William Greville

ledger stone of William Greville (d.1401), Chipping Campden Church, Gloucestershire
Greville House, in the town of Chipping Campden, residence of William Greville and one of the oldest surviving buildings in that town. Situated nearly opposite the Woolstaplers' Hall[1]
Merchant's mark of William Greville, as displayed on his ledger stone in Chipping Campden Church[2]
Arms of Greville: Sable, on a cross engrailed or five pellets a bordure engrailed of the second. They are reminiscent of four bales of wool

William Greville (died 1 October 1401) (alias Grevel, Graville, Grevill, etc.[3]), of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire and a Citizen of the City of London,[4] was a prominent wool-merchant and is the ancestor of the present Greville Earls of Warwick.[5] The Latin inscription on his ledger stone in Chipping Campden Church, which he rebuilt at his own expense, describes him as flos mercatorum lanar(iorum) tocius (totius) Angli(a)e, "the flower of the wool-merchants of all England".[6] This language is reminiscent of that used to describe certain prominent knights such as Edward, the Black Prince (d.1376) who was described by Froissart (d. circa 1405) as la fleur de toutte chevalerie dou monde ("the flower of all chivalry of the world")[7] and was likely intended to suggest a degree of equivalence between mercantile and martial activities".[8] He was amongst the richest and most influential wool merchants of his era[9] and was the leading purchaser of wool from the Cotswold Hills.[10]

  1. ^ Roskell & Woodger
  2. ^ Illustrated in Davis, Cecil T., Monumental Brasses of Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire Notes & Queries, London, 1899, p.22 [1]; Also illustrated in Elmhirst, Edward Mars, Merchants' Marks, ed. Dow, Leslie, Harleian Society, 1959, no.451, page 2, row 7
  3. ^ Edmondson, p.1
  4. ^ Per inscription on his monumental brass
  5. ^ Davis, p.25
  6. ^ Davis, pp.21, 23
  7. ^ Gertz, S., Visual Power and Fame in René d'Anjou, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Black Prince, p.106 [2]
  8. ^ Brown, A. T., Rural Society and Economic Change in County Durham: Recession and Recovery ..., p.176 [3]
  9. ^ Roskell & Woodger
  10. ^ Davis, p.24, quoting Aubrey