Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:13:01.724Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MEDIEVAL ROYAL AND EPISCOPAL BURIALS IN WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2021

John Crook
John Crook*
Affiliation:
Hillside, Brede, TN31 6EJ, UK. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Chapter of Winchester Cathedral, in conjunction with biological anthropologists and other specialists, are currently studying the contents of the cathedral’s well-known ‘mortuary chests’. It is clear that they contain the jumbled remains of many more people than the eleven kings and bishops named on the surviving chests, which date from c 1525 and the 1660s. In this paper the archaeological and documentary evidence for earlier arrangements for housing the cathedral’s royal and episcopal bones is examined, identifying up to twenty-five possible occupants of the chests. This will establish the context for the continuing analysis and identification of the skeletal material.

Keywords

Winchester Cathedralpre-Conquest royal burialsmedieval tombsmortuary chests
Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 102 , September 2022 , pp. 134 - 162
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London

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

Primary sources

AS, ms 114 Liber Historialis as transcribed by John of Exeter. Several mss of this text survive. The earliest is the damaged BL, MA Galba A.XV. BL, ms Vespasian D.IX contains some material not found in AS 114. Other mss are: CCCC, ms 110, pp 260–77; BL, Add ms 29436; and Bodleian, ms Jones 4Google Scholar
SAL, ms 783, Binder V, T D Atkinson, ms notes dated 1923Google Scholar
BL, Harley 6064, Robert Glover’s notesGoogle Scholar
BL, Harley 6072 (formerly bound with Harley 6067), ‘Church notes’ by an anonymous antiquary c 1590–99Google Scholar
Bodleian, ms Laud Misc. 636Google Scholar
CCCC, ms 110, pp 314–57 Chronicon Wintoniense. Chronicon in quo continetur historia Angliæ præsertim cœnobii Wintoniensi a Lucio usque ad initium regni Henrici VI Google Scholar
HRO, DC/B3/3, WCA, Chapter Acts Book,10 September 1660 to 25 November 1695Google Scholar
HRO, DC/B3/10, WCA, Chapter Acts Book,6 June 1876 to 24 March 1896Google Scholar
HRO, DC/A3/1, WCA, Cartulary of St Swithun’s Priory, 3 volsGoogle Scholar
HRO, DC/D1/1, WCA, Composite Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1580–1867Google Scholar
HRO, DC/K1, WCA, Francis Baigent’s drawings in preparation for Bishop Richard Courtenay’s tombGoogle Scholar
HRO, W/K1/11/1, John Trussell, ‘The Origin of Cities’, ms datable to c 1637Google Scholar
HRO, W/K1/12, John Trussell, ‘The Touchstone of Tradition’, ms datable to 1647Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Ball, C 1818. An Historical Account of Winchester, with Descriptive Walks, James Robbins, Winchester Google Scholar
Barrett, C 1905. Diary and Letters of Madame d’Arblay (1778–1840) as edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett with preface and notes by Austin Dobson, 6 vols, Macmillan and Co., London Google Scholar
Beer, E S de (ed) 1955. The Diary of John Evelyn, 6 vols, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Biddle, M 1968. ‘Excavations at Winchester 1967: Sixth Interim Report’, Antiq J, 48, 250–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biddle, M and Kjølbye-Biddle, B 2005. ‘Danske kongegrave i Winchester: Knud den Store og hans familie’ in Karin, Kryger (ed), Danske Kongegrave, Selskabet til Udgivelse af danske Mindesmærker, Museum Tusculum Press, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Google Scholar
Biddle, M and Kjølbye-Biddle, B 2016. ‘Danish royal burials in Winchester: Cnut and his family’, in Lavelle, R and Roffey, S (eds), Danes in Wessex: the Scandinavian impact on southern England, c 800–c 1100, 212–49, Oxbow Books, Oxford Google Scholar
Biddle, M and Kjølbye-Biddle, B., B forthcoming. The Anglo-Saxon Minsters Google Scholar
Chibnall, M (ed and trans) 1969–80. The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, 6 vols, Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Collier, J (ed) 1708–14. An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, chiefly of England …, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Crook, J 1993. ‘St Swithun of Winchester’, in Crook, J (ed), Winchester Cathedral: 900 years, 56–68, Phillimore, Chichester Google Scholar
Crook, J 1994. ‘The bones of King Cnut’, in Rumble, A (ed), The Reign of Cnut: king of England, Denmark and Norway, 165–92, Leicester University Press, Leicester Google Scholar
Crook, J 1999. ‘The “Rufus tomb” in Winchester Cathedral’, Antiq J, 79, 187–212 Google Scholar
Crook, J 2000. The Architectural Setting of the Cult of Saints in the Early Christian West c 300–c 1200, Oxford Historical Monographs, Clarendon Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Crook, J 2003. ‘Early historians of Winchester Cathedral’, Proc Hants Fld Club Archaeol Soc, 58, 226–41Google Scholar
Exwood, M and Lehmann, H L 1993. The Journal of William Schellinks’ Travels in England, 1661–1663, Camden Fifth Series, vol i, Royal Historical Society, University College, London Google Scholar
Godwin, F 1616. De Præsulibus Angliæ commentarius omnium episcoporum, necnon et cardinalium, eiusdem gentis, nomina, tempora, seriem, atque actiones maxime memorabiles ab vltima antiquitate repetita complexus, John Bill, London Google Scholar
Kitchin, G W 1886. ‘The crypts of Winchester Cathedral’, Hampshire Chronicle, 17 AprilGoogle Scholar
Legg, L G Wickham (ed) 1936. ‘A relation of a short survey of the western counties made by a lieutenant of the Military Company in Norwich in 1635’, Camden Miscellany, Vol. XVI (Camden Society, 3rd series, LII)Google Scholar
Luard, H R (ed) 1865. Annales Monastici II, RS, Longman Green, London Google Scholar
Malden, H E (ed) 1905. The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, Vol. II, A Constable & Co., London Google Scholar
Milner, J 1798–9. The History, Civil and Ecclesiastical, & Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester, 2 vols, James Robbins, Winchester Google Scholar
Milner, J c 1838. The History, Civil and Ecclesiastical, & Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester, 3rd edn, 2 vols, James Robbins, Winchester Google Scholar
Ryves, Bruno c 1642–6. Mercurius Rusticus, or, The Countries Complaint of the Murthers, Robberies, Plundrings, and other Outrages, committed by the rebells on His Majesties faithfull Subjects. Published in weekly parts: XX, 24 February, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Stow, J 1592. The Annales of England … from the first inhabitation until this present yeere 1592, London Google Scholar
Stubbs, W (ed) 1887–9. Willelmi Malmesburiensis monachi de Gestis Regum Anglorum, 2 vols, RS, London Google Scholar
Thorpe, B (ed) 1849. Florentii Wigorniensis monachi, Chronicon ex Chronicis , Vol. 2, English Historical Society, London Google Scholar
Vaughan, J [1919]. Winchester Cathedral: its monuments and memorials, Selwyn & Blount, Winchester Google Scholar
Wharton, H (ed) 1691. Anglia Sacra sive Collectio Historiarum … de Archiepiscopis et Episcopis Angliæ, 2 vols, Richard Chiswell, London Google Scholar