Ever since
completing my MA thesis I have had a potentially unhealthy obsession
with Edward the Confessor. This is why I tend to use him as a point
of reference when exploring the medieval catalogue of saints, and
this is also why I keep a lookout for his iconography, and I'm always
excited to learn of new images and new renditions of him. For this
reason I was very happy to find a stained glass window in York, which
to my mind most likely depicted Edward the Confessor, and this
blogpost gives an introduction to Edward's standing in the North.
The above stained
glass can be found in St. Helen's Church, York, and dates to the
later Middle Ages. The church is situated in the centre of York and
was the parish church of glass-painters who resided in Stonegate, and
their emblem can be found among the extant stained glass paintings.
The window
portraying Edward the Confessor is placed in a group comprised of -
from left to right - William of York, the Virgin Mary and St. Helen.
Edward is the rightmost figure, and as seen above he holds an object
which looks like the ring he reportedly received from John the
Baptist, and which was one of his major attributes in medieval
renditions of him. The story was told by Aelred of Rievaulx and
gained immense popularity. In the information leaflet provided in the
church, it is suggested that this figure is Emperor Constantine, but
this is highly unlikely since he was not considered a saint in
medieval times - at least not officially. In a book on stained glass
in York which I stupidly forgot to note, but which can be bought at
Waterstones in the city, it is stated that the glass does indeed
depict the Confessor, though no evidence is cited for this. I,
however, believe this to be the only likely explanation for
iconographic reasons.
William of York (d.1154, can.1227)
Virgin Mary
Interestingly, this
painting situated below that of the Virgin Mary, may also depict the
Confessor, possibly together with St. John the Evangelist, to whom
Edward was especially devoted
St. Helen
After this find I
went to visit York Minster's undercroft where I happened to note a
roof painting from the York Minster chapter house depicting St.
Edmund of East Anglia. The painting in question dated from c.1290. I
was quite excited to see this, since I have a major fascination for
the cult of St. Edmund as well as that of St. Edward, and these two
saints often appear together in later medieval art (and also
sometimes in literature). This was the second depiction of St. Edmund
I had found in York, the first being a carving from St. Mary's Abbey,
which was refurbished in the 13th century. The figure can be found at
Yorkshire Museum together with St. Cuthbert.
Edmund holding his arrows
Cuthbert, holding the head of St. Oswald
After having found
St. Edmund, I went to ask one of the curators whether there were any
depictions of Edward the Confessor in the Minster, and he told me
there was none to be found to my initial surprise, seeing as the
Confessor had in his time been generously munificient towards the
Minster. The curator was wrong, however, as there is a 14th-century depiction of Edward in the lady chapel, but this I learned later. As I talked about the subject with the curator, however, I remembered a few
important details from my MA research which made it all abundantly
clear why Edward should ostensibly - yet incorrectly - not be present in the York Minster art programme.
St. Edmund and his arrows, painting from York Minster's chapter house, c.1290
Edward's lack of
widespread support in the North is a result of the long-standing
conflict between the North and the South, and in particular between
the Archbishopric of York and the Archbishopric of Canterbury, at
that time locked in a continuous squabble over whose archbishop was
the primate of England.
This division in the
English medieval church runs deep, and when Osbert of Clare failed in
his petition to have Edward canonised by the Papacy around 1138, lack
of wide ecclesiastical support was probably one of the main reasons
why he failed, together with King Stephen's meddling in the Church's
affairs. After the Anarchy, however, Alexander III granted the
request for canonisation due to the wide clerical support Osbert that
had been lacking earlier, and the 12 surviving petition letters do
indeed represent a wide clerical spectrum, including the Archbishop
of York. However, this unity proved deceptive and when Edward the
Confessor was translated to a new tomb at Westminster on October 13
1163, only the diocese of Canterbury was represented.
The lack of
devotional paraphernalia pertaining to Edward the Confessor in York
suggests that this strife between the two archbishoprics were
long-standing and that to the northerners, Edward the Confessor
remained a southern saint. It should also be noted, however, that
Edward never achieved any wide popularity beyond Westminster and the
royal court, so this is not very surprising after all. However, not
even Henry III's presence in York - he refurbished Clifford's Tower
as his royal manor - was sufficient to move York towards greater
appreciation of Edward, and instead the citizens and the clergy
focussed on local saints and, as it seems, St. Edmund, whose fame
rivalled that of Edward for most of the 12th and 13th centuries in
the country at large. Interestingly, this goes contrary to the claim
made in the liturgy for Edward the Confessor, composed at Westminster
in the 12th century, where it is stated that the entire country
rejoices in his sanctity.
I do not know who
commissioned the stained glass windows of St. Helen's and York Minster's lady chapel, or what moved the former to place
Edward alongside an important local saint such as William of York.
Nonetheless, this is an interesting anomaly in York's devotional
landscape, and it shows the disparity between the overarching
devotional trends and personal preference.
It is of course
important to note that absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence, and it may be that Edward had a more prominent role among
York's medieval citizenry than has been known or is suggested by the
surviving material. Yet ecclesio-political considerations suggest
that there is not much to find in this department, and it is perhaps
emblematic that the only church around York dedicated to Edward that
I know of, is the 19th-century church at Dringhouses.
Bibliography
Dutton,
Marsha (ed.) and Freeland, Jane Patricia (transl.), Aelred of
Rievaulx: The Historical Works, Cistercian Publications Inc., 2005
Farmer,
David, Oxford
Dictionary of Saints,
Oxford, 2004
Hope,
Steffen, The
King's Three Images - The representation of St. Edward the Confessor
in historiography, hagiography and liturgy,
Trondheim, 2012
Rex,
Peter, King
& Saint: The Life of Edward the Confessor,
The History Press Ltd, 2008
Scholz,
Bernhard W., "The Canonization of Edward the Confessor",
printed in Speculum,
Vol. 36, No. 1, 1961
Williamson,
E. W. (ed.), The Letters of Osbert of Clare
Prior of Westminster, Oxford University Press, 1998
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