Age of Worship Seven Ages of Britain


Age of Worship

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The Middle Ages.

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A time of faith and a time of fear.

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GATE CLANGS

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In Hereford, monks created a work of art

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designed to make sense of the unknown.

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This is Mappa Mundi,

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a map of the world as it was known around 1300.

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It's not the kind of map you'd want to use if you were going on a journey,

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because it's completely distorted.

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For instance, down here,

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England, Wales, Ireland crammed down there.

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Scotland.

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Then you go across Germany to Italy.

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There's Rome rather grandly shown there.

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But it's not just that kind of physical map.

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What it's actually about is faith and superstition,

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religion and romance.

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Religion because at the heart is Jerusalem.

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Then there are things from the Bible. There's Noah's Ark.

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The Tower of Babel.

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And above, the Day of Judgement.

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But also, these strange, mythical creatures.

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Bodies with eyes set in their chests.

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Frightening and weird creepy-crawly things.

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The most astonishing picture of things that were known

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and things that were imagined at the time.

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It's the whole of life as it was seen.

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A work of art

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which opens the door to the world of the Middle Ages.

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BELL TOLLS

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Medieval life was controlled by two great forces -

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the Crown and the Church.

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In the 12th century, a power struggle broke out between them.

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It came to a head with a shocking murder.

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On 29 December, 1170, a cold winter's night,

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the archbishop, Thomas Becket, was at home here in Canterbury.

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He was already one of the most powerful men in the kingdom,

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some said more powerful than the king himself.

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And that was his downfall.

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Four knights loyal to the king came here to Canterbury

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to rid him of the man

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that he'd complained was treating him with shameful contempt.

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The archbishop's staff hustled him into the cathedral

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hoping that here, at least, he'd find sanctuary.

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This was sacred ground,

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but that didn't deter the king's knights.

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Nor did they care that their victim was Archbishop of Canterbury,

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head of the English Church.

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They were determined to show the king's power was supreme.

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It's said they found Becket standing here calmly waiting for them.

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"Here I am, no king's traitor but a priest.

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"Why do you seek me?"

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And one of the knights replied,

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taunting him, and striking the cap off his head,

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said, "Fly! You are a dead man."

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The other assassins piled in with their swords,

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struck him blows on the head till he fell to the ground,

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cut open his skull and let the brains flow out over the floor.

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They thought they'd solved a problem for the king

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but his troubles were only just beginning.

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The murder met with outrage across the Christian world.

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The king tried to make amends,

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walking barefoot through the streets of Canterbury

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and being flogged by monks in the cathedral.

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It was round one to the Church.

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With Becket declared a saint by the pope,

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Canterbury became an important place of pilgrimage.

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People came from all over Europe to worship at his shrine.

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Cathedral as a snowstorm.

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Model of the cathedral with sparkles on top.

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Archbishop.

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Crosses.

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An archbishop teddy bear.

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Rowan Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury,

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looking slightly manic.

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Well, you might think that souvenirs are a kind of new thing.

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Not at all.

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These are badges,

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all of Thomas a Becket,

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that were sold here in the 1300s.

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They're made of a very soft pewter, a mixture of tin and lead.

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And they were made in moulds in stone,

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so there were lots and lots and lots of them produced.

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I think, in a way, this is the liveliest one.

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This is Becket on a ship

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coming back across the Channel from the Continent

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to Canterbury just a month or so before he was murdered.

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So Becket's in the middle with his hand up in a blessing,

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as he is always seen,

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and what's really interesting, though, is the ship.

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You can see all the planking here,

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the sailor pulling on the ropes,

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and if you go to the bow, there's the anchor hanging down

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and a soldier on the forecastle with his sword and shield.

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In one sense, these are more than just badges, though,

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because they would be taken to the tomb of Thomas at Canterbury

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and touched against the side

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so they became what was called a touch relic,

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and when you took them home and touched the badge,

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you were in effect touching the tomb of Thomas

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that you'd come to worship at.

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Just come and have a look.

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These are souvenirs from 1300.

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Oh, wow! Aren't they extraordinary?

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They're pretty amazing. Have a close look.

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And it's Thomas a Becket coming on his ship from France.

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They're so detailed. That's what's so interesting.

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Yes. Beautifully done. Amazing.

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They're made of lead. Yeah.

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They were found in the mud on the banks of the Thames.

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Can you imagine the excitement on a Sunday morning at low tide

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going along with your metal detector and coming up with this?

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So where are they normally kept?

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They're in a museum in London. They've been brought here.

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This is the first time they've been here for 700 years.

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They were sold here 700 years ago.

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And they're not for sale today. ALL LAUGH

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Over the decades, the pilgrims and the money they brought with them

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transformed this cathedral into a memorial to Becket.

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The climax of the pilgrimage was to come up these steps.

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You can see that the stone itself is worn away.

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They probably approached kneeling.

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And what they were coming to do

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was kneel at the shrine of Thomas a Becket...

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..which was placed here in the centre, where the candle now burns.

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By all accounts, it was a huge, gilded, brilliant construction

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encrusted with precious jewels.

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When Henry VIII split with the Pope, he ordered it to be destroyed.

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So there's just a candle to show where it once was.

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What was left, though, were 12 glorious windows

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gleaming in blue and yellow and green,

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that show the miracles that Thomas performed after his death.

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Stained glass is far and away the most powerful, vivid art

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of the Middle Ages.

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You have to look at this glass

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as though you were somebody from that time

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looking at it for the first time.

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No television, no film, you've never seen anything like that,

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and you're presented with this.

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The brilliance of the colour,

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the great beauty and animation of the figures telling these stories.

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And the light streaming in at you,

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almost as though God was illuminating the cathedral.

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And the stories themselves... so wonderfully told.

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Children being cured of their diseases.

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People being cured of leprosy,

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of plague...

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..of lameness...

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..of blindness.

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Wonderful stories, with Thomas appearing from time to time

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because one of the purposes of this glass was to praise Thomas

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but also to give comfort and inspiration

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to the people who looked at them.

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There could be no better insight into the beliefs

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and the way of thinking of the Middle Ages.

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The artists who worked with stained glass

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were among the finest craftsmen of the age.

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We look at this through the microscope all the time

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and we do not find mistakes.

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They are painted perfectly.

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They don't scratch them out.

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They don't repaint a line that went a little bit shaky.

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The only place where you find repairs or alterations

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are in the inscriptions,

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and that tells me that the painters were probably illiterate

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and they were just copying something they didn't understand.

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The colour is really vivid, isn't it? This yellow,

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and the red of their stockings.

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How did they get this intensity? I mean, these blues...

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Well, cobalt, for instance, makes blue. Copper makes red.

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Gold makes a beautiful pink.

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This colour? Yes.

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Can you show me the techniques? Yeah, sure.

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So you pick your piece of glass that is round about the right size

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for the shape you want to cut,

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and then with some lime wash, you mark exactly the shape

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and then you use something called a grozing iron

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to nibble away at the edges of the glass, hopefully without breaking it.

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I bet I will break it.

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That's it. Yeah, you got it.

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You see why you have to wear goggles for this.

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Is that right? Will that fit in?

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That's amazing. Yes, that's very good.

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Fit it in. That'll be perfect.

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So this goes in up here.

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Yeah. And now we need to paint it, of course.

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And we do that with this oxide paint

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which is essentially very finely ground glass.

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What are you going to mix it with now?

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Now I'm adding vinegar to make it paintable, into a paste, really.

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Is that what they would have used?

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No, they would have used urine in the Middle Ages.

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Urine? Well...

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Cow's urine? Horse's urine?

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No, actually, the best urine

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would have been that of a prepubescent red-haired boy.

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What's with the red hair?

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LAUGHS: I don't know.

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Personal pre... Extraordinary idea.

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Personal taste. Right.

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But it does actually work extremely well. I have tried it.

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What, with urine? You have tried it?

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Is it better than vinegar? Yes.

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I'm not going to offer. SHE LAUGHS

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What am I going to do? Copy this? Yes, if you will.

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I'll try.

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It's really nice, isn't it? I mean, it goes on very, very smoothly.

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I can see how you can do great folds and things, yes.

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And then it's put into place. Yeah.

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Bob's your uncle. Like that.

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These days, the Church no longer dominates our lives.

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But back in the Middle Ages, religion was everything.

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It gave purpose and structure to daily life.

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It helped protect the sick and the poor.

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But at the same time, it sought to control people's thoughts

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and deeds.

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Right, you've got to put your feet there and there.

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That's good.

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You have to take a bit of trouble to see

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the lengths to which the Church went to get its message across.

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How does that feel? Any better? It feels all right.

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Certainly looks good.

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BOTH LAUGH

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Mountaineering was never my passion.

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40 feet above ground,

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on the chancel arch of Holy Trinity,

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is a rare survival from the age.

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I can't look down because I'll be sick.

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HE GROANS

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Try and get a foot round.

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This is a picture of the end of the world.

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When it was first painted, it would have been absolutely brilliant.

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You'd have seen all the detail.

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The whole scene is a kind of chaos, a jumble of people.

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The dead being awakened for the Day of Judgement.

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And over there on the left-hand side

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people going up to paradise,

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coming out of their coffins and ascending into heaven.

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But it's this side that's so vivid,

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this powerful picture of the fate that awaits the sinner.

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There are little demons everywhere. There's a demon down here by my foot.

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And then there are demons all through it.

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Those women there, the alewives, as they're called,

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women who watered down the beer

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and then got people to buy it by displaying their physical charms,

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such as they are.

