CROSS-LEGGED MONUMENTS.
The first species of monument, of which I propose to give the history, is that denominated cross-legged, from its having the recumbent effigy of the deceased upon it, represented in armour, with the legs crossed. During the Norman period of our history, the holy war, and vows of pilgrimage to Palestine, were esteemed highly meritorious. The religious order of laymen, the knights templars, were received, cherished, and enriched throughout Europe, and the individuals of that community, after death, being usually buried cross-legged, in token of the banner under which they fought, and completely armed in regard to their being soldiers, this sort of monument grew much in fashion, and though all the effigies with which we meet in that shape are commonly called knights templars, yet it is certain that many of them do not represent persons of that order; and Mr. Lethieullier says (Archæologia, vol. 2. p. 292) that he had rarely found any of these monuments which he could with certainty say had been erected to the memory of persons who had belonged to that community.
The order of knights templars had its rise but in the year 1118, and in 1134, we find Robert duke of Normandy, son of William the conqueror, represented in this manner on his tomb in Gloucester cathedral.[[60]]—Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, was represented thus on his fine tomb, which was in St. Paul’s cathedral, before the fire of London. And in the Temple church there still remain the cross-legged effigies of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1219; William his son, who died in 1231; and Gilbert, another son, who died in 1241; none of whom it is believed were of the order of Templars.
If these monuments were designed to denote at least, that the persons, to whose memory they were erected, had been in the Holy Land, yet all who had been there did not follow this fashion, for Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, second son of king Henry the third, had been there, and yet, as appears by his monument, still in being in Westminster-abbey, he is not represented cross-legged.[[61]] However, it seems to have been a prevailing fashion till the sixth year of Edward the second, 1312, when the order of Templars coming to destruction, and into the highest contempt, their fashions of all kinds seem to have been totally abolished.
By this it may be determined that all those effigies, either of wood or stone, which we find in country churches, whether in niches in the walls or on table tombs, and represented in complete armour, with a shield on the left arm, and the right hand grasping the sword, cross-legged, and a lion, talbot, or some animal couchant at the feet, have been set up between the ninth of Henry the third, 1224, and the seventh of Edward the second, 1313, and what corroborates this opinion is, that whenever any such figures are certainly known, either by the arms on the shield, or by uninterrupted tradition, they have always been found to fall within that period, and whenever, says Mr. Lethieullier in the before mentioned paper, I have met with such monument, totally forgotten, I have, on searching for the owners of the church and manor, found some person or other, of especial note, who lived in that age, and left little room to doubt but it was his memory which was intended to be preserved.
It must, however, be acknowledged that this sort of monument did not entirely cease after the year 1312, for there is one in the church of Leekhampton, in Gloucestershire, which, by tradition, is said to be for Sir John Gifford, who died possessed of that manor, in the third of king Edward the third, 1328.
The Rev. Dr. Nash, in his History of Worcester, has the following observations on this sort of monument:—“It is an opinion which universally prevails, with regard to the cross-legged monuments, that they were all erected to the memory of knights templars; now, to me, it is very evident that not one of them belonged to that order, but as Mr. Habingdon, in describing those at Alvechurch, hath justly expressed it, to ‘Knights of the Holy Voyage,’ for the order of knights templars followed the rule of the canons regular of St. Augustin, and as such were under a vow of celibacy. Now there is scarcely any one of these monuments which is certainly known for whom it was erected, but it is as certain that the person it represents was a married man.
“The knights templars always wore a white habit, with a red cross on the left shoulder. I believe not a single instance can be produced of either the mantle or cross being carved on any of these monuments, which surely would not have been omitted, as by it they were distinguished from all other orders, had these been really designed to represent knights templars.
“Lastly, this order was not confined to England only, but dispersed itself all over Europe, yet it will be very difficult to find one cross-legged monument any where out of England; whereas no doubt they would have abounded in France, Italy, and elsewhere, had it been a fashion peculiar to that famous order.
“But though for these reasons I cannot allow the cross-legged monuments to have been erected for knights templars, yet they have some relation to them; being memorials of those zealous devotees, who had either been in Palestine, personally engaged in what is called the Holy War, or had laid themselves under a vow to go thither, though perhaps they were prevented from it by death; some few indeed might possibly be erected to the memory of persons who had made pilgrimages thither, merely out of devotion; among the latter probably was the lady of the family of Metham, of Metham in Yorkshire, to whose memory a cross-legged monument was placed in a chapel adjoining the once collegiate church of Howden, in Yorkshire, and is at this day remaining, together with that of her husband on the same tomb.
