Henry VIII and Rochester Cathedral
/David A. H. Cleggett reviews the period when the Cathedral priory buildings were appropriated and served as a residence of King Henry VIII. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1990-1991.
In this year which witnesses effusive commemoration of the 500th anniversary of his birth this paper relates some of the events which connect the King to the cathedral.
Henry VIll was born at Greenwich Palace on 28th June, 1491, the second son of Henry VI by Elizabeth of York. Following the death of his elder brother Arthur in April, 1502 the Duke of York, as Henry was styled from 1494, became Prince of Wales. On 11th June, 1509, Henry, now King, married his brother's widow the infanta Catherine of Aragon. The marriage and train of events which followed from it touched Rochester and its cathedral more than once'.
Henry VIll enjoyed nothing better than showing off his real and imagined splendour. An occasion to dazzle Queen Catherine's nephew, the holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, presented itself in 1522. Charles V actually came to England twice, the first occasion being May, 1520 on the eve of the meeting known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold. This was a brief visit as King Henry was preparing to leave for Guises. Charles's second visit, to negotiate and sign the alliance which would lead to the humiliation of France, was more leisurely. With great circumstance the King and Queen with the Emperior attended high mass in the cathedral on Sunday 1st June, 15222. John Fisher the saintly diocesan was present. What a scene of triumph that now far off summer morning must have been. Bells pealed, trumpets sounded and the organ played as the two monarchs and Queen Catherine, preceded by the Lord High Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, who also happened to be Archbishop of York and Archbishop Warham, accompanied by a glittering court, made their way in stately procession through the nave to the choir. There surrounded by beautiful hangings, doubtless seated on chairs of state raised on a dais beneath a tester, among the shrines of Saints Paulinus, Ithamar and William of Perth, the three worshipped as the liturgy, with all the antique ritual and ceremony attendant upon the rite of Sarum. was celebrated. It was a glorious sunset for the old order.
By a papal bull of 1521 King Henry was awarded the title Defender of the Faith for his book against Luther, Assertio Septem Sacramentorum. As much of this treatise was the work of Bishop Fisher the prelate's thoughts as the King passed himself off as a great scholar can only be wondered at.
The procession of Henry VIll's six consorts need not concern us here, except to mention that he met his most sensible wife, the Princess Anne of Cleves at a house on Boley Hill: but the suppression of the monasteries is a matter of great import which will engage our attention.
Toward the close of the monastic era the priory attached to the cathedral church of st Andrew in Rochester was neither wealthy nor well manned. In 1498 there were only twenty-four monks for an establishment of sixty'. The income of the priory from the annual return to the exchequer in 1524 is given as £486-11-6*. (Nevertheless approximately £203,379.15 in modern figures). By the time the convent signified its acknowledgement of the royal supremacy on 10th June, 1534 numbers had fallen again because in all signatures on the document did not exceed twenty'. When it came to signing the deed of surrender for the priory on 8th April, 1540 it was done by the prior alone, 'Per me Walterum Boxley Priorem Roffen',
Following the suppression the convent was immediately replaced by a secular chapter organised by letters patent dated 20th June, 15417. This was all very well but because the King reserved to himself all of the monastic buildings the chapter of 'our new Cathedrall Churche', a 'Dean, vi prebendaries vi pety Canons Epistoler and gospeller vi lay syngyng men one master of Choresters viii Corresters one Scole master for Grammar and one usser', was to a man without a dwelling place and to this we shall return.
Even before the suppression King Henry maintained a lodging attached to the priory. This and the monastic buildings he specifically excluded from the use of the Dean and Chapter. It is not known what was the appearance of the King's lodging which was situated over and beyond the east range of the great cloister. This lodging was greatly extended so that the royal and state apartments occupied all of the buildings surrounding the cloister. It is reasonable to suppose that the infirmary buildings and the houses of the prior and chamberlain were given over to the servants and suite, for whose use they probably required little alteration'.
Royal building works were meticulously recorded for the exchequer and those at Rochester are not an exception. Two important accounts survive in the Bodleian Library for the works at Rochester in 1540-154310.
In a short paper, such as this, it is not possible to discuss the alterations and repairs which occupy forty pages and totalled £1,270-14-7 (£531,160.96). But one small matter perhaps illustrates the working of the King's mind better than many another. On folio 57b it is recorded among other items under:
The Glasver
Item for taking owte of the said Lady Hayward armes of ii windows in the Kings chamber of presens and setting in of new glas, at vid the payne.
