This bas-de-page scene, from the Queen Mary Psalter (BL Royal 2 B VII f.242v) illustrates Saint Valentine’s life before the explicit connection to love forged by Chaucer. Here we see Valentine before Claudius II along with a guard or other Roman functionary. What appears in this image to be an arm placed around his shoulder in camaraderie actually represents the guard about to take Valentine away to be beheaded. The next image, f.243r, shows the same figure about to behead a kneeling Valentine.

Although this book is commonly known as the Queen Mary Psalter, it was originally created between 1310 and 1320, possibly at the behest of Queen Isabella or her husband, the English King Edward II. It was created in either London or East Anglia and the text is in Latin with French image captions. As such, it reflects the version of the life in the Legenda Aurea and shows that version had cultural currency in the highest levels of the English court on the eve of Chaucer’s life and literary career.