“As this religious madness lasted no longer than the reign of our Henry the third, (the seventh and last crusade being published in the year 1268) and the whole order of knights templars dissolved in the seventh of Edward the second; military expeditions to the Holy Land, as well as devout pilgrimages thither had their period by the year 1312, consequently none of those cross-legged monuments are of a later date than the reign of Edward the second, or the beginning of Edward the third, nor of an earlier than that of king Stephen, when those expeditions first took place in this kingdom.”
THE FOLLOWING RULES WERE OBSERVED BY ANCIENT SCULPTORS IN ERECTING SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS.[[62]]
Kings and princes, in what part, or by what means soever, they died, were represented upon their tombs clothed with their coats of arms, their shield, bourlet or pad, crown, crest, supporters, lambrequins or mantlings, orders, and devices, upon their effigies, and round about their tombs.
Knights and gentlemen might not be represented with their coats of arms, unless they had lost their lives in some battle, single combat or rencontre with the prince himself, or in his service, unless they died and were buried within their own manors and lordships; and then to shew they died a natural death in their beds, they were represented with their coat of armour, ungirded, without a helmet, bareheaded, their eyes closed, their feet resting against the back of a greyhound, and without any sword.
Those who died on the day of battle, or in any mortal conflict on the side of the victorious party, were to be represented with a drawn sword in their right hand, the shield in their left, their helmet on their head, (which some think ought to be closed and the vizor let down, as a sign that they fell fighting against their enemies) having their coats of arms girded over their armour, and their feet resting on a lion.
Those who died in captivity, or before they had paid their ransom, were figured on their tombs without spurs or helmets, without coats of arms, and without swords, the scabbard thereof only girded to, and hanging at their side.
Those who fell on the side of the vanquished in a rencontre or battle were to be represented without coats of arms, the sword at their side and in the scabbard, the vizor raised and open, their hands joined before their breasts, and their feet resting against the back of a dead and overthrown lion.
Those who had been vanquished and slain in the lists in a combat of honour were to be placed on their tomb armed at all points, their battle-axe lying by them, the left arm crossed over the right.
Those who were victorious in the lists were exhibited on their tombs armed at all points, their battle-axe in their arms, the right arm crossed over the left.
It was customary to represent ecclesiastical persons on their tombs clothed in their respective sacerdotal habits. The canons with the surplice, square cap, and aumasse or amice, that is the undermost part of the priest’s habit.
The abbots were represented with their mitres and crosiers turned to the left.
The bishops, with their great copes, their gloves in their hands, holding their crosiers with their left hands and seeming to give their benediction with the right, their mitres on their heads and their armorial bearings round their tombs supported by angels.
The popes, cardinals, patriarchs, and archbishops were likewise all represented in their official habits.
The editors of the Antiquarian Repertory (vol. 2. p. 226.) have given the following additional particulars relating to these monuments:—
“Although the figures represented on tombs with their legs crossed, are commonly stiled Knights Templars, there are divers circumstances which intitled other persons to be so represented. The first, having served personally, though for hire in the Holy Land. Secondly, having made a vow to go thither, though prevented by sickness or death. Thirdly, the having contributed to the fitting out of soldiers or ships for that service. Fourthly, having been born with the army in Palestine. And lastly, by having been considerable benefactors to the order of Knights Templars, persons were rendered partakers of the merits and honours of that fraternity, and buried with their distinctions, an idea which has been more recently adopted abroad by many great personages, who have been interred in the habits of Capuchins. Indeed the admission of laymen to the fraternity of a religious order was no uncommon circumstance in former days.
“So long as the Knights Templars remained in estimation it is probable that persons availed themselves of that privileged distinction, but as at its dissolution the Knights were accused of divers enormous crimes, it is not likely any one would chuse to claim brotherhood with them, or hand themselves or friends to posterity as members of a society held in detestation all over Europe, so that cross-legged figures, or monuments, may pretty safely be estimated as prior to the year 1312, when that dissolution took place, or at most they cannot exceed it by above sixty or seventy years, as persons of sufficient age to be benefactors before that event, would not, according to the common age of man, outlive them more than that term.”
CROSS-LEGGED MONUMENTS IN THE TEMPLE CHURCH.[[63]]
Geoffrey de Magnaville, first Earl of Essex.
(1148.)
