Richardson's Monumental Effigies, which is supposed to represent Robert de Ros, surnamed Fursan, who died in 1227.
Effigy found at Lewes.
Unfortunately, the head and the greater part of the legs of this effigy are missing; but what remains of it shews the legs were crossed, the left over the right. This portion of it is 2 ft. 9 in. long, of Wealden marble, and well cut. It represents a knight of the time of Henry III., and bears a general resemblance to the effigy in the Temple church, referred to by Mr. Figg. The hauberk is of what is called ring mail, the rings being set edgewise, and not interlaced. The courses of the rings run horizontally; those of each course inclining, as is usual, in the opposite direction to the next. The sleeve of the hauberk is somewhat loose. The surcote, which no doubt was long as well as full, retains at places, and especially about the shoulders and on the left side between the waist and sword belts, portions of blue on a white ground; and within a fold, at the lower part towards the left side, is a cross botoné 214 in. long, probably once gilt, no portion of the gold remaining on it. The surcote is confined round the waist, but the waist belt does not appear. The shield is much broken: no colour or device is perceptible upon it. Between it and the body is the greater part of the sword; the pomel of which came nearly as high as the arm-pit. The right hand, covered with a muffler shewing a thumb but no fingers, rests on the breast. Judging from such details as remain, the execution of this effigy may be referred to the middle of the thirteenth century, or a few years earlier.
Mr. M. A. Lower has conjectured, on the authority of the blue and the cross upon the surcote, that the arms were those of the great family of Braose, "azure, crusillé or, a lion rampant crowned of the second," and that the effigy represented John de Braose, who died 1232, by a fall from his horse. The costume and supposed date would agree with this, but there is no evidence of his being buried at Lewes, and Mr. Blaauw suggests that, as he died at Bramber, he would more probably have been buried, as his father was, in the neighbouring monastery of Sele, founded by his ancestor.
The well-known arms of the Beauchamps would also account for the cross, and there was probably a Robert de Beauchamp buried at Lewes; his widow Dionysia granting the monks a yearly sum to pray for his soul; but as he belonged to the Beauchamps of Hacche, in Somersetshire,
