“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.