In 1484 the bodily remains of Henry VI were removed from Chertsey Abbey, where they had lain since his death in 1471, and were relocated to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, apparently on the orders of Richard III.  The motive for this action remains unclear. Professor Ralph Griffiths suggests that the move to Windsor may have offered a chance to keep under closer supervision the grave of the saintly king which had become a centre of pilgrimage.* However, an alternative view may be offered – that, at this stage in his reign, Richard was considering burial at Windsor for himself and his wife, Anne, in the Chapel constructed by his brother, Edward IV. Interment in proximity to the sacred bones of Henry VI would have been seen as advantageous to their souls, a sentiment later shared by Henry VII.

Traditionally, Richard III is believed to have had little connection with Windsor, which he visited only infrequently both before and after he became King. However, documents in the St George’s Chapel Archives suggest that, as Duke of Gloucester, Richard favoured the Chapel.**  The first, dated 1478, is a covenant between Richard and the Dean and Canons of Windsor, concerning the grant of manors of Bentfield Bury, Essex, Knapton, Norfolk,  and Chelsworth, Suffolk, to fund an annual obit for Richard, Duke of York, and masses for Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and his wife Anne, during their lives and after their deaths. This is followed by a conveyance of the lands in 1480. The third, a licence from Edward IV to his ‘most beloved brother ‘, Richard, and his wife to grant the advowson of the Parish Church of Olney, Buckinghamshire, to the Dean and Canons of Windsor is dated 1482 and  is followed by the conveyance in the form a final concord in 1483. If Richard was planning to set up a chantry at Windsor, for his father, himself and his wife, might he not also have been intending to be buried there?

However, even if this were the case, Richard had clearly changed his mind by March 1485 when, on the death of his wife Anne, he arranged for her interment not at Windsor but at Westminster Abbey. Moreover, both the conveyances proved ineffectual, with the Dean and Canons failing to gain possession of the lands in Essex and East Anglia and the advowson of Olney which had been promised to them.  It appears that by 1485, in the words of Professor Griffiths, ‘Richard wanted to have as little to do with Windsor as he could’.   

Clare Rider, Archivist & Chapter Librarian

*Ralph Griffiths ‘The burials  of King Henry VI at Chertsey and Windsor’ in Nigel Saul and Tim Tatton-Brown(eds.) St George’s Chapel, Windsor: History and Heritage (Dovecote Press, 2010) pp.104-105

** SGC XI.P.7, 9, 11 &12

Here lyes interred ye body

of BAPTIST  MAY Esq. Privy

Purse to his Ma..tie KING CHARLES

the second, who departed

this life ye second of March

1696 Aged 69.

The large black marble ledger on the pavement of the Rutland Chantry in St George’s Chapel marks the last resting place of one of the most fascinating personalities of the Restoration era.

Baptist May, the son of a privy councillor, first entered royal service in 1648 as one of the Duke of York’s pages and from 1662 to 1665 was a groom in the Duke’s bedchamber. At the Restoration he was part of the libertine element at Charles II’s court. His appointment in 1665 to the office of Keeper of the Privy Purse, an office he was to hold for the rest of Charles II’s reign, was probably due to the influence of Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who had an interest in ensuring payments should reliably be paid to her.

May was a trusted servant who enjoyed Charles II’s friendship. The king found him amusing although May’s tactless comments, as for instance when he welcomed the Great Fire as making the City easier to control, shocked even the king. May also meddled in high politics. In 1670, having been elected MP for Midhurst, he tried to introduce a bill to enable the king to divorce his childless wife. Eleven years later he supported a bill to exclude from the succession James, Duke of York, who had become a Roman Catholic, and, shortly before Charles II’s  death in 1685, he plotted with Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, and with York’s other enemies at court to have the Duke sent back to Scotland.

