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.

Tradition for over six hundred years has conferred the title of the “Good Queen Eleanor” on the Consort of Edward I, and does not fail to repeat the tale of one of the most beautiful episodes in the domestic annals of the mediæval English court; but the force of this tradition has, without doubt, been greatly strengthened by the existence of the remarkable series of monuments erected by King Edward to perpetuate the memory of the Queen.

The story of the “Regina bonæ memoriæ” may be of interest to those who read these pages, not only because the Cross erected at Charing was the finest of the memorial crosses, but because the artistic conception and much of the excellent craftsmanship lavished on these beautiful monuments had their origin in the district of London specially associated with the work of Charing Cross Hospital.

It will first of all be needful to recall something of the life and character of a Queen who made so powerful an impression on her people. That her influence must have been remarkable is sufficiently indicated by the fact that the crosses partook of the nature of shrines. They were built on consecrated ground and were intended to claim the prayers of the wayfarer. This great demand on the devotion of her people, which might readily have given the impression of being forced or exaggerated, was clearly held to be entirely fitting.

The Coming of Eleanor to England.

The omens at the commencement of Eleanor’s career in England were by no means favourable, and little indicated the event. At the age of about nine, Eleanor, a princess of Castile, was married to Edward, the heir to the English Crown, who had reached the mature age of fifteen years. The marriage took place in the year 1254, in the ancient city of Burgos, and was celebrated with the utmost pomp; but the magnificence of the occasion fails to conceal the features of the hard diplomatic bargain driven between Henry III, the father of the bridegroom, and Alfonso X of Leon and Castile, Eleanor’s half-brother. As a condition of this treaty Alfonso merged all his claims and rights in Guienne and the South of France in the English Crown; and the marriage, arranged after much difficulty, placed the seal on this compact, terminating a long period of petty warfare and intrigue, during which Alfonso had sought to encourage the Gascons and other Gallic subjects of Henry against their liege lord.

This Spanish marriage was by no means a popular one amongst the English; and although in the following year, 1255, when Eleanor came to London, her reception was marked with much circumstance and great official cordiality, it is clear that the Londoners had no great love for the Spaniards. Henry had given sufficient reason for the people’s jealousy of foreigners; his prodigality and many acts of favouritism already shown to foreign relations of the royal house and their retainers gave good earnest that a similar outburst of extravagance on the part of the King would result from this Spanish invasion. Preceding the arrival of Eleanor, an embassy led by her brother, Don Sancho, the young Archbishop of Toledo, had arrived to make certain preliminary arrangements. They had been greeted with only a modified degree of favour by the London populace. Their manners were considered to be anything but up to the London standard. Under an aspect of richness and profusion their habits were considered to be sordid and mean; one of the complaints made by the grumbling Londoners was that the Spaniards, not content with hanging the walls of their lodging with tapestry, must also use tapestry for covering the floors! The unfortunate young Prelate himself on riding through the streets of London had ventured to confer his benediction on the populace with upraised hand—an act which was interpreted with but little generosity. The hapless ten years old Princess and wife presents a pathetic picture, for in the midst of all this political intrigue even the little maiden herself did not escape the animadversions of her future people. Special notice is taken of the fact that though landing with a great retinue at Dover, and with much bravery of outward attire, she had but a very scanty wardrobe (minus bene munita hernesio). One of the first disbursements on the part of Henry for his daughter-in-law was to remedy this grave defect.^[22]

The young Prince, her husband, appears to have been a headstrong and undisciplined young man; though nominally in possession of great estates in France and England, his actual income in money was small, and he and his friends and retainers seem to have lived on the land as if they were a band of foreign robbers. Edward’s thoughtlessness and the harshness and cruelty of those around him are unfavourably commented on at this time. The hard discipline, which the young Prince received in the years immediately following, was very necessary to render him the great king of England which he subsequently became, and many years also were required before the little Princess acquired the gracious firmness of character which is recognized in the “Regina bonæ memoriæ” of English history.

