Lincoln’s ‘Cathedral Queen’ is set to be celebrated in a new book out this autumn charting a medieval royal journey immortalised in stone.
In 1290, Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I, died close to Lincolnshire, heralding one of the most romantic, and perhaps most overlooked, stories of British history.
Brought to Lincoln, Queen Eleanor’s body was laid to rest overnight before it was carried on a 200-mile journey from the city to London – with the grief-stricken King marking the sad procession by commissioning 12 stone Eleanor Crosses.
Each marked places where her cortege rested, and they originally stood at Lincoln, Grantham and Stamford, in Lincolnshire, before winding down the country to the final Cross, at Charing in London. Although only three have survived, and none are complete, most sites are still marked in some way and stand as lasting memorials.
Now Alice Loxton, author of the acclaimed bestseller Eighteen, has retraced that trail from Lincoln – where Eleanor’s body was embalmed and her internal organs, minus her heart, were buried – to her final resting place at Westminster Abbey.
Published 13 November by Pan Macmillan, Eleanor outlines the author’s route as she walked from Lincoln to London in November and December 2023, uncovering the story behind the “forgotten” Queen’s final journey.
Regarded as Lincoln’s ‘Cathedral Queen,’ Eleanor didn’t really have any connection to the city other than her death, and it being one of three places holding her remains. Her internal organs were removed, and buried at Lincoln Cathedral – a common practice in medieval times – while her heart was entombed at London’s Blackfriars, before her body was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.
The Blackfriars site was lost after the dissolution of the monasteries, but Lincoln Cathedral’s tomb, although destroyed by Cromwell supporters in the 17th Century, was restored in 1891 and can still be viewed today (https://lincolncathedral.com/eleanor-of-castile/).
Of the 12 crosses, Lincoln was the first in 1292 and originally stood just outside the city walls. Like most of the other Eleanor crosses, it was destroyed in the English Civil War of the 1640s or during Cromwell’s Commonwealth of the 1650s. However, a fragment survives, with the folds of Eleanor’s dress clearly visible, and now stands in the grounds of Lincoln Castle.
Grantham was the site of the second. It is believed Eleanor’s body may have rested at St Wulfram’s Church, or in the town’s newly founded Grey Friars, and the memorial was erected in the High Street. It was dismantled in the Civil War, but today’s Market Cross probably incorporates stones from it.
The final cross in Lincolnshire was just outside Stamford, and although it is not known when it was destroyed, today a modern Eleanor Cross stands in Stamford’s Sheep Market as a lasting reminder of the original.
More details about the Alice Loxton and her new book can be found at https://aliceloxton.com/
For more about visiting, and staying in, Lincolnshire, see www.visitlincolnshire.com