espenser Graves.=--Between the graves of the De Clares and the steps
of the altar are the Despenser graves. The grave on the north side
nearest to the Fitz-Hamon or Founder's Chapel is that of Richard
Despenser. His brass runs: "Ricardus le Despenser baro octavus, et
Burghersh baro quintus, obiit anno domini 1414, dum adhuc adolescens.
Flos crescit et mox evanescit"; or in English: "Richard, eighth Baron
Despenser and fifth Baron Burghersh, died A.D. 1414, whilst still a
youth. A flower grows and soon passes away."

He was married to Elizabeth Nevill, daughter of the Earl of
Westmorland, but, dying at Merton at the age of 19, left no family. He
was the last of the male line of the Despensers, and is buried next to
his father, Thomas le Despenser, who was laid to rest in the central
grave of the three. His record on the brass is: "Thomas le Despenser,
baro septimus, et Gloucestriae comes tertius decimus et ultimus
crudeliter interfectus 15^o Januarii, anno domini 1400. Cibell angau
na cywillydd." This being translated means: "Thomas, seventh Baron
Despenser, and thirteenth and last Earl of Gloucester, was brutally
killed on the 15th of January, A.D. 1400. Rather death than
dishonour."

He had married Constance, daughter of the Earl of Cornwall and niece
of the Black Prince. Being attainted in 1399 after the deposition of
Richard II., whom he had faithfully served, he was deprived of both
his titles and executed at Bristol in 1400. His grave was under the
lamp which burned before the altar. In 1875 no trace of his grave was
found, but there is a fragment of a statue in the "museum" in which he
is clad in a blue mantle, wearing the badge of the Garter.

The third and southernmost of the Despenser graves is that of
Isabelle, Countess of Warwick, Abergavenny, Worcester, and Albemarle.
The inscription on her brass is: "Mementote dominae, Isabelle le
Despenser, Comitissae de Warwick, quae obiit, anno domini 1439, die
Sancti Johannis Evangelistae. Mercy, Lord Jesu"; _i.e._, "Remember the
lady Isabelle le Despenser, Countess of Warwick, who died A.D. 1439,
on St. John the Evangelist's Day. Mercy, Lord Jesu." This lady was the
daughter of Thomas le Despenser, next to whom she lies here, and
though she was given in marriage to Richard Beauchamp when she was
only eleven years old, she is chiefly known from the title of her
second husband, who was her first husband's cousin. Her grave was
identified in 1875, and her remains were