The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey

by G. E. Troutbeck

On Edward I’s tomb are some Latin words which mean, “Hammer of the Scots,” and “Keep troth.”

[D. Weller
TOMBS OF EDMUND AND AVELINE OF LANCASTER, AND OF AYMER DE VALENCE.

The tomb was opened in the year 1771, and an inner coffin of Purbeck marble was found, in which the King’s body lay. He must have been a very tall man, as, after all those centuries, he still measured 6 feet 2 inches. It is thus quite easy to understand why he was called “Longshanks.” The body was dressed in a red dalmatic, and over it a royal mantle of rich crimson satin, fastened with a splendid fibula or clasp. On the head was a gilt crown; in the right hand was the sceptre with the cross; in the left, the sceptre with the dove.

The coffin was afterwards securely closed, and has never been disturbed again.

Next to the tomb of Edward I, and just beyond the screen which separates the Chapel of the Kings from the Sacrarium, is the beautiful and highly decorated tomb of his brother, Edmund Crouchback, first Earl of Lancaster. He was the fourth son of Henry III, who named him after the Anglo-Saxon martyr-King, St. Edmund of East Anglia. There is a chapel dedicated to St. Edmund in the Abbey, and it was looked upon as coming next in honour after the Chapel of the Confessor.

Edmund Crouchback was a crusader, like his brother, King Edward I, and the cross or “crouch” he wore was probably the origin of his name, although some people have thought that he was perhaps hump-backed. Edmund and his first wife, the beautiful Aveline of Lancaster, were the first bride and bridegroom to be married in Henry III’s new church. They were married in 1269, but Aveline did not live very long. Her tomb is quite near her husband’s, and is considered to be one of the finest in the Abbey. Aveline was not only a great beauty, but also a great heiress, and her wealth descended to the House of Lancaster. After Aveline’s death, Edmund married Blanche, Queen of Navarre, a French princess. She was a widow when Edmund married her, and her daughter Joan afterwards married King Philip the Fair of France. Edmund and his second wife lived for some time at Provins, in Champagne, and from that town they brought to England the famous red roses which became the badge of the House of Lancaster. These roses were said to have been brought from the East by Crusaders. They still grow at Provins, and have a very sweet scent.

Edmund Crouchback died at Bayonne in 1296, while he was fighting for the English possessions in Gascony.

When Edmund was only eight years old, Pope Innocent II had given him the title of King of Sicily and Apulia, but this was only an empty honour, and meant that the English had to be heavily taxed in order to support Edmund’s claim and satisfy the Pope. All these exactions of Henry III’s helped to make the English more and more determined not to be taxed without their consent, and had a great deal to do with the beginning of the House of Commons in Simon de Montfort’s time.

Before passing on to the later descendants of Henry III, we must speak of two very interesting tombs which recall some important things in English history. These are, first, the tomb of William de Valence, in St. Edmund’s Chapel; and secondly, the tomb of his son Aymer, which stands in the Sacrarium, between the tombs of Edmund and Aveline of Lancaster.