Chapter 6: The Chapels Royal |
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| 1. | The Chapels Royal which fall under the authority of the Dean of the Chapels Royal, namely the two Chapels at St. James's Palace, and the Chapels at the Tower of London and Hampton Court, differ considerably in scale and organisation from Westminster Abbey and St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Furthermore the Chapels at the Tower of London and Hampton Court have more in common with each other than they do with the two Chapels at St. James's Palace. |
| 2. | In terms of scale, all four are physically small, and they are located within or adjacent to large royal palaces. |
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Governance |
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| 3. | The clergy of these Chapels are formally part of Her Majesty's Ecclesiastical Household. The three Priests-in-Ordinary and the Deputy Priests-in-Ordinary (the latter including the Chaplains at the Tower of London and Hampton Court) answer to the Sub-Dean (an office known since 1483) who is himself answerable to the Dean of the Chapels Royal. The Chapel Royal (using the collective singular) accompanies The Queen at the Royal Maundy service, and the Sub-Dean is also the Sub-Almoner of the Royal Almonry Household. Because of this special relation to the Court, and because they are so different in scale from cathedrals or great churches, the Chapels Royal have not been subjected to the same scrutiny by Parliament or the Church as Westminster Abbey or St. George's Chapel. However their clergy undoubtedly endeavour not merely to fulfil their royal duties but also to make the Chapels living places of worship for the wider community. |
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Worship and tourism |
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| 4. | Certain special services have traditionally been held at the Chapels Royal, and these continue to some degree, for instance at Epiphany, when offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh are presented on behalf of The Queen at a service in the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace, and in connection with the Royal Maundy. |
| 5. | The regular services at the Chapel Royal and The Queen's Chapel in St. James's Palace are open to the public, but these chapels are located within an occupied royal palace which is not open to tourists. However visits are made by request to the Chapel Royal by individuals and groups, and school visits are encouraged. |
| 6. | In contrast the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London and the Chapel at Hampton Court, both of which are in regular use for worship, are open to the large numbers of tourists who visit these great buildings on a daily basis; 1997 figures for the Tower of London and Hampton Court were 2.6m and 643,226 respectively.(18) These Chapels are therefore faced with the challenge of balancing tourism with reverence for a historic ecclesiastical building still in regular use for worship. The Norman Chapel of St. John the Evangelist within the White Tower in the Tower of London, which is not technically a Chapel Royal, is used for special services and for six evensong services per year; at other times it is visited by tourists as part of their visit to the Tower. |
| 7. | St. Peter ad Vincula and the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court each have a resident Chaplain and a regular congregation, amounting to an average total of some three hundred per Sunday at Hampton Court and about thirty-five at St. Peter ad Vincula. These worshippers are extremely loyal, and in the case of St. Peter ad Vincula have materially assisted the Chapel through the active Friends Association. This has recently raised substantial funds both for the choral foundation and in order to rebuild the organ built by Father Bernhardt Schmidt for the Banqueting House in 1699, which was moved to the Tower in 1890. At Hampton Court, where (as at St. Peter ad Vincula) the services are from the Book of Common Prayer, many people are attracted by its historic connection with the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 and with the association of Hampton Court with the King James Authorized Version of the Bible. The generous collections at the regular services supplement the Chapel's basic allowance of some £16,000 from the Privy Purse which is otherwise its main source of income, and some thirty-two voluntary stewards act as guides to the Chapel on a regular basis. People travel considerable distances to attend both Chapels, and their maintenance as places of worship is an important witness in the context of tourism. |
| 8. | A recent innovation at Hampton Court has been the institution of daily services, which may be attended by visitors and by staff of the Palace. The lighting of votive candles, and prayer cards left by visitors are also conspicuous developments of the recent past. Thus these historic places of worship can reach out pastorally to the many visitors who come each day to the Tower or to Hampton Court. |
| 9. | It is clear that the services at all three places are attractive to worshippers with an attachment to Prayer Book services and no doubt also to a sense of history and place, and to high standards of music. It is also clear that real efforts are made by the clergy to reach out not only to people like these but also to the visitors. Both objectives pose challenges, for example in the first case in attracting young people into the Chapels as well as older ones. We wish to encourage those responsible for the task of maintaining these places as living houses of prayer and worship. |
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Management |
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| 10. | The organisation, in management and (partly) in financial terms, of the two Chapels in the Tower and the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court is shared between the Royal Household and the Historic Royal Palaces Trust (HRPT), originally set up as the Historic Royal Palaces Agency in 1989, the ecclesiastical organisation being a matter for the Dean of the Chapels Royal acting through the Sub-Dean who is based at St. James's Palace. After the establishment of the Historic Royal Palaces Agency a Memorandum of Understanding of 1990 set out the terms of the future relationship between the Agency and the Chapels Royal at Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. There is nevertheless some evidence of continuing, if minor, tension between the Chapels, as places of worship, and the interests of the HRPT as manager of tourism in the Palaces on behalf of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. This can be apparent for example when special services such as weddings are held which are perceived to impede tourism. Furthermore, financial and other arrangements are somewhat complex and differ between the institutions for historic and local reasons. Closer contact between the staff involved, and the possibility of regular overall reviews of the arrangements for the Chapels Royal would help this situation. |
