In the noble Park of Blenheim they show you two sycamore-trees on the
spot where the ancient Palace of Woodstock was built; and near the
Bridge is a spring called Rosamund's Well. Hard by was the celebrated
Bower, erected by Henry II., and the scene of Addison's poetical opera
of _Rosamund_, in excellent verse, which, wedded to the music of Dr.
Arne, proved very successful. Several passages long retained their
popularity, and were daily sung, during the latter part of George the
Second's reign, at all the harpsichords in England.
Drayton, in the reign of Elizabeth, described "Rosamund's Labyrinth,
whose ruins, together with her _Well_, being paved with square stones in
the bottom, and also her Tower, from which the Labyrinth did run, are
yet remaining, being vaults arched and walled with stone and brick,
almost inextricably wound within one another, by which, if at any time
her lodging were laid about by the Queen, she might easily avoid peril
imminent, and, if need be, by secret issues, take the air abroad, many
furlongs about Woodstock, in Oxfordshire."
Nor are these the only memorials of the frail Rosamund, whose history is
one of the most interesting in our stock of legendary lore. About two
miles north of Oxford, near the river Isis, there are some remains of
the famous Nunnery of Godstow, from which, we are told, "there is a
subterranean passage to Woodstock." It was about the end of the reign of
Henry I., that this Nunnery was founded, at the instigation of Editha, a
pious lady of Winchester. Assisted by benefactions, Editha finished a
convent for Benedictine Nuns, in 1138; and King Stephen and his Queen
were present at the consecration. Editha was Abbess here; and the lands
given were confirmed by grants of Stephen and Richard I. When Prince
Henry arrived in England, in 1149, to dispute his title to the crown
with Stephen, he happened to visit the Nunnery of Godstow, where he saw
Rosamund, the daughter of Lord Clifford; she was not a nun, but boarded
in the convent.
Fair Rosamund--_Rosa Mundi_, the Rose of the World--was the second
daughter of Walter de Clifford, the son of Richard and grandson of Ponz.
Richard is mentioned in the Domesday Survey as holding lands in the
counties of Oxford, Gloucester, Wilts, Worcester, and Hereford. Walter
de Clifford, by his wife Margaret, had four children:--Lucy, first
married to Hugh de Say, and subsequently to Bartholomew de Mortimer;
Rosamund, Walter, and Richard. Of Rosamund's early life we have no
particulars. Local tradition affirms that Canyngton, about three miles
from Bridgewater, was the place of her birth, and that within the walls
of its priory she received such education as the age afforded. That, as
the daughter of a powerful lord, she was entrusted to the care of some
religious sisterhood for nurture, both of mind and body, we have no
doubt, though the old chroniclers are silent on the subject. The art of
embroidery would appear to have been one of her accomplishments, for the
venerable Abbey of Buildwas long possessed among its treasures a
magnificent cope, which bore witness to the taste and skill of its fair
embellisher. Of her first acquaintance with Henry II., and the mode and
place of her introduction to him, no details have been preserved.
Probably she was known to him from her earliest years. Nor have we any
reason to suppose that, according to some modern versions of the sad
story, a broken vow added its shadow to a life whose record is
sufficiently gloomy without this additional darkening of woe. Not a hint
of her having been a nun do the chroniclers give us; and, had such been
the fact, full use would have been made of such an aggravation of her
offence. Her royal lover was one of the most unscrupulous of mankind,
and for his many enormities he was notorious. His affection for
Rosamund, however, such as it was, was constant. In order to protect her
from the vengeance of the Queen, he removed her successively to various
places of greater or less security. But the most famous of all, and with
which her name is more than with all others associated, was her retreat
at Woodstock. It was here that Henry built a chamber, which Brompton
describes as of wondrous architecture--resembling the work of Dædalus;
in other words, a labyrinth or maze. A manuscript of Robert of
Gloucester, in the Heralds' Office, says that--
"Att Wodestoke for hure he made a toure,
That is called Rosemounde's boure,"
the special intent of which was to conceal her from her royal rival. The
internal decorations of this abode were as much attended to as its means
of escaping external notice. The Abbot of Jorevall describes a cabinet
of marvellous workmanship, which was one of its ornaments. It was nearly
two feet in length, and on it the assault of champions, the action of
cattle, the flight of birds, and the leaping of fishes were so naturally
represented, that the figures appeared to move.
