The Daubeney
family came originally from Aubigné in Brittany, France. Giles was
born in 1452, the eldest son of Sir William Daubeney (1424-61) of South
Petherton in Somerset and Alice, daughter of John Stourton. He had a
brother James and sister Eleanor. By 1476 he had married Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir John Arundel. He became a successful courtier, soldier
and diplomat and was knighted by Edward IV in 1478. He fought at Bosworth
Field with Henry Tudor, and was created Baron Daubeney, Lord Lieutenant
of Calais and Lord Chamberlain to the king. Giles died in 1508. His
son Henry (1493-1548) succeeded him and was later made Earl of Bridgwater
but as he died without a son the title became extinct.
Giles was buried
in St Paul’s chapel where his alabaster effigy lies next to that of
his wife. He wears plate armour and his head rests on a large helmet
with a holly-tree crest, and his feet on a lion. Elizabeth has long
hair with a decorated coif and wears a loose cloak over her gown. At
her feet are a lion and a wolf. The original inscription around the
tomb chest, which had been recorded in a guidebook of 1600, reads:
“Here lieth
buried within this tombe Sir Gyles Daubeney knight lord lieutenant of
Calis [Calais] lord chamberlaine unto the noble King Henrie the Seventh
the which Gyles died the XII day of May in the yere of our Lord 1507
and dame Elizabeth his wife the which died in the yeere of our Lord
God 1500 on whose soules Jesus have mercy Amen.”
The date of
his wife’s death is not certain but she was still alive in 1510. The
tomb was restored in the 19th century when heraldic shields were painted,
which include the Daubeney arms “gules, four fusils in fess argent”
(a red shield with four silver lozenges across the centre). A metal
plate affixed to the railings around the tomb reads:
“This tomb
was erected during the reign of King Henry VII to the memory of Gyles
Lord Daubeney, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and Dame
Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas [actually John] Arundel,
Knight, of Lanherne in the county of Cornwall. The whole of the paneling
and the grille having become decayed and unsafe they have been restored
in careful conformity with the originals, and the original inscription
replaced, by the Daubeney family, under the superintendence of General
Sir Henry Charles Barnston Daubeney, Knight Grand Cross of the Most
Honourable Order of the Bath and Colonel of the 2nd Battalion “The
Border” (late 55th) Regt. A.D.1889”.
A photograph
of the tomb and of the effigies can be purchased from Westminster Abbey
Library.
Further reading
for the Daubeney family:
Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography, 2004.