1

OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM

By D. T. STARNES

How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff

And his sandal shoon.

(Hamlet, IV, v, 23-26)

This quatrain and two others constitute the fragment of a pilgrim song put into the mouth of the mad Ophelia. The words indicate that this was one of the many ballads inspired by the celebrated shrine of the Virgin at Walsingham, Norfolk. As a pilgrim song, its appeal must have been tremendous, even in Shakespeare's day, for the religious pilgrimage had been from antiquity a universal custom. The Indians had made pilgrimages to the Ganges; the Syrians, to the temple of Atargates; the Phoenicians to the shrine of Astarte; the Greeks, to the temple of Zeus at Olympus, or to the shrine of Apollo at Delphi; the Romans, to the shrine of Isis at Philae. It was the duty of every Mussulman to visit Mecca at least once in his life; and during the middle Ages the goal of the Christian of Western Europe was Jerusalem. In the same period native shrines became popular. Pilgrims journeyed from England to Spain, France, and Ger

'Cf. "As you came from the holy land of Walsingham,

Met you not with my true love, by the way as you came? How should I know your true love, that have met many an one,

As I came from the holy land, that have come that have gone."

Deloney, Works, (ed. Mann, Oxford, 1912), 365.

Cf. also Chappell, Old Eng. Popul. Music, 1, 70ff.

"This tune,"

he writes, "is in Queen Elizabeth's and Lady Neville's Virginal Books (with thirty variations by Dr. John Bull.)"

Rymer mentions 916 licenses to make the pilgrimage to Santiago granted in 1428, and 2460 in 1434. Cutts, Scenes and Characters in the Middle Ages, 159 n.

many and worshippers of those countries visited the various shrines in England. Of the English shrines, the most famous were those of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury and Our Lady of Walsingham at Norfolk." With these popular shrines were associated a wealth of tradition and experience. And any song, however trivial, on pilgrimages to these places, had a broad connotation. It suggested at once phases of the social, economical, and literary history of England. It relates to Chaucer and Shakespeare and looks forward to Bunyan.

The purpose in this paper is to present the materials for a history of the Walsingham shrine. It is hoped this purpose can be realized by furnishing evidence as to the classes of people who made pilgrimages to Walsingham; their motives in going; their offerings and the results; and finally by giving a resumé of Walsingham in literature. The evidence is intended to indicate the social significance of the Canterbury and the Walsingham pilgrimages, and to supplement Erasmus's account of the shrine of Our Lady.

Founded in 1061 by the widow of Ricaldie de Faverches, dwelling in Walsingham Parva, the chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary, was endowed soon after the conquest by her son, Sir Geffrey de Faverches. He built the priory church, and gave the chapel of Our Lady all the ground within site of the church, eight acres of land with 20 s. rent per annum out of his manor, if the yearly value of the offerings of Our Lady did not exceed 5 marks.*

The fame of the image of Our Lady of Walsingham soon

Other English shrines were St. Cuthbert at Durham, St. William at York, little St. William at Norwich, St. Hugh at Lincoln, St. Edward the Confessor at Westminister, St. Erkinwold in the Cathedral of London, St. Wulstan at Worcester, St. Swithin at Winchester, St. Edmund at Bury, and Sts. Etheldreda and Withburga at Ely. (Heath, Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages, 238.)

'Parkin, History of the County of Norfolk, etc., IX, 274-5;

Cf. also Regist. Walsingh. in Bibl. Cotton fol 7, etc. in Musaeo. Cf. also Dugdale, Monasticon (Lond. 1825) VI, 71 ff.

became so great that there was a concourse of pilgrims from all parts of England and over the seas-"The number of her devotees and worshippers seemed to equal those of the Lady of Loretto in Italy, and the town of Walsingham Parva owed its chief support and maintenance thereto.' The chief road which these pilgrims travelled was by Newmarket, Brandon, and Fakenham, and this is still called the Palmers' Way. The pilgrims from the north passed through Lynn, where there is yet a pilgrims' chapel; thence on by the priories of Flitcham and Coxford. Another great road led from Yarmouth through Norwich and Attleborough, past the hospital of Bec, where thirteen beds for Walsingham pilgrims were ready every night. At South Acre, West Acre, Hillborough, Stonhoe, Caston, and other places as well as Lynn, special chapels were provided for the wayside devotions of the zealots who were wending their way to Walsingham."