The Early Influences affecting Eleanor’s Character.

The young Princess did not stay long in England at this time. She returned to the Continent, no doubt to continue her education under the influence of her royal relatives in Spain and France. Her half-brother, Alfonso, was a man of much ability and high culture. His astronomical researches are known to this day, and he is distinguished by the title of “El Sabio” among the early Kings of Spain. Eleanor’s education was, therefore, carried on under conditions more favourable than might be expected in such a troubled age. The influences thus exerted on her developing character left their mark throughout her life, and more than once her love of beautiful things and the encouragement she gave to learning appear in the fragmentary records of her history.

Edward, on the other hand, probably gained little in the way of discipline or of military or political training from his father. It was in the merciless school of rebellion and civil strife that he was to receive his first hard lessons, the results of which may be traced throughout his career. His early association with Simon de Montfort, a leader of much genius, afforded him his first training in warfare. This training never stood him in better stead than when, after his final rupture with this great leader, the battle of Evesham gave him the opportunity of putting in practice what he had learned against his old master. At the same time his experience of the meaner side of the miserable politics of this period produced the distortion of Edward’s character which marred many of his great actions in the future.

It was not till the Barons’ Wars were approaching their termination that Eleanor definitely took up her residence in England. The domestic life of the young Prince and Princess may be reckoned as commencing about the year 1264, ten years after their marriage, when their eldest child, named after her mother, was born. Eleanor seems to have lived a very domesticated life,^[23] principally at Windsor and in her Castle at Guildford, and there is evidence that her gracious character and many acts of kindness to the neighbouring people soon began to have their inevitable effect. She showed early the desire to accompany her husband on his travels, one of the most characteristic features of her later life. Edward, on the other hand, was still under the shadow of his father. The state of English politics was exceedingly perturbed, and the King’s eldest son was much involved in the intrigues of the time. The strength of Edward’s character frequently showed itself by courage and enterprise in the field of battle, by political insight and evidences of good statesmanship; but his impetuosity and his lack of consideration led to frequent acts of harshness which must have alienated many who would otherwise have been supporters of the royal house, and his conduct in private must have frequently been a cause of anxiety and mental distress to his young Princess.

Eleanor journeys to the Holy Land with Edward.

There must have been, therefore, a great sense of relief to many within the land when, in the year 1270, Edward, having taken the Cross, entrusted his children and all his possessions to his uncle Richard and departed to join the French King on crusade to the Holy Land. The dangers from pestilence and sword besetting such expeditions to the East were perfectly well understood—repeated and painful experience had brought them home to all, both of high and of low degree. With this full knowledge Eleanor made the momentous decision to accompany her husband and to share the trials and dangers of the crusade.

Before they had actually left France on their journey to the East, intelligence was received of the death of Louis of France, the leader of this crusade, in Tunis, and although it must have been clear to Edward that the chance of a successful issue of the crusade was much diminished, nevertheless, accompanied by his comparatively small English force, he went on towards Palestine.

The next two years were spent in the East. The crusade ended in failure, scarcely relieved by the exploits of Edward in raising the siege of Acre, at the battle of Nazareth, and in one or two smaller engagements. From among the incidents of the crusade, the attempted assassination of Edward by an emissary of one of the Sultan’s emirs stands out most clearly. During the struggle Edward was badly wounded in his arm. The wound suppurated, the arm swelled, and threatened to become gangrenous. At this juncture the physician in the household of the Master of the Temple was called in to advise, and stated his opinion that the only chance of recovery was by means of free incision of the affected arm. Edward decided that this should be done. On hearing the decision of her husband, the Princess, worn out with anxiety, broke down completely, and had to be conveyed from the tent in charge of her brother-in-law, Edmund, and John De Vescy.^[24] The operation was then performed, and Edward made a satisfactory recovery. During his convalescence, he must have owed much to the devoted care of his wife and to the skill of his medical attendants. It was during these three years of close association, while Edward had to bear the trial of repeated disappointments in addition to the severe hardships and imminent perils of foreign warfare, that a bond of firm comradeship was formed between the future King and Queen.

