Editing Rosamund Clifford (section)

==Life==

=== Early life ===
[[File:Clifford Castle ruins.jpg|left|thumb|The ruins of [[Clifford Castle]], where Clifford grew up]]
Rosamund Clifford was the daughter of [[Walter de Clifford (died 1190)|Walter de Clifford]], a [[marcher lord]], and his wife Margaret de Toeni.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last1=Archer |first1=T. A. |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5661 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |last2=Hallam |first2=Elizabeth |date=2004 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |pages=ref:odnb/5661 |chapter=Clifford, Rosamund [called Fair Rosamund] |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/5661 |access-date=2023-03-23 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> Her date of birth is uncertain. Some sources place it in 1140 or possibly even earlier, possibly due to the traditional identification of Rosamund as the mother of at least one of Henry II's illegitimate children (William the Longespee and Geoffrey, the archbishop of York) - indicating that she had already become Henry II's mistress by the early 1150s. On the other hand, [[Gerald of Wales]] describes her as a ''puella'' (a girl or a young woman) at the time of her death in 1176.<ref>De Principis Instructione, Distinctio 3, Chapter 2</ref> She was certainly of age by 1166. Rosamund had three brothers, [[Walter de Clifford (died 1221)|Walter]] ({{circa|1160{{snd}}1221}}), Richard and Gilbert, and two sisters: Amice, and Lucy.

Her name likely came from the [[Latin]] phrase ''rosa mundi'', meaning "rose of the world."<ref>Anthony à Wood ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=L0IPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA341 The life and times of Anthony Wood: antiquary, of Oxford, 1632–1695, described by himself]''. Printed for the Oxford historical society, at the Clarendon press, 1891. Page 341.</ref> Clifford was first raised at her father's Clifford Castle, then sent to a [[convent]] of [[Benedictine]] [[nun]]s in [[Godstow Abbey]] for education.<ref name="Bingham">[https://books.google.com/books?id=AiSkGUrSrEMC&dq=rosamund+clifford&pg=PA66 Bingham, Jane. ''The Cotswolds: A Cultural History'', Oxford University Press, 2010] {{ISBN|9780195398755}}</ref>

=== Henry II's mistress ===
Clifford was reputed as one of the greatest beauties of the 12th century.<ref name="bbcoxf">[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-28426782 "'Fair Rosamund' well to be restored at Blenheim Palace", BBC News (Oxford), July 20, 2014]</ref> Her relationship with [[Henry II of England|Henry II]], King of England (1133–1189) supposedly started when his wife, [[Eleanor of Aquitaine|Queen Eleanor]] ({{circa|1122{{snd}}1204}}) was pregnant with their last child, [[John, King of England|John]] (1166–1216) in 1166, but the king publicly acknowledged the [[affair]] for the first time in 1174.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Weir |first=Alison |title=Eleanor of Aquitaine, by the wrath of God, Queen of England |date=1999 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=978-0-224-04424-0 |location=London}}</ref> The queen is thought to have given birth to John in [[Beaumont Palace|Beaumount Palace]] instead of [[Woodstock Palace]] because Clifford lived at Woodstock. Alison Weir in her biography of Eleanor, thinks this unlikely and dismisses it as "another example of the unsupported fictions that have attached themselves to Rosamund's name".<ref name=":0" /> Accounts differ on whether Clifford stayed in Woodstock while the king was travelling between England and his continental lands or accompanied him. If she did not go with him, they could not have spent more than about a quarter of the time between 1166 and 1176 together.<ref name=":0" />

=== Later life and death ===
[[File:Godstow Abbey ruins - geograph.org.uk - 1779065.jpg|thumb|The ruins of Godstow Abbey]]
When her relationship with the king ended, Rosamund retired to [[Godstow Abbey]].<ref name=":0" /> She died there around 1176, before the age of 40, and she was buried there.<ref name=":0" /> Her death was commemorated at [[Hereford Cathedral]] on 6 July, the same day on which Henry II died, 13 years after her.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} The king and the Clifford family paid for her tomb to be cared for by the [[Benedictine]] [[nun]]s of the [[convent]].<ref name=":0" /> Her resting place became a popular [[shrine]] among locals, which was noticed by [[Hugh of Lincoln]], the [[Bishop of Lincoln]] in 1191. Seeing the flowers and candles that covered the tomb, he ordered her remains to be moved and buried outside, "with the rest, that the [[Christianity|Christian]] religion may not grow into contempt, and that other women, warned by her example, may abstain from illicit and adulterous intercourse".<ref name=":0" /> Complying with the bishop's request, Clifford's body was moved to the cemetery by the nuns' [[chapter house]] and was destroyed during the [[dissolution of the monasteries]] (1536–1541) under [[Henry VIII]].<ref>Cole, William. ''The Unfortunate Royal Mistresses, Rosamond Clifford, and Jane Shore, Concubines to King Henry the Second, and Edward the Fourth'', London, 1825 [https://books.google.com/books?id=bqZWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA8 p. 8]</ref> The ruins of the abbey still stand and are open to the public.

[[Paul Hentzner]], a German traveller who visited England around 1599, recorded that her faded tombstone inscription read in part:<ref>Hentzner, Paul. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080821150435/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hentzner/paul/travels/chapter1.html ''Travels in England during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth'']</ref>
{{Verse translation|lang=la
|... Adorent,
Utque tibi detur requies Rosamunda precamur.
|lang2=en
|Let them adore,
And we pray that rest be given to you, Rosamund.}}
Followed by a [[rhyming]] [[epitaph]]:
{{Verse translation|lang=la
|Hic jacet in tumba Rosamundi non Rosamunda,
:Non redolet sed olet, quae redolere solet.
|lang2=en
|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.
|attr1=Quoted by Hentzner, ''Travels in England''}}
Accounts from the time of its destruction report that, along with other engravings, the tomb contained the depiction of a [[chalice]].<ref name=":0" />