Cathedrals of Britain by Bernadette Fallon

Author:Bernadette Fallon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Religious
ISBN: 9781526703989
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2018-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

Curious facts: the body in the tomb

But is it the king’s body at all in the tomb? Or did he escape to end his remaining days as a hermit in Italy? In Languedoc in France there is a copy of a letter addressed to King Edward III by Manuele Fieschi, an important papal official. This official says he wants to tell the king that he has met a man claiming to be Edward II, who described the specific details of his escape from Berkeley Castle. According to the letter, Edward was warned he was about to be killed by his guard and so escaped by killing the gate porter and stealing his keys.

He first made his way to Ireland, then France. He was received by the pope, then taking on the guise of a hermit, he went to Germany and ended his days in Italy, where he wrote down his confession for Fieschi. But why should it be given any credibility? Well, the man who wrote the original letter was a respected official in the pope’s employment. But not only that, the original letter was said to carry the king’s royal seal.

But if that’s the case, just who is in the tomb? It definitely contains a body as it was exhumed in the 19th century. The theory goes that the knights sent to kill Edward covered up his escape by putting the body of the gate porter, killed by the king, into his coffin instead. So, for all these centuries have pilgrims to the king’s tomb been paying homage to a porter?

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