in 1469: The Pilgrimage of Edward IV and Richard, Duke of Gloucester

JOHN ASI-IDOWN-HILL

In 1469, and possibly on other occasions also, Edward IV and his brother, Richard, went on pilgrimage to the shrine of . In the fifteenth century this shrine in Norfolk was of international renown. Although pilgrimage to Walsingham flourishes again at the present time, and the village preserves much of its ancient character, the original shrine and priory buildings were so completely destroyed that little of them now remains to be seen above ground. Based on the surviving evidence, this article seeks to evoke the vanished medieval shrine and Augustinian priory of Walsingham as Edward and Richard would have known them, and to give an account of the royal pilgrimage of 1469. Traditionally the shrine was founded in 1061. This date is given in two fifteenth-century sources. According to the traditional account, the lady of the manor, Richeldis de Favarches, had a vision of the Virgin Mary, in which she was instructed to erect a replica of the ‘Holy House’ in Nazareth, where the Annunciation had taken place. It is not certain that Riqheldis was an ancestress of the house of York, but she was reputed to be related to the de Clares, who, in the twelfth century, succeeded Richeldis’ son, Geoffrey, as the major patrons of the shrine, founding an Augustinian priory to care for it. The de Clare family became extinct in the male line in 1314, but their heirs in the female line, and successors as the shrine’s patrons, were the descendants of Elizabeth de Burgh, Duchess of Clarence, that is to say, the house of Mortimer and subsequently the house of York. Richérd, Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III, took his duties as shrine patron seriously. Not only did he go On pilgrimage to Walsingham but he

2 The Descent of the Honour of Clare and the Patronage of Walsingham

_ Rogerde Clare and Eafl of Henford & Gloucester Founder of Walsingham Augustinian Priory d. 1173

(line leiads ta)

Gilberl de Clare m. Joan 0! Acre (daughter of Edward I) 61h Earl of Henford 5 Gloucester d. 1307 1243-1295

Elizabeth Alianore de Clare m. Hugh. Lord Ie Despenser Countess of Clare execmed 1326 129211360

Mlliam de Burgh Sir Edward Ie Despenser Earl of Connaugn 8. Ulster d. 1333 l Sir Edwald Ie Despenser m. Elizabelh. daugtner o! Lionel. Duke of Clalence m. Elizabeth de Burgh (3rd son of EdwardIII) 1332-1363 13356-1375 ‘ Sir Bartholomew Burghetsh 1838-1368 Lord Burghersh

Edmund Mortimer m. Philippa of Clarence 3rd Earl of March 1355-1381 Edmund of Langley 1352-1381 Duke of Ybrk Roger Monimer 51h son 0! Edward III 4th Earl ol March 1373-1398 Conslance of York m. Thomas. Lord Despenser Ean 0! Gloucester Anne Monimer m. Richard 1 373-1 400 1390-1411 Earl oi Cambridge - 1376-1415 Isabel Despenser m. Richard Beauchamp Richard 1400-1439 I Earl0! Warwick Duke 0! York Richard Neville m. Anne Beauchamp 14‘ 1-1460 Countess o! Wamiek Edward IV Hichardlll rn. Anne Neville 1442-1483 1452-1485 1456-1485 U) also made significant donations to the priory in land and property, and he championed the priory’s interests, as we know from a letter he wrote to John Paston in 1454.l

