The brass of Thomas of Woodstock

Whilst looking for illustrations for my recent post about the Merciless Parliament I came across a reproduction of the engraving of the monumental brass of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester.The brass, which was in Westminster Abbey, was drawn by Sandford in 1677, but has regrettably subsequently been lost.

Image: Monumental Brass Society website mbs-brasses.co.uk

The Duke, wearing the robes of a Knight of the Garter, is in the middle of the third register, with his wife below him. The figures either side of her may be their children. Above the Duke is the Holy Trinity, between the Blessed Virgin Mary and, presumably from the mitre, St Thomas of Canterbury. This suggests a devotion to the Trinity similar to that of his brother Edward Prince of Wales as shown in the tester over his tomb, which is situated close to the site of the shrine of St Thomas in Canterbury cathedral. 

At the top is King Edward III in state flanked by two of his sons and with others and his daughters, identified by their arms, forming the side panels. The way the figures are placed within the embattlemented canopy work is slightly reminiscent of the brass of Bishop Wyvil at Salisbury which shows him within the episcopal castle at Sherborne which he had recovered for his see.

The emphasis on the Duke's membership of the wider royal family is unusual, indeed almost unique, though it does recall the paintings commissioned by his father for St Stephen's Chapel in the adjacent palace showing the King and his sons at prayer, of which portions survive, having been rediscovered after the 1834 fire. It perhaps owes something to the design of a Tree of Jesse, and also to brasses which show a single figure flanked by smaller figures of saints. It presumably stresses Duke Thomas' membership of the royal house and his status as a Son of the King of England, the contemporary equivalent of the modern HRH, or the Iberian Infante. It is presumably designed to invite the viewer to pray for the souls of the Duke's parents and siblings as well as for him and his wife.

The design is unusual and it is not immediately clear if it is a single plate which might suggest that it was a product if a Flemish workshop, as they specialised in large plates, or if it is English work with the preference for individual  cut out figures and shields. I think it is the latter from the way Sandford shows the brass, with the apparent background being a stone slab.

The Monumental Brass Society website dates it to 1395, suggesting it was commissioned by the Duke, who was killed two years later. He was originally buried in St Edmund's chapel but King Henry IV moved his body to the Confessor's chapel to be near his parents King Edward III and Queen Philippa. The fine, separate brass of his Duchess, Eleanor, who died in 1399, does survive in the abbey.

Baltic Brasses

Fr Jerome Bertram C.O. of the Oxford Oratory is, in addition to his very considerable skills as a priest and preacher, a leading authority on monumental brasses and related matters. In recent years he has spent holidays looking at, and indeed for, brasses in the Baltic coastlands east of Lubeck right round to the remains of East Prussia. Since 1989-91 this has become much easier and his discoveries were presented to the Society of Antiquaries (he is an FSA )in a lecture in 2011. He has now made this available to a wider public in a monograph, Bishops and Burghers, Dukes and Knights.

This is not just a catalogue of brasses, brass indents and incised slabs, but with its illustrations of the churches and castles of the bishops, nobles and Teutonic knights who are commemorated an evocation not only of the splendid things that are once again accessible along the shores of the Baltic but also of the world that created them. Here is the landscape and culture of the Northern Crusades and the medieval conversion and colonisation of the medieval  Ostsiedlung, the origins of the Drang nach Osten. The monuments Fr Jerome illustrates are impressive in themselves and well worthy of being better known, and if it achieves nothing more then his study of them should do that.

Handsomely illustrated and written with knowledge and characteristc good humour Bishops and Burghers, Dukes and Knights is published by Lulu.com and can be ordered online from them, and costs £10.50.