Canons of Loches
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This window, at Tours cathedral, is dated to the last part of the 13th century, was donated to Tours Cathedral by the Canons of the Collegiate church at Loches in commemoration for the Treaty of Paris (1259) between Louis IX of France and Henry III of England. 1
The window consists of eight large panels with grisaille above and below figures of the Virgin Mary in the top left register, and nine canons from the collegiate church at Loches.
Loches had been part of the Angevine Empire created by Henry II and lost by John of England in 1204 to Philip II of France. In the intervening years Henry III had attempted to regain the lands lost by his father John and the Treaty of Paris was meant to be a settlement whereby Henry would keep Gascony and parts of Aquitaine but renounce claims to Normandy, Maine, Anjou and Poitou.
Under the Treaty, Loches was ceded to the French King, and the panel in the bottom right depicts the Chateau at Loches with flags containing the fleur de lye.
- 1. The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307. The Oxford History of England (Clarendon Press 1962). p84.