The Pilgrimage of Edward IV and Richard, Duke of Gloucester On Wednesday 21 June 1469, Edward IV, with his entourage, including his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, his father in law, Earl Rivers, and two of his brothers-in-law, Lord Scales and Sir John Woodville, as well as Sir John Howard, Louis de Bretaylle, Sir Thomas Montgomery and Edward Brampton,2 an'ived in Walsingham on pilgrimage. Edward IV had left London in early June and was heading for the north in a fairly leisurely fashion (too leisurely, as subsequent events were to prove), to deal with the insurrection of Robin of Redesdale.3 0n the way he purposed to make pilgrimage to the shrines of St Edmund in Suffolk, and Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, as well as fulfilling the ancient royal duty of dispensing justice and raising some recruits. From Bury St Edmunds the king and his entourage had passed on to Norwich, arriving there about Sunday 18 June.“ In Norwich, King Edward had tried to resolve some outstanding legal disputes. The royal party left Norwich on the morning of 21 June, probably passing through the city walls by either the Coslany Gate, or St Augustine’s Gate.’ As Edward rode through Norwich towards the city walls, to his right, to the north of the river Wensum, and the cathedral, was the tower of the Carmelite friary church, where Lady Eleanor Butler, whom he had secretly married eight years earlier, had been buried the previous year. To help pilgrims find their way, crosses marked the Walsingham way, and there was (and is) one just outside Norwich, at the crossroads on the Drayton road, which Edward and his companions would have passed. A mile or so further on, on the left hand side of the road, they would have seen the ruins of Drayton Lodge, sacked by Edward and Richard’s brother-in—law, John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and about 500 of his men four years earlier, on Tuesday and Wednesday 15 and 16 October 1465. The house, with the manor of Hellesdon, had been the property of Sir John Fastolf, and had come into the hands of John Paston I (died 1466) in his capacity as executor of Sir John Fastolf’s will, but both house and manor were claimed by the Duke of Suffolk and a dispute between him and the Pastons had been smouldering for some time. John Paston’s sons had hoped that the coming of the king would lead to a judgement in their favour, and this part of the journey was therefore recounted in a letter from John Paston HI to his brother, Sir John Paston II as follows: Item, the kyng rod thorow Heylysdon Warren towards Walsyngham, and Thomas Wyngfeld prmysyd me that he wold fynd the menys that my

4 Lord of Glowsestyr and hym sylf bothe shold shew the kyng the loge that was breke down and also that they wolde tell hym of the brekyng down of the plase. The king, however, needed his brother in law’s support, and seems to have been unimpressed by the case put to him, for subsequently myn oncyll William sethe that the kyng told hym hys owne mowthe, when he had redyn for by the loge in Heylysdon Warren, that he supposyd as well that it myght fall downe by the self as be plukyd downe, for if it had be plukyd down, he seyd that we myght have put in our byllys of it, wehn hys jugys sat on the oyeer determyher in Nomyche, he being ther.‘ The party would have crossed the river Wensum at Attlebridge, where a hermitage, dedicated to Our Lady, stood by the bridge. Some miles further along their road, they may have passed the village of North Elmham, where the ruins of the Saxon cathedral, the precursor of the one at Norwich, had been converted into a comfortable hunting lodge by Bishop Henry Despenser nearly a hundred years previously. A little beyond Fakenham they would have passed through the villages of Barsham, before coming to the Slipper Chapel at Houghton, standing on the right hand side of the road, in the fields, by the ford over the river Stiffl

5 above, then as now, to see who sought admittance. For the king and his party, doubtless the gate already stood open, framing in its archway, the priory church at the end of the driveway. At the gate, probably, the prior, sub-prior and canons would have been waiting to receive their sovereign and conduct him in. The head of the priory of our Lady of Walsingham who greeted Edward IV was the elderly Prior Thomas Hunt, who had held his post for thirty-two years. He may have met Edward on previous pilgrimages, for example, in 1455, when the King’s father, Richard Duke of York, had come to Walsingham. He had also, on three occasions, greeted Edward’s predecessor, cousin and rival for the throne, King Henry VI.“ Prior Thomas headed a house of about twenty Augustinian . Those who met the royal party would have probably included the devout and elderly Canon William of Dereham, William of Lynn, who was responsible for the priory library, James Baconesthorp, Robert of Norwich, Richard Mundy, William Norman, Thomas of Houghton, John of Walsingham, Thomas of Dereham and William Sharyngton, not to mention the sub-prior, William Paryse, who held a degree in canon law.’ Passing through the priory gateway Edward IV and Richard would have seen the bulk of the pn‘ory church n'sing ahead of them, a little to the left, with its unusual arrangement of two towers, one at the west end and one at the crossing. Both towers had gilded pinnacles, as we know from St Philip Howard’s description of the ruined shrine in Elizabeth I’s reign, which includes the lines: Levell, level] with the ground The towres doe lye, Which with their golden, glitteringe tops Pearsed once to the Skye.lo To the left of the church, hidden from view by its bulk, huddled the little, and by now ancient Holy House, built by Richeldis de Favarches in 1061, and the focal point of devotion at Walsingham. Because of its great age, and to protect it, a stone building had been erected to enclose it and unite it to the main body of the priory church itself. This is referred to by William Worcester, who visited Walsingham in' 1479, ten years after the royal visit described here." This novum opus was started in about 1440-50, and was probably completed by 1469, although additions wére made later (1480-90 and 1510-20), which explains why Erasmus described it, in I about 1513, as ‘unfinished’. The priory church was also a relatively recent construction. The old Norman church had been replaced by this second, and niuch grander building within the last hundred years, and the king’s own ancestors had made financial contributions to this work. The new high altar, partly the work if one of the canons called Thomas of Lynn, had been consecrated about seventy years previously, and a former sub-prior, John of Yarmouth, had had the roof of the new church painted, as well as the wall paintings in the chapel of St Nicholas.

