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your mouse over the picture to examine it
in detail.
An
image from the Queen Mary Psalter.
This
Psalter is an amazingly rich book with more
than 200 religious drawings and many other
scenes of everyday life drawn in the margins
of the book. The entire book was illustrated
by just one artist. We do not know his name,
but he may have been the head of a London
workshop of painters. There is no evidence
in the book itself of its precise date or
the person for whom it was made. We do not
know who owned the book before the 16th century,
but in the 1500s it belonged to Queen Mary
Tudor. This is why it is known as the Queen
Mary Psalter.
It
was usual for the family of someone who had
angered the king to suffer punishment as well.
Thomas Becket quarrelled with King Henry II
and his family was sent into exile after he
was killed. Note here the two small children:
one is carried on its mother's back; the other
is still swaddled, as were all newborn babies
at the time. The picture was painted about
150 years after the events it shows. Does
this affect your attitude towards the source?
Think about why the artist included so many
women and children in the source.
Source
5: Henry exiles Becket's family
Roll
your mouse over the picture to examine it
in detail.
