Thursday 7 May 2009
DOUG R. (England)
Love and Stones
Today you will see a pile of stones outside a railway station in central
London.
Although shaped as a Victorian era memorial, for most people it means
nothing.
Railway stations and airports are often important places for lovers. They
witness the happiness of meetings and greetings, or the sorrows of
departures and separation.
But this railway station is special. The name reminds us of a powerful Royal
love story.
Charing Cross Memorial was the last in a chain of twelve stone crosses
between Lincoln and London. King Edward I erected one at each overnight stop
of his beloved Queen Eleanor, as they took her body to Westminster Abbey for
the State funeral.
Their’s was one of the great love stories of England.
In 1254 at Burgos, 13 year old Eleanor of Castile married her second cousin
15 year old Edward of Westminster England.
As was the custom, each returned to their families for further education.
When they met again Eleanor was a beautiful 18 years old and Edward was over
6 feet and so tall and long legged he was nicknamed ‘longshanks.’
This marriage had been political, helping to settle land disputes in
Gascony.
It seems they genuinely fell in love and remained inseparable all their
lives.
They had sixteen children, who did not all survive.
Unusually for those times, they shared their lives, in particular the
privations of the Eighth Crusade to the Holy Lands.
Edward arrived in time to raise the siege of the city of Qaqun in Acre
Palestine.
Against his advice a ten year truce was agreed between Christians and
Moslems.
One of the Emirs involved in the negotiations arranged to murder Edward by
asking him to mediate in another local dispute.
At the arranged meeting, a member of the secret Society of Assassins
attacked and wounded Edward using a poisoned knife. Eleanor saw what had
happened and sucked the poison out of the wound, thus saving his life.
They were still on this Crusade when Edward’s father, Henry III died in
1272.
They had been very close. Edward was deeply upset by his father’s death.
Although under the English system he became King immediately, his formal
coronation was delayed until they returned to England in 1274.
Edward had been raised to be a man of action- a fighting king, as those days
warranted.
As Prince Edward he had helped his father at the famous battle of Lewes,
which his father, Henry III, lost to Simon de Montfort.
Edward was imprisoned, but escaped to raise another army and win the battle
of Evesham against Simon de Montfort’s son.
He had to fight to protect his lands in Gascony against the French King
Phillip V.
In his lifetime he conquered Wales by constant battles 1277-1282, and
Scotland 1296 -1305, ensuring the enlargement and unification of the
original England into the embryonic United Kingdom of today.
Was this the source of our famous British tolerance?
So many different peoples had to find a way to live together in harmony.
In 1290 he travelled north to deal with a Scottish problem and asked Eleanor
to join him. On the way she was taken ill at the village of Harby in
Nottinghamshire. It seems she had not recovered from an old fever that had
been troubling her for three years.
Edward rushed back to be with her. She died with Edward at her side, at a
private house near Lincoln. She was 49.
Her body was taken back to London, in a steady procession with twelve
overnight stops.
Stone memorials were later erected at each. Only three of the original
twelve crosses can be traced today; Waltham, Northampton and Geddington.
The final resting place at Charing Cross has become very important in
British history.
Admiral Lord Nelson looks over the area around Charing Cross and Trafalgar
Square.
The old colonial names of Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia, Australia, and New
Zealand surround Trafalgar Square. This was the centre of the British Empire
which ruled half the world.
The name Charing is probably a corruption of ‘Chere Reine Cross’ or it might
be from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘cerring’ meaning a bend in the river. The
river Thames once had a 90 degree bend at this point.
The old stage-coaches set off to many parts of England from a famous old Pub
at Charing Cross.
Perhaps infamous would be a better description. The exit gate from the
stables was under a low beam. This knocked unwary passengers off their seats
on the top of the coach as it passed underneath.
Only poor people sat on the top, exposed to weather and everything else.
Charing Cross remains the standard point of reference for measuring
distances from London to anywhere in Britain.
It also governs the operating area of modern Black Cab taxis. To be licensed
these drivers are required to pass an exam proving their ‘knowledge’ of all
roads within 6 miles radius of Charing Cross.
The twelve crosses were unique. Each was fashioned by different and
important artisans. They are all located on the Roman roads Ermine Street
and Watling Street.
Lincoln Cross.
Eleanor’s body was embalmed at nearby St Catherine’s Priory.
Viscera were sent for burial in Lincoln Cathedral where they still are.
Remnants of the original Eleanor Cross are now in Lincoln Castle museum.
Grantham Cross.
Nothing survives.
Stamford Cross.
The town museum holds a piece of rose carved in marble, said to be part of
the original Eleanor Cross.
Geddington Cross.
The unusual triangular shaped Eleanor Cross was erected around 1294.
It is recognised as the most complete and undamaged one of all.
Geddington had been a Royal hunting lodge, where Edward and Eleanor often
stayed.
Northampton Cross.
Still stands in the village of Hardingstone.
Built by John of Battle with statue sculptures by William of Ireland.
The local Benedictine Monastery, Delapre Abbey, was a modest convent.
Edward presumably stayed at nearby Northampton Castle.
Daniel Defoe describes in his book ‘Tour through the whole of Great
Britain,’ seeing this Cross when he witnessed the Great Fire of Northampton
1675.
The fire travelled so fast that from first seeing it at one end of town from
2 miles away it had burnt to the other end before he arrived on the scene.
Stony Stratford Cross.
Nothing remains after destruction in the Civil War.
It probably stood where Watling Street crossed the River Ouse.
Woburn Cross.
Nothing remains. Believed built by Ralph of Chichester.
The procession probably stopped overnight at the local Cistercian Abbey.
This was destroyed in 1539.
Dunstable Cross.
Nothing remains after Civil War demolishment.
The Queen’s body was laid overnight on the altar of St Peter’s Church.
The present Cross dates from 1985.
St Alban’s Cross.
The present St Alban’s Cathedral was built on the original site of Eleanor’s
Cross.
St Alban was the first British Christian martyr, being decapitated in the
Third Century. A Benedictine monastery built to mark the spot in the 8th
century, was demolished in 1539.
Waltham Cross.
A surviving original. The original statues have been removed for pollution
protection. The original lower eight steps are now covered by several layers
of road materials, leaving only the top step now visible.
Built by Roger of Crundale, an architect and Alexander of Abingdon, a
sculptor.
Cheape Cross.
This was demolished in 1643 on the orders of Parliament as being an example
of ‘Idolatry and Superstition’. The original site address was Cheapside in
the City.
Some fragments are kept in the Museum of London.
Charing Cross.
Originally sited in a Royal Mews, this was built by the Master Architect
Alexander of Abingdon and senior Royal Mason Richard of Crundale.
The original was destroyed in 1647.
An equestrian statue of King Charles I fills the original site at the top of
Whitehall.
The London Museum has fragments of the original and a set of original
drawings.
The present Cross was built by the railway company in 1865 and wrongly sited
outside their station in the Strand. It was designed by E M Barry, the
architect of the Charing Cross Hotel and Covent Garden.
Today we are left with
Reminders of a great man and his love.
DOUG R.
(England)
Recent articles of Doug R.:
Published in Woman's Magazine Russian Woman Journal www.russianwomanjournal.com - 7 May 2009
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