Rosamund did not long occupy the retreat that royal though guilty love
had created for her. She died in 1177, while yet without a rival in the
King's affections, and, as it would appear, of some natural disease. In
after times the injured Queen Eleanor had the credit of discovering her
place of concealment, by means of a clue of silk which the King had
incautiously left behind him; and which enabled her to thread the
intricacies of the path, and of gratifying her revenge by obliging her
rival to drink from her hand a cup of poison. That the Queen discovered
the abode of Rosamund is possible; and it may have been that the shock
of the meeting, and the unmeasured language which her Majesty is said to
have employed, were too much for the poor victim of her womanly and
natural displeasure. It is only fair, however, to say that the Queen's
part in the entire transaction is not alluded to in the older writers,
and is probably the fiction of more modern times.
Rosamund was buried in the first instance before the high altar in the
Church of Godstow Nunnery, which was probably selected from its
neighbourhood to Woodstock, and which henceforward enjoyed a goodly
number of benefactions in memory of her and for the health of her soul.
The body was wrapped in leather, and then placed in a coffin of lead.
Over the whole Henry built a magnificent tomb, which was covered with a
pall of silk, and surrounded by tapers constantly burning. This occurred
in the lifetime of her father, for he gave to the nuns of Godstow, in
pure and perpetual alms, for the health of the souls of Margaret his
wife and of Rosamund his daughter, his mill at Franton, with all
appurtenances, a meadow adjacent to the same called Lechtun, and a
saltpit in Wiche. Walter, his son, confirmed the gift. Osbert Fitzhugh
added to this the grant of a saltpit in Wiche, called the Cow,
pertaining to his manor of Wichebalt.
Indeed, Walsingham goes so far as to say, though incorrectly, that the
Nunnery of Godstow was actually founded by King John for the soul of
Rosamund. It is not unlikely that a chantry was founded by that king for
the object stated, but the foundation of the house was beyond question
the work of a much earlier period.
Rosamund's remains, however, were not allowed to occupy their sepulchre
in peace. Fourteen years after their solemn commission to this sacred
place of interment, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, in a visitation of his
diocese, came to Godstow. After he had entered the church, and performed
his devotions, he observed the tomb occupying its conspicuous position
before the high altar, adorned as already described, and forthwith asked
whose it was. On being informed that it was the grave of Rosamund, whom
Henry, the late king, had so dearly loved, and for whose sake he had
greatly enriched this hitherto small and indigent house, and had given
lands for the sustentation of the tomb and the maintenance of the
lights, he imperatively commanded the nuns to take her out of the
church, and to bury her with other common people, as the connexion
between her and the King had been base; and to the end that the
Christian religion might not be vilified, but that other women might
thus be deterred from similar evil ways.
In obedience to the bishop's mandate the tomb was removed from the
church, and erected in the chapter-house. It bore the following epitaph,
containing the obvious play upon the lady's name, and declaratory of the
unhappy contrast which death had effected:--
"Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda;
Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redolere solet."
This tomb remained, an object of interest and respect, until the
dissolution of the house. It was then destroyed, and a stone was
discovered within it, bearing the simple inscription, "TUMBA ROSAMUNDÆ."
The bones were found undecayed, and on the opening of the leaden coffin
which contained them, "there was a very swete smell came out of it."
