Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T20:58:16.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR’S SHRINE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY: ITS DATE OF CONSTRUCTION RECONSIDERED

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2017

Matthew Payne  and
Warwick Rodwell
Matthew Payne
Affiliation:
Keeper of the Muniments, Westminster Abbey, 20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA, UK. Email: [email protected]
Warwick Rodwell
Affiliation:
Consultant Archaeologist, Westminster Abbey, 20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA, UK. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper re-evaluates the evidence for the dating of Edward the Confessor’s shrine at Westminster Abbey, which has been the subject of debate for many years. The paper presents a new argument that the manuscript evidence for a later date is based on an identifiable scribal error, locates the source of this error and postulates an alternative original reading of the inscription on the shrine pedestal.

Type
Papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 97 , September 2017 , pp. 187 - 204
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Manuscript sources

BL, Cotton no. 36789, fols 151v–1521vGoogle Scholar
BL, Cotton ms Claudius A VIII, Richard Sporley, Historia ecclesie Westmonasterii Google Scholar
BL, Cotton ms Otho C IIGoogle Scholar
BL, Cotton ms Vitellius E XIVGoogle Scholar
BL, Harley ms 692, Richard Sporley, Annals of the Kings of England Google Scholar
BL, Harley ms 6018Google Scholar
BL, Stowe ms 573Google Scholar
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, ms 287, copy of John Flete, De Fundatione ecclesie Westmonasteriensis, 1572Google Scholar
TCD, ms 548, fragment of John Flete, De Fundatione ecclesie Westmonasteriensis, c1443Google Scholar
Chetham’s Library, Manchester, ms Lat 6712, Flores Historiarum Google Scholar
TNA, CP40, Court of Common PleasGoogle Scholar
WAL, ms 29, John Flete, De Fundatione ecclesie Westmonasteriensis, mid-fifteenth centuryGoogle Scholar
WAL, ms 44, ‘A Catalogue of the Kings, Queenes and Nobilities’, by John Mostyn, c 1645Google Scholar
WAM, 9477Google Scholar
WAM, 19700Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Ackermann, R 1812. The History of the Abbey Church of St Peter’s Westminster, its Antiquities and Monuments, Rudolph Ackermann, London Google Scholar
Binski, P 1990. ‘The Cosmati at Westminster and the English Court style’, Art Bull, 72 (1), 6–34 Google Scholar
Binski, P 1995. Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets: kingship and the representation of power, 1200–1400, Yale University of Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Camden, W 1603. Reges, Reginae, Nobiles et alii in ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii sepulti, London Google Scholar
Carpenter, D 1996. ‘King Henry III and the Cosmati Work at Westminster Abbey’, in J Blair and J Goulding (eds), The Cloister and the World: essays in honour of Barbara Harvey, 178–195, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Carpenter, D 2012. ‘The Pershore Flores Historiarum: an unrecognised chronicle from the period of reform and rebellion in England, 1258–65’, English Hist Rev, 127 (529, Dec), 1343–1366 Google Scholar
Colvin, H 1963. History of the King’s Works, HMSO, London Google Scholar
Dart, J 1723. Westmonasterium, Vol 2, J Cole, London Google Scholar
Dugdale, W 1655. Monasticon Anglicanum, Richard Hodgkinsonne, London Google Scholar
Foster, R 1991. Patterns of Thought: the hidden meaning of the Great Pavement of Westminster Abbey, Jonathan Cape, London Google Scholar
Gardner, J 1990. ‘The Cosmati at Westminster: some Anglo-Italian reflexions’, in J Garms and A Romanini (eds), Skulptur und Grabmal des Spätmittelalters in Rom und Italien, 201–216, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna Google Scholar
Grant, L and Mortimer, R (eds) 2002. Westminster Abbey: the Cosmati pavements, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot Google Scholar
Harvey, B 2004. ‘Sporley, Richard (b. before 1410, d. 1491)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26163 (accessed 14 Aug 2017)Google Scholar
Holinshed, R 1587. The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles, ... first collected and published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and others: now newlie augmented and continued (with manifold matters of singular note and worthie memorie) to the yeare 1586, John Hooker, London Google Scholar
Hutton, E 1950. The Cosmati: the Roman marble workers of the XIIth and XIIIth centuries, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London Google Scholar
Keepe, H 1682. Monumenta Westmonasteriensia, or an historical account of the original, increase and present state of St Peters, C Wilkinson and T Dring, London Google Scholar
Knafla, L 2010. ‘Thynne, Francis (1545?–1608)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27420 (accessed 14 Aug 2017)Google Scholar
Knighton, C 2006. ‘Westminster Abbey restored’, in E Duffy and D Loades (eds), The Church of Mary Tudor, 77–123, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot Google Scholar
Lethaby, W 1906. Westminster Abbey and the King’s Craftsmen, Duckworth and Co, London Google Scholar
Luard, H R 1890. Flores Historiarum, 3 vols, Rolls Series 95, HMSO, London Google Scholar
Mortimer, R 2015. ‘History and chronicles at Westminster Abbey, 1250–1450’, in W Rodwell and T Tatton-Brown (eds), Westminster: the art, architecture and archaeology of the royal abbey, 291–300, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Neale, J 1821. The History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St Peter Westminster, Vol 2, Hurst, Robinson and Co, London Google Scholar
O’Neilly, J G and Tanner, L E 1966. ‘The shrine of Edward the Confessor’, Archaeologia, 100, 129–154 Google Scholar
Ovenden, R and Handley, S 2004. ‘Howard, Lord William (1563–1640)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13947 (accessed 14 Aug 2017)Google Scholar
Pearce, E H 1916. The Monks of Westminster: being a register of the brethren of the convent from the time of the Confessor to the Dissolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Robinson, J Armitage (ed) 1909. The History of Westminster Abbey by John Flete, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Robinson, J Armitage and James, M 1909. The Manuscripts of Westminster Abbey, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Rodwell, W J and Neal, D forthcoming. The Medieval Comatesque Mosaics of Westminster Abbey, Society of Antiquaries, London Google Scholar
Sharpe, R, Carley, J, Thomson, R and Watson, A 1996. English Benedictine Libraries: the shorter catalogues, British Library, London Google Scholar
Stubbs, W 1882. Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, Rolls Series 76, London Google Scholar
Tite, C G C 2003. The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: formation, cataloguing, use, British Library, London Google Scholar
Tudor-Craig, P 1986. ‘The medieval monuments and chantry chapels’, in J Physik, C Wilson, P Tudor-Craig and R Gem (eds), Westminster Abbey: new Bell’s cathedral guides, 115–140, Bell and Hyman, London Google Scholar
Vertue, G 1779. ‘An account of Edward the Confessor’s monument, by Mr Geo Vertue, read before the Antiquaries on 10 October 1741’, Archaeologia, 1(2), 32–39 Google Scholar
Weever, J 1631. Ancient Funeral Monuments, London Google Scholar
Widmore, R 1751. The History of the Church of St Peter, Westminster, Jos Fox and C Tovey, London Google Scholar