passes under the right arm, and displays a small fringed pennon charged
with the same armorial insignia as the shield; it is shortened to
permit of its introduction, and shows no grip for the hand. This is the
only example of a brass in which the lance is introduced.
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--Sir Roger de Trumpington, 1289. Trumpington
Church, Cambridge.]
Another celebrated brass exemplifying in a remarkable degree the
military equipment of the period is that of Sir Roger de Trumpington,
1289, in Trumpington Church, near Cambridge (Fig. 114). This well-known
monumental effigy is one of five brasses which portray knights in the
cross-legged attitude, concerning which so much has been said and so
much written. The popular idea is, that the cross-legged position
denotes a pilgrimage, or else a participation in a Crusade, on the
part of the deceased, but this supposition is entirely negatived by
the existence of monuments to _bonâ-fide_ Crusaders, and to persons
known to have visited the Holy Land, who are represented with the lower
limbs not crossed. It is to be noted that this position is entirely
confined to England with the exception of one at Dublin, and the
generally accepted ideas are that these persons so represented were
benefactors to the Church and died in the odour of sanctity. But it
is perfectly admissible to suppose that, after all, this position was
entirely an idea of the artist or the engraver, preventing as it did
the ungainly stiffness in the d’Aubernoun brass. There are two examples
of carved stone effigies both cross-armed and cross-legged--Sir Roger
de Kerdeston, 1337, at Reepham, and Sir Oliver d’Ingham, 1343, at
Ingham, Norfolk; but neither of these were Crusaders, while both were
benefactors to their respective churches.
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--Heaume of Sir William de Staunton, 1312.]
The armour shown in the Trumpington brass is similar in general outline
to the d’Aubernoun example, but is peculiar in manifesting nothing
of an ornamental character. Two or three additions to the equipment,
however, are shown which are important. The head rests upon the great
heaume, which is of large proportions and conical, adapted for resting
upon and being supported by the shoulders. At the apex is shown a
staple for affixing either the contoise or the heraldic crest (to be
alluded to later), and this feature is also shown upon the heaume of
Sir William de Staunton, 1312, at Staunton, Notts (Fig. 115). From the
lower part of the back of the heaume a chain depends which fastens to
a narrow cord tied tightly round the waist; by this arrangement the
knight was enabled to regain this most important part of his equipment
in the event of his being unhelmed. Later on this chain was affixed to
a staple riveted or welded to the plastron-de-fer, openings being made
in the hauberk and surcoat to permit of this.
[Illustration: FIG. 116.--From the seal of Henry de Beaumont, Earl of
Buchan, 1322.]
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