THE CARE OF THE ROYAL TOMBS IN ENGLISH CATHEDRALS IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: THE CASE OF THE EFFIGY OF KING JOHN AT WORCESTER

摘要

The medieval history of the celebrated tomb of King John at Worcester is now well known. Thenworks of Charles Alfred Stothard at the beginning of the nineteenth century, of William St JohnnHope in the early years of the twentieth century, and that of Jane Martindale at the end of thatncentury, are highlights along the road of our understanding of the royal effigy in its medievalncontext. But all the while this work of comprehension was going on, those who had a duty of carenover the tomb were engaged in a battle to offload that responsibility. The authorities at Worcesternwere not alone in wondering who should carry the burden of caring for royal monumentsnin English cathedrals. As early as 1841, the question of the care of royal tombs in WestminsternAbbey had come under Parliamentary scrutiny. The deans and chapters at Canterbury and atnGloucester also sought government subvention for the care of the royal tombs in their cathedrals.nThe history of this debate about the care of royal sepulchral monuments forms the wider frame-nwork for the main theme of this article, which is an examination in detail of the ways in whichnKing John’s tomb at Worcester was treated between 1872 and 1930. It reveals a remarkable storynin which a catalogue of disastrous decisions came to give us the tomb and effigy as we have themntoday. The article concludes with a short discussion of the introduction of the 1990 Care ofnCathedrals Measure which established the structures that currently exist (with subsequentnamendments) for the preservation of Anglican cathedral churches in use.