Archbishop Stratford (1333-48) lies to the west of the above, a monument sadly defaced. It was he who rendered weighty service to Edward III., when the monarch looked upon him with unfavourable eye, considering that it was his advice that had caused his, the King’s, troubles. The archbishop fled from London, seeking refuge at Canterbury. He preached a pathetic sermon to the multitudinous congregation that had flocked into the Cathedral, concluding by excommunicating the King’s evil advisers. When the last words were spoken, the torches that struggled with the gloom were put out; the bell was tolled; the people scattered in confusion. So great was the power and awe of holy church in those days that this proceeding of the archbishop’s proved powerfully effective and the King’s hand was stayed.
Then there is the tomb of Cardinal Kemp, archbishop from 1452-54, with a curious wooden canopy. He was at Agincourt with Henry V.
On the north side, noticeable is the monument to Archbishop Chichele, founder of the colleges of St John and of All Souls, Oxford, by the fellows of which latter college his tomb is kept in repair. The effigy of the living man is gruesomely put in conjunction with a grisly skeleton in a winding sheet; to the mediæval mind death was almost disgustingly horrible. It was he who aided and abetted Henry V. in his preposterous claim upon the throne of France, which prosaic plea has been turned into poetry by Shakespeare in Scene 2 Act I. of _The Life of King Henry the Fifth_.
Then of much more recent date, William Howley (1828-48), who so bitterly opposed the Roman Catholic Relief Bill and the Reform Bill, which brought him disfavour with the good citizens of Canterbury. He crowned Queen Victoria, and performed the marriage ceremony of the Prince Consort.
Archbishop Bourchier (1454-86) also lies here; who was visited by the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Peter II., with his camels and his dromedaries, and who left to the church “one image of the Holy Trinity of pure gold, with the diadem, and xj balassers, x saphires, and xliiij gems called perlys.”
Then proceeding toward the east we enter the Trinity Chapel, standing upon the same site as the old chapel of the same name.