marks for this raid, did not tend to soften down the ill-feeling which
existed.
Even at Henry’s funeral the dignity of the Abbot had to be asserted, for
he refused to allow the Archbishop to read the service until he had
signed a paper explaining that his so officiating was not to be made a
precedent, or to rob the Abbot of any privileges.
So, with quarrels going on around him to the end, King Henry was buried,
and the Earl of Gloucester, laying his hand on the coffin, solemnly
swore fealty to "Lord Edward," the lawful heir, then far away in
Palestine.
Edward I. was in a special sense a child of Westminster, for he had been
born in the Palace there, and had been christened Edward after the
Confessor. With all his faults, Henry was devoted to his wife and to
his children, and the young Edward spent much more of his boyhood with
his parents than was usual in those days. He was delicate too, and often
his mother had greatly upset the old monks in the monastery at Beaulieu
by going to nurse him there when he had fallen ill while on a visit. He
was kept during his boyhood under her watchful eye at Westminster.
Probably he was taught by one of the Westminster monks, and though we
hear that he was "fonder of actions than of books," he learned to speak
eloquently in French and English and to understand Latin. As he grew
stronger he showed a great liking for all outdoor sports, riding,
hawking, hunting, and sword exercises, and with his cousin Henry, the
son of Richard of Cornwall, his young French uncles, who had taken up
their abode at the Court, and the sons of Simon de Montfort, he played
many a game and had many a boyish adventure round Westminster. His
affection for the place never failed. Had not he watched it growing in
grace and beauty, and was there a single corner of it with which he was
not familiar? The deeply religious influence of King Henry, too, could
not fail to leave its mark on his son, who, in spite of being his
opposite in every other way, had always an intense reverence for sacred
things. Henry was the dreamer, Edward the doer, but among the many fine
qualities the young Prince possessed, one of the most charming was his
loyalty and patience towards his father, which had never wavered,
however sorely he had been tried by Henry’s utter incapacity to hold the
reins of government.
It was nearly two years after the death of Henry before Edward was able
to reach England, and yet all had gone on quietly during the interval.
The new king had been proclaimed; the assembly of prelates, knights of
the shire and citizens had met, had solemnly bound themselves by the
same oath as that taken by the Earl of Gloucester at Henry’s funeral,
and three men, the Archbishop of York, Robert Mortimer, Lord of the
Welsh Marches, and Robert Burnell, all trusty friends of Edward, were
appointed to carry on the government for the time being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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