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General Description |
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It is surely
remarkable, as well as fortunate, that four [1] monuments
remain in the main church of the Abbey of Fontevraud [2],
having survived the Religious Wars and the Revolution, when much
destruction occured. The monuments are essentially similar but
with interesting variations: each figure is recumbent, lying on
a bier carved to appear as being covered with a draped cloth;
the bier is raised at the head and feet so that only a simple
pillow is required to support the head. Isabelle's monument
shows a greater variation than do the others, not only is it
significantly smaller [3], it is also made of wood. All four
monuments have been painted several times in the past but
this polychrome is now faded and worn so that, whereas the other
three monuments appear light in tone, being made of tuffeau,
a local pale yellow Cretaceous limestone [4], that of
Isabelle appears much darker from the wood below. This tone
difference is particularly noticeable as the monument of Richard the
Lion Heart, which is placed next to that of Isabelle, is the
most worn, and hence the palest, of the other three. |
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The
drapery over Isabelle's bier, as
well as the
bier itself, is red with a darker border, probably
originally gold, and semé
with probably gold flower heads. Isabelle herself is represented
as recently deceased with her hands folded on her breast, quite
unlike Eleanor, who is shown alive reading a book. She wears a
long blue gown which is open at the neck to show a white
underdress, which is closed at the neck by a clasp. She wears a
red girdle around her waist with a gold buckle and evidence of
other metalwork. Her mantle, which is wrapped around her
body, as are those of the other effigies, now appears brownish on
the outside, although it was probably gold, and greenish on the
inner aspect where it is folded back. It is held in place by a
girdle, also probably gold, across her breast. |
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| She rests her head on a white pillow
semé
with flower heads and painted with a double rectangle which more or less
separates the sharply curved outer aspect from the flatter and
indented inner part;
all originally probably painted in gold. She wears a wimple and
a jewelled crown on her head; this was again probably originally
gold and is now broken. Her white shoes appear just below her
gown. Here the monument varies from the others: in those the draped cloth
at the feet is represented as falling over two short posts of the
underlying bier whereas at the feet of Isabelle, the cloth appears to be
folded in front of these posts to give this part a double
aspect. This probably represents a foot cushion, which is also
shown on the monument of Eleanor in a different fashion but not
on those of Henry or Richard. There appears to have been some carving of the folds on
this outer aspect. See the two photographs below |
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The monuments are now believed to be in
their original positions in the final bay of the
nave. This is based on the somewhat vague
descriptions of contemporary chroniclers [5],
the discoveries of a plan of the abbey from 1762
and of the coffin of Raymond VII in 1910
which may indicate the original burial site. The
church has been extensively excavated in recent
times but no sign of remains, graves or coffins
of the Plantagenets has been found. It is likely
that these were disturbed when a burial vault
for the abbesses was constructed on the order
of Abbess Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon in 1639. |
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Representations |
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The earliest representation
I have seen was that commisioned by the French antiquary, Roger
de Gaignières [6] in the later seventeenth
century. In this drawing [7], where Isabelle is referred to as
Elizabet de la Marche [8], Isabelle lies on a
white cloth, semé with blue flower heads. Her gown is
blue but her belt yellow. There is no underdress but her mantle
is now white semé with red flower heads and has a red
lining. Her pillow is yellow and her shoes dark blue. Her crown
is complete and set with jewels. The double arrangement of the
bier at the feet alluded to above can be seen. Left
The English antiquarian draughtsman,
Charles Stothard, visited Fontevraud in the early nineteenth
century and produced a series of drawings of all the monuments which were published as
etchings [9]. Now the draped cloth is red, the pillow blue, her
gown blue semé with silver half moons, her mantle
yellow (probably representing gold) semé with red and
green flower heads, her belt red with golden metalwork and her
shoes white. Her crown now shows some damage. The
drawing from the side (not shown)
shows that
the
'drapery' from the this aspect of the bier is missing and it appears to have a stone core. In fact both
sides if the monument appear to have been separately carved and
attached, showing that the whole monument was not carved from a
single block of wood. These side pieces are
not drawn on either of the early representation
and joints can be seen today, indicating that
they were probably added or restored during the
last restoration, although it is likely
that they originally existed, as part of the posts
are intact with the main part of the monument. Right |
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The Monuments
Travel [10] |
Isabelle was first buried in either the
nuns' cemetery or the chapter house: both accounts occur
although these may
refer to the same place. Her son, King Henry III , visited
Fontevraud in 1254 and ordered that his mother's remains be moved to
the choir, an act that was carried out with some ceremony, and that
a monument be constructed over her grave.
