The Reversed Hierarchy of the Bingham Memorial Brass

In St John’s Church at Middleton is a 15th century memorial brass of Sir Richard Bingham and his wife Lady Margaret de Freville. This brass is unusual in two ways. Firstly, it is a double brass. These are not very common as the majority of medieval brasses are of single figures, especially amongst those that have survived. However, the second aspect makes the Bingham brass extremely uncommon and very intriguing. The representations of Richard and Margaret are in reversed positions. Margaret, as it is viewed, is on the left which was Richard’s right-hand side and the position normally occupied by the male.

The brass of Sir Richard Bingham and his wife Margaret in St John's Church, Middleton, 2015. Photograph taken by Debbie Jordan.

In Medieval and Renaissance times, the right side (viewer’s left) was associated with strength, honour and divine favour. With the male on the right, it symbolised him as the protector. One of the interpretations of how it did this was because the right hand, most commonly the sword hand, was symbolically free to use when he was positioned on the right in order to protect his wife. A position on the right also confirmed him as head of the household. Furthermore, it was a religiously symbolic position, mirroring biblical imagery such as how Christ was depicted on the right-hand side of God. Religiously, the right-hand side was viewed as the side of power and being divinely blessed. Marriage ceremonies also depict this arrangement because the groom stands on the right of his bride. This was the manifestation of the dominant patriarchal hierarchy and is why the reversal in the Bingham brass is so unusual.

The reason for this reversal to a matriarchal hierarchy can be attributed to Margaret’s status. Margaret was the owner of Middleton and many other manors through her ancient powerful ancestral heritage. She was independently wealthy and powerful. Despite Richard being a highly prestigious Justice of the King’s Bench, his ancestral prestige, power and wealth paled in comparison to hers. This was most evident in the fact that he moved to live on her Estate.

Essentially, this brass was a bold depiction to everyone of Margaret’s superior social standing and power. The reversion would be jarring to any viewer of that era and even more so to theologians as it inverted the “natural” patriarchal hierarchy established in scripture. It would then be quickly interpreted as a sign of female dominance, of an heiress of immense wealth, of a dynasty that vastly outranked her husband, or both. It was a lasting legal and social message that the wealth and power of this couple came from the woman. This legal legacy was extremely important as land ownership and the pedigree of it could be determined, without debate, from this brass. Any visiting herald, landholder or knight would immediately know from this brass that Sir Richard Bingham was not the primary lord of the land; he was only there by marriage.

This positioning and symbolism is also evident in coats of arms. In heraldry, the right side (viewer’s left) is known as the dexter and is almost always occupied by the arms of the male. The other side is known as the sinister and is normally occupied by the arms of the female. This again symbolised the strength, authority and primacy of the bloodline of whoever was on the dexter; the sinister seen as secondary. However, in very rare cases it is known that just as the figures on the brass could be reversed to depict female dominance, the arms could be reversed too in order to represent female primary land ownership. Unfortunately, the arms that were on the corners of the Bingham brass have now worn away but there is a record of them.

In 1656, Sir William Dugdale published "The Antiquities of Warwickshire". For this work he viewed and recorded monuments and this included those present at Middleton. He drew the brass and it was printed in his work. However, the problem is that either he or his engravers reversed the brass to the “normal” layout with Margaret on the left (viewer’s right), but the text is still the right way around. Nevertheless, it did show the arms.

The memorial Bingham brass in Dugdale's The Antiquities of Warwickshire.

Above Margaret was a shield that bore the traditional de Freville arms, but the one below her appears to have been too worn or blank. Above Bingham the shield was impaled with de Freville in the sinister and, in the dexter, arms that had a single band (fess) across the middle, which was also depicted as a full shield beneath Richard. The arms of Bingham of Watnall-Chaworth were “Or, fess gules three water-bougets argent” (gold, on a red bar across the centre three silver water-bougets). However, there were variations in different generations and thus it can only be determined that it might have been Richard’s arms. Nevertheless, this is unable to answer whether if the figures had been reversed to the “normal”, had the impaled shield been reversed as well?

Further reading: William Dugdale, The Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1656. p.758.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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