English Aristocratic Women and the Fabric of Piety, 1450-1550 (Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World)

The role played by women in the evolution of religious art and architecture has been largely neglected. This study of upper-class women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries corrects that oversight, uncovering the active role they undertook in choosing designs, materials, and locations for monuments, commissioning repairs and additions to many parish churches, chantry chapels, and almshouses characteristic of the English countryside. Their preferred art, Barbara J. Harris shows, reveals their responses to the religious revolution and signifies their preferred identities. Cover 1 Table of Contents 8 Abbreviations 10 Acknowledgements 14 Preface 16 Introduction 18 1 Tombs: Honoring the Dead 26 2 Chantries: The Quest for Perpetual Prayers 52 3 Building for the Congregation: Roofs, Aisles, and Stained Glass 72 4 Adorning the Liturgy: Luxury Fabrics and Chapel Plate 88 5 Almshouses and Schools: Prayers and Service to the Community 104 6 Defining Themselves 116 7 Epilogue: Destruction and Survival 136 Conclusion 152 Appendix 1 – Patrons of the Fabric of the Church 158 Appendix 2 – Patrons of Tombs 216 Appendix 3 – Location of Tombs in Churches 222 Appendix 4 – Choice of Burial Companion 228 Appendix 5 – Women Who Commissioned Chantries 230 Appendix 6 – Commissions of Stained-Glass Windows 232 Appendix 7 – Additions or Major Repairs to Churches 234 Appendix 8 – Bequests of Vestments 236 Appendix 9 – Patrons of Almshouses or Schools 240 Glossary 242 Select Bibliography 248 Archival Sources 250 Illustrations 12 Figure 1 – Monument of Sir Thomas Barnardiston (1503) and his widow, Dame Elizabeth (d. 1526). Church at Kedington, Suffolk. Photograph by the author, 2003. 27 Figure 2 – Sir Richard Fitzlewis (1528) and his four wives*. Church at West Horndon, Essex. Commissioned by his fourth wife, Jane, née Hornby Norton Fitzlewis. Permission of the Monumental Brass Society, UK. 31 Figure 3 – Ecclesiastical embroidery, Elizabeth Scrope Beaumont de Vere (1539), widow of fourteenth Earl of Oxford*. Once an enriched vestment belonging to her private chapel. She may have bequeathed it to Wivenhoe, the Essex church where she was buried. R 93 Figure 4 – Westmorland altar cloth*. Figures of Ralph, the fourth Earl of Westmorland (1549) and his wife Catherine Stafford, daughter of the third Duke of Buckingham (1555). Textiles store, museum no. 35-1888. Permission of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 94 Figure 5 – Altar frontal, St Catherine*. Made for the Neville family; possibly made for Catherine Stafford (1555). Museum no. 36-1888. Permission of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 95 Figure 6 – Bedingfield cup*. Hallmark 1518-19. Silver and gilt. Probably in private chapel. Museum no. M76 1947. Permission of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 98 Figure 7 – Mary, Lady Dacre (c. 1576), widow of Thomas, Lord Dacre of the South (executed 1533). Permission of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. 117 Figure 8 – Mary, Lady Dacre (c. 1576), widow of Thomas, Lord Dacre, and her son Gregory (1593). Permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London. 118 Figure 9 – Monument of Sir Thomas Kitson (1540), John, second Earl of Bath (1561) and Margaret Donnington Kitson Long Bourchier, Countess of Bath (1561). Hengrave, Suffolk. Photograph by the author, 2003. 121 Figure 10 – Monument of Sir Richard Knightley (d. 1534) and his widow Jane Skennard Knightly (1550). Church at Fawsley, Northamptonshire. Permission of “Walwyn, www.-professor-mortiarty.com”. 129 Figure 11 – Sir Thomas Stathum (1470) and his two wives*. Church at Morley, Derbyshire Commissioned by his widow and second wife, Elizabeth Permission of the Monumental Brass Society, UK. 130 "The role played by women in the evolution of religious art and architecture has been largely neglected. This study of upper-class women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries corrects that oversight, uncovering the active role they undertook in choosing designs, materials, and locations for monuments, and commissioning repairs and additions to many of the parish churches, chantry chapels, and almshouses characteristic of the English countryside. Their preferred art, Barbara J. Harris shows, reveals their responses to the religious reformation and signifies their preferred identities."--Back cover This study uncovers the active role played by women in the evolution of religious art and architecture. Their preferred art, Barbara J. Harris shows, reveals their responses to the religious revolution and signifies their preferred identities.