[1] N. Fœdera, iii. 870.
2. The next that we have is on the monument of John Gower in the church of St. Saviour, Southwark. The poet died in 1402, 4 Henry IV. It is more than doubtful whether he was a knight, and the only ground that I can suggest for his being represented with the collar of SS. is, that he was in some manner, perhaps as the court poet, attached to the household of the king. Of his transferred devotion to Henry IV. we have sufficient evidence in the revision of his Confessio Amantis, from which he excluded all that he had previously said in praise of his patron Richard II.
3. Sir Thomas Massingberd died in 1406, and on his monument in Gunby Church in Lincolnshire, both he and his lady are represented with collars of SS. Why, I have still to seek.
4. In 1407 there is a similar instance of a knight and his lady being so ornamented. These are Sir William and Lady Bagot, whose monument is in Baginton Chruch, Warwickshire. Boutell says that he was the first who received this decoration from the king. Be this as it may, the Patent Rolls contain sufficient to account for his and his wife's assuming King Henry's livery from gratitude for the restoration of his land, which he had forfeited as an adherent to Richard II. [2]
[2] Cal. Rot. Pat. 236. 243.
5. Then follows Sir John Drayton, whose monument, dated in 1411, is in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire. It may be presumed that he was in the king's household; as in the beginning of the reign of Richard II. he was keeper of the royal swans; and early in that of Henry IV., was serjeant of the king's pavilions and tents. Thomas Drayton, who was made Assayer of the Mint in the year of Sir John's death, [3] was probably his son.
[3] Cal. Rot. Pat. 196. 259.; Devon's Issue Roll, 286.
6. In the following year, 1412, we have the collar of SS. represented on the brass of Sir Thomas Swynborne in Little Horkeley Church, Essex. Two or three years before, and perhaps at the time of his death, the knight held the offices of Mayor of Bordeaux, and of the king's lieutenant in those parts.
The last five of these are in the reign of Henry IV. In the reign of Henry V., I am not aware of any examples; but in that of Henry VI., we find five other instances.
7. In Trotton Church, Sussex, is the monument of Thomas Lord Camoys, who died in 1424, and of his wife; both of whom are distinguished by the collar. He was a Knight of the Garter, and commanded the left wing of the English army at the battle of Agincourt.