perhaps at first was an accidental ornament, (perhaps only the Chalice) might in after-
times suggest the notion that she was poisoned; at least this construction was put upon
it, when the stone came to be demolished after the nunnery was dissolved. The
account is, that "the tombstone of Rosamund Clifford was taken up at God-stow, and
broken in pieces, and that upon it were interchangeable weavings drawn out and
decked with roses red and green, and the picture of thecup, out of which she drank
the poison given her by the queen, carved in stone."
Rosamond's father having been a great benefactor to the nunnery of Godstow,
where she had also resided herself in the innocent part of her life, her body was
conveyed there, and buried in the middle of the choir; in which place it remained till
the year 1191, when Hugh Bishop of Lincoln caused it to be removed. The fact is
recorded by Hoveden, a contemporary writer, whose words are thus translated by
Stowe: "Hugh Bishop of Lincolne came to the abbey of nunnes, called God-stow,...
and when he had entred the church to pray, he saw a tombe in the middle of the quire,
covered with a pall of silke, and set about with lights of waxe: and demanding whose
tomb it was, he was answered, that it was the tombe of Rosamond, that was some time
lemman to Henry II.... who for the love of her had done much good to that church.
Then quoth the bishop, Take out of this place the harlot, and bury her without the
church, lest Christian religion should grow in contempt, and to the end that, through
example of her, other women, being made afraid, may beware, and keepe themselves
from unlawfull and advouterous company with men."-- Annals, p. 159.
History further informs us that King John repaired Godstow nunnery, and
endowed it with yearly revenues, "that these holy virgins might releeve with their
prayers, the soules of his father King Henrie, and of Lady Rosamund there
interred."[3]... In what situation her remains were found at the dissolution of the
nunnery, we learn from Leland, "Rosamundes tumbe at Godstow nunnery was taken
up [of] late; it is a stone with this inscription,Tumba Rosamundæ. Her bones were
closid in lede, and withyn that bones were closyd yn lether. When it was opened a
very swete smell came owt of it."[4]. See Hearne's discourse above quoted, written in
1718; at which time he tells us, were still seen by the pool at Woodstock the
foundations of a very large building, which were believed to be the remains of
Rosamond's labyrinth.
To conclude this (perhaps too prolix) account, Henry had two sons by
Rosamond, from a computation of whose ages, a modern historian has endeavoured to
invalidate the received story. These were William Longue-espé (or Long-sword) Earl
of Salisbury, and Geoffrey Bishop of Lincolne.[5] Geoffrey was the younger of
Rosamond's sons, and yet is said to have been twenty years old at the time of his
election to that see in 1173. Hence the writer concludes, that King Henry fell in love
with Rosamond in 1149, when in King Stephen's reign he came over to be knighted
by the King of Scots; he also thinks it probable that Henry's commerce with this lady
"broke off upon his marriage with Eleanor [in 1152] and that the young lady, by a
natural effect of grief and resentment at the defection of her lover, entered on that
occasion into the nunnery of Godstowe, where she died probably before the rebellion
of Henry's sons in 1173." [Carte's Hist. vol. i. p. 652.] But let it be observed, that
Henry was but sixteen years old when he came over to be knighted; that he staid but
eight months in this island, and was almost all the time with the King of Scots; that he
did not return back to England till 1153, the year after his marriage with Eleanor; and
that no writer drops the least hint of Rosamond's having been abroad with her lover,
nor indeed is it probable that a boy of sixteen should venture to carry over a mistress