S. B. Bolas & Co., Photo.]
The three chantries in the Perpendicular style which have been added to the angel choir were constructed at different periods by bishops of the diocese. The earliest of these, the Fleming Chantry, is on the north side. Richard Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, was appointed Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1419, and occupied the see for twelve years. In earlier years he was known as a zealous supporter
of many of the doctrines of Wyclif, but was afterwards called upon, as Bishop of Lincoln, to give effect to the council of Constance by exhuming the bones of the reformer from the churchyard at Lutterworth, burning them and casting them into the River Swift; "as the Swift bare them into the Severn, and the Severn into the narrow seas, and they again into the ocean, thus the ashes of Wycliffe is an emblem of his doctrine, which is now dispersed over all the world" (Fuller). The front of the chapel facing the choir is formed by a broad flat arch enclosing the founder's tomb, with a narrow entrance at the side. The door is of carved oak, with an ancient iron handle. On the tomb is the effigy of the bishop, restored not long since to this its original place. It presents a recumbent figure holding in the left hand a pastoral staff; the mitre is held by two angels, and at the bishop's feet is a dragon. Underneath is a horrible emaciated figure intended to represent the body of the bishop after death. Such figures are not uncommon; perhaps the best known example is in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral—the figure of Archbishop Chichele. Some authorities have considered that the figure at Lincoln does not represent Bishop Fleming, but that it formed part of an earlier monument. The chapel has been restored in memory of the late Sir Charles H. J. Anderson, Bart. (d. 1891), a native of Lincolnshire, and the author of an entertaining pocket guide to the county. The roof is of oak, carved with vine and oak foliage.
The Russell chantry, occupying a corresponding position on the opposite side of the choir, was built by Bishop John Russell, who held the see from 1480 to 1494. He is called by Sir Thomas More "a wise manne and a good ... and one of the best-learned men, undoubtedly, that England had in hys time." He was Chancellor of England under Richard III., and also held the post of Chancellor of Oxford University for some years. He died at Nettleham in 1494. The chantry is similar in style to Bishop Fleming's; its roof is of oak. The incised brass of the tomb has gone the way of all the minster brasses. Bishop Longland's chantry is on the other side of the south door. The general design is an imitation of Bishop Russell's chantry, but the details are much more elaborate. Over the flat archway facing the choir is the punning inscription, "Longa Terra Mensura Eius Dominus Dedit," borrowed from the Vulgate version of the book of Job (ch. xi., ver. 9). Round the inside walls of the chapel is an unfinished row of stone niches, with elaborately carved canopies; there is a panelled oak ceiling. This chapel was not erected until some time after the others; John Longland was Bishop of Lincoln from 1521 to 1547. He held, like Russell, the post of chancellor of the University of Oxford, but does not seem to have been very popular there, since on one occasion he was pelted with stones. When Henry VIII. visited Lincoln in 1541, he was received at the western end of the minster by this bishop, and stayed as his guest in the palace. Longland died in 1547, at Woburn, leaving instructions that his bowels were to be buried there; his heart at Lincoln; and his body in the chapel of Eton College. The building of the chapel at Lincoln seems to have been commenced soon after the bishop's accession to the see. Leland says "Byshope Russell, and Longland, now Byshop, Tumbes be in to Chapells cast out of the uppar Parte of the Southe Wall of the Churche." The chapel underwent a restoration in 1859.
The two chief monuments in the angel choir were the shrine of St. Hugh and the monument of Queen Eleanor. The former, of silver gilt, fell a victim to the royal greed of Henry VIII.; the latter, of more humble material, survived those perilous times, only to be destroyed by the rude soldiery of the Civil Wars in the seventeenth century. A description of the monument has, fortunately, been left to us by Bishop Sanderson, and the gilt brass effigy of the Queen in Westminster Abbey was the work of the same artist as that at Lincoln, and most probably a duplicate of it. Eleanor was the daughter of Ferdinand III. of Castile, and in 1254 was married to Henry III.'s eldest son, afterwards king as Edward I. Her attachment to her husband led her to accompany him on his adventurous expedition to the Holy Land with Louis IX. (St. Louis) of France in 1270. The king and queen seem to have travelled much together. They were both present at Lincoln at the translation of St. Hugh's relics in 1280, and ten years later, were again travelling northward, when Eleanor fell ill of a slow fever, and had to be lodged at Hardeby (Harby), just within the borders of Nottinghamshire. Lincoln was five miles off, and medicines were procured in the city from Henry de Montepessulano, to whom the sum of 13s. 4d. was paid. These remedies, however, proved of no effect, and on the 28th November 1290 the queen died, in the presence of her husband. Her body was embalmed and carried to Lincoln, where the viscera were buried in the minster, and a noble monument was raised. On the 4th December, the funeral procession left Lincoln, and journeyed to London. The heart, at the queen's own desire, was deposited in the church of the Friars Predicants in London, and the body was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 17th December, the Bishop of Lincoln officiating. There the monument was raised which still exists. The famous crosses, twelve in number, were erected at the different places on the route where the body rested for a night, doubtless in imitation of those in memory of the king's old crusader friend. St. Louis had died at Tunis, and the body was taken back to Paris, whence it was borne on the shoulders of men to the venerable resting-place of the French kings at St. Denis. Crosses were erected where the bearers rested in the journey from Paris to St Denis.
