Chapel Royal

A Chapel Royal is, in both Canada and the United Kingdom (UK), an eccesiastical body of clergy, singers and vestry officers appointed to serve the spiritual needs of the country's reigning sovereign. In the UK, it is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household, formally known as the royal "Free Chapel of the Household". The household is further divided into two parts: an ecclesiastical household each for Scotland and England, belonging to the Church of Scotland and the Church of England respectively.

Canada

Two sanctuaries in Canada have the title of Chapel Royal, both having historic ties both to the Canadian Crown and to First Nations people and both in Ontario: Mohawk Chapel in Brantford and Christ Church Royal Chapel near Deseronto. The latter was designated as a Chapel Royal in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II and is under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ontario.

United Kingdom

History

In their early history, the English and Scottish Chapels Royal traveled, like the rest of the court, with the monarch and performed wherever he or she was residing at the time. The first records of the Scottish Chapel Royal date from the eleventh century.James IV of Scotland established a building for the Chapel Royal in Stirling Castle in 1501, which James VI commissioned William Schaw to rebuild in 1594. The Italianate building was used for the christening of James's son, Prince Henry.

Chapel Royal, Dublin

The Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle was the official Church of Ireland chapel of the Household of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1814 until the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The creation of the new Irish state terminated the office of Lord Lieutenant and British government control in Ireland.

Construction

Designed by Francis Johnston (1760–1829), the foremost architect working in Ireland in the early 19th century, and architect to the Board of Works, the chapel contains one of the finest Gothic revival interiors in Ireland. Replacing an earlier undistinguished 18th century church that suffered structural problems through being built on soft ground close to the site of the original castle moat, the new Chapel Royal was built using a timber frame to make it as light as possible. Indeed so difficult was the nature of the site that the chapel took seven years to build, though a contributory factor in both time and budget was the "sheer opulence" of its interior.

St James's Palace

St James's Palace is the official residence of the sovereign and the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, although no longer the principal residence of the monarch, it is the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council and the London residence of several members of the royal family.

Built by Henry VIII on the site of a leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less, the palace was secondary in importance to the Palace of Whitehall for most Tudor and Stuart monarchs. The palace increased in importance during the reigns of the early Georgian monarchy, but was displaced by Buckingham Palace in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. After decades of being used increasingly for only formal occasions, the move was formalised by Queen Victoria in 1837. Today the palace houses a number of official offices, societies and collections and all ambassadors and high commissioners to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the Court of St James's.