HERALDIC BRASSES
BY REV. WALTER J. KAYE, JUNR., B.A., F.S.A., F.S.A. SCOT.
_Member of the Monumental Brass Society, London; Honorary Member of the
Spalding Gentlemen's Society; Author of "A Brief History of Gosberton, in
the County of Lincoln."_
Monumental brasses do not merely afford a guide to the capricious changes
of fashion in armour, in ecclesiastical vestments (which have altered but
little), and in legal, civilian, and feminine costume, but they provide us
also with a vast number of admirable specimens of heraldic art. The vandal
and the fanatic have robbed us of many of these beautiful memorials, but of
those which survive to our own day the earliest on the continent of Europe
marks the last resting-place of Abbot Ysowilpe, 1231, at Verden, in
Hanover. In England there was once a brass, which unfortunately disappeared
long ago, to an Earl of Bedford, in St. Paul's Church, Bedford, of the year
1208, leaving 1277 as the date of the earliest one.
Latten (Fr. _laiton_), the material of which brasses were made, was at an
early date manufactured in large quantities at Cologne, whence plates of
this metal came to be known as cullen (Köln) plates; these were largely
exported to other countries, and the Flemish workmen soon attained the
greatest proficiency in their engraving. Flemish brasses are usually large
and rectangular, having the space between the figure and the marginal
inscription filled either by diaper work or by small figures in niches.
Brasses vary considerably in size: the matrix of Bishop Beaumont's brass in
Durham Cathedral measures about 16 feet by 8 feet, and the memorial to
Griel van Ruwescuere, in the chapel of the Lady Superior of the Béguinage
at Bruges, is only about 1 foot square. Brazen effigies are more numerous
in England in the eastern and southern counties, than in parts more remote
from the continent of Europe.
Armorial bearings are displayed in a great variety of ways on monumental
brasses, some of which are exhibited in the rubbings selected for
illustration. In most cases separate shields are placed above and below the
figures. They occur also in the spandrils of canopies and {50} in the
shafts and finials of the same, as well as in the centre and at the angles
of border-fillets. They naturally predominate in the memorials of warriors,
where we find them emblazoned not only on shield and pennon but on the
scabbard and ailettes, and on the jupon, tabard, and cuirass also, while
crests frequently occur on the tilting-helm. In one case (the brass of Sir
Peter Legh, 1527, at Winwick, co. Lancaster) they figure upon the priestly
chasuble. Walter Pescod, the merchant of Boston, Lincolnshire, 1398, wears
a gown adorned with peascods--a play upon his name; and many a merchant's
brass bears his coat of arms and merchant's mark beside, pointing a moral
to not a few at the present day. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
witnessed the greatest profusion in heraldic decoration in brasses, when
the tabard and the heraldic mantle were evolved. A good example of the
former remains in the parish church of Ormskirk, Lancashire, in the brass
commemorating a member of the Scarisbrick family, _c._ 1500 (Fig. 21).
Ladies were accustomed at this time to wear their husband's arms upon the
mantle or outer garment and their own upon the kirtle, but the fashion
which obtained at a subsequent period was to emblazon the husband's arms on
the dexter and their own on the sinister side of the mantle (Fig. 22).
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Brass in the Scarisbrick Chapel of Ormskirk
Church, co. Lancs., to a member of the Scarisbrick family of that name.
Arms: Gules, three mullets in bend between two bendlets engrailed argent.
(From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Brass of Margaret (daughter of Henry Percy, Earl
of Northumberland), second wife of Henry, 1st Earl of Cumberland, in
Skipton Parish Church. Arms: On the dexter side those of the Earl of
Cumberland, on the sinister side those of Percy.]
The majority of such monuments, as we behold them now, are destitute of any
indications of metals or tinctures, largely owing to the action of the
varying degrees of temperature in causing contraction and expansion. Here
and there, however, we may still detect traces of their pristine glory. But
these matters received due attention from the engraver. To represent _or_,
he left the surface of the brass untouched, except for gilding or perhaps
polishing; this universal method has solved many heraldic problems. Lead or
some other white metal was inlaid to indicate _argent_, and the various
tinctures were supplied by the excision of a portion of the plate, thereby
forming a depression, which was filled up by pouring in some resinous
substance of the requisite colour. The various kinds of fur used in armory
may be readily distinguished, with the sole exception of _vair_ (_argent_
and _azure_), which presents the appearance of a row of small upright
shields alternating with a similar row reversed.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Brass of Sir John D'Aubernoun at Stoke D'Abernon.
Arms: Azure, a chevron or. (From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Brass of Sir Roger de Trumpington at Trumpington.
Arms: Azure, crusilly and two trumpets palewise or. (From a rubbing by
Walter J. Kaye.)]
The earliest brass extant in England is that to Sir John D'Aubernoun, the
elder (Fig. 23), at Stoke D'Abernon, in Surrey, which carries us back to
the year 1277. The simple marginal inscription in Norman-French,
surrounding the figure, and each Lombardic capital of which is set in its
own matrix, reads: "Sire: John: Daubernoun: Chivaler: Gist: Icy: Deu: De:
Sa: Alme: Eyt: Mercy:"[3] In the space {51} between the inscription and the
upper portion of the figure were two small shields, of which the dexter one
alone remains, charged with the arms of the knight: "Azure, a chevron, or."
Sir John D'Aubernoun is represented in a complete panoply of chain
mail--his head being protected by a _coif de mailles_, which is joined to
the _hauberk_ or mail {52} shirt, which extends to the hands, having
apparently no divisions for the fingers, and being tightened by straps at
the wrists. The legs, which are not crossed, are covered by long
_chausses_, or stockings of mail, {53} protected at the knees by _poleyns_
or _genouillères_ of _cuir bouilli_ richly ornamented by elaborate designs.