Bishop Burnet, whose History of my own time is a major source for this period, wrote that May had

    “……the greatest and largest share in the King’s secret confidence of any man in that time, for it was never broken off though often shaken, he being against everything that the King was for, both France, popery, and arbitrary government, but a particular sympathy of temper, and his serving the King in his vices created a confidence much envied and often attempted to be broke, but never with any success beyond a short coldness.”

May ceased to be Keeper of the Privy Purse at the accession of James II but continued to be Ranger of Windsor Great Park, an office he had held since 1671, and he continued to use as his main country seat the Great Lodge now known as Cumberland Lodge. He was MP for Thetford  in the first parliament of William and Mary’s reign and died in 1697.

Jill Hume, Archives Volunteer

In the spring of 1675, the dean of Windsor, Bruno Ryves (c.1596-1677) summoned thirty men and women (presumably resident in the castle precincts) to appear before him to answer to certain allegations made against them.  Their offences were not specified, but if they were unable to clear their names, then sentence of excommunication would follow.  This makes it fairly clear they were neglecting to take the sacraments of the Church of England, and were possibly leaning towards Rome.  In the England of Charles II this was still a serious matter, if not such a desperate one as had been the case under Elizabeth I.

The names of the thirty “miscreants” are recorded in the Register of Wills, 1662-1735, contained in the St George’s Chapel archives, and further entries shed light on the treatment of those bold enough to proclaim allegiance to Roman Catholicism.  As far as we can tell from the record, most of those summoned were able to clear their names.  However, one lady, Jane Greene, wife of Matthew Greene, refused to appear before the dean on the appointed day.  Bruno Ryves’ response was to pronounce sentence of excommunication against her on 23 April 1675.  Jane then petitioned the dean to be absolved from the sentence, and agreed to answer the charges made against her.  He duly absolved her in August. 

The matter was not over however.  In October 1675, Jane was again summoned by the dean “ to answere unto severall Articles which were objected against her.”   Furthermore, she was ordered to receive the holy sacrament or else face another sentence of excommunication.  In brief, she refused to comply, and as the register entry puts it, “ the said Jane Greene is revolted from the Church of England over to the Church of Roome [Rome].”  And so Bruno Ryves pronounced the sentence of excommunication against her on 10 December 1675.  After this we learn no more about her, but her subsequent life is likely to have been one of some difficulty and social ostracism.

What kind of man was Dean Bruno Ryves?  He emerges from the records as a churchman of authority, whose experiences in the civil war probably served to forge a tough-minded nature.  A strong royalist, he enjoyed steady career advancement until 1642, becoming a Lent preacher at court and then a royal chaplain.  But after joining the royalist army when the war began, he had his livings sequestrated.  Later in the war, he turned to journalism, becoming founding editor of Mercurius Rusticus, a royalist chronicle of the “barbarous outrages” committed by the parliamentarians.  He became dean of Windsor in 1660, remaining there until his death in 1677 (he is buried in the south aisle of the chapel).  His last will and testament runs to six pages of the will register, and shows him to be a man of great wealth.  This is reinforced by his probate inventory, which values his goods and chattels at over £950, a huge sum at the time.  Three of his grandchildren were also christened Bruno (and another was christened Ryves), a testament to his paterfamilias status.  Clearly this was not a man to be trifled with, and the people of the St George’s community whom he summoned in 1675 may well have trembled in his presence.

The case of Jane Greene illustrates how difficult things could be for religious dissidents (those who could not accept the Church of England’s teaching) in the late 17^th century.  They did not face the prospect of torture or death (short of committing an act of treason), but their status in society was very much a second-class one until well into the 19^th century.

Simon Harrison (Archives volunteer)

In recent years efforts have been made to improve the acoustics in the chapel by introducing new, state of the art systems. Apart from regular services including choral music, the chapel holds numerous concerts and lectures throughout the year. It is important therefore that the acoustic properties are to a high standard.

It would seem that it was a recurring problem for large churches and cathedrals, as they installed sounding boards over the pulpit in order to capture the voice of the preacher and so containing the spoken word within the area that the congregation were gathered. More modern methods of electric amplifiers and microphones have replaced the need for sounding boards.

