top of page

Marlborough Road
Methodist Church

69 Marlborough Rd, St Albans, AL1 3XG

​

Performance in the Church
 

Monday 4th December 2017
7.30pm

Be transported back to medieval world of Queen Eleanor and Edward 1st and the court of King Arthur as we weave together the real history of Queen Eleanor, and a legend of Camelot. In 1290 Eleanor died near Lincoln, and her body was taken back to Westminster in a splendid cortège, a heartbroken Edward following behind his Queen, accompanied by hundreds of members of the royal household. The Cortège passed through the lands she owned allowing her tenants and stewards to pay their respects. The entire Abbey of St Albans, dressed in their finest vestments, went to the edge of town to meet Eleanor’s bier and escort it to the Abbey on Tuesday December 12th 1290. Here it was laid to rest in front of the high alter of the monastery while and a service and night-long vigil took place. In the years following her death Edward ordered the best craftsmen in the land to build 12 stone crosses in the places Eleanor’s body had rested overnight stretching from Lincoln to Westminster.

 

St Albans founded a yearly service in 1294 to Eleanor and the cross was erected in the Market Place costing £100. It stood for many years in the High Street, and was demolished in the early eighteenth century due to neglect, and replaced by the town pump. A fountain was erected in its stead in 1874, which has now been relocated to Victoria Place. ​ ​Through the ancient art of storytelling you will enter Edward and Eleanor’s world, seeing the contradictory and glorious powerhouse she was: property magnate, mother, lover, bookworm, huntress, crusader and chess champion. This dramatic, tender and captivating performance is touring the monument locations – come and be part of the story!

bottom of page