John Knox and John Howe have preached. Mary restored allthe splendour of pre-Reformation ritual,and Elizabeth diminished little of its gorgeousness. The pomp with which she set about her devotions is described in another chapter, from the diary of Leopold von Wedel, one of those Pomeranian lords whom Meinhold has immortalised.
In the chapel few changes were made under James I. and his son. The unhappy marriage of Buckingham's idiot brother took place there, and from time to time many of the great Caroline divines occupied the pulpit. In 1645, when Parliament took possession of the Palace, the altar was destroyed, the pictures taken away, and the beautiful glass of Henry VIII.'s
day broken to pieces. Mr Ernest Law suggests that some railings of carved oak (now in the "Horn Room") are remnants from this destruction.[1] If this is not so, they are at least work of Charles II.'s day, removed to make way for the present rails, which suit with the pillars and canopy-work over the altar.
The chapel was restored at the Restoration, but the glass was never replaced. William and Mary attended service there and took some pains with its redecoration. William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the only one of Queen Anne's children that survived infancy, was christened there. If we may believe Defoe, it was intended to pull down the chapel, among the wholesale alterations that William III. happily did not complete. Religion in general did not accord
- ↑ "History of Hampton Court," vol. ii. p. 131.
