Book excerpt: First Published in 1986 The Architectural History of King's College Chapel provides a complete picture of how and why King’s College Chapel came to be built. Francis Woodman uses the evidence both of structure and style and finance and patronage to present the organisation and mechanics of the structural campaigns spread over more than seventy years. He proposes a completely new sequence of constructions from that hitherto accepted, together with clear evidence of changes in policy concerning the intention to vault the Chapel part-way through construction. The book also contains the first complete analysis of the remarkable Tudor building accounts and their significance for the study of mediaeval architectural history. King’s College Chapel is placed within the context of the contemporary architecture in both England and France and, for the first time, English late mediaeval architecture is considered and presented as one part of a wider European movement. This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of British architecture and architectural history.