6 It was only about thirty-five years since the previous pn'or, Hugh Wells, had had the great bell cast and hung in the bell tower. Possibly the royal party had arrived at Walsingham in time to hear Prior Hugh’s bell ring the noonday Angelus, but probably their journey would have been more leisurely and they would have reached the Priory during the afternoon. To the right (south) of the church extended the range of buildings which housed the prior and canons: the Cloister, the prior’s lodging, the refectory and so on. There seem to have been royal chambers to the east of the prior’s lodging included as a permanent feature of the design of the priory. Members of the party also probably used the priory guest house, located to the west of the Cloister garth, between the refectory and the west tower of the priory church.l2 Passing into the priory church through the new west porch, Edward and Richard would have entered the nave, which ended beneath the central tower, with an altar for the people.” Beyond this altar the nave and aisles were closed by a screen, separating off the east end of the church and the canons’ choir. This screen may have been of wood or metal. There is no sign, as in some monastic churches, of a solid wall separating the nave and choir at Walsingham, and the division here was not a very firm one, since pilgrims regularly passed through the choir to the high altar to venerate the relic of ‘Our Lady’s milk’, which was kept there. Sixty to seventy feet above the royal visitors was the hammer-beam roof of the nave, which had been painted at the order of the former sub-prior, John of Yarmouth. Probably, like the nave roof at Wymondham Abbey which also had two towers, it was an angel roof. Unglazed tiles, nine inches square, alternately of red and slate grey, laid in a chequer pattern, formed the floor of the church.“ From this rose the shafts of the ten perpendicular pillars of the nave. The nave was about thirty-three feet wide, with side aisles each about founeen and a half feet in width. The total length of the church was 244 feet, while the nave alone was about 128 feet long from the west door to the western piers of the central tower. The church walls were plastered in a neutral colour, and there were seats around the walls beneath the windows.'5 The King and the Duke of Gloucester would have passed through into the choir to Canon Thomas of Lynn’s high altar beneath the east window. The altar had a golden reredos showing the Annunciation, with a second angel (presumably for symmetry, so that the Virgin was placed centrally). This scene was flanked by St Edward and St Catherine on one side, and St Edmund and St Margaret on the other, ‘all in gold’. Riddels (curtains) hung at the sides of the altar." East of the transepts, (which did not project, as they had in the old, Norman priory church), there were four bays between the central tower and the sanctuary. The choir was roofed with a stone vault, with carved and decorated bosses, some of which have survived. On either side, the choir was lined with the carved wooden stalls for the canons, with their decorated misericords. The choirstalls for the prior and sub prior

