Besides arranging for the construction of the tombs and crosses, Edward made very ample provision for the religious celebrations to be made in memory of his wife. These were conducted in many places throughout the land, but the most elaborate was that held annually up to the time of Henry VIII in Westminster Abbey, on the eve of St. Andrew’s Day, the 29th November.
The Builders of the Queen’s Monuments.
Edward was well aware that he had both the men and the materials for the accomplishment of this great design. Although the King was unable to devote much of his time to artistic matters, he could not have been the son of his father without having a cultivated taste and a competent knowledge of the arts and crafts of the time. His father, Henry III, however much he failed as a ruler in an age when the power of the King was the main factor of good government, was an enthusiastic lover of art and a patron of artists. It was during the reign of Henry, and largely owing to his influence, that perhaps the most remarkable development of Early English architecture took place. His principal work, to which he gave himself with the utmost devotion, and, indeed, with little consideration of other and more important duties, was the rebuilding and decorating of the Abbey Church at Westminster. For the carrying out of his designs he had gradually fostered a school of architects, sculptors, painters, and other artists in Westminster unrivalled in England. This Westminster School of Art not only produced a great part of the magnificent edifice of the Abbey Church, but was directly engaged in the construction of many other great churches and buildings. Its influence, however, was still wider. From it trained and skilled men travelled throughout Britain, imparting the knowledge of structure and artistic design, while artists and students came to learn the Westminster methods from the ends of the land.
There is, however, a good deal of evidence to show that Edward inherited the collecting proclivities of his father, and was encouraged in this amiable failing by Eleanor. He spent very large sums of money in buying gold and silver plate, jewellery, carvings and embroideries. Records remain not only of his own possessions, but of the lavish way in which he and the Queen presented such works of art to religious houses which they visited from time to time, and in which they took special interest. An example may be found in the accounts of the Queen’s executors, where we find that a certain Brother Nicholas received the sum of £10 for bringing jewels, and, apparently, other works of art, from Acre to England for the Queen’s service.[[39]]
[39]. Cf. “Liberationes factae per Executores,” &c., Item, fratri Nicholao de Acon, pro cariagio diversarum rerum et jocalium, ad opus Reginae de Acon usque in Angliam, x li.
In the year 1290 and for some time before, the King’s master mason at Westminster was a certain Master Richard Crundale, or, as he was usually called in the Rolls containing the accounts of Queen Eleanor’s executors, “Magister Ricardus de Crundale, Cimentarius.” Richard Crundale was the direct successor of such great architects and builders as Master Henry of Westminster, Master John of Gloucester, and Master Robert of Beverley, who had been successively the King’s architects, and to whom we owe the beautiful designs and the excellent workmanship of Westminster Abbey. Crundale succeeded Robert of Beverley, and had apparently been in charge of the work at the Abbey for about ten years at this date. To him the King entrusted the building of the cross at Charing, and also the construction of the beautiful tomb in the Abbey Church, but it can hardly be doubted that it is to him we owe the suggestion of designs for many of the other crosses, and it is at any rate clear that the influence of the Westminster School is shown both in their planning and in the selection of the architects and builders who carried out the work.
The accounts of the executors show that, in addition to the work for the cross at Charing and the tomb in the Abbey, the statues of the Queen which found places in all the crosses, and much of the decorative stone carving, were made at Westminster under the eye of Richard Crundale.
In association with Crundale, there were at work in Westminster two sculptors (“Imaginatores”) of renown, namely—Alexander of Abingdon, and William of Ireland; these were the men who carved the statues. Ralph of Chichester carved much of the decorative stone work. The painter who decorated the tombs had also a high reputation in his time—Master Walter of Durham. Master William Torel, a citizen of London and goldsmith, had the good fortune to be chosen to mould and cast the metal effigies of the Queen, which found their places on the tombs at Westminster and Lincoln. His work was carried out in material of more durable character, and his reputation as an accomplished craftsman in metal rests firmly on the evidence of one of the most perfect remaining examples of mediæval art. Another worker in metal, Master Thomas de Leighton, has left evidence of his skill in the fine iron grille over the Queen’s tomb. The executry accounts tell us also of the men employed by Crundale to bring the stone and Purbeck marble from Corfe, Caen, and other places, and the names of others associated with the works at Westminster are still preserved.
The actual cost of the erection of the Cross at Charing is difficult to tell. The accounts show that large sums were received by Richard Crundale, amounting to some £700, but this sum no doubt represents work for other memorials to the Queen, and not alone for those at Westminster. It is also evident that the executry accounts were not complete, so that an exact calculation of the cost is no longer possible.[[40]] Unfortunately Richard Crundale died before the completion of the Queen’s memorials, and was succeeded in 1293 by Roger Crundale, under whose care the work was completed.
[40]. To obtain some idea of the cost of the memorials, money at the end of the thirteenth century may be considered to have possessed thirteen times its present purchasing value.