A new study reveals that the stained glass windows of Canterbury Cathedral in England are so ancient that they “witnessed” one of the most notorious murders in medieval England.
Analysis shows that some of the cathedral’s stained glass windows, depicting prophets before Jesus Christ, may date back to the mid-1100s, making them the oldest in England and among the oldest in the world.
Stained glass in England witnessed the murder of a medieval archbishop.
Léonie Seliger, head of the stained glass conservation department at the cathedral, stated that the windows witnessed the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. They also witnessed King Henry II kneeling in prayer for forgiveness, as well as the fire that devastated the cathedral in 1174, capturing the entirety of England’s history.
Becket leveraged social connections to enter the family of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury and gain the trust of King Henry II, who first appointed Becket as the royal chancellor and later as the new archbishop after Theobald’s death.
The tensions eventually erupted in the winter of 1170. Becket was exiled to France, and his return to England enraged the king. It is rumored that the king expressed his frustration loudly during Christmas at his castle in Bures, Normandy. Four knights from the king’s entourage, aware of his dissatisfaction, traveled to Canterbury Cathedral to confront Becket.
After the priest refused to be detained, the knights returned armed with swords. A brief scuffle ensued. At the altar, beneath the light streaming through the windows, four sword strikes fell upon the priest’s head, shattering his skull and scattering his brains on the cathedral floor, according to the account of priest Edward Grim.
Villagers came to collect the blood of the slain priest, even smearing it on their faces and clothing. Becket later became a martyr, canonized as a saint, haunting the king’s conscience for the rest of his life.
A fire ravaged the cathedral four years later. To this day, historians believe that no original glass remains to witness the bloody scene.
The researchers do not intend to prove that the glass dates from these tumultuous times. By examining how the chemical components have changed over time, they have been able to determine the age of the glass.
The research team focused on four windows known as the Ancestry of Christ, partly due to Madeleine Caviness, an art historian at Tufts University in Massachusetts, who suggested in 1987 that these windows were stylistically older than others in the cathedral. The team’s three-year analysis revealed that the windows were made between 1130 and 1160, half a century earlier than previously assumed.
The lead author of the study, Laura Ware Adlington, an independent materials scientist who developed the new analytical method, noted that the consistency between Caviness’s analysis and the new fluorescence dating is remarkable, even with details such as the prophet Nathan’s hat “that Caviness identified as a 13th-century addition.”
Caviness, now 83, expressed her delight in having her analysis confirmed after nearly 35 years.
Caviness stated, “The scientific findings, observations, and dating of the cathedral now align perfectly. But I am sure there are a few more projects to continue.”
