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Interior of St. John's Chapel in the White Tower
George Cruikshank
May 1840
wood-engraving
9.3 cm high by 8 cm wide, vignetted.
Half-page illustration for Book II, Chapter VI, of William Harrison Ainsworth's The Tower of London, centre of p. 152.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Upon this, the doors of the chapel were thrown open, and the bishop led the chief proselyte towards the altar. Against the massive pillars at the east end of the chapel, reaching from their capitals to the base, was hung a thick curtain of purple velvet, edged with a deep border of gold. Relieved against this curtain stood the altar, covered with a richly-ornamented antipendium, sustaining a large silver crucifix, and six massive candlesticks of the same metal. At a few paces from it, on either side, were two other colossal silver candlesticks, containing enormous wax lights. On either side were grouped priests with censers, from which were diffused the most fragrant odours.
As Northumberland slowly accompanied the bishop along the nave, he saw, with some misgiving, the figures of Simon Renard and Gunnora emerge from behind the pillars of the northern aisle. His glance met that of Renard, and there was something in the look of the Spaniard that made him fear he was the dupe of a plot — but it was now too late to retreat. When within a few paces of the altar, the Duke again knelt down, while the bishop removed his mitre as before, and placed himself in front of him. [Chapter VI. — "By what means the Duke of Northumberland was reconciled to the Church of Rome," pp. 151-52]
Cruikshank provides a far less dramatic view of Interior of Saint John's Chapel in the White Tower in the sixth chapter of Book Two, "By what means the Duke of Northumberland was reconciled to the Church of Rome," than in the scene from gothic romance in which Lady Jane Grey, temporarily Queen Jane, stumbles upon the headsman's axe, Queen Jane's First Night in the Tower (Book the First, Chapter IV). This prosaic wood-engraving records the same physical space that was the scene of Jane's gothic encounter with the mysterious, black-clad figure and the axe. Although the scene is static in the architectural study, in the following illustration it is the setting for the dramatic reinstatement of the Duke of Northumberland as a Catholic. Here again history and romance intersect. Northumberland's strategy fails to convince Mary Tudor and her Council that the powerful magnate is no longer either a Protestant or a threat to national security. The strategy of having him renounce his Protestant convictions in fact has originated with Simon Renard, whose intention involves executing the devious Duke in spite of his perfidious promises to see that Mary spares Northumberland's life if he does not recant his re-conversion on the scaffold.
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Last modified 12 October 2017