Archbishop's palace and precincts
THE VILLE AND PRECINCT of the Archbishop's
palace is situated on the eastern or opposite side of
the street from Stablegate above-mentioned, and adjoining eastward likewise to the precincts of the cathedral. (fn. 1)
Augustine, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury,
and his associates, being kindly received by king
Ethelbert, were accommodated with a habitation in
this city, at Stablegate, near this palace, then the residence of that monarch, as has been mentioned before, where they presently afterwards began, says ve
erable Bede, to follow the examples of the apostles
in their way of living. (fn. 2) This sanctity of life and innocency of manners, joined to the persuasive arguments
made use of by Augustine, in favor of Christianity,
so far wrought on the king's mind, that he became a
convert to the Christian faith, and shortly after removing his residence to Reculver, he bestowed as a
further instance of his favour, on Augustine, for a perpetual seat for him and successors, his own royal palace in this city, conjectured to have stood much
hereabouts. The palace with the adjoining buildings, (fn. 3)
Augustine afterwards converted into a cathedral and
monastery; yet, as it should seem, he did not divide
his dewlling, or set out his residence apart from the
monks; but he, and they, and both their successors,
living in common, both as to goods and possessions,
and in one and the same habitation of one entire precinct, and this continued so afterwards till archbishop
Lanfranc's days, who came to the see about four years
after the conquest, and being a Norman, altered most
of the customs and usages of the English church to
those of his own country, and among others of this
his own see and monastery, and among other regulations abolished this community of living, and among
his other structures, built himself a court or palace,
distinct from the monks, before which time there is
no mention found of any such palace or like separate
habitation for the archbishop. Accordingly Eadmer,
speaking of archbishop Lanfranc, says, (fn. 4) he it was, that
first shifted and settled, in the manner they were at
the taking the survey of Domesday, the manors and
possessions between himself and the monks, setting out
to each of them and their successors, their distinct and
proper parts. (fn. 5)
The antient building of Ethelbert's palace, in all
probability, did not escape the fury of the Danes, but
was consumed in the year 1011 by them in the same
flames that destroyed both the church and city. For
a long time after there does not appear to have been
any thing of any consequence done towards the rebuilding or repairing it, as such; and whatever little
had been done, had through the carelessness of archbishop Stigand, the predecessor of Lanfranc, been
suffered to fall down again, so that the latter found
it, as well as his church, little more than a heap of
ruins.
Of whatever Lanfrancbuilt of this palace there seems
now to be but very little, if any, part left; and indeed at the time archbishop Hubert came to the see,
which was about one hundred years after Lanfranc's
death, it was come to a state of decay; for it must be
observed, that before. as well as after this time, this
palace, which was at times brought to be a large and
costly pile of buildings, experienced the change of
fortune with frequent variety, being raised to a noble
state by some, and suffered to shrink into shameful
decay by other archbishops; sometimes it was desaced
by accidental fires, and at other times it was neglected
and fell under the blemishes of dilapidation, through
their carelessness, either from their residing in foreign
parts, or preferring some of their other palaces and
castles in their several manors for their residence; and
it was again often repaired, enlarged, adorned and
beautified by others, who were honourable benefactors to it.
Archbishop Hubert, at his coming to the see of
Canterbury, finding this palace in the state of decay
as before mentioned, pulled down the greatest part
of it, and afterwards laid the foundations of that large
and stately hall, and other suitable offices, almost the
whole of which remained till the times of rebellion in
the middle of the last century. But though he sat
in this see for upwards of twelve years, yet he left this
work unfinished; (fn. 6) the reason of which was not owing
to his want of good will, or ability, but to his absence
from hence, being constantly employed by the king
in the highest offices of state; (fn. 7) archbishop Langton,
Hubert's immediate successor, carried the building
on, and having completed it, gained the credit of
being the founder of it, (fn. 8) yet was the beautifying and
adorning of it left to one of his successors, archbishop
Boniface, who besides, as he himself expressed it, might
truly be accounted the founder of it, by paying those
debts which his predecessors had contracted for the
expences of it. (fn. 9)
This grand and stately hall, famous for the royal
guests, who at different times found in it no less than
royal entertainments becoming the greatest princes,
and for the splendid feasts of but little less account in
general, made by the archbishops on the days of their
inthronization, at which not only many of the nobility and suffragan bishops, but a great and numerous
assemblage of respectable persons of the gentry, were
present.
Among other remarkable occurrences which took
place in it, it ought not to be forgotten, that in Sept.
1299, the marriage ceremony between king Edward I.
and Margaret, the king of France's sister, having been
celebrated in the cathedral here, the nuptial feasts
were sumptuously kept in this hall for four days together most of the nobility both of England and France
being present at them. The splendid and sumptuous
entertainment made by archbishop Warham, at his
inthronization, is particularly related by his successor
archbishop Parker, and will be fully mentioned in the
succeeding part of this history. During that prelate's
time, in the year 1520, anno 12 Henry VIII. there
was celebrated on one of the nights of the Whitsunweek, a splendid ball in the great hall of this palace;
at which the newly elected emperor Charles V. danced
with the queen of England, and the king of England
with the queen of Arragon, the emperor's mother;
this being finished, a royal seast commenced, the tables were covered in the hall, and the banqueting
dishes were served in; before which rode the duke of
Buckingham, as sewer, upon a white hobby, and in
the midst of the hall was a partition of boards, at
which the duke alighted, and kneeled on his knee,
and that done, took again his horse back, until he was
almost half-way to the table, and there alighted and
did the like as before; and then rode to the table,
where he delivered his hobby, and sewed kneeling at
the table where the emperor was, and the king with
his retinue kept the other end of the hall. (fn. 10)
But before the end of that reign this palace suffered
greatly by fire, as appears by the king's letter to arch
bishop Cranmer, dated Dec. 20, 1543, being the 34th
year of it, in which, the king shewed his pleasure,
that since, by reason of the fire, which had lately happened at the archbishop's house here, he could not
entertain the viceroy of Naples sent by the emperor,
he should absent himself from Canterbury, at the
viceroy's coming thither, and leave the entertainment
of him to the lord Cobham. (fn. 11)
The palace seems to have continued in this ruinated state at the time of archbishop Parker's coming to the see in the 1st year of queen Elizabeth, who
found the palace with the great hall and the other edifices belonging to it in such a dilapidated condition,
that in the two next years he was necessitated to lay
out upwards of 1400l. in the re-edifying of them; (fn. 12)
after which, in 1573, that queen being here on one of
her progresses through the county, and Sept. 7, being
her birth-day, he made a sumptuous banquet at this
palace, to which he invited the queen, Gondy, count
de Rhetz, and Mote Fenelon, with a great number
of noblemen, who feasted with him in the great hall
here on that day. (fn. 13)
In this state the palace remained till the abolition
of episcopacy and church government, after the death
of king Charles I. when the whole of it being sold to
supply the necessities of the state, the purchasers, for
the lucre of the materials, pulled down the great hall,
and the other best apartments (being by far the greatest
part of it) and converted the remainder into private
houses, in which state it has continued ever since.—
However, on the restoration of king Charles II. the
remains of the palace, with the precinct of it, returned
to the see of Canterbury; but the archbishop, on
taking possession of them, found the state of the buildings to be such, as not to be capable of being made habitable for him, and weighing well the considerable cost
of re-building a palace here, and the inconveniences of
its distance from London, demised the whole of the
scite of it, with the buildings and precinct of it, on a
beneficial lease to one lessee for thirty years, which is
usually renewed every ten years, on paying an adequate
fine; in which manner it continues at this time to be
held, (fn. 14) John Monins, esq. (fn. 15) who has built himself a handsome house on part of the premises, in which he resides,
being the present lessee of them.
There is so little remaining at present of this once
stately palace, that it is hardly possible to form any conjecture what it ever was.
