Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The light from the stained-glass windows; the colorful banners overhead; and the elaborate
tracery in stone, wood, and glass give this room the festive air of a medieval tournament.
The prestigious Knights of the Bath meet here, under the magnificent ceiling studded with
gold pendants. The ceiling—of carved stone, not plaster (1519)—is the finest English
Perpendicular Gothic and fan vaulting you'll see (unless you're going to King's College
Chapel in Cambridge). The ceiling was sculpted on the floor in pieces, then jigsaw-puzzled
into place. It capped the Gothic period and signaled the vitality of the coming Renaissance.
The knights sit in the wooden stalls with their coats of arms on the back, churches on
their heads, their banner flying above, and the graves of dozens of kings beneath their feet.
When the Queen worships here, she sits in the southwest corner chair under the carved
wooden throne with the lion crown (immediately to the left as you enter).
Behind the small altar is an iron cage housing tombs of the old warrior Henry VII of
Lancaster and his wife, Elizabeth of York. Their love and marriage finally settled the Wars
of the Roses between the two clans. The combined red-and-white rose symbol decorates
