What actually happened at Charing Cross can only be guessed, but there are very clear indications that the Convent of St. Mary Roncevall suffered severely. The deaths among the brethren were probably numerous, for no one sufficiently important seems to have survived to uphold the interests of the parent House. The depressed state of the Convent is the more striking as the calamity occurred after a period of great prosperity.

When the plague ceased, and for some time after, the affairs of the Convent appear to have been in complete confusion. The immense mortality during the year of the prevalence of the plague disordered to a serious extent the whole executive of the country, and especially affected the Church. In some cases the community in the smaller convents died out entirely, in others the senior members and officials completely disappeared from the records, and in all cases serious losses must have occurred. This fatality was not confined to the monastic clergy alone; those holding benefices outside the religious houses perished probably in greater numbers. The consequence was that throughout the country rapid institutions to vacant benefices had to be made to carry on the duties of those who had fallen, and frequently unlettered, and in some cases unworthy, clerks succeeded to important charges. These difficulties must have been much accentuated in the case of alien houses. They suffered, as did all the other religious communities, and in addition, they felt the difficulty of being remote from the parent House. Officials who would have had the interests of the House at heart could not be sent from abroad to take charge on short notice, and the Prior at Roncesvalles, no doubt, did not even know of the deaths of his subordinates at Charing Cross. The vacant benefices in the possession of the alien houses were sought for and obtained by clergy on the spot who had influence, and there can be no doubt that the conclusion is correct, that many of these persons were more concerned in advancing their own interests and in retaining the possessions thus secured, than in guarding the rights of the foreign abbey or priory. Not only, however, did the local clergy secure the vacant benefices and property, but in many cases the property of the alien houses was taken possession of by their influential neighbours, sometimes without opposition, when the original possessors had entirely disappeared, at other times by the high hand when the rightful owners were few or feeble.

The Conflict of Interest between Alien and English Clergy at Saint Mary Roncevall (1350-1414).

In spite of these adverse conditions the house of St. Mary Roncevall survived, although new influences appear directing its affairs. The earliest records after the Plague show that English clergy were in possession of the Church and Hospital, and the title of Warden is made use of for the first time by the chief clerical official. Special interest appears to have been taken in its affairs by the Crown, perhaps because its estate afforded a ready source of revenue, but more likely on account of the proximity of the Convent to the Royal Palace at Westminster. The Church and Hospital afforded convenient opportunities of preferment and of income to the clergy connected with the Chapel Royal of St. Stephen or of the Royal Household.

The first records after the Plague are of special significance. In 1379, in the reign of Richard II, the chapel and lands of St. Mary Roncevall were seized into the King’s hands in accordance with the statute dated at Gloucester, “for the forfeiture of the lands of schismatic aliens,” and in accordance with the policy of the Crown at this period to suppress all the alien religious houses. At this time there was a certain Nicholas Slake, a clerk, who, wise in his generation, had not failed in procuring preferment and much advantage from the Church. He possessed various benefices throughout the country, and finally became Dean of the Chapel Royal of St. Stephen, Westminster, in the year 1396.^[13] Nicholas Slake had obtained possession of the revenues and had become Warden of the Hospital and Chapel of “Rounsyvale,” probably when the Crown took possession of the property after the forfeiture of 1379. In 1383, we find that the King grants a writ of aid for Ralph Archer, Proctor of Nicholas Slake, Master of the Hospital of St. Mary Roncevall, “to arrest and bring before the King and Council all persons whom he shall prove to have collected alms in the realm as Proctor of the Hospital, and converted the same to their own use.”

It seems probable that an effort had been made by Nicholas Slake to put the affairs of his church in order, either on his own initiative, or on account of the renewed interest taken in the house at Charing Cross by the Mother Convent. It is noteworthy that about this time the Prior and brethren at Roncesvalles commenced a process at law to claim their property. An inquisition took place before the King’s Court at Westminster into the foundation of the Hospital, and as it appeared in evidence that the chapel and its property belonged to the Prior of Roncesvalles, it was restored (April 23, 1383).

There now appears to have been a short period of quiet and good fortune for the brotherhood. It will be remembered that the years 1390-92 are known as the three “quiet” years of the Hundred Years’ War with France. Peaceful communications were restored between Navarre, through France to England, so that we are not surprised to find that in 1389, Garcias, a Canon of Roncesvalles, is ratified as Warden of the Chapel of Roncevall by Charing Cross, at the supplication of the King’s kinsman, Charles of Navarre. What happened in the next year, 1390, is a little obscure. Garcias does not seem to have been at home or comfortable at Charing Cross, or the influence of the London clergy may have prevailed over the alien, for in that year we note that John Hadham, the King’s clerk, is Warden of the Hospital.

