A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



articulated ^pauli^res, the arms to the elbows 

 by brassarts (arriire bras or rerebraces), the 

 elbows with the advanced details of double 

 articulations, the forearms by avant bras or 

 vambraces, and the hands by plate gauntlets 

 with leather palms and fingers of articu- 

 lated plates. The gussets of the arms at the 

 ' vif de I'harnois* seem to indicate a garment of 

 leather — Ma cuera de antes' of Spanish knights. 

 The body is clad in a hauberk, over which a 

 jupon is worn, with the bottom edge pinked 

 or dechiquet^, and laced upon the right side. 

 Over this is worn an elaborate baudric bear- 

 ing the initials of the wearer, I.S., thrice re- 

 peated, and from which, suspended by two 

 rose-studded chains (one is partly destroyed), 

 is a ponderous sword, 4 feet 4 inches long ; 

 it has unfortunately lost its quillons. On the 

 right side are the remains of a misericorde, at 

 this time an indispensable attribute of the 

 accoutrements of a soldier. Below the jupon 

 appears the hauberk of mail, like the camail in 

 large links and originally gilded. The thighs 

 are covered by cuissarts and upon the front of 

 these defences, about an inch below the hau- 

 berk, is a short fillet checked at intervals and 

 apparently of a piece with the cuissarts. The 

 only explanation that can be offered of these 

 singular additions is that they were features in 

 the armour of Sir John Swinford to meet a 

 special requirement. They have their value 

 in showing that care was taken in this instance 

 to instruct the sculptors to represent accur- 

 rately this peculiarity of an individual suit. 

 The knees are protected by genouilleres, 

 slightly ridged and with single articulations. 

 The legs are cased in greaves or jambeaux, 

 and the feet covered by articulated sollercts, 

 of which the three last members, which would 

 have projected through the stirrup, cover only 

 the upper half of the foot. The rowels of 

 the spurs are gone ; the head resting on a 

 tilting helm — the fashion now established — 

 deeply hollowed out and showing the oc- 

 cularia, and surmounted by the crest : and 

 the feet press against a lion, admirably ren- 

 dered, and with his tail wound round the 

 sword. 



It must be noticed that the collar of SS, one 

 of the fourteen associated with effigies in the 

 county, appears to be the earliest sculptured 

 example in England. Sir John Swinford died 

 in 1371 ; there is no question of the precise 

 period and subject of the effigy, and the fact 

 therefore remains not only that this knight 

 was entitled to wear a collar of SS, but that 

 the decoration was an established livery collar 

 when Henry of Lancaster was yet a boy, 

 since he was not born until 1360. This at 

 once disposes of the favourite conjecture that 



the SS collar was first devised by Henry IV. 

 when he was Earl of Derby in allusion to the 

 motto Souverayne. 



On each side of the alabaster tomb are three 

 sunk circles, containing shields within trefoils. 



Effigy at Orlingbury, about 1375. 



This alabaster effigy differs in a very few 

 respects from those at Ash ton and Spratton. 

 It is very delicately carved, and represents a 

 man in a bascinet with the camail, of which 

 the attachment is covered by a foliated coronal 

 or ' prente,' with an ornamental frontlet 

 such as is described in the will of Humphrey 

 de Bohun, died 1321, as'j. petite prente oue 

 foilles dargent oue j. frountele de Saye pur j. 

 bacynet.' It is inscribed in front over the 

 brow 3 1) C n a J E n i , and at the sides are the first 

 four words of the penitential Psalm li., 

 fflifcrtre mti Dens ftcuTil)um [benignita- 

 tem tuam secundum amplitudinem miserationum 

 tuarum dele defectiones meas). The armour 

 for the body is the same as at Ashton and 

 Spratton, the coudieres and genouilleres being 

 edged with a lozengy border, which also ap- 

 pears upon the cuffs of the gauntlets, them- 

 selves further strengthened by gads or gad lings. 

 The jupon sculptured with the arms — a fesse 

 between three lozenges — is deeply fringed at its 

 bottom edge, and the mail hauberk is just 

 evident below it. The baudric is a refined 

 example of the almost endless varieties of this 

 military belt. Extra articulations or reinforc- 

 ing plates are shown on the cuissarts and jam- 

 beaux, which are worked with a lozengy 

 ornament on the hinging seams, and closed on 

 the inside with little hooks, their first appear- 

 ance in this relation. The head reposes on 

 the tilting helm, with the crest, and the 

 dilapidated feet showing the remains of the 

 spurs, on a well-executed lion. 



Orlingbury was held by a family bearing 

 the local surname from the beginning of the 

 reign of Edward II. to the middle of the four- 

 teenth century. The manor was subsequently 

 divided, and the names of knights of the 

 families of Orlingbury, Loges, Verdon and 

 Thurning occur as holding parts of knights' 

 fees here, or levying fines of the manor up to 

 the end of the third quarter of the century. 

 During the reigns of Richard II. and Henry 

 IV. knights of the names of Simson, Curtys 

 and Wimbish are recorded as more or less 

 connected with Orlingbury. The effigy is 

 clearly of the extreme end of the fourteenth 

 century, but none of the above-mentioned 

 persons are signalized as bearing the arms — a 

 fesse between three lozenges — and the absence 

 of tinctures on the jupon make it impossible 

 to appropriate the coat to any one of the 



loS 



