Roger Ive, the local parish priest, is generally regarded as the founder, although the church received considerable support and endowment from Henry IV.

"[5] Richard Brooke, writing about the field of battle in 1857, explained In gratitude for, and in commemoration of, this victory, Henry the Fourth erected on the spot Battlefield Church; and from the circumstance of the battle having been fought on St Mary Magdalen's eve, he, in compliance with the prevalent opinions of the age, and probably also from his considering himself in some degree indebted to her for the victory, caused the church to be dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen.

[6]However, a Georgian historian of Shropshire, John Brickdale Blakeway, had long before disentangled the course of the foundation,[7] making clear that the initiative was local, coming from Roger Ive, the parish rector, and Richard Hussey, the lord of the manor.

Blakeway's notes were not published until 1889, more than 60 years after his death, so W. G. D. Fletcher, an important Victorian antiquarian, was sometimes credited with discovering Roger Ive's claim to be the true founder.

The extent and limits of his wealth were displayed in January 1415 when he granted "to Roger Yve clerk, Richard Colfex clerk, and William Sumpnour clerk, all my lands and tenements, rents and services, with their appurtenances, which I have in the towns of Adbryghton Husee, Harlascote, Salop, and Monkeforyate, within the county of Salop, together with the advowsons of the chapel of Adbrighton husee and of the chantry of blessed Mary Magdalene of the Batelfeld, and of Penkeriche within the county of Stafford: To have and to hold all the lands and tenements aforesaid, rents and services, with their appurtenances, together with the Advowsons aforesaid, to the aforesaid Roger, Richard and William, of the chief lords of those fees, their heirs and assigns, by the services thence due and of right accustomed, for ever.

[17] A minority and the resulting wardship allowed King John to exert pressure on Hugh Hose or Hussey to transfer the estate and the important Collegiate Church of St Michael and All Angels to Henry de Loundres, recently consecrated Archbishop of Dublin in 1215.

On 17 March 1409, in his capacity as Duke of Lancaster, Henry IV incorporated the chapel as a perpetual chantry, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, with eight chaplains, one of whom was to be Master.

The only extant seal of the college, found on a deed of 1530,[36] is marked SIGILLUM COMMUNE DOMINI ROGERI IVE PRIMI MAGISTRI ET SUCCESSORUM SUORUM COLLEGII BEATE MARIE MAGDALENE IUXTA SALOP, showing that the dedication persisted and was regularly attested.

Blakeway comments that "a prebend in the more wealthy collegiate churches was recognised in the Middle Ages, and even much later, as a source of income for a good man of business, a clerk in the royal chancery or exchequer, or a useful member of the Roman curia.

[53] During a boundary dispute in 1581, a 63-year old witness, John Clarke, recalled "beinge a boy & goeing to schoole to the colledge of Battelfild, about 55 years past or thereabouts.

The chaplains were secular clergy, without a monastic rule, living in close proximity to lay people and subject to all the pressures of community and political life.

Roger Ive considered the pressures so great that he obtained from Henry VI an exclusive right for the college to execute a wide range of writs and other legal instruments within its own site and the nearby estates.

[61] The background was a period of political crisis, as well as great fiscal pressure for the government, as Suffolk, York and Henry VI himself competed for the power left vacant by the overthrow of the king's uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and the English cause in the Hundred Years' War was brought to the edge of disaster.

[62] Even John Gillingham, whose revisionist account stresses the essential stability and continuity of 15th century government,[63] paints a picture of mismanagement, policy confusion, and an increasingly angry population during the 1440s.

[65] The solution was the reserve to the Master and chaplains the execution of all briefs, precepts, warrants, bills and mandates throughout the immediate territory of the chapel, the whole of the manor of Adbrighton Hussey and the township of Harlescott.

A visitation in 1518 found the Master and chaplains struggling financially, partly owing to the burden of paying a pension to the recently retired Adam Grafton.

[59] An indulgence of forty days' purgatory "for all supporters of the college or chantry of Mary Magdalene"[96] was granted on 17 April 1418 by Edmund Lacey, the Bishop of Hereford: well-timed to bring pilgrims to the fair, three months later.

In 1423 Pope Martin V granted the much greater indulgence of five years and five quarantines (forty-day periods) to all who visited the Battlefield chapel on Passion Sunday or the following two days and made a donation to its construction and upkeep.

[101] Morgan8 suggests that the church had become by this time a focus of resistance for Yorkists seeking to rally against the Lancastrian dynasty: this is evidenced by the presence of the arms of William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel,[102] who notably switched sides, joining Edward at Pontefract in 1460.

[103] The king took Brown and his retinue under his own protection and ordered royal and local officials to ensure their safety and expedite restitution of any losses they might suffer.

[131] When the collector or bailiff, John Cupper or Cowper, reported on his work, subsequently, he noted that Shord had been allocated a room called the Curate Chamber, worth 2s.

The business was handled centrally for the Court by Sir Walter Mildmay, one of its surveyors,[133] and a client of Thomas Seymour, although a future Chancellor of the Exchequer of England.

Richard Cupper was a client and close aide of William Paget, a key figure in the king's administration and an important Staffordshire landowner, although his family too were probably of humble origins in the West Midlands.

For a batch of properties, including numerous chantry estates, which were granted to them on 10 April 1549, they paid the Court of Augmentations the then large sum of £2050 13s 9d,[139] (equivalent to £1,243,861 in 2023) The former assets of Battlefield included in the deal were the church and rectory of St. Julian, Shrewsbury;[140] the site of the college (excluding the curate's lodging); Albright Hussey chapel; tithes of grain, corn, sheaves and hay in Harlescott, then in the tenure of Thomas Ireland; cottages called "lez bothes" on Hussey estate land near the college, which seem to have been market stalls; and the proceeds of the annual fair on St Mary Magdalene's day.

(equivalent to £917,002 in 2023), channelling the payment through Sir Edmund Peckham,[148] a prominent supporter of Princess Mary who was high treasurer of all the mints in England [149] This fire sale at the end of a Protestant reign was followed by a long lull.

An illustrated contribution to the Gentleman's Magazine from David Parkes in 1792 also spread both information and misinformation, ascribing the foundation of the church to Henry IV and misrepresenting the pietà as a Madonna and child.

"[3] On the other hand, its guide for visitors, downloadable from the same webpage, minimises the impact of the restoration: "The fabric survives unaltered, very rare for a medieval church which would typically be built, rebuilt and added onto for hundreds of years."

In 1864 Lady Brinckman died and the Albright Hussey estate, including the church site, passed to the Pigott family, relatives who were required to change their name to Corbet.

Cranage was even-handed on this feature, acknowledging the doubts but drawing attention to the much worse alternative of a brick wall used by the 18th century rebuilders: in general he approved.

[168] However, there is no evidence for either suggestion and Thomas Auden challenged the need for a theory of removal as early as 1903, pointing out the existence of other oak carvings in Shropshire churches of the period.