XXII.—On the Music in the Painted Glass of the Windows in the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick

The history of the foundation and building of the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick is contained (or rather was contained) in certain documents which were formerly amongst the municipal archives, but which (as I have been informed by the town clerk) are supposed to have perished in the great fire of Warwick in 1694. Fortunately full extracts from these documents are given in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire. Hence we learn that the chapel, which almost immediately adjoins the south side of the chancel of St. Mary's church, was founded and dedicated in honour of Our Lady in pursuance of the will of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1439. The earl was a man of almost European fame in his day, of great and varied achievement, and of vast wealth. His daughter Anne, who ultimately became the heiress of his only son, was the wife of Richard Neville, who also became Earl of Warwick and is well known in English history as the King-maker.