Windows for the King
In 2024 Barnard Castle celebrated 550 years since the lordship of the town was granted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III. The Windows for the King installation of seven etched glass windows in the inner porch of St Mary's marks this anniversary.
On 6th November 2024, Dr Fiona Hill, Chancellor of Durham University and former Security Advisor to the White House, unveiled ‘Windows for the King’, a spectacular design of etched, engraved, gilded and bonded glass, commemorating the College of Richard Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Richard invested the equivalent of millions in St Mary’s church in the 1470s/80s to create a Collegiate Church with a Dean, twelve priests and sixteen choristers, which would serve the town and people not only with daily worship but with song and grammar schools.
Between 2022-2024 the local Northern Dales Richard III Group, in collaboration with St Mary’s, raised over £40,000 to bring to life the Partnership Group’s detailed brief, with professional glass artist Rachel Phillips both designing and crafting the stunning glass panels and their ‘crown’ backdrop. The windows’ focus are the saints to whom Richard intended to dedicate his College: Christ with the Virgin Mary, St Ninian of Galloway and St Margaret of Scotland. Also included are St Helen and St Catherine, two saints that had medieval chantries in the town, and Richard’s famous boar badge. Windows for the King is a lasting tribute to Richard’s personal faith, and demonstrate his dedication to the North and to the town where he was Lord of the Manor from 1474.
…to the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Most Blessed Virgin Mary…
As Richard Duke of Gloucester intended his College to be dedicated to Christ, the most blessed Virgin Mary, St Ninian and St Margaret, the window centres Mary holding Christ as a small boy with his arms out to embrace the world, with echoes of the energy of Christ stepping out of the tomb in resurrection images. As a young mother, Mary is the first to ‘welcome Christ’ into the world, her loose hair symbolising her youth and freedom and with a scattering of white Yorkist roses as a unifying backdrop, speaking of Marian purity. Below are violets radiating out, symbols of Christ’s innocence and purity.
Saint Margaret of Scotland was an Anglo-Saxon princess who married Malcolm III of Scotland and used her status to better the lives of others spiritually and materially, promoting schools and founding churches, including Dunfermline Abbey. Known as the ‘pearl of Scotland’ and “the bursar for the poor of Jesus Christ”, Margaret would perform charitable acts: in loving and honouring the poor, she was loving and honouring Christ. She died in 1093, aged 47, and was canonised in 1250. Margaret is depicted with her book of Gospels (now in the Bodleian library), and adorned with ox-eye daisies, or “marguerites”, and with the emblem of Scotland on her. Barnard Castle’s castle chapel was dedicated to Margaret as the ancestor of Devorguilla, wife of John Baliol I. She was also grandmother to the Empress Matilda who, by marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou, founded the Plantagenet line – a direct ancestor of Richard III.
St Ninian, “a most holy man” according to Bede, was born c.360AD, near Hadrian’s Wall, and is credited as first bringing the Gospel to the Southern Picts c.397AD, from his monastery at Whithorn in Galloway. Old stories attribute healing powers to Ninian and his staff, praying God’s protection for local shepherds (and their sheep!) He died 432CE aged 72. He is shown as an older, well-travelled monk mistering with a flowering staff as a symbol of planting the word of God. The thistles of Scotland adorn his habit and he is shown carrying his bell, the clog-rinny, wearing a Celtic cross. He stands on broken chains and shackles as a symbol of overcoming slavery. Richard III was devoted to Ninian: he dedicated four major religious foundations to him and a prayer of St Ninian was added especially to his personal Book of Hours.
Saint Helen of the Holy Cross was born c. 248AD in Bithynia on the Black Sea. Once a humble ‘stable maid’, she became mother of the great Emperor Constantine. Named ‘empress’ herself in 325AD, she enjoyed great influence in the imperial court into old age and was known to generously help the poor. She converted to Christianity and built many churches, travelling to the Holy Land in her late 70s to find the lost relics of Christian tradition. Excavating a ruined temple, it is said that Helen found nails and pieces of the Cross of Christ’s crucifixion; she had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built on the site. She died c. 330AD and was canonised. She is depicted as an Empress with a Byzantine crown and travelling cloak to highlight a modern connection to pilgrimage. She holds a Byzantine cross with sweet basil at her feet. The meaning of “basil” in Greek is ‘kingly, royal, valiant’: possibly named so for being found growing at the site of the Cross of Christ, the King of Kings. St Mary’s Barnard Castle had a chantry of St Helen in its parish which by the late C17th had become “a piece of ground called St Helen’s Holme”.
Saint Katherine of Alexandria is presented with the ethnicity, elaborate hairstyle, clothing and jewellery of the high status, educated young woman of Alexandria she was held to be. With a direct gaze and standing over a broken wheel, her pose communicates her life as learned scholar, teacher and defender of her faith. She holds a book as a symbol of learning and a sword as a symbol of defending the faith. Katherine died around the age of 18 after refusing to marry the Emperor Maximus and vigorously defending her faith. She was condemned to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, it shattered. Maximinius ordered her to be beheaded. Her day is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. St Mary’s Barnard Castle had a ‘St Katherine’ chantry, and local linen-workers took her as their ‘queen’ and patron saint, celebrating her with a feast on 25th November until 1913. She was a saint especially chosen by Richard for his College at Middleham; he was given a ‘Life of St Katherine’ in Latin and his natural daughter was also called Katherine.
Ricardian boars: The windows’ installation marks the 550th anniversary of Richard III’s lordship of Barnard Castle, and his emblem, the White Boar, is found at both ends of the scheme with a combination of sweet basil and violets underfoot. The boar is a common symbol in heraldry that represents intrepidness and fierceness in combat. It is a champion among wild beasts, and signifies the traits of bravery, perseverance, and nobility. The boars are inspired by the heraldic version used by the Northern Dales Richard III Group and the St Anthony boars near St Mary’s font: this stonework formerly graced a building at the corner of Newgate and so may have a connection to the Collegiate foundation begun in 1477 by Richard of Gloucester. The building – on land still belonging to St Mary’s – may well have been the priests’ accommodation for the College. St Anthony was one of Richard’s most favoured saints, and his boar emblem can be seen on stonework both in the church and across the town.
