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Britain - Photo and History Pages WALES, CENTRAL ENGLAND AND EAST ANGLIA Paradoxplace BRITISH ABBEYS AND CATHEDRALS
Lincoln Cathedral - Interior Also an all-round Masterwork
LINK TO LINCOLN CATHEDRAL EXTERIOR PHOTO PAGE LINK TO CHAPTER HOUSE FRESCO MYSTERY
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It is only in the last couple of centuries that permanent pews and chairs, often made from depressing light absorbing dark brown wood, have filled church naves in Europe. Originally everyone stood, and these unique covered spaces were also used for other activities such as markets. Here is a rare (2007) look at a chairless medieval cathedral space. Even better, there are no ugly stacks of chairs spoiling the effect.
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Walking slowly up the nave to enjoy the brilliant blues of the stained glass lancet widows on the south side. |
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As with most English cathedrals, the full vista of the nave and choir is blocked - in this case by organ pipes set in dark wood which should be somewhere else! However, the 1200s carved stone screen below the pipes is breath-takingly beautiful. Long before the days of the present organ, Wiliam Byrd (1543 - 1623 (80)), the greatest of the early English composers, was the organist of Lincoln Cathedral.
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The southern Great Transept, with the choir screen on the left and the "Bishop's Window" at the end |
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Detail from Great Eastern Window |
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Standing in the choir and looking east towards the high altar (above) and west to the choir, organ pipes and crossing (below) |
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| A knight falls and his horse twists its neck (or maybe it was the other way round) in one of the misericords | |||
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In the north east corner is the base of the Head Shrine of Saint Hugh - Bishop of Lincoln under the early Plantagenets in the 1100s. The reliquary with Hugh's head and other bits and pieces, and the other riches from his shrine, disappeared into the saddlebags of Henry VIII's lads in the late 1530s. The modern sculptural additions to the base are really dramatic and interesting - which is more than can be said for most modern cathedral "improvements"!
Saint Hugh, originally a Carthusian monk from Avalon, near Grenoble, was the Bishop of Lincoln from 1186 to 1200 during the reigns of the bad tempered founder of the Plantagenet Dynasty Henry II (1133-1154-1189 (56)) (whose Queen Consort was Eleanor of Aquitaine (c1122 - 1204 (82)), and their sons - the nasty but largely absent Richard I (1157-1189-1199 (42)) and the deprived ('Lacklands") and nasty loser John (1167-1199-1216 (49)) - the one who got magna cartared (and was buried in Worcester Cathedral). Hugh left behind a reputation as a humble and gentle man who "cared for the poor and protected the Jews" in the midst of a generally uncaring and violent society.
Eleanor was a popular name for Plantagenet queens. King John's son Henry III (1207-1216-1272 (65)) married Eleanor of Provence, and their son Edward I ("Longshanks") (1239-1272-1307 (68)) married Eleanor of Castile.
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It was Queen Eleanor of Castile (c1240 - 1290 (50)) who died at nearby Harby on 28 November 1290, and whose entrails were buried in a so-called visceral tomb opposite Saint Hugh in the south east end of the Cathedral, whilst her body undertook a journey south to Westminster Abbey. This subsequently resulted in the erection by her grieving King Edward I of the famous stone "Eleanor Crosses" at each of the cortege's overnight stopping points between Lincoln and London.
LINK TO ELEANOR CROSS PHOTOS, MAP AND INFORMATION
The stopping points were Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, GEDDINGTON, HARDINGSTONE (Northampton), Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, WALTHAM, West Cheap (= Cheapside), and Charing. Much restored crosses still exist at the towns written in capitals. Finally, Eleanor's heart went to the Dominicans (the Black Friars) in, you guessed, Blackfriars (London) and her bones, later reunited with those of her husband, ended up in Westminster Abbey.
The visceral tomb in Lincoln (photo above) was defaced and smashed by O.Cromwell's men, but the one there now is an exact copy of the original, and the missing gisant has been replaced with an (ungilded) copy of its original sister in Westminster. On the side of the tomb are the arms of England, Ponthieu (Eleanor was Countess of Ponthieu), and Leon-Castile (her dad was the first king of both Leon and Castile).
The original gisant (effigy) on top was made by master William Torel, who actually made two - one for Westminster Abbey (below) and one for Lincoln - the surviving Westminster bronze, cast in one piece, is now one of the earliest surviving large scale bronzes in England. It is recorded that 350 gold florins were purchased from the merchants of Lucca for the gilding.
This photo comes from Edward I - A Great and Terrible King" by Marc Morris Buy from Amazon USA Buy from Amazon UK
For over 200 years (presumably till jolly Henry VIII closed Westminster Abbey down in the 1530s and nicked all their assets) "dole" money was handed out by the almoners of Westminster Abbey to the poor on each anniversary of Queen Eleanor's death - 28 November.
Link to Westminster Abbey website - tombs of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile
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Overlooking all of this, nestling in the spandrel area between the two arches above the shrine, is the famous little Lincoln Imp - a petrified devil as legend would have it. |
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Links to other Paradoxplace pages
All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission
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