Eleanor cross

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Image:2005-07-10 - United Kingdom - England - London - Charing Cross - Eleanor cross.jpg

The Eleanor crosses are lavishly decorated stone monuments in the shape of a cross that Edward I of England erected in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile. The crosses were erected at the twelve places where her funeral procession stopped overnight on its route from Harby, near the city of Lincoln, to Westminster Abbey in London in 1290. A similar event had taken place in France for the body of King Louis IX in 1271.

Those twelve places were:

The only three crosses still standing are those at Waltham Cross, Northampton, and Geddington, however the base of the Grantham cross is still visible in the market place.

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Northampton Cross

The Northampton cross is located at the edge of Delapré Abbey, where the body rested overnight; the King stayed at nearby Northampton Castle. This cross was begun in 1291 by John of Battle; he worked with William of Ireland to carve the statues; William was paid £3 6s. 8d. per figure.

The cross is octagonal in shape and set upon some steps - the present ones are replacements. The cross is built in three tiers and originally had a crowning terminal - possibly a cross. It is not known when this became lost.

The Cross is referred to in Daniel Defoe's a "Tour through the whole island of Great Britain", where he reports on the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675, "...a townsman being at Queen's Cross upon a hill on the south side of the town, about two miles off, saw the fire at one end of the town then newly begun, and that before he could get to the town it was burning at the remotest end, opposite where he first saw it."

Image:QueenEleanorCross.JPG Image:NorthamptonPlaque.JPG The cross at Charing Cross was destroyed in 1647 and a statue of Charles I was erected on the site in 1675. The replica cross is a copy of the original and was erected at a later date but not in the same location as the original.

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