The Royal Chapel in Iberia

Abstract

This article analyses the main aspects of the activities of the late medieval royal chapel, comparing several Iberian Christian monarchies. Three definitions of the chapel were proposed since medieval times: the chapel as a collection of liturgical objects, as the human group devoted to the king's service by performing the Christian cult, and as a specific space inside royal residences. All three were put to use for the reproduction of the specific position of kings in Christian societies, as it was expressed in liturgical activities and in devotional practices. Common patterns and mutual influences are analysed, and the example of two ceremonial practices shows that these were more current than it has been argued by historians of the early modern period. on scet bien que le confesseur confesse le prince, et que lui ou le clerc de la chapelle dit ses heures avecques lui, et que le prince offre tous les jours ...

Patterns of Intention: Royal chapels in the Crown of Aragon (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) and the Capilla de los Reyes in the Convent of Saint Dominic, Valencia

“…15 Given their strong diplomatic and cultural relations, it is almost certain that the kings of Aragon kept an eye on other royal chapels in the neighbouring kingdoms of Castile, Navarre, Portugal and particularly France. 16 Cultural exchange between Paris and the court of Aragon intensified during Peter IV's reign due to the successive marriages of his son and successor, future King Juan I with two French princesses (Mata of Armagnac and Violant of Bar, niece of Jean de Berry). 17 The French model of the Sainte-Chapelle was not overlooked when the monarchs of Aragon erected a royal chapel based on relic worship in the fourteenth century: we know that in 1398 Martin I asked Charles VI for detailed information about rites and customs in Paris, so that they could be observed in Barcelona.…”