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This is particularly strong, the great jaws of hell here

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with the flames devouring the sinners

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and the eyes of the beast of hell with his claws

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and a figure falling down into it.

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If you were looking at this, you would know

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that the Day of Judgement would come for everybody.

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You could be sealed in a tomb but you wouldn't be allowed to stay there

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because at the Day of Judgement you'd be brought out.

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You'd either come to this side or to that.

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And therefore, you'd better watch your behaviour

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otherwise this is the fate that awaits you.

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BLOWS WHISTLE

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For centuries, the great art of Europe

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had been produced mainly by monks working in monasteries.

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But now craftsmen were realising their talents could be marketed.

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To be an artist was becoming a profession.

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There were masons,

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painters...

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..and sculptors,

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each striving to produce work

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which would astonish their patrons with its skill and its beauty.

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HORN BLOWS

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The Parker Library in Cambridge

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contains some of the most valuable medieval books and manuscripts,

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and interestingly, that's where you also find

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the best examples of medieval painting -

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in those books and those manuscripts.

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And this is probably the finest.

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The Bury Bible.

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It's illustrated by one of the greatest of all craftsmen.

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He was called Master Hugo,

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and he was somebody who'd travelled all over Europe to get his ideas

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and this was the result.

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What's most striking is how vivid the colours are

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after nearly 900 years.

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These reds and blues and beautiful green.

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And the reason is, this is paint that was made with white of egg,

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which gives it a sort of thick consistency

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which makes it last on the page.

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And then the detail

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of all the usual flowers and gold decoration

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that you see in earlier manuscripts.

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But here, all kinds of bits of life going on.

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A mermaid with two fish.

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Monkeys there.

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A centaur - half horse, half man - with a banner.

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And then, if we go on,

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this is a picture of Moses

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with his tablets from the mountain top,

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his brother Aaron on the right here with his rod,

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and down at the bottom, Aaron counting

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the numbers of the people of Israel.

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But the technique is very interesting.

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Firstly, this use of the material

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to show the shape of the body.

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It's called damp-fold, as though your clothes were damp on you

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and touching the body at the knee and the thigh,

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so that it brings the characters alive,

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which was a technique that he had learnt from Byzantine art.

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The other thing is the very expressive faces.

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Look at Moses' face.

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And the face here of these figures looking slightly bewildered,

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slightly subservient.

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This work is far more human, far more emotional,

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than anything you see

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in the older monks' illustrations and illuminations of the Bible.

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What's happening here is that the artist is taking over,

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not as illustrator but as interpreter

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of the meaning of the story of the Bible.

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As the Middle Ages unfolded, a new way of seeing the world emerged

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that would unite Church and Crown.

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It was inspired by heroic tales and ancient legends.

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They called it chivalry.

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Chivalry was a code of behaviour for knights

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which prized particular virtues -

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courage, prowess in battle, loyalty, a sense of honour.

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It took much of its inspiration from the stories of King Arthur

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and the Knights of the Round Table.

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Whether they were mythical

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or whether they were based on some former British king,

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we don't know.

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But they were so compelling, these stories,

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so full of romance and adventure,

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that they led to the creation

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of one of the most striking objects of the Middle Ages.

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It was designed for ceremonial use

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at a royal tournament in the reign of Edward I.

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It looks like a giant dartboard

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hanging in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle,

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the old royal palace.

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In fact, it's an 18-foot-wide solid oak table.

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And the game's given away by the words in the centre -

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"This is the round table of King Arthur

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"and 24 of his named knights."

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It was a re-creation of the table of Arthur.

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It's got the names of the knights at the top. You can see some of them.

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Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot there. Sir Gawain.

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And in the middle is King Arthur himself.

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But the interesting thing about this

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is that the power of chivalry was so great

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it turns up not just here on this table

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but all through our art at the time.

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Some of the finest work was inspired

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by the overriding ambition of medieval knights

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to recapture the Holy Land for Christianity -

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the Crusades.

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One order of crusading knights, the Knights Templar,

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had their own church in London, where they honoured the fallen.

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They built their church round...

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..to look like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,

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where Christ was said to be buried,

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so that when they came here to their church in London,

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they were coming to Jerusalem.

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And this is where they too chose to be buried.

0:28:010:28:04

These are the tombs of some of the knights.

0:28:070:28:11

They look ravaged by age,

0:28:130:28:16

the stone all worn.

0:28:160:28:18

Bu not at all - it was an incendiary bomb in the Second World War

0:28:180:28:23

that fell through the roof here

0:28:230:28:25

and destroyed what up till then were perfect replicas of the knights.

0:28:250:28:30

Luckily, some still survive.

0:28:300:28:34

This is a family - father and two of his three sons,

0:28:480:28:51

Earls of Pembroke.

