St George's College, Windsor, and Its Personnel, 1415-1546 - by Euan Roger (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The college of St George's, Windsor Castle, was founded on 6 August 1348 by letters patent of Edward III. From the start, its two main functions were clear: to glorify God and to serve the king. The secular college was to be attached to Edward's new chivalric order, the Order of the Garter, a connection which continues to the present day. The chapel, situated in the Lower Ward of the castle, is one of the most iconic medieval chapels in England and has been much studied over the centuries of its existence. Behind the gothic exterior, however, was a group of individuals working together to staff the chapel in prayer and community.

This book is, first and foremost, a study of this community, who served in a variety of capacities - the singing men of the choir, the accountants who managed the books, and the almsmen who prayed for the founder and his new chivalric order - each honouring God and the crown in their own ways. It examines how this group of individuals functioned on a daily basis, and how they impacted - or were impacted by - the physical space in which they lived, worked, and prayed. Moving from the daily lives of individuals, it considers how the collegiate community as a whole reacted to the problems and opportunities it faced throughout the years of dynastic turmoil, economic hardship, and reimagination that characterised Windsor and the whole of England throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The final chapter considers this position on the eve of the English Reformation, a dramatic turning point in the history of a royal college, which saw magnificence and martyrdom, and ultimately survival for St George's, where other similar institutions would fall.

Overall, the book sheds new light on an important and peculiar late-medieval collegiate institution, and through careful attention to one institution, and its unique primary sources, offers new insights into the problems and opportunities which faced all large English religious houses in the later Middle Ages and at the Reformation.