“Fuerat nempe mulier pia, modesta, misericors, Anglicorum amatrix omnium, et velut columna regni totius. Cujus temporibus alienigenæ Angliam non gravabant, incolæ nullatenus per regales opprimebantur, si ad aures ejus vel minima querela oppressionis aliqualiter pervenisset. Tristes ubique, prout dignitatem suæ permittebat, consolabatur, et discordes ad concordium, quantum potuit, reducebat.” Footnote 35: Ann. de Dunstaplia: Annales monastici. Rolls series, iii, p. 362. Of Eleanor this annalist drily remarks: “Hyspana genere quæ plura et optima maneria adquisivit.” 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] Footnote 36: Close Roll, 19 Ed. I, m. 11 d. A.D. 1291: Foedera, i, part ii, p. 743: “De Orando pro Regina.” “Cum itaque, dictam Consortem nostram _quam vivam care dileximus, mortuam non desinamus amare_, ac opus sanctum et salubre, juxta divinæ scripturæ sententiam, censeatur pro defunctis, ut a peccatorum solvantur nexibus, exorare.” 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. Footnote 37: This phase of Edward’s character brings to mind the “demon blood” of his Angevin ancestry. _Cf._ Norgate, Kate: “England under Angevin Kings,” i, pp. 143-144; ii, p. 207. KING EDWARD’S PLAN FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF QUEEN ELEANOR. 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.