St. George’s Chapel

St. George’s Chapel, part of Windsor Castle, in the district of Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. This chapel was designed for the Most Noble Order of the Garter and was begun by Edward IV. It is one of the finest examples of the Perpendicular style of Gothic architecture in England. The chapel was built in two stages, the choir and its aisles being completed and roofed by 1483 and the nave by 1496, but the stone vaulting was not finished until 1528. Above the choir stalls hang the insignia of the Knights of the Garter, their swords, helmets, and banners; to the backs of the stalls are affixed their heraldic stall plates, forming a notable assemblage of heraldry from medieval times. The large west window with its late 15th-century stained glass and the painted roof bosses are among other remarkable features of the chapel.

St. George’s Chapel ranks next to Westminster Abbey as a royal mausoleum, and it became customary for royal funerals to take place there. Among the royalty buried within the chapel are Edward IV, Henry VI, Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Charles I, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and George V and Queen Mary. The King George VI Memorial Chapel, an annex to St. George’s Chapel, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II in 1962 and completed in 1969, is the final resting place of King George VI; Elizabeth, the Queen Mother; and Princess Margaret. In 2022 Queen Elizabeth II was interred there with her husband, Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh, following her state funeral at Westminster Abbey.