The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey

by G. E. Troutbeck

In St. Edmund’s Chapel is the tomb of another Plantagenet, Prince John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Edward III. He took his name from the old palace at Eltham, where he was born. Prince John died quite young, but he had already shown great promise as a soldier, and was three times Regent of the kingdom when Edward III was away in France and Scotland. He bears a shield with the lions of England and lilies of France upon it. His mother was a French princess, daughter of King Philip the Fair, and it was through her that Edward III thought he could claim the throne of France. Close to the tomb of Prince John of Eltham is the tiny tomb of two young children of Edward III, called, from their birthplaces, William of Windsor and Blanche of the Tower.

Two grandchildren of Edward I, Hugh and Mary de Bohun, are buried in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, another of the circle of chapels which crowns the eastern end, or apse, of the Abbey. (St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children.)

The Black Prince is buried in Canterbury Cathedral, close to where the shrine of Thomas à Becket once stood, but his son, the unhappy Richard II, had a great love for the Abbey, where he had not only been crowned, but also married to his beloved first wife, Anne of Bohemia, who was a descendant of the “Good King Wenceslas,” about whom we sing in the carol for St. Stephen’s Day.

Richard II is buried in the Abbey, and the great tomb in which he and Anne rest was made for her. Anne died in 1394, and her funeral was a very splendid ceremony, hundreds of wax candles having been brought over from Flanders to be lighted at the service. The tomb itself is very magnificent; the gilt-bronze decorations and the robes of the effigies are engraved with the leopards of England, the broomcods of the Plantagenets, the ostrich feathers and lions of Bohemia, and the sun rising through the clouds of Crécy. The ostrich feathers should remind us of the crest and motto of the Prince of Wales.

Richard himself was not placed in this tomb until fourteen years after his supposed murder, when his body was brought back from Friars’ Langley by Henry V, in obedience to the wish of Henry IV. In the Sacrarium is a beautiful portrait of Richard II, painted in his lifetime, and therefore the oldest painting of any British sovereign. This portrait was very carefully restored some years ago, and represents Richard in his crown and royal robes, sitting in the Chair of State, very probably as he used to appear in the Abbey on high festivals. Richard’s well-known badge of the White Hart was painted on more than one part of the Abbey, and it is interesting to see that, in old pictures of Richard, he and his followers wear the badge of the White Hart. Many inns in England are still called by this name.

With Richard II the direct Plantagenet line ends, and his is the last tomb in the circle round the Confessor’s shrine.

Before speaking of the Plantagenet Houses of Lancaster and York we must mention some of the chief men of this time who are buried in the Abbey. First and foremost of these is the great poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the famous Canterbury Tales, and the father of English poetry.

He was born in 1328, the year after Edward III came to the throne, and died in 1400, a year after Richard II. Chaucer lived in a house close to the old Lady Chapel built by Henry III, and his house was one of those pulled down in later days to make room for the larger Chapel of Henry VII. Chaucer is buried in Poet’s Corner, and is the first of its glorious circle of poets. His monument, which is quite near his grave, was not put up until about 150 years after his death. Just above the monument is a modern stained-glass window in Chaucer’s memory, representing scenes from his life, and from the Canterbury Tales.

The only person not of royal blood who is buried in the Chapel of the Kings is Richard’s great friend, John of Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, who was Lord Treasurer, Keeper of the Great Seal, and Master of the Rolls. He was the first statesman to be buried in the Abbey. In St. Edmund’s Chapel are buried Ralph Waldeby, Archbishop of York, a friend of the Black Prince and tutor to Richard II, and Sir Bernard Brocas, who was renowned for his fighting in the Moorish wars. He died in 1400. His son-in-law, Sir John Golofre, another great friend of Richard II, was buried in the South Ambulatory in 1396. He was Richard’s ambassador in France, and was buried in the Abbey by his master’s express command.

Our next chapter must be about those younger branches of the Plantagenet family, the Houses of Lancaster and York, who also hold a place in the Abbey.