All that is now left of it is, two buildings converted
into tenements opposite the western side of the cloysters, both of which have much shew of antiquity; these
were repaired, and perhaps nearly rebuilt, by archbishop Parker; one of them has a kind of regular and
not unhandsome front for the time, westward, towards
St. Alphage-street, built, by all appearance of it, by
him; this was the remains of a spacious gallery between this part of the palace, and the great hall of it,
which stood at the north end of it; the back part of
this house towards the precincts of the palace, has a
strong thick wall to it, built of flints, with an arched
stone door case, &c. which Mr. Somner thinks is the
only part remaining of archbishop Lanfranc's time,
the room within it being that where the archbishop
then held his civil or temporal court. The other house
adjoining, opposite the western door of the cloysters,
is a highbuilding of stone rubble and slint mixed, which
seems of itself to be of some antiquity, but was greatly
repaired by archbishop Parker, whose arms are on the
south side of it, towards Christ church gate, as well as
in the windows and some other places within doors.
From this part of the palace is a high wall embattled,
reaching to the north-west tower of the church, as a
separation and bounds between the two precincts; in
this wall are the remains of a sheltered way to the cloysters, for the accommodation of the archbishop in bad
weather, in his passage to the church; though on public
and solemn occasions, his entrance to it was from a
large gateway, the square tower of which, handsomely
built of flint and ornamented with ashler stone, situated
opposite and within a very small distance of the great
western door of the cathedral, is still remaining, which,
however seemingly otherwise, being on the outer side
of the above wall, is yet within the bounds of the precincts of this palace.
The antient wall which surrounded these precincts,
is still, in great part, remaining on the west and north
sides of it, and was more so, till the alterations made
within these few years here; it is built of rubble-stone
and flint, of great height and thickness, and seems by
every appearance of it, to be part of that originally
built by archbishop Lanfranc. Nearly in the middle
of the west side of it is a large handsome gateway, built
of brick, with stone ornaments, by archbishop Parker,
being the principal entrance to the palace from St. Alphage street; on the north side of it are some other
brick buildings erected about the same time, seemingly
for the inferior offices belonging to the palace; (fn. 16) and
until the present lessee, Mr. Monins, within these few
years, pulled down several others for the purpose of
erecting his new house and offices, and laying out his
garden behind them, there were some small remains
left of the great hall of this palace. The north porch
of it, of no small size, opening into the precincts of the
palace, then a dwelling-house, was remaining; and in
the garden behind it were numbers of small pillars of
the Bethersden marble, once the ornaments of it, dispersed in sragments about it. At the eastern wall of the
garden were two nitches, adorned with pillars and canopies of this sort of marble, still maintaining the appearance of grandeur, and against the wall at the east
end was the look of what seemed formerly to have been
a cloyster, consisting of five arches on the outer side,
which were eleven feet wide, the crowns of which appeared about four feet above ground, all below being
buried in the rubbish which made the foot-way.
At a small distance eastward from hence, adjoining
to the west side of the cloysters, was, whilst the priory
remained, the lodgings belonging to the cellarer of it,
having a door opening into them. These at the dissolution of the priory came to the crown, and were particularly excepted out of the dotation charter granted by
king Henry VIII. to his new dean and chapter, and
were afterwards granted to the archbishop, since which
they have continued to be esteemed as part of the precincts of his palace. (fn. 17) Part of them were converted into
a dwelling, though new modelled to a different appear
ance, till Mr. Monins pulled it down a few years since,
and there is now remaining of it only a wall against the
cloysters, though much higher, built of flint, with stone
ornaments, being part of those antient lodgings before mentioned.
There was in 1720, a French chapel or meetinghouse within these precincts, for Anne Herault, spinster, of Canterbury, by her will proved that year, gave
the sum of 10l. to the adorning and repairing of the
French chapel or meeting house, in the Archbishop's
palace here, belonging to the French congregation;
but there has been none such within memory, though
there has been a methodist meeting, in a chapel within
these precincts, for many years past, not improbable in
the same place as above-mentioned.