Between the same chantry and the wall lies the tomb of Bishop de Rupibus, while in the space between the chantries of Beaufort and Waynflete lies the only ancient military effigy in the cathedral, a genuine relic of the fourteenth century. It is commonly known as William de Foix, and represents, in a slightly mutilated form, a knight in surcoat and complete ringed armour of the thirteenth century. His legs are crossed[5] and the feet rest on a crouching lion, while the head is supported on two cushions which were formerly held up by angels. The right hand grasps the sword hilt, and the pointed shield, one of the earliest examples of a quartered shield, bears "quarterly, in the first and fourth, the arms of Bearn, two cows passant, gorged with collars and bells; in the second and third, three garbs; over all a cross." On the front edge of the slab Mr F.J. Baigent discovered the name Petrus Gavston or Gauston twice encised, but to this "scribbling" Mr Weston S. Walford, who has a note on this tomb in the fifteenth volume of the Archeological Journal, does not attach much importance, for it may merely record the engraver's conjecture as to the person here buried. The body of Edward II.'s favourite, Piers, was moved from Oxford to King's Langley in Hertfordshire two years after his execution, and buried there on January 2, 1314, in the presence of the king. It is not known to have been moved since. It seems probable that the effigy here is that of the father of the Piers known to us, a Sir Arnold de Gavaston, a record of whose interment at Winchester in May 1302 we possess, with the additional fact that Edward I. sent money and two pieces of cloth of gold to the funeral. Such respect would naturally be paid to the father of Edward II.'s foster-brother. Mr Walford suggests that the garbs on the shield are a canting allusion to the name Gabaston or Gavaston, for the spelling varies very much—Gaveston, Gaverston, and Gaberston being also found. The date of the tomb Mr Walford places between the death of Arnold in 1302 and the murder of his son in 1312. The tomb itself is adorned with five Decorated arches with the Gavaston arms on the shield, together with those of England, of France, and of Castile and Leon.
West of this are the tombs of Bishop Sumner and Prior Silkstede. The latter's grave, according to Woodward, was found, when opened, to contain the complete remains of a body robed in black serge, with the "funeral boots" yet on the bones of the feet. The body seems to have been removed hither from Silkstede's chapel in the south transept.
Next the western end of Beaufort's chantry is the tomb of William de Basynge, prior of this church (quondam Prior istius ecclesiæ), as his inscription states, promising 145 days' indulgence to whoever prays for his soul three years. He died in 1295.
On the south wall facing the same chantry is a marble monument of the Royalist, Sir John Clobery; and near this is a large slab in the floor, in memory of Baptist Levinz, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and prebendary of Winchester, who died in 1692.
On the end wall of the ambulatory, to the left of the entrance to the Chapel of the Guardian Angels, is a fine monument, somewhat mutilated, to Ethelmar or Aymer de Valence, half-brother of Henry III., who was so unpopular a bishop at Winchester. Only his heart is in the cathedral, having been conveyed hither from Paris, where his body was buried. The facts are commemorated by the following inscription on the presbytery wall:—
Corpus Ethelmari
Cuius Cor Nunc Tenet
Istud Saxum Parisiis
Morte Datur Tumulo
Obiit A.D. 1261.
When Winchester was attacked by the so-called religious zeal of the Puritans, Ethelmar's heart was disturbed, as is recorded by a writer of the period, who says that "when the steps of the altar were levelling with the rest of the ground one of the workmen accidentally struck his mattock on this stone and broke it; underneath which was an urn wherein the heart of this Ethelmar was, being enclosed in a golden cup, which thing ... being conveyed to the ears of the committee-men they took the cup for their own use, and ordered him to bury the heart in the north isle, which he accordingly did." The heart, he goes on to say, was "so entire and uncorrupt" that it was "as fresh as if it had just been taken from the body, and issued forth fresh drops of blood upon his hand. This I had from the mouth of the workman himself, whom I believe." The slab which once covered the heart shows, within the symbolic vesica, "in a trefoil canopy the half-length figure of the Bishop, mitred and in his episcopal robes, his uplifted hands holding a heart, his pastoral staff represented as resting on his left arm." Below are his arms and the inscription in Lombardic letters, + Ethelmarus. Tibi Cor Meum Dne.
