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The Middle Ages. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
A time of faith and a time of fear. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
GATE CLANGS | 0:00:34 | 0:00:35 | |
In Hereford, monks created a work of art | 0:00:35 | 0:00:40 | |
designed to make sense of the unknown. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
This is Mappa Mundi, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
a map of the world as it was known around 1300. | 0:00:56 | 0:01:01 | |
It's not the kind of map you'd want to use if you were going on a journey, | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
because it's completely distorted. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:07 | |
For instance, down here, | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
England, Wales, Ireland crammed down there. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
Scotland. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:18 | |
Then you go across Germany to Italy. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
There's Rome rather grandly shown there. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
But it's not just that kind of physical map. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
What it's actually about is faith and superstition, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:34 | |
religion and romance. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
Religion because at the heart is Jerusalem. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:43 | |
Then there are things from the Bible. There's Noah's Ark. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
The Tower of Babel. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:51 | |
And above, the Day of Judgement. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
But also, these strange, mythical creatures. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
Bodies with eyes set in their chests. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
Frightening and weird creepy-crawly things. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:10 | |
The most astonishing picture of things that were known | 0:02:17 | 0:02:22 | |
and things that were imagined at the time. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
It's the whole of life as it was seen. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
A work of art | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
which opens the door to the world of the Middle Ages. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:41 | |
BELL TOLLS | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
Medieval life was controlled by two great forces - | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
the Crown and the Church. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:23 | |
In the 12th century, a power struggle broke out between them. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
It came to a head with a shocking murder. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:35 | |
On 29 December, 1170, a cold winter's night, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:46 | |
the archbishop, Thomas Becket, was at home here in Canterbury. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
He was already one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
some said more powerful than the king himself. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
And that was his downfall. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
Four knights loyal to the king came here to Canterbury | 0:04:00 | 0:04:05 | |
to rid him of the man | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
that he'd complained was treating him with shameful contempt. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:11 | |
The archbishop's staff hustled him into the cathedral | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
hoping that here, at least, he'd find sanctuary. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
This was sacred ground, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:37 | |
but that didn't deter the king's knights. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
Nor did they care that their victim was Archbishop of Canterbury, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
head of the English Church. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
They were determined to show the king's power was supreme. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:53 | |
It's said they found Becket standing here calmly waiting for them. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:02 | |
"Here I am, no king's traitor but a priest. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:07 | |
"Why do you seek me?" | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
And one of the knights replied, | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
taunting him, and striking the cap off his head, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
said, "Fly! You are a dead man." | 0:05:15 | 0:05:19 | |
The other assassins piled in with their swords, | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
struck him blows on the head till he fell to the ground, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
cut open his skull and let the brains flow out over the floor. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:32 | |
They thought they'd solved a problem for the king | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
but his troubles were only just beginning. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
The murder met with outrage across the Christian world. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:55 | |
The king tried to make amends, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
walking barefoot through the streets of Canterbury | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
and being flogged by monks in the cathedral. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
It was round one to the Church. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
With Becket declared a saint by the pope, | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
Canterbury became an important place of pilgrimage. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
People came from all over Europe to worship at his shrine. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
Cathedral as a snowstorm. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
Model of the cathedral with sparkles on top. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:49 | |
Archbishop. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
Crosses. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
An archbishop teddy bear. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
Rowan Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
looking slightly manic. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:01 | |
Well, you might think that souvenirs are a kind of new thing. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:06 | |
Not at all. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
These are badges, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
all of Thomas a Becket, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
that were sold here in the 1300s. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:30 | |
They're made of a very soft pewter, a mixture of tin and lead. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
And they were made in moulds in stone, | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
so there were lots and lots and lots of them produced. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:38 | |
I think, in a way, this is the liveliest one. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
This is Becket on a ship | 0:07:41 | 0:07:46 | |
coming back across the Channel from the Continent | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
to Canterbury just a month or so before he was murdered. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
So Becket's in the middle with his hand up in a blessing, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
as he is always seen, | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
and what's really interesting, though, is the ship. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
You can see all the planking here, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
the sailor pulling on the ropes, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
and if you go to the bow, there's the anchor hanging down | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
