Eleanor crosses

Eleanor crosses. A series of twelve carved stone crosses erected by Edward I in 1291–4 to commemorate his wife Eleanor of Castile (c.1242–90), ‘whom living I have dearly cherished and whom dead I shall not cease to love’. Eleanor died at Harby in Nottinghamshire and the crosses marked the places where her funeral cortège halted each night on its way to her burial place in Westminster Abbey (where there is a magnificent bronze effigy of the queen by William Torel, also commissioned by Edward). The crosses were almost certainly inspired by those erected to mark the progress of the body of Louis IX of France from Aigues Mortes to Paris in 1270. None of the French crosses (known as ‘montjoies’) survive, but there are substantial remains of three of the Eleanor crosses (they lack their upper parts, but otherwise they are in reasonably good condition)—at Hardingstone, Geddington (both Northamptonshire), and Waltham Cross (Hertfordshire). They are similar to each other in essentials (polygonal in plan and raised on steps) but different in their lavish and graceful ornamentation. The final cross, at Charing Cross in London, survived until 1647, when it was pulled down, much decayed, by order of Parliament. Hubert Le Sueur's equestrian statue of Charles I now occupies the site (it was moved there in 1676), and a replica of the cross was erected nearby, in the forecourt of Charing Cross Station, in 1863. Another Eleanor cross in London, at Cheapside, was demolished in 1643 (fragments are in the Museum of London).