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These two reclining figures, which Nichols reminds us were once painted in colour and gilt,
lie before back columns which carry an architrave under a deep arch with strap work inside and
on the back wall. Over the effigies are the arms: Qly:
- Azure, a lion rampant between ten
fleurs-de-lis or armed and langued gules (Beaumont)
- Argent, three garbs or (Cumin Earl of Buchan)
- Gules, seven mascles conjoined or (Ferrers)
- Gules, a cinquefoil ermine (Bellomont)
- Gules, a pale or (Grantmesnil)
- Azure, a lion rampant crowned or (Fergus earl of Galloway)
- Gules, an escutcheon within a double tressure (David, Earl of Huntingdon)
- Cumin
- Azure, a wolf's head erased argent (Lupus earl of Chester)
- Gules, a lion rampant vaire (Comberton)
- Azure, a fess between three cinquefoils or (Maureward)
- Argent, on a bend gules between three pellets a swan of the first (Clarke).
The crest is a lion statant or.
On the tomb-chest, between two sets of arms, is Henry's eldest son, Thomas,
who is shown in
armour, kneeling at a desk. The two sets of arms are:
- Beaumont impaling sable three dovecotes argent (Sapcote).
- Beaumont impaling or a chevron engrailed gules between three shovellers
proper (Lovis).
The motto, Erectus non Elatus ('Exalted but not elated'), was assumed by Henry
de Beaumont
in the late 13th century when he was made king of the Isle of Man and summoned to
parliament
as a baron. It shows that, despite his increase in fortune, he had not become proud.
The inscription reads:
Here lieth the bodies of Sir Henry Beaumont, knight, and Ladie Elizabeth his wife,
which Sir
Henry was son to Nicholas Beaumont, esq and Elizabeth was daughter and heir of
John Lewis, esq, by whom he had one only son, viz. Sir Thomas Beaumont, knight, who married
the daughter and heire of Henry Sapcote, esq which Sir Henry died the 31st of March,
anno d'ni 1607: and the said Lady Elizabeth died the 26th of March, Anno 1608.
Henry, who represented the county in parliament in 1589 and was High
Sheriff in 1594,
was knighted by King James in April 1603.
Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland
Text copyright Max Matthews 2002. Selected text copyright Bob Trubshaw 2025–6.
Images copyright Max Matthews 2002 or Bob Trubshaw 2002, 2025–6.
No copying or reproduction without prior written permission.
Published by Heart of Albion Press
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