Returning to the king at Harby we find that immediately upon the death of the queen, the king despatched a letter to the Archbishop of York, in whose diocese the body of the queen lay, of which the following is the first published translation6:—
"Edward, etc., to the venerable father in God. J. [John le Romaine, 1215-1295] by the same grace Archbishop of York (primate) of England, etc. Death's irreverence, which deigns to spare no person, has wounded our heart with a vehement grief, and has converted the harp of our house into sorrow. Adverse fortune has ravished from this world the Lady Eleanor, Queen of England, our consort, who has been joined to us from youthful days, on this Tuesday before the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (Nov. 28th). Reflecting therefore that since, by the ordinance of the Most High, who is no respector of persons, no one on this earth is able to avoid walking that path, nothing could be more advisable than to provide for the quiet of her soul, and the souls of others piously sleeping, so that as they cannot merit of themselves, they may be helped by the pious prayers of others. We request and require your fatherhood that you will cause and procure, so far as you are able, the solemnization of masses for the health of her soul, with the office for the dead and with other helps of prayers and benefits, to be celebrated and done for her in your cathedral church [of York] and in the other churches and places of Religion of your diocese.
"Witness myself at Herdeby, November 28, in the nineteenth year of our reign." (Letters from the Northern Registers, p. 91.)
Archbishop Romanus at once granted an indulgence of -forty days throughout his diocese to those who would pray for the repose of the soul of the late queen. (Fasti Eboracum, p. 336.)
We have seen from the above pardon to Richard de Weston, the lord of Harby, how dear to the king was every association of this historic event in our county. If proof of this be wanting, we have the following:—
"February 22, 1293. Pardon in honour of the Virgin and St. Hugh,7 sometime Bishop of Lincoln (1186-1200) and for the soul of Eleanor, the king's late consort, whose entrails are buried in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, to Master Thomas de Birlande, Canon of Lincoln, for ahetting Thomas de Eyvile to appeal brother Robert de Haleghton, preceptor of the Bailiwick of the Temple, in the County of York, of the death of William de Eyvile, of Cave, co. York, of which abetting the said Master Thomas was lately convicted before the king at Nottingham." (Calr. Pat. Rolls, Edw. I, 1292-1301, p. 6.)
The king at this time was weighted with the cares of State. Scotland was on the brink of civil war, arising out of a disputed succession to the throne, and he was in these northern parts to be in touch with the moving incidents of that kingdom. It is a fact that the death of his queen caused him to cast aside the lesser troubles of his crown and to piously cling to her remains until they were deposited in Westminster Abbey. This, which in our time would be the work of a few hours, engrossed the king and his court no less than thirty days, and the performance of it constituted one of the most picturesque pageants that Europe has ever seen.
The first office was the conveyance of the dead body of the queen from Harby to Lincoln, where it was deposited in the Gilbertine Priory,8 in the south suburb of that ancient city, where the great Roman High Street is parted in its course—one branch, the Ermine Street, running to Stamford, the other westwards as the Foss-way to Leicester. There the pious hands of the brothers and sisters embalmed the body, the internal parts, except the heart, being deposited in the new and ever-beautiful angel choir of the Cathedral.
Immediately after this event the most northern of the beautiful group of Eleanor crosses was erected opposite the Priory.9
We know from the above letter to the Archbishop of York that he was not in attendance upon the king at Harby. We, however, think that the Bishop of Lincoln, Oliver Sutton (1280-1299) was, and that he presided in his Cathedral on the occasion of the interment of the viscera of the deceased queen, and lodged the widowed king in his Lincoln Palace, or at Nettleham, two miles away.10 A beautiful marble tomb, enriched with gilt bronze statuettes surmounted by a gilt bronze effigy of the queen, a replica of the one in King Edward the Confessor's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, a fine work by Master William Torelli, goldsmith, of London, was erected in Lincoln Cathedral." This royal monument at Lincoln was destroyed during the great Civil War in 1644, when the Puritan soldiers under the Earl of Manchester
"Our fair Cathedral stormed and took." Evelyn says the soldiers " shut themselves in with axes and hammers till they had rent and torn off some barge loads of metal, so hellish an avarice possessed them."
Joseph Ruston, Esq., a prominent citizen of Lincoln, in 1891 replaced the tomb in stone surmounted by a bronze effigy of the queen, a copy of the original one as near as can be. (Bell's Cathedrals—Lincoln, p. 131.)
Speaking of crosses in our neighbourhood, it has long been held that one formerly existed in Grantham Marketplace. Sixty years ago I remember playing about the stump of a stone cross mounted on a calvary of many steps. This has been destroyed and a tasteless obelisk occupies its place, on which is engraved: "1886. Erected by the Earl of Dysart, lord of the manor of Grantham. A cross to the memory of Queen Eleanor formerly stood here." Grantham is not mentioned in the above Iter of King Edward, nor have we any documentary evidence relating to any construction. The latter want is not evidence against Grantham, for we have no particulars of the fine cross at Geddington. The Iter gives Lincoln, December 4th, and Casterton, December 5th. This means two days, and we must find a resting-place for the mournful procession between these points on the night of the 4th and morning of the 5th. The stages between Casterton and London were short, not above twelve or fourteen miles each; but some of them might well be mid-day halts. The distance Lincoln to Grantham is double one of these stages, and I think a midday halting place was found. I strongly incline tothe view that the procession left Lincoln on the morning of the fourth via the Fosse-way, and that the halting place was Newark, the castellated or military residence of the Bishop of Lincoln, who had other castles at Sleaford and Banbury, and residences at Lincoln, Nettleham, Stowpark, Buckden, Liddington, and Wooborn, and a diocese comprising the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Leicester, Huntingdon, Northampton, Oxford, Hertford, and Buckingham. (Episcopal Palaces, p. 199.)