The first of the Eleanor crosses was at Lincoln, and there are records of payments to the "cementarius" Richard de Stow for the work. The last was at Charing. With reference to the monument in Lincoln minster, we learn from Bishop Sanderson's description that it was an altar monument of marble, "whereon was a Queen's effigies in gilded brass," and had the following inscription in "Saxon" characters:—Hic sunt Sepulta viscera Alienorae quondam Reginae Angliae uxoris Regis Edwardi filii Regis Henrici, cujus animae propicietur Deus.—Amen. The marble tomb was executed by Dymenge de Legeri and Alexander de Abyngton, who received £25 for the work; Roger de Crundale had £1, 16s. 8d. for marble; William de Suffolk was paid 8 marks for three little images of the queen, cast in metal, to be placed near the tomb. William de Suffolk also produced some small images for the church of the Friars Predicants in London. The effigies of the queen both at Westminster and Lincoln, were cast by Master William Torel, goldsmith and citizen of London. For the gilding, Flemish coin were procured from the merchants of Lucca.
A modern stone monument, with a bronze effigy of Queen Eleanor on the top, has recently (in 1891) been placed under the great east window, near the Cantelupe monument. It is due to the munificence of Mr. Joseph Ruston, and is a copy, as near as one can now tell, of the original monument. In the north-east corner of the choir is a group of monuments to a family which derived its name from Burghersh or Burwash in Sussex. Here was the chantry of St. Catherine, founded by Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh, for the soul of his brother Henry and their father, Robert Burghersh. The chaplains lived in the Burghersh chantry house in James Street. Leland, in referring to the "Burwasche" family, says that "they foundyd 5. Prists, and 5. pore Scollars at Gramar Schole in Lyncolne." Henry Burghersh was Bishop of Lincoln from 1320 to 1340. He was the third or fourth son of Sir Robert Burghersh, Lord Burghersh. Like many of our mediæval bishops, he appears to have been much more of a statesman than an ecclesiastic. For some time he was Chancellor of England under Edward III., whose son, the Black Prince, he baptised. He was a principal adviser of the king in foreign affairs, and died at Ghent in the year 1340, while there engaged in business of State. The monument is of stone, with a fine recumbent effigy of the bishop on the top, now much defaced. His mitre is supported by two angels. Along the north side of the monument runs an arcade of five arches, within each of which are two seated figures, whose armorial shields appear in the spandrels above. First (at the head) is Edward III.; then follow his four sons: Edward, the Black Prince, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, John of Gaunt, and Edmund, Duke of York; next is Henry, Duke of Lancaster, whose daughter, Blanche, married John of Gaunt. The other effigies are those of persons allied with the Burghersh family. On the other side of the monument are four panels of Gothic tracery with shields of arms. The legend runs that at Tinghurst, in Buckinghamshire, Bishop Henry Burghersh, "by mere might against all right and reason," enclosed the land of many poor people, without recompense, in order to complete his park. The ghost of the bishop could not rest after his death, but appeared to the canons of Lincoln in hunting dress, telling them he was appointed keeper of the park, and beseeching them to throw it open. The canons, thus warned, restored the land to its rightful possessors.
Next to this is another Burghersh monument, which authorities do not seem to be quite agreed about. Leland, after speaking of the bishop's tomb, says: "there is also buried at his Fete, Robart, his Brothar, a Knighte of great Fame in the Warrs." But the general opinion seems to be that Robert was not the brother, but the father, of Henry and Bartholomew. This tomb is of similar style to the former, having figures beneath arches on one side, and shields of arms on the other. The effigy is gone from the top. The elaborate Gothic canopies which originally surmounted both tombs were much injured by boys clambering upon them, and, becoming unsafe at last, were removed in the early part of the present century. Against the opposite wall, within a recessed arch under the easternmost window, is the monument of Henry's elder brother, Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh (d. 1355)—a soldier of much renown, who had a share in the victory of Creçy. He held the important office of constable of Dover Castle and warden of the Cinque Ports. In the year 1329, he was sent on a mission to the Pope to plead for pecuniary aid from the revenues of the English church; a tenth of them was granted to the king for four years. The base of the monument has an arcade of six arches, each having two small pedestals, for figures which are now gone. The armorial shields of the persons originally represented beneath the arches still remain in the spandrels. The effigy shows him clad in plate armour, and reclining on his helmet; two angels at the head uphold the shield of his family, and two others at the foot bear away in a cloth the deceased warrior's soul. The canopy over the tomb bears the arms of Edward III. and his four sons (the same as on the tomb of his brother the bishop), together with the shield of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and Lincoln. A detailed account of the shields of arms on the Burghersh tombs may be found in the Lincoln volume (1848) of the Archæological Institute.