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Two Fourteenth-Century Gauntlets From Ripon Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Extract

The two gauntlets which were exhibited to the Society by kind permission of the Archdeacon of Richmond, on 26th November 1941, form part of the funeral achievement of Sir Edward Blackett (died 1718), hanging above his monument in the north transept of Ripon Cathedral. The achievement consists of a close-helmet of the sixteenth century with a wooden funeral crest of a falcon (for Blackett); a tabard; a cruciform sword in its scabbard, of the heraldic pattern of the early eighteenth century; and two iron gauntlets. The wooden escutcheon and pair of spurs which must once have completed the group are now missing.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1942

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References

page 114 note 1 The Connoisseur, c (1941), 69–73.

page 114 note 2 Thordeman, B., Armour from the Battlefield of Wisby, Stockholm, 1939Google Scholar.

page 115 note 1 C. Stothard, Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, 1817, pls. 52, 53, 55.

page 115 note 2 Clearly shown, for instance, on the brass of Sir John St. Quintin, d. 1397, at Brandesburton, Yorks.

page 116 note 1 They can be seen as patches on the right side of the left hand gauntlet on pl. viii.

page 118 note 1 The Connoisseur, xcv (1935), 136.

page 118 note 2 Trapp and Mann, The Armoury of the Castle of Churburg, 1929, no. 13.

page 118 note 3 Laking, Record of European Armour and Arms, 1920–2, ii, fig. 365, p. 210.

page 118 note 4 Kienbusch and Grancsay, The Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, 193, pl. 1.

page 118 note 5 A. Lensi, Il Museo Stibbert (1918), no. 3551, pl. clxi; The Connoisseur, c (1941), 72, fig. viii.

page 118 note 6 Trapp and Mann, op. cit., nos. 13, 18, 47, 48.

page 119 note 1 Testamenta Eboracensia I (1836), no. clxxxv. In 1430 William Stowe of Ripon left to Henry Mauncell ‘unam loricam de Milan apud Rypon’, and to his brother John ‘unum doublett defensiorum, apud Ripon, et unam loricam apud Werkeswerth et unum stele hat’, Ibid., vol. ii, x.

page 119 note 2 The Register of the Freemen of York published by the Surtees Society. 1896, gives the names of twenty-two armourers of York between 1350 and 1420, six buckler makers and three mailmakers.

page 119 note 3 Dillon, Arch. Journal LIV (1897), 305–7.

page 119 note 4 Test. Ebor. III (1865), no. xvi.

page 120 note 1 Lorica is the usual term for a mail shirt. When other forms of body armour are referred to, the specific vernacular words “jak, bregaunter, par de platis, bresteplate” are used.

page 120 note 2 Pisanum, puzaine, pisan = a mail defence or collar for the chest, here possibly used for an aventail.

page 120 note 3 Poleyns, i.e. knee-pieces. Quischets = cuisses.

page 121 note 1 Other Yorkshire examples of armour devised as mortuaries occur in the wills of Sir Gilbert de Ayton, 10th April 1350, ‘Item devise a William mon fitz la beneyson de Dieu et la moyne et mes armes et armurs, sauf mon atyre pour mortuarie, et une acketon que jeo ay done a Roger mon chambreleyn’; of Sir William Dronsfield, 1406, ‘In primis lego … corpus meum ad sepeliendum in ecclesia Omnium Sanctorum de Silkeston, cum meliori averio meo cum tota sequela pertinente ad hominem armatum nomine mortuarii mei’; of John Normanvile, 1408, ‘Item vicario ecclesiae predictae (B.M. de Tadcastre), nomine mortuarii mei, meum optimum equum cum cella et freno. Item eidem vicario unam loricam et j basenet. Item Thomae Normanvile filio meo j loricam, j bresteplate & j basenet’; of Sir Gerard de Usflete, 1420, ‘Item lego ecclesiae in quo sepultus fuero, unam par de bregaunters, cum tota reliqua armatura mea in qua fui armatus’; The corse-present of a later Sir Thomas Markenfield, d. 1497, contained no armour. In his will (Test. Ebor. IV, no. lxiii) he stated ‘I becuith to the church of Rypon my beste horse, with bridell, sadell and oder apparell, in the name of my mortuary corspresand’. His monument is also in the Cathedral.

On the other hand, the armour hung over the tomb was not disposable, but being part of the hatchment was vested in the heirs of the deceased. As Sir Edward Blackett's example shows, this custom continued for long after the mortuary or corse-present had been commuted by law for a money payment.

page 122 note 1 Bain, Joseph, Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland preserved in H.M.'s Public Record Office, London, II, Edinburgh, 1884Google Scholar.

page 122 note 2 J. Quicherat, Procès de Condamnation et de Réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc dite la Pucelle, 1841, i, 305. ‘Interrogata si hoc fecit, ut dicta arma adorarentur: respondit quod non.’

page 122 note 3 Archaeologia lxxx (1930), 117–142, and lxxxvii (1938), 311–51.

page 122 note 4 Test. Ebor. III, no. cxxxviii, ‘ad sustentacionem luminum Sanctae Crucis, B. Mariae et S. Katerinae in eccles. predic. j jak de ffence’.