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Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland only
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Whitwick: St John the Baptist

NAME

TYPE

MATERIAL

DATE

John Talbot

Recumbent knight

Alabaster

1325

Over seven feet long (as he was in life) this effigy of a man in armour was originally in the centre aisle and removed to its present position in the late nineteenth century.

The face of the effigy is worn quite flat while the helm carries a, now headless, talbot crest. On the edge of the helmet, so Nichols tells us, was written:

    Miserere mei Dominus Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judeorum. (Have mercy on me Lord Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews).
Sadly, this has been victim to the passage of time and has now totally disappeared. However, there are still traces of mail on the left side, especially by the arm. A lion supports the feet.

All we know of Talbot is that he lived in Swanington, died in 1365 aged about forty, and the local couplet, cited by Arthur Mee (The King's England), which tells us that:

    Nought remains in Talbot's name But Talbot's word and Talbot's Lane

Talbot's Lane still exists and is part of the B587 road to Thringstone.


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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