and a soldier on the forecastle with his sword and shield. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:16 | |
In one sense, these are more than just badges, though, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
because they would be taken to the tomb of Thomas at Canterbury | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
and touched against the side | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
so they became what was called a touch relic, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
and when you took them home and touched the badge, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
you were in effect touching the tomb of Thomas | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
that you'd come to worship at. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
Just come and have a look. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
These are souvenirs from 1300. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
Oh, wow! Aren't they extraordinary? | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
They're pretty amazing. Have a close look. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
And it's Thomas a Becket coming on his ship from France. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
They're so detailed. That's what's so interesting. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
Yes. Beautifully done. Amazing. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
They're made of lead. Yeah. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
They were found in the mud on the banks of the Thames. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
Can you imagine the excitement on a Sunday morning at low tide | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
going along with your metal detector and coming up with this? | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
So where are they normally kept? | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
They're in a museum in London. They've been brought here. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
This is the first time they've been here for 700 years. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
They were sold here 700 years ago. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
And they're not for sale today. ALL LAUGH | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
Over the decades, the pilgrims and the money they brought with them | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
transformed this cathedral into a memorial to Becket. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:44 | |
The climax of the pilgrimage was to come up these steps. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:52 | |
You can see that the stone itself is worn away. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
They probably approached kneeling. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
And what they were coming to do | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
was kneel at the shrine of Thomas a Becket... | 0:10:00 | 0:10:05 | |
..which was placed here in the centre, where the candle now burns. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
By all accounts, it was a huge, gilded, brilliant construction | 0:10:12 | 0:10:18 | |
encrusted with precious jewels. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
When Henry VIII split with the Pope, he ordered it to be destroyed. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
So there's just a candle to show where it once was. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
What was left, though, were 12 glorious windows | 0:10:30 | 0:10:36 | |
gleaming in blue and yellow and green, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
that show the miracles that Thomas performed after his death. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:46 | |
Stained glass is far and away the most powerful, vivid art | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
of the Middle Ages. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
You have to look at this glass | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
as though you were somebody from that time | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
looking at it for the first time. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
No television, no film, you've never seen anything like that, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
and you're presented with this. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
The brilliance of the colour, | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
the great beauty and animation of the figures telling these stories. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:34 | |
And the light streaming in at you, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
almost as though God was illuminating the cathedral. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:45 | |
And the stories themselves... so wonderfully told. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
Children being cured of their diseases. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
People being cured of leprosy, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
of plague... | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
..of lameness... | 0:12:05 | 0:12:06 | |
..of blindness. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
Wonderful stories, with Thomas appearing from time to time | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
because one of the purposes of this glass was to praise Thomas | 0:12:18 | 0:12:23 | |
but also to give comfort and inspiration | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
to the people who looked at them. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
There could be no better insight into the beliefs | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
and the way of thinking of the Middle Ages. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
The artists who worked with stained glass | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
were among the finest craftsmen of the age. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
We look at this through the microscope all the time | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
and we do not find mistakes. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
They are painted perfectly. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
They don't scratch them out. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
They don't repaint a line that went a little bit shaky. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
The only place where you find repairs or alterations | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
are in the inscriptions, | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
and that tells me that the painters were probably illiterate | 0:13:29 | 0:13:33 | |
and they were just copying something they didn't understand. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
The colour is really vivid, isn't it? This yellow, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:39 | |
and the red of their stockings. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
How did they get this intensity? I mean, these blues... | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
Well, cobalt, for instance, makes blue. Copper makes red. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:51 | |
Gold makes a beautiful pink. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
This colour? Yes. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
Can you show me the techniques? Yeah, sure. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
So you pick your piece of glass that is round about the right size | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
for the shape you want to cut, | 0:14:02 | 0:14:03 | |
and then with some lime wash, you mark exactly the shape | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
and then you use something called a grozing iron | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
to nibble away at the edges of the glass, hopefully without breaking it. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
I bet I will break it. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
That's it. Yeah, you got it. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
You see why you have to wear goggles for this. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
Is that right? Will that fit in? | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
That's amazing. Yes, that's very good. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
Fit it in. That'll be perfect. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:28 | |
So this goes in up here. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
Yeah. And now we need to paint it, of course. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
And we do that with this oxide paint | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
which is essentially very finely ground glass. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
What are you going to mix it with now? | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
Now I'm adding vinegar to make it paintable, into a paste, really. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
Is that what they would have used? | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
No, they would have used urine in the Middle Ages. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
Urine? Well... | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
Cow's urine? Horse's urine? | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
No, actually, the best urine | 0:14:53 | 0:14:54 | |
would have been that of a prepubescent red-haired boy. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
What's with the red hair? | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
LAUGHS: I don't know. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
Personal pre... Extraordinary idea. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
Personal taste. Right. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
But it does actually work extremely well. I have tried it. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
What, with urine? You have tried it? | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
Is it better than vinegar? Yes. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
I'm not going to offer. SHE LAUGHS | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
What am I going to do? Copy this? Yes, if you will. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
I'll try. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
It's really nice, isn't it? I mean, it goes on very, very smoothly. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
I can see how you can do great folds and things, yes. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
And then it's put into place. Yeah. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
Bob's your uncle. Like that. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
These days, the Church no longer dominates our lives. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
But back in the Middle Ages, religion was everything. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
It gave purpose and structure to daily life. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
It helped protect the sick and the poor. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
But at the same time, it sought to control people's thoughts | 0:16:04 | 0:16:09 | |
and deeds. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
Right, you've got to put your feet there and there. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
That's good. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:22 | |
You have to take a bit of trouble to see | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
the lengths to which the Church went to get its message across. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:31 | |
How does that feel? Any better? It feels all right. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
Certainly looks good. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:35 | |
BOTH LAUGH | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
Mountaineering was never my passion. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
40 feet above ground, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
on the chancel arch of Holy Trinity, | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
is a rare survival from the age. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
I can't look down because I'll be sick. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
HE GROANS | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
Try and get a foot round. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
This is a picture of the end of the world. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:32 | |
When it was first painted, it would have been absolutely brilliant. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
You'd have seen all the detail. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
The whole scene is a kind of chaos, a jumble of people. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:46 | |
The dead being awakened for the Day of Judgement. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
And over there on the left-hand side | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
people going up to paradise, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
coming out of their coffins and ascending into heaven. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
But it's this side that's so vivid, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
this powerful picture of the fate that awaits the sinner. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
There are little demons everywhere. There's a demon down here by my foot. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
And then there are demons all through it. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
Those women there, the alewives, as they're called, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
women who watered down the beer | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
and then got people to buy it by displaying their physical charms, | 0:18:43 | 0:18:48 | |
such as they are. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:49 | |
This is particularly strong, the great jaws of hell here | 0:18:52 | 0:18:57 | |
with the flames devouring the sinners | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
and the eyes of the beast of hell with his claws | 0:18:59 | 0:19:02 | |
and a figure falling down into it. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
If you were looking at this, you would know | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
that the Day of Judgement would come for everybody. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
You could be sealed in a tomb but you wouldn't be allowed to stay there | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
because at the Day of Judgement you'd be brought out. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
You'd either come to this side or to that. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
And therefore, you'd better watch your behaviour | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
otherwise this is the fate that awaits you. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
BLOWS WHISTLE | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
For centuries, the great art of Europe | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
had been produced mainly by monks working in monasteries. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
But now craftsmen were realising their talents could be marketed. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
To be an artist was becoming a profession. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
There were masons, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
painters... | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
..and sculptors, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
each striving to produce work | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
which would astonish their patrons with its skill and its beauty. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:38 | |
HORN BLOWS | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
The Parker Library in Cambridge | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
contains some of the most valuable medieval books and manuscripts, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:09 | |
and interestingly, that's where you also find | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
the best examples of medieval painting - | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
in those books and those manuscripts. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
And this is probably the finest. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
The Bury Bible. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
It's illustrated by one of the greatest of all craftsmen. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:28 | |
He was called Master Hugo, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:29 | |
