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Authors: Suzannah Lipscomb
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daughter would prove to be one of England’s greatest monarchs; and that his dynasty would, nevertheless, end after his children’s generation.
‘Divine Providence has mingled my joy with the bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness.’
S t George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle has played a unique role in British history as the burial place for many kings and queens, among them Edward VIII and Queen Alexandra, George V and Queen Mary, and George VI and Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The stunning perpendicular chapel was the brainchild of Edward IV, and work started in 1475, but Henry VII added the intricate vaulted ceiling and Henry VIII completed the chapel. It is Henry VIII’s magnificent coat of arms that features above the organ loft between the nave and the quire. Above all, it is a place of pilgrimage because it is the burial place of King Henry VIII and his third and favourite wife, Jane Seymour.
There is an extraordinary amount of beautiful detail to spot in the chapel, and you could while away many hours taking it all in. Like Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster Abbey, which features theKnights of the Bath, the quire at St George’s displays the carved and painted crests of the Knights of the Garter (the more recent female Knights have coronets and no swords, with the exception of Her Majesty the Queen). Henry VIII’s ‘stall plate’ (bronze plaque) marking his own infant elevation to the Garter is here (you can spot it as the highest and one of the largest in the stall, two to the left of the Sovereign’s). The beautiful, wooden oriel window in the quire was built for Katherine of Aragon, and is carved with intertwining roses and pomegranates.
The south quire aisle is a veritable treasure trove. Look out for the panel painting of four kings, including Henry VII, and the recovered stall plate of Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, created a Knight of the Garter (KG) in 1559, but convicted of treason in 1572, when his plaque was removed. A stained-glass window nearby features Henry VIII, Edward VI, Jane Seymour and Elizabeth I (notably, no Mary I), each with their motto. Elizabeth’s motto ‘ Video taceo ’ means ‘I see and remain silent’ -perhaps advice for tourists browsing the chapel? Of particular note, also, is the Lincoln Chapel with its sixteenth-century alabaster tomb of Edward Fiennes de Clinton, Earl of Lincoln KG, Lord High Admiral and Governor of the Tower of London under Elizabeth I. His third wife, Elizabeth FitzGerald, is buried with him. At her feet there is an unusual burial mascot: a monkey, which alludes to the role one played in rousing her family during a thirteenth-century fire.
The central attraction is, however, plainer than all these fine effigies and decorations. Beneath the gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling, a simple black marble slab on the floor at the centre of the quire is inscribed in gold letters:
In a vault beneath this marble slab are deposited the remains of Jane Seymour, Queen of King Henry VIII 1537. KingHenry VIII 1547. King Charles I 1648. And an infant child of Queen Anne. Memorial placed by William IV 1837.
Henry VIII chose to be buried with his third wife, Jane Seymour. Her significance in his life was chiefly dynastic: she gave him his long-awaited legitimate male heir, but our knowledge of Henry’s favourite wife and a queen of England is otherwise rather limited.
We know that Jane came from respectable, but not grand, parentage. Born in 1509, the year Henry became King, to Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth at their house, Wolf Hall, she was one of ten children. Two of her brothers would earn their own degree of fame and power; both would also die as traitors: the charming Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, fourth husband of Kateryn Parr [see S UDELEY C ASTLE ], was executed 1549 and the elder Edward, later Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, was executed in 1552.
Jane, on the other hand, seems to have been
‘Divine Providence has mingled my joy with the bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness.’
S t George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle has played a unique role in British history as the burial place for many kings and queens, among them Edward VIII and Queen Alexandra, George V and Queen Mary, and George VI and Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The stunning perpendicular chapel was the brainchild of Edward IV, and work started in 1475, but Henry VII added the intricate vaulted ceiling and Henry VIII completed the chapel. It is Henry VIII’s magnificent coat of arms that features above the organ loft between the nave and the quire. Above all, it is a place of pilgrimage because it is the burial place of King Henry VIII and his third and favourite wife, Jane Seymour.
There is an extraordinary amount of beautiful detail to spot in the chapel, and you could while away many hours taking it all in. Like Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster Abbey, which features theKnights of the Bath, the quire at St George’s displays the carved and painted crests of the Knights of the Garter (the more recent female Knights have coronets and no swords, with the exception of Her Majesty the Queen). Henry VIII’s ‘stall plate’ (bronze plaque) marking his own infant elevation to the Garter is here (you can spot it as the highest and one of the largest in the stall, two to the left of the Sovereign’s). The beautiful, wooden oriel window in the quire was built for Katherine of Aragon, and is carved with intertwining roses and pomegranates.
The south quire aisle is a veritable treasure trove. Look out for the panel painting of four kings, including Henry VII, and the recovered stall plate of Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, created a Knight of the Garter (KG) in 1559, but convicted of treason in 1572, when his plaque was removed. A stained-glass window nearby features Henry VIII, Edward VI, Jane Seymour and Elizabeth I (notably, no Mary I), each with their motto. Elizabeth’s motto ‘ Video taceo ’ means ‘I see and remain silent’ -perhaps advice for tourists browsing the chapel? Of particular note, also, is the Lincoln Chapel with its sixteenth-century alabaster tomb of Edward Fiennes de Clinton, Earl of Lincoln KG, Lord High Admiral and Governor of the Tower of London under Elizabeth I. His third wife, Elizabeth FitzGerald, is buried with him. At her feet there is an unusual burial mascot: a monkey, which alludes to the role one played in rousing her family during a thirteenth-century fire.
The central attraction is, however, plainer than all these fine effigies and decorations. Beneath the gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling, a simple black marble slab on the floor at the centre of the quire is inscribed in gold letters:
In a vault beneath this marble slab are deposited the remains of Jane Seymour, Queen of King Henry VIII 1537. KingHenry VIII 1547. King Charles I 1648. And an infant child of Queen Anne. Memorial placed by William IV 1837.
Henry VIII chose to be buried with his third wife, Jane Seymour. Her significance in his life was chiefly dynastic: she gave him his long-awaited legitimate male heir, but our knowledge of Henry’s favourite wife and a queen of England is otherwise rather limited.
We know that Jane came from respectable, but not grand, parentage. Born in 1509, the year Henry became King, to Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth at their house, Wolf Hall, she was one of ten children. Two of her brothers would earn their own degree of fame and power; both would also die as traitors: the charming Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, fourth husband of Kateryn Parr [see S UDELEY C ASTLE ], was executed 1549 and the elder Edward, later Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, was executed in 1552.
Jane, on the other hand, seems to have been
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