Saint Thomas Becket window in Chartres Cathedral is a 1215–1225 stained-glass window in Chartres Cathedral, located behind a grille in the Confessors' Chapel, second chapel of the south ambulatory. 8.9 m high by 2.18 m wide, it was funded by the tanners' guild. The furthest left of five lancet windows in the chapel, it is difficult to view and is heavily corroded by glass oxidisation, which has made its left side especially hard to read.
It is contemporary with the current cathedral, built after an 1194 fire. It was classed as a monument historique in the first listing in 1840. The window was restored by Gaudin in 1921 and by Lorin's workshop in 1996. It is split vertically into eleven equal registers by ten horizontal leadwork pieces.
The window is made up of four main circles, each on two registers. Those registers are made up of square panels showing the story and two border panels. Between each main circle is an intermediate register with a central quatrefoil with a square story panel at its centre, surrounded on both sides by two rectangular panels continuing the border and a half-quatrefoil also showing the story.
The four circles with a blue background are bordered by a red "orle", then a blue "orle" sown with yellow quatrefoil flowers and by a narrow band of white pearls.
Henry II of England made Thomas Becket chancellor of England in 1155, in which role he lived the life of a great lord. He then made him Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, hoping he would submit the church to state power, but Thomas took the opposite course and was exiled to France, where he spent several long stays in Chartres, accompanied by his friend and secretary John of Salisbury, who in 1176 became Bishop of Chartres.[1] In the meantime Thomas was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four of the king's knights in 1170 and canonised only three years later.
The window was made only fifty years after Becket's exile and martyrdom, during the final years of Philip II Augustus's reign, which also saw the struggle against local powers giving rise to the Kingdom of France. Philip had ejected Odo of Sully as archbishop of Paris after the latter spoke against Philip's divorce, leading Odo to put the kingdom under interdict. This gave a contemporary French resonance to the window's portrayal of Becket resisting a 'bad king' interfering in the Church, whereas a 'good king' should protect the Church.[1]
The window's composition is very different to others at Chartres,[1] in which the main subject's story was told uninterrupted from bottom to top. That of Becket shows the saint's exile in the first main circle on the bottom two registers, whilst the third register shows the donors in an unusually high position (they were usually shown at the base and sides of the lowest register).
The main hagiography of Becket only begins in the fourth register onwards, with a halo only added on his deathbed after his martyrdom, though the exile images also show him with a halo. These anomalies suggest that the first main circle should be read as an independent narrative and a specific memorial to his visit to Chartres, perhaps even drawing on accounts of him by those who saw him there. This interpretation would make the register with the donors a border between the exile window and the main hagiography.
The images quite faithfully follow the text of the office of matins for the feast of Thomas Becket on 29 December.
| 5b : Thomas Meets the Pope : "There he met Pope Alexander III, who received him well and recommended him to the monks at Pontigny, of the Cistercian Order, towards which he headed."At Sens in 1164 due to his expulsion from Rome by Frederick Barbarossa, Pope Alexander III is shown in a conical tiara, whilst Thomas wears his mitre, with a red gateway behind them. Both men are seated, with Alexander's seat slightly higher. The column and arcades suggest an interior setting. Their hand gestures show that they are in discussion – Alexander points an accusing finger at Thomas with his left hand, whilst Thomas protests with his right hand. Thomas demanded Henry's execution and an interdict on England, but Alexander preferred to play for time, since he needed Henry's neutrality or support in his ongoing conflict with Frederick. |
Thomas spent two years at Pontigny, ending in 1166, before returning to Sens, where he could spend his exile more safely.[3]
| 11 : Thomas' tomb : "God soon honoured [Thomas] with a great number of miracles and so the same Pope Alexander inscribed him among the number of the Saints" |