John Arundell (1474–1545) Explained

Sir John Arundell (1474–1545) Knight Banneret, of Lanherne, St Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall, was "the most important man in the county", being Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall.[1] His monumental brass in the church at St Columb Major in Cornwall was described by Dunkin (1882) as "perhaps the most elaborate and interesting brass to be found in Cornwall".[2]

Origins

He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Arundell (1454–1485) KB, by his wife Katharine Dynham, third daughter of John Dynham (1406–1458) and wife Joan Arches, and coheiress to her brother John, 1st Baron Dynham.[3] His family's establishment was at Lanherne House, mainly built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The senior branch of the ancient Cornish family of Arundell had been seated at Lanherne since the middle of the 13th century.[4]

Career

In 1506, under King Henry VII, he became Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall, and in 1509 was confirmed by Henry VIII in that office for life.[5] He was knighted by bathing[6] on the eve of All Saints, 31 October 1494[7] and Knight banneret at the Battle of the Spurs in 1513, during the expedition to Terouenne and Tournay.[8] In 1525 he declined ennoblement on the plea of insufficient wealth.[9] His family had remained strictly Catholic unlike his relatives the Arundells of Trerice.[10]

Marriages and children

Arundell married twice:[11]

Monumental brass

His splendid and originally richly enamelled[18] monumental brass survives in the parish church of St Columb Major. It is in a fairly complete state, and shows Sir John bare-headed but otherwise in full armour, between his two wives dressed in gowns, mantles, and pedimental headdresses. Below them are two smaller male figures, one partly perfect in armour, and underneath again, six female children, of whom two remain.[19] [20] The brasses are firmly fixed to the original slab of grey marble by apparently the original fastenings.[21] They were originally in the Arundell chapel (a chantry built by the Arundells on the south side of the chancel of the parish church), and were early in the 19th century covered with some pews which were then placed in the chapel.[22] On the restoration of the church later that century, the chapel being re-pewed, they were removed to their present position, which is an unfortunate selection, as it subjects them to a large amount of wear from the feet of persons passing over them, they being on the floor of the nave immediately below the chancel steps.[23] The slab is now the southernmost of two and measures 7 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 9 inches; around it, 3 inches from the edge, is a plain fillet of brass bearing this inscription, partly missing, on a ledger-line:[24]

John Arundell Knyght of ye Bath and Knyght Banneret Recey(ver of) ye Duchye of Cornwall first ma(ryed ye Lady) Elizabeth Grey daughter to the Lorde Marquis of Dorset & (Catherine) daughter of Syr Thomas Gr(enville Knyght & dyed ye ey)ght of ffebruary the xxxvi yere of the reigne of Kyng Henry the eyght An° Domini 1545 and ye yere of his age (71[25])

The brass bearing those parts of the inscription enclosed in brackets has been lost. In the upper part of the stone are the finely cut figures in brass of Sir John Arundell and his two wives. Sir John is in the military costume of that period; behind his right shoulder rises a staff bearing a square banner of a knight banneret, the matrix alone surviving as the brass itself of this with the crest and a portion of the helmet and lambrequin, upon which the head of the knight rests, has been lost;[26] the banner was probably charged with the quartered coat of Arundell without any impalement.[27]

Elizabeth (Eleanor) Grey brass

Above Elizabeth Grey, the lady on the right hand of the knight, whose head rests on a square cushion, is a shield with the following arms:[28] Per pale, the dexter quarterly of six, — 1. Six swallows (Arundell); 2. Four fusils conjoined in fesse (Dynham); 3. In chief a double arch, in base a single one (Arches); 4. An escutcheon within an orle of martlets (Chideocke of Chideocke, co. Dorset); 5. A bend (Carminow); 6. As the first. impaling, quarterly of eight, — 1. Barry of six, in chief three roundels (Grey, Marquis of Dorset); 2. A maunche (Hastings); 3. Barry of ten, an orle of martlets (de Valence, Earl of Pembroke); 4. Seven mascles conjoined three, three and one (de Quincy, Earl of Winchester); 5. Lost, probably a cinquefoil, for Bellomont, Earl of Leicester;[29] 6. Lost, probably a fesse and canton, for Widville, Earl Rivers;[30] 7. Six mullets, pierced, three, two and one (Bonville); 8. A fret (Harrington).[31]

Katherine Grenville brass

Above Katherine Grenville, the lady on the left hand of the knight, is a shield: Arundell as before, impaling, 1 and 4, Three clarions (Grenville) ; 2 and 3, on a bend three roundels (Whitleigh).