7 were at the west end of the choir, facing the high altar. On the north side of the high altar was a reliquary in which was preserved the relic of ‘Our Lady’s milk’. Not actual milk, of course, but chalky soil from a cave in the Holy Land where the Virgin was said to have once taken refuge, and where some of her milk was spilt on the cave floor. This relic had been obtained by William of Paris from a nun in Constantinopletand had been entrusted to an English nobleman to bring to Walsingham. On the wall nearby, an engraved tablet recorded the relic’s history.” Erasmus, who visited Walsingham in about 1513, says ‘this mylke is kepyd apon the bye aultre and in the myddys there is Christ [i.e. the Blessed Sacrament, reserved], with his mother apdn hys ryght hand for her honor sake. The mylke dothe represent the mother. It is closyd in crystalle. It is so congelyd that a man woulde saye that it were chalke tempered with the whyte of an egg’." 0n important occasions the chancel was hung with costly tapestries suspended from the triforium, as was done, for example, in 1489 when Henry VII came on pilgrimage. Probably the same was done in 1469 when Edward IV visited the shrine. From the north choir aisle, stairs led down to the crypt.” This Wednesday afternoon, 21 June 1469, three weeks after the Vigil of Corpus Christi, was no special feast day, but the high altar would have been prepared for Solemn Vespers. In the sweet smell of incense, the King and the Duke of Gloucester would have heard the prior and canons sing vespers from the Office of Our Lady of Pity, which forms the final section of the surviving portion of the Walsingham Breviary, where it is introduced by the rubric ‘De Sancta Maria cotidie per annum’.“ There was special devotion to Our Lady of Pity at Walsingham, and a stone pietd stood in the priory church." The office would have included one of the three Walsingham Office hymns, all of which seem to have been unique to the Priory Breviary.22 After Solemn Vespers the royal visitors would probably have been led back through the nave,on the north side of which a door led to the shrine itself, the Holy House of Richeldis. Passing through the side door of the church the pilgrim had to mount three shallow steps, each nine inches high and three feet wide,23 for the Holy House was on slightly higher ground than the priory church. When William Worcester and Erasmus visited Walsingham they found the wooden Holy House enclosed by the ‘New Work’, a stone chapel to shelter and protect it, and unite it to the priory church. Erasmus reports that building was in progress at the time of his visit, and some, at least, of the windows were unglazed and allowed draughts of cold air to beset the pilgrim.“ The main body of the new chapel was, however, almost certainly completed by 1469. Its floor was of purbeck marble, laid in slabs about one foot four inches square.‘5 Its walls were arcaded on the inside, beneath the windows, and in the arcades stood alabaster statues representing scenes from the life of the Virgin.26 Fragments, including a substantial one of the Virgin being

8 taught to read by her mother, St Anne, have survived. The new stone chapel measured thirty feet by forty-eight feet, (excluding the later, apsidal east end), and had a roof of green glazed tiles. At the four comers were turrets which contained spiral stairs. These gave access to a wall passage, or walkway, which ran round the new chapel above the arcading, at the level of the base of the windows, allowing the pilgrims to View both the Holy House and the decoration of the new chapel itself in a way which was not possible at floor level, where space was limited due to the large area taken up by the Holy House.” ' Erasmus described the Holy House as ligneo tabulato constructum, which the excava'tors of 1961 translate as ‘built upon a timber floor’, for the wooden house stood on a platform of timber at least six inches thick.28 Erasmus’ description continues: on either side a little door where ye pilgrims go through. There is little light but of ye tapers, with a fragrent smell. If you look within you will say it is a seat meet for saints, all things be so bright with gold. silver and precious stones. Into the Holy House Erasmus went and I mayd my prayers to our lady. This donne I kyssed the aultre, and layd down certayne grotes for myne offerynge, and went my way. The light was but little and she stode at the ryght end of the aultre in the derke comer. The ‘she’ that Erasmus refers to was the image of Our Lady of Walsingham. It is not known when exactly, nor by whom this was introduced into the Holy House, but it must have been in place by the beginning of the thirteenth century at the latest, for it is depicted in the second priory seal which was made about that time. (see illustration). In 1469 the image was standing within a silver shrine, or tabernacle, bequeathed to Walsingham for this purpose thirty years previously by Isabel Despenser, Countess of Warwick, a descendant of the de Clare family, and maternal grandmother of Richard’s future wife, Anne Neville.” Erasmus describes the statue as ‘a small image, not outstanding for its size, its materials or its workmanship’ (imaguncula, nec magnitudine, nec materia, nec opere praecellens).’° It was a small wooden figure, showing the Virgin seated, holding the Christ child in her left arm and a lily sceptre in her right hand. Its appearance, in general terms, is well known, despite the fact that Henry VIII is believed to have had the image burned, like the Holy House. Not only is the statue depicted on the second priory seal, it is also shown, wholly or in part, in a number of medieval Walsingham pilgrim badges. The Virgin was shown seated, holding the Christ child on her left knee, and with a sceptre terminating in three lily flowers in her right hand. Her throne had a high, rounded back, with a pillar on either side of it, terminating in a decorative knob. Both mother and child were depicted with a nimbus behind the head. The statue was crowned, for Henry 111 had presented the image with a gold crown in 1246.3I It was an image rich in symbolism.32 According

