Stothard, Charles Alfred; Kempe, Alfred John: The monumental effigies of Great Britain: selected from our cathedrals and churches ; for the purpose of bringing together, and preserving correct representations of the best historical illustrations extant, from the Norman conquest to the reign of Henry the Eight (London, 1817)

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THE destruction of our royal efBgies at Fontevraud during the Revolution had
been so confidently asserted, that the known devastation of antiquities of this cha-
racter in France, did not appear to be a sufRcient 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 induce-
ments were wanting for hazarding a journey to ascertain their fate. An indiscri-
minate 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 efRgies were dis-
covered in a cellar of one of the buildings adjoining the abbey. For amidst the
total annihilation of every thing that immediately surrounded them, these efRgies
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 efRgies are four in number:—Henry H.; 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 efRgies were removed from their
original situation in the choir.* It is this painting which Montfaucon has described,
and it has consequently misled him.j*
Our present subject, Henry II., the son of the Empress Matilda, and Geoffrey
Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, died at the Castle of Chinon, nigh Fontevraud, October,
1189, in the 57th year of his age, and 35th of his reign. A modern French writer,
* By Jeanne Baptiste de Bourbon, natural daughter of Henry IV. in 1638, who at the same time erected a
tomb to contain the whoie of them.
-f For the gloves having been ignorantly painted of a flesh colour instead of white. Montfaucon says, " Je
ne sai que signifient !es deux marques rondes quhl a sur les deux wants." Not conceiving they were the
jewels on the gloves, the marks of royalty.
A 2