Church in May 1060. William the Conqueror disputed Harold's claim to the
throne and landed in England at Pevensey in 1066. At Waltham Abbey,
troubled and anxious, Harold prayed for victory in England's name before
the fatal battle of Hastings, where he was slain. William at first
refused to give up Harold's body to his mother, Gytha, but he afterwards
allowed two monks from Waltham to search for the body of the king. They
were unable to find it amongst the nameless dead, but his favourite,
Edith the swan-necked, whose eye of affection was not to be deceived,
discovered it. His weeping mother buried the disfigured corpse probably
about 120 feet from the east end of the old church.

At Waltham is one of the many crosses erected by Edward I. in memory of
his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, wherever her body rested on its way
to Westminster from Lincoln. At Northampton is another of these famous
crosses. When the king asked the Abbot of Cluny to intercede for her
soul, he said, "We loved her tenderly in her lifetime; we do not cease
to love her in death."

A little way to the left of Waltham Cross, now a gateway to the park of
Theobalds, stands Temple Bar, stone for stone intact as it was in the
days when traitors' heads were raised above it in Fleet Street, although
the original wooden gates have gone. A portion of the richly-carved top
of the gate is still in existence in London. Waltham Abbey is probably
close to that part of the river Lea where King Alfred defeated the
Danes. They had penetrated far up the river when King Alfred diverted
the waters of the river from underneath their black vessels and left
them high and dry in a wilderness of marsh and forest. The gentle
Charles Lamb was very fond of the country all round Waltham Abbey,
especially Broxbourne and Amwell.