St. Mary the Virgin Churchyard in Ewelme, Oxfordshire

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Get directions Ewelme, Oxfordshire, England

Coordinates: 51.61773, -1.06749
Cemetery ID:

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Built on an ancient site, the tower of the church is 14th century although the remainder of the church dates from the 15th century. Restoration and alteration since then has been comparatively minor.

Thomas Chaucer, Governor of Wallingford Castle, five times Speaker of the House of Commons, and his wife Matilda de Burghersh are buried in the church that adjoins the almshouses. Thomas was the son of Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, and Philippa de Roet, whose sister married John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. The tomb chest of Thomas and that of his wife are topped with memorial brasses showing him in plate armour and her in mantle, veil and wimple with their respective crests (his a unicorn and hers a lion) at their feet.

Also buried in the church is their daughter, Alice de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk. Alice's alabaster tomb, almost undamaged by time, consists of a canopy of panelled stone, below which is the recumbent effigy of the Duchess on top of the tomb chest which contains her remains; the space beneath the chest encloses her sculpted cadaver, which is viewed through elaborate reticulated arches. Her effigy was examined by Queen Victoria's commissioners in order to discover how a lady should wear the insignia of the Order of the Garter.