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A Brief Outline
of the lives of
GUNDRAD,
and
WILLIAM EARL DE WARENNE,
with
A Copy and Literal Translation
of the
Latin Epitaph on the Tombstone of Gundrad,
in the
Church of Southover,
Lewes, Sussex.
By the Rev. John Scobell, M.A.,
Rector of Southover.
The first profits, if any accrue from this publication, will be devoted by the Rector
to those architectural additions and restorations recently made, and now in progress, in
Southover Church, and for which additional subscriptions are requested.
Lewes:
Geo P Bacon, Sussex Advertizer Office, 64 High Street,
King, Brighton. Cleaver; Baker Street, London.
MDCCCXLV
[1845]
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Brief Outline
of
The Life of Gundrad,
&c, &c.
Gundrad was the fourth Daughter of William the Conqueror. Her mother, Queen Maud, was daughter of the fifth Earl of Flanders, and grand-daughter of Robert, King of France, son of Hugh Capet. She was born in the Dutchey of Normandy, and after her Father had attained the Crown, came, it is probable, first into England with her Mother in 1067, previous to the Queen's Coronation, being then about 16 or 17 years old.
Not long after she married William de Warenne, a Nobleman of Normandy, who was also the first Earl of Surrey in England, and who, related to the Duke of Normandy by descent, had held a distinguished command in the memorable and eventful battle of Hastings. No nobleman received greater marks of favour from the Conqueror than his son-in-law, William de Warenne. Lands and Lordships in almost every part of England were conferred upon him. In Sussex, he held the whole Rape of Lewes. He rebuilt and enlarged the Saxon Castle of Lewes, and after his marriage with the Daughter of the Conqueror, made it their chief residence.
About the year 1070, Earl William de Warenne and his wife Gundrad left England, intending to proceed to Rome. Finding, however, the country in a state of war, and it was unsafe to
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prosecute their journey, they turned aside, and took up their abode for some time at a Monastery at Cluny, in Burgundy, on the banks of the Garonne, in which the discipline and black habit of St Benedict were adopted. The monks of Cluny were hospitable and charitable. The most regular devotions, bodily labour, and strict self-denial were enjoined by the rules of their Order. A favourable impression was produced upon the minds of Gundrad and the Earl; and having previously intended to form a religious House near to their Castle of Lewes, they now determined that the Monks to be there established, should be of this Order, and in connexion with this Cluniac Monastery.
They, in consequence, requested of the Abbot of Cluny, that he would send three or four Monks for the forming of the intended Monastery; promising to endow it, and to found it at the site of the Church of St Pancras, Southover, under the Castle of Lewes, which, originally a Saxon Church and constructed of wood, the Earl had already rebuilt with stone. The Abbot of Cluny, although at first averse to the petition, objecting to the distance and danger, eventually yielded to their request, and sent over Lanzo, the first Prior, and three other ecclesiastics with him. The deeds for all those grants and charters, those lands and privileges, which Gundrad and Earl Warenne had promised, received soon after the royal confirmation. Thus they became the Founders of the Priory of Lewes, commencing in the sixth, and completing it in the twelfth year after the conquest. Its walls embraced an area of 32 acres. This great Cluniac Priory rapidly advanced in riches and eminence, and down to the end of the 15th Century was the spot chosen, not only by succeeding Earls of Warenne, but by numerous other noble Individuals for the place of their burial.
Gundrad and her Husband had issue, William and Rainold, the Progenitors of the Earls that followed.
They occasionally resided at Castleacre, in Norfolk, where also they had built a castle, founded a second Cluniac Monastery, and had large possessions; and there (May 27), in the year of our Lord 1085, she died in childbirth, being, as is calculated, about 35 years of
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age; two years after the Queen her Mother; two years before her Father the Conqueror; and three years before her Husband. She was buried in the Chapter House of the Church of St Pancras, within the Priory at Lewes,- and there, in the year 1088, the body of William de Warenne also was laid, ten years after it's foundation.
In 1538 the destruction of the Priory was completed: with all it's possessions, it was then surrendered by Crowham, the last Prior, to the Crown, and bestowed upon Thomas Lord Cromwell. By his agent, as a letter from one of them, still extant in the British Museum, witnesses, this venerable pile was "hewed," "cut away," "plucked down," and "pulled to the ground," "with as much diligence and saveing as might be." "We brought from London 17 persons, three carpenters, two smiths, two plummers, and one that keepeth the furnace. Every one of these attendeth to his own office: ten of them heweth the walls, about the which are the three carpenters. These make props to underset where the others cut away; the others break znd cut the walls. These men are exercised much better than the other men we find in the countrie. Wherefore we must bothe have more men and other things also that we have need of. A Tuesday they began to cast the lead, and it shall be done with such diligence and saveing as may be; so that our trust is that your Lordship shall be much satisfied with what we doe."
