From a 1990s PBS special on the National Cathedral

Allison Parsons, docent: The Gothic architect wanted your eye to ascend toward heaven, drawing your eye upward—that beautiful arch draws your eye up as high as it can possibly go—because people in the Middle Ages really wanted to build these great “castles of the spirit,” if you will, and they believed that a cathedral should be a place of comfort, where you could come in from the outside, leaving your cares, your worries, your sins behind, and enter into the presence of God.   That’s what they were trying to achieve in the Middle Ages, was a convergence of heaven on earth; they wanted to build these great cathedrals to the glory of God, to be, if you will, a city of God here on earth, and so there is, in a sense, a convergence: Man is imperfect, but we are created in God’s image, and so we do our best to create these beautiful cathedrals to the glory of God, in homage to Him.

From a 1990s PBS special on the National Cathedral

Allison Parsons, docent: The Gothic architect wanted your eye to ascend toward heaven, drawing your eye upward—that beautiful arch draws your eye up as high as it can possibly go—because people in the Middle Ages really wanted to build these great “castles of the spirit,” if you will, and they believed that a cathedral should be a place of comfort, where you could come in from the outside, leaving your cares, your worries, your sins behind, and enter into the presence of God.   That’s what they were trying to achieve in the Middle Ages, was a convergence of heaven on earth; they wanted to build these great cathedrals to the glory of God, to be, if you will, a city of God here on earth, and so there is, in a sense, a convergence: Man is imperfect, but we are created in God’s image, and so we do our best to create these beautiful cathedrals to the glory of God, in homage to Him.

Ely Cathedral, East Anglia

The Washington National Cathedral

(Episcopal Cathedral Church of Ss. Peter and Paul)

Constructed 1907-1990

From Peraldus's Summa de vitiis, BL MS Harl. 3244 (13th c., after 1236)

helm spes future gaudii

hauberk caritas

lance perseverantia

spurs discipline

shield fides

saddle-cloth humilitas

sword verbum Dei

saddle christiana religio

reins discretion

horse bona voluntas

superbia (pride)

invidia (envy)

ira (wrath)

accidia (sloth)

avaricia (avarice)

gula (gluttony)

luxuria (lechery)

Ephesians 6: 10-18 (King James Version)

10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Malory’s Morte Darthur, from the Winchester Manuscript

(see Shepherd’s edition, p. 62)

Pages from the unique manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,

Cotton Nero A.x

Chaucer’s portrait from the Ellesmere MS (c.1410)

Folio 49v from Boethius' On the Consolation of Philosophy with Trivet’s commentary

Glasgow, MS Hunter 374 (V.1.11) 

BL Additional MS 31042 (Wynnere and Wastoure, ll. 353-431)

Battle of Poitiers (1356)

Coronation of Edward III (1327)

Kingdoms, empires, and emirates in 1361

Edward III grants Gascony to the Black PrinceBL MS Cotton Nero D.vii, f.31

Battle of Sluys (1340)BN MS Fr.2643, f.165v

Battle of Crecy (1346)

Garter knight

Battle of Poitiers (1356)

Battle of Poitiers, 1356“De la bataille qui fu devant Poitiers

et de la prise du Roy de France”

King John II of France (1319-64)

Jean le Bon (John II) returns to England to continue his captivity

Edward III besieges Reims, 1359/60Froissart’s Chronicles, BN MS FR 2643

Tomb of Edward, the Black Prince (d.1376) in Canterbury Cathedral

Richard II (mid-1390s?)

Siege of Mortagne, an English possession near Bordeaux, 1377(Led by Owen of Wales, treacherously killed at lower right)

BL MS Royal 14.E.iv, f.23r

Kingdoms, empires, and emirates in 1401

Joan of Arc goes to the stake, 1431

Jousts at St. Inglevert, 1390

Jousts in London, 1390

Froissart presents his Chronicles to Richard II