He Was Thrice Married; First To Blanche, Daughter And
Heiress Of Henry Duke Of Lancaster; By Her He Received An Immense
Inheritance, And Became Not Only Duke Of Lancaster, But Earl Of
Leicester, Lincoln, And Derby, Of Whose Race Are Descended Many
Emperors, Kings, Princes, And Nobles.
His second wife was
Constance, who is here buried, daughter and heiress of Peter, King
of Castile and Leon, in whose right he most justly {2} took the
style of King of Castile and Leon.
She brought him one only
daughter, Catherine, of whom, by Henry, are descended the Kings of
Spain. His third wife was Catherine, of a knight's family, a woman
of great beauty, by whom he had a numerous progeny; from which is
descended, by the mother's side, Henry the Seventh, the most prudent
King of England, by whose most happy marriage with Elizabeth,
daughter of Edward the Fourth, of the line of York, the two royal
lines of Lancaster and York are united, to the most desired
tranquillity of England.
The most illustrious prince, John, surnamed Plantagenet, King of
Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, Leicester,
and Derby, Lieutenant of Aquitain, High Steward of England, died in
the twenty-first year of Richard II., A.D. 1398.
A little farther, almost at the entrance of the choir, in a certain
recess, are two small stone chests, one of which is thus inscribed:
Here lies Seba, King of the East Saxons, who was converted to the
faith by St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London, A.D. 677.
On the other:
Here lies Ethelred, King of the Angles, son of King Edgar,
On whom St. Dustan is said to have denounced vengeance, on his
coronation day, in the following words:- "Inasmuch as thou hast
aspired to the throne by the death of thy brother, against whose
blood the English, along with thy infamous mother, conspired, the
sword shall not pass from thy house! but rage all the days of thy
life, afflicting all thy generation, till thy kingdom shall be
translated to another, whose manner and language the people under
thee knoweth not. Nor shall thy sin be done away till after long
chastisement, nor the sin of thy mother, nor the sin of those men
who assisted in thy wicked council."
All which came to pass as predicted by the saint; for after being
worsted and put to flight by Sueno King of the Danes, and his son
Canute, and at last closely besieged in London, he died miserably
A.D. 1017, after he had reigned thirty-six years in great
difficulties.
There is besides in the middle of the church a tomb made of brass,
of some Bishop of London, named William, who was in favour with
Edward, King of England, and afterwards made counsellor to King
William. He was bishop sixteen years, and died A.D. 1077. Near
this is the following inscription:
Virtue survives the funeral.
To the memory of
Thomas Linacre, an eminent physician, John Caius placed
this monument.
On the lower part of it is this inscription in gold letters:
Thomas Linacre, physician to King Henry VIII., a man learned in the
Greek and Latin languages, and particularly skilful in physick, by
which he restored many from a state of languishment and despair to
life. He translated with extraordinary eloquence many of Galen's
works into Latin; and published, a little before his death, at the
request of his friends, a very valuable book on the correct
structure of the Latin tongue. He founded in perpetuity in favour
of students in physick, two public lectures at Oxford, and one at
Cambridge. In this city he brought about, by his own industry, the
establishing of a College of Physicians, of which he was elected the
first president. He was a detester of all fraud and deceit, and
faithful in his friendships; equally dear to men of all ranks: he
went into orders a few years before his death, and quitted this life
full of years, and much lamented, A.D. 1524, on the 29th of October.
There are many tombs in this church, but without any inscriptions.
It has a very fine organ, which, at evening prayer, accompanied with
other instruments, is delightful.
In the suburb to the west, joined to the city by a continual row of
palaces belonging to the chief nobility, of a mile in length, and
lying on the side next the Thames, is the small town of Westminster;
originally called Thorney, from its thorn bushes, but now
Westminster, from its aspect and its monastery. The church is
remarkable for the coronation and burial of the Kings of England.
Upon this spot is said formerly to have stood a temple of Apollo,
which was thrown down by an earthquake in the time of Antoninus
Pius; from the ruins of which Sebert, King of the East Saxons,
erected another to St. Peter: this was subverted by the Danes, and
again renewed by Bishop Dunstan, who gave it to a few monks.
Afterwards, King Edward the Confessor built it entirely new, with
the tenth of his whole revenue, to be the place of his own burial,
and a convent of Benedictine monks; and enriched it with estates
dispersed all over England.
In this church the following things are worthy of notice:
In the first choir, the tomb of Anne of Cleves, wife of Henry VIII.,
without any inscription.
On the opposite side are two stone sepulchres:
(1) Edward, Earl of Lancaster, brother of Edward I.; (2) Ademar of
Valence, Earl of Pembroke, son of Ademar of Valence. Joining to
these is (3) that of Aveline, Countess of Lancaster.
In the second choir is the chair on which the kings are seated when
they are crowned; in it is enclosed a stone, said to be that on
which the patriarch Jacob slept when he dreamed he saw a ladder
reaching quite up into heaven. Some Latin verses are written upon a
tablet hanging near it; the sense of which is:
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