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Martyrdom of St. Margaret : Stoke Dry, Rutland (‡Peterborough) C.14

Photo:T.Marshall Martyrdom of St. Margaret (Flagellation) [45KB]
On the left is St. Margaret of Antioch being beaten with staves, one of the many tortures decreed by the Roman Governor Olybrius for her when she refused to give up her Christianity and succumb to his seduction attempts. The Saint stands frontally in the centre, stripped to the waist, with torturers on either side. Both hands of the one on the left can be seen, but the stave or club held in them has almost disappered. The short, thick club of the one on the right is clearer, held at shoulder level on the torturer’s right as if poised for a backhand blow.

Margaret was triumphant in the end; after many other tortures, culminating in her being swallowed by a dragon, she succeeded in bursting out of its swollen innards, and in some versions of her Legend she then leads it tethered by her girdle. I think that is what is happening in the painting in the window-splay opposite the one above and picturedMartyrdom of St. Margaret, Stoke Dry (Margaret triumphant, with Dragon) [32KB] here at the right. The painting is now very faint and fragmentary indeed, but Margaret’s tall figure, now crowned, can be seen. In her left hand she may hold (diagonally across her body) the cross which helped her to escape from the dragon. Her right arm is extended and, although I cannot see the girdle, Margaret is standing on a very faint pig-like creature, mouth (on the left) apparently gaping wide like a miniature Mouth of Hell, with one leg ending in a dragon-like clawed foot and a hint of a long, coiling tail.

Although a few paintings of St. Margaret still exist in the English church, all of them are damaged, some to the point of near-indecipherability. The sequence at Battle Abbey is said to be the best-preserved; I have not seen it, but in the table below are other paintings of St. Margaret - and that at Charlwood is remarkably complete, with only a few details missing.

Stoke Dry has other paintings, including a St. Christopher, a Martyrdom of St. Edmund (both in the chantry chapel close to St. Margaret), and the far less common Martyrdom of St. Andrew (in the chancel, on the lefthand side of the altar wall).

St. Andrew Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read-Corby Glen, Lincolnshire St. Antony and the Pig, Barton, Cambridgeshire St. Barbara : Hessett, Suffolk St. Bartholomew : Selling, Kent St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Castor, Cambs St.Catherine of Alexandria : Hardley Street, Norfolk
St.Catherine of Alexandria : Old Weston, Northants St.Catherine of Alexandria : Pickering, N. Yorks St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Sporle, Norfolk St. Clement : South Leigh, Oxon. St. Dunstan holding the Devil by the nose : Barton, Cambs St.Edmund : Boxford, Suffolk St. Edmund : Lakenheath, Suffolk
St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Bishopsbourne, Kent St.Edmund, Martyrdom of : Fritton, Norfolk St. Edmund (or St. Walstan) : Gisleham, Norfolk St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Pickering, N.Yorks St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Stoke Dry, Rutland St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Troston, Suffolk St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Weare Giffard, Devon
St.Eloi, Broughton, Bucks St. Eloi and the possessed horse, Slapton, Northants St. Eloi, as bishop & blacksmith, Wensley, N.Yorks St.Erasmus, Martyrdom of : Chippenham, Cambs St. Etheldreda : Willingham, Cambs St.Francis Preaching to the Birds : Wissington, Suffolk St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Slapton, Northants
St. George & Dragon : Banningham, Norfolk St. George & Dragon : Broughton, Bucks St. George & Dragon : Earl Stonham, Suffolk St. George & Dragon : Fritton, Norfolk St. George & Dragon : Hornton, Oxon St. George dedicating himself to the Virgin : Astbury, Cheshire St. George, with the princess : Little Kimble, Bucks
St.Helena, Broughton, Bucks St. Hubert, Miracle of : Idsworth, Hants St.James the Great : Hales, Norfolk Life of St. James, Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire St. James the Great, meeting pilgrims : Wisborough Green, Sussex St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Heydon, Norfolk
St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Idsworth, Hampshire St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Old Weston, Northants Life of St. John the Baptist : Cerne Abbas, Dorset NEW St. John the Evangelist, Selling, Kent St. John the Evangelist, Weston Longville, Norfolk St. Margaret of Antioch : Old Weston, Northants St. Margaret and the dragon : South Newington, Oxfordshire NEW
St. Margaret of Antioch Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland St. Margaret of Antioch, Life of : Charlwood, Surrey Life of St. Margaret, Wendens Ambo, Essex St. Martin dividing his cloak, Chalgrave, Beds St. Martin dividing his cloak, Wareham, Dorset St.Nicholas of Myra, life of : Little Horwood, Bucks St. Nicholas of Myra, two miracles of : Wissington, Suffolk
St.Paul : Black Bourton, Oxon St. Paul : Beckley, Oxon St. Peter : Beckley, Oxon St.Peter : Black Bourton, Oxon St. Peter, Martyrdom of : Chacombe, Northants St. Roch : Pinvin, Worcs St. Sexburga? : Willingham, Cambs
St. Stephen, Stoning of: Black Bourton, Oxon St. Stephen, Stoning of: Catfield, Norfolk St.Swithun (?) enthroned : Old Weston, Northants Scenes from the life of St. Swithun : Corhampton, Hampshire NEW St. Thomas Becket, blessing, Hauxton, Cambs. St. Thomas Becket, Murder of, Marston Magna, Somerset St.Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Burlingham, Norfolk
St. Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Newington, Oxfordshire St. Walstan of Bawburgh? or St. Edmund : Gisleham, Norfolk St. Zita : Horley, Oxon St. Zita : Shorthampton, Oxon Unidentified female saint : Heydon

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18/2/01