Rosamund Clifford

Rosamund Clifford (possibly before 1140Template:SndTemplate:C. 1176), often called "The Fair Rosamund" or "Rose of the World" (Latin: rosa mundi), was a medieval English noblewoman and mistress of Henry II, King of England. She became famous in English folklore.

Life

Early life

File:Clifford Castle ruins.jpg

The ruins of Clifford Castle, where Clifford grew up

Rosamund Clifford was the daughter of Walter de Clifford, a marcher lord, and his wife Margaret de Toeni.<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</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 (Template:Circa), 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 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 nuns in Godstow Abbey for education.<ref name="Bingham">Bingham, Jane. The Cotswolds: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, 2010 Template:ISBN</ref>

Henry II's mistress

Clifford was reputed as one of the greatest beauties of the 12th century.<ref name="bbcoxf">"'Fair Rosamund' well to be restored at Blenheim Palace", BBC News (Oxford), July 20, 2014</ref> Her relationship with Henry II, King of England (1133–1189) supposedly started when his wife, Queen Eleanor (Template:Circa) was pregnant with their last child, John (1166–1216) in 1166, but the king publicly acknowledged the affair for the first time in 1174.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The queen is thought to have given birth to John in 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

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.Template:Citation needed The king and the Clifford family paid for her tomb to be cared for by the Benedictine nuns 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 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 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. Travels in England during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth</ref> Template:Verse translation Followed by a rhyming epitaph: Template:Verse translation Accounts from the time of its destruction report that, along with other engravings, the tomb contained the depiction of a chalice.<ref name=":0" />

In folklore

In English folklore, Rosamund's legend states that the king did everything to hide his affair from his wife, Queen Eleanor. He saw Rosamund only in the middle of a complicated underground labyrinth in the park of Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire. Following rumours, the queen made her way through the labyrinth and confronted her rival, forcing her to choose between a dagger and a bowl of poison; Rosamund chose the poison and died.<ref name="Matthews">Matthews, W.H., Mazes and Labyrinths, Chap. XIX, Longmans Green and Co., London, 1922</ref><ref>Gardner, Martin More Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions p. 88, Penguin Books (1966)</ref> Contemporary chronicler John Brompton did not recount this incident in his account of the events,<ref name="Matthews"/> and it first appeared in the 14th-century French Chronicle of London.

Another version tells that Rosamund was roasted between two fires, stabbed, and left to bleed to death in a bath of scalding water by the queen.<ref name="Gambles">Gambles, Robert. Great Tales from British, Amberley Publishing Limited, 2013, Template:ISBN p. 61</ref> During the Elizabethan era, such stories gained popularity, leading to the writing of the Ballad of Fair Rosamund by Thomas Deloney (1612) and the Complaint of Rosamund by Samuel Daniel (1592), both being purely fictional. The underground labyrinth was added to the tale in 1516 (although Robert Gambles cites a 1231 reference to "Rosamund's chamber", with gardens, a cloister and a well),<ref name="Gambles"/> drawing on the story of Estrildis, mistress of king Locrinus, who had underground apartments built to hide her from his wife.<ref name="Worrall 1977">Template:Cite journal</ref> The cup of poison first appears in a ballad in 1611.<ref name="Gambles"/>

According to most medieval chroniclers, Queen Eleanor had been imprisoned by 1173 for raising her sons to be rebellious against their father, making a direct confrontation between the two women highly improbable.<ref name="Gambles"/>

Possible issue

Historians are divided whether Clifford's relationship with Henry II produced children. Legends have attributed to her two of the king's illegitimate sons, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York (Template:Circa) and William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (c. 1176 – 1226).<ref name="Matthews"/> However, Geoffrey was born before the king and Clifford even met from an otherwise unknown woman (possibly called Ykenai or Hikenai), and William was the son of Ida de Tosny, Countess of Norfolk (died after 1181).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Fair Rosamund's Well, Blenheim - geograph.org.uk - 1015851.jpg

