The Council Chamber

Where decisions are made....and bad news delivered as was the case today. The paintings, which adorn three sides of the Council Chamber, are designed to illustrate the part taken by the Duchy and County of Lancaster in the making of England. The quarrel between the rival Royal houses of York and Lancaster, which resulted in the 30 years' Civil War of the Roses, has furnished subjects for two of the paintings.Over the Mayor's chair, a large picture typifies the reconciliation of the Yorkists and Lancastrians, representing, as it does, the marriage of King Henry VII of the House of Lancaster, to Princess Elizabeth of the House of York. The wedding was solemnised at Westminster Abbey in January 1486 and rivalled the coronation ceremony, which it followed, in splendour. Care has been taken to represent as faithfully as possible the ecclesiastical and court costumes and usages of the time.The King is shown wearing his robe of Royal red and ermine tippet, and the bride the tall headdress with drooping veil, which, varying only in height and pointedness had been a feminine fashion for several reigns. The dresses of the ladies of the period were made very long and were trimmed with fur and embroidery. The male costume was elegant the only noticeable extravagance being the long false sleeves, which are still a feature in municipal robes. The Garter King-at-Arms wearing his collar and ribbon of the Garter, and carrying his baton of office, is a prominent figure to the left of the composition. The Archbishop of Canterbury, fully vested, wearing his pallium (the piece of white woollen cloth embroidered with nails fashioned in the form of a yoke, being a sign of his office) and having his pastoral cross behind him, joins the hands of the pair. He is attended by Deacons, vested in dalmatics, one of whom holds an open service book richly illuminated. The bishops, who lend dignity to the ceremony by their presence, carrying their crooks.Among them, as is shown, would stand the mitred Abbot of Westminster, who, independent of Episcopal jurisdiction, ranked with the Bishops. Backing the high altar,' which at that time would probably be more simply furnished with candles than is at present customary, is represented a tapestry woven with the history of the Virgin.The stone screen, which forms the background to the scene, is that now existing, and dividing the Chapel of Edward the Confessor from the choir and sacrarium. Immediately behind the screen stands the coronation chair, with the sacred stone. Legend says it was that on which Jacob laid his head when he dreamt the dream of the ladder. Immediately behind Edward the Confessor's Chapel was afterwards built that exquisitely beautiful dream in stone, which may be described as the acme of Gothic architecture.