The monuments have been moved around over the
years and various other movements have been proposed. In 1504 the position
of the effigies was altered, moving them away from the graves,
so that the whole monastic community could be accomodated in the nave. In
1638 the then abbess, Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon, ordered the
construction of a Baroque mausoleum, on the north of the nave
and immediately west of the crossing to house the four effigies.
The effigy of Raymond VII [11] had been destroyed at some point
and new kneeling effigies of Raymond and his mother Joan
(daughter of Henry and Eleanor and who may never have had an
effigy) were added at this time to this totally out of keeping
construction. This was destroyed at theRevolution but a drawing
of it appears in the de Gaignières
collection and there are fragmentary remains - mainly wall
paintings - in the church today. Note the names of those
represented by the effigies, although that of Isabelle is the only one which has
been almost entirely obliterated and may well have read as
Elisabet |
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The abbey was dissolved in 1792, bought by a farmer
in 1796 and turned into a prison by Napoleon in 1804. In 1816, Charles
Stothard, who was travelling in France, found the monuments in a cellar
[12] and proposed they be send to England for safe keeping. Although
this was approved by the French government, there was much local
resistance and the Prefect of Maine-et-Loire ordered the prison
authorities to move them to a 'disused passage' off the cloisters. Two
years later, following a similar request, they were moved to a chapel
south of the transepts. Later they appear to have been moved to the
famous and much photographed Romaneque Kitchen.
In1846 the monuments were taken to Versailles for a
much criticised restoration and this may be the time when they were
finally painted in the state we find them today. They were returned to
the abbey in 1849 and displayed in the cloisters; in this year the abbey was classified as an
ancient monument .
In 1866 the Pall Mall Gazette again proposed
that they be moved to England and displayed in
Westminster Abbey; on this occasion Napoleon III offered them to
Queen Victoria. Today I think we can be thankful that this quite wrong
and historically ignorant - the word 'returned to England' had been used
- proposal was never carried out.
In 1909 the abbey was put under
the protection of the Department of Ancient Monuments and in 1930 the
monuments were displayed in one of the transepts, an arrangement that
often appears in reproduction of photographs even now. The main prison
was closed in 1963 although some of the prisoners remained in another
part of the complex - the Madeleine Dentention Centre - until 1985 to work on clearing and restoration of
the principal site. The restoration continues today. The monuments were
eventually displayed in their present position. In 1975 the Abbey became
the Cultural Centre of the South West.
There was a rumour a few years ago that the British
Government had again requested that the monuments be sent to England;
however this was firmly denied by the Foreign Office. |
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But Is It Isabelle? |
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The three other monuments represent people who died
within a fifteen year period of each other so we may assume that they
were constructed at more or less the same time. Isabelle, however, died
forty-two years after Eleanor, the last of the other three to die. In
fact, G. Zarnecki [13] states that the monument under discussion
cannot that of Isabelle for this very reason. This argument is however
fallacious as there is no reason why an earlier style cannot be copied.
