It seems to me that a "Fair pretty maid" (Fair Eleanor herself?) put a nasty spell on him due to his womanising.

References to stone tend to indicate "magical" or supernatural occurances: She predicts that he won't survive long... then "six pretty maids died all in one night and all for George Collins's sake"

Since "the sun shone on" his corpse it appears that he was not considered blessed ("blessed is the corpse that the rain falls on" etc)