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The design of the vaulting of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster: a reappraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Walter C. Leedy Jr
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Extract

Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster, represents a solution to the problem of how to create a visually unified and consistently decorated interior. It also represents the transformation into architectural form of the tradition of epideictic rhetoric - the elaborate praising of personages of high degree. Furthermore, it was the most important structure built in the early sixteenth century in England. It is surprising, therefore, that little attention has been paid to it by modern scholars.

Professor Lethaby, writing in 1906 and again in 1925, attributed the design of Henry VII’s Chapel to Robert Vertue. More recently, Professor Webb and Mr Harvey have suggested that the vaulting was designed by William Vertue, c. 1510. These attributions to the Vertues are based on the fact, among others, that Robert Vertue was the first named in a list of the King’s three master masons who gave an estimate for a proposed tomb for Henry VII in 1506.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 18 , 1975 , pp. 5 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1975

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References

Notes

1 Lethaby, W. R., Westminster Abbey and the King’s Craftsmen (1906), p.226 Google Scholar; Lethaby, W. R., Westminster Abbey Re-examined (1925), pp. 163–166 Google Scholar.

2 Webb, G., Architecture in Britain (2nd edn, Harmondsworth 1965), p. 200 Google Scholar, and Harvey, J., The Mediaeval Architect (1972), p. 164.Google Scholar

3 PRO, SP1/2/100-101. ‘Robert Vertue, Robert Janyns, John Lobons. Item, the kings iii master masons sayen that the workmanshippe … for the tomb after the manner of the moldinge of the patrone whiche master Payeny hathe made woll costLXXXli…’

4 PRO, E101/415/3, ff.60r, 74, 86r; British Museum, Add. MS7099, f.77.

5 British Museum, Add. MS21,480, f.179 (1499); PRO, E101/415/3, ff. 13r, 20r, 30r, 38,45, 60,93r, 101; British Museum, Add. MS7099, f.77; PRO, E101/517/4. For Greenwich see P. Dixon, Excavations at Greenwich Palace, 1970-71 (1972).

6 ’… Robt. and William Vertue have been here with me … And also of the vawte devised for the chancelle of the said church …’ Westminster Abbey Muniment 16,040, printed in J. Armitage Robinson, ‘Correspondence of Bishop King, Oliver and SirBray, Reginald’, Somerset Archaeological & Natural History Society. Proceedings, lx, pt.ii (1914), p. 4.Google Scholar

7 Robert Vertue’s will was proved 12 December 1506. PCC Adeane 13. Robert Vertue names William Vertue as his ‘broder’ in his will. William Vertue’s will was proved 22 March 1526/7. PCC Porch 17. Both wills are printed in Harvey, J., Gothic England (1947), pp. 183–186.Google Scholar

8 Maxwell-Lyte, H. (ed.), ‘The Registers of Oliver King and Hadrian de Castello’, Somerset Record Society, liv (1939), p. 51 Google Scholar.

9 Robinson, , ‘Correspondence of… King and … Bray’, p. 4.Google Scholar

10 ’This chirche as farre as I can see shalbe thoroughtely covered far beforne alhalowe tide .. .’: Robinson, , ‘Correspondence of … King and . .. Bray’, p.4.Google Scholar

11 ’… corpusque meum sub spe ut in die resurrectionis cum domino glorietur sepeliendum in choro novo ecclesie Bathon iuxta archam primam partis borealis proximam altari summo …’: printed in Weaver, F. W. (ed.), ‘Somerset Medieval Wills 1501-1530’, Somerset Record Society, xix (1903), p. 44.Google Scholar

12 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VII(1862-1910), ii, N0S3781 & 4289.

13 Rawlinson, R., The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral-Church of Salisbury, and the Abbey-Church of Bath (1723), p. 171.Google Scholar

14 Kidson, P. et al, A History of English Architecture (Harmondsworth 1965), p. 139.Google Scholar

15 Harvey, J. et al, English Mediaeval Architects: A Biographical Dictionary Down to 1540 (1954), pp. 198–201.Google Scholar

16 Hick, E. M., Bath Abbey (1913), p. 74 note.Google Scholar

17 ’Thomas Lynn oone the most necessary mason for me that I can have and oone of theym that ys appointed by Robert Vertu’: Westminster Abbey Muniment 16,046. Printed in Robinson, ‘Correspondence of… King and … Bray,’ p. 4.

18 Contract preserved in Windsor, Archives of St George’s Chapel, and printed in St John Hope, W. H., Windsor Castle (1913), ii, p. 460.Google Scholar

19 British Museum Add. MS 21,481, ff. n, 6gr. Heraldic evidence on the carved bosses also indicates that the choir vault was not completed until after Henry VIII came to the throne (1509); for one boss bears the initials H.r. 8. For a complete list of initial letters on the bosses see Windsor, Archives of St George’s Chapel, MSXVII. 59.2(1921).

20 Brakspear, H., ‘St. George’s Chapel, Windsor’, Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 3rd ser. xxxix (1932), p. 261.Google Scholar

21 Hick, , Bath Abbey, p. 22.Google Scholar

22 Brakspear, , ‘St. George’s Chapel, Windsor,’ p. 261.Google Scholar

23 Maxwell-Lyte, H. C., A History of Eton College (1440-1910) (4th edn, 1911), pp. 96–98 Google Scholar. Based on evidence contained in the audit books for 1516-17 and 1520-21. The audit books for 1517-18 and 1518-19 are missing.

24 A scroll across the base of the main boss is inscribed Anno Regis XX.

25 Hope, , Windsor Castle, ii, p.463.Google Scholar

26 Cave, C. J. P. & Stanford London, H., ‘The Roof-bosses in St. George’s Chapel Windsor’, Archaeologia, xcv (1953), p. 118.Google Scholar

27 Windsor, Archives of St George’s Chapel, MSIV.B.25, H. Brakspear’s report on the restoration.

28 Holinshed, R., The Third Volume of Chronicles (1586), p.790.Google Scholar

29 British Museum, Add. MS 7099, f.77. Transcript by C. Orde from a now lost Chamber Account Book.

30 PRO, E36/214, p. 344. An original Chamber Account Book.

31 Astle, T., The Will of King Henry VII (1715), p. 6.Google Scholar

32 For an analysis of the financing of the chapel see Colvin, H. M. (ed.), The History of the King’s Works, iii (1975), pp. 210–214.Google Scholar

33 Hick, , Bath Abbey, pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

34 For a complete discussion of the problems of dating see Hope, , Windsor Castle, ii, p. 412 Google Scholar, and Cave & London, ‘The Roof-bosses in St. George’s Chapel Windsor’, p. 110.Google Scholar

35 Hope, , Windsor Castle, ii, pp. 375–377.Google Scholar

36 ibid, pp. 378-379.

37 Jacob, E. F., ‘The Building of All Souls College, 1438-1443’, Historical Essays in Honour of James Tait (Manchester 1933), p. 128.Google Scholar

38 PRO,E101/414/16,f.59r.

39 PRO, E101/415/3, ff.23r, 28r, and Hope, , Windsor Castle, i, pp.246–247.Google Scholar

40 Hope, , Windsor Castle, ii, p. 586.Google Scholar