The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal SeeWithers, Hartley
History
The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal See
Withers, Hartley
Canterbury Cathedral
The tomb is surmounted by a canopy on which is painted an interesting
representation of the Trinity. The work is a good deal faded, but still
worthy of notice; the absence of the figure of the dove is curious, but is
not unparalleled in such designs. At the corners are symbols of the four
evangelists. The Holy Trinity--on whose feast-day he died--was held in
peculiar veneration by the Black Prince. The ordinance of the chantry
founded by him in the crypt contains the phrase, _Ad honorem Sancte
Trinitatis quam peculiari devocione semper colimus_. A curious metal
badge, preserved in the British Museum, is stamped with the figure of the
prince kneeling before the Almighty and our Saviour, whose representation
is almost identical with the design on the canopy over the tomb; here also
the figure of the dove is absent. Round the canopy and in the pillars we
can still see the hooks which upheld the black tapestry, bordered with
crimson and embroidered with _cygnes avec tetes de dames_, which was hung,
as ordained by his will, round the prince's tomb and Becket's shrine.
[Illustration: SHIELD, COAT, ETC., OF THE BLACK PRINCE.]
Lastly, above the canopy, on a cross-beam between two pillars, are
suspended the brazen gauntlets, the helmet, the wooden shield with its
moulded leather covering, the velvet coat emblazoned with the arms of
England and France, and the empty sheath. The gauntlets were once
embellished with little figures of lions on the knuckles; these have been
detached by "collectors," vandals almost as ruthless as Blue Dick and his
troopers, and without their excuse of mistaken religious zeal. The helmet
still has its original lining of leather, showing that it was actually
worn. The sword which fitted the now empty sheath is said to have been
taken away by Oliver Cromwell; it appeared in Manchester at the beginning
of this century under circumstances so curious, that we may be excused for
quoting the following letter from Canon Wray, given in Stanley's Appendix
on the Black Prince's will. "The sword, or supposed sword, of the Black
Prince, which Oliver Cromwell is said to have carried away, I have seen
and many times have had in my hands. There lived in Manchester, when I
first came here, a Mr. Thomas Barritt, a saddler by trade; he was a great
antiquarian, and had collected together helmets, coats of mail, horns,
etc., and many coins. But what he valued most of all was a sword: the
blade about two feet long, and on the blade was let in, in letters of
gold, 'EDWARDUS WALLIE PRINCEPS'.... He was in possession of this sword
A.D. 1794. He told me he purchased many of the ancient relics of a pedlar,
who travelled through the country selling earthenware, and I think he said
he got this sword from this pedlar. When Barritt died, in 1820, his
curiosities were sold by his widow at a raffle, but I believe this sword
was not amongst the articles so disposed of. It had probably been disposed
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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