and he was somebody who'd travelled all over Europe to get his ideas | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
and this was the result. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
What's most striking is how vivid the colours are | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
after nearly 900 years. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
These reds and blues and beautiful green. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
And the reason is, this is paint that was made with white of egg, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:56 | |
which gives it a sort of thick consistency | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
which makes it last on the page. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
And then the detail | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
of all the usual flowers and gold decoration | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
that you see in earlier manuscripts. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
But here, all kinds of bits of life going on. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
A mermaid with two fish. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
Monkeys there. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
A centaur - half horse, half man - with a banner. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
And then, if we go on, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
this is a picture of Moses | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
with his tablets from the mountain top, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
his brother Aaron on the right here with his rod, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:38 | |
and down at the bottom, Aaron counting | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
the numbers of the people of Israel. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
But the technique is very interesting. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
Firstly, this use of the material | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
to show the shape of the body. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
It's called damp-fold, as though your clothes were damp on you | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
and touching the body at the knee and the thigh, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
so that it brings the characters alive, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
which was a technique that he had learnt from Byzantine art. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:09 | |
The other thing is the very expressive faces. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:13 | |
Look at Moses' face. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
And the face here of these figures looking slightly bewildered, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:26 | |
slightly subservient. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:27 | |
This work is far more human, far more emotional, | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
than anything you see | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
in the older monks' illustrations and illuminations of the Bible. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:47 | |
What's happening here is that the artist is taking over, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:52 | |
not as illustrator but as interpreter | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
of the meaning of the story of the Bible. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
As the Middle Ages unfolded, a new way of seeing the world emerged | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
that would unite Church and Crown. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
It was inspired by heroic tales and ancient legends. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
They called it chivalry. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
Chivalry was a code of behaviour for knights | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
which prized particular virtues - | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
courage, prowess in battle, loyalty, a sense of honour. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
It took much of its inspiration from the stories of King Arthur | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
and the Knights of the Round Table. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
Whether they were mythical | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
or whether they were based on some former British king, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
we don't know. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:22 | |
But they were so compelling, these stories, | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
so full of romance and adventure, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
that they led to the creation | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
of one of the most striking objects of the Middle Ages. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
It was designed for ceremonial use | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
at a royal tournament in the reign of Edward I. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
It looks like a giant dartboard | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
hanging in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:01 | |
the old royal palace. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:02 | |
In fact, it's an 18-foot-wide solid oak table. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:08 | |
And the game's given away by the words in the centre - | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
"This is the round table of King Arthur | 0:26:11 | 0:26:16 | |
"and 24 of his named knights." | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
It was a re-creation of the table of Arthur. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
It's got the names of the knights at the top. You can see some of them. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot there. Sir Gawain. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
And in the middle is King Arthur himself. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
But the interesting thing about this | 0:26:40 | 0:26:41 | |
is that the power of chivalry was so great | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
it turns up not just here on this table | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
but all through our art at the time. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
Some of the finest work was inspired | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
by the overriding ambition of medieval knights | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
to recapture the Holy Land for Christianity - | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
the Crusades. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
One order of crusading knights, the Knights Templar, | 0:27:15 | 0:27:20 | |
had their own church in London, where they honoured the fallen. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
They built their church round... | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
..to look like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:53 | |
where Christ was said to be buried, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
so that when they came here to their church in London, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
they were coming to Jerusalem. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
And this is where they too chose to be buried. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
These are the tombs of some of the knights. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
They look ravaged by age, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
the stone all worn. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
Bu not at all - it was an incendiary bomb in the Second World War | 0:28:18 | 0:28:23 | |
that fell through the roof here | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
and destroyed what up till then were perfect replicas of the knights. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:30 | |
Luckily, some still survive. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
This is a family - father and two of his three sons, | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
Earls of Pembroke. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:53 | |
And the interesting thing is, Father died in his 70s, | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
