Editing Eleanor cross (section)

===Hardingstone, Northampton===
{{Redirect|William of Ireland|the king of Ireland from 1689 to 1702|William III of England}}
[[File:QueenEleanorCross.JPG|thumb|upright|The Hardingstone cross]]
<small>({{Coord|52|13|02|N|00|53|50|W|region:GB}})</small><br/>
Eleanor's bier spent the night of 8 December 1290, and perhaps also that of 7 December, at [[Hardingstone]], on the outskirts of [[Northampton]].<ref name="pow194"/><ref name="cock345"/> The [[Eleanor Cross, Hardingstone|cross]] here was constructed between 1291 and 1292 by John of Battle, at a total recorded cost of over £100.<ref name="colv483"/> William of Ireland and Ralph of Chichester carved the statues.<ref>Galloway 1914, pp. 72–73.</ref><ref name="pow124_6">Powrie 1990, pp. 124–26.</ref> A causeway leading from the town to the cross was constructed by Robert son of Henry.<ref name="hun183">Hunter 1842, p. 183.</ref> The cross is still standing, close to [[Delapré Abbey]], on the side of the [[A508 road|A508]] leading out of Northampton, and just north of the junction with the [[A45 road|A45]]. The King stayed nearby at [[Northampton Castle]].

The monument is octagonal in shape and set on steps; the present steps are replacements. It is built in three tiers, and originally had a crowning terminal, presumably a cross.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Nikolaus |last1=Pevsner |author1-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |first2=Bridget |last2=Cherry |author2-link=Bridget Cherry |title=Northamptonshire |series=[[Pevsner Architectural Guides|Buildings of England]] |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth |edition=2nd |isbn=0-300-09632-1 |pages=353–54 }}</ref> The terminal appears to have gone by 1460: there is mention of a "headless cross" at the site from which [[Thomas Bourchier (bishop)|Thomas Bourchier]], Archbishop of Canterbury, watched [[Margaret of Anjou]]'s flight following the [[Battle of Northampton (1460)|Battle of Northampton]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=William |editor-last=Page |editor-link=William Page (historian) |chapter=The Borough of Northampton |title=A History of the County of Northampton |location=London |year=1930 |volume=3 |page=3 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol3/pp1-26 }}</ref> The monument was restored in 1713, to mark the [[Peace of Utrecht]] and the end of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], and this work included the fitting of a new terminal in the form of a [[Maltese cross]].<ref>Lovell 1892, pp. 27–28.</ref><ref>Warrington 2018, pp. 110–12.</ref> Further repairs were undertaken in 1762.<ref>Galloway 1914, p. 72.</ref> At a later restoration in 1840, under the direction of [[Edward Blore]], the Maltese cross was replaced by the picturesque broken shaft which is seen today.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Salzman |editor-first1=L. F. |editor-link=Louis Francis Salzman |chapter=Hardingstone |title=A History of the County of Northampton |location=London |year=1937 |volume=4 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol4/pp252-259 |page=253 }}</ref> Later, less intrusive restorations were undertaken in 1877 and 1986.<ref name="pow124_6"/><ref>{{NHLE |num=1039797 |desc=The Eleanor Cross |grade=I |access-date=11 June 2019 }}</ref> Further restoration work was completed in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-50438581|title=Eleanor Cross: Conservation of Northampton monument complete|date=15 November 2019|website=BBC News|access-date=16 November 2019}}</ref>

The bottom tier of the monument has carvings of open books. These probably included painted inscriptions of Eleanor's biography and of prayers for her soul to be said by viewers, now lost.

[[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]], in the early 1540s, recorded it as "a right goodly crosse, caullid, as I remembre, the Quenes Crosse", although he seems to have associated it with the 1460 Battle of Northampton.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Toulmin Smith |editor-first=Lucy |title=The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543 |location=London |publisher=George Bell and Sons |year=1907 |volume=1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/itineraryjohnle02lelagoog/page/n64 8] |url=https://archive.org/details/itineraryjohnle02lelagoog }}</ref> It is also referred to by [[Daniel Defoe]] in his ''[[A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain|Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain]]'', in reporting the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675: "... a townsman being at Queen's Cross upon a hill on the south side of the town, about two miles ({{convert|2|mi|abbr=out|disp=output only}}) off, saw the fire at one end of the town then newly begun, and that before he could get to the town it was burning at the remotest end, opposite where he first saw it."

[[Celia Fiennes]] in 1697 describes it as "a Cross, a mile off the town call'd High-Cross – it stands just in the middle of England – its all stone 12 stepps which runs round it, above that is the stone carv'd finely and there are 4 large Nitches about the middle, in each is the statue of some queen at length which encompasses it with other carvings as garnish, and so it rises less and less to the top like a tower or Piramidy."<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Christopher |editor-last=Morris |editor-link=Christopher Morris (historian) |title=The Journeys of Celia Fiennes |location=London |publisher=Cresset Press |edition=2nd |year=1949 |pages=118–19 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Celia |last=Fiennes |author-link=Celia Fiennes |title=1697 Tour: Coventry to London |work=A Vision of Britain through Time |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Fiennes/16 |access-date=6 June 2019 }}</ref>

An engraving of the Hardingstone cross (drawn by [[Jacob Schnebbelie]] and engraved by [[James Basire]]) was published by the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]] in its ''[[Vetusta Monumenta]]'' series in 1791.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vetusta Monumenta |volume=3 |page=12 |year=1791 |url=https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A3690#page/92/mode/2up }}</ref><ref name="A&B362"/>