There are a number of buildings I want to see and last week I ticked off another. Last’s Years French trip saw us at Chartres and this year we visited Rheims with its magnificent Cathedral. It is difficult to say which is your favourite medieval cathedral as they all have their own particular attraction. Notre Dame at Rheims must be very difficult to beat though and we were quite taken aback by the experience. We knew about St Remi baptising Clovis* there in 496 AD. We knew that all but two of the French kings were crowned at Rheims. We knew about the wonderful gothic architecture and the west facade with its statues and the ‘smiling angel of Rheims’. But nothing quite prepared us  for the experience.

What takes your breath away is the twentieth century rôle Rheims has had to play in the reconciliation of Europe. Virtually destroyed in September 1914 and the following four years of shelling, the rebuilding of Rheims represents all that is good with Franco German relations and perhaps fitting that Charles DeGaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer should chose Rheims for the famous reconciliation between France and Germany in 1962 (celebrated fifty years later to the day by Francoise Hollande and Angela Merkel)

Rheims Cathedral, west front with “Kings” statuary and three portals.

But enough of the history; this is an art blog. The architecture of Rheims is highly important in the gothic story and the three portals of the west facade are a stand alone must see of the medieval world. The themes of the life of Mary, the life of Christ, the host of angels, prophets and kings, and the last judgement of Christ are set out in the statuary, but be wary; most of the work is nineteenth and twentieth century restoration.

Smiling Angel of Rheims

For me  the glass is the glory of the art. There is much medieval glass here, going back to 1235, again heavily restored, and some wonderful grisaille (plain monochromatic) in the choir but look out for the twentieth century work in the east end. The axial chapel has a terrific display of three windows of Marc Chargall’s church glass, created in the same way as the medieval craftsmen. His themes; The tree of Jesse, Kings and the death and resurrection of Christ, show Chargall’s religious iconography at its finest. It is so encouraging seeing the modern standing shoulder to shoulder with the medieval. There are examples of Rose windows in the French ‘flamboyant’ style in the South, west and north facades. 

Marc Chargall’s stained glass windows at Rheims Cathedral, east axial chapel.

Most emotionally charged though is the work of Imi Knoebel, the German stained glass artist, invited by the French Government to design his six windows in the choir as an act of reconciliation. These abstract windows with strong colours stop you still in your tracks. You move away but then return as your eyes deny your departing. Not always a political animal I would make the observation that to stand inside Rheims Cathedral you realise that Brexit is a shameful disaster unravelling before us, and a failure to read the lessons of history.

Imi Knoebels’s abstract stained glass windows at Rheims Cathedral.

Laon, a few miles north, is much less emotional but still worth a visit. It’s place in history has it as the first truly unified gothic cathedral being built from 1150-1220. The arrival of flying buttresses and barely pointed arches allows so much more light into the Nave and the view from west to east is completely unobstructed. This was also a time the French masons started experimenting with very high vaults. While not the tallest example the openness, permitted by the use of the flying buttresses, allows good visibility especially of the four stories in the Nave. Most English Cathedral’s are built with three. Laon does not shout its praises like other great churches and, interestingly, even the information boards simply emphasise how the cathedral has influenced others (Chartres, Rheims, Strasbourg, Soissons) rather than promoting its own importance. 

Unobstructed view through Laon Cathedral showing Nave and choir and four levels below the vaults.

Definitely worth a visit but if you want to have your breath taken away – Rheims is the place.

* the early name, Clovis, developed into Louis by the medieval times.

Fotheringhay was a great day out and made me think a little bit more about dead kings and cathedrals. Leicester Cathedral is quite an attraction since the bones of Richard III arrived. But are they really the last Plantagenet’s relics or a very elaborate modern hoax. You must be your own judge. Well at least Gloucester has a genuine King buried in its great Cathedral. Well if you believe that one…good luck. There is no proof it was even the alleged murdered sovereign at his own funeral, let alone whose body it is in the tomb. But oh what a tomb – probably the finest example of existing fourteenth century masonry and alabaster carving anywhere in the land. Do go and see.

Of course this short post is not about imaginary dead kings. It is about twenty first century stained glass. Well away from Edward’s tomb at Gloucester is the Thomas Chapel in the south east corner. A small chapel with fairly unexciting architecture compared to the rest but containing Thomas Denny’s 2014 stained glass windows depicting Thomas meeting the risen Christ, and the Creation of psalm 148. The window is dedicated to the Gloucestershire poet, Ivor Gurney, and reveals all manner of images in different lights.

