The Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary’s Church, Warwick

Note: This is a show notes page accompanying my on-location podcast, recorded in the Spring of 2024.

An Introduction To The Beauchamp Chapel

The Beauchamp Chapel is part of St. Mary’s Church in Warwick, England, and is one of England’s finest examples of late medieval Gothic architecture. This exquisite chapel, built in the fifteenth century, was commissioned by Richard Beauchamp, the 13th Earl of Warwick. He died in 1439, and the chapel was completed in 1464, over two decades later. It contains the effigial monuments of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick; Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick; and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.

In this month’s episode, I meet Tim Clark, Church Historian, who shows me around and shares some of the chapel’s noble history. Tim has recently written a book entitled The Beauchamp Chapel at St Mary’s Warwick. Tim has kindly allowed us to publish an excerpt from the book to whet your appetite and introduce the chapel.

Note: There is unrestricted access to the first part of this podcast here. However, to listen to the full episode, you must be a member of The Ultimate Guide to Exploring Tudor England, The Tudor Travel Guide’s membership site.

The Beauchamp Chapel at St Mary’s, Warwick, by Tim Clark

The following blog is an excerpt from Tim Clark’s new book, The Beauchamp Chapel at St Mary’s Warwick.

‘The Beauchamp chapel is one of the most splendid late medieval funerary chapels in western Europe, the crowning glory of the patronage by the earls of Warwick that St Mary’s had enjoyed since the early twelfth century. The earldom became particularly powerful under Earl Thomas Beauchamp (died 1369) and his son, also Thomas (died 1401); together they built the mighty east front of Warwick castle, with its barbican and twin towers and, at the same time, a new St Mary’s. The magnificent chancel bears witness to this exuberant display of status.

Fifty years after the completion of the chancel, a new Lady Chapel was begun on the orders of Thomas II’s son, Richard. Richard’s will, made in 1437, directed that the chapel was to be ‘faire and goodly’; ‘faire’ embraced high quality and nobleness, while ‘goodly’ meant handsome or beautiful. It was to be very special.

The chapel was a chantry, established for the saying of masses for the souls of the dead – in this case, Richard’s alone – and served by its own priests, paid for by an endowment. Chantries were becoming increasingly popular in the fifteenth century, as it was believed that saying masses in honour of a deceased’s soul (the more the better) would ease their journey to heaven.

Richard’s executors took their obligations very seriously. Employing the best craftsmen in England, they emphasised the need for the ‘finest’ materials and workmanship. For example, the contract for the painting of statues contains the words ‘fine’ or ‘finest’ no fewer than seven times in just forty words.

No single factor defines the chapel’s reputation. Cost, quality of workmanship and attention to detail combine to produce a magnificent display of English late medieval art. But just as significant is its radical vision: it was conceived holistically, with painting, sculpture, glass and Richard’s tomb creating a coherent and audacious narrative. The chapel is, quite simply, unique.

Construction began in the summer of 1441 and was sufficiently advanced by 1450 for the stalls and prayer desks to be ordered. Richard’s tomb was well underway by then, with the tomb chest in place. There was then a slowdown, with completion in about 1455 – though it was not to be consecrated for another twenty years.

Money was not an issue. The chapel cost over £2,500; a church the size of the rest of St Mary’s could have been built for half that. Except for that of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia in Westminster abbey, Richard’s was the most expensive tomb that had then been made in England. It cost at least £720, more than a vicar at St Mary’s would have earned in a hundred years. The glass was, per square foot, the most expensive made in England in the fifteenth century, with one (long-destroyed) exception. The statues around the east window are exquisite, all original and remarkably unscathed, and constitute the finest collection of late medieval statuary anywhere inside an English church or cathedral.

The chapel’s association with the Beauchamp heritage attracted the attention of the Dudleys, to become the favoured location for their burial. Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick (died 1590), his younger and more famous brother Robert, Earl of Leicester, and his second wife Lettice Knollys (died 1588 and 1634 respectively) and Robert and Lettice’s infant son, known as the Noble Impe (died 1584) are all buried here. Ambrose and Robert are indeed the 4 x great-grandsons of Richard Beauchamp, and their descent is set out in the inscription on the Noble Impe’s tomb. Ambrose and the Noble Impe’s tombs are particularly fine, both almost certainly the work of the Cures of Southwark, who also made the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots.

There is nothing like the Beauchamp Chapel, nothing to match its concept, its execution, its ambition. It could not have been done at Westminster Abbey or Canterbury, or even Tewkesbury, but Warwick offered the opportunity to go large, to push the boundaries and, frankly, to get away with it. It is an essay in the display of wealth, power, fidelity, sophistication, superiority, piety and devotion but not, by any stretch of the imagination, of that virtue most central to the Christian faith, humility.

The chapel’s other achievement is its very survival. Although not unscathed, more than enough remains to leave us with one of the most important collections of English late medieval art, certainly one in its original location. Some ninety-five per cent of English art was destroyed in the Reformation, with more lost during the Civil War. But here, we can marvel at the skill of craftsmen whose talents match those of lauded European contemporaries. Their work demonstrates an exchange of artistic ideas between England and the Burgundian Netherlands, and the chapel’s art can confidently take its place in the canon of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. This, and the remarkable quality of its art, maybe the chapel’s greatest legacy.

The Beauchamp Chapel Image Gallery

Useful Links

Tim’s book can be bought from the shop in St Mary’s or ordered online from Warwick’s Visitor Information Centre here.

If you would like to visit other Tudor locations nearby, you can find my detailed itinerary for Stratford-Upon-Avon here. Otherwise, the following locations are a short drive away:

Kenilworth Castle (6 miles)
Baddesley Clinton (9 miles)
The Lord Leycester is also in Warwick and has objects of national significance on display, including Robert Dudley’s will. Listen to my recent podcast recorded at the Lord Leycester here.