The Nation’s Favourite Stained Glass Window – Gloucester Cathedral – Great East Window – 5th Place

Our Divine Light campaign has finished and the votes have been counted.

5th place in our search to find the Nation’s favourite stained glass window goes to the Great East Window in Gloucester Cathedral.

Gloucester Cathedral – Great East Window (c.1360)

Floor-to-ceiling tiered and canted window depicting the Church’s earthly authorities, saints, Apostles, Mary and Christ, and the heavenly realm of angels, 22 × 14 m (roughly the size of a tennis court).

The term ‘wall of glass’ is overused today, but at Gloucester it is a medieval reality. Between 1345 and 1355 the quire of St Peter’s Abbey (now Gloucester Cathedral) was remodelled to make it a fit resting place for King Edward II. As part of this Perpendicular remodelling the east wall of the Cathedral was demolished and a new giant window was installed.

Gone were the small, dark windows of the Norman apsidal east end, and in their place was glass reaching from floor to ceiling. This achievement is all the more impressive when we consider that the window was created and installed in the shadow of the Black Death, which had ravaged the population of England from 1348 onwards, wiping out a third of the population. Despite the vicissitudes of time, at least 70 per cent of the original 1350s glass remains in situ.

The window’s central focus is the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, but it also depicts a harmonious and well-ordered world. Using only four colours of glass, the medieval artists brought to life the temporal and spiritual rulers of the Earth, as well as the saints, Christ, Mary, the Apostles and the angels.

They also incorporated a collection of coats of arms at the base representing the lords and the people. These coats of arms are the origin of the name that began to be used in the twentieth century: ‘the Crécy Window’. Subsequent research on the heraldry has made clear that the coats of arms are not limited to those of individuals who fought at the Battle of Crécy (1346), but that they are rather those of the great families at Edward III’s court who supported him in his many military campaigns. The window is therefore once again referred to as the ‘Great East Window’.

Read more about all the windows in our campaign here.

You can buy the book, Divine Light – The Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals here.