9 Second seal of Walsingham Priory, late twelfth or early thirteenth century. Reverse: the image of Our Lady of Walsingham. 10 to the description of Erasmus, Mary’s feet rested on an emblem of defeated evil in the form of a ‘toadstone’. Erasmus says at the feet of the Virgin is a jewel to which no name has yet been given in Latin or Greek. The French have named it toadstone (crapaudine) because it so imitates the figure of a toad as no art could do the like. And what makes the wonder greater, the stone is very small; the figure of the toad does not project, but shines as if enclosed in the jewel itself.” There are modern respresentations of the image, from which an impression of its appearance can be formed.“ In addition there is in the Victoria and Albert Museum a unique survival in the form of a small carved oak figure of the Virgin and Child, originally polychrome, found in Essex, of English manufacture, and dating from 1220-30. This must be very close in date to the original statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, and is also very close to it in appearance and probably in size.” The image of Our Lady of Walsingham stood in the Holy House, next to the altar, at the north eastern corner}6 and it was the ultimate focus of the pilgrim’s devotion. Before it Edward IV and Richard, Duke of Gloucester must have knelt in prayer in 1469, as so many of their ancestors had done before them, in the rather confined space of the little Holy House; space which was perhaps further decreased by the presence of the tomb of Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, a knight of the garter, the great-great-great grandfather of Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s cousin and future wife, Anne Neville}7 As Erasmus says, the place must have been full of treasures; the rich votive offerings of some four hundred years. Though all are lost, details of some of them are known. As well as asking, in his will of exactly one hundred years previously, to be buried in the Holy House (where his tomb was discovered during the excavations of 1961), Sir Bartholomew Burghersh left a statuette of himself on horseback. ‘William, Earl of Suffolk (d. 1381), ordered “that a picture of a horse and man, armed with my arms, be made in silver and offered to the altar of Our Lady of Walsinghamm.” ‘The father of Henry, Earl of Lancaster offered “an Angelic Salutation”, a plaque probably with precious stones esteemed at no less than 400 marcs’,39 while in addition to her silver tabernacle (see above) and a cloth of gold gown for the making of vestments, Anne Neville’s grandmother, Isabel Despenser, Countess of Warwick, had bequeathed in 1439 ‘a tablet with the image of Our Lady [with] a glass over it'.‘° Edward I had offered a silver gilt effigy of himself" and later, Henry VII would offer a similar silver statuette of himself kneeling in prayer, together with his royal standard; the one which had been borne before him at the battle of Stoke. Other kings may have done likewise. The many silver gilt and jewelled plaques which were presented were probably fixed to the inside wooden walls of the Holy House and by 1469 these were probably largely covered with such votive offerings. In earlier times at least,

11 as befitted a chapel dedicated to the Annunciation, the Holy House also contained a statue of the Archangel Gabriel.“z William of Worcester gives the dimensions of the Holy House as 23 feet 6 inches long and 12 feet 10 inches wide. When the area of the shrine chapel was excavated in 1961, only ash remained of the Holy House itself, but the floor and foundations of the walls of the ‘New Work’ were discovered. The ‘New Work’ had a mortar floor, paved with purbeck marble. In the centre of this was the site of the wooden platform on which the Holy House had stood. There were no post holes, but it is known that the Holy House was ‘prefabricated’. Both the traditional account of the shrine’s foundation and Erasmus’ description also imply this style of construction. It was erected in sections on a wooden base. This platform measured 29 feet 3 inches by 21 feet 3 inches. When one considers that William Worcester would have measured the inside of the Holy House, and that allowance has to be made for the thickness of the walls and for a platform, or step running around the building, and wider at the sides, to give easy access for pilgrims by the two side doors, the measurements seem to accord quite well with each other. Interestingly it was discovered in the excavation of 1961 that between the orientation of the ‘New Work’ and that of the priory church there was a difference of some four degrees, which made the join between the two buildings slightly clumsy. This is a clear indication that when the ‘New Work’ was built, it enclosed the Holy House where it stood, and the latter was not moved into the new chapel. The sanctity of the ancient spot on which it stood meant that its inconvenient alignment had to be respected for the site was believed to have been chosen by the Virgin herself, as we know from the fifteenth-century Pynson Ballad which recounts the traditional story of the shrine’s foundation.“3 Leaving the shrine chapel by the north door, the royal visitors would have found themselves in a courtyard, to the east of which was the lay cemetery. Beyond this the enclosure wall of the priory, and the north gate could be seen. Perhaps they would have been taken to inspect the north gate, for it was the site of a notable miracle which had occurred there 155 years previously. In the time of Prior Walter de Wighton, Sir Ralph Botetourt, mounted and in armour, was being chased by enemies. Calling. 'upon Our Lady of Walsingham, he had found_himself miraculously able to pass through the little gate, which was not large enough to admit a man on horseback. Remembrance of the story was perpetuated by a copper plaque, representing the knight.“ Further east, beyond the lay cemetery and the cemetery of the canons, the royal visitors would then probably have been taken to the holy wells. At Walsingham, as at the modem Marian shrine at Lourdes, water was associated with the shrine. As well as the ordinary pilgrim badges depicting the Holy House, or the image of Our Lady of Walsingham, or the scene of the Annunciation, many medieval pilgrims