The following years must have brought much anxiety to the remnants of the alien clergy in England. They must have become more and more conscious of the insecurity of their tenure. England was once more engaged in deadly war with France; communications between the two countries were constantly interrupted or carried on with great risk and danger, and in the case of the Hospital of St. Mary, the sending of their surplus revenue to Navarre through France must have been regarded by the King, constantly seeking funds for military purposes, with the utmost jealousy. Most of the alien houses had already been suppressed. The continued existence of the House of St. Mary Roncevall, as mentioned above, had been seriously threatened. The affairs, therefore, of the community of Charing Cross must have been in great disorder and can have afforded little satisfaction to the parent House. That the Prior did make efforts to supervise the affairs of the Convent in England is clear, but the control must have been very ineffective.

In 1396, John Newerk obtained the wardenship and the property of the Hospital, including the charters, various apostolic bulls and other documents, and apparently installed himself comfortably in his benefice, for in the year 1399 we find that ratification of the estate of Ronceval was given to Newerk. In the meantime Francis, who was then Prior at Roncesvalles, learned of the doings of John Newerk, and commenced a process against him for having broken into the close and houses belonging to the Prior in the parish of St. Martin’s in the Fields, of having removed a sealed chest worth 20s., containing the charters and other muniments of the hospital, and claimed damages to the extent of 200l. This action seems to have dragged on for a wearisome length of time, for in the year 1409 special directions are given by the King, that, “whereas the suit has been long delayed, the justices are ordered to proceed therein, but not to give judgment without consulting him.” The plea was concluded in Hilary Term, 1409, and judgment was given to the effect that at the time of the trespass the close and houses were the sole and free tenement of the Prior, so that John Newerk was mulcted in damages to the extent of 100 marks, but he was held not guilty in respect of the matter of the chest and writings. Though the Prior was largely successful in this action, his success did not long delay the only possible issue.

Saint Mary Roncevall passes into the Hands of English Clergy (1414).

The end of the strife between the Navarrese and English clergy for supremacy in the House at Charing Cross was not far off. By the year 1414 the few remaining alien priories and convents were suppressed by Henry V, but what influence this final suppression had on the activities of the Convent of St. Mary Roncevall is not quite clear. English clergy were already in possession of the appointments in the Church and Hospital, and the services of the Convent to the people of London seem to have continued. There arose no question of handing over the property for secular purposes, and probably there was no serious dislocation of the usual work of the House. The management of its affairs must simply have been recognized to be entirely independent of the Prior and his officials. It is to the credit of both parties that this separation was accomplished without severe disturbance, for, as we shall see, communications between the Prior at Roncesvalles and the Warden of St. Mary Roncevall remained on what seems to have been a friendly basis. The English wardens who were now appointed were, so far as is known, men of note, and frequently in close relationship with the Court.

In 1417 Walter Sheryngton, Prebendary of Goderynghill, is confirmed in his possession of the estate and the “free chapel” of Rouncevall in the Diocese of London. During his tenure of office there appears to have been an action at law between the Prior of the Hospital and the Warden, the exact nature of which is uncertain; but during its course the conditions of the early foundation of the Convent at Charing Cross came under discussion.

In 1432 Roger Westwode, who was also a Prebendary of the Chapel Royal, St. Stephen’s, was Warden of the Chapel or Hospital of St. Mary Roncevall. He was clearly conscious of the advantages to be gained by the connexion with the House in the Pyrenees, as he obtained a royal licence to receive bulls and letters of indulgence for the profit of his own chapel from the Prior in Navarre, and also to remit alms for the poor and other monies to the Priory. An echo of the old difficulties can be noted in this document, as the royal licence states clearly that the said Priory is “outside our allegiance, and the licence is to continue so long as there is no war between us and the King of Navarre.”

The fortunes of the Hospital in the middle fifteenth century can only be judged by inference, but there can be little doubt that it continued to be useful, and that gradually its functions as a place for the cure of the needy sick became more developed. The co-operation of nursing sisters must have also become familiar to the London community by this time. The brethren and sisters had pursued their avocation in tending and in nursing the infirm from very early days in the history of the community of St. Mary both in Navarre and in England. As the religious house became more distinctly a hospital their services must have been in constantly increasing request.

