage.

  In 1500 the deanery was rebuilt by Dean Urswick. At the lower end ofthe court, adjoining the canons' houses behind the Horse-shoe Cloisters,stands the Collegiate Library, the date of which is uncertain, though itmay perhaps be referred to this period. The establishment was enrichedin later times by a valuable library, bequeathed to it by the Earl ofRanelagh.

  In 1506 Windsor was the scene of great festivity, in consequence of theunexpected arrival of Philip, King of Castile, and his queen, who hadbeen driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. The royal visitorsremained for several weeks at the castle, during which it continued ascene of revelry, intermixed with the sports of the chase. At the sametime Philip was invested with the Order of the Garter, and installed inthe chapel of St. George.

  The great gateway to the lower ward was built in the commencement ofthe reign of Henry the Eighth;
it is decorated with his arms anddevices--the rose, portcullis, and fleur-de-lis, and with the bearingsof Catherine of Arragon. In 1522 Charles the Fifth visited Windsor, andwas installed I knight of the Garter.

  During a period of dissension in the council, Edward the Sixth wasremoved for safety to Windsor by the Lord Protector Somerset, and here,at a later period, the youthful monarch received a letter from thecouncil urging the dismissal of Somerset, with which, by the advice ofthe Arch-bishop of Canterbury, he complied.

  In this reign an undertaking to convey water to the castle fromBlackmore Park, near Wingfield, a distance of five miles, was commenced,though it was not till 1555, in the time of Mary, that the plan wasaccomplished, when a pipe was brought into the upper ward, "and therethe water plenteously did rise thirteen feet high." In the middle of thecourt was erected a magnificent fountain, consisting of a canopyraised upon columns, gorgeously decorated with heraldic ornaments, andsurmounted by a great vane, with the arms of Philip and Mary impaledupon it, and supported by a lion and an eagle, gilt and painted. Thewater was discharged by a great dragon, one of the supporters of theTudor arms, into the cistern beneath, whence it was conveyed by pipes toevery part of the castle.

  Mary held her court at Windsor soon after her union with Philip ofSpain. About this period the old habitations of the alms-knights on thesouth side of the lower quadrangle were taken down, and others erectedin their stead.

  Fewer additions were made to Windsor Castle by Elizabeth than might havebeen expected from her predilection for it as a place of residence. Sheextended and widened the north terrace, where, when lodging within thecastle, she daily took exercise, whatever might be the weather. Theterrace at this time, as it is described by Paul Hentzner, and as itappears in Norden's view, was a sort of balcony projecting beyond thescarp of the hill, and supported by great cantilevers of wood.

  In 1576 the gallery still bearing her name, and lying between Henry theSeventh's buildings and the Norman Tower, was erected by Elizabeth. Thisportion of the castle had the good fortune to escape the alterations andmodifications made in almost every other part of the upper ward afterthe restoration of Charles the Second. It now forms the library. A largegarden was laid out by the same queen, and a small gateway on CastleHill built by her--which afterwards became one of the greatestobstructions to the approach, and it was taken down by George theFourth.

  Elizabeth often hunted in the parks, and exhibited her skill in archery,which was by no means inconsiderable, at the butts. Her fondness fordramatic performances likewise induced her to erect a stage withinthe castle, on which plays and interludes were performed. And to heradmiration 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; carousedwithin its halls, and chased the deer in its parks; Christian the Fourthof Denmark was sumptuously entertained by him at Windsor. In this reigna curious dispute occurred between the king and the dean and chapterrespecting the repair of a breach in the wall, which was not broughtto issue for three years, when, after much argument, it was decided infavour of the clergy.

  Little was done at Windsor by Charles the First until the tenth year ofhis reign, when a banqueting-house erected by Elizabeth was taken down,and the magnificent fountain constructed by Queen Mary demolished. Twoyears 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 waserected before the room where Henry the Sixth was born.

  In the early part of the year 1642 Charles retired to Windsor toshield himself from the insults of the populace, and was followed by acommittee of the House of Commons, who prevailed upon him to desist fromthe prosecution of the impeached members. On the 23rd of October inthe same year, Captain Fogg, at the head of a Parliamentarian force,demanded the keys of the college treasury, and, not being able to obtainthem, forced open the doors, and carried off the whole of the plate.

  The plunder of the college was completed by Vane, the Parliamentarygovernor of the castle, who seized upon the whole of the furniture anddecorations of the choir, rifled the tomb of Edward the Fourth,stripped off all the costly ornaments from Wolsey's tomb, defaced theemblazonings over Henry the Sixth's grave, broke the rich painted glassof the windows, and wantonly destroyed the exquisite woodwork of thechoir.

  Towards the close of the year 1648 the ill-fated Charles was brought aprisoner to Windsor, where he remained while preparations were made forthe execrable tragedy soon afterwards enacted. After the slaughter ofthe 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 moodyand distrustful walk upon the terrace. It was during the Protectorate,in 1677, that the ugly buildings appropriated to the naval knights, andstanding between the Garter Tower and Chancellor's Tower, were erectedby Sir Francis Crane.