this one died in his 40s | 0:28:57 | 0:28:59 | |
and yet they all look young, and there's a reason for it. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
If we have a close look at this one, it explains exactly why. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 | |
He's got his helmet, chain mail, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
this tunic with beautiful folds in it... | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
..his hand on his sword, | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
pulling his sword from its scabbard. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
His legs aren't crossed in repose, like someone asleep, someone dead. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:30 | |
They're moving. He's almost about to get up. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:34 | |
And when you look at his face, | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
the eyes are actually open. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
And it's the face of a young man, | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
a warrior in his prime, | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
not lying dead, but waiting to arise again | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
and fight for Christendom. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:52 | |
BIRDSONG | 0:29:57 | 0:30:01 | |
It wasn't enough for a knight to be a brave warrior in battle. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:18 | |
The code of chivalry expected him to be a devoted lover as well. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:23 | |
One of the greatest romances of the age | 0:30:28 | 0:30:31 | |
was between Edward I and his queen, Eleanor of Castile. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:36 | |
When she died, away from London, in 1290, | 0:30:39 | 0:30:43 | |
the grief-struck king determined to commemorate their love. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
The village of Geddington in Northamptonshire | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
used to be the site of a royal hunting lodge | 0:30:56 | 0:30:58 | |
and this was one of the places that Eleanor's funeral procession stopped | 0:30:58 | 0:31:02 | |
on its way from Lincoln to London. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:05 | |
There were 12 stopping places in all | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
and at each one, Edward had built a monument to his wife. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
And this one at Geddington is far and away the best preserved. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:16 | |
We're used to seeing old monuments eroded by time. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:23 | |
We love them for it, for this golden patina, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
for the feeling of something that's stood here for centuries. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:31 | |
It's difficult to think what they were like | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
when they were first put up. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:35 | |
They weren't like this at all. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
This monument would have been painted in positively garish colours, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:44 | |
probably with gilding | 0:31:44 | 0:31:45 | |
and certainly set with pieces of glass. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
It was a kind of striking image - nothing like what it looks now. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:52 | |
Beautifully done, with all these flowers and leaves. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:56 | |
And then the three statues of Eleanor herself, | 0:31:57 | 0:32:01 | |
facing the three roads that come into the village. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
It's striking how similar the statue of Eleanor is | 0:32:11 | 0:32:16 | |
to a statue of the Virgin Mary. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:18 | |
And that's no coincidence. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:19 | |
It fits in with the medieval idea of woman, the perfect woman - | 0:32:19 | 0:32:24 | |
pure and chaste, the woman as mother, | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
the woman literally put on a pedestal, out of reach. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
Seven centuries on, | 0:32:45 | 0:32:46 | |
the Eleanor monument still serves as an inspiration to the village. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:52 | |
Well, I've lived here since I was two, | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
so I've lived here for 82 years, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:56 | |
so the cross has always been a centre of a lot of activities. | 0:32:56 | 0:33:02 | |
This is a sort of monument - it's rather romantic, isn't it? - to love. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
Indeed, yes. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:06 | |
Eleanor and Edward... Beautiful. Yes. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
Bert and Margaret. BOTH LAUGH | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
Has your life been as romantic as theirs was? | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
Oh, yes, I think so. Yes. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:19 | |
Do you see her as pure and chaste | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
like the Virgin Mary, like Eleanor? | 0:33:22 | 0:33:24 | |
BERT LAUGHS | 0:33:24 | 0:33:26 | |
Yes, I'm sure he does. Yes, definitely | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
Yes. We've never sort of had any flings or anything of that sort. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:33 | |
We've been loyal and loving to each other, haven't we? | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
Yes. Yes. For almost 60 years. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
Does he put you on a pedestal? | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
No, I don't think... | 0:33:40 | 0:33:42 | |
I don't think Bert would build me a cross like this. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:47 | |
Would you? | 0:33:47 | 0:33:48 | |
I would if I had the means, yes. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
ALL LAUGH | 0:33:50 | 0:33:52 | |
All the notions of chivalry came together at Windsor in the 1340s. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:18 | |
Here, Edward III created a home for a new order of English knights. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:28 | |
Within the walls of Windsor is a remarkable survival | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
of Edward's chivalric vision. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
This is something very special. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:50 | |
I can uncover it... | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
Obviously, a long, long sword. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:03 | |
It's very nearly 7 foot. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
6 foot 8 inches long of solid steel. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
The hilt, covered with leather and a steel pommel here. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:15 | |
And this blade of steel, it's been polished and beaten into shape. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:20 | |
And what's special about it is that this sword belonged to Edward III. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:29 | |
This is not an ornamental sword. There's no decoration on it. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
This is a practical fighting sword. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
And it's thought that Edward III would have used it in tournament. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:43 | |
It's certainly a sword that could kill - | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
light and very sharp at the end. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
But this sword is important for another reason, | 0:35:50 | 0:35:52 | |
not just because it was Edward III's. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
In 1348, Edward formed a group of knights, | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
the Knights of the Garter, | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
and this very sword was given up by Edward at that point | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