The year 1475 marks the official commencement of the last stage of the existence of the Hospital. In that year a royal charter of Edward IV records the “foundation of a fraternity or perpetual gild of a master, two wardens and the brethren and sisters who may wish to be of the same in the Chapel of St. Mary Rounsidevall by Charyng Crosse, and of a perpetual chantry of one chaplain to celebrate divine service at the High Altar in the said chapel.” In 1478 a grant in mortmain is recorded to the Master, Wardens, Brethren and Sisters of the Fraternity of the said Chapel or Hospital, and of its property, revenues and privileges, for the sustenance of the chaplain and two additional clergy who now seem to have been required for the services of the chapel, and of “the poor people flocking to the Hospital.”

In the years following, the affairs of the Hospital seem to have been administered with energy and prudence, for we have records in 1494, 1495 and 1496 of legal proceedings concerning the property and privileges of the Hospital, in which the master and wardens vigorously upheld their position and successfully defended their rights. The litigation, which seems to have gone on intermittently chiefly for the recovery of the ancient possessions of the Hospital, appears to have been brought to a conclusion in the year 1510, when, in the Mastership of Laurence Long, the fraternity paid the sum of 20s. into the hanaper for the confirmation of the various charters granted to the fraternity by the King.

Again there seems to have been a period of comparative calm and, no doubt, of successful performance of the duties of the Hospital. The fraternity may have even thought that the storm which burst over the Church in the time of Henry VIII would leave them unharmed on account of the fulfilment of their useful functions in the community, for so late as the year 1542, while William Jenyns was Master, a record can be read giving evidence of their continuing interest and careful management of their affairs. In this year they obtained certain property and a wharf in the parish of St. Margaret, in respect of rents to be paid from a tenement called the “Shippe” and certain lands in the Parish of St. Clement Danes without Temple Bar. This, however, is the last deed recorded of the ancient community, with the exception of the final act which was very soon to take place.

The policy of the King, enforced in many cases by the greed of his agents and other members of the Court, could not leave the Hospital unscathed, and not even the charitable deeds of the fraternity were sufficient to save them from dispersion. The grief with which the master, wardens and members of the fraternity assembled to ratify their last official act in a corporate capacity may be conceived, and it is possible to some faint extent to imagine the feelings of despair and of bitter irony uppermost in the minds of the brethren and sisters when they heard the words of the Deed of Surrender read aloud. In this document the master, wardens, brethren and sisters of the fraternity declared that they are “specially influenced at the present time by divers causes and considerations to give and concede by this Charter to the most excellent and invincible prince, our Lord Henry VIII, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church in England and Ireland,” their Church, Hospital, and all other property and privileges. The affixing of their Common Seal to this document concludes the chequered history of the Convent of St. Mary Roncevall at Charing Cross (November 11, 1544).

Though the remaining members of the Community were deprived of their offices and ejected from the home which they had so long possessed at Charing Cross, their lot was not so hard as in the case of many others driven into the world at this time. A pittance from their income was left. There may be read in a book of payments of Edward VI, under the heading “Pencions out of Monasteries” that the guardians of Roncevall were allotted the munificent annual income of 6l. 13s. 4d. Very oddly in this document the larger sum of 8l. is entered and crossed out in favour of the smaller amount mentioned. The amount of the pension was measured with parsimonious exactness. Quarterly payments of 33 shillings and 4 pence are entered as being paid to the few surviving members of the fraternity so late as at Christmas, the Annunciation, Midsummer and Michaelmas, 1551 and 1552.

The subsequent fate of the Chapel and Hospital and the land on which they stood may be shortly stated. The site was granted, no doubt with the buildings on it, in the year 1550 to Sir Thomas Cawarden.^[14] Cawarden had been master of the revels to Henry VIII and had established claims to reward or remuneration from the King which had not been satisfied on his death. He was able to establish and enforce these claims in the early years of Edward VI. With some difficulty he obtained in discharge of his claims on the Crown the estate and property of Roncevall and also the church and property of the Blackfriars within the City of London. He seems also to have secured at this time the stewardship of Nonsuch Palace and its lands in the County of Surrey.

The properties of Roncevall and of the Blackfriars soon passed from the hands of Cawarden, probably during the period of wild speculation in land and real estate which followed the dissolution of the religious houses, but the stewardship of Nonsuch he continued to hold with much tenacity in spite of the efforts to dislodge him from this favourite position by Cardinal Pole during the reign of Queen Mary.

