Body Squire To King Henry VII

[poliphilo]

I love a recumbent effigy- and my heart leaps up when I find the church I'm visiting has one on display.

This is Sir John Darrell, "body squire to King Henry VII" who died in 1509. It isn't a portrait, because these alabaster effigies came off a production line- and the features, long face, heavily-lidded eyes, page boy cut, were standard issue. Medieval people weren't bothered whether dad's effigy actually looked like dad; what mattered was getting the heraldry right. A plaque on the wall behind the tomb is mostly taken up with an explanation as to why Sir John had the right to a heraldic device that was the prerogative of the senior branch of his family when he belonged to the cadet branch. Apparently the only thing about him worth recording was this quibble.

Darrell's effigy isn't of the highest quality- his armour is more lovingly carved than he is- but it's very well preserved- which is all the more remarkable when you consider that the church it originally occupied- St Mary, Little Chart- was demolished by a German V1 flying bomb. It now stands in the north west corner of the nearby parish church of St James, Egerton, a little to the north of Ashford, Kent.



Here are Sir John's feet, resting "a la mode" on a heraldic lion. Under his right foot crouches a little mourning figure- a weeper or bedesman- who- even after the passage of 500 years is still very sorry that Sir John is no longer with us.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Kentish family.

You'll find Sir John's will here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Darell-41

[poliphilo]

I see he was a little prone to "forget" to pay his tithes. :)

[outereasy]

I love this little piece of history! Thank you for sharing it

[lokbiiviing]

I love these entries. Just letting you know.

I wish I still had my photos from Turku where I studied. There's a church there with resting figures I would have loved to have shown but I don't have them anymore.