On July 11, 1441, on his way to Bordeaux, Thomas Bekynton, secretary to King Henry VI and soon-to-be Bishop of Bath and Wells, found himself on a ship becalmed in the Bay of Biscay. In response, he vowed an offering to the Blessed Virgin of Eton and persuaded others on board to sing an antiphon in her honour. A favourable wind arose and Bekynton was on his way again.
Eton and Mary? In a game of word association, it is a link that very few of us would make. Privilege, prime ministers, Waterloo, yes. But the Blessed Virgin?
The first known reference to the parish church of St Mary of Eton dates from 1198. In 1440, the year before Thomas Bekynton’s trip to France, Henry VI decided that it was to be “raised, transformed and converted into the Collegiate Church of the Blessed Mary of Eton next to Windsor”. Eton held two attractions for the king. First, it was “not far from our birthplace”. And, second, its church was dedicated “under the name of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin, to which feast we are very attached”.
But, in the words of the late Robert Birley, historian and former headmaster of the college, Henry’s action in making the parish church collegiate “did not institute the special reverence paid to the Virgin of Eton”. Instead, the king was recognising something that already existed.
In any case, the history of Eton College was now underway. It was one of any number of “colleges” that sprung up around England whose main purpose usually was to maintain Masses and prayers for the souls of the founders and others named by them. But very often they also provided almshouses for the elderly and education in grammar for boys. Birley concluded that the school at Eton was the direct continuation of the chantry school run by priests responsible for the chapel dedicated to St Nicholas in the parish church, where, at one end, the first schoolroom of Eton was built. (The almshouse, meanwhile, did not outlive the founder himself.)
What also got under way in 1440 was Eton’s short but intriguing history as one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in England. In May 1441, Henry obtained a bull granting to all penitents visiting Eton on the feast of the Assumption indulgences equal to those that might be received in Rome on the feast of St Peter ad Vincula. The following year, Pope Eugenius IV made these indulgences plenary. However, the licence for them was limited to the lifetime of the founder and three quarters of the offerings were to go to the defence of Christendom against the Turks. Henry wanted more.
Soon all limitations on the duration of the privilege and stipulations on the use of payments were removed. The confessors at Eton were empowered to absolve penitents from their vows to make other pilgrimages (except to Rome or Santiago de Compostela); and indulgences for seven years were granted to visitors on any of the festivals of the Virgin, on the feast of St Nicholas and on that of the Translation of St Edward the Confessor.
As for relics and ornaments, the contents of catalogues compiled in 1445 and 1465 are astonishing. There is everything from fragments of the Crown of Thorns to some of the blood and brains of St Thomas Becket.
By 1445, the college was hiring 30 beds for chaplains and their servants who augmented the regular staff of 10 on the great day of the pilgrimage. Fields to the north of the college were acquired for the fair to be held on the six days following the feast of the Assumption.
Despite this, Eton was already reaching its high-water mark as a place of pilgrimage. In 1461, Henry was deposed. In 1463, the college was amalgamated with St George’s, Windsor, a state of affairs that lasted for seven years. By the end of this turbulent period, penitents were no longer coming to Eton in any great numbers.
None of the objects listed in the catalogues survives, including an image of the Virgin sitting in a vineyard, entirely of gold, with 80 clusters of white pearls. Robert Birley particularly regretted its disappearance.
Visitors to Eton today can still visit the highly impressive new church that Henry started, now known as College Chapel. (A second St Mary of Eton did arise: this time in Hackney in 1880 as the church of the now defunct Eton Mission to East London.)
But to really grasp what Eton might have been, visitors should wander down Keats Lane to the plaque marking the spot which the chapel would have reached if Henry’s plans had been fully realised: the longest church in England at one of her holiest shrines.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.