Furthermore if it does not represent Isabelle, then who does it
represent? |
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Why Wood? |
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There appears to be no explanation for this. There
is certainly plenty of tuffeau in the area. Perhaps a stone
carver could not be found, although tuffeau is much easier to
carve than wood. Henry III visited Fontevraud in 1254
and requested that a monument to his mother be made. Perhaps a sufficiently large block of
tuffeau could not be quarried and transported in
time for him to see the finshed result. Perhaps it was a prototype to show to Henry for a stone effigy which was
never realised. |
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Something About
Isabelle |
Isabelle was born about 1188 being daughter and
sole heiress of Count Audemar of Angoulême, a
large French county and part of the 'Angevin Empire',
which King John had inherited from his father and
brother. As a child she was bethrothed to Hugh le Brun
IX, Lord of Lusignan, whose lands again were in this
'empire', but King John married her in August 1200 when
she was but twelve years old. Was this a passion for the
young girl or were there more political reasons: Hugh
had already aquired the large county of Le Marche and
with his marriage to Isabelle he would have aquired
Angoulême also, giving him an area of land as large as
the Duchy of Normandy. Unfortunately, John was no
diplomat and instead of compensating
Hugh in some way, he confiscated the county of Le Marche
which he granted to his new father in law. This lead to
a diplomatic and armed struggle between John and the
Lusignans and led to Hugh appealing to the French King,
Philip Augustus, over the head of John, his immediate
overlord. The final result was the confiscation of the
Duchy of Aquitaine from John and the beginning of the
loss of the Angevin possessions. It has been said that
Isabelle was thus indirectly responsible for the loss of
these lands.
John and Isabelle had five children,
including the future Henry III. She succeeded to
Angoulême on the death of her father in 1202 and
returned to her county following the death of John and
the crowning of her son in
1216. In 1220 she remarried: this time it was to Hugh le Brun
X, lord of Lusignan and Count of Le Marche - the son of
the man to whom she had been betrothed twenty years
earlier. This was also a diplomatic move as it aided the
Angevin interest in this part of France. From this
marriage she was to have nine further children. In fact
her new husband had been promised to Isabelle's own
daughter, Joan, but she was now promised to Alexander II
of Scotland instead. After some diplomatic wrangling,
which even involved their threatened excommunication by
the pope, involving the English Council withholding
Isabelle's pension and dower lands and she and Hugh
withholding Joan and her portion in retaliation, this matter was
eventually resolved.
In 1241 Isabelle joined an English
backed conspiracy with Raymond VII of Toulouse (her
nephew by marriage) to unite the South and West against
Louis IX. There appears to have been some antagonism
between Isabelle and the Queen Dowager of France,
Blanche, because the latter had supported the French
invasion of England against John which had been
instigated by the English barons. It is said that
Isabelle bribed two of the French King's cooks to poison
Louis. In 1244 this plot failed and Isabelle retired to
Fontevraud, where she died in 1246 at the age of about
58.
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John K Bromilow MInstP
Fontevraud L'Abbaye, 2010 |
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| [1] |
There were several others: some lost and some fragmentary
ones still in existance. |
| [2] |
Maine et Loire, Pays de la Loire, France; in Plantagenet
times in the County of Anjou |
| [3] |
Isabelle's monument is 205 X 45 cms whereas that of Eleanor
of Aquitaine is 220 X 60 cms |
| [4] |
This information kindly supplied by Dr Tim Palmer |
| [5] |
For example Roger of Howded states that Henry was buried in
"the nuns' choir" |
| [6] |
See Church Monuments Volume XII for John Coale's
article |
| [7] |
They are all reproduced in
303 La Revue des Pays de la
Loire, XVII 3ᵉ trimestre 1986
as are birds' eye views of all the extant
monuments including that of Raymond VII |
| [8] |
Her second marriage was to the Count of La Marche; she is
also here referred to as the Queen of King John |
| [9] |
Charles A Stothard The Monumental Effigies of Great
Britain (1887) |
| [10] |
This has been cobbled
together from a number of contradictory sources; I will revise
this as I glean further information and post it on the main
site. |
| [11] |
This was discovered in a
fragmentary condition in 1985 |
| [12] |
There are extensive
underground passages in the Abbey |
| [13] |
G. Zarnecki
The Monastic Achievement
(London 1972) |
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