In the immediate foreground on the left is the entrance to St. Edmund's
Chapel, while the iron gates just beyond the back of the sedilia mark the
junction of the south ambulatory with the south transept. Close behind
the verger's desk is a pointed arch with a small tomb below, in which are
buried the remains of various princes and princesses, and upon it used to
be a golden statue of St. Catherine, the patron saint of Henry III.'s
dumb daughter Catherine, the first little one interred in this place. At
the back of the arch are still traces of the mural painting which Edward
I. caused to be done here to commemorate his children, no less than six
of whom were buried near their aunt. On the opposite side we see the
plain Saxon tomb called by the name of King Sebert, whom the monks
believed to be their founder. Part of Richard II.'s monument is visible
behind the oak seat.
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Close at hand in the ambulatory is a dark arch, beneath which several
royal children were laid to rest when the church was still quite new.
The founder's dearly loved dumb daughter Catherine, a beautiful child of
five, was the first of all the royal family who was thus honoured, and in
ancient times we should have seen a tiny gilt brass statuette of St.
Catherine, her patron saint, kneeling here, with a silver portrait image
of the princess herself. Two of her brethren and four of her nephews and
nieces, the children of her brother Edward I., were buried beside her,
and Edward {64} caused the arch to be richly adorned and gilt, while a
painting of his own little ones was added in the background. The eldest
boy, Alfonzo, a lad of twelve, was sent shortly before his death from
Wales to Westminster, where, by his war-like father's command, he offered
the coronet of Llewellyn, the last native Prince of Wales, to St.
Edward's shrine. His brother Edward afterwards became the first English
Prince of Wales.
In the next chapel, that dedicated to St. Edmund, king and martyr, we
find other members of Henry the Third's family. To the right, forming
part of the screen, is the tomb of his half-brother, that William de
Valence to whom we referred in connection with his own son Aymer and
Henry's son, Edmund Crouchback. De Valence was a Frenchman, and not only
as a foreigner, but from his haughty overbearing character, was very
unpopular in England. Yet his friend and cousin Edward I., unheeding the
popular voice, caused this beautiful and costly tomb to be made for his
remains. It was originally covered with that rare and excellent enamel
work which was then made at Limoges in De Valence's native province, but
only a few fragments, notably on the shield, the {65} pillow, and the
girdle, remain intact. Formerly, besides the enamel and filigree
decorations, there were no less than 31 gilt images of mourners, each
with an enamelled coat of arms above it, in the shallow arcades round the
tomb. Practically nothing is left of all this splendour, and the wooden
chest which contained the body, for it was the custom to bury the dead
above ground in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, is stripped bare
of ornament. On the other side of the entrance lies a royal Prince of
English birth, John of Eltham, the second son of Edward II., and thus
grandson to Henry III. To the student of armour the alabaster effigy is
of special interest as a specimen of the military costume of the
fourteenth century; while the coronet is the earliest known example of
ducal form--the title of Duke was not introduced into England till rather
later. The small crowned images of royal personages, John's relations,
round the base of the altar tomb are all mutilated, while the triple
canopy has long disappeared, broken down by the pressure of the crowds
which used to throng into the church at all large funerals in the
eighteenth century. John was only nineteen at the time of his death, but
had already won his spurs at the battle of Halidon Hill, and was {66} so
trusted by his incapable father that in spite of his youth he was given
the command of the whole English army in Scotland. On a small altar tomb
close to that of John of Eltham are two tiny alabaster images, twenty
inches long, in the stiff costume of the period; these represent his
nephew and niece, William of Windsor and Blanche of the Tower, infant
children of Edward III. In the centre of the floor are two admirable
fourteenth-century brasses, which have fortunately escaped the
despoiler's hand. The one commemorates the Black Prince's friend,
Archbishop Waldeby; the other Richard the Second's aunt, Eleanor, Duchess
of Gloucester. The grave of a modern novelist and diplomatist, Edward
Bulwer, Earl of Lytton, is close by; the place was selected by Dean
Stanley on account of its proximity to the tomb of Sir Humphrey
Bourchier, a knight who was killed at Barnet Field, the victory which
established Edward the Fourth's claim to the crown. Lord Lytton
described this and other fights during the Wars of the Roses in his
well-known novel, _The Last of the Barons_. We have not time to-day to
study all the interesting monuments in this and the adjoining
chapel,--that dedicated to St. Nicholas, the children's patron saint,
where, amongst the tombs of {67} grown-up people of high rank, are the
funeral urns of two tiny infants,--but we may notice the number of ladies
who are buried or commemorated in both these little chapels. Most of
them were prominent at Court in the time of the Tudors, and some of them
were near relatives of Queen Elizabeth's. The place of St. Nicholas's
altar is again covered by a woman's tomb; this time the intruder is the
widow of the Protector Somerset, that proud Duchess whose temper made the
life of those about her well-nigh unendurable.
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[Illustration: Early Brasses and Picturesque Tombs in St. Edmund's Chapel]
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