Lower brasses

Beneath the principal figures, which measure 29 inches in height, are two shields, flanked on either side by a small figure with a fillet of brass over each for their names; both the fillets are gone, as are also the figure and shield on the right-hand side; they probably represented Sir John Arundell and his arms, ancestor of the Arundells of Lanherne and Chideocke.[32] The head of the remaining figure is also gone, the shield is charged with the arms of Arundell quarterly as above, impaling, quarterly of four, 1. Howard, Duke of Norfolk; 2. De Brotherton ; 3. Warren; 4. Mowbray. These are for Sir Thomas Arundell, Knt., who married Margaret Howard, daughter and co-heir of Lord Edmund Howard, third son of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk; she was sister to Catherine, fifth wife of Henry VIII. Sir Thomas Arundell was the second son of Sir John by his first wife, Lady Elizabeth Grey, and was an ancestor of the later Barons Arundell of Wardour.

Beneath these two shields are the matrixes of two groups of children, the only part remaining being the label over the group to the viewer's right, which bears the names "Joan Eleanor Mary". Below these, and forming the lowest part of the monument, were four shields, of which only three survive:

Death and burial

Sir John Arundell died on 8 February[35] 1545, and although it might be presumed from the presence of his brass that he was buried at St Columb Major, he was in fact buried in the church of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, in the City of London, as is evidenced by the following inscription at one time in that church, transcribed in 1631 by the antiquarian John Weever (1576–1632)[36]

Here lieth Sir John Arundell, Knight of the Bath and Knight Banneret, Receivor of the Duchy...Grey daughter to the Lord Marquese Dorset, who died 8 Febr: the 36 of the reigne of King Hen. the 8

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, (ed.) The Lisle Letters, 6 vols, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1981, vol.1, p.307
  2. Dunkin, E.H.W. The Monumental Brasses of Cornwall, 1882
  3. Rogers
  4. Web site: ARUNDELL, Sir John (by 1500-57), of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornw. History of Parliament Online.
  5. Rogers, p.67; "at the start of the reign of King Henry VIII" (1509–1547) (Byrne, vol.1, p.307)
  6. Not technically "KB", Knight of the Bath, an order founded much later
  7. Rogers, p.67
  8. Rogers, p.67; Byrne, vol.1, p.307, & Rogers, p.67, also assert he was created KG in 1501, dubious, not stated on his inscribed brass, which mentions the much lesser honour of Knight Banneret, nor included in reliable lists of Knights of the Garter, e.g. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/garterstalls.htm#earlier. This list shows that the only KG created in 1501 was his brother-in-law Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset
  9. Web site: ARUNDELL, Sir John (by 1500-57), of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornw. History of Parliament Online.
  10. Byrne, vol.1, p.307
  11. Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, (ed.) The Lisle Letters, 6 vols, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1981, vol.1, p.307
  12. Web site: ARUNDELL, Sir John (by 1500-57), of Lanherne, St. Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornw. History of Parliament Online.
  13. Web site: ARUNDELL, Sir Thomas (c.1502-52), of Shaftesbury, Dorset and Wardour Castle, Wilts. History of Parliament Online.
  14. Vivian, J. L., The Visitations of Cornwall, 1887, p. 4
  15. Richard Polwhele, The Civil and Military History of Cornwall, volume 1, London, 1806, pp 106–9
  16. Book: O'Day . Rosemary . The Routledge Companion to the Tudor Age . 2012 . Routledge . 978-1136962530 . 1554 .
  17. Web site: Ladies-in-Waiting: Mary Arundell . The Life and Family of Queen Katherine Parr . 17 December 2018 . 11 April 2019.
  18. Rogers, p.68
  19. Rogers, p.68
  20. Following text largely quoted verbatim from out-of-copyright work: Jewers, Arthur John (ed.), The registers of the parish of St. Columb Major, Cornwall, from the year 1539 to 1780, London, 1881 https://archive.org/stream/registersofparis00stco/registersofparis00stco_djvu.txt
  21. Jewers, 1881
  22. Jewers, 1881
  23. Jewers, 1881
  24. Jewers, 1881
  25. Byrne, vol.1, dates his life 1474–1545, p.307
  26. Jewers, 1881
  27. Jewers, 1881
  28. Jewers, 1881
  29. Jewers, 1881
  30. Jewers, 1881
  31. Burke calls this lady Eleanor, not Elizabeth, as on the brass
  32. Jewers, 1881
  33. Jewers, 1881
  34. Jewers, 1881
  35. See below, inscription in St Mary Woolnoth
  36. Rogers, p.69, quoting "Weever, in his notice of St. Mary Woolnoth" (Weever, John, Ancient Funerall Monuments, London, 1631)

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