and taken to the chapel of the Order of the Knights | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
and hung above his stall in the chapel. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:12 | |
It was a great symbolic moment. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
This sword designed for battle | 0:36:14 | 0:36:17 | |
had become a sword designed to represent faith. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
And warfare and faith were the two great elements | 0:36:20 | 0:36:24 | |
of the concept of chivalry. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:26 | |
St George's Chapel, Windsor, | 0:36:36 | 0:36:39 | |
is still the home of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
And just like Arthur's Round Table, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
there are only 24 knights at any one time. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
The walls of the choir where the knights sit | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
are beautiful dark oak... | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
..but gleaming with brass plates. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
They're the plates of the Garter Knights - | 0:37:09 | 0:37:13 | |
800 or so out of the 1,000 there have been. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
They're like a whole history of Britain. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
The oldest one of all is up here at the back, | 0:37:25 | 0:37:31 | |
different from all the others, | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
and it belongs to Ralph Bassett. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:37 | |
And here's his coat of arms. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:40 | |
First of all, the family crest - | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
a black boar in heavy enamel | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
with gold tusks, a gold eye and a gold crown round his neck. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:51 | |
Here's the shield, with its three red stripes, | 0:37:51 | 0:37:55 | |
and five tails of ermine on this square. | 0:37:55 | 0:38:00 | |
And then what's called a roundel, another sort of shield, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
in red and blue | 0:38:04 | 0:38:05 | |
with fleur-de-lis on. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
The technicalities of heraldry all sound very complex | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
and they're a thing for the experts, really, | 0:38:12 | 0:38:14 | |
but in the Middle Ages, what they allowed you to do | 0:38:14 | 0:38:16 | |
was to instantly recognise in battle | 0:38:16 | 0:38:20 | |
where various knights and their followers were. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
So you'd see a banner flying and you'd say, "Ah, | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
"that's old Ralph Bassett down there. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
"He's doing all right on the right flank. What's happening on the left?" | 0:38:28 | 0:38:30 | |
And you'd know for certain you'd picked the right man. | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
So these are not just a symbol of the pride and courage of a knight, | 0:38:33 | 0:38:37 | |
they're also intensely practical as a way of identifying him. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:41 | |
So-called Military Knights who serve the Order of the Garter | 0:38:52 | 0:38:57 | |
still live within the castle walls. | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
JAZZY DOORBELL CHIME | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
Good morning. I like the tune. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:07 | |
Do come in. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:08 | |
How do you decide which bell to use? This one... | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
My friends use the tuneful one. PIERCING DOORBELL | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
That's better. BOTH LAUGH | 0:39:13 | 0:39:15 | |
I see. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:16 | |
LAUGHS | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
Must drive you mad after a bit. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:20 | |
MAN LAUGHS | 0:39:20 | 0:39:23 | |
Uniform's very smart. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
Very heavy. Heavy, is it? | 0:39:26 | 0:39:28 | |
Yeah, it's very heavy. It looks great. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:29 | |
It was built, I think, to stop musket balls | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
at a range of about 30 yards. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
DAVID LAUGHS | 0:39:35 | 0:39:37 | |
What's your job, as a knight? | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
Well, I'm a Military Knight, yes, and our job is primarily prayer. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:46 | |
Prayer? Oh, really? Prayer. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:48 | |
To pray for the Sovereign | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
and the Companions, living and departed, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
of the Most Honourable and Noble Order of the Garter. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:55 | |
So what are the characteristics of a chivalrous knight? | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
Being gentle, kind, considerate and very tough. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:04 | |
What does it mean now, do you think? | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
Here you are, wonderfully dressed up in scarlet, | 0:40:07 | 0:40:09 | |
with gold epaulettes and white sash | 0:40:09 | 0:40:13 | |
and gold badges and buttons and all that. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:15 | |
But does it actually mean anything still in the modern day | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
or is it just a sort of anachronism? | 0:40:18 | 0:40:19 | |
It certainly means quite a lot to me, yes. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
I think it's a bit of show. And why not? | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
A bit of theatre. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:27 | |
Bits drop off the uniforms occasionally. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
Do they? LAUGHS: Yes. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:31 | |
What drops off? | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
The badges off the epaulettes. They're only pinned on. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
And it has been known for an entire epaulette | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
to suddenly leave the shoulder. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
Garter Knights leaving a trail of badges of honour... | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
Accoutrements. It looks as if they're retreating. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:46 | |
The ideal of chivalry and its practice | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
were not always quite the same thing. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:57 | |
In the second half of the 14th century, | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
ferocious wars against France | 0:41:05 | 0:41:07 | |
brought about a new style of warfare. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:10 | |
Leading the onslaught was Edward III's son, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
inspired less by faith than an appetite for power and glory. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:25 | |
This is the Tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:36 | |
We have to climb up to see it properly | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
because of the railings that rather obscure it. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
The Black Prince, who was the eldest son of Edward III, | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
who never succeeded to the throne, a man of arms fighting the French, | 0:41:45 | 0:41:50 | |
with a reputation for hardness, determination, even cruelty. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:54 | |
It's said that he killed women and children | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
in one of the sieges of a town he undertook. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
