Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday, 22 December 2023

The King’s Champion


I was sorry to see last evening on the internet of the death of the King’s Champion, Francis Dymoke. This hereditary office was his by reason of holding by Grand Serjeantry the manor of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire.


At the beginning of the year it had an interview with him about the historic role he was to perform which can be seen at ‘My family have been to every coronation since 1066 – I’m waiting for my invitation’

Following the Coronation in May the paper also had an article written by Mr Dymoke about the events at the Abbey. This can be read at ‘I felt incredibly proud to lead the King and Queen into the Abbey – and relieved I didn’t trip’

There are other pieces about him from Lincolnshire World at Scrivelsby's Francis Dymoke discusses role as King's Champion in Coronation and another from the East Midlands RFCA at Francis Dymoke: Championing HM The King and Army Cadets

Anyone reading these can be grateful that at least, and almost at the last, he was able to discharge his family’s hereditary duty on May 6th in Westminster Abbey

Wikipedia has fairly short, and not entirely accurate, articles about the hereditary office at King's Champion, about the Dymoke family at Dymoke, and about their ancestral home at Scrivelsby

There is also an entry about the Gloucestershire village of Dymoke whence the family came by marriage to the Marmion heiress to inherit the estate in Lincolnshire and the office of Champion in the fourteenth century at Dymock

There is a family tree showing the descent of the earlier Dymokes as Champions at Thomas Dymoke (abt.1428-1470) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree


I have once briefly visited Scrivelsby which lies at the southern end of the Lincolnshire Wolds. There is something very archetypically English, indeed something very typical of Lincolnshire, about this small village, off the beaten track, that is the home to so venerable and historic institution and indeed person as the King’s Champion.


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