DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6912#0057
40
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
must endeavour to deduce its history from analogy, and from such evidence as
Ashmole,* and other writers have furnished. The former, most probably, had an
opportunity of obtaining many records on this subject at the time he wrote, but this
work, professed to treat of the Order of the Garter, not of the chapel, and the
history of buildings was then not so much an object of research and popularity, as it
is now become. The foundation and building of the present chapel have been
commonly attributed to King Edward the Fourth: though all writers agree that
Edward the Third founded the college, endowed it liberally, was the greater part
of his life employed in building and enlarging the castle, and finally, that he "caused
the former chapels to be taken down, and one more large and stately to be erected."f
Admitting this statement of Pote to be correct, how can we reconcile ourselves to
the opinion that Edward the Fourth, within one hundred years of the third Edward's
decease, should deem it " necessary to take down the old chapel on account of its
decayed state."| It is improbable that an ecclesiastical edifice, raised by that
monarch, for the accommodation, and to enhance the grandeur of his own collegiate
establishment, should have been dilapidated, or " decayed," in the course of a
century. We can more readily admit that Edward the Fourth enlarged, altered,
and embellished the edifice. To develope this more clearly, it will be necessary to
detail, in chronological order, a few particulars relating to the chapel, and other
buildings at this place.
King Henry the First is said to have erected the original chapel within the pre-
cincts of Windsor Castle, for eight canons, and to have dedicated it to King Edward
the Confessor. This was afterwards either rebuilt or enlarged by Henry the Third,
who in 1243 issued a commission to Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York, to expe-
dite the work, by keeping the labourers constantly employed both in winter and
summer, till the whole was completed. A part of the building then erected is pre-
sumed to be now remaining, as a series of closed arches, of the style of that age, is
seen on the south side of the dean's cloisters, and some others remain against the
wall behind the altar, at the east end of the present chapel.
* This credulous and superstitious author, (see the Diary of his own life) in giving an account of "The
Institutions, Laws, and Ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter, fo. 1072, has preserved a few useful
notices relating to the chapel. The work contains also several views of that edifice, drawn and engraved bv
Hollar; but not one of them can be relied on for accuracy.
f Pote's " History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle," &c. 4to. 1749, from Ashmole's Institutions, &c. of the
Garter.
X Lvsons's "Magna Britannia," vol. I. p. 424, from the statement of Ashmole.
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
must endeavour to deduce its history from analogy, and from such evidence as
Ashmole,* and other writers have furnished. The former, most probably, had an
opportunity of obtaining many records on this subject at the time he wrote, but this
work, professed to treat of the Order of the Garter, not of the chapel, and the
history of buildings was then not so much an object of research and popularity, as it
is now become. The foundation and building of the present chapel have been
commonly attributed to King Edward the Fourth: though all writers agree that
Edward the Third founded the college, endowed it liberally, was the greater part
of his life employed in building and enlarging the castle, and finally, that he "caused
the former chapels to be taken down, and one more large and stately to be erected."f
Admitting this statement of Pote to be correct, how can we reconcile ourselves to
the opinion that Edward the Fourth, within one hundred years of the third Edward's
decease, should deem it " necessary to take down the old chapel on account of its
decayed state."| It is improbable that an ecclesiastical edifice, raised by that
monarch, for the accommodation, and to enhance the grandeur of his own collegiate
establishment, should have been dilapidated, or " decayed," in the course of a
century. We can more readily admit that Edward the Fourth enlarged, altered,
and embellished the edifice. To develope this more clearly, it will be necessary to
detail, in chronological order, a few particulars relating to the chapel, and other
buildings at this place.
King Henry the First is said to have erected the original chapel within the pre-
cincts of Windsor Castle, for eight canons, and to have dedicated it to King Edward
the Confessor. This was afterwards either rebuilt or enlarged by Henry the Third,
who in 1243 issued a commission to Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York, to expe-
dite the work, by keeping the labourers constantly employed both in winter and
summer, till the whole was completed. A part of the building then erected is pre-
sumed to be now remaining, as a series of closed arches, of the style of that age, is
seen on the south side of the dean's cloisters, and some others remain against the
wall behind the altar, at the east end of the present chapel.
* This credulous and superstitious author, (see the Diary of his own life) in giving an account of "The
Institutions, Laws, and Ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter, fo. 1072, has preserved a few useful
notices relating to the chapel. The work contains also several views of that edifice, drawn and engraved bv
Hollar; but not one of them can be relied on for accuracy.
f Pote's " History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle," &c. 4to. 1749, from Ashmole's Institutions, &c. of the
Garter.
X Lvsons's "Magna Britannia," vol. I. p. 424, from the statement of Ashmole.