But he had an eye also for what would happen after his death. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:05 | |
Money could buy you the route to heaven | 0:42:05 | 0:42:10 | |
and he specified exactly how he should be buried. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
It is absolutely astonishing. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
600 years old. Over 600 years old. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:26 | |
It's made of bronze and gilded. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:28 | |
His tunic, with lions emblazoned on it. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
And the belt, the sword belt, with lions on it as well. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
His feet, with the spurs resting on his dog. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:48 | |
His hands, he was particularly keen, should be in a position of prayer. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:59 | |
Interestingly, the Victorians took this idea of the Black Prince so seriously | 0:43:02 | 0:43:07 | |
that they actually painted it black. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
It was only in the 1930s | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
that somebody scraping away discovered underneath | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
this glorious figure, resplendent in gilded bronze. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:22 | |
The Black Prince died before he could become king, | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
but his craving for glory was inherited by his son. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:48 | |
King Richard II wanted the crown itself to be an object of worship. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:55 | |
His vanity and his ambition created an era of magnificence, | 0:43:55 | 0:44:00 | |
the artistic pinnacle of the Middle Ages. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:03 | |
Munich is home to a unique survival of Richard's reign. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:27 | |
Most of his treasure was melted down in the English Civil War of the 1600s. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:36 | |
But by good fortune, one precious object was preserved. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:41 | |
It's kept in the Residenz Palace, once home to the kings of Bavaria. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:51 | |
This is the only surviving English crown from the Middle Ages. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:40 | |
Everything else was destroyed. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
This crown was in Richard II's treasury. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:49 | |
It was worn by his first wife. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
It came to Germany on the marriage of a royal princess a few years later. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:58 | |
It is an object of indescribable beauty. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
A circle of 12 free-standing lilies in gold... | 0:46:08 | 0:46:13 | |
..set on a hinged ring at the bottom here | 0:46:15 | 0:46:20 | |
and each lily set with precious stones - | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
rubies, sapphires cut like boiled sweets. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:28 | |
"Cabochon", they call it. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
Pearls... | 0:46:31 | 0:46:32 | |
..emeralds | 0:46:34 | 0:46:35 | |
and diamonds. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:37 | |
And you think, if this was the crown that the queen wore, | 0:46:44 | 0:46:50 | |
what would the king's crown have been like? | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
Richard II, after all, was the king who, for the first time, | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
insisted on being called Royal Majesty. | 0:46:56 | 0:47:00 | |
And for him, the crown would have been a symbol of that majesty, | 0:47:01 | 0:47:06 | |
of his right to be king, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:07 | |
of something almost godlike about his role. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:13 | |
In London, Richard created a superb setting | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
for his new style of monarchy. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
Today, Westminster Hall is dwarfed by the Houses of Parliament. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:47 | |
Back then, it was a wonder of the medieval world. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:52 | |
This roof, when it was built, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
was the widest unsupported roof in the whole of Europe - | 0:48:31 | 0:48:36 | |
a quite astonishing achievement. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
And it was all Richard II's. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:39 | |
26 carved angels, | 0:48:45 | 0:48:47 | |
each holding the coat of arms of the king. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:53 | |
This hall had stood here for 300 years | 0:48:55 | 0:48:58 | |
when he came to the throne | 0:48:58 | 0:48:59 | |
but he raised the walls, he put in the ceiling, | 0:48:59 | 0:49:05 | |
he stamped it with his own image all the way round. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
There are white hart, his own personal symbol, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:11 | |
right the way around the hall, right down there, across, | 0:49:11 | 0:49:15 | |
and right along there. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
And what's really interesting about this is he used the best carpenters, | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
the best masons, | 0:49:22 | 0:49:24 | |
he used English oak, English carvers. | 0:49:24 | 0:49:26 | |
He was taking a French style and transforming it | 0:49:26 | 0:49:30 | |
into an English style, | 0:49:30 | 0:49:32 | |
saying, "Not only am I Richard II, the King, | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
"but I am going to show the way | 0:49:36 | 0:49:38 | |
"for a new kind of England, | 0:49:38 | 0:49:40 | |
"where art supports me as the monarch." | 0:49:40 | 0:49:44 | |
Richard encouraged all the arts. | 0:49:53 | 0:49:56 | |
It was for his court that The Canterbury Tales was written. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:02 | |
This epic work tells of a band of pilgrims | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
on their way to Becket's tomb at Canterbury. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
There are memorable portraits - | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
the drunken miller, | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
the unholy holy man | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
and the much-married wife of Bath. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:26 | |
It was the work of the first great writer in the English language, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:32 | |
Richard's court poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
This painting is unique - | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
it's the only portrait of Chaucer, | 0:50:39 | 0:50:43 | |
reading his poetry to the court of Richard II. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:47 | |
It's a very finely painted picture | 0:50:55 | 0:51:00 | |
that drips in gold. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
Absolutely right too, because it's showing his court | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
and all the women have gold headdresses, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:07 | |
the men have cloaks with gold and jewels on. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:10 | |
And they're sitting absolutely enraptured | 0:51:13 | 0:51:17 | |
as Chaucer, in a little pulpit, with a cloth in front | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
reads his poetry. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
They would have been used to listening to poetry | 0:51:26 | 0:51:30 | |
read to them in French. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:32 | |
French was the language of the educated classes, | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
had been ever since the Norman Conquest. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
What Chaucer did was almost perverse. | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
