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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THIS Princess was the queen of Richard 1., and daughter of Sancho, king of
Navarre. It does not appear that she was ever in England, a circumstance not
surprising, when those events of her life known are considered, and that Richard
himself did not, altogether, pass more than eight months in his English possessions.
Berengaria is first spoken of as being brought to king Richard by his mother
Eleanor de Guienne, at Messina, when on his way to the Holy Land. She was
afterwards married to him, and crowned by the bishop of Evreux in the island of
Cyprus. From thence in company with Joan, the sister of Richard, she proceeded
to share with her husband the fatigues and perils of the Crusade: on her return to
Europe, sailing a few days before the king, she avoided the captivity into which
he subsequently fell, and retired to Poitiers. No more of her is known till after
the death of Richard Cceur de Lion, when on claiming her dower of Ring John at
Chinon in 1201, it appears she was so little recognized as the queen of Richard,
that it was not till after the testimony of the validity of her marriage, by those that
were present at its celebration, that John would satisfy her demand. Henry HI., in
the 4th of his reign, 1219, compounded with her in lieu of her dower. The time of
her death is uncertain; she was buried in the abbey of L'Espan, which she had
founded. Berengaria was celebrated as well for her eloquence as her beauty; but
Richard has been charged by some historians with having neglected her.
Considering that amidst the havoc of monumental sculpture in France, the Royal
Effigies at Fontevraud have escaped destruction, it becomes still more remarkable,
that the same good fortune should have also attended this efHgy, the last erection in
France commemorative of Royalty which belonged to the English monarchy. Al-
though the tomb was overlooked in the heat of Revolutionary Vandalism, yet has it
ultimately suffered from the suppression of religious houses. On visiting the abbey of
L'Espan in 1816, near Mans, which contains this tomb, the church was found in a
ruinous state, and had been applied to the purposes of a barn. The architectural parts
of Queen Berengaria's tomb were discovered lying about the place, but the effigy was
concealed beneath a considerable quantity of wheat. After many difficulties, and the
delay of a twelvemonth, it was uncovered, and found placed upright in a niche, in ex-