FAIR ROSAMOND.
1184
The mystery surrounding Fair Rosamond's history.--The valley
of the Wye.--The clandestine marriage.--The palace of
Woodstock.--Rosamond's concealed cottage.--The construction
of a labyrinth.--Deceptive paths.--How Rosamond's concealment
was discovered by the queen.--The subterranean
passage.--Uncertainties of the story.--Rosamond retires to the
convent of Godestow.--The world's sympathy with Rosamond rather
than with Eleanora.--The question of the validity of the
marriage.--Burial of Rosamond.--The bishop orders the remains to
be removed.--The nuns bring back the remains to the chapel
again.--Rosamond's chamber.--Restoration of the house.
During his lifetime King Henry did every thing in his power, of
course, to keep the circumstances of his connection with Rosamond a
profound secret, and to mislead people as much as possible in regard
to her. After his death, too, it was for the interest of his family
that as little as possible should be known respecting her. Thus it
happened that, in the absence of all authentic information, a great
many strange rumors and legends were put in circulation, and at
length, when the history of those times came to be written, it was
impossible to separate the false from the true.
The truth, however, so far as it can now be ascertained, seems to be
something like this: Rosamond was the daughter of an English nobleman
named Clifford. Lord Clifford lived in a fine old castle situated in
the valley of the Wye, in a most romantic and beautiful situation. The
River Wye is in the western part of England. It flows out from among
the mountains of Wales through a wild and romantic gorge, which,
after passing the English frontier, expands into a broad, and fertile,
and most beautiful valley. The castle of Lord Clifford was built at
the opening of the gorge, and it commanded an enchanting view of the
valley below.
It was here that Rosamond spent her childhood, and here probably that
Henry first met her while he was yet a young man. She was extremely
beautiful, and Henry fell very deeply in love with her. This was while
they were both very young, and some time before Henry thought of
Eleanora for his wife. There is some reason to believe that Henry was
really married to Rosamond, though, if so, the marriage was a private
one, and the existence of it was kept a profound secret from all the
world. The real and public marriages of kings and princes are almost
always determined by reasons of state; and when Henry at last went to
Paris, and saw Eleanora there, and found, moreover, that she was
willing to marry him, and to bring him as her dowry all her
possessions in France, which would so greatly extend his dominions, he
determined to accede to her desires, and to keep his connection with
Rosamond, whatever the nature of it might have been, a profound
secret forever.
So he married Eleanora and brought her to England, and lived with her,
as has already been described, in the various palaces which belonged
to him, sometimes in one and sometimes in another.
Among these palaces, one of the most beautiful was that of Woodstock.
The engraving on the opposite page represents the buildings of the
palace as they appeared some hundreds of years later than the time
when Rosamond lived.
[Illustration: VIEW OF WOODSTOCK.]
In the days of Henry and Rosamond the palace of Woodstock was
surrounded with very extensive and beautiful gardens and grounds.
Somewhere upon these grounds the story was that Henry kept Rosamond in
a concealed cottage. The entrance to the cottage was hidden in the
depths of an almost impenetrable thicket, and could only be approached
through a tortuous and intricate path, which led this way and that by
an infinite number of turns, forming a sort of maze, made purposely to
bewilder those attempting to pass in and out. Such a place was often
made in those days in palace-grounds as a sort of ornament, or,
rather, as an amusing contrivance to interest the guests coming to
visit the proprietor. It was called a labyrinth. A great many plans of
labyrinths are found delineated in ancient books. The paths were not
only so arranged as to twist and turn in every imaginable direction,
but at every turn there were several branches made so precisely alike
that there was nothing to distinguish one from the other. Of course,
one of these roads was the right one, and led to the centre of the
labyrinth, where there was a house, or a pretty seat with a view, or a
garden, or a shady bower, or some other object of attraction, to
reward those who should succeed in getting in. The other paths led
nowhere, or, rather, they led on through various devious windings in
all respects similar to those of the true path, until at length they
came to a sudden stop, and the explorer was obliged to return.
The paths were separated from each other by dense hedges of thorn, or
by high walls, so that it was impossible to pass from one to another
except by walking regularly along.
It was in a house, entered through such a labyrinth as this, that
Rosamond is said to have lived, on the grounds of the palace of
Woodstock, while Queen Eleanora, as the avowed wife and queen of King
Henry, occupied the palace itself. Of course, the fact that such a
lady was hidden on the grounds was kept a profound secret from the
queen. If this story is true, there were probably other labyrinths on
the grounds, and this one was so surrounded with trees and hedges,
which connected it by insensible gradations with the groves and
thickets of the park, that there was nothing to attract attention to
it particularly, and thus a lady might have remained concealed in it
for some time without awakening suspicion.
At any rate, Rosamond did remain, it is supposed for a year or two,
concealed thus, until at length the queen discovered the secret. The
story is that the king found his way in and out the labyrinth by means
of a clew of floss silk, and that the queen one day, when riding with
the king in the park, observed this clew, a part of which had, in some
way or other, become attached to his spur. She said nothing, but,
watching a private opportunity, she followed the clew. It led by a
very intricate path into the heart of the labyrinth. There the queen
found a curiously-contrived door. The door was almost wholly concealed
from view, but the queen discovered it and opened it. She found that
it led into a subterranean passage. The interest and curiosity of the
queen were now excited more than ever, and she determined that the
mystery should be solved. So she followed the passage, and was finally
led by it to a place beyond the wall of the grounds, where there was a
house in a very secluded spot surrounded by thickets. Here the queen
found Rosamond sitting in a bower, and engaged in embroidering.
