Leicester's Church, originally known as St David's Church, Denbigh, is a large ruined church near to the hill top castle at Denbigh, North Wales. It was built for

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ove ...

, from 1578, but financial difficulties meant work stopped in 1584. When the Earl died unexpectedly in 1588 the project was abandoned. It had been the only large church-building project in Elizabethan England or Wales. On Robert Dudley's death with no heir, his estates reverted to the Crown, as a roofless enclosed space. It is now a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, cared for by

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

, the Welsh historic environment service.

Standing ruins

The ruined church has stood as an empty shell since work ceased in 1584, enclosing a substantial rectangle of by . Removal of stonework has taken place from the south wall and east gable, whereas the north aisle wall and west end remain at their original full height. 10 bays, with Tudor arched windows, and the remains of Tuscan pillars show this would have been in a Renaissance style, very different from the church gothic style that ceased to be built at the Reformation. Because so few new churches were built in the century following the reformation, Leicester's Church is 'probably the most significant and ambitious example of Protestant church building in the Elizabethan period'.historicwales.gov.uk – Cadw listing for Leicester's Church (Remains) grade I Listed Building.
Dataset UID 970, 20 July 2000

Lordship of Denbigh

The first Lord of Denbigh was Henry de Lacy, who in 1284 was granted one of a number of

Marcher Lordships A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in France ...

granted by Edward I as what were in effect personal fiefdoms. Successive lords held the lordship of Denbigh, sometimes bitterly disputed, until, via the Mortimers, it came to be held by Edward of York. When he became King Edward IV in 1461, Denbigh lordship passed back to the crown. Under Tudor reforms of 1535–42, the Marcher Lordships were brought within the kingdom, abolishing their autonomy. The Lordship of Denbigh, although merged with the Crown, retained its own identity, and in 1563,

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

granted the lordship to Robert Dudley. There was no legal basis for this grant, but his power and status were such that he was able to behave as though he had the same sort of fiefdom as the lords once had. The people of Denbigh did not think well of this arrangement, and some rebellious behaviour resulted. Dudley, in 1564 also made the

Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. History Earl ...

, undertook a number of town improvements to pacify the people of Denbigh. He built a town hall and a market hall, and in 1579 laid the foundation stone of a new church, the first to be built since the

reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

Puritan cathedral

The Earl of Leicester's plans for his new church were on a grand scale. It was dedicated to St David, and he apparently hoped to make it a new protestant cathedral instead of

St Asaph Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saints Asaph and Cyndeyrn, commonly called St Asaph Cathedral (), is a cathedral in St Asaph, Denbighshire, north Wales. It is the episcopal seat of the Bishop of St Asaph. The cathedral dates back 1,400 years, while t ...

. As a proponent of the puritan movement within the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

, he wanted to emphasize preaching as the focus of Anglican services, rather than the celebration of the

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. The wide rectangular preaching house allowed closer proximity to the pulpit, to hear sermons, rather than celebration of the mass at a distant east end altar. The hiatus in church governance, finance and patronage caused by the Reformation meant that from 1536 no significant new church building was undertaken throughout England and Wales for the next 100 years. The attempt by the Earl of Leicester to build such a church stands in isolation as the only example of its kind. The result would have been both liturgically and stylistically very different from the gothic style buildings the Anglican Church took over. Large, Tudor style windows running the length of the nave would have ensured a well lit building. Tuscan columns and Renaissance features would have looked modern and international.

From construction to ruin

In 1584, five years into the building process, work came to a halt. In the same year his three-year-old son died. The death of his only legitimate child, styled Baron Denbigh, was a dreadful blow both personally and for his dynastic ambitions, as it left him without an heir, with little expectation that his 40 year old wife would have another child. No further work was made on the incomplete Church. The particular problem would appear to be financial. Building a huge stone Church was prohibitively expensive even for an Earl. Whether due to this, or other expenses, the following year Dudley had to mortgage his lordship of Denbigh for £15,000, to pay his debts. Three years after that, in 1588, the

himself died unexpectedly. With no heir, all his estates and titles reverted to the Crown. Queen Elizabeth I paid off the mortgage on the Denbigh lordship in 1592, but clearly neither she nor anyone else was interested in progressing the building works, and it remained the property of the Crown rather than the local diocese. Instead it was quarried as a supply of stone and other building materials. Even where the walls remain at full height they mostly have gaping unframed windows where the dressed ashlar has been stripped out.

State protection

The church stood as an open ruin from then on. Reputedly used for cockfights and even dueling, it has had no formal purpose since. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a grade I listed building. Responsibility for its preservation was taken up by the Ministry of Works, and subsequently by

, who gradually acquired a number of properties around the town.

Denbigh Castle Denbigh Castle and town walls ( ; ) were built to control the lordship of Denbigh after the Conquest of Wales by Edward I of England in 1282. The lands were granted to Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who began to build a new walled town, col ...

, 150 metres to the south, was

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative, or social structures. This destruction of property is sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It ...

during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

and the Town Walls run close by the church site.cadw.gov.wales Denbigh Town Walls
/ref> St Hilary's Chapel Tower is 50 yards away, and the Carmelite Denbigh Friary is at the other end of Vale Street. All are in the guardianship of Cadw, who facilitate public access in various ways.

References