He is represented in mail with a surcoat, and round helmet flatted on the top, with a nose piece, which was of iron to defend the nose from swords. His head rests on a cushion placed lozenge fashion, his right hand on his breast, a long sword at his right side, and on his left arm a long pointed shield, charged with an escarbuncle on a diapered field. This is the first instance in England of arms on a sepulchral figure.
This Earl, driven to despair by the confiscation of his estates by king Stephen, indulged in every act of violence, and making an attack on the castle of Burwell, was there mortally wounded, and was carried off by the Templars, who as he died under sentence of excommunication, declined giving him Christian burial, but wrapping his body up in lead, hung it on a crooked tree in the orchard of the Old Temple, London. William, prior of Walden, having obtained absolution for him of the Pope, made application for his body, for the purpose of burying it at Walden, upon which the Templars took it down, and deposited it in the cemetery of the New Temple.
William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.
This monument represents a knight in mail with a surcoat, his helmet more completely rounded than the adjoining one, and the cushion as in all the rest laid straiter under his head. He is drawing his short dagger or broken sword with his right hand, and on his left arm has a short pointed shield, on which are his arms, per pale, or and vert, a lion rampant, gules, armed and langued, gules, below his knees are bands or garters, as if to separate the cuisses from the greaves; his legs are crossed, and under his feet is a lion couchant.
The first account of this William is in the 28th of Henry the second, when Henry son of that prince, who had behaved himself rebelliously against his father, lying on his death bed, with great penitence delivered to him, as to his most intimate friend, his cross to carry to Jerusalem. He obtained from Richard the first on his first coming to England after his father’s death, Isabel, daughter and heiress of Richard, Earl of Pembroke, in marriage, and with her that earldom. He died advanced in years at his manor of Caversham, near Reading, in 1219. His body was carried first to Reading abbey, then to Westminster, and last to the Temple church, where it was solemnly interred.
Robert Lord Ros of Hamlake.
The most elegant of all the figures in the Temple church represents a comely young knight, in mail, and a flowing mantle, with a kind of cowl; his hair neatly curled at the sides, and his crown appearing to be shaven. His hands are elevated in a praying posture, and on his left arm is a short pointed shield, charged with three water-bougets, the arms of the family of Ros. He has at his left side a long sword, and the armour of his legs, which are crossed, has a ridge or seam up the front, continued over the knee, and forming a kind of garter below the knee: at his feet a lion.
This Robert Lord Ros was surnamed Fursan, and incurred the displeasure of king Richard the first, but for what offence is not said. He was one of the chief barons who undertook to compel king John’s observance of the great charter. At the close of his life he took upon him the order of the Templars, and died in their habit. He was buried in this church in 1227.
William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.
The next figure but one to that of the Earl of Pembroke, may be for William Marshall, eldest son of that Earl. It is a cross-legged knight in mail, with a surcoat, his helmet round, surmounted with a kind of round cap, and the mouth piece up, his hands folded on his breast, his shield long and pointed, and now plain: a very long sword at his right side; the belt from which his shield hangs studded with quatre-foils, and that of his sword with lozenges.
This William Marshall died without issue in 1231, and was buried in this church near the grave of his father.
Uncertain Monuments in the Temple Church.
The five figures in the north group of this church are not ascertained absolutely to whom they belong. Camden and Weever ascribe one of them to Gilbert Marshall, third son of the first William, who on the death of his brother succeeded to the whole of the paternal inheritance, and lost his life at a tournament at Ware in 1241. His bowels were buried before the high altar of the church of our Lady at Hertford, and his body in the Temple Church, London, near his father and brother.
In the present state of these monuments it is almost impossible to ascertain the property of more than one of the Marshall family. The two effigies whose belts have the same ornaments were it is probable of one family.
It may be observed that Magnaville, William Marshall, jun. and the last figure in the north groupe have their legs crossed in an unusual manner. They lie on their backs and yet cross their legs as if they lay on their sides. So were those of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, 1312, in old St. Paul’s.
The spurs of all are remarkably short, and seem rather straps with rowels. Not above two or three have the long pointed shoe, and two have their surcoats exactly reaching to the knee, whereas the others are of different lengths and fall more easily.
Weever informs us that sepulture in this church was much affected by Henry the third and his nobility. Stowe has determined that four of the cross-legged figures belong to the three earls of Pembroke and Robert Ros: “and these are all,” says he, “that I can remember to have read of.”
Mr. Gough relates, (he says from good authority,) that a Hertfordshire baronet applied for some of these cross-legged knights to grace his newly erected parochial chapel, but the society of Benchers, discovered their good sense, as well as regard to antiquity, by refusing their compliance.