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XIII. On the Death of Eleanor of Castile, Consort of King Edward the First, and the Honours paid to her Memory. By the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Joseph Hunter
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Extract

The Society has already published, in the third volume of the Vetusta Monumenta, engravings of the three Crosses which alone remain of the twelve that were erected by the King in memory of his Queen. An historical discourse is also there given on the circumstances under which these beautiful structures were erected, the work of Mr. Gough, assisted by Sir Henry Englefield. This discourse contains nearly every thing which was then known on the subject, and has been the source from whence later accounts have been derived. What I now propose to do is to make some material additions to what was then known on the subject, and to correct some important misconceptions; and, in doing this, to make some small addition to the knowledge we possess concerning the arts and artists of the period, and particularly to assert for England, against Walpole and others, the claim of having produced by the hands of native artists most of the beautiful works of sculpture and architecture which are connected with the name and memory of this Queen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , 1841 , pp. 167 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1841

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References

page 168 note a They are also the words of Trivet, p. 268: in fact the verbal conformity between Trivet and Walsingham plainly shews that one copied the other, or that both copied from a common original.

page 169 note b Walsingham has two passages in which he speaks of this event. One in the Ypodigma Neustriæ, p. 477; the other in the Historia, pp. 54, 55.

page 169 note c A complete Itinerary of this reign was made for the late Record Commission, to which I am indebted for these dates.

page 170 note d Gale, p. 121. Wikes states that she died at Grantham. It is difficult to account for positive assertions like this in writers who are in the main deserving of credit. Langtoft says,

That ilk ʒere Þe quene died in Lyndseie. (p. 248.)

This is worth notice, as assisting to determine the ancient limits of the district called Lindsey.

page 170 note e Garcia de Espaigne however occurs elsewhere as having the charge of the Queen's stud after her death, at Hampton, Horsington, Woodstock, and Estwood.

page 171 note f It may be worth observing how differently the precise day of the Queen's death is stated by different writers:

Matthew of Westminster and the Annals of Dunstable, 5 kal. Dec. November 27.

Thomas Wikes, 4 kal. Dec. November 28.

Walsingham and Trivet, 4 id. Dec. December 10.

Holinshed, Saint Andrew's Even.

Stowe, November 28.

Gough in the Vetusta Monumenta, November 20.

This list of discordances may serve to shew how errors will creep in, and how vain it is to expect the highest conceivable accuracy in the multitude of minute statements of historical writers. There is a general accuracy quite consistent with occasional slight deviations, and honest and honourable men know how to judge of them.

page 172 note g Yet as a note I shall give four of the lists:

  1. 1.

    1. Stowe.—Grantham, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, Saint Alban's, Waltham, West-Cheap, Charing.

  2. 2.

    2. Camden.—Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Dunstable, Saint Alban's, Waltham, Charing.

  3. 3.

    3. Stukeley.—Lincoln, Newark, Leicester, Geddington, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Dunstable, Saint Alban's, Waltham, Cheapside, Charing.

  4. 4.

    4. Gough.—Hardby, Lincoln, Newark, Leicester, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Dunstable, Saint Alban's, Waltham, Cheapside, Charing, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Woburn.

Sir Henry Englefield was not disposed to admit Hardby, Newark, Leicester, Cheap, and Woburn.

page 173 note h P. 586.

page 174 note i There is an account of this in the City of London Chronicle, the Liber de Antiquis Legibus, as it is called.

page 176 note k These accounts are very curious and valuable. It appears that towards the expiration of a year after the Queen's decease, there were many claims against her still unliquidated. A Court seems to have been established by special commission to hear and determine claims, of which Ralph de Ivingho was the President. Persons under the name of Receptores were also appointed, through whose hands the money passed which was adjudged by the Court. But beside attending to the Querelæ, to the same persons was committed the carrying into execution the Queen's will (of which Robert Burnet the Chancellor was the chief executor), the oversight of the works of whatever kind which the King underlook in honour of her, and in short the execution of whatever was to be done in relation to her affairs, which thus became detached from the general business of the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer, or of the Officer of the King's Wardrobe. The accounts I speak of are those of the receivers, whose names were John Bacon and Richard de Kent (Kancia) or R. de Middleton, who may be the same person under another designation. It is possible, or rather probable, that the accounts for one or more terms are wanting both at the beginning and at the end of the series, which now consists of the accounts for ten successive terms, the first being Michaelmas Term 19 Edw. I. finiente, A. D. 1291, and the last Hilary Term 22 Edw. I. A.D. 1294. Much use will be made of these accounts as we proceed. The whole sum accounted for is 6,237l. 2s.. 10¼d.

page 177 note l Edit. Thomas, p. 958.

page 178 note m Or Cutepath, aa in Slowe.

page 181 note o That King's daughter, Eleanor, was the mother of Blanch and Berengaria, the former being the mother of Saint Lewis, and the latter grandmother of Eleanor. I have not thought it necessary to go into the particulars of Queen Eleanor's life. She was the sister of Alphonso, King of Castile, a great patron of science in that age.

page 181 note p See Charpentier in voce Crux, who refers to Felibien, p. 249.

page 181 note q King Edward the First constructed a chapel in the church of the Friars Minors at London, expressly in honour of Saint Lewis, his companion in arms, where was a painted statue of that King.

page 186 note r Man. Ang. New Edit. VI. 1487.

page 190 note s The four mortices which may be discerned in the sheet of metal on which the effigies lie were probably intended for the purpose of fixing this cover. The same contrivance may be observed in the tomb of Henry the Third.

page 191 note t This statue, like that of Eleanor, has been gilt. The face is evidently intended for a portrait, and is that of a man who seems to have known care. There are deep lines both perpendicular and horizontal on the brow.