Chapel Royal

The Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace in London, UK, one of numerous chapels royal in Britain

The Christ Church Royal Chapel near Deseronto, Canada, one of Canada's three chapels royal

A chapel royal is an establishment in the British and Canadian royal households serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the royal family.

Historically, the chapel royal was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also applied to the chapels within royal palaces,^[1] or a title granted to churches by the monarch. In the Church of England, working royal chapels may also be referred to as royal peculiars, an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the monarch. The dean of His Majesty's chapels royal is a royal household office in the United Kingdom that, in modern times, is usually held by the Bishop of London.^[2] In Canada, the three chapels royal are affiliated with some of the country's First Nations.

A British chapel royal's most public role is to perform choral liturgical service.^[3] The British chapels royal have played a significant role in the musical life of the nation, with composers such as Tallis, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, and Purcell all having been members of the choir.^[4] The choir consists of gentlemen of the chapel royal singing the lower parts alongside the boy choristers known as the children of the chapel.

Outside the United Kingdom and Canada, there is also another royal chapel, St. Peter's Church - Their Majesties Chappell, located in St. George's Parish, Bermuda.

In its early history, the English Chapel Royal travelled, like the rest of the court, with the monarch and performed its functions wherever he or she was residing at the time. The earliest written record of the Chapel dates from c. 1135, in the reign of Henry I. Specified in this document of household regulations are two gentlemen and four servants; although, there may have been other people within the Chapel at that time.^[5] An ordinance from the reign of Henry VI sets out the full membership of the Chapel as of 1455: one dean, 20 chaplains and clerks, seven children, one chaplain confessor for the household, and one yeoman. However, in the same year, the clerks petitioned the King asking that their number be increased to 24 singing men, due to "the grete labour that thei have daily in your chapell".^[5] The master of the children of the Chapel Royal had, until at least 1684, the power to impress promising boy trebles from provincial choirs for service in the Chapel.

From the reign of Edward IV in the late 1400s, further details survive: There were 26 chaplains and clerks, who were to be "cleare voysid" in their singing and "suffisaunt in Organes playing". The children were supervised by a master of song, chosen by the dean from among the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal. They were allocated supplies of meat and ale and their own servant.^[5] Additionally, there were two yeoman of the Chapel, who acted as epistlers, reading from the bible during services. These were appointed from children of the Chapel whose voices had recently broken.^[5][6]

Children (left) and gentlemen (right) of the Chapel in the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth I

The Chapel remained stable throughout the reign of Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries. The number of singers did vary during this period, however, without apparent reason, from between 20 to 30 gentlemen and eight to 10 children.^[5] The Chapel travelled with the King to the Field of the Cloth of Gold and during the second invasion of France.^[5]

The Chapel increasingly took on another, unofficial function that grew in importance into the 17th century – performing in dramas. The affiliated theatre company, known as the Children of the Chapel, produced plays by playwrights including John Lyly, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman, and performed them at court and then commercially until the 1620s. Both the gentlemen and the children would act in pageants and plays for the royal family, held in court on feast days such as Christmas. For example, at Christmas 1514, the play The Triumph of Love and Beauty was written and presented by William Cornysh, then-Master of the Children, and was performed to the King by members of the Chapel, including the children.^[7]

In music, the Chapel achieved its greatest eminence during the reign of Elizabeth I, when William Byrd and Thomas Tallis were joint organists.

In the 17th century, the Chapel Royal had its own building in Whitehall, which burned in 1698; since 1702, it has been based at St James's Palace. The English Chapel Royal became increasingly associated with Westminster Abbey, so that, by 1625, over half of the gentlemen of the English Chapel Royal were also members of the Westminster Abbey choir.^[8] In the 18th century, the choristers sang the soprano parts in performances of Handel's oratorios and other works. Under Charles II, the choir was often augmented by violinists from the royal consort; at various times, the Chapel has also employed composers, lutenists, and viol players.

The Chapel Royal in the United Kingdom is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household, which was established in 1483, under Edward IV, as the Royal Free Chapel of the Household.^[9] The Chapel Royal, in this sense, is a grouping of clerics and musicians, rather than a physical building.^[9] Traditionally, the members of the Chapel Royal are divided into clerics, choristers, and gentlemen of the Chapel.^[9] The Chapel Royal is a royal peculiar – a church institute outside the usual diocesan structure of the Churches of England and Scotland. It is one of the three major royal peculiars, the others being Westminster Abbey and St George's Chapel, which includes the Royal Chapel of All Saints.^[10] The members of the ecclesiastical household in Scotland are supplied by the Church of Scotland, while the members of ecclesiastical household in England are supplied by the Church of England.^[11]

Since the 18th century, the dean of the Chapel Royal in England has been the sitting Bishop of London, with control of music vested in the sub-dean (currently Paul Wright).^[9] The Chapel Royal conducts the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and combines with the choir of the host abbey or cathedral at the Royal Maundy service. The choir was among those selected to sing at the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2023.^[12]

The location of the United Kingdom's Chapel Royal has varied over the years. For example, in the early Tudor period and in Elizabeth I's reign, the Chapel's activity was often centred on the Greenwich Palace and the Palace of Whitehall.^[13] During and since the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the Chapel's primary location is at St James's Palace.

The chapel at St James's has been regularly used by the canons and singers since 1702, after the loss of the Chapel Royal at Whitehall Palace to fire, and is the most commonly used facility today. Located in the main block of the palace, it was built around 1540 and has been altered since, most notably by Sir Robert Smirke in 1837. The large window to the right of the palace gatehouse is in the north wall of this chapel, which is laid out on a north-south, rather than the usual east-west, axis. Its ceiling is decorated with royal initials and coats of arms and is said to have been painted by Holbein.

The separate Queen's Chapel, once also physically connected to the main building of St James's Palace, was built between 1623 and 1625 as a Roman Catholic chapel for Queen Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I, at a time when the construction of Roman Catholic churches was otherwise prohibited in England. From the 1690s, it was used by continental Lutheran courtiers and became known as the German chapel. The "Minister for many years" of the "royal French chapel"^[14] at St James's Palace was Pierre Rival (d. 1730), one of whose sermons is published as no: Sermon prononcé le 7 de Juillet 1713 jour d'action de graces pour la paix dans la chapelle royale françoise du palais de Saint James. The adjacent palace apartments burnt down in 1809; but, they were not rebuilt and, between 1856 and 1857, Marlborough Road was laid out between the palace and the Queen's Chapel.

At Windsor Castle is one of the largest royal peculiars, St George's Chapel. However, it is governed by its own college, separate from St. James's Chapel Royal. Near the royal apartments, there is also the smaller private chapel. In the grounds of Windsor's Royal Lodge is the Royal Chapel of All Saints.

In the 15th century, it is believed that the Chapel Royal referred to a prebend in the Church of St Mary on the Rock, at St Andrews. In 1501, James IV founded a new Chapel Royal in Stirling Castle; but, from 1504 onwards, the deanery of the Chapel Royal was held by successive Bishops of Galloway with the title Bishop of the Chapel Royal and authority over all the royal palaces within Scotland. The deanery was annexed to the bishopric of Dunblane in 1621, and the Chapel Royal was moved to Holyrood. Following the Glorious Revolution in 1688, a mob in Edinburgh broke into the abbey, entered the Chapel Royal, and desecrated the royal tombs. From then on, the building fell into decay and became a roofless ruin. The restoration of the abbey has been proposed several times since the 18th century – in 1835, by the architect James Gillespie Graham as a meeting place for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and in 1906, as a chapel for the Knights of the Thistle – but both proposals were rejected.

At the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace, a permanent chorus was created in 1868. The chorus, which sings on Sundays and major feast days, consists of 14 boy members and six gentlemen members.^[15] An organ was built in 1712 and, most recently, restored in 2013.^[16][15]

Two patronised chapels royal almost never attended by the monarch are the Chapels of St John the Evangelist and St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London, having their own chaplains and choirs. In 2012, Roger Hall, the Chaplain of the Tower of London, was made canon of the Chapel Royal at the Tower of London, the first such appointment since the 16th century.^[17] In 2016, the King's Chapel of the Savoy in Westminster, London, which is the monarch's by right of the Duchy of Lancaster, was brought for ecclesiastical purposes within the jurisdiction of the chapels royal.^[2][18] Chapels with a royal original purpose, but currently without royal patronage, include the Royal Chapel of St Katherine-upon-the-Hoe in the Royal Citadel in Plymouth. However, in 1927, King George V re-granted the title royal chapel to the Garrison Church.