| 11. | No visitor revenues are received by the Chapels Royal, whether directly or indirectly, but St. Peter ad Vincula and the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court are open to all who pay the admission charge to the Tower of London or the Palace of Hampton Court. Because of the occasional tension mentioned above the relationship between the Chaplain and the HRTP can at times be delicate, despite the Memorandum of Understanding of 1990. Willingness to recognise the legitimate interests of the Chapels as places of worship is clearly helpful. |
| 12. | At the Tower of London, the Chapel Council, which meets quarterly, is chaired ex officio by the Resident Governor of the Tower, and has six or seven members coopted by him, with a mix of Tower and external members. Especially when seen in combination with the close involvement of the Friends with the financial and musical aspects of the Chapel, there could be a danger here of an imbalance on the side of lay interest. In contrast with Hampton Court, where the stipends of the Chaplain and the Virger are paid by the Royal Household, the Chaplain at the Tower of London receives an honorarium from HRPT which is set at one half of the average Church of England stipend. This is in practice supplemented by some further financial support from the Friends, and he also enjoys the right to live in a house near to St. Peter ad Vincula. However the arrangement makes him particularly vulnerable if any conflict arises between tourism and worship. |
| 13. | Should these Chapels Royal cease to be active places of worship, they would become museum pieces or heritage centres. St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower was a garrison church from 1887 until the early 1960s, when the garrison left, and it was agreed that by the Royal Household that it should remain a place of worship on condition that no calls were made on public or Privy Purse funds. This was when the association of Friends was set up to provide musical and general support. Cessation of worship now would bring to an end a living tradition which has existed unbroken for centuries and which preserves the memory of deep historic connections. This in itself is a powerful attraction to visitors and regular worshippers alike. Moreover outside organisations are welcomed for special services, especially at the Tower of London, and the Chaplains offer a pastoral ministry to the large numbers of staff who work in the two Palaces, including the Yeoman Warders and their families at the Tower of London, and this is much appreciated. |
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The Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace |
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| 14. | Salaries at the Chapel Royal and The Queen's Chapel at St. James's Palace are paid by the Royal Household, as are other expenses including the costs of scholarships held by choristers at the City of London School. In all cases collections form an important part of the annual revenue, part of which is assigned to Chapel expenses and part to charitable giving. The Chapel Royal accompanies the Sovereign on Royal Maundy, and the expenses for this are paid from the Privy Purse, as are the State Coats of the Gentlemen and Children singers. The expenses of the Gentlemen and Choristers at Hampton Court are similarly provided by the Royal Household, although the professional choir at St. Peter ad Vincula is the responsibility of a Choral Foundation set up in 1966, for which funds are raised by the Friends. Accommodation at the Chapel Royal is provided for the Sub-Dean and the Serjeant of the Vestry. |
| 15. | Lay staff of the Chapel Royal include the Serjeant of the Vestry, the Groom of the Vestry and the Keeper of the Closet, each appointed by the Lord Chamberlain's Office on the recommendation of the Dean and Sub-Dean after open application. There is also an Organist and a Sub-Organist, and volunteer servers and flower-arrangers. |
| 16. | Services using the Book of Common Prayer take place except during August and September and are open to the public, as has been the case since the sixteenth century. Services take place in The Queen's Chapel from Easter Day until the end of July and in the Chapel Royal from October until Good Friday. There is a regular congregation and frequent opportunity for informal fellowship. |
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Fabric |
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| 17. | The Tower of London, St. James's Palace and Hampton Court are owned by The Queen in right of the Crown, and the Chapels therefore enjoy Crown exemption. Their fabric is maintained by HRPT or, in the case of St. James's Palace, by the Royal Household, and their utilities are similarly paid. |
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Music |
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| 18. | As a peripatetic body originally of priests, singers and vestry which followed the Sovereign and Court, music has always been central to the tradition of the Chapel Royal. Organists for the Chapel were drawn from among the gentlemen singers and the predecessors of the present Organist include Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Blow, Purcell, Green and Boyce. Handel was also his predecessor as Composer. In the reign of Henry VIII there were about twenty gentlemen singers and eight, later twelve, boys. Nowadays there are six Gentlemen and ten Children of the Chapel Royal, besides probationers. The Children, who enter between the ages of nine and twelve years old, must pass a voice test and an Entrance Examination to the City of London School, to which they receive Queen's scholarships amounting to two thirds of the fees. Originally both Gentlemen and Children lived at Court, then the Children were boarded with the Gentlemen, and from the eighteenth century until 1923 they were educated at a special choir school. |
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Archives |
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| 19. | The Chapel Royal houses archives containing manuscript records of the Chapel since 1558, and most Royal Registers up to the present day. Parts of the archive are subject to the Parochial Records and Registers Measure 1978, amended 1992, which covers the records of Royal Peculiars. |
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Conclusion |
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| 20. | These historic ecclesiastical buildings differ greatly from Westminster Abbey and St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and they also differ from each other in their settings and the immediate milieu in which they function. Nor, perhaps, are they generally known or well understood. However, they are linked by their common structure as part of The Queen's Ecclesiastical Household (also a mystery to most people), and by their close relation both to the working of the Monarchy and to the interests of tourism and modern visitors. Each of them in its different way arouses great loyalty for a variety of understandable reasons, though the Chaplain of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court rightly draws attention to the average age of his congregation and the need to draw in young people in order to secure the future. It would be good if they were better known, so that more people could share what they have to offer. But importantly, each of them is a repository of the nation's history, while still being a place of worship. This is a valuable and unusual phenomenon in modern life and surely it should be preserved and treasured. |
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