The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West. W. H. Hamilton Rogers
salary every year ten marks, and to the relief of fourteen poor men and women, by the space of the said twenty years, to pray for his soul, as also for the soul of Blanche his wife, and the souls of his father and mother." Probate, 25 December next ensuing. (Dugdale.)
Lord Willoughby de Broke is buried on the north side of the chancel of Callington church, and his monument—perhaps the finest of its kind in Cornwall—consists of his effigy recumbent on a high-tomb, both composed of alabaster. He is habited in complete plate armour, collar and apron of mail, and broad-toed sollerets, and is armed with sword and miséricorde. The hands are in gauntlets, the head—which rests on a helmet—is uncovered, the hair cut short across the forehead, but flowing by the sides of the face, to the shoulders. The helmet is mantled, and surmounted by the crest a Saracen's head affronté, couped at the shoulders, ducally crowned, and with ear-rings. The feet are on a lion, and behind the soles, are two monks, or weepers, their heads bowed and inclining toward each other, resting on one hand, with the other they hold a rosary. The Garter appears below the left knee, and over the armour he wears the Robe and Collar of the Order, on the left shoulder is embroidered the Shield encircled by the Riband, the Collar is composed of roses within a garter, and garter-knots alternate, and from it is suspended the George.
The tomb below is formed of panels filled with rich tracery, having in their centres shields with carved armorial bearings, and twisted pillars were at the corners; of these two remain. No inscription is visible, it was probably only painted on the verge of the ledger-moulding, but traces of colour and gilding are faintly discernible on the figure. The effigy is in a fair state of preservation, but wretchedly disfigured on the surface, by legions of names and initials, barbarously cut into, and scratched on it.
The shields—two of which are encircled by the Garter—are charged with the arms borne by Lord Willoughby de Broke, as derived from Willoughby de Eresby with due difference. Quarterly: first grand quarter 1 and 4, Sable, a cross engrailed or (Ufford); 2 and 3, Gules, a cross moline argent (Bec or Beke), at the intersection a crescent for difference; second, Gules, a cross patonce or (Latimer); third, Gules, four fusils argent, on each an escallop sable (Cheney); fourth, Or, a chevron gules, within a bordure engrailed sable (Stafford). On the styles between the panels appears the rudder, surmounted by the rose of his patron Henry VII.
It is singular that no armorial alliance allusive to his wife appears on the tomb, but only his own family achievement with its proud distinguishment conspicuously displayed, finds place thereon. Yet Blanche Champernowne was an heiress of no mean descent, and richly dowered also, being the representative of the two very antient races of Ferrers and Champernowne, west country names of remote descent, and wide-spread renown, whose property she inherited. The more to be noted also, as he was presumably buried and his monument occurs in the church at Callington, whose manor formed a portion of her possessions. Where Lady Willoughby de Broke was buried does not appear. At Beer-Ferrers the horse-shoes of Ferrers do find position of equal consequence with her husband's, but largely super-imposed with the rudders of Willoughby. Champernowne does not appear in either church, but on her descendant's tomb at Alcester, both Ferrers and Champernowne are carefully marshalled among the elaborate heraldic display.
Stay thy foot, friend of mine, a short while, ere thou passest out of the sacred enclosure, and scan yon venerable churchyard cross—how rich is Cornwall in these reminders—slightly leaning, yet hale in the strength of the almost imperishable granite, and with the age-worn imagery of the Great Sacrifice, still plainly discernible, insculped on one of the faces of its pediment. There it was before the honour-bedizened noble—whose tomb we have been just surveying—found his way to Callington to enjoy the portion of his great possessions, situate near it; and who shall say he may not many a time have bowed his head in silent prayer, and crossed himself reverently at the sight of its solemn appeal, when in life he passed in front of it, as he entered the adjoining sanctuary for worship, ere he finally found therein his grave. And here also it is to-day, speaking the same eternal lesson to us, who are seeking to gather back from the woof of the Past, ravelled threads of his memory; and there it will doubtless be found, when we also are merged into the things that were. Such is
THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS.
Hoary and worn and frayed—
Old cross—
By ruin's hand arrayed,
Time's dross:—
What message never stayed,
Speaks from thy lips decayed?
"Strife of the years is gone,
Not me—
Drooping, bereft, and lone,
Here see
Pilgrim, by days undone,
Heaven's pleading-still, milestone.
"Ah! many eyes as thine
Have come,
Met this old gaze of mine,
Then home,
Would their glad steps incline,
Bearing my tale divine.
"Where are they now? O say—
No sound—
Ask the memorials gray,
Around—
They came again this way,
And down beside me lay."
Lord Willoughby de Broke by his wife Blanche Champernowne, left one son Robert, his heir, and a daughter Elizabeth, married (as his second wife) to William Fitz-Alan, seventeenth Earl of Arundel, K.G. who died in 1543, and was buried at Arundel.
Robert Willoughby, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke, married first Elizabeth, eldest of the three daughters and coheiresses of Sir Richard Beauchamp, second Lord Beauchamp of Powyke, who died 1503, by his wife Elizabeth daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford, knt.
This marriage of Lord Beauchamp and Elizabeth Stafford, took place in the private chapel of his manor-house of Beauchamp's-Court near Alcester, by special license of the Bishop of Worcester.
The manor of Alcester belonged to the Beauchamps. Walter de Beauchamp, brother to William de Beauchamp, the first Earl of Warwick of that line, purchased a moiety of the manor, and had one of his seats at Beauchamp's-Court near that town, the other being at Powyke, in Worcestershire. His descendant Sir John de Beauchamp, K.G., who was created Baron Beauchamp of Powyke, 2 May, 1447, by Henry VI. and who was also Lord Treasurer of England, purchased the other portion of the manor of Thomas Bottreaux, a representative of the antient Cornish family of that name, who had held it for several descents. He died in 1478, and at his death left the whole manor to his son and heir, Richard, the second baron; and he at the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth with Robert Willoughby, settled its reversion, subject to his own life, upon her.
By this his first marriage, Robert, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke had one son Edward. More concerning him presently.
Secondly he married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, K.G.—by his wife Cicely, the heiress of the Lords Bonville and Harington. By her he had two sons Henry and William (who died young of the sweating sickness)[6] and two daughters, Elizabeth married to John Paulet, second Marquis of Winchester who died in 1576, and Anne wedded to Charles Blount, fifth Lord Montjoy, who died in 1545, son and heir of William, fourth Lord Montjoy, whom her mother Dorothy Grey subsequently married as her second husband. Of the public services of this nobleman we hear little beyond his being attached to the expedition under the command of his father-in-law the Marquis of Dorset, sent to Spain early in 1512 by Henry VIII. on behalf of Ferdinand of Arragon, and which returned to England somewhat ingloriously in the November of the same year. He survived his son Edward, and gave a considerable portion of his large property to the daughters of his second wife. He made his will 1 Oct., 1521, and "bequeathed his body to be buried in the Hospital called the Savoy, in the suburbs of London, before the image of St. John the Baptist, appointing a priest of honest conversation should be provided to sing and pray for his soul, as also for his wife's soul, and all his ancestors souls for ever, in the place where he should be buried taking