Several other locations have formerly hosted the Chapel Royal, including the former Chapel Royal in Brighton. This was used by visiting royalty and as the primary chapel of ease to St Peter's Church.^[19] The chapel was formally separated from St. Peter's parish in 2010 and became a parish in its own right. Another former chapel royal was situated in Dublin, prior to the independence of Ireland in the 1920s. The Chapel Royal in Dublin operated within Dublin Castle, which served as the official seat for the lord lieutenant of Ireland. Buckingham Palace had a royal chapel designed by John Nash for Queen Victoria but it was damaged by enemy bombing in World War II and what was left was eventually incorporated into the Queen's Gallery.^[20]

Chapels royal in Canada are religious establishments which have been granted a rare honorific distinction by the monarch in recognition of their unique role or place.^[21] Three sanctuaries in Canada, all located in the province of Ontario, have been designated as chapels royal. All have associations with First Nations communities and the connection between them and the Canadian Crown.

Mohawk Chapel in Brantford was designated as a chapel royal in 1904 by King Edward VII.^[22] This was done in recognition of the historic alliance between the Mohawk people and the Crown, referred to as the Covenant Chain. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II designated Christ Church, near Deseronto, as a chapel royal.^[23] The chapel served as the church for the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and was designated as a chapel royal in recognition of the community's military service.^[24]

The first two chapels royal are situated within Mohawk communities that were established in Canada after the American Revolutionary War.^[25] Several gifts from the Crown were bestowed on these chapels royal, including silver communion services and a Bible from Queen Anne, a triptych from King George III, a Bible from Queen Victoria, and a bicentennial chalice from Queen Elizabeth II.^[22] In 2010, Elizabeth II presented to the Mohawk Chapel a set of silver hand bells engraved with the words Silver Chain of Friendship, 1710–2010, to commemorate the tricentennial of the first meeting between Mohawk representatives and the Crown.^[25][23]

In April 2016, the Queen approved in principle that St Catherine's Chapel in Toronto be designated a chapel royal. The chapel itself is situated within Massey College, a college of the University of Toronto, conceived by Vincent Massey, a former governor general of Canada. It became Canada's third chapel royal on 21 June, National Indigenous Peoples Day, 2017.^[26][27] St Catherine's Chapel is the first interfaith and interdenominational chapel royal and the only one with its own title in an Indigenous language.^[21] It was designated as a chapel royal in recognition of the sesquicentennial of Canada, the relationship between Massey College and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation,^[26] and as a gesture of reconciliation. The chapel acknowledge the history of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and its ratification by the Treaty of Niagara in 1764 ^[27]

Their Majesties Chappell is located in St. George's Parish, Bermuda. It was first designated as such in a royal warrant dated 18 March 1697 during the joint reign of King William and Queen Mary, and reconfirmed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 18 March 2012. St. Peter's - Their Majesties Chappell stands as the oldest surviving Anglican church in continuous use outside the British Isles.^[28]

• Anglican church music
• Honorary Chaplain to the King
• Religion in Canada
• Religion in the United Kingdom

• "London (i), §II, 1: Music at court: The Chapel Royal", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 16 September 2004), Grovemusic.com Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• The Buildings of England, London 6: Westminster (2003) page 587.
• "Blow, John." Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 December 2006), Grovemusic.com Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• "Purcell." Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 December 2006), Grovemusic.com Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chapels Royal Canada.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chapels Royal United Kingdom.

• Her Majesty's 2010 Christmas message from the Chapel Royal Hampton Court
• Website of the British monarchy entry for Chapels Royal
• Chapel Royal of Hampton Court Palace
• Choral Connections
• Friends of Blackburn Cathedral