Art, Architecture and Reputation Management in Early 14th Century England

Detailed and fascinating talk from the Courtauld Research Forum on how Isabella of France both used and had artistic propaganda used against her following her invasion of England in 1326.

Laura Slater of the University of Cambridge, talked us thorough a rough history of Isabella, wife of Edward II, who deposed Edward in favour of his son due to his father’s reliance on favourites, firstly Piers Gaveston and later the Despensers. Both sides of the issue slandered the other with Isabella being accused of adultery with Roger Mortimer and Edward of sodomy. Its all quite complicated!

Slater outlined how Isabella aligned herself in speeches and imagery with Queen Esther of the Old Testament, another complex story involving an advisor, and how she rebuilt the Greyfriars church in London as a gesture to the city that had supported her. Meanwhile her supporters spread rumours of Edward’s sodomy via sermons.

 Slater then took us through imagery which may point to Isabella’s adultery most extraordinarily some marginalia in the St Lucy Chapel stained glass window in Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford. The window was built between 1325-1330, Isabella’s invasion and her son Edward’s Coronation, and shows a crowned queen next to the coat of arms of France and a beardless king by those of England. Under these heads are various grotesques implying adultery and sexual impropriety, many showing women with the same hair style as the queen. Take a look at the top left of the image! 

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