The tomb of Richard II. and his wife, of brass, gilt, and these
verses written round it:
Perfect and prudent, Richard, by right the Second,
Vanquished by Fortune, lies here now graven in stone,
True of his word, and thereto well renound:
Seemly in person, and like to Homer as one
In worldly prudence, and ever the Church in one
Upheld and favoured, casting the proud to ground,
And all that would his royal state confound.
Without the tomb is this inscription:
Here lies King Richard, who perished by a cruel death,
in the year 1369.
To have been happy is additional misery.
Near him is the monument of his queen, daughter of the Emperor
Wenceslaus.
On the left hand is the tomb of Edward I., with this inscription:
Here lies Edward I., who humbled the Scots. A.D. 1308.
Be true to your engagements.
He reigned forty-six years.
The tomb of Edward III., of copper, gilt, with this epitaph:
Of English kings here lieth the beauteous flower
Of all before past, and myrror to them shall sue:
A merciful king, of peace conservator,
The third Edward, &c.
Besides the tomb are these words:
Edward III., whose fame has reached to heaven. A.D. 1377,
Fight for your country.
Here is shown his sword, eight feet in length, which they say he
used in the conquest of France.
His queen's epitaph:
Here lies Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. Learn to live. A.D.
1369.
At a little distance, the tomb of Henry V., with this legend:
Henry, the scourge of France, lies in this tomb. Virtue subdues all
things. A.D. 1422.
Near this lies the coffin of Catherine, unburied, and to be opened
by anyone that pleases. On the outside is this inscription:
Fair Catherine is at length united to her lord. A.D. 1437.
Shun idleness.
The tomb of Henry III., of brass, gilt, with this epitaph:
Henry III., the founder of this cathedral. A.D. 1273. War is
delightful to the unexperienced.
It was this Henry who, one hundred and sixty years after Edward the
Confessor had built this church, took it down, and raised an entire
new one of beautiful architecture, supported by rows of marble
columns, and its roof covered with sheets of lead, a work of fifty
years before its completion. It has been much enlarged at the west
end by the abbots. After the expulsion of the monks, it experienced
many changes; first it had a dean and prebendaries; then a bishop,
who, having squandered the revenues, resigned it again to a dean.
In a little time, the monks with their abbot were reinstated by
Queen Mary; but, they being soon ejected again by authority of
parliament, it was converted into a cathedral church - nay, into a
seminary for the Church - by Queen Elizabeth, who instituted there
twelve prebendaries, an equal number of invalid soldiers, and forty
scholars; who at a proper time are elected into the universities,
and are thence transplanted into the Church and State.
Next to be seen is the tomb of Eleanor, daughter of Alphonso King of
Spain, and wife of Edward I., with this inscription:
This Eleanor was consort of Edward I.
A.D. 1298. Learn to die.
The tomb of Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VII.
In the middle of this chapel is the shrine of St. Edward, the last
King of the Saxons. It is composed of marble in mosaic: round it
runs this inscription in letters of gold:
The venerable king, St. Edward the Confessor,
A heroe adorned with every virtue.
He died on the 5th of January, 1065,
And mounted into Heaven.
Lift up your hearts.
The third choir, of surprising splendour and elegance, was added to
the east end by Henry VII. for a burying-place for himself and his
posterity. Here is to be seen his magnificent tomb, wrought of
brass and marble, with this epitaph:
Here lies Henry VII. of that name, formerly King of England, son of
Edmund, Earl of Richmond, who, ascending the throne on the twenty-
second day of August, was crowned on the thirtieth of October
following at Westminster, in the year of our Lord 1485. He died on
the twenty-first of April, in the fifty-third year of his age, after
a reign of twenty-two years and eight months wanting a day.
This monument is enclosed with rails of brass, with a long epitaph
in Latin verse.
Under the same tomb lies buried Edward VI., King of England, son of
Henry VIII. by Jane Seymour. He succeeded to his father when he was
but nine years old, and died A.T. 1553, on the 6th of July, in the
sixteenth year of his age, and of his reign the seventh, not without
suspicion of poison.
Mary was proclaimed queen by the people on the 19th of July, and
died in November, 1558, and is buried in some corner of the same
choir, without any inscription.
Queen Elizabeth.
Here lies Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., sister of King
Edward V., wife of Henry VII., and the glorious mother of Henry
VIII. She died in the Tower of London, on the eleventh of February,
A.D. 1502, in the thirty-seventh year of her age.
Between the second and third choirs in the side-chapels, are the
tombs of Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who built this church with
stone: and
Of Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., grandmother of Henry
VIII.; she gave this monastery to the monks of Winbourne, {3} who
preached and taught grammar all England over, and appointed salaries
to two professors of divinity, one at Oxford, another at Cambridge,
where she founded two colleges to Christ and to John His disciple.
She died A.D. 1463, on the third of the calends of July.