Another eye-witness described it as having "enterchangeable weavings
drawn out and decked with roses red and green, and the picture of the
cup out of which she drank the poyson given her by the Queen, carved in
stone." A stone coffin, said to be that of Rosamund, was still to be
seen at Godstow when Hearne wrote his "Account of some Antiquities in
and about Oxford," but this was regarded by him as a "fiction of the
vulgar."[63]
In the "French Chronicle of London," 1259-1343, one of our earliest
records compiled in illustration of the History of the City of London,
under 1262, we read another version of this legend: "In this year the
Queen was shamefully hooted and reviled at London Bridge, as she was
desiring to go from the Tower to Westminster; and this, because she had
caused a gentle damsel to be put to death, the most beauteous that was
known, and imputed to her that she was the King's concubine. For which
reason the Queen had her stripped, and caused a bath to be prepared, and
then made the beauteous damsel enter therein; and made a wicked old hag
beat her upon both arms, with a staff; and when the blood gushed forth,
there came another execrable sorceress, who applied two 'frightful
toads' to her breasts, which they sucked until all the blood that was in
her body had run out, two other old hags holding her arms stretched out.
The Queen, laughing the while, mocked her, and had great joy in her
heart, in being thus revenged upon Rosamonde. And when she was dead, the
Queen had the body taken and buried in a filthy ditch, and with the
body the toads.
"But when the King had heard the news, how the Queen had acted towards
the most beauteous damsel whom he so greatly loved, and whom he held so
dear in his heart, he felt great sorrow, and made great lamentation
thereat:--'Alas! for my grief; what shall I do for the most beauteous
Rosamonde? For never was her peer found for beauty, disposition, and
courtliness.' He then desired to know what became of her body. He caused
one of the wicked sorceresses to be seized, and had her put into great
streights, that she might tell all the truth as to what they had done
with the gentle damsel.
"Then the old hag related to the King how the Queen had wrought upon the
most beauteous body of the gentle damsel, and where they would find it.
In the meantime, the Queen had the body taken up, and carried to a house
of religion which had 'Godstowe' for name, near Oxenforde; and had the
body of Rosamond there buried, to colour her evil deeds And then King
Henry began to ride towards Wodestoke, where Rosamond, whom he loved so
much at heart, was so treacherously murdered by the Queen. And as the
King was riding towards Wodestoke, he met the body of Rosamond, strongly
enclosed within a chest, that was well and stoutly bound with iron. And
the King forthwith demanded whose corpse it was, and what was the name
of the person whose dead body they bore. They made answer to him, that
it was the corpse of the most beauteous Rosamond. And when King Henry
heard this, he instantly ordered them to open the chest, that he might
behold the body that had been so vilely martyred. Immediately thereon,
they did the King's command, and showed him the corpse of Rosamond, who
was so hideously put to death. And when King Henry saw the whole truth
thereof, through great grief, he fell fainting to the ground, and lay
there in a swoon for a long time before any one could have converse with
him.
"And when the King awoke from his swoon he spoke, and swore a great
oath, that he would take full vengeance for the most horrid felony
which, for great spite, had upon the gentle damsel been committed. Then
began the King to lament and to give way to great sorrow for the most
beauteous Rosamond, whom he loved so much at heart. 'Alas! for my
grief,' said he, 'sweet Rosamonde, never was thy peer, never so sweet
nor beauteous a creature to be found: may then the sweet God who abides
in Trinity, on the soul of sweet Rosamond have mercy, and may He pardon
her all her misdeeds: very God Almighty, Thou who art the end and the
beginning, suffer not now that this soul shall in horrible torment come
to perish, and grant unto her true remission for all her sins, for Thy
great mercy's sake.'
"And when he had thus prayed he commanded them forthwith to ride
straight to Godstowe with the body of the lady, and there had her burial
celebrated in that religious house of nuns, and there did he appoint
thirteen chaplains to sing for the soul of the said Rosamond, so long as
the world shall last. In this religious house of Godstowe," says the
Chronicler, "I tell you for truth, lieth fair Rosamond buried. May very
God Almighty of her soul have mercy. Amen."[64]
The history of this unhappy lady, of whom the reader now possesses all
that can be gathered from olden sources, and more, perhaps, than can be
accepted as true, was a favourite subject of Mediæval romance; and all
kinds of embellishments were imported into the story in order to impress
a salutary caution against any imitation of the heroine. The story of
her being poisoned by Queen Eleanor is of comparatively modern
invention. A long ballad of forty-eight verses has been founded upon
this piece of strange history.