Fontevraud Abbey, Chinon, Anjou, France, Europe, Continents [Map]

Introduction. In 1816 he was deputed by that body to commence his elaborate and faithful drawings of the famous Tapestry deposited at Bayeux. During his absence in France he visited Chinon, and in the neighbouring Abbey of Fontevraud [Map] discovered those interesting Effigies of the Plantagenets, the existence of which after the revolutionary devastation had become doubtful, but which were of high importance to him as subjects for his work. The following account of this matter is given in Mrs. C. Stothard's Tour in Britanny:—"When Mr. Stothard first visited France during the summer of 1816, he came direct to Fontevraud, to ascertain if the Effigies of our early Kings who were buried there yet existed; subjects so interesting to English history were worthy of the inquiry. He found the abbey converted into a prison, and discovered in a cellar belonging to it, the Effigies of Henry the Second and his Queen Eleanor of Guienne, Richard the First, and Isabella of Angouleme, the Queen of John. The chapel where the figures were placed before the revolution had been entirely destroyed, and these valuable Effigies, then removed to the cellar, were subject to continual mutilation from the prisoners, who came twice in every day to draw water from a well. It appeared they had sustained some injury, as Mr. S. found several broken fragments scattered around. He made drawings of the figures; and upon his return to England represented to our Government the propriety of securing such interesting memorials from further destruction. It was deemed advisable, if such a plan could be accomplished, to gain possession of them, that they might be placed with the rest of our Royal Effigies in Westminster Abbey^a." An application was accordingly made, which failed; but it had the good effect of drawing the attention of the French authorities towards these remains, and saving them from total destruction. At the same period Mr. Stothard visited the Abbey of L'Espan, near Mans, in search of the effigy of Berengaria, Queen of Richard the First: he found the abbey church converted into a barn, and the object of his inquiry in a mutilated state, concealed under a quantity of wheat^b. At Mons he discovered the beautiful enamelled tablet representing Geoffrey Plantagenet. Mr. Stothard's drawings of the Effigies of the English Monarchy extant in France, were, on his return from Fontevraud, submitted by the late Sir George Nayler to the inspection of his late Majesty George the Fourth, who was graciously pleased to express an earnest desire for their publication, and to allow Mr. Stothard to dedicate his Work, the Monumental Effigies, to him. In 1817 he made a second journey to Bayeux for the purpose of continuing his drawings from the Tapestry. In February 1818 he married the young lady to whom he had so long been attached, Anna Eliza (age 25), the only daughter of the late John Kempe, Esq. of the New Kent Road. In July following she accompanied him in his third expedition to France, which he made with a view of completing the Bayeux Tapestry.

Note a. Tour in Britanny, p. 294.

Effigy of King Richard I. Shortly after it was Richard's fate to lose his life in a petty feud. The Count of Limoges, a dependant on the Dukes of Aquitaine, having found a treasure on his land, Richard, as lord paramount, laid claim to the whole, and to enforce his right, besieged the Castle of Chaluz, where it was supposed the treasure was deposited. He was wounded by a quarrel, from the steelbow of an arbalister on the ramparts of the Castle. Hearing the twang of the implement, he stooped forward to avoid the shot, and in consequence of that movement received it in his left shoulder. The barbed head of the arrow remained in the wound, the severity of which was much increased by the attempts of an unskilful surgeon to cut it out. The Castle being taken, and the archer brought before the King, he justified the deed, by saying that Richard with his own hand had killed his father and his two brothers. The King, with a true magnanimity, commanded him to be set at liberty with a reward of a hundred shillings; an order basely disregarded after the King s death by one of his mercenary chiefs, who caused the arbalister to be flayed alive and hanged. Richard having received the Sacraments of the Church, died in the fortress above-mentioned on Tuesday 6th April 1199, after a reign of nine-years and nine months. He directed his heart to be carried to his faithful city of Rouen for interment in the Cathedral; his bowels, as his ignoble parts, to the rebellious Poictevins; and his body to be buried at the feet of his father Henry the Second at Fontevraud [Map]. This gave rise to the following Leonine verses, which are quoted by Matthew Paris as having been written for him by some rhimer of the day by way of epitaph, in which the idea that so mighty a ruin was too great for one place, is not destitute of point:

Pictavus exta ducis sepelit tellusque Chalutis; [Pictavus buried the existence of the leader and the land of Châlus]

Corpus dat claudi sub marmore Fontis Ebraudi; [The body is closed under the marble of the Fontevraud]

Neustria, tuque tegis cor inexpugnabile regis; [Neustria (Rouen?), and you cover the impregnable heart of the king]

Sic loca per trina te sparsit tanta ruina. [Thus you were scattered in three places by so great a fall]

Non fuit hoc funus cui sufHceret locus unus. [This was not a funeral for which one place would suffice]