A surcoat, probably of linen, depends from the shoulders to a little below
the knees, and is cut away to a point above {54} the knee. This garment is
tightly confined (as the creases in the surcoat show) at the waist by a
girdle, and over it is passed a _guige_ whereto the long sword is attached.
"Pryck" spurs are fixed to the instep, and the feet rest upon a lion, whose
mouth grasps the lower portion of a lance. The lance bears a pennon charged
with a chevron, as also is the small heater-shaped shield borne on the
knight's left arm. The whole composition measures about eight feet by
three.
Heraldry figures more prominently in our second illustration, the brass to
Sir Roger de Trumpington, 1289 (Fig. 24). This fine effigy lies under the
canopy of an altar-tomb, so called, in the Church of St. Michael and All
Angels, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. It portrays the knight in armour
closely resembling that already described, with these exceptions: the head
rests upon a huge _heaume_, or tilting-helm, attached by a chain to the
girdle, and the neck is here protected from side-thrusts by _ailettes_ or
oblong plates fastened behind the shoulders, and bearing the arms of Sir
Roger. A dog here replaces the lion at the feet, the lance and pennon are
absent, and the shield is rounded to the body. On this brass the arms not
only occur upon the shield, but also upon the ailettes, and are four times
repeated on the scabbard. They afford a good example of "canting" arms:
"Azure, crusilly and two trumpets palewise or, with a label of five points
in chief, for difference." It is interesting also to notice that the
engraver had not {55} completed his task, for the short horizontal lines
across the dexter side of the shield indicate his intention of cutting away
the surface of the field.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Brass of Sir Robert de Septvans in Chartham
Church.]
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Brass of Sir William de Aldeburgh at Aldborough,
Yorks. Arms: Azure, a fesse argent between three cross crosslets or. (From
a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)]
Sir Robert de Setvans (formerly Septvans), whose beautiful brass may be
seen at Chartham, Kent, is habited in a surcoat whereon, together with the
shield and ailettes, are seven winnowing fans--another instance of canting
arms (Fig. 25). This one belongs to a somewhat later date, 1307.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Brass of Elizabeth Knevet.]
Our next example is a mural effigy to Sir William de Aldeburgh, _c._ 1360,
from the north aisle of Aldborough Church, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire
(Fig. 26). He is attired like the "veray parfite gentil knight" of Chaucer,
in a _bascinet_ or steel cap, to which is laced the _camail_ or tippet of
chain mail, and a hauberk almost concealed by a _jupon_, whereon are
emblazoned his arms: "Azure, a fess indented argent, between three
crosslets botony, or." The first crosslet is charged with an annulet,
probably as a mark of cadency. The engraver has omitted the indenture upon
the fess, which, however, appears upon the shield. The knight's arms are
protected by _epaulières_, _brassarts_, _coutes_, and _vambraces_; his
hands, holding a heart, by gauntlets of steel. An elaborate baldric passes
round his waist, from which are suspended, on the left, a cross-hilted
sword, in a slightly ornamented scabbard; on the right, a _misericorde_, or
dagger of mercy. The thighs are covered by cuisses--steel plates, here
deftly concealed probably by satin or velvet secured by metal studs--the
knees by _genouillères_, the lower leg by _jambes_, which reveal chausses
of mail at the interstices. Sollerets, or long, pointed shoes, whereto are
attached rowel spurs, complete his outfit. The figure stands upon a bracket
bearing the name "Will's de Aldeburgh."
The parish church of Eastington, Gloucestershire, contains a brass to
Elizabeth Knevet, which is illustrated and described by Mr. Cecil T. Davis
at p. 117 of his excellent work on the "Monumental Brasses of
Gloucestershire."[4] The block (Fig. 27), which presents a good example of
the heraldic mantle, has been very kindly placed at my disposal by Mr.
Davis. To confine our description to the heraldic portion of the brass, we
find the following arms upon the mantle:--
"Quarterly, 1. argent, a bend sable, within a bordure engrailed azure
(Knevet); 2. argent, a bend azure, and chief, gules (Cromwell); 3. chequy
or and gules, a chief ermine (Tatshall); 4. chequy or and gules, a bend
ermine (De Cailly or Clifton); 5. paly of six within a bordure bezanté....
6. bendy of six, a canton...."[5]
A coat of arms occurs also at each corner of the slab: "Nos. 1 and 4 are on
ordinary shields, and 2 and 3 on lozenges. Nos. 1 and {56} 3 are charged
with the same bearings as are on her mantle. No. 2, on a lozenge,
quarterly, 1. Knevet; 2. Cromwell; 3. Tatshall; 4. Cailli; 5. De Woodstock;
6. paly of six within a bordure; 7. bendy of six, a canton; 8. or, a
chevron gules (Stafford); 9. azure, a bend cottised between six lioncels
rampant, or (de Bohun). No. 4 similar to No. 1, with the omission of 2 and
3."
In later times thinner plates of metal were employed, a fact which largely
contributed to preclude much of the boldness in execution hitherto
displayed. A prodigality in shading, either by means of parallel lines or
by cross-hatching, also tended to mar the beauty of later work of this
kind. Nevertheless there are some good brasses of the Stuart period. These
sometimes consist of a single quadrangular plate, with the upper portion
occupied by armorial bearings and emblematical figures, the centre by an
inscription, and the lower portion by a representation of the deceased, as
at Forcett, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Frequently, however, as at
Rotherham and Rawmarsh, in the West Riding of the same county, the
inscription is surmounted by a view of the whole family, the father
kneeling on a cushion at a fald-stool, with his sons in a similar attitude
behind him, and the mother likewise engaged with her daughters on the
opposite side, while the armorial insignia find a place on separate shields
above. {57}