On 28th November 1290 Queen Eleanor of England
died, after which her grieving husband, King Edward I, demonstrated his
devotion to her in a remarkable and long-lasting way.
Edward and Eleanor
The marriage between Eleanor of Castile and Prince Edward
had taken place in 1254 when she was aged 10 and Edward was 15, although it was
common practice at the time for child marriages not to be consummated until the
girl was of a suitable age. She was Queen of England at the age of 26 when
Edward became king, and she would bear him 15 children although most of them
did not reach adulthood.
The couple were clearly devoted to each other, with Eleanor
accompanying Edward on Crusade and, according to tradition, sucking poison from
a wound when Edward was assailed by a would-be assassin. Edward was
hot-tempered and often brutal, but Eleanor appears to have been a calming
influence on him.
The death of Eleanor
Her death, from a fever, occurred when the king and queen
were visiting the East Midlands. Edward had gone ahead because Eleanor was
recovering from childbirth and needed to travel more slowly. When news reached
him that she was ill (at Harby in Nottinghamshire) he rushed back but was too
late to see her before she died.
Eleanor’s body was taken to Lincoln and embalmed before
being taken south to be buried in Westminster Abbey. Each night the cortege
rested at a town or village along the route, there being twelve such places in
all.
The Eleanor crosses
After the funeral, Edward declared that each of the stopping
places of Eleanor’s body should be commemorated by the erection of a memorial which
could become a place where prayers could be offered for her soul. The
memorials, known as “Eleanor crosses” were carved and erected over a three year
period.
Today, only three of the original crosses remain, these
being at Geddington and Hardingstone (both in Northamptonshire), and Waltham
Cross in Hertfordshire. Fragments of some of the other crosses are held in
museums.
(The full list of original locations is: Lincoln, Grantham,
Stamford, Geddington (see picture), Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St
Albans, Waltham (now Waltham Cross), Westcheap (now Cheapside), Charing (now
Charing Cross))
The best known Eleanor cross, because of its location, is
Charing Cross near London’s Trafalgar Square. However, this is an ornate
Victorian replica, the original having been destroyed during the English Civil
War in 1647 due to its supposed idolatrous nature.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment