Eleanor cross

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The Eleanor crosses are lavishly decorated stone monuments in the shape of a cross that Edward I of England erected between 1291 and 1294 in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile.

Background

The procession

Tomb of Eleanor's viscera in the Angel Choir at Lincoln Cathedral.

Upon her death in 1290 at Harby, near the city of Lincoln, her body was immediately carried to the Gilbertine priory of St Catherine's in the south of Lincoln where she was embalmed. Her viscera was sent for burial in the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral, where it still rests. Her body was then sent to London, taking 12 days to reach Westminster Abbey in London. The crosses were erected a few years later at the twelve places where her funeral procession stopped overnight.

At Westminster she was buried at the feet of her father in law King Henry III. Her heart travelled with the body and was buried in the abbey church at Blackfriars.

Reasons for construction

The 12 places

The St Catherine's, Lincoln, cross

The only remaining piece of the St Catherine's cross left that survives is kept in Lincoln Castle.

No part of the Grantham Cross survives.

No part of the Stamford Cross survives.

The Geddington cross

Still standing, it is said to be the best-preserved of the three survivors. It seems to be unique among the surviving crosses in having a triangular plan, and a taller and more slender profile (with a lower tier entirely covered with diapering, instead of an arch-and-gable motif with tracery which appears on both the others; and canopied statues surmounted by a slender hexagonal pinnacle).[English Heritage page on Geddington's Cross]

Hardingstone,

The Northampton Cross

Plaque recording the history of the Northampton Cross

The Northampton cross is still standing and is located at the edge of Delapré Abbey, where the body rested overnight; the King stayed at nearby Northampton Castle. This cross was begun in 1291 by John of Battle; he worked with William of Ireland to carve the statues; William was paid £3 6s. 8d. per figure.

The cross is octagonal in shape and set upon some steps - the present ones are replacements. The cross is built in three tiers and originally had a crowning terminal - possibly a cross. It is not known when this became lost.The Buildings of England - Northamptonshire. N Pevsner (Second edition). ISBN 0300096321

The Cross is referred to in Daniel Defoe's a "Tour through the whole island of Great Britain", where he reports on the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675, "...a townsman being at Queen's Cross upon a hill on the south side of the town, about two miles off, saw the fire at one end of the town then newly begun, and that before he could get to the town it was burning at the remotest end, opposite where he first saw it."

Its bottom tier features open books. These probably included painted inscriptions of her biography and of prayers for her soul to be said by viewers, which are now lost.

This cross stood at the lower end of the town, towards the river Ouse on Watling Street (now the High Street), although its exact location is hotly debated. It is said to have been of a tall elegant design (perhaps similar to that at Geddington) but was destroyed during the Civil War by the Parliamentarians. The base survived that for some time, but any trace even that has now vanished. This commemorative plaque on the wall of 157 High Street is all that is now visible:

Near this spot stood the Cross erected by King Edward the I to mark the place in Stony Stratford where the body of Queen Eleanor rested on its way from Harby in Nottinghamshire to Westminster Abbey in 1290[Stony Stratford's Eleanor Cross]

The shopping precinct in High Street North, Dunstable, contains a modern statue of the queen.

[Bedfordshire website link]

Waltham (now Still standing, although its original statues of Eleanor were removed in the 1980s to protect them from urban pollution. It was the result of cooperation between an architect and a sculptor – Roger of Crundale and Alexander of Abingdon respectively.[Waltham image]

Lost, although fragments are held by the Museum of London, and surviving drawings enable an accurate reconstruction.

Charing (now

The replica Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross

The cross at Charing Cross, in what was then the Royal Mews, was the most expensive, built out of marble and the result of cooperation between an architect and a sculptor – namely Master Alexander of Abingdon and the senior royal mason Richard of Crundale.

It is the subject of the romantic etymology of chere reine (dear queen), but was destroyed in 1647 and a statue of Charles I was erected on the site in 1675. The replica cross is a copy of the original and was erected at a later date but not in the same location as the original.

Surviving drawings of the original also enable an accurate virtual reconstruction.

Replicas and imitations

• Ilam - built in 1840 by Jesse Watts Russell of Ilam Hall to commemorate his wife.[Ilam photograph]

References