Elizabeth Woodville and the Chapel of St Erasmus at Westminster Abbey

Abstract

In 1502 the 13th-century Lady Chapel at the east end of Westminster Abbey was demolished to make way for its new incarnation. Clearance of the site also required the destruction of a chapel dedicated to St Erasmus, which had stood on the south side of the Lady Chapel for only a quarter of a century. This article explores the documentary evidence for the short-lived St Erasmus chapel, from its construction at the behest of Elizabeth Woodville in the late 1470s, to its use for royal burials and to house the abbey’s relics of St Erasmus, and ultimately its fate at the beginning of the 16th century.