Rosamund Clifford
Rosamund Clifford (before 1150 – c. 1176), often called "The Fair Rosamund" or the "Rose of the World" ("rosa mundi"), was famed for her beauty and was a mistress of King Henry II of England, famous in English folklore. Life. Rosamund is believed to have been the daughter of the marcher lord Walter de Clifford and his wife Margaret. Walter was originally known as Gautier fitz Richard (i.e., son of Richard), but his name was gradually changed to that of his major holding, first as steward, then as lord. This was Clifford Castle on the River Wye in Herefordshire . Rosamund had two sisters, Amice and Lucy. Amice married Osbern fitz Hugh of Richard's Castle, Herefordshire, and Lucy, Hugh de Say of Stokesay, Shropshire. She also had three brothers, Walter de Clifford (died 1221), Richard and Gilbert. Her name Rosamund is most likely to have been influenced by the Latin phrase "rosa mundi", which means "rose of the world." Rosamund grew up at Castle Clifford, before going to Godstow Nunnery, near Oxford, to be educated by the nuns. Henry publicly acknowledged the liaison with Rosamund in 1174. When the affair ended, Rosamund retired to Godstow Abbey, where she died , not thirty years old, in 1176. According to Mike Ibeji, "there is … no doubt that the great love of his [Henry's] life was Rosamund Clifford." Legend. The traditional story recounts that King Henry adopted her as his mistress. To conceal his illicit amours from his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, he conducted them within the innermost recesses of a complicated maze which he caused to be made in his park at Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Rumours were heard by Queen Eleanor, and she contrived to penetrate the labyrinth, confronted her rival, and forced her to choose between the dagger and the bowl  of poison; Rosamund chose the latter and died. The poisoning incident is not mentioned in an account given by a chronicler of that time, John Brompton, Abbot of Jervaulx, and does not appear before the 14th century. The story was handed down for generations and gradually embroidered with various additional details, more or less scandalous, gathered around the central tale that Rosamund presented Henry with the son who was afterwards known as William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury. However, his mother was Ida de Tosny, Countess of Norfolk. Rosamund Clifford was reputedly one of the great beauties of the 12th century  and inspired ballads, poems, stories and paintings. Fair Rosamund's Well () is reputed to be a paved spring in the grounds of Blenheim Palace in the village of Woodstock North of Oxford. The well is located to the south of the Grand Bridge, on the western shore of The Lake, sometimes called Brown's Lake, after Capability Brown. According to a 2014 BBC article, 'A palace spokeswoman said the well had become "somewhat overgrown and at risk of becoming damaged".' Possible children. Historians are divided over whether or not Rosamund's relationship with the king produced children. Legend has falsely  attributed to Rosamund another of Henry's illegitimate sons: Geoffrey Plantagenet, Archbishop of York (1151–1212). Her maternity in this case was only claimed centuries later. Geoffrey was apparently born before Henry and Rosamund met and is presumed to be the son of another, otherwise unknown, mistress, possibly named Ykenai or Hikenai. Other stories. Rosamund's story first appears in 14th century "French Chronicle of London", which purports to recount the confrontation with Queen Eleanor. In one version, Rosamund improbably is described as having been roasted between two fires, stabbed, and left to bleed to death in a bath of scalding  water by the queen. During the Elizabethan era, stories claiming that she had been murdered by Eleanor of Aquitaine gained popularity; but the "Ballad of Fair Rosamund" by Thomas Deloney (1612) and the "Complaint of Rosamund" by Samuel Daniel (1592) are both purely fictional. Most medieval chroniclers acknowledged that, by 1173, Eleanor was held in close confinement, having raised her sons in rebellion against their father. The underground labyrinth was added to the tale in 1516. However, Robert Gambles cites a 1231 reference to Rosamund's Chamber, with gardens, a cloister, and a well. According to local tales, Rosamund's  Bower is said to have been pulled down when Blenheim Palace was built. A pool on the grounds of Blenheim Palace is known as Fair Rosamund's Well. The cup of poison first appears in a ballad of 1611. Accounts made around the time of the dissolution report that, with other engravings, Rosamund's tomb in the chapter house contained the depiction of a chalice. She is thought to have entered Henry's life around the time that Eleanor was pregnant with her final child, John, who was born on 24 December 1166 at Oxford. Indeed, Eleanor is known to  have given birth to John at Beaumont Palace rather than at Woodstock because, it is speculated, Eleanor found Rosamund there at Woodstock. Authorities differ over whether Rosamund stayed quietly in seclusion at Woodstock while Henry went back and forth between England and his continental possessions, or whether she travelled with him as a member of his household. If the former, the two of them could not have spent more than about a quarter of the time between 1166 and 1176 together; as historian Marion Meade puts it, "For all her subsequent fame, Rosamund must be one of the most neglected  concubines in history." Rosamund also was associated with the village of Frampton on Severn in Gloucestershire, another of her father Walter's holdings. Walter granted the mill at Frampton to Godstow Abbey for the good of the souls of Rosamund and his wife Margaret. The village green at Frampton became known as Rosamund's Green by the 17th century. A cultivar "Rosa gallica" var. "officinalis" 'Versicolor', with striped pink blooms, is commonly known as "Rosa mundi". Its connection to Rosamund Clifford dates to the 16th century. Death and aftermath. Her death was remembered at Hereford Cathedral on 6 July, the  same day as that of the king 13 years later. Henry and the Clifford family paid for her tomb at Godstow in the choir of the monastery church and for an endowment that would ensure care of the tomb by the nuns. It became a popular local shrine until 1191, two years after Henry's death. Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop of Lincoln, while visiting Godstow, noticed Rosamund's tomb laden with flowers and candles. The bishop ordered her remains removed from the church: instead, she was to be buried outside "with the rest, that the Christian religion may not grow  into contempt, and that other women, warned by her example, may abstain from illicit and adulterous intercourse." Her tomb was moved to the cemetery by the nuns' chapter house, where it could be visited until it was destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII of England. The remains of Godstow Priory still stand and are open to the public. Paul Hentzner, a German traveller who visited England c. 1599, records that her faded tombstone inscription read in part: "...Adorent, utque tibi detur requies Rosamunda precamur." ("Let them adore...and we pray that rest be given to you , Rosamund.") Followed by a rhyming epitaph: "Hic jacet in tumba Rosamundi non Rosamunda, non redolet sed olet, quae redolere solet." ("Here in the tomb lies the rose of the world, not a pure rose; she who used to smell sweet, still smells—but not sweet.")