Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury Part 8

Pray and fight."

In the next grave lies Gilbert de Clare, the first who bore the double t.i.tle. His interest to us consists in the fact that his seal is one of those attached to Magna Charta, and he took a considerable part in the Barons' struggles against King John. He died in Brittany, but was buried here by his own wish. Very little of his coffin remains.

The tablet to him says: "Gilbertus de Clare, nomine primus, comes Glocestrie s.e.xtus et Hertfordie quintus, obiit 25^o Octobris, anno domini 1230. Magna Carta est lex, caveat deinde rex"; _i.e._, "Gilbert de Clare, the first of that name, sixth Earl of Gloucester and fifth of Hertford, died October 25th, A.D. 1230. Magna Charta is law, let the King henceforth beware."[24]

The next grave is that of Richard, the second of that name, the son of Earl Gilbert. He is usually believed to have been poisoned at the table of Peter de Savoy at Emersfield in Kent. To his memory a most gorgeous tomb was set up in the Choir, composed of marbles, precious stones, mosaic, gold and silver, and bearing a large image of the Earl in silver on the top. Weever, in "Funeral Monuments," gives the epitaph:

"Hic pudor Hippoliti, Paridis gena, sensus Ulyssis, aeneae pietas, Hectoris ira jacet."

And he translates it:

"Chaste Hippolite, and Paris fair, Ulysses wise and sly, aeneas kind, fierce Hector, here jointly entombed lye."

The bra.s.s tablet says: "Ricardus de Clare, comes Glocestrie septimus and Hertfordie s.e.xtus, obiit 15^o Julii, anno que domini 1262. Dum pet.i.t crucem sic denique pet.i.t lucem"; _i.e._, "Richard de Clare, seventh Earl of Gloucester and sixth Earl of Hertford, died July 15th, A.D. 1262. While he seeks the cross, he seeks thereafter light." This alludes to his having been a Crusader. Richard de Clare's entrails were buried at Canterbury, and his heart at Tonbridge, at which place he had founded a monastery of Austin Friars.

=Despenser Graves.=--Between the graves of the De Clares and the steps of the altar are the Despenser graves. The grave on the north side nearest to the Fitz-Hamon or Founder's Chapel is that of Richard Despenser. His bra.s.s runs: "Ricardus le Despenser baro octavus, et Burghersh baro quintus, obiit anno domini 1414, dum adhuc adolescens.

Flos crescit et mox evanescit"; or in English: "Richard, eighth Baron Despenser and fifth Baron Burghersh, died A.D. 1414, whilst still a youth. A flower grows and soon pa.s.ses away."

He was married to Elizabeth Nevill, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland, but, dying at Merton at the age of 19, left no family. He was the last of the male line of the Despensers, and is buried next to his father, Thomas le Despenser, who was laid to rest in the central grave of the three. His record on the bra.s.s is: "Thomas le Despenser, baro septimus, et Gloucestriae comes tertius decimus et ultimus crudeliter interfectus 15^o Januarii, anno domini 1400. Cibell angau na cyw.i.l.l.ydd." This being translated means: "Thomas, seventh Baron Despenser, and thirteenth and last Earl of Gloucester, was brutally killed on the 15th of January, A.D. 1400. Rather death than dishonour."

He had married Constance, daughter of the Earl of Cornwall and niece of the Black Prince. Being attainted in 1399 after the deposition of Richard II., whom he had faithfully served, he was deprived of both his t.i.tles and executed at Bristol in 1400. His grave was under the lamp which burned before the altar. In 1875 no trace of his grave was found, but there is a fragment of a statue in the "museum" in which he is clad in a blue mantle, wearing the badge of the Garter.

The third and southernmost of the Despenser graves is that of Isabelle, Countess of Warwick, Abergavenny, Worcester, and Albemarle.

The inscription on her bra.s.s is: "Mementote dominae, Isabelle le Despenser, Comitissae de Warwick, quae obiit, anno domini 1439, die Sancti Johannis Evangelistae. Mercy, Lord Jesu"; _i.e._, "Remember the lady Isabelle le Despenser, Countess of Warwick, who died A.D. 1439, on St. John the Evangelist's Day. Mercy, Lord Jesu." This lady was the daughter of Thomas le Despenser, next to whom she lies here, and though she was given in marriage to Richard Beauchamp when she was only eleven years old, she is chiefly known from the t.i.tle of her second husband, who was her first husband's cousin. Her grave was identified in 1875, and her remains were found enclosed in a shroud and in a tomb of solid masonry, 7 feet by 2 feet 5 inches, by 2 feet 5 inches. The covering slab had a cross incised with the words "Mercy, Lord Jhu" (Jesu). The top of the slab had traces of mortar upon it, pointing to the fact that her tomb was built immediately over it. We know from the chronicle that it was a "very handsome marble tomb, exquisitely carved." It was a table tomb bearing an effigy of the Lady Isabelle upon it, clad in a plain linen garment.