During the Middle Ages this problem was duly considered and steps were taken during the building of churches to improve the acoustics of ecclesiastical buildings where singing was an important part of daily life. Whilst it has been noted that round red earthenware pots have been found built into the existing east wall face of some churches, there is not a great deal of evidence existing to suggest that these were a generally accepted device. Pots have not survived in any great numbers; however they may have been damaged or removed during the remodelling or conservation works.

Acoustic pot found under the Quire

The discovery in 1953 of acoustic pots under the floor boards in the quire of St George’s Chapel raises yet another method of improving the acoustics. The two pots were both found on the south side of the quire. The first one lying with its open mouth facing south under the Minor Canon’s stall, the second pot was mortared into position below the joist with its open mouth facing north.

The construction of St George’s Chapel chancel is more elaborate than a parish church. Pots built into the eastern walls would not necessarily have aided the acoustics in the quire. We cannot therefore be sure that the pots found under the thick floorboards would have had the desired effect.

The largest of the pots measuring fifteen and half inches tall and made of a quite fine red pottery was complete apart from the handle being broken off and a piece out of the neck. The smaller pot more clearly ribbed with a slightly decorated base rim measured eleven inches with some of the top broken off.

The pots were dated to a fifteenth-sixteenth century type, with rounded bases and may have been made for standing in a rack to hold liquid. If they were discarded by the workmen why was one mortared into position and the other placed on a joist cut to fit around the pot.

They were of great archaeological interest at the time as each pot contained a variety of objects. Animal bones, a nut, an oyster, snail shells, wood shavings and dried up flower heads. Examination of the bones by Dr. W E Swinton of the Natural History Museum dated most of them to be of modern generation, whereas others were possibly left by the original workmen. Were the contents placed in the pots with the idea that they would further improve the acoustics properties or were they introduced by unwanted small animals?

Enid Davies, Assistant Archivist

Richard Beauchamp was a younger son of Sir Walter de Beauchamp, a distinguished soldier and lawyer, and Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Roche.

He was Archdeacon of Suffolk in 1448 and installed as Bishop of Hereford in 1449 finally being translated by papal Bull in 1450 to the See of Salisbury.

From 1452 he appears to have acted upon occasions as Chaplain to the Order of the Garter and in 1475 was appointed by Edward IV as the first Chancellor of the Order with official lodgings in the precincts of Windsor Castle.  Beauchamp was made Master and Surveyor of ‘works to be newly constructed’, and by October 1475 work had begun and careful accounts for years 1477-9 kept by the Bishop on the building of the new Chapel for the Order of the Garter.   He was installed as Dean of Windsor in March 1478 and obtained a Bull from Sixtus IV authorising the removal of the body of John Schorn, Rector of Great Marsden, to the new Chapel.

The snails of Bishop Beauchamp

The arms of Bishop Beauchamp can be seen below a recess in the south wall of the south aisle, together with the arms of Beauchamp of Warwick and Beauchamp of Holt. The wood carving in the quire of St George’s Chapel also contains the arms and badge, a snail, of Richard Beauchamp.  The snail appears on numerous misericords and also desk fronts with mitres and Garter motto. 

Opposite the recess in the south aisle is an inscription which refers to Bishop Beauchamp and prayers to be said next to the Holy Cross, represented by the Cross Gneth overhead.  The carved stone ceiling boss at the eastern end of the south aisle, King Edward IV and the Bishop are kneeling on either side of a Cross.  This represents the Cross Gneth which was believed to contain a fragment of the true Cross. 

Richard Beauchamp was Bishop of Salisbury for over 30 years and is buried in Salisbury Cathedral.  He was succeeded by Lionel Woodville, brother of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen Consort of Edward IV.

