It will be observed that the dates of the burial of the above nobleman, as mentioned by Matthew Paris and other authorities, are as follow:—William Marshall the elder, A. D. 1219; Lord de Ros, A. D. 1227; William Marshall the younger, A. D. 1231; all before the consecration of the oblong portion of the church. Gilbert Marshall, on the other hand, was buried A. D. 1241, the year after that ceremony had taken place. Those, therefore, who suppose that the monumental effigies of the Marshall originally stood in the eastern part of the building, are mistaken.
Amongst the many distinguished persons interred in the Temple Church is William Plantagenet, the fifth son of Henry the Third, who died A. D. 1256, under age.[538] The greatest desire was manifested by all classes of persons to be buried in the cemetery of the Templars.
King Henry the Third provided for his own interment in the Temple by a formal instrument couched in the following pious and reverential terms:—
“To all faithful Christians to whom these presents shall come, Henry by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, salvation. Be it known to all of you, that we, being of sound mind and free judgment, and desiring with pious forethought to extend our regards beyond the passing events of this life, and to determine the place of our sepulture, have, on account of the love we bear to the order and to the brethren of the chivalry of the Temple, given and granted, after this life’s journey has drawn to a close, and we have gone the way of all flesh, our body to God and the blessed Virgin Mary, and to the house of the chivalry of the Temple at London, to be there buried, expecting and hoping that through our Lord and Saviour it will greatly contribute to the salvation of our soul.... We desire that our body, when we have departed this life, may be carried to the aforesaid house of the chivalry of the Temple, and be there decently buried as above mentioned.... As witness the venerable father R., bishop of Hereford, &c. Given by the hand of the venerable father Edmund, bishop of Chichester, our chancellor, at Gloucester, the 27th of July, in the nineteenth year of our reign.”[539]
Queen Eleanor also provided in a similar manner for her interment in the Temple Church, the formal instrument being expressed to be made with the consent and approbation of her lord, Henry the illustrious king of England, who had lent a willing ear to her prayers upon the subject.[540] These sepulchral arrangements, however, were afterwards altered, and the king by his will directed his body to be buried as follows:—“I will that my body be buried in the church of the blessed Edward at Westminster, there being no impediment, having formerly appointed my body to be buried in the New Temple.”[541]
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TEMPLE.
Antiquities in the Temple—The history of the place subsequent to the dissolution of the order of the Knights Templars—The establishment of a society of lawyers in the Temple—The antiquity of this society—Its connexion with the antient society of the Knights Templars—An order of knights and serving brethren established in the law—The degree of frere serjen, or frater serviens, borrowed from the antient Templars—The modern Templars divide themselves into the two societies of the Inner and Middle Temple.