Historical sketches of old Charing. / The hospital and chapel of Saint Mary Roncevall. Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and the monuments erected in her memory.

by Sir James Galloway

Figs. 5, 6, and 7.—Front and profile views of the effigy in the
Temple Church of William Marshall, jun., Earl of Pembroke (ob. 1231).

During the lifetime of William Marshall and his son, and for long before and after, the high road through the Pass of Roncesvalles was much frequented. It was the main line of communication by land between France and Spain on the western frontier, and was used both by peaceful travellers and by the numerous military expeditions passing from one country to the other. These expeditions resulted not only from the constant warfare of the border but were also organized by Crusaders on their way to help the Spaniard against the Moor, frequently with the purpose of travelling farther to the Holy Land. At this time also the relationships formed by Henry II and his sons with the Courts of the new kingdoms in the north of Spain, which were beginning to arise as the tide of Moorish invasion receded, were of the most intimate character. It will be remembered that Richard, when King of England, married Berengaria, daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre, after a very troublesome wooing, and that the younger Sancho took the part of Richard while the latter was on crusade against their common enemies in the South of France. The relationship between the Courts of Aragon and Castile and the Angevin Kings was no less intimate. William Marshall and his eldest son were in the closest association with the Royal House. They both travelled far and wide over France and Northern Spain, so that the Angevin dominions in Aquitaine and the neighbouring kingdom of Navarre must at one time have been as well known to the Marshall family as their home in England.

Another reason which brought many travellers along the road through Roncesvalles was the attraction of the Shrine of St. James at Compostella. The pilgrimage to Compostella was undertaken by knights and their squires as the result of vows made on the field of battle, and was famed for its efficacy among all engaged in military affairs. But the pilgrimage even to armed bands was a dangerous one on account of the disturbed state of the frontier. An interesting example of this is presented in the relationships between Richard and his neighbour the Count of Toulouse. The ostensible cause for Richard’s warfare against the Count of Toulouse was the inveterate inclination of the latter to acts of brigandage. When war was declared the Count of Toulouse had actually captured and ill-treated two English knights named Robert le Poer and Ralph Fraser, on their return from a pilgrimage to Compostella. The reputation of the Hospital of St. Mary in the Pass of Roncesvalles and of the Convent which supported the Hospital was known to every traveller—peaceful or warlike—in Western Europe, and would certainly have appealed to the benevolence of such a man as the younger William Marshall. The probability is that both father and son had stronger motives for giving alms to the Community—the result of benefits received from the Convent and Hospital during their journeys between France and Spain.

The Coming of the Brethren to England (1229) and the Foundation of the Convent at Charing.

The first knowledge we have of the presence in England of members of the Community of Roncesvalles is obtained from the letters of protection given to certain brethren by Henry III, in the year 1229. These letters were of the usual complete character, and it is clear that the intention of the deputation from Roncesvalles was to seek alms in England for the support of their House in the remote valley in the Pyrenees. This purpose was definitely encouraged by a special clause in the letters of protection.

The brethren seem to have been taken under the patronage of the younger William Marshall from the beginning. They may even have come to England on his invitation, for we find that he soon commenced to make arrangements to give them revenues and an establishment in this country. Very unfortunately for the Convent, the Earl died in the year 1231, soon after his return to England from Henry’s disastrous campaign in Poitou and Brittany, where he had held the chief command. But the record of his great gift remains, for on August 11, 1232, Henry confirmed at Wenlock “the grant to Saint Mary and the Hospital at Roncevaux (Roscida Vallis) of the gift which William Marshall, sometime Earl of Pembroke, made to them of all his houses at Cherring, and the houses and curtilages adjoining them formerly belonging to William Briwere, and of 100s. at Suthanton payable from the houses of the said Earl there, of 13l. of land in Netherwent in the moor of Magor, and of a carucate of land in Assandon, which he bought from Robert de Rochford.”

It was thus in consequence of the munificence of William Marshall the younger that the brethren of Roncesvalles obtained the land on the banks of the Thames at Charing where they subsequently built their conventual dwelling, their Hospital for the sick, and the Chapel by the riverside, which were to remain an important feature of London for over three hundred years.

Saint Mary Roncevall to the Year 1348.

The records of this alien settlement for many years consist mainly of statements of the gifts received from various important persons. The community seems to have flourished, and their work, both in London and in the Pyrenees, continued to deserve the sympathy and support of their pious benefactors. There is evidence that they possessed property in Norwich, Canterbury, Oxford, Pevensey, Southampton, and elsewhere, and that they received certain revenues from Ireland and from Scotland. It is easy to understand that their Irish revenues may have been considerable on account of the great estates possessed by the Marshall family in Leinster. It is clear also that the Convent had the advantage of royal favour and patronage, for the English records contain several confirmations of valuable gifts from both Henry III and Edward I, derived from royal property situated in the South of France, to the mother house in the Pyrenees. One of the most interesting of these gifts is the rent to be derived for the benefit of the Convent from the King’s lands in the town of Myramand, previously granted to Eleanor, the Queen Mother. This grant is specially mentioned in the same document as another endowment derived from the same source to be paid to the Abbey of Fontevraud. This benefaction to the House of Roncesvalles gives the measure of respect in which it was held, for an English king who placed the house of Roncesvalles in the same category as the Abbey of Fontevraud as worthy of support must have felt the claims of the Convent in the Pyrenees in the strongest possible way. Edward’s Angevin ancestors had been buried in the Church of Fontevraud for generations, and there was no ecclesiastical foundation possessing a greater claim on the munificence of the Angevin family than this Abbey.