Enid Davies, Assistant Archivist

With a history going back hundreds of years, Windsor Castle has its fair share of paranormal activity, with many past members of the Royal Family reluctant to leave. Not to be outdone, the College of St George is also no strangers to ghosts and ghouls, including some very famous ones.

The ghost of Henry VIII is purported to walk through the cloisters, dragging his ulcerated legs and groaning from the pain. Perhaps he is on his way to meet Anne Boleyn, who is also claimed to haunt the cloisters, her ghostly form peering out from a window overlooking the Dean’s Cloister. Elizabeth I has also been seen at the same window. Charles I, beheaded and buried in an almost forgotten grave, is said to walk through Canons’ Cloister, looking very much intact.

However there are many other places that are supposedly haunted by these Royals, so what about the ghosts of ordinary people?

Horseshoe Cloister has several supernatural residents, including a horse and groom, a white lady and a little girl dressed in blue. The groom leads the horse through a wall in the kitchen, while the little girl has been seen standing by a Christmas tree [SGC CL 480].

The Deanery is alleged to house the ghost of a small boy, who doesn’t “want to go riding today”, footsteps can be heard in the passageways, and various sightings are reported of the ghost of a woman in grey near the north door of the Deanery.

Ghostly footsteps have also been heard on the staircase in the Curfew Tower, the basement of which was formerly a dungeon.

In all, Windsor is one of the most haunted castles in the country, if not the world.

Eleanor Cracknell, Assistant Archivist

From its very early days, St George’s Chapel possessed an extensive range of treasures, in the form of lavishly embroidered and jeweled vestments, relics and their elaborate containers, altar vessels in rich gold and silver, and many other jewels and ornaments to be displayed on the altar on grand occasions. Many of these were given by the Garter Knights to honour their connection to the home of the Order of the Garter.

In an inventory of plate and goods belonging to the Chapel taken in 1641 there is the following entry:

New plate Given (since 12 Dec: 1638) By the King Prince & other Knights of the ordr

One Common prayer booke of the same cover & worke, wth the Angell of incense on the one side, & the King Healing, & the mannor of or preaching & Christening engraven on the other;

From the Middle Ages onwards, it was believed that the touch of the Sovereign had healing powers granted by God, and by laying their hands on the afflicted, the King had the power to cure disease, in particular scrofula, a form of tuberculosis also known as the King’s Evil. From 1633, the act of touching for the King’s Evil was included in the Book of Common Prayer and grand ceremonies would be held where hundreds of those afflicted would kneel before the monarch for the traditional laying on of hands. The practice continued in Britain until the reign of George I, and continued in France until the mid nineteenth century.

Sadly, the year after this inventory was taken, the chapel was plundered by soldiers pretending to act by order of the King, and many of these items were lost. This book is not listed in the inventories of 1643 or 1667, suggesting that it was one of the items taken during the chaos of the Civil War.

Eleanor Cracknell, Assistant Archivist

Canon John Neale Dalton, 1839-1931

The words of A. V. Baillie, Dean of Windsor from 1917 to 1945, provide a fitting introduction to an understanding of a sense of the awe and in some cases dread that the contemporaries of Canon Dalton felt when in the presence of a man who was in many ways unpredictable, enigmatic and contradictive. Baillie recalled in his autobiography, My First Eighty Years (1951), the warning given to him on his first day as Dean of Windsor that “his great difficulty will be Canon Dalton.” Later that day, the King’s Secretary himself, Lord Stamfordham, informed him that “It is not too much to say that Dalton has made your predecessor an unhappy man for a quarter of a century.” The aura of Canon Dalton felt throughout the Castle cannot be emphasised more strongly than the fact that no less than King George V himself summoned Baillie to discuss the matter of Canon Dalton. Baillie describes the King as “begging me to try and get on with his old tutor, to whom he was very much attached.” For all of Canon Dalton’s difficulties, the high esteem in which the King held his old teacher speaks volumes.

