Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!... England ne'er lost a king of so much worth. On the splendid car, accompanied by torches and whiterobed priests innumerable, lay the effigy, now for the first time seen in the royal funerals.' Behind were led up the Nave, to the altar steps, his three chargers. To give a worthy place to the mighty dead a severe strain was put on the capacity of the Abbey. Room for his grave was created by a summary process, on which no previous King or Abbot had ventured. The extreme eastern end of the Confessor's Chapel, hitherto devoted to the sacred relics, was cleared out; and in their place was deposited the body of the most splendid King that England had down to that time produced;-second only as a warrior to the Black Prince-second only as a sovereign to Edward I. His tomb, accordingly, was regarded almost as His tomb. that of a saint in Paradise. The passing cloud of Reforming zeal, which Chichele had feared, had been, as Chichele hoped, diverted by the French wars. From the time of Henry's conversion he affected and attained an austere piety unusual among his predecessors. Instead of their wild oaths, he had only two words,- Impossible,' or 'It 'must be done.' In his army he forbade the luxury of feather beds. Had he conquered the whole of France, he would have destroyed all its vines, with a view of suppressing drunkenness.3 He was the most determined enemy of Wycliffe and of all heretics that Europe contained. He had himself intended that the relics should be still retained in the same locality, though transferred to the chamber above his tomb. The recesses still existing in that chamber seem designed for this purpose. But the staunch support 'Previously the Kings themselves had been exhibited in their royal attire. (Bloxham, p. 92.) See Chapter IV. 2 Monstrelet, pp. 325, 326. 3 Pauli, iii. 175. Rymer, x.291,604; Pauli, iii. 177. which the dead King had given to the religious world of that age, if not his brilliant achievements, seemed, in the eyes of the clergy, to justify a more extensive change. The Relics were altogether removed, and placed in a chest, between the tomb of Henry III. and the Shrine of the Confessor, and the chamber was exclusively devoted to the celebration of services for his soul on the most elaborate scale. He alone of the Kings, hitherto buried in the Abbey, had ordered a separate Chantry to be erected, where masses might be for ever offered up.' It was to be raised over his tomb. It was to have an altar in honour of the Annunciation. It was to be high enough for the people down in the Abbey to see the priests officiating there. Accordingly a new Chapel sprang up, growing out of that of St. Edward, and almost reaching the dignity of another Lady Chapel. It towers above the Plantagenet graves beneath, as his empire towered above their kingdom. As ruthlessly as any improvement of modern times, it defaced and in part concealed the beautiful monuments of Eleanor and Philippa. Its structure is formed out of the first letter of his name-H. Its statues represent not only the glories of Westminster, in the persons of its two founders, but the glories of the two kingdoms which he had united-St. George, the patron of England; St. Denys, the patron of France. The sculptures round the Chapel break out into a vein altogether new in the Abbey. They describe the personal peculiarities of the man and his history-the scenes of his coronation, with all the grandees of his Court around him, and his battles in France. Amongst the heraldic emblems-the swans and antelopes derived from the De Bohuns-is the flaming beacon or cresset light which he took for his badge, showing thereby that, although his at Canterbury. They were specified in his will, and amounted to 20,000. (Rymer, ix. 290.) A similar Chantry was prepared by the side of his father's tomb 2 This is sculptured over the door. See Roberts's Houses of York and Lancaster, ii. 254, 255. |