The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West Part 20

[31] Query, if the fine effigies of a knight and lady in Kings-Carswell church in south Devon do not represent this Sir John Dinham and his _first_ wife, Maud Maltravers. The Knight has the arms of Dinham on his surcoat, and the s.h.i.+elds on the tomb below display Dinham impaling a _fret_ or _frette_. There is another interesting effigy of a lady in the same church, that may possibly be intended for the _second_ wife of Sir John Dinham who was a daughter of John, Lord Lovel.

Elizabeth, the second wife of Sir Humphrey died the 15 Oct., 1413, and the knight himself survived her sixteen days only, dying on the 31 Oct., 1413, and both were buried beside her first husband, Sir John Maltravers, in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury. He was the first of his line that bore for his arms, _Or, a chevron gules within a bordure engrailed sable_.

All the foregoing coats of arms including also D'Aumarle, _Per fess gules and azure, three crescents argent_, are found among the heraldic display on the tomb of their descendant the Lady Elizabeth Willoughby-Greville at Alcester.

Sir Humphrey Stafford--only child of the foregoing--was of Suthwyke in right of his mother, and of Hooke, _jure uxoris_. He was surnamed "_with the Silver Hand_,"--a 'periphrasis' whose meaning has not been explained,--and married Elizabeth, the second daughter of his father's second wife, by her first husband Sir John Maltravers. By her he had three sons, Richard, John, and William, and one daughter Alice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFIGY OF SIR JOHN DINHAM, KINGS-CARSWELL CHURCH, DEVON. CIRCA 1428.]

Sir Humphrey, having thus married the heiress of Maltravers, probably removed to Hooke, their antient seat, and made it his residence. c.o.ker says of Hooke House, that "in foregoing ages the Cifrewasts, men of great antiquity and note dwelled there." Maltravers married Cifrewast's heir, and the old historian continues, "Humphry Stafford who married Maltravers' heir, was the great builder of it. This place hath since been much beholden to William Pawlitt, Marquis of Winchester, who augmented it with new buildings and often lived there, but his successors have not thought so well of it, wherefore it is like to run to decay." Paulet held it through his wife Elizabeth Willoughby, by inheritance from Cheney and Stafford.[32] Arms of Cifrewast of Hooke,--_Azure, three bars gemelles or_,--also found at Alcester.

[32] See page 33.

Sir Humphrey died 27 May, 1442, his wife had pre-deceased him, dying about 1420, and both were buried in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, in the Chapel of St. Anne therein, which he had founded.

Before proceeding further with this descent of Stafford, our little annals confront us with its most distinguished representative--albeit by a side issue--John Stafford, consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells 1425, Archbishop of Canterbury 1443, Lord Chancellor to Henry VI., and who died in 1452. Who were his parents, and where is his position in the family pedigree? The recognized 'authorities' on the subject describe him as being _another_ son of the first Sir Humphrey, and brother to him "_with the Silver Hand_." Yet no definite proof thereof has been forthcoming. His presumed father Sir Humphrey made his will at Hooke 5 April, 1413, with codicil dated 30 Oct., same year, but in it he does not even mention him. Yet Sir Humphrey's second wife Elizabeth Maltravers in a codicil to her's, dated 14 October, 1413, does refer to him by bequest, _Item, Magistro Johanni Stafford, &c._

Sir Humphrey Stafford also, the only son of Sir Humphrey (the Archbishop's presumed father), in his will dated 14 Dec., 1441, includes bequests to the future Archbishop, thus recorded,--

_"Item, do et lego Johanni fratri meo divina pietate Bathoniensis et Wellensis episcopo, unum par de fflacons argenteis et deauratis._

"_Item, eidem Episcopo unam ymaginem argenteam et deauratum decollationis sancti Johannis Baptiste, ac unam magnam peciam de Aras vocatam doser._"

He also appoints the said bishop _his brother_, and William his son, with others to be his executors.

An extraordinary confusion appears to have enveloped the statements of historians and antiquaries as to the pedigree of Stafford, and the Archbishop's origin; this however has of late been satisfactorily cleared up by the researches of an accomplished and accurate genealogist. He _was_ the son of the first Sir Humphrey, but not born within the legal pale of wedlock, and his mother's name was Emma, that she was subsequently admitted to the Sisterhood of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Canterbury, of which her son the Archbishop was a Brother, but _who_ she was has not as yet been recovered. She died 5 Sept., 1446, and was buried in a mortuary chapel in the north aisle of the parish church of North-Bradley, Wilts, in which Suthwyke is situated.

