CONTEXTS of the CADAVER TOMB IN. FIFTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND a Volumes (T) Volume Ltext
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CONTEXTS OF THE CADAVER TOMB IN. FIFTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND a Volumes (T) Volume LText. PAMELA MARGARET KING D. Phil. UNIVERSITY OF YORK CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES October, 1987. TABLE QE CONTENTS Volume I Abstract 1 List of Abbreviations 2 Introduction 3 I The Cadaver Tomb in Fifteenth Century England: The Problem Stated. 7 II The Cadaver Tomb in Fifteenth Century England: The Surviving Evidence. 57 III The Cadaver Tomb in Fifteenth Century England: Theological and Literary Background. 152 IV The Cadaver Tomb in England to 1460: The Clergy and the Laity. 198 V The Cadaver Tomb in England 1460-1480: The Clergy and the Laity. 301 VI The Cadaver Tomb in England 1480-1500: The Clergy and the Laity. 372 VII The Cadaver Tomb in Late Medieval England: Problems of Interpretation. 427 Conclusion 484 Appendix 1: Cadaver Tombs Elsewhere in the British Isles. 488 Appendix 2: The Identity of the Cadaver Tomb in York Minster. 494 Bibliography: i. Primary Sources: Unpublished 499 ii. Primary Sources: Published 501 iii. Secondary Sources. 506 Volume II Illustrations. TABU QE ILLUSTRATIONS Plates 2, 3, 6 and 23d are the reproduced by permission of the National Monuments Record; Plates 28a and b and Plate 50, by permission of the British Library; Plates 51, 52, 53, a and b, by permission of Trinity College, Cambridge. Plate 54 is taken from a copy of an engraving in the possession of the office of the Clerk of Works at Salisbury Cathedral. I am grateful to Kate Harris for Plates 19 and 45, to Peter Fairweather for Plate 36a, to Judith Prendergast for Plate 46, to David O'Connor for Plate 49, and to the late John Denmead for Plate 37b. Plate 37a is the copywright of the Society of Antiquaries of London. All other photographs were taken by the author and Bryan Sadler. The brass rubbings are all in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries of London, with the exception of Plate 14c, and the brass in Plate 12 is in the possession of Norwich Castle Museum. I am grateful for access to these and for the . co-operation of all vicars and churchwardens who have made it possible to photograph most of the tombs in situ. Numbers in brackets here refer to Chapter II. 1. Slab of a naked man, c.1200, Shillingstone, Dorset. 2. Henry Chichele, 1427, Canterbury Cathedral [1]. 3. Richard Fleming, 1430, Lincoln Cathedral [2]. 4. John Brigge, c.1430, Salle, Norfolk (3]. 5. Joan Mareys, 1431, Sheldwich, Kent (43. 6. John Fitzalan, 1435, Arundel, Sussex [6]. 7. John Golafre, 1442, Fyfield, Berkshire [8]. a. general view. b. detail of lower effigy. 8. John Careway, 1443, Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire (9]. a. general view. b. detail of effigy. 9. Richard Notfelde, 1446, Margate, Kent (10]. 10. John Leventhorpe, 1448, Sawbridgeworth, Herts [11]. 11. William Sponne, 1448, Towcester, Northants [12]. a. general view. b. detail of lower effigy. 12. Thomas Childes, 1452, Castle Museum, Norwich [13]. .13. John Manfield, 1455, Taplow, Bucks [143. a. general view. .• b. detail - effigy of John. 14. Sampson Xeverell, 1462, Tideswell, Derbyshire [15]. a. view of tomb from the west. b. view of tomb from the north. c. rubbing (C. Kightly) of the brass on the upper deck. 15. Thomas Bekynton, 1465, Wells Cathedral, Somerset [16]. a. general view of the chantry chapel. b. general view of the tomb. c. the upper effigy. d. the lower effigy. e. detail - head of upper effigy. f. detail - head of lower effigy. 16. Philip Astley, 1467, Standon, Herts [17] LOST. 17. John Baret, 1467, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk [18]. a. general view of the tomb. b. decorated ceiling of the chantry chapel. c. detail of effigy. d. detail of effigy. 18. Robert Brampton, 1468, Brampton, Norfolk [19]. 19. Richard Willughby, 1472, Wollaton, Notts [21]. a. general view. b. brasses on upper deck. c. cadaver effigy. 20. Thomas Fleming, 1472, New College, Oxford [22]. 21. Agnes Bulstrode, 1472, Upton, Bucks [23]. 22. William Gurney, 1472, Stone, Bucks [24]. 23. Alice Chaucer, 1475, Ewelne, Oxfordshire [25]. a. general view. b. detail - head of upper effigy. c. detail - head of lower effigy. d. artist's copies of the frescoes on the underside of the nensa. 24. Richard Poryngland, 1475, St Stephen, Norwich [26], LOST. 25. Joan Walrond, 1477, Childrey, Berkshire [28]. a. general view. b. detail - Trinity matrix. 26. John Beel, 1477, Hitchin, Hefts [29]. 27. William Catesby, 1479, Ashby St Legers, Northants [30]. 28. Laurence Bothe, 1480, Southwell Cathedral, Notts (32], LOST. a. London, B.L. Loan MS 38, f. 84v - the tomb. b. Ibid., f. 86r - the glass. 29. John Rudyng, 1481, Biggleswade, Beds [33]. 30. William Robert, 1484, Digswell, Herts [34]. 31. Nicholas Mattock, 1485, Hitchin, Herts [35]. 32. Tomesine Tendring, 1485, Yoxford, Suffolk [36]. 33. John Wisebeard, 1486, Hitchin, Herts [37]. 34. Thomas Spryng, 1486, Lavenham, Suffolk [38]. 