Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-07-19
The BuriaIs Of the Norman
Kings,

The BuriaIS Of the Norman
Kings.
The first beginning Of the royal burials
at Westminster is uncertain. Sebert
and Ethelgoda were believed to lie by
the entrance OF the Chapter House. A
faint tradition speaks of the interment of
Harold HsrefOot in Westminster. But
his body was dug up by Hardicanute, de-
cspitsted, and sfterwsrd cast into the
adjacent marsh or into the Thames, and
then buried by the Danes in their grave
yard, where now stands the Church of
st. Clement Danes. IL was the grave of
Edward the COnfessor which eventually
drew the other royal sepulchres around
it. Such 3 result of the burial OF royal
saint or hero has been almost universal.
But though his characters enumerate the
royal sepultures as among the privileges ,
of Westminster, the custom grew but
slowly. In the first instance it may .
have indicated no more than his personal .
desire to be inferred in the edifice whose
building he had watched with so much
anxious care; and his Norman successors
were buried Gn the same principle, each
in his own favorite sanctuary, unless some
special cause iRtervened. The Con-
querOr was buried at Csen, in the abbey
which he had dedicated to st. Stephen /;
William Rufus at Winchester, from his
sudden death in the ueighboring forest
Henry 1. at Reading, in the abbey
founded out of his iather's treasure for
his fathers soul; Stephen in his abbey
at Fsversham; ; Henry II. in the great
Argevin Abbey at Fontevrsult, the
foundation of Robert Arbrissel by the
"fountain of the robber Evrard." His
eldest son Henry was buried at Rouen.
[ To haF nil
hearty and cordial to him, was laid the
"lsrge lion heart" OF Richard, while
his bowels, as his least IGNORED parts,
/ lay among the POitevlus, whom ne least
| hOnored, at ChaluZ, whera he was killed.
| But his body rested at FOntevrault, at
his fathers leet, ia token of sorrow for
his untilial conduct, to be, as it were, his
| fathers fOOtstoOl, in the robes which he
had worn at his second coronation at
| Winchester. Johns wife, Isabella, was
/ Inferred at FOntevrsult, and his own
heart was placed there in q golden cup;
but he himself was laid at Worcester for
a singular characteristic reason. With
that union of superstition and profane-
ness so common in the religious belief Of
/ the middle ages, he was anxious to elude
/ after death the demons whom he had so
/ faithfully served in life. For this pur-
pose he not only gave orders to
/ disguise his body in 8 monks
cOwl, but to bury it between two
saints. The royal cathedral of WOrces-
/ ter, which john had especially favored
| in life, possessed two Saxon saints, in
/ close juxtapOsitiOn aud between these
| two, WulfstaR and Oswald, the wicked
/ King wss laid. Bot meanwhile an ire
sistiDle instinct had been drawing the
| Norman Princes toward the race of their
English subjects, and theref re towards
| the dust # the Saxon King. Along
/ with the annual cOmmemOrstiOn OF
| those slain ct the bSttle Of Hastings,
were celebrated ia the abbey the ami
versaries OF Emma, the Confessor's
mother and OF Ethelred, his father.
| Edith, his wife "Of venerable memory -
| lay beside him. And now 20 Join them
came the /" good Queen Maud" !" daughter
to Malcolm Canm9re aRd Margaret, aud
/ thus niece of Edgar and granddaughter
Of Edward Atheling, who had revived
in the heart of Henry L feeling toward
| her Auglc-SBXOn kiusfOlk such as no
other of the Conqueror's family had
known. The Importance of the mar
risge is indicated by the mass OF elabo-
rate seruples that had 10 be set aside to
accomplish it. She, vailed nun, had
become wife for this great object. 1t was
] suHIDSEu ~ bt y lGflAAnElL OF Tue OON-
fessOr's last prophetic Apologize, in
! which he described the return of the sew
cred branch TO the parent tree. His own
sepul hral abbey at Reading was built by
him chic fly to expIste his fathers sins
against the English. His royal chapel
at Windsor bSre the name of the Con-
fessor, till it was dedicated by Edward
III. to St George. He and she received
rom the NOrmaDs the derisive epithets
of " Goodrie" and "G0diva.D Her own
name was Edith, after her great aunt,
the Confessor's wife. In Difference to
Norman prejudices she changed it TO
Matilda" But she devoted herself
with undisguised aTdOr to the Abbey
where her kinsman Edward and her
namesake Edith lay buried. Often she
came there in .hsiTeloth and barefooted,
to pay her devotions. She increased its
relics by the gift of large part of the
hair of Mary Magdaiene. The honor OF
her sepulture was claimed by the old
Anglo-SsXOn sanctuary at Winchester,
by the Abbey Of Reading, and by the
Cathedral of st. Paul's But there is no
reason to doubt the tradition that she
lies on the south side OF the C0ufessOr's
shrine, and is thus the first royal per-
sonsge so inferred since the troubles Of
the cor rquest.-Dean SANKEY'S Memoir.
dLssof Westminster Abbey.
The New Luiher Monument at WORMS
The German papers designate the new
Luther monument at Worms, as the
most extensive work of plastic art Ia
Germany. The monument stands upon
a square platform Of granite, surrounded
on all sides by two steps. The sides Of
this platform measure forty feet. On
each of its four corners is q pedestal,
eight feet high, of polished syenite, with
the four mightiest champions OF the
Reformation in brOnzs-Frederic, the
Eleetor Of SsxoDy Philip, Lsndgrave OF
8 Hessia; AIelaBcthOn and Rsuchlin.
They are eight feet and half in hight.
: The front OF the square is left open,
forming thirty feet wide entrance to
the principal monument between the
ElectOr and LandgTsve. The three other
sides are closed by battlements, four or
i've feet high, of the same polished rock.
In the middle Of each of these battle
ments, and on an elevation of seven feet
are three silegoTic sitting figures, repre-
senting the cities Of Augsburg, Magde-
burg aud Spire, and on each Of the
twenty-fOur pinDaeles are the insignia of
| tho nriunipal Croru7nn cities that fOIIyhf I