12 left Walsingham, as modern pilgrims do today, with flasksof holy water. In modern times this is cam'ea in specially made small plastic containers. The ancient equivalents were lead ampullas, made in the shape of cockle shells. The water came from the holy wells situated beyond the priory church to the east. These wells probably predated the building of the Holy House. (See, however, Erasmus, below). They are referred to in the Pynson Ballad. Beside them the canons had constructed a bath where sick pilgrims could be immersed in the holy water. This survives, used now as a lilly pond. It is unlikely, however, that any member of the royal party made use of this particular facility. It has sometimes been asserted that the Walsingham Breviary contains instructions for the use of this bath by pilgrims, but this is an error. The passage referred to is simply a part of the rule of St Augustine which hygenically made provision for the canons of the order to take baths. A similar passage would have been found in the rule of all Augustinian priories.“ Near the.holy wells was the chapel of St Lawrence, which Erasmus tells us housed a relic of the apostle, St Peter. Erasmus also says that the holy wells themselves were under cover, and describes them thus: Before that chapel] there was a little howse. Under that howse there was a couple of pittes both full of water to the brynkys. and they say that the sprynge of thos pittes is dedicate to our Lady. That water is very colde and medycynable for the hedeache and that hartburninge. They saye that the fowntayne dyd sodenly sprynge owte of the erthe at the commaundement of our lady.“ Now, the holy wells stand in a little enclosed garden, the entrance to which is through a Norman archway, but this latter is not part of the ‘little howse’ that Erasmus, Edward IV and Richard saw, for it was moved here in recent times, brought from the old infirmary hall on the'south side of the priory buildings. The ‘howse’ they saw was probably a wooden shed. It had an old bear’s skin nailed to the rafters of the roof, but the story behind this is unknown. While the prior had been showing his visitors the shrine, the Knight’s Gate and the holy wells, the canons would have been enjoying their usual period of recreation between vespers and compline. It being a summer evening, probably they had been walking in the Cloisters or the garden, or talking, or reading. Now, while their visitors took supper in the guesthouse or the royal guest chambers, it would have been time for the canons to return to the choir of their church for compline, the last short office of the day, after which they would have retired to their cells, going early to bed, ready to get up again at midnight for the first office of the new day. They would have left their visitors, who had no such need to rise in the middle of the night, to their own relaxations after supper,“7 and to retire to bed probably somewhat later.

13 The King is known to have remained in Walsingham for at least part of the next day, (Thursday 22 June). It is not known exactly when the royal party left, but on Saturday 24 June the Duke of Gloucester, then at Castle Rising, was writing a letter seeking to remedy his lack of ready money, and by Monday 25 June he and his brother were in Lynn. The following day they rejoined the Queen at Fotheringhay for a week, before Edward rode north in earnest.“

NOTES AND REFERENCES

l. N. Davis. ed., Paxton Letters and Papers of the Fifieenth Century, two parts, Oxford 1976. Pan 2, p. 100. The early history of the shrine is to be found in H.A. Bond. The Walsingham Story through 900 Years, Walsingham 1960; H.M. Gillan, Walsingham, the History of a Famous Shrine, London 1946, and J .C. Dickinson. The Shrine of Our lady of Walsingham, Cambridge 1956.

2. RM. Kendall, Richard the Third, London 1972. p. 72.

. Only with hindsight can Edward's conduct be criticised as too leisurely. The second rising of Robin of Redesdale had begun on the Feast of the Holy Trinity (28 May). but did not gain momentum until July. His previous rising, and the intervening insurrection of Robin of Holderness had both been easily put down. so that as far as he knew, Edward IV had no great cause for alarm in June 1469. See K.R. Dockray, The Yorkshire Rebellions of 1469, in The Ricardian, vol. 6, no. 83. Dec. 1983, pp. 246-257. . Kendall, pp. 73. 445.

