Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral, in Canterbury, Kent, one of the most splendid and earliest examples of Gothic architecture in England (see Gothic Art and Architecture). It is also the administrative center of the Church of England, and its archbishop holds the title of Primate of All England. During the Middle Ages it was an important place of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket, chancellor of England and archbishop of Canterbury, who in 1170 was murdered in the cathedral on the orders of Henry II, King of England. The shrine was destroyed on the orders of Henry VIII, but the spot where Saint Thomas à Becket was killed is marked by a plaque.

Canterbury Cathedral has been the seat of an archbishopric since it was founded in 597, the year that Saint Augustine, sent from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, landed at Thanet, in Kent, England. Saint Augustine was its first archbishop. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1067 and rebuilt in Romanesque style (see Romanesque Art and Architecture). The present Gothic appearance of the interior is largely the work of William of Sens, from France, who designed the choir and apse in 1174 (as well as the typically gothic flying buttresses on the exterior), and Henry Yevele, a British architect and mason who designed the nave in 1374. The large central tower, known as the Bell Harry Tower, was built by English mason John Wastell in the late 15th century. A chapel in the crypt was used in the 16th century by a group of Huguenots (French protestants) who had fled Catholic persecution.

The stained-glass windows of the clerestory above the choir, made between 1178 and 1200, depict the genealogy of Christ. The tomb of Edward, the Black Prince, is located in Trinity Chapel, on the cathedral's south side; that of Henry IV and his queen, Joan of Navarre, is found on the north side. To the north of the cathedral are cloisters, a chapter house, a baptistery, a library, and the King's School, founded in 598.