Waterford, Henry 11 and Thomas a Beckett
Waterford, Henry 11 and Thomas a Beckett
Waterford estuary was the arrival and departure point on many significant occasions in Irish history. It was here at Crooke, near Passage East, on St Bartholomew’s Eve, 23 August 1170, that Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, better known to us as Strongbow, arrived to initiate the Norman invasion. Later that same year something happened in the English county of Kent that is not normally seen as relevant to Irish history. On a bitterly cold 30 December, Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was brutally murdered in his own cathedral by three knights acting, so they assumed, on behalf of King Henry II, then ruler of England, Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Aquitaine and much of Wales. Thomas had been the king’s closest friend but had infuriated Henry on becoming archbishop by, among other things, refusing to hand over to the crown for punishment churchmen accused of sexually assaulting and murdering subjects. When he became archbishop, Thomas was expected to abolish this canon law practice but he refused. According to tradition, a hot-headed and exasperated Henry had declaimed after perhaps too much wine, ‘Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?’ and the three loyal knights left France immediately for England.
Pope Alexander III demanded that the knights atone for this sacrilegious atrocity by making pilgrimage to Rome or Santiago de Compostela. Jerusalem was not an option, as it was then under Muslim control. In the following year, at the Council of Argentan in July, Henry was relieved of making a penitential crusade to the Holy Land until he had secured control of Ireland. Ireland had its own troublesome priests and Rome was anxious to bring them into line. Henry was in no hurry to return to London either. Pilgrims were already thronging to Canterbury in huge numbers, attracted by the miracles being attributed to Thomas the Martyr. Henry’s head was being called for and his crown was in peril.
On 17 October 1171 the bows of Henry’s 400 ships crunched up onto the safe sandy beaches at Crooke and Passage East. The ships are said to have carried 500 knights, 4,000 men-at-arms and archers, and thousands of horses. On the following day, the feast of St Luke, Henry II advanced on Waterford and set about bringing the Normans, the Irish and the remaining Norsemen into submission to the crown of England. Before leaving for Dublin he founded a church dedicated to St Thomas the Martyr outside the walls of Waterford. The church no longer exists but Thomas Hill still leads towards the site from O’Connell Street in the city centre.
In the following year, 1172, at Avranches, Henry was given absolution for his part in the murder of Thomas à Becket, but his penance was to provide for the maintenance of 200 Knights Templar in the Holy Land and to undertake a crusade, either to the Holy Land or to Compostela. Fearing that his avaricious sons (especially the future kings Richard and John) would usurp his crown while abroad and knowing that funding 200 knights would bankrupt the kingdom, Henry instead offered strategically important tracts of lands in Waterford to the Knights Templar, including control of the lucrative ferry rights between Passage East and Ballyhack in County Wexford. In return, they were to provide sanctuary and protection to travellers, especially pilgrims. The present Ballyhack Castle was built by the Knights Hospitaller around 1450 and is said to have replaced a much earlier Templar preceptory where pilgrims could have claimed shelter.
Locating St. Thomas Church
Recently I set about locating the church—or, more realistically, the site of the church—that Henry II was said to have founded in Waterford City in atonement for his part in the murder of Thomas à Becket, his former close friend before he appointed him archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 (see ‘Reclaiming an Irish “Way of St James”’, HI 24.3, May/June 2016, pp 16–19). The literature was promising. Ryland (1824) proposed that
‘The Church of St Thomas, situated on a hill bearing that name, is supposed to have been erected by King Henry II or his son John, and dedicated to the memory of Thomas à Becket as a testimony of regret for the murder of that prelate. Part of the entrance still remains and exhibits a beautiful specimen of Saxon architecture.’
The Topographical dictionary of Ireland (1837) similarly claimed that
‘Of the old parish churches, the only one that remains is that of St Thomas, supposed to have been erected by Henry II, or by his son and successor King John, and which was dedicated to St Thomas à Becket: part of the entrance is still entire, and displays a beautiful specimen of Norman architecture.’
So I began my physical search in Thomas Street and Thomas Hill, both streets leading up towards Ballybricken from O’Connell Street in Waterford City. Some of the residents I spoke to were intrigued by a possible local connection to Thomas à Becket but nobody remembered a church. I asked to see the oldest map of the city in Waterford Library, and ‘St Thomass Chapel’ is clearly shown on Richard’s scale map of city and suburbs (1764). This did not identify where exactly the site is in present-day Waterford, but the 1871 Ordnance Survey map shows the site on Thomas Hill and describes it as ‘Thomas’ Grave Yard’ and ‘Church (Remains of)’. The 1926 Ordnance Survey map brought me to the exact location: a car park, with nothing remaining of the church or graveyard.
