From its very early days, St George’s Chapel possessed an extensive range of treasures, in the form of lavishly embroidered and jeweled vestments, relics and their elaborate containers, altar vessels in rich gold and silver, and many other jewels and ornaments to be displayed on the altar on grand occasions. Many of these were given by the Garter Knights to honour their connection to the home of the Order of the Garter.

In an inventory of plate and goods belonging to the Chapel taken in 1641 there is the following entry:

New plate Given (since 12 Dec: 1638) By the King Prince & other Knights of the ordr

One Common prayer booke of the same cover & worke, wth the Angell of incense on the one side, & the King Healing, & the mannor of or preaching & Christening engraven on the other;

From the Middle Ages onwards, it was believed that the touch of the Sovereign had healing powers granted by God, and by laying their hands on the afflicted, the King had the power to cure disease, in particular scrofula, a form of tuberculosis also known as the King’s Evil. From 1633, the act of touching for the King’s Evil was included in the Book of Common Prayer and grand ceremonies would be held where hundreds of those afflicted would kneel before the monarch for the traditional laying on of hands. The practice continued in Britain until the reign of George I, and continued in France until the mid nineteenth century.

Sadly, the year after this inventory was taken, the chapel was plundered by soldiers pretending to act by order of the King, and many of these items were lost. This book is not listed in the inventories of 1643 or 1667, suggesting that it was one of the items taken during the chaos of the Civil War.

Eleanor Cracknell, Assistant Archivist

The West Window, situated in the Nave of St. George’s Chapel, is one of the most memorable aspects of any visit to the Chapel. Thought to be the third largest stained glass window in the country, it contains seventy-five figures including popes, kings, princes and saints, all but six of which date from 1503 to 1509. It dominates any view of the western end of the Chapel, its grandeur and display of skill matched only by the great vaulted ceiling it stands beneath. However the window has at times come close to terrible disrepair and even complete destruction.

One of these instances was during and in the aftermath of the English Civil War (1642-1651) until the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. The Civil War was not simply a matter of political ideologies. The division between supporters of Anglo-Catholicism and those of Protestantism was always at the fore, Charles I’s belief in the “Catholic” doctrine of “Divine Right to Rule” attracting the ire of a Protestant Parliament even before the events which led to the nine year conflict. In particular, Oliver Cromwell’s rise to power in the Parliamentarian movement brought with it a distinct Puritanical outlook. Twenty-four of the seventy-five figures in the West Window are popes, and ten are saints. It was assumed, quite fairly, that should the Puritanical Cromwellian army break into the Chapel, such symbols of Catholicism would never be left in peace, and would likely be destroyed. Indeed, when the army did assume control of Windsor Castle in 1642, Edward IV’s tomb was destroyed, and the Chapel stripped of many of its treasures, only one hundred and fourteen years after its completion. So, although there is no official record, it seems likely that the Deans and Canons had the glass lights from the West Window removed to a secure location before the occupation of the Castle took place, and restored them to their original place sometime after the Restoration – such an overt display of Catholic symbols would hardly have survived otherwise [see ‘Notes on the West Window’ by Anthony C Deane in the Report of the Friends of St George’s Chapel for 1940].

The stained glass was entirely removed one more time after its protective storage during the English Civil War, once again because of violent conflict. This time it was to protect it from the bombs of World War II. Indeed, not long after its removal in 1940, a bomb fell near the Great Western Railway Station in Windsor which would likely have caused irreparable damage to the window glass had it still been present [Friends’ Report 1945 p.14]. The cost of removing and storing the glass was entirely covered by what Albert Baillie, Dean of Windsor at the time, called “the generosity of special donors” [Friends’ Report 1940 p.7]. Such special donors included Mr R. Upjohn, who donated £500, approximately £14,000 in modern currency, the Hon. M. Watson and Mr E Olivier who donated £125 each, and a man enigmatically noted as ‘A Canadian in London’ who donated £1 [SGC M.927].

The stained glass was restored to its rightful place from November 1945 [SGC M.927]. Let us hope that such drastic measures never again need to be taken to protect what is surely one of Britain’s most striking Tudor monuments.

Tom Gray (Archives volunteer)

Frontispiece to the 1651 edition

The full title of this book is Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, and it was first published in 1651. Titled after the biblical Leviathan, an enormous sea monster representing chaos and evil, Hobbes used it here to describe the Commonwealth under Cromwell. The book deals with the structure of society and legitimate government, and is considered one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.

The impressive frontispiece shows earthly power represented by the castle, battlefield and crown on the left, spiritual power represented by the church, court and Bishop’s mitre on the right. The sovereign is shown as a giant rising above, ruler over both. Influenced by the Civil War, Hobbes wrote that in order for there to be peace, a strong central government was needed, and that an absolute sovereign was the only way for this to be achieved.

The Chapter Library contains two copies of the Leviathan, including a first edition. The second copy belonged to William Cave, Canon of Windsor 1684-1713. On his death, his entire library was purchased from his executors at the cost of £645.

Eleanor (Assistant Archivist)