0:28:510:28:53

And the interesting thing is, Father died in his 70s,

0:28:530:28:57

this one died in his 40s

0:28:570:28:59

and yet they all look young, and there's a reason for it.

0:28:590:29:03

If we have a close look at this one, it explains exactly why.

0:29:030:29:07

He's got his helmet, chain mail,

0:29:090:29:12

this tunic with beautiful folds in it...

0:29:120:29:16

..his hand on his sword,

0:29:180:29:20

pulling his sword from its scabbard.

0:29:200:29:23

His legs aren't crossed in repose, like someone asleep, someone dead.

0:29:250:29:30

They're moving. He's almost about to get up.

0:29:300:29:34

And when you look at his face,

0:29:340:29:37

the eyes are actually open.

0:29:370:29:39

And it's the face of a young man,

0:29:410:29:43

a warrior in his prime,

0:29:430:29:46

not lying dead, but waiting to arise again

0:29:460:29:50

and fight for Christendom.

0:29:500:29:52

BIRDSONG

0:29:570:30:01

It wasn't enough for a knight to be a brave warrior in battle.

0:30:130:30:18

The code of chivalry expected him to be a devoted lover as well.

0:30:180:30:23

One of the greatest romances of the age

0:30:280:30:31

was between Edward I and his queen, Eleanor of Castile.

0:30:310:30:36

When she died, away from London, in 1290,

0:30:390:30:43

the grief-struck king determined to commemorate their love.

0:30:430:30:47

The village of Geddington in Northamptonshire

0:30:520:30:56

used to be the site of a royal hunting lodge

0:30:560:30:58

and this was one of the places that Eleanor's funeral procession stopped

0:30:580:31:02

on its way from Lincoln to London.

0:31:020:31:05

There were 12 stopping places in all

0:31:050:31:08

and at each one, Edward had built a monument to his wife.

0:31:080:31:12

And this one at Geddington is far and away the best preserved.

0:31:120:31:16

We're used to seeing old monuments eroded by time.

0:31:180:31:23

We love them for it, for this golden patina,

0:31:230:31:27

for the feeling of something that's stood here for centuries.

0:31:270:31:31

It's difficult to think what they were like

0:31:310:31:34

when they were first put up.

0:31:340:31:35

They weren't like this at all.

0:31:350:31:37

This monument would have been painted in positively garish colours,

0:31:370:31:44

probably with gilding

0:31:440:31:45

and certainly set with pieces of glass.

0:31:450:31:48

It was a kind of striking image - nothing like what it looks now.

0:31:480:31:52

Beautifully done, with all these flowers and leaves.

0:31:520:31:56

And then the three statues of Eleanor herself,

0:31:570:32:01

facing the three roads that come into the village.

0:32:010:32:05

It's striking how similar the statue of Eleanor is

0:32:110:32:16

to a statue of the Virgin Mary.

0:32:160:32:18

And that's no coincidence.

0:32:180:32:19

It fits in with the medieval idea of woman, the perfect woman -

0:32:190:32:24

pure and chaste, the woman as mother,

0:32:240:32:27

the woman literally put on a pedestal, out of reach.

0:32:270:32:31

Seven centuries on,

0:32:450:32:46

the Eleanor monument still serves as an inspiration to the village.

0:32:460:32:52

Well, I've lived here since I was two,

0:32:520:32:54

so I've lived here for 82 years,

0:32:540:32:56

so the cross has always been a centre of a lot of activities.

0:32:560:33:02

This is a sort of monument - it's rather romantic, isn't it? - to love.

0:33:020:33:05

Indeed, yes.

0:33:050:33:06

Eleanor and Edward... Beautiful. Yes.

0:33:060:33:09

Bert and Margaret. BOTH LAUGH

0:33:090:33:12

Has your life been as romantic as theirs was?

0:33:140:33:17

Oh, yes, I think so. Yes.

0:33:170:33:19

Do you see her as pure and chaste

0:33:190:33:22

like the Virgin Mary, like Eleanor?

0:33:220:33:24

BERT LAUGHS

0:33:240:33:26

Yes, I'm sure he does. Yes, definitely

0:33:260:33:28

Yes. We've never sort of had any flings or anything of that sort.

0:33:280:33:33

We've been loyal and loving to each other, haven't we?

0:33:330:33:36

Yes. Yes. For almost 60 years.

0:33:360:33:38

Does he put you on a pedestal?

0:33:380:33:40

No, I don't think...

0:33:400:33:42

I don't think Bert would build me a cross like this.

0:33:420:33:47

Would you?

0:33:470:33:48

I would if I had the means, yes.

0:33:480:33:50

ALL LAUGH

0:33:500:33:52

All the notions of chivalry came together at Windsor in the 1340s.

0:34:120:34:18

Here, Edward III created a home for a new order of English knights.

0:34:210:34:28

Within the walls of Windsor is a remarkable survival

0:34:360:34:40

of Edward's chivalric vision.

