MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES 



Sussex marble slab containing the five brasses 

 of the knight, his wife, a child and two 

 shields still remain. The long and compli- 

 cated inscription has vanished, and the marble 

 slab forms part of the pavement. Such is the 

 melancholy and humiliating picture of the 

 memorials of a great medieval family. 



Military Effigy, about 1475. Apethorpe. 



This half life-size alabaster effigy represents 

 an armed man, bare-headed and with long 

 curling hair after the fashion of the last quar- 

 ter of the fifteenth century. The moderate 

 size of the coudieres is unexpected, but the 

 gauntlets with piked cuffs and plain plate 

 backs and leather fingers are characteristic of 

 the time, as are also the engrailled genouilleres 

 articulations and soUerets. Over all is worn 

 the tabard, the lineal successor of the armorial 

 surcotes and jupons, and differing from the 

 latter in being somewhat longer and having 

 the flap sleeves. This garment, which eventu- 

 ally presented a strict fourfold picture of the 

 heraldic coat of the wearer, is not seen earlier 

 than in the beginning of the reign of Henry 

 VI. and endured to the end of the sixteenth 

 century, the example under notice being about 

 fifteen years after his deposition in 1 46 1. The 

 head rests on the tilting helm, with the crest 

 — a human-headed beast — and the feet on a 

 chimerical animal. Above the head and 

 forming part of the main block is a sculptured 

 representation of the coronation of the Virgin. 

 The principal figure has the right hand raised 

 in benediction, the left, which formerly held 

 the crown, being broken awa)-. An angel 

 bears a long scroll dividing the two figures. 

 On the plinth are mutilated remains of four 

 angels holding shields, and indications of the 

 sword and misericorde. The memorial has 

 long been removed from its tomb and lies on 

 a window-sill on the north side of the chan- 

 cel. The plinth has been cut to fit into the 

 mullions and the whole figure much damaged 

 by whitewash and cement. 



Edward Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire. 

 Died 1499. Lowick. 



On a high tomb of alabaster in the midst 

 of a chapel on the south side of the beautiful 

 church of Lowick, reposes the alabaster effigy 

 of Edward Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire. This 

 refined memorial is ordered in the will simply 

 as 'a convenient tomb.' The earl is shown 

 bare-headed, with hair long-flowing to the 

 shoulders. He is habited in a cuirass and 

 tassets with fluted tuillcs, under which the 

 mail skirt appears. The coudieres are large, 

 and fixed by nuts on the brassarts and avant- 

 bras. The cuffed gauntlets consist entirely of a 

 series of articulated plates to the tips of the 



fingers, forming steel mufllers with leather 

 foundations. The genouilleres have quite 

 lost the large wings of the middle of the cen- 

 tury, and have the fine engrailed articulations 

 of the end of it. Over the body is worn a 

 tabard elaborately and delicately sculptured in 

 front and on the sleeves with arms. The Earl 

 of Wiltshire wears a dainty collar of SS, pre- 

 sumably representing that bequeathed in his 

 will to ' my Lord and cousin of Shrewsbury ' 

 as 'my Collar of the King's Livery.' The 

 sword is suspended from a plain belt, and the 

 misericorde has been slung by a looped cord 

 from a distinct and slender strap. The feet, 

 clad in the wide-toed sollerets just come into 

 fashion, rest upon a muzzled bear couchant 

 upon the staff, the soles being further supported 

 by crouching figures of ecclesiastics telling 

 their beads. Under the head is the crest. 

 Round the verge of the slab is the follow- 

 ing inscription, in richly ornamented letters : 

 Ocate pro 9niina iEtitoartii StafforU 

 Comitis StaffotU ComitiB OEglttcbst 

 qui quititm lEtitoarlJus ofattt fatccCimo 

 quarto tie mcnfis marcit Snno Domini 

 ml"" CCCC j^onagtCimo i^ono Cuius 

 SLnitne ppicittut Dcug -amen. 



The Earl of Stafford was born April 7, 1469, 

 and died March 24, 1499, being then in his 

 twenty-ninth year. The effigy represents a 

 man past middle age, with a drawn and har- 

 assed face and prominent bony brows, in ac- 

 cordance with the character of the conventional 

 effigies of the end of the fifteenth century. 



Sir Henry Vere. Died 15 16. Great 

 Addington. 



The alabaster effigy of Sir Henry V^er; is 

 very inferior as a work of art to that of his 

 cousin the Earl of Wiltshire. Moreover it 

 has greatly suffered at the hands of the 

 iconoclasts, having been much scraped and 

 mutilated to provide 'Vere powders' for the 

 children of the village. The knight is shown 

 bare-headed and with the long hair of the 

 time. He wears a standard of mail — cpaulidres 

 reinforced by pauldrons, a cuirass with its 

 lance-rest, tassets, channelled tuiles and a 

 skirt of mail. The coudieres are of moderate 

 dimensions and the gauntlets, with fingers of 

 leather, have single plates shaped to the back 

 of the hand, and plain cuffs. The wings of 

 the genouilleres are quite small, and the feet, 

 protected by articulated sollerets, rest upon a 

 muzzled bear, and the head upon a helm from 

 which the crest is gone. The suit here 

 represented is of the period when Sir Henry 

 Vere flourished, and may consequently be 

 taken to represent the harness in which he 

 fought on the field of Bosworth in 14S5. 



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