35. Bernard Brocas, 1488, Sherborne St John, Hants [39]. a. upper kneeling effigy. b. skeleton matrix. 36. John Barton, 1491, Holne-by-Newark, Notts [40]. a. general view. b. lower effigy. 37. Thomas Heywood, 1492, Lichfield Cathedral, Staffs [41], a. Stebbing Shaw, The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (London, 1789), I, 248-49. b. surviving cadaver effigy. 38. Margaret Shelley, 1495, Hunsdon, Herts [43]. a. general view. b. detail - head. 39. William Leynthall, 1497, Great Hasely, Oxfordshire [44]. 40. Ralph Woodforde, 1498, Ashby Folville, Leics [45] 41. Richard Yate, 1498, Longworth, Berkshire [46]. 42. Richard Howard, 1499, kylsham, Norfolk [47]. a. general view. b. detail - upper part of right-hand matrix. 43. William Feteplace, 1516, Childrey, Berkshire [63] a. general view. b. close-up of male effigy. 44. John Goodrington, 1518, Appleton, Berkshire [65]. 45. Henry Willughby, 1528, Wollaton, Notts [77]. a. general view. b. detail of lower effigy. 46. Roger Rockley, 1534, Worsborough, West Yorkshire [82]. 47. John Wakeman(?), Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire [93]. a. general view. b. detail - snake on knee. C. detail - mouse on torso. d. detail - frog or toad near left ear. e. detail - snake on shroud. f. detail - beetle or spider on left upper arm. 48. Unidentified cadaver, Hughenden, Bucks [135]. a. general view. b. close-up of torso. 49. Unidentified brass, Sedgefield, Co. Durham [143]. 50. London, B.L. Additional 37049, f.32v. 51. Cambridge, Trinity College MS R. 41. 5, f.3r. and v. 52. Ibid., f.7r. and v. 53. Ibid., f.8r. and v. 54. Fresco formerly in the Hungerford Chapel, Salisbury Cathedral. 55. Drawing of the tomb of Jean La Grange, 1388-94, Petit Palais Museum, Avignon. a. general view. b. close-up showing the positioning of the cadaver effigy. 56. Jean La Grange, 1388-94, Petit Palais Museum, Avignon. a. remains of upper effigy. b. cadaver effigy. 57. Janes Rice, 1489, Waterford Cathedral, Eire. a. general view. b. detail - head. c. detail - torso with toad. 58. Edmund Goldyng, 1511, Drogheda, Co. Louth, Eire. 59. Unidentified double tomb, Stamullen, Co. Meath, Eire. a. former upper slab (?) - effigies in ordinary dress. b. former lower slab with cadaver. 60. Unidentified cadaver, Bewley, Co. Louth, Eire. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The student engaged in interdisciplinary research depends heavily upon expert advice from many sources: in my case this has been generously forthcoming. I am particularly grateful to those who have supervised my work, Dr Peter A. Newton, Dr Malcolm Vale, Professor Derek Pearsall and especially Professor Barrie Dobson who has seen the thesis through to submission. I should also like to thank Dr Charles Kightly, who gave invaluable instruction on the methodology of medieval biography; Dr Robin Emnerson who freely gave access to his research on brass engraving workshops; the Society of Antiquaries of London, who allowed me to photograph from their collection of brass rubbings, and Bryan Sadler who has patiently toured churches, assisted with photography and printed many of the illustrations for the thesis. DECLARATION The English verse epitaphs quoted in Chapter III have been published in "Eight English Memento Mori Verses from Cadaver Tombs", AID, 28(6) (1981), 494-96, Material relating to the argument of Chapter V has been published in 'The English Cadaver Tomb in the Late Fifteenth Century: Some Indications of a Lancastrian Connection", Dies Ilia: Death in the Middle Ages, Vinaver Studies in French I, ed, Jane N, Taylor (Manchester, 1984), 45-57, The analysis of the iconography of vermin on cadaver tombs with special reference to the "Wakeman Cenotaph" in Tewksbury Abbey (Chapter VII) is developed from 'The Iconography of the 'Wakeman Cenotaph' in Tewksbury Abbey", Transactions of the Bristol and 61oucestershire Archaeological Society, 103 (1985), 141-48, ABSTRACT A cadaver tomb is a memorial on which the effigy, or one of the effigies, is shown as a shrouded body or as an unshrouded skeleton. Funerary monuments bearing such effigies first appeared in England in the 1420's and have commonly been associated with a late medieval Northern European vogue for the macabre. This study questions the widely accepted view that the appearance of these tombs is directly related to the Black Death, that it is necessarily event-dependent, and that the iconography of the cadaver effigy is related to radical theological developments. The forty-seven identifiable cadaver tombs commemorating members of both clergy and laity who died before 1500, are taken as the sample for study. In an age when patronage, in the arts and in affairs of state alike is recognised to have been the primary means of advancement, one would expect to find a matter at once so personal and so socially sensitive as the choice of a tomb to reflect a perception of fashion. Accordingly, in search of at least a partial explanation for the appearance yet limited dissemination of this new departure in funerary monuments, a cumulative biographical study is made of those commemorated in this way and of their circles of family and acquaintance.