Interiors: St. John’s Chapel, in the White Tower, London, UK.
In many ways this room was the heart of the Norman Conquest of England.
This is one of the most famous churches in the world, but it’s surprisingly small, intimate and non-ostentatious. I’ve been in this room and could hardly believe it was so quaint, at least so far as medieval European churches go. St. John’s Chapel is the oldest Norman church in England, built in or about the year 1080. It’s located at the heart of the building known as the White Tower, which is itself at the heart of the complex commonly called the Tower of London. For centuries this room was the spiritual and moral heart of the British nation. Countless English monarchs have worshiped here, some married, others baptized, and some begged for forgiveness for horrible sins. Few more historic rooms exist on planet Earth.
The story of St. John’s Chapel and the Tower of London in general is closely bound up with that of the Norman conquest. In 1066 William of Normandy, who came to be known as William the Conqueror, invaded England from northern France—the last time this has ever been done successfully. At the Battle of Hastings in October 1066 William defeated and killed the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson, and then set out to replace England’s old Anglo-Saxon elite with a Norman one. In actuality there was not such a difference between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans as the usual retellings of this story suggest; the royal families were closely related.