Eleanor had three children before leaving England, and during her years of travel in the East and in France, two, if not three, more had been born; of these, Joan of Acre, of romantic memory, and a son Alphonso, for some years heir to the English crown, survived. It can hardly be a matter of doubt that the number of her children added to the hardships of her long journeys, and the almost certain incidence of disease had an adverse influence on the health of the future Queen.

The Return to England.

On their return journey, while resting in Sicily, the Prince and Princess received the intelligence of the deaths first of their eldest son John, and then of King Henry. Their homeward journey was, however, still greatly delayed; Edward running the fantastic risks of a knight-errant in Burgundy, and becoming embroiled in bouts of partisan warfare in the South of France, while the Queen visited her royal relatives in Spain, and rested for some time at Bayonne, where her son Alphonso was born.

It was not till late in the following year that they returned to England, when both Edward and Eleanor were hallowed and crowned at Westminster amidst surroundings of the greatest magnificence, and with the promise of a fortunate reign, especially in their relationship with the King of Scotland (19th August, 1273).

One of the first great designs of Edward’s statesmanship was to secure the more complete subjection of Wales to the English crown. Eleanor’s influence appears to have been exerted to moderate the impetuosity and harshness of her husband, and to add the occasional touch of graciousness which became notably absent when her guiding hand was removed. Llewelyn II, the Prince of Wales, had been in close terms of intimacy with the de Montfort family, and was betrothed to Eleanor, the King’s cousin and only daughter of the great Earl Simon. On her way to Wales from France in 1276, the ship conveying this lady was captured by Bristol sailors. The distinguished captive was promptly sent to Edward at Windsor. Eleanor de Montfort was too valuable a counter in the game of Edward’s politics to be given up easily, and she was accordingly kept in captivity in order to influence the negotiations with the Welsh Prince. The rigour of her captivity, however, was much alleviated by the action of the Queen, whose kindness and consideration stands out in pleasant relief to the unremitting harshness of Edward’s dealings with Llewelyn. The unfortunate Princess, Eleanor de Montfort, died soon after her marriage, after giving birth to a daughter, and happily did not witness the savage outburst signalising Edward’s final triumph over Llewelyn. Accompanied by the Queen, Edward gradually established himself in Wales. In 1284, Eleanor’s son, Edward, was born at Carnarvon, and the Welsh once more received a native-born Prince, but the episode of Eleanor’s kindness to the de Montfort Princess and her presence with Edward during the later stages of the occupation of Wales, were no doubt factors of great assistance to Edward in bringing his Welsh policy to a successful conclusion.

The following years of Eleanor’s life seem to have passed in much contentment in the midst of her numerous family. She still retained her custom of accompanying her husband on his travels, and undertook in his company another long voyage to France and probably to Spain. The memory of her domestic happiness is recalled by the traditions which still remain of the gaiety which distinguished the “Maiden Hall” at Westminster.

The Queen, however, did not entirely escape trial and mental anxiety even in her relationship with her daughters. She keenly felt Edward’s decision that her daughter, Princess Mary, a girl aged 6, should take the veil and enter the great Benedictine nunnery of Amesbury. Edward seems to have been forced to this harsh decision by the masterful influence of the Queen Mother, Eleanor of Provence, who was living in retirement in this convent. The Princess Mary survived to the year 1332, and saw much of the trouble which subsequently befell the Royal House.

Records remain which show that Edward allowed himself to relax from the severity of the warrior and the statesman in the domestic circle. His domestic relaxation seems to have been often of a boisterous character. There is, for instance, the story of the King being held in bed by seven of the Queen’s ladies and damosels on the morning of Easter Monday, 1290, till he paid them the fine of £14 expected on that day.^[25] On another occasion, in the same year, Matilda of Waltham, stated to be the King’s laundress, wins a wager from the King by venturing to ride his horse, when he had gone hunting in Essex. The King recovered his steed by paying a fine of 40s. to the bold Matilda.^[26]

The Last Year of the Queen’s Life.

