Page:The Queens of England.djvu/132

ii2 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. which the royal procession occupied in proceeding from Gran- tham to Westminster Abbey, the king never quitted the body, and in each town in which it rested caused it to be met by the ecclesiastics of the place, who carried it before the high altar of the cathedral or church, where they performed over it sol- emn requiems for the repose of the soul of the deceased. "The king," says Daniel, "in testimony of his great affection to her, and as memorials of her fidelity and virtues — in which she ex- celled all womankind as much as she did in dignity — all along the road in the places where the body rested, erected goodly crosses, engraven with her image." There were formerly thir- teen of these beautiful memorials, of which those of Northamp- ton and Waltham alone remain. The most celebrated of them — the work of Cavalini — was that at Charing Cross, so called from Edward's constantly calling his queen, ma chere reine — and this dear Queen's Cross stood nearly where the equestrian statue of Charles the First now stands. This interesting relic of a past age was unfortunately regarded by the fanatics as a relic of Popish superstition, and, in a moment of religious frenzy, was razed to the ground by an illiterate rabble. "To our nation," says Walsingham, "Queen Eleanor was a loving mother, the column and pillar of the whole realm ; there- fore, to her glory, the king her husband caused all those famous trophies to be erected wherever her noble corse did rest, for he loved her above all earthly creatures. She was a godly and modest princess, full of pity, and one that showed much favor to the English nation; ready to relieve every man's grief that sustained wrong, and to make them friends that were at dis- cord." Queen Eleanor died on the 29th of November, 1290, in the forty-seventh year of her age.