He turned to the vulgar language, the language of the common people, | 0:51:41 | 0:51:46 | |
English, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:47 | |
and used that for his poetry, | 0:51:47 | 0:51:49 | |
and in so doing, he unleashed the strength of the imagery of English. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:54 | |
Just read me a bit. What is this from? | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
OK, this is the description | 0:52:00 | 0:52:02 | |
of the wife of Bath from the General Prologue. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
READS: "A good wif was ther, of biside Bathe..." | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
Wait a minute, wait a minute. A good what? | 0:52:08 | 0:52:10 | |
"A good wif." That's "wife". That's "wife". | 0:52:10 | 0:52:12 | |
When you read it on the page, you have to imagine it being written | 0:52:12 | 0:52:14 | |
by a friend of yours who can't spell. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:16 | |
Oh, right. Then it becomes very easy. | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
If you think of the spelling being very, very peculiar and archaic, | 0:52:18 | 0:52:23 | |
then it's difficult. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:24 | |
So you mustn't be embarrassed, really. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
Just think of it as being bad spelling | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
and a great deal of it becomes extremely straightforward. | 0:52:28 | 0:52:30 | |
So let me just try this bit. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:32 | |
"She was a worthy womman al hir..." What's that? | 0:52:32 | 0:52:37 | |
"Lyve". "Life". ..al hir lyve. | 0:52:37 | 0:52:39 | |
"All her life". Yes. | 0:52:39 | 0:52:40 | |
Al hir lyve. She'd outlived all her five husbands. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:44 | |
She's a professional wife and a professional widow. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:47 | |
"But therof..." | 0:52:47 | 0:52:49 | |
"But therof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe..." | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
There'd been this other company when she was young | 0:52:53 | 0:52:55 | |
but we needn't talk about that now. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:57 | |
But he's clearly saying she was a... she had an eye for the men. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
He's implying that. He's certainly saying she had an eye for the men. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
OK, I'll have a go. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:07 | |
Right. You tell me how I do. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:08 | |
"She was a worthy womman al hir lyve. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:12 | |
"Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde fyve. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
"Withouthen oother compaignye in youthe. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
"But therof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe." | 0:53:18 | 0:53:23 | |
That's wonderful, especially the confidence. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:26 | |
The confidence! That's what matters. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:28 | |
The confidence is misplaced. That's what makes it convincing. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
Under King Richard II, English art acquired a national identity. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:53 | |
This new spirit inspired the masterpiece of the age - | 0:53:54 | 0:54:00 | |
one of the wonders of the National Gallery. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
These are the rooms of medieval painting | 0:54:08 | 0:54:11 | |
in the National Gallery in London. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:13 | |
We're surrounded by stupendous pictures | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
that gleam from the walls, | 0:54:16 | 0:54:18 | |
most of them Italian. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:19 | |
But here is the jewel of this collection | 0:54:19 | 0:54:22 | |
and this is English. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
It's an altarpiece made for Richard II. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:33 | |
It was designed to go wherever he wants | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
so it could be opened up for him to pray before it. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:38 | |
And it shows Richard here, with his crown, on his knees on one side | 0:54:38 | 0:54:43 | |
with three saints behind him. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:48 | |
The first one with the arrow, St Edmund, English king, beatified, | 0:54:48 | 0:54:54 | |
Edward the Confessor, also a saint, | 0:54:54 | 0:54:57 | |
who Richard was always harking back to, | 0:54:57 | 0:55:00 | |
and John the Baptist, | 0:55:00 | 0:55:03 | |
who was, in a way, Richard II's protector, | 0:55:03 | 0:55:07 | |
with his lamb and his hand around Richard. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:10 | |
Richard on his knees, with his hands like that, | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
apparently about to receive something. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
And what he's about to receive is explained here. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
This side is heaven. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:23 | |
It shows the Virgin with Jesus in her arms. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
Around her, these angels, | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
and the angels each have a little badge, or favour, | 0:55:31 | 0:55:36 | |
of the white hart - Richard II's white hart. | 0:55:36 | 0:55:40 | |
So all the angels are showing their allegiance to Richard down here. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:46 | |
And the Christ child appears to be | 0:55:46 | 0:55:49 | |
presenting something to Richard, which he is receiving, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
and what it is is this standard of the Resurrection. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:57 | |
And this is a detail they only discovered recently | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
and it's absolutely extraordinary. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:02 | |
You have to use a magnifying glass to see it at all. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
At the very top of the staff is an orb. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
And you can just see, even though it's very tarnished, | 0:56:09 | 0:56:14 | |
silver leaf. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
You can just see that it's a painting of an island | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
with a castle, a white castle, | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
and a tiny white sailing boat. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
This sceptred isle set in a silver sea. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:31 | |
It's England. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:35 | |
And the Virgin and Christ, they're in effect presenting England | 0:56:35 | 0:56:40 | |
to Richard II. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
The whole thing is a celebration of Richard's kingship, | 0:56:48 | 0:56:53 | |
of Richard's divine right to rule. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:55 | |
Saintly kings behind him to whom he's appealing, | 0:56:55 | 0:56:58 | |
angels wearing his badge | 0:56:58 | 0:57:01 | |
and Christ presenting England to him. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:04 | |
There could be no finer demonstration | 0:57:04 | 0:57:07 | |
of what Richard II believed his role on Earth to be. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:10 | |
Our story began with a king humiliated by the Church. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:24 | |
It ends here. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:27 | |
Art was now firmly in the hands of the Crown. | 0:57:27 | 0:57:32 | |
In the next stage | 0:57:44 | 0:57:46 | |
a royal tyrant, | 0:57:46 | 0:57:48 | |
a virgin queen. | 0:57:48 | 0:57:50 | |
Voyages of exploration, plundered booty, | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
the triumph of the English language. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
Britain in the age of power. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:37 | 0:58:40 |