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NAME TYPE MATERIAL DATE Mary Bohum Recumbent female Alabaster 1394

This poorly-preserved monument depicts a lady in a long-sleeved gown reaching down to the feet. With hands in prayer, the head is supported by two cushions with the remains of two angels on either side. Wearing a necklace and a jewelled pendent, she has a ring on the fourth finger of the left hand. The tombchest is decorated with embattled moulding and four blank shields. This effigy was originally in the Collegiate Church of the Newark, which stood on the site of the present Hawthorn Building of De Montfort University and was demolished at the time of the Reformation. Although not known for certain whom this effigy represents it is most likely the one mentioned by John Leland, in 1538, as: '… a Tumbe of Marble in the Body of the Quire. They told me that a Countess of Derby lay biried on it, and they made her, I wot not how, wife to John of Gaunt or Henry the 4. Indeade Henry the 4. wille John of Gaunt lived was called Erle of Darby… ' Three years later the tomb is mentioned in the will of Peter Swillyngton as 'Mary Darbye's tomb where the books lieth'. It is possible that it was the tomb noted by Wyrley in 1590 as 'a fair and stately monument of a lady curiously wrought, but of no note or mark.' Mary was the youngest daughter of Humphrey de Bohum, Earl of Hereford, Essex and Northampton, and Constable of England. In 1381 she married Henry Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV. She was the mother of Henry V. 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 Back to top of this page This website does not gather or store any visitor information.