A gilt cup once owned by Lady Margaret Beaufort is on loan to the British Library for their new exhibition ‘Medieval Women’, which opens today.
The cup is known at Christ’s as the ‘Foundress’ Cup’ because Lady Margaret Beaufort re-founded God’s House as Christ’s College in 1505.
As a covered standing cup, it would have been used at a feast, usually to hold wine. It might have been shared by two people or passed from person to person round the table.
Also known as the Wreathen Cup, it was was originally commissioned by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of King Henry IV, and his second wife, Eleanor, likely in the 1430s.
Dr Mary Franklin-Brown, Fellow in Medieval Studies and Honorary Keeper of the Plate said:
"This is the first time in half a century that the Foundress' Cup has been on public display and we are delighted that such a significant object will be viewed by so many."
Dr Franklin-Brown has researched the history of the cup and the symbolism of its ornamentation. She said:
"These covered standing cups were some of the grandest and most symbolic objects to grace the high table."
The Foundress’ Cup is intricately decorated with oak boughs with acorns, fruiting vines, flowers, and other foliage. The symbolic significance of the decoration – oak, for example, is often associated with royalty - extends to the inside of the cup, which is enamelled with the arms of Humphrey and Eleanor.
Dr Franklin-Brown said:
"At some point after Henry VII’s accession in 1485, the cover was given a new finial engraved with a Tudor rose. But Lady Margaret never replaced the enamel boss. The cup is outwardly Tudor, but privately it recalls a Lancastrian [Duke Humphrey] favoured by the Yorkists."
Lady Margaret, who may have acquired the cup from her 4th husband Lord Stanley, in turn bequeathed it to her confessor Edmund Wilsford, Doctor of Divinity at Oriel College, Oxford.
Instead, it came to Christ’s because Dr Wilsford exchanged the cup for another piece and all Lady Margaret’s other silver was bequeathed to the College.
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025.
Dr Franklin-Brown will give a public lecture on the cup on Wednesday 4 December 2024 in the Plumb Auditorium, 5.30-6.45pm.