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.