The Tomb Monument of Katherine, Daughter of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence (1253–7)

Abstract

An English princess of the mid-thirteenth century, dead by the age of three and a half, Katherine occupies only a footnote in the history of England. Yet the costly tomb monument at Westminster Abbey provided by her grieving father, Henryiii, was probably the earliest recorded memorial to a child known to have been set up in England. It may also have been part of Henry's response to the commemoration programme that his brother-in-law, Louisixof France, had instigated. Nothing now apparently remains of Katherine's tomb to remind posterity of her brief existence, but its commissioning marked a step up in Henry's growing ambition to be seen as an innovator at the forefront of the artistic developments of his age, and the story surrounding its provision affords insights into the role of display and material culture in Henrician politics.