"As her son was elevated to the primacy in 1443 he is here (on the gravestone) correctly described as Archbishop at the time of his mother's death, which could not have been done had she died in 1440. Considering that the archbishop raised this mortuary chapel as a resting place for his mother's remains,--if not for his own--in the church of the parish in which Suthwyke manor house is situate, and that his father resided at Suthwyke until the period of his marriage with his second wife, when he removed to her dower house of Hoke in Dorsets.h.i.+re, it is not unreasonable to infer that the archbishop was born in the parish of North-Bradley.

"As his mother survived Sir Humphry's last wife, who died in 1413,--only sixteen days before Sir Humphry--it is impossible the archbishop's mother could have been Sir Humphry's wife, at the time her son was born. His birth must be set as far back as 1387, if not earlier, as in 1413 he was made LL.D. at Oxford, and in the same year he was collated to the Prebendal stall of Barton in the Cathedral church of Wells."[33]

[33] See a most able and comprehensive account of "_Stafford of Suthwyke_," in _Notes and Queries for 1871_, by B. W. GREENFIELD, ESQ., F.S.A., &c., from which we quote; and for other help kindly afforded, we here gratefully acknowledge.

The mortuary Chapel that the Archbishop erected to the memory of his mother, and to which doubtless he had her remains conveyed, and therein interred, occurs at the east end of the north aisle of North-Bradley church, and is of the width of the last bay of the arcade. It is of square form and projects with definite character from the church, to which it forms a kind of transept.

The architecture is Perpendicular, and of rich character. The east window square-headed, of some height from the floor, shewing that there was an altar once below it, and a piscina occurs in the pier of the arch on the south side. The south window is of large size, bay-shaped, and extends to the roof, the side jambs are panelled with window-shaped tracery, and along the top is a string-course of quatrefoil panels with bosses, and these are repeated at the base over the tomb; here they have s.h.i.+elds in the centre, but with no charges on them. The roof, in a good state of preservation, is a richly trussed one of oak, with deeply moulded transoms, again subdivided by smaller ones, the squares between ornamented with quatrefoils, having well-carved bosses in their centres, and others at the intersection of the trusses. On one nearest the chancel is the cross and crown of thorns,--on others the arms of Hungerford, the double rose, and some display, apparently representations of stags, a fox, man on horse, &c.

The tomb of the Archbishop's mother is in the recess of the bay of the north window. It occupies its whole width and depth, and a.s.sumes the form of a plain solid bench rising some height from the ground, with no ornament of any kind. It is composed of white stone, as is also the gravestone, let in on the top, which appears to be of somewhat different kind, and of more friable character.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EMMA, MOTHER OF ARCHBISHOP STAFFORD.

NORTH-BRADLEY CHURCH, WILTs.h.i.+RE.--A.D. 1446.]

On this gravestone the effigy of the mother of the Archbishop is incised, below her feet is a pedestal, and over her head a rich canopy supported on side b.u.t.tresses. Although the lines of the figure are somewhat denuded, yet sufficient remains to shew she was clad in the ordinary costume of a lady of the period. On her head she wears a coverchief that depends to the shoulders, a wimple around her neck, and she is otherwise attired in long gown and robe over. The hands are raised in prayer, and at her feet is a dog, apparently a spaniel, from his dependant ears and clouded coat. The incised lines are filled with a black composition, as is also the inscription that forms a ledger-line around the stone,--

=Hic jacet d'na Emma mater Venerandissimi patris et domini D'ni Joh'is Stafford dei gra' Cantuariensis Archiepi' que obiit quinto die mensis Septembris anno d'ni Millesimo cccc^mo quadra's'mo vi^o cuj' anime p'piciet' de' am'=

On the outside, the Chapel is very noticeable, on account of its height and rich character as compared with the main fabric of the church. The corner b.u.t.tresses have pinnacles at their stages, and the s.p.a.ce below the north window is filled with quatrefoiled panels, and lozenges, traceried, with plain s.h.i.+elds in their centres. A remarkable peculiarity is observable,--the carved ornamentation of the Chapel was never finished, the pinnacles on one b.u.t.tress are completed, the crockets on the other only roughed out, and the cusps of the panel work above the tomb inside, still display the pencil marks of the intention of the carver, which his chisel never gave form to. The s.h.i.+elds also are all perfectly plain and uncharged, and no trace of the armories of Stafford are at present visible anywhere on the Chapel, either within or without.

When Aubrey visited the Chapel in 1669, he notes,--

"By the north aisle is a peculiar chappell of excellent worke, the roof of wood curiously carved. I guesse the worke to be about temp: Henry VI. about which time this kind of Gothique architecture was at the height. This was as n.o.ble a Chapelle as any in the county, now, in the windowe, like a great bay windowe is only one scutcheon left entire; viz: Stafford,--_Or, a chevron gules._ Another was quarterley, _now broken_: another thus Stafford, imp: Beville. At the bottom thereof is a flatt gravestone of freestone well worked, lineally with the figure of a lady in a Gothique niche. In the limbe thereof this inscription "=Hic jacet d'na Emma, &c=."

