31 March 2025

In Leicester Cathedral, there are two beautiful new stained glass windows. They have been created by the artist, Thomas Denny. to commemorate the reburial of King Richard III’s bones in the Cathedral. They are called ‘The Redemption Windows’.

Over the years, there has been a lot of controversy about the hunchbacked King of England not least in the possibility that he murdered his nephews in the Tower of London in order to secure the crown for himself. A less favourable opinion was set by Shakespeare in his play about Richard III.

Contemporary historians are more inclined to err  on the charitable side or live in that space which holds what is known to be true without casting judgement on what cannot be proven.  In designing the windows, Thomas Denny did something really interesting.

He reframed what was known about Richard III in such a way that his story would connect with our common humanity and be illuminated by the life of Christ. One  window features the events of Good Friday and the other  Easter Day.

In one we see the young Richard confidently riding away from home as any young man would, entering the world, finding his place in the human story. In another, we see Richard and his wife, Anne, mourning the loss of their son as any parent would in the twenty-first century as in the fifteenth.

A tiny cross is featured on a hill far away. Jesus is seen breaking bread with Cleopas and his friend at Emmaus. And if you can see it, there is a tiny football in one of the traceries. Why? It marks the unexpected victory of Leicester City in winning the Premiere League when the windows were installed in 2016!