The Conference of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales re-dedicated England as the Dowry of Mary on March 29, an act that is linked to the historical roots of the Kingdom of England and  is a call to the new evangelization of a society apparently post-Christian and overly influenced by political correctness.

The original consecration of England as Mary’s Dowry took place in Westminster Abbey on Corpus Christi, 1381.  It was performed by a fourteen-year-old monarch, Richard II, who most people will know from one of Shakespeare’s plays. In Shakespeare’ s play he is not really favoured because his power degenerated into a tyranny in his last years, until he was overthrown by his cousin Henry of Lancaster. This contradicts the vision of a king, almost a saint, consecrating his country to the Blessed Virgin. The England of 1381 wasn’t edifying at all but was in turmoil, succumbing to a near civil war which had begun with a peasant’s revolt led by Wat Tyler. In its wake, there was a wave of violence which took the lives of the Archbishop of Canterbury and some other dignitaries. Chaos spread throughout the country, which had not yet recovered from the Black Death and its social and economic consequences. In spite of these many challenges, the young Richard managed to control the situation, attributing this to the Blessed Mary’s protection.

The idea of England as Our Lady’s Dowry was conceived before the late 14th century, however. It is documented that King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), a saint, was the first to use this expression, and, according to tradition, Alfred the Great, the Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex (871-899), was protected by the Blessed Virgin in his victory over the Vikings.  Obviously, history and legend intertwine, inspiring the epics. G.K. Chesterton understood this well, substituting the real battlefield for one more suggestive in his work The Ballad of the White Horse (1911), while retaining the role of Mary’s intercessionin his epic narrative.

The people’s devotion.

The devotion to Mary was deeply rooted in the English people as is shown in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a book which comprises twenty-four tales, written between 1387 and 1400. Geoffrey Chaucer, son of a wine merchant, held office in the court of Henry II. In The Man of Law’s Tale, young Constance saves her life in a hazardous voyage after imploring Our Lady’s protection.  In addition, Chaucer also wrote a Marian poem which reads: “O Virgin, you wear such noble attire that leads us to the highest tower in Paradise”. In 1932 Chesterton wrote a very singular biography of Chaucer in which he portrays him as a merry Catholic gentleman, an image quite different to the anticlerical Chaucer presented by the reformers.  Chesterton praises Chaucer’s devotion and ranks it above Dante’s.

In his original consecration, Richard II used these words to address Our Lady: Dos tua Virgo pia Haec est, quaere leges O Maria (This is your Dowry, o Holy Virgin, therefore rule over it, O Mary). This year’s re-dedication is primarily a personal consecration, which implies a complete and trusting surrender, a determined manifestation of hope, and is related to a revival of devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham, who appeared in an apparition in the 11th century, and whose shrine at Walsingham is known as England’s Nazareth. Destroyed in the 16th century by Henry VIII, it was rebuilt in the past century. Nowadays, Walsingham is a meeting point for Catholics and Anglicans, proof that Mary always unites her children. Such unity is founded on the traditional Marian devotion of the English people, as expressed by Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1399: “We English, being the servants of her [Mary’s] special inheritance and her own Dowry as we are commonly called, ought to surpass others in the fervour of our praises and devotions.”

Antonio R. Rubio Plo is a university professor, Doctor of Law and graduate of History, who lives and teaches in Madrid. He has a great interest in the convert writers of the Anglo-Saxon world, and has written on Newman and Chesterton, those great models for a spiritual rebirth.