------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.