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
Next to Queen Elizabeth stand the effigies of William III and Mary II,
which are placed together in one large case. The crown is on a pedestal
between the two figures, and both sovereigns carry the sceptre and the
orb, so as to show that they reigned jointly, Mary not being
Queen-Consort merely. William was evidently a good deal shorter than his
wife, for he stands on a foot-stool in order to look equal in height.
Mary wears a brocaded skirt, and a purple velvet robe over it. She also
wears imitation paste and pearl ornaments and beautiful lace in her
sleeves. The last effigy of a sovereign is that of Queen Anne. She is
represented seated, and is dressed in robes of brocaded silk. She wears
many ornaments, and has a crown over her dark, flowing hair. Her face is
rather fat, with a kindly, good-natured expression.
Close to the case which holds the effigy of Queen Anne is a figure of
General Monck, in armour. This figure used to look very much battered
and greatly the worse for wear, but it has lately been rather mended up.
The cap is the famous one mentioned in the _Ingoldsby Legends_, in the
well-known lines—
“I thought on Naseby, Marston Moor, and Worcester’s crowning fight,
When on my ear a sound there fell, it filled me with affright;
As thus, in low unearthly tones, I heard a voice begin—
‘This here’s the cap of General Monck! Sir, please put summat in.’”
General Monck, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, is buried in Henry VII’s
Chapel, as we have already said.
The next effigy is that of Frances Theresa Stuart, Duchess of Richmond
and Lennox, a great beauty in her day. She was maid-of-honour to
Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. She sat as a model for the
figure of Britannia on a medal which was struck to commemorate the
Treaty of Breda, when peace was made between the English and Dutch after
the first Dutch War. This was in 1667. The figure of Britannia is no
doubt the same that we now see on our pennies and halfpennies. Frances
Stuart is dressed in the robes she wore at the Coronation of Queen Anne.
Beside her is her parrot, which died a few days after her. This lady
left particular orders about her effigy, directing that it should be “as
well done in wax as can bee—and sett up in a presse by itself, ... with
cleare Crowne glasse before it, and dressed in my Coronation Robes and
Coronett.” The effigy at first stood beside the Duchess’s grave in Henry
VII’s Chapel.
Next to the Duchess of Richmond and Lennox stand the effigies of
Catherine, Duchess of Buckinghamshire, and her little son, the Marquis
of Normanby, who died when a child. The Duchess, with her husband and
children, are buried in Henry VII’s Chapel, and a large monument is
erected there to the Duke, who was distinguished as a politician,
soldier, and man of letters in the reigns of Charles II and James II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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