View the h-albion Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in h-albion's June 2005 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in h-albion's June 2005 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the h-albion home page.
Wendy, below are a few notes on some 12th- to 15th-century English graves in France. It may be difficult to determine the extent of despoiling during the French Revolution as opposed to any other period of political or religious turmoil, not to mention any incidents of grave robbing and local vandalism perpetrated by, say, partisans of Joan of Arc against one of her English persecutors in Rouen. Anyway: --Plantagenet tombs at the abbey of Fontevrault (Fontevraud) in Anjou: Henry II (d. 1189), Richard I (k. 1199), Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204), and Isabelle of Angouleme (widow of King John, d. 1246). The graves were pretty much destroyed/lost over the centuries but the remains of the first three were apparently rediscovered in 1910 in a vault against the NW pier of the crossing, according to _Blue Guide: France_, by Ian Robertson (London: Benn; NY: Norton, 1984), p. 363. "In the S. transept lie the four Statues from the Plantagenet tombs (spoilt by later painting), placed on plinths. Three of them are of stone; the largest, and the most ancient effigy of any English king, is that of Henry II...The fourth statue (of wood) represents Isabelle...who ended her days as a nun here." See typical pic of these statues at <http://www.ctv.es/USERS/sagastibelza/berenguela/berenguela_ann_trindade.htm>http://www.ctv.es/USERS/sagastibelza/berenguela/berenguela_ann_trindade.htm Baedeker's _Northern France_ (5th ed.; Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1909), p. 272, says these statues are from 12th-13th centuries. I am sure there is significant art-historical literature on these statues. (One source, vrcoll.fa.pitt.edu/medart/image/ France/fontevrault-new/fontvrlt-tombs.html, says there were once 15 Plantagenet tombs at Fontevrault.) The Mediev-L list had a thread about the tombs in early April but I cannot recall what useful detail there might have been, and I couldn't access the archive at <http://www.ku.edu/carrie/archives/mediev-l/melcher/2005/04/maillist.html>http://www.ku.edu/carrie/archives/mediev-l/melcher/2005/04/maillist.html --Other Plantagenet graves at Rouen Cathedral: Henry "the Young King" (Henry II's eldest son, crowned in his lifetime but d. 1183) and the heart of his brother Richard I. Henry is on the north side of the ambulatory, with a 13C effigy; the lion's heart on the south side also has a 13C effigy, according to Blue Guide, p. 114. The latter effigy is described in Baedeker, p. 132, as "an ancient mutilated figure in limestone, 7 ft. in height...discovered in 1838." --John, Duke of Bedford (d. 1435), regent of France (Henry V's brother, Henry VI's uncle), is buried in Rouen Cathedral; his tomb suffered but not during the Revolution. Oxford DNB says (<http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14844>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14844): In accordance with the provisions of Bedford's nuncupative will, he was buried 'magnificently' on 30 September in Rouen Cathedral, on the north side of the choir near the high altar, near the other royal tombs. His effigy was destroyed by Calvinists in 1562, but a funerary plaque bearing his arms, heraldic insignia, and Garter collar survived to the eighteenth century, and is recorded in drawings by Dugdale (reproduced by Francis Sandford) and in the Gaignières collection (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 20077, fol. 7). The burial was excavated in 1860. A large-framed skeleton was reportedly uncovered... Strangely, Baedeker in all its tiny-print detail doesn't mention Bedford's tomb, while the newer Blue Guide, p. 114, says only that the grave, raised from the floor of the choir, is marked by a plain slab, presumably modern. A couple of times I have read a historical anecdote along the lines of a Frenchman saying, "No, don't demolish his tomb, Bedford was a brave soldier." I can't give you a citation for this but you'll probably run across it. --Henry VI's queen, Margaret of Anjou (d. 1482), is buried in Angers Cathedral. ODNB, Baedeker, and Blue Guide have no detail. --One king and several nobles other than Bedford died in France during the Hundred Years War but the remains of the most prominent were repatriated to England: --Henry V (d.1422) --his brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence (k.1421) --Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury (k.1428) --Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (k.1439) --John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (k.1453) ODNB has an interesting note about Talbot (<http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26932>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26932): John Talbot was first buried on the field of battle at Castillon. Forty years later his body was brought back to England by his grandson, Sir Gilbert, and interred, according to the terms of his will, in St Alkmund's, Whitchurch. Such was the respect with which he was regarded by his enemies that a chapel was built on the site of his death [at Castillon-la-Bataille, near Bordeaux], dedicated to Our Lady. This was destroyed during the revolution, but a memorial still stands there. His tomb [in England] was opened in the late nineteenth century and his skull was found to have been fractured, thus seeming to endorse one early account of his death. --I think some lesser barons who died in France and the low countries--in historical battlefields also of World War I--might be there yet but you'd have to, er, dig them up. _The Complete Peerage_, ed. G.E.Cokayne and V.Gibbs, often has grave location but no detail on history or condition of tombs. Cheers, Al Magary Hall's Chronicle Project
|