Effigy of Henry II. THE destruction of our royal effigies at Fontevraud [Map] during the Revolution had been so confidently asserted, that the known devastation of antiquities of this character in France, did not appear to be a sufficient reason to warrant the assertion; but on investigation, by every inquiry it was found to rest on no better foundation, and still wanted confirmation. As the addition of these, to commence our series appeared so desirable an acquisition, and the reflection at the same time presenting itself that by some fortunate chance they might stili be preserved, no other inducements were wanting for hazarding a journey to ascertain their fate. An indiscriminate destruction, which on every side presented itself in a track of three hundred miles, left little to hope on arriving at the Abbey of Fontevraud; but still less, when this celebrated depository of our early kings was found to be but a ruin. Contrary, however, to such an unpromising appearance, the whole of the effigies were discovered in a cellar of one of the buildings adjoining the abbey. For amidst the total annihilation of every thing that immediately surrounded them, these effigies alone were saved; not a vestige of the tomb, and chapel which contained them, remaining. Fortunately, there is nothing destroyed for us to regret. When the fury of the Revolution had ceased, it appears that the veneration these memorials of royalty had for ages excited, led to their removal from the ruined church to a place of more security. They were accordingly conveyed to an octangular isolated building, called the Tour d'Evraud, where they remained safe and undisturbed for eighteen years; but the church having been very lately converted to a prison, and this receptacle being found convenient for some purposes of the new establishment, they were again removed to their present situation, where they are subject daily to be wantonly defaced by the lowest class of prisoners, and where, if they are suffered to remain, they must soon be destroyed.

The effigies are four in number: — Henry II.; his Queen, Eleanor de Guienne; Richard I.; and Isabel d'Angouleme, the Queen of John. Considering their age, and the vicissitudes they have undergone, they are in excellent preservation. They have all been painted and gilt three or four times; and from the style of the last painting, it is probable it was executed when the effigies were removed from their original situation in the choir^a. It is this painting which Montfaucon has described, and it has consequently misled him^b.

Our present subject, Henry II., the son of the Empress Matilda, and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, died at the Castle of Chinon [Map], nigh Fontevraud, October, 1189, in the 57th year of his age, and 35th of his reign. A modern French writer, who states as his authorities MSS. preserved in the ecclesiastical archives, says "the body of the unfortunate monarch, vested in his royal habits, the crown of gold on his head, and the sceptre in his hand, was placed on a bier richly ornamented, and borne in great state to the celebrated Abbey of Fontevraud, which he had chosen as the place of his interment, and there set in the nave of the great church, where he was buried." This account partly agrees with that given by Matthew Paris, who says, "But on the morrow, until he should be carried to be buried, he was arrayed in the royal investments, having a golden crown on the head, and gloves on the hands, boots wrought with gold on the feet, and spurs, a great ring on the finger, and a sceptre in the hand, and girt with a sword, he lay with his face uncovered." When we examine the effigy, we cannot fail of remarking that it is already described by these two accounts; the only variation being in the sword, which is not girt, but lies on the bier on the left side, with the belt twisted round it. It therefore appears, that the tomb was literally a representation of the deceased king, as if he still lay in state. Nor can we, without supposing such was the custom, otherwise account for the singular coincidences between the effigy of King John on the lid of his coffin and his body within it, when discovered a few years since.

The crown on the head of Henry II. has been probably many years broken, as appears from some remains of an injudicious attempt to restore it with plaister of Paris. It is represented without those clumsy additions in the etchings. The right hand, on which was the great ring, is also broken; but still contains a portion of the sceptre, which, if we may judge from its stays on the breast, must have been remarkably short. The character of the face is strongly marked by high cheek-bones and projecting lips and chin; the beard is painted, and penciled like a miniature, to represent its being close shaven; the mantle is fastened by a fibula on the right shoulder, its colour has been, like the cushion under the head, of a deep reddish chocolate; the dalmatic is crimson, and appears to have been starred or flowered with gold. The mantle probably was originally ornamented in a similar manner. The boots are green, ornamented with gold, on which are fastened with red leathers the gold spurs. The whole is executed in free stone, and in a style much resembling the seals of the time, but infinitely superior to what we should expect, judging by the effigy of King John, which in comparison with this is a very inferior production. We are told that Henry II. had on his tomb these lines:

Rex Henricus eram, mihi plurima Regna subegi [I was King Henry, and I subjugated many kingdoms]

Multiplicique modo, Duxque Comesque fui [In many ways, I was Duke and Count]

Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae [All the earth would not be enough for him to make a wish]

Climata, terra modo sufficit octo pedum. [In the (current?) climate, only eight feet of earth is sufficient]

Qui legis hæc, pensa discrimina mortis, & in me [He who reads these things, let the judgments of death be weighed upon me]

Humanse speculum conditions habe [Have humane mirror conditions]

Sulhcit hie Tumulus, cui non sulbceret orbis. [Here lies a mound, for which the world would not mourn]

Res brevis ampla mihi, cui fuit ampla brevis. [A brief matter is ample for me, to whom it was a large brief]

Note a. By Jeanne Baptiste de Bourbon, natural daughter of Henry IV. in 1638, who at the same time erected a tomb to contain the whole of them.

Note b. For the gloves having been ignorantly painted of a flesh colour instead of white. Montfaucon says, "Je ne sai que signifient les deux marques rondes quhl a sur les deux mains. [I don't know what the two round marks mean on the hands]" Not conceiving they were the jewels on the gloves, the marks of royalty.