It will be remembered that Henry III’s mother, Isabella of Angoulême, married again after King John’s death. She married the Count of La Marche and Poitiers, who belonged to the Lusignan family,—a family which was very well known in Europe, some of them being Kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem. The children of Isabella and the Count de la Marche came over to England, and the English people greatly disliked their insolence and greediness, complaining that Henry III gave too many titles and too much money to his French relations. William de Valence was the fourth son of the Count de la Marche, and was the most disliked of all Henry’s half-brothers. He was created Earl of Pembroke. He took an active part in the Barons’ War, and was finally sent on the expedition into Gascony with his nephew, Edmund Crouchback. Like Edmund, he died at Bayonne in 1296. His tomb is of French workmanship, and there are still some remains of the famous Limoges enamel which decorated it.
Aymer de Valence, William’s son, succeeded his father as Earl of Pembroke. He fought bravely in the Scottish wars, and was at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. He was much blamed for his cruelty in having Nigel Bruce hanged at the Castle of Kentire. Aymer died in France in 1324, very suddenly, and many people thought it was a punishment for taking part in the condemnation and death of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, son of Edmund Crouchback, who was revered as a saint. Aymer’s tomb is celebrated for its beauty. It is very like Edmund Crouchback’s, with its pinnacled canopy and niches for statues. Aymer is represented on the canopy in full armour and riding his war-horse.
The three tombs of Edmund Crouchback, Aymer de Valence, and Aveline of Lancaster are among the most beautiful in the Abbey, and are thought by some people to be all three the work of one artist.
King Edward II, Edward of Carnarvon, as he was called from his birthplace in Wales, is not buried in the Abbey, but at Gloucester, that town being near Berkeley Castle, where he was murdered.
We are specially reminded of King Edward III in the Abbey, for not only is he buried there, but the great sword and shield of state which were carried before him during his wars with France are placed in the Confessor’s Chapel, close to the Coronation Chair. This sword and shield make us think of those famous Battles of Crécy and Poitiers, where Edward III and the Black Prince fought.
Edward III is buried in a beautiful tomb just opposite to Henry III, and his good Queen, Philippa of Hainault, is buried next to him, according to her own wish. Her tomb was made by a Flemish artist, and was also a very fine one, but, like many others in the Abbey, it has been sadly destroyed. Queen Philippa is, of course, always remembered for having begged for the lives of the brave citizens of Calais when the King had ordered them to be hanged.
Photo W. Rice, F.R.P.S. Allen & Co (London) Ltd Sc
Tomb of Prince John of Eltham. in S. Edmund’s Chapel.
Close to Philippa lies her son, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, murdered, it is to be feared, by order of his nephew, Richard II.
Eleanor de Bohun, widow of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, is buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel, and the memorial brass on her tomb is the most beautiful now left in the Abbey.