England, London, c 1380 – c 1390 and c 1400–20. Trinity College, Cambridge, MS B.10.2, fols. 21v–22 (cat no10). Image courtesy The Master and Fellows, Trinity College, Cambridge.

The illustration of the Apocalypse in chivalric terms was popular in medieval England. This manuscript was at Westminster Abbey, and a series of wall paintings in the chapter house are based on its illustrations. Some 24 coloured drawings of the Life of St Edward, whose shrine is in the Abbey, were also added in the early 15th century. These pages show the woman ‘clothed with the sun’ on the left. She symbolises Mary and the Church, and she and her newborn child are being rescued from the seven-headed dragon. Opposite, in the battle between good and evil, the spear and shield of the large confronting angel display a crusader’s cross.