The year 1290, however, was to be distinguished by events of far more serious import than the records of domestic happiness. Edward, secure in England, had reached, perhaps, the culminating point of a successful career. His judgment was appealed to and his advice followed in foreign lands; and the great political design of bringing about the union of the Scottish and English crowns, so often the dream of his predecessors, now appeared to promise a successful issue by the betrothal of Prince Edward to his cousin, Margaret of Norway,^[27] the grand-daughter of Alexander III, and heiress to the Scottish throne. Eleanor’s influence must have been willingly exerted to bring about so happy a solution of the long drawn out Anglo-Scottish dispute.

Earlier events of importance in 1290 in Eleanor’s domestic life were the marriages of her two daughters, Joan of Acre and Margaret. The celebrations which distinguished the latter event were of so striking a character that their record remains to this day as an example of the extreme of mediæval magnificence.

Already, however, the tragic events which closed this year were throwing their shadows over the land. The Queen’s health was not as it should be,^[28] and a rumour rapidly gained credence that Margaret was dead in Orkney, where she had rested on her voyage from Norway to Scotland. The question of the succession to the Scottish Crown, with all its dangerous consequences, was immediately opened up, and it is clear that Edward promptly came to the conclusion that he must be in a position to bring about a result favourable to the English interest.

The Journey to Harby and the Queen’s Fatal Illness.

The summer session of Parliament in Westminster was adjourned, but re-assembled during the autumn, and Edward left London on 21st July, travelling northwards accompanied as usual by the Queen. By slow stages they reached Harby^[29] near Lincoln, where the Queen remained at the house of Richard de Weston, who was no doubt a relative of Sir John de Weston, a confidential member of her own household. It is clear that the Queen was unable to bear the fatigues of travelling, and as the autumn session of Parliament was summoned to meet at King’s Clipstone, a royal residence in Sherwood Forest, Edward was anxious that Eleanor should be sufficiently close at hand for him to have full knowledge of her health. During the month of September he made short journeys in the districts of the Peak and Sherwood Forest, and paid a visit to Harby on 11th September. The Clipstone Parliament occupied his attention during most of October and the early part of November.

During the whole of this period the Queen was steadily declining in health. It is interesting to note one or two indications of the nature of her long illness. It is on record that a certain Henry de Montepessulano^[30] received on 18th October the sum of 13s. 4d. on account of syrups and other medicines purchased for the Queen at Lincoln.^[31] The Queen’s physician was a certain Magister Leopardus, who is specially mentioned in the Queen’s will as receiving a legacy of 20 marks. In addition to the physician attached to her household she seems to have been attended by some of her own countrymen—the physician to the King of Aragon is especially mentioned. To him the Queen presented a silver goblet, worth 12-1/2 marks, and Sir Garcia de Ispannia, who was evidently of the King and Queen’s household, received a certain sum for a cross given to the Queen.

The character of the illness is described by a contemporary annalist as being of a lingering character, associated with low fever.^[32] In spite of all skill and care the Queen steadily became worse, till at length the illness must have been recognized as fatal. Another annalist speaks of the Queen as being stricken with a serious illness.^[33]

At the close of the Clipstone Parliament, Edward travelled slowly towards Harby, arriving there on the 20th November. The gravity of the Queen’s illness seems scarcely to have been appreciated by the King. He spent six days on his journey from Clipstone to Harby—a distance of little more than 20 miles. On his arrival the hopelessness of the Queen’s condition must have been apparent to him. She died on the evening of the 28th November.