0:34:400:34:43

This is something very special.

0:34:480:34:50

I can uncover it...

0:34:500:34:52

Obviously, a long, long sword.

0:34:590:35:03

It's very nearly 7 foot.

0:35:050:35:07

6 foot 8 inches long of solid steel.

0:35:070:35:10

The hilt, covered with leather and a steel pommel here.

0:35:100:35:15

And this blade of steel, it's been polished and beaten into shape.

0:35:150:35:20

And what's special about it is that this sword belonged to Edward III.

0:35:240:35:29

This is not an ornamental sword. There's no decoration on it.

0:35:310:35:35

This is a practical fighting sword.

0:35:350:35:38

And it's thought that Edward III would have used it in tournament.

0:35:380:35:43

It's certainly a sword that could kill -

0:35:430:35:46

light and very sharp at the end.

0:35:460:35:49

But this sword is important for another reason,

0:35:500:35:52

not just because it was Edward III's.

0:35:520:35:54

In 1348, Edward formed a group of knights,

0:35:540:35:58

the Knights of the Garter,

0:35:580:36:01

and this very sword was given up by Edward at that point

0:36:010:36:05

and taken to the chapel of the Order of the Knights

0:36:050:36:08

and hung above his stall in the chapel.

0:36:080:36:12

It was a great symbolic moment.

0:36:120:36:14

This sword designed for battle

0:36:140:36:17

had become a sword designed to represent faith.

0:36:170:36:20

And warfare and faith were the two great elements

0:36:200:36:24

of the concept of chivalry.

0:36:240:36:26

St George's Chapel, Windsor,

0:36:360:36:39

is still the home of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

0:36:390:36:43

And just like Arthur's Round Table,

0:36:430:36:45

there are only 24 knights at any one time.

0:36:450:36:49

The walls of the choir where the knights sit

0:36:540:36:57

are beautiful dark oak...

0:36:570:36:59

..but gleaming with brass plates.

0:37:010:37:04

They're the plates of the Garter Knights -

0:37:090:37:13

800 or so out of the 1,000 there have been.

0:37:130:37:17

They're like a whole history of Britain.

0:37:220:37:25

The oldest one of all is up here at the back,

0:37:250:37:31

different from all the others,

0:37:310:37:33

and it belongs to Ralph Bassett.

0:37:330:37:37

And here's his coat of arms.

0:37:370:37:40

First of all, the family crest -

0:37:400:37:42

a black boar in heavy enamel

0:37:420:37:44

with gold tusks, a gold eye and a gold crown round his neck.

0:37:440:37:51

Here's the shield, with its three red stripes,

0:37:510:37:55

and five tails of ermine on this square.

0:37:550:38:00

And then what's called a roundel, another sort of shield,

0:38:000:38:04

in red and blue

0:38:040:38:05

with fleur-de-lis on.

0:38:050:38:08

The technicalities of heraldry all sound very complex

0:38:080:38:12

and they're a thing for the experts, really,

0:38:120:38:14

but in the Middle Ages, what they allowed you to do

0:38:140:38:16

was to instantly recognise in battle

0:38:160:38:20

where various knights and their followers were.

0:38:200:38:23

So you'd see a banner flying and you'd say, "Ah,

0:38:230:38:25

"that's old Ralph Bassett down there.

0:38:250:38:28

"He's doing all right on the right flank. What's happening on the left?"

0:38:280:38:30

And you'd know for certain you'd picked the right man.

0:38:300:38:33

So these are not just a symbol of the pride and courage of a knight,

0:38:330:38:37

they're also intensely practical as a way of identifying him.

0:38:370:38:41

So-called Military Knights who serve the Order of the Garter

0:38:520:38:57

still live within the castle walls.

0:38:570:38:59

JAZZY DOORBELL CHIME

0:38:590:39:02

Good morning. I like the tune.

0:39:050:39:07

Do come in.

0:39:070:39:08

How do you decide which bell to use? This one...

0:39:080:39:10

My friends use the tuneful one. PIERCING DOORBELL

0:39:100:39:13

That's better. BOTH LAUGH

0:39:130:39:15

I see.

0:39:150:39:16

LAUGHS

0:39:160:39:19

Must drive you mad after a bit.

0:39:190:39:20

MAN LAUGHS

0:39:200:39:23

Uniform's very smart.

0:39:230:39:25

Very heavy. Heavy, is it?

0:39:260:39:28

Yeah, it's very heavy. It looks great.

0:39:280:39:29

It was built, I think, to stop musket balls

0:39:290:39:33

at a range of about 30 yards.

0:39:330:39:35

DAVID LAUGHS

0:39:350:39:37

What's your job, as a knight?

0:39:370:39:39

Well, I'm a Military Knight, yes, and our job is primarily prayer.

0:39:390:39:46

Prayer? Oh, really? Prayer.