Item yet for taking owte of Lady Haywrdes armys of a wyndowe in the Quenes gret chamber and setting in of new glas agayne vid.
Lady Hayward is of course Queen Catherine Howard, executed on 13th February, 1542. Surely not just vindictive spite caused the King to erase any memory of his fifth consort. Was his conscience troubling the ageing tyrant? Although the King took away all the monastic buildings from his newly constituted Dean and Chapter of 'our cathedral of Christe and our lady Mare in our Citie of Rochester' why the dedication to St. Andrew had to be changed is not explained, he proceeded to give them dwellings through a commission appointed for assigning them to the individual members of the chapter'. The Deanery, an L shaped building which stood at right angles to its seventeenth century successor, contained 'two parlours, a kitchen four chambers a gallery a study over the gate a garden thereunto lying on the north side from the Kings graces lodging a vault for the Deanes woodhouse lying under the vestry a stable for the
reserved for the Deane'12,
Deane joining to the tower gate a dovecot in the wall joining the vines always to be
Joha Sumky
graces lodging a vault for the Deanes woodhouse lying under the vestry a stable for the Deane joining to the tower gate a dovecot in the wall joining the vines always to be reserved for the Deane'?.
John Symkyns, the fourth prebend, formerly prior of St. Gregory, Canterbury, was allotted accommodation to the north of the Sextry gate, where the Dean's study was located, along the High Street. Hugh Aprice alias Dr. Hughes, holdier of the first prebend" and John Wildbore, holder of the second prebend, and formerly master of Newark hospital in Strood", were housed in the High Street. Successor houses to this accommodation were demolished in 1887 and their site is now occupied by the war memorial and an open space. Robert Johnson the third prebendary was housed to the north of the Sextry gate. Although accommodation was found for Robert Salisbury and Richard Engent, respectively holders of the fifth and sixth prebends, the location has not been determined.
Sir William St. John Hope, the distinguished historian of the cathedral at the turn of this century, is of the opinion that the 'pety canons' with the 'epistoler' and 'gospeller' the 'singing men', the master of the choristers and other members of the foundation were housed along the line of the wall of Henry III. By 1588 this area was spoken of as 'the long gallery called the Cannon Place and even at that early date the organist lived at the eastern end of it.
So the Dean and Chapter was housed by the King. Rather a pointless exercise because by 1542 King Henry was bored with his Rochester project, part of a grand scheme to fit up lodgings in several of the suppressed monasteries to facilitate travel, because on 8th March he granted custody of all the royal houses in the precincts to Sir George Broke, Lord Cobham, at 4d. a day payable at Lady Day and Michaelmas'. Lord Cobham sold all of the former royal manor to the Dean and Chapter on 4th July IV and VI Philip and Mary (1558)18. Within eighteen years from their establishment the Dean and Chapter gained control of all those buildings that had been confiscated at the suppression.
Before the dissolution there was an excellent library in the priory at Rochester. Possibly because the convent buildings were briefly converted into a royal staging post many manuscripts and books found their way into the royal collection'S. One such is a copy of the Gospels which had belonged to the countess Goda, sister of St. Edward the Confessor, when it was bound in silver and studded with jewels. Now, denuded of such finery, the Gospels rest in the King's Library of the British Library. Two catalogues of the once extensive Rochester library survive, the earliest dated 1130 is contained in the Texus Roffensis. The second, drawn up by Alexander the Cantor, who was also librarian, in 1202, was discovered in the nineteenth century in St. Augustine of Hippo's De Doctrina Christiana. Alexander's catalogue, of which De Doctrina is No. 11, consists of 280 works'". Ninety-six of the Rochester manuscripts survive in the King's Library ranging in date from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Thirty-seven other books which disappeared from Rochester at the dissolution have been traced. William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum, No. 110 in Alexander's catalogue, now Harleian Mss., 261 in the British Library, is one such. The Gundulf Bible, an eleventh century mss., described in the 1202 catalogue as Vetus et Novum Testamentum secundum translationem leronini, in II voluminibus veteribus, among the greatest losses resulting from King Henry's activities at Rochester, did not find its way into the royal collection.
Eventually, after many adventures, it was purchased in the nineteenth century by the great bibliophile Sir Thomas Phillipps. From his collection it found its way to the Huntingdon Library in San Marino, California from where it may not be removed under any circumstance.
