Gloucester Cathedral (Part Five)

Non-Italic Text and Photos from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise accredited.

Italic Text and Photos from Gloucester Cathedral Web-Site at http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk
(Unless otherwise accredited, Photos of Gloucester Cathedral are taken by
Angelo Hornak, Richard Cann, Chris Smith, Esther Platten, Gloucester Cathedral and Gilmere Ltd)

Gloucester Cathedral (Lady Chapel, looking towards the Choir)

From Wikimedia Commons

Photo taken by Mattana

January 2008

ARCHITECTURE

Although all periods of Mediaeval Church architecture are represented at Gloucester Cathedral, its two main building phases – Romanesque and Perpendicular, are of outstanding interest and importance.

THE ROMANESQUE ABBEY

The Romanesque East End is not just the earliest surviving of any great English Church, but also has the oldest extant ambulatoried chancel in either Normandy or England  -  Alan Brooks.

Built by Abbot Serlo, the foundation stone was laid in 1089. The Eastern Arm was ready for dedication in 1100, and the nave was probably completed about 1130. A very great deal of this Romanesque Church survives, including the entire crypt, much of the East End above it, the great nave piers and most of the North Aisle. The Norman chapter house also mostly survives.

Gloucester Cathedral (Edward II Tomb)

From Wikimedia Commons

Taken by Auximines

March 2001

The Early-English Style is represented by the nave vault of 1242 and the screen at the North End of the North Transept. Window tracery in the South Aisle is typical of the Decorated Style, as are the thousands of carved ball-flowers and the elaborate stonework of the tomb of Edward II.

THE BIRTH OF PERPENDICULAR

The remodelling of the East End at Gloucester was carried out between 1331 and about 1355 and arose from the burial in the Abbey of King Edward II. The courtiers who surrounded the young Edward III, and the pilgrims who came to the shrine-like tomb, provided the funds to make it possible.

The French “Rayonnant” Style had graduations of tracery which followed a vertical line through window and gallery openings. It seems likely that this came to London through Kentish masons and was tried at St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, and in the Chapter House of Old St Paul’s (neither building still surviving).

These design experiments developed into “full-blown Perpendicular” at Gloucester, where the South Window of the South Transept can be seen as the oldest surviving Perpendicular window anywhere. The first four-centred arch (which later became so popular as the “Tudor Arch”) is also found here. The magnificent Quire and Presbytery were then remodelled in what became the standard English Style of architecture for more than 200 years.

Gloucester’s other great contribution to English architecture is fan-vaulting, which is now believed to have been invented here in the 1350s. The fan-vaulted cloisters, built for the monks to live and study in, are now open every day for all to enjoy.

King Edward II's Coat of Arms

He is buried in Gloucester Cathedral.

Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II. Between the strong reigns of his father, Edward I, and son, Edward III, the reign of Edward II was considered by some to be disastrous for England, marked by alleged incompetence, political squabbling and military defeats.

Widely rumoured to have been either homosexual or bisexual, Edward also fathered at least five children by two women. His inability to deny even the most grandiose favours to his male favourites (first a Gascon knight, named Piers Gaveston, later, a young English lord, named Hugh Despenser) led to constant political unrest and his eventual deposition.

Edward I had pacified Gwynedd and some other parts of Wales and the Scottish Lowlands, but never exerted a comprehensive conquest. However, the army of Edward II was devastatingly defeated at Bannockburn, freeing Scotland from English control and allowing Scottish forces to raid unchecked throughout the North of England.

In addition to these disasters, Edward II is remembered for his probable death in Berkeley Castle, allegedly by murder, and for being the first monarch to establish colleges at Oxford and Cambridge: Oriel College at Oxford and King's Hall, a predecessor of Trinity College, at Cambridge.

Gloucester Cathedral's Cloister Garth

From Gloucester Cathedral Web-Site at http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk
(Unless otherwise accredited, Photos of Gloucester Cathedral are taken by
Angelo Hornak, Richard Cann, Chris Smith, Esther Platten, Gloucester Cathedral and Gilmere Ltd)

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL