Bishop of London William Warham, Fulham Palace portrait, copy of an original by the master Holbein
Every month we feature two blogs written by volunteers, one describes an object in the Palace and one a plant from the Garden. It is a great way to learn more about the Palace. If you would like to contribute there is no set format so please do send in your ideas.
This April we are grateful to Esther Dean, sewing bee volunteer.
This is going to be a double object, as the first inspired the second. When I started volunteering at Fulham Palace back in the 1990s the museum had not long opened and there were very few rooms open to the public, and nothing like the number of objects that it has now. This meant that when schools came we had to be very inventive to make their visit really exciting and informative.
We did not then have the collection of portraits of the Bishops that now adorn the walls of the Palace. However one of the prize exhibits was the portrait of Bishop Warham, a copy of an original by the master Holbein. William Warham was Bishop of London from 1501 to 1504 when he was translated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. He must have been at Fulham Palace at a very exciting time in its history, when it was a newly built, state of the art brick building. He was instrumental in arranging the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII. After that short lived marriage, following Arthur’s untimely death, it is said that Catherine spent some time, prior to her marriage to Henry VIII at Fulham Palace. Warham later represented Catherine in the divorce proceedings with Henry, featured recently in the Hilary Mantel novel Wolf Hall. The portrait can now be seen in the Porteus Library.
The sewing bee with the brand new costumes for the education department including the Bishop Warham costume in the centre
Fulham Palace costumes of Bishop Warham, Elizabeth I and Bishop Bancroft, made for educational use by the specialist company Past Pleasures
Before all the restoration works, the Education Department was building up its very extensive and popular costume collection, used for role play in school sessions, relating to the history of the Palace and its Bishops. Having the portrait of Warham, and his connection with Catherine of Aragon, it was decided to make a special reproduction of his costume in child size for use in these school sessions. We managed to raise some money, researched, worked out the design, chose the fabrics and had the costume made by Past Pleasures, a group specialising in exact reproductions of period costumes.
Needlework
There was great excitement when the outfit arrived together with costumes for Elizabeth I and Bishop Bancroft at the Palace, and we enjoyed working out how to put them on correctly. Warham’s costume represents the Catholic Bishops prior to the Reformation with a bright red cassock. Bancroft reflects the Protestant Reformation in sober black and white.
Since its arrival the costume has been very well used in various ways: in school sessions reflecting the history of the Palace and Catherine’s possible sojourn there, in displays showing the collection to the public and also in our very popular dressing up sessions during the Family Fun Days.
Close up Bishop Warham costume detail
If you catch a fleeting glimpse of a Bishop gracing the old rooms of the Palace have you seen a ghost? More likely a child playing the part of one of our bishops!
Esther Dean
April 2020
Thank you to Esther for this wonderful blog about not one but two objects at the Palace! Please send your ideas for object or specimen of the month blogs to rachel.bagnall-bray@fulhampalace.org. If you would like some help, please let me know.