The old antiquary gives the inscription fairly correct as it now is found, but at the end he adds these further words,--"=O Deus trina me John conserva ruina=,"--(_O triune G.o.d, save me, John, from perdition_). But such never could have existed on the face of the gravestone, as the inscription, without this addition completely fills the ledger-line around its edge. Probably he saw it in one of the windows. He then goes on to say,--

"In the limbe of the windowe are these fragments "=Emme matris d... d'ni Joh'is Archiep...r...dicti=." In the top of this windowe, and also of the other, in scrolls,--"=Gnothi seauton: Nosce te ipsum.=" The other windowe is all broken, but the scrolls aforesaid: only the picture of the archbishop, except his head, remains, of curious painted gla.s.s, he in his formalities, with pall, crozier, &c., in a cope of sky colour. In a limbe of this windowe "=hujus capelle ... Archiepi Cantuar=." In the carved wood work of the roofe are several little hunting figures, as of men carrying a deer, shooting a deer in the wood. One scutcheon of Hungerford in wood. This chapell is built outside the church, as Hungerfords at Sarum, but the scutcheons of stone are not charged."

A review of the circ.u.mstances attending the origin and career of John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, furnishes a subject of peculiar interest. Born, as we have observed, outside the legal pale, and as a consequence, subject to all its worldly disadvantages, this drawback appears to have found no hindrance to his advancement on the path of life, which ultimately led--short of sovereignty--to the highest station it had to offer. This result exhibits another striking instance of those marvellous careers, that have so often waited upon these natural children of mankind, who bearing down all obstacles in their way, and contemptuous of the goody-goody frowns and askant glances of their more piously-bred neighbours, by the force of their character, and the self-reliance engendered by what is termed misfortune of birth, have achieved the position of standing among the leaders and rulers of their race.

Examined by the light of common sense, the cause of this innate distinction is perhaps not far to seek. In its highest and truest sense, such have received their being under the strongest impulses that animate the human heart, knit by the influence of attachment often so powerful, that no present consequence, or after consideration received at the time a moment's parley, and Nature in the result a.s.serts the aristocracy of her lineage; whereof the life of the Archbishop is a notable example. Proscribed doubtless, then as now, by the social world from a.s.suming equality with them, and unable therefore to pursue any of the usual worldly professions with equal chances of success, it is refres.h.i.+ng to find the highest human vocation, the office of the Christian minister, was at his acceptance,--the Church opened her door to the human waif,--who was destined afterward to become her chief pastor. From his presumed father--as usual--he received scant help, but five years before his death, Sir Humphrey bestowed on him a costless gift, by presenting the future Archbishop to the family living of Farnboro', in the diocese of Bath and Wells,--a See he afterward presided over.

The close affection also that evidently existed between the Archbishop and his mother, cemented doubtless by the circ.u.mstances of his birth, and her consequent comparative isolation from society, is a delightful trait in his character; and it may be fully surmised caused him to take her to Canterbury, there to become a Sister of the religious house, of which fraternity he was a Brother, in order that she might be well cared for, and be near him, and where she probably pa.s.sed the last twenty years of her life. She lived long enough to see her distinguished son ascend the Archiepiscopal throne, and as Lord Chancellor also to the reigning sovereign, King Henry VI., become at once the first citizen of his native land, both in Church and State; a remarkable privilege, that few mothers indeed,--no matter what distinction of birth or station they inherited,--have been destined to witness.

At her death in 1446, the Archbishop had her body conveyed back to North-Bradley, of which place she presumably was a native, and where probably her son was born. There he deposited her remains in the mortuary chapel attached to the parish church he had specially built to receive them, under a tomb whereon he caused her form to be depicted, and surrounded it with the simple inscription that still remains to bear witness of his filial affection.

It is noticeable that some intimacy must have sprung up between his father's family and himself, for although Sir Humphrey does not mention him in his will, yet his second wife Elizabeth D'Aumarle does so in hers. This intercourse probably ripened toward the end of his life, for his legally-born half-brother, Sir Humphrey "_with the Silver Hand_," who died ten years before the Archbishop, bequeaths him some silver plate, and const.i.tutes him one of his executors. This acknowledgment would be quite in accordance with the ordinary ways of the world, Sir Humphrey doubtless properly felt that the honour of the friends.h.i.+p had now pa.s.sed to the side of his presumed half-brother,--the stray off-shoot of the Stafford blood, had outgrown and overshadowed in position and fame, all the other branches of the family tree, and consequent on this, as a matter of course, his kins.h.i.+p was not disowned, and the Archbishop became the "_frater meo_"

of the Knight "_with the Silver Hand_."

