The namesake of the official journal of the Heritage Rose Foundation, Rosa Mundi is a lovely pink and white candy-striped gallica rose.
It is believed to be named was named after Rosamund Clifford (1150-1176), the longtime mistress of King Henry II. It is documented, that Rosamund, often referred to as “Rosamund the Fair, ” shared a loving relationship with the king from 1166-1176. King Henry and Rosamund’s family buried her at the Godstow Nunnery near Oxford with an endowment so that the nuns could place Rosa Mundi flowers at the tomb on the anniversary of her death.
Two years after the king’s death, a visiting bishop noticed her flower and candle-bedecked tomb directly in front of the high altar where the locals continued to worship. Horrified, he declared Rosamund a harlot and ordered her remains removed to the nuns’ cemetery.
A German visitor recorded the severely faded inscription in 1599: “Let them adore…and we pray that rest be given to you, Rosamund. Here in the tomb lies the rose of the world.” Her tomb was later destroyed by the Dissolutions of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.