| Funeral of Lady Isobel |
| A detailed account of the funeral of Lord Maurice's widow was sent to her son, Lord Maurice Berkeley 14th Lord Berkeley then constable of Calais, by a Thomas Try. Try relates how after her death he caused "David Sawter" (Psalms of David) to be said continually by priests in turn from Wednesday to the following Monday, the day of her burial. The elaborate funeral proccession was attended by the Mayor the Recorder and other civic representatives, over one hundred priests with crosses, the white and the Grey friars with their crosses and the craft guilds carrying two hundred torches. At the head of the proccession were thirty women dressed in black gowns with kerchiefs on their heads. Each woman carried a waxed taper and her kerchief was not hemmed so that it might be known that "It was lately cut of new cloth". The body was conveyed to the Priory and remained all night in the choir before the high altar, where a solemn dirge was offered. The Mayor and his bretheren went to St. Michaels for a similar dirge and afterwards adjourned to St. Mary's guildhall, where a drinking was made for them; first cakes, confetts and ale; the second course marelet, snoket, red wine and claret ;and the third course wafers and blanche powder with romney and mushalade; "I thank God that noe plate ne spoones was lost yet there was twenty dozen spoones". The next morning the cortege came to Binley bridge where according to Try, five or six thousand people had gathered to watch the Abbot of Combe bless the body before it continued on it's way to London for internment in the church of the Austin Friars. |
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| Widow of Maurice Berkeley 13th Lord Berkeley and owner of Caludon Castle, Coventry. |