The famous Westminster Abbey in London has a long history, marked by countless conversions. A small chapel, which only existed for 25 years and was commissioned in the late 1470s by Elizabeth Woodville, wife of the English King Edward IV, has received little attention. The exciting thing about it: The chapel was dedicated to Saint Erasmus, a Christian martyr whose worship was particularly flourishing in England in the 15th century.
London's Westminster Abbey has its roots in a monastery that existed more than 1000 years ago during the reign of Anglo-Saxon King Edgar. From the Norman conquest of England under William the Conqueror in 1066, the abbey served as the coronation church for all English kings and the burial church for a majority of them. Over the years, however, Westminster Abbey has been fundamentally remodeled and expanded several times.
The Erasmus Chapel
Hardly anything remains of one of the smaller extensions today: at the end of the 1470s, Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of the then English King Edward IV of York, commissioned a small side chapel. This chapel, built at right angles to the then existing Lady's Chapel on the south side of the Abbey, was probably little more than a polygonal apse with an altar and windows. However, how big this chapel dedicated to St. Erasmus was, how exactly it looked and how it was furnished is largely unknown. One of the reasons for this is that this side chapel was demolished again in 1502 when Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, commissioned the construction of a new Lady's Chapel.
Only a small part of this structure has survived to this day, which can be seen today above the entrance to the Lady's Chapel, which was rebuilt in 1503. These are parts of the old altarpiece, the stuccoed and painted structure that once stood behind the altar of the Erasmus Chapel. Although the actual altarpiece has not survived, the master builders integrated its canopies and frames made of alabaster into the entrance to the new chapel. "The quality of the craftsmanship on these surviving parts demonstrates that further exploration of this chapel is overdue," explains John Goodall of Westminster Abbey.
By order of the king's wife
But so far little attention has been paid to this short-lived chapel. "Even in the abbey history she's mentioned only marginally," says Goodall. Together with Matthew Payne, the archivist of Westminster Abbey, the historian has therefore searched for clues in the short history of the Erasmus chapel. Based on historical records, she was able to confirm that Elisabeth Woodville commissioned the chapel. "We don't know for sure who designed the Erasmus Chapel, but most likely it was Robert Stowell, the architect of Westminster Abbey at the time," the researchers report. "He had worked at the Abbey since 1468 and was head stonemason from 1471."
When the Erasmus chapel was built is also difficult to pin down. It was first mentioned in a document in 1479, when Edward IV bequeathed goods to his wife so that she could use them to pay for maintenance and regular prayers and masses in the chapel. "The queen also wanted to pray in the Erasmus chapel herself and probably also to be buried, since the king's promise indicates that prayers should be said at our wife's tomb," the historians report. This never happened, however, for when Edward IV died he was buried of his own volition in St George's Chapel, Windsor, and later his wife was buried next to him.
Cult of Saint Erasmus
Despite its existence for only 25 years, there has been at least one historically documented burial in the Erasmus chapel. There is evidence that eight-year-old Anne Mowbray, who was married as a child to the son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, but then died, was buried there. Excavations in 2015 have also unearthed remains of five other coffins in the area of the former Erasmus Chapel, which the decorations suggest likely contained high-ranking clergy and nobles. According to Goodall and Payne, the use of the chapel as a burial chapel for the king's young daughter-in-law and the funding of priests for her "performance" suggest that the Erasmus chapel was held in high esteem, at least by the ruling couple of the time.
This is also interesting with regard to the saint to whom this side chapel of Westminster Abbey was dedicated: "The chapel thus reflects a new and rapidly growing devotion to this martyr in 15th-century England," the historians explain. "The king and queen as well as high-ranking members of the court were followers of this Erasmus cult in the 1470s." The early Christian bishop was considered the protector of sailors, cloth makers and those suffering from colic and abdominal pain, but also of children. The team therefore suspect that the childhood marriage of Elizabeth's son Richard to Anne Mowbray in 1478 may have prompted the construction of the Erasmus Chapel.
Source: Taylor & Francis Group; Article: Journal of the British Archaeological Association, doi: 10.1080/00681288.2022.2101237