Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick

Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick
Tower and nave of the church as viewed from Warwick Castle
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	High Church
Website	website
History
Dedication	The Blessed Virgin Mary
Administration
Parish	Warwick, St Mary
Deanery	Warwick & Leamington
Archdeaconry	Warwick
Diocese	Coventry
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s)	The Revd Dr Vaughan Roberts
Laity
Organist/Director of music	Thomas Corns
Organist(s)	Mark Swinton (Assistant Director of Music)

The Collegiate Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in the town of Warwick, England. It is in the centre of the town just east of the market place. It is a member of the Greater Churches Group.

The church has the status of collegiate church as it had a college of secular canons. In governance and religious observance it was similar to a cathedral (although not the seat of a bishop and without diocesan responsibilities). There is a Bishop of Warwick, but this is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Coventry.

The church foundations date back nearly nine hundred years, being created by Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick, in 1123. In addition to founding the church, de Beaumont established the College of Dean and Canons at the church. The only surviving part of the Norman church which de Beaumont had built is the crypt.

The chancel vestries and chapter house of the church were extensively rebuilt in the 14th century by a later Earl of Warwick, Thomas de Beauchamp (later pronounced Beecham), in the Perpendicular Gothic style. His descendants built the Chapel of Our Lady, commonly known as the Beauchamp Chapel. It contains the effigial monuments of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Buried in the chancel of the church is William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, the brother of Queen consort Catherine Parr.