The Children's Story of Westminster AbbeyTroutbeck, G. E. (Georgina E.)
History
The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey
Troutbeck, G. E. (Georgina E.)
Westminster Abbey
The tomb was opened in the year 1771, and an inner coffin of Purbeck
marble was found, in which the King’s body lay. He must have been a very
tall man, as, after all those centuries, he still measured 6 feet 2
inches. It is thus quite easy to understand why he was called
“Longshanks.” The body was dressed in a red dalmatic, and over it a
royal mantle of rich crimson satin, fastened with a splendid fibula or
clasp. On the head was a gilt crown; in the right hand was the sceptre
with the cross; in the left, the sceptre with the dove.
The coffin was afterwards securely closed, and has never been disturbed
again.
Next to the tomb of Edward I, and just beyond the screen which separates
the Chapel of the Kings from the Sacrarium, is the beautiful and highly
decorated tomb of his brother, Edmund Crouchback, first Earl of
Lancaster. He was the fourth son of Henry III, who named him after the
Anglo-Saxon martyr-King, St. Edmund of East Anglia. There is a chapel
dedicated to St. Edmund in the Abbey, and it was looked upon as coming
next in honour after the Chapel of the Confessor.
Edmund Crouchback was a crusader, like his brother, King Edward I, and
the cross or “crouch” he wore was probably the origin of his name,
although some people have thought that he was perhaps hump-backed.
Edmund and his first wife, the beautiful Aveline of Lancaster, were the
first bride and bridegroom to be married in Henry III’s new church. They
were married in 1269, but Aveline did not live very long. Her tomb is
quite near her husband’s, and is considered to be one of the finest in
the Abbey. Aveline was not only a great beauty, but also a great
heiress, and her wealth descended to the House of Lancaster. After
Aveline’s death, Edmund married Blanche, Queen of Navarre, a French
princess. She was a widow when Edmund married her, and her daughter Joan
afterwards married King Philip the Fair of France. Edmund and his second
wife lived for some time at Provins, in Champagne, and from that town
they brought to England the famous red roses which became the badge of
the House of Lancaster. These roses were said to have been brought from
the East by Crusaders. They still grow at Provins, and have a very sweet
scent.
Edmund Crouchback died at Bayonne in 1296, while he was fighting for the
English possessions in Gascony.
When Edmund was only eight years old, Pope Innocent II had given him the
title of King of Sicily and Apulia, but this was only an empty honour,
and meant that the English had to be heavily taxed in order to support
Edmund’s claim and satisfy the Pope. All these exactions of Henry III’s
helped to make the English more and more determined not to be taxed
without their consent, and had a great deal to do with the beginning of
the House of Commons in Simon de Montfort’s time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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