0:39:460:39:48

To pray for the Sovereign

0:39:480:39:50

and the Companions, living and departed,

0:39:500:39:52

of the Most Honourable and Noble Order of the Garter.

0:39:520:39:55

So what are the characteristics of a chivalrous knight?

0:39:550:39:58

Being gentle, kind, considerate and very tough.

0:39:580:40:04

What does it mean now, do you think?

0:40:050:40:07

Here you are, wonderfully dressed up in scarlet,

0:40:070:40:09

with gold epaulettes and white sash

0:40:090:40:13

and gold badges and buttons and all that.

0:40:130:40:15

But does it actually mean anything still in the modern day

0:40:150:40:18

or is it just a sort of anachronism?

0:40:180:40:19

It certainly means quite a lot to me, yes.

0:40:190:40:22

I think it's a bit of show. And why not?

0:40:220:40:25

A bit of theatre.

0:40:250:40:27

Bits drop off the uniforms occasionally.

0:40:270:40:30

Do they? LAUGHS: Yes.

0:40:300:40:31

What drops off?

0:40:310:40:33

The badges off the epaulettes. They're only pinned on.

0:40:330:40:36

And it has been known for an entire epaulette

0:40:360:40:39

to suddenly leave the shoulder.

0:40:390:40:41

Garter Knights leaving a trail of badges of honour...

0:40:410:40:44

Accoutrements. It looks as if they're retreating.

0:40:440:40:46

The ideal of chivalry and its practice

0:40:510:40:54

were not always quite the same thing.

0:40:540:40:57

In the second half of the 14th century,

0:41:020:41:05

ferocious wars against France

0:41:050:41:07

brought about a new style of warfare.

0:41:070:41:10

Leading the onslaught was Edward III's son,

0:41:150:41:19

inspired less by faith than an appetite for power and glory.

0:41:190:41:25

This is the Tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral.

0:41:310:41:36

We have to climb up to see it properly

0:41:360:41:38

because of the railings that rather obscure it.

0:41:380:41:40

The Black Prince, who was the eldest son of Edward III,

0:41:420:41:45

who never succeeded to the throne, a man of arms fighting the French,

0:41:450:41:50

with a reputation for hardness, determination, even cruelty.

0:41:500:41:54

It's said that he killed women and children

0:41:540:41:57

in one of the sieges of a town he undertook.

0:41:570:41:59

But he had an eye also for what would happen after his death.

0:42:010:42:05

Money could buy you the route to heaven

0:42:050:42:10

and he specified exactly how he should be buried.

0:42:100:42:13

It is absolutely astonishing.

0:42:210:42:23

600 years old. Over 600 years old.

0:42:230:42:26

It's made of bronze and gilded.

0:42:260:42:28

His tunic, with lions emblazoned on it.

0:42:310:42:35

And the belt, the sword belt, with lions on it as well.

0:42:380:42:42

His feet, with the spurs resting on his dog.

0:42:440:42:48

His hands, he was particularly keen, should be in a position of prayer.

0:42:540:42:59

Interestingly, the Victorians took this idea of the Black Prince so seriously

0:43:020:43:07

that they actually painted it black.

0:43:070:43:11

It was only in the 1930s

0:43:110:43:13

that somebody scraping away discovered underneath

0:43:130:43:16

this glorious figure, resplendent in gilded bronze.

0:43:160:43:22

The Black Prince died before he could become king,

0:43:400:43:44

but his craving for glory was inherited by his son.

0:43:440:43:48

King Richard II wanted the crown itself to be an object of worship.

0:43:490:43:55

His vanity and his ambition created an era of magnificence,

0:43:550:44:00

the artistic pinnacle of the Middle Ages.

0:44:000:44:03

Munich is home to a unique survival of Richard's reign.

0:44:220:44:27

Most of his treasure was melted down in the English Civil War of the 1600s.

0:44:290:44:36

But by good fortune, one precious object was preserved.

0:44:360:44:41

It's kept in the Residenz Palace, once home to the kings of Bavaria.

0:44:450:44:51

This is the only surviving English crown from the Middle Ages.

0:45:350:45:40

Everything else was destroyed.

0:45:420:45:45

This crown was in Richard II's treasury.

0:45:450:45:49

It was worn by his first wife.

0:45:490:45:52

It came to Germany on the marriage of a royal princess a few years later.

0:45:540:45:58

It is an object of indescribable beauty.

0:46:030:46:06

A circle of 12 free-standing lilies in gold...

0:46:080:46:13

..set on a hinged ring at the bottom here

0:46:150:46:20

and each lily set with precious stones -

0:46:200:46:24

rubies, sapphires cut like boiled sweets.

0:46:240:46:28

"Cabochon", they call it.

0:46:280:46:31

Pearls...

0:46:310:46:32

..emeralds

0:46:340:46:35

and diamonds.

