St Mary Magdalene's Church is in the village of Battlefield, Shropshire, England, dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene. It was built on the site of the 1403 Battle of Shrewsbury between Henry IV and Henry "Hotspur" Percy, and was originally intended as a chantry, a place of intercession and commemoration for those killed in the fighting. It is probably built over a mass burial pit. It was originally a collegiate church staffed by a small community of chaplains whose main duty was to perform a daily liturgy for the dead. Roger Ive, the local parish priest, is generally regarded as the founder, although the church received considerable support and endowment from Henry IV.
After the dissolution of the college and chantry in 1548, the building was used as the local parish church and it underwent serious decay, punctuated by attempts at rebuilding from the mid-18th century. A restoration in Victorian times was controversial in intention, scope and detail, although many original features remain. Today it is a redundant Anglican church. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
Foundation
The founders In a grant of 27 May 1410 Henry IV portrayed himself as founder of the memorial chapel and chantry at Battlefield, granting land other endowments to Roger Ive, the Rector of Albright Hussey for this purpose. Henry's version of events was long taken at face value, despite available evidence in his own letters patent that clearly contradicted it. In a 1792 contribution to The Gentleman's Magazine, David Parkes described Battlefield church as originally "a collegiate church of secular canons, built undoubtedly by order of the king." Richard Brooke, writing about the field of battle in 1857, explained In gratitude for, and in commemoration of, this victory, Henry the Fourth erected on the spot Battlefield Church; and from the circumstance of the battle having been fought on St Mary Magdalen's eve, he, in compliance with the prevalent opinions of the age, and probably also from his considering himself in some degree indebted to her for the victory, caused the church to be dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen.Brooke, p. 9. However, a Georgian historian of Shropshire, John Brickdale Blakeway, had long before disentangled the course of the foundation,Blakeway, pp. 321–3. making clear that the initiative was local, coming from Roger Ive, the parish rector, and Richard Hussey, the lord of the manor. Blakeway's notes were not published until 1889, more than 60 years after his death, so W. G. D. Fletcher, an important Victorian antiquarian, was sometimes credited with discovering Roger Ive's claim to be the true founder.Cranage, p. 171.
The true moment of foundation had already passed almost four years earlier than Henry IV's grant of 1410. On 28 October 1406 Henry had himself given a licence to Richard Hussey, the lord of the manor of Albright Hussey, to make a grant of two acres of land in Hateley Field to Roger Ive.Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1405–1408, p. 263. The land was to be held in frankalmoin, free of military and other secular services. Its initial purpose was specified as providing a site for a chantry chapel to sing masses for the souls of the king himself, his ancestors, and those killed in the battle. The foundation of the church was almost certainly on the suggestion of Roger Ive, with Hussey apparently entirely responsive and willing to donate the site.
Roger Ive is described as "of Leaton" and this is likely to be the village a short distance to the west of Albright Hussey (now Albrighton): there is another Leaton to the east of Shrewsbury. He was presented to the rectory of Albright Hussey by Richard Hussey on 22 October 1398.Eyton, volume 10, p. 86.Fletcher, p. 78. On 8 January 1399 he was presented to the rectory of nearby Fitz, where Haughmond Abbey, a nearby Augustinian house, held the advowson.Eyton, volume 10, p. 153-4. Although a pluralist, Ive held two fairly poor benefices. Albright Hussey had once been divided between two important Shrewsbury churches, St Alkmund's and St Mary's, and there were still pensions and other outgoings to both St Mary's and Lilleshall Abbey, which had superseded the college of St Alkmund's.Eyton, volume 10, p. 84-5. Haughmond Abbey also took a cut at Fitz, where it had wrested control from St Mary's in 1256 after trial by combat.Eyton, volume 10, p. 152. In 1535, when Albright Hussey had been effectively absorbed into Battlefield chapel, it brought in only 20 shillings per year. Ive was clearly a strong and forceful personality who dominated developments at Battlefield until his retirement in 1447.Gaydon, Pugh (eds.). Colleges of secular canons: Battlefield, St Mary Magdalen, note anchor 14.
Richard Hussey was a member of the Shropshire landed gentry, a middling landowner, although not a nobleman. The extent and limits of his wealth were displayed in January 1415 when he granted "to Roger Yve clerk, Richard Colfex clerk, and William Sumpnour clerk, all my lands and tenements, rents and services, with their appurtenances, which I have in the towns of Adbryghton Husee, Harlascote, Salop, and Monkeforyate, within the county of Salop, together with the advowsons of the chapel of Adbrighton husee and of the chantry of blessed Mary Magdalene of the Batelfeld, and of Penkeriche within the county of Stafford: To have and to hold all the lands and tenements aforesaid, rents and services, with their appurtenances, together with the Advowsons aforesaid, to the aforesaid Roger, Richard and William, of the chief lords of those fees, their heirs and assigns, by the services thence due and of right accustomed, for ever."Fletcher, pp. 194–5. Fletcher, who gives the text of the document, points out that it was not intended to donate this property to the chaplains of Battlefield chapel, who never owned it. Rather it was part of a fresh settlement of the property. A grant to feoffees could both aid in tax avoidance and give the donor considerably greater freedom in disposing of his property. There is some ambiguity about whether the document was issued at Albright Hussey or Penkridge (Penkeriche) in neighbouring Staffordshire. During the late 12th century the Hussey family had held a large estate at Penkridge and were apparently recognised as lords of the manor.Midgeley (ed.).Penkridge: Manors A minority and the resulting wardship allowed King John to exert pressure on Hugh Hose or Hussey to transfer the estate and the important Collegiate Church of St Michael and All Angels to Henry de Loundres, recently consecrated Archbishop of Dublin in 1215. Rotuli Chartarum, p. 218. Thereafter the Archbishops always held the deanery of the church, which belonged to the Crown,Midgeley (ed.).Penkridge: Churches, note anchor 155 despite Hussey's claim to the advowson. However, this assertion of a shadowy "intermediate lordship" in Penkridge seems to have been a family strategy for about three centuries.Midgeley (ed.).Penkridge: Manors, note anchor 135-7 Richard Hussey was presumably asserting the prestige of a family that had once been considerably more notable.
Henry IV's contribution
Although the 1406 grant asserts that Hateley Field was the scene of the battle between and the king and Henry Percy, Philip Morgan, in a 600th-anniversary lecture, reminds us that "the battle had been fought across the open fields of three adjacent townships which also lay within at least two parishes of the nearby town."Morgan, p. 2. The Victoria County History volume describes what followed the foundation as a series of "negotiations, 1406-10, between Ive, Hussey, and the Crown."Gaydon, Pugh (eds.). Colleges of secular canons: Battlefield, St Mary Magdalen, note anchor 6. Morgan, in his classification of medieval memorial chapels, assigns Battlefield to those founded by "private speculators."Morgan, p. 3. The negotiations seem to have drawn the king into a closer partnership. On 17 March 1409, in his capacity as Duke of Lancaster, Henry IV incorporated the chapel as a perpetual chantry, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, with eight chaplains, one of whom was to be Master. He also signalled his intention to grant it the advowson of St Michael's Church, St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire.Fletcher, p. 181.Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1408–1413, p. 59. This promise was implemented by letters patent under the seal of the Duchy of Lancaster on 28 May 1409.Fletcher, pp. 182–3. The chapel was allowed not only to present the priest but to appropriate the tithes of Michaellskirke. The king had implied that the chapel was already built but this cannot have been entirely true, as he ordered the lead for the roof from the duchy's receiver at Tutbury Castle only in August of that year.Fletcher, pp. 184–5.
Royal re-foundation In the following year, the status and constitution of the chapel were changed. Ive had surrendered the land to the king, probably late in 1409, as Fletcher writes, "for some reason that does not appear."Fletcher, p. 185. Morgan points out that kings had an obvious motive to "assimilate a monument which might act as a focus for opposition to an official programme of memorialisation."Morgan, p. 4. It suited Ive, Hussey and the king alike that the new foundation should appear to be a royal initiative. Blakeway, comments: Upon the face of this' transaction, it rather looks as if Henry at first wished to give it the air of a tribute of loyal affection to his person and title from one of his zealous subjects; and considering the way in which he came by the crown, it was not unimportant for him to give it this appearance. At least I cannot otherwise account for this needlessly circuitous mode of conveyance. Why he found it afterwards expedient to proceed in a more direct course, and become himself the immediate founder, does not appear.Blakeway, p. 323.
On 7 February 1410, the king commissioned Sir William Walford to take possession of the site on his behalf.Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1408–1413, p. 173-4. The document gives a detailed description of the site and nearby property of the chapel and mysteriously describes it as having only six chaplains, together with Roger Ive as Master or Warden. It also includes Richard Hussey and his wife Isolda among those whose souls were to benefit from the masses offered. On 27 May 1410 the chapel was re-founded by a royal charter.Calendar of Charter Rolls, 1341–1417, p. 443. This established a community of five chaplains and a master to pray daily for the souls of the king, Richard Hussey and his wife, and for those killed in the battle. Ives and his successors as rector were to hold this post. The advowsons of St Michael's chapel in Shrewsbury Castle and its dependent chapel, St Julian's Church in Shrewsbury, and of St Andrew's Church in Shifnal were added to the endowments and Battlefield chapel was allowed to appropriate the tithes of all of them.Fletcher, pp. 187–9. It was also allowed to hold a fair on the patronal feast, 22 July, each year.Fletcher, p. 190. The warden was to be free of all taxes and impositions, even those agreed by the clergy.
Papal confirmation Ives wrote to obtain papal confirmation of the foundation. This came from John XXIII, a nominee of the Council of Pisa during the Western Schism, and so later condemned as an antipope. John's bull of 30 October 1410 was the first document explicitly to describe the Battlefield church as a college of priests: "a certain college which was called a perpetual chantry."Fletcher, p. 191. The document rehearsed the history of the foundation, the property boundaries and the endowments, confirming all of the king's grants, with the exception of the fair.Lateran Regesta 147: 3 Kal. November 1410, Castel San Pietro, near Bologna. (f. 250.)
Dedication