Sir William Mathew of Llandaff

The Christmas shopping has started already, well, the wife has anyway. So, hand in hand with this my clever avoidance tactics are wheeled out again, this time I had a look around Llandaff Cathedral (just outside Cardiff city centre) and noticed two interesting tombs in the area dedicated to the Mathew family.

The first was that of Sir David Mathew, a zealous Yorkist chieftan, some 6 ft tall depicted in armour of the late fifteenth century. He was made grand standard bearer of England by Edward IV and fought at his side at the Battle of Towton where he reputedly saved his life. He was killed / murdered during a riot in Neath in 1484.

Next to him is Sir William Matthew, his brother; born in 1460, knighted by Henry VII at Bosworth and part of the party who accompanied Henry VIII in 1520 at the field of the cloth of gold, he died in 1528. His tomb is interesting as it depicts him wearing a Lancastrian 'S' chain livery collar along with Tudor rose symbols and his armour is in a late fifteenth century Flemish / Greenwich style;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_William_Mathew%27s_tomb_in_Lllandaff_Cathedral.JPG

Here's a close up of the livery collar;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_William_Mathew_Llandaf_Cathedral.JPG

It made me feel a lot better about the mix of figures in my Tudor army!

Stuart