Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay
| Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay | |
|---|---|
Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay
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| Coordinates: 52°31′33″N 0°26′17″W / 52.52591°N 0.43797°W | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Churchmanship | Broad Church |
| History | |
| Dedication | St. Mary and All Saints |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed building |
| Architect(s) | William Horwode |
| Architectural type | Perpendicular Gothic |
| Groundbreaking | 1411 |
| Completed | 1434 |
| Construction cost | £300 (equivalent to £210,236 in 2015) |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Fotheringhay |
| Deanery | Oundle |
| Archdeaconry | Oakham |
| Diocese | Diocese of Peterborough |
| Province | Canterbury |
The Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay is a parish church in the Church of England in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. It is noted for containing a mausoleum to leading members of the Yorkist dynasty of the Wars of the Roses.
The work on the present church was begun by Edward III who also built a college as a cloister on the church's southern side. After completion in around 1430, a parish church of similar style was added to the western end of the collegiate church with work beginning in 1434. It is the parish church which still remains.
The large present church is named in honour of St Mary and All Saints, and has a distinctive tall tower dominating the local skyline. The church is Perpendicular in style and although only the nave, aisles and octagonal tower remain of the original building it is still in the best style of its period.
The church has been described by Simon Jenkins as
float[ing] on its hill above the River Nene, a galleon of Perpendicular on a sea of corn.
The chancel was pulled down after the college was dissolved in 1553 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland who was granted the college by King Edward VI. A grammar school was founded in its place which lasted until 1859.
Nearby Fotheringhay Castle was the principal home of two Dukes of York. Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 was buried in the church. He had earlier established a college for a master and twelve chaplains at the location. Edward's burial provided the basis for the later adoption of the church as a mausoleum to the Yorkist dynasty. In 1476 the church witnessed one of the most elaborate ceremonies of Edward IV's reign - the re-interment of the bodies of the king's father Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his younger brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, who had been buried in an humble tomb at Pontefract. Father and son fell at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.
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