Evidence of the King’s grief and depression is given not only by the contemporary writers, but by Edward’s actions at the time of the death of Eleanor and during the subsequent months. The gracious character of the Queen’s influence on her consort, and the affection she inspired in her people, is amply testified by the contemporary annalists. Walsingham, once more quoting his predecessors such as Rishanger, describes her shortly in the following sentence: “She was in very truth a woman of pious, gracious, and compassionate disposition, the friend of all English folk, and as a pillar of the whole realm.”^[34] The important point of this description is the emphasis laid on the fact that Eleanor was the friend of her English subjects. This had not been the characteristic of her predecessors. In the time of Henry III, the foreign relatives of both the Queen and the King swarmed into England, and memories of the unjust favours showered upon them still rankled in the minds of the people. An echo of this can still be heard on listening to the tale of the annalist at Dunstable. He writes from the English point of view, and is chiefly concerned with describing the benefits received by his Convent from the King and Queen.^[35]

Edward’s letter conveying information of the Queen’s death to the Abbot of Cluny still remains, and gives pathetic evidence of his own sorrow: “Whom while living we cherished dearly, and being dead we shall not cease to love.”^[36]

After the obsequies at Westminster were concluded, the King went into retirement in the religious house of the “Bons Hommes” at Ashridge, issuing to pay a visit to his mother and daughter in the Convent at Amesbury.

The Queen’s death marks the crisis of Edward’s career. His kingly manner and appearance, his renown as a warrior, and his success as a statesman, combined to make him one of the most prominent personages in Europe. The political problems of the future might well have been solved by his firmness and skill had not the distortion of his character, which dates back to his early years, become more pronounced. Especially in the management of the Scottish difficulty, his firmness of purpose contrasts curiously with the meanness and shiftiness of his administration. These base qualities more than anything else brought to so unhappy a termination his statesmanlike plans for the union of England and Scotland. This great political scheme ended with Edward’s life in the dark scene at Burgh-on-the-Sands, marked by the desire for savage revenge^[37] only too characteristic of Edward’s worse nature. At no period of his career did Edward miss the moderating influence of Eleanor of Castile more than during his quarrel with Scotland.

It is quite clear that Edward must have carefully considered the most fitting means for the perpetuation of the memory of his consort during the anxious weeks of Eleanor’s last illness. It would have been otherwise impossible to put into immediate operation the details of his great design.

The plan which commended itself to the King was that after the body had been embalmed a funeral procession should be formed, led by himself and accompanied by the important officers of State, and should pass through England from Lincoln to London. The itinerary was so arranged that at the close of each day’s march the cortège should rest for the night near some important town, or at a religious house of note. The route thus determined was not the most direct.

He spent Advent Sunday, December 2, 1290, in Lincoln, the body resting at the Priory of St. Catherine, on the southern outskirt of the city, while the King chose the situation for the first of the tombs under the great eastern window of Lincoln Minster, and attended the memorial services in that great Church.

Leaving Lincoln on 3rd December, the procession passed through Grantham, Stamford and Geddington, reaching Northampton on the 9th December; then, by way of Stony Stratford, through Woburn and Dunstable to St. Albans, which was reached on the 13th December. The King went thence direct to London, to make due preparation for the ceremonial entry into the City, while the procession conveying the remains of Eleanor passed on to Waltham Abbey, in order later to pass through the length of the City. The procession through the City of London was of the most solemn character, being led by the King, accompanied by the important nobles, the officials of the Court, the prelates and the higher clergy.

The night following the departure from Waltham, the body rested at the western end of Chepe (Cheapside), or perhaps actually in St. Paul’s, the next night, in the village of Charing, on the confines of Westminster, and the entombment in the Abbey Church of St. Peter’s took place on the 17th December.

Three tombs were to be erected in memory of the Queen—one in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, where the viscera were buried; one in the Church of the Dominican Friars in London, a religious fraternity which had early gained the sympathy of the King and Queen. In this beautiful Church of the Black Friars, built mainly by the munificence of Edward and his consort, the heart of the Queen was to be enshrined at her own request. The third tomb was erected in the Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, where the body is interred. The King determined that at every station on this route where the Queen’s body rested for the night a memorial cross should be erected in the most sumptuous manner possible.

The ceremonies which took place at these various stations were solemnly conducted with the full rites of the Church, and we still have evidence of what took place at Dunstable and St. Albans. The Dunstable annalist states that the body rested one night there—probably in the choir of the Priory Church—and the bier remained in this place while the Chancellor and the other magnates of the Court selected a suitable place for the erection of the Cross. The Prior of the Convent was present at the ceremony, and consecrated the spot by sprinkling holy water. The Priory received two valuable pieces of embroidery and more than 40 lb. of wax.^[38]

At St. Albans, as was to be expected of the greater house, the ceremonies must have been conducted with even greater magnificence. The procession was met as it approached St. Albans by the whole Convent, “solemniter revestitus in albis et capis,” at the Church of St. Michael, near the entrance of the town. The body was then conducted to the Abbey Church and placed before the High Altar. The whole of that night the Convent was engaged in its divine offices and holy vigils. There can be no doubt that this progress passing through so much of the land, accompanied by the King and the great magnates of the Court, honoured by the most ceremonious rites of Holy Church, and ending with the great celebration at Westminster, was one of the most remarkable spectacles ever witnessed in England.

The idea of this impressive ceremonial was no doubt suggested to the mind of Edward by the funeral of his old leader on crusade—Louis IX of France. After the death of Louis in Tunis, his body was conveyed to France for entombment. It was carried on men’s shoulders from Paris to St. Denis, and at the places where the bearers rested on their journey a cross was subsequently built. It is well known that Edward held the memory of Louis in great veneration, and was well aware of these circumstances; no doubt he had seen the crosses in memory of St. Louis while in France and accompanied by the Queen.

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]

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.

The cross in the City of London at the west end of Chepe was entrusted to Michael of Canterbury, a member of the Westminster School, and subsequently the successor of the Crundales as the King’s master mason in Westminster. This distinguished architect was engaged in rebuilding the Chapel of St. Stephen’s at Westminster while working on the cross at Chepe. Of the exact plan of the “Cheapside” Cross little or nothing is known, but there can be little doubt that it conformed in essential details to the plan determined on by Richard Crundale. We know, however, that Michael of Canterbury undertook the construction of Chepe Cross for the sum of £300, and the executry accounts show payments to the extent of £226 13s. 4d. This gives us the closest indication we can now obtain of the actual money spent in building the crosses. It is generally recognized that the cross at Charing was the finest and most elaborate of the series, but Chepe Cross, situated as it was in the City of London, must have also been a noble example of artistic work; probably the crosses in country places were on less magnificent a scale.

The cross at Waltham was constructed by Roger Crundale and a certain Dyminge de Legeri, sometimes called de Reyns. Roger Crundale was obviously a member of the Westminster School, and there is little doubt that he was Richard Crundale’s brother. Dyminge de Legeri may have been a foreigner, but his work was held in high appreciation, for he not only helped in the construction of Waltham Cross, but was employed in making the sculptured tomb at Lincoln.

The building of the five Midland Eleanor Crosses—namely, at St. Albans, Dunstable, Woburn, Stony Stratford and Northampton—is of special interest, inasmuch as the work was entrusted to what seems to have been the mediæval representative of a firm of architects and builders in Northampton. The most prominent member of the firm was a certain Johannes de Bello, or de la Bataille, in whose name most of the payments are made out, but with him was one scarcely less important, namely, Simon de Pabeham (Pabenham). These two builders were also of the Westminster School, and appear later in connection with works at Westminster itself. At this time, however, they were working at Northampton as their centre. Nearly £400 was noted as being paid to John Battle, but we can form little opinion as to how the money was distributed. The cross at Northampton, a beautiful example of Battle’s handiwork, still exists.