Before this altar Edward I. was married to Queen Margaret in 1299. A rude representation of the altar may be seen over the south-west door of the Cathedral.
Returning to the North-west Transept, we visit the scene of the Martyrdom which took place near St. Benedict’s apsidal chapel (now occupied by the Dean’s Chapel) Dec. 29, 1170, during vespers. The west door from the cloisters by which Becket entered and the pavement by the wall, where he fell, remain. He was mounting the stairs to the north aisle (now removed) when the knights attacked him.
We have already noticed the great Window here, which was the gift, in 1465, of Edward IV. and his Queen, whose
“figures still remain in it, together with those of his daughters and of the two Princes murdered in the Tower. The ‘remarkably soft and silvery appearance’ of this window has been noticed by Mr. Winston. In its original state the Virgin was pictured in it ‘in seven several glorious appearances’ and in the centre was Becket himself at full length, robed and mitred. This part was demolished in 1642 by Richard Culmer, called Blue Dick, the great iconoclast of Canterbury, who ‘rattled down proud Becket’s glassie bones’ with a pike, and who, when thus engaged, narrowly escaped martyrdom himself at the hands of a malignant fellow-townsman.”—(R. J. K.)
In this transept stands the monument of Archbishop Peckham (1279-1292) with his effigy in Irish oak. This is the earliest complete monument in the Cathedral.
We now pass into the Dean’s Chapel, occupying the site of St. Benedict’s Chapel. It was formerly the Lady-Chapel, built by Prior Goldstone in 1460 and dedicated to the Virgin. The beautiful fan-vault is similar to that in Henry VII.’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey and to the roof of the staircase leading to the dining-hall of Christ Church College, Oxford. The Dean’s Chapel received its present name from the number of tombs and monuments to deans here, one of the most curious of which is that of Dean Boys, who died in 1625. He is represented as he was found dead in his Library, and the arrangement of the books with the edges turned outward from the shelves strikes every one as singular.
Archbishop Warham, the last Archbishop before the Reformation, also lies here, his heavy tomb in great contrast to that of Archbishop Peckham, already mentioned, near it,—good examples of the styles between 1292 and 1533.
The East Window is also notable.
“The figures of Dean Neville and his brother, against the eastern wall, were transferred to this place on the destruction of the chapel which formerly projected from the south side of the nave, and of which the marks in the wall are clearly visible. In the east window some points may be noted. We see the Neville arms, and a red shield with white saltire, and also the elaborate Bouchier arms, the most distinguishable features of which are the water ‘budgets,’ two curious red skins joined together at the top, sometimes given as an honourable blazon to those who supplied an army with water. We also see the Bouchier knot alternating in most of the panes with the oak leaf and acorn. This is the mark of Woodstock.”—(F. and R.)
A door here leads into the Great Cloister.