The sword of King Edward III

The two-handed sword of Edward III which can be seen in the Chapel hanging in the South Quire Aisle is an impressive reminder of the founder of the College and the Order of the Garter. 6 foot 8 inches long and made to be carried in battle, it formed part of the knightly achievements which would have been offered to the Dean and Canons on his death.

The earliest record of the sword appears in an Inventory of all the Vestments, Ornaments etc of the Chapel, taken in the 8th year of King Richard II [1384], and held in the Bodleian Library. The entry reads:

Gladii cum Galeis

249. Item [iij gladij quorum] vnus Edwardi Regis…

(Translated, Swords with helmets; Item [3 swords of which] one is King Edward’s …)

The sword hangs by a portrait of the King, carrying it piercing the crowns of Scotland and France. The accounts of 1615 [SGC XV.59.32] read “2s 6d – To Noke, for making cleane the Twoe hande Sworde whiche hangith by K: Edward the 3: picture”.

The sword and portrait have clearly been displayed together in the Chapel for almost 400 years.

Eleanor (Assistant Archivist)

There are many mysteries surrounding the identity of St George, but the most commonly believed is that he was a soldier in the Roman Army, part of the imperial guard of Emperor Diocletian. In 302 AD, Diocletian ordered that every Christian in the army be arrested and sacrificed to the pagan gods. George refused to renounce his faith, and was eventually martyred. He was buried in Lydda, in modern day Israel.

Stories of St George were brought back by the Crusaders in the 12th century, and during the reign of Edward III, he became venerated as the patron saint of England. When Edward founded the College in 1348, he dedicated the chapel to St George, the Virgin Mary and St Edward.

The College held several relics reputed to be from St George, including an arm, two fingers, a piece of his skull, and his heart. The latter was given by Emperor Sigismund on his creation as a Garter Knight in 1416. It was housed in a special monstrance which is described in the College inventory of 1534:

Item a monstrans of sylver gylt and seynt George is heart stondyng in golde closyd in byrall yn the myddst yn the Vpper parte the image off the crucyfyx, vnder that the image off our Lady and the image off our Savyoure.

Eleanor (Assistant Archivist)

A ship graffito

A royal castle in Berkshire may not seem the most likely place to find images of medieval ships but two such examples exist within the walls of Windsor Castle. The first, perhaps better described as existing on the walls of Windsor Castle, is believed to date from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The image takes the form of a graffito or wall-drawing and may be a rare depiction of a balinger. Similar to a barge and carrying both oars and sails, such vessels were a common feature of medieval coastal shipping.

The second image is a seal in the Archives attached to a document dated 1 April 1352 [SGC XV.55.59]. The double sided seal is made of green wax and is that of Yarmouth Borough. It shows men sailing a ship, two in the rigging and a third at the tiller. Maritime historians have long since found the image of interest due to the clear depiction of a ‘bowline led from the sail to the bow-spirit end’ [The Society of Friends of St George's annual report, 1951].

Men sailing a ship on the seal of the Borough of Yarmouth

The document to which the seal is attached is no less interesting and contains evidence of an unusual payment made by Yarmouth to the College of St George. Persuaded by Edward III, and apparently through a devotion to the Dean and College of St George, the Bailiffs and Commonalty of Great Yarmouth granted a last of red herrings, to be presented dry and cleaned, every St Andrew’s Day. This was a considerable gift when one considers that a ‘last’ contained between 10,000 and 13,200 fish. In the 17th century Canon Evans depicted a rather less pious explanation to the document. It seems likely that the annual payment was a punishment on the town for the murder of a Yarmouth magistrate. The payment continued for an extraordinary period of time. By 1718 the quality of herrings was such that the College began accepting money instead. It was only in 1867 when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners took control of the College’s property that the town quietly stopped the payment.

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

Recently we have been cataloguing and conducting conservation work to the sizable music collection donated to the archives by Sidney Campbell, influential composer of sacred music and organist of St George’s Chapel 1961-1974. This has involved transferring Campbell’s collection to acid-free folders and boxes, removing objects which are likely to cause damage to the collection, and listing the documents on our electronic database, thereby preserving the collection and making it readily accessible to researchers.

The collection consists of over 1300 pieces of printed sacred music, around 100 music manuscripts handwritten by Campbell, and various other exciting documents - the programme for Sidney Campbell’s investiture service at Buckingham Palace, a large collection of traditional English folk music, and lists of the music played in St George’s Chapel in the 1960s and early 1970s, for example.

Many of the pieces of sacred music in Campbell’s collection are still played in chapel services.

In addition to the Sidney Campbell Collection of modern printed and manuscript music, St George’s Chapel archive holds a large collection of printed and manuscript music dating from the fourteenth century onwards. This collection includes Men’s Part books, Organ books, Treble Books, and manuscripts, composed or deposited by previous members of the College. The current Image of the Month on this website is of a fragment of a service book dating from around the fourteenth century, providing a sense of the richness and diversity of our collection.

John (Archives Assistant)

Visitors to St George’s Chapel towards the end of 2008 would have noticed a considerable amount of scaffolding present in the South Quire Aisle. As part of the ongoing restoration of the Lower Ward, the stone in the aisle was scheduled to be cleaned. However, when stone-conservation experts began their work, they made a fascinating discovery.

Fragments of late-medieval wall paintings were found in the bay adjacent to the Oliver King Chapel. Further investigation by a medieval-wall-paintings specialist has demonstrated startling similarities with the designs inside King’s chapel. The discovery added a further complexity to the task of restoring the aisle as the decoration was found underneath a layer of later paint.

In the Archives, we have been kept busy looking for documentary evidence of the paintings and when they might have been covered. Unfortunately no contemporary description has yet been found although a bill dated 1789 does provide evidence that painting work in the aisle was undertaken by Sarah Crook (a painter and glazier):

Arms cleaned, painted and gilded in the north and south aisles [of quire] … Cleaning, oiling, painting, gilding and mending the figures of princes to Oliver Kings tomb and painting carv’d work … Painting in oil the whole arch over King Henry the 6th and Oliver Kings tomb, Hastings Chapel inside and out, Oxenbridge Chapel inside, east end of church and sundry other places. 3 times over. 427 yards. [SGC XIV/1789/3]

The scaffolding has now been removed but it will be a little while longer before the discovery is fully understood and can be interpreted. In the meantime those of us working on the restoration project have been reminded once again that the building we think we know is still capable of the occasional surprise.

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

Frontispiece to the 1651 edition

The full title of this book is Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, and it was first published in 1651. Titled after the biblical Leviathan, an enormous sea monster representing chaos and evil, Hobbes used it here to describe the Commonwealth under Cromwell. The book deals with the structure of society and legitimate government, and is considered one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.

The impressive frontispiece shows earthly power represented by the castle, battlefield and crown on the left, spiritual power represented by the church, court and Bishop’s mitre on the right. The sovereign is shown as a giant rising above, ruler over both. Influenced by the Civil War, Hobbes wrote that in order for there to be peace, a strong central government was needed, and that an absolute sovereign was the only way for this to be achieved.

The Chapter Library contains two copies of the Leviathan, including a first edition. The second copy belonged to William Cave, Canon of Windsor 1684-1713. On his death, his entire library was purchased from his executors at the cost of £645.

Eleanor (Assistant Archivist)