She was now in a great rage both against Rosamond and against her
husband. It was generally said that she poisoned Rosamond. The story
was, that she took a cup of poison with her, and a dagger, and,
presenting them both to Rosamond, compelled her to choose between
them, and that Rosamond chose the poison, and, drinking it, died. This
story, however, was not true, for it is now known that Rosamond lived
many years after this time, though she was separated from the king. It
is thought that her connection with the king continued for about two
years after his marriage with Eleanora. She then left him. It may be
that she did not know before that time that the king was married. She
may have supposed that she was herself his lawful wife, as, indeed, it
is possible that she may actually have been so. At any rate, soon
after she and Eleanora became acquainted with each other's existence,
Rosamond retired to a convent, and lived there in complete seclusion
all the rest of her days.
The name of this convent was Godestow. It was situated near Oxford.
Rosamond became a great favorite with the nuns while she remained at
the convent, which was nearly twenty years. During this time the king
made many donations to the convent for Rosamond's sake, and the
jealousy of the queen against her beautiful rival, of course,
continued unabated. It was, indeed, this difficulty in respect to
Rosamond that was one of the chief causes of the domestic trouble
which always existed between Henry and the queen. The world at large
have always been most disposed to sympathize with Rosamond in this
quarrel. She was nearly of the king's own age, and his attachment to
her arose, doubtless, from sincere affection; whereas the queen was
greatly his senior, and had inveigled him, as it were, into a marriage
with her, through motives of the most calculating and mercenary
character.
Then, moreover, Rosamond either was, or was supposed to be, a lady of
great gentleness and loveliness of spirit. She was very kind to the
poor, and while in the convent she was very assiduously devoted to her
religious duties. Eleanora, on the other hand, was a very unprincipled
and heartless woman, and she had been so loose and free in her own
manner of living too, as every body said and believed, that it was
with a very ill grace that she could find any fault with her husband.
Thus, under the circumstances of the case, the world has always been
most inclined to sympathize with Rosamond rather than with the queen.
The question which we ought to sympathize with depends upon which was
really the wife of Henry. He may have been truly married to Rosamond,
or at least some ceremony may have been performed which she honestly
considered as a marriage. If so, she was innocent, and Henry was
guilty for having virtually repudiated this marriage in order to
connect himself with Eleanora for the sake of her kingdom. On the
other hand, if she were not married to Henry, but used her arts to
entice him away from his true wife, then she was deeply in fault. It
is very difficult now to ascertain which of these suppositions is the
correct one. In either case, Henry himself was guilty, toward the one
or the other, of treacherously violating his marriage vows--the most
solemn vows, in some respects, that a man can ever assume.
Rosamond had two children, named William and Geoffrey, and at one time
in the course of his life Henry seemed to acknowledge that they were
his only two children, thus admitting the validity of his marriage
with Rosamond. This admission was contained in an expression which he
used in addressing William on a field of battle when he came toward
him at the head of his troop. "William," said he, "you are my true and
legitimate son. The rest are nobodies." He may, it is true, have only
intended to speak figuratively in saying this, meaning that William
was the only one worthy to be considered as his son, or it may be that
it was an inadvertent and hasty acknowledgment that Rosamond, and not
Eleanora, was his true wife. As time rolled on, however, and the
political arrangements arising out of the marriage with Eleanora and
appointment of her sons to high positions in the state became more and
more extended, the difficulties which the invalidation of the marriage
with Eleanora would produce became very great, and immense interests
were involved in sustaining it. Rosamond's rights, therefore, if she
had any, were wholly overborne, and she was allowed to linger and die
in her nunnery as a private person.
When at length she died, the nuns, who had become greatly attached to
her, caused her to be interred in an honorable manner in the chapel,
but afterward the bishop of the diocese ordered the remains to be
removed. He considered Rosamond as having never been married to the
king, and he said that she was not a proper person to be the subject
of monumental honors in the chapel of a society of nuns; so he sent
the remains away, and ordered them to be interred in the common
burying-ground. If Rosamond was what he supposed her to be, and if he
removed the remains in a proper and respectful manner, he was right in
doing what he did. His motive may have been, however, merely a desire
to please the authorities of his time, who represented, of course, the
heirs of Eleanora, by sealing the stamp of condemnation on the
character and position of her rival.
But, though the authorities may have been pleased with the bishop's
procedure, the nuns were not at all satisfied with it. They not only
felt a strong personal affection for Rosamond, but, as a sisterhood,
they felt grateful to her memory on account of the many benefactions
which the convent had received from Henry on account of her residence
there. So they seized the first opportunity to take up the remains
again, which consisted now of dry bones alone, and, after perfuming
them and inclosing them again in a new coffin, they deposited them
once more under the pavement of the chapel, and laid a slab, with a
suitable inscription, over the spot to mark the place of the grave.
[Illustration: FINAL BURIAL OF ROSAMOND.]
The house where Rosamond was concealed at Woodstock was regarded
afterward with great interest, and there was a chamber in it that was
for a long time known as Rosamond's Chamber. There remains a letter of
one of the kings of England, written about a hundred years after this
time, in which the king gives directions to have this house repaired,
and particularly to have the chamber restored to a perfect condition.
His orders are, that "the house beyond the gate in the new wall be
built again, and that same chamber, called Rosamond's Chamber, be
restored as before, and crystal plates"--that is, glass for the
windows--"and marble, and lead be provided for it."
From that day to this the story of Rosamond has been regarded as one
of the most interesting incidents of English history.