Cawarden died in the year 1559. In the meantime the Roncevall property had passed to Sir Robert Brett. It was purchased early in the seventeenth century by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, who built himself a town house, described as a “sumptuous palace,” on the site, using for the purpose the material of the ancient Convent. This house was completed in the year 1605 and was known for some years as Northampton House. It consisted of buildings arranged on three sides of a quadrangle, and open towards the garden and river. From him the property passed by inheritance to his nephew, Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk, the second son of Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk, who completed the quadrangle, the house being then known as Suffolk House. From the Howard family the property passed by an heiress to Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in 1642; another heiress of the Percy family brought the property to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. While in the possession of the Somerset family and their immediate successors, the Strand front was much improved and acquired the architectural features so long associated with Northumberland House at Charing Cross. By another heiress, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, the property passed into the possession of the present Duke of Northumberland’s family.

In consequence of the construction of the Thames Embankment, and the necessity for making a wide approach from Charing Cross, the late Metropolitan Board of Works bought the property from the Duke of Northumberland, in 1874, for the sum of £500,000. Northumberland House, the last of the old river-side mansions, was completely demolished and now Northumberland Avenue and the great buildings near it occupy the site of the Convent and Hospital of St. Mary Roncevall.^[15]

Most of the ancient documents dealing with the history of the Priory have been destroyed or lost as the result of war, fires and other causes. There remains in the Library at Roncesvalles an unpublished MS. dealing with the early history of the Priory and its dependencies, written about the second quarter of the seventeenth century by Don Juan Huarte. This MS. incorporates information obtained by the writer from various sources, and especially under the date April 12, 1623, from a certain Brother Miguel de Spiritu Sancto, who derived it in his turn from a certain Don Francisco Olastro—(Francis Oliver?)—who is stated to have been an ambassador from England in Madrid. This document states that there is situated in the suburbs of London a wide street named “the Street of Our Lady of Roncesvalles.” The houses in this street have sculptured over their doorways a single cross according to the use of Roncesvalles. At the end of the street is a large building, now nearly dismantled, which was a sumptuous church in the time of the Catholic Religion. Over the portico of the church were sculptured three crosses of the same form, and in addition there was a clearly engraved Latin inscription to the effect that this church was built and completely finished in honour of the Blessed Virgin by Henry IV, King of England, who, in addition, granted to the Community of St. Mary of Roncevall large possessions and revenues for the service of the Priory and Hospital. The inscription is dated in the MS. 1378, but this date, which is clearly impossible, is probably an error of transcription for 1408, arising from peculiarities in the formation of the figures, and there are other errors to be noted, showing that the information is derived through indirect channels. The inscription is given as follows:—

“Henricus quartus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Iberniæ et Irlandæ, Princeps Gales, et Dux (Lancastrie?). Hanc ecclesiam sacratissimæ Virginis et Matris Mariæ construxit locupletavit et a fundamentis edificavit, et eam in honorem dictæ Sanctissimæ Virginis et Matris multis possessionibus et redditibus et inquiliniis ditavit, et eam cum suis omnibus possessionibus, inquiliniis subditis et redditibus donavit in donum perpetuum ordini et hospitali generali coenobii Sanctæ Mariæ Roncesvallis in anno domini Salvatoris nostri Jhesu Christi, MCCCLXXVIII.”

The document goes on to say that the Priory possessed in England property including the Chapel and Convent at Charing Cross (“Caringrasso”) of the yearly value of 9,300 pounds English money, corresponding to 8,223 Spanish ducats, and that it also owned property in Canterbury (“Conturbel”) of the yearly value of 4,000 pounds, and in Oxford (“Oxonia”) of 5,700 pounds. A Procurator was appointed directly by the Abbot at Roncesvalles, who had his headquarters in London at Charing Cross, and had complete powers of administration to deal with the property of the Convent scattered through England, Scotland, and Ireland, and he also directed the Hospital and other enterprises of the Brotherhood.

The Huarte MS. also states that, in the ancient archives of the Abbey there existed a record in alphabetical arrangement, from which it is gathered that Henry VI of England, finding that no official was being sent from Roncesvalles, directed one of his chaplains to obtain from Roncesvalles an account of the property in London and Charing Cross belonging to the Priory: “Las pertenecientes á la capilla y encomienda de Roncesvalles situada junto á Caringrasso de Inglaterra,” and a warrant to collect the income and charitable contributions and send them to Roncesvalles for the maintenance of the clergy and the poor. There is also a statement on the authority of a “military personage in the City of London,” that there existed in London a large house which had belonged to Roncesvalles, as shown by the crosses of the special form used by the Order still to be seen on the stones, and that this house had been converted into a seminary of the Anglican Church.

It will be observed that much of the information in the Huarte MS. is traditional and cannot be accepted without careful collation with the more complete and authentic information contained in the English records. It is, however, of much interest to know that a document perpetuating the memory of the Hospital of Roncevall in London still exists in the parent House.