Chapels Royal - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The Chapel Royal is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household of the monarch formally known as the royal Free Chapel of the Household. The household is further divided into two parts: an ecclesiastical household each for England and Scotland, belonging to the Church of Scotland and the Church of England, respectively. According to the 2011 Church of England Yearbook, the Chapel Royal is the body of clergy, singers and vestry officers appointed to serve the spiritual needs of the Sovereign.

Emerging as a distinct body in the late 13th century— dating from 1483 as presently constituted, and first establishing the office of Dean of the Chapel Royal in 1312— the Chapel Royal formerly had no official base, but travelled, like the rest of the court, with the monarch and held services wherever he or she was residing at the time, until James VI commissioned William Schaw to build a new Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle in 1594. The Italianate building was used for the christening of James's son, Prince Henry. In the 17th century the chapel had its own building in Whitehall, which burned down in 1698; since 1702 it has been based at St James's Palace.

The chapel's choir, known as the Children of the Chapel Royal, achieved its greatest eminence during the reign of Elizabeth I, when William Byrd and Thomas Tallis were joint organists. The Master of the Children had, until at least 1684, the power to "press-gang" promising boy trebles from provincial choirs for service in the chapel; until 1626 the boy choristers also acted in productions of plays at court. Because women could not perform in public, 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 band; at various times the chapel has also employed composers, lutenists and viol players.

The Chapel Royal refers not to a building but to an establishment in the Royal Household; a body of priests and singers to explicitly serve the spiritual needs of the sovereign. The term is also, however, applied to those buildings used as chapels by the priests and singers of the Chapel Royal for the performance of their duties. The two currently regularly used British Chapels Royal are located in St. James's Palace in London: the Chapel Royal and the Queen's Chapel. Since such establishments are outside the usual diocesan structure, they are classified as royal peculiars. Both Scotland and England have distinct Deans of the Chapel Royal, that of England being held since 1748 by the sitting Bishop of London, while daily control is vested in the Sub-Dean, presently the Rev'd Prebendary William S. Scott, who is also Domestic Chaplain to the sovereign at Buckingham Palace.

The Chapels Royal are served by a choir, six Gentlemen-in-Ordinary and ten Children of the Chapel— all boys— and by a small number of Priests-in-Ordinary and Deputy Priests-in-Ordinary, appointed to assist the Sub-Dean on an occasional basis. The current organist, choirmaster, and composer of the British Chapel Royal is Andrew Gant, who is assisted by a sub organist.

The Chapel Royal conducts the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and combines with the choir of the host abbey or cathedral on Royal Maundy.

The Chapel Royal occupies a number of buildings. The main chapel, known as the Chapel Royal, was built circa 1540 and altered since, most notably by Sir Robert Smirke in 1837, and is located in the main block of St. James's Palace. The large window to the right of the palace gatehouse illuminates this room, which has been used regularly since 1702, and is the most commonly used facility today. Once also part of the St. James's Palace compound, the Queen's Chapel was built between 1623 and 1625 as a Roman Catholic chapel, at a time when the construction of Catholic churches was prohibited in England, for Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. After the adjacent apartments burnt down in 1809 they were not replaced, and in 1856-57 Marlborough Road was built between the palace and the chapel.

At the daughter Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace a Choral Foundation was registered as a charity in 2011 with an appeal for funds 'to preserve its historic tradition of sacred music from Tudor times to the twenty-first century at the present high standard of excellence.' The aim is to raise £1 million to provide bursaries for Choristers to help them with the cost of instrumental or vocal tuition; to encourage schools near Hampton Court Palace to promote choral music and organ music with the help of the Chapel Royal; and to make the musical establishment of the Chapel Royal financially independent of the Privy Purse Charitable Trust and of the income from collections at services in the Chapel Royal.

There are addition Chapels Royal in the Chapels of St. John the Evangelist and St. Peter ad Vincula, both in the Tower of London. All are cared for by their own chaplains and choirs.

Brighton was home to a former Chapel Royal which, until 2010, was a chapel of ease to the city's parish church, the Church of St. Peter; it is now a parish church in its own right. Another one existed at Dublin Castle prior to Ireland's adoption of a republican status.

Although not a Chapel Royal, other royal chapels include the Royal Chapel of St Katherine-upon-the-Hoe within the Royal Citadel, Plymouth.