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

The Convent of Saint Mary Roncevall at Charing.

To understand how it was possible that a religious house in the Pyrenees could hold possessions scattered throughout so many different lands, it must be clearly borne in mind that in the Middle Ages the rule exercised by the Church took very little cognizance of State limits. The ecclesiastical power was much stronger than the national influences of the time, and the Church drew its revenues from all Christian countries, quite irrespective of political boundaries. At the time when the House of Roncesvalles at Charing was founded, the overlordship of the Pope had been felt in England and in France in a very real manner. In addition to this ecclesiastical bond, the political relationships between England, France and Northern Spain were of the most intimate character, so that the all-pervading power of the Church could be exercised with the greater ease in these countries. During the period of the Norman, and even more so during the Angevin dynasty, the English barons experienced the greatest difficulty in detaching themselves from the influences exerted on them by their foreign relationships, even if they had the desire to do so. In many cases they seem to have frankly regarded their insular possessions as sources of revenue and power to be made use of in order to promote their Continental interests. In this respect they followed the example set in such unmistakable fashion by kings such as Richard and John. The Church acted in the same manner, and many foreign convents were able, by their powerful influence, to obtain possession of, and to exploit, the rich lands of England for their own support. It was not until the close of the reign of John and during the reign of Henry III that the separate destinies of England and France became apparent to the more sagacious of the English statesmen of that period. It is very instructive, therefore, to note as evidence of the complicated and distracting political and social influences still felt by the English magnates, that the noble family which perhaps most of all by its example and advice sought to uphold the political independence of England as apart from France, was nevertheless impelled to become one of the great benefactors of a foreign religious house.

Fig. 3. Fig. 4.
Figs. 3 and 4.—Front and profile views of the effigy in the Temple
Church of William Marshall, sen., Earl of Pembroke (ob. 1219).