buried in the Blackfriars priory on 19 December. The Cheapside cross was built from 1291 onwards by Michael of Canterbury at a total recorded cost of £226 13s. 4d. Under a licence granted by Henry VI in 1441, the cross was extensively restored or rebuilt in 1484–86. It was subsequently regilded several times in the 16th century on the occasion of coronations and royal visits to the City. John Stow included a detailed account of the cross and its history in his Survay of London of 1598, updating it in 1603. Although a number of images of the cross and its eventual destruction are known, these all postdate its various refurbishments, and so provide no certain guide to its original appearance. However, the chronicler Walter of Guisborough refers to this and Charing Cross as being fashioned of "marble"; and it is likely that it was similar to the Hardingstone and Waltham Crosses, but even more ornate and boasting some Purbeck marble facings. The cross came to be regarded as something of a public hazard, both as a traffic obstruction and because of concerns about fragments of stone falling off; while in the post-Reformation period some of its Catholic imagery aroused resentment, and elements were defaced in 1581, 1599 and 1600–01. Matters came to a head during the years leading up to the Civil War. To puritanical reformers, it was identified with Dagon, the ancient god of the Philistines, and was seen as the embodiment of royal and Catholic tradition. At least one riot was fought in its shadow, as opponents of the cross descended upon it to pull it down, and supporters rallied to stop them. After Charles I had fled London to raise an army, the destruction of the cross was almost the first order of business for the Parliamentary Committee for the Demolition of Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry, led by Sir Robert Harley, and it was demolished on 2 May 1643. The downfall of the Cheapside Cross is an important episode of iconoclasm in English history. Two Purbeck marble fragments of the original cross, displaying shields bearing the royal arms of England and of Castile and León, were recovered in 1838 during reconstruction of the sewer in Cheapside. They are now held by the Museum of London. Charing (now Charing Cross) () Eleanor's bier spent the final night of its journey, 16 December 1290, in the Royal