This remarkable window (1490-1505), rediscovered packed away in 1932, forms the lower section of the great east window at Stanford-on-Avon. It is one of the most striking survivals of late medieval royal propaganda in stained glass, created to celebrate the accession and legitimacy of Henry VII and the founding of the Tudor dynasty.

The composition consists of five lights, framed by rich canopies of perpendicular tracery and patterned grisaille backgrounds. The central light displays the Royal Coat of Arms, supported by the red dragon of Cadwaladr and the white greyhound of Richmond—heraldic beasts symbolising Henry’s Welsh ancestry and his father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Above, the Tudor rose and portcullis—emblems of unification and royal lineage—are prominently displayed, asserting dynastic continuity following the turbulence of the Wars of the Roses.

In the flanking lights, full-length portraits depict Henry VII on the left and Elizabeth of York on the right, each standing beneath elaborate Gothic canopies. Their pairing symbolises the union of the Houses of Lancaster and York, which brought peace and legitimacy to the English crown. The figures are shown in regal pose, richly robed and crowned, echoing contemporary royal imagery found in illuminated manuscripts and early Tudor heraldic art.

Although the precise original context of the glass is uncertain, the high quality of the design and execution suggests a commission linked to courtly patronage or a noble household closely allied to the Tudor cause. The Knollys family, whose later monuments dominate the church interior, had strong ties to the Tudor court—connections that may explain both the presence of such a window and its careful preservation through periods of iconoclasm and religious upheaval.

The surviving glass demonstrates the characteristic techniques of late Perpendicular stained glass, dating from the closing decades of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th. The figures and heraldic devices are executed in pot-metal coloured glass, enriched with brown enamel paint and silver stain to achieve subtle modelling and tonal depth. The vivid reds and deep blues—particularly in the robes of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York—suggest high-quality English production, possibly from a Midlands or London workshop supplying ecclesiastical patrons connected with the royal household.

The architectural canopy work, with its delicate tracery and alternating bands of colour, reflects the Gothic survivals typical of Henry VII’s reign, even as Renaissance motifs began to appear elsewhere. The disciplined vertical composition lends the scheme both grandeur and clarity, ensuring that its heraldic message was legible even from the nave.

Comparable in design and iconographic ambition to the glazing at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and St George’s Chapel, Windsor, the Stanford-on-Avon window represents a provincial but sophisticated example of Tudor court style. It is executed with comparable draughtsmanship and heraldic precision, though on a more intimate scale appropriate to a parish setting.

Its survival is owed largely to the removal and storage of the glass—probably during the iconoclastic periods of the 16th and 17th centuries—and its careful reassembly in 1932. The restoration respected the surviving fragments, with most of the principal figures and emblems remaining original. The painted surfaces show the fine craquelure and gentle weathering typical of early 16th-century English glass.

Together, these panels form not only a rare survival of English secular stained glass but also an eloquent expression of Tudor dynastic identity—a work in which royal symbolism, political legitimacy, and medieval craftsmanship converge in radiant colour and light.