A HISTORY OF LONDON head. The setting is ornamented with four small carved circular openings. Legend : — SIGILLV . THOME . DE . VSEFLETE . Cl'iCI A seal of 1349,^^^ a pointed oval, shows St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar. In the base is a shield of arms. THE ROYAL FREE CHAPEL OF ST. STEPHEN, WESTMINSTER The chapel of St. Stephen in the palace of Westminster was, according to Stow, founded by King Stephen.^ There is no doubt that it existed in the time of King John for the names of two of the chaplains are recorded : Gervase who became vicar of St. Mary's, Cambridge, in 1205,^ and his successor in office, Baldwin of London, clerk of the exchequer.' Henry III appears to have taken a great inter- est in the chapel which he provided with vest- ments,* altar-frontals,* images ^ and tapestry ' and beautified in various ways.* It was rebuilt in 1292 by Edward P who was assisted by the papal indulgence offered to those visiting the chapel on certain festivals,^** but in 1298 it was burned down about four years after its completion.^^ In 1330 a new chapel was begun, '^ apparently on a more ambitious scale for masons were still at work on it in 1 337,'* and it could not have been finished very long before workmen were again being employed in large numbers," prob- "° One of three attached to an agreement between the dean and chapter on one side and John Band, perpetual vicar of St. Martin's, on the other. Doc. of D. and C. ofWestm. Lond. L (2). ' Stow, Sun>. of Lond. (ed. Strype), vi, 54. ' Rot. Chart. Johan. (Rec. Com.), 145. ' Ibid. 161 ; Cart. Antiq. R. A. A. 40.
- Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rcc. Com.), ii, 117. Order to
the treasurer to pay William de Castellis five marks for amending vestments and a chalice for the chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, 1226. Cal. of Close, 1231, p. 10. The king orders a cope of red samite for the chapel in 1 23 1. ' Cal. of Close 1231-4, p. 9. ^ Ibid. 207. ' Devon, Issues of the Exch. (Pell Records), 13.
- In 1234 the king ordered it to be wainscoted.
Cal. of Close 1231-4, p. 378. In 1240 a payment of j^50 was made for the works done there. Devon, Issues of the Exch. I 3. " Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, i 348. " Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 537. This was dated 1 291. " Dugdale, op. cit. "In 1294 timber was being supplied from the royal forest of Pembere for the work. Cal. of Close, 12S8-96, p. 350. '^ Dugd.ile, Mon. Angl. vi, 1348. " Cal. of Close 1337-9, P- 4i- Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), iii, (i), 193 ; 18 March, 1350, warrant to Hugh de St. Albans, master of the painters in the chapel at Westminster, to take painters and other workmen in the counties of Kent, Middlesex, Essex, Surrey and Sussex. ably to make its appearance correspond to the important change in its position recently made by the king. There had been four chaplains in the reign of Henry III ^^ but they seem to have been afterwards reduced to one " whose office was regarded as of no great value, when in 1348 Edward III ordained that there should henceforth be a college there consisting of a dean, twelve secular canons, thirteen vicars, four clerks and six choristers to whom he assured an income of
- ^500," the difference between this sum and
their revenues being paid to them from the exchequer.^" The pope, in answer to the king's petition in 1 349, gave to the dean power to cor- rect the canons and exempted them from the jurisdiction of the ordinary, stipulating, however, that the dean should receive cure of souls from the bishop and be subject to him in all things relating to it.^' He also empowered the dean to enjoy the fruits of his benefices while residing in the deanery. The king in 1354 exempted them from the aids for knighting the king's eldest son and marrying his eldest daughter, and from all other contributions, tallages, fifteenths and clerical tenths,^^ from payments for munitions of war ^' and liveries of seneschals and marshals;^* he forbade the seizure of their goods and those of their men by his provisors ^^ and excused them from paying any pension or corrody to the king or his heir against their will ; ^^ he acquitted them and their tenants of toll, pannage, pontage, kaiage, lestage &c., scots and gelds, hidage and scutage, shire courts, hundred courts, view of frankpledge and murdrum.^ He ordered moreover that the dean and canons should have the amercements, fines and forfeitures incurred by their men and tenants ; ^' that they should have wreckage and waifs and strays on their lands, ^' sac and soc, infangenthef, and outfangenthef, view of frankpledge, pillory, tumbrel and gallows ; '" and granted them free warren in all their demesne lands, acquittance of pleas of the forest and freedom from all charges that the foresters could make.'^ They were to have the return of all briefs and attachments of pleas of the crown in all their lands and fees ; " Devon, Issues of the Exch. 34. Payment of 1 80/. was made for their stipends from Easter to Michaelmas, 1257. " Cal. of Pat. 1334-8, p. 316. '* Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 280. " Had. MS. 410, fol. 14, 15. In 1361 this was increased to ^^505. For the number of clerks and choristers, see Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham (Pell Rec), 466. "' This was at any rate done in 1360, Harl. MS. 410, fol. 20. ■' Cal. Pap. Petitions, i, 187. " Harl. MS. 410, fol. 3 ^' Ibid. fol. i^h. Ibid. fol. 9. " Ibid. fol. 6. "" Ibid. fol. 9. " Ibid. fol. I o. » Ibid. fol. 4. « Ibid. fol. 7, 8. " Ibid, fol 5, 53. " Ibid. fol. 7. " Ibid. " Ibid. fol. II. 566
