30 
THE ANCIENT GLASS IN YORK MINSTER. 
makes converts of both, for punishment the Emperor has St. 
Catherine guarded by two soldiers in mail. She is placed between 
two wheels. Two angels with swords strike the wheels, and the 
two executioners lie disabled on the ground, and the saint is 
rescued. The Emperor baffled, causes the saint to be beheaded. 
Two angels carry away her soul. 
In the tracery is figured her burial, each lower quatrefoil has a 
saint censing, and an acolyte with candle. In the upper one 
Christ is receiving her soul from the angels. 
Heraldic Shields. 
The central light is diapered with the foliage and fruit of the 
Oak, and those at the sides are adorned with the Hawthorn. 
Francis Drake, in 1736, called attention to this window, and from 
the importance of the shields, styled it the “ Heraldic” window. 
The shields are suspended by straps from hooks worked in the 
diapering. 
In the upper row is the shield of Plantagenet (Edward I.), 
between that of Germany— or a double-headed eagle displayed sable 
armed gules for his uncle, Frederick II., Emperor of Germany, 
and the shield of France for his brother-in-law, Philip, King of 
France. 
Below is the shield of another of Edward's uncles, namely, 
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, as King of the Romans— or an eagle 
displayed sable armed gules , between that of Provence— paly of six or 
and gules for Edward’s mother, Eleanor of Provence, and the 
quartered shield of Castile and Leon for Eleanor, the first queen 
of Edward I. 
In the lower row is a figure in blue cape and hood of the donor 
of the window, between the shield— argent a cross potent between seven 
crosslets or for Frederick II., Emperor of Germany, and also King 
of Jerusalem, and the shield of Navarre —gules on escarbuncle or for 
Joan of Navarre, Queen of France. 
The shield of Jerusalem is a heraldic curiosity having metal or 
metal. 
Above the Plantagenet shield is one bearing the arms of the 
Dean and Chapter— gules two keys in saltire or for St. Peter, the 
patron saint of the Minster, and in the border on either side is an 
angel censing. Surmounting this shield is a purple bird within a 
blue circle. At each side in the border under a canopy is an angel 
playing a harp. Each side light has the head of a sainted king, 
St. Edmund and St. Edward the Confessor respectively. 