At the head stood St. Mary Magdalen, at the right stood St. John the Evangelist, and at the left stood St. Anthony. At the foot of the tomb was an escutcheon with her arms and the arms of the Earl of Warwick, impaling the arms of Clare and Despenser.

In each of the two easternmost piers that support the tower (on the north and south sides) will be seen a round-headed doorway, which gave access to the choir from the aisles. They were walled up at an early date, as they were probably too narrow for processional use.

Since the restoration of the choir the old stalls of the monks have been collected from the various places in the church to which they had been removed, and placed in their present position across the arches of the tower, eleven on the north side and twelve on the south. Those on the north have lost most of their misericordes, and all the canopy work. Those on the south side are more perfect, and the backs are in better preservation, though the plain panels have been removed.

In the majority of the misericordes the carving, originally fanciful, has suffered at the hands of bigots. It is only possible to conjecture what the stalls were like in monastic times, but they were probably, though less elaborate, similar to those at Gloucester. As carvings they cannot be compared with those at the Priory Church of Great Malvern.

THE TOMBS AND CHANTRIES.

One of the chief glories of Tewkesbury consists in the series of historic tombs and chantries which encircle the choir and presbytery and the surrounding ambulatory. It may safely be a.s.serted that in no church, with the single exception of Westminster Abbey, can such a n.o.ble collection of sepulchral monuments be found. They are well worthy of detailed study, and for that reason have been grouped together in one section. It is not possible to examine or describe them adequately from the ambulatory only, and the most important are best viewed from the choir or presbytery, whence access to the chantries is obtained.

All these tombs have suffered terrible mutilation at the hands of fanatics and bigots, but it is surprising to find how much of what was really fine pierced work, almost as delicate as lace, has survived the zeal of the destroyers. Close inspection will show that a considerable amount of repair and refitting has been done in places. It must have been a task of great difficulty, and involved that "infinite capacity for taking pains" of which we hear so much but find so seldom; and considering the date (1825) at which this piece of genuine restoration was done, more praise must be given to the restorer. Had it not been undertaken then it might have been done later, and certainly not so lovingly, and possibly not so well.

=Warwick Chapel.=--This beautiful piece of work [A in the plan] is a chantry chapel, erected in 1422 by Isabelle le Despenser, to the memory of her first husband, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Abergavenny and Worcester, or, as the chronicle calls him, Ricardus de Bello Campo. It is situate, as will be seen from the plan, under the westernmost arch of the north side of the choir. An inscription, which is only legible here and there, runs round the moulding: "Mementote dne Isabelle le Despenser, Cometisse de Warrewyk, quae hanc capellam fundavit in honor? bte Marie Magdalene, et obiit Londiniis apud Mn?s a? dni MCCCCx.x.xIX. die Scti Jhis Evngste. Et sepulta est i choro i dextra patris sui: cuj. am~e ppitietur Deus. Amen"

(_i.e._, "Be mindful of the Lady Isabelle Despenser, Countess of Warwick, who founded this chapel to the honour of St. Mary Magdalen, and died in London in the Minories, A.D. 1439, on St. John the Evangelist's Day. And was buried in the choir on the right hand of her father. On whose soul may G.o.d have pity. Amen").

The chapel was dedicated in the names of St. Mary Magdalen, St.

Barbara, and St. Leonard just two years after Richard Beauchamp had died.

This Richard Beauchamp, after whom in truth the chapel should be called, had shown his bravery at Agincourt in 1415, and in 1420 been made Earl of Worcester. He was slain at the siege of Meaux, in France, in 1421. In Dyde's "History of Tewkesbury" it is spoken of as "Mary Magdalen's Chapel, now commonly called 'Spenser's Chapel." It may have been designed to surpa.s.s in glory the chantries previously existing in the building, and if so, the Countess, who was only twenty-one years of age, spared no expense in causing this beautiful work to be made.

The chapel consists of two parts or stories, the lower of which has a door into the north aisle as well as into the choir. The lowest portion or base on either side consists of figures of angels, much mutilated, bearing shields.

The chantry has two roofs, both with fine vaulting, formerly richly painted, but the lower roof only covers the western half of the chapel. The pendent bosses have been destroyed. At the top the canopy work is so delicately sculptured that it resembles lace.

