MYSTERY TOMB AT EAST WORLDHAM

On a hill above Alton, and possibly on the old Pilgrim’s way from Winchester to Canterbury, stands the little 13th century church of St Mary at East Worldham. It was thoroughly Victorianised in the middle of the 19th century, and during the inevitable excavations, the builders made a remarkable find, which has intrigued and divided scholars ever since.

It was the effigy of a lady, dressed in costume of the 14th century, wearing a brooch in the shape of a wheel. The wheel was the badge of the Roet family, one of whom married the poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. Further, the poet’s son, Thomas, was Lord of the Manor of Worldham from 1418 until 1435. Put two and two together, and what do you make?

But it is not as easy as that. Payne Roet, of Hainault, in Flanders, had three daughters. The eldest, Isobel, became head of a Convent in Belgium, whilst the youngest, Katherine, has always excited the imagination.. She married, aged not more than sixteen, Hugh Swynford, a minor English nobleman, in 1363, and became governess to the children of John of Gaunt’s wife, Blanche. She later became his mistress, eventually marrying him in 1396. Their story is told in Anya Seton’s best-selling novel, Katherine, and their illegitimate offspring, the Beauforts, were to play a pivotal role in the future of the monarchy. Philippa, the middle daughter, married Geoffrey Chaucer, also in 1363, and entered the service of John of Gaunt in 1372, becoming a lady in waiting to his third wife, Constance of Castile. The marriage does not seem to have been a particularly happy one, and Philippa spent a great deal of time with Constance in Spain.

She is recorded as being in Lincoln with Katherine’s family in 1386, and her annuity was drawn for the last time the following year. After that she simply vanishes, whilst her husband lived on for more than ten years, continuing to enjoy John of Gaunt’s patronage.

How, then, did Philippa come to be buried at a remote Hampshire village? If she spent her last days with he sister, why was she not buried in Lincolnshire, and why was she not re-interred with her husband in Westminster Abbey?

Katherine was buried in Lincoln Cathedral. Thomas Chaucer, his wife and daughter, have elaborate tombs at Ewelme, a fine church in Oxfordshire, all displaying the Roet wheel. So the doubts creep in. Experts have said that the costume worn by the supposed Philippa is no later that the second decade of the 14th century – a good fifty years before she died, and it was another thirty years before her son became Lord of the Manor, although, of course, he may have lived there before that.

But the biggest clue is the wheel badge. Look at it carefully, and it can be seen that it is a brooch, with the two horizontal spokes form a clasp, holding together the edges of the dress, which form the vertical spokes. It is not a wheel at all.

So who is this mysterious lady? Nobody knows for sure, but many historians agree that it could be Margery de Venuz. Her husband, John, whose family had held the manner since the Norman conquest, died in 1325. She inherited the Manor, but died just two years later. It was not unusual for effigies to be commissioned during one’s lifetime, so the date is entirely feasible. But we shall never know, and it makes a good story. Tom Muckley, October 2006

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

tommuckley.co.uk