Henry VIII protects John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster's tomb in Old St. Paul's from reformation despoilment; plans for funeral to have depicted his Beaufort lineage as well as heraldry celebrating the marriage of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford!

 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 07, 2006

Henry VIII Prohibits Destruction of John of Gaunt's Tomb?

As I developed an interest in English history while in middle school, I had then (coincidentally the time of my first visit to the UK) began a collection of the various "Pitkin Pictorial Publications" found at many tourist sites within Great Britain.  The following is from one of those booklets that was the "St Paul's Cathedral Guide."

Oddly enough, it has a (very) brief history of the cathedral at the very end, and I was surprised to read the following (p. 28):

"The reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI saw great changes in the Church of England; at the onset of the Reformation the churches were despoiled of their wealth and treasures and the services reduced to the utmost simplicity. St Paul's suffered no less than others in this respect. On St Barnabas's Day, 1549, the high altar was pulled down and in its place a plain table, for the administration of the sacrament, was set up in the middle of the choir. The reredos was hacked to ruins and, among the tombs, only that of John of Gaunt was spared damage."

Yet another indication that Henry VIII not only remembered but apparently revered his connection with John of Gaunt. One naturally wonders whether his concern regarding the despoilment of an ancestor's tomb applied to that of Payne Roet's, as well.

And that's not all!  

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 02, 2005

Katherine remembered... by Henry VIII

What with Richard III reportedly muttering to anyone who would listen that John Beaufort, eldest son of John of Gaunt by Katherine Swynford, was 'in double avoutry gotten', it has sometimes been assumed that Katherine's position as Duchess of Lancaster being preceeded by that of being mistress of the Duke of Lancaster made her a bit of a skeleton in her descendant's closets that they wished kept well hidden.

However, it seems that she was to have been recalled with pride in a display of heraldic pageantry planned as part of the funeral ceremonies for Henry VIII:

"...A draft ceremonial for the funeral of Henry VIII, prepared by Garter Barker and later placed with the State Papers for Edward VI with a mistaken attribution to Garter Dethick ... 'a banner of somerset and beauchamp' (for John Duke of Somerset and Margaret Beauchamp of Bletsoe, Henry VII's grandparents), ... 'a banner of lancaster with the mariage' (presumably for John of Gaunt and Catherine Swinford, née Roet, his mistress and third wife from whom the Beauforts descended), 'a banner of Somersett and Richemonde' (this must be reversed for the marriage of Edmund Tudor with Margaret Beaufort daughter of John Duke of Somerset, Henry VIIII's grandparents),..."

"The pageant at Leadenhall [for the entry of Charles V in 1520] ... was eighty feet (24.38m) in length and must // have been one of the more elaborate at any English entry of the period. At the foot was John of Gaunt:

'... in a rote and oute of the rote sprang many braunches ... and on euery braunche satte a kyng and a quene or some other noble parsonage descend of the sayd duke, to the nomber of lv. images, and on the toppe stode the Emperor, the kyng of England and the Quene, as thre in the vi. dgree from the sayd Duke. [fn 67]'" (pp. 75-6)

--The Antiquaries Journal, 82(1) (2002): Some Aspects of Heraldry and the Role of Heralds in Relation to the Ceremonies of the Late Medieval and Early Tudor Court. John A. Goodall.