Historical sketches of old Charing. / The hospital and chapel of Saint Mary Roncevall. Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and the monuments erected in her memory.

by Sir James Galloway

King Edward’s Plan for the Commemoration of Queen Eleanor.

It is quite clear that Edward must have carefully considered the most fitting means for the perpetuation of the memory of his consort during the anxious weeks of Eleanor’s last illness. It would have been otherwise impossible to put into immediate operation the details of his great design.

The plan which commended itself to the King was that after the body had been embalmed a funeral procession should be formed, led by himself and accompanied by the important officers of State, and should pass through England from Lincoln to London. The itinerary was so arranged that at the close of each day’s march the cortège should rest for the night near some important town, or at a religious house of note. The route thus determined was not the most direct.

He spent Advent Sunday, December 2, 1290, in Lincoln, the body resting at the Priory of St. Catherine, on the southern outskirt of the city, while the King chose the situation for the first of the tombs under the great eastern window of Lincoln Minster, and attended the memorial services in that great Church.

Leaving Lincoln on 3rd December, the procession passed through Grantham, Stamford and Geddington, reaching Northampton on the 9th December; then, by way of Stony Stratford, through Woburn and Dunstable to St. Albans, which was reached on the 13th December. The King went thence direct to London, to make due preparation for the ceremonial entry into the City, while the procession conveying the remains of Eleanor passed on to Waltham Abbey, in order later to pass through the length of the City. The procession through the City of London was of the most solemn character, being led by the King, accompanied by the important nobles, the officials of the Court, the prelates and the higher clergy.

The night following the departure from Waltham, the body rested at the western end of Chepe (Cheapside), or perhaps actually in St. Paul’s, the next night, in the village of Charing, on the confines of Westminster, and the entombment in the Abbey Church of St. Peter’s took place on the 17th December.

Three tombs were to be erected in memory of the Queen—one in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, where the viscera were buried; one in the Church of the Dominican Friars in London, a religious fraternity which had early gained the sympathy of the King and Queen. In this beautiful Church of the Black Friars, built mainly by the munificence of Edward and his consort, the heart of the Queen was to be enshrined at her own request. The third tomb was erected in the Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, where the body is interred. The King determined that at every station on this route where the Queen’s body rested for the night a memorial cross should be erected in the most sumptuous manner possible.

The ceremonies which took place at these various stations were solemnly conducted with the full rites of the Church, and we still have evidence of what took place at Dunstable and St. Albans. The Dunstable annalist states that the body rested one night there—probably in the choir of the Priory Church—and the bier remained in this place while the Chancellor and the other magnates of the Court selected a suitable place for the erection of the Cross. The Prior of the Convent was present at the ceremony, and consecrated the spot by sprinkling holy water. The Priory received two valuable pieces of embroidery and more than 40 lb. of wax.[^[38]]

[38]. This was not the first time that Edward presented gifts to the Priory at Dunstable, including the valuable embroideries on cloth of gold of Eastern origin, “scilicet Baudekyns,” i.e., cloth of Bagdad, where this gorgeous fabric was originally made.

At St. Albans, as was to be expected of the greater house, the ceremonies must have been conducted with even greater magnificence. The procession was met as it approached St. Albans by the whole Convent, “solemniter revestitus in albis et capis,” at the Church of St. Michael, near the entrance of the town. The body was then conducted to the Abbey Church and placed before the High Altar. The whole of that night the Convent was engaged in its divine offices and holy vigils. There can be no doubt that this progress passing through so much of the land, accompanied by the King and the great magnates of the Court, honoured by the most ceremonious rites of Holy Church, and ending with the great celebration at Westminster, was one of the most remarkable spectacles ever witnessed in England.

The idea of this impressive ceremonial was no doubt suggested to the mind of Edward by the funeral of his old leader on crusade—Louis IX of France. After the death of Louis in Tunis, his body was conveyed to France for entombment. It was carried on men’s shoulders from Paris to St. Denis, and at the places where the bearers rested on their journey a cross was subsequently built. It is well known that Edward held the memory of Louis in great veneration, and was well aware of these circumstances; no doubt he had seen the crosses in memory of St. Louis while in France and accompanied by the Queen.

Besides arranging for the construction of the tombs and crosses, Edward made very ample provision for the religious celebrations to be made in memory of his wife. These were conducted in many places throughout the land, but the most elaborate was that held annually up to the time of Henry VIII in Westminster Abbey, on the eve of St. Andrew’s Day, the 29th November.