. For the journey to Walsingham see LE. Whatmore, Highway to Walsingham, Walsingham 1973. p. 68 and passim.

6. J. Gairdner, ed., The Paxton Letters, 3 vols. Edinburgh 1910, vol. 2, p. 357. The king‘s meaning seems to have been that he had seen no evidence that the house had been destroyed deliberately rather than simply falling down, and that if the Pastons had any such evidence they should have laid it before him while he was sitting in judgement in Norwich. The ruins of the lodge are now an ancient monument, standing in the grounds of the Headquarters of the Norfolk Mental Health Care NHS Trust.

'I. Words and tune cited in HM. Gillan, Walsingham, the History of a Famous Shrine, London 1946, pp. 84, 85. Other writers give variant versions. . In 1447, 1448 and 1459.

. J.C. Dickinson. The Shrine of Our Lady qf Walsingham, Cambridge 1956, p. 137, citing BL, Con, on Ms. Nero E vii £173. .

10. Whatmore. p. 109, citing Bodleian Library Ms. Rawlinson, Poet. 219, f. l6r-v. The poem ‘In the wrackes of Walsinghnm‘ is in the earl of Arundel's own handwriting, and was probably of his authorship. It may have been intended to be sung to the old tune ‘Walsingham’, which it fits. ll. Gillen. pp. 15. 16.

12. For the visitor. the main entrance to the priory buildings was through the west door of the guest house, although there was also access to the guest house from the west end of the priory church, via a small doorway on the south side of the west tower.

. Walsingham Priory was at no time a parish church. and its nave had no parochial function, unlike the - naves of some other monastic churches, such as Wymondhnm Abbey morfolk) and Wahham Abbey (Essex). '

14 14. C. Green and A.B. Whittingham. ‘Excavations at Walsingham Priory. Norfolk, 1961', Archaeological Journal vol. 125 (1968), p. 259. '

15. Green and Whiningham, p. 259, p. 261.

16. On the reredos. see Green and Whininghnm, p. 273, n. 8. and Bond, p. 24. Riddels for the altar were part of the bequest of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. in 1380.

17. Gillen p. 28. citing Waterton. Pietas Mariana Brimnica; also Fr. Gilbert, What to see in Walsingham, Walsingham 1948, P13- 25, 26.

18. Gillett, p. 53, citing Erasmus, Ye Pylgremage of Pure Devotion (De Feregrinalia Religionis Ergo), 1526.

. These stairs are still in existence. beneath the grass of the lawn which now covers the priory site, but the crypt, blocked with earth, has never been excavated.

20. ‘Of Holy Mary. daily throughout the year‘. Gillelt, p. 92. The Walsingham Breviary is now in the library of Keble College, Oxford.

21. Gillett, p. 93.

22. One of the hymns is quoted and translated in W.L.L. Sande", ‘Seeking and Finding’. in The Clergy Review. vol. 10, no. 3, September 1935.

23. Green and Whiningham, p. 261.

24. Gillett, pp. 50, 51. citing Erasmus. De Peregrinatio. Additions were made to the new shrine chapel after the royal visit of 1469: an apse at the east end and a large western porch. The latter was still being constructed at the time of Erasmus‘ visit, and it seems from his account that the chapel windows were in the process of being reglazed. Henry VIII is known to have contributed to this reglazing, which had not long been completed when the shrine was destroyed. Fragments of the new glass by Barnard Flour. who also glazed King's College, Cambridge. were found in the 1961 excavations.

25. Green and Whittingham, p. 264. Bond, p. 27.

26. Gilbert, What to see in Walxinglmm, pp. 31, 32.

27. Green and Whittingham, p. 275.

28. Green and Whittingham, p. 269.

29. Gillett, p. 36. R. Allington-Smith, ‘Not Yorkist but Anti Lancastrian: Henry Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, 1370-1406’, The Ricardian, vol. 10, no. 124 (March 1994), p. 16, gives the countess's date of death as 1440 rather than 1439.

30. Gillett, p. 25, citing Erasmus.

3l. Dickinson. p. 19. citing Calendar of Liberate Rolls 1245-51, p. 18.

