Fig. 114.—Sir Roger de Trumpington, 1289. Trumpington Church, Cambridge.
Another celebrated brass exemplifying in a remarkable degree the military equipment of the period is that of Sir Roger de Trumpington, 1289, in Trumpington Church, near Cambridge ([Fig. 114]). This well-known monumental effigy is one of five brasses which portray knights in the cross-legged attitude, concerning which so much has been said and so much written. The popular idea is, that the cross-legged position denotes a pilgrimage, or else a participation in a Crusade, on the part of the deceased, but this supposition is entirely negatived by the existence of monuments to bonâ-fide Crusaders, and to persons known to have visited the Holy Land, who are represented with the lower limbs not crossed. It is to be noted that this position is entirely confined to England with the exception of one at Dublin, and the generally accepted ideas are that these persons so represented were benefactors to the Church and died in the odour of sanctity. But it is perfectly admissible to suppose that, after all, this position was entirely an idea of the artist or the engraver, preventing as it did the ungainly stiffness in the d’Aubernoun brass. There are two examples of carved stone effigies both cross-armed and cross-legged—Sir Roger de Kerdeston, 1337, at Reepham, and Sir Oliver d’Ingham, 1343, at Ingham, Norfolk; but neither of these were Crusaders, while both were benefactors to their respective churches.
Fig. 115.—Heaume of Sir William de Staunton, 1312.
The armour shown in the Trumpington brass is similar in general outline to the d’Aubernoun example, but is peculiar in manifesting nothing of an ornamental character. Two or three additions to the equipment, however, are shown which are important. The head rests upon the great heaume, which is of large proportions and conical, adapted for resting upon and being supported by the shoulders. At the apex is shown a staple for affixing either the contoise or the heraldic crest (to be alluded to later), and this feature is also shown upon the heaume of Sir William de Staunton, 1312, at Staunton, Notts ([Fig. 115]). From the lower part of the back of the heaume a chain depends which fastens to a narrow cord tied tightly round the waist; by this arrangement the knight was enabled to regain this most important part of his equipment in the event of his being unhelmed. Later on this chain was affixed to a staple riveted or welded to the plastron-de-fer, openings being made in the hauberk and surcoat to permit of this.
Fig. 116.—From the seal of Henry de Beaumont, Earl of Buchan, 1322.