There is substantial documentary evidence as to the visits of the great masses of people to the native English shrines. Typical examples of this evidence are found in calendars of wills, etc. For instance, in the will of Thomas Copyn, butcher, London, May 28, 1361, are these words: "Provision made for eight chaplains in the church of St. Botolphand for a pilgrim to travel on his behalf to the various shrines of St. Mary de Walsyngham, St. Edmund, St. Thomas the Martyr at Canterbury, and there to make offerings.

Likewise, the will of Hugh Peyntour, London, June 11, 1361, provides a "bequest of 20 s. to any one undertaking a

"Parkin, op. cit. IX, 279.

"The common people thought that the Milky Way pointed toward Walsingham, and they called it Walsingham Way. So, in Spain, the Milky Way is called the road to Santiago. The reason presumably is that these roads are as crowded with people as the Milky Way is with stars. (Skeat, Piers Plowman II, 9). (Cf. Also Parkin op. cit. IX, 280.)

'Hist. Norfolk, (ed. page) II, 399.

'Cal. Wills, Court of Hasting, (ed. R. R. Sharpe, London) Pt. II, p. 98

pilgrimage with naked feet to the church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and there offering at the high altar on his behalf one penny, at the tomb of St. Thomas, one penny-and also to any making a pilgrimage on his behalf with naked feet to St. Mary de Walsingham and there making certain offerings, 40 shillings. The statute of 1388 tells us that "no one was too poor or humble for the privilege" (of going on pilgrimages). That statute enacted that no servant or labourer, whether man or woman, should depart at the end of his term of service out of the hundred, rape, or wapentake where he was resident under colour of going on pilgrimage unless he had letters patent containing the cause of his going and the time of his return. 7910

Evidence for the visits of royalty and nobility to the shrine of Our Lady is, if not more abundant, at least more accessible, than that of the pilgrimages of the people at the other end of the social scale. Of the English ngs who visited the shrine and encouraged others to do so, there are Henry III (1241), Edward I (1280 and 1296), Edward II (1315). Edward III (1361) granted nine pounds towards the expenses of John, Duke of Brittany, for his expenses in this pilgrimage, and license of absence from London to his nephew, the Duke of Anjou, for a like reason. The same king in 1364, gave safe conduct to King David of Scotland and twenty knights to make a pilgrimage to Walsingham." In May, 1469, Edward IV and his queen made a pilgrimage to Walsingham, as recorded in a letter from James Hawte to Sir John Paston: "As for the king as I understand, he departs to Walsingham upon Friday, com şev' night, and the queen also, if God send her health. 12 Henry VII was at Walsingham in Easter 1487 and again in 1490.13 Henry VIII, according to Spelman, once walked barefoot from the town

'Ibid, Pt. II, 207.

10 J. Saunders, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, p. 11.

“Hist. Norfolk, (ed. Page) II, 394; Cf. Also Parkin, op. cit. IX, 279. "Heath, Pilgrim Life, etc., 237; Cf. Paston Letters.

13Flenley, Six Town Chronicles, p. 186.

of Barsham to the chapel of Our Lady and presented her with a necklace of very great value.

In 1470, John Paston wrote to his mother that the Duchess of Norfolk would visit Norwich on her way to Walsingham. In 1471, she and her husband visited the shrine on foot. In 1478 Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was one of the pilgrims to Walsingham.14 On May 9, 1511, Erasmus writes to Ammonius that he has made a vow for the success of the Church. He will make a pilgrimage to Walsingham and hang a Greek ode there. Whenever Ammonius goes to Walsingham, he is to inquire for the ode.15

On May 3, 1517, Sir Robt. Wingfield, writing to Henry VIII, begs the king will give him license to lay down his office, that he may visit Our Lady at Walsingham "where, by the leave of God, I would glad leave my beard which is now of so strange a color that I need none other arms or herald to show what favor I am worthy."

Though Cardinal Wolsey, like Erasmus, was active in exposing the corruption of the monasteries and thereby hastening their dissolution, in the first quarter of the 16th century Wolsey had, in good faith, made pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. In the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII there are many references to Wolsey's visit. On August 31, 1517, Sebastian Guistinian reported to the Council of Ten that he could not get an audience with Wolsey because he was on pilgrimage to fulfil a vow at a shrine (Walsingham).17 Another letter, on Sept. 12 of the same

"Heath, Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages, 237.

Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, I, 244.

16 L. and P. Hen. VIII, II, 1029. In a letter dated May 15, 1515, Sir Robert had mentioned causually that he had promised to leave his white beard to the Lady of Walsingham. Neglect of the beard, the hair of the head, and the finger nails was regarded by pilgrims as a mark of piety and humble mind. (Fosbrooke, British Monachism, etc., London, 1817, 425.)

"L. and P. Hen. VIII, II (2), 1154.