SAVOY PALACE AND HOSPITAL, STRAND. On the spot still called the Savoy, but now partly occupied by the northern approach to Waterloo Bridge, and the buildings of Lancaster Place, a noble Palace was erected about the year 1245, by Peter, Earl of Savoy, who was then on a visit to his niece, Eleanor, Queen of Henry the Third. That nobleman bestowed it on the Fraternity of Mountjoy, from whom it was purchased by the Queen, who by letters patent, dated the 24th of January, in the 12th year of Edward the First, bestowed it on her second son, Edmund, afterwards Earl of Lancaster, and his heirs. From Edmund it descended to his son Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, on whose decapitation, in the reign of Edward the Second, it devolved on his brother Henry, who repaired, and almost re-built the Palace, at an expense of 52,000 marks. His son, Henry, succeeded to the estates, and was created first Duke of Lancaster in the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third. After his decease, in 1351, this demesne came to his two daughters, Matilda and Blanch, as co-heirs; the latter married John of Gaunt, Earl of Richmond, afterwards created Duke of Lancaster, who, in right. of his wife, her sister dying without issue, became entitled to the whole. In the year 1357, John, King of France, who had been taken prisoner by Edward the Black Prince, at Cressy, was confined in the palace of the Savoy ; "and thyder," says Froissart, came to se hym the kyng and the quene often tymes, and made hym gret 66 feest and cheere;" in this palace he also breathed his last in 1363, being then in England on a visit. In 1377, the Savoy Palace was attacked by the Londoners, in consequence of John of Gaunt, then Duke of Lancaster, upholding the tenets of the reformer Wickliff; and it was not until the Bishop of London exerted his influence, that the populace withdrew. This magnificent building, however, was not destined to stand many years longer, for in the insurrection of 1381, it was attacked by the insurgents under Wat Tyler, and burnt to the ground; the furniture, as well as the plate, which it is said exceeded in splendour that of any monarch in Christendom, was all destroyed, and the Duke and his family were obliged to fly with the utmost precipitation into Scotland. "The comons brent the Sauoye a place fayre, In Englande then, to who he durste make moane; Hardyng's Chronicle. The following, among other particulars of this event, are related by Stow : "The Commons of Surrey shortly got all the poore Citizens to conspire with them; and the same day, after the sunne was got on some height that it waxed warme, and that they had tasted at their pleasures of diuers Wines, whereby they were become as madde, as drunken, (for the rich Citizens had set open their sellers to enter at their pleasure) they began to talke of many things, amongst the which they exhorted each other, that going to the Savoy, the Duke of Lancaster's house, to the which there was none in the Realme to be compared in beauty and statelinesse, they mought set fire on it, and burne it; this talke pleasing the Commons of the Citie, they straight ranne thither, and setting fire on it round about, applied their travaile to destroy that place; and that it mought appeare to the communalty of the realme, that they did not any thing for couetise, they caused Proclamation to be made, that none, on paine to lose his head, should presume to conuert to his owne use any thing that there was, or mought be found, but that they should breake such plate and vessell of gold and siluer, as were in that house in great plenty, into small peeces, and throw the same into the Thames, or into some priuies; clothes of gold, silver, silke and velvet they should teare; rings and Jewels set with precious stones, they should bruse in mortars, that the same mought be of no use, &c. And so was it done. Henry Knighton writeth, that when the rebelles brent the Sauoy, one of them (contrary to the Proclamation) tooke a goodly silver peece and hid it in his bosome, but an other that espied him, tolde his fellowes, who forthwith huried him and the peece of plate into the fire, saying, we be zealous of truth and iustice, and not theeues, or robbers. To the number of two and thirtie of these rebels entred a seller of the Sauoy, where they dranke so much of sweet Wines, that they were not able to come out in time, but were shut in with wood and stones, that mured up the doore, where they were heard crying and calling seuen daies after, but none came to helpe them out till they were dead."* *Stow's "Chronicle," p. 456: edit. 1600. This writer, also, in his "Survey of London," says that the insurgents After that event, the Savoy continued a heap of ruins for upwards of a century, when Henry the Seventh began here the foundation of an Hospital for the poor; of which he speaks thus particularly in his last will, dated at Canterbury on the 10th April, 1809. "And for as much as we inwardly consider that the seven works of Charity and Mercy be most profitable, due, and necessary, for the salvation of man's soul, and that the same seven works stand most commonly in six of them, that is to say, in visiting the sick, ministering meat, and drink and clothing to the needy, lodging of the miserable poor, and burying of the dead bodies of Christian people; we, therefore, greatly tendering the same, and considering that the next way to do and execute the said six works of Pity and Mercy is by means of keeping, sustaining, and maintaining of common Hospitals where if they be duly kept, the said needy poor people be lodged, &c.—and understanding that for lack of such common Hospitals, infinite number, of poor needy people miserably daily die, no man putting hand of help as remedy, we therefore of our great pity and compassion desiring inwardly the remedy of the premises, have began to erect, build, and establish a common Hospital, in our place called the Savoy, beside Charingcross, nigh to our City of London, and the same we intend with God's grace to finish, after the manner, form, and fashion of a plat which is devised for the same, and "found there certaine barrels of Gunpowder, which they thought had been gold or silver, and throwing them into the fire, more suddenly than thought the hall was blowne up, the houses destroyed, and themselves very hardly escaped away." Vide p. 831: edit. 1618. signed with our hand, and have endowed with lands and tenements to the yearly value of 500 marks, above all reprises, to bear, maintain, and sustain therewith, as well one hundred beds garnished, to receive and lodge nightly one hundred poor folks, as also a certain number of priests; and other ministers and servitors, men and women, as such a matter shall require."* Henry further states, that for the building of the Hospital, providing the beds, and furnishing the Chapel of the same, that he had delivered 'before the hand,' 10,000 marks to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, to be employed for those purposes. Soon afterwards, the King died, and his successor, Henry the Eighth, on the 3rd of April, in his second year, by letters patent under the Seal of the Duchy of Lancaster, empowered the Bishop of Winchester and London, and others, his father's Executors, to proceed with and establish the Hospital. As the buildings were on an extensive scale, it required several years to complete them, but they were at length finished, and the King, in his 15th year, signed the statutes which had been devised for the government of this foundation.. 'There was a great diversity in the fortunes of the Savoy Hospital. In the 37th of Henry VIII., it was vested in the crown. In June 1553, it was surrendered by the master and four chaplains to Edward the Sixth, who bestowed its bedding, and part of its revenues, on * Vide Astle's "Will of King Henry VIII." p. 15: in the above extract the spelling is modernized, |