Power, gender and knights in armour: John Goodall reviews two books that take very different approaches to medieval representations of knights

The Beauchamp Pageant

Edited by Alexandra Sinclair

Richard III and York History Trust in association with Paul Watkins, Donington, 55 [pounds sterling]

ISBN 1 900289 61 X

Of Armour and Men in Medieval England: the Chivalric Rhetoric of Three English Knights' Effigies Rachel Ann Dressier

Ashgate, 45 [pounds sterling]

ISBN 0 7546 3368 3

Over recent years a steady stream of publications on chivalry and knighthood has revolutionised our appreciation of both the life of the medieval knight and his place in society. Two recent books attempt to make further contributions to this field. In almost every respect they form a striking contrast.

The Beauchamp Pageant, edited and introduced by Alexandra Sinclair, is a facsimile edition of the celebrated late-fifteenth-century narrative history in the British Library of the life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (1382-1439). This dazzling manuscript comprises 53 drawings--each one accompanied by a short caption in English--that depict in chronological sequence the principal events of the earl's life, from his birth to his burial. The pictures, influenced by the artistic fashion of the Low Countries, are of outstanding quality. In conclusion to this narrative are two illustrated family trees.

In setting out the facsimile, every page of the manuscript is reproduced at full scale on one side of an opening spread. Immediately facing it on the opposite side of the spread is a printed transcription of the caption and a brief discussion of the image. This arrangement allows the reader at once to admire the original and the analysis of it without the awkwardness of turning pages. To imitate the format of the manuscript more closely, the pictures have also been printed back to back.

The Pageant has been reproduced in full twice before, but this volume is the first colour facsimile of the whole manuscript. All the illustrations are beautifully reproduced and this fact alone would more than justify the purchase of the book. But Sinclair's contribution--comprising an introduction and the glosses to the individual pages--is rewarding too: concise, informative and authoritative. In tone and content, her text is addressed to a general reader of scholarly bent.

The introduction is broadly divided into two sections, of which the first places the manuscript in its artistic and historical context. Presented as part of this section is a convincing case for attributing the Pageant to 1483-84 and the patronage of Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick. It is also argued that it was created to present an example of noble life to her grandson Edward of Middleham, then heir to the throne. The second section presents a readable account of the life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick in preface to the pictorial narrative in the Pageant.

Allowing for the relative brevity of Sinclair's text, there is perhaps only one aspect of the book with which it would be fair to quibble. In the preface she asserts that the study of the Pageant 'as a work of art is beyond the scope of this volume' and this curious distinction licenses some unhappy omissions. For example, although the style and the wider artistic context of the Pageant are addressed, the question of attribution could usefully have been taken much further. Similarly, it would be interesting to hear much more about the conventions of pictorial narratives in this period or the use of gestures in the manuscript. Also, the particular sources for the architectural detailing in the Pageant would have been of interest.

In Of Armour and Men in Medieval England, Rachel Dressier sets out to explore the rich field of thirteenth- and early-fourteenth-century English medieval military effigies. She addresses this self-evidently fascinating subject through the medium of three individual effigies. These are identified as the figures of Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford (d. 1221), now at Hatfield Broad, Essex; Richard Gyvernay (d. 1329), at Limington, Somerset; and Henry Allard (d. 1317/18), at Winchelsea, Sussex. Two reasons are cited for the particular choice of these figures: they are securely identified and well preserved.

After introducing the figures and providing a historiography of the book's theme, the first two chapters place the subject of monumental effigies in a wider context and set out the lives of the three chosen individuals represented. There follow three discursive chapters entitled 'The Knight's Resurrected Body'; 'The Knight's Social Body'; and 'The Knight's Gendered Body'. Each of these subjects the image and the reality of the individual effigies to an appropriately themed exploration in a broad context. The book's purpose--as explained in the conclusion--is to introduce new audiences to the beauty and fascination of armoured effigies and to rescue them from 'the antiquarian tradition', which 'had consigned them to the status of historical illustration'.

The conception and structure of the book are promising but the whole is hard to review enthusiastically. In positive terms, Dressler's text introduces medieval effigies to themes of theoretical analysis that will interest many readers. She also conveys in her text a real enthusiasm for her subject. But in the final analysis, nothing can offset the fundamental problem that this book does not have the stamp of a truly authoritative work. Moreover, its argument is riddled with statements and underscored by assumptions that seem deeply questionable and problematic.