1. Drawing of a body with instructions for bloodletting, related to the zodiac signs, from the Guild Book of the Barber-Surgeons of York, c. 1486.

2. An illustrated initial E, depicting Edward III enthroned, handing over the Duchy of Aquitaine to his son, Prince Edward, who is fully armed and kneeling in a gesture of homage.

3. A woman throwing corn to a hen and chicks, and holding a spindle. Domestic spinning and weaving were usually the work of women, as was tending to poultry and the farmyard. The image adorns the Luttrell Psalter, made before the mid 1340s.

4. This stained glass panel depicts the Virgin Mary holding Christ in her left arm and a flowering branch in her right hand. It is part of the sumptuous east window of Eaton Bishop parish church, Herefordshire, made around 1320.

5. Much rebuilt in the nineteenth century, Bamburgh Castle still exemplifies powerfully the strength of late medieval fortifications and the control a well-situated castle offered. In its Norman keep Piers Gaveston was held prisoner. It first succumbed to siege only in 1464, when it was badly damaged by cannon-fire.

6. A gilt bronze tomb effigy of the Black Prince, made soon after 1376, showing him in full armour and with a lion at his head. It is located in the Trinity Chapel, south of St Thomas Becket’s Shrine in Canterbury Cathedral.

7. The Battle of Crécy (1346) is depicted in this illumination from a manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques de France, c. 1415. Much attention has been paid by the artist to the bulk of the bodies of war horses.

8. Wooden effigy carved out of a single block of oak, probably of Walter de Helyon, who lived and held land in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, in the 1350s. He is wearing close-fitting clothes, with a belt and a short sword, the image of a landholding gentleman. Now in the nave of Much Marcle church.

9. The execution of Wat Tyler in June 1381 by a sword wielded by Mayor Walworth of London, and in the presence of king Richard II, is depicted in a manuscript of Jean Froissart’s Chroniques de France et d’Angleterre, c. 1460-80.

10. Chaucer reads to a crowd of exalted men and women in a rocky and wooded outdoor location, in the frontispiece to the manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1415-25). This fanciful scene shows how greatly Chaucer was honoured soon after his death.

11. The Wilton Diptych was created for Richard II some time after 1394. In it the King is presented on his knees, with the martyred King Edmund, Edward the Confessor and St John the Baptist; he gazes across at the Virgin Mary and Child Christ, surrounded by angels. Here is one of the most accomplished European representations of the sacred dimensions of kingship.

12. Richard II receives Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland, at Conway Castle, in 1399; this is the beginning of the end of Richard’s rule. From Histoire du Roy d’Angleterre Richard II.

13. Henry of Derby claims the throne (shown to be empty) in Parliament (1399) in the presence of assembled lords spiritual and temporal. From Histoire du Roy d’Angleterre Richard II.

14. Tomb effigies of Henry IV and his second wife, Queen Joan of Navarre, in Canterbury Cathedral; the effigies bear personal traits, and were commissioned by Joan herself.

15. Tomb effigy of Thomas Duke of Clarence, son of Henry IV, who died in battle in France in 1421. Thomas is in full armour and sports a Lancastrian collar with the ‘SS’ emblem of the Lancastrians. St Michael’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral.

16. Henry Prince of Wales (the future Henry V), receives a work of guidance from the kneeling author Thomas Hoccleve, clerk of the Privy Seal.

17. The Battle of Agincourt (1415) is depicted at an advanced stage in this illustration from the St Albans Chronicle: the English bowmen dominate the field, and many slain French knights have fallen to the ground. Note the trumpeters, crucial for communication and the rallying of forces in battle.

18. John Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry IV, kneels in a chapel in front of St George, dressed for battle and wearing a saint’s halo. The image is an illustration to the Bedford Book of Hours, commissioned by the Duke of Bedford and made c. 1423.

19. Thomas Mac William Burke (d. 1405), an Anglo-Irish knight, with sword and shield, and his dog. Dublin, Trinity College.

20. Henry VI offers the sword of the Constable of France to John Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury. This image comes from the book of prayers, tracts and romances which the Earl and his wife offered Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou as a marriage gift in 1445.

21. This misericord – a ledge attached to a choir seat to ease long periods of standing – depicts two men playing a board game, probably backgammon. Misericord carvings often depict scenes of daily life, with humorous and parodic images. Now in Manchester Cathedral, carved c. 1500.

22. The West façade of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The building of the chapel began at the foundation of the college by Henry VI in 1446, and was completed only under Henry VIII. Every king in the period contributed to its construction and decoration.

23. This decorated roll from the 1470s contains diagrams and portions of text which depict and discuss the genealogy of Edward IV and his claim to the throne. Edward is finally represented just off-centre right.

24. The illustration to the entry ‘clandestine betrothal’, in the Omne bonum, an encyclopaedia of the 1360s-70s composed by the friar John Le Palmer. Note the friar joining the man’s right to the woman’s left hand.

25. Edward IV holds a sword and a shield, seated on a boat, on this obverse of the rose-noble, the gold coin which he had minted in 1465. Edward IV took great interest in trade and fiscal policy.

26. The painting of the Last Judgement – the Doom – that is now mounted on the north wall of Wenhaston (Suffolk) parish church, of the 1480s, was originally placed above the chancel arch, for all parishioners to see during the services. It depicts in vivid fashion and warm colours the sufferings of those destined to Hell, while those few who enter Heaven pass through a narrow gateway.