queen's cross northhampton erected edward i memory queen eleanor 1290 statue stone The Eleanor crosses were 12 lavishly decorate
The Eleanor crosses were 12 lavishly decorated stone monuments, of which three survive intact, in a line down part of the east of England. King Edward I had the crosses erected between 1291 and 1294 in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile, marking the nightly resting-places along the route taken by her body as it was taken to London. Several artists worked on the crosses, as the "Expense Rolls" of the Crown show, with some of the work being divided between the main figures, sent from London, and the framework, made locally. William of Ireland was apparently the leading sculptor of figures. Upon her death in 1290 at Harby, near the city of Lincoln, the body of Queen Eleanor was carried to the Gilbertine priory of St Catherine in the south of Lincoln, where she was embalmed. Her viscera were sent for burial in the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral, where they still rest. Her body was then sent to London, taking 12 days to reach Westminster Abbey. The crosses were erected at the 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. A similar event had taken place in France for the body of King Louis IX in 1271 (although his were as a manifesto for canonization, unlike in Eleanor's case) and Edward had probably seen similar memorial crosses in France and elsewhere in Europe during his travels. They were at least in part intended as cenotaphs to provoke prayers for her soul from passers-by and pilgrims
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Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
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