Thomas Denny’s triptych of Windows for the Thomas Chapel, Gloucester Cathedral (2014)

It is perhaps fitting that Denny also produced two windows for Leicester Cathedral. Inspired by the life of Richard III.

One of the Thomas Denny windows inspired by King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral (2016)

I found the Thomas Chapel on a visit earlier this week to Gloucester Cathedral. This magnificent building has so many great architectural delights to take in but occasionally it is worth avoiding the big stuff and just sit and enjoy a quiet corner. Let everyone else go and hunt for the great Norman nave, the important history of the Perpendicular, or the Harry Potter cloisters and just take in the quiet solitude of the pilgrims church.

A question – Which is the largest Great East Window; Gloucester or York?

Sandy Denny, while with Fairport Convention, wrote her very haunting Fotheringay in 1969 about imprisonment. Was it about Mary Queen of Scots or was it an allegory of the medieval, or general captivity of women? Virtually nothing exists now of Fotheringhay Castle. The Great Hall where the Stuart pretender Queen met her executioner in 1587 is gone; only the old keep mound, part of the silted up moat and a railed up piece of stone are there for the tourist. But the quiet solitude of the site and the village just hint at that lonely event so long ago. Do go to see Mary’s tomb in Westminster Abbey next to Queen Elizabeth’s to understand the importance of her life though.

Artists impression of the sixteenth century castle at Fotheringhay with The Great Hall

Fotheringhay throws up another delight however, and the reason for our visit. The Church of St Mary and All Souls must be one of the finest examples of the fifteenth century English Perpendicular style as well as being the mausoleum for the Yorkist Dynasty of the Wars of the Roses a hundred years earlier. The collegiate church at Fotheringhay was founded by Richard, the second Duke of York, killed at Agincourt. Buried together at the altar are the third Duke and his brother Edmund, Duke of Rutland, both killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460 pursuing the Yorkist cause. The Yorkist symbol of the fetterlock and falcon is everywhere. The most interesting being at the centre of the fan vault below the tower. Look for the wonderful painted pulpit, given to the church by Edward IV. 

Interior of Fotheringhay Church with Fan Vault and Yorkist Falcon and Fetterlock

The real delight is the architecture. The fifteenth century parish church is pure English Perpendicular with a marvellous lantern tower at the western end. The York Window at the east end displays the symbols and arms of the Yorkists and was donated by the Richard III Society in 1975. What makes the building even more significant is its undoubted influence on St George’s, Windsor (Harry and Meghan). King Edward IV, who was brought up at Fotheringay was the major sponsor of the fifteenth century chapel at Windsor and it is impossible not to see the influence. How does this come about you ask. The parish church we see now is only part of the original fifteenth century structure. It was built on to the Duke of York’s collegiate church and cloisters, subsequently destroyed during the Dissolution. A model shows the original fourteen bay Perpendicular chapel with complete Nave, choir and lady chapel. The influence is complete when you learn that St George’s chapel was also to have a lantern tower. The fortunes changed after the Battle of Bosworth and the Windsor money ran out as the royal building programme moved to King’s at Cambridge, the Tudor project from Lancastrian (King Henry VI) origins. The lantern was never constructed.

Model of the Duke of York’s full Collegiate church in its fifteenth century glory.

St George’s Chapel, Windsor, 1475-1530.

So go to Fotheringay and have a drink or meal in the Falcon (named after the Yorkist symbol). Wander around this quiet village and consider the turmoil of the past. The wars with France, the Roses Civil war, the birthplace of Richard III and the religious conflicts of Tudor England. Imagine what an important castle stood above the River Nene, and where all the stone has gone from it and the college. Where are you with the polarised positions of Richard III or Mary Queen of Scots? And then… all this should inspire the tragic Sandy Denny to pen her beautiful allegory of imprisonment.

How often she has gazed from castle windows o’er,
And watched the daylight passing within her captive wall,

Tomorrow at this hour she will be far away, Much farther than these islands,             Or the lonely Fotheringay

The Church of St Mary and All Souls Church, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, c1434.

The York Window, donated by the Richard III Society 1975. Note the boar, Richard’s symbol.