The lower ceiling, extending over half the chapel, consists of large and small circles. Of these, the larger ones are ribbed with sixteen ribs, while the smaller ones are quatrefoils, each member being composed of a trefoil with an elegantly carved cusp. Between these smaller circles are still smaller ones composed of quatrefoils. This ceiling is supported by two slender shafts. Along the exposed front of the ceiling are four double cinquefoil arches, between which were three busts. Of these, one only, viz., an angel with a scroll, remains.

In the upper storey of the chapel the ceiling is made up of hexagons and octagons, the intervening s.p.a.ce being filled up with circles, trefoils of irregular shapes, though symmetrically disposed, and quatrefoils. The points of the pendant have been ruthlessly destroyed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ THE WARWICK CHAPEL.]

Of this chantry Mr. Knight wrote: "There can be but one opinion on the praise which belongs to the exquisiteness of finishing by which the several parts of it are distinguished; the entablature, wedged between two of the old pillars of the choir, and appearing to rest upon light columnar b.u.t.tresses of singular beauty, give us an a.s.semblage of filigree and fretwork, which may vie with the finest specimens of similar workmanship in the kingdom: the elegant palm-leaved parapet, which occurs in the division between the storeys,--the numerous escutcheons blazoned in their proper colours,--the niches, and pedestals, under their respective canopies, once ornamented with figures which fanaticism has dislodged,--the slender shafts supporting a higher apartment, probably the rood-loft, in the inside of the fabric, from whence half-figures of angels are seen to issue,--the pendants dropping, like congelations in a grotto, from a roof adorned with the most delicate tracery spread over it like a web,--these and a countless mult.i.tude of minuter beauties, almost distract attention, and overwhelm the judgment with their different claims to notice."

Some have thought the upper portion was intended to serve as a private pew for the Lady Isabelle. To this the difficulty of access may well be urged as a valid objection. Others have thought that the upper part was a rood-loft. Others again have thought that the half-roof was a platform upon which a kneeling figure (in imitation of that in the Trinity Chapel) was placed.[25] By her will the Lady Isabelle gave instructions that her statue was to be placed on the right hand of her father in the choir, and that it was to represent her entirely naked (_i.e._ without any state robes), with her hair cast backwards; with St. Mary Magdalen (one of the saints to whom the chapel was dedicated) laying her hands across: with St. John the Evangelist on her right side and St. Anthony on her left. At her feet there was to be an escutcheon, bearing her arms impaled with those of her late husband--who had died just three months before her--supported by two griffins; and at the side there were to be statues of poor men and women in humble apparel with their beads in their hands. From the Abbey Register this part of the lady's last will and testament seems to have been carried out; but nothing remains of these added figures or of the tomb. The chapel is less perfect on the south, or choir side, than on that which faces the north aisle.

The appearance of the chantry when first finished, with all its rich colour and profuse gilding, must have been very rich. Some have thought it too elaborate and overweighted with ornament, but we may well call it one of the most glorious specimens of its time.

Among the heraldic decorations are to be found the chevrons of the Clares, and the arms of the deceased Earl. On the outside are to be traced the arms of the royal ancestors of Isabelle, of the Clares, and of the Despensers.

The arms upon the chapel are given in "Neale's Views of Tewkesbury" as follows:

On the side of the chapel next the choir, over the door--

1. France and England, quarterly, King Edward III.

2. Castile and Leon, quarterly, and Peter, King of Castile and Leon.

3. France and England, quarterly, Edmund of Langley, Duke of York.

4. France and England impaling Castile and Leon--for Isabelle of Castile, d.u.c.h.ess of York.

5. Clare quartering Despenser (Thomas Despenser, Earl of Gloucester).

6. Clare quartering Despenser and impaling France and England (Constance, the mother of the foundress of the chapel).

On the side next to the aisle--in the bas.e.m.e.nt or lowest portion and in the first division, three angels bearing shields--(1) as 1 above; (2) destroyed but presumably as 2 above; (3) as 3 above.

In the second division, two angels bearing shields--(1) as 4 above; (2) as 5 above.

In the third division, two angels bearing shields--(1) France and England quarterly in chief.

The arms on the fascia and over the door are, in each compartment, three:

1. The royal arms of England.

2. The arms of the Clares, Earls of Gloucester.

3. Clare impaling England (Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, and John, afterwards King of England).

4. Despenser (Hugh, Lord Despenser).

5. Despenser impaling Clare (Eleanor, Countess of Gloucester, wife of Hugh, Lord Despenser).