0:46:350:46:37

And you think, if this was the crown that the queen wore,

0:46:440:46:50

what would the king's crown have been like?

0:46:500:46:53

Richard II, after all, was the king who, for the first time,

0:46:530:46:56

insisted on being called Royal Majesty.

0:46:560:47:00

And for him, the crown would have been a symbol of that majesty,

0:47:010:47:06

of his right to be king,

0:47:060:47:07

of something almost godlike about his role.

0:47:070:47:13

In London, Richard created a superb setting

0:47:300:47:34

for his new style of monarchy.

0:47:340:47:36

Today, Westminster Hall is dwarfed by the Houses of Parliament.

0:47:420:47:47

Back then, it was a wonder of the medieval world.

0:47:470:47:52

This roof, when it was built,

0:48:290:48:31

was the widest unsupported roof in the whole of Europe -

0:48:310:48:36

a quite astonishing achievement.

0:48:360:48:38

And it was all Richard II's.

0:48:380:48:39

26 carved angels,

0:48:450:48:47

each holding the coat of arms of the king.

0:48:470:48:53

This hall had stood here for 300 years

0:48:550:48:58

when he came to the throne

0:48:580:48:59

but he raised the walls, he put in the ceiling,

0:48:590:49:05

he stamped it with his own image all the way round.

0:49:050:49:09

There are white hart, his own personal symbol,

0:49:090:49:11

right the way around the hall, right down there, across,

0:49:110:49:15

and right along there.

0:49:150:49:18

And what's really interesting about this is he used the best carpenters,

0:49:180:49:22

the best masons,

0:49:220:49:24

he used English oak, English carvers.

0:49:240:49:26

He was taking a French style and transforming it

0:49:260:49:30

into an English style,

0:49:300:49:32

saying, "Not only am I Richard II, the King,

0:49:320:49:36

"but I am going to show the way

0:49:360:49:38

"for a new kind of England,

0:49:380:49:40

"where art supports me as the monarch."

0:49:400:49:44

Richard encouraged all the arts.

0:49:530:49:56

It was for his court that The Canterbury Tales was written.

0:49:580:50:02

This epic work tells of a band of pilgrims

0:50:050:50:09

on their way to Becket's tomb at Canterbury.

0:50:090:50:12

There are memorable portraits -

0:50:130:50:16

the drunken miller,

0:50:160:50:20

the unholy holy man

0:50:200:50:24

and the much-married wife of Bath.

0:50:240:50:26

It was the work of the first great writer in the English language,

0:50:280:50:32

Richard's court poet, Geoffrey Chaucer.

0:50:320:50:36

This painting is unique -

0:50:360:50:39

it's the only portrait of Chaucer,

0:50:390:50:43

reading his poetry to the court of Richard II.

0:50:430:50:47

It's a very finely painted picture

0:50:550:51:00

that drips in gold.

0:51:000:51:02

Absolutely right too, because it's showing his court

0:51:020:51:05

and all the women have gold headdresses,

0:51:050:51:07

the men have cloaks with gold and jewels on.

0:51:070:51:10

And they're sitting absolutely enraptured

0:51:130:51:17

as Chaucer, in a little pulpit, with a cloth in front

0:51:170:51:20

reads his poetry.

0:51:200:51:22

They would have been used to listening to poetry

0:51:260:51:30

read to them in French.

0:51:300:51:32

French was the language of the educated classes,

0:51:320:51:35

had been ever since the Norman Conquest.

0:51:350:51:38

What Chaucer did was almost perverse.

0:51:380:51:41

He turned to the vulgar language, the language of the common people,

0:51:410:51:46

English,

0:51:460:51:47

and used that for his poetry,

0:51:470:51:49

and in so doing, he unleashed the strength of the imagery of English.

0:51:490:51:54

Just read me a bit. What is this from?

0:51:580:52:00

OK, this is the description

0:52:000:52:02

of the wife of Bath from the General Prologue.

0:52:020:52:05

READS: "A good wif was ther, of biside Bathe..."

0:52:050:52:08

Wait a minute, wait a minute. A good what?

0:52:080:52:10

"A good wif." That's "wife". That's "wife".

0:52:100:52:12

When you read it on the page, you have to imagine it being written

0:52:120:52:14

by a friend of yours who can't spell.

0:52:140:52:16

Oh, right. Then it becomes very easy.

0:52:160:52:18

If you think of the spelling being very, very peculiar and archaic,

0:52:180:52:23

then it's difficult.

0:52:230:52:24

So you mustn't be embarrassed, really.

0:52:240:52:26

Just think of it as being bad spelling

0:52:260:52:28

and a great deal of it becomes extremely straightforward.

0:52:280:52:30

So let me just try this bit.

0:52:300:52:32

"She was a worthy womman al hir..." What's that?

0:52:320:52:37

"Lyve". "Life". ..al hir lyve.

