Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
While Henry VI—who began work on the chapel—wanted it to be austere, his des-
cendants decided it should glorify the House of Tudor (of which his son, Henry VII, was
the first king). Lining the walls are giant Tudor coats-of-arms. The shield includes a
fleur-de-lis because an earlier ancestor, Edward III, woke up one day and—citing his con-
voluted lineage—somewhat arbitrarily declared himself king of France. The symbols on
the left (a rose and the red dragon of Wales, holding the shield) represent the Tudors,
the family of Henry VII's father. On the right, the greyhound holding the shield and the
portcullis (the iron grate) symbolize the family of Henry VII's mother, Lady Margaret
Beaufort, who prodded her son for years to complete this chapel.
The 26 stained-glass windows date from the 16th century. It's the most Renaissance
stained glass anywhere in one spot. (Most of the stained glass in English churches dates
from Victorian times, but this glass is much older.) The lower panes show scenes from the
New Testament, while the upper panes feature corresponding stories from the Old Testa-
ment. Considering England's turbulent history, it's miraculous that these windows have
survived for nearly half a millennium in such a pristine state. After Henry VIII separ-
ated from the Catholic Church in 1534, many such windows and other Catholic features
around England were destroyed. (Think of all those ruined abbeys dotting the English
countryside.) However, since Henry had just paid for these windows, he couldn't bear to
get rid of them. A century later, in the days of Oliver Cromwell, another wave of icono-
clasm destroyed more windows around England. Though these windows were slated for
removal, they stayed put. (Historians speculate that Cromwell's troops, who were gar-
risoned in this building, didn't want the windows removed in the chilly wintertime.) Fin-
ally, during World War II, the windows were taken out and hidden away to keep them safe,
and then painstakingly replaced after the war ended.
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