Thus starts the account of the funeral in London of Antoine de Pierrepont, seigneur of La Motte d’Arisolles, which is preserved in the British Library. It is a short (just under 400 words) and seemingly incomplete account in the hand of Sir Thomas Writhe alias Wriothesley, Garter king of arms. At the top right-hand corner of folio 159v, above the text, Wriothesley has drawn Pierrepont's pennon (the long triangular flag) and coat of arms (a helm, a supporter and a crest). The document names Pierrepont's executors and some of the mourners and describes the order of the funeral procession from Crosby Place to the church and the seating arrangements there.

What makes this document and the event even more interesting is that we also have a French description of Pierrepont's funeral. It is to be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Entitled ‘Lordre de linhumacion et enterement fait du corps de feu monsieur le mareschal darisolles enbassadeur du Roy en engleterre audit lieu d’engleterre ou Il morut’, it is a much longer (over 1,000 words) and more detailed report. It tells of who took part in the procession, how they were dressed, in which order they walked; it gives the name of the church (St. Clement Eastcheap) and describes the two-day ceremony that took place there and also the meal served on the evening of the first day. The account is anonymous but both documents mention the presence of a French king of arms in the procession, whom Wriothesley names as Normandie (Gabriel Le Forestier). It was the duty of the king of arms to record funerals so we can reasonably assert that Normandie is the anonymous author, and his detailed description of the heraldic devices and the order of precedence would seem to corroborate such an attribution. These two documents are, as far as I know, the only accounts we have of a foreign ambassador's funeral in London in the sixteenth century and, furthermore, the only ones in two different languages.