John Neale Dalton was born on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, on 24 September 1839, the eldest of five sons (among nine children) of John Neale Dalton (1808-1880), a Church of England clergyman, and his wife (and first cousin), Eliza Maria (1807-1895). After graduating from Clare College, Cambridge with a first in Theology, Dalton moved rapidly up the ecclesiastical ladder securing a curacy at Cambridge (1866-1869) and subsequently at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, where he caught the attention of Queen Victoria. In 1871, Dalton was appointed as tutor to Queen Victoria’s grandsons Prince Albert Victor (Eddy), duke of Clarence and Avondale, and his younger brother Prince George, duke of York, later to become George V. His top priority was the moral education of the princes and as a result enforced a strict, authoritarian regime on them. It has been suggested that George V’s perfectionist character along with his eye to detail and precision are attributable to the influence of Canon Dalton. The forcefulness of Dalton is illustrated vividly by his securing the decision – despite opposition from the cabinet – to send the princes, then aged fourteen and fifteen, on a world cruise spanning three years (1879-1882). The princes were separated from their family and placed in the absolute charge of Dalton who accompanied them on HMS Bacchante as their chaplain and tutor. His difficult temper and his desire for constant control are evidenced on this expedition in which he put a swift end to the regular visits of the senior midshipman to the princes. After the voyage, as well as being made a CMG, Dalton became Eddy’s governor during his university years at Trinity College, Cambridge, until 1885. In 1884, Dalton was appointed to a Canonry at St George’s Chapel.

Canon Dalton caused a considerable amount of tension during his forty- seven years at the Castle. His role as Canon Steward, responsible for managing its finances and protecting its fabric, combined with his determination that he was always right made relations between himself and the other Canons not only tense but on occasions damaging to the morale of the College. At Chapter meetings, he shouted down colleagues who presented alternative points of view. In the words of the wife of Canon Deane, “If Canon Dalton did not like anyone he did not mind letting them know it.” In the words of Dean Baillie, “His effervescent temperament made it impossible for Dalton to confine his expressed contempt to our meetings; he broadcast his opinions to people in the Castle.” When the lay residents of the Castle were constantly hearing how unreasonable and “contemptible” the Canons were, this had the temporary but ultimately damaging effect of raising “an unfortunate and dangerous barrier ….. between the laity and the Chapter.” Nevertheless, his contemporaries recognised his untiring and unswerving dedication to the Chapel and he drew admiration for the impressive scholarly contribution he made to the College through his possession of an intellect to be envied. His greatest works that he produced were the three volumes of “Ordinale Exon”, and his revised prayer book. His poetical version of the Psalms was praised as an achievement of perfection by no better judge than Dr Nairne, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Dalton’s passion for history and literature extended far beyond St George’s as his intensive study of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in which he identified every character in the play through unearthing all the historical records he possibly could illustrates profoundly. This pinpoints Dalton’s ultimate concern for the people who lived outside the Castle in the town of Windsor. He may have been disrespectful towards his fellow clergymen but, most importantly, he respected the people of Windsor whom he visited regularly and granted support to those in times of hardship and ill health. This support was not only in financial terms as demonstrated by the occasion in which on finding the wife of a lodge keeper ill in bed, he got on his knees and scrubbed the kitchen floor for her.

