Giles Daubeney

Soldier

The Daubeney family came originally from Aubigné in Brittany, France. Giles was born in 1452, the eldest son of Sir William Daubeney (1424-1461) of South Petherton in Somerset and Alice, daughter of John Stourton. He had a brother James and sister Eleanor. By 1476 he had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Arundel. He became a successful courtier, soldier and diplomat and was knighted by Edward IV in 1478. He fought at Bosworth Field with Henry Tudor, and was created Baron Daubeney, Lord Lieutenant of Calais and Lord Chamberlain to the king. Giles died in 1508.

His son Henry (1493-1548) succeeded him as 2nd Lord Daubeney and was later made Earl of Bridgwater. He was twice married but as he died without a son the title became extinct. Giles daughters were Cecily, who married John Bouchier, later Earl of Bath, and Anne who married Alexander Buller.

Burial and monument

Giles was buried in St Paul’s chapel in Westminster Abbey where his alabaster effigy lies next to that of his wife. He wears plate armour and his head rests on a large helmet with a holly-tree crest, and his feet on a lion. Carved on the soles of his shoes are two bedesmen. Elizabeth has long hair with a decorated coif and wears a loose cloak over her gown. At her feet are a lion and a wolf. The original inscription around the tomb chest, which had been recorded in a guidebook of 1600, reads:

Here lieth buried within this tombe Sir Gyles Daubeney knight lord lieutenant of Calis [Calais] lord chamberlaine unto the noble King Henrie the Seventh the which Gyles died the XII day of May in the yere of our Lord 1507 and dame Elizabeth his wife the which died in the yeere of our Lord God 1500 on whose soules Jesus have mercy Amen.

The date of his wife’s death is not certain but she was still alive in 1510. The tomb was restored in the 19th century when heraldic shields were painted, which include the Daubeney arms "gules, four fusils in fess argent" (a red shield with four silver lozenges across the centre). A metal plate affixed to the railings around the tomb reads:

This tomb was erected during the reign of King Henry VII to the memory of Gyles Lord Daubeney, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and Dame Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas [actually John] Arundel, Knight, of Lanherne in the county of Cornwall. The whole of the paneling and the grille having become decayed and unsafe they have been restored in careful conformity with the originals, and the original inscription replaced, by the Daubeney family, under the superintendence of General Sir Henry Charles Barnston Daubeney, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and Colonel of the 2nd Battalion “The Border” (late 55th) Regt. A.D.1889.