Richard Clement (courtier)

Monumental brass of Sir Richard Clement, Ightham Church, Kent. On his tabard he displays his armorials in inverted shields
Arms of Richard Clement: Argent, two bendlets wavy sable on a chief gules three leopard's faces or a bordure compony or and azure[1]
Deathbed of King Henry VII at Richmond Palace (1509), at which Richard Clement is shown (below his identifying coat of arms) 6th on the king's left side, behind fellow courtier Sir Richard Weston. Drawn by Sir Thomas Wriothesley(d.1534), Garter King of Arms, a courtier who though not present on the day, shortly thereafter wrote an account of the proceedings, from discussions with those present. British Library Additional MS 45131, folio 54

Sir Richard Clement (c. 1482-1538) of Ightham Mote in Kent, England, was a courtier to King Henry VII and to his son Henry VIII.

  1. ^ His brass shows the bordure or and azure as does the painting in the manuscript by Sir Thomas Wriothesley. Burke's General Armory, 1884, p.202[1] blasons the bordure as compony argent and azure; this would have appeared at court as Lèse-majesté, it would not have escaped notice at court that the bordure (perhaps a difference (Mercer, p.156)) is identical to the "Beaufort bordure" adopted by the ancestors of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. Bordure adopted for arms of Beaufort, legitimised progeny of John of Gaunt, 3rd surviving son of King Edward III: Royal arms of King Edward III within a bordure compony argent and azure. Possibly the Beaufort bordure might be granted as an especial mark of royal favour (no evidence that Clement was especially favoured) as was the Beaufort label to the descendants of the second marriage of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland (d.1425) to Joan Beaufort, a legitimised daughter of John of Gaunt, 4th son of King Edward III