Effigy of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. AYMER DE VALENCE was the third and youngest son of William de Valence, whose effigy has already been described, and by the death of his brothers during his father's life-time, succeeded him in the Earldom of Pembroke. He was much employed in military service by his kinsman Edward I. particularly in his Scottish wars. That King going into France in 1286 left him Regent of the Realm. In 1305 he was appointed Keeper of the Marches of Scotland about Berwick, and Commander of the Forces sent to oppose Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick. He was present with King Edward at the time of his death at Burgh upon the Sands [Note. Burgh by Sands, Cumberland is in Cumberland being on the west coast] in Northumberland, who requested him to protect his son from the contamination of the debauched foreigner Gavaston. He united with the Barons against that minion of the second Edward, besieged and took him prisoner in Scarborough Castle [Map]. According to the capitulation Gavaston was to have been allowed to have an interview with the King, and to be tried by his Peers; but the Earl of Warwick took the profligate Gascon from de Valence's custody, and summarily beheaded him on Blacklow Hill, near Warwick. In 1314 the Earl of Pembroke was present at the battle of Bannockburn, so disastrous to the English arms in Scotland. He is said to have met his death in France at a tournament, which was appointed by himself in order to celebrate his marriage with his third wife Mary (age 22), daughter of Guy de Chastillon, Earl of St. Pol. She founded Pembroke Hall, in the University of Cambridge. Aymer de Valence was buried on the North side of the Choir of the Abbey Church at Westminster [Map], and his tomb is celebrated for its architecture and sculptural decorations. In the trefoil ornament which fills up the pediment on either side the monument he is represented on his barded horse. The compartments round the altar slab, on which his effigy reposes, are occupied by elegant statues representing his friends and connexions, and decorated with escutcheons of their arms.

Details. Plate 1. 1. Figures at the head of the Effigy. 2. Band or lace of the hood. 3. Band confining thesurcoat to the waist. 4. Sword belt. Effigy as originally painted: Plate If. 1. Toe of the solerette of the figure on horseback. Figure on horseback, North side of the tomb; basnet, aventaille, mantelet, surcoat, &c. Bases of the barded horse, bearing the bars and martlets of De Valence. 3. Figure on the North side of the tomb.

Effigy of John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall. John of Eltham 1st Earl Cornwall

WAS the second son of Edward the Second by his Queen Isabella (age 42), and was horn at the Palace of the English Kings at Eltham in Kent [Map], on the Feast of the Blessed Virgin's Assumption 1316. In the second year of the reign of his elder brother, Edward III (age 24) he was created Earl of Cornwall. In the following year, the King going to France to do homage for the Dukedom of Aquitaine, he was appointed his Lieutenant for the Kingdom, as he was also on the King's expedition into Scotland in 1330. In the course of the above periods he had grants of numerous Lordships from the Crown^a, the town of Lostwithiel (in the neighbourhood of Restormel Castle, the principal seat of the Earls of Cornwall in the County), all the wreck, port dues, issues, and profits of the district, the farm of the City of Exeter, the stannaries, and coinage or customs on stamping the tin in the County of Devon. In 1333 and 1334 he was with King Edward III in his expeditions into Scotland, and died at Berwick-upon-Tweed [Map] in October of the latter year. About the festival of Christmas, the King, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, returned out of Scotland to celebrate his obsequies in the Abbey Church of Westminster, where he was interred on the south side of the Choir. The Prior and Convent claimed £400 in lieu of his horse and armour, which, according to the custom, should have been presented as an offering at the altar of their Church. John of Eltham was but twenty-eight years of age at his death, and was never married. Various matches were proposed for him, as with Joan, the daughter of the Earl of Eu; Mary, the daughter of the Earl of Blois; Mary (age 18), daughter of Ferdinand Lord Lara in Castile, which last proposal came to a formal contract, rendered abortive bv his demise.

Nothing can be finer in its way than the sculpture of this effigy. There is no departure from the very usual recumbent attitude, the hands raised in prayer and the legs crossed; but there is a most beautiful simplicity in the whole figure, while the details of the arms and drapery are marked with elegant precision.

Details. Plate I. Portion of the head, with the ducal crown and mantelet depending from the lace; ornaments on the sword belt, handle, and scabbard of the sword; scalloped border of an aqueton, or some defence under the surcoat. Plate II. Ornaments on the top of the hood, or basinet, whichever it may be; plating of the gauntlets, pryck spur and leathers, plates on the solerette, buckle of the spur, with tongue of the strap.

Note a. See Dugdaie's Baronage, vol. 1. p. 207.