It was fortunate that in John Leland (1506?-1552), the King's antiquary, a scholar of distinction, the library at Rochester in a way found a true friend. All of the books and manuscripts transferred to the King's library at Westminster are inscribed Liber de Claustro Roffensi, many still carry the name of the original donor and are therefore easy to identify.
For good or bill King Henry VIll touched Rochester and its cathedral in several ways. His royal palace was of distinction, the library at Rochester in a way found a true friend. All of the books and manuscripts transferred to the King's library at Westminster are inscribed Liber de Claustro Roffensi, many still carry the name of the original donor and are therefore easy to identify.
For good or bill King Henry VIll touched Rochester and its cathedral in several ways. His roval palace was of short duration but his 'new cathedral' and 'new school' continue to flourish. Thanks to his scholarly antiquary we may still read, if we have the inclination, several manuscripts which were at Rochester almost eight hundred years ago.
In the Precinct, King's Orchard will for ever be associated with that masterful man who did so many great and good things in his life and yet was flawed and warped by evil.
David A. H. Cleggett
Michaelmas Day, 1990
Footnotes
Sources for the paragraph of the paper setting the scene are Burkes Peerage 1970 (last) edition; and Dictionary of National Biography.
Rutland Papers, Camden Society.
Palmer, G.H., The Cathedral Church of Rochester. London, George Bell & Sons, 2nd edition with corrections, 1907, p. 18.
Bells, p. 18.
Bells, p. 18.
Thorpe Mss., Society of Antiquaries, Mss., CLXXXVIII 8. After the suppression the last prior, Walter of Boxley, took his own name again, Walter Phillips.
Letters Patent XXXIII Henry VIII (1541) part 9 membrane 17 (28). Walter Phillips was named as first Dean by the King in the foundation charter. (Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIll. ed. Brewer, J.S., 23 vols. in 38, London, HMSO, 1862-1932, XV No. 474). Phillips lived on until November 23 1570.
It is difficult to think of a cathedral founded in 604 as being made new in 1541 but it is one of the more absurd actions of the King that he considered all the monastic cathedrals as having been refounded by himself. In reality they continued but with a different capitular body. The absolutely new cathedrals at Peterborough and Gloucester, for example, had similar establishments to that at Rochester (The Foundation of Peterborough Cathedral, Northamptonshire Record Society, 1941, p.104).
St. John Hope, Sir William, The Architectural History of the Cathedral Church and Monastery of St. Andrew at Rochester, London, Mitchell and Hughes 1900, p.206.
Rawlinson Mss., Bodleian Library, Mss., D. 785. These accounts were transcribed by St. John Hope and published as, Accounts of the Royal Surveyor of Works Rochester, 1540-403, London, Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1905.
Thorpe Mss., mss., 177, 178, 188, folio 197.
Public Record Office, Bishops Temporalities 614, quoted in St. John Hope, pp.207-208.
Le Neve, John, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857 recompiled by Horn, Joyce
M., London, Institute of Historical Research, 1974, p.65.
Fasti. p.60.
Fasti p.61.
St. John Hope, p. 210. By 1647 Canon Row was described as 'all that long row of buildings within the wall, consisting of eighteen several low rooms and five upper ones, in which divers old and decrepit poor people inhabit, that did belong to the cathedral church'. (Denne, S., The History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Emirons, Rochester, T. Fisher, 1772, p.99),
Public Record
wisterraneous Book 235. folio 64b
The Areason Asant
Fasti, p.61.
St. John Hope, p.210. By 1647 Canon Row was described as 'all that long row of buildings within the wall, consisting of eighteen several low rooms and five upper ones, in which divers old and decrepit poor people inhabit, that did belong to the cathedral church'. (Denne, S., The History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs, Rochester, T. Fisher, 1772, p.99).
Public Record Office. Augmentations Office Miscellaneous Book 235. folio 64b
The document recording the transfer of the buildings erected by King Henry, which were almost immediately demolished, is in the Cecil Papers, deeds 220/36, at Hatfield House.
For the survival of the manuscripts from the library see Casley, David, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the King's Library, London, 1834, p.3 et seq.
Precentor Alexander's remarkable catalogue is printed in, Rye, W.B., Catalogue of the Library of the Priory of St. Andrew, Rochester, A.D. 1202, Maidstone, Archaeologia Cantiana. Vol. III (1860), pp.47-64. See also MacKean, W. H.,
Rochester Cathedral Library, Rochester, 1953.
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Piecing together the thousands of architectural components and evidence from excavations and other sources informing the architectural history of the site.