But, strange irony of this world's remembrance,--in death, if not in life their memory was to be avenged,--not a fragment of a memorial, nor the trace of an inscription remains to any direct member of the influential family of Stafford of Suthwyke and Hooke. Eschewing the humble precincts of the churches of the parishes in which their homes in Wilts and Dorset were situate as a place of burial, they caused their dust to be carried many miles away to the grand Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, and deposited in a Chantry they had founded therein, with its attendant priest to supplicate unceasingly for the welfare of their souls. Not very long after the last member of their race was laid within it, ruthless hands razed the great fabric to the ground, when all the memorials to the dead it contained were destroyed, and with such completeness, that even the position of their sepulchres may not at present be discerned, so that now, the tomb of the mother of the Archbishop alone remains in these western parts, to bear indirect witness of their former existence.

The Archbishop appears to have died at Maidstone on the sixth of July, 1452, and was buried in the "Transept of the Martyrdom" in Canterbury Cathedral.

He lies under an immense (Purbeck?) marble stone, perhaps the very largest in the cathedral, eleven feet five inches in length, by four feet six inches in breadth. On this was originally a magnificent bra.s.s, almost entirely filling the stone, but only the indent, now also much frayed, remains.

The outline shews us the effigy of the Archbishop _in pontificalibus_, with mitre and pastoral staff. He stands under a rich canopy with pinnacles and finials, supported on long b.u.t.tresses that extend down to the base of the composition. Below his feet there was evidently a square panel which probably contained the "confabulatorie epitaph"

seen and copied by Weever. Around the edge of the stone is a ledger-line, that probably had the emblems of the Evangelists at the angles.

The Archbishop's gravestone has shared the common fate accorded to all the bra.s.s-inlaid stones, that doubtless formerly thickly adorned the pavement of the cathedral, but of which not a single undespoiled example now remains.

On a boss in the vaulting immediately above, are the prelate's arms, being those of the See of Canterbury, impaling, _Or, on a chevron gules, a mitre argent, within a bordure engrailed sable_ (STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE, _with difference_).

Weever,[34] thus speaks of the Archbishop.--

[34] Edition, 1631.

"Here (Canterbury Cathedral) lies interred in the Martyrdome an Archbishop, very n.o.ble, and no lesse learned, one of the honourable familie of the _Staffords_; sonne (saith the Catalogue of Bishops) vnto the Earle of Stafford, but I finde no such thing in all the Catalogues of Honour; a man much favoured by King _Henry_ the fifth, who preferred him first to the Deanrie of Wells, gave him a Prebend in the Church of Salisbury, and made him one of his privie Councell, and in the end Treasurer of England. And then although this renowned King was taken away by vntimely death, ye hee still went forward in the way of promotion, and obtained the Bishop.r.i.c.ke of Bath and Welles, which with great wisedome hee governed eighteene yeares, from whence he was removed to this of Canterbury, in which he sate almost nine yeares; and in the meanetime was made Lord Chancellour of England, which office hee held eighteene years (which you shall hardly finde any other man to have done) vntill wearie of so painfull a place, he voluntarily resigned it over into the King's hands. And about three yeares after that died at Maidstone July 6. _Ann_: 1452. Vpon a flat marble stone over him I find this confabulatorie Epitaph:--

=Quis fuit enuclees quem celas saxea moles?

Stafford Antistes fuerat dictusque Johannes.

Qua sedit sede marmor queso simul ede?

Pridem Bathonie. Regni totius et inde Primas egregius. Pro presule funde precatus Aureolam gratus huic det de Virgine natus.="

Of the Archbishop's public career as Metropolitan and Lord Chancellor, this belongs rather to the province of national history, and is altogether too extensive for even short notice here, it has been amply treated by Dean Hook in his _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_.

Lord Campbell in his _Lives of the Chancellors_ thus speaks of Stafford in that capacity,--

"Having with great reputation taken the degree of Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford, he practised for some time as an advocate in Doctors Commons, when Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury elevated him to be Dean of the Arches and obtained for him the deanery of St. Martin, and a prebend in Lincoln Cathedral. He then became a favourite of Henry V., who made him successively Dean of Wells, Prebendary of Sarum, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and Treasurer of England. He attached himself to the party of Cardinal Beaufort, by whose interest in 1425, he was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFIGIES OF WILLIAM, LORD BOTTREAUX, AND ELIZABETH BEAUMONT, HIS WIFE.

NORTH CADBURY CH----]