inaugurators of the new birth of England at that critical season -for guiding and stimulating the Church and nation to the performance of new duties, the fulfilment of new hopes, the apprehension of new truths. Jan. 24, 1503. Building of In the eighteenth year of his reign, 'on the 24th day of January, at a quarter of an hour before three of the clock at ' afternoon of the same day,' the first stone of the new Chapel was laid by Abbot Islip, Sir Reginald Bray the Chapel. the architect, and others. In this work, as usual, the old generation was at once set aside. Not only the venerable White Rose Inn of Chaucer's garden, but the old Chapels of St. Mary and of St. Erasmus,2 were swept away as ruthlessly as the Norman Church had been by Henry III. "His grand Tomb of dame of right noble memory, Queen Catherine, wife to King Henry V., and daughter of Charles King of France' (for whose sake, amongst others, he had wished to be interred here), was thrust carelessly into the vacant space beneath her husband's Chantry. One last look had been cast backwards to the Plantagenet sepulchres. His infant daughter Elizabeth, Princess aged three years and two months, was buried, with great pomp, in a small tomb at the feet of Henry III. His infant son Edward, who died four years afterwards (1499), was also buried in the Abbey. The first grave in the Elizabeth of new Chapel was that of his wife, Elizabeth of York. She died, in giving birth to a child, who survived but a short time: Elizabeth, Sept. 1495. York, died Saturday, Feb. 11, buried Feb. 25, 1503. 3 Adieu, sweetheart! my little daughter late, . . . At Westminster, that costly work of yours, 5 The first stone of the splendid edifice in which she now lies had been laid but a month before, and she was meanwhile buried in one of the side chapels. The sumptuousness of her obsequies, in spite of Henry's jealousy of the House of York, and of his parsimonious habits, was justly regarded as a proof 1 Neale, ii. 6; Holinshed, iii. 529. 2 Frobably in compensation for this the small chapel at the entrance of that of St. John the Baptist was dedicated to St. Erasmus. 3 Green's Princesses, iv. 507; Stow's Survey, ii. 600; Sandford, p. 478. More's Elegy on Elizabeth of York. 5 From a record communicated by Mr. Doyne Bell. Henry VII., April 21, Henry VII, of his affection. At the entrance of the city she was met by twenty-seven maidens all in white with tapers, to commemorate her untimely death in her twenty-seventh year. Six Death of years afterwards he died at the splendid palace which Saturday, he had called by his own name of Richmond, at the 1509. ancient Sheen. His vehement protestations of amendmentbestowing promotions, if he lived, only on virtuous, able, and learned men, executing justice indifferently to all men; his expressions of penitence, passionately grasping the crucifix, and beating his breast, were in accordance with that dread of his last hour, out of which his sepulchre had arisen. The funeral corresponded to the grandeur of the mausoleum, which Burial of was now gradually advancing to its completion. From May 9, 1503. Richmond the procession came to St. Paul's, where elaborate obsequies were closed by a sermon from Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. At Westminster, after like obsequies, and a sermon from Fitz-james, Bishop of London, who had already preached on the death of the Queen and of Prince Arthur (on Job xix. 21), the black velvet coffin, marked by a white satin cross 'from end to end,' was deposited, not, as in the burials of previous Kings, in the raised tomb, but in the cavernous vault beneath, by the side of his Queen. The Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots stood round, and struck their croziers on the coffin, with the word Absolvimus. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Warham) then cast in the earth. The vault was closed. The Heralds stripped off their tabards, and hung them on the rails of the hearse, exclaiming in French, 'The noble King Henry 'VII. is dead!' and then immediately put them on again, and cried Vive le noble Roy Henry VIII.!' 2 So he lieth buried at Westminster, in one of the stateliest ' and daintiest monuments of Europe, both for the chapel and the sepulchre. So that he dwelleth more richly dead, in the ' monument of his tomb, than he did alive in Richmond or any ' of his palaces. I could wish,' adds his magnificent historian, 'that he did the like in this monument of his fame.' 3 6 His effigy represents him still to us, as he was known by tradition to the next generation, a comely personage, a 'little above just stature,' well and straight-limbed, but 1 Antiq. Repos., p. 654; Sandford, pp. 469-471; Strickland, iv. 60-62.-He spent £2832 68. 8d. upon the funeral (Heralds' College, Privy Purse MS.) L His effigy. 2 Leland, Collect. (part ii.) iv. 309. Bacon's Henry VII. iii. 417. ♦ Frontis honos, facies augusta 'heroica forma.' (Epitaph.) 'slender,' with his scanty hair and keen grey eyes,' 'his coun⚫tenance reverend and a little like a churchman;' and 'as it ' was not strange or dark, so neither was it winning or pleasing, but as the face of one well disposed.' It was completed, within twenty years from his death, by the Florentine sculptor Torregiano, the fierce rival of Michael Angelo, who broke 'the cartilage of his enemy's nose, as if it had been paste.' He lived for most of that time within the precincts of the Abbey, and there performed the feats of pugilism against the 'bears of Englishmen,' of which he afterwards boasted at Florence. Tomb of Margaret of Richmond. Died June 29, 1509, aged 69. Within three months another funeral followed. In the south aisle of the Chapel, graven by the same skilful hand, lies the most beautiful and venerable figure that the Abbey contains. It is Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of Henry VII., who died, and was buried, in the midst of the rejoicings of her grandson's marriage and coronation; her chaplain (Fisher) preaching again, with a far deeper earnestness, the funeral sermon, on the loss which, to him at least, could never be replaced. Everyone that knew her,' he said, 'loved her, and everything that she said or did became her.' . . . More noble and more refined than in any of her numerous portraits, her effigy well lies in that Chapel, for to her the King, her son, owed everything. For him she lived. To end the Civil Wars by his marriage with Elizabeth of York she counted as a holy duty. Her tomb bears the heraldic emblems of her third husband, the Earl of Derby. But she still remained faithful to the memory of her first youthful love, the father of Henry VII. She was always 'Margaret Richmond.' Effigy of 5 Her outward existence belonged to the medieval past. She lived almost the life, in death she almost wears the garb, of an Abbess. Even her marriage with Edmund Tudor was Richmond. the result of a vision of St. Nicholas. The last English sigh for the Crusades went up from those lips. She would often say, that if the Princes of Christendom would combine themselves, and march against the common enemy, the Turk, she would most willingly attend them, and be their laundress 1 Grafton, ii. 232. 2 Bacon, p. 416. 3 Grafton, ii. 237. p. 225. Hallstead's Margaret Richmond, The antelope at her feet is the supporter of the arms of Lancaster. The daisies on the chapel gates represent her name. |