Page:The Queens of England.djvu/130

no THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. tiful queen passed to the apartments which had been provided her is still known as Queen Eleanor's gate. For the purpose of rendering her more secure against any attack of the Welsh barons, she was lodged in the Eagle Tower, a building of vast height, and of extremely grand and imposing appearance. "It was an eyry," says Miss Strickland, "by no means too lofty for the securitv of the royal Eleanor and her expected infant, since most of the Snowdon barons still held out, and the rest of the principality were fiercely chafing at the English curb. This consideration justifies the tradition which points out a little dark den, built in the thickness of the walls, as the chamber where the faithful queen gave birth to her son Edward. The chamber is twelve feet in length and eight in breadth, and is fvithout fireplace. Its discomforts were somewhat modified by hangings of tapestry, of which some marks of tenters still ap- pear in the walls. Queen Eleanor was the first person who used tapestry as garniture for walls in England, and she never needed it more than iii her drearry lying-in chamber in Car- narvon Castle." The oaken cradle of the infant Edward — hung by rings and staples to two upright pieces of wood, of rude workmanship, but with considerable attempt at ornament • — is still preserved in Carnarvon Castle. It has rockers, and is crowned by two birds, probably either doves or eagles. The queen was confined on the 26th of April, 1284, at which period Edward was negotiating with the Welsh barons at Rhud- dlan Castle. He immediately hastened to Caernarvon, where, three days afterward he was waited upon by a vast assemblage of the Welsh, who came to tender him their allegiance, and to implore him to confer on them a prince who should be a native of Wales, and who should speak the same language as them- selves. Edward, without hesitation, promised to give them a prince of unexceptionable manners, a Welshman by birth, and one who could speak no other language. As soon as their ac- clamations of joy and promises of obedience had ceased, he ordered his infant son to be brought into the assembly, and, assuring them that he was a native of Wales, and that the first words he should be taught to speak should be Welsh, he pre- sented him to them as their prince. By the death of Alphonso, the king's eldest son, young Edward shortly afterward became heir to the English monarchy ; the principality of Wales was annexed to the crown, and from this period it has given a title to the eldest son of the king of England, The Welsh ever bore