four Queens, four Duchesses, four Countesses, one Duke, two Earls, eight Barons,[1] and some thirty-five Knights: and in all six hundred sixty and three persons of quality. Stowe tells us that "there were nine tombs of alabaster and marble, invironed with strikes of iron, in the choir; and one tomb in the body of the church, also coped with iron; besides seven-score grave-stones of marble." Both Stowe and Weever derived their information from a catalogue of all the sepulchral monuments, made some time before the expulsion of the Friars, which is still preserved in their register, and which has been edited in the fifth volume of the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica. This record is a very valuable one in a genealogical point of view. To the artistic antiquary it would have offered greater interest had it described the character of the monuments more fully; but it particularizes the "raised tombs," and they were more numerous than Stowe calculated. In the choir were those of queen Margaret the first foundress of the new church, of queen Isabella, of John earl of Pembroke, John lord Dynham, K.G., sir Robert Chalons, and Richard Hastings lord Willoughby and Welles. In the Lady chapel were those of Alice lady Kingston 1439, and sir Walter Langley 1470; in the chapel of the Apostles, south of the
- ↑ The Queens were, Margaret consort of Edward the First; Isabella consort of Edward the Second; Joan queen of Scots, daughter of Edward the Second; and Isabella queen of Man. Besides these the church had received the heart of a fifth queen, Alianor consort of Henry the Third, and also the heart of king Edward the Second, which was deposited under the breast of his queen's effigy. The Duchesses were but two: Beatrice duchess of Britany, daughter of king Henry III., and Alianor duchess of Buckingham, 1530; the Duke was the captive duke of Bourbon; the Earls were John Hastings earl of Pembroke, 1389, and Stowe adds the name of Roger Mortimer earl of March, beheaded in 1329, but which is not in the register; the Countesses were Margaret de Rivers countess of Devon, Margaret Marshal countess of Norfolk, 1389, (erroneously called a duchess by Stowe,) Isabella countess of Bedford, daughter of king Edward I.; and the lady reckoned by Weever as a fourth was probably Elizabeth lady Neville, mother of Ralph earl of Westmerland. It is, however, uncertain whether there was not also a countess of Menteith.