In this digest of the death of Queen Eleanor I may be accused of travelling beyond the bounds of our county. My apology must be the claims of Newark to consideration; against it may be pleaded that this way was four or five miles further round than via the Ermin Street and a tangent westwards to Grantham; for it I may plead the influence of the bishop and the existence of the so-called Beaumont cross placed on the line of the great north road, which dominated the bishop's castle. This great prelate might well be one of the sombre cloaked and hooded mourners on the way, for it is an historic fact that he performed the funeral service in Westminster Abbey. Further than this, it is well-known that the procession turned aside on several occasions for considerations purely ecclesiastical—instance from St. Albans Abbey via Waltham Abbey to London.
It is highly probable that the route taken by the procession from Lincoln will never be known. I myself have had it under review for half my life, and in advocating Newark I am not unmindful that Stukeley and Gough were of this opinion. Hereon it is only fair to state they were more in the dark than we are, for instead of taking the line from this ancient town towards Stamford, they placed the next stage at Leicester. As to the Beaumont cross in Newark, the architectural style of which is about two centuries later than the original Eleanor crosses, we have no mention of an earlier cross, bearing the same name; but as early as 1310 houses and lands were mentioned in this S. W. part of Newark as being in Beumond. This reads like a ward or division of the town, like Chapel Ward in Nottingham, which gave to the West gate of the town a variant name that came down to our time as Chapel Bar. Beaumont cross may be a rebuilding of an Eleanor cross in that division of the town bearing the name of Beaumond or Beaumont, and may simply mean the cross in Beaumont. It has been sought to connect it with the Beaumont family which was in being at the date its architectural features suggest; but my learned friend Cornelius Brown, the author of "The Annals of Newark," admits that he fails to find any evidence to this end. ("Annals of Newark," pp. 18, 232, 323.) We are not without docu-mentary evidence of the perishing of original Eleanor crosses and their rebuilding in later and different styles of architecture. If it be true that an Eleanor cross existed in Grantham, it was rebuilt at a later date, and exchanging its name, absorbed that of its locality, "The Market Cross." I see no reason why these two crosses should not be looked upon as brothers in misfortune who have lost their birthrights.
Having completed my task, perhaps in some degree as a special pleader, I lay down the pen in the hope that some of my fellow members of this society will take it up, if not to criticise, to bring this interesting subject into further light, for it is one that every resident in this old forest county, so attractive to our mediaeval kings and queens, cannot fail to call his own.
6. Thirty-seven days later, viz., January 4, 1291. The
king, then at Ashhridge, addressed a very earnest, pious, and pathetic letter
to the Abbot of Clugni (to which Lenton Priory was attached) announcing the
death of the queen and exhorting the prayers of himself and his order. It
is probable that similar letters were addressed to other religious houses
and to the bishops. (Archieologia, Vol. XIX. p. 176. where the Latin text
is given.)
7. Hugh of Avalon, or St. Hugh of Lincoln, was greatly reverenced by the
king. To this saint the " glorious Angel Choir " of that cathedral
was erected (1255-1280) to contain his shrine. " The popular veneration
for St. Hugh was the cause of the elongation of the eastern limb by the erection
of the Angel Choir, to receive the shrine containing his body, for which
work the offerings of the devotees flocking to the hallowed spot supplied
the necessary funds. [On October 6] 1280 the translation of the saint's body
[into the new building] took place in the presence of Edward I. and his Queen
Eleanor," &c. (Cathedrals, &c, England and Wales, V ol. I. p.83.)
8. "The Priory or Hospital of St. Catherine's, which stood on the west
side of the road [founded 1148] belonged to the Order of the Gilbertines.
The distinctive feature of this English Order was that each house combined
religious persons of both sexes under one common rule. Its situation outside
the city threw upon it many of the duties of hospitality which in those days,
when inns and houses of public entertainment were rare, had to be discharged
by monasteries. The Bishops of Lincoln, according to the Cathedral Statutes
(still unrepealed) are bound to sleep at St. Catherine's the night before
their enthronement and walk thence barefoot to the Minster." (Walks
Through—Lincoln, p. 41.)
9. Rev. Josh. Hunter gives documentary proofs of the building and
cost of this cross (Archaeologia, Vol. XXIX., p. 182). The late Precentor
Venables, M.A., says : 'Repaired by the Cor
poration [of Lincoln] c. 1624, it shared the fate of other so-called 'monuments
of superstition '
in the fierce religious storm of 1645. It was demolished by Puritan hands,
and the statues and
carved work were scattered as so much rubbish. One fragment still survives:
the lower
part of one of the statues of the queen, which long served on a foot-bridge
over a ditch.
(Walks, &c, Lincoln, p. 40.)
10. "Edward
I. came to Lincoln on the 25th of January, 1301, and remained till the 4th
of
March. The ryming chronicler Peter of Langloft tells us:—'The
Kyng lay at Netilham, it is the Bishope's toun, And other Lordes there cam
in the cuntre up and doun."* (Episcopal Palaces of England, p. 200.)
11. Notwithstanding
the positive evidence we possess respecting this being the work of
Wm. Torelli, Agnes Strickland, who ignores Lincoln, and replaces it with
Grantham through the
influence of Harby, in Leicestershire, when speaking of the Westminster statue,
says it was
the work of Pietro Cavallini, who, for the purpose of casting the queen's
statue, built his furnace
in St. Margaret's churchyard. (Lives of the Queens of England, Vol. II.,
p. 173.)