Gretchen Cornwall

I had the privilege of bringing the Royston Cave to larger international audiences with the History Channel’s – The Curse of Oak Island – Season 10 Episode 6 in 2022 with Alex Lagina, Marty Lagina, and Historian Charles Barkhouse.

I wanted to share my methodology with you and also to counter some of the claims online about a particular carving in Royston Cave, which have been circling since last October 2025 –

Royston was discovered in 1742 –

From the mid 1100’s up to King James in the 1600’s – Royston was an active sacred space. It may have been repeatedly sealed and reopened by the Templars and their descendants, the Rosicrucians and Freemasons.

The timeline of Royston Cave begins with Lady Roisia (Rose) de Vere and her marriage to Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville, both Templar supporters. She places the market cross at the famous intersection – with royal approval, and the town gains its name from her.

Royston Cave was planned, specifically chosen for its location at the ancient crossroads of Ermine and the Icknield Way.

They designed the Temple first – Extracted chalk for plaster in building – The Templars built a preceptory above the entrance to cover it – Protecting it. They would have been in a position to monitor the crossroads out of London and conduct banking.

There were reportedly 3 small holdings owned by the Templars in Royston – The cave was one of them…

The three key points of the cave, of particular interest to Oak Island followers, were:

1. The Knights Templar connection

2. The 1347 carved Brick and its correlation with Zena Halpern’s Map,

3. The carving of the Rochefoucauld family crest, which I discovered.

This discovery is historic and was based on my multi-disciplinary approach:

• as a result of researching Zena Halpern’s map,

• my background in historic medieval clothing, armor, and customs,

• my understanding of manmade caves,

• and background as an established researcher and author.

It’s important that practicality prevails, and historic truth, overcomes mushy, wishful thinking, or storytelling meant to shift the narrative away from the original carver’s traditions based in Templarism, their intentions, and identifiable historic portrayals of those carved in the cave.

So, who IS this woman in the carving??

She’s been identified via means testing by the academic community without question since 1742 as the Queen of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and prior of Queen France –

Later in the video I share images of a carving of a woman wearing a crown. This carving is strange compared to the portrayal of all the other women in the cave. We can see she wears a crown. It’s quite distinctive and large.

So what? It’s a crown; today, any woman can wear a crown… not back then… One did not play dress up… To wear a crown by either your own hands or at the hands of your supporters would have brought swift retribution. Perhaps even death.

Fine fabrics, furs, and the amount of gold and silver one could wear as a member of the nobility was monitored and actually weighed under law.

Only the reigning monarch could wear purple, blue or red. All this depended on your tier level in the strict hierarchy –

The Monarch was the secular representative of the Divine on Earth –

Anyone taking on their crown jewels was a criminal in the eyes of God –

Identifying Eleanor in the cave is partly due to the other figures such as – Richard the Lionheart, her favorite son, and his wife. Henry II, her husband and king of England. And the proximity of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But there’s more.

In the carving at Royston Cave, we see this oddly represented woman with her skirt pinched at her ankles.

This is scandalous at first sight – Women were not allowed to highlight their legs or ankles, and no medieval drawing of the time would depict a woman in such a way, unless she was of ill repute…

In person, one can see that the skirt pours over and out from its tiny recess – But this is not a skirt, it fans out, and I realized

It’s the tail of a mermaid – But not just any mermaid –

History always records and represents the male line first.

But Eleanor’s maternal side was from one of the most powerful families in France – the Rochefoucaudls.

Whose family crest is Melusine –

She was a powerful Faery Queen of Avalon –

Melusine could turn into a mermaid at will, or a dragon when threatened. She was a Lady of the Lake, and now her descendant was Queen of England, and her most famous son was Richard the Lionheart.

What further proof do I have? Watch the video to find out-

To state that this carving is Lady Roisia or anyone else is to walk past centuries of knowledge and the laws governing monarchy –

For more information on my work in Royston Cave, please see my book on Amazon:

Oak Island’s Mysteries of the Map, House of Rochefoucauld: the Templar Statue and Royston Cave

ISBN 979-8211792043

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