Kings Glass

Product Description

Each year more than 250 000 people visit the Chapel of Kings College Cambridge one of Europes best-known buildings. This book tells the untold story of the Chapels crowning glory its stained glass windows & of the people who created them
- the triumphant culmination of a project completed despite wars the death of kings & violent religious conflict. The glass symbolises the power of the Tudors & is a mirror of their souls. Planned by Henry VII & continued by Henry VIII the windows are dynastic propaganda simultaneously blatant & subtle boasting the ancient lineage of an upstart monarchy. Their unfolding scenes honoured the Catholic faith that Henry VIII was challenging in the 1530s when he made himself head of the church to marry Anne Boleyn. The windows show how Henry commemorated his wives in art then airbrushed them out when they fell from favour & how he recruited leading artists to make this Englands response to the Sistine Chapel. The great Kings Glass also flaunts the skills of its makers many of them innovative immigrants. It is a tale of guilds & artisans as well as of the court. It is too a history of England reflecting change conflict & modernity in the sixteenth century. Exploring the stories behind these luminous treasures this fascinating book as vivid as a novel uncovers the power struggles behind the beauty of the past.