Effigy of John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and his Duchess Elizabeth. JOHN was the son and heir of that unpopular minister, William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who being banished for his political delinquencies, was put to death on the 2d May, 1450, at sea, off Dover, by the master of a Bristol ship^a. His mother was Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet of that name, the force of whose extraordinary genius has secured immortality for his works in spite of their obsolete language. He married Elizabeth, second daughter of Richard Duke of York, by whom he had five sons and four daughters; on account of which alliance his brother-in-law King Edward, in 1469, restored to him the dignity forfeited by his father's attainder. He was made Constable of Wallingford Castle, in the first year of the reign of Henry the Seventh, died in 1491, and was interred with his ancestors in the collegiate church at Wingfield [Map], in Suffolk. Elizabeth, his Duchess, was buried at the same place, and both are commemorated by the splendid effigies before us.

Details. Plate. I. Profile view of the head of the Duchess.

Plate II. 1. Portion of the Duke's coronet. 2. One of the metallic loops attaching the cordon of the mantle of the Garter to either shoulder. 3. Skirts of the corslet, hilt and guard of the sword, mountings of the scabbard, &c. 4. Portion of the Garter on the left knee, enlarged. 5. One of the straps attaching the tassets, 6. Hilt of the dagger, or misericorde, with lace attaching it to the hip. 7. The sword-belt. 8. Portion of the Duchess's coronet, enlarged. 9. Part of the metallic loop of the cordon of her mantle. 10. Pattern on the Ranches of her habit.

Plate III. 1. Profile view of the left genouiliiere, with the Garter. 2. Portion of the soles of the solerette, resting on the lion's mane.

Note a. Whatever the Duke's political offences, there is extant an admirable letter of advice from him to his son, John, written just before the Duke's departure on this fatal voyage. See the Paston Letters, vol. 1. p. 32; where also will be found, page 39, another curious letter, giving a circumstantial account of his death.

Effigy of Edward, the Black Prince. The Prince's Tomb is not in the Lady Chapel, as ordered in the Will, but on the south side of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity. In other respects it nearly agrees with the above order. The Tomb is of Sussex marble, divided into sixteen quatrefoiled panels, six on each side, two at the head, and two at the foot of the Tomb, in each of which are fixed escutcheons of copper, enamelled alternately with the arms and badges of the Black Prince. Above those, with the arms, is engraved on scrolls of copper, HOUMONT; and above those, with the badges in a similar manner, ICH DIENE. The effigy is of copper gilt, and lies upon the Tomb on a table of the same metal: it represents the Black Prince in armour, his head resting on his helmet, on which is the chapeau surmounted by a leopard crowned, having a file of three points about his neck. The countenance of the Prince possesses fine character. He is represented with long mustachios, which fall on each side over the camail, with which his face is closely enveloped; his beard is almost entirely concealed. On the bacinet is a rich coronet, the circle of which was once set with stones or glass. The manner of attaching the camail to the bacinet by the vervelles, or staples, with a silken lace, is here very clearly explained^a. The plates are very evident beneath the coat armour, which is emblazoned in relief with the arms of England and France quarterly, over all a file of three points. The gauntlets are armed with bosses or broches on the middle joints of the fingers^b. The girdle is ornamented with gilt leopards' heads within circles, on a blue enamelled ground; in the centre within a quatrefoil, a leopard similarly enamelled. The sword is of the most beautiful workmanship. The pommel is ornamented with a leopard's head enamelled as the circles in the girdle. The hilt is of wirework. The sheath is richly wrought, engraved, and enamelled; its whole length is set with lapis lazuli in lozenges. The dagger is wanting. The solerets are of a preposterous length. It is uncertain what animal is intended at the feet. Considering how beautifully the whole of this figure is finished, it is singular that the armour is represented without either buckles, straps, or hinges. About the table of the Tomb are the inscriptions, engraved on plates of copper; the first is at the head of the Tomb, and the second commences on the south side and finishes on the north.

Note a. Pour six onces de soie de diverses couleurs a faire!es!as a mettre les camaux aus dits bacinets. Computum. Stepli. de la Fontaine, argentar. Reg. 1. Jan. 1349.

For six ounces of silk of various colours, to make laces to fasten the camails to the said bacinets.

Note b. In a Trial by Combat adjudged between John de Vesconti and Sir Thomas de la Marche, fought before Edward III in close Lists at Westminster; Sir Thomas de la Marche gained the advantage by striking the Rosses of Steel on his gauntlet, called Gadlings, into the face of his adversary.—Collin's Life of Edward Prince of Wales

Et riche bacinet li fist on apporter, [And on his bascinet his fist he brought?]

Caws a broches de fer, qui sont au redouter. [? haad iron pins, which are to be dreaded.]

MS. Bertrandi Guesclini.