II.—Chapel of St. Edmund.
| 1. John of Eltham, Son of Edward II. 1334. 2. Earl of Stafford, 1762. 3. Monck, Bishop of Hereford, 1661. 4. Children of Edward III., 1350. 5. Duchess of Suffolk, 1563. 6. Holles, Son of Earl Clare, 1662. 7. Lady Jane Seymour, 1560. 8. Lady Katharine Knollys, 1568. 9. Lady Elizabeth Russel, 1601. 10. Lord John Russel, 1584. 11. Sir Bernard Brocas, 1339. | 12. Sir Humphrey Bourgchier, 1471. 13. Sir Richard Pecksall, 1571. 14. Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, 1617. 15. Earl of Pembroke, 1296. 16. Robert de Waldeby, 1397. 17. Duchess of Gloucester, 1399. 18. Countess of Stafford, 1693. 19. Dr. Ferne, Bishop of Chester, 1661. 20. Above the Duchess of Suffolk’s Monument is one to Mary Countess of Stafford and her Son, 1719. |
n the left as you enter is a monument sacred to the memory of John of Eltham, second son of Edward II., and so called from Eltham, in Kent, the place of his nativity, where our English Kings had once a palace. His statue is of alabaster, the head encircled in a coronet of large and small leaves, remarkable for its being the first of the kind. His habit is that of an armed Knight. He died in Scotland, in 1334, at the age of nineteen, unmarried, though three different matches had been proposed to him; the last of which, to Mary, daughter of Ferdinand, King of Spain, he accepted, but lived not to consummate it.
At the foot of this is a monument with the following inscription:—“In this Chapel lies interred all that was mortal of the most illustrious and most benevolent John Paul Howard, Earl of Stafford, who in 1738 married Elizabeth, daughter of A. Ewens, of the county of Somerset, Esq. His heart was as truly great and noble as his high descent. Faithful to his God. A lover of his country. A relation to relations. A detester of detraction. A friend to mankind. Naturally generous and compassionate, his liberality and his charity to the poor were without bounds. Being snatched away suddenly by death, which he had long meditated and expected with constancy, he went to a better life the 1st of April, 1762, having lived sixty-one years nine months and six days.” The figures round the inscription are the ancient badges of honour belonging to the Stafford family, who descended by ten different marriages from the royal blood of England and France.—Invented and stained by Chambers.
Next to this is a small table monument, on which lie the figures of William of Windsor, sixth son of Edward III., who died in his infancy; and of Blanch of the Tower, sister to William, who likewise died young, having obtained their surnames from the places of their nativity. About 1350.
Against the wall is a monument of Nicholas Monck, Provost of Eton, Bishop of Hereford, and brother of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, &c. He died December 11, 1661, aged fifty.—Woodman, sculptor.
On an altar tomb lies the effigy of Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk. She was the daughter of the famous Charles Brandon, by Mary, the French Queen, daughter to Henry VII., and became herself Duchess of Suffolk, by marrying Henry Grey, then Marquis of Dorset, but upon her father’s decease created Duke of Suffolk, and afterwards beheaded for being concerned in dethroning Queen Mary. She died in 1558-9.