0:52:370:52:39

"All her life". Yes.

0:52:390:52:40

Al hir lyve. She'd outlived all her five husbands.

0:52:400:52:44

She's a professional wife and a professional widow.

0:52:440:52:47

"But therof..."

0:52:470:52:49

"But therof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe..."

0:52:490:52:53

There'd been this other company when she was young

0:52:530:52:55

but we needn't talk about that now.

0:52:550:52:57

But he's clearly saying she was a... she had an eye for the men.

0:52:570:53:02

He's implying that. He's certainly saying she had an eye for the men.

0:53:020:53:05

OK, I'll have a go.

0:53:050:53:07

Right. You tell me how I do.

0:53:070:53:08

"She was a worthy womman al hir lyve.

0:53:080:53:12

"Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde fyve.

0:53:120:53:15

"Withouthen oother compaignye in youthe.

0:53:150:53:18

"But therof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe."

0:53:180:53:23

That's wonderful, especially the confidence.

0:53:230:53:26

The confidence! That's what matters.

0:53:260:53:28

The confidence is misplaced. That's what makes it convincing.

0:53:280:53:31

Under King Richard II, English art acquired a national identity.

0:53:470:53:53

This new spirit inspired the masterpiece of the age -

0:53:540:54:00

one of the wonders of the National Gallery.

0:54:000:54:03

These are the rooms of medieval painting

0:54:080:54:11

in the National Gallery in London.

0:54:110:54:13

We're surrounded by stupendous pictures

0:54:130:54:16

that gleam from the walls,

0:54:160:54:18

most of them Italian.

0:54:180:54:19

But here is the jewel of this collection

0:54:190:54:22

and this is English.

0:54:220:54:25

It's an altarpiece made for Richard II.

0:54:280:54:33

It was designed to go wherever he wants

0:54:330:54:35

so it could be opened up for him to pray before it.

0:54:350:54:38

And it shows Richard here, with his crown, on his knees on one side

0:54:380:54:43

with three saints behind him.

0:54:430:54:48

The first one with the arrow, St Edmund, English king, beatified,

0:54:480:54:54

Edward the Confessor, also a saint,

0:54:540:54:57

who Richard was always harking back to,

0:54:570:55:00

and John the Baptist,

0:55:000:55:03

who was, in a way, Richard II's protector,

0:55:030:55:07

with his lamb and his hand around Richard.

0:55:070:55:10

Richard on his knees, with his hands like that,

0:55:120:55:15

apparently about to receive something.

0:55:150:55:17

And what he's about to receive is explained here.

0:55:170:55:20

This side is heaven.

0:55:210:55:23

It shows the Virgin with Jesus in her arms.

0:55:240:55:28

Around her, these angels,

0:55:280:55:31

and the angels each have a little badge, or favour,

0:55:310:55:36

of the white hart - Richard II's white hart.

0:55:360:55:40

So all the angels are showing their allegiance to Richard down here.

0:55:400:55:46

And the Christ child appears to be

0:55:460:55:49

presenting something to Richard, which he is receiving,

0:55:490:55:52

and what it is is this standard of the Resurrection.

0:55:520:55:57

And this is a detail they only discovered recently

0:55:570:56:00

and it's absolutely extraordinary.

0:56:000:56:02

You have to use a magnifying glass to see it at all.

0:56:020:56:05

At the very top of the staff is an orb.

0:56:050:56:08

And you can just see, even though it's very tarnished,

0:56:090:56:14

silver leaf.

0:56:140:56:16

You can just see that it's a painting of an island

0:56:160:56:19

with a castle, a white castle,

0:56:190:56:22

and a tiny white sailing boat.

0:56:220:56:24

This sceptred isle set in a silver sea.

0:56:260:56:31

It's England.

0:56:320:56:35

And the Virgin and Christ, they're in effect presenting England

0:56:350:56:40

to Richard II.

0:56:400:56:43

The whole thing is a celebration of Richard's kingship,

0:56:480:56:53

of Richard's divine right to rule.

0:56:530:56:55

Saintly kings behind him to whom he's appealing,

0:56:550:56:58

angels wearing his badge

0:56:580:57:01

and Christ presenting England to him.

0:57:010:57:04

There could be no finer demonstration

0:57:040:57:07

of what Richard II believed his role on Earth to be.

0:57:070:57:10

Our story began with a king humiliated by the Church.

0:57:190:57:24

It ends here.

0:57:240:57:27

Art was now firmly in the hands of the Crown.

0:57:270:57:32

In the next stage

0:57:440:57:46

a royal tyrant,

0:57:460:57:48

a virgin queen.

0:57:480:57:50

Voyages of exploration, plundered booty,

0:57:500:57:54

the triumph of the English language.

0:57:540:57:58

Britain in the age of power.

0:58:000:58:03

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:370:58:40

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