32. The curved back of the throne recalls the rainbow. symbol of the first covenant between God and man (Genesis ix). The pillars of the throne reflect those set up by Solomon at the porch of the Temple, for Mary is traditionally ‘Ianuar Caeli’ (‘the Gate of Heaven’). The seven rings on the pillars stand for the seven sacraments of the Church.

33. Gilbert, p. 34, n. 1, cifing Erasmus. Gilbert also remarks mat ‘in 8‘ Luke’s chapel in Norwich Camedml is some ancient stained glass apparently representing Our Lady of Walsingham with the load at her feet. Her throne however has no back, but instead rays of light surround her'. Since Gilbert’s time, alas, this glass has been damaged by a workman who put a scaffolding pole through it.

34. Most notably the statues in the present Catholic shrine in the Slipper Chapel, and in the present Anglican shrine in Knight Street, Walsingham, (although the latter image is in mm in having only six. no! seven rings on the back pillars of the throne). The image type to which both Our Lady of Walsingham and V & A no. 79-1925 (see below) belong seems to have been widespread mroughout Europe in the twelfth and thineenth centuries, although the Virgin was depicted holding a variety of objects (eg. items of fruit) in her right hand, and not always a sceptre. Images which conform to this basic type are to be found in the Museo Marés, Barcelona, (polychromed wood, thirteenth century); the German National Museum,

15 Nuremburg, (polychromed wood, late thirteenth century): the Bargello Palace, Florence, (ivory, twelfth century), and in another example at the Victoria and Albert Museum, (ivory, Anglo-Norman, mid twelfth century).

35. V & A no. a. 79- 1925. Although this figure is damaged the Christ child here also originally held a book. It' IS not possible to say what if anything, the Virgin held"m her missing right hand. which' m this effigy is forward on her knee, ra‘her than across her body. She is shown wearing a low crown but no veil. No nimbus survives on this figure, and the throne is at present backless. although the back panel of the figure is missing, so it is not possible to be sure now whether the throne originally had a high back or not. Signs of paint on this image show. in addition to the flesh colouring on faces and hands, that the Christ child was dressed in white, while the Virgin wore a red over-mantle, probably pattemed, and a blue undergown. The throne was painted yellow, or gilt. See also P. Williamson, Northern Gothic Sculpture, London 1988. plate 1 and p. 29. '

36. Green and Whiningham interpret Erasmus’ words to imply that the image stood in the south eastern comer, but he says ‘she stode at the ryght end of the altar', ie. on the right of the altar itself, not the right of the visitor looking at the altar. This would mean the north eastern comer. One may compare Erasmus’ description of the high altar in the priory church itself. where he describes Christ (the Blessed Sacrament) as being in the middle of the altar, and the relic of Our Lady’s milk as being ‘upon his ryght hand, for her honor sake', ie. on the spectator's left. The positioning of tlie image in the Holy House clearly reflected that of the nelic in the main church. Moreover, despite what Green and Whittingham say on p. 278 about the tomb of Sir Banholomew Burghersh being ‘canted slightly towards the soulh’, their plan on p. 260 clearly shows the tomb angled towards the north eastern comer of the Holy House, indicating that the image, the focus of attention, stood there. 37. Green and Whiningham. pp. 277-79. The tomb may have been flat at floor level, perhaps with a memorial brass.‘m which case it would have been less intrusive. 38. Gilbert, p. 36. '39. Gillett, p. 31. 40. Gillett, p. 36.

41. Dickinson, p. 39. citing PRO, Wardrobe Accounts E 352. no. 84, m. 1, 1282-84. 42. Dickinson, p. 39.

43. Green and Whittingham, p. 269.

. Gilbert. p. 37. The gate at present existing has been largely reconstructed, but is built on the medieval foundations. See Green and Whiltingham, p. 256: p. 274.. 45. Gilbert. p. 38, n. 1.

. Gillett, p. 52, citing Erasmus, De Peregrinan‘o.

47. Perhaps a game of chess. Many years previously the king‘s ancestor, Edward I. was playing chess when, as he believed, Our Lady of Walsingham miraculously saved him from a piece of falling masonry. Dickinson, p. 20. citing William Rishanger, Chrom'ca and Thomas of Walsingham, Historia Anglorum. 48. Kendall. pp. 73, 74, 445.

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