The tremendous respect that George V held for Canon Dalton was illustrated by his decision to appoint Dalton as the domestic chaplain for the Royal Family at Windsor. He was created CVO in 1901 and promoted KCVO in 1911. Having read a lesson at evensong on 28^th July 1931, he died suddenly of a stomach haemorrhage a few hours later that evening at his house in the Cloisters in Windsor Castle. After cremation at Woking on 30 July, his ashes were interred in the south aisle of St George’s Chapel on 31 July. Canon Dalton is a character in the history of the College who will never be forgotten. His son, Hugh Dalton, became an influential Labour politician and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947, playing a fundamental role in Clement Attlee’s experimental and reformist post-war Labour administration. Inevitably, as the years have gone by, Dalton has increasingly been recognised for his positive characteristics and his substantial achievements as well as the profound legacy he left at St George’s. He was one of those rare and unique characters. In the words of the Dean of Willesden from December 1952, who was a chorister at St George’s during the tenure of Canon Dalton “Shall we ever see anything like Canon Dalton again? One wonders if the present or the future can produce “characters” as the past has produced them.” There is no denying that Canon Dalton could be very difficult, ill-tempered and at times rude. Nonetheless, these characteristics were attributable to his determination to preserve for the good of posterity the history and tradition of St George’s from what he regarded as proposed changes that were unnecessary and could undermine centuries of tradition and continuity. In 1953, Canon S.G.B. Exham praised Dalton’s “irresistible determination” and concluded that “his first consideration was the good of St George’s and all that it stood and still stands for, and whatever he did his actions were governed by that aim.” It is significant that continuity and the preservation of the past is an integral element of the magnetic ethos of St George’s that to this day attracts tourists from throughout the world and will continue to do so well into the future.

Andrew Munro (Archives volunteer)

Although Athens 1896 is considered the first of the modern Olympic Games, prior to that there had been a series of ‘Olympic Festivals’ staged throughout Europe during the 19th century. Probably the most famous is the Much Wenlock Games which were first staged in 1850 and continue to this day, after which one of this year’s mascots is named.

One of these Olympic Festivals was held in Leicester in 1866, organised by the Leicester Athletic Society and consisting of 15 sporting events, including the One Mile race, throwing the hammer and hurdles.

One of the competitors taking part was a young apprentice to a Leicester firm of architects, Alfred Young Nutt. Born on 5 May 1847 at Barrow on the Hill, Leicestershire, he was the youngest of 15 children, who had left school at 14 to become an architectural pupil with an architect and surveyor in Leicester. In 1867 he would move to Windsor to join the Castle’s Office of Works, before taking up the post of Surveyor at St George’s Chapel in 1873, a position he held until his retirement in 1912. From 1901, he was additionally Clerk of Works.

However, the year before heading south, at the age of 19 he took part in the Leicester Festival, taking home gold medals in both the Pole Leap [now Pole Vault] and an event known as The Cricket Ball, a game which involved throwing a cricket ball as far as possible. Nutt won with an impressive 86 and a quarter yards.

Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)

Altar Cross given by Queen Victoria

One of the greatest events in the history of the plate of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle was the presentation of the Altar Cross by Queen Victoria in commemoration of her Golden Jubilee in 1887.  

This was the first time that a reigning Sovereign had presented a piece of plate since the Reformation.

The inscription reads:

                    VICTORIA
L.ANNOS.D.G.BRITT.REGINA.F.D.
                        D.D.D.
             MDCCCLXXXVII

The cross was designed by J.L. Pearson and made in London by Thomas Peard. 

Described in The Plate of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle by E Alfred Jones, M.A., F.S.A., as:

Altar Cross.  Silver, 29.1/4 inches high, enriched with 26 figures of saints: 

St John, King Alfred, St Louis, St Hubert, Our Lord, St Matthew, St Mark, St Nicholas, St Barbara, St Alban, St Martin, St Cuthbert, St Crispen, St Thomas of Canterbury, St Bede, St Anselm, St Luke, St Edward the Confessor, St Ethelreda, St  Margaret, St Edmund, King and Martyr, St Oswald, St Helena, St Hilda, St Edward, King and Martyr and St George.     

Canon Eastman, Master of the Fabric, reported in the Friends’ Report 1982-83, page 138, that restoration work had been undertaken to the High Altar Cross which had been given by Queen Victoria to commemorate her Jubilee in 1887.

He records that the cross was gold-plated on solid silver but that the gilt had become very tarnished over the years and condensation had seriously damaged the internal fittings.  The Cross has been repaired and regilded, and it is interesting to note that when it was removed from the chapel for repair, it was insured for £30,000.

Enid Davies, Assistant Archivist