It was a custom of the time for devout persons to desire that the heart
should be removed after death, and taken to some peculiarly holy place.
Queen Eleanor had taken special interest in the community of the Black
Friars, and especially in the Church which they had just built in
London. By her own special request her heart was to be taken to this
church, and Edward took special pains that a tomb should be erected
worthy of containing this relic.
There is little knowledge of the design for this monument. A certain
John le Convers seems to have been a clerk dealing with the payments,
while Adam, a well-known goldsmith of the time, and much in the
confidence of the King and Queen, was asked to make an angel to support
the casket containing the heart. In addition to this figure, which was
of metal and gilt as were Torel’s great effigies, statues ornamented the
tomb. These were no doubt of the same design as those erected in other
places. They were the work of Alexander the “Imaginator” and Dyminge de
Legeri, and very probably of the same character as those at Lincoln.
Alexander also constructed certain iron work around this monument.
William de Suffolk made three small images in metal for the Blackfriars
tomb.
One of the most interesting features of the monument were the paintings
by Walter of Durham. This artist received the large sum of £46 13s. 4d.,
according to the Queen’s accounts, for his work at Blackfriars. Part of
the stonework, consisting of a _crista_, perhaps an ornamented stone
canopy, was built by William de Hoo.
All traces of the tomb disappeared at the time of the dissolution of the
monasteries. The responsibility for the final act of destruction seems
to rest on the shoulders of the same Sir Thomas Cawarden into whose
clutches there also fell the Church and possessions of St. Mary
Roncevall.