History
It had a regular staff of 13 consisting of a Master who held overall responsibility for 6 nuns and 6 monks.
In 1450 an unpopular advisor to the king, Bishop Adam Moleyns of Chichester was conducting a service at the chapel of Domus Dei when a number of naval seamen (resentful of being only partially paid and only provided with limited provisions) burst in to the church, dragged out the bishop and murdered him.
As a result of this the entire town of Portsmouth was placed under the Greater Excommunication, an interdict which lasted until 1508, removed at the request of Bishop Fox of Winchester. One of the conditions for the removal of the interdict included the building of a chantry chapel next to the hospital.
In 1540, like other religious buildings, it was seized by King Henry VIII and until 1560 was used as an armory. After 1560 it became the home of the local military governor. Throughout this time the chapel attached to the hospital remained in use and in 1662 it hosted the wedding of King Charles II and Princess Catherine of Braganza.
Towards the end of the 17th century it fell into disrepair until it was restored in 1767 to become the Garrison church.
On 10 January 1941 the buildings of Domus Dei were partially destroyed in an attack by German bombers. The Garrison church remains, albeit roofless, as a popular tourist attraction.It was also used as the set for Horatio Hornblower's wedding in Hornblower:Duty, 2003.
Read more about this topic: Domus Dei
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)