I took my question (‘What happened to the remains of the church and the graveyard?’) to Bernadette Guest, Heritage Officer with Waterford City and County. Her answer was a survey that Kilkenny Archaeology had conducted on Waterford City historic burial grounds in 2015. It concluded that
‘No evidence for the original boundary walls remains above ground, apart from one possible fragment of stone wall in the south of the site … The conservation of the site remains—skeletons, coffins, burial vaults, funerary monuments—of the medieval and post-medieval graveyard of St Thomas’s remains a challenge given that it has been largely built over … All development proposals for the site should be the subject of archaeological assessment.’
The survey cites Ian Lumley (1978) for information on when and how the graveyard and the remains of the church were destroyed. With great sadness and anger he wrote that
‘Its history has been a subject of confusion but the chancel arch which was the only surviving feature was of undoubted 12th century, and probably early Anglo-Norman, date. It was round arched with simple mouldings and bulbous capitals. As the stones have been destroyed it is impossible to comment on it more precisely … This wreckage was done in 1967 by the owners of the site, as what can only be described as an act of vandalism … For ten years nothing was done with the bulldozed site until it was sold and serves as a public car park.’
Perhaps the greatest act of historical vandalism in Waterford’s history was the demolition in 1773 of its early medieval cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, on the grounds that it was unsafe. Ryland (1824) contends that ‘there is some reason to doubt the correctness of this opinion, not only from the acknowledged strength of all the ancient churches, but also from the extreme difficulty which the workmen experienced in effecting its demolition’. I believe that some stones from the original cathedral that were carted away have been found and may be returned to and welcomed by the present cathedral.
Would it be too much to hope that the cut stones from the chancel arch of the Church of St Thomas were also safely squirrelled away in 1967 and could also find their way back to the site? What is certainly possible is that an information sign or plaque should be erected that would restore the name and memory of Thomas à Becket to Waterford City.
Damien McLellan is a consultant psychotherapist and also teaches in Carlow College.
FURTHER READING
I.W.J. Lumley, ‘Vanishing Waterford (a record of recent destruction and present threat)’, Decies 9 (1978), 3–14.
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In Colm Long's book 'Random Waterford History', there is an interesting piece on the 31st of October.
St Thomas Church which stood at Thomas Hill in the city since 1210 AD and dedicated to Thomas A Becket was demolished in 1967. A letter to the editors of the local newspapers read,
October 31st 1967
Dear Sirs,
A bulldozer last week demolished the old gable wall of the Church of St Thomas which stood until last week at Thomas Hill. The surrounding cemetery and tombstones were also completely obliterated. Alas as no trace now remains of the ancient church founded in 1210 and dedicated to the memory of Thomas A Becket.
What would our tourists prefer to see, a square court of a gable of a church 750 years old. Surely Ballintubber Abbey provides the answer. Where were the Waterford Corporation, An Taisce, Junior Chamber of Commerce, Old Waterford Society.
It's to late now - it's gone
Yours faithfully
Parva Roma
NOTE: The Church of St Thomas was reputed to be the oldest in Waterford.
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Link to full film ‘Beckett’ (1964)
Becket 1964 Full Movie Richard Burton Peter O'Toole Donald Wolfit Directed by Peter Glenville
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Rices tomb Christ Church Cathedral Waterford
http://www.megalithicireland.com/Christ%20Church%20Cathedral,%20Waterford.html
Go to Christ Church Cathedral to see the remarkable tomb of James Rice (d.1482). The effigy depicts him as a decomposing cadaver, complete with burrowing creature eating away at his innards.
One of the most fascinating things to see in the Cathedral is the cadaver tomb of James Rice, a successful merchant and mayor of Waterford for eleven times.
He was extremely religious and went on pilgrimage to Spain twice, he bestowed most of his property to the Church.The same tomb is the resting place of his wife Catherine Broun.
His tomb was prepared in 1482 and was housed in a chapel annexed to the medieval cathedral, prior to James Rice's pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It is one of the finest cadaver tombs in Ireland. It shows James's body in decomposition, with ribs exposed and critters eating his flesh. Unlike other cadaver tombs that I had seen in the past, this one doesn't show any inner organ.
A shroud, knotted at the top, is laid under his body and folded on his left leg.
His right arm is missing below his elbow down.
Cadaver tombs had the aim of reminding other people about the fact that nobody escapes death.
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