THE MISTRESS OF THE KING: FAIR ROSAMUND

A summer flowering rose, Rosa Mundi is one of my favourite despite its short flowering season and it being very prone to get mildew.

Dating from the 12th century, it is a a gallica rose that is believed to have been named after the mistress of King Henry II, Rosamund Clifford. The daughter of Walter de Clifford, she was educated at the Convent of Benedictine Nuns of Godstow Abbey and is believed to have started her relationship with King Henry when his wife, Queeen Eleanor, was pregnant with their last son in 1166. After their relationship, which the King had tried to keep a secret from his wife, had ended, she went back to Godstow Abbey, where she died around 1176 and was buried there. Folklore says that they would meet in a ladyrinth in the park of Woodstock Park in Oxfordshire and oday there is a paved spring in the park of Blenheim Park in Woodstock that is called Fair Rosamund's Well.

The rose produces wonderful large blooms that have large splashes of pink and white on a crimson background and is a bushy shrub, that grows to about 90cm by 90cm.

The photographs of the roses were taken in our garden.