As is known, the Queen of Scots' body was buried first in Peterborough
Cathedral, whence it was removed to Westminster Abbey. There is a
superstition in Northamptonshire that if a body after interment be
removed, it bodes misfortune to the surviving members of the family.
This was pointed out at the time to James I.; but superstitious as he
was, he did not alter his plans, and the death of Prince Henry shortly
afterwards seemed to confirm this belief.[4]
But there are other memories of famous names in history, for the head of
the White Rose family, Richard of York, was buried in the church, and
his duchess, Cecilia Neville, as well as Edward of York, whose death at
Agincourt is immortalised by Shakespeare. When the older church was
dismantled and the bodies removed to their present destination, a silver
ribbon was discovered round the Duchess Cecilia's neck upon which a
pardon from Rome was clearly written. The windows of the church once
were rich in painted glass; and at the fine fifteenth-century font it is
conjectured Richard III. was baptized, for he was born at the Castle.
Crookback's badge, the boar, may still be seen in the church, and the
Yorkist falcon and fetterlock are displayed on the summit of the vane
upon the tower. Also some carved stalls, which came from here, in the
churches of Tansor and Hemington to the south of Fotheringay, bear the
regal badges and crest. The falcon and the fetterlock also occur in the
monuments to the Dukes of York, which were rebuilt by Queen Elizabeth
when the older tombs had fallen to decay. The allegiance to the
fascinating Queen of Scots is far from dead, for in February 1902, and
doubtless more recently, a gentleman journeyed specially from Edinburgh
to Fotheringay to place a tribute to her martyrdom in the form of a
large cross of immortelles bearing the Scots crown and Mary's monogram,
and a black bordered white silk sash attached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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