Fair Rosamund's Well in the park of Blenheim Palace

Fair Rosamund's Well and Rosamund's Green

According to local tales, "Rosamund's bower" (probably an early version of the labyrinth) was demolished when Blenheim Palace was built.<ref name="bbcoxf"/> Today, Fair Rosamund's Well (Template:Coord) is a paved spring in the park of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. It is located to the south of the Grand Bridge on the western shore of The Lake, sometimes called Brown's Lake after 18th-century landscape architect Capability Brown. According to a 2014 BBC article, "[T]he well had become 'somewhat overgrown and at risk of becoming damaged'".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Rose- Rosa Mundi.JPG

Rosa mundi rose

Rosamund is also associated with the village of Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire, another of her father's holdings. Walter de Clifford granted the mill there to Godstow Abbey for the good of the souls of his wife and daughter. The village green of Frampton became known as Rosamund's Green by the 17th century.<ref>Victoria County History of Gloucestershire: Frampton on Severn</ref>

Rosa mundi rose

A cultivated variation of Rosa gallica with striped pink blooms is commonly known as rosa mundi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Its connection to Rosamund Clifford dates to the 16th century.Template:Citation needed

In fiction

File:A Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond, Concubine to Henry II, circa 1825.png

"A Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond, Concubine to Henry II" (Template:C. 1825)

File:John William Waterhouse - Fair Rosamund.jpg

Fair Rosamund by John William Waterhouse (1917)

In literature

• The Complaint of Rosamund, a 1592 poem by Samuel Daniel;
• Rosamond, an 1860 verse play by Algernon Swinburne
• The Saint (German: Der Heilige), an 1879 novel by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer;
• Rosemonde, a 1913 poem by Guillaume Apollinaire<ref>Apollinaire, Guillaume (1913); Rees, Garnet (ed.) (1975) Alcools London, Athlone Press.</ref>
• Eleanor the Queen is a 1955 novel by Norah Lofts
• Penmarric, a 1971 family saga by Susan Howatch (as Rose Parrish);
• The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a 1987 novel by Jean Plaidy;
• The Falcon and the Flower, a 1988 romance novel by Virginia Henley;
• Wings of the Storm, a 1992 novel by Suzan Sizemore;
• Always, a 2000 novel by Lynsay Sands (mentioned);
• The Book of Eleanor, A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a 2002 novel by Pamela Kaufman;
• Time and Chance (2002) and Devil's Brood (2008), two novels by Sharon Kay Penman;
• Death at Blenheim Palace, a 2006 novel by Robin Paige;
• The Death Maze (in the U.S.: The Serpent's Tale), a 2008 novel by Ariana Franklin;
• The Time of Singing, a 2008 novel by Elizabeth Chadwick (mentioned);
• The Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a novel by 2010 by Alison Weir;
• The Winter Crown, a 2014 novel by Elizabeth Chadwick;
• La Révolte (The Revolt), a 2018 French novel by Clara Dupont-Monod
• Nest of the Gyrfalcon, a 2024 novel by G. Lawrence
• Eaglets, a 2024 novel by G. Lawrence

In cinema

• The Lion in Winter is a 1968 adaptation of the play of the same name (alluded to).

In theatre

• Henry II is a 1692 play by William Mountfort;
• The Lion in Winter is a 1966 play by James Goldman (alluded to).

In opera

• Rosamond, a 1707 opera by Thomas Clayton to a libretto by Joseph Addison;
• Rosamond, a 1733 opera by Thomas Arne to Joseph Addison’s libretto;
• Rosamund, a 1780 German Singspiel by Anton Schweitzer to a libretto by Christoph Martin Wieland;
• Rosmonda d'Inghilterra ("Rosamund of England") is an 1834 Italian opera by Gaetano Donizetti;
• Fair Rosamond is an 1837 opera by John Barnett

Sources

• Biography from Who's Who in British History (1998), H. W. Wilson Company. Who's Who in British History, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.
• W. L. Warren, Henry II, 1973.