page_title: Our Lady of Westminster
section_title: Westminster Abbey and the "Dowry of Mary"
hierarchical_section_title: Our Lady of Westminster / Westminster Abbey and the "Dowry of Mary"
caption_attribution_description: English: Our Lady of Westminster, Westminster Cathedral, London
context_page_description: Our Lady of Westminster is a late late medieval statue of the Madonna and child, now placed at the entrance of the Lady Chapel in Westminster Cathedral, London, under the thirteenth Station of the Cross. The image is an English alabaster, flat backed, 36 inches high, and depicts the Virgin Mary enthroned with the Christ child on her right knee. Mary is crowned and holds a sceptre in her left hand, the Christ child looks up at her and holds a globe with one hand, whilst with the other he blesses it. The statue is one of the greatest treasures of the cathedral, and the oldest item housed in the 19th-century foundation.
  Most experts in the field agree that the image was carved in the Nottingham area in about 1450 from alabaster mined at nearby Chellaston, but the intervening 500 years until 1954, when the statue was found and bought in Paris by the dealer S. W. Wolsey, are a blank.
  The name Our Lady of Westminster might also refer to other traditions and devotions relating to the much older Westminster Abbey nearby.
context_section_description: The first evidence of the title "Dowry of Mary" comes from the will of the Countess of Pembroke who in 1377 established a mortuary chapel so that daily Masses could be sung for her husband, next to the Chapel of St John in Westminster Abbey, and presented the Abbot of Westminster with an alabaster statue of the Virgin Mary. Soon after this the cultus of Mary in Westminster received royal impetus through Richard II. 
  Jean Froissart gives a vivid description of the manner in which the young King Richard II of England, during the 1381 Peasants' Revolt,  prepared to meet the rebels, led by Wat Tyler, at Smithfield: "Richard II on the Saturday after Corpus Christi went to Westminster, where he heard Mass at the Abbey with all his Lords. He made his devotions at a statue of Our Lady in a little chapel that had witnessed many miracles and where much grace had been gained, so that the Kings of England have much faith in it."
  Another chronicler, Strype, described the event thus:"On the coming of the rebels and Wat Tyler, the same King went to Westminster . . . confessed himself to an anchorite; then took himself to the chapel of Our Lady of Pew; there he said his devotions, and went to Smithfield to meet the rebels."
  The outcome of the meeting was favourable with Wat Tyler throwing down his arms and taking up the King's colours. Naturally the King and Court regarded this as a miracle wrought by the Holy Virgin, and therefore set about encouraging her veneration at Westminster. After his success in quelling the rebels, and their acceptance of the standard of the realm, Richard returned to meet his mother at Westminster and to give thanks. Froissart records the young King's words as follows: "Yes, Madam . . . rejoice and praise God, for today I have regained my kingdom which I had lost." And he placed the Kingdom under Our Lady's protection - in thanksgiving for having regained it.
  It is Richard who refurbished the Chapel of Our Lady of Pew in the abbey, and commissioned the Wilton Diptych which shows him placing himself and England (signified by the banner with a George Cross and a miniature representation of England) under the Virgin Mary's protection. Furthermore, at the special desire of the king, this mandate was issued at Lambeth on 10 February 1399 and reads as follows: "The contemplation of the great mystery of the Incarnation has brought all Christian nations to venerate her from whom came the beginnings of redemption. But we, as the humble servants of her inheritance, and liegemen of her especial dower - as we are approved by common parlance ought to excel all others in the favour of our praises and devotions to her."
  Just as the Countess's alabaster statue replaced an earlier image, so now Our Lady of Westminster becomes a link to the Dowry tradition, that started in Westminster and radiated throughout pre-Reformation England.
caption: Dos tua Virgo pia Haec est, quaere leges O Maria, This is your Dowry, O Holy Virgin, therefore rule over it, O Mary
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