Two hundred and thirty-seven years after this scene of desolation and dilapidation, the black marble slab which had formerly covered the remains of Gundrad in the Chapter House of St Pancras Church, within the Priory of Southover,* beautifully carved and bordered with Latin verses in her honour, cut in the rim and down the middle, was discovered by Dr Clarke, of Buxted, in the Church of Isfield, about seven miles distant, being there made use of as a tombstone over one of the Shirley Family; and at his suggestion, and through his exertions, it was in 1775 restored as
*The late F. Beltz, Esq., Norroy King of Arms, whose name and memory will long live at the Herald's Office, once informed me that he had seen and examined a slab of marble of similar design, character of workmanship, and quality of stone, in Normandy, to the memory of Queen Maud, the Mother of Gundrad, who, it is known, was interred (1083) in the Church of St Mary at Caen, within the Nunnery which she had there founded.
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near as possible to its original site, and removed to the Parish Church of Southover, immediately adjoining the ruins of the Priory.
Seventy years after this discovery, on the morning of Tuesday Oct 28th, 1845, in forming a cutting for the Lewes and Brighton Railway through the grounds formerly occupied by the Priory, the workmen came upon several compartments, each about six feet square, and formed by transverse dwarf walls, such as might be supposed to have supported the stone floors of the Chapter House. Two of these squares immediately adjoining each other, were covered with slabs of Norman stone; these being removed, in each there appeared a leaden cist, or coffer, ornamented externally by a large net work of interlaced cords moulded in the lead, about three feet long, a foot wide, and eight inches deep, each containing the bones of a human body. On the upper side of one cist was inscribed the name GVNDRADA, and on the other WILLIELMVS. The letters are old - resembling in character, and in some forms of abbreviation, those on the tombstone of Gundrad, and most distinctly legible. It is obvious from the length of these coffers, that their bones had been transferred to them from some previous tombs, and that long after their first burial, being found in a state of decay, they were, from love and veneration, and for the sake of greater security, placed in these leaden chests.*
The teeth are numerous and perfect. The bones are found to be of firm texture; hard, solid bones, and in a high state of preservation, especially those of Gundrad. Several of the bones of Earl Warenne are missing; the lead at the bottom of this cist had become greatly impaired, almost destroyed, and some of them, upon their disinterment by the workmen, may have fallen through. Those of Gundrad are as nearly complete and perfect as possible, and judging from the length of them, the bodies must have been above the middle stature: that of Gundrad probably about 5 ft 7 in or 8 in, and that of Earl Warenne upwards of six feet.
*"Whose bones were since taken up and laid into a coffer." - Speed - "Raigne of William Rufus"
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Of the genuine antiquity of these relics there cannot be the slightest doubt. The actual remains of the royal Daughter and Son-in-Law of the Conqueror have been torn from their resting places and exhibited to the gaze of the world 760 years after their first interment.
These illustrious relics are now also deposited in the Church of Southover, and there the Remains of the Dead, and the Tombstone to her honour are brought together again; and again Gundrad and Earl Warenne lie, side by side, in the consecrated House of God.
Copy of the Latin Verses on the Tombstone of Gundrad.
Stirps Gundrada Ducum decus evi nobile germen;
Intulit ecclesiis Anglorum balsama morum;
Martha fuit miseris fuit ex pietatis et equi;
Pars obiit Marthe Superest pars magna Marie;
O pie Pancrati testis pietatis et equi;
Te facit heredem tu elemens suscipe Matrem;
Sexta kalendarum Junii lux obvia carnis
Fregit Alabastrum
Literal Translation
Gundrad, the issue of a race of Dukes, the ornament of her age, a noble scion, brought into the Churches of the English the Balsams of her moral virtues.
A Martha she was to the distressed; for piety a Mary.
Martha's part has gone its course, Mary's great part survives.
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O pious Pancras, witness of her Piety and Equity, you she makes her heir, do you, meek Man, sustain your Mother.
That adverse morn, the sixth before the day of the Calends of June, broke in pieces the sweet-scented alabaster Vessel of the Flesh.
Translated into English Verse
Gundrad, of her age the grace,
Noble Branch, of noble race,
Comforted our Church of God,
By the virtuous ways she trod.
To the Poor, a Martha she;
Mary, too, in Piety.
Martha's office now is past,
Mary's now for ever last.
Holy Pancras! Thou dost know
All her grace and truth below;
Thee she richly makes her Heir,
Now meek Man, your Mother bear,
Take Her to your special care.
Before June's Calends were begun,
Sad Day! - the sixth - her race was run;*
Her alabaster Frame was rent,
And all its fragrant odours spent.
* The 27th of May.
Southover Rectory, Lewes, November 3rd, 1845.
Geo. P Bacon, Printer, "Sussex Advertiser" Office, Lewes