Figure, oak, of a standing man wearing a tunic and codpiece, from Naworth Castle, Cumbria, England, ca. 1450-1470

Oak figure of a man wearing a tunic and hat, standing. The present figure wears a tunic or perhaps quilted gambeson, trimmed with fur to hint at his standing.

Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund

With his two companions (A.11 and A.12-2001), this figure provides a visual breakdown of the lesser nobility in later medieval England, and of the three ranks of nobleman generally to be found serving as henchmen in the retinues of more powerful lords. One is without question a knight; the second probably a squire - who does this figure represent then? The three figures are evidently a trio, representing the three ranks of noble-retainer, from knight down to man-at-arms: the three ranks of nobleman that made up the bulk of the followers in the armed retinue of a lord. This figure appears to be a man-at-arms or semi-professional henchman of some sort. By his attire he is clearly the social inferior of the two other figures. The knight wears complete armour, the squire a mix of armour and fashionable civilian garb. This cheerful individual on the hand wears no armour, and his clothing is simple and stereotyped - and he isn't an individual but a social stereotype. So are his companions. In funerary monuments of the time in England, as well as contemporary literature, a short tunic or 'cote hardie' in medieval parlance, kidney dagger, pouch and also (but less often) beard were the basic motifs used indicate a man of franklin rank. A franklin was the lowest rank of nobleman in a period when terms to denote social status were still freely and imprecisely used, a term that from the early fifteenth century was superceded by 'gentleman'. The advent of this latter term coincided with a tightening up of the terminology of class, which was directly reflected in the art and monuments of the time, when apparently harmless figures such as these were in fact visiualisations of what, in the mind's eye of the court romance writers and their patrons, the different levels of gentility 'loooked like.'

The present figure wears a tunic or perhaps quilted gambeson, trimmed with fur to hint at his standing, on to which we may assume the arms of Dacre - gules, three escallops or arranged two and one (three scallop shells arranged two at the top and one at the bottom against a red background) - or a related family were painted. In medieval sculpture, tunics and surcoats were useful vehicles for the display of heraldry.

These stereotypical franklin or gentleman accoutrements are intended to suggest a smartly, but not ostentatiously so, dressed man of respectable standing entlitled to serve as a member of a jury, perhaps a gentleman-farmer, affluent artisan or small-time businessman, who lives in a manner befitting a gentleman, with a few household servants, and with sufficient income to serve as a soldier; a man who was respected and lived well but knew his place and did not tread on the toes of his superiors or seek to usurp his social betters by donning the trappings that symbolized a higher nobility. This was the degree of person, hardened by years of local feuding, that served in the armies of medieval kings and magnates as semi-professional henchmen, light lancers and heavy infantry.

The headgear worn by this individual is rather more puzzling. It seems to be some sort of helmet. It may be a short-brimmed kettle-hat, and the two lumps on the top of the helmet could conceivably be protective earflaps folded up and tied together by a lace across the skull. But the brim of the 'helmet' does seem extremely short. The knight wears a sallet, the most popular variety of helmet on the battlefield during this period, a piece of head protection which came in a variety of types - the headpiece may be a form of sallet; perhaps the sculptor was not very familiar with military equipment, though this was rare amongst medieval sculptors. In the Middle Ages, artists sometimes stylised the armour and weapons that they saw, but they rarely invented new items based on fancy alone.

These figures must have once been displayed high up on a wall in the great hall of a castle, since their backs are flat and unworked, and their heads thrust forwards and they face downwards. In the hands they would perhaps have held lances from which heraldic banners hang, making the three figures a vehicle for the display of the coats of arms of the Dacres and their kin and, as military-themed stands for heraldic standards.

In brief, we see here a knight, squire and man-at-arms of gentlemen or franklin rank. Gentleman or franklin were the lowest rank of nobility. They were numerically the largest group of the nobility, but unfortunately they left little impression on contemporary records because their sphere of influence rarely extended the boundaries of the parish in which they lived. The minor gentlefolk must have shared the same basic social and religious attitudes as their wealthier counterparts, but the different ranks of nobility had different motifs by which they were identified in art. The knights, squirearchy and those of serious substance were consistent in their use of armour and weaponry as a means to communicate their status.

But at the very bottom end of the nobility, the trickle-down diffusion of weaponry and military costume as motifs of social, political and economic power dried up before reaching the minor gentlemen. The lesser gentry, a medley of respectable pillars of parish life, were excluded from this circuit of martial values which elevated the image of the armoured man to stand for everything they held dear, that summed up precisely what it was to be noble. To be noble was to be, at heart, a warrior. Some of this was make-believe: as many gentlemen were soldiers at some time in their lives as esquires or those of knightly rank. What mattered was the expression of class status as easily defined visual categories. In short, full armour stood for a higher breed of noble, something deeper and more profound than simply a soldier. An aggressive, warlike spirit of an officer class lies beneath the smiles of these three far from ferocious-looking men.

This unique figure represents a gentlemen or franklin, the lowest rank of nobility. They were numerically the largest group of the nobility, but unfortunately they left little impression on contemporary records because their sphere of influence rarely extended the boundaries of the parish in which they lived.
This figure together with a knight and man-at-arms would have been placed high on a screen in a great hall, still an important focus of noble living in this period. Linked to Kirkoswald Castle and Naworth Castle in Cumbria, they may once have held flags displaying heraldic devices of the Dacre family who owned both residences.

A.13-2001