Excising the Virgin Mary from the Civic Life of Tudor York

Abstract

HAVING BACKED THE WRONG SIDE in the concluding battle of the Wars of the Roses and lost their long time patron, Richard III, the Corporation went to extraordinary lengths to conciliate Henry VII on his first visit to York in the spring of 1486. After a grand reception at Micklegate Bar, during the royal progress to the Guildhall the authorities staged a series of pageants featuring Ebrauke, the mythical founder of the city, and two exemplary kings from the Old Testament, Solomon and David. The celebrations reached their climax in Stonegate with an appearance of none other than Our Lady. Because York had made her 'ther meane withoutin obieccion/ In hope of ther help to have it holy', Mary assured Henry I shall sew to my sone to send you his grace For this citie a place of my pleasing And have you no drede nor no dowting, Continuall heir in this reynyng. Then she ascended 'again into heaven with angel song' in a cloud 'of waffrons [wafers] in manner of snow'. The incident demonstrates how at the beginning of the Tudor period veneration of the Virgin seemed to be woven into the very fabric of the city's life, yet within a century outside the recusant community the special devotion had entirely vanished. This paper will attempt both to assess the strength of the cult and explore some of the forces responsible for its eradication.l York inhabitants had long been accustomed to seeing dramatic representations of the Virgin in their streets every year on Corpus Christi day. In addition to the New Testament scenes of the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Purification, the Flight into Egypt, Christ with the Doctors in the Temple, the Crucifixion, the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit in which Mary played a prominent part, between Pentecost and the Last Judgement the York Cycle contained three apocryphal Marian interludes based in part on the Golden Legend, The Death, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin.2 These three dramas portray Mary as a very human figure using her influence as his mother to persuade her Son to favour her adherents. The Death of the Virgin opens with Gabriel announcing that within three days Christ will summon her to paradise. Mary tells John the news, and the other disciples are miraculously transported to her bedside to witness her departure. Before she dies